LYON

LYON. Founded by the Romans as a provincial capital, Lyon maintained its prominence during the medieval period as the seat of a bishopric and an important law court (the Sénéchaussée ). Its location at the confluence of two important rivers (the Rhône and the Saône) made it a commercial center as well, allowing it to act as a transportation and financial hub between the Renaissance Italian cities to the south and the French and Flemish cities to the north. From the sixteenth century, silk and other textile production combined with banking to propel the city's economy, and its four annual trade fairs emerged as among the most important in Europe. Merchant dynasties (both French and Italian) came to dominate the city's governing council, or consulate, and continued to rule the city up to the Revolution.

The Reformation came to Lyon from nearby Geneva in the sixteenth century, and religious conflict temporarily damaged the city's economic dominance. Largely an elite phenomenon, Protestantism faded during the seventeenth century although economic and family contacts with Geneva continued. Prompted in part by Genevan and Italian models, Lyonnais merchants developed several new forms of poor relief during this period, including a publicly owned general hospital that took in foundlings and orphans, training them for work in the textile trades and supplying dowries to young women. The city's governing elite also created public institutions to supply food during grain shortages, including an urban administration to purchase grain at city expense, public ovens to bake bread, and an organized rationing system. Lyon thus served as a model in France for poor relief and administrative innovation in times of famine.

While textile production (especially silks) continued to expand through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the four fairs became principally important as financial markets. Their regularity, and the supervision over them by a powerful judicial court (the Conservation des foires ) made them attractive to merchants from Italy, Switzerland, and France who wished to make, pay, and exchange loans while minimizing the dangerous transfer of coin. During the latter years of the reign of Louis XIV, royal bankers such as Samuel Bernard manipulated these markets, burdening them with the royal debt and nearly bankrupting them. Though the fairs contracted and became less internationally important as a result, they survived and continued to function on a smaller scale for the remainder of the eighteenth century. Unlike other cities, Lyon maintained a remarkable degree of independence from other royal exactions because the merchants of Lyon successfully manipulated royal patronage and the system of venal offices to preserve a degree of autonomy. As France's "second" city, Lyon enjoyed a tradition of independence and resistance to central authority that continued through the Revolution and into the modern era.

See also France .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Davis, Natalie Zemon. Society and Culture in Early Modern France. Stanford, 1975.

Gascon, Richard. Grand commerce et vie urbaine au XVIe siècle: Lyon et ses marchands. 2 vols. Paris, 1971.

Monahan, W. Gregory. Year of Sorrows: The Great Famine of 1709 in Lyon. Columbus, Ohio, 1993.

W. Gregory Monahan

Lyons Fr. Lyon , city (1990 pop. 422,444), capital of Rhône dept., E central France, at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers. As an economic center and a densely populated metropolis it is second only to Paris. It leads Europe in silk and rayon production; it has important metal, machine, clothing, and chemical industries; a river port; a stock exchange (founded 1506, the oldest in France); a university (founded 1808); and several fine museums. It is a popular year-round tourist center, and it is linked to Paris by a TGV rail line. Founded in 43 BC as a Roman colony, ancient Lugdunum soon became the principal city of Gaul . There Christianity was first introduced into Gaul, and the importance of Lyons until c.1300 was chiefly religious. One of the earliest archiepiscopal sees in France, Lyons (which after the breakup of the Carolingian empire passed to the kingdom of Arles) was ruled by its archbishops until c.1307, when Philip IV incorporated the city and Lyonnais proper into the French crownlands. Of great importance were the emergence (12th cent.) of the Waldenses and the councils held there in 1245 and 1274. Lyons became a silk center in the 15th cent.; at first the silkworms raised in SE France sufficed the needs of the industry, but in recent times Lyons has become increasingly dependent on East Asian imports of raw material. In 1793, Lyons was devastated by French Revolutionary troops after a counterrevolutionary insurrection, but it recovered quickly thanks to the invention of the Jacquard loom. During the German occupation in World War II (1940–44), Lyons was the capital of the French resistance movement. In 1987, Klaus Barbie ( "The Butcher of Lyon" ), who was head of the Gestapo in Lyon from 1942 to 1944, was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment for "crimes against humanity." He was extradited from Bolivia in 1983, where he had lived since 1951. A handsome modern city, Lyons has preserved interesting old sections, notably around the primatial Cathedral of St. John (12th–14th cent.). Its 1831 opera house has undergone a renovation (completed 1993) that included the controversial addition of a glass dome to the original carved stone structure. Annual international trade fairs are held at Lyons.

Lyons, France, USA 1. France (Rhône‐Alpes): French Lyon. Founded in 43 bc as a Roman military colony on the site of two Celtic settlements and named Lugdunum ‘Fort of Lugus’ after the Celtic god of arts and crafts with dunum. However, it is possible that lug means ‘marshy ground’, quite appropriate, given the city's position at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers. It became the capital of Gaul. For a time in 1793 during the French Revolution, it was called Ville Affranchie ‘Liberated Town’.2. USA (Kansas): named after Truman J. Lyon, the owner of the site.3. USA (New York): named after the city in France.

Lyon (Eng. Lyons) City and river port in se France, at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers; capital of Rhône department. The Romans founded Lyon in 43 bc, and it became the capital of Gaul. Its historic association with silk began in the 15th century. It was also one of the first printing centres. In 1793, French Revolutionary troops devastated the city. During World War II, Lyon was a stronghold of the French resistance. It is a major industrial area, and Europe's biggest producer of silk and rayon fabrics. Pop. (1999) 453,187.

Lyons , village (1990 pop. 9,828), Cook co., NE Ill., a residential suburb of Chicago, on the Des Plaines River; inc. 1888. Lyons was settled at the edge of an early travel route, the portage between the Chicago and the Des Plaines rivers.

Lyon the chief herald of Scotland, also called Lord Lyon, Lyon King of Arms, who presides over the Lyon Court. Lyon is recorded from late Middle English, and is an archaic variant of lion, named from the lion on the royal shield.

Lyon •Brian, cyan, Gaian, Geminian, Hawaiian, ion, iron, Ixion, lion, Lyon, Mayan, Narayan, O'Brien, Orion, Paraguayan, prion, Ryan, scion, Uruguayan, Zion •andiron •gridiron, midiron •dandelion • anion • Bruneian •cation, flatiron •gowan, Palawan, rowen •anthozoan, bryozoan, Goan, hydrozoan, Minoan, protozoan, protozoon, rowan, Samoan, spermatozoon •Ohioan • Chicagoan • Virgoan •Idahoan •doyen, Illinoisan, Iroquoian •Ewan, Labuan, McEwan, McLuhan, Siouan •Saskatchewan • Papuan • Paduan •Nicaraguan • gargantuan •carbon, chlorofluorocarbon, graben, hydrocarbon, Laban, radiocarbon •ebon • Melbourne • Theban •gibbon, ribbon •Brisbane, Lisbon •Tyburn •auburn, Bourbon •Alban • Manitoban • Cuban •stubborn •Durban, exurban, suburban, turban, urban

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