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The Notre-Dame de Cercamp Abbey was a Cistercian abbey founded in 12th century by Hugues III of Campdavaine, in Frévent near the town of Cercamp.

Attached to the Cistercian order, Cercamp Abbey was located in the valley of the Canche river which ran along the north walls of the monastery by means of a hand dug canal. This channel brought water to the gardens of the abbey.

Cercamp was closed during the French Revolution and its buildings were largely in ruins by the 19th century.

History of the abbey

Founding act

In 1131, Hugh of Camp d'Avesnes, count of Saint-Pol, attacked Saint Riquier where his enemies, the lords of Auxi and Boubers-sur-Canche, were located. He used Greek fire which destroyed the city, the abbey and killed 2500 people. The survivors took refuge in Abbeville, including the abbot of Saint-Riquier who brought a complaint against the count to the council of Reims, but Hugh continued to devastate the region.

To atone for this crime, Count Hugh agreed to the Pope's ultimatum and founded a monastery and abbey of Cercamp. Cercamp's foundation was confirmed by Bishop Milo of Therouanne in 1137.

Middle Ages

In May/June 1166, the abbot of Cercamp abbey was the messenger for Thomas Becket, taking the Becket's letter to King Henry II of England.

In 1173, John, count of Ponthieu confirmed the abbey's possession, separating them from the church of Notre-Dame Le Gard.

In 1197, Hugh, baron of Auxi-le-Château is mentioned along with his wife and children in a title from the abbey of Cercamp.

In 1239, Hugh I de Châtillon and his second wife Marie d'Avesnes constituted by charter an annual and perpetual rent for the benefit of the monastery and stipulated as an express condition that the monks of Cercamp would send each year at the expense of their convent 10000 herrings and three pots of butter at the Pont-aux-Dames abbey in Couilly. The royalty of three pot of butter was redeemed in 1360, for six barrels of vermeil wine that the monks possessed in the Crécy vineyard, and which they ceded to the Abbey of Pont- to the ladies. The herring royalty was later redeemed with an annuity of 140 pounds which was paid regularly until 1789.

In January 1265, a charter from the abbey of Cercamp indicates the marriage of Mahault and Mayus de Hauteclocque.

On 29 September 1288, Mahaud of Brabant died and was buried in the abbey of Cercamp. She was married to Robert J., Count of Artois in 1237, then with a dispensation from Pope Alexander IV, she married Guy de Châtillon II, Count of Saint-Pol as a second marriage. She is buried near her husband under a tomb of gilded copper and enamelled with precious stones.

In 13th century, Gautier Disque died of illness fifteen days after Easter. He is buried in the church of Iuuy although he ordered to transport him to the abbey of Cercamp, because the roads are perilous.

On May 5, 1339, Marie of Brittany and her husband Guy IV of Châtillon-Saint-Pol, count of Saint-Pol, are both buried in the abbey.

In 1415, the abbey is ravaged by the English army, during the Hundred Years' War.

The energetic abbot Pierre de Bachimont raised Cercamp. He was a bachelor of theology and was confirmed in Paris by the prelate of Citeau, 38 years of practice. Pierre de Bachimont had the tiles that capped the transept, ie the transept and the nave, replaced with slates, this was entrusted to the roofer Servais, he endowed the building with stained glass windows, including three high windows pierced in the heart above the altar. He had stelae commissioned from Adam Dobelmer, finally in front of the lectern, and around him he had a wooden fence and two altars dedicated to the Virgin and all the Saints respectively.

On 21 January 1464, by his letters patent, King Louis XI (1423-1483) confirms the privileges of the abbey granted by his predecessors.

In 1482, Peter II, Count of Saint-Pol and later in 1483 his wife Margaret of Savoy, Countess of Saint-Pol, are buried in the tomb at the abbey.

Modern times

In 1517, in a charter of the abbey, there is a confession and enumeration of Charles de Hauteclocque to the sire marquis de Blangy.

In 1553, from 5 to 7 August, he stayed at the Charles de La Roche-sur-Yon abbey which served with his brother Louis III de Montpensier in the wars against [[Charles V]. He joined Henry II who besieged Renty.

On 15 October 1558, negotiations for the Treaty of the Cateau-Cambrésis began at the abbey before continuing at the castle of Cateau-Cambrésis. The treaties were signed on 2 and 3 April 1559 and put an end to the conflict between France on the one hand and Spain and England on the other.

In 1617, Louis XIII appointed Eustache Picot, music master of his chapel at Cercamp abbey to defend the rights of the king for the movement of the county of Saint-Pol.

On 26 May 1638, Gaspard III de Coligny camped at the abbey, he tried to besiege the town of Saint-Omer. The intervention of Thomas de Savoie-Carignan then of Piccolomini forces him to withdraw.

The 25 September 1684, on this date under an inscription in one of the chapels of the nave recalls the transfer of the bodies of Guy de Chastillon and Anne de Bretagne, Pierre de Luxembourg and the lady of Essaux as well as Jacques of Luxembourg.

In 1710, the garden walls were overthrown during the War of the Spanish Succession.

On 17 October 1713, the Sieur Bonnaire, knight of Saint-Lazare, received from the king a pension of one thousand pounds on the abbey of Cercamp.

Contemporary period

On 17 June 1790, the National Assembly decreed the transfer of the property of the abbey to the department of Pas-de-Calais.

On 6 June 1794, the directory of the Pas-de-Calais department decreed that in execution of the law of 20 May 1794, the abbey of Notre- Dame d'Hénin-Liétard would be suppressed and that the religious would meet before 1 July 1794 at the bernardin s of the house of Cercamp. On 23 July 1793, three carts took the charters, books, manuscripts and paper titles to the district of Arras where they were publicly burned the same evening in execution of the executive board's decree.

On 30 May 1795, the abbey was sold with all immediate outbuildings.

In 1823, Baron François-Luglien de Fourment established a woolen mill on the ruins of the former convent of the monks of Cîteaux. The spinning mill was destroyed by fire in 1871.

In 1837, the abbey church was nothing more than a heap of ruins under the hammers of the demolishers.

Auguste, his son, member of the Superior Council of Commerce and Industry, mayor of Frévent from 1855 to 1891, created a stud farm, collected paintings and continued to embellish his estate. The abbey, a factory for a time, becomes a castle.

In 1915, General Foch set up his headquarters there. He received there in particular the king George V, Alexandre Millerand, minister of war, the generals Joffre and French. In these places, President Poincaré presented him with the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.

Bequeathed to the Assistance publique de la Seine, the estate is assigned to establishments linked to health or education.

Since 2012, it has been open to the public and has undergone gradual restoration.

Architecture and description

The interior of the Gatehouse, Hosts and Foreigners buildings, as well as the annex buildings and the park are subject to registration under historic monuments since 16 September 1946, transformed into classification by decree of 16 March 2015.

The building, for its facades, roofs, fireplaces and rooms with woodwork on the ground floor, as well as the facades and roofs of the Porterie building, are classified under historical monuments since 15 April 1947.

Sources

• Bossuyt, Ignace (1998). "O socii durate: A Musical Correspondence from the Time of Philip II". Early Music. 26 (3 Aug). Oxford University Press: 432-444.
• Mayr-Harting, Henry (2011). Religion, Politics and Society in Britain 1066-1272. Routledge.
• Ott, John S. (2019). "Men on the Move: Papal Judeges-Delegate in the Province of Reims in the Early Twelfth Century". In Eichbauer, Melodie H.; Summerlin, Danica (eds.). The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1234. Brill.30-31
• Rezak, Brigitte Bedos (2011). When Ego was Imago: Signs of Identity in the Middle Ages. Brill.
• de Schryve, Antoine (2008). The Prayer Book of Charles the Bold: A Study of a Flemish Masterpiece from the Burgundian Court. J. Paul Getty Museum.