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On the French political scene, the
little province of le Perche has not counted for much
in relation to its powerful neighbours like Normandy,
Ile de France or Maine. The age-old forest frequently
turned it into a crucial territorial issue in the conflicts
of the Middle Ages between the great vassals of the
King of France and the King of England. The creation
of the county of le Perche, however, recognized an original
territory with a strong identity. The local residents,
hardy pioneers in the demographic expansion of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, were known as hardworking
but fairly aloof when it came to systems. Here we have
a Percheron identity or “soul” that may
explain why some of them, aspiring to a better life,
were attracted in the seventeenth century by the adventure
of New France.
Antiquity: “Silva pertica”
originally denoted an immense forest on the borders
of the Gaulish cities of the Essuins (capital: Sées),
the Eburovices (capital: Evreux), the Cenomans (capital:
Le Mans) and the Carnutes (capital: Chartres).
1079-1100: Geoffroy IV, one of
the region’s most powerful landowners, extended
his rule over both the county of Corbon (the present
area around Mortagne) and the seigniory of Nogent-le-Rotrou,
which made him the master of much of the old forest
of le Perche. He assumed the title of “Count of
le Perche.” His son Rotrou III, who added the
seigniory of Bellême to these territories in 1113,
brought le Perche to the size of a province, though
it remained much smaller than the natural tract of the
same name.
1226: On the death of Guillaume,
6th Count of le Perche, without an heir, the county
reverted to the Crown. Le Perche would thereafter be
handed out as an estate to the children or brothers
of the King of France.
1559: The compilation of the “Coutume”
or laws of le Perche confirmed the provincial status
of the region. The age of the Renaissance was marked
in le Perche by the construction of numerous manors
of original design.
1792: When the departments were
being created by the Constituent Assembly, le Perche
found itself carved up among four of them: Orne and
Eure-et-Loir for the most part, and Sarthe and Loir-et-Cher
for lesser shares.
1947: The founding of the Amis
du Perche (Friends of le Perche) by Georges Massiot
came as the first expression since the Revolution of
the determination of the people of le Perche to recontact
their past and preserve a cultural and ancestral identity
that has never, despite administrative separations,
been extinguished.
1998: The creation of the
Regional Natural Park of le Perche, followed in 1999
and 2000 by the creation of the Pays du Perche Ornais
and Perche d’Eure-et-Loir, has reunited a large
part of the old province across departmental boundaries
around common goals: the preservation of the natural
environment, cultural renewal and economic development.
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