At the origins of the palace Versailles

It is in 1038 that the first mention of Versailles appears, in a charter of the Holy Father abbey of Chartres. Hugo de Versaillis is one of the signatories. With X E century, monks clear the ground and melt the church priory of Saint-Julien. In 1429, two lords, Guy and Pierre of Versailles, are mixed with the life with Jeanne d' Arc. Pierre was in Bourges, when the Virgin was examined; as for Guy, canon of Turns, it took part in the lawsuit of Jeanne d' Arc. At the end of the One hundred Year old war, the small borough was presented in a sad state: its plundered and devastated houses are given up, and the castle is in ruin. It is the family of Soisy which raises the destroyed buildings which are composed of a principal main building and a wing in return, preceded by a framed gate of two turrets. The name of a small borough, Versaille-with-borough-of-Galie, appears in a text gone back to 1472. The lords of Versailles belonged directly to the King. Their modest castle dominating the church and the village was drawn up on the southernmost slope of the hillock on which the future castle will be built. In 1475, Gilles of Versailles, lord of Versailles, yields his rights on Trianon to the abbot of Saint-Germain. The sale contract is the first mention of this name. Trianon was a bought village then destroyed by Louis XI with an aim of building on these new grounds of the royal field a house to be collated. Seeking to flee in family the too heavy protocol of Paris, the king was in Trianon closer as of his. First royal whim of Versailles, Trianon, like later Marly, remains a place of relaxation, far from the label and tirednesses of the capacity. In 1561, the field is sold to Martial de Lomnie, secretary of finances of Charles IX, who increases it to reach 150 hectares. In 1572: on August 24, Lomnie is assassinated the night of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Estoile pays in its Memories that the queen Catherine de Mdicis made strangle, in the interest of the count de Retz, to make him have the castle of Versailles, the Secretary of State Lomnie, which was owner. This crime is perhaps not authentic, but it is not incredible. The following year, Albert de Gondi (baron de Marly), count de Retz, one of Florentins which accompanies Catherine de Mdicis in France, becomes owner of the castle and the seigniory of Versailles by repurchasing the field for 35 000 pounds. In 1589, one month before he does not become king de France, king de Navarre remains in Versailles. Ghost of Blois, it stops of July 7 and is received there by Albert de Gondi; he goes back there in 1604 and 1609. Meanwhile, in 1607, the dolphin, which will become Louis XIII, makes its first hunting in Versailles. In 1616, Albert de Gondi yields the seigniory to his son Jean-Franois de Gondi.

Palace Louis XIII

In 1623, Louis XIII, the father of Louis XIV, built in the middle of the forests and at the top of a hillock encircled by unhealthy marshes, a modest brick home, stone and slate. If it constituted its go of hunting favourite, it however formed only one rustic construction and purely utility. The provision of its houses, and the ditches which surrounded it, pointed out still certain feudal constructions. Louis XIII builds this new dwelling on a ground which it bought in Jean of Soisy, whose family was owner since the XIV E century. In his small residence, Louis XIII received time with other his mother Marie de Mdicis and his Anne wife of Austria. They did nothing but there pass without never sleeping there. The first castle of Versailles rose at the bottom of the current marble court. The principal main building was 24 meters long on six of depth and limited each side to two low wings. The apartment of the king included/understood a small gallery where a table representing was hung the seat of the La Rochelle. Then, four parts came whose walls were covered with tapestries. The room of the king occupied the center of the building, site which will correspond thereafter with that of the bed of Louis XIV. On November 11 1630, the cardinal of Richelieu went secretly to Versailles with an aim of convincing the king whom a plot was fomented by the queen-mother. This event will be known, later, under the name of Day of Dupes. Richelieu remained Prime Minister and the queen-Mother was exiled. On April 8 1632, Louis XIII repurchased the field of Versailles with Jean-Franois de Gondi, archbishop of Paris, uncle of the cardinal of Retz and heir to Albert. Here an extract of this last sale contract: On April 8, 1632, was present the illustrissime and rvrendissime Jean-Franois de Gondi, archbishop of Paris, lord of Versailles, reconnot to have sold, have yielded and transported to Louis XIII, accepting for His Majesty, lord Charles of Aubespine, keeps desessees seals and of Pompidou and chancellor of the orders of the king, and lord Antoine Rus, marquis d' Effiat, superintendent of finances, etc, the ground and seigniory of Versailles, consistent in old castle in ruin and a farm of several buildings; consisting the aforementioned arable land farm, in meadows, wood, chestnut groves, ponds and other dependences; high, average and low justice with the appendix of the Lessart barn, memberships and dependences of icelle, without any thing to exclude, retain, nor to reserve by the aforementioned sior archbishop, of what it had to that the place of Versailles, and for icelle ground and seigniory of Versailles, and appendix of the Lessart barn, to enjoy by Sadite Majest and its successors kings, like pertaining things. This made sale, transfer and transport, with the feudal loads and duties only, with the help of the sum of soixante-mille books, that the aforementioned sior archbishop reconnot to have received from Sadite Majest, by the hands of, in parts of sixteen pennies, whose sum it is held content, in free Sadite Majest and very other, etc (Architexture Francoise, by Blondel, liv. VII, p. 93) The King acquired of this castle only to demolish it and thus extend the panorama of the royal residence. According to a tradition, at the top of the plate of Versailles, the place even of the current castle, drew up a windmill: a miller reigned where Louis XIV reigned. In same time, the king bought new grounds and extended his grounds of huntings. The house built with haste on the grounds of Jean of Soisy, became skimped. On May 26 began from work of enlarging which was directed by the Philibert engineer-architect Roy. Work was completed in 1634 and Louis XIII took possession of his new apartments. Since 1636, the king multiplied his stays and benefitted from the comfort of his new house as well as approval of his gardens. The new castle accepted its first floral decoration; the gardens were arranged with the Frenchwoman by Boyceau and Menours, decorated with arabesques and interlacing. In 1643, feeling its death to approach, Louis XIII declared: If God returns health to me, as soon as my dolphin in age to ride a horse and age of majority I will put it at my place, and will withdraw me in Versailles with four of our fathers to maintain me divine things. On May 14, it returned the heart. Versailles then ceases being a royal residence during almost eighteen years.

Palace Versailles Louis XIV

At the beginning of his reign, Louis XIV did not find any house royal which satisfies it fully. He lived Paris: the Palais Royal, Louvre, Tileries, it tried to be fixed at Vincennes and Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer and remained in Fontainebleau. The king compared the advantages and the disadvantages of his castles, and to mitigate their inconveniences, undertook important work there, but in any did not feel at ease. In 1651, the King paid his first visit in Versailles. At this point in time the thunderbolt occurred. The castle of Versailles was born from a mistrust on behalf of the young person Louis XIV towards the capital and its population judged like not easily controllable since the episode of the Sling. On October 25 1660, Louis XIV conduit in Versailles his young wife, the Marie-Thrse queen.