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简体中文In the 15th and 16th centuries, the court of France was based in Amboise
The arrival in Bourges of Charles VII (1403- 1422-1461) and his wife Marie of Anjou (1404- 1463) marked the beginning of the French kings’ residence in the Loire Valley. However, the latter preferred the Châteaux of Loches and Chinon to the fortified Château of Amboise.
As for their son, Louis XI (1423- 1461-1483), he resided in his château at Plessis-Lès-Tours (in La Riche). However, he chose Amboise as the residence for the queen, Charlotte of Savoie (1441/ 1461/1483), and the heir apparent – the future Charles VIII (1470- 1483-1498) – born in Amboise in 1470. He had a new loggia and an oratory built, the latter resting against the southern surrounding wall, on the site of the future St. Hubert Chapel.
View of the castle during the reign of Louis XI
Charles VIII (1470- 1483-1498) and his wife, Anne of Brittany (1477/ 1491-1498/1499-1514), left a lasting mark on Amboise. The king’s ongoing attachment for the château of his childhood certainly influenced his desire to transform the former medieval stronghold into a sumptuous Gothic palace. Charles VIII was also the château’s great architect, since he ordered the successive construction of the two ceremonial loggias and a chapel on the site of the oratory built by his father. In addition, he ordered the construction of the two exceptionally large cavalry towers (a third was never finished). These enabled horses and carriages to go back and forth between the town and the château’s terraces 40 metres above it. These exceptionally extensive building works were funded by the royal treasury and continued despite the military campaigns on the Italian peninsula.
Innovative techniques were even used to heat the stones and to stop them freezing in winter so that work could continue. The king called upon French masons, Flemish sculptors, and then on his return from Italy, Italian artisans: carpenters, gardeners and architects. At that time, the château had 220 rooms.
The king’s emblems and monograms – the flaming sword – and queen Anne of Brittany’s ermine (1477/ 1491-1498/ 1499-1514), visible in the château’s rooms bear witness to the royal couple’s presence.
by Jean Clouet
However, the premature death of Charles VIII, at 28 years of age, prevented him from seeing his great project completed.
Since Charles VIII died without a male heir, his cousin, the Duke of Orléans, succeeded him under the name of Louis XII (1462- 1498-1515). In order to keep the Duchy of Brittany in the French fold, Louis XII had to marry the dead king’s widow. Thus, Anne of Brittany (1477/1491-1498/ 1499-1514) became the only woman in French history to hold the title of queen twice.
The new king mainly lived in his stronghold in Blois, while his young cousin and heir apparent, François of Valois-Angoulême, the future François Ier, was educated at Amboise.
Louis XII continued the building projects initiated by his predecessor and completed the Heurtault Tower in the perpendicular wing of his predecessor’s Loggia.
After his childhood at the château and his accession, on 1st January 1515, François Ier (1494- 1515-1547) left France for Italy and won the Battle of Marignan in September of that year. However, he did not forget Amboise, which he embellished. He enhanced the château’s Louis XII wing and decorated the dormer windows in the “Italian style”.
François Ier’s fascination for literature and the arts made him a great Renaissance patron king. He invited numerous Italian artists to Amboise, like Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) who resided there from 1516 to 1519.
As for Henri II (1519- 1547- 1559), François Ier's son, he was behind the construction of a building parallel to the Louis XII wing (no longer in existence) in which he created apartments for the French royal children. After his death, his wife Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) assumed the kingdom’s regency.
The Castle of Amboise by Léonard de Vinci 1517
© Photo of the Windsor Collection
View of the castle in the time of Catherine de Medici
The three sons of Henri II and Catherine de Medici, François II (1544- 1559-1560), Charles IX (1550- 1560-1574) and Henri III (1551-1 1574-1589) successively held the French throne.
Under François II’s short reign, Amboise was the backdrop for the Amboise conspiracy. After this tragic episode, Catherine de Medici had the château’s east defences reinforced and gave orders for the construction of a bastion.
Then, under Charles IX and Henri III, royal visits to the Château became less frequent. As such, Amboise progressively stopped being the seat of the French court.
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The Valois, the nomad kings.
Contrary to preconceived ideas, the king did not live at the same château all year round. The kings stayed at Amboise for a few weeks before setting off for the kingdom’s provinces or for the military campaigns that took up a significant part of their reigns. When the kings took to the road, their entire retinue went with them. This retinue included all the officials from the king’s household and from the queen’s household, and courtiers close to the king.
Under Henri II, the court comprised up to 10,000 people! This way of life necessitated the use of robust and functional furniture (often made of oak). This included thrones; chests and dressers; and tapestries, which visitors can discover in abundance in the château’s Gothic loggia.
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The Valois kings’ Italian campaigns (1494-1559)
Charles VIII (1470- 1483-1498)
When the king of Naples, Ferdinand Ier (1423- 1458-1494), died without an heir, Charles VIII claimed this kingdom. He invoked the heritage of Charles of Maine, the last count of Provence and “legitimate” sovereign of the kingdom of Naples, which had been occupied by the Aragonese since 1442. So, in 1494 Charles left to take possession of this kingdom, at the head of 30,000 men. The French army arrived in Naples in February 1495. An anti-French alliance repelled them during the battle of Fornovo in July 1495 and Charles VIII found himself on the road home.
Louis XII (1462- 1498-1515)
Louis XII laid claim mainly to the Duchy of Milan, as the grandson of Valentina Visconti (1366-1408). Between 1499 and 1500, he seized the duchy, then the kingdom of Naples in 1501, before being ousted from it three years later. New expeditions brought him several victories. In 1507, he took Genoa then Ravenna in 1512, before being definitely driven from the Milanese region in 1513.
François Ier (1494- 1515-1547)
After his accession in 1515, François Ier was back on the road to Italy. That same year he won the famous victory at Marignan and conquered the Duchy of Milan. His rivalry with the Emperor Charles V (1500/ 1516/1519/1558) and the king of England Henri VIII (1491/ 1509/1547), was the motivation behind several interventions on the Italian peninsula (1521, 1524-1525; 1532-1538; 1544), the outcomes of which were often not favourable to François. In 1525, he was even taken prisoner in Pavia. In 1544, François Ier finally renounced his claim to the Milanese region with the Treaty of Crépy-en-Laonnois.
Henri II (1519- 1547-1559)
In 1559, Henri II definitively confirmed this renouncement of French claims on the Italian peninsula with the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis.
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Léonard de Vinci and his compatriots – the artisans of Amboise’s metamorphosis.
A detail of the garden from the engraving by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, taken from ‘Les Plus Excellents Bastiments du Royaume de France’ (The Finest Buildings in the Kingdom of France).
Charles VIII (1470- 1483-1498) returned from Italy with impressive collections of works of art and prize books collected in the Italian peninsula’s different cities. He was also accompanied by numerous Italian artists. The arrival of these first Italian “maestros” in the Loire Valley made the Château of Amboise one of the cradles of the French Renaissance. So, the Italian art of living and building spread in Amboise and then through the rest of the kingdom.
The architect and engineer Domenico da Cortona known as “Boccador” (1465-1549), the sculptor Il Paganino (1450-1518) and the gardener Dom Pacello da Mercogliano (1453- 1534) stayed in Amboise and used their considerable talents to embellish the château. Thanks to these renowned artists the palace of Charles VIII reached a level of excellence and refinement that was admired by his contemporaries.
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Amboise sets the stage for the Marignan victor
On 14th September, after intense fighting against the Swiss, allies and protectors of the Duke of Milan, François Ier (1494- 1515-1547) narrowly won victory thanks to the opportune intervention of his Venetian allies. The sovereign knew how to masterfully exploit this event both at home and beyond the French borders.
Though the Swiss bore arms once more alongside the Emperor Maximilian 1st of Habsburg (1459- 1508-1519) at the start of 1516, they entered into the “Eternal peace of Fribourg” with the king of France, François Ier. Henceforth, the Helvetic Confederation was committed to serving the king at his request and never again waging war against him. (These commitments were respected until the 1792 massacre of the Swiss at the Tuileries Palace in Paris).
Pope Leo X (1475-1521), until then an ally of Emperor Maximilian, pressed the latter to negotiate peace with the victorious François Ier. The two men met in Bologna at the end of 1515. The negotiations resulted, in 1516, in the signing of the Concordat of Bologna. The Pope was recognised as the head of the church in France and granted the king the right to nominate French bishops and abbots.
In spring 1518, François Ier used the birth of his eldest son, François, dauphin prince of France, to organise sumptuous festivities at the court of Amboise. These festivities were used to showcase French victories in Italy in the presence of representatives from the European courts.
These events were orchestrated by the architect Domenico da Cortona (1465-1549), who commissioned his compatriot Leonardo da Vinci to create the décor for the baptism of the dauphin prince and the marriage of Lorenzo II de Medici (1492-1519) and Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne (1495-1519) – the future parents of Catherine de Medici (1519-1589). In particular, the Italian architect was tasked with recreating a small wooden and canvas fort to re-enact the famous 1515 battle. He also created numerous ephemeral works (scaffolds; tournament enclosures) to accommodate the sovereigns and VIP guests.
Crowned in the glory of this political and diplomatic success, the French sovereign henceforth held imperial ambitions and wished to be elected as head of the Holy Roman Empire. As the Emperor Maximilian had not designated a successor during his life, the election was scheduled for 1519. In spite of costly efforts to win favourable votes from the prince-electors, François Ier was forced to cede to Charles of Habsburg known as ‘Charles Quint’ or Charles V (1500- 1516/1519-1558), who claimed the imperial crown. As a result of this election, the new emperor’s vassals surrounded the kingdom of France. He dominated the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in the south west, the Spanish Netherlands in the north east, Franche-Comté and the Holy Empire to the east, and the kingdom of Naples to the south east.
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Amboise bore witness to the linking of Brittany with the kingdom of France
A kingdom, then an independent duchy, Brittany posed a danger to the already fragile balance of the young Charles VIII’s kingdom.
The death of the Duke François II of Brittany (1435-1488) created competition between Charles VIII and the Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg (1459-1508-1519). Both desired the hand in marriage of the heir to the duchy, Anne of Brittany.
After numerous diplomatic negotiations and military actions, the king of France achieved his aim and married Anne in 1491.
Brittany entered its first personal union with the kingdom.
The royal couple did not have a living descendant when Charles VIII died in 1498, so the marriage contract stated that Anne of Brittany must marry the new king of France, Louis XII, her dead husband’s cousin.
François Ier, Louis XII’s successor from 1515, assumed the usufruct of the duchy through his wife Claude of France (1499-1524), daughter of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, then through his sons François then Henri.
He intervened more and more in the duchy’s affairs and administration.
In 1532, the year his son François of France came of age, the duchy’s estates acceded to François Ier’s request to alter Claude’s will in favour of his son François.
The definitive union of the kingdom was thus accepted on condition that the privileges of the duchy be respected. The union edict was signed in Nantes on 13th August that same year.
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Amboise, the backdrop for religious confrontations
Affair of the Placards (1534)
François Ier made his authority over the church recognised with the Concordat of Bologna (1515). Even though he was favourable to church reform, he kept his distance from the theological controversies that were already provoking passionate debate at the Sorbonne – theology faculty – and among the followers of Luther (1483-1546).
However on 17th and 18th October 1534, posters were put up during the night in Paris, Orléans, Blois, Tours, Rouen and right up to the door of the king’s chamber in the Château of Amboise. The man behind them, Antoine Marcourt, was protesting against “the horrible, great and unacceptable abuses of the Papal Mass”. This provocation directed at the ecclesiastic authorities and the king’s person interrupted the moderate reform process desired by François Ier.
Two to three hundred people were arrested and several dozen suspects convicted of heresy were burnt alive in the months that followed. The king organised a penitential procession on 21st January 1535. Merchants, men of the church, teachers and printers, suspected of propagating heresy, were henceforth kept under close surveillance.
THE Amboise CONSPIRACY (1560)
In 1560, the new King François II, eldest son of Henri II and Catherine de Medici, was 16 years old. The previous year he had married Mary Stuart (1542-1587), queen of Scotland. The latter’s uncles, the Guise, unofficially wielded power and favoured repressive policies with regard to the Protestants, known as the Huguenots.
The latter, followers of the Prince of Condé, attempted on 27th and 29th March 1560 to remove François II from the influence of the Guise. However, news of this kidnap plot reached the king who decided to seek refuge in the Château of Amboise. The plotters were arrested and summarily judged before being executed in public. Their leaders were even hung from the Château balconies “as an example”…
This initial violence opened a period of armed confrontation between the kingdom’s leading figures.
An attempt at appeasement between the two factions led to the Edict of Amboise on 19th March 1563. However, tensions heightened further and reached their zenith during the bloody night of the St. Bartholomew Massacre in 1572. It wasn’t until the Edict of Nantes in 1598 that King Henri IV re-established lasting peace and freedom for the Protestant Reformation.