‘Le Comté d’Artois et des environs’, showing ‘Pais Reconquis’ (the Pale of Calais) by Visscher (c1680 map). N France & W Belgium.

We've recently added this fabulous 1680 map of the county of Artois by Visscher covers part of Picardy, Nord-Pas de Calais & Flanders within northern France and western Belgium. The age of the map is highlighted by the area around Calais being named as “Pais Reconquis”, the name given to it after the Pale of Calais was reconquered from the English in 1558. Calais fell to England after the Battle of Crecy in 1346, and was the last piece of France to be reconquered by the French king after the Hundred Years War, in part because it was so close to England and hence could be easily resupplied.

The area covered by the map stretches from Mons in the East to Ghent in the North, and Dieppe and Abbeville in the southwest. Many towns are marked including Calais, Lille, Boulogne, Dunkirk, Cambrai, Tournai & Douai.