[1] The château fort was a ruin by the time it was purchased by Jacques Cœur, a merchant and major financier of King Charles VII, in 1452.

[2] Cœur had little time to enjoy the property, as he was put on trial for royal embezzlement and sentenced to exile, where he died in 1456.

An asset inventory of the fiefdom of Augerville-la-Rivière, dated June 30, 1582, noted that the château fort was surrounded by walls and a moat, fed by the Essonne River.

It was bought in 1644 by Jean Perrault de Montevrault, who had the facades of the château and apartments restored and added two detached wings, a new pigeonnier, a new barn, and created a forecourt surrounded by estate buildings.

At that time it was described as being having forty-six rooms on three floors, with the south facade overlooking the park and including thirty-four windows and three doors.

[1] In the summer of 1926 the estate was purchased by American socialite Alva Belmont, formerly Mrs. William Kissam Vanderbilt, who restored it as her primary residence.

Her daughter, Consuelo Vanderbilt (who had married Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough), wrote that she thought that Jacques Cœur's reported ownership had partially inspired her mother to buy the estate.

She brought in paving stones from Versailles to cover the previously sand-paved great forecourt between the house and the village.

She had a massive neo-Gothic portal gate erected on the northern entrance road, separating the château and village from the surrounding farmland.