Puisaye


The Puisaye is a natural and historical region of France, now divided between the departments of Loiret, Nièvre and Yonne. Its historical and administrative center is the town of Saint-Fargeau. Its inhabitants are known as Poyaudins.

Name

According to local 19th-century historian, the name Puisaye first appeared in 12th-century charters. It was variously spelled Poiseia, Puseium, Pusaya, Puiseia, Puteacia, or Poidaceia.

Geography

Since the Puisaye is not an administrative region, its exact definition and limits can vary depending on time and context. Its core is a land of forests and ponds, traversed by several rivers including the Loing. It is bordered by Sancerrois to the west across the Loire river, Gâtinais to the northwest, Auxerrois to the northeast, Forterre to the southeast, and Donziais to the south.
The, created in 2017, covers most of the historical Puisaye, though not its Western fringe in the Loiret. It also includes the geologically distinct land of Forterre as well as parts of the Auxerrois, both to the east. The name Puisaye appears to exert a certain attraction, leading communities that are not historically part of Puisaye to adopt it. This has been the case of Sougères-en-Puisaye, which changed its name from Sougères-les-Simon in 1955, and of Charny-Orée-de-Puisaye, which adopted this name when it was formed by the merger of 14 villages in 2016. As a result, the contemporary usage of the word Puisaye can cover a broader territory than has been the case in the past.
The Lac du Bourdon is the largest body of water in Puisaye, albeit far from the only one. It is a reservoir formed in 1901 to help regulate water levels of the Briare Canal. The Bourdon is a small tributary of the Loing that feeds into and from the lake.

History

The territory of Puisaye was Christianized in late antiquity. Some villages are traditionally associated with late-Antiquity saints, e.g. in Saints-en-Puisaye. A Carolingian manuscript lists several Puisaye parishes on the itinerary of Saint Aunarius, Bishop of Auxerre in the late 6th century, namely Neuvy-sur-Loire, Briare, Bléneau, Bitry, and Arquian, and also refers to Toucy.
The lordship of Toucy was prominent in the High Middle Ages, as several of its leaders and family affiliates played significant roles, not least as associates of the House of Courtenay in their overseas endeavors. Meanwhile, the south of the Puisaye was in the orbit of the County of Nevers and specifically of the Barony of Donzy.
The crisis of the late Middle Ages and specifically the Hundred Years' War marked a rupture in the history of the region. Toucy was devastated in the runup to the Battle of Cravant, and was subsequently displaced by Saint-Fargeau as the main urban center of the Puisaye. Antoine de Chabannes significantly developed Saint-Fargeau, reconstructing its castle but also founding a hospital there. Generally, the century between 1450 and 1550 was a time of prosperity and renewal in the region, still represented in the landscape by numerous village churches built during that era. This period of prosperity ended with the Wars of Religion and troubles of the early 17th century.
By the end of France's Ancien Régime, the core of Puisaye including Bléneau, Saint-Fargeau, Toucy and Saint-Sauveur was part of the province of Orléanais. It was a provincial borderland, with parts of the present communauté de communes de Puisaye-Forterre in Champagne, Burgundy, and Nivernais. Moreover, Île-de-France was close by to the north, and Berry just across the Loire river.

Lordship of Puisaye

The Lordship of Puisaye is attested under that name from the late 13th century to the late 16th century, corresponding to an area that varied across time but generally included the towns of Bléneau, Mézilles, Saint-Fargeau, and until the early 16th century, Toucy.
The lordship of Puisaye was inherited by the Counts, then Dukes of Bar following the 1255 marriage between Theobald II, Count of Bar and Joanna of Toucy, heiress of a lineage that started with Ythier de Narbonne in the 11th century. On Joanna of Toucy's death in 1317 the lordship went to Edward I, Count of Bar and then to his son Henry IV, Count of Bar, and grandson, Robert, Duke of Bar. One of Robert's sons, John of Bar, inherited the lordship when Robert died in 1411, but he was himself soon killed at the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415. The Lordship of Puisaye was then seized, together with the Duchy by Cardinal Louis of Bar, brother of John and Edward and a significant political figure of the era.
On Louis's death the lordship of Puisaye went to John Jacob, Marquis of Montferrat, son of Marquis Theodore II who had married Louis's sister Joanna. John Jacob sold parts of the lordship to Georges de La Trémoille, but he was not able or willing to pay and John Jacob's sons recovered them in the late 1440s. They in turn sold the entire lordship to Jacques Coeur in February 1450. After Jacques Coeur's downfall in 1451, the lordship was taken by Antoine de Chabannes. Charles VII's decision of 29 May 1453 specifically granted him: " the lands, castles and lordships of Saint-Fargeau, of Lavau, of La Couldre, of Perreuse, of Champignelles, of Mézilles, or Villeneuve-les-Genêts and their dependencies; the lands of Saint-Maurice-sur-Aveyron, Melleroy, La Frenaie, Fontenelles, and their dependencies; the Barony of Toucy with its belongings and dependencies." Jacques Coeur's family sued, but eventually the Chabannes were able to keep their Puisaye domains.
After the death of Antoine's son John of Chabannes in 1503, the lordship was divided between his two young daughters. Antoinette received most of Puisaye including Saint-Fargeau. In 1515 she married René d'Anjou-Mézières who thus became lord of Puisaye as later was his son Nicolas. These domains later went to François, Duke of Montpensier following his 1566 marriage with, daughter of Nicolas d'Anjou. John of Chabannes's elder daughter Avoye kept other Chabannes domains including Toucy, and in 1504 she married Aymon du Prie. The latter's family kept the Barony of Toucy following Aymon's death in 1510.
In 1575, King Henry III elevated the County of Saint-Fargeau to a Duché-Pairie. After that, the reference to Puisaye as a lordship or political entity, which had already been infrequent under Nicolas d'Anjou, appears to fade away. In the archives of the Château de Saint-Fargeau, however, there are references to the "duché de Saint-Fargeau et de Puisaye" in a document from 1606 and "duché de Saint-Fargeau et du païs de Puisaie" in another one from 1714.

Personalities connected to Puisaye

Antiquity and Middle Ages

Political, administrative and military leaders

  • ', army general during the French Revolution, born in Mézilles
  • Louis-Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, iconic victim of the French Revolution
  • ', army commander and author born in Bitry
  • ', army general during the Napoleonic Wars born in Saint-Fargeau
  • ', army general during the Napoleonic Wars born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye
  • Louis Frémy, politician and banker, born in Saint-Fargeau and owner of a mansion in L'Orme du Pont near Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye
  • ', industrialist, politician and philanthropist, died in Briare
  • Albert Grodet, colonial administrator in French Sudan, Equatorial Africa and French Guiana, born in Saint-Fargeau
  • Georges Demetz, commander of French colonial troops during World War I, born in Saint-Fargeau
  • ', army general killed during World War I, born in Bléneau
  • Léon Noël, senior civil servant and politician, resistant during World War II and historian who settled and died in Toucy

    Scholars, scientists and industrialists

  • ', geographer born in Saint-Fargeau
  • Jean-Baptiste Robineau-Desvoidy, polymath and entomologist from Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye
  • Onésime Delafond, veterinarian and pioneer of bacteriology born in Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye
  • ', mineralogist at France's Corps des mines from Toucy, of which he was also mayor from 1848 to 1860
  • ', industrialist and developer of the Faïencerie de Gien, died in Briare
  • Pierre Larousse, one of the foremost French lexicographers, born in Toucy
  • Eugène Lefébure, Egyptologist who worked in the Valley of the Kings, born in Prunoy
  • ', Catholic priest and polymath scholar from Toucy
  • Edgar Bérillon, psychiatrist and researcher of hypnosis, born in Saint-Fargeau
  • ', inventor of an early type of fractional distillation column, born in Parly
  • ', inventor and developer of an automatic transmission system that paved the way for modern gearboxes in a manufacturing facility in Bléneau
  • Hubert Reeves, astrophysicist and popularizer of science, has lived part of his time in Malicorne for decades