Calais
[key], city, Pas-de-Calais dept., N France, in Picardy, on the Straits of
Dover. An industrial center with a great variety of manufactures, it has
been a major commercial seaport and a communications center with England
since the Middle Ages. A major cross-channel ferry and hovercraft port, it
is near the site of the Channel Tunnel
linking France with England. It was fortified (13th cent.) by the counts of
Boulogne. In 1347, after a siege of 11 months, Calais fell to Edward III of
England. A bronze monument by Rodin commemorates the famous episode of the
six burghers who offered their lives to save the town; they were spared when
Edward's queen, Philippa, interceded. The city remained in English hands
until it was recovered (1558) by the French under François de
Lorraine, the duke of Guise. It was the scene of much fighting (1940, 1944)
in World War II. A Gothic church survived.
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