Montaigu Castle: A Medieval Fortress in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Burgundy, French
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page11 sections
History
Montaigu Castle is a medieval fortified castle in France, at Mercurey, founded around 950 at the request of the Duke of Burgundy. Lambert de Chalon, Count of Chalon and husband of Adelaide, built it to protect the city from invasions from the west and to watch the Roman road linking Lyon, Chalon, Autun, and Paris. The castle’s present form is attributed, on current evidence, to the twelfth century.
Foundation and Burgundian lordship
Montaigu is mentioned by 1015, and by the end of the eleventh century it had given its name to Hugues de Montaigu, Bishop of Auxerre. In 1180, the castle, which had previously been held as a freehold, came under the authority of the Duke of Burgundy. A freehold was land held without feudal dependence. After King Louis VII of France dispossessed William II, one of the last hereditary counts of Chalon, for plundering Burgundy, Duke Hugues III of Burgundy made Montaigu a fief for his second son, Alexandre de Bourgogne. A fief was land or rights held from a superior lord in return for obligations. Alexandre became the first representative of the Burgundy-Montaigu branch, a branch of the ducal House of Burgundy.
The lords of Burgundy-Montaigu were cousins of the French king and of the Emperor of Constantinople. They became among the most powerful lords of their time and had approximately fifty vassals. Alexandre’s son Eudes de Bourgogne held Montaigu from 1205 to 1244. The lordship then passed to Guillaume de Bourgogne-Montaigu, who ruled from 1244 to 1304, followed by Eudes II, also called Oudard or Odard de Bourgogne-Montaigu, from 1304 to 1338, and Henri de Bourgogne-Montaigu from 1338 to 1348.
Guillaume brought the fief to the height of its importance and was the only member of his lineage to reside frequently at the castle. Eudes II founded and became the first patron of the chapter of the collegiate church of Saint-Georges in Chalon.
Division of the lordship and return to ducal control
Henri de Bourgogne-Montaigu was the last male member of the lineage. After his death, the fief was divided between the Damas family and the Duke of Burgundy. Henri’s posthumous daughter, Huguette de Montaigu, held the title of demoiselle of Montaigu in 1348 but died in infancy. In 1350, the lordship was held jointly by her aunts Isabelle de Montaigu and Jeanne des Ursins.
Philibert Damas, a knight and co-lord of Montaigu, inherited Isabelle’s undivided share through his mother. In 1387, Duke Philip the Bold exchanged Philibert’s share for the lordship of Saint-Romain. Having already recovered the other share, the duke then brought Montaigu entirely back into the ducal domain. Guillaume de Colemare was castellan around 1380.
Decline, destruction, and later ownership
After the death of Charles the Bold in 1477, the fief passed into the royal domain. At the end of the fifteenth century and during the sixteenth century, the castle served as a refuge for inhabitants of nearby villages and as a base for a band that had turned to brigandage.
In 1591, troops of the Catholic League captured Montaigu during the Wars of Religion, a period of conflict between Catholic and Protestant factions in France. The Catholic League was a Catholic political and military movement. The outer enclosing wall was partly demolished and then rebuilt before being dismantled on the orders of King Henry IV, whose authority was reasserted after those conflicts.
The remaining habitable parts served winegrowers as housing and storage space until the end of the eighteenth century. At the French Revolution, after two centuries of abandonment, the towers of the outer defensive wall could still be distinguished. The ruined fortress was sold in 1803 to a mason from Touches and used as a stone quarry until 1823. Antoine Verchère, Marquis of Arcelot, acquired the ruins in 1822. Several hermits later occupied them, and one of them, Jean Rougeot, was murdered.
In 1870, the last hermit, known as Richer, fled after being suspected of abuses and espionage. Local inhabitants destroyed his oratory and cell. During the twentieth century, the property belonged first to the de Suremain family and later, through marriage, to the de Launay family. The ruins remain privately owned.
Remains
Montaigu Castle stood on a hillcrest that was altered to accommodate the fortress. Its original plan was ovoid and comprised two enclosing defensive walls. The smaller enceinte, or defensive enclosure, surrounded the seigneurial area on a rectangular platform formed as a terrace at the summit. Around it, the outer enceinte formed an irregular quadrilateral measuring approximately 700 metres.
Outer defenses
Eastern entrance
The main entrance lay on the eastern side and was protected by two square towers, a postern, and a system of portcullises. A postern is a small subsidiary entrance used for controlled access or sorties. The entrance opened southward toward Saint-Martin-sous-Montaigu.
Northern and western defenses
The outer enceinte consisted of a very thick crenellated wall, flanked by ten to twelve towers linked by a wall-walk. A second postern opened northward toward the village of Touches and collapsed in 1898. On the western side, a high wall was originally pierced by arrow slits and flanked at regular intervals by circular towers.
Inner fortress
Seigneurial enclosure
The inner enceinte had thinner walls and protected the keep, the great hall, and two residential buildings arranged at right angles along the southern and western sides. It also enclosed a small courtyard containing a well. These elements occupied the rectangular summit platform within the larger defensive circuit.
Keep
The keep, the castle’s principal fortified tower, was built of regular small rubble masonry. It had a square plan measuring 9.80 metres externally on each side, with walls 1.70 metres thick at the base. The partially destroyed structure was entered through a south-facing doorway, opposite the seigneurial entrance and on the side least exposed to attack. The two seigneurial buildings and the south-west curtain walls protected this approach. A curtain wall is the section of defensive wall running between towers.
The keep probably rose more than 15 metres. Its southern wall still reaches 14.80 metres, and the structure was thought to contain six levels used for habitation, storage, and defense. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was still possible to reach the foot of the keep and the curtain walls.
