Chateau de Chenonceau
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The estate of Chenonceau is mentioned for the first time in writing towards
the end of the 11th century.
From
the 13th to the 15th century, the estate of Chenonceau, with its
unprepossessing feudal manor, was the property of the Marques family.
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1411
A royal
order to punish Jean Marques for an act of sedition
included an order
for the destruction of the manor.
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1432
Jean Marques had a castle and a fortified mill built to
replace the lost manor
of Chenonceau.
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1513
Pierre Marques, the heir of Jean, up to his eyes in debt, had to sell
the castle, which was readily purchased by Thomas Bohier, the General
Tax Collector for Normandie.
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1515
Thomas Bohier razed all existing buildings and then
undertook
the construction of a third generation of castle on Chenonceau.
He retained, however, the donjon, modified to fit the contemporary
fashion, and the system of moats. He used the pillars of the erstwhile mill
as foundation stones for the new structure in the middle of the river,
reincorporating the previous square plan of the forecourt of the old medieval
castle delineated by the existing moats.
During Thomas Bohier’s absence in Italy, his wife, Catherine Briçonnet,
personally took over the construction of Chenonceau.
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1517
The building
of the castle was making good headway. As for the decoration,
it retained some of the severity of its former military style, but the exterior
ornamentation was inspired by the fashion of the time, adding an unusual
elegance to its gothic appearance.
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1521-22
The
chapel was consecrated by Cardinal Bohier, a relative
of Thomas.
The castle was completed and the surrounding estate laid out.
Chenonceau was now worthy of receiving the notables of the Kingdom.
It was Catherine who established her authority over the estate, taking
readily to court life.
The King, François I, was twice a guest at the castle.
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1535
After Thomas Bohier’s death in 1524 and Catherine’s death in 1526, their son
Antoine had to yield the castle to the Crown to pay off the debts incurred by
his father.
The High Constable of Montmorency took possession of the castle in the name
of François I.
The King, however, who was at the time engaged in the building of Chambord,
was only moderately interested in the castle of Chenonceau and did not
effect any improvements.
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1539
Charles Quint, Emperor of Germany, Prince of the
Netherlands and King of Spain,
the eternal rival of King François I, visited the castle of Chenonceau.
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1547
When Henry II succeeded his father at the age of 28, his
favourite, Diane
of Poitiers, was then 48.
She was the widow, for the past twenty years, of the Count of Brézé,
the Grand Seneschal of France.
Her beauty, the narrowness of her waist, her fair skin and her rousset hair
were legendary.
Anxious to please his favourite and to give her a residence worthy of her,
the young King offered her the castle of Chenonceau.
The castle, however, belonged to the Crown and Diane would have to wait
until 1555 and to resort to legal artifices and other subtle procedures
to become its legitimate owner.
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1551
While at
Chenonceau, Diane was made
Duchess of Valentinois and became
one of the most influential women in the Kingdom.
Her success assured her of many enemies, the most formidable of which was
the Queen, Catherine de Medici, who envied her influence over the King and
the affairs of the country.
To discover why Henri preferred a mistress twenty years his senior, she even
went as far as to have a hole drilled in the wall of their bedroom.
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1552
The efforts
of Diane of Poitiers were rewarded by the journey to
Chenonceau
of the King and his Court.
With the help of the bailiff, André Béreau, Diane ran her then prosperous
estate with unmistakable authority.
Even if the expenditure was onerous, receipts from the farm produce,
royalties from vassals and fines imposed by the castle court enabled
to balance the budget.
The garden was gorgeous.
The royal tennis courts were bordered with tall pine trees.
Numerous artists took up residence there and the entertainments (bals,
tilting at the ring, stag hunting) were never-ending and legion.
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1555
The profits
made through the cultivation of the estate and the confident
knowledge that the castle was hers encouraged Diane of Poitiers to further
embellish her property.
She undertook new works and ressuscitated the former owners’ idea of
enlarging the castle and building a bridge to span the river Cher.
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1559
During a
tournament, King Henri II was fatally injured by
Montgomery,
the Captain of the Scottish guards.
His widow, Catherine de Medici, could now take revenge and she demanded
the handing over of Chenonceau.
But the estate no longer belonged to the Crown and she had to threaten
Diane of Poitiers into exchanging Chenonceau for the castle of Chaumont.
Catherine de Medici, who was both ambitious and authoritarian, took over
the management of the estate and devoted all her energies to erase the
presence of Diane there.
The castle became a royal residence where lavish entertainments were given,
the most famous one being the feast for François II and Mary Stuart
following the tragic outcome of the Amboise conspiracy in 1560.
Combinations of cannons and drums, water games and fire works invested
the style of Chenonceau with a new éclat.
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1563
Anxious to
leave her mark, Catherine de Medici transformed the
gardens
of Chenonceau in accordance with the programme devised by Bernard Palissy
in his Drawing of a Delectable Garden.
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1576
Catherine de Medici embarked on some ambitious projects at
Chenonceau:
a grand courtyard, the transformation of the windows of the entrance
façade, which were to be ornate with caryatids and the number of which
was to be doubled, an extension to the terrace towards the east between
the chapel and the library and the setting up of the gallery over the bridge,
which was different from the initial plan.
But these extensive works required the incomes of both the Barony of
Levraux en Berry and the estate of Chenonceau.
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1577
In May,
during the feast given by Catherine in honour of her
son, the new
king, Henri III, the grand gallery of the castle with its arches that spanned
the Cher was inaugurated.
Two other queens were also present: Louise, Henri III’s wife, and Marguerite
de Navarre, the wife of the future Henri IV.
The reception with its songs, dances, shows and concerts remains the climax
of the golden era of Chenonceau.
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1589
Catherine de Medici died in Blois on January 5, 1589 at the age of seventy.
She bequeathed the castle to Louise of Lorraine, the Queen and the wife of
her son Henri III.
The extensive transformations undertaken in 1576 were not yet finished:
except for the gallery, only one wing of the main courtyard, the building of
the Dômes, was completed.
Although Louise had married a man who preferred men to her, she was
a loving and considerate wife.
But that same year, Henri was murdered in Saint-Cloud.
Overcome with grief, Louise gave way to melancholy and never recovered.
Soon called « the White Queen » by the villagers, she turned Chenonceau
into a place of meditation and solitude.
Symbolically, she stored all the velvet and satin dresses for the feasts
in a large chest in the gallery.
After years of light and music, silence and darkness fell upon Chenonceau.
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Prestigious jewel of the Renaissance, the chateau of Chenonceau is
surrounded by two famous gardens, one upstream, designed by Diane de
Poitiers, the other, downstream by Catherine de Medicis.
In the Cellar of the Domes (entrance in the Green Garden) you will discover
the Domain wines.
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