The English have a funny saying "A lot of hands do better!" Funny - because the hands are different and in real life this is not at all the case. However, the "trend" is understandable, like our saying - "One head is good, two is better." And, by the way, our saying is smarter, although the heads are also … unfortunately, there are different ones. Well, what is this preface for? And besides the fact that the TOPWAR website has “hands” ready to help, there are also “heads” whose advice is very valuable. Here I have published a material about the treasures of the Templars, and then another one was planned for it. And I was advised to expand this topic in several diverse materials and even suggested how it is best to do it. All that remains is to sit down, browse the Web and some books, and start writing. And again, in the process of this work, for myself, I learned a lot of new, interesting and useful things that can be used in the future. The following submission of materials was proposed:
Castle Gisor.
Valdecroix Castle.
Priory of Zion.
Version with the Livonian Order.
Then, at least four or five more versions.
Interesting, isn't it? Well, in accordance with these wishes, we will begin our journey "without leaving the computer" across different countries that keep (possibly!) The secrets of the once mighty Templar order. And we will start it with the Gisor castle, and the story will go at the same time about this castle itself, which is a very interesting object of medieval military architecture, and about its not quite ordinary history …
This is what the interior of the castle of Gisor looks like in Normandy. This is a typical English motte - that is, a castle on a conical artificial embankment. It is a conical fill mound and has a height of 20 m and a diameter of 70 m at the base and 25 m at the top. A spiral ascent leads to the gate, which is convenient for the rider. Inside the walls of the mott there are also the castle chapel and the well that supplied it with water.
It is believed that this castle is very ancient and was built in the 9th century. He was needed exactly here because Ept, where he stands, for several centuries served as the border between the possessions of the French and English feudal lords in Normandy. Therefore, on the one and on the other side, many castles were built here, but Gisor was the most important, since it was built on the top of a hill and dominated the Ept valley. That is, he controlled two routes from Paris to Rouen at once: river and land.
And this is how the Zhizorsky castle looks from the eastern side from a bird's eye view. Impressive, isn't it? The outer wall with towers, then the inner one, and also on the hill. Moreover, the space between these walls was almost always undeveloped. Why? But because the castle was considered as a gathering place for knightly troops and the tents and tents of the arrivals should have been located here. It could also serve as a reliable refuge for the army that retreated here after being defeated in the battle. According to historians, up to 1000 soldiers could be simultaneously inside the ring of walls. At that time, probably, it was a truly enchanting sight …
And it is not surprising that until the 15th century this castle was a coveted object of possession, both by the British and the French, who in turn took it away from each other. So, in 945, King Louis IV of France overseas lost Gisor, who was captured by the British. But already in 1066, another French king, Philip I (by the way, the son of King Henry I and Princess Anna Yaroslavna - the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise), managed to take him away from William, that is, Guillaume the Conqueror, although not for long.
View of the castle from the north. In the past, both he and its surroundings were not so green.
In 1087, the new king of England, William II the Red, decides to rebuild Gisor. It was with him that an artificial hill of 14 meters in height was poured, and already on it a fortification was erected from … a tree! True, William II died before he could see his brainchild, but the construction of the castle was continued by Henry I. In 1090, the knight Thibault de Payen became the owner of the castle - the nephew of the very same Hugo de Payen, who founded the Templar Order. This is how the fate of the castle of Gisor intersected with the fate of this order …
Here it is, this hill and the fortress built on it with an octagonal donjon with a watch tower.
It was Thibault de Payen who made it stone. The hill was enlarged even more; and on its top they built an octagonal stone citadel. The construction of the castle was supervised by the architect Robert Bellem, and he was assisted by a certain Lefroy, who built castles for the Templars in Belleme and Noger-le-Rotroix. When the castle was ready in 1128, Hugo de Payen himself honored it with a visit. It is believed that it was in the castle of Gisor, sitting under an old elm tree, that the famous Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), who left his descendants very vivid descriptions of what the “new brothers” were, and wrote the charter of the order. And this charter was harsh. Very harsh! And how could it be otherwise, if, judging by his own words, it was intended almost for criminals, whom should have been removed from Europe to the East with all their might.
Gisor very early began to attract the attention of lovers of antiquities and romantic artists. One of the photographs from the early twentieth century, depicting the Tower of the Prisoners.
An engraving of the ruins of the castle of Gisors by Victor Adolphe Malthe-Brune (1816 - 1889), executed by him in 1882.
In 1116, an octagonal donjon was built on top of the hill, which has survived to this day. In 1120, the new castle successfully withstood the first siege, after which in 1123 it was decided to build a still powerful stone wall around it.
Now there are flowers all around here …
Many tragic pages of history are connected with the castle … Britain. So, in 1119, in Gisor, with the assistance of Pope Calixtus II and in his presence, the kings of England and France, Henry I and Louis VI, met in order to settle their contradictions peacefully. But returning to England, the ship on which the only son of Henry and the English queen, his mother, sailed, was wrecked and they died. Well, King Henry himself found his death at the walls of Gisor in 1135 - he was killed by an arrow from a bow.
One of the towers of the outer defensive wall. It is clear that at that time far from us there were no such large windows, but only narrow loopholes for archers.
After that, in 1144, Gisor again came under the arm of the French king Louis VII. In order to end the years of strife between France and England, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Beckett in 1155 began negotiations on the marriage of Prince Henry, son of Henry II Plantagenet, with Princess Margaret, daughter of Louis VII, who, upon reaching adulthood, were to marry and thereby serve the cause the world. As a dowry for his daughter-bride, Louis VII gave his matchmaker the castle of Gisor, and for the entire time until marriage, the castle was to be in the care of the knights of the Temple.
The gate to the castle, through which tourists enter it today.
In 1161, the young prince and princess finally reached the age that allowed them to be legally married, after which the castle became the property of King Henry II, who just finished its construction. In the same year, Henry II and Louis VII signed a treaty of alliance at the Gisor castle, but it never became a guarantee of a long-term friendship between England and France. As soon as in 1180, Philip II Augustus became king of France, the enmity between them flared up with renewed vigor. However, not right away …
The fact is that, again, it was in the vicinity of Gisor that King Philip Augustus and the English Prince Richard (who later became King Richard the Lionheart) secretly met, together building intrigues against Henry II. Moreover, it was in 1188 in Gisor that Archbishop Guillaume of Tire, in the presence of both Philip Augustus and the English king Henry II, called both European monarchs to participate in the Third Crusade, which began in the same 1188, but only the English knights in the campaign already led by another king - young Richard the Lionheart. Well, having received the throne, King Richard at first maintained quite good-hearted relations with Philip-Augustus.
On the upper platform of the motte, surrounded by a wall with a single, rather narrow gate, there is an octagonal donjon with a diameter of about 10 m. Inside it is divided into four floors. From the east to it in the XIV century. a watchtower was added with a spiral staircase inside.
But Philip Augustus returned from the campaign much earlier than Richard (in 1192 he was captured by Leopold of Austria) and, referring to the treaty between the two kings concluded between them on the island of Sicily, demanded that Gisor be given to him. The commandant of the castle refused to fulfill this demand, and on July 20, 1193, the French army took Gisor by storm.
Naturally, such an attitude towards him on the part of yesterday's ally offended Richard to the depths of his soul, and he immediately began military operations against him. Military happiness accompanied the British, who quickly conquered several castles in Normandy at once. Gisor at that time was the headquarters of Richard and if he had stayed there, perhaps everything would have gone differently, but in 1199 Richard left him and went personally to lead the siege of the castle of Chaliu, where he was mortally wounded by an arrow from a crossbow. Well, Gisor and all its surroundings in the same year were finally annexed to France.
Here he is, King Richard, moments before the fatal arrow hits him! A still from the movie "The Return of Robin Hood" (1976). However, in the director's interpretation, the arrow was not fired from a crossbow at all, but simply thrown by the hand of a one-eyed old man!
In 1307, King Philip the Fair of France carried out an unexpected and very well-planned operation against the leadership of the Knights Templar. All of them were arrested and taken to different castles, where they were kept under heavy guard. In Gisor, the Templars were also arrested and imprisoned in the circular tower of the outer wall, where several high-ranking Templars were imprisoned until 1314. Today its name speaks of those events - "The Tower of Prisoners". True, during the Second World War, it was seriously damaged, but nevertheless, inscriptions made by the Templars have been preserved on the walls in the rooms of its second and third tiers.
As a stronghold, the castle of Gisor played an important role during the Hundred Years War. Then, in 1419, he was taken by the troops of the Duke of Clarence after a three-day siege. After that, the British immediately began to strengthen it, since the weakness of its fortifications against the bombards that appeared was already obvious. But in 1449, Charles VII managed to regain both Normandy and the castle of Gisor, and since that time he has not seen enemy soldiers at his walls. That is, I saw, of course, but already in the twentieth century! And in 1599, the castle was completely excluded from the list of active French fortresses, because it could no longer resist the cannons!
However, it just so happened that the history of the castle of Gisor did not end there.
