Before 1500

Valenciennes is first mentioned in 693 in a legal document written by Clovis II (Valentiana). In the 843 Treaty of Verdun, it was made a neutral city between Neustria and the Austrasia. Later in the 9th century the region was overrun by the Normans, and in 881 the town passed to them. In 923, it passed to the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia dependent on the Holy Roman Empire. Once the Empire of the Franks was established, the city began to develop, though the archaeological record has still not revealed all it has to reveal about this period. Under the Ottonian emperors, Valenciennes became the centre of marches on the border of the Empire.

In 1008, a terrible famine brought the Plague. According to the local tradition, the Virgin Mary held a cordon around the city which, miraculously, has since protected its people from the disease. Since then, every year at that time, the Valenciennois used to walk around the 14 km (9 mi) road round the town, in what is called the tour of the Holy Cordon. Many counts succeeded, first as Margraves of Valenciennes and from 1070 as counts of Hainaut.

In 1259 Valenciennes was the site of a General Chapter of the Dominican Order at which Thomas Aquinas together with masters Bonushomo Britto,^[8] Florentius,^[9] Albert, and Peter took part in establishing a ratio studiorum or program of studies for the Dominican Order^[10] that featured the study of philosophy as an innovation for those not sufficiently trained to study theology. This innovation initiated the tradition of Dominican scholastic philosophy put into practice, for example, in 1265 at the Order's studium provinciale at the convent of Santa Sabina in Rome, out of which would develop the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.^[11]

In 1285, the currency of Hainaut was replaced by the currency of France: the French écu. Valenciennes was full of activity, with numerous corporations, and outside its walls a large number of convents developed, like that of the Dominicans (whose church was excavated by the Valenciennes Archaeological Service in 1989 and 1990).

In the 14th century, the Tower of Dodenne was built by Albert of Bavaria, where even today, the bell is rung in honour of Our Lady of the Holy Cordon. In the 15th century, the County of Hainault, of which Valenciennes is part, was re-attached to Burgundy, losing its autonomy. Valenciennes in this period, however, had several famous sons – the chronicler Georges Chastellain, the poet Jean Molinet, the miniaturist Simon Marmion, the sculptor Pierre du Préau and the goldsmith Jérôme de Moyenneville). The area had a famous daughter: Philippa of Hainault, Queen Consort of England as the wife of King Edward III from 24 January 1328 to her death on 15 August 1369, was born on either 24 June 1310 or 24 June 1315. In 1346 she acted as regent when her husband was away fighting in the Hundred Years' War.

1500–1793

Valenciennes in the 17th century.

In 1524, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, arrived at Valenciennes, and – even when Henry II of France allied with him against the Protestants in 1552 – Valenciennes became (c. 1560) an early center of Calvinism and in 1562 was location of the first act of resistance against persecution of Protestants in the Spanish Netherlands. On the "Journée des Mals Brûlés" (Bad Burnings Day) in 1562, a mob freed some Protestants condemned to die at the stake. In the wave of iconoclastic attacks called the Beeldenstorm that swept the Habsburg Netherlands in the summer of 1566, the city was the furthest south to see such an attack on August 24, 1566. It was also one of the first to feel the hand of repression after the siege and fall of the city on March 23, 1567. One of the victims of that repression was Guido de Bres, the author of the Belgic Confession. Following the "révolte des gueux's victory at Brielle, the army of Louis of Nassau, one of the major commanders of the Dutch rebel forces and supported by the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny, invaded the Spanish Netherlands with an army composed of German, English, Scottish and French soldiers, and took Valenciennes on 21 May 1572.^[12][13] However, Louis went on to Mons, and the Protestant garrison left behind offered only a feeble defence to the Duke of Alba, at the head of the bulk of the Spanish army, who recaptured Valenciennes in early June 1572, depriving Louis' French allies, of one of their main bases.^[14]

In 1576, when for a time the Southern Netherlands joined the revolt, the Spanish forces massed at the porte d'Anzin (in a fortress known as "La Redoute") were besieged by Valenciennes. However, in 1580, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma took Valenciennes and Protestantism was eradicated there. Hereafter, Valenciennes remained under Spanish protection, no longer directly involved in later fighting of the Eighty Years' War. With its manufacturers of wool and fine linens, the city was able to become economically independent.

The French army laid siege to the city in 1656 (Vauban participated in this siege without a command^[15]). Defending the city, Albert de Merode, marquis de Trélon was injured during a sortie on horseback, died as a result of his injuries and was buried in the Church of St. Paul (his tomb was found during the archaeological campaign in 1990). The Spanish victory in the Battle of Valenciennes (16 July 1656) lifted the French siege.

In 1677, the armies of Louis XIV of France (this time led by Vauban^[16]) captured the city and in 1678 the Treaty of Nijmegen gave the French control of Valenciennes (1678) and the surrounding southern part of Hainault, roughly cutting the former county in half.

1793–1914

The city was besieged by the First Coalition against Revolutionary France in 1793.^[17] Following a protracted Siege of Valenciennes the city was captured and occupied in July by Anglo-Austrian forces under the Duke of York and the Prince of Saxe-Coburg, and only retaken by the French Revolutionary armies in August 1794. In July 1795, one year after the execution of Robespierre put an end to the Reign of Terror, the Republicans of Valenciennes tortured, and guillotined five Ursuline nuns; by some accounts, the nuns were raped before being executed. After the Napoleonic era, Valenciennes gave itself up to the Bourbons in 1815 for 5 years. After that, the town's sugar-refining and coal industries once more started to expand.

In 1824 Valenciennes became a sous-préfecture. In the 19th century, thanks to coal, Valenciennes became a great industrial centre and the capital of Northern France's steel industry.

On 6 August 1890, a law downgraded the town's fortified status, and so from 1891 to 1893, its fortifications were demolished. The town was granted the Légion d'honneur in 1900.

First World War

During World War I the German army occupied the town in 1914. They were finally driven out by British forces at the Battle of Valenciennes in 1918, 'in which seven British divisions attacked eleven German divisions'. One dramatic first-hand experience of this battle is provided by A. S. Bullock who fought at a section of the front near Maresches.^[18]

A significant personality of this period was Louise de Bettignies (born in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux), a pupil of the Ursulines in Valenciennes from 1890 to 1896. Fluent in four languages (including German), in 1915 she created and directed the main British intelligence network behind enemy lines, nearly 60 km (37 mi) from the front around Lille. Arrested at the end of September 1915, and imprisoned in Germany, she died of mistreatment in September 1918 two months before the Armistice. It is estimated that she saved the lives of nearly a thousand British soldiers by the remarkably precise information she obtained. For example, it enabled the British to conduct the first aerial bombing of a train (that of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who came to visit the front at Lille), though both aircraft were not equipped with suitable viewfinders and so the raid narrowly missed its target. The German High Command, based in Brussels, then put all its efforts into neutralising the accursed network that allowed the British to see everything and know everything about this part of the front. Louise's arrest was associated with the escape of Szeck Alexandre, a young Austrian radio operator who got out of Brussels in August 1915, allowing the British to get their hands on the secret German diplomatic code. This code was exploited by Secret Service Room 40 ("Room 40"), under the supervision of Sir Reginald Hall, and in January 1917 allowed the decipherment of the famous Zimmermann Telegram, which triggered the United States' entry into the war in April 1917.

Valenciennes was retaken after bitter fighting in 1918, by British and Canadian troops (one of whose soldiers, a recipient of the Victoria Cross Sergeant Hugh Cairns, was honoured in 1936 when the city named an avenue after him). Canada named a mountain, Valenciennes Mountain, after the town in 1920.

Second World War

A huge fire devoured the heart of the town, fuelled in particular by a fuel depot. German troops then occupied the ruined city on May 27. Former Prince Wilhelm was wounded in Valenciennes and later died of his wounds.

On September 2, 1944, after bloody fighting, American troops entered Valenciennes and liberated the city.

1945 to present

The town's first antenna was set up in Lille in 1964, then the Centre universitaire was set up in 1970, becoming independent in 1979 as the University of Valenciennes and Hainaut-Cambrésis.

In 2005, a local resident, Isabelle Dinoire, became the first person to have a partial face transplant.

Climate

Valenciennes has a oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb). The average annual temperature in Valenciennes is 11.0 °C (51.8 °F). The average annual rainfall is 694.1 mm (27.33 in) with December as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 18.7 °C (65.7 °F), and lowest in January, at around 3.9 °C (39.0 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Valenciennes was 40.9 °C (105.6 °F) on 25 July 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was −14.9 °C (5.2 °F) on 7 January 2009.

Mayors since 1947

• 1947–1988: Pierre Carous, resigned (died in 1990)
• 1988–1989: Olivier Marlière
• 1989–2002: Jean-Louis Borloo, resigned when he entered the national government
• 2002–2012: Dominique Riquet
• 2012–present: Laurent Degallaix