The Château de La Ferté-Imbault (Loir-et-Cher) is a stately home in the Loire Valley, France. A fortress of the Middle Ages rebuilt during the Renaissance, it is the largest brick château in Sologne, and one of the oldest.Daniel Coulaud, Sologne, pays des étangs et des châteaux, Editions Privat, collection Histoire & Génie du lieu, 1997, "Les châteaux féodaux" pages 94 and 136 It was the family seat of the House of Estampes for four centuries.Gilberte Espouy, "Elle fut le fief d'origine des d'Estampes. On nomme désormais le chef de maison: M. de la Ferté-Imbault, raccourci et solennisé parfois en Mgr de La Ferté". Page 32
The (lordship) of La Ferté-Imbault was the largest in the south of Sologne, whose lands included the parishes of Salbris, Saint-Genou (now Selles-Saint-Denis), Marcilly, Loreux and Souesmes.Translated from: Louis de la Saussaye, Éditions Hesse, 2009 (publication d'un manuscrit contenant des notes de voyages réalisées entre 1827 et 1835 par l'auteur) It comprised more than one hundred farms spread over tens of thousands of hectares, stretching from Loreux to Souesmes and from Saint-Viâtre to Theillay.Translated from: Laurent Leroy, Editions de l'Etude Historique et Généalogique du Centre, collection "nouvelle histoire de Sologne", 2014
The château is a large "rectangular building, with large and fine windows, and flanked by four towers [...]; shrubberies and alleys of mature trees lend an air of grandeur and poetry that strikes both the heart and the imagination".Translated from: Laurent Leroy, Editions de l'Etude Historique et Généalogique du Centre, Collection "Nouvelle Histoire de Sologne", October 2014, 63 p., page 5 Its position "is quite pleasant and joyful, in a place where the Sauldre divides into several channels ... The red turrets of the château rise amid these waters and this greenery, and crown marvellously the rich picture".
History Traces of Roman occupation were found on the site of the present château.
Medieval
The first medieval fortress was built around 980 by Humbold (or Humbault) Le Tortu,Translated from: » [archive], sur Le Royaume des Lanturelus Seigneur de Vierzon and son-in-law of Thibault, comte de Blois. The foundations of the two main towers remain to this day, as does the old armoury. The nearby Sauldre feeds the moat. Hervé I, lord at Vierzon, a descendant of Humbold, on his return from the Crusades, had a collegiate church built in honor of Saint Taurinus. This church and the need to supply the fortress favored the emergence of the village of La Ferté-Imbault around it. In 1280 Jeanne de Vierzon, heiress to the lands of La Ferté-Imbault, married Godfrey of Brabant, , son of Henry III, Duke of Brabant and Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant.
Godfrey of Brabant was the brother-in-law of the King of France, Philip III the Bold. His daughter, , married in 1302. His marriage to the rich heiress Alix de Brabant, which brought him the of La Ferté-Imbault, made him a close relative of Henry III, Duke of Brabant and the kings of France, as Alix was also the niece of the queen of France, Marie de Brabant.
The son of Jean III d'Harcourt and Alix de Brabant, , first comte d'Harcourt, married Isabeau de Parthenay. Their son Guillaume d'Harcourt was the seigneur of La Ferté-Imbault. From his marriage to Blanche de Bray, Dame de Cernon, he had one daughter, Jeanne d'Harcourt, Dame de La Ferté-Imbault, who married Hugues de Montmorency. Their sons, Louis and Antoine, died at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) and the Battle of Verneuil (1424) respectively. Their sister, Catherine de Montmorency, inherited the vast estate of La Ferté-Imbault after the deaths of her two brothers.
During the Hundred Years' War, the castle and village were taken and destroyed by the troops of Edward the Black Prince. After belonging for several uninterrupted centuries to the dynasty of Humbold Le Tortu, Seigneur of Vierzon, by the alliance of the families of Brabant, Harcourt and Montmorency, the estate was sold by Catherine de Montmorency to , Seigneur de Valençay, in 1424.Translated from: Henry-René Bertrand, 1960, Seigneurie de La Ferté-Imbaul Joan of Arc stayed at La Ferté-Imbault on March 4, 1429.
Early modern era
The castle was rebuilt during the Renaissance. Royal power was present nearby in Blois, and Francis I of France came from neighboring Romorantin.
Partially destroyed by a fire in 1562 during the Wars of Religion, the castle was rebuilt and enlarged by the addition of two residential wings and a large outbuilding in the early seventeenth century by Jacques d'Étampes, marquis de Mauny, the richest landlord of the region,Translated from: Gilberte Espouy, 2000, "Tous les hobereaux des environs apprécient d'être reçus par le plus riche propriétaire de la région, qu'ils habitent le Plessis, la Noue, le Méant, le Chêne, Migerault, ou plus loin, Rère, Marcheval, le château du Moulin. Ils ont tous, en commun, l'amour du cheval, de la chasse et de leur terre" page 129 and the grandson of Guillaume de Hautemer, the duc de Grancey, better known as the Maréchal de Fervaques. (Stendhal used this name for one of the characters in The Red and the Black). Jacques d'Estampes, head of the House of Estampes, was also the first marquis of La Ferté-Imbault. His eldest son was the Seigneur de Salbris.
Born in the reign of Henry IV, the marquis de La Ferté-Imbault died in the reign of Louis XIV, after fighting alongside Louis XIII, whose bust still adorns the former guardhouse of the château. He was ambassador to England from 1641 to 1643, lieutenant-general of Orléanais, Vendômois and Dunois in 1645, and marshal of France in 1651. Louis XIV made him a knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1661. His friendship with Gaston, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIII (Monsieur, the King's brother), was flawless throughout his life; as a lieutenant of the company of gendarmes of the Duc d'Orléans, in 1620 he had a huge outbuilding constructed at the Château de La Ferté-Imbault to accommodate his company. His wife, Catherine-Blanche of Choiseul (whose godfathers were Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully and the Prince of RohanTranslated from: Gilberte Espouy, 2000, "Elle est accompagnée par Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, le "Grand Sully", et Henri de Rohan, gendre de celui-ci". Page 25 and whose father was Charles de Choiseul, marquis de Praslin, advisor to Marie de' Medici, one of the most remarkable men of the end of the sixteenth century), was first lady-in-waiting to la Duchesse d'Orléans.
The château had its apogee in the Grand Siècle. The hearts of the Maréchal d'Estampes and his wife, Madame la Marquise d'Estampes de la Ferté-Imbault, remain at La Ferté-Imbault in the chapel of Saint-Taurinus, under an epitaph. A full-length portrait of the Maréchal d'Estampes de La Ferté-Imbault was painted in 1835 by Jean-Léonard Lugardon for King Louis-Philippe. It hangs in the sixth hall of the marshals, in the at the Palace of Versailles.
Eighteenth century In the eighteenth century, the Prince Regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans renamed the regiment of Chartres-Infantry the La Ferté-Imbault regiment.
In 1743, King Louis XV acquired the marquisate of La Ferte-Imbault for his mistress, Madame de La Tournelle, on whom he wanted to confer a prestigious title in order to present her to the court. Madame de La Tournelle eventually became Duchesse de Châteauroux.
The last marquise de La Ferté-Imbault was Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin d'Estampes,Translated from: Marie-Thérèse de La Ferté-Imbault daughter of the illustrious Madame Geoffrin, whose literary salon in the rue Saint-Honoré was famed throughout Europe and as far away as Russia, where the Empress Catherine II wrote to her as a friend. The marquise, whose magnificent portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier is exhibited at the Fuji Art Museum in Tokyo, enjoyed La Ferté for "the freshness of large chestnut trees that extend their shade". Her presence was requested in Versailles; Louis XV asked her to teach philosophy to his granddaughters, the princesses Elisabeth and Clotilde de France (sisters of the Duc de Berry, future Louis XVI), on the recommendation of the governess of the Enfants de France, Marie Louise de Rohan, comtesse de Marsan.Translated from: Baronne d'Oberkirch, "Quant à la marquise de La Ferté-Imbault, chez laquelle nous nous rendîmes ensuite, c'est la fille de la célèbre madame Geoffrin. Elle a épousé le petit-fils du maréchal de La Ferté-d'Etampes, et a été sous-gouvernante des enfants de France. C'est elle qui a fait l'éducation de Madame Elisabeth. Veuve à vingt et un ans, elle a renoncé à un second mariage et elle a donné tout son temps à la science et aux arts. Sa maison était le rendez-vous des beaux-esprits, mais ses idées ne ressemblaient pas à celles de sa mère, au contraire; elle haïssait les philosophes, et je ne l'en blâme pas. [...] Madame de La Ferté-Imbault avait, à l'époque de notre visite, environ soixante-sept ans, ce qui n'avait rien ôté ni à son esprit ni à la gaieté de sa conversation." She also gave Madame de Marsan scripts for skits performed by the princesses for the Dauphin and the Dauphine Marie Antoinette. Madame de La Ferté-Imbault was invited to the coronation of Louis XVI in Reims on June 11, 1775.
Madame de La Ferté-Imbault was clever, recognized for her culture and moral qualities. A woman of letters, she regularly attended her mother's salon along with most of the great minds of the Enlightenment: Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, Montesquieu her tutor, and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. She never remarried despite her early widowhood and several marriage proposals, including one from Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland, father of the Queen of France Marie Leszczyńska, who called the marquise "my Imbault".Translated from: Constantin Photiadès, Plon, 1928, 282 p., pages 75 and 76Translated from Madame de la Ferté-Imbault (1715-1791) et son monde, Benedetta Craveri, Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France 2005/1 (Vol. 105), pages 95-109
Queen of the "Sublime Order of Lanturelus", she resisted the intrigues of the court and won the friendship of the royal family (including Madame Elizabeth, who wrote to her, "You must love, said a princess. I go further, for I love you, Imbault, and I defy my critics and my rivals to find anything to say against my tenderness",Translated from: Constantin Photiadès, La reine des Lanturelus, Plon, 1928, page 217: chanson de Madame Elisabeth de septembre 1780, Bibliothèque Nationale and Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, who invited her to Chantilly and always sought her advice, help and consolationTranslated from: marquis de Ségur, Calmann-Levy) courtiers and favorites like the Marquise de Pompadour, who was her friend.
In the French Revolution the House of d'Estampes fell, and the Château de La Ferté-Imbault lost influence. The surrounding village was annexed to the neighboring town of Selles-Saint-Denis. The two wings of the château were torn down. The marquis de Pierrecourt, son of Sophie d'Estampes, owner of the château, was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror but later released. He sold the estate in 1807 to the Comte de Belmont, whose widow sold it in 1819 to the comtesse de Grandeffe, Marie-Louise de Poix.
Nineteenth century