Le Mans

Le Mans stands on the Sarthe and was the historic capital of Maine. Its cathedral and ecclesiastical institutions made it a religious centre, while roads and river routes connected the city with the agricultural country of western France. Crafts and trade linked townspeople with the surrounding countryside.

During the Hundred Years' War, Maine lay in the struggle between English and French crowns, and Le Mans experienced changing military fortunes before French royal authority became secure. In the early modern period, administration and commerce continued to develop within the kingdom, while religious conflict and fiscal demands affected urban society. The French Revolution brought another dramatic change: in 1793, the city became the scene of a major defeat of the Vendean army. Le Mans's history therefore combines the continuity of an episcopal and market centre with episodes of war that drew its streets and inhabitants into conflicts extending across the wider French state.