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Vendée
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Vendée
VendéeväNdā', department (1990 pop. 509,356), W France, on the Bay of Biscay, in Poitou. The offshore islands of Noirmoutier and Yeu are included in the department. Largely an agricultural (dairying, cattle raising) and forested region, the Vendée has many beach resorts and fishing ports. Canned fish, leather, textiles, fishing boats, cider apples, and uranium are the chief products. La Roche-sur-Yon (the capital) and Les Sables d'Olonne are the main towns. The department gave its name to the insurrection of 1793 to 1796, which began there. The peasants of the Vendée, who had lived amiably with the local nobility, began violently to oppose the French Revolution when it turned against the Roman Catholic Church. Under Henri La Rochejaquelein and others, an army of more than 50,000 men was raised to clear the region of Revolutionary authorities. The army occupied Saumur and planned to continue through Brittany, Maine, and Normandy to join the Chouans, the anti-Revolutionary peasants of those regions. However, the important city of Nantes held out against the Vendeans, who marched as far north as Granville but were then forced by lack of discipline to return south late in 1793. Overtaken at Le Mans and Savenay by the republican army, they were totally defeated and suffered terrible reprisals. Robespierre's overthrow led to the peace of La Jaunaie (1795), by which the government granted an amnesty and freedom of worship to the Vendeans. Renewed conflict began in 1796, when royalist émigrés, backed by Great Britain, tried to land at Quiberon in Brittany; they were routed by government forces under Gen. Lazare Hoche. The comte d'Artois (later Charles X), who had landed on the isle of Yeu, took fright and abandoned the Vendean leaders to capture and execution. Smaller royalist uprisings occurred in 1799, in 1815 (against Napoleon I), and in 1832, when the duchess de Berry tried to stir up the Vendée for the Bourbon cause against Louis Philippe.

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Wikipedia search results for: Vendée
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department. The area today called the Vendée was originally known as the Bas-Poitou and is part of the former province of Poitou. In the south-east corner, the village of Nieul-sur-l'Autise is believed to be the birthplace of Eleanor of Aquitaine and was part of her kingdom. Eleanor's son, Richard I of England often based himself in Talmont. The Hundred Years' War turned much of the Vendée into a battleground. Since the Vendée held a...more »
Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Vendée
Results 1 - 10  of 20
  • Cholet

    Cholet, city (1990 pop. 56,540), Maine-et-Loire dept., W France, in Poitou, on the Maine River. Cholet, a livestock market, has textile, metallurgical, electronic, and rubber manufactures. It ...

  • La Rochejaquelein, Henri Du Vergier, comte de

    La Rochejaquelein or La Rochejacquelin, Henri Du Vergier, comte de, 1772–94, French commander, leader of the counterrevolutionary army in the Vendée. His legendary gallantry and tactical abili...

  • Roche-sur-Yon, La

    Roche-sur-Yon, La, city (1990 pop. 48,518), capital of Vendée dept., W France, on the Yon River. A transportation and agricultural trade center, it also has industries producing automobile par...

  • Cadoudal, Georges

    Cadoudal, Georges, 1771–1804, French royalist conspirator. A commander of the Chouans, he led the counterrevolutionists in the Vendée. He fled to England in 1801 after the failure of an attemp...

  • Bourmont, Louis Auguste, comte de Ghaisnes de

    Bourmont, Louis Auguste, comte de Ghaisnes de, 1773–1846, marshal of France. An émigré, he fought against the French Revolution under the prince de Condé, in the Vendée, and as a leader of the...

  • Poitou

    Poitou, region and former province, W France, stretching from the Atlantic coast eastward beyond the Vienne River. It now includes three departments—Vendée in the west, Deux-Sèvres in the cent...

  • Hoche, Louis Lazare

    Hoche, Louis Lazare, 1768–97, French general in the French Revolutionary Wars. He entered the army at the age of 16 and rose rapidly to lieutenant in the national guard by 1792. In 1793, after...

  • Kléber, Jean Baptiste

    Kléber, Jean Baptiste, 1753–1800, French general, b. Strasbourg. A trained architect, he attended military school in Munich and served in the Austrian army from 1777 to 1783. In 1789 he entere...

  • Chouans

    Chouans [Norman Fr.,=owls], peasants of W France who rose against the French Revolutionary government in 1793. One of their first leaders was Jean Cottereau, traditionally nicknamed Jean Choua...

  • Quiberon

    Quiberon, peninsula, Morbihan dept., NW France, in Brittany, projecting into the Bay of Biscay. The town of Quiberon (1993 est. pop. 4,647), a fishing port and resort, is at the tip of the pen...

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