New Angoulême

New Angoulême (French: Nouvelle-Angoulême) was the name given in 1524 by the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano to the site of what would become New York City. The name commemorated not only the town of Angoulême, in the Charente region in France, but also Verrazzano's patron King Francis I of France, who had been Count of Angoulême until his coronation in 1515. The place became a Dutch colonial settlement, named New Amsterdam after 1625, until it was conquered by the English in 1664 and renamed New York.