Cambrai

City in Nord département, northern France, situated at the junction of the canalized River Escaut (Schelde) and the St-Quentin canal, 59 km/37 mi southeast of Lille; population (1999) 33,700. Industries include the manufacture of textiles, metal goods, soap, processed foods, confectionery, and beer. Flour and chicory are also produced. Cambric, a fine linen, was first made here, and lace-making is a traditional industry. Under the Peace of Cambrai or Ladies' Peace (1529), France regained Burgundy but lost Flanders, Artois, and Milan.

Features The city's 19th-century cathedral replaced one destroyed after the French Revolution. The writer Fénélon, archbishop here from 1695 to 1715, is buried here. Other architectural features include an archiepiscopal palace, the city hall, a 12th-18th-century campanile (70 m/230 ft high), an art gallery with a collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings, and the church of St Géry, which has a notable rood-screen and painting of the Entombment by Rubens. The remains of Vauban's 17th-century citadel are to be found in gardens in the southeast of the town.

History Cambrai was a Roman city, Camaracum. It became the capital of a Frankish kingdom in AD 445. By the late 15th century the city was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The League of Cambrai in 1508 united the pope, Holy Roman Emperor and kings of France and Spain against the Venetian Republic. The Peace of Cambrai was called the Paix des Dames, or Ladies' Peace, because it was concluded on behalf of Francis I of France by his mother Louise of Savoy, and on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, by his aunt Margaret of Austria. Cambrai became part of the French crown in 1677.

During both world wars the city was occupied by the Germans, and badly damaged. In World War I the First Battle of Cambrai (November 1917) saw the first use of massed tanks in warfare; the Second Battle of Cambrai began in August 1918 and ended in the recapture of the town by British troops (5 October 1918). See Cambrai, Battles of.