It is not risky to say that the Loire Valley is the cradle of France. Following the path traced by its many castles on both banks of the river can be an excellent way of recalling the adventure experienced by a territory that, dispersed in numerous fiefdoms, ended up becoming a nation and a decisive European power.
Blois, in particular, one of the jewels of the valley, not only served as the base of operations for the siege of Orleans by Joan of Arc, but was also the scene of the intrigues that ended the life of the Duke of Guise during the Wars of Religion. , already at the end of the XVI century.
This castle is one of the many examples that certify the loss of feudal power in favor of the Crown. It was initially a possession of the counts who gave it its name, until King Louis XII ended up turning it into one of the favorite residences of French sovereigns between the 15th and 17th centuries.
The origin of Blois is that of most of the castles in the valley: a defense tower, documented as early as 854, during the reign of Charles the Bald, on the occasion of a Viking attack. In the mid-10th century, Theobald the Trickster, Count of Blois and Viscount of Tours, extended his territory to Chartres and attempted to conquer the County of Anjou. To maintain the new dimensions of the county and keep advancing, he built a series of fortifications, among which was a watchtower erected on the remains of the existing defense tower of Blois.
From that moment, the territorial expansion and the political power of the Counts of Blois increased. So much so that Luis de Blois, at the end of the 12th century, came to fight on an equal footing with Felipe Augusto, King of France. After the death of the count in the course of the fourth crusade, his son Teobaldo VI enlarged the defense tower to build a castle-fortress, completed in 1214 and of which only the enormous throne room, known as the room of the States, remains. Generals.
Died without male heirs, the county of Blois, and the castle with it, passed to the counts of Châtillon. The last member of the branch, Louis of Châtillon, died at the end of the 14th century without direct succession, ceding the county and its possessions to Louis of France, Duke of Orleans.
A century later, in 1498, another Orléans became king of France under the name of Louis XII. He had been born in Blois, and decided to transform his cradle into a new stately mansion. It was necessary to renew it sumptuously. This is how the Gothic wing arose, a building with a colorful façade whose main entrance stands the statue of its founder.
From that moment events followed one another in Blois. He hosted the wedding of César Borgia with Charlotte d’Albret the following year. He received Felipe el Hermoso with honors as heir of Castile in 1501. There, eight years later, he married Margaret of Angoulême, sister of Francisco I, with the Duke of Alençon. And Nicholas Machiavelli stayed in his rooms on two occasions, 1501 and 1510. But, above all, Blois entered history for the signing in 1504 of the first treaty that bears his name.
Louis XII had the firm purpose of making France a great nation. Hence, after a long and dubious legal process, he annulled his marriage to Joan of Valois and contracted a liaison with Anne of Brittany, the widowed queen, in order to perpetuate the annexation of Breton territory.
However, Ana always wanted to maintain the independence of her duchy, and, in an attempt to achieve this, she signed the Treaty of Blois in 1504, by which her daughter and heiress Claudia of France committed herself to the future Carlos I of Spain, still child. She hardly served him. The engagement was canceled by Louis XII, who was reluctant to see himself surrounded by Habsburg domains.
The castle, scene of the first nuptial agreement, was also witness to the orchestration of the marriage between Claudia and her cousin, the future Francisco I. After the wedding, Amboise became the preferred residence of the new couple.
From its past splendor, Blois only kept the colorful Gothic façade and a series of empty rooms. But Claudia, perhaps seeking to evoke the happy days of her childhood, insisted on continuing her father’s work, and proposed to her husband to enable the rooms again. She couldn’t have cost him much. Francisco I, the quintessential Renaissance king in the history of France, had what in Spain was blamed on Carlos III: “the evil of the stoneâ€.
He had a new wing built in Blois, in which its beautiful external staircase stands out. Then, after furnishing the interior and dressing its walls with exquisite tapestries and works of art, he installed his splendid library there.
Claudia was the spirit that animated Blois and, on the queen’s death in 1524, Francis I left the castle to settle in Fontainebleau. However, Francis I was succeeded by Henry II, who in 1547 solemnly settled in Blois.
In the second half of the 16th century, France was shaken by the Religious Wars between Catholics and Huguenots. At the head of both sides were two important noble houses: the Bourbons led the Huguenot side and the Guises, the Catholic.
Enrique de Guisa had achieved great influence at court due to his closeness to Queen Catherine de Medici. Dissatisfied with the Peace of Saint-Germain, which ended the first conflict and granted extensive privileges to the Huguenots, the Guise instigated in 1572 the events that led to the terrible massacre of Saint Bartholomew, in which more than seven thousand French Protestants were killed. passed to knife
His power was such that the king, then Henry III, ended up seeing him as a rival, and, fearing a rebellion against the Crown, he felt compelled to flee Paris. The monarch took refuge in Blois. From there, in 1588, he convened the Estates General, for which he requested the presence of the Duke of Guise.
It was an ambush. Once in the castle, the Catholic leader was assassinated in the same rooms as the sovereign. But, in a tragic joke of fate, months later it would be Henri III who was killed by the dagger of the monk Jacques Clément.
Blois was, therefore, witness to a crucial moment in the history of France: the one that would end the hegemony of the Valois and enthrone the Bourbon dynasty in the person of Henry IV.
After the death of Henry IV, Blois became the residence of his widow, Marie de’ Medici. After her death, her son, Louis XIII, in favor of establishing the court in Paris, gave the castle to her brother, Gaston of Orleans. It was this man who, in 1635, commissioned François Mansart to reform the building.
The architect intended to rebuild the former royal residence in its entirety. However, the financial problems of his patron prevailed, and he was only able to carry out the remodeling of the north wing. In it he skilfully used the classicist traits evident in its façade, where the superposition of the three orders, Ionic, Doric and Corinthian, can be seen.
Cultured, but intriguing, Gastón had always hoped to inherit the Crown given the lack of succession of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, but the unexpected birth of the future Louis XIV dashed his hopes. Banished from court and bankrupt, Gaston abandoned his project of turning Blois into a splendid mansion and spent his last years in retirement in the quarters once occupied by Francis I.
Blois remained forgotten for more than a century. Versailles and other baroque complexes parked that magnificent monumental ensemble. Used as a barracks, its state was so dilapidated that, after the looting suffered during the French Revolution, its demolition was considered.
Napoleon saved the castle by ceding it in 1810 to the city of Blois. However, the Ministry of War had priority. The complex, according to him, “offered all the possible advantages of comfort and health that a good barracks should have.” Obviously, the military use of its facilities caused further damage.
In 1814, Blois temporarily regained its status as the seat of the court. Maria Luisa of Austria, Napoleon’s second wife, and her son took refuge there fleeing from Paris when the decline of the Empire was evident.
Blois continued to maintain its military status after the Empire. Until, luckily, the writer, historian and archaeologist Prosper Mérimée included it in the first list of French historical monuments in 1840. Alerting the authorities of the deplorable state of the complex, three years later possession of the building was restored to the city of Blois. Francisco I wing for restoration. The assignment would be completed in 1867 with all the buildings.
It had been Louis-Philippe, a New Orleans, who had responded to Mérimée’s demands, rescuing the castle from its centuries-old dream. However, he couldn’t enjoy it. The Revolution of 1848 and the consequent end of the Orleanist monarchy prevented Luis Felipe and his family from occupying what would have been his apartments.
The restoration work was entrusted to Félix Duban, architect of the restoration of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, who began a long rehabilitation project based on what was still standing and on drawings and engravings from earlier times. Despite adding some new elements, such as the façade and the chapel’s spire, Duban was extraordinarily respectful of Renaissance principles.
Between 1880 and 1913 a second restoration took place, which dealt mainly with the structure, for which Anatole de Baudot, responsible for the work, resorted to the new materials and techniques offered by the 20th century. Finally, Alphonse Goubert was in charge of concluding the restoration of the Gastón de Orleans wing, building the great stone staircase that Mansart designed and which was never finished.
Blois suffered the ravages of the Second World War. Occupied by German troops in June 1940, it was not liberated by the US army until August 1944. Meanwhile, the town and the castle had suffered repeated bombardments.
These considerably damaged the Louis XII building and the chapel, which saw all its beautiful stained glass windows shattered. Once again, a reconstruction process had to be started, which would have different stages and which did not end until the beginning of the 21st century.
Blois today looks very similar to what it did in the 16th century. It is true that in many aspects it is new, many of its interiors are simple recreations, but, in any case, with original or new materials, it continues to maintain its status as a faithful narrator of the history of France.
This text is part of an article published in number 539 of the Historia y Vida magazine. Do you have something to contribute? Write to us at redaccionhyv@historiayvida.com.
