Péronne [key], town (1993 est. pop. 9,200), Somme dept., N France, in Picardy, on the Somme River. It is a farm trade center, and its manufactures include wool, bricks, furniture, and plastics. It was a residence (10th cent.) of the Frankish kings and was united to the French crown in 1477. It was there that Charles the Bold of Burgundy forced on Louis XI of France a humiliating treaty in 1468. In World War I the town was almost entirely destroyed during the five months of bloody fighting (1916) along the Somme. St. Jean Church (16th cent.) has been restored.
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