To the south of the Loire, on the edge of the Cosson, rises an immense white castle with a bluish roof: Chambord.
In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast "At the heart of History", Jean des Cars tells you the story of this building worthy of a fairy tale, but which was imagined by a very real king: François Ier .
Even the greatest adversary of François Ier, the emperor Charles V, remained speechless in front of the beauty of the castle of Chambord. In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast "At the heart of history", Jean des Cars tells you the story of this exceptional building, figurehead of the Loire châteaux, which was inspired by plans made by a certain Leonardo DeVinci…
On December 15, 1539, Chambord was in turmoil.
François Ier receives his eternal adversary there, Charles Quint.
Indeed, the King of France allowed the emperor to cross his kingdom to go from Spain to the Netherlands which are in the midst of a fiscal rebellion.
It is winter, and the land journey is less perilous than by sea. It is a delicacy that Francis I gives to Charles V who is also his brother-in-law because the French sovereign had married, nine years earlier, after the death of his first wife, Queen Claude, the sister of Charles V, Éléonore de Habsbourg.
The Emperor's suite is impressive.
Several thousand people, all dressed in black because the Imperial Court is in mourning: the dear wife of Charles V, Isabelle, died after giving birth to a stillborn child.
The emperor was first received in Loches, then in Amboise before the double procession headed for Chambord.
In honor of the illustrious visitor, the castle has been furnished.
The very efficient Maison du Roi is used to these arrangements, the Court being often itinerant.
Furniture, chests, drapes, works of art, tapestries, dishes, everything was installed in record time!
Charles V admires the tapestries but what really leaves him speechless is the gigantic and prodigious double spiral staircase which occupies the center of the castle.
Speechless is the correct term because the emperor, who has a cold, has his mouth almost permanently open above his famous galoche chin.
He exclaims: "This is the abridgment of what human industry can do."
Thus, Europe will be informed of the wonders of the castle.
Francis I savored the compliment coming from his brother-in-law for whom he had previously disputed the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.
It is a moment of peace to be savored because three years later, they will, again, stand against each other.
But why does Chambord exert such a fascination, even among the most illustrious visitors?
In 1519, François Ier undertook a monumental building site: Chambord
Upon his return from Italy after his victory at Marignan in 1515, François Ier decided to build an entirely new castle which would be a symbol of royal power and would be inspired by the constructions of the Italian Renaissance.
Good thing: he is accompanied by an exceptional creator who drew up the plan for a sort of city-castle to be built next to Romorantin: Leonardo da Vinci.
His colossal project had finally not seen the light of day.
But in 1518, François Ier took up his idea for Chambord, not far from Blois, which he had just transformed.
There, there is already a hunting lodge because the region is very rich in game.
Like all the kings of France, François I adores hunting.
The first mystery of Chambord is that we do not know who its architect is.
The ambition is however exceptional.
The works began on September 6, 1519. They were difficult because the ground was marshy and peaty.
It will be a construction on stilts, oaks from the Allier that are submerged to a depth of five meters.
The work drags on.
In 1525, the disaster in Pavia and the captivity of François I in Madrid interrupted the work for two years.
They resume in October 1526 with another steward: Charles de Chauvigny.
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He tackles the central staircase, which will be surmounted by a huge lantern crowned with a fleur-de-lis.
It is all around this staircase that the castle is organized.
This architectural marvel lets the soul of Leonardo da Vinci breathe on this unclassifiable work, who died on May 2, 1519, two months before the opening of the site.
Let's give the floor to the art historian Jean-Pierre Babelon: "The keep, the towers remind us of fortified castles. The upper parts, completed around 1535, made up of multiple roofs, chimneys, turrets, dormers, reproduce, with another ornamental vocabulary, the fantastic crownings of the Duke of Berry's châteaux, remembered by the Très Riches Heures. The most expressive images of the past are therefore evoked for the last time, as if we had wanted to make Chambord the symbol of the French monarchy. "
Indeed, the roofs of Chambord are an admirable forest of white stones against a background of bluish slate.
From the terrace where the ladies are supposed to follow the hunt, we advance, amazed and incredulous, in a city of towers, chimneys, lanterns and bell towers.
It is the mirage of a suspended city.
An extraordinary staircase
The site mobilized up to one thousand eight hundred workers.
The castle, both large in size and very vertical, belongs as much to French tradition as to Italian influence.
It is the perfect synthesis.
The decoration also borrows from French Gothic.
The staircase, which has become a magical reality, rises in the center of the keep by two helical ramps around an openwork column to the lantern tower, topped with a colossal fleur-de-lis that can be seen from the front. .
It rises 54 meters from the ground.
What an extraordinary staircase!
As if by magic, the two ramps are nested but independent.
They wrap around a hollow core pierced with openings.
We see people there without crossing them, without meeting each other.
The staircase has one hundred and fifty steps to the top.
It serves the eight apartments per floor, thirty-two in all if we count the ground floor.
The center of the castle is a huge square keep, flanked at each corner by four round towers.
This dungeon has three floors.
Each has a large cross-shaped hall with four apartments at each corner and four more in the towers that extend them.
The tower apartments each have small spiral staircases.
Chambord has been called a "colossal whim".
It is totally innovative and is unlike any other castle.
François Ier followed, step by step, the development of the project, it is his work and each time he goes there, he announces, radiant: "I am going home".
Paradoxically, the king will only stay seventy-two days in his favorite castle.
It is because Chambord is not a real residence.
It is a royal symbol that is only intended for hunts and parties.
In Chambord, the king will hunt with passion, on horseback in a classic way but also with a falcon.
He will have up to three hundred birds and fifty falconers in his service!
The festivals are so sumptuous there that they attract an ever denser Court, which follows the monarch in his movements.
We know that Francis I loved women.
According to a tenacious legend, it is on one of the windows of his room, on the first floor, that he would have engraved with a diamond this disillusioned maxim: "Often women vary, very crazy who there trust ".
Reported by Brantôme, this pretty anecdote is however not proven ...
It was from February to March 1545 that the sovereign stayed for the last time in Chambord.
To fill the moat of his castle, it is said that he dreamed of diverting the course of the Loire, not so far away (it is only four kilometers away).
But the difficulties had turned out to be so great that he contented himself with diverting the modest Cosson ... When the King-Chevalier died on March 31, 1547, the construction of Chambord was not completed.
François Ier has never seen the castle that we know ...
Henri II signs the Treaty of Chambord
His son and successor Henry II continued the work without however finishing it.
He is building a new wing of the castle.
On capitals and pilasters appears the emblem of the new sovereign and his mistress Diane de Poitiers: a crescent moon.
It is Henri II who will complete the fence of the immense park by means of walls.
At the beginning of 1552, like his father, he began a war against Charles Quint.
The king supports the German princes against the emperor.
France occupies the three bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun.
On January 15, 1552, Henri II signed a treaty in Chambord by which France received the Duchy of Lorraine and the three famous bishoprics.
The Treaty of Chambord is the only diplomatic convention ever concluded in this place.
Catherine de Medici hunting in Chambord
After the death of Henri II following the funeral tournament of 1559, Catherine de Medici, his widow, came to hunt in Chambord with her second son who became King Charles IX after the death of her brother François II.
The Medici is an excellent rider, she imposed in France the custom of riding as an Amazon.
She likes to hunt but less than her son for whom it is a real passion.
He even wrote a treatise on venery, the other name for hunting with hounds.
The forest of Chambord is the scene of his exploits.
Without dogs he would have forced a deer and hunted wild boars in very dangerous conditions.
Despite his fragile health, Charles IX could hunt for ten hours in a row, slashing five horses and blowing his horn until he spit blood!
His successor and younger brother Henri III came to Chambord a little.
For lack of money, he even interrupted the work.
On the other hand, Catherine de Medici, who is still there, is there in particular in 1575 to find and reprimand her fourth and unbearable son, the Duke of Alençon.
This one had just taken the head of a Protestant army, legitimizing in a way the rebellion.
Three years after the terrible massacres of Saint-Barthélémy, Catherine is enraged at the initiative of her young son.
However, the Queen Mother does not forget that she is the granddaughter of Laurent the Magnificent and that Florence was the city of Machiavelli!
She pretends to give in to her son's demands against a seven-month truce.
To verify that she has made the right decision, accompanied by her astrologer, she goes up to the castle lantern and, in the silence of the night, she questions the sky and the stars.
A year later, the Duke of Alençon dictates his wishes in what will be called "the Peace of Monsieur": he becomes Duke of Anjou and obtains the rehabilitation of the victims of Saint-Barthélémy.
However, this fourth son of Henry II and Catherine de Medici will never reign: he will die before his brother Henry III.
It will be the end of the Valois and the arrival of the Bourbons on the throne of France: Henri de Navarre becomes King Henri IV.
This one has other things to do than to take care of the castles of the Loire.
Louis XIII will not be interested in it either.
He will give Chambord to his conspirator of brother, Gaston d'Orléans, who will benefit little from it since he will very quickly be placed under house arrest in Blois.
Louis XIV and Molière wake up Chambord
It was not until Louis XIV that Chambord returned in majesty.
The king also comes to hunt there.
He asks his architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart to finish the chapel where it had been raining for over a hundred years!
It covers the two wings with mansards to house the servants.
He establishes a pheasantry.
Between 1660 and 1685, the Sun King stayed in Chambord nine times.
Louis XIV lived in the center of the keep, in a new apartment, unlike François I, who lived in a wing.
On the first floor, he built a theater where on October 14, 1670 Molière and Lulli gave the first performance of the comedy-ballet "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme".
It's a triumph!
The play was performed four times during this royal stay before facing the Parisian audience at the Palais Royal.
But from 1685, the king abandons Chambord because Versailles retains it completely.
Louis XV offers Chambord to his stepfather
Until 1725, the castle remained abandoned.
It is the marriage of the young king Louis XV with Marie Leszczynska which brings it up to date.
Marie's father, Stanislas Leszczynski, is the dethroned ruler of Poland.
He lives modestly in Wissembourg, Alsace, on a pension provided by France.
His new status as stepfather to the King of France required a residence worthy of his condition.
He is given Chambord, far enough from Versailles, so that he does not disturb anyone.
Louis XV and his wife provided him with enough money for him to maintain the castle and be able to receive guests there.
Unfortunately, the Leszczynski do not tolerate humidity well.
They find this residence insanitary and poorly maintained.
A third fever epidemic makes them even more suspicious!
They finally moved in 1727 to settle in the castle of Ménars, in Blésois.
They remained there until 1733, when Stanislas Leszczynski obtained the Duchy of Lorraine in compensation for his lost Polish crown.
He will then settle in Nancy and leave his mark on the city.
He too is a builder.
He is at the origin of the famous Place Stanislas which bears his name.
A new owner: the Marshal of Saxony
In 1746, Louis XV allotted the domain of Chambord to the greatest warrior of his time, Marshal de Saxe, to reward him for his victory over the English at the Battle of Fontenoy.
He gave him the means to restore the place, which had been abandoned since the departure of the Leszczynski.
He puts the storage at his disposal and grants 40,000 pounds of pension to this brilliant soldier, already very fortunate.
This one loves women and a brilliant life.
He immediately chooses to settle in the king's chamber, organizes sumptuous hunts and parties will follow parties.
He has many mistresses, from the actress Adrienne Lecouvreur to the charming Marie Rinteau, the grandmother of the future George Sand.
He falls madly in love with another actress, Mademoiselle Chantilly.
She has only one flaw: she is the wife of actor Favart and she loves her husband.
So, she does not give in to the marshal!
For the soldier, all means are good so that the reluctant Chantilly accedes to his requests.
He obtained a lettre de cachet from Louis XV and had it locked up in a convent.
She will eventually give in and move to Chambord ... The end of Marshal de Saxe is a bit mysterious.
Was he injured in a duel by an outraged husband?
Or, weakened by his debauchery, has he succumbed to an influx of the chest?
Still, he died on November 30, 1750 in Chambord, after having told his doctor: "My friend, life is only a dream. Mine was beautiful, but it is too short ..." The marshal was only 54 years old.
On the eve of the Revolution, the castle, not maintained, is dilapidated.
In 1793, the new authorities ordered the sale of the remaining furniture.
By ideology as blind as it is ridiculous, the name of Chambord becomes… Borchamp!
Worse, the proud residence is torn up: the woodwork, parquet floors, shutters and even the interior doors are torn off and ransacked.
The Vosges town of Saint-Dié asks that this "enormous mass of useless stones" be destroyed.
But that would cost too much and the armies of the Republic have better things to do.
The castle is put up for sale.
Luckily, no buyer shows up ...
Bonaparte saves the castle from ruin
On 23 Messidor year X (July 13, 1802), the First Consul placed the estate under the protection of the Legion of Honor, created two months earlier.
He plans to make it an orphanage for young girls but, due to lack of funds, this project is abandoned.
In 1808, Chambord, which regained its name, was attached to the Domaine de la Couronne.
The emperor plans to install the princes of Spain, his prisoners there, but they will finally be welcomed by Talleyrand, in Valençay.
In 1809, the castle was attributed to Marshal Berthier, Prince of Wagram.
Strangely, the domain receives the name of "Principality of Wagram", which astonishes then disturbs or delights the inhabitants, and the village itself changes its name, from now on being called "Wagram".
The Empire is huge: there is room for… "two Wagrams"!
Napoleon, generous, allocated Berthier 600,000 francs for the restoration of the castle.
But the Marshal is also the owner of the Château de Grosbois, a former property of the Count of Provence, which is his favorite residence.
In Grosbois Park (670 hectares) it gives sumptuous hunts and its proximity to Paris (20 km) makes it more accessible than Chambord where, in reality, it will only come once, to inspect the work.
It is his aide-de-camp who is appointed manager of the estate.
The timber is sold and Chambord is, once again, abandoned.
In 1815, when Berthier died, his wife, the Princess of Wagram, moved there, in the only room still furnished.
She does not have the means to maintain this immense property and asks King Louis XVIII to authorize her to sell it.
The Duke of Bordeaux becomes the Count of Chambord
The castle was put up for sale in 1820. A group of speculators, nicknamed "the black band", specialized in buying back abandoned castles to tear them up and sell them in pieces.
Chambord is threatened.
However, on September 29, 1820, the Duchess of Berry gave birth to Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, posthumous son of the Duke of Berry, murdered seven months earlier.
The enthusiasm of the monarchists is such that they decide to organize a national subscription to buy Chambord and offer it to the little heir to the throne.
On March 5, 1821, the castle was bought by the subscribers.
The Chambord Commission, which represents them, stipulates that the estate will be handed over to the Duke of Bordeaux on September 29, the day of his first birthday.
The Duchess of Berry went to the castle on June 18, 1828 and laid the first stone of the repair site.
But, of course, the Revolution of 1830 drove Charles X from the throne.
The family went into exile with the Duchess of Berry, her daughter and the little Duke of Bordeaux.
It was in 1839 that the Duke of Bordeaux, who was 19 years old, decided to now wear the title of Count of Chambord.
He will spend more than fifty years in exile but will pay much attention to the redevelopment, management and decoration of the castle.
Alas, the war of 1870 will, once again, devastate Chambord so well managed by its owner since Frohsdorf.
However, he stayed there for the first (and only) time in 1871 in order to launch an appeal to the French monarchists.
He says he is ready to restore the legitimate monarchy but he refuses the tricolor that we are trying to impose on him.
He only wants the white flag.
He will never reverse his determination and will lose any chance of restoring the monarchy.
After four days spent in the castle of which it bears the name, the count returned to his exile and died on August 24, 1883. Chambord fell to a nephew, son of his sister who had married the Duke of Parma.
The State bought it from its heirs in 1932, and a major restoration was carried out in 1936. Today, Chambord is in perfect condition.
It has been largely refurnished, its gardens restored.
From where he is, François Ier can be happy: his Chambord is always admired by the world.
Bibliographic resources:
Didier Le Fur, François 1er (Perrin, 2015)
Jean-Michel Turpin, Chambord, five centuries of mystery (La Martinière, 2019)
Jean des Cars, The castles of the Loire (Perrin, 2009)
"At the heart of History" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast
Author and presentation: Jean des Cars
Production, distribution and editing: Timothée Magot
Director: Jean-François Bussière
Graphics: Karelle Villais