Lisieux

Lisieux (ancient Noviomagus Lexoviorum), a town in the French department of Calvados, 30 miles by rail E. by S. of Caen. In the church of St Pierre (1045-1233; a cathedral down to 1801), Henry II. of England married (1152) Eleanor of Guienne. Lisieux is the centre of an extensive manufacture of coarse linens (cretonnes, from the original maker), woollens, flannels, cottons, &c. Pop. (1872) 12,520; (1891) 16,260. Four miles distant is Val Richer, where stood the abbey of which Thomas Becket was first abbot, and the ruins of which were made into a summer residence for Guizot.