The Château de Ranton is a small fortified castle in the village of Ranton, in the Department of the Vienne just west of Loudun, and south of the Loire. It was one of the front line of fortresses which were built to defend the royal city of Loundun at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War in 1340–1345. It played this military role until 1372. It then became a feudal manor and one of the estates of aristocratic families associated with the Courts of the French Kings and the Dukes of Anjou.
The buildings inside the main rampart wall were rebuilt in the 16th century in the Renaissance style, as the home of a series of Protestant families in the French Wars of Religion. It escaped destruction both by Cardinal Richelieu in the early 17th century and again in the French Revolution, but was little more than a ruin by the 1940s.
It has been restored in three phases since 1950, and now is one of the most complete fortresses of the 14th century.
Architecture The castle overlooks and dominates the valley of the Dive, and was one of a string of fortresses along the limestone ridge. It is an octagonal fortress, surrounded by a dry moat. It was probably built on a previous fortress, and follows a typical Templar design.
The main rampart walls are built of squared blocks of "tuffeau", the local soft limestone, excavated from the dry moat. The walls are built directly on the limestone outcrop and rise to a height of about 8–10 metres above the moat. The moat itself is excavated about 3–4 metres into the underlying limestone, and was originally protected by an outer wall. This has now disappeared, the stones having been reused to build the village houses.
The walls are protected on the eight corners by semicircular towers. The towers originally all had machicolations, the overhanging part around the top of the towers, which was a recent innovation in military architecture of the time, and made it even more difficult to scale the walls. The change from square to round towers also gave better resistance to cannonballs. The machicolations now only remain on the tower to the right of the main entrance.
The main gate was protected by two larger towers, and access was by a fixed stone bridge across the moat, but with a drawbridge on the last 3 metres. It was replaced by an extension of the fixed bridge in the 17th century. The main entrance is vaulted in the Plantagenet style, with stables and guard rooms to right and left, and the entrance to the vaulted spiral staircase in the main tower.
The buildings in the courtyard date from the 14th and 17th centuries: The vaulted store rooms and granary on the south-west side are part of the original 14th-century construction. Those on the north-west side are from the 17th century, built against the original inner fortification wall. The buildings on the north-east and south-east were already ruined in the 17th century, and their foundations are now part of the embankment to the ramparts.
Excavation of the moat into the limestone gave access to a limestone wall into which homes and farm buildings were excavated – both under the castle and under the outer wall. The latter were extended into a substantial underground village in the 14th century as a safe haven from the pillaging bands that roamed the countryside in the period from 1356 to 1372. Many of the rooms around the moat were inhabited well into the 19th century, and some were still inhabited in the 1920s, within living memory of people in the village.
In 1900, the population of Ranton still numbered about 600, mainly engaged in viticulture and stone extraction. The miners, known as "pions", still used traditional methods, using wetted wooden stakes to break off blocks, and their unfinished work is still visible in some of the excavations around the moat.
The Hundred Years' War The area around Loudun was the focus of attention in the Hundred Years' War. In January 1340, Edward III of England formally claimed the title of 'King of France'. In June, the English fleet decimated the French fleet at the mouth of the Zwin in what is now the Netherlands. The war had begun. It was initially fought in the north of France and the Netherlands, but it was Aquitaine that was at stake. After four generations of peace in the area, the castles and town walls were in a poor state of repair.
In 1340 the castles at Ranton and Curçay-sur-Dive were rebuilt; that of Ranton by Guillaume de Bois Gourmont and that at Curçay by Huet Odart, both under instructions from Jean II; they were part of an elaborate network of fortresses that ensured that the area remained under French control. The castle at Ranton was only one of those rebuilt by Guillaume de Bois Gourmont: the largest was that at Bois Gourmont, near Veniers, just north of Loudun, of which only the ruined keep now remains.
In 1345, Jeanne Gourmont, daughter of Guillaume de Bois Gourmont married Jean de la Jaille. The castle and estates of Ranton were part of Jeanne's dowry, and Jean de la Jaille became the Lord of Ranton. He was already an experienced and valued knight: he had been born in 1324 and brought up in a privileged environment in which the values of medieval chivalry dominated. He first appeared in the rolls of the King's army at the age of 16 when he is recorded as leading a troop of three young squires to join the army in Flanders. He first saw action at the head of a troop of twenty soldiers at the Battle of Saint-Omer on 24 June 1340 between an Anglo-Flemish army commanded by Robert III of Artois and the French under Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy.
In 1354, Louis I, Duke of Anjou was appointed as the Governor of Tourraine and Jean de la Jaille joined his service. In 1355, Jean was in the entourage of Jean de Clermont, Maréchal de France and Lieutenant General to the King in Touraine and Poitou, one of the most powerful and brilliant Barons in the Court of Jean le Bon. He was fortunate to escape with his life at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Jean de la Jaille remained in the service of Louis I of Anjou, and was nominated Captain and Defender of Loudun in 1360, a function he fulfilled with honour and success for over 30 years.
Poitiers itself was taken by the English in 1360, and was only recaptured by the French under Bertrand du Guesclin in 1370. During this period, Loudun and its network of fortresses was the frontier between the English and French controlled areas. There were periodic skirmishes between English and French forces, not to mention problems with lawless bands, discharged soldiers and booty seekers. Jean de la Jaille twice saved Loudun from occupation and pillage.
In the late 1360s, the English captured the castle at Moncontour and controlled the valley of the Dive. Only the network of fortresses around Loudun held out. In 1369, John Chandos and Lord Pembroke combined forces and again besieged Loudun. They occupied the town, but Jean de la Jaille held out in the citadel in the face of a torrent of fire. The countryside suffered terribly. The area north of Loudun, around Roiffe, was particularly badly affected. It was some decades before the villages were re-established, and the land brought back under cultivation. Many of the excavated rooms off the dry moat around the Chateau de Ranton date from this time. They served as a refuge for the villagers.
Jeanne Gourmont died in 1373 and is buried in the Church of Saint-Croix in Loudun. The titles she brought to Jean de la Jaille on their marriage notably that of Lord of Ranton, passed to her eldest son, Tristan III de la Jaille. Both her two sons, now seasoned knights, fought the English in Poitou and in Brittany. Tristan III led a company in which his brother, Guichard was his lieutenant, and he was lieutenant to his father, the governor of Loudun. In 1371, he had married Eleanor de Maille, daughter of the Lord de Breze. He was part of the Court of Louis I of Anjou, and was killed with him at Bari in 1384, and the title of Lord of Ranton passed to his eldest son, Tristan IV
In 1388, at the age of 14, Tristan IV left La Rochelle with other adventurous young squires to fight the Duke of Lancaster in Castille. In 1392 he joined the King at Le Mans and was one of the leading captains in the Angevin army. In 1409, he set out with Louis II of Anjou to unsuccessfully claim the Kingdom of Naples.
His uncle, Guichard did not have lands to tie him to France, and as soon as war with the English calmed during the 1380s, he left to fight in Hungary. In 1395, Guichard went on a crusade against the Ottoman Turks who had captured Constantinople. He was with the army defeated at the siege of Nicopolis in 1396. It took two years, and a great deal of ransom money to bring the survivors home. In 1399, he left with a second expedition led by marshal Jean II le Maingre to aid the Eastern Emperor, Manuel II. They sailed into the Golden Horn in 1399 with 1,400 men-at-arms to break the Turkish siege of Constantinople.LALANDE, Denis, Jean II le Meingre dit Boucicaut (1366-1421) étude d’une biographie héroïque, Genève, Librairie Droz, 1988 They were besieged in Constantinople for two years. In a naval battle, Guichard de la Jaille was again noted in dispatches for his bravery and courage. He returned to France in 1405 and died the following year.
Jean de la Jaille had also died in 1405, at the age of 81. By then, he was "deaf, senile and infirm" and was ruined financially. His estates had been too often mortgaged to pay for his and his son's military adventures.
Tristan IV was made Grand Master of the Household of the King of Sicily. In 1425 he became Guard and Captain of the Château de Loudun. However, Tristan left again for Naples with King Louis in 1429. He participated in the victory of Aquila and was rewarded with the government of the region of Reggio. Louis never become effective King of Naples and died of malaria at Cosenza in 1434. The following year, his brother René of Anjou was named King of Naples. Tristan died in Reggio soon afterwards.
Tristan IV had three sons: Robert, the eldest was killed at Agincourt in 1415. The two younger ones, Bertrand and Chretien, followed their father to Sicily in 1409; Chretien stayed there to become the Grand Senechal to the Court of Louis II, the King of Sicily. Bertrand took part in three years of campaigning, culminating in the victory of Roccasecca in 1411, then returned to look after the estates in France. He was Lord of la Grande Jaille, east of Loudun, of Ranton, of Avrille in Anjou; of Beuxes; of La Roche-Talbot in Souvigne-sur-Sarthe; of la Balayere in the Bierne; of La Varenne-Bouzeau near to Moranne and others. He grew up at Ranton and it remained his mother's home until her death.
His childhood and youth at Ranton brought him into regular contact with his neighbours in the Château of Curcay. This was owned by the Odart family: a distinguished family, as famous as that of de la Jaille for their exploits in the crusades and against the English. In 1418, Bertrand married Guillemette, the daughter of Guillaume Odart.