SOISSONS, an episcopal town in France, capital of the second arrondissement in the department of Aisne, is prettily situated on the left bank of tho river Aisne, CO miles N.E. from Paris, on the high road from Paris to Brussels, in 49' 22' 53" N. lat., 3' 19'40" E. long., at an elevation of 162 feet above the level of the sea, and has 7893 Inhabitants In the commune, which does not comprise all the suburbs. It is the Awjuita Sues:imam of the Roman; which D'Anville and others identify with the Noviodunum of Caesar ('De Bell. Gall,' ii. 12.) The city gave title to a bishop from very early times. The Roman roads popularly called 'Chatuss6es de Brunchaut' are sear this town, which in the later period of the Roman domination was one of the meet important places in the north of Oaul; and one of the last which remained under the government of the emperors. It was the seat pf government of .Egidins and his son Syagrius, and near it the latter was defeated A.D. 480 by Clovis, who made Soissons the capital of the Franks.
Under the early Frankish princes, Soissons continued to to of importance. Here Clovis espoused Clotilde ; and upon the division of his dominions among his descendants, it gave name to one of the kingdoms formed out of them. Here, A.D. 752, Childclrie III., the last Merovingian king, was deposed, and Pepin, son of Charles Martel, the first of the Carlovingian dynasty, was raised upon a shield and pro claimed king in the Champ-de-Mars. Not content with this the then ordinary mode of inauguration, Pepin employed the ceremonies of the church at his coronation, and bed himself consecrated in the cathedral of Soissons by the Pope's Legate. Charlemagne established famous schools in Soissons for the education of the clergy, and the sons of the rich, in the monastery of St.-316dard. The same abbey was twice the prison of Charlemagne's son, the emperor Louis le Debonnaire, and in the abbey church he was deposed by a decree of a council at the instigation of his own eon Lothairo. In 922 Charles the Simple was defeated at Soissons by the troops of Robert, who fell in the battle. Under the kings of the third race Soissons was the capital of a county, and received from Louis VI. a municipal charter; but the burgesses, weary of the contentions which they had with their counts, surrendered their charter to the king Charles IV., in 1325. Philippe VI. (de Valois) granted them some privileges, but would not re-establish tho municipality. In 1413 the town, then garrisoned by the Bourgnignon party, was taken by the rival faction of the Armagnacs, who committed the most dreadful excesses. Having again fallen into
the hands of the Bourguignons, it was a second time taken and pillaged by the Armagnacs. In the religions wars of the 16th century it suffered again. In the campaign of 1814 it was twice taken by the allies and as often retaken by the French; it was a third timo besieged by the allies, bombarded, and much damaged.
A handsome stone bridge over the Aisne unites the town to the suburb of St.-Vaast on the right bank. The town and the suburb of St..Vaaist are fortified; the circuit of the walls includes many gardens and void spaces. The other suburbs are without the walls. The streets are for the most part neatly built, and well laid out ; the houses are built of atone, and many of them covered with slate. The cathedral, founded in the 12th century, is a largo and fine gothic church, with a tower 160 feet high. The painted glass in the rose windows of the transept, and in the nine large ogival windows which light as many chapels behind the choir, are admirable specimens of the art. Of the abbey of St...Jean-des-Vignes (in which Thomas h Becket. archbishop of Canterbury, was received in his exile), the west front of the church, with Its two noble towers and spires, remains and is of rich gothic architecture. On the right bank of the Aisne are some remains of the abbey of St.-M6dard, mentioned above,—the crypt and supposed prison room of Louis le Debonnaire ; but the chief part of the site is occupied by an asylum for deaf-mutes. In the crypt were buried kings Clothaire and Siegebert. These fine old abbatial buildings were demolished in the fury of the first French revolution. Soissons has an excellent public library of above 21,000 volumes, and several hundred valuable manuscripts ; a college, a diocesan seminary; tri bunals of first instance and of commerce; public walks, a theatre, and baths.
The manufactures are carpets, woollens, hosiery, coarse linen, twine, beer, seed-oil, leather, room paper, &c. Coissiderable trade is carried on lu corn, flour, peas and beans, in hemp and flax for the enpply of Paris; timber, firewood, and charcoal, which are sent down the Aisne to the capital. There is a good weekly market. A linen market is held on the last Saturday of every month ; two six-day fairs are held, one the week before Whit-Sunday, and another the week after Martin. mas. A railway has been commenced to connect Soissons with the Paris-Amlens railway, between Sculls and CreiL