Cambrai in the context of "Hauts-de-France"

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⭐ Core Definition: Cambrai

Cambrai (US: /kæmˈbr, kɒ̃ˈ-/, French: [kɑ̃bʁɛ] ; Picard: Kimbré; Dutch: Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river.

A sub-prefecture of the department, Cambrai is a town which had 32,501 inhabitants in 2018. It is in the heart of the urban unit of Cambrai with 46,772 inhabitants. Its functional area, a more extensive range, included 94,576 inhabitants in 2018. With Lille and the towns of the former Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, it is also part of the Metropolitan area of Lille [fr] which has more than 3.8 million inhabitants.

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In this Dossier

Cambrai in the context of Chlodio

Chlodio (also Clodio, Clodius, Clodion, Cloio or Chlogio, probably died after 450), was a Frankish king who attacked and then apparently ruled Roman-inhabited lands around Cambrai and Tournai, near the modern border of Belgium and France. Very little is known about him, and he is mentioned only briefly in a small number of much later records.

His conquests gave him influence probably reached as far south as the River Somme. It represented an important change, extending Frankish rule more deeply within the Roman Empire, quite distant from the border regions near the Rhine where the Franks had already been established for a long time. Gregory of Tours reported that in his time people believed that the Merovingian dynasty, who were still ruling in his time, were descended somehow from Chlodio.

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Cambrai in the context of Tanks in World War I

The development of tanks in World War I was a response to the stalemate that developed on the Western Front. Although vehicles that incorporated the basic principles of the tank (armour, firepower, and all-terrain mobility) had been projected in the decade or so before the War, it was the alarmingly heavy casualties of the start of its trench warfare that stimulated development. Research took place in both Great Britain and France, with Germany only belatedly following the Allies' lead.

In Great Britain, an initial vehicle, nicknamed Little Willie, was constructed at William Foster & Co., during August and September 1915. The prototype of a new design that became the Mark I tank was demonstrated to the British Army on 2 February 1916. Although initially termed "Landships" by the Landship Committee, production vehicles were named "tanks", to preserve secrecy. The term was chosen when it became known that the factory workers at William Foster referred to the first prototype as "the tank" because of its resemblance to a steel water tank.

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Cambrai in the context of Nervii

The Nervii or Nervians were one of the most powerful tribes of the Belgae in northern Gaul at the time of its conquest by Rome. Their core of their territory corresponded to the medieval County of Hainaut and contained a significant part of modern central Belgium, including Brussels and Mons, as well as stretching southwards to Cambrai in what is now France. During his first century BC Roman military campaign, Julius Caesar's contacts among the Remi reported that the Nervii were the most warlike of the Belgae, trekking long distances to take part in battles. Like the other tribes of northern Gaul, including the Menapii to the west, and the Eburones to the east, the Nervii were considered by Caesar to be relatively uncorrupted by civilization.

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Cambrai in the context of Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy

The brothers Gaspard (born 1624 or 1625, died 10 December 1681) and Balthazar Marsy (baptised 6 January 1628, died May 1674) were French sculptors. Originally from Cambrai, they moved to Paris and were employed by King Louis XIV, particularly for the decoration of the palace and gardens at Versailles.

Their sister Jeanne was married to the sculptor Pierre Le Gros the Elder and was the mother of the sculptor Pierre Le Gros the Younger.

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Cambrai in the context of Cambrésis

Cambrésis (French: [kɑ̃bʁezi], Dutch: Kamerijk, German: Kammerich) is a former pagus and county of the medieval Holy Roman Empire, which constituted the Prince-Bishopric of Cambrai from the 11th to the 18th centuries. It was annexed by the Kingdom of France in 1679. It is now regarded as one of the "natural regions" of France, and roughly equivalent to the Arrondissement of Cambrai in department Nord. The capital of Cambrésis was Cambrai. Originally ruled by a dynasty of counts, Cambrésis became a prince-bishopric in 1007, comparable to the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht. It encompassed the territory in which the bishop of Cambrai had secular authority.

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Cambrai in the context of Battle of Cambrai (1917)

The Battle of Cambrai (Battle of Cambrai, 1917, First Battle of Cambrai and Schlacht von Cambrai) was a British attack in the First World War, followed by the biggest German counter-attack against the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) since 1914. The town of Cambrai, in the département of Nord, in France, was an important supply centre for the German Siegfriedstellung (known to the British as the Hindenburg Line) and capture of the town and the nearby Bourlon Ridge would threaten the rear of the German line to the north. Major General Henry Tudor, Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA), of the 9th (Scottish) Division, advocated the use of new artillery-infantry tactics on his sector of the front. During preparations, J. F. C. Fuller, a staff officer with the Tank Corps, looked for places to use tanks for raids. General Julian Byng, commander of the Third Army, decided to combine both plans. The French and British armies had used tanks en masse earlier in 1917, although to considerably less effect.

After a big British success on the first day, mechanical unreliability, German artillery and infantry defences exposed the frailties of the Mark IV tank. On the second day, only about half of the tanks were operational and British progress was limited. In the History of the Great War, the British official historian Wilfrid Miles and modern scholars do not place exclusive credit for the first day on tanks but discuss the concurrent evolution of artillery, infantry and tank methods. Numerous developments since 1915 matured at Cambrai, such as predicted artillery fire, sound ranging, infantry infiltration tactics, infantry-tank co-ordination and close air support. The techniques of industrial warfare continued to develop and played a vital part during the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918, along with replacement of the Mark IV tank with improved types. The rapid reinforcement and defence of Bourlon Ridge by the Germans, as well as their counter-attack, were also notable achievements, which gave the Germans hope that an offensive strategy could end the war before American mobilisation became overwhelming.

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Cambrai in the context of Arrondissements of the Nord department (France)

The 6 arrondissements of the Nord department are:

  1. Arrondissement of Avesnes-sur-Helpe, (subprefecture: Avesnes-sur-Helpe) with 151 communes. Its population was 225,391 in 2021.
  2. Arrondissement of Cambrai, (subprefecture: Cambrai) with 116 communes. Its population was 158,753 in 2021.
  3. Arrondissement of Douai, (subprefecture: Douai) with 64 communes. Its population was 244,710 in 2021.
  4. Arrondissement of Dunkirk (Dunkerque), (subprefecture: Dunkirk) with 111 communes. Its population was 371,736 in 2021.
  5. Arrondissement of Lille, (prefecture of the Nord department: Lille) with 124 communes. Its population was 1,260,060 in 2021.
  6. Arrondissement of Valenciennes, (subprefecture: Valenciennes) with 82 communes. Its population was 350,643 in 2021.
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Cambrai in the context of Battle of Arras (1917)

The Battle of Arras, also known as the Second Battle of Arras, was a British offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British troops attacked German defences near the French city of Arras on the Western Front. The British achieved the longest advance since trench warfare had begun, surpassing the record set by the French Sixth Army on 1 July 1916 in the First day on the Somme. The British advance slowed in the next few days and the German defence recovered. The battle became a costly stalemate for both sides and by the end of the battle, the British Third Army and the First Army had suffered about 160,000 casualties and the German 6th Army about 125,000.

For much of the war, the opposing armies on the Western Front were at a stalemate, with a continuous line of trenches from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. The Allied objective from early 1915 was to break through the German defences into the open ground beyond and engage the numerically inferior German Army (Westheer) in a war of movement. The British attack at Arras was part of the Anglo-French Nivelle Offensive, the main part of which was the Second Battle of the Aisne 50 mi (80 km) to the south. The aim of the French offensive was to break through the German defences in forty-eight hours. At Arras the Canadians were to capture Vimy Ridge, dominating the Douai Plain to the east, advance towards Cambrai and divert German reserves from the French front.

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Cambrai in the context of Josse Lieferinxe

Josse Lieferinxe (fl.c. 1493–1503/08) was a South Netherlandish painter, formerly known by the pseudonym the Master of St. Sebastian.

Originating in the diocese of Cambrai in Hainaut, then part of the territories ruled by the Dukes of Burgundy, Josse Lieferinxe was documented as a "Picard" in the regions of Avignon and Marseille at the end of the fifteenth and in the early sixteenth centuries. He was first mentioned in Provence in 1493. Thus he figures among the painters of the Provençal school, whose most prominent members in an earlier generation had also been from the far north of the French-speaking world—Barthélemy d'Eyck and Enguerrand Quarton. In 1503 he married Michelle, a daughter of Jean Changenet, the most prominent painter of Avignon, in whose atelier Lieferinxe may have matured his style. He was last mentioned living in 1505, and in 1508 as deceased.

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