Montargis

Sister cities

• Greven
• Crowborough

History

Though the town is known to date to ancient times, during the Renaissance, fanciful etymologies were invented to account for the place name Montargis, whether as mons argi, Mount of Argus, the place where the jealous goddess Juno charged Argus Panoptes with guarding her rival Io, or connected with the chieftain Moritas mentioned by Julius Caesar, in his Gallic Wars. Numerous Gallo-Roman artifacts have been found in the area and many are in the town's Gâtinais Museum. Later the town was a stronghold of the Frankish king Clovis I. Montargis was originally a seat of the house of Courtenay, which fortified a château on a hill overlooking the town. The town was ceded to the king of France in 1188. Eleanor Plantagenet, second daughter of King John of England and wife of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (killed at the Battle of Evesham), died here on 13 April 1275. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was a royal residence. In 1427, during the Hundred Years' War, the Earl of Warwick besieged the town with artillery, beginning bombardment on 15 July. During the siege the residents of Montargis sabotaged the dikes of numerous ponds in the district, causing flooding and drowning many of the besieging Plantagenets. On 5 September a French force of 1600 men led by Jean de Dunois and La Hire, commanders who would go on to lead the army of Joan of Arc, broke the siege. It was the first important victory by the army of King Charles VII in the war, gratefully remembered by Charles later. After being wounded in an unsuccessful attempt to besiege Paris in September 1429, Joan of Arc passed through Montargis on her way to Gien. After the war Charles VII rewarded the town for its valour by granting it various privileges. In 1490 Charles VIII officially declared the town…

Geography

Montargis lies on both banks of the river Loing and the Briare Canal, in the Gâtinais region. The town is about south of Paris and east of Orléans. Montargis station has rail connections to Nevers, Melun and Paris. The A77 autoroute (Montargis–Nevers) passes west of the town.