1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Jean-d'Angély

ST JEAN-D'ANGÉLY, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Charente-Inférieure, 33 m. E. of Rochefort by rail. Pop. (1906) 6242. St Jean lies on the right bank of the Boutonne, which is navigable for small vessels. The parish church of St lean stands on the site of an abbey church of the 13th century, of which some remains are left. In 1568 the monastery was destroyed by the Huguenots, but much of it was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries, to which period belong two towers and the facade of an unfinished church.

St Jean owes the suffix of its name to the neighbouring forest of Angéry (Angeriacum). Pippin I. of Aquitaine in the 9th century established there a Benedictine monastery which was afterwards reputed to possess the head of John the Baptist. This relic attracted hosts of pilgrims; a town grew up, took the name of St Jean d'angers, afterwards d'Angély, was fortified in 1131, and in 1204 received a charter from Philip Augustus. The possession of the place was disputed between French and English in the Hundred Years' War, and between Catholics and Protestants at a later date. In 1569 it capitulated to the duke of Anjou (afterwards Henry III.). Louis XIII. again took it from the Protestants in 1621 and deprived it of its privileges and its very name, which he changed to Bourg-Louis.