Cotentin Peninsula - History

History

The peninsula formed part of the Roman geographical area of Armorica. The town known today as Coutances, capital of the Unelli, a Gaulish tribe, acquired the name of Constantia in 298 during the reign of Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus. The base of the peninsula, called in Latin the pagus Constantinus, joined together with the pagus Coriovallensis centred upon Cherbourg to the north, subsequently became known as the Cotentin. Under the Carolingians it was administered by viscounts drawn successively from members of the Saint-Sauveur family, at their seat Saint-Sauveur on the Douve.

The migration of Vikings in the ninth century led to the area becoming part of the territory of the Northmen, or Normans, creating Normandy, in the early tenth century. This resulted in a number of placenames which were derived from the Norse. Examples include La Hague, and La-Hougue both derived from the Old Norse word haugr meaning a hill or mound. Other names are typicals: Bricquebec, Etreham, Quettetot, Quettehou (Ketil ham).

Until the construction of modern roads, the peninsula was almost inaccessible in winter due to the band of marshland cutting off the higher ground of the promontory itself. This explains occasional historical references to the Cotentin as an island.

In 1088 Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, enfeoffed the Cotentin to his brother Henry, later King Henry I of England, who as count of the Cotentin established his first power base there and in the adjoining Avranchin, which lay to the south, beyond the River Thar, among the region's lords, abbots and bishops.

During the hundred years war, after a landing in the bay of la Hougue, in the Church of Quettehou (Val de Saire) the King Edward III knighted his son Edward, Prince of Wales, better known as Edward, the Black Prince. A remembrance plaque can be seen next to the Altar.

The town of Valognes was, until the French Revolution, a provincial social resort for the aristocracy, nicknamed the Versailles of Normandy. Little remains of the grand houses and châteaux as a result of the destruction of the Battle of Normandy. The social scene was described in the novels of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly (himself from the Cotentin).

The Battle of La Hougue took place in 1692 at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue near Barfleur.

In the Second World War, a significant portion of the Battle of Normandy, through the summer of 1944, was fought in the area, which was the site of Operation Overlord, known as the "Normandy landings", from which the Allies launched the liberation of Western Europe. Utah Beach, one of the invasion landing beaches, was on the eastern coast of the peninsula. The peninsula's river- and canal-crossed agricultural terrain suffered during the next months fighting as the allies sought to break out of their lodgement.