A BRIEF DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MAULE, YVELINES, FRANCE.
Maule is a small town, in the department of Seine-et-Oise. On Route N191 approximately 50km. WNW of Paris and 6km. south of the road from Paris to Mantes. It is set on either side of the quite narrow and steeply sided valley of the river Mauldre which rises in the forest of Chevreuse and is a tributary of the Seine. The main road and the railway line run beside the river on the eastern side. The older part of the town is situated at the top of the sharply rising western bank. The soil is chalk with flint deposits nearby.
The town is twinned with Carnoustie in Tayside, Scotland.
OUTLINE HISTORY
The site of Maule has been in human occupation for at least 9,000 years, numerous flint tools and implements have been found in the area and it was later occupied by one the Gaulois group of tribes. Since that time a place of worship has probably existed approximately on the site of the present-day church.
When Maule was a Roman town a Temple of Jupiter occupied the site of the church. Some Roman pillars are incorporated into the modern building. An ancient cemetry, dating from the late Roman period (circa 400 A.D.) has been excavated by archaeologists.
In the 8th. century a wooden church was built in the same position, this was destroyed by the Vikings in 867. The Vikings constantly raided up the Seine at this period, culminating in the seige of Paris in
885/6 A.D. In 911 the Viking Rollo was granted Normandy by the French King. The boundary between France and Normandy was to the west of Maule, which was then in an area known as Vexin de France. This was a disputed area, a borderland between the two territories. The inhabitants were nominally subjects of the King of France and owed allegiance to him, but were very much a law unto themselves and the de Maule family appears to have had strong links with Normandy.
From the 12th. century Maule became a place of some importance. The church became a place of pilgrimage as some hair of the Virgin Mary, brought back from the First Crusade by a lieutenant of Tancrede, and also possibly relics of St. Evroult and of St. Nicholas of Bari transferred from the Abbey of Saint-Evroult, were placed in the crypt.
During the 'Hundred Years War' (1338-1453) the area was repeatedly devastated by the armies of England, France and Navarre as well as by bands of mercenaries. The church and the adjoining priory were partially destroyed. In 1347 the plague struck the area and many inhabitants died, their bodies were thrown into a ditch by the Cemetry of St. Jacques. Jean le Bon, King of France was imprisoned in Maule by the English in 1356. As a fortress town, Maule was occupied in turn by the troops of the Kings of Navarre, France and England. In 1364, Du Guesclin for the Dauphin sacked all the fortresses of the region and chased away the mercenaries and the English garrisons.
The main line of the 'de Maule' Lords of Maule ended in 1398 with the marriage of the only daughter of the last descendant to Simon de Morainvilliers. Their grandson repaired and re-embellished the church at the end of the 15th. and beginning of the 16th. centuries. The work was completed by his nephew and his son-in-law.
Maule was visited in October 1720 by the exiled 4th. Earl of Panmure and his nephew James. James, the eldest son of the Hon. Harry Maule of Kellie was, like his father, an accomplished historian. In his Journal recording the visit he carefully records, amongst other things, the coats of arms of his ancestors in the funeral chapel and church. This is very fortunate as in the revolutionary period the church was severely damaged, the windows with their coats-of-arms were broken and the shields, inscriptions and frescoes decorating the funeral chapel were largely destroyed.
References in 1792 and 1818 spell the name as Maulle, and at the latter date a lake of 126 hectares (approx. 300 acres) is mentioned, this does not exist today and it's location is not known. In 1856 there were 1300 inhabitants.
Maule today is a pleasant little town. It appears that a lot of money has been spent on it recently, in no small measure due to the efforts of the 'Association Culturelle pour l'Information des Maulois', the
energy of it's president Msr. Marcel Treboit and the generous help of the Gaulois Tobacco Co.
There are some photographs of Maule taken in 1997 by Jim on this site.
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