La Flèche is a French commune located in the south of the Sarthe
department in the Pays de la Loire region. Sub-prefecture of the
department, capital of the district and canton, seat of the
community of communes of the Pays Fléchois, it has 14,956
inhabitants according to the last census of 2017 (legal population
in force on January 1, 2020), which in fact the second most
populated Sarthe town. Located on the Loir, in the heart of Maine
Angevin, the town is marked by a very dense hydrographic network.
Born after the year 1000, the city of Fléchoise took off at the
beginning of the seventeenth century under the leadership of
Guillaume Fouquet de La Varenne, then by the creation of the
Henri-IV college, held by the Jesuits, which would become the
national military Prytanee by decision of Napoleon in 1808.
Important religious center in the seventeenth century with the
presence of twelve religious communities on its territory, La Flèche
is attached, like seventeen other parishes of the former province of
Anjou, to the department of Sarthe . It grew in 1866 with the
absorption of the municipality of Sainte-Colombe, then in 1965 with
the attachment of the municipalities of Verron and
Saint-Germain-du-Val.
Its inhabitants are called the
Fléchois.
National military prytaneum
In 1603,
King Henri IV ceded his “Château-Neuf” at La Flèche, an important
family house that his grandmother Françoise d'Alençon had built in
1540, to establish the “Royal College Henri-le-Grand there. C 26.
The king entrusts its creation to the Jesuits. Became a “military
Prytaneum” in 1808 under the leadership of Emperor Napoleon I, it
now houses within its walls one of the six military lycées in
France, called defense lycées since 2006. All of the buildings in
the Prytanee are successively classified as historical monuments
since 1919.
Of classical architecture, the Prytanee takes the
form of three successive large courtyards dominated by the imposing
stature of the Saint-Louis church, whose construction began in 1607.
The work followed a plan drawn up by Louis Métezeau, architect of
the King of France, with adjoining courtyards of roughly the same
size. The church was completed in 1621, and all of the work was
completed in 1655 with the construction of the main gate, with the
bust of Henri IV on the pediment.
In the Middle Ages, La Flèche was a parish of the Diocese of Angers
and in this context an integral part of Anjou, more precisely of
Haut-Anjou, which was also called Maine angevin. From 1343, the state
claimed the salt monopoly by decree of King Philip IV and introduced a
salt tax called Gabelle. Anjou was one of the countries with the
so-called large gables, which also affected La Flèche. The salt tax was
particularly unpopular and, along with the waistline, is a prime example
of the unjust tax system of the ancien régime, which is considered one
of the main causes of the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Under Guillaume Fouquet de la Varenne, seigneur of La Flèche, later also
of Sainte-Suzanne (Mayenne) and Angers, the city clearly gained in
importance. His friend Henry IV, who had spent his youth in La Flèche,
founded a college there and entrusted it to the Jesuits. The college
developed rapidly and by 1625 already had 1,500 students. Famous men
like Descartes and Prince Eugene of Savoy received their education here.
After disputes with the governor about the right to fish in the moat,
the monks were expelled in 1762. The college was converted into a cadet
school in 1764, and in 1808 under Napoleon into a military academy, the
Prytanée national militaire of La Flèche, which still exists today.
On December 8, 1793, at La Flèche, the royalists were defeated by
the republican troops.
When the French départements were created
in 1790, the entire north-eastern part of Anjou, including the towns of
La Flèche, Le Lude and Château-du-Loir, was annexed to the new
département of Sarthe. In 1866 the commune of Sainte-Colombe was
incorporated, in 1965 the communes of Saint-Germain-du-Val and Verron.
The city's town hall, right on the river, was modernized in 1994
around the Château des Carmes, which was once in the hands of the
Carmelites. The castle now forms the noble entrance building, while the
steel and glass outbuildings behind it provide the connection to the
Parc des Carmes, which is now open to the public.
Personalities
Jean de Beaugency, first lord of La Flèche
Lazare de Baïf
(1496–1547), humanist, diplomat and poet
Guillaume Fouquet de la
Varenne (1560-1616), officer and friend of Henry IV.
René Descartes
(1596–1650), philosopher, attended the Jesuit College at La Flèche
Jean Picard, called "Abbé Picard" (1620-1682), astronomer and priest
David Hume (1711–1776), philosopher, lived in La Flèche from 1734 to
1737
Marquis de Turbilly (1717–1776), agronomist
René Lego
(1764–1794), diocesan priest, martyr, guillotined at Angers 1 January
1794, beatified 1984
Jean-Baptiste Lego (1766–1794), diocesan priest,
martyr, guillotined at Angers 1 January 1794, beatified 1984
Théophile Thoré (1807–1869), French art historian, rediscovered by Jan
Vermeer.
Marie Pape-Carpantier (1815-1878), founder of the first
"Écoles maternelles"
Leo Delibes (1836–1891), composer
Liane de
Pougy (1869–1950), dancer and courtesan of the Belle Époque
Charles
Godefroy (1888–1958), pilot made famous by flying through the Arc de
Triomphe
Paul Gauthier (1914–2002), theologian
Jacques Bouillaut
(1924-2009), naturalist, founder of La Flèche Zoo
Alain Pellegrini
(born 1946), Division General
Michel Virlogeux (born 1946), bridge
construction engineer, z. B. Pont de Normandie, Viaduc de Millau
Martin Lersch (* 1954), painter, draftsman, musician
Dominique
Chauvelier (born 1956), long-distance runner