Berry, France

Berry
Berry
	Flag Coat of arms
Country	France
Seat	Bourges
Population (new estimate[when?])
• Total	1,235,666−3,445,644 population
Time zone	CET

The ancient province of Berry with the communes and départements.

Berry (French pronunciation: [beʁi] (listen); Occitan: Barric; Latin: Bituria) is a former province located in central France. It was a province of France until departments replaced the provinces on 4 March 1790, when Berry became divided between the départements of Cher (Upper Berry) and Indre (Lower Berry).

The Berry region now consists of the departments of Cher, Indre and parts of Creuse. The city of Bourges functioned as the capital of Berry. Berry is notable as the birthplace of several kings and other members of the French royal family, and was the birthplace of the knight Baldwin Chauderon, who fought in the First Crusade. In the Middle Ages, Berry became the center of the Duchy of Berry's holdings. It is also known for an illuminated manuscript produced in the 14th–15th century called Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

In later times, the writer George Sand spent much of her life at her Berry estate in Nohant, and Berry's landscape and specific culture figure in much of Sand's writings.

Etymology[]

The name of Berry, like that of its capital, Bourges, originated with the Gaulish tribe of the Bituriges,^[1] who settled in the area before the Roman armies of Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. The name of the tribe gave name to the region, often mentioned in Medieval Latin sources as: Bituria.

History[]

In 1778, Louis XVI convened the provincial assemblies of Berry, and considered expanding the assembly to other provinces, but abandoned this idea after experiencing the opposition of the privilege classes in Berry.^[2]

Brenne[]

La Brenne, located west of Châteauroux and east of Tournon-Saint-Martin in the Indre department, is a region which of old straddled on the former provinces of Berry and Touraine, and is now a protected natural area (Parc naturel régional de la Brenne) as well called Pays des mille étangs, because of its many ponds created since the 8th c. by the monks of the local abbeys for pisciculture.

References[]

^ Compare: Miroglio, Abel; Miroglio, Yvonne-Delphée, eds. (1978). "Berrichons". L'Europe et ses Populations [Europe and its peoples] (in French). The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff (published 2012). p. 157. ISBN 9789400997318. Retrieved 31 December 2017. [...] en fait, Berry vient de Bituriges; ainsi se nommaient les ancêtres gaulois des Berrichons. Le premier nom de Bourges fut Bituricum.
^ Peter Kropotkin (1909). "Chapter 5". The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793. Translated by N. F. Dryhurst. New York: Vanguard Printings. The weapon used by Louis XVI, in preference to all others was deceit. Only fear made him yield, and, using always the same weapons, deceit and hypocrisy, he resisted not only up to 1789, but even up to the last moment, to the very foot of tile scaffold. At any rate, in 1778, at a time when it was already evident to all minds of more or less perspicacity, as it was to Turgot and Necker, that the absolute power of the King had had its day, and that the hour had come for replacing it by some kind of national representation, Louis XVI could never be brought to make any but the feeblest concessions. He convened the provincial assemblies of the provinces of Berri and Haute-Guienne (1778 and 1779). But in face of the opposition shown by the privileged classes, the plan of extending these assemblies to the other provinces was abandoned, and Necker was dismissed in 1781.