Mornas (; ) is a commune in the

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.

department in the

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (commonly shortened to PACA), also known as Région Sud, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France, located at the far southeastern point of the Metropolitan France, mainland. The main P ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

in southeastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Name

The settlement is attested as ''Morenatus'' in 822, ''Murenatis'' in 837 and ''Mornatz'' ca. 1178.

History

In the 12th century, the

Counts of Toulouse The count of Toulouse (, ) was the ruler of county of Toulouse, Toulouse during the 8th to 13th centuries. Originating as vassals of the kingdom of the Franks, Frankish kings, the hereditary counts ruled the city of Toulouse and its surrounding ...

, then in possession of the fortress, rebuilt and strengthened it. In 1229, with the Treaty of Paris,

Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse Raymond VII (July 1197 – 27 September 1249) was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence from 1222 until his death. Family and marriages Raymond was born at the Château de Beaucaire, the son of Raymond VI of Toulouse a ...

, handed over the

Comtat Venaissin The (; ; 'County of Venaissin'), often called the for short, was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791, in what is now the region of Southern France. The region was an enclave within the Kingdom of France, comprising the area aroun ...

to the Holy See. Mornas was thus a lordship of the archbishops of Arles until 1274, and then of the Holy See, which enfeoffed the lands to various lords. In 1430, Pellegrin Brunelli, a gentleman of the household of

Pope Martin V Pope Martin V (; ; January/February 1369 – 20 February 1431), born Oddone Colonna, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 November 1417 to his death in February 1431. His election effectively ended the We ...

, had to surrender the castle to the army of Cardinal de Foix. The

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

brought severe troubles to Mornas, notably in the form of two "sauteries", or "pertuisanades". In 1562, the Calvinists led by the seigneur de Montbrun seized the castle, massacred women and children, and threw the garrison from the top of the ramparts onto halberds below; there was only one survivor. In 1568, after Mornas had been taken by the count of Suze, the Protestant garrison suffered the same fate.Jean Michel Rouand
Château de Mornas (Vaucluse)
accessed 12 January 2025 (in French) From the 17th century, Mornas was a centre for growing tobacco. Before the French Revolution, the king of France allowed the seigneur of Mornas to lease the woodland to a farmer, who cleared it, thus depriving the village of its supply of firewood.Roger Pierre, « Libertés et contraintes des communautés villageoises dans les pays de la Drôme à la veille de la Révolution » ("Freedoms and constraints of village communities in the Drôme region on the eve of the Revolution"), ''Études drômoises'' No. 64 (March 1985), p. 20 Mornas

Name

History

Population

See also