History
By the end of the Roman period, the settlement of Ingena, capital of the Abrincatui tribe, had taken the name of the tribe itself. This was the origin of the name Avranches. In 511 the town became the seat of a bishopric (suppressed in 1790).
In 933 Avranches and its territory, the Avranchin, were ceded to the Normans.
In 1172 (September 27–28) a council was held at Avranches apropos of the troubles caused in the English Church by the murder of the Anglo-Norman saint Thomas Becket. Henry II, King of England, after due penance done in Avranches on 21 May 1172, was absolved from the censures incurred by the assassination of the holy prelate, and reached the Compromise of Avranches with the Church, swearing fidelity to Pope Alexander III in the person of the papal legate.
It was forbidden by the same council to confer on children benefice carrying with it the cure of souls, or on the children of priests the churches of their fathers. Each parish was required to have an assistant (vicarius) and the Advent fast was commended to all who could observe it, especially to ecclesiastics.
The town was damaged in both the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion.
Álvaro Vaz de Almada was made 1st Count of Avranches by King Henry VI of England.
A literal description of the town in the 19th century is recorded in Guy de Maupassant's novel Notre Cœur where the main character Mariolle meets his lover and sets up for Mont Saint-Michel:
The houses crowning the heights gave to the place from a distance the appearance of a fortification. Seen close at hand it was an ancient and pretty Norman city, with small dwellings of regular and almost similar appearance built closely adjoining one another, giving an aspect of ancient pride and modern comfort, a feudal yet peasant-like air.
The Avranches breakthrough in World War II began on 31 July 1944, and was led by General George S. Patton.
Read more about this topic: Avranches
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