Editing Aigues-Mortes (section)

===Modern and contemporary periods===
Aigues-Mortes still retained its privileges granted by the kings.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OJ-b2-CLz7EC&pg=PA309 Letters Patent] from [[Louis XI]], Tours, 5 June 1470 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> The Protestant Jean d'Harambure "the One-Eyed", light horse commander of [[Henry IV of France|King Henry IV]] and former governor of [[Vendôme]] was appointed governor of ''Aigues-Mortes'' and the Carbonnière Tower on 4 September 1607. To do this, he took an oath before the Constable of France [[Henri I de Montmorency|Henri de Montmorency]], Governor of Languedoc, who was a Catholic and supported the rival ''Adrien de Chanmont'', the Lord of Berichère. The conflict continued until 1612, and Harambure, supported by the pastors of Lower Languedoc and the inhabitants, finished it by a personal appeal to the Queen.<ref>BN L. K7 50</ref> He eventually resigned on 27 February 1615 in favour of his son Jean d'Harambure, but King [[Louis XIII]] restored him for six years. On 27 July 1616 he resigned again in favour of [[Gaspard III de Coligny]], but not without obtaining a token of appreciation for the judges and consuls of the city.

At the beginning of the 15th century, important works were being undertaken to facilitate access to ''Aigues-Mortes'' from the sea. The old ''Grau-Louis'', dug for the Crusades, was replaced by the ''Grau-de-la-Croisette'' and a port was dug at the base of the Tower of Constance. It lost its importance from 1481 when [[Provence]] and [[Marseille]] were attached to the kingdom of France. Only the exploitation of the Peccais salt marshes encouraged [[François I]], in 1532, to connect the salt industry of ''Aigues-Mortes'' to the sea. This channel, called ''Grau-Henry'', silted up in turn. The opening, in 1752, of the ''Grau-du-Roi'' solved the problem for a while. A final solution was found in 1806 by connecting the Aigues-Mortes river port through the [[Canal du Rhône à Sète]].<ref>[http://lidicel.free.fr/v2/fr/sortiesfr/aiguesmortescarteidentitefr.php Aigues-Mortes on the Dimeli and Co website] {{in lang|fr}}</ref>
<gallery>
File:AiguesMortesCanal.JPG|The [[Canal du Rhône à Sète]] traversing Aigues-Mortes
File:Lettre autographe signée de M. Fargeon, administrateur des Canaux d’Aigues-Mortes à Beaucaire. Bellegarde, le 25 novembre 1806.JPG|Letter from Mr. Fargeon, administrator of the Canal of Aigues-Mortes, 25 November 1806
File:Aigues Mortes Canal du Midi 1915.jpg|The canal du Rhône à Sète in 1915
</gallery>

From 1575 to 1622, Aigues-Mortes was one of the eight safe havens granted to the [[Protestants]]. The revocation of the [[Edict of Nantes]] in 1685 caused severe repression of Protestantism, which was marked in [[Languedoc]] and the [[Cévennes]] in the early 18th century by the [[Camisard]] War. Like other towers in the town, from 1686 onwards, the Constance Tower was used as a prison for the [[Huguenots]] who refused to convert to [[Roman Catholicism]]. In 1703, Abraham Mazel, leader of the [[Camisards]], managed to escape with sixteen companions.{{Citation needed|date=May 2013}}

During the French Revolution, the city was called ''Port-Pelletier''.<ref>{{Cassini-Ehess|235|Aigues-Mortes}}</ref> At that time the port had almost disappeared due to silting, induced by the intensification of labour in the watershed at the same time as the clearing of woods and forests following the [[Privilege (law)|abolition of privileges]]. The decline of forest cover led to soil erosion and consequently a greater quantity of alluvial deposits in the ports of the region. Thus, in 1804 the prefect "Mr. de Barante père" wrote in a report<ref name=BecquerelClimatForet1865>Report cited by [[Antoine César Becquerel]] in 1865 in: Becquerel (Antoine César, M.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ej0DAAAAYAAJ ''Memoire on the Forests and the Climatic influence''] (Numbered by Google), 1865, see page 54.</ref> that: "The coasts of this department are more prone to silting&nbsp;... The ports of Maguelonne and Aigues Mortes and the old port of [[Cette]] no longer exist except in history" he alerted: "An inordinate desire to collect and multiply these forest clearings since 1790&nbsp;... Greed has devoured in a few years the resource of the future, the mountains, opened to the plough, show that soon naked and barren rock, each groove becoming a ravine; the topsoil, driven by storms, has been brought into the rivers, and thence into the lower parts, where it serves every day to find the lowest parts and the darkest swamps."