CHATELLERAULT  , a

town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Vienne, 19 M . N.N.E. of Poitiers on the Orleans railway between that town and Tours . Pop . (1906) 15,214 . Chatellerault is situated on the right and eastern bank of the Vienne; it is connected with the suburb of Chateauneuf on the opposite side of the river by a stone bridge of the 16th and 17th centuries, guarded at the western extremity by massive towers . The manufacture of cutlery is carried on on a large scale in villages on the banks of the Clain, south of the town . Of the other industrial establishments the most important is the national small-arms factory, which was established in 1815 in Chateauneuf, and employs from 1500 to 5500 men . Chatellerault (or Chatelherault: Castellum Airaldi) derives its name from a fortress built in the loth century by Airaud, viscount of its territory . In 1515 it was made a duchy in favour of Francois de Bourbon, but it was not long after this date that it became reunited to the crown . In 1548 it was bestowed on James Hamilton, and earl of Arran (see HAMILTON) .