City of Tears: The Dark History of Paris

E.C. Henderson

• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Year: 2024
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781035850563
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

If you were standing on the very spot where Joan of Arc was wounded by an arrow, wouldn't you want to know? Beneath the brilliance and the grandeur of Paris is a city that few people know. It lingers in the dark shadows of the past, if only you knew where to look. For 21 centuries, Paris has been the epicenter of countless invasions, occupations, civil wars, sieges, rebellions, assassinations, coups, massacres, executions, epidemics – and, of course, a world-shattering revolution. In 40 brief stories, City of Tears will guide you through Paris's astonishingly turbulent history – from the Roman conquest to World War I – and point you to the very sites where momentous events occurred. Along the way, you will meet a parade of personalities: Ragnar Lodbrok, the Templars, Joan of Arc, Catherine de' Medici, the Sun King, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVII, the two Napoleons, Alfred Dreyfus, and dozens of other fascinating characters who shaped the history of the beautiful city we know today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the Author
• Dedication
• Copyright Information ©
• Acknowledgement
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapters Grouped by Arrondissement
• 1. The Romans Conquer the Parisii (c. 52 BCE)
• 2. The Martyrdom of Saint Denis (died c. 270 ce)
• 3. Pillage and Plunder: The Vikings Descend on Paris (Easter Sunday, 845)
• 4 “Farewell, My Only Love:” The Forbidden Love of Abélard and Héloïse (1115–64)
• 5. Philip II Augustus Expels the Jews (1182)
• 6. Hell on Earth: The Gibbet of Montfauçon (1189–1760)
• 7. Drawn and Quartered: Executions in the Place de Grève (1200s–1830)
• 8. The Disputation of Paris: Saint Louis Burns the Talmud (June 17, 1242)
• 9. The Curse of The Templars (March 18, 1314)
• 10. A Royal Scandal: Adultery in the Tour de Nesle (1314)
• 11. Skeletons Beneath the Supermarket (1348?)
• 12. Étienne Marcel: Assassination of a Proto-Democrat (July 31, 1358)
• 13. Le Bal des Ardents (“The Ball of the Burning Men”) (January 28, 1393)
• 14. The Brutal Murder of Prince Louis, Duke of Orléans (November 23, 1407)
• 15. Civil War: The Burgundians Slaughter the Armagnacs (May 28-31, 1418)
• 16. Joan of Arc Is Wounded Outside the Gate of Saint-Honoré (September 8, 1429)
• 17. Holy Terror: The Affair of the Placards (October 17-18, 1534)
• 18. The Catastrophic Death of King Henri II (June 30-July 10, 1559)
• 19. Prelude to the French Wars of Religion (1562–94)
• 20. Frenemies (1562–68)
• 21. Blood Wedding: The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (August 24, 1572)
• 22. The War of the Three Henris (May 12, 1588)
• 23. The Murder of “Good King Henri” IV (May 14, 1610)
• 24. The Fronde (1649–53)
• 25. Cemetery of the Holy Innocents (closed September 4, 1780)
• 26. The Inevitable Revolution (1789–99)
• 27. Bloodbath at the Tuileries (August 10, 1792)
• 28. The National Razor (1793–94)
• 29. The Orphans of the Temple (August 10, 1792– December 19, 1795)
• 30. Cemeteries of The Revolution (1792–97)
• 31. The Missing Corpse of John Paul Jones (1792–1906)
• 32. The Age of Napoleon (1799–1815)
• 33. The Cossacks Are Coming! The Battle of Paris (March 30-31, 1814)
• 34. Murder of the Innocents (April 15, 1834)
• 35. Another Revolution, Another Civil War, and Another Empire (1848–70)
• 36. The Collapse of the Second Empire (September 2-4, 1870)
• 37. The Siege of Paris: Gambetta Escapes by Balloon (October 7, 1870)
• 38. Civil War: The Commune of Paris (March 18-May 28, 1871)
• 39. The Scandal of the Century: The Dreyfus Affair (1894–1906)
• 40. #94,415: The Parisian Dead of World War I (1914–18)
• 41. Notable Events in the History of Notre-Dame de Paris
• Bibliography