Editing Melun (section)

==History==
'''Meledunum''' began as a [[Gauls|Gaulish]] town; [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] noted Melun as "a town of the [[Senones]], situated on an island in the Seine"; at the island there was a wooden bridge, which his men repaired.<ref>''[[Gallic War]]'' vii. 58, 60.</ref> Roman Meledunum was a ''mutatio'' where fresh horses were kept available for official couriers on the [[Roman road]] south-southeast of Paris, where it forded the Seine.<ref>Meledunum appears in the [[Antonine Itinerary]] almost halfway between [[Lutetia]] (Paris) and [[Rennes|Condate (Rennes)]] ([http://www.sc.edu/ltantsoc/mele0296.htm 'Meledunum"]).</ref> Around 500 A.D, [[Clovis I]] granted Melun to a Gallo-Roman magnate, [[Aurelianus (Gallo-Roman)|Aurelianus]], who had fought for Clovis several times and apparently influenced his conversion to Christianity.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bachrach |first1=Bernard S. |title=Merovingian Military Organization, 481-751 |date=1972 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |isbn=9780816657001 |page=15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbz9IyOvfPoC&q=Merovingian+Military+Organization,+481-751 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Normans]] sacked it in 845. The castle of Melun became a royal residence of the Capetian kings. [[Hugh Capet]] (See also: [[House of Capet]]) gave Melun to Bouchard, his favorite. In the reign of Hugh's son, [[Robert II of France]], [[Odo, Count of Champagne|Eudes]], the [[count of Champagne]], bought the city, but the king took it back for Bouchard in 999. The chatelain Gautier and his wife, who had sold the city, were hanged; Eudes escaped. Robert died there in July 1031.

[[Robert of Melun]] (c. 1100 – 27 February 1167) was an English scholastic Christian theologian who taught in France, and later became [[Bishop of Hereford]] in England. He studied under [[Peter Abelard]] in Paris before teaching there and at Melun, which gave him his surname.

In July 1415, Melun was besieged by King [[Henry V of England]], who had recently signed the [[Treaty of Troyes]] with King [[Charles VI of France]]. The town was in the hands of the Dauphin, later [[Charles VII of France]], who had been dispossessed by the treaty. The defenders were led by [[Arnaud Guillaume de Barbazan|Arnaud Guillaume, seigneur de Barbazan]], and fought off the besiegers for fourteen weeks before capitulating.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Field of Mars: Being an Alphabetical Digestion of the Principal Naval and Military Engagements, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbsNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP226|year=1801|publisher=J. Macgowan|pages=226}}</ref> The town was liberated by [[Joan of Arc]] on 17 April 1430.

===Counts of Melun===
*[[Aurelianus (Gallo-Roman)|Aurelianus]] (c. 500)
*Donatus (?-834)
*Bouchard I (956/967–1005), also [[Count of Vendôme]] and [[Count of Paris]]

===Viscounts of Melun===
The early viscounts of Melun were listed by 17th and 18th century genealogists, notably [[Père Anselme]]. Based on closer reading of the original documents, Adolphe Duchalais constructed this list of viscounts in 1844:<ref>Adolphe Duchalais, "Charte inedité de l’an 1138, relative à l’histoire des viscomtes de Melun" (Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes vol. 6 no. 6, 1845).</ref>

*Salo (c. 993; possibly legendary)
*Joscelin I (c. 998)
*William (possibly c. 1000)
*Ursio (c. 1067–1085)
*[[William the Carpenter]] (c. 1094)
*Hilduin, Garin, Ursio II, Jean (unknown dates, possibly not viscounts)
*Adam (c. 1138–1141; married Mahaut, daughter of his predecessor)
*Joscelin II (c. 1156)

The title eventually became an honorary peerage. Such viscounts include [[Honoré Armand de Villars]] and [[Claude Louis Hector de Villars]].
[[File:France-melun1095.JPG|center|thumb| Watercolor postcard showing Melun in the 1920s and circa 1095.]]