BORDEAUX

BORDEAUX. Bordeaux, capital of the Guyenne in southwestern France, was part of the dowry of Eleanor of Aquitaine when she married Henry II of England in 1152. Consequently, Bordeaux and the Aquitaine were held as fief by the kings of England until 1451, near the end of the Hundred Years' War, when they were conquered by the French army and incorporated into the kingdom of France. Located on the Garonne River, Bordeaux was a port city and a key trading partner of England and Holland, both of which valued its fine wines, made from grapes grown in the premier vineyards of France. Bordeaux's commercial ties with the French West Indies and its role in the lucrative sugar and slave trade enhanced the city's economic and demographic importance in the eighteenth century. Between 1750 and 1790, Bordeaux's population nearly doubled, from 60,000 to around 111,000, making it the third largest city in France. Its wealth underwrote extensive urban renewal, especially under the Marquis of Tourny (intendant of the Guyenne, 1743–1758), and intensified local pride.

Bordeaux was home to one of the twelve prestigious parlements, or sovereign courts of France, and its magistrates, along with the great wholesale merchants, dominated the city's political and cultural life. The political history of the city was turbulent, as its parlement and municipal authorities sought to maintain Bordeaux's traditional privileges and liberties in the face of encroachment by royal authorities. In 1548, the city participated in the uprising against the salt tax (gabelle), a revolt that was savagely repressed. Bordeaux also suffered during the Wars of Religion (1561–1593), as the violence and instability interfered with the city's lively commercial activity, but it remained officially loyal to the king. However, Bordeaux was a center of fierce unrest during the Fronde (1648–1652), when members of the Bordelais bourgeoisie formed the Ormée and unsuccessfully demanded reforms.

During the French Revolution, the city of Bordeaux contributed eloquent and influential deputies to the National and Legislative assemblies. Their supporters were called "Girondins" after the département in which Bordeaux was now located. Twenty-two of them went to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. The Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars were disastrous for Bordeaux's maritime and commercial economy, and the city never fully recovered the economic glory that it had enjoyed in the eighteenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Doyle, William. The Parlement of Bordeaux and the End of the Old Regime, 1771–1790. New York, 1974.

Forrest, Alan. Society and Politics in Revolutionary Bordeaux. London and New York, 1975.

Higounet, Charles, ed. Histoire de Bordeaux. Toulouse, 1980.

Jullian, Camille Louis. Histoire de Bordeaux depuis ses origines jusqu'en 1895. Bordeaux, 1895.