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This article is about the capital city of France. You may be looking for the Trojan prince Paris.
"One day, when all this is over, I will invite you to Paris to stay with me and my family. She is the most beautiful city in all the world, Connor, full of art and culture, women and wine. But she is sick on the inside, black and rotting..."
―Marquis de Lafayette to Ratonhnhaké:ton, 1778.[src]-[m]

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. During the French Revolution, the city was divided into seven districts: Le Louvre, Île de la Cité, Le Marais, La Bièvre, Les Invalides, Quartier Latin, and Ventre de Paris.

History[]

Formation[]

Paris was founded during the 3rd century BCE when the Celtic Parisii tribe built a fortified settlement on the Île de la Cité.[2]

Roman era[]

In 52 BCE, the Romans, led by Julius Caesar,[3] conquered the Parisii Celts who inhabited the area and built a town on the Seine river, named Lutetia Parisiorum ("Swamp of the Parisii").[4] In the late 3rd century, Paris and its surrounding region were converted to Christianity. According to the legend, the bishop of Paris, Denis, was beheaded and martyred at Montmartre by the Romans around 250 CE. Afterwards the saint's corpse walked to the village of Catolacus which became Saint-Denis, carrying his own head.[5]

In the 5th century, the Roman Empire was in decline; the Franks subsequently captured Paris in 486.

Middle Ages[]

In 558, the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was constructed near Paris and would eventually become one of the richest abbeys in France.[2]

In the middle of the 7th century, the nobility funded the Hôtel-Dieu to serve as a refuge for the poor and sick. It became the first hospital in the city.[2]

ACV Paris 885

Paris in 885

In the 9th century, Paris was the capital of West Francia, and it was one of the numerous cities in Western Europe that were raided by the Vikings. In 845, Ragnar Lothbrok led a large-scale invasion of Paris. Ragnar and his Vikings successfully plundered the city[6] and only left after Charles the Bald paid them 7,000 livres of silver and gold.[7]

From 885 to 886, Paris was once again the target for a siege by the Vikings, this time led by jarl Sigfred of the Elgring Clan as retaliation for the death of his brother Sinric.[8] However, Sigfred's ally, jarlskona Eivor Varinsdottir of the Raven Clan soon uncovered the manipulation from a religious zealous group called the Bellatores Dei and the manic state of King Charles after killing the priest Engelwin.[9][10]

Despite attempts at truces with both King Charles[11] and Count Odo,[12] the Vikings continued to prepare for the siege.[13][14] Invading the Île de la Cité after killing the leader of the Frankish army, Ebels,[15] the Vikings managed to fight and win against the Frankish soldiers.[16]

Soon, a truce was called as King Charles met with Sigfred, who was offered lordship over Rouen and Amiens and treasure. Despite some opposition, the siege ended with the Vikings leaving the city with both new land and money.[17]

In the 10th century, the kings of France established their residence in the Conciergerie on the Île de la Cité.[2]

In 1130, the king Louis VI of France reinforced a wooden tower of which became the stone fortress of Grand Châtelet near the Place de Grève. Louis also ordered the construction of Les Halles and of the church and cemetery of Holy Innocents which became the cemetery for all churches.[2]

In 1160 began the construction of the Notre-Dame Cathedral which was only ended in 1345. Notre-Dame was one of the first buildings to use flying buttresses in Europe.[2]

During the Middle Ages, Paris grew rapidly and became one of the largest cities in Europe. In response to its expansion, the king Philip Augustus constructed the Louvre fortress and a wall surrounding the town during the end of the 12th century. During his reign, various markets and fairs were established in a place called Les Champeaux which will become known as Les Halles.[2]

In 1240, returning from the Crusades, the Templar Order built their headquarters in Paris. The fortress was known as the Temple of Paris.[2]

In 1242, the king Louis IX of France ordered the construction of the Sainte-Chapelle to house the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ. The monument was finished in 1248 and served as the royal chapel. The Sainte-Chapelle was also the entry of the headquarters of the sworn enemies of the Templars, the Assassin Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, established under the Île Saint-Louis, used the underground tunnels to navigate easily through the city.[2]

In 1246, king Louis IX created the position of Provost of the Merchants, which served as the mayor of the city of Paris. Robert de Sorbon, King's chaplain, sought to facilitate the education of underprivileged children in theology. Louis IX gave him a house in the rue Coupe Gueule which was transformed into the university Sorbonne.[2]

In 1296, the King Philip IV of France ordered the construction of the Palais de Justice in the Palais de la Cité, which served as a juridical court for the Parlement de Paris.[2]

Tragedy of Jacques de Molay 15

Jacques de Molay burning at the stake

In 1307, the Assassin Mentor Guillaume de Nogaret persuaded King Philip to arrest the Templar Order and of their Grand Master Jacques de Molay. On the 13th of October, the Assassins, disguised as flemish mercenaries, attacked the Temple de Paris with the French troops. The Master Assassin Thomas de Carneillon led the attack and tried to take Sword of Eden, a powerful piece of Eden, and also the Codex Pater Intellectus, de Molay's writings. During the attack, Carneillon fought Jacques de Molay's advisor but was out of action after he received a blast from the Sword of Eden. The advisor hid the Sword and the Codex in Jacques de Molay's vault before being killed by Carneillon who did find the artifacts. De Molay was arrested and imprisoned.

In his cell, he hid the Heart, an artifact that unlocks the abilities of the Sword of Eden. Jacques de Molay, who was also a Sage, a reincarnation of the First Civilization Aita, decided to reform the Templar Order as a secret society revealing the secrets of the First Civilisation to nine Templars. On 18 March 1314, Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake before King Philip and Pope Clement V on the Île de la Cité. In his last words, de Molay cursed the Pope and the royal family to the thirteen generations. De Molay's death marked the dissolution of the Knights Templar as a public organization and influenced their conversion into a secret faction.[18]

In 1334, the Abbot of Cluny purchased the remains of a Roman thermal bath and turn it into a townhouse. The building was known as the Hôtel de Cluny.[2]

Hundred Years' War[]

During the 14th century, the Kings of France entered in the Hundred Years' War against the Kings of England. The attack of the English troops created economic instability, leading in 1358 to a Jacquerie, a peasant revolt. Other uprisings followed during the rest of the war. King Charles V of France decided to reinforce the defense of Paris in this context. He displaced the royal residence in the fortress of the Louvre and using the stones from the carries of Paris, he ordered the construction of the Bastille, a fort which will protect the east side of the city from English attack.[2]

At the end of the 14th century, the scrivener and alchemist Nicolas Flamel established in Paris one of his laboratories under Notre-Dame. Thank the Book of Abraham, he created the Philosopher's stone and the Elixir of life, which made him, according to the legends, rich and immortal.[19] With his fortune, Flamel financed the reconstruction of the Holy Innocent's Cemetery. Before his death, he separated the Book of Abraham in two and gave one half to the nephew of his wife, Pernelle Flamel. In 1418, Flamel was buried in the Church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie before being displaced in the Holy Innocent's Cemetery where his wife was buried.[18]

ACII-Jean-Auguste-DominiqueIngres-JoanofArcatCoronationofCharlesVII

Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII

At the beginning of the 15th century, Paris was taken by the Burgundians, the French allies of the English during the Hundred Years' War. The heir of the crown Charles established his new capital in Bourges. In 1429, Jeanne d'Arc, a young french farmer who was an ally of the French Assassins, led the French Army against the English, wielding De Molay's Sword of Eden and the heart. She besieged Paris with her troops but she was wounded by a crossbow bolt during the battle and the siege was removed.[20]

After the end of the Hundred Years' War, the kings of France returned to Paris.

Renaissance[]

In 1485, the abbot of Cluny and bishop Jacques d'Amboise renovated the Hôtel de Cluny which became a luxurious guest house. Between 1475 and 1507, the Archbishop of Sens built his own hôtel particulier near the bank of the Seine.[2]

PL DestructiveCriticism

Paris during the Renaissance

During the Renaissance, France was ruled by King Louis XII, though he left the kingdom under the charge of his courtiers, who were secretly allied with the Templars. A group of Italian Assassins, sent by their MentorEzio Auditore da Firenze, traveled to Paris to battle that Templar influence. They protected the scholar and Mentor Desiderius Erasmus against Templar agents and revealed that one of their brothers was captured by the Templars. They interrogated the cardinal Georges d'Amboise, who gave them a list of ministers who worked with the Borgia, the leader of the Roman Rite of the Templar Order. The Assassins killed them and tried to save their brother in a manor near Paris. He was tortured and died from his injuries but in his last breath he revealed that he gave false information and that the Assassins must be wary about the Orsini.[21]

In 1527, the Italian Assassin Giovanni Borgia and the Hermetic practitioner Maria Amiel traveled to the Louvre to find the second half of "Book of Abraham". They only found a copy made by human hands. Afterward, they visited the Flamel tomb in Paris' Holy Innocents' Cemetery, but only found it devoid of bodies, or any sign of the Book.[19]

Under the reign of Francis I of France, Paris had a more Italian and Renaissance style. The Louvre and the Hôtel de Ville were renovated, the Saint-Jacques Tower and the Church of Saint-Eustache were constructed and a new bridge was built for the Hôtel-Dieu.[2]

ACUDB - The Red Ghost of the Tuileries

Portrait of Johannes Metzger

Francis' son, Henry II of France also renovated the Louvre but with his wife, Catherine de' Medici, they also built another palace in Les Halles with an astronomy tower known as the Medici Tower. The Queen of France was the patron of Nostradamus, a famous seer in Paris. During his life, Nostradamus discovered the robe of the Assassin Thomas de Carneillon and locked it under the Île Saint-Louis. He separated the seals and hid them through the city leaving mysterious indications on their localization. Nostradamus also predicted the death of the King, who was wounded by the shard of a spear in the eye after a jousting tournament in Paris in 1559. The King died some days later from his injuries and his widow became the Regent of France.[2]

As the Regent found the Louvre too big, too cold, and too crowded, she decided to build the new royal residence, the Tuileries Palace. Many people were expropriated from the site of construction. One of them, Johannes Metzger, a German butcher, refused to leave his house. For this, he was arrested and executed in 1561. Before his death, he swore that he would return to exact revenge on the future palace's occupants. Soon after his death, supernatural appearances and disturbances around the palace were attributed to Metzger's vengeful spirit, known throughout the palace as the Red Ghost.[2]

After the death of Henry II, the crown was taken successively by his three sons, which created a period of instability that was increased by the Wars of Religion between the Catholics and the Protestants in France. Even after the wedding between the Catholic Margaret of France, daughter of Henry II, and the Protestant King Henry III of Navarre, which reunited the protestant leaders in Paris for the ceremony, a series of events led to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre the 24th August 1572. The protestant leaders were killed and in the hysteria the population also. Henry III of Navarre succeeded to escape to the slaughter. In 1578 began the construction of a new bridge to connect the Île de la Cité with the two banks of the Seine. This bridge was known as the Pont Neuf (new bridge) but was also known as the Pont des pleurs (the bridge of tears) as the King Henry III of France inaugurated the construction after the funerals of two of his Mignons. In 1589, Henry III was stabbed by the Catholic fanatic Jacques Clément. On his deathbed, he designated his brother-in-law Henry III of Navarre as his heir.[2]

After a long siege of Paris, the now Henry IV of France decided to convert to Catholicism in 1593, supposedly stating that "Paris is well worth a mass". Converted in the city and ally with the first president of the Parliament of Paris, Achille de Harlay, this action stabilized the country, ending the War of Religions.[2]

Under his reign, Paris was embellished with new buildings. He connected the Louvre with the Palais des Tuileries. In 1601, he ordered the construction of the Place Dauphine behind the Palais de Justice and gave it to Achille de Harlay. In 1605 began the construction of Place Royale on the very field where Henry II was mortally wounded. The Place served as a square with 36 pavilions. The same year, Margaret of France, the ex-wife of the King installed herself in the Hôtel de Sens. In 1606, her young lover Gabriel Dat de Saint-Julien was assassinated before the gate of the hôtel by the Comte de Vermont, a jealous suitor and former lover of hers. On the 14th May 1610, Henry IV was assassinated in Paris on his carriage by the Catholic fanatic François Ravaillac.[2]

Bourbon era[]

After the death of Henry IV, his eight-year-old son became Louis XIII of France. His mother, Marie de' Medici, became the Regent of France during his minority. She ordered the creation of an equestrian statue of her dead husband and began the construction of the Pont Marie. In 1612, she purchased the domain of the Duke of Piney-Luxembourg in Paris and the architect Salomon de Brosse constructed for her the Luxembourg Palace with gardens. In 1622, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal of Richelieu became the principal of the Sorbonne and as the buildings were falling in ruins, in 1629 he began the renovation of the University. In exchange for his expenses, he received the promise to be buried in the University's Chapel. Richelieu also ordered the construction of the Palais-Cardinal as his residence. From 1624 to his death, Richelieu was chosen by Louis XIII as his chief minister, centralizing the French state and strengthening its power. The Bastille began to be used as a prison under Louis XIII. As Richelieu died in 1642, he was buried in the Sorbonne and his Palace was given to the royal family becoming the Palais-Royal.[2]

Louis-xiv-lebrun

Louis XIV, the Sun King

Louis XIV of France began his reign when he was 5 years old, so the power was given to his mother, the Regent Anne of Austria, and his chief minister, the Cardinal Jules Mazarin. At his death, Mazarin left 2 million livres to construct the College of the Four Nations which served as a university for Paris. Science flourished in the city, in 1648 the Tour Saint-Jacques was used by Blaise Pascale for his experiments and in 1667 began the construction of the Paris Observatory. In 1671 began the construction of Les Invalides, a hospital for war veterans. During the 17th century, Le Marais became a fashionable district as the aristocrats began to construct their hôtels-particuliers, like the chancellor Fieubet in 1676 and his Hôtel Fieubet. At the beginning of the reign, a revolt known as the Fronde occurred in Paris, deciding the King to leave the city and installing the royal family in Versailles in 1682 where he constructed a palace from the hunting lodge of his father. The Bastille also became a political prison for turbulent aristocrats. In 1686, the Sicilian chef Procopio Cutò opened the Café Procope which will become one of the most famous cafés of the city. Louis XIV ordered the construction of the Place Vendôme to create a monument to his glory and embellish Paris with an equestrian statue of himself.[2]

At the beginning of the 18th century, Louis-Dominique Cartouche became famous as a highwayman, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor near Paris. In 1721, he was captured and sentenced to death. His lover Mireille, who was the leader of the French Assassins, saved Cartouche by faking his death on the breaking wheel. Later Cartouche became an Assassin, and his name as his diaries were passed on to two other Assassins during the 18th century.[2]

During the 18th century, construction continued in Paris. In 1744, Louis XV of France suffered from a serious illness. If he survived, he made the vow to construct a new church on the ruins of the Abbey of St Genevieve. In 1755 began the construction of the new church and was ended in 1790. In 1752, the first stone of the École Militaire was laid under the overseer of Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress. In 1750, the Luxembourg Palace became the first museum of Paris. In 1755 began the construction of the Halle aux Blés, which served as a grain storage building for the city.

Louise Françoise de Bourbon, a legitimized daughter of Louis XIV, ordered the construction of the Palais Bourbon which was purchased by Louis XV in 1756. The same year, Jean Henri Latude, who was imprisoned in the Bastille for organizing a false conspiracy against Madame de Pompadour, escaped from his prison with a make-shift rope ladder fashioned from twine and firewood. In 1759, the Café Théâtre opened in the Île de la Cité, becoming one of the premier coffee houses of Paris. The Assassins purchased and used it as their intelligence-gathering network.[2]

In 1770, a fireworks display near the Tuileries Palace was made for the celebration of the wedding of the dauphin Louis-Auguste and Marie Antoinette. An accident during the display provoked the death of 132 persons. Two years later, at the same place, was finished the Place Louis XV near the Jardins des Tuileries.[2]

Deconstructed 6

Shay witnessing Benjamin Franklin being chased by criminals

But Paris was also the center of the contestation of the King's power. Many philosophers of Enlightenment reunited in cafés, like the Procope or the Régence to discuss politics and philosophy. Among them Voltaire, Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This last witnessed the poverty of some districts, describing the district Saint-Marcel as "dirty, stinking little streets, wretched black houses, a general air of squalor and poverty, beggars, carters, menders of clothes, sellers of herb-drinks and old hats." In the Saint-Denis district, a counter society known as the Cour des Miracles united the beggars and the marginal people of the city. The Cour had his own chief known as the King of Beggars.[2]

The American philosopher Benjamin Franklin joined his French colleagues in the cafés discussions during his diplomatic mission in France for the United States during the American Revolution. In December 1776, Franklin was targeted by Parisian criminals but was saved by the former Assassin turned Templar Shay Cormac. Cormac searched for a way to join an Assassin reunion in the Versailles palace and recovered a Precursor box, so as Franklin was in debt with Cormac for saving his life, the diplomat authorized the Templar to follow him to the royal residence.[22]

In 1782, the police lieutenant Thiroux de Crosne removed 6 million deceased corpses from the overpopulated cemeteries of the city and relocated them in the quarries under Paris. The quarries will become the Catacombs of Paris. In 1783, the first hot-air balloon flight was experimented on in Paris. From the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI and 1789, 16 new theatres opened in the Boulevard des théâtres.[2]

French Revolution[]

During the 1780s, France's involvement in the American Revolutionary War and the extravagant lifestyle of the royal family left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. In 1784 began the construction of the Wall of the Farmers-General around Paris, collecting toll from the imported goods in the city. During these years, Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, cousin of the King, was in debt. Residing in the Palais-Royal, he installed 60 shops under its arcades to pay his debt. Gambling dens, theatres, cafés, and prostitution also emerged in the Palais and it became the nerve of the intellectual contestation of power.[2]

Around 1774, the Sage and silversmith François-Thomas Germain, who was also a member of the Parisian Rite of the Templar Order, received visions of his precedent lives. Following them, he entered in the vault of Jacques de Molay and found the Codex Pater Intellectus. Understanding he was somewhat linked to De Molay, Germain tried to reform the order, by returning in the shadow and removing the French King from the throne. The Grand Master François de la Serre expelled Germain, judging his ideas as heretics. Germain allied with some members of the rite who agreed with his plan and took their quarters in the Temple of Paris. One of his followers, Charles Gabriel Sivert, was inducted in their faction the Roi des Thunes, who tried to serve De la Serre but was roughly ignored by the Grand Master. The two Germain's followers assassinated the Grand Master in the Palace of Versailles during the opening of the Estates-General of 1789. Becoming the new Grand Master, Germain searched to manipulate the French Revolution to suit the next part of his plan.[18]

On the 12th of July, after the dismissal of the finance minister Jacques Necker and rumors of an attack on Paris by the King's Army, the journalist Camille Desmoulins start an uprising at the Palais-Royal. Two days later, the Sans-culottes, with the help of a part of the Army, stormed the Bastille to seize the gunpowder. In the mob was Élise de la Serre, François' daughter, who tried to save her adoptive brother, Arno Dorian, who was wrongly imprisoned in the Bastille for the Grand Master's murder. During the attack of the fortress, Arno escaped with the Master Assassin Pierre Bellec, who was the mentor of Arno's biological father, Charles Dorian. The two men escaped from the Bastille with a Leap of Faith before the angry mob took control of the fortress and killed his governor Bernard-René de Launay.[18]

During July, the new finance minister, Joseph Foullon de Doué, hoarded foodstuffs and sold them at an exorbitant rate in Paris. The Assassin Brotherhood intervened and opened its warehouses for the population. Doué's henchmen tried to move the food but were stopped by the Assassins. On 22 July, Doué was captured by an angry mob who hanged him to a lantern in Place des Grèves and later beheaded him. During these events, the Sans-Culottes organized the city as the Paris Commune with Jean Sylvain Bailly as his mayor.[18]

Women's March 6

Women's March in Paris

Even after the National Assembly abolished the privileges of Nobility and Church in France, many people were starving in Paris. On 5 October 1789, Théroigne de Méricourt led a march with the women of Les Halles to enter in the Palace of Versailles. The Templars who followed Germain tried to make the march more violent and target Méricourt. The Assassins protected her and sabotaged the cannons used against the mob. After the crowd entered the Palace of Versailles, the royal family returned to Paris, residing in the Palais des Tuileries. The National Assembly was installed in the Salle du Manège near the Tuileries.[18] During the night of the 5th October, Germain made assassinated the last Templars loyal to the de la Serre in Paris. During the fight, Élise was forced to jump in the Seine to survive.[23]

After the event of 1789, the Assembly National voted for the demolition of the Bastille and used its stoned to construct the Pont de la Révolution between the Palais Bourbon and the Tuileries Gardens. Many political clubs were established in Paris to inform the population, as the Templar-affiliate Jacobins, who took place in the convent of Jacobins. A year after the Storming of the Bastille, the Fête de la Fédération was organized on Le Champs de Mars to reinforce the unity of the King with the National Assembly and the people, with 300, 000 persons attended the celebrations.[2]

In 1791, the Café Théâtre fell into near-ruin. Its manager, the Assassin Charlotte Gouze chose Arno Dorian, who became an Assassin, as the new steward of the Café. While renovating the building, Arno fought Les Actes des Apôtres, a royalist faction that targeted the café. The Assassin also bought other cafés in the city to serve as intelligence gathering for the Brotherhood. After obtaining one of them, Arno accomplished contracts on thugs and Templars who controlled the boroughs of Paris. At the same time, under the suggestion of Eugène François Vidocq, Arno investigated different murders through the city to arrest the culprits.[18]

The Kingdom of Beggars 5

The Cour des Miracles

After de la Serre's death, the Templars had taken control of Paris, organizing the smuggling of precious artifacts. Sivert also racketed nobles and clergymen, offering his protection against the revolutionaries. The Assassin Council tasked Arno to assassinate Sivert in Nôtre-Dame and investigated the murder of de la Serre. After killing the Templar, the Assassin had the identity of the other de la Serre's murder, the Roi des Thunes. Arno infiltrated the Cour des Miracles and killed him. In his memories, Arno discovered that the two murders worked for a new Grand Master. With the help of the Marquis de Sade, who became the new King of Beggars, Arno found out that the weapon used to kill his adoptive father was created by Germain. Arno went into the silversmith's shop to interrogate him. Seeing that Arno didn't know he was a Templar, Germain manipulated Arno and told him that it was Chrétien Lafrenière who asked him to forge the weapon and that he prepared an attack. The Assassin followed this lead and destroyed the gunpowder stock of Lafrenière in the Halle aux Blés. At the night, Arno killed Lafrenière in the old Holy Innocents' Cemetery, during a reunion with Templars who were loyal to de la Serre. Arno understood his mistake after seeing that Lafrenière tried to save the Grand Master.[18]

After the death of Lafrenière, Germain and his followers organized their plan to starve the population of Paris and overthrow the King. They also planned to kill Élise de la Serre. Arno, who eavesdropped on the meeting, saved Élise from the radical Templars. The two step-siblings decided to investigate together de la Serre's death with the help of the Brotherhood. Élise revealed to Arno that Germain was a Templar and they found proof that he was the mastermind of the plot. While Arno wanted to inform the Mentor Mirabeau about that, Pierre Bellec killed the Mentor to impeach the peace between the Templars and the Assassins. After discovering that, Arno was forced to fight Bellec in the Sainte-Chapelle and finish him after wounding his mentor. With two of their members dead, the Council refused to ally with Élise and Arno was forbidden to investigate the murder of de la Serre.[18] Mirabeau was buried in the church St Genevieve, which became the Panthéon, a secular mausoleum for the great men and women of the nation.[2]

Fall of Monarchy[]

In June 1791, the Royal family tried to flee Paris to Varennes to begin a counter-revolution, but they were recognized in the tavern and were forced to return to the city. This act angered the population and a manifestation against the King occurred in the Tuileries which were repressed by the Marquis de la Fayette.[2] In 1792, as France entered in war against the Austrian Empire, the Parisian population was suspicious about the real intention of the King. Furthermore, the city was starving because of the actions of Marie Lévesque and Madame Flavigny, two Templars working for Germain. Théroigne de Méricourt investigated the food hoarding and with the help of the Assassins stopped a part of before the members of the Brotherhood assassinated Flavigny.[18] In June, the Sans-Culottes broke in the Palace of Tuileries and forced the King to wear a Phrygian cap and to toast the nation with a glass of wine.[2]

The King's Correspondence 4

Tuileries under attack

The 9 August, the Commune of Paris led by the Jacobins took the arms against the King, and the 10 August, stormed the Tuileries Palace. The King fled the palace while the Swiss Guards fought the crowd. As the King had letters from the late Mentor Mirabeau, the Council sent Arno in the Palace to destroy the documents before they fell in the wrong hands. During his searching in the palace, Arno encountered Napoleon Bonaparte, a soldier who looking for a key which can open an Isu Temple in Saint-Denis possessed by the King. The two accomplished their task before fleeing the palace as Frédéric Rouille, one of Germain's followers, arrived to recover document which proved the alliance between the King and the Austrians.[18] As the King arrived in the Salle du Manège, the Constitutional Assembly declared the monarchy illegal and the royal family was arrested and sent to the Temple of Paris.[2]

With no king, the Constitutional Assembly became the National Convention with a strong influence of the Commune of Paris. An Austrian spy ring led by the Comte de Gambais and Vicomte de Gambais tried to prepare an invasion of Paris by the Austrian forces. The 2 September, the Minister of Justice Georges Danton delivered a speech before the Convention, calling for "more audacity" in the face of overwhelming odds against Austria. After the speech, Danton lured one of the spies into the trap but the spy tried to kill Danton. Two Assassins saved Danton and killed the two leaders of the spy ring. With a treat of a royalist uprising in Paris, political leaders as Jean-Paul Marat called the population to slaughter royalist-affiliated and the prisoners in the city. The September Massacres began in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and spread through Paris, as in the Salpêtrière Hospital or the Château de la Tournelle. Frédéric Rouille led the attack on the Grand Châtelet, killing and decapitating the warden's brother. Arno infiltrated the prison and assassinated Rouille without the permission of the Council. Thousand of persons were killed in Paris during the massacre. Some weeks later, the Crown Jewels were stolen by a thief and smuggled through the city.[18]

Under the Republic, many monuments in Paris had their names changed to erase the royal legacy of France. The Place Royale became the Place des Vosges, the Place Louis XV became Place de la Révolution and the Palais-Royale became the Palais-Égalité. During October, Marie Lévesque continued to hoard the grain entering the city and stored it under the Luxembourg Palace to accuse the royal family of starving the population. Arno and Élise worked together to ruin her plan. During the party in the Luxembourg Palace, while Élise tried to move the grain, Arno assassinated Lévesque before her guests. The two flew the guards on the rooftops of the city with a hot-air balloon.[18]

ACU The Execution 3

Execution of Louis XVI

The 11 December began the trial of the King, judged by the National Convention. With the proof obtained by Rouille, the Templars had no difficulties showing Louis as an enemy of the Revolution. On 15 January 1793, the King was declared guilty of conspiracy against public freedom and five days later was sentenced to death thanks to the Templar Louis-Michel le Peletier who cast the decisive vote. After the vote, a party was organized in the Palais-Égalité to celebrate the execution of the King, with Le Peletier as one of the guests. Arno infiltrated the palace and killed the Templar. In his memories, Arno discovered that Germain would be at the execution. [18]

On the morning of 21st January, the place of the Revolution was arranged with a scaffold and a guillotine, with Charles-Henri Sanson overseeing the execution. The population amassed in the place to see the death of the King. Arno and Élise separate to search Germain in the crowd. The Assassin found first Germain who explained to Arno that his plan was succeeded and after the King's death, a New Order will come. As the blade fell on the neck of the King and the crowd exulted, Germain flew the place after ordering his guards to kill Arno. Élise helped Arno and ordered him to follow Germain but he refused to let her alone. As their target escaped, Élise decided to stop working with Arno to avenge their father's death. The Assassin was also expelled from the Brotherhood for killing Templars without the permission of the Council and creating disorder during the King's execution. Louis XVI was buried in the Church of the Madeleine.[18]

With the death of the King, Paris prepared itself for the attack of the European nations. Many churches were transformed into gunpowder stores. The Louvre was transformed into a museum and the Assassins stole masterpieces that were kept by nobles in the Luxembourg Palace. In the National Convention, the rivalry increased between the Montagnards, who wanted to stop the war, and the Girondins, who wanted to continue the war but were more moderate on the Revolution. On 2 June 1793, the leader of the Montagnards Maximilien de Robespierre, who was a Templar working for Germain, ordered the Commander General of the Paris National Guard François Hanriot to arrest the Girondins with the help of the Commune of Paris. The Assassins saved some of them before they were arrested and helped them to flee the city.

As Jean-Paul Marat called for the murder of Girondins, Charlotte Corday, a sympathizer of the Girondins, assassinated him in his bath on 13 July. Arno Dorian investigated the murder and arrested Corday who was executed four days later. Marat became a martyr of the Republic and was buried in the Panthéon.[18]

During the same month, the Templar General Marcourt plotted with other Templars a Coup d'État against the Convention to accelerate the Revolution in France. They organized a tournament in Paris to recruit soldiers for the coup. One of the conspirators was Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, an ally of the Brotherhood. He tasked a group of Assassins to infiltrate the tournament, winning the challenges and killing Marcourt and his allies in the Invalides.[18]

Reign of Terror[]

In September, Robespierre and the Templars increased their control of France with the Reign of Terror. The Law of suspects permitted to arrest and judge anyone who was accused to be a counter-revolutionary. During this month, the Templars arrested Jacques Roux, the leader of the Enragés, a radical revolutionary movement that advocated for food riots and more executions. They wanted to use him in the case of Robespierre's fall. Many executions occurred in the city. As the prisons of Paris were full of suspects, like the Conciergerie or the Grand Châtelet, many monuments were turned in prison, as the Palace du Luxembourg or the Collège des Quatre Nations. The Revolutionary Tribunal was installed in the Palais de Justice of Paris and condemned to death many important persons as Jacques Pierre Brissot, Marie-Jeanne Phlippon Roland, Olympe de Gouges and Philippe Egalité. Most of the executions took place in the Place des Grèves or Place de la Révolution. Even the Mayor of Paris Bailly was executed by a mob in the Champs de Mars.[2] In November, the Queen was executed after the Gendarme Jean Gilbert foiled a plan of the Brotherhood to save her. The Assassins killed Gilbert for retribution.[18]

Danton's Sacrifice 1

Danton and the Indulgents led to the Guillotine

As the Templars increased their influence in the city, the Assassins stroke back. One of Robespierre's spies, Didier Paton, discovered that the French government was infiltrated by the Templars and made a list of them, without knowing his master was one of them. He was condemned to death. The Assassins took his book and saved Paton who became a member of the Brotherhood. In February 1794, the Templars wanted to release Roux to increase the Terror. A team of Assassins failed to kill Roux in the Salpêtrière Hospital. A second team saved the first one and managed to eliminate the leader of the Enragés. Later, one of Jacques Roux's lieutenant tried to create a riot in the Hôtel de Cluny. The Assassins killed him, ending the Enragés threat on Paris.[18]

In March, Robespierre made arrested the Exagérés, led by Jacques Hébert, who wanted to further the Terror, and the Indulgents, led by Danton et Desmoulins, who wanted to stop the Terror. The Exagérés were executed and on the 4th of April, the Indulgents were led to the guillotine. The Assassins tried to save Danton but he accepted to sacrifice himself and asked them to save his friends who weren't arrested. The Assassins accomplished the mission. The same day, the Assassin killed Andrés de Guzmán, who participated in the fall of Girondists. In May, the Templars revealed that Mirabeau had a correspondence with the King and wanted to expose his ties with the Assassins by opening his vault in the Panthéon. Two Assassins took the relics of the Mentor before the Templars could recover them.[18]

On 8 June, Robespierre organized the festival of Supreme Being in the Champs de Mars. Arno and Élise resumed their partnership to stop Germain and his followers. Élise poisoned Robespierre's beverage with ergot to make him look like a mad man and Arno stole a list of members written by the Templar and delivered it to the enemies of Robespierre. Believing that Robespierre wanted to execute them, the Convention arrested him on the 27th of July. The Commune of Paris rose against the Convention and saved Robespierre who took refuge in the Hôtel de Ville. Arno and Élise infiltrated the building and interrogated the Templar. After Élise shot in the jaw, Robespierre wrote that Germain was hiding in the Temple. The troops of the Convention captured Robespierre and his followers as Louis Antoine de Saint-Just and Hanriot and were executed on the place de la Revolution. At the same time, Théroigne de Méricourt led an attack on the Jacobin convent where Templars prepared their flee. A team of Assassins helped Méricourt to enter the convent and killed the Jacobin leaders. Arno and Élise confronted Germain in Jacques de Molay's vault under the Temple. The Sage used against them the Sword of Eden hidden by Jacques de Molay's advisor. During the fight, a blast from the sword killed Élise and wounded Germain. Arno finished the Sage but even with his death, Germain claimed that in a plan to control the population would succeed.[18]

Change of regime[]

ACU

Napoleon during the 13 Vendémaire

With the end of Terror, the royalists returned in Paris to prepare a coup against the Republic. Arno, who was reintroduced in the Brotherhood, helped the French Army to foil some of the royalist plots. The 5 October 1795, twenty-five thousand royalists organized an uprising against the Convention. Before the Saint-Roch, with five thousand troops, Napoleon Bonaparte fired on the mob with grapeshot, taking the victory on the royalists. François-Joseph Carbon, one of the royalists, took a shot in the face but survived and decided to prepare his revenge against Napoleon. The event was known as the 13 Vendémiaire.[18]

Under the Directory, the new Legislative body, the Council of Five Hundred, was installed in the Palais Bourbon. The Templars tried to infiltrate the Council to restore the Terror. Arno killed the Templars before they could be elected. After his campaign in Egypt, Napoleon returned to Paris with a Apple of Eden, an Isu artifact that could control the minds of individuals. The 9 November 1799, with his troops and the Apple, Napoleon organized a Coup d’État in the Tuileries against the Council of the Ancient which recognized as the First Consul of France and promulgated the Consulate, ending the French Revolution.[18]

Taking the power, Napoleon became a target for the royalists in Paris. François-Joseph Carbon, who wanted to take his revenge for the 13 Vendémaire and organized the assassination of the First Consul. The 24 December 1800, they placed in the rue Saint-Nicaise an explosive device, the Infernal Machine, which would kill Bonaparte on his way for the opera. The Assassins, learning about the plot, killed the snipers before they could shoot on the Machine but one of them succeeded, killing 22 persons in the street without hurting Napoleon. While the Gendarmes investigated the explosion, the Assassins tracked Carbon and his men and killed them.[18]

In 1801, Bonaparte offered the Luxembourg Palace to the French Senate. In 1804, the First Consul became the Emperor of France and was sacred in Nôtre-Dame as Napoleon I. In 1808, Napoleon ordered the destruction of the Grand Châtelet and the Temple. During the destruction of the last one, Arno entered in de Molay vault and recovered the remains of Germain and hid them in the catacombs.[18]

After the fall of the Empire in 1815, the monarchy was restored but a revolution in 1830 expelled the Bourbon from France, establishing the Orleans on the throne of France. In 1840, Napoleon I's remains were installed in the Invalides. In 1848, another revolution ended forever the Kingdom of France and installed a Second Republic which became an empire with Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon I.[2]

By 1854, the Parisian Brotherhood founded one of many bases underneath one of Paris' train station, the Gare de l'Est. There, the base was a home to a group of Assasssins, Amira Benyamina, Michel Moulin, and Henri Escoffier.[24] Unknown to most, Oscar Kane, known as the "Magus," came under the pretense to search for an Eye with the Assassins but came to supply and oversee the transaction of his casings to Italian revolutionary Felice Orsini.[25][26]

On 14 January 1858, Orsini planned and attacked Napoleon III and his wife at the theater opera de le Peletier with bombs manufactured by the Magus. Luckily, out of the twelve bombs created, only three were used and one was taken, due to the intervention of the Assassin Simeon Price and Aurora Equestrian Troupe's acrobat Pierrette Arnaud.[27] As a result, this led to tensions between England and France and resulted in harsher government laws in England.[28]

In 1866, the architect Victor Baltard completed his massive glass and iron market pavilions in Les Halles. His construction served as a model for the other cities in Europe.[2]

Franco-Prussian War[]

Main article: Franco-Prussian War

In the summer of 1870, the Second French Empire waged the war against Prussia.[29] Within months, Napoleon III abdicated and his empire fell.[30] However, the Parisians enacted the Government of National Defense to combat the Prussians and the French Brotherhood began to aid the people's needs for medical aid and rations.[31] Despite the Assassins' stance against the Prussians, their forces were overwhelmed.[32] In early 1871, the Government of National Defense signed an armistice and disbanded after declaring Prussians victorious.[33][2]

However, the Parisians opposed the new Third French Republic and convened themselves a new Paris Commune in retaliation to the French government. Despite the Communards' efforts, the commune was short-lived and defeated, which led to the Third French Republic as the official successor.[33]

Belle Epoque[]

Fin de Siecle 10

Paris during the Belle Epoque era

In the latter part of the century, in the Belle Epoque era, Paris became famous as the City of Light and grew in size and economic power thanks to technological advances. Millions of tourists came to Paris to see the 1889 World's Fair and the new Eiffel Tower[34] and the Gallery of Machines. However, days before the unveiling, the French Assassins, along with the British Assassins Simeon Price and Pierrette Arnaud, found out about a possible Templar plan involving Austrian Templar Countess Konstanze von Visler's plan to use the Engine of History.[35]

From their work, they all discovered that the Eiffel Tower was the main location and planned to bomb it to stop von Visler's plan and her engine.[35] However, Arnaud learned that the Engine was not a device, but a method to calculate predictions of Assassin's planning, and how she planned to frame the Assassins as terrorists. Although being injured by the countess, she enlisted her ward Spider Wallin to tell the Assassins of Konstanze's true plans.[36] Fortunately, Wallin reached Simeon and the Assassins, stopped their own explosion, and thus von Visler's plan. Consequently, Konstanze also died from an injury during an altercation between her and Simeon atop the tower.[37]

Paris became the cultural capital of the world but anarchist groups organized terrorist attacks in the cafés and cabarets of the city. In 1898 began the construction of the Paris Metro which was finished in 1900.[34]

Sometime towards the end of the 19th century, the Hermeticist Samuel Liddell Mathers, accompanied by the disembodied being of William Robert Woodman, met one of the Secret Chiefs in Paris. The Chief, who wore a ring marked with the Templar insignia, informed Mathers that his Order's partnership with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn had ended.[38]

20th century[]

ACU WW2 Occupied Paris Kommandatur Nacho Yague

Paris during World War II

In the 20th century, Paris suffered bombardment in World War I and German occupation from 1940 until 1944 during World War II. Between the two wars, Paris was the capital of modern art and a magnet for intellectuals, writers and artists from around the world. During the Nazi occupation, the Eiffel Tower became a symbolic battleground. The leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, ordered its destruction but it was never done and Nazi banners were put on the tower. In 1944, the US fighter pilot Captain William Overstreet attacked a German plane over Paris. The German pilot tried to flee by flying close to the Eiffel Tower but he crashed his plane. Few months later, Paris was liberated with the rest of France after the Normandy landings, ending the Nazi occupation.[2]

In the 1970s, Baltard's Les Halles was pulled down and replaced by a concrete jungle where a glass canopy was installed in the 2010s.[2]

Modern era[]

In November 2013, the Templars acquired the corpse of John Standish, a Sage who worked in Abstergo Entertainment before being killed after he tried to use the body of an employee as a physical vessel for his lover, the Isu Juno. Using his genetic material, Abstergo Industries maintained a secret laboratory in Paris led by the Templar Álvaro Gramática for the Phoenix Project: cloning members of the Isu Civilization to understand and control the pieces of Eden. As the Templars searched for other Sages, Abstergo Entertainment explored the memories of Arno Dorian to discover the remains of Germain.[18] At the end of the year 2014, the Templar initiate known as the Journeyman was sent to Paris to explore the Sainte-Chapelle to find secrets on the location of the Sage.[39]

In October 2014, a team of Assassins led by Gavin Banks entered the laboratory and destroyed the genetic material and the research of Abstergo.[18] During the attack, the Assassin Galina Voronina destroyed the original Shroud of Eden by launching a grenade on Gramática, who survived thank the Shroud.[40] In November, Eric Cooper set up an Assassin headquarters in Paris to help infiltrate a data hub for the Helix, Abstergo Entertainment's upcoming cloud-based game service.[41]

Districts[]

During the French Revolution, Paris was divided in seven districts.

Île de la Cité[]

Main article: Île de la Cité

Situated at the center of the city, the Île de la Cité is one of the oldest districts of Paris with medieval architecture. Surrounded by the Seine River, the district is composed of two islands: the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis. Its most notable landmarks are the Palais de Justice and the Notre-Dame cathedral. It was also the district were the Assassin Brotherhood established their headquarters, under the Café Théâtre in the Île Saint-Louis.[18]

La Bièvre[]

Main article: La Bièvre

Named after the Bièvre river that ran through it, the district is known for the multitude of tanneries and workshops. The area is also known for its extreme poverty. Its most notable landmarks are the Panthéon and the Salpêtrière Hospital.[18]

Le Louvre[]

Main article: Le Louvre

During the French Revolution, the Louvre district became the political center of France with the royal residence of the Tuileries Palace and the Louvre, the Salle du Manège where the National Assembly met and the Palais-Royal where politicians and intellectuals discussed of the news in France. The Louvre district is also famous for the Gardens of Tuileries and the Place de la Révolution where many important figures as Louis XVI and Robespierre were guillotined.[18]

Le Marais[]

Main article: Le Marais

One of the richest district of Paris, Le Marais counting many hôtel particuliers from the French nobility. The Hôtel de Ville is the center of the political power of the city. Contrasting with its french classical architecture, two medieval fortresses of the Temple and the Bastille were still standing in the late 18th century, before been destroyed during the French Revolution.[18]

Le Quartier Latin[]

Main article: Le Quartier Latin

The Latin district, or Le Quartier Latin in French, is the intellectual and scientific center of Paris with the College of the Four Nations, the Sorbonne, the Observatory and the Café Procope. The district is also famous for the Luxembourg Palace and its gardens.[18]

Les Invalides[]

Main article: Les Invalides (district)

The most rural part of the city, Les Invalides district comprised military buildings as the École Militaire and the Invalides hospital and the troops used Le Champ de Mars for military exercises. Les Invalides is also the home of the Palais Bourbon where the Five-Hundred Council meet.[18]

Ventre de Paris[]

Main article: Ventre de Paris

Known as the belly of Paris, this popular district is comprised of many markets like les Halles with the Halle aux Blés. At the north of the district, the Cour des Miracles gathers the poor, beggars and prostitutes under the control of the Roi des Thunes.[18]

Behind the scenes[]

Paris' underground space in Assassin's Creed: Unity is anachronistic. The first vaulted sewers were built as late as Napoleon I's reign. The game's sewers are based on the 19th-century sewers from large rebuilding works under Napoleon III and Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The remains from Parisian cemeteries were transferred to catacombs set up in former mines in the 1780s and have been neatly stacked since 1810.

The green-framed, blue-enameled plaques which denote the street names in Paris and Versailles were not placed at corners before 1847.[42] Also, some street names are fictional, as the city ground plan is not historically perfect and streets are significantly wider to allow for easier movement which is already made more difficult by the density of NPCs.

Paris is one of three cities that were completely modeled twice for different periods in the series, with the other two being New York City and London. Paris was first rendered for Unity set in the 1790s and then was redone in 2021 for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla's downloadable expansion The Siege of Paris set in 885–886 CE during the Viking siege.

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. Assassin's Creed: Atlas
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 2.30 2.31 2.32 2.33 2.34 2.35 2.36 2.37 2.38 Assassin's Creed: Unity [citation needed]
  3. Wikipedia-W-visual-balanced Paris on Wikipedia
  4. Assassin's Creed: ValhallaThe Siege of Paris
  5. Assassin's Creed: Unity – Dead KingsDatabase: Franciade
  6. Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Blood BrothersChapter 2
  7. Wikipedia-W-visual-balanced Siege of Paris (845) on Wikipedia
  8. Assassin's Creed: ValhallaThe Siege of ParisWarlord of Melun
  9. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisThe Rot in the Slums
  10. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisMajesty in the Dark
  11. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisThe Rot in the Slums
  12. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisHonor and Enemies
  13. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisA Hidden Weakness
  14. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisFire From Heaven
  15. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisDark Before Dawn
  16. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisThe Siege of Paris
  17. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla — The Siege of ParisThe Count of Paris
  18. 18.00 18.01 18.02 18.03 18.04 18.05 18.06 18.07 18.08 18.09 18.10 18.11 18.12 18.13 18.14 18.15 18.16 18.17 18.18 18.19 18.20 18.21 18.22 18.23 18.24 18.25 18.26 18.27 18.28 18.29 18.30 18.31 18.32 18.33 Assassin's Creed: Unity
  19. 19.0 19.1 Assassin's Creed: Project LegacyDivine Science: Chapter 1 - Maria Amiel
  20. Assassin's Creed: Heresy
  21. Assassin's Creed: Project LegacyContracts
  22. Assassin's Creed: Rogue
  23. Assassin's Creed: Unity (novel)
  24. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy – Chapter 13
  25. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy – Chapter 17
  26. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy – Chapter 19
  27. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy – Chapter 15
  28. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy – Chapter 18
  29. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 12
  30. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 14
  31. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 15
  32. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 16
  33. 33.0 33.1 Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 20
  34. 34.0 34.1 Assassin's Creed: UnityDatabase: 19. Belle Époque
  35. 35.0 35.1 Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 28
  36. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 31
  37. Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 32
  38. Assassin's Creed: Project LegacyDivine Science: Chapter 4 - Frater V.O.V.
  39. Assassin's Creed Unity: Abstergo Entertainment – Employee Handbook
  40. Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
  41. Twitter AC Initiates (@acinitiates) on Twitter "pic.twitter.com/OeBverSwn2"
  42. Pierre (30 January 2021). What about the iconic Street-Name Plaques of Paris?. French Moments. Retrieved on 9 December 2023.

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