LISIEUX, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Calvados, 3o m. E. of Caen by rail. Pop. (1931) 14,471. In the time of Caesar, Lisieux, under the name of Noviomagus, was the capital of the Lexovii. Though destroyed by the barbarians, by the 6th century it had become one of the most important towns of Neustria. Its bishop ric, suppressed in 1802, dated from that period. In 877 it was pillaged by the Normans; and in 911 was included in the duchy of Normandy by the treaty of St. Clair-sur-Epte. Civil authority was exercised by the bishop as count of the town. In 1136 Geoffrey Plantagenet laid siege to Lisieux, which had taken the side of Stephen of Blois, but before it fell in 1141 both it and the neighbourhood had been reduced to famine. In 1152 the marriage of Henry II. of England to Eleanor of Guienne, which added so largely to his dominions, was celebrated in the cathedral. Thomas a Becket took refuge here, and some vestments used by him are shown in the hospital chapel. Taken by Philip Augustus and reunited to France in 1203, the town was a frequent subject of dispute between the contending parties during the Hundred Years' War, the religious wars, and those of the League.
Lisieux is situated in the valley of the Touques at its confluence with the Orbiquet. Towers of the 16th century, old fortifications,
and streets of houses of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, are features. The church of St. Peter, formerly a cathedral, the old est Gothic church in Normandy, is contemporary with the cathe drals of Canterbury and Sens. Begun in the latter half of the 12th it was completed in the 13th and 16th centuries. There is a lantern-tower over the crossing and two towers surmount the west façade. The church of St. Jacques (late 15th century) con tains Renaissance glass, some stalls and old frescoes, and a curious picture on wood, restored in 1681. The old episcopal palace is now used for civil purposes and contains a beautiful hall called the salle doree. Lisieux is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of arts and manufactures, and a board of trade arbitrators. Its manu factures of woollens are important, and bleaching, wool and flax spinning, tanning, brewing, timber-sawing, metal-founding, and the manufacture of machinery, hosiery and boots and shoes are carried on ; there is trade in grain, cattle, cheese and fruit.