The Château de Montceaux, also known as the Château de Montceaux-en-Brie or the Château de Montceaux-lès-Meaux, was a royal

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

, located in what is now the commune of Montceaux-lès-Meaux in the

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne (river), Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square ...

department of north-central France. Mostly demolished in 1798, only vestiges remain.

History

Henri II gave it to

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...

in 1556, and it was her earliest building project. The building consisted of a central pavilion housing a straight staircase, and two wings with a

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

at each end. Catherine wanted to cover the alley in the garden where Henry played

pall-mall Pall-mall, paille-maille, palle-maille, pell-mell, or palle-malle (, , ) is a lawn game (though mostly played on earth surfaces rather than grass) that was mostly played in the 16th and 17th centuries, a precursor to croquet. History Related to ...

, an early form of

croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the Wor ...

. For this commission,

Philibert de l'Orme Philibert de l'Orme () (3-9 June 1514 – 8 January 1570) was a French architect and writer, and one of the great masters of French Renaissance architecture. His surname is also written De l'Orme, de L'Orme, or Delorme. Biography Early care ...

built her a

grotto A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...

set on a base made to look like natural rock, from which guests could watch the games while taking refreshments. The grotto was completed in 1558 but has not survived. After Henri II's death in 1559, Catherine kept the château and stayed there with the court on numerous occasions. The most famous incident connected with the château is the "

Surprise of Meaux The surprise of Meaux (''La surprise de Meaux'') was a failed coup attempt by leading aristocratic Huguenots which precipitated the second French War of Religion. Dissatisfied with their lot, and under the pretext of fear of extermination, Loui ...

" (1567) in which Huguenot troops planned to kidnap the queen and her son, King Charles IX, but she learned of the plot and hurried back to the Paris, surrounded by regiments of

Swiss Guards Swiss Guards (french: Gardes Suisses; german: Schweizergarde; it, Guardie Svizzere'')'' are Swiss soldiers who have served as guards at foreign European courts since the late 15th century. The earliest Swiss guard unit to be established on a p ...

. After Henri II's death, Catherine frequently ran short of money due to her other projects and the

Wars of Religion A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...

, and little further work appears to have been done at Montceaux. The château remained incomplete at the time of her death in 1589.Coope 1959, p. 72. In 1596,

Henri IV Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

conferred the title Marquise de Montceaux on his mistress,

Gabrielle d'Estrées Gabrielle d'Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux (; 157310 April 1599) was a mistress, confidante and adviser of Henry IV of France. She persuaded Henry to renounce Protestantism in favour of Catholicism in 1593. La ...

, and she purchased the Château de Montceaux at auction from the estate of Catherine de' Medici for 39,000 '' écus'', money which he probably gave her. After Gabrielle's death in 1599, he acquired it from their young son, César, Duc de Vendôme, and in 1601 gave it to his new wife,

Marie de' Medici Marie de' Medici (french: link=no, Marie de Médicis, it, link=no, Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, and Regent of the Kingdom ...

, in gratitude for the birth of the dauphin, the future

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

. The château ceased to be used as a royal residence after 1640, and had fallen into ruin by the time it was demolished by revolutionary decree in 1798. Some ruins remain, a chapel and the buildings of the forecourt, transformed into private dwellings; parts of the east wing are farm buildings. The château is listed as a ''

Monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' since 2005 by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual, ...

Gallery

File:Montceaux-lès-Meaux - Château -5.jpg, Ruins of the château File:Colonnes Château de Montceaux les Meaux.gif, Columns File:Montceaux-lès-Meaux - Château -4.jpg, Ruins of the entrance pavilion File:Montceaux-lès-Meaux - Château -2.jpg, Angle pavilion, restored in March 2005

Notes

Bibliography

* Babelon, Jean-Pierre (1989). ''Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance''. Paris: Flammarion/Picard. . * Coope, Rosalys (1959). "The Château of Montceaux-en-Brie", ''

Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cros ...

'', vol. 22, no. 1/2 (January–June), pp. 71–87. . * Knecht, R. J. (1998). ''Catherine de' Medici.'' London and New York: Longman. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Montceaux, Chateau De Châteaux in Seine-et-Marne Monuments historiques of Île-de-France Demolished buildings and structures in France Buildings and structures demolished in 1798