The traveller who visits Loches for the first time is greatly struck by
the picturesque position of the town on an elevation--gently sloping
down to the meadows watered by the Indre. Above the houses rise the
turrets of the castle, which in turn are dominated by the pyramids
of the old collegiate church of Our Lady, above which again appears
the ancient mediæval fortress in its somewhat austere majesty. The
combination forms an enchanting view seen under the first beams of the
rising sun from the edge of the forest on the Montrésor road.
About the beginning of the Sixth Century, St. Ours came to Touraine
to settle at Loches. There several monks placed themselves under his
discipline. The monastery of St. Ours made a town of Loches. As has
often been remarked, the people of the country like to group around
these religious houses where they find at the same time a church with
its spiritual aid, a refuge always open against the persecution of the
mighty, a school, a hospital, and a model farm with its agricultural
and industrial instruction. In a few years the collection became
sufficiently important for the establishment of a _castrum_. This
strong castle, which was already in existence at the time of Gregory
of Tours, was placed in a position that was very easy to defend: it
was protected on one side by that elbow of the mountain to which St.
Ours had retired and by the escarpment towards the Indre, a flank that
was rendered almost inaccessible by the river and the valley marshes;
on another, by the natural depression of the vale of Mazerolles; and,
on the third, by a deep and wide cutting in the chalky tufa. The castle
which crowned the hill and commanded the surrounding country was so
strong for that age that all conquerors contended for its possession.
[Illustration: CHÂTEAU DE LOCHES, FRANCE.]
After the Romans, we find the Visigoths here, and then the Mérovingian
princes, the feudal lords, the counts of Anjou and Touraine who became
kings of England and the kings of France after Philip Augustus. At the
foot of the ancient castle of Loches, a hundred fights of chivalry were
settled. Under the feudal rule, the surrounding fields were thronged
with bands of men marching under various banners.
The counts of Anjou, whose ambition was the scourge of our province,
had become masters of Loches, thanks to skilfully calculated
matrimonial alliances. The citadel of Loches became the boulevard of
their warlike enterprises in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.
The Eleventh Century fortress, whose square donjon commands the
surrounding country, is not so well preserved as the collegiate church.
Nevertheless, the learned who study our national antiquities consider
it one of the most precious remains of the military architecture of
that remote age. Picture to yourself an imposing mass, formed of two
bodies of buildings shoulder to shoulder rising to a height of forty
_mètres_. The principal building is 25 m. 33 cm. long while
the other attains only half this length. The interior disposition
of the small tower is visible at the first glance on account of the
disappearance of the floors that formerly divided it into four stories.
In the lower portion is a low hall from which rose a stairway of from
thirty-five to forty steps, with two landings, by which to reach the
principal rooms. At the top of this stairway is the door that gave
access to every part of the donjon. On the first story, it opens into
a hall of the great tower, the dimensions of which are so vast that
it could contain five hundred men; then, at the same level, into the
corresponding hall of the little tower; and lastly by a secret passage,
twenty-four _mètres_ in length, hidden in the thickness of the
wall, one could descend to the vaulted hall that occupied the base of
the donjon, and that served as an arsenal, a treasury and a prison.
Three flights of steps, at present interrupted and set in the interior
of the walls, led to the upper stories. The donjon probably terminated
in an exterior wooden gallery resting on a movable scaffolding intended
for repulsing assaults; the numerous holes to be seen at the top of the
wall authorize this supposition.
Thus established, the Roman donjon of Loches is one of the most
remarkable monuments of its kind. The beauty of its size, the masterly
skill of its construction, the imposing amplitude of its mass, half
disguised by round buttresses that rise to the summit, the artifice of
its military dispositions, the ingenious multiplicity of its defences,
the boldness of its outline, and the proud aspect of the whole, all
recommend it to the attention of the antiquary and the artist. To-day
it is of no military importance; but for the town of Loches it will
ever constitute a picturesque element of the first order.
In 1194, Richard Cœur-de-Lion, being delivered from the prison in which
he was unjustly kept by the Emperor of Germany, made haste to Touraine,
his possession of which was being disputed by Philip Augustus. Nothing
could moderate his boiling heat. After having captured and ransomed
Châteauneuf de Tours, the King of England hastened to Loches. The
castle was defended by twenty knights and eighty archers under the
command of Guy de Laval. The governor at first defended himself
resolutely enough; but Richard attacked the place with such fury, and
himself directed the assault with such energy, that it was necessary to
yield. Guy de Laval was made prisoner with some of his most intrepid
knights. But the struggle was far from being ended: it only slumbered
for a few years. Richard, wounded at the siege of Chaluz, in Limousin,
died at Chinon at the age of forty-two, April 6, 1199. He was buried at
Fontevrault, leaving behind a troubled and more especially a greatly
disputed heritage. Queen Berengaria, his wife, received Loches and
Montbazon with their domains and dependencies as her dowry.
In 1204, we see Philip Augustus reappear in Touraine. In consequence of
the confiscation pronounced against John Lackland, the King of France
himself came to take possession of the principal places and towns in
the province. Tours opened her gates at the first summons. Loches did
not show herself so obliging. The castle was defended by Girard d’Athée
and other lords devoted to the interests of England.
It was necessary to lay a regular siege. After a year of struggle and
toil, the place was forced to capitulate on account of the failure of
provisions and ammunition. Philip Augustus gave it in recompense to
Dreux de Mello, constable of France, a brave knight, celebrated for his
exploits in France and Palestine, whither he had accompanied the King.
Afterwards this gift was bought back by St. Louis, by an act dated
December, 1249, on the banks of the Nile in Egypt.
On returning to France, St. Louis spent several days at Loches. In 1301
and 1307, Philippe le Bel rested eight days at the castle of Loches on
his way to talk to Pope Clement V. about the affair of the Templars.
Half a century later, John II. arrived at Loches at the head of the
flower of French chivalry on his way to Poictiers to give battle to
the Black Prince. Fortune appeared to be smiling upon him and victory
seemed to be assured; but instead of accepting the advantageous
propositions made by his adversary, he wanted to crush the army of
the foe. He then fell victim to one of those disasters that leave a
long and sad echo in history. The evils that overwhelmed France were
horrible. Anarchy was complete, and reigned in every rank of the
hierarchy. The English retook Loches, and for more than half-a-century
the foreigner trampled on and desolated our provinces.
At length came Charles VII. When he first visited Loches, he was
still only the King of Bourges. A poor suite followed him; but he was
accompanied by Marie d’Anjou, a princess of rare prudence and a courage
proof against everything. This virtuous queen was France’s good genius.
In spite of the miseries of the time, she never despaired of her
country. Her confidence was not deceived: Joan of Arc soon accomplished
her glorious mission: France was saved.
In 1436, Charles VII. reappeared at Loches; but this time the queen was
not alone. In her company was a young girl whose timidity seemed to
recommend her, but whose position was no mystery to anybody: she was
Agnes Sorel, born in the village of Fromenteau in Touraine. Charles
VII. gave her the castle of Beauté in Champagne, it is said, so that
she might be _Dame de Beauté_ by title as well as in reality.
Agnes possessed a small house at Beaulieu where she sometimes stayed
to hide herself from the eyes of the courtiers. So the King had the
tower built at the Castle of Loches that still bears the name of Agnes
Sorel. This tower stands in a delightful spot: it commands the smiling
vale of the Indre, and from it the view embraces a charming panorama.
The eye is arrested by a curtain of verdure formed by the ancient oaks
of the forest and then wanders with pleasure over the freshest meadows
imaginable. Agnes Sorel is in the choir of the church at Loches. Her
white marble tomb, with her statue also of white marble, the feet
resting on two little lambs and hands clasped, is now to be seen in the
castle tower that bears her name.
The strong position of the castle of Loches gained for it at an early
date the sad honour of becoming a state prison. Behind its beautiful
and solid walls, great lords came to expiate their ambitious intrigues,
or the simple misfortune of having displeased those more powerful than
themselves. Geoffroy de Saint-Aignan was shut up here and strangled in
the Eleventh Century; Thibault, Count of Tours, suffered the severest
treatment here after his defeat at Nouy; and John, Duke of Alençon, was
cast into a deep cell here by order of Charles VII. for having aided an
ungrateful son in his attempts at rebellion, a son who was always ready
to foment trouble in the realm. But it was Louis XI. who made the most
frequent use of the Loches cells.
Charles VIII. often inhabited the castle during his early youth.
Charlotte of Savoy, his mother, was treated in it almost like a
prisoner by the suspicious Louis XI., who never exhibited a very lively
friendship for his wife. On his accession, Charles did not forget
Loches; he began the great tower that was completed by his successor,
and he took his graceful wife, Anne of Brittany, thither. Louis XII.
constructed the building that connects the round with the square tower.
In this is found the low room in which Louis le More was confined in
1505. The Duke of Milan spent several years in his prison at Loches, in
a truly sinister cell.
The soldier became an artist, and on the sombre walls of his cell
he laid a strange and original composition, full of grandeur and
character. Over the chimney-piece he placed his portrait, more than
life size, with casque on head as on the day of battle, and vizor
raised. The energetic features of this profile, the aquiline nose,
prominent chin and upper lip curled in a disdainful smile, depict for
us the entire man. Between the lines _pens_ are ranged, punning
allusions to the pains he suffered. The whole cell is decorated in
three colours, yellow ochre, red brown and almost blue black, combined
with the white of the walls. It was with this work that Sforza occupied
the interminable hours of his solitude. Travellers view these paintings
with curiosity as if to probe the secret thoughts that filled the
bitter heart of the dethroned prince. One cannot help shuddering at
the thought that the unfortunate Duke of Milan lived here for long
years, shut up in this _in pace_ by the good Louis XII. However,
Ludovic did not remain forever in this cell. Towards the last, the
King permitted him to occupy the upper apartments of the palace under
surveillance of some Scottish soldiers.
Another noted prisoner deserves mention. John, lord of Saint Vallier,
father of Diana of Poictiers, allowed himself to be drawn into the
conspiracy of the Duke of Bourbon. The plot was revealed by Louis de
Brézé, who had no idea that he was implicating his father-in-law.
Saint Vallier was arrested and imprisoned in the Castle of Loches.
From his prison, September 19, 1523, he wrote touching letters to his
children begging them to appeal to the King in his favour. But Francis
I. showed himself hard and impenetrable. The guilty man was condemned
and led to the Place de Grève, more dead than alive, to be decapitated.
At the moment when the sentence was about to be carried out, an
archer came from the King, bringing, not a pardon, but a commutation.
The unfortunate man, whose hair had turned white in a night, was so
affected by the preparation for his death that he almost lost his
reason. Ever afterwards he was afflicted with a nervous trembling,
accompanied by fever, which became known as the _fever of St.
Vallier_.
By a singular irony of fate, splendid _fêtes_ were held in this
same castle, whither so many wretches came to groan. Thirty years had
not elapsed since the Duke of Milan had breathed his last sigh, when
the conqueror of Pavia was received at Loches by him who there had lost
“all but honour.” Francis I., like a generous prince, on this occasion
displayed extreme magnificence: he came to meet his rival, December
12, 1539, accompanied by his queen, Eleanor, and followed by his whole
court. The entertainments were numerous and splendid, and only ended
when the Emperor had arrived on the frontier of the Low Countries.
The splendour of _fêtes_ shone anew at Loches in 1559, when Henri
II. and Catherine de’Medici passed through ten years afterwards; Henri
III., while still the Dauphin, stayed there for several days, at the
moment when he was going to take his place at the head of the army
concentrated in the environs, on the eve of the victory of Moncontour.
Here also were seen Charles IX., Henri IV. and Marie de’Medici. The
latter was a fugitive, taking refuge here for a few moments after
leaving the Castle of Blois, whence she had succeeded in escaping.
From that epoch, silence has invaded the vast halls and towers, the
terraces and gardens. Nothing has interrupted it except the savage
cries of the Revolution. To-day the palace of the Kings, discrowned and
almost deserted, keeps only the memory of magnificence gone forever.