Niort

Niort grew beside the Sèvre Niortaise in Poitou, where the river linked the town with marshland and the Atlantic coast. Its twin keep recalls the fortifications built under the Plantagenets. The town received a communal charter in 1199 and became a free port in 1285. Cloth makers and tanners contributed to its reputation in the fourteenth century.

The Hundred Years' War brought changing allegiance: Niort passed to English rule under the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, and Bertrand du Guesclin recovered it for France in 1372. The Reformation gained ground in the town in the sixteenth century, and the Wars of Religion brought further conflict. Protestant residents faced mounting pressure in the seventeenth century; dragonnades and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 drove many away. Trade in hides and leather remained an important part of Niort's economy.