A brief history of the Loire Valley
The Loire was an important prehistoric trading route between the Greeks and the Celts, and by 1500 BC the Gauls had moved into the region. Then the Romans came. Julius Caesar conquered the Loire Valley – and indeed the whole of Gaul – in 52 BC. Later, under Emperor Augustus, towns like Orleans, Tours and Angers grew and flourished. Christianity spread in the region in the 3rd century AD. In 397 St Martin, a Roman legionary, died in Candes – he was a deeply influential figure in the region and some say he even brought the first vines to the valley. You’ll still see his name everywhere, lent to schools, churches, towns and roads, and he’s the patron saint of Tours.
Read more By the 5th century, Roman rule was in decline. Waves of Huns and Saracens tried to grab the land, but it was 9th-century Vikings that did the most damage, laying waste to Tours and Angers. Some of the first ‘chateaux’ in the area were built as anti-Viking defences.
In the 11th century, English kings came to Chinon. The Plantagenets spent time in the area – most famously Henry II and his son Richard the Lionheart at Loches – both have tombs at Fontevraud Abbey. It was the same Plantagenet line that fought the French in the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). The Loire Valley suffered, especially in 1428, when Orleans fell under siege to the English. Joan of Arc convinced the Dauphin to send her to the front lines in 1429 and the English forces eventually retreated.
The Renaissance came to France when France became involved in the Italian Wars. King Charles VIII even brought back Italian gardeners from his conquests. Leonardo da Vinci came to the region in the early 1500s, and lived out his last days in between Chateau du Clos Lucé, and King Francois I’s palace at Amboise. His inventions can still be seen in Clos Lucé, his former home.
The Renaissance was the most fruitful time in the Loire Valley’s history. There were already defensive castles in the valley, but now came a spate of chateaux with built with pure Renaissance flair and no serious defences: Azay-Rideau and Chenonceau were built in the early 1500s, Villandry and Chambord came a few decades later. As the court moved to the area, and marquises and mistresses followed, you get one of the spiciest periods of history – filled with notorious figures like Catherine de Medici, of the infamous Medici family, who was said to have murdered the queen of Navarre with poisoned gloves. On a more upbeat note, the great French writer François Rabelais lived and wrote in Chalus in the early 1500s.
Protestantism moved through France in the 16th century, and with it a series of religious wars. Saumur became a refuge for Protestants in 1589 but the Loire’s importance to court life dwindled. In the next century, the powerful Cardinal Richelieu lived near Indre-et-Loire in a magnificent chateau, now destroyed, that housed an incredible collection of masterpieces. It was also in the 17th century that French author Charles Perrault saw Chateau d’Ussé and used it as inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle in his classic fairy story.
The French Revolution rocked the Loire Valley. Chateau de Chenonceau was saved from destruction during the revolution because its owner, Louise Dupin convinced the army it was an essential (if incredibly decorated) bridge. Chambord wasn’t so lucky, In 1792 Chambord’s furnishings, its wall panels, and its floors, were all sold for their timber by the Revolutionary government. It fell into disrepair until it was used as a field hospital in the Prussian wars.
When the Loire Valley lost its kings, the chateaux lost their lustre. And when the railway came in the 1840s the river lost its importance, too. The recent history of the Loire Valley is more scattered. In 1929, Hergé created The Adventures of Tintin, and based Captain Haddock’s family home on the Loire Valley’s Chateau de Cheverny. In World War II Chambord was used as a safehouse for the treasures of the Louvre, including the Mona Lisa. Tours was bombed in 1940, and fell under German occupation. Now, few battle scars remain visible to the visiting public, and the region is known again for its chateaux, its beauty and its vineyards.
