Auvillars () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France.
The inhabitants of the commune are known as Auvillargeois or Auvillargeoises.
Geography
Auvillars is located some 14 km north-west of Lisieux and 17 km south-east of Cabourg. Access to the commune is by the D16 road from Léaupartie in the south-west which passes through the centre of the commune and the village and continues to Bonnebosq in the north-east. The D101 passes through the east of the commune as it goes from Cambremer to Pont-l'Évêque. The D59 which connects Bonnebosq to La Boissière passes south through the commune. The commune is entirely farmland except for a few scattered forests.
The Dorette river passes through the centre of the commune from north-east to south-west and it continues south-west to join the Dives at Le Radier. The Mont Dorain rises in the north of the commune and flows south to join the Dorette. The Ruisseau Sainte-Agathe flows from the east to join the Dorette near the village.
History
In his Monumental Statistics of Calvados (1862), Arcisse de Caumont described the history of Auvillars as follows:
"As always, Auvillars had the first lords of the members of a family whose name was that of the commune itself. This family became extinct in the person of Jeanne d'Auvillars, daughter and heiress of Guillaume, lord and chatelain of Auvillars, Saint Aubin de Salona, and Barneville who married Robert de Tournebu, Baron de la Motte-Cesny, Grimbosc, etc. at the beginning of the 14th century.
Mr Floquet told of a curious trial that argued that Robert de Tournebu, lord of Auvillars, maltreated a cleric of the priory of Beaumont-en-Auge in the year 1342. He was sentenced to a fine of 400 livres, a huge sum for that time (see History of the Parliament of Normandy). A century later Richard de Tournebu more usefully employed his vigour to support a heroic siege against the captains of the invader Henry V. His capitulation on 7 August 1417 was devised on condition that showed the Norman barons, despite the lack of organization where the invasion had landed, had not made a capable resistance that could be respected. The text of the capitulation was published in the volume entitled rotuli normanniae printed in London in 1835 on page 285 and by the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, Volume XV, page 263 of his memoirs.
Just as the castle was to be evacuated Henry hastened to donate it to the Earl of Salisbury, his cousin, to be sure of its conservation (25 September 1417).
At the time of death of Guillemette de Tournebu in 1485 Jean de Harcourt, his great-grandson, inherited and he added to his other titles that of lord and chatelain of Auvillars. In 1558, Auvillars was in the hands of a family named Salcede: Nicolas Salcede, the owner in 1582, was at that time involved in a conspiracy formed, it is said, by the Guises against the Duke of Alençon and King Henry III, his brother. He was tried by the Parliament of Paris, convicted of the crime of treason, and as such condemned to be quartered. This execution, the memory of which is still preserved in Auvillars, must have taken place around 1588. In 1600 Mme Charlotte Duquesnel d'Aussebost was Dowager of Auvillars. After her death in 1617 the lordship passed to a family named Miou. The head of this family was one of the principal officers of the Duke of Lorraine and his daughter, Louise Marie de Miou, married Pierre Dauvet of Tréguy.
The Dauvet family were nobility from Picardy who were allied to Breze, Montmorency, Saint-Simon, Bethune, Chabannes, etc.
Several of its members took to the sword. Benoit Dauvet and Louis-Nicolas Dauvet distinguished themselves in the battles of Louis XIV and Louis XV.
There is information on this house in the History of the great officers of the Crown by P Anselm. Its door was lined with gold and silver in 6 pieces: the first charged with a black lion passant in bend. A Marquisate crown; supported by two savages (see Waroquier, Vol. VII).
Thus one sees the arms on the funeral litre in the Chapel of Saint Jean d'Auvillars.
In 1700 Sir Peter Dauvet de Tréguy gave grassland to the poor of Auvillars which was located at Druval and Rumesnil. They still enjoy. The same lords from the Dauvet family founded a school for girls and from their private income. The children of the two parishes of Auvillars and Repentigny were educated there free by a sister of Providence from the Lisieux house. The income was lost through a faulty title. The house was sold by the revolutionaries and was bought by a resident who gave it back to its original purpose.