The history of the Area around the Chateau de Ranton

 

 

 

 

Foreword and contents

 

 

The Chateau de Ranton is a small fortified castle in the village of Ranton, just west of Loudun, and south of the Loire. It was one of the front-line of fortresses which were built to defend the Royal city of Loundun on the border of Aquitaine at the beginning of the 'Hundred Years' War' in 1340-1345.  It played this military role until 1372. It then became a feudal manor and one of the estates of aristocratic families associated with the Courts of the French Kings and the Dukes of Anjou.

 

The Chateau was built in a natural strong point in the landscape, and the recorded history of the area goes back much further than that of the Chateau itself. The site of the Chateau de Ranton, dominating the passage through the Dive Valley, was already a stronghold during the Merovingian period.  Little stone was yet used for building, and any fortifications would have been of wood.  There were many such forts in the area; one at Loudun itself and another is known to have existed at Pouant; the high point between Loudun and Richelieu.  At Ranton, the beginnings of the moat may already have been excavated.  In fact, the earliest of the extensive network of rooms and passages excavated in the limestone around the moat date from the Merovingian period and traces of the characteristic architecture still exist:  the sloping stone roofs at weak points in the rock are typical of this period. This collection of notes about the area – about the people, places and events that have marked the area – therefore begins in the Roman period and extends through the early Middle Ages, as well as during the period of the Chateau's recorded history.

 

The buildings of the Chateau de Ranton inside the main rampart wall were re-built in the 16^th century in the Renaissance style, as the home of a series of protestant families in the French Wars of Religion.  It escaped destruction both by Cardinal Richelieu in the early 17^th Century and again in the French Revolution, but was little more than a ruin by the 1940s. It has been restored in three phases since 1950, and now is one of the most complete fortresses of the 14^th century left in France. 

 

These notes are arranged in approximate chronological order, in the main histrorical periods, but with the historical notes about events in the region interspersed with thos on the key people who animated the region and the key places around Ranton and Loudun.

 

Contents

 

From the Romans to the early Middle Ages: 54BC to 1300

·        Roman remains

·        The introduction of Christianity

·        St Martin of Tours

·        The unification of France

·        Moorish invasions : Charles Martel and Charlemagne

·        Fulk the Black and the Plantagenets

·        Eleanor of Aquitaine, Fontevraud and Chinon

·        Loudun becomes a royal city

 

2. The Hundred-year war

·        Crecy

·        The battle of Poitiers/Nouailles

·        The defence of Loudun

·        Bertrand du Guesclin

·        Fighting for Naples and Constantinople

·        The Battles of Roccasessa and Agincourt

·        Joan of Arc

 

The Renaissance

·        Italian influences

·        The Renaissance in the Loire valley

·        The Chateau de Oiron

·        Francois Rabelais

·        Gabriel, comte de Montgomery and Catherine de Medici

 

4.  The wars of religion

·        The reformation around Ranton

·        Loudun as a safe haven and the Edict of Nantes

·        Links to the Chateux du Puy du Fou and Riveau

·        The Peace of Loudun

·        The destruction of Loudun

·        Urban Grandier

·        Cardinal Richelieu and his new town

·        The Plague in Loudun

·        Demonic possessions in Loudun

·        Hugenot emigrations

 

Modern times: From the French revolution to today

·        The revolution

·        Abbe Aubineau

·        The 20^th century

 

 

 

From the romans through the middle ages: 54BC to 1300

 

 

Roman remains

 

It's almost impossible to dig around in Western Europe and not find Roman remains. The Romans were present in the area of Loudun from the conquest of Gaul in 54 BC until the fourth century.  Loudun was already an important Celtic settlement; it probably took its name from the Celtic god Lud, but became a Roman settlement.  The straight line of the road through Loudun from Poitiers to the old ford of the Loire north of Fontevraud is evidence of its importance.  The valley of the Dive was also important.  It was good farmland and controlled the access to the west.  The village of Curcay has Roman roots; all village names ending in "-ay" or "-ais" have roman origins, and Curcay seems to have been quite a significant town.  In 1953, excavations identified the remains of a roman villa between the church of St Pierre and the Dive.  The remains of a forum, a processional way and of villas were excavated in 1964 in the same area.

 

The settlements were important because they lay on the route west from Loudun across the river Dive.  This passage through the marshy valley was always hazardous, and an altar to the Roman god Jupiter has left its trace in the name of the neighbouring village; the Latin Pas-sus-Jovis being corrupted to Pas-de-Jeu.

 

The introduction of Christianity[1]

 

Roman and classical influence came under challenge already in the fourth century.  At this time, Gaelic school of Christian writers began to flourish, initially in western France and later in England, Ireland and Scotland.  One of the first was Hilary of Poitiers.  He was the son of high-ranking, but pagan parents, and his education included the study of Greek philosophy as well as of Latin classics.  He was born about 315 and was converted to Christianity about 350.  By 353 he was the first Bishop of Poitiers - one of the first centres of Christianity in France.  The first church, the Baptistère Saint-Jean, is the oldest church in France; a sturdy brick structure near the Cathedral of St Peter in Piotiers. 

 

Hilary soon became embroiled in the disputes about the Arian Heresy.  This belief in the separate divinity of God the Father and of Christ struck at the heart of the Christian belief in the unity of God, but it had considerable popular support in recently pagan areas.  Its originator, Arius of Alexandria, was a talented composer of hymns.  They served as good propaganda for his ideas - perhaps the devil always has the best tunes.  Hilary retaliated with his own compositions and the region witnessed one of the first hymn-book battles of Western Europe.  If they were as inspiring as his writings now seem today, it is not surprising that none of Hilary's compositions have survived. 

 

The church of Saint Hilary le Grand[2], in Poitiers, was built in the 11th century, over the chapel housing his tomb.

 

Alongside the intellectual re-birth of Christianity in the fourth century, and as a reaction against the growth of materialism and urban sophistication of church leaders, a new fashion developed for the simple life.  It first became popular in Egypt and the middle-east.  The spiritual attractions of a solitary life in the desert were publicised through accounts of the life of Saint Anthony.  While the spiritual benefits could be universal, it was more difficult to reproduce all the attractions in the chilly forests of Gaul.  New ideas were necessary.  Martin of Tours provided them.

 

Martin of Tours

 

St Martin was born about 316, in Pannonia, a region of south Germany.  His parents were solidly middle class, and were clearly annoyed by the rebellious and fanatical religion of their son.  At the age of 12 he tried to join one of the loosely organised orders of Hermits, but was dragged home.  As soon as he was old enough for military service, at 15, his father enrolled him in the Roman army.  No doubt he felt a little army discipline would settle his son's predilection for holiness.  If so, he was to be disappointed.  One chilly winter day, on campaign near Amiens, he gave half of his army cloak to a beggar.  That night, in a vision, he recognised the beggar as Christ.  The next day, when the Emperor Julian assembled his troops for battle, Martin refused to fight and volunteered to stand unarmed between the armies.  He wasn't put to the test, but was discharged from the army.

 

He came to Poitiers, drawn by the reputation of Hilary.  There he was appointed as exorcist; the second lowest office in the clerical hierarchy of the time, but one that suited Martin's missionary zeal and fondness for the recently Pagan peasantry.  Martin was at ease with the illiterate farmers and his combination of "rough and ready miracles" and common sense was immediately popular.  He cut down sacred trees, banished hail, cast out demons from cows, dogs and pigs and re-dedicated pagan shrines.  It was at this time that the altar to Jupiter at Pas-de-Jeu was re-dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and it is likely that St Martin himself was responsible.  The shrine of La Bonne Dame de Ranton existed as a focal point for pilgrims until the French Revolution and its location is still marked by the Pilgrimage church[3].

 

With the support of Hillary, Martin founded the first monastery in 360, at Ligugé[4], just to the south-east of Poitiers.  It was a first attempt to organise hermits and seekers of a simple life dedicated to prayer into a sustainable organisation.  There is no record now of any rules, but the monastery church was the centre of the life of the monks.  There are still the churches of the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries and the abbey, reconstructed in the 16th century, is now home to Benedictine monks from Solesmes.

 

In 372, Martin was elected, by popular acclaim, as Bishop of Tours.  This was not without some misgivings in the Church hierarchy.  Some of his more urbane colleagues distrusted Martin's resolute informality.  He was always scruffily dressed; his torn cloak an early sign of his disregard for appearances.  Even in Tours, he pursued his monastic ideals.  He founded the monastery of Marmoutier.  There, the Loire flows close to a wooded hillside.  The site he chose for the monastery could only be reached by a scramble up the rocks.  The life there was truly simple.  The monks lived in huts of branches or in shallow caves in the rocks.  They lived alone, in silence, and dressed in camel-hair tunics in imitation of St John the Baptist.  One can understand the concern of less hardened Bishops that Martin was setting an example they were not keen to follow!

 

Martin had a particular dislike for the worship of relics.  It was already popular in the fourth century - perhaps because they were more tangible objects of worship in a society still used to pagan spirits and gods.  Bodies and bits of dead saints were already the focus of popular religion, and Martin was a determined exposer of fakery.  He would have been horrified if he could have known how his own remains would be fought over in Candes St Martin and revered.  His body was hardy cold before the people of Poitiers and Tours were fighting for it.  The night he died, while the representatives of Poitiers guarded the door of the room where he lay, those of Tours slid his body through the window.  Within a century he was the most revered Saint in France.  He is still the Patron Saint of France, as Saint George is for England.

 

 

The unification of France

 

Clovis I, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty of "long-haired" Kings in France, united most of present-day France.  He had been converted to Christianity in 485 and was a seasoned campaigner, having already subdued the German tribes in northwest France and in Burgundy.

 

By 507, he was ready to confront the Visigoths.  From their base in Northern Spain, the Visigoths controlled much of southern and southwestern France, as far north as the Loire.  They were Christian, but subscribed to the Arian Heresy.  At the time, this aroused strong feelings.  Clovis could therefore claim both a political and moral duty to break their influence north of the Pyrennees.  He could also call on the help of St Hilary and of St Martin, both renowned opponents of the Arians.

 

As soon as the Frankish army entered the Touraine, Clovis forbade the usual pillage so as to not "offend St Martin".  He sent his favourite horse as a gift to the Saint (he bought it back again after his victory!) and he adopted the cloak of St Martin as his battle standard.  It was to remain the battle flag of the Merovingian Kings and of Charlemagne.  St Hilary's support was shown by a column of fire over his sanctuary in Poitiers.  The armies met at Voire, to the west of Poitiers, where he fought and won the Battle of Vouillé.  Fortified by this supernatural support, Clovis was more than a match for the 23 year-old leader of the visigoths.  He is reputed to have killed him with his own hands.

 

After the battle, Clovis rested his army in Bordeau, and the next spring captured Toulouse.  This was the capital of the Visigoths north of the Pyrennees.  In the ruins of the town, Clovis found the treasure Alaric I had looted in Rome a hundred years before.  His victory established the Catholic religion throughout Frankish Gaul, even through the Salic law remained as the basis for the civil administration during the Merovingian dynasty.  It also established Clovis as one of the recognised successors of the Roman emperors; on his return north, Clovis was consecrated as a Patrician and Consul of the Roman Empire in the new Basilica dedicated to St Martin in Tours.  Saint Martin remained the Merovingian's guardian Saint, and the remnants of his cloak their holiest relic.

 

Clovis established a new authority in Frankish Gaul.  For the first time, he allied the civil power to that of the Bishops and codified the "lex salica", the Salic Law[5].  This was the traditional law of the Salli tribe from the northern Netherlands.  This law, by its disqualification of inheritance through the female line, would later return to haunt Aquitaine as one of the causes of the hundred year's war between the French and English Kings.  We are now so used to law based on Roman and Christian precepts that the Salic law appears barbaric.  It was essentially a penal code, defining a criminal's liability to his victim and to the Community.  It set down a graduated series of punishments and fines for all imaginable crimes.  The sizes of the fines were proportional to the grossness of the crime, the sex, age, status and usefulness of the victim.  At the top of the scale was murder of one of the King's councillors; worth 2400 solidi (one solidi was similar in value to a cow).  A Frankish freeman was worth 200 solidi, a priest 600, a bishop 900, a serf 100 and a slave 30.  To insult a freeman, for example by calling him a fox, was worth 3 solidi, and to call a woman a harlot was worth 9, unless she was one.  A woman's virtue was respected; rape was worth 62.5 solidi and adultery 200.  Trial was often by oath or ordeal.  In both cases with the expectation that divine intervention - to strike down the guilty or to save the innocent - would determine the outcome. Clovis left a newly united kingdom to his four sons, but it was soon fragmented and weakened by their incessant quarrels. 

 

 

Moorish invasions and Charlemagne

 

The 8th century saw the rise of Islam and the invasions of Spain and France by the Saracens.  In 713, Moorish invaders crossed the Pyrenees for the first time.  That expedition marked the beginning of a series of invasions, each pushing a little further north.  In 721, Toulouse was besieged, but was saved by the army of Aquitaine reinforced by troops of Charles Martel, the King of the Franks.  Ten years later, the Saracen army, stronger than ever, crossed the pass of Roncevaux again.  This time, Bayonne, Oloron, Aires, Auch and many other cities were pillaged and burnt.  In the spring of the next year, it was the turn of Bordeaux, Blaye, Bourg, Montagne and Royan.  The threat to all of France was now so great that Charles Martell himself marched south with his army.  He confronted the Saracen army at the "Battle of Tours" at Moussias, between Chatellerault and Poitiers, about 45 kilometres south-east of Ranton.  Caught between the Franks in the north and the army of Aquitaine in the south, the Saracen army was destroyed.  The battle was the turning point in the fortunes of the Islamic and Christian forces in Western Europe.  It marked the most northerly point of the Arabic invasions. 

 

Forty five years later, Charlemagne pushed the Saracens back across the Pyrenees, although he then experienced the worst defeat of his life, at Roncesvalles (778).  Charlemagne himself donated lands at Curcay (probably including Ranton) to the Abbey of St Martin in Tours in 775.  This is the first written record of Curcay.

 

The site of the Chateau de Ranton, dominating the passage through the Dive Valley, was already a stronghold during the Merovingian period.  Little stone was yet used for building, and any fortifications would have been of wood.  There were many such forts in the area; one at Loudun itself and another is known to have existed at Pouant; the high point between Loudun and Richelieu.  At Ranton, the beginnings of the moat may already have been excavated.  In fact, the earliest of the extensive network of rooms and passages excavated in the limestone around the moat date from the Merovingian period and traces of the characteristic architecture still exist:  the sloping stone roofs at weak points in the rock are typical of this period.

 

Fulk the Black  and the Plantagenets

 

In the 10th century, the estates on Curcay and Ranton belonged to the Delancay family.  Stone built fortresses were beginning to appear:  One existed at Mirebeau, since replaced, and they were all characterised by a strongly build square tower, of austere appearance, and accomodating only public spaces:  Halls and defensive features- They notably had no fireplaces, so must have been bitterly cold in the winter.  Loudun dominates the main routes from north to south and east to west.  The original "keeps" in Langeais and Loches were built in 990, the tower at Moncontour and the "Square tower" of Loudun was built in 1040 by Foulques Nerra (Fulk the Black )[6], Count of Anjou.

 

Foulques (or Fulk) was the founder of Angevin power. He was only fifteen years of age when he succeeded his father. He had a violent and pious temperament, partial to acts of extreme cruetly and penitence. In probably his most notorious act, he had his first wife (and cousin) Elisabeth of Vendôme burned to death at the stake in her wedding dress, after discovering her with a goatherd in December 999.  He was the founder of what later became the "Plantagenet" dynasty.  This name, which became such a part of English history, has its origins in the area:  The name "Plantagenet" originated with Geoffrey of Anjou, great gransdon of Fulk the Black and father of King Henry II of England; it is usually claimed that he wore a sprig of it in his bonnet, though perhaps he planted broom to improve his hunting, or used it to scourge himself, or according to local legends, while hunting in the forest north of Loudun, Foulques Nerra surprised a unicorn in a clearing full of yellow gorse; "genêts" in French.  He caught the unicorn, which in his arms turned into a beautiful princess.  He immediately fell in love with her and proposed marriage in the nearby chapel.  However, when the shadow of the cross on the altar fell on the princess, she fled.  Foulques Nerra mobilised his serfs, soldiers and vassals to find his lost love, but in vain.  In desperation he had all the gorse gathered from the clearings and paths of the forest to tempt the unicorn back.  Whatever the reason, broom became the family emblem.

 

 

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Fontevraud and the royal city of Chinon

 

The link between the region and England was reinforced in the 12th century, largely through the lives of two remarkable people; Eleanor of Aquitaine[7] and Henri Plantagenêt. Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Europe.  She was Queen consort of both France and England and the mother of both King Richard I and King John. She is well known for her involvement in the Second Crusade.  She did more to unite England and France, and to sow the seeds of war between the two countries than any other woman until Mary, Queen of Scots.  Eleanor was born in 1122, in Poitiers, and at the age of 15 married Louis, Prince of Aquitaine.  Within six months she was Queen of France and her new husband Louis VII of France.  It was not a happy marriage; Eleanor was ambitious for power and her relations with Louis steadily deteriorated.  At the instigation of Louis, the marriage was annulled in 1152.  On Whit Sunday, May 18, 1152, six weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenêt at Poitiers 'without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank'.  He was Count of Maine, Anjou and Normandy, a great grandson of William the Conquerer, and the adopted heir of King Stephen of England; (known as Etienne de Blois in France).  A year after her marriage to Henri, King Stephen died.  Eleanor and Henri rushed to London despite terrible weather in the Channel and Henri was crowned Henry II of England and Eleanor his Queen.

 

Eleanor established Poitiers as a major centre of political influence.  The Cathedral of Notre Dame la Grande is a magnificent example of Romanesque architecture of the early 12th century, and that of Saint Peter, built by Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England is an imposing reminder of the splendour of their reigns in the 13th and 14th centuries.  The Palais de Justice contains the old palace of the Dukes of Aquitaine, including the Great Hall with a magnificent 16th century roof.

 

20 kilometers north of Loudun, the abbey of Fontevraud was founded in 1099 by Robert d'Arbissel.  It rivalled Cluny for dominance for 700 years.  He preached for the first crusade and assembled his followers at Fontevraud.  The abbey was protected and enriched by the Plantagenets; Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and near son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with magnificent jewelry.

 

Throughout her reign, Eleanor played a major part in establishing alliances between the European monarchies.  She was frequently involved in disputes and skirmishes and even when she had retired to the Abbey at Fontevraud she was drawn into the action.  In 1202, she was forced to flee from Fontevraud before an army of the Duke of Brittany, supported by the French King, Philippe Auguste.  She took refuge in the walled town of Mirebeau, which was immediately besieged.  Fortunately her son, King John, was with his army at Le Mans.  In a forced march, he reached Mirebeau within a day and captured the besieging forces.  King John was no better liked by his Barons in France than by those in England and his barbaric treatment of his captives did nothing to improve his reputation.  Eleanor died in 1204 at Fontevraud.

 

Chinon was a primary residence of Henry II and capital of his vast Angevin empire. He built the massive chateau, and died in Chinon castle after being defeated by his sons Richard the Lionheart and John in a rebellion aided by Phillip Augustus of France. Henry, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Richard are all buried at Fontevraud, together with Isabelle, the wife of King John, who many suspect of having poisened him.

 

In 1162, in a new innovation in military architecture, Poitiers was the first European city since Roman times to be completely surrounded by defensive walls.  They were over 6.5 Kms long and incorporated semi-circular towers able to cover the adjacent walls with arrow fire.  Other fortresses were modernised in the same style:  Mirebeau, Montreuil Bonnin and Haut Clairvaux (by Richard Lionheart).  This is the sytle used at Ranton

 

Loudun becomes a Royal city

 

In 1206, Loudun and its surrounding area were re-attached to the French crown by Philip Augustus.  He made Loudun into one of the strongest fortresses in France, dominated by an enormous round tower, thirty metres high.  It was 17 metres in diameter at its base, with walls nearly six metres thick.  This unfortunately only left a small inner space, 4 metres 60 wide so it was not exactly a palace.  The walls were of squared blocks on the outside and inside, with a filling of pink flint - a formidable construction.  It was eventually demolished by Richelieu in 1633.

 

The town was protected by a wall over ten miles long, inside a water-filled moat.  He also made Loudun the seat of a Royal "bailliage"; a Royal charter which made Loudun the property of the King, rather than that of a Feudal lord, and ruled by an official of his court.  This status brought Loudun great prosperity: a Royal court of justice, civil servants, accountants and lawyers.  The rope-makers (cordelliers) of Loudun gained the monopoly of supply to the Royal court; prospered enormously and gained a national reputation.  They even built their own church.

 

On the death of Louis VIII of France, Louis IX was only 12.  His mother, Blanche of Castile, acted as the Regent, but was faced with the opposition of a group of powerful barons, led by the Duke of Thouars.  In 1227, Blanche of Castille opened negotiations from the base of a camp at Loudun, and in 1228 she and Louis held a parliament for about 20 days at Curçay-sur-Dive.  She was no stranger to the area, being the grand-daugther of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the third daughter of Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, and of Eleanor of England.  The boundary between the area loyal to Louis IX and that loyal to the rebel dukes was the Dive.  As in 1215 at Runnymede in England, the relative powers of the King and the Barons were in dispute.  After long and difficult negociations, an agreement was reached that allowed the rebel Barons to accept Louis IX as their legitimate King.  He held court, and exercised his Feudal rights of justice for the first time at the bridge over the Dive which still stands.    Further privileges were granted to Loudun by Louis IX.  In 1228, Loudun became a self governing Commune, exempt from the billeting of soldiers, exempt from being garrisoned, and with its own security forces.

 

The Dive was still a major political and physical boundary and its defence was of strategic importance.  In 1228, the Maulevier family obtained the King's permission to fortify the bridge-head over the Dive at Curcay.  The tower that kept the family name was build.  The fortress at Curçay-sur-Dive was of major military importance and was much more extensive than the remains now suggest.  The main walls encompassed most of what is now the village.

 

2. 'Hundred Years' War'

 

 

Preparations

 

The around Loudun was again the focus of attention in the Hundred Years war.  In January 1340, Edward III of England formally claimed the title of ‘King of France’.  In June, the English fleet decimated the French fleet at the mouth of the Zwyn in what is now Holland.  The war had begun.  It was initially fought in the north of France and the Netherlands, but it was Aquitaine that was at stake.  After four generations of peace in the area, the castles and town walls were in a poor state of repair. 

 

In 1340 the Châteaux at Ranton and Curçay-sur-Dive were re-built; that of Ranton by Guilaume de Bois Gourmont and that at Curcay by Huet Odart, both under instruction from King Jean II; They were part of an elaborate network of fortresses that ensured that the area remained under French control, although the English were allied to the Duke of Thouars and controlled the valley of the Dive for many years.  The Chateau at Ranton was only one of those rebuilt by Guillaume de Bois Gourmont:  the largest was that at Bois Gourmont, near Veniers, just north of Loudun.  Only the Keep now remains and it is ruined.  The style is the same as that at Ranton and it was probably built be the same Architect/masons.  Machiolations, the overhanging part around the top of the towers was a recent innovation in military architecture of the time.  They made it even more difficult to scale the walls.  The change from square to round towers also gave better resistance to cannon balls.  Many of the excavated rooms off the dry moat also date from this time.  They served as a refuge for the village.

 

At Curcay, the 11th century castle was extended and strengthened; The Keep was linked to three other new circular towers, one of which still stands, and to the old Maulevrier tower.  The Arms of Huet Odart, the nephew of Huet de Curcay, are still visible, although partly defaced:  They represent a cross with five shells, all symbols of the pilgims to St Jacque de Compostella in northern Spain.

 

 

 

 

 

By 1350 the English forces were occupying the area to the south and west of Loudun.  This area was part of the territory Edward III inherited from Eleanor of Aquitaine.  In 1352, the truce between the English and French collapsed.  The castle at Curcay was re-built by Huet de Curcay, and Edward of Woodstock established his base at Bordeaux, secure within the region of Aquitaine loyal to the English crown

 

In Aquitaine, the ties of feudal loyalty depended on the ability of the feudal Lord to provide protection.  The English tactics were therefore to raid French territory with a small, mobile force.  Mounted soldiers could move quickly, pillage, burn crops and undermine the authority of the French King.  The English did not seek battle, and the French only succeeded in forcing a direct confrontation on a few occasions, each time with disastrous consequences.

 

In 1345 Jean de la Jaille married Jeanne Gourmont, daughter of Guillaume de Bois Gourmont.  He was already an experienced and valued knight: He first saw action at the head of a troop of twenty soldiers at the siege of Saint-Omer on 24th June 1340: a large battle was fought around the town between an Anglo-Flemish army commanded by Robert III of Artois and a French one under Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy. He had also almost certainly been involved in the battle of Crecy, with his father-in law, Guillaume de Bois Gourmont.  Despite the French defeat, Guillaume de Bois Gourmont was honoured for his valor at Crecy by being made "Knight of the King's Order" by Charles V.  The Chateau and estates of Ranton were part of Jeanne's dowry and on their marriage Jean de la Jaille became the Lord of Ranton.

 

In 1355, Jean was in the entourage of Jean de Clermont, Marechal of France and Lieutenant General to the King in Touraine and Poitou, one of the most powerful and brilliant Barons in the Court of Jean le Bon.   He was fortunate to escape with his life at the battle of Battle of Poitiers (1356).  He was in the group of knights that was captured and ransomed and was subsequently rewarded for his valour by being made Master of the King's Household; a high honour from which he disdained to profit, preferring to continue his army life.

 

In 1370, at the castle of Chinon, in front of the assembled barons, lords and their ladies, Jean de la Jaille, then 56 years old, challenged an English knight to single combat.  Both were famous for their skill with arms and no doubt were egged on by their followers.  The clash took place in the dry moat at the base of the castle walls.  Jean, in furious charges, had the better of the exchanges and finally impaled the English knight on his lance. In 1384, Jean de la Jaille, at the age of 60, was still active.  He led his company of knights to serve in the cavalry of Charles VI at the siege of Bourbourg in Flanders[8]. He died in 1405, at the age of 81.  By then, he was "deaf, senile and infirm" and was ruined financially.

 

 

The defence of Loudun
         

Louis I of Anjou, Count of Anjou, succeeded Jean de Clermont as the Governor of Tourraine and Jean de la Jaille joined his service.  Jean de la Jaille was nominated Captain and Defender of Loudun in 1360, a function he fulfilled with honour and success for over 30 years.

Poitiers itself was taken by the English in 1360, and was only recaptured by the French under Bertrand du Guesclin in 1370.  During this period, Loudun and its network of fortresses was the frontier between the English and French controlled areas.  There were periodic skirmishes between English and French forces, not to mention problems with lawless bands, discharged soldiers and booty seekers.  Jean de la Jaille developed a reputation as a valiant and audacious adversary to the English.  He twice saved Loudun from occupation and pillage, and with his knights and vassals he continually harried the English.  On numerous occasions, he is recorded as having fought with his neighbour, Hugh de Curcay, his father in law Guillaume Gourmont, Jean III de Bueil[9] and Robin de la Haye-Bournan.  There were major engagements at Mothe-Bourbon, on the Dive, and in the recapture of the Castle of la Mothe-Baucay[10].  He also ventured further afield; in 1364, Jean was part of the troop of knights that rode into Maine in pursuit of Buckingham after the death of Charles V.

Towards the end of the 1360s, the English captured the castle at Moncontour and controlled the valley of the Dive.  Only the network of fortresses around Loudun held out.  In 1369, Lords Chandos and Pembroke combined forces and again besieged Loudun.  They occupied the town, but Jean de la Jaille held out in the citadelle in the face of a torrent of fire.

 

The countryside suffered terribly.  The area north of Loudun, around Roiffe, was particularly badly affected.  It was some decades before the villages were re-established, and the land brought back under cultivation.

 

Having again resisted the English army at Loudun, Jean joined forces with the Marechal de Sancerre in 1371 to try to recapture the fortress at Moncontour and to relieve the pressure on his estates in the valley of the Dive.  The attempt was unsuccessful.  He had to wait for the much more formidable forces of du Guesclin, who swore not to sleep in a bed until he had retaken the fort.  He succeeded in 1371 and the tide of French fortunes turned.  The next year, Jean de la Jaille was able to push the English back into the Guyenne.

 

 

Fighting for Naples and in Constaninople

 

Jeanne Gourmont died in 1373 and is buried in the Church of Saint-Croix in Loudun.  The titles she brought to Jean de la Jaille on their marriage notably that of Lord of Ranton, passed to her eldest son, Tristan III de la Jaille.

 

Tristran was part of the Court of   Louis I of Anjou , and in 1381, Queen Joanna appointed Louis I to succeed to the Kingdom of Naples.  Unfortunately, Urban VI declared Queen Joanna I dethroned and gave the kingdom to Charles of Durazzo.  In 1382, Louis I, with Tristan III de la Jaille, left for Italy to capture his new kingdom from Charles.  While he was able to succeed Joanna as Count of Provence and Forcalquier, he was unsuccessful in regaining Naples from Charles.  They were both killed by Charles of Durazzo at Bari in 1384, and and the title of Lord of Ranton passed to Tristan's eldest son, Tristan IV

 

Guichard was even more adventurous and appears to have been the model of a gallant knight:  Whether against Welsh archers, brigands or fully armed knights, he turned up wherever the king's forces needed him.  As a younger son, he didn't have lands to tie him to France, and as soon as the disputes with the English in Brittany calmed during the 1380s, he left to fight in Hungary.

 

In 1395, the nobility of France, including Guichard, bored by the uneasy peace with England, undertook a crusade against the Ottoman Turks who had captured Constantinople. With the support of Pope Boniface IX, over 50,000 men led by the King of Hungary and the Dukes of Burgundy and Jean de Nevers, left in spring 1396. John of Nevers led a force of approximately 10,000 French. Initially successful, the first campaign ended with defeat at the siege of Nicopolis[11] in 1396. The arrival of the troops of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I came as a surprise to the Crusaders. Bayezid protected his cavalry, a main line of archers and Janissaries, and hid his main body of Ottomans and Serbians behind hills. The French charged toward the Ottoman vanguard, but came under fire from the Ottoman archers at the stakes. The French nevertheless attacked the cavalry and were again successful, and pursued the retreating Ottomans all the way back to the hills, only to discover the main Ottoman army. The French were completely defeated. Jean de Vienne, admiral of France, was killed in combat, although he is described as having defended the French standard six times before he fell. Jean de Carrouges also fell.  He was infamous in medieval France for fighting in the last judicial duel against squire Jacques Le Gris permitted by the French king[12].  It took two years, and a great deal of ransom money to bring the survivors home. 

 

In 1400, Guichard de la Jaille left with a second expedition led by Marshal Boucicault de Genes to Constantinople to aid the Eastern emperor, Manuel II. They sailed into the Golden Horn in 1400 with 1,400 men-at-arms just in time to save Galata from the Turks.  They were besieged in Constantinople for 2 years:  It was the fourth siege of the city in 10 years[13].  The occupying forces controlled little more than the city of Constantinople and its immediate surroundings, but had to defend their young republic against its rival, Venice.  In a naval battle, Guichard de la Jaille was again noted in dispatches for his bravery and courage.  He returned to France in 1405 and died the following year.

 

 

 

  

The battles of Roccasecca and Agincourt

 

Tristan IV inherited the tilte of Lord of Ranton on the death of his father in 1384.  In 1388, at the age of 14, Tristan IV left La Rochelle with other adventurous young squires to fight the Duke of Lancaster in Castille.  At St Jacques de Compostelle, they were received with a baptism of fire.  However, the journey whetted his appetite for travel and in 1392 he joined the King's army at Le Mans. 

Tristan IV de la Jaille was by now one of the leading captains in the Angevin army.  Louis II of Anjou and Yolande of Aragon, Queen of Four Kingdoms (the four being apparently Sicily, Jerusalem, Cyprus and Aragon) had longstanding ambitions in southern Italy.  Louis II was crowned King of Naples by the antipope Clement VII on the 1^st November 1389 and took possession of Naples the following year. He was ousted in turn by his rival in 1399.

In 1409, Louis II set out again with Tristan IV to conquer the Kingdom of Naples.  They "liberated" Rome from Ladislas' occupation; in 1410, as an ally of the antipope John XXIII they attacked Ladislas and defeated him at Roccasecca. Eventually Louis lost his Neapolitan support, and the campaign was unsuccessful, despite the alliance with the King of Sicily.  Louis' claim to Naples passed to his son, Louis III.

Tristan IV had three sons: Robert, the eldest, was killed in the Battle of Agincourt  in 1415, along with other members of the de la Jaille family.  The English raiding force, under Henry V, was forced into a battle by superior French forces.  Again the English forces were exhausted and outnumbered, but their indomitable spirit is immortalised by William Shakespeare as the centrepiece of his play Henry V, and served as an inspiration in many subsequent crises:

 

       "If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honour.  God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more"

 

       "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother......Gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not there, and hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day"

 

The mood in the French camp may have been more light-hearted, but thousands of families mourned dead sons the next day, and Robert de la Jaille was one of the "royal fellowship of death".

 

Around this time, Tristan IV was made Governor of Angers.  He was also Grand Master of the Household of the King of Sicily.  In 1425 he became Guard and Captain of the Chateau de Loudun.  However, the attractions of Italy were too great.  Pope Martin V had invested Louis III in 1419 as 'King of Sicily' (Naples) and Tristram left again for Naples with King Louis in 1429.  He participated in the victory of Aquila and was rewarded with the government of the region of Reggio. Louis never become effective King of Naples and died of malaria at Cosenza in 1434. The following year, his brother René of Anjou was named King of Naples. Tristram died in Reggio soon afterwards.

   

 

 

 

 

 

Joan of Arc

 

The two younger sons, Bertrand and Chretien, had followed their father to Sicily in 1409; Chretien stayed there to become the Grand Senechal to the Court of Louis II, the King of Sicily.  Bertrand took part in three years of campaigning, culminating in the victory of RoccaSecco in 1411[14], then returned to look after the estates in France.  Through the titles accumulated by his father and grandfather, he was a major land owner and a key figure in the French court.  He was Lord of la Grande Jaille (the ancestral estates, east of Loudun), and of Ranton, of Avrille in Anjou (from his mother) and now the source of good wine[15]; of Beuxe (bought back from Sanglier); of la Roche-Talbot in Souvigne-sur-Sarthe[16]; of la Balayere in the Bierne; of la Varenne-Bouzeau near to Moranne and others.  He grew up at Ranton and it remained his mother's home until her death. 

 

His childhood and youth at Ranton brought him into regular contact with his neighbours in the Chateau of Curcay.  This was owned by the Odart family: a distinguished family, as famous as that of de la Jaille for their exploits in the crusades and against the English.  In 1418, Bertrand married the daughter of Guillaume Odart, Guillemette.  Guillaume Odart is buried in the 15^th century church in Rilly-sur-Vienne[17].

 

In addition to his inherited estates, Louis XII of France made Bertrand de la Jaille the squire of his household, Counsellor and then Chamberlain to the Crown.  In 1429, Bertrand de la Jaille succeeded his father as the Captain-Governor of the city of Loudun, and the fortunes of France improved under Joan of Arc's inspiration[18].  It was at Poitiers that a Commission of Doctors of Theology recognised officially that the mission of Joan was divinely inspired. 

 

As the seat of the duke of Orléans, this city held symbolic significance in early fifteenth century politics. The dukes of Orléans were at the head of a political faction known as the Armagnacs who rejected the Treaty of Troyes and supported the claims of France's uncrowned king Charles VII. In April 1429, when Arthur de Richemont was advancing with his army towards Selles to join forces with the Duke of Alencon, bringing help to Joan of Arc, the King sent "Monseigneur de la Jaille" ahead of his forces.  He was probably therefore involved in the most significant military action prior to Joan's arrival in late April outside Rouvray where a thousand French and Scottish soldiers attempted unsuccessfully to intercept and divert an English supply convoy in the Battle of the Herrings, so named because the convoy was carrying a large supply of fish for Lent. Bertrand would also have fought with Joan at the battle of Patay.

 

When, in 1440, the English returned to the offensive and re-occupied the southern part of Maine, it was Bertrand de la Jaille that joined forces with those of the occupied areas and forced an English retreat.  In 1441, at the siege of Saint-Denis-d'Anjou, he was amongst the knights that "charged so vigorously that the first wave killed more than 200 and forced the remaining English forces to retreat." 

 

After 1452, Bertrand passed most of his time at the Chateau de Roche-Talbot, his favourite residence in Souvigné-sur-Sarte.  His wife had use of the Chateau de Ranton through the marriage settlement and lived there until her death.  She is buried in the family vault in the Church of the Ropemakers (cordeliers) in Loudun (enfeu des Odart). Bertrand died on the 13th September 1456 at la Roche-Talbot and is buried in the Chapelle de Saint Roche at Souvigné-sur-Sarte.

3.  The Renaissance

 

Italian influences in the early renaissance

 

Bertrand de la Jaille and his wife had five children.  The eldest, Philibert took over from his grandfather, Tristan IV, the title of Grand Master of the Household to the King of Sicily, but died before his father in 1456.  The second son, Pierre, born in 1419, was brought up as page to Arthur de Richemont and was his squire at the age of ten in 1429 when he came to the rescue of Joan of Arc.

 

Pierre gained a reputation as a diplomat and courtier, rather than as a man of arms. He was caught up in the violence and intrigues that grew out of the jealousy between Richemont and Georges, the Count de Tremoille[19].  However, he helped arrange the Treaty of Arras (1435), which cemented the peace between France and Burgundy leading to the eventual defeat of the English. Richemont was commander of the Breton army which saved the day for the French at the Battle of Formigny in 1450 and effectively ended the Hundred years' war. 

 

In 1456, on the death of his father, Pierre became Lord of la Grande Jaille and of Beuxe, la Roche-Talbot, La Balayere, la Varenne, la Marnan and la Roche-Morier.  Over the following years, he occupied some of the most important and lucrative posts in France:  He joined the Court of René of Anjou[20], and even gained favour with Louis XI, King of France. 

 

At the age of 40, in 1459, he married Isabelle de Beaune, daughter of Bertrand, Lord of Presigny, Prime Minister under Charles VI, but exiled under Louis XI, King of France.  His skills as a diplomat were invaluable in 1460 when he negotiated the marriage of his father-in-law, then in his seventies, to Blanche Lady of Mirebeau, an illegitimate daughter of King René of Anjou.  In recognition of his success and discretion, he was and was appointed Grand Chamberlain (to Rene as the King of Naples and Sicily), Grand Senechal (de Provence), Councillor and Chamberlain to the Dukedom of Anjou and Lorraine.  Pierre de la Jaille died in 1483 without an heir.  He was succeeded in some of his functions by his younger brother, Hardouin.  However, Hardouin left little trace of his activities, except for a curious manual of duelling.

 

The fourth son of Bertrand de la Jaille, Bertrand II, became Lord of Ranton and Avrille directly on the death of his father in 1456.  He also inherited the estates of Beuxe on the death of Pierre in 1483, and the remainder of the family estates on the death of Hardouin in 1493.  Bertrand lived in the Loudun area, dividing his time between the estates of Ranton, Beuxes and Avrille.  He Married Catherine le Roy, daughter of Guillaume, Lord of Chavigny and Francoise of Fontenay.  Louis XI appointed him as his "echanson aux gages" at a salary of 330 pounds a year in 1468, from when he was part of the Royal court at Montils-les-Tours, Amboise and other royal residences.

 

In 1480, René of Anjou, nominal King of Naples and Sicily and titular King of Jerusalem, died.  He still owned a sumptuous house in Loudun: The Hotel of the Roi de Scicile (demolished in 1858).  It had on the facade the Arms of Anjou together with those of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem.  His death brought to an end the golden era of the Dukes of Anjou, and precipitated a new series of battles for succession in Italy.  Bertrand II de la Jaille participated in the campaigns in Italy.  He returned to France in 1496 and died the same year.

 

The Renaissance in the Loire valley

 

The 16th century was marked in west France by the artistic, literary and architectural renaissance, with a strong Italian influence.   This was brought back by the entourages of René of Anjou and Francois I, and later by Catherine de' Medici, who married Henry II of France in 1533 (when they were both 14!).

 

The sons and grandsons of Bertrand II de la Jaille and Catherine were all involved in military campaigns in Italy and in the Royal Court in the Loire Chateaux. Their eldest son, Rene I died in 1515, a month after the battle of Marignan, and it is likely that he died of wounds.

 

This year marked the beginning of the renaissance in France.  Francois I was raised at Amboise, and during the first few years of his reign the château reached the pinnacle of its glory.  Leonardo da Vinci came to Château Amboise in December 1515 and lived and worked in the nearby Clos Lucé, connected to the château by an underground passage. King Henri II and his wife, Catherine de' Medici, raised their children in Château Amboise along with Mary Stuart, the child Queen of Scotland.  Francois I was crowned King in 1515 and was a major patron of the arts. He commissioned work by Andrea del Sarto, the goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, and the painters Rosso, Romano, Primaticcio and Leonardo da Vinci, who lived near the royal Court at Amboise in the last years of his life and brough many of his great works, such as the Mona Lisa.  He also bought works by Italian masters such as Michelangelo, Titian, and Raphael and shipped them to France. During Francis' reign that the magnificent art collection of the Louvre was assembled

It was not only Francois I himself that supported and collected renaissance art. Enourmous wealth was accumulated by the officials in his Court – most of whom built themselves magnificent renaissance Chateaux in the Loire valley:  The most notable of these are at Azay-le-Rideau, Villandry and Oiron, near Ranton:

The Chateau at Azay-le-Rideau was built by Gilles Berthelot, state treasurer of Francois I; The Chateau de Villandry was acquired in the early 1500’s by Jean Le Breton, Francois I’s Controller-General for War; The Château d'Oiron was re-built by Claude Gouffier, Head of the cavalry and stables (Royal equerry) Francois I and Henri II.

 

 

 

Rene II took part in the Italian campaign in 1539 and was made a Knight of the King' Order.  By the 1550s, Rene II was a Knight of the Order of St Michael (ordre de Saint-Michel), Senechal of Anjou, and a Gentleman of the court of Catherine de Medici.   He was at the height of his influence and is the first of the Lords of Ranton to have left us his likeness.  A pastel portrait of Rene, commissioned at the Court, is now in the Museum of Fine arts in Boston, USA.

 

In 1555, he was Captain General of the rear-guard of the French forces.  This had originally been an elite troupe, but was now little more than an undisciplined rabble of conscripts.  In the campaign in Picardy against the Spanish, Rene was captured and ransomed for 20,000 ECU.  This was a considerable sum and virtually ruined the family.  He sold the estates in Anjou and most of those in the Loudun area.  Ranton was one of the few estates he kept.  He died two years later, still fighting – with Marshal de Montmorency in their attempt to relieve St Quentin in 1557.  The title to Ranton, Bois Gourmond and Preaux passed to his son-in-law, Gabriel d'Apchon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

The French Wars of Religion

 

Gabriel, comte de Montgomery and Catherine de' Medici

 

In 1530, Rene II de la Jaille married Madeleine de Montgomery, sister of the Captain of the Scots Guards of Henry II of France.    Thirty years later, he accidentally killed Henri, and then emerged as one of the leaders of the Protestant forces in the wars of Religion.

 

In the summer of 1559, Catherine de Medici faced the future with foreboding.  The immediate prospects were good; her relationship with Henry II of France was better, even through she was still second in his affections after Diane de Poitiers.  Her eldest daughter was engaged to marry the King of Spain, but her two most respected astrologers foretold disaster.  Lucas Gaurie had warned her that her husband would lose his life in a duel around his fourtieth birthday.  He had just turned forty and was a devoted as ever to jousting.  Michel de Nostradame - Nostradamus - added his own obscure warning:

 

                        The young lion will overcome the old, in

                        a field of combat in a single fight, he will

                        pierce his eyes in a golden cage, two

                        wounds in one; then dies a cruel death.

 

A fabulous tournament was to be part of the wedding celebrations of both Elisabeth and Marguerite.  The paving was taken up in the square of St Antoine, near the Chateau des Tournelles in the Marais in Paris.  On 30th June 1559, it was very hot.  The Royal courts of France and Spain were all present.  Both Caterine and Diane de Poitiers took up their places in sumptuous robes, sparkling with jewels; Diane in her usual black, but for the first time in French silk.  Henri saluted them and was victorious in the first clash.  He faced his great rival, the Henri de Guise, Duc of Anjou, in the second.  Neither could gain an advantage.  Henri wouldn't withdraw on such an unsatisfactory result and demanded another challenger.  Nobody was keen. Who would want to be either thrown from a charging horse in full armour or face a furious King if it was he who lost?  Henri had to order the captain of his Scots Guards, Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, to face him.

 

One can imagine the anxiety with which Catherine would have watched the preparations.  The first clash left both still mounted, neither hurt.  They wheeled round for a second; took new lances, the horses nervous.  Their second charge was more furious than their first, both determined to make an end of it.  Gabriel's lance splintered on Henri's shield, the tip flew through the visor of Henri's helmet, and he collapsed on his horse's neck.  As he was lifted down, blood flowed from his golden helmet; his right eye gouged from its socket.  Nostradamus must have been pleased, but Gabriel fled to England.  Henri regained conciousness long enough to pardon him saying-"it was an accident, bad luck - let him come back". However, he died a few days later, despite (or because of) the experimental medical care from Ambroise Pare, the must famous French doctor of the time.

 

In 1562, in the 1^st French War of religion, Gabriel de Montgomery returned from England as a confirmed Calvinist, and allied himself with another Protestant convert, Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé. He took control of Bourges and during September and October defended Rouen from the Royal Army.   Catherine de' Medici was obsessed with the man who killed her husband and came to oversee the seige of Rouen herself, pacing the fortifications.  She was luckier that one of her companions.  Antoine de Bourbon was hit by a shot from an arquebus.  Amboise Pare was again on hand to treat him, but he died a few days later.  His son, Henry of Navarre, later Henry IV, became a leading protestant under his mother's influence, much to Catherine's displeasure.  When Rouen fell, Gabriel de Montgomery was one of a handful of men to escape by ship, again to England.

In 1572, Gabriel again re-appeared as one of the Huguenot leaders summoned to Paris to celebrate the marriage between Henry of Navarre and Caherine's daughter, Marguerite of Valois, known as Margot.  This was intended to cement a fragile peace between intransigent Catholics led by the Guise family and the Huguenots led by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. Four days after the reluctant wedding, there was a wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots, known as St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.  This was set of by the murder of de Colligny, believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici.  He was shot from the Paris Hotel of the Duc de Guise.  The shot broke his left arm and damaged his right hand, but he was then treated to Ambroise Pare's gruesome surgery and died a few days later.   Gabriel de Mongomery had already moved to Saint Germain, on the left bank of the Seine, and he was one of the few Huguenots to escape after a wounded colleague swam across the river to warn him that rioting had begun. A price was put on his head, but he managed to escape again to England.  For the next few years Catherine de' Medici repeatedly asked Queen Elizabeth I for his extradition, to which Elizabeth is reported to have replied "Tell the Queen Mother that I will not act as France's executioner."

A curious reminded of the marriage of Henri de Navarre and Margot is kept in the Chateau de Montreuil-Bellay[21], near Ranton.  Her wedding chest has on it the engraved medallions of the Huguenot leaders who had been invited to celebrate her wedding, and most of whom were murdered.

Montgomery returned to France with a fleet in a vain attempt to relieve La Rochelle in 1573 and the following year he attempted an insurrection in Normandy, but was captured and sentenced to death.  As he was about to be beheaded, Montgomery was informed that his property would be confiscated and his children deprived of their titles. He is reported to have said "Tell my children that if they can't restore what is taken away, then I damn them from the grave".  Montgomery's life features in Alexandre Dumas' novel The Two Dianas.

 

The reformation around Ranton

 

John Calvin was born in Noyon, Picardy and soon before 1560 his theological thesis was adopted in the seminary at Chatellerault.  The Protestant faith soon became that of the majority of the population in the area.  In Loudun, most of the population rejected the corruption and rigidities of the Catholic Church.  Along with Saumur and La Rochelle, Loudun became a bastion of the emerging Protestant movement. Calvin had numerous converts at in all these towns and in Poitiers, but the divisions between Catholics and Protestants soon generated the French Wars of Religion.  In 1559, delegates from 66 Calvinist congregations in France met at Paris in a national synod which drew up common articles of faith and a book of disciplines.  Thus was became the first national Protestant church of France, and its members were known as Huguenots

 

The reaction by the Catholic faction led by the House of Guise in the Royal court was almost immediate.  The King, tried to re-impose Catholic disciplines, and tensions boiled over in 1562.  On 1st March, Henri duc de Guise led assembled Catholic forces in the massacre of the village of Wassy-sur-Blaise in Champagne.

 

In Loudun, the predominantly Protestant inhabitants took control of the town; and they were not the only ones to take such precautions. In the subsequent First War of religion, the protestants were led by Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, who organised a kind of protectorate over the Protestant churches and garrisoned strategic towns along the Loire. In February 1563, at Orléans, Francis, Duke of Guise was assassinated, and Catherine negotiated a truce and the Edict of Amboise.  To re-establish the King's authority, Catherine took Carles IX around France and on 26th September 1565 he made his official entry into Loudun.  In an attempt at compromise, the King agreed to limited religious tolerance.

 

However, in 1568, Henri de Lorraine and de Guise and Catherine's son Francois, Duke of Anjou, now champions of the Catholics, arrived at the gates of Loudun with a large Catholic army.  The defenses of Loudun were rapidly reinforced by the protestant forces led by Henri of Navarre (later Henri IV)[22]. Henri Duke d'Anjou (later King Henry III) retreated to Chinon, but the protestant forces abandoned Loudun because it was too exposed to defend.  The Catholic forces occupied the town on 25th January 1569.

 

At the Battle of Jarnac (16^th March 1569), the Prince de Condé was killed, forcing Admiral de Coligny (Gaspard II de Coligny) to take command of the Protestant forces.  The Battle of La Roche-l'Abeille was a nominal victory for the Calvinists, but they were unable to seize control of Poitiers.  On the 28^th February, Protestant cavalry sacked and burnt the Abbey at St Jouin de Marnes[23] and in September, the Duc d'Anjou's Catholic army marched towards Moncontour.  This was in the hands of a new Protestant army commanded by Admiral Coligny, which occupied Loudun in 1569.  On 3^rd October, the Catholic army faced the Protestant army on the lands of the Abbey of St Jouin.  The Battle of Moncontour[24] was the first battle in France with ordered ranks of troops, and was particularly bloody.  Of the 50,000 participants in the battle, 17,000 are believed to have perished.  The slaughter of men and horses was such that even in the 19th and 20th centuries, large numbers of horse shoes re-emerged from the marshes of the Dive.  The battlefield, a plain between the rivers Dive and Thouet at Moncontour, 15 kilometers south-west of Ranton, is still known as the ruddy valley; "Vallée Rouget".  On the evening of the battle, the funeral pyres so lit up the sky that, according to local legends, the sun set twice.  It was a Catholic victory, but by no means ended the conflict or the influence of the protestant faith in the area of Loudun, Saumur and La Rochelle. Coligny and his troops retreated to the south-west and regrouped with Gabriel, comte de Montgomery.

 

 

An armistice was signed in 1570, and the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye once more gave religious freedom in some areas, but the fragile peace was soon shattered.

 

 

 

 

 

Religious wars round Ranton

 

On 24th July 1572, St Bartholemy's day, a few days after the marriage of Catherine de Medici's daugther to Henri de Navarre, the Protestant leaders were massacred in Paris in an event known as St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.  Margot's wedding chest is in the Chateau de Montreil Bellay, abour 20 kms noth-west of Loudun.  The medallion images of the murdered Protestant wedding guests are an uncomfortable reminder of the treachery of those times.

 

In 1574, Charles IX died and was succeded by Henri duc d'Anjou, as Henri III, victor at Moncontour and defender of the Catholic faith.  However, the Protestant faith was far from extinguished.  In 1576, the King signed the Edict of Beaulieu, granting minor concessions to the Calvinists, but his action resulted in the Catholic Henry I, Duke of Guise forming the Catholic League. Violence again erupted in Loudun in 1577.  Protestants took control of the town and pillaged the houses of prominent Catholic families.  The garrison only regained control on 3rd March, when they promptly demolished the Protestant temple.  At the end of the Sixth War (1576-1577), after much posturing and negotiations, Henry III was forced to rescind most of the concessions that had been made to the Protestants in the Edict of Beaulieu with the Treaty of Bergerac (also known as the "Edict of Poitiers").  This again ensured religious freedom to Protestants in some "safe towns".

 

In 1584, Henry III of France ordered the demolition of the great tower of Philippe Auguste, the towers and bastions of the citadelle, and the Palace of the Ducs/Kings of Anjou and Sicily.  The man charged with supervising the work was Captain Francois du Plessis de Richelieu, father of Cardinal Richelieu who would later finish the job.

 

It was not enough.  Ten years later, in 1587, Henri of Navarre, still leader of the Protestants arrived at Loudun with a modest army, but nevertheless strong enough to defeat the rapidly assembled Catholic forces on 26th October.  The Protestant faith again dominated in Loudun.  As has happened many times since, religious tensions gave birth to extremists.  The Catholic Ligue emerged as a "fundamentalist" movement, determined to re-impose a rigorous interpretation of the Catholic faith.  In 1589, Henri III, in an attempt to avoid a greater conflict, accepted an alliance with Henri de Navarre and they jointly took arms against the Ligue. The situation degenerated into the Eighth War (1585-1589), which (as the head of the Guise family was also a Henry), is sometimes called the "War of the Three Henrys.

 

By an extraordinary twist of fate, Henri III was assassinated at St Cloud on 1st August 1589 by the mad monk Jacques Clément, and Henri de Navarre became Henry IV of France thanks to being part of the "Valois dynasty" and his earlier forced marriage with Margot.  France now had a protestant King, with his stronghold at Loudun, and in declared conflict with the fundamentalist Ligue.  The Ligue army arrived at Loudun in October, under Anne de Joyeuse (whose brother had already been killed by Henri de Navarre).  Again the Protestants considered the town too exposed for protracted defence and abandoned it to its fate.  It almost certainly would have been sacked and pillaged but for the pleading of one of its most extraordinary inhabitants:  Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, one of the greatest Latin poets of the rennaissance.

 

One can well imagine the consternation in Loudun when in 1593 Henri IV converted to catholisism under pressure from the Pope (Paris vaut bien une messe) and permanently renounced Protestantism.  He himself might change sides, but the people of Loudun were not so easily converted.  Fortunately, Henri still had considerable sympathy for their faith.  In 1596, he gave permission for a great assembly of reformed churches to meet in Loudun.  It was from this meeting that the general term "Protestant" emerged to cover the variety of reformed alternatives to Catholicism.  The assembly demanded freedom of religion everywhere and on 20th June 1596 issued the "Sermon of Loudun" - "Nous protestons de maintenir de tout notre pouvoir ce que nous avons delibere de conscience....".  The wars of religion formally came to an end with the Edict of Nantes, issued on April 30, 1598 by Henry IV of France which was a grudging truce between the religions, with guarantees for both sides.

 

 

Links to the Chateaux du Puy du Fou and Riveau

 

Rene II de la Jaille had a single daughter - Francoise de la Jaille. She married Gabriel d'Apchon - linking two of the great feudal families - The d'Apchon family having extensive estates in the Auvergne. When Rene de la Jaille was killed in 1557 (at the battle of St Quentin), Gabriel became the lord of Roche Talbot as well as of Ranton, and numerous other properties in the Loire and Auvergne.

 

Their eldest son, Charles d'Apchon married for a first time in 1576 to Francoise de Vendomois, but she died four years later. He married a second time in September 1581 with Louise de Chastillon d'Argenton (Part of the family de Chastillon (maison de Coligny)[25]. They had a daughter - Renee d'Apchon, and a son, Andre, born early in 1589.

 

Charles was Captain of a troop of about 50 Men at Arms, and was frequently in battles. In July 1589, he was killed in the assault of St Saturnin in the Auvergne. On his death, Louise, Renee and Andre fixed their main residence at Roche-Talbot. She had considerable debts and great difficulties with managing her estates, and married again in 1595 - with Gilbert du Puy du Fou, also known as "de Commeronde", the 2nd son of Rene du Puy du Fou. She retained the feudal rights to the estates of Ranton in her second marriage contract.

 

Louise's son Andre took his mother's name of de Chastillon when she remarried with Gilbert du Puy du Fou in 1595.  On the death of his step father, in 1609, Andre de Chatillon became Marquis D'Argenton, Lord of Ranton, Moncontour, Bouville, La Jaille, Beuxes, Bois-Rouge and other estates.  He had married Marie Margerite Gouffier, strengthening his existing family links to the Goufier's in the Château d'Oiron.

 

Louise's first daughter, Renee, married Jacques II de Beauvan du Rivau on the 30th June 1610. The Château du Rivau[26] remained their prefered home, and she died there in 1612, without children. However, her mother, Louise, who had lost her second husband three years earlier, took this opportunity to transfer the feudal rights for Roche-Talbot to Jacques de Beauvan du Rivau. She retained only Bois Gourmont, Ranton and Preaux - for which she re-swore allegience to the King on 4th July 1613.

 

About 1620, Louise died, and her second daughter (with Gilbert Puy du Fou), Isabelle du Puy du Fou, inherited the titles to Ranton, Bois Gourmont and Preaux and exercised the rights of "high, middle and low justice" in the Ranton until 1628. She was married (to Charles de la Touche), but when he died in 1624, she retired to a nunnery.

 

In 1631, when she died, the Château de Ranton had been bought by Paul Aubin, nephew of the duc de Sully.  He also aquired various estates in the area: Bourneuf, La Jaille and others. 

 

 

The destruction of Loudun

 

!n the summer of 1616, Louis XIII of France, still only 15, managed his coup d'etat and imprisoned his mother, Marie de' Medici.  Richelieu was exiled to Avignon.  In February 1619 Marie escaped and took refuge at Loches.   Civil war seemed inevitable, with the King against his mother.   To avoid it, Louis recalled Richelieu, and his diplomatic skills again triumphed.  The Treaty of Aungouleme excluded Marie from the Royal Court, but gave her the Governership of Anjou.

 

The General Assembly of Protestants was again re-convened in Loudun in September 1619.  Louis saw it as a safety valve for Protestant aspirations, but the Protestants had greater ambitions.  They ordered the raisinf of troops; siezed Royal taxes, and provided Protestant France with a civil administration and military leadership. This made it a three-sided struggle for power in France: Louis with his Royal authority contested by Protestant leaders such as the ducs of Tremoille and Henri de Rohan in Poitou, and by Marie who was again assembling the Ultras around her new court in Angers. 

 

Louis' first priority was to deal with his mother. He left Paris in July 1619 with 7000 troops and within a month had occupied the crossing of the Loire at the Ponts de Ce just above Angers.  Again Richelieu was called on to draft the Treaty of Angers.  In it, Louis agreed to Marie's return to the Royal Court, and to support Richelieu when the next vacancy as a Cardinal should arise.  With this, Louis could devote his complete attention to the Protestants.  On 18 August, he arrived at Loudun.  Here, and subsequently at Poitiers, Thouars, Mirebeau and Saumur, he was assured of the loyalty of his subjects, but it was an uneasy and grudging peace.

 

In 1622, he felt confident enough for a showdown.  He took Rohan by force and installed Jean d'Armagnac as Governor of Loudun with full authority "in the eventuality that the fortress' demolition is decided".  In September, a vacancy in the Curia finally allowed him to keep his promise at Angers: Richelieu was nominated as Cardinal.  In 1624, Richelieu was recalled to the Government as Prime Minister.  He swore to "use all his industry and authority to ruin the Huguenots, destroy the pride of the great, reduce all subjects to their duty, and to raise the King's reputation in all foreign countries to its just level".

 

In January 1630, Louis XIII signed an Order for the demolition of the fortress of Loudun - towers, walls, moats, everything except the keep and the square tower of Fouques Nerra.  Jean Martin de Laubardemont was named Commissioner to oversee the work.  The demoloition was complete in December 1632.  Despite strong protests by the Governor and the people, on 6th August 1633, the King ordered the destruction of the Keep.  It was gone by October, and soon even the knowledge of its location was lost (The foundations were re-discovered only in 1944, when defence works in the 2nd World War uncovered them).  The next year, 1634, the Salt loft, an important symbol of the status of the town, was transferred to Richelieu:  It was only re-established in Loudun in 1777.

 

 

 

The new town of Richelieu

 

About 1625, Cardinal Richelieu decided to transform his modest family home into a palace befitting his new status.  In 1628, in a rather over-enthusiastic interpretation of the King's orders, he destroyed the fortress of Loudun, leaving only the old "Square tower".  The town of Richelieu was the beneficiary.  The stones from the fortifications at Loudun were reused to build this remarkable example of 17th century architecture.  The excellent straight road from Loudun to Richelieu was built at this time to ease the problems of transporting the enormous amounts of stone.  Work on the palace and town took over ten years because of the unsuitable nature of the marshy ground.  The town is laid out on a strict geometrical grid, 700 meters long and 500 wide.  It is surrounded by ramparts and a moat, now gardens.  Of particular interest are the 28 town houses in the main street, all in the style of Louis XIII.  Only the housekeeper's cottage and the Orangerie now remain in the vast park of the Château.  Richelieu didn't hesitate in his lifetime to destroy the neighbouring châteaux to add to the glory of his own, but all its splendours were dispersed in the Revolution and the château itself was taken down and sold stone-by-stone in the 19th century.

 

 

Plague in Loudun

 

Plagues had been periodic sourges of the region since the fifteenth century:  Notable outbreaks were recorded in Loudun in 1482, 1510, 1516, 1531, 1563 (when 3623 people died and the plague was followed by famine, in 1597 and in 1603.

 

In April 1632, the worst “great” plague reached Loudun and the surrounding areas.  By 7th May, the situation was already so serious that a General Assembly was called to adopt emergency measures.  It ordered that no pigs, pigeons, rabbits or cats were to be kept in the city;  every citizen was to sweep the street outside their house daily; all housholds were to dig latrines, and there was to be no fouling of the streets;  no rubbish was to  be thrown out of windows, day or night; the city was closed to beggars, and those already present were forbidden to meet in groups of more than two at a time!

 

 Even these draconian measures didn't stop the plague.  On 12th May, all auctions and sale of clothing were banned; court cases were suspended, and the market was moved outside the city.

 

By 23rd June, the outbreak seemed to have run its course, but with the hotter weather it kept claiming new victims trhroughout the summer.  Their houses were fumigated with burning branches of hawthorn, campher, lavender and mint.  The outbreak eased slowly through the autumn of 1632 and was over by mid-1633.  By this time it had carried of 3700 of the 14,000 inhabitants of Loudun.

 

 

Demonic possessions in Loudun[28]

 

Cardinal Richelieu was also a man who bore grudges; forever, or at least until he had won.  This led to one of the most extraordinary and tragic witchcraft scandals of the seventeenth century.  This was no ordinary case of suspected possession.  At this time in France, and throughout Western Europe, some hundreds of suspected witches were tortured and killed every year for what now seem improbable crimes.  Most were of no more than local interest and were soon forgotten.  In 1632, the case of the possessions in Loudun was different.  Not only were seventeen cases of apparent possession eventually involved, but the highest authorities in France became embroiled.

 

The prime cause was the priviliged status of Loudun, a royal city, with a powerful fortress, considerable administrative autonomy, but since the late 16th century a stronghold of Protestantism.  The immediate cause was the earthly conflict between two ambitious men, Cardinal Richelieu and Urbain Grandier.

 

In the night of 21-22 September 1632, evil spirits apparently possessed seven Ursuline nuns in Loudun.  A first series of exorcisms on 4-5th October had no effect.  A second exorcism, in the presence of the Bishop of Poitiers and the King's representatives, on 11th October was more enlightening:  The spirits gave their names and claimed to have gained possession of the nuns through the influence of Urbain Grandier.  Jeanne des Anges, the most spectacularly possessed, by no less than seven demons, was unshakable in her accusations, but not everyone was convinced.  Her demonic possessors had a rather poor grasp of Latin and Greek, when every self-respecting devil should speak both as a mother tongue.  As the exorcisms continued, it was obvious to the investigating officials that the apparent possessions were pretence and a deliberate attempt by the nuns to blacken Grandier's name.  However, despite their initial report, the exorcisms and investigations continued with Gandier's enemies reinforced by the abbots of Champigny and Thouars.

 

Grandier was not without support.  The Governor of Loudun managed to interest Queen Anne of Austria in his case;  On 10th December 1632 he appealed to Parliament in Paris; and on the 12th, the King's inspectors asked the Bishop of Poitiers to send the exorcists home - and to forbid them entry to the convent in Loudun for six months during which 'the evil spirits will fly away'.  The Bishop of Poitiers didn't even reply.

 

The symptoms of possession did disappear for a few months in early 1633, but the nun's obsession with Urbain Grandier took stronger root.  The nuns also aquired a new champion:  Laubardemont, the King's envoy to oversee the demolition of the fortress had two sisters-in -law in the Ursuline Convent.  Having destoyed the fortress of Loudun as a threat to the King, he now set about the destruction of Urbain Grandier as a thorn in the side of Cardinal Richelieu.  He brought the persistent diabolic disturbances in Loudun to the attention of Louis XIII and Richelieu at Rueil Malmaison in November 1633.  The King gave Laubardemont full powers to re-open an enquiry and to judge what now became the 'Affair of possession' in Loudun.

 

Laubardemont brought an order for Gandier's arrest to Loudun on 6th December 1633.  He may have stayed with Paul Aubin, Lord of Ranton. The next day, the order was served on Grandier as he entered the Church of St Croix by his host's son:  Guillaume Aubin.

 

By now, seventeen Ursuline nuns claimed to be possessed, as well as two lay sisters, one of which was the Queen's ropemaker.  All accused Grandier as the instrument of their possession.  Worse, the all-powerful Laubardemont didn't hesitate to bribe and intimidate witnesses to reinforce the case against him.

 

On 14th April 1634, the first great confrontation of the possessed and their supposed possessor took place.  All the nuns identified Grandier as their tormentor and possessor and their convulsions re-doubled in strength.  The four main churches of Loudun were all now dedicated to ceremonies of exorcism.  One of the spirits in Jeanne des Anges was persuaded to borrow the covenant that Grandier had signed with the Devil, from the Devil's own cabinet.  The bloody mark of Grandier's thumb on the paper was the final proof needed.  Grandier's two brothers were arrested and imprisoned.

 

A second confrontation was organised of 23rd June 1634.  This time, everybody in the region, and some from the furthest corners of France, were there to watch.  The crowd was so great the the procession of the nine possessed nuns took over an hour to cover the 200 metres from the convent to St Croix.  This second public exorcism was no more convincing than the first and only widened the gulf between the convinced and the sceptics.  Laubardement nevertheless moved to the last act:  A tribunal of judges was convened.  It included magistrates from Tours, Poitiers, Orleans, Chinon and Chatellerault.  Their task was to review the 5000 pages of evidence amassed by Laubardement.  They had 18 days.

 

On 31st July, the judges carried out their own ceremonies of exorcism.  They satisfied themselves of the diabolic possessions and again heard from the 'witnesses' of Grandier's magnetic powers.  At this 11th hour, the three original possessed nuns retracted their testimony; claiming never to have been possessed and to have falsly accused Grandier.  It was too late:  The judges saw this as a final ruse by the Devil to save Grandier.

 

This was too much for the people of Loudun.  They held a General Assembly and sent their ballif to petition the King to stop the abuses and deformations of Grandier and Loudun.  The King wasn't interested and Laubardement prohibited any more Assemblies.  After a final hearing, at which Grandier put up a fighting defense, he was pronounced guilty on 18th August:  Guilty of practising magic, malefice and possession in the name of the Devil.  Even under torture to extract the names of his accomplices, Grandier didn't crack and he was burnt at the stake in the Place St Croix at 5pm in the afternoon.

 

The possessions continued for four more years until a degegation from the Sorbonne returned such a scathing report on the credulity of the 'country bumpkins' of Loudun and their attrocious latin of the supposed demons, that interest and the symptoms of possession disappeared.  The damage to the reputation of Loudun and to the mental health of its citizens was enormous.  Father Lactance who had carried out the torture and lit Grandier's funeral pyre, died insane within a month.  Others of his accusers and tormentors soon died, also insane.  Grandier emerged in due course more as a Saint than a partner of the Devil, and he was certainly convinced of his imminent accession to heaven when he died.

 

The Huguenot emigrations

Paul AUBIN died in 1644.  His son, Henri, became Lord of Ranton and, like most of his predecessors, he followed a career in the army.  By 1650, he was a Major of a Regiment of Dragoons.  His wife was no doubt left to look after his daughter and the estates, while he took part in the continuing religious wars. His Daughter, Marie Aubin, married Christofe LE SESNE de MENILLE, Lord of Menille and Veniers in 1665.  Their eldest son, Louis-Charles, was born the following year.  A daughter, Marie Scholastique, and a second son, Jean-Baptiste, came along soon afterwards.

 

 

For most people, these were times of great misery in the area around Loudun.  In 1675 to 1677, hail destroyed most of the harvest - both of wine and wheat, the two staple crops of the area.  The famile and poverty was so great that many died of left.  Of the 3000 households in and around Loudun in 1670, only 1000 remained by 1677.  In 1685, Edict of Nantes, guaranteeing religious freedom, was annulled.  The region was still a Protestant stronghold, and over two-thirds of the population fled.  Many went to the south of England, the nearest haven, but many made the much more perilous journey to the new Arcadia in Canada[30] and to the USA[31]. 

 

Louis-Charles LE SESNE, Lord of Bourdin in his own right, married Eustache-Henriette de Buade in 1685.  She was probably the Daughter of Louis de Buade de Frontenac, who was a protestant French courtier and Governor General of New France from 1672 to 1682 and from 1689 to his death in 1698, so was in France at the time of the wedding. 

 

A first son for Louis-Charles and Eustache-Henriette was born in March the following year.  He was baptised Charles-Henri Le Sesne de Menille de Themars on the 15 March in the church of St Pierre in Loudun.  Within weeks, his grandfather died and Louis-Charles swore alliegence for Ranton on 27 May 1686.  Befitting his status, he took the title of Baron of Ranton. 

 

The 18^th Century

 

The castle at Curcay was already in ruins by 1700 and natural calamaties continued to afflict the region:  In 1710, hail again devastated the spring shoots of wheat in the fields, and on the 6^th September 1711, an earthquake cracked the tower at Moncontour, finished the demolition of the walls of Loudun and destroyed the main church. France's "Archives Nationales" contain a fine architect's report on a church damaged by this Poitou-Touraine earthquake.

 

Charles-Henri had to wait 33 years until 1719 before he inherited the title, but he died four years later.  He had no children, and the title passed to his younger brother, Jean Baptiste Le Sesne de Menille.  Like many second sons at the time, the church offered the best chance of security, and Jean-Baptiste was already an established Janseniste Priest.  He combined this with his duties as Lord of Ranton, Pas de Jeu, Riveau, la Jaille and other estates until his death at Utrecht in 1775, but left no heir.

 

In 1776, the Chateau de Ranton and the estates that went with it were sold to the Marquis Michel-Ange de Castellane, Brigadier in the King's army and his Ambassador Extraordinary.  He had also bought the Château de Villandry in 1754. In 1783 the estate passed to his son Esprit-Francois-Henri de Castellane, Marshal to the King's Camp and Chevalier d'Honneur to Sophie, Princess of France; the youngest daughter of Louis XVI of France and his Queen consort, Marie Antoinette.  The Château de Ranton was abandoned for a few years during the Revolution and "Great Fear".

 

 

 

 

 

The 19^th and 20^th centuries

In 1799, year VIII of the revolution, on the 27^th Vendémiaire[34], the Marshall died and ownership of the Chateau de Ranton passed to the Marshall's daughter, Mme Aglae de Castellane[35].  She was already the widow of Mr d'Ome. Terrible stoms devastated the region around Loudun in 1802, and Loudun was left with less than five thousand inhabitants in the 19th century.

 

In 1824, ownership passed to her daughter, the widow of the Count of Centader.  She sold it to the priest of Ranton, Abbé Aubineau on 8 September 1844.

 

Abbé Aubineau did much to preserve the Château and to rekindle interest in the shrine of "La bonne Dame de Ranton". This chapel, which dated from the 14^th century, contained a small statue of the Virgin which had apparently been found by a wood-cutter at this spot.  The legend was that he took it home, but it returned to its original place, three times.  In the revolution, the chapel was sold as public property[36].  It was bought by a magistrate, M. Havard, who donated it to the Diocese.  It was re-built as a larger church in 1871[37] through the efforts of the Reverend Pere Briant, an architect and organiser of one of the first pilgrimages to Lourdes.  The larger church gave a new impetus to pilgrimages to Ranton, which had been a regular feature of life in the middle ages.

 

The Chateau Chapel, dedicated to St Leonard, was given to the village by Abbé Aubineau to serve as the Parish church in 1862.  The deed of gift was written into the Commune records on the 25th January that year. In his will, he left the Chateau of Ranton to his great nephews.  They sold it at auction on December 5th 1889. 

 

Many of the rooms around the moat were inhabited well into the 19th century, and some were still inhabited in the 1920, within living memory of people in the village.  In 1900, the population of Ranton still numbered about 600, mainly engaged in viticulture and stone extraction.  The miners, known as "pions", still used traditional methods, using wetted wooden stakes to break off blocks, and their unfinished work is still visible in some of the excavations around the moat.

 

The only bidder at the auction in 1889 was the schoolmaster of the neighbouring village of Curçay, Mr. Manson.  By this time the Château was still habitable, but much of it was little more than a ruin.  Like many similar properties throughout France, it fell to the local schoolmaster to preserve as well as he could the vestiges of the past.  Mr. Manson is still remembered in the village as a severe and eccentric recluse.  One of the main towers of the entrance collapsed in 1942 and on his death, in April that year, M. Manson left the estate to his housekeeper and his nephew.

 

The Chateau was bought in 1964 by Mr and Mrs Piechaud.  He was a sculptor and undertook most of the substantial restoration and reconstruction of the walls and towers.  He had great respect for the forms and styles of the various parts of the Chateau, and the quality of the restoration work is remarkable for the time. 

 

Every owner of the Chateau has left their own particular mark on it, either in its buildings or in the memory of the people in the village.  It was difficult to pin down the slight reticence about the Piechauds until we discovered that, even in the 1960s the memories of the Second World War were still fresh.  The rumour in the village was that Mr Piechaud had been a volunteer worker[38] in Germany during the war - there was little choice in fact; one could either volunteer or be sent, but conditions for the volunteer were better.  Not only did his choice count against him on his return after the war, but he brought back a German wife.  One can imagine the feelings of some of the older inhabitants in the village when they saw their Chateau with Franco-german owners only 20 years after the area had been occupied by German troops.  One can also appreciate the courage of Mme Piechaud in coming to a small village conscious of the feelings that would be aroused.

 

The Piechauds took on other restorations at the end of the 1960s and the Chateau at Ranton was sold in 1969 to Mr and Mrs Fonteneau, wealthy publishers in Poitiers.  The Fonteneaus took on the re-furnishing of the Chateau in the Louis XIII style.  Much of the furniture now in the Chateau was collected by him. 

 

In 1972 the Chateau was sold to an American couple from Arizona, Mr and Mrs Baker.  They were relatively infrequent visitors, coming to Ranton only a few weeks each year.  Little was changed in the Chateau during the 1970s and 1980s and parts of the land around the Chateau were abandoned, although the main structure was well maintained.  Mr Baker died in 1986 and his wife never returned.  She died in 1987.

 

The Chateau and surrounding land was acquired from the estate of the Baker family in October 1989 by the present owners.

 

Date    Owner/Lord                            Major events                          Kings of France

 

 

 

1337                                                    Beginning of the hundred years war       Phillipe IV

 

1340    Guillaume de GOURMONT

            Lord of RANTON

            Prevost of Paris

 

            Reconstruction of the existing fort

 

1345    Marriage of his daughter, Jeanne

            to Jean DE LA JAILLE: The Chateau

            was included in her dowry.

 

1346                                                    Battle of Crecy

 

1350                                                                                                                Jean II

 

1356                                                    Battle of Nouaille Maupertuis

 

1360                                                    Poitiers taken by English forces

 

1364                                                                                                                Charles V[39]

 

1370                                                    Poitiers retaken by Duguesclin

 

1373    Death of Jeanne Gourmont

            Tristan III DE LA JAILLE swears

            alliegence for Ranton

 

1380                                                                                                                Charles VI[40]

 

1384    Death of Tristan III at Bari

            Tristan IV DE LA JAILLE swears

            allegiance for Ranton

 

1394    Feudal rights over Ranton sold

            by Marie de Blois, Duchesse d'Anjou

            and wife of Louis Ist of Anjou,

            to the Patriache Simon de GRAMANT

 

1395    Gift of the feudal rights to Dame Orable de MAULEON

            wife of Sir Huet ODART, Knight.

            The ODART family were also lords of Curcay,

            Sammarcoles, Champory and Lagrange-Folet

 

 

1405    Death of Jean DE LA JAILLE.

 

1415    Robert DE LA JAILLE                        Battle of Agincourt

            killed.

 

1422                                                                                                                Charles VII[41]

 

1429                                                                Jean d'Arc accepted at Poitiers

 

1430    Bertrand de la Jaille

            Lord of Ranton, on the

            death of his father.

 

1453                                                                End of the hundred years war

 

1456    Bertrand II de la Jaille

            succeeds his father as

            Lord of Ranton

            Chamberlain to the king of Sicily.

 

1461                                                                                                                Louis XI

 

1483                                                                                                                Charles VIII

 

1496    René DE LA JAILLE,

            Lord of la Jaille, Ranton,

            Beuxes and la Roche-Talbot;

            Married to Jeanne de HERISSON

 

 

1498                                                                                                                Louis XII

 

 

1515    René II DE LA JAILLE                                                            Francois Ist

            Knight of the Order of St Michael,

            senechal of Anjou, Gentleman of

            the court of Catherine de Medici.

            Knight, Captain general of

            the rear-guard of the French army

            Married Madelaine de Montgomery.

 

?                                                          Chateau of Azay le Rideau built

 

            Francoise de la Jaille

            daughter of Rene II,

            marries Gabriel d'Apchon

 

1547                                                                                                                Henri II

 

1557    Gabriel d'Apchon

            Lord of Ranton on the

            death of his father-in-law

 

1559                                                                                                                Francois II

                                                                                                            (husband of Mary Stuart)

 

1560                                                                                                                Charles IX

 

1569                                                                Battle of Moncontour

 

1574                                                                                                                Henri III

 

1580    Charles d'APCHON

            inherits the title to

            Ranton from his father.

 

1581    Marriage of Charles d'APCHON

            to Louise de CHATILLON

 

1589                                                                                                                Henri IV

            Birth of Andre de CHATILLON

            Death of Charles d'APCHON

 

1595    Louise de CHATILLON remarries

            with Gilbert du PUY DU FOU.

            She remains the Lady of La Jaille,

            Ranton, Bois Gourmont et Preaux

 

1610                                                                                                                Louis XIII

 

1625    Death of Gilbert du PUY DU FOU

            André de CHATILLON becomes

            Marquis d'Argenton, Lord of

            RANTON, Moncontour, Bouville,

            La Jaille, Beuxes, Bois-Rouge....

            His wife is Marie Margerite GOUFFIER

 

1628                                                                Destruction of the Chateau de

                                                                        Loudun by Richelieu

 

1631    Purchase of Ranton by Paul AUBIN,

            Lord of Ranton, Bourneuf, La Jaille..

            and Huissier to the King.

            His wife is Lady Louise MESMIN-SILLY

 

1643                                                                                                                Louis XIV

 

1644    Death of Paul AUBIN.

            His son, Henri, becomes Lord

            of Ranton. He was a major of a regiment

            of dragoons

 

            Towers rebuilt

 

1665    Marriage of Marie AUBIN,

            presumably the daughter of Henri,

            to Christofe LE SESNE de MENILLE

            Lord of Menille and Veniers

 

1666    Birth of Louis-Charles LE SESNE de MENILLE

 

            Birth of a daughter, Marie Scholastique

 

            Louis Charles LE SESNE, Lord of

            Bourdin, marries Eustache-Henriette de BUADE.

 

            Birth of Jean-Baptiste LE SESNE, 4 Janvier.

 

1686    Charles-Henri LE SESNE de MENILLE de THEMARS

            baptised the 15 March in the

            church of St Pierre in Loudun

            Swears allegiance for Ranton

            on 27 May: Baron of Ranton

 

1715                                                                                                                Louis XV

 

1719    Charles-Henri LE SESNE

            recognised as Lord of Ranton

 

1723    Jean Baptiste LE SESNE de MENILLE de THEMARS

            A Janseniste Priest, Lord of Ranton,

            Pas de Jeu, Riveau, la Jaille ...

 

            Death of Jean-Baptiste LE SESNE at Utrecht without heirs.

 

1774                                                                                                                Louis XVI

 

1776    Purchase of the Chateau de Ranton by

            Michel-Ange de CASTELLANE, on the 26th August;

            Brigadier in the Kings Army

            and his ambassador extraordinary

 

1783    Death of Michel-Ange de CASTELLANE

            Esprit-Francois-Henri de CASTELLANE,

            his brother, becomes Lord Baron of Ranton,

            Charzay and other places.

            He was in the Kings Army, the

            chevalier d'honneur of Madame Sophie

            (the Princess of France), Governor of

            the town and Chateau of Niort.

 

1789                                                                            French Revolution

 

1792                                                                            1st Republic

 

1793                                                                            Death of Louis XVI

 

1795                                                                            The "Directoire"

 

1797    Madame de CASTELLANE,

            daughter of Esprit-Francois-Henri,

            inherits the Chateau de Ranton.

 

1799                                                                            Consulat, Bonaparte the 1st consul

 

1802                                                                                                                Napoleon 1st

1804                                                                                                                Empereur

 

1814                                                                                                                Louis XVIII

 

1815                                                                            Battle of Waterloo

 

1824                                                                                                                Charles X

 

            Madame d'OME, daughter of

            Madame de CASTELLANE,

            inherits the Chateau de Ranton.

 

1830                                                                                                    Louis-Philippe 1st

 

1844    Abbot AUBINEAU, the priest of

            Ranton, purchases the Chateau

            on the 8th September.

 

1848                                                                            2nd Republic

 

1852                                                                                                                Napoleon III

 

1862    Donation of the chapel

            to the commune of RANTON

 

1870                                                                            3rd Republic

 

1889    Death of Abbot AUBINEAU

            His great nephews inherit

            the Chateau, then sell it in

            auction on the 5th December.

 

            Purchase by Mr MANSON,

            schoolmaster at Curcay

 

1914    Transept of the church built

                                                                                    1st World war

 

1939                                                                            2nd World War

 

1940                                                                            German occupation

                                                                                    French State

 

1942    Death of Mr MANSON

            His nephew and housekeeper

            inherit the Chateau de Ranton.

 

            Tower collapses

 

1946                                                                            4th Republic

 

1950                                                                            Creation of the European Community

 

1958                                                                            5th republic

 

1964    Purchase of the Chateau by

            Mr and Mrs PIECHAUD

            Renovation starts

 

1969    Purchase of the Chateau by

            Mr and Mrs FONTENEAU,

            Director of a publishing

            house in Poitiers

 

            Re-furnishing of the Chateau

 

1972    Purchase of the Chateau by

            Mr and Mrs BAKER; Americans

            from Arisona.

 

1989    Purchase of the Chateau by

            Mrs BUTLER, Mr and Mrs MORRIS

            and Mr JOHNSTON.

 

1990    Renovation re-started.

 

 

The de la Jaille family is distantly related to our own royal family in Great Britain.  Anne de la Jaille married Jean POUSSARD in ....  Their granddaughter, Jacqueline, married Alexander Desmier in ...., and their daughter Eleonore married George ZELL.  He was the father of Sophie-Dorethee I, Queen of England as the wife of George Ist.  The present Royal family is of course descended from George Ist, through George II, his son Frederic-Louis, George II, Edward VI, Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George V and George VI.