Template:Wp-Troyes-History

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Prehistoric evidence has been found in the Troyes area, suggesting that the settlement may have developed as early as 600 BC. Celtic grave-mounds have been found near the city, and Celtic artifacts have been excavated within the City grounds.

In the Roman era, it was known as Augustobona Tricassium. Numerous highways intersected here, primarily the Via Agrippa, which led north to Reims and south to Langres, and eventually to Milan. Other Roman routes from Troyes led to Poitiers, Autun and Orléans.

It was the civitas of the Tricasses people, who had been separated by Augustus from the Senones. Of the Gallo-Roman city of the early Empire, some scattered remains have been found, but no public monuments, other than traces of an aqueduct. By the Late Empire the settlement was reduced in extent. It was referred to as Tricassium or Tricassae, the origin of French Troyes.

From the fourth century AD, the people had become Christian and the city was designated as the seat of a bishop. The legend of its bishop Lupus (Loup), who saved the city from Attila by offering himself as hostage, is hagiographic rather than historical. It was several centuries before Troyes gained importance as a medieval centre of commerce.

The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, also called The Battle of Troyes, was fought nearby in 451 AD, between the Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I against Attila.

The early cathedral occupied the site of the current one. Here Louis the Stammerer in 878 received the imperial crown from Pope John VIII. At the end of the ninth century, following depredations to the city by Normans, the counts of Champagne chose Troyes as their capital. It remained the capital of the Province of Champagne until the Revolution of the late eighteenth century. The Abbey of Saint-Loup developed a renowned library and scriptorium.

During the Middle Ages, Troyes was an important international trading town. It was the namesake of troy weight for gold a standard of measurement developed here. The Champagne cloth fairs and the revival of long-distance trade, together with new extension of coinage and credit, were the drivers of the medieval economy of Troyes.

In 1285, when Philip the Fair united Champagne to the royal domain, the town kept a number of its traditional privileges. John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and ally of the English, in 1417 worked to have Troyes designated as the capital of France. He came to an understanding with Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI of France, that a court, council, and parlement with comptroller's offices should be established at Troyes.

On 21 May 1420, the Treaty of Troyes was signed in this city, still under control of the Burgundians, by which Henry V of England was betrothed to Catherine, daughter of Charles VI. Under the terms of the treaty, Henry V was to succeed Charles, to the detriment of the Dauphin. The high-water mark of Plantagenet hegemony in France was reversed when the Dauphin, afterwards Charles VII, and Joan of Arc recovered the town of Troyes in 1429 for French control by armed conflict (Siege of Troyes).

The great fire of 1524 destroyed much of the medieval city, although the city had numerous canals separating sections.