Château de Ranton

The buildings inside the main rampart wall were rebuilt in the 16th century in the Renaissance style, as the home of a series of Protestant families in the French Wars of Religion.

The main rampart walls are built of squared blocks of "tuffeau", the local soft limestone, excavated from the dry moat.

The main gate was protected by two larger towers, and access was by a fixed stone bridge across the moat, but with a drawbridge on the last 3 metres.

The buildings in the courtyard date from the 14th and 17th centuries: The vaulted store rooms and granary on the south-west side are part of the original 14th-century construction.

The latter were extended into a substantial underground village in the 14th century as a safe haven from the pillaging bands that roamed the countryside in the period from 1356 to 1372.

The miners, known as "pions", still used traditional methods, using wetted wooden stakes to break off blocks, and their unfinished work is still visible in some of the excavations around the moat.

He first saw action at the head of a troop of twenty soldiers at the Battle of Saint-Omer on 24 June 1340 between an Anglo-Flemish army commanded by Robert III of Artois and the French under Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy.

In 1354, Louis I, Duke of Anjou was appointed as the Governor of Tourraine and Jean de la Jaille joined his service.

Jean de la Jaille remained in the service of Louis I of Anjou, and was nominated Captain and Defender of Loudun in 1360, a function he fulfilled with honour and success for over 30 years.

There were periodic skirmishes between English and French forces, not to mention problems with lawless bands, discharged soldiers and booty seekers.

In 1400, he left with a second expedition led by Marshal Boucicault de Genes to aid the Eastern Emperor, Manuel II.

In addition to his inherited estates, Louis XII of France made Bertrand de la Jaille the squire of his household, Counsellor and then Chamberlain to the Crown.

The same year, a Commission of Doctors of Theology recognised Joan of Arc's mission to crown Charles VII of France was divinely inspired.

In April, after Joan's recognition of Charles in Chinon, and to relieve the siege of Orléans, the King sent "Monseigneur de la Jaille" ahead of his forces.

They were probably therefore involved in the most significant military action prior to Joan's arrival in late April outside Rouvray where a thousand French and Scottish soldiers attempted unsuccessfully to intercept and divert an English supply convoy in the Battle of the Herrings, so named because the convoy was carrying a large supply of fish for Lent.

After 1452, Bertrand passed most of his time at the Château de Roche-Talbot, his favourite residence in Souvigné-sur-Sarte, but frequently visited Ranton and his other estates in the area.

The eldest, Philibert took over from his grandfather, Tristan IV, the title of Grand Master of the Household to the King of Sicily, but died before his father in 1456.

However, he helped arrange the Treaty of Arras in 1435, which cemented the peace between France and Burgundy leading to the eventual defeat of the English.

She remarried in 1518 with Gabriel de la Chatre, but her eldest son, Rene II, inherited the titles to the family estates.

By the 1550s, Rene II was a Knight of the Order of St Michael, Senechal of Anjou, and a Gentleman of the court of Catherine de' Medici.

The title of Ranton, Bois Gourmond and Preaux passed to his son-in-law, Gabriel d'Apchon, Lord of Roche-Talbot and numerous other properties in the Loire and Auvergne.

Andre took his mother's name of de Chastillon, and Louise retained the feudal rights to the estates of Ranton in her second marriage contract.

On the death of his step-father, in 1625, Andre de Châtillon became Marquis d'Argenton, Lord of Moncontour, Bouville, La Jaille, Beuxes, Bois-Rouge and other estates.

Throughout this turbulent time, the estates at Ranton were enjoying a new prosperity, and the main buildings around the Cour d’Honneur were remodeled in the Louis XIII style.

He combined this with his duties as Lord of Ranton, Pas de Jeu, Riveau, la Jaille and other estates until his death at Utrecht in 1775, but left no heir.

In the French Revolution, the Château de Ranton was abandoned only for a few years during the Terror and the estate passed to the Marshall's daughter on his death, in 1797.

The chapel of the Château de Ranton, dedicated to St Leonard, was given to the village by Abbé Aubineau to serve as the Parish church in 1862.

One of the main towers of the entrance collapsed in 1942 and on his death, in April that year, M. Manson left the estate to his housekeeper and his nephew.

The Piechauds took on other restorations at the end of the 1960s and the Château de Ranton was sold in 1969 to Mr and Mrs Fonteneau, publishers in Poitiers.

The château and the surrounding land were acquired from the estate of the Baker family in October 1989 by the present owners, Peter and Paola Johnston, who have since renovated and restored it.