Château de Grèzes

Last updated March 20, 2019

Chateau de Grezes seen from the Truc de Grezes Grezes48.jpg — Château de Grèzes seen from the Truc de Grèzes

The Château de Grèzes is a ruined 17th century castle in the commune of Grèzes in the Lozère département of France.

A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages by predominantly the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.

The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany or comuni in Italy. The United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France.

Grèzes, Lozère Commune in Occitanie, France

Grèzes is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.

Early castle

Before the Roman occupation of Gaul, an oppidum had been constructed for defence on the Truc de Grèzes, a hill (1 008 m) near the present day village. During the Gallo-Roman period in Grèzes, then named Gredonense castrum, a fortress came to replace the oppidum. Below this, on the site of the present village, the village of Gredone was built during a period of peace. After the Romans had left, the hill remained a strong point; the castle was enlarged over the course of the years.

Gaul was a historical region of Western Europe during the Iron Age that was inhabited by Celtic tribes, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine. It covered an area of 494,000 km² (191,000 sq mi). According to the testimony of Julius Caesar, Gaul was divided into three parts: Gallia Celtica, Belgica, and Aquitania. Archaeologically, the Gauls were bearers of the La Tène culture, which extended across all of Gaul, as well as east to Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia, and southwestern Germania during the 5th to 1st centuries BC. During the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Gaul fell under Roman rule: Gallia Cisalpina was conquered in 203 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri and the Teutons, who were in turn defeated by the Romans by 103 BC. Julius Caesar finally subdued the remaining parts of Gaul in his campaigns of 58 to 51 BC.

An oppidum is a large fortified Iron Age settlement. Oppida are associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretching from Britain and Iberia in the west to the edge of the Hungarian plain in the east. They continued to be used until the Romans conquered Southern and Western Europe. In regions north of the rivers Danube and Rhine, such as most of Germania, where the populations remained independent from Rome, oppida continued to be used into the 1st century AD.

The castle witnessed the Hundred Years' War though the reinforcement of its walls did not prevent the English from seizing the town. It was only after the victories of troops led by Bertrand du Guesclin over Astorg de Peyre, one of the Barons of Gévaudan and the liberation of Apcher and Randon, that Grèzes recovered its freedom, though much weakened.

The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France. Each side drew many allies into the war. It was one of the most notable conflicts of the Middle Ages, in which five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe. The war marked both the height of chivalry and its subsequent decline, and the development of strong national identities in both countries.

Bertrand du Guesclin, nicknamed "The Eagle of Brittany" or "The Black Dog of Brocéliande", was a Breton knight and an important military commander in the French side during the Hundred Years' War. From 1370 to his death, he was Constable of France for King Charles V. Well known for his Fabian strategy, he took part in six pitched battles and won the four in which he held command.

Gévaudan is a historical area of France in Lozère département. It took its name from the Gabali, a Gallic tribe subordinate to the Arverni.

Later, the Wars of Religion shook the region. Grèzes was one of many villages pillaged by the Huguenot captain, Matthieu Merle, at the behest of the widow of Astorg de Peyre, seeking vengeance against the Catholics. (It was her husband's death in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre which started the war in Gévaudan.) A strategic point, Grèzes was occupied for seven years by Merle's troops. The fortress was destroyed in 1576 in order to drive them out. However, this did not prevent them capturing Mende on Christmas night in 1579.

The French Wars of Religion were a prolonged period of war and popular unrest between Roman Catholics and Huguenots in the Kingdom of France between 1562 and 1598. It is estimated that three million people perished in this period from violence, famine, or disease in what is considered the second deadliest religious war in European history.

Mathieu Merle was a Huguenot captain who sowed terror in the south of the Auvergne, Gévaudan and Velay during the Wars of Religion. Captain Merle is an example of the possibilities of social climbing and enrichment offered by the religious troubles.

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Queen Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre took place a few days after the wedding day of the king's sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre. Many of the most wealthy and prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris to attend the wedding.

Around 1632, King Louis XIII ordered the dismantling of the castles at Luc, Grèzes and Châteauneuf-de-Randon.

Louis XIII was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who was King of France from 1610 to 1643 and King of Navarre from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown.

The Château de Luc is a ruined castle in the town of Luc in the Lozère département, in the Occitanie région of France. It was built in the 12th century on a previous Celtic site.

Châteauneuf-de-Randon is a village and commune in the Lozère department in southern France.

Later castle

The castle visible in the village today is not the one that made the name of Grèzes. It was only built after the destruction of the earlier castle, on the orders of Cardinal Richelieu, and thus dates from the 17th century. It consists of a four storeyed, heavy, square building, with a tower attached. This is the only tower remaining; others were destroyed in the wars of religion at the start of the 18th century.

Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac, commonly referred to as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman, nobleman, and statesman. He was consecrated as a bishop in 1607 and was appointed Foreign Secretary in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; he was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, whose career he had fostered.

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Coordinates: 44°30′50″N3°20′21″E / 44.51389°N 3.33917°E / 44.51389; 3.33917

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