The Battle of Somme #224623

The district is known as the Santerre. Some derive the name from sana term — the healthy land others from sarta term — the cleared land. Some say it is sancta term, for Peter the Hermit was a Picard, and the piety of the Crusaders enriched the place with a thousand relics and a hundred noble churches. But there are those — and they have much to say for themselves — who read the name sang terre — the bloody land; for the Picard was the Gascon of the north, and the countryside is an old cock it of war. It was the seat of the government of lovis and Charlemagne. It was ravaged by the Normans.