The Château de Domfront is a ruined castle in the town of Domfront, in the

Orne Orne (; nrf, Ôrne or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. The Château de Domfront has been protected as a '' monument historique'' 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 (visua ...

since 1875. The ruins include the keep, the

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. Fo ...

, ramparts, towers,

casemates A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mea ...

and the former Sainte-Catherine et Saint-Symphorien chapels. The castle ruins have been repaired since 1984 by the '. The ruins stand in a public park and are open to the public free of charge.

History

In 1051, the castle at Domfront, belonging to Guillaume II Talvas, lord of

Bellême Bellême () is a commune in the Orne department in northwestern France. The musicologist Guillaume André Villoteau (1759–1839) was born in Bellême, as was Aristide Boucicaut (1810-1877), owner of ''Le'' ''Bon Marché'', the world's first de ...

, and occupied by the forces of

Geoffrey of Anjou Geoffrey V (24 August 1113 – 7 September 1151), called the Handsome, the Fair (french: link=no, le Bel) or Plantagenet, was the count of Anjou, Count of Tours, Touraine and Count of Maine, Maine by inheritance from 1129, and also Duke of Nor ...

, was besieged by

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

, duke of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

.David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (1967) In 1092, the people of Domfront revolted against Robert II de Bellême, Earl of Shrewsbury, transferring their allegiance to the third son of William the Conqueror, Henri Beauclerc, who became Duke of Normandy (1106) and King of England (1100). In 1169, it was at the Château de Domfront that

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king ...

received the papal legates who came to reconcile him with

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...

. Taken in 1204 - Domfront being the personal possession of

John Lackland John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

- it was conceded to first to

Renaud de Dammartin Renaud de Dammartin (Reginald of Boulogne) (c. 1165 – 1227) was Count of Boulogne from 1190, Count of Dammartin from 1200 to 1214 and Count of Aumale from 1204 to 1214. He was son of Alberic III of Dammartin and Mathilde of Clermont. Brou ...

, Count of Boulogne, and later to Philippe Hurepel. With the death of his successor, Jeanne, in 1251 Domfront returned to the

royal domain Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...

. In 1259, Louis IX of France gave Domfront to Robert II,

Count of Artois The count of Artois (French: Comtes d'Artois, Dutch: Graven van Artesië) was the ruler over the County of Artois from the 9th century until the abolition of the countship by the French revolutionaries in 1790. House of Artois *Odalric (c. 850 ...

, as dowry for his wife. After his death (1302), in compensation for not getting

Artois Artois ( ; ; nl, Artesië; English adjective: ''Artesian'') is a region of northern France. Its territory covers an area of about 4,000 km2 and it has a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras (Dutch: ''Atrecht'') ...

, in 1332 his grandson

Robert III of Artois Robert III of Artois (1287 – between 6 October & 20 November 1342) was Lord of Conches-en-Ouche, of Domfront, and of Mehun-sur-Yèvre, and in 1309 he received as appanage the county of Beaumont-le-Roger in restitution for the County of Arto ...

was given the Norman property and

appanage An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much o ...

s that had been confiscated. In 1342, Philip VI of France ceded the Domfront country to the Count of Alençon who, in 1367, reunited Domfront and Alençon. In the meantime, in 1356, troops of

Charles II of Navarre Charles II (10 October 1332 – 1 January 1387), called Charles the Bad, was King of Navarre 1349–1387 and Count of Évreux 1343–1387. Besides the Pyrenean Kingdom of Navarre, Charles had extensive lands in Normandy, inherited from his fathe ...

(Charles the Bad), king of Navarre, commanded by Sir Robert Knolles, took the place and held it until 1366. During the winter of 1417-1418, the castle was besieged by the English commanded by the

Duke of Clarence Duke of Clarence is a substantive title which has been traditionally awarded to junior members of the British Royal Family. All three creations were in the Peerage of England. The title was first granted to Lionel of Antwerp, the second son ...

and fell on the 10 July 1418. The French recaptured it for a time in 1430. It was finally taken by the French on 2 August 1450. Ownership was again disputed in 1466-1467. In 1574, the Château de Domfront, serving as a refuge for the Count of Montgomery, was besieged by royal troops under the Marshal of Matignon, capitulating on 27 May. The count was beheaded in Paris in 1574 on the orders of the Queen. Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully ordered the demolition of the castle in 1608.

References

External links

*
Site of the ''Association pour la Restauration du Château de Domfront''

at Richesheures.net
Château de Domfront
history and pictures at Montjoye.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Domfront, chateau de Castles in Orne Ruined castles in Normandy Monuments historiques of Orne

History

See also

References

External links