The Château du Parc-Soubise near

Mouchamps Mouchamps () is a Communes of France, commune in the Vendée Departments of France, department in the Pays de la Loire Regions of France, region in western France. The grave of the noted French prime minister, Georges Clemenceau, is located near ...

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (). ...

, France. It was built in the 16th or 17th century but among the outbuildings, there is a barn from the 14th century. A multiple-level building was used as a salting-house and a granary. The château, located between a lake and a forest, is southeast of

Vendrennes Vendrennes () is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. See also *Communes of the Vendée department The following is a list of the 257 communes of the Vendée department of France. The commun ...

off of Mouchamps road. The château had belonged to the Rohan-Soubise family, such as when it was a residence of

René II, Viscount of Rohan René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminine ...

and his wife

Catherine de Parthenay Catherine de Parthenay (22 March 1554 – 26 October 1631) was a French noblewoman and mathematician. She studied with mathematician François Viète and was considered one of the most brilliant women of the era. She married Charles de Quel ...

, key leaders of the religious, political, and cultural circles during the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estim ...

(1562 to 1598). Henry IV stayed at the castle in 1589. He tried to seduce Anne de Rohan and when he asked where her bedroom was, she evidently said, "Through the chapel, your Majesty!" During the religious wars, the

Château de Blain The Château de Blain or Château de la Groulais, is a mediaeval castle constructed in the 13th century and heavily remodelled in the 16th, located in the ''commune'' of Blain in the Loire-Atlantique ''département'' of France. It formed part of ...

was besieged and set on fire in 1591 during fighting between the

Duke of Mercœur The Seigneurs and Dukes of Mercœur were a line of powerful lords deriving their name from the estate of Mercœur in Auvergne (province), Auvergne, France. The line became extinct in the 14th century, and passed by inheritance to the Dauphin of Auv ...

and Jean de Montauban, the knight De Goust. The Château de Blain was restored by Parthenay, who installed herself there with her children. Blain was razed about the time of the

Siege of La Rochelle The siege of La Rochelle (, or sometimes ) was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627–28. The siege marked the height of the struggle between the Catholics and the ...

and when Parthenay and her daughter Anne were imprisoned and released after four months in captivity. An architect restored the mansion in 1780, but before anyone could reside in the building it was set on fire by the

infernal columns The infernal columns ( French: ''colonnes infernales'') were operations led by the French Revolutionary general Louis Marie Turreau in the War in the Vendée, after the failure of the Royalist Virée de Galerne. Following the passage on 1 Augus ...

(

War in the Vendée The war in the Vendée (french: link=no, Guerre de Vendée) was a counter-revolution from 1793 to 1796 in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the river Loir ...

(1793 to 1796) of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

). It was burned down in 1794 during the French Revolution, killing 200 people.

References

{{Authority control Châteaux in Pays de la Loire House of Rohan