Château de Regnéville
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The Château de Regnéville is a ruined 14th century castle in the commune of Regnéville-sur-Mer in the Manche département of France. Built at the edge of the Sienne river estuary, it was intended to protect the important dry harbour of Regnéville-sur-Mer, one of most active of the Cotentin Peninsula from the Middle Ages until the 17th century. Partly dismantled at the end of the Hundred Years' War, it was much altered during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today it is the property of the département. Archaeological excavations and restoration work are gradually bringing it back to life.
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[edit] History of the castle
The fortress was built at the latest in the middle of 14th century; it was then composed of an upper courtyard in the east, whose foundations were partially revealed at the time of the excavations carried out in 1991 to 1993. The large tower, of which there remain only two of the four sides, was located at the north-east of this upper courtyard.
In the west, facing the harbour, the lower courtyard was originally the royal residence of Charles the Bad. The Hundred Years War left the castle in sad state and it was only with Roulland de Gourfaleur in 1582 that repair work began. The site of the lower courtyard was largely transformed and the moats redug. The fortress was dismantled in 1637 and the castle became a residence and a farm.
In the middle of the 19th century, Victor Bunel installed a mechanical sawmill for cutting marble in the former lower courtyard.
The castle was acquired by the Conseil Général de la Manche (departement council) in 1989. It was classified as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture in 1991.
[edit] The castle of Charles the Bad
In 1336, the fiefdom of Regnéville passed into the hands of the Navarre. In 1349, Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, inherited the Norman possessions of his father, the count of Evreux. It is probable that the Château de Regnéville was built at this time. In 1364, Charles V ascended the French throne. The supproters of Charles the Bad, allied with the English, held Normandy, relying on numerous castles. Regnéville received important work to reinforce its fortifications.
After the attempt to poison of king de France by a friend of the king of Navarre in March 1378, Charles V sent the Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and the constable du Guesclin to seize Charles the Bad's fortified towns in Normandy. Thus, at the beginning of May 1378, the fortress of Regnéville was taken by French troops. After the death of Charles V in 1380, his son Charles VI returned his lands to Charles the Bad.
In 1404, Charles III, son of Charles the Bad, yielded Normandy to the king de France. Regnéville left the Navarrese inheritance to finally join the kingdom of France.
[edit] English occupation
In March 1418, the Duke of Gloucester seized the castle for the king of England, Henry VI. The garrison of Regnéville at that time was about fifty men. The English occupation was very unpopular and a rather unorganized resistance was manifest in hostile remarks or aggressions against the English soldiers.
In 1425, a major operation was launched by the English against the abbey fortress of Mont Saint-Michel and part of the fleet was gathered in the port of Regnéville.
In 1435, the captain of the castle was Hue Spencer. He was the baillif of Cotentin for the king of England, combining high administrative office and military command. Until 1448, he made Regnéville his residence.
On 19 September 1449, the fortress was retaken from the English by the constable of Richemont with the army of the duke of Brittany and the assistance of a hundred bourgeois from Coutances and peasants of Regnéville. The attack left the fortress breached on the sea side. The following year, in 1450, following the battle of Battle of Formigny, between Isigny and Bayeux, the English were driven out of Normandy. Three years later the Hundred Years' War ended.
[edit] Middles Ages defensive castle
The garrisons that defended the castle at Regnéville were always modest: on average 5 or 6 men-at-arms for 15 archers or crossbowmen, under the orders of a captain. The numerical weakness of this force supposes a certain layout of the fortress: concentrated defences and uninterrupted covered walk ways around the curtain walls.
Contracts of service were signed between the sovereign and the captains. The pay of the garrison, made up professional soldiers, was ensured by the suzerain, be it the king of France, king of Navarre or king of England, according to the times.
At the beginning of the 15th century, three pieces of artillery were manufactured for the castle. These small guns, called culverins, projected stone balls weighing four pounds.
The castle gradually lost its military role in the second part of the 15th century.
[edit] The Sea Door
The Porte de Mer (Sea Door) providing access to the old port of Regnéville, was built in the 14th century by the bishop of Avranches, Robert Porte, chancellor to the king of Navarre and “gardien à vie” of the Château of Regnéville.
The Door, which received several modifications in its history, was made up of a set of drawbridges and fixed bridges. A small châtelet or gatehouse, with a stone-bulit ground floor, formed the first strengthened entry. Some elements of the masonry foundations of this first door remain. The first drawbridge which gave access to this door was perhaps double width, with a passage for pedestrians and another for riders and carts.
[edit] Demolition of the castle
In 1603, the fiefdom of Regnéville was sold to Isaac de Piennes, lord of Bricqueville. He took part, from Regnéville, in a conspiracy fomented by the Protestant party which proposed to raise Normandy as a diversion to the siege of La Rochelle (1628).
In 1626, King Louis XIII ordered the demolition of the fortifications of cities and castles which were not at the borders of France or considered to be important to the kingdom. The Château de Regnéville was undoubtedly not considered to be very dangerous since it was eleven years before its destruction. After having suffered large damage following a storm in 1630, the castle was rased in 1637. The keep, filled with powder, burst and split from top to bottom, along the spiral staircase.
The lords of Piennes lived in the place until the 18th century.
[edit] The keep
The keep of Regnéville, with its characteristic silhouette, became with the passing of years the symbol of the town and its imposing mass dominates the remains of the castle.
In spite of an antiquated architecture for the 14th century, the keep seems to have been well built. It adopted the square plan and corner buttresses so characteristic of Romanesque castle and monuments (Caen, Falaise, Norwich).
In the north-eastern corner of the upper courtyard of the castle is a rectangular tower some 20 metres (~65 ft) in height, the thickness of the walls exceeding three metres (10 ft). Four storeys, including three arched, were served by a spiral staircase, rebuilt in the 16th century and still visible nowadays. At the ground floor, a cellar was used to store supplies.
In the 16th century, Roulland de Gourfaleur made bays in the western and southern sides of the keep. These openings led to a balcony supported by a pair of large double granite corbels.
[edit] Restoration of the lower courtyard
The destruction due to the siege of 1449 and a fire in the 15th century had ruined the lower enclosure of the castle. This area, which traditionally housed the stables and the dependencies, included, originally, the residence of the king de Navarre.
Starting in 1582, Roulland de Gourfaleur undertook works to replace it. Equally important reconstructions followed the destruction due to the demolition of 1637. The frontage facing the courtyard of the northern wing of the lower courtyard was rebuilt. The first floor of the northern wing opened directly onto the interior court by two doors served by a large gallery reached by an external staircase.
The restoration of the castle, undertaken in 1994, seeks to restore the appearance at the time of Roulland de Gourfaleur, at the end of the 16th century.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References and sources
Source : Direction des sites et musées – Conseil général de la Manche
- This article was initially translated from the Wikipedia article Château médiéval de Regnéville, specifically from this version.
