own of northern France, capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Aisne, 59 m. E.N.E. of Paris on the Eastern railway
to Nancy. Pop. (1906) 6872. Chateau-Thierry is built on rising ground on
the right bank of the Marne, over which a fine stone bridge leads to the
suburb of Marne. On the quay stands a marble statue erected to the
memory of La Fontaine, who was born in the town in 1621; his house is
still preserved in the street that bears his name. On the top of a hill
are the ruins of a castle, which is said to have been built by Charles
Martel for the Frankish king, Thierry IV., and is plainly the origin of
the name of the town. The chief relic is a gateway flanked by massive
round towers, known as the Porte Saint-Pierre. A belfry of the 15th
century and the church of St Crepin of the same period are of some
interest. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of
first instance and a communal college. The distinctive industry is the
manufacture of mathematical and musical instruments. There is trade in
the white wine of the neighbourhood, and in sheep, cattle and
agricultural products. Gypsum, millstone and paving-stone are quarried
in the vicinity. Chateau-Thierry was formerly the capital of the
district of Brie Pouilleuse, and received the title of duchy from
Charles IX. in 1566. It was captured by the English in 1421, by Charles
V. in 1544, and sacked by the Spanish in 1591. During the wars of the
Fronde it was pillaged in 1652; and in the campaign of 1814 it suffered
severely. On the 12th of February of the latter year the Russo-Prussian
forces were beaten by Napoleon in the neighbourhood.

CHATELAIN (Med. Lat. _castellanus_, from _castellum_, a castle), in
France originally merely the equivalent of the English castellan, i.e.
the commander of a castle. With the growth of the feudal system,
however, the title gained in France a special significance which it
never acquired in England, as implying the jurisdiction of which the
castle became the centre. The _chatelain_ was originally, in Carolingian
times, an official of the count; with the development of feudalism the
office became a fief, and so ultimately hereditary. In this as in other
respects the chatelain was the equivalent of the viscount (q.v.)
sometimes the two titles were combined, but more usually in those
provinces where there were chatelains there were no viscounts, and vice
versa. The title chatelain continued also to be appli