History

Château de Montreuil-Bonnin, a high place in the history of Poitou

The legend

The fairy Pressine, married to Elinas King of Albany, had three daughters, Palestine, Mélior and Mélusine. The latter married Prince Raymondin and fathered many sons. One of them had a single, oversized eye in the middle of his forehead. He was mean and cruel and his mother ordered him to be suffocated, to prevent him from causing great damage to those around him. Seized with remorse, she built a large and beautiful castle, which was named in memory of her descendants “Monstre-en-oeil”, today “Montreuil-Bonnin”.

Montreuil makes history

Montreuil-Bonnin appeared at the beginning of the 11th century in the possessions of the Count of Poitou, whose power and influence were comparable to those of the King of France. William V the Great received Raoul, Viscount of Thouars, there around 1012. An agreement was signed there with Hugues IV de Lusignan in 1029. In 1085, construction of the current Saint-André church in Le Bourquet began, next to a ancient church under the same invocation.

From Eleanor of Aquitaine to Saint Louis

At the beginning of the 12th century, Montreuil-Bonnin was part of the domain of the powerful Aquitaine family. The administration of the lordship is entrusted to provosts from the Borrel family, whose name appears from the end of the 11th to the end of the 12th centuries. The Cistercian abbey of Le Pin was founded in 1141 and the development of the village of Montreuil dates back to the 1180s. When in 1152 Eleanor of Aquitaine divorced the King of France and remarried Henry II, King of England, the castellany passed through marriage to the Plantagenets. In 1170 their son Richard the Lionheart became Count of Poitou. According to the chronicles, he often comes to hunt in the forests surrounding Montreuil. It is undoubtedly from this period that the construction of the castle that we know today dates from. Around 1181, a monetary workshop was installed at the castle, as a text reminds us: “In the said year one thousand one hundred and eighty-one, se... ledict Duke Richard for his seiour and pleasure, in his castle of Montreuil Bonnin. And (bearing) still to see at the walls of the park, another vestige was the servant of a King and a place of (good) pleasure: also he had his money made there and the minters stood there, as they did been a long time since then. Between 1196 and 1198, Richard entrusted the government of Poitou to his nephew Otho de Brunswick who often stayed in Montreuil-Bonnin. In 1199, Eleanor of Aquitaine was in Montreuil-Bonnin shortly after her son, King Richard, was killed at the siege of Châlus in Haute-Vienne. His brother Jean Lackland succeeded him in England. A struggle begins for Poitou. Philippe Auguste supports John's competitor, Arthur of Brittany. Following a complaint from the Poitevins, the King's court ordered the confiscation of all the fiefs held by the Plantagenêt. Arthur invades Haut Poitou. He is captured in Mirebeau and disappears, probably murdered. In 1204, on the death of Eleanor, the County of Poitou and the castle of Montreuil-Bonnin passed definitively into the hands of Philippe Auguste who installed Bouchard de Marle (or Marly), son of Matthieu de Montmorency, there in 1214. The administration of the castle is entrusted to a certain Raymond. When Bouchard died in 1226, his son Pierre became Lord of Montreuil. In 1227, Blanche of Castile led negotiations during the minority of Louis IX, with a view to the alienation of Montreuil-Bonnin for the benefit of Hugues cause of Henry III, King of England. In 1232, Pierre de Marly consented to this transfer. Later, Hugues de Lusignan revolted against Louis IX and the King of France organized a military campaign to subdue the rebel and the English. In April 1242, Montreuil-Bonnin was recaptured in a few days from Hugues X de Lusignan. The Anglo-Poitevine forces were definitively defeated at Taillebourg and Saintes on July 22 and 23, 1242 by Louis IX and his brother Alphonse who then governed Poitou as an Apanagist count.

The Montreuil-Bonnin monetary workshop

The Château de Montreuil-Bonnin belongs to Alphonse de Poitiers, Count of Poitou, brother of Saint Louis. He will restart the monetary workshop to manufacture Poitevin deniers which bear the inscription “PICTAVENSIS”. His archives indicate that he also undertook numerous works to restore the castle: on the dwelling in 1242, and on the keep between 1245 and 1248, then in 1259. The administration of the castellany was once again entrusted to a provost called John. With the emergence of feudalism, coining ceases to be a sovereign right; a number of lords of a lower rank were assigned, or assumed, the right of coinage. The Kings of France will strive to regain this exclusivity of transmitting power. The significant financial profits derived from coinage are one of the keys which explain the bitterness of the struggle between the royal power and the great feudatories on this subject. The minting is carried out in a workshop whose master is either appointed by the King or the Count, or declared the winner of an auction of the charge. Under the terms of a lease, the master is required to manufacture, within the prescribed time, a specified quantity of metal, gold, silver, or copper, which he purchases with his own funds. He pays the "lordship" to the Count or the King and keeps for himself the "brewing", that is to say the difference between the purchase price of the metal and the manufacturing cost on the one hand, and on the other hand the price of the minted species. The names of some masters of the Montreuil workshop as well as certain operating leases have been preserved until today. Thus, a document dating from March 1269 specifies: “Anfonze, brother of the King of France Coens of Poitiers and Toulouse to all those who will see these present letters, greetings. Everyone knows that we have given to Bernard de Guisergnes, bourgeois of La Rochelle a (course) in Montreuil Bonnin, our currency of Poitevins...". The workshop staff includes: the tailor, often a goldsmith, who prepares the corners; the coiners who strike the coins with a hammer; the foundry workers, tailors and annealers who prepare the blanks. Furnace, bellows, crucibles, blocks, ordinary hammers, wedges, engraving punches, cookie cutters and scissors constitute the equipment commonly used in the workshop. The controllers (guards, testers or counterguards) represent the royal or countal authority. Deliverance is given by the guard. In 1271, under the reign of Philip III the Bold, Poitou returned to the Crown of France after the death of Alphonse of Poitiers. Under Philippe IV le Bel and his three sons, Louis it is even one of the main workshops in the Kingdom. From 1337, Philippe VI of Valois even had gold coins minted there. From the reign of Philippe III to that of Philippe VI, the castle of Montreuil-Bonnin constituted one of the main strongholds of the royal military presence in the region. The King is represented on site by a provost who exercises in his name the rights of justice, finance and police. A major fortress for the Crown, preparations were made there for the arrival of Philippe le Bel and the Queen at the end of the 13th century. On this occasion, between 1290 and 1294, numerous works were carried out on the dwelling, the chapel, the keep, the bridges, the halls and the mill.

The hundred years war

During the Hundred Years' War, Poitou was the scene of bloody struggles, especially as the English sought to regain control of their former possessions. The castle of Montreuil-Bonnin was besieged six times between 1346 and 1375.


After having devastated Poitiers in October 1346, the Count of Derby captured Montreuil-Bonnin. The mint was pillaged, the minters killed, and an English garrison installed at the castle. The incident is taken up by the chroniclers of the time: “The English came before where there had been a time, more than two hundred minters who, there, forged and made the King's coinage and who said that too many would defend themselves. If we did not want to comply with the request of the English and showed great pretense of defending Count Derby and his people, who were the archers in front, who dealt with the defenders so openly that barely at evening, no one appeared at the defenses, and so much so did the said English advance and test themselves, that by force they conquered Montreuil Bonnin; and made of those dead which were within. Not a single man was released there; and retained the castle for themselves, and refreshed it with new people; and then rode further towards Poitiers, which was very large and very scattered. The mint will never recover from this bloody end, it will have been active for around 150 years.

 

In 1347, Guillaume de Vouvray, captain of the châtellenie of Montreuil-Bonnin, defended the fortress against the English. In 1351, while Guichard d'Ars was seneschal of Poitou, the castle of Montreuil-Bonnin was in French hands. After the battles of Nouaillé and Maupertuis and the Treaty of Brétigny, signed in 1360 between John II the Good and Edward III of England, the English regained possession of Poitou.

 

It was within the framework of the Treaty of Brétigny that the castle was ceded in September 1361 to Jean Chandos, commissioner of the King of England. At Christmas 1369, while Simon de Burleigh was at the head of the fortress, Jean de Bueil and his men defeated the English garrison of Montreuil-Bonnin: “…Jehan de Bueil discomfited the English garrison which was at Monsteruel Bonnine and were many more... combatants bitten and taken and there was captured Symon Burelle, captain of English iceulz and was a very hard fought task..." Nevertheless, this sudden attack leaves the fortress in the hands of the English who will still hold it until 1373.

 

It seems that it was on this date that the constable of France, Bertrand du Guesclin, seized the castle of Montreuil-Bonnin, before temporarily losing it again at the beginning of 1375. On December 1, 1377, du Guesclin ceded it to Jean of France, Duke of Berry, for a large sum of money.

 

On the death of the Duke of Berry in 1416, Montreuil-Bonnin returned to the Crown. King Charles VI gave it with the county of Poitou as an appanage to the Dauphin Charles, who became Charles VII in 1422. In May 1423, Charles VII alienated the castle and the castellany for the benefit of Laurent Vernon, esquire of the Kingdom of Scotland, in exchange of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset, great-grandson of Edward III and first cousin of Henry V, King of England, whom Laurent Vernon had captured at the Battle of Baugé in 1421. The King of France wanted to exchange Somerset for Charles d'Artois, Count of Eu, which the English had held since the battle of Agincourt in 1415. The Châtellenie, lands and lordship of Montreuil-Bonnin were thus ceded in perpetuity to the Scots. This alienation was confirmed by letters dated from Amboise in November 1441. Throughout the Ancien Régime this alienation of Crown property, by definition inalienable, was the subject of numerous disputes to which a succession of letters patent in 1483, 1532, 1543, 1583, 1612, 1657 and 1763 which confirmed the grant of the land of Montreuil to the Vernons and their descendants.

The Vernons

The Vernons sought to establish their seigniorial authority at the cost of numerous disputes with the inhabitants and owners of neighboring lands. Thus, in 1444, Laurent Vernon opposed all those who had built strongholds in his castellany. His son Jacques attacked the inhabitants of Vouillé a few years later to force them to come and keep watch at the castle. Jacques Vernon, who was Chamberlain to the King, passed on to his death in 1487 an important domain made up of nine parishes: La Chapelle Montreuil, Béruges, Benassais, Vasles, Vausseroux, Ayron, Chiré en Montreuil, Latillé and Vouillé. His eldest son having been accidentally killed by a crossbow shot, it is his second son Jean who inherits the fief. In 1491, the Seneschal of Poitou intervened for the benefit of the monks of Sainte Radegonde after a theft committed by Jean Vernon's men-at-arms. In 1492, John forbade fortifying the town of Vouillé, despite royal authorization. Jean died prematurely and his brother Raoul paid homage as Lord of Montreuil in 1494. In 1514, Raoul Vernon became Grand Falconer of France.

 

Arthuse Vernon, great-granddaughter of Laurent and daughter of Raoul Vernon and Anne Gouffier, married Charles de Téligny, commander of the royal cavalry of Henry II and companion-in-arms of Admiral de Coligny during the siege of Saint-Quentin by the Spanish in 1557. Their son Charles, who was found in the Huguenot party from 1567, married Louise, the daughter of Admiral de Coligny, on May 27, 1571. The daughter of Arthuse and Charles de Téligny married François de la Noue, a famous Huguenot leader of Breton origin. The Château de Montreuil-Bonnin remained in the hands of their descendants until the eve of the Revolution.

Reform

François de La Noue is nicknamed "Bras-de-Fer", because of the prosthesis he had made, after losing an arm during an unfortunate fight at Fontenay in 1570. Also given the flattering nickname " Bayard Huguenot", he remains one of the beautiful heroic figures of a family which distinguished itself for almost a century in warlike combats, of course, but also in diplomatic negotiations, philosophical and political writings and poetry . He is notably the author of Political and Military Discourses. He fought the Catholic League with Henry IV at Arques in September 1589 and at Ivry, the battle of the "white plume" - in February 1590. He died at Moncontour, following a head wound received at the siege of Lamballe in 1591 King Henry IV said of him: “He is a great man of war and a greater man of good.” For Brantôme, he was “The greatest captain we had today in France”.

 

During this confused period, the castle of Montreuil-Bonnin became a point of support for the Huguenots at the gates of Poitiers. The Reformed church of Montreuil seems to be one of the most important in the region. During the siege of Poitiers by the Protestants in 1569, Montreuil-Bonnin was even the headquarters of the besiegers.

 

The fortress then passed into the hands of the Leaguers; the Huguenots invaded it again in July 1592. In 1593, the Leaguers of Poitiers decided to take Protestant places around this city and the Count of Malicorne came to besiege Montreuil-Bonnin. Four cannons opened a breach, the assault was made and the battle won. The defenders, La Piérière and La Paupane, as well as twenty-two soldiers are hanged "who are trying to see if their collar could by force take a battlement" tells us a "joking" chronicler.

 

In total, it is claimed that during the religious unrest the castle would be taken and burned up to three times. The fortress seems to have suffered serious damage throughout this period, on the one hand because the lord of the place was Protestant and on the other hand because of the military interest of the place. In 1594, Odet de la Noue, the son of François, remained the lord of Montreuil. At the beginning of the 17th century, Claude de la Noue, Odet's son, continued to ensure the protection of the Reformed church of Montreuil which lasted until his death.

 

Since that time, a third of the height of the west tower of the entrance gatehouse, a metal ball has been embedded in the wall, below which a few Latin words have been engraved recalling the memory of the League: "VLTIMA: RATIO: REGVM: 1593".

From the 17th century to the present day

In 1646, Marie de la Noue, the daughter of Claude and Dame Marie Modeste de Saint Georges de Vérac, married Léonor Antoine de Saint Simon, Marquis de Courtomer. The castle therefore passed through marriage into the hands of this family who owned it until the end of the 18th century.

 

In 1774, Antoine Léon Pierre Marquis de Courtomer and Count of Montreuil sold the land of Montreuil-Bonnin to a certain Forien, receiver of the Tailles de Poitiers for 203,000 pounds. The latter went bankrupt and his creditors put the estate up for sale in 1783. Following long and tortuous procedures, the châtellenie was declared state-owned and awarded, on June 26, 1784, to Charles d'Artois, future Charles X.

 

During the Revolution, the latter emigrated. His property was confiscated and put up for sale by the district of Lusignan at the beginning of July 1795, on 29 Messidor year III of the Republic. The estate was bought by a certain Claude Marie Bonnefond. The castle was then partly ruined and used as a quarry. The frames and roofs were dismantled, the walls stripped of their covering, the battlements of the towers overturned, the largest and oldest part of the house was demolished. On his return from exile, the Count of Artois recovered his sequestered domains but the castle no longer belonged to him.

 

Saved from complete ruin in 1836 by Mr. Félix Dupuy-Vaillant, who was mayor of Montreuil-Bonnin from 1852 to 1860, the fortress was classified as a historic monument in 1840. It appeared in the first list drawn up by Mérimée at that time. .


In 1862, the castle was purchased by Mr. Pierre Ernest Chénier, ancestor of the current owners. When he died in 1885, he left the estate to his daughter Louise, wife of Monsieur Mérault. Madame Mérault will in turn pass it on to her daughters Marthe and Renée. Marthe, married to Mr. Georges Hacault, will pass the estate on to her son Maurice who will be mayor of Montreuil until 1966. We owe Maurice Hacault the last major restoration campaign of the castle: the ramparts are loosened and reinforced, the southeast tower is consolidated, the entrance gatehouse is protected by a concrete terrace and the outbuildings which surround it on either side are destroyed, the roof of the Renaissance dwelling is raised and a French garden is created in the eastern part from the fortress plateau.

Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Hacault, who have no children, will adopt their nieces, Michèle and Chantal Hacault, daughters of Jean, Maurice's brother. When Madame Maurice Hacault died in 1980, her daughter Michèle and her husband Yves de Beaucorps maintained the castle for more than thirty years before passing it on in 2012 to their daughter Isabelle Dupont.

Share by: