Guînes

Guînes (Giezene; Guinne) is a commune in the northern French department of Pas-de-Calais. Historically, it was spelt Guisnes.

On 7 January 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, a French pioneer in hydrogen-balloon flight, completed the first aerial crossing of the English Channel, landing in the woods south of Guînes, where a memorial column stands today.

Geography
Guînes is located on the border of the two territories of the Boulonnais and Calaisis, at the edge of the now-drained marshes, which extend from there to the coast. The Guînes canal connects with Calais.

History
Historically, Guînes was the capital of a small county of the same name.

After the Romans left, in the 5th century, there is little known about the town. In the Dark Ages, according to legend, the territory of Guînes became the property of one Aigneric, Mayor of the Palace of the Burgundian king Théodebert II.

In 928, when the Danes invaded and seized the place, it was probably a defenceless village. A fenced mound and a double ditch would soon have been created by the Danes. This is the origin of the castle of Guînes. Arnulf I, Count of Flanders, realizing a counter-attack would be costly, arranged the marriage of his daughter Elstrude, to Sigfrid, the Danish leader, bestowing upon him the title of Count of Guînes but as vassal to him, the Count of Flanders. Under Sigfrid's successors, the county of Guînes acquired considerable importance.

At the beginning of the 11th century, Count Manassès founded a convent of the order of St Benedict. This was placed under the jurisdiction of the nearby abbey of Saint Léonard. At that time, Guînes comprised three parishes within its walls, whose churches were dedicated to Saint Bertin, Saint Pierre and Saint Médard. Outside the town ramparts were the abbey of Saint Léonard, the church of Saint-Blaise, in the hamlet of Melleke, and the leper-house of Saint Quentin, in the hamlet of Spelleke in Tournepuits.

At the end of the 11th century, Baldwin I, Count of Guînes, built a huge stone castle on top of Sigfrid's old keep and enclosed the town within a stone wall, with defensive towers at each of the entrances. His brother Fulk was a participant in the First Crusade. In 1180, Guînes was passed together with Ardres, Arras and Saint-Omer to the French crown as part of the dowry of Isabel of Hainaut when she married Philip II of France.

On 22 January 1351, three years after the capture of Calais by Edward III, the castle of Guînes was delivered up to the English. In 1360, the Treaty of Brétigny surrendered the city and its county to England and they eventually became part of the Pale of Calais, the last English possession in mainland France. The "Field of the Cloth of Gold", where Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France met in 1520, was at Balinghem in the immediate neighbourhood.

When the French captured the port of Calais in January 1558, Guînes held out, by the courageous efforts of the English commander, William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton. After a few days of desperate fighting, however, Grey was wounded and his soldiers refused to fight on. The French gave honourable terms of surrender and English rule of the area came to an end.

Population
The inhabitants are called Guinois.

Blanchard's Column


On 25 May 1785 a column was erected to commemorate Jean-Pierre Blanchard's crossing of the English Channel by hydrogen balloon on 7 January 1785. (50.842°N, 1.86734°W). The inscription reads as follows, here translated into English:

Under the reign of Louis XVI MDCCLXXXV Jean-Pierre Blanchard of Les Andelys in Normandy accompanied by John Jeffries an Englishman Leaving from Dover Castle in an Aerostat. January 7th at a quarter past one, was the first to cross the air above the Pas-de-Calais and descended at a quarter to four in the very place where the inhabitants of Guines raised this column to the glory of the two travellers. These aeronauts were received on their descent by P. Eliz Casin d'Honnincthun and Louis Marie Dufosse. and taken to the castle of M.Le Vicomte Desandrouin Chamberlain of the Emperor who laid the stone of this column on May 25, 1785.

Transport
The Chemin de fer d'Anvin à Calais opened a railway station at Guînes in 1881. The railway was closed in 1955.