The earliest Frankish kings established the forest as their privileged hunting grounds, and Clothaire the Great built the first royal residence there in the 7th century, and there he died of a fever.
The small palace, fitted cozily among the trees, was named Cusia and for some time thereafter the forest itself went by the name Forêt de Cuise that is memorialized in the village of Cuise-la-Motte that lies to the east of the forest boundaries.
A battle between the Merovingian-era kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria took place in the forest in the year 715.
The earliest Frankish kings established the forest as their privileged hunting grounds, and Clothaire the Great built the first royal residence there in the 7th century, and there he died of a fever. The small palace, fitted cozily among the trees, was named Cusia and for some time thereafter the forest itself went by the name Forêt de Cuise that is memorialized in the village of Cuise-la-Motte that lies to the east of the forest boundaries. A battle between the Merovingian-era kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria took place in the forest in the year 715.
Forest of Compiègne