Nemours

Nemours is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.

Geography

Nemours is located on the Loing and its canal, c. 42 km (26 mi) south of Melun, on the Paris-Lyon railway.

History

Nemours is supposed to derive its name from the woods (nemora) in the midst of which it formerly stood, and discoveries of Gallo-Roman remains indicate its early origin.

The Knight Gauthier III, was the son of Philippe II de Villebéon, Lord of Nemours, Grand Chamberman of France, and Marguerite d'Achères, and inherited the Lordship of Nemours when the father dies in 1257. The brother of Gauthier III was Jean de Nemours, Lord of Nanteau-sur-Lunain, know also with the name Jean de Nanteau o Jean de Nanteuil (lat. Johannes de Nantolio).

It was captured by the English in 1420, but derives its historical importance rather from the lordship (afterwards duchy) to which it gave its name. In 1585 a treaty revoking previous concessions to the Protestants was concluded at Nemours between Catherine de' Medici and the Guises.

Religious war

A religious war or holy war (Latin: bellum sacrum) is a war primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. The account of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites in the Book of Joshua, the Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, and the Christian Crusades (11th to 13th centuries) and Wars of Religion (16th and 17th centuries) are the classic examples but a religious aspect has been part of warfare as early as the battles of the Mesopotamian city-states.

In the modern era, arguments are common over the extent to which religious, economic, or ethnic aspects of a conflict predominate: examples include the Yugoslav Wars and the civil war in Sudan. In several ongoing conflicts including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Syrian civil war, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, religious arguments are overtly present but variously described as fundamentalism or religious extremism depending upon the observer's sympathies.

Criteria for classification

The European war against Muslim expansion was recognized as a "religious war" or bellum sacrum from the beginning. The early modern wars against the Ottoman Empire were seen as a seamless continuation of this conflict by contemporaries. The term "religious war" was used to describe, controversially at the time, what are now known as the European wars of religion, and especially the then-ongoing Seven Years' War, from at least the mid 18th century.