Last modified: 2021-06-27 by ivan sache
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Flag of Lambres-lez-Douai - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 17 December 2020
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The municipality of Lambres-lez-Douai (5,071 inhabitants in 2018; 881 ha; municipal website) is located just south-west of Douai.
Lambres-lez-Douai was first mentioned in 574 by St. Gregory of Tours as Lambrae vicus. The Marchiennes chartulary (887) mentions the village as Lambrae in pagus ostrebano [in Ostrevent]. Subsequently known as Lambres, the municipality was renamed to Lambres-lez-Douai [Lambres near Douai] by a Decision issued on 24 March 1932 by the Municipal Council.
The small County of Ostrevent was fiercely disputed by the feudal lords. On 22 May 1916, King Charles le Simple offered Lambres to the bishop of Cambrai. Lambres is mentioned several times in the Gesta episcopus cameraciensuim, the chronicle of the Bishops of Cambrai (10th century).
In 975, bishop Tetdon has to transfer the power on the village to the lord of Oisy; the Charter of the Saint-Amé abbey lists Pierre de Lambres as a vassal of Jean de Montmirail, lord of Oisy and Constable of France. The oldest known feudal lord of Lambres is Hughes, mentioned in 1170 as dominus villae, "lord of the town".
Ivan Sache, 19 December 2020
The flag of Lambres-lez-Douai (photo), photo) is white with the municipal arms, "Argent two two-handled pots sable a canton gules billetty, a lion argent".
The arms were assigned by Th. Leuridan (Armorial des communes du département du Nord, 1909) as the arms of the Auffay lineage, lords of Lambres for five centuries. The arms were featured on a tombstone kept in the parish church, which was totally destroyed in August 1944 and rebuilt from scratch in 1963.
The most famous member of the Auffay lineage was Jean d'Auffay, lord of Lambres. A noted lawyer and diplomat, Jean d'Auffay was among the signatories of the truce signed on 27 August 1480 between Duke Maximilian and King of France Louis XI. Jean d'Auffay also redacted a big memoir supporting the claim of Mary of Burgundy, Maximilian's wife, on the Duchy of Burgundy, County of Artois, Boulogne, Gruisnes, the towns and domains of Lille, Douai and Orchies... The original manuscript, kept in the French National Library in Paris, was published in Leibnitz' Codex juris gentium diplomaticus (1693). Copies are kept in The Hague, Lille, Amiens, Arras, Florence and Ghent.
Louis XI considered the memory with interest and commissioned his Procurator General, Jean de Saint-Romain, to write a rebuttal.
[Bilbiographie générale de Belgique]
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 19 December 2020