St Martin of Tours

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.  Saint Martin provided them.

He 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 Hillary.  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 of La Bonne Dame de Ranton.

With the support of Hillary, Martin founded the first monastery in 360, at Ligugé, 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 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 Merovingians

Clovis Ist, 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 Hillary 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 Hillary's support was shown by a column of fire over his sanctuary in Poitiers.  The armies met at Voire, to the west of Poitiers.  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 remnant 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.  This was the traditional law of the German tribes.  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 years 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 size 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. 

Charles Martell 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 Martell, 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 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.  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 Plantagenets (1000 A.D. to 1206 A.D)

Loudun dominates the main routes from north to south and east to west.  The "Square tower" of Loudun was built in 1040 by Foulques Nerra, the first "Plantagenet".  This name, which became such a part of English history, has its origins in the area:  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.  Even this attempt failed, but it earned him the nickname of "Plante a genêt".  Gorse became the family emblem.

The link between the region and England was established in the 12th century, largely through the lives of two remarkable people; Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henri Plantagenêt.  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.  Eleanor married Henri Plantagenêt at Poitiers eight weeks later.  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 of Aquitaine retired and died and is buried there. From 1155 to 1793, an unbroken succession of abbesses ruled over the foundation.

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.  Her husband, Henry II, and her son, Richard the Lionheart, are buried with her there.

The ECU

In 1157, Henri II of England instituted the practice of ‘Ecuage”, a tax paid by his vasals in place of military service.  This allowed him to recruit and maintain a permentant professional army; a feature of British military tradition which still exists.  This tax was the origin of the French currency unit, the ECU, subsequently re-inveted in the 1980s as the European Currency Unit (now re-baptised as the EURO).

Loudun becomes a Royal city

In 1206, Loudun and its surrounding area was re-attached to the French crown by Phillippe-Auguste.  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 Phillipe Auguste,  Louis IX was only 14.  His mother, Blanche of Castille, 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 IX held a parliament for about 20 days at Curcay.  She was no stranger to the area, being the grand-daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the daughter of her elder daughter of her first marriage with Louis ?.  The boundary between the area loyal to Louis IX and that loyal to the rebel dukes was the Dive.  As in 1215 at Runnymead 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 12.., Loudun became a self governing Commune, exempt from the billeting of soldiers, exempt from being garrisoned, and with its own security forces.

Preparations for the 'Hundred years war'

The area 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 the King; 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.

Guillaume de Gourmont

Guillaume came from a self-made Breton family, and rose to positions of great power in the French court.  He was the nephew of Guillaume de Ploermel, squire, and procurer for the King in Tours.  This position was passed on the Guillaume de Gourmont in 1335, from which he rose to be the Baliff of Senlis in 1337 to 1339and Provost of Paris in 1339 to 1349.  He was Knighted in 1346 and became Master of the Royal accounts in 1349; Councillor to the Parliament in 1354 and 1355.

Crecy

1346 saw the devastating defeat of the French army at Crecy.  The French forces met in the first direct confrontation with the English under the command of Edward III.  The army of Philippe forced the English forces to battle after catching them just north of the Somme.  Such was the enthusiasm of the French cavalry that they cut their way through their own lines of Genoese crossbowmen to attack.  The superiority of the Welsh longbow quickly became apparent; its rapidity of fire (up to six arrows a minute) and lethal range of up to 200 metres soon devastated the French cavalry, already hampered by the mud.  Edward of Woodstock, prince of Wales, later known as the Black Prince, was in the thick of the fighting.  Although only 16 at the time, his father refused to send him reinforcements with the remark "let the boy win his spurs".  The extraordinary spirit of the armies was demonstrated by the blind King of Bohemia.  Allied to the French Forces and commander of the advance guard, he insisted on joining the cavalry charge.  He was led into battle by two of his knights, their horses bridled together.  All three died, their mounts still bridled, but in recognition of his courage, the prince of Wales adopted his badge of feathers and his motto "Ich dien" still the badge of the prince of Wales over 600 years later. 

The battle began late in the day, and time after time the French cavalry charged the English lines, every time to be driven back by a hail of arrows and by the steel-clad infantry.  Between six in the evening and midnight, the French made over twelve concerted attacks on the English lines, and the English archers replied with over half a million arrows.

       Jean de la Jaille

Jean de la Jaille was born in 1324.  He was brought up in a priviliged environment in which the values of medieval chivalry dominated.  The most glorious career for a knight was to fight.  He first appeared in the rolls of the King's army at the age of 16 when he is recorded as leading a troop of three young squires to join the army in Flanders.  He first saw action at the head of a troop of twenty soldiers at the siege of Saint-Omer on 24th June 1340.

By 1345 he married Jeanne Gourmont, daughter of Guillaume de Bois Gourmont.  He was already an experienced and valued knight and was no doubt a good match.  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.

Jean de la Jaille was almost certainly 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.

In 1355, Jean was in the entourage of Jean de Clermont, Marechal of France and Lieutenant General to the King in Touraine and Poitou.  Jean de Clermont was  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 Nouailles.  He was in the group of knights that fought with Jean de Clermont;  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.

Jean de la Jaille died in 1405, at the age of 81.  By then, he was "deaf, senile and infirm" and was ruined financially.  His estates had been too often pillaged and mortgaged to pay for his military adventures.

       The battle at Nouailles

In October 1355, the Black Prince set out on a raid of Provence.  At the head of a thousand knights, he sacked Villenave d'Oron, Langai, Castets en Dorthe and Bazas.  The towns and villages were pillaged and burnt and their populations massacred.  For three months he maintained this reign of terror, returning to Bordeau for Christmas with an enormous quantity of bounty. 

Such was the success of the raid, that plans were laid for a three pronged attack into the heart of France for the following summer.  The Duke of Lancaster would lead a raid from Caen, The Duke of ? would attack from the north, and the Black Prince would push north from Aquitaine.  The French could not afford to let such raids go unmolested.  A huge force of knights assembled under the King's banner at Chartres and forced the Duke of Lancaster to retreat.  By September, the French forces could devote their attentions to the Black Prince.  He was already at Montlouis on the Loire, but withdrew to Chavigny near Poitiers when the French forces crossed the Loire. 

The retreat of the English forces, probably no more than 10,000 men, was slowed by the booty train.  The exhausted Anglo-Gascon troops faced the 30,000 strong French army at Nouailles, to the south-east of Poitiers.  The Black Prince fought at Crecy when only sixteen and had learnt there the effectiveness of the longbow.  Although vastly outnumbered, he enticed the French cavalry into a suicidal charge between his Welsh archers.  The Black Prince was forced to face the French army for the first time since Crecy, but made good use of the Sunday before the battle when it would have been sacrilegious to fight.  He positioned his Welsh archers in the protection of the woods alongside the open ground and covered his movements with clouds of smoke from brush fires.  On 19th September, the day of the battle, the French cavalry were impatient for action.  Jean de Clermont led his knights forward to taunt Lord Chandos into open fight.  His move separated his knights from the main body of the army.  Jean de Clermont was killed and most of his knights were captured, to be subsequently ransomed.  The French King himself was captured and passed long years in prison in England.

The defence of Loudun
           

Louis de France, 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 du Geusclin 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 de Bueil 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.  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 citedelle 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.

A fighting family

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.

The following years, her two elder sons, both now seasoned knights, fought the English in Poitou and in Brittany.  Tristan led a company in which his brother, Guichard was his lieutenant.  Guichard was the 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.

Tristan was lieutenant to his father, the governor of Loudun.  In 1371, he had married Eleanor de Maille, daughter of the Lord de Breze.  In 13??, Tristan III joined a campaign to Italy.  He died in the siege of Bari, like many of the army, of famine, sickness or heat, and the title of Lord of Ranton passed to his eldest son, Tristan IV.

In 1395, the nobility of France, 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.  Initially successful, the first campaign ended with defeat by Sultan Beyezid at the siege of Nicopolis in 1396.  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 to Constantinople.  Marshal Boucicault de Genes 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.  Guichard de Jaille with the occupying/besieged forces, in the entourage of Boucicaut de Genes who ruled the republic in the name of the French King.  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 link between Anjou and Naples

In 1381,  Louis, Duke of Anjou was as King of Naples by the pope.  In anticipation of future glory, he build a royal palace in Loudun, subsequently known as the Palace of the King of Sicily, and left France the same year to recapture his new kingdom from usurping Italian princes.  He was killed at the battle of Durazzo in 1384, but established a strong link between the Dukedom of Anjou and Southern Italy which was to last for over 300 years.  His Palace lasted even longer, until it was demolished in 18??.

Tristan IV de la Jaille

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, Duke of Anjou had longstanding ambitions in southern Italy.  In 1409, he set out with Tristan de la Jaille to conquer the Kingdom of Naples.  The campaign was unsuccessful, despite the alliance with the King of Sicily.  On his return to France, Tristan 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 and he 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.  He died there soon afterwards.

Agincourt

Tristan IV had three sons: Robert, the eldest, was killed in the mud of Agincourt, along with other members of the de la Jaille family.  As at Noailles, 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 in Shakespeare's 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".

Bertrand de la Jaille

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 the King of Sicily.  Bertrand took part in three years of campaigning, culminating in the victory of Rocca-Secco in 1411, 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); of Beuxe (bought back from Sanglier); of la Roche Talbot in Sauvigny; 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.

In addition to his inherited estates, Louis XII 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. 

When, in 14??, 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, but frequently visited Ranton and his other estates in the area.  His wife had use of the Chateau de Ranton through the marriage settlement and lived there until her death.  She died in 146?.  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 Chapel of Saint Roche at Souvigny.

Pierre de la Jaille

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 the Count of Richemont and was his squire at the age of ten in 1429 when Richemont came to the rescue of Joan of Arc.  He took part in the battle of Patay and in other campaigns.  He was caught up in the violence and intrigues that grew out of the jealousy between Richemont and the Count de Tremoille, but gained a reputation as a diplomat and courtier, rather than as a man of arms.  In 1456, on the death of his father, he 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 was Grand Chamberlain to the King of Sicily, Grand Senechal de Provence, Councillor and Chamberlain to the Dukes of Brittany, and even gained favour with Louis XI, a King who was most careful in his choice of Councillors. 

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.  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 d'Anjou, daughter of King Rene of Anjou.  In recognition of his success and discretion, he was given command of four key parts of the Kingdom: Naples, Provence, Lorraine and Anjou.  Pierre de la Jaille died in 1483 without an heir.  He was succeeded in some of his functions by his younger brother, Hardouin.  However, he left little trace of his activities, except for a curious manual of duelling.

Bertrand II de la Jaille

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, Rene d’Anjou, King of Sicily and 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 ne 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.

Rene I de la Jaille

Bertrand II and Catherine had eight children:  Rene, Gilles, Madelon, Pierre, Jeanne, Marguerite, Isabelle and Francoise.  As was usual in those days, the eldest inherited the greatest part of the family estates and the youngest were left to fend for themselves or take religious orders.

Pierre was the priest-curate at Souvigne, one of the Family estates.  He was well respected in this post by Anne of Britanny and may have had a hand in the commissioning of Dutch tapestries of the Sacrifice of Abraham, now in the Chateau of Langeais.  They are known as the tapestries of "la Jaille".  The eldest daughter, Jeanne, became lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Sicily, Jeanne de Laval, maintaining the link between the de la Jaille familly and the royal Court in Sicily.  Her younger sister, Marguerite was fortunate to marry Francois de Bouille on 15th May 1510, but the two youngest both became nuns:  Isabelle at the abbey at Ronceray d'Angers, where in due course she became the Abbesse; Francoise as a Benedictine nun in the abbey of Saint-Sulpice in Rennes.

The eldest son, Rene, inherited the titles to all the major estates.  At this time these were la Roche-Morier, La Grande Jaille, de Beuxe, Ranton, la Jaille-en-Chahaigne, la Varenne, la Roche-Talbot and Souvigne.  Rene married Jeanne Herisson in 1494.  She was the daughter of Pierre Herisson, Lord of la Chetardiere near Langeais, and Jeanne de Laval (later Queen of Sicily).  Rene de la Jaille was several times in court, accused of various misdemeanors, and died in 1515.  He died a month after the battle of Marignan, at which the French army faced that of ??, and it is likely that he died of wounds.

Rabelais

The 16th century was marked in west France by the artistic, literary and architectural renaissance, with a strong Italian influence.  Rabelais was born in 1494 and lived near Chinon.  He was successively monk, doctor, author and priest.  His books well illustrate the earthy common sense of the clergy of the time.

Rene II and the court of Catherine de Medici

Rene and Jeanne de la Jaille had two children; Rene II and Claude, but Rene's death in 1515 left the estates in the care of his widow.  Jeanne looked after them until her death in 1541.  She remarried in 1518 with Gabriel de la Chatre, but her eldest son, Rene II, inherited the titles to the family estates.  This was normal practice:  the eldest son inherited all feudal titles from his father, the widow only being the regent for their management.  The first record we have of Rene II is in 1530 when he married Madeleine de Montgomery.  They had one daughter, Francoise.

Rene II was brought up to follow a military career.  He took part in the Italian campaign in 1539 and was made a Knight of the King' Order, a rare and distinguished honour.  By the 1550s, Rene II was a Knight of the Order of St Michael, 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. 

Even someone as well established as Rene de la Jaille was not immune from risks.  In 1555, he was Captain 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:  The estate of La Grande Jaille was bought by Louis de la Gresille.  Ranton was one of the few estates he kept.  He died two years later, still fighting - this time at the battle of St Quentin in 1557.  The title to Ranton, Bois Gourmond and Preaux passed to his son-in-law, Gabriel d'Apchon.

A death foretold

In the summer of 1559, Catherine de Medici faced the future with foreboding.  The immediate prospects were good; her relationship with Henri II 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 battlefield in single combat;

                        In a golden cage, his eyes will be blinded:

                        two will be one; then to die, 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 Cateau 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 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 de Montgomery, to face him.  He was the younger brother of Madelaine de Montgemery, dowager Lady of Ranton.  One can imagine the anxiety with which she 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.  Henri regained conciousness long enough to pardon him saying-"it was an accident, bad luck - let him come back". - but he died a few days later.

The reformation

Calvin was born in Chatelleraut 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.

The reaction was almost immediate.  The Governor, in alliegance to the King, tried to re-impose Catholic disciplines.  Tensions boiled over in 1562.  On 1st March, Henri duc de Guise led assembled Catholic forces in the massacre of the village of Vassy in Champagne.  The predominantly Protestant inhabitants of Loudun took control of the town; and they were not the only ones to take such precautions.  To re-establish the King's authority, Catherine de Medici dragged Carles IX around France and on 26th September 1565 he solomnley entered Loudun.  In an attempt at compromise, the King agreed to limited religious tolerance.

However, in 1568, Herni duc de Guise and duc d'Anjou, still champion 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 de Navarre. (This period of French history can be rather confusing since all the major protagonists were called Henri and they kept changing their other names, and also swopped from one side to the other depending on the religious fashion of the day).  Henri duc d"anjou retreated to Chinon, but the protestant forces abandoned Loudun because it was to exposed to defend.  The Catholic forces occupied the town on 25th January 1569 and demolished the great tower of Philippe August, the towers and bastions of the citadelle.  The man charged with supervising the work was Captain Francois du Plessis de Richelieu.

On 28th February, Protestant cavalry sacked and burnt the Abbey at St Jouin de Marnes 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.  On 3rd October, the Catholic army faced the Protestant army on the lands of the Abbey of St Jouin.  It 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 pires 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. 

An armistice was signed in 1570, and the edict of St Germain gave religious freedom in some areas, but the fragile peace was soon shattered.

The Chateau de Oiron:  ‘Hic Terminus Heirat’

The Chateau de Oiron is one of the least known, but most remarkable chateaux of the Loire.  It was built in the 16th century to house one of the finest collections of paintings and art in rennaissance France.  In the 16th century, it housed a vast art collection, including the first known portrait in French history: that of Jean le Bon, now in the Louvre.  The painted gallery is still unique.  It contains a series of large frescos, running the length of the gallery, depicting scenes from the Trojan war.  They are the earliest frescos in France, and the largest group after those in Fontenbleau.  They were painted by Noel Jallier between 1546 and 1549, and are his only known major work. 

The Chateau was successively the country retreat of Guillaume Gouffier, Chamberlain to Charles VII (1470 - 1515); his grandson Claude Gouffier, Royal equery to Henri II and Francois I (1540 - 1549), his son Louis Gouffier (1620 - 1630), the Duc de la Feuillade, and finally Madame de Montespan.  It was extended by Louis Gouffier from 1620 and the magnificent King’s bedchamber, now beautifully restored, was finished about 1630.

Madame de Montespan retired to Oiron between 1700 and her death in 1707.

War round Loudun

 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.  Margot's wedding chest is in the Chateau de Montreil Bellay, abour 20 kms noth-west of Loudun.  The medallion immages of the murdered Protestant wedding guests is 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.  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:  They promptly demolished the Protestant temple.  To bring and end to these incidents, Henri III published, at Poitiers, the edict that again ensured religious freedom to Protestants.

It was not enough.  Ten years later, in 1587, Henri de 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.  Henri III saw this a recipe for greater conflict, and in 1589 he accepted an alliance with Henri de Navarre and they jointly took arms against the Ligue.

By an extraordinary twist of fate, (or by treasonous intent), Henri III was assassinated at St Cloud on 1st August 1589, and Henri de Navarre became King Henri IV thanks to his descent from *********** 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, under Ange de Joyeuse (whose brother had already been killed by Henri de Navarre), arrived at Loudun in October.  Again the Protestants considered the town to 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:  Scevole de Sainte Marthe, born Gaucher de Sainte Marthe, and 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.  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 'Peace of Loudun'

The mariage of Henri IV with Marie de Medici in 1600 was a triumph for Catholic diplomacy and the Jesuits.  Marie was a supporter of the Ultras: Catholic fundamentalists.  When Henri was assassinated in 1610, the throne passed to his 8 year-old son (Louis XIII), but power passed to Marie.  Within a year she had sacked the Prime Minister, Sully, who was also Governor of Poitou and a staunch supporter of Protestant rights.  The Calvinists in Loudun started to repair their defences again.

Protestant fears were further raised by Marie's plans for a double alliance with the Hapsburgs; ardent Catholics and rulers of Spain and the Austrian empire.  Rebelions broke out, and on 8th July 1614, Marie took command (with Louis XIII) of the Royal Catholic army at Orleans.  On 5th August, they were at Loudun; on route for Saumur and Nantes.  Civil war was only averted by an agreement to assemble the "Etats Generaux".  It bought time, but Marie pressed ahead with her plans.  Louis XIII was married to Anne of Austria, the Hapsburg daughter of Philippe III of Spain in 1616.  This time the Protestants raised an army under the command of the duc de Rohan; nephew of their old champion, Sully.  They controlled all of Poitou.  Again a peace conference was convened, this time at Loudun.  The delegations arrived on 19th February 1616, and the Peace of Loudun was signed on 8th May.  It confirmed Loudun as one of 150 "safe havens" for Protestants.  It didn't last.  On 1st September, Marie consituted her War Cabinet, determined to fight it out.

Urbain Grandier

In the summer of 1617, the cure of St Pierre du Marche in Loudun died.  To strengthen the Catholic faith in Loudun, one of the most brilliant young theologists of the day, a Jesuit priest, Urbain Grandier, was appointed to replace him.  Not only was he nominated as Cure, but also as "Chanoine" (abbot) of the Collegiate church of St Croix.

He installed one of his brothers as Vicar of St Pierre, a second as Councillor in the Royal administration of Loudun, and a third as a priest.  He was intelligent, handsome, proud, a powerful preacher and an immediate target of envy.

He soon turned the tide of conversions back to the Catholic faith, and his magnetism was particularly effective on young women.  It was more than just spirituel.  On one occasion, he was left for dead by an irate husband who caught him out at night.  He was also responsible for ruining the marriage plans of a young cousin of the Lieutenant of Police - she was packed of to a nunnery instead. He fathered a child by the youngest daughter of the King's Procurator in Loudun.  In 1624, he had an open affair with the youngest daughter of Rene de Brou, the King's Councillor in Loudun.  He obviously believed in living dangerously.  By 1629, Urbain Grandier had so scandalised Loudun by his amorous escapades and rather original theology, that he had no inflential friends left.

His pride was his downfall.  Back in 1618, a procession had been organised through the streets of Loudun.  Urbain Grandier was Master of ceremonies, but a Bishop was present - Bishop of Lucon, no less than Bishop Richelieu, ex-Minister of war, temporarily exiled from Paris.  Pulling ecclesiastical rank, Richelieu put himself at the head of the Procession.  However, Urbain Grandier was not to be so easily upstaged.  In the Diocese of Loudun, he was Abbot of St Croix, while Richelieu was merely Prior of the Abbey of Coussay.  In this local hierachy, Urbain Grandier took precedence, and on his own ground he insisted on it.  Richelieu was not a man to forgive or forget such humiliation.

Cardinal Richelieu

Armand Jean du Plessis, later Cardinal Richelieu and Prime Minister of France for 18 years, was born in the boggy hamlet of Richelieu in 1585.  He was born to modest but ambitious parents, and by his death in 165& he was the richest man in Europe. Driven by unbounded ambition, and unconstrained by morality, he made France a great power in Europe and changed the rules of diplomacy for the next 300 years.  He invented the concept of the modern Nation State and replaced the medieval concept of universl moral values derived from Christian teachings with a concept of "national interest" devoid of any sence of good or evil.  Although privately religious, in national affairs divine truth was irrelevant to the unscrupulous Cardinal: "Man is immortal, his salvation is hereafter.  The State has no immortality, its salvation is now or never".

His father, Francois du Plessis de Richelieu, supervisor of the demolition of the citadelle of Loudun, had the right to appoint the Bishop of Locon, a small diocese about 150 Kms south-west of Loudun.  He appointed his son, at the age of 23 in 1608.  It was not a glorious possession: In fact it was known as "l'Eveche le plus crotte de France".  Nevertheless, it gave Armand-Jean the right to participate as a Bishop in the Government of France. 

His chance came with the assembly of the "Etats Generaux" in 1614.  He amply demonstrated his diplomatic and oratorial skills.  He shone.  To such an extent that Marie de Medicic invited him to present the final conclusions.  His report was published throughout France.  He again played a major role in the Peace Conference in Loudun in 1616.  The peace only lasted six months, and when it ended, Marie de Medici consituted a War Cabinet, with Richelieu as foreign secretary and Minister for War.  Initially, this was not war against foreign armies:  it was civil war between the King and his rebelious protestant nobles.  Richelieu had a new weapon - total destruction.  Every time a rebel fortress or Chateau was captured or surrendered, it was destroyed.  These Chateaux were the visible symbols of nobility: to destroy them was to destroy the feudal power of the nobility.  Nowhere was safe, but the complete destruction of one fortress was Richelieu's special goal: Loudun.  He aimed too high too soon.  On 24th April 1617, even the King rebelled.  Concini, the Prime Minister, was assassinated; Marie de Medici was imprisonned, and Richelieu exiled from Paris.

In 1624, his foreign policies left no doubt about his commitment to "National Interest at any price".  The Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor was trying to revive Catholic universality and stamp out Protestantism.  As a Cardinal of the Catholic church, one might have expected Richelieu to support him, but he put French National interest above religion and sided with northern European Protestant princes to exploit the schism in Christianity.  At the end of the 30 years' war of religion, in 1648, "raison d'etat" was the guiding principle in European diplomacy and France was to remain the most powerful nation in Europe for the until the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

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 housekeepers 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

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 a 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 stayed with Paul Aubin, Lord of Ranton. In 1631, the Château de Ranton had been bought by Paul Aubin, a friend of Richelieu and nephew of Silly.  He also aquired various estates in the area; Bourneuf, La Jaille and others.  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 pire, 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 French Revolution

In 1784, Mount Laki, a volcano in Iceland erupted and sent billions of tonnes of fine dust into the upper atmosphere.  It stayed there for over five years and precipitated Europe's first successful popular revolution.  The veil of dust disturbed the weather around the world and pushed an already archaic feudal France into collapse.  The autumn of 1787 and winter of 1788 were terribly wet, but the real blow came in November 1788.  The temperature fell to minus 6 and stayed there.  By mid-December, the river Vienne was frozen north of Chatellerault.  On New-Year's eve, the temperature plunged to minus 17 and the thaw did not come until the middle of January.

In the precarious living conditions of the late eighteenth century, such conditions were a catastrophy.  Most walnut trees were killed; the vines were frozen, but worst of all, the wheat crop was the worst in living memory; the area around Loudun was particularly affected, with only half the usual crop of winter wheat.  Inevitably, the price of wheat rose fast; farmers were reluctant to send their meagre stocks to market, and fear of starvation spread fast.

Faced with a political and financial crisis in August 1788, Louis XVI convened a General Assembly: "Les Etats Generaux".  This grass-roots way of testing opinions had not been used since 1614, and by its very nature, with three bodies - the aristocracy, the clergy and the people - it brought to the fore the frictions between the ordinary mass of labourers and shopkeepers which born almost the entire burden of taxation, and the aristocracy which had a monopoly of power and privilege.  In Loudun, even the assembly of the clergy highlighted the tensions between the poor rural clergy and the opulence of the Bishops, demanding the abolition of "the many benefits that serve to sustain show and nourish the luxury of those that possess them".  For the people, the deputies in Loudun elected Dumoustier Delafon, a passionate enthusiast for history and agriculture, but out of his depth in a revolution.

The combination of great political uncertainty, economic crisis and near famine was a fertile breeding ground for rumours.  False news of a band of brigands near Nantes in July 1789 spread panic and fear in Thouars two days later.  Rumours that a band of 25,000 brigands had captured Nantes were, of course, untrue.  Nevertheless, the large and uncontrolable masses of peasants summond by church bells were themselves a source of further instability and agitation against the nobility.  This hostility was marked around Thouars, but violence was still averted.

In 1790, the climate and food stocks improved.  In new elections, the revolutionary fervour varied enormously.  In most villages in the Vienne, the clergy were elected as Mayors and were perfectly integrated with the revolutionary movement.  In Loudun, with a stronger desire for change, not a single member of the previous city council was re-elected.  The aristocratic emigrants to England gradually re-organised, and the English Government became increasingly anxious about revolutionary ideas crossing the Channel.  In Revolutionary France, this anxiety was seen as a threat, with Brittany and La Rochelle as likely points for counter-revolutionary actions.  Throughout 1791 and 1792, the revolutionary authorities gradually called up more and more of the able-bodied population to serve in the first popular armies in Europe, but with mixed success.  Around Loudun, the 23 Communes only raised two volunteers.

By late 1992, the defense of Republican France was in the balance.  Early victories at Valmy and Jemmapes were followed by defeat in the spring of 1793 when France was surrounded by hostile monarchies.  On 24th February, all men between 18 and 40 were called up.  In the Vendee, west of Loudun, resentment against the call-up boiled over into revolt and the civil war.  Fear and hatred from three years of revolution led to a major insurrection.  From the depths of the Vendeen countryside, 20,000 men swept towards Thouars - at that time a well defended garrison town.  On 5th May, Thouars fell.  This early success for the rebels convinced the Republican authorities that this was a counter-revolutionary force, supported by emigre royalists from England.  Such was the panic that Loudun was abandoned; white flags were raised, the "tree of liberty" was cut down and prisoners were freed.

Republican and rebel forces fought an increasingly bitter civil war until mid-October when the Republican forces under Westermann won a decisive victory over the "Catholic and Royalist" army at Cholet -the last major battle with ordered ranks of troops in France (Waterloo is in Belgium now).  This was followed by systematic destruction and repression throughout 1794, but the region remained insecure until the end of the century.  It was a hot-bed of banditry and royalist guerilla activity.

The "Terror" of 1793 and 1794 permeated even the depths of the French countryside.  In the Vienne, each village had its surveillance Committee.  Weekly meetings would issue certificates of proper revolutionary behaviour, check passports of refugees from the Vendee, send back deserters from the army, and identify suspects and relatives of emigrees.  It was a "cultural revolution" such as we saw in Maoist China in the 1970s - a deliberate attempt to erase the past and to weed out reactionary elements.  The Catholic religion and its priests were considered inseparable from counter-revolution.  The persecution of the priests and their sympathisers reached a peak in 1794.  "Refractory Priests" -those who had sympathised with the Revolution in 1789 - were a particular target.  From October 1793, they became scapegoats for the social failures of the revolution.  A systematic man-hunt was launched through villages and forests, and arrests multiplied.  As rare exceptions, two villages raised petitions to defend their priests:  Ranton was one.  Eighty citizens of Ranton affirmed that their priest had "always preached submission to the law and had helped to re-plant the tree of liberty (after it had been up-rooted in February 1793 in the panic following the Vendeen revolt)".

This "cultural revolution" was neither long nor successful.  By 1795, Royalism re-appeared.  It was first discrete, but by 1797 it was an open fashion in the west of France.  In Loudun, old titles re-appeared and it certainly wasn't done to wear a "cocarde".  The decade of starvation, violence and tension had a devastating effect on the population and prosperity of the area.  Loudun was left with less than five thousand inhabitants in the 19th century.

Abbe Aubineau (1844 to 1889)

The 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.

Abbé Aubineau did much to preserve the Château and to rekindle interest in the shrine of "La bonne Dame de Ranton".  The church was rebuilt in 1871 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.

In his will, he left the Chateau of Ranton to his great nephews.  They sold it at auction on December 5th 1889. 

The Chateau de Ranton in the 20th century

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.  Both occupations have now disappeared in Ranton.  The farmland around the village is good enough for most crops, and vines were for many years more time-consuming than other crops.  The vineyards of Ranton were part of the Saumur Appelation, but the nearest still in commercial production are at Curcay.  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 M. et Mme 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 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 et Mme Fonteneau, a wealthy publisher 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.