Everyone who has read the Cursed Kings series of novels by Maurice Druon, and probably not only them, knows about this castle. It is hardly worth retelling what Maurice Druoon wrote about him. But you can and should look at what remains of this castle to this day. This is a very interesting example of medieval defensive architecture.
The citadel and donjon of Château Gaillard hang over the valley of the Seine.
It was built by order of Richard I of England or Richard the Lionheart, as we most often call it today, on the banks of the Seine and, moreover, on the disputed territory, which was contested by the British dukes and French kings from each other. And so in 1194, Richard decided once and for all to “stake out this place” by creating a new line of fortifications against the encroachments of the French side. The place was chosen where the Gambon River flowed into the Seine from the north, and where an islet lay at their confluence, on which there was a small town on the island of Ptit-Andeli, and next to it, in the middle of the river, there was another small islet. Of course, Richard could have limited himself to strengthening this islet and town, and this is exactly what he did: he ordered the construction of walls and towers around them. But … "someone else's, not your own", and how can you rely on the townspeople?
Reconstruction of the exterior of Château Gaillard during the reign of King John Lackland.
Donjon.
Therefore, near Ptit-Andeli, on a high chalk spur that dominated both the town and the entire surrounding area, the king ordered to build a royal castle. They began to build it in 1196, they worked quickly, so that the construction was completed in just 13 months. It is believed that when Richard came to watch it, he decided to joke and said how sweet my one-year-old daughter was. However, he gave the name to the castle not at all playful. Richard named him "Gaillard", which is usually translated as "cocky" or "arrogant", although this word can also mean "brave" or "free". He stated that he would have withstood any siege in it, but he could not verify this statement in practice, since he died in 1199.
View of the preserved ruins of the castle. The citadel and donjon are clearly visible, the chapel windows in the fortress wall and the remains of the southern round tower of the forward fortification, which played the role of a barbican.
However, he really had grounds for this statement. Nature itself made sure that it was impossible to take it, and where nature was incomplete, people completed its work. So, it was possible to storm the castle only from one side, from the south, but the attackers found themselves in front of a dry moat carved into the rock and the outer castle courtyard of a triangular shape. And this forward fortification served in place of the barbican and guarded the main entrance. Further, Richard ordered the erection of the most modern round towers for that time, which better resisted the blows of stones and battering rams. From the forward fortification, the courtyard could be accessed via a bridge over another dry moat. At the same time, the space there was very narrow, so getting there was tantamount to suicide.
Donjon and the Citadel. Bird's-eye view.
Model of the ruins of the Chateau-Gaillard fortress.
But even this did not seem enough to Richard, so another fortification was erected in this courtyard - a citadel with "wavy walls" made of semicircular protrusions-half-towers (inside which there was a courtyard), and a donjon was also inscribed into it, which was equipped with a unique defensive system: strong stone "beak", arranged in order to make it difficult to dig under it, reflect the impact of projectiles and at the same time hit enemies with throwing projectiles dropped from above. The fact is that in the upper part of the tower there were stone mashikuli, arranged in such a way that the turned stone cores falling from them ricocheted from the inclined part of the beak and flew towards the attackers! To the left of the castle there was a wall with a tower, which went steeply down to the Seine, and there a triple row of wooden piles was driven into the bottom of the river and thus completely blocked traffic along it. The town of Ptit-Andely was fortified, and an island in the middle of the Seine was fortified, connected by bridges to the right and left banks. All this together created a whole defensive system in this place, which required a lot of work to destroy.
Gate and bridge to the citadel.
When the architect Viollet le Duc attempted to reconstruct the fortress in the 19th century, he provided the undulating curtain with parapets with wooden hinged loopholes, as in the Château de Carcassonne. And it is obvious that it was so, since it is difficult to imagine that such a powerful fortress did not have such usual structural elements for those years. While working on the donjon, the upper part of which had collapsed, he considered that the buttresses expanding upward were cornices supporting the parapet above them; and that each of the buttresses was connected to the neighboring ones by an arch. Well, and the grooves above the arched vaults, in his opinion, just served to throw various "weights" on the enemy soldiers' heads. True, this assumption of his can neither be proved nor refuted today. Although, most likely, it was so.
The disadvantages of the castle include the fact that, due to the great haste, the builders used small and poorly processed stone, from which, according to tradition, two walls were built, which could not be very thick, and the gap between them was filled with lime concrete, that is, a mixture of lime and crushed stone … Therefore, the walls looked very thick, but their strength was lower than if they were built of large stones.
View of the keep and the citadel from above.
As for the dimensions of the castle itself, they were impressive then and still impress today: - total length: 200 m, width: 80 m, height: up to 100 m, of course, taking into account the hill. The total cost of construction was 45,000 pounds (15.75 tons of silver), including the cost of the castle itself, the bridge over the Seine and the city fortifications. In total, 4,700 tons of stone were used for construction. The donjon had an inner diameter of 8 meters, a height of 18 m, the thickness of the wall at the bottom of the donjon was 4 m. The thickness of the castle wall: 3-4 m.
When King Richard died in 1199, his successor John, later called Landless, in 1200 concluded a treaty with the French king Philip Augustus, but which was violated already in 1202, which led to another war. All this time, the new king continued to strengthen the castle, for example, he built a chapel inside the middle court. Moreover, sources report that it had rather large windows overlooking the wall, albeit in a very steep place.
August 10, 1203 Philip II, together with an army of six thousand people, approached the city. At night, the "combat swimmers" (it turns out, there were at that time and such!) Destroyed the fortification of piles, blocking the river, after which the fort on the island was first captured, and after it the city of Ptit-Andeli, of which, however, most of population managed to escape to the castle, or, rather, was specially driven there by French soldiers. An attempt to counterattack, launched by the Earl of Pembroke, ended in failure and the siege began. It did not seem easy, since it was known that the commandant of Chateau Gaillard, Roger de Lassi, had a strong garrison, which consisted of 40 knights, 200 infantrymen and 60 service personnel. In addition, no one knows how many townspeople fled there, although, on the other hand, it was they who seriously undermined the resources of the besieged, since they demanded to eat, but with food in the castle, things were not very brilliant. The upshot was that at the beginning of December de Lassi drove all the "freeloaders" out of the fortress. And the French gave someone the opportunity to leave, but then, realizing what was happening, 400 people were driven back to the castle. But the British refused to accept them, and the unfortunates found themselves between two fires, and so they lived on bare stones between the lines of defense of the British and French, dying of cold, hunger and thirst. When Philip II finally ordered their release from there, most of these people had already died.
Only by February 1204 did the French manage to build high siege towers on wheels, and their sappers dug under the wall of the outer courtyard. Then the wooden supports in the tunnel were set on fire, a piece of the wall collapsed, the French attacked and managed to occupy the outer courtyard.
But then a problem arose. Since the middle and outer courtyard was divided by a deep ditch with almost sheer walls, carved in limestone and 9 m wide, it was not possible to break through further. Due to its great depth, it was impossible to dig under the walls from the bottom, just as it was impossible to climb higher and dig there. But then the French were rescued by one "peculiar" circumstance: among them there was a man of a rather "graceful" physique and, moreover, completely insensitive to odors (or maybe he just suffered from a chronic cold? ! One can only imagine how he climbed the stones slippery with sewage, thrusting daggers between them alternately and resting his back on the ledges of the wall (these are the consequences of masonry from small and unworked stone!), And then he found himself in the chapel room and through one of its windows, cut in the fortress wall, threw out a rope ladder to his comrades. The daredevils climbed inside it, got to the gate, killed the small guard, opened it, and the besiegers rushed into the courtyard. But the garrison withdrew to the courtyard, where it locked itself.
Donjon Chateau-Gaillard. The entrance to the citadel and the arched mashiculi are clearly visible. Reconstruction by Viollet le Duc.
The French again began to dig a tunnel, choosing a place near the bridge where it could still be done. And the courtyard began to fire from throwing machines, the largest of which even had its own name "Gabalus".
Finally, on March 6, 1204, a part of the wall with semi-towers collapsed, but the besieged (those who were still alive) did not hide in the keep, but fled from the castle through the gate at the other end of the courtyard, but were noticed, surrounded, and eventually surrendered … This is how one of the most impregnable castles in Europe was taken after seven months of siege.
Today the area of the castle has been chosen by historical reenactors.
On July 18, 1314, the adulterous wives of Philip IV's sons, Margaret and Blanca, were imprisoned here, and where on August 15, 1315, Margaret was strangled by order of her husband, King Louis X, who thus wanted to obtain permission for a new marriage and, accordingly, for male children sexes who could inherit him.
And here they spend their battles …
During the Hundred Years War, by order of John II of France, his son-in-law Charles II of Navarre was kept here, by the way, the grandson of the same dissolute Margaret. In 1357, he was either released or fled, as historical evidence contradicts each other. In 1417, the British had to besiege it, and they took it after 16 months of siege, and again thanks to an accident: the last well chain of the besieged broke and they, finding themselves without water, surrendered. The fact is that the castle had three wells with a depth of about 120 m each, which is 20 m below the level of the Seine River, because due to the location of the rock, the aquifers were here at this depth. An iron chain of this length had enormous weight and had to be of great strength. But … at that time it was impossible to make the chain of equal strength along its entire length. Chains were often torn, they were pulled from the bottom of the well by "cats", they were connected, but … the ropes on which the "cats" were hanging and with which they were trying to be lifted were also torn! In 1429, Captain La Guire, an associate of Jeanne d'Arc, returned it to the French, but the next year the British recaptured it. The final French Chateau Gaillard became only in 1449.
The storming of the castle by the troops of Charles VII (1429). Miniature from an old manuscript. National Library of France.
Then the future king Henry IV ordered to demolish all the fortifications of the castle, and give its ruins to the monastery. But this business was never brought to an end and in 1611 it was interrupted. Cardinal Richelieu again gave the order to destroy the castle, but it was not completed to the end, in 1852 its ruins were included in the List of Historical Monuments of France.
Tomb of Richard the Lionheart in Aquitaine-Poitou - in the Abbey of Fonterveau. Here is his effigy over the grave. In the background - the effigy of the wife of Prince John - the future King John the Landless, Isabella of Angoulême.
