For these reasons the Turons, the ancestors of the
inhabitants of Touraine, lived here from the 1st century
B.C. At the end of the Roman Empire in 503, the Ile
d'Or was the meeting place for the encounter of Clovis
and the Francs and Alaric, chief of the Wisigoths, who
signed a peace treaty here that lasted only a short
time.
During the Middle Ages, in 1429 Jeanne d'Arc passed
through the city. Some days later she defeated the English
at Orléans. Louise d'Amboise who participated
in the siege, was involved in a plot against La Trémouille,
favorite of Charles VII. Condemned to death by the king,
he was pardoned, and was given back his confiscated
goods with the exception of Amboise which was added
to the king's possessions in 1434. It became a royal
residence and Charles VII undertook work on the castle.
After Louis XI, Charles VIII and François I enlarged,
transformed and modified it.
In 1516, François I invited Leonardo de Vinci
here and he lived in the Clos-Lucé until his
death in 1519.
Little by little the kings cut themselves from Amboise
and the Vallée de la Loire in order to live nearer
to Paris.
The castle balcony is often called "the conspirators'
balcony" in memory of the religious wars and of
the conspiracy of Amboise that took place around 1560.
This conspiracy was instigated for the purpose of eliminating
the Guise family, adversaries of Protestants, who were
very powerful in the court.
The Protestants planned to kidnap the king at Blois.
The Guise, who knew about it, put the king in the castle
at Amboise. The conspirators who were suppose to infiltrate
the castle were surprised in the neighboring forests.
The retaliation was terrible, more than 1,500 victims
were executed and some were hung from the castle balcony.
In the 18th century, there was a renewal of activities
here thanks to Choiseul, the famous minister of Louis
XV. He was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs but
lost his position in 1770. He came back to the region
and united his estate in Amboise with his Chanteloup
estate. Even though Choiseul had left the court, the
court came to him: there was party after party in his
sumptuous Chanteloup castle. Today the only things left
of this magnificent architectural site are the Pagoda
and the majestic water pools. These monuments of Chinese
inspiration were built by Choiseul in 1778 in gratitude
to his illustrious friends who followed him in his disgrace
to Chanteloup.
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