Château de la Motte
The two most noted families who owned the site were the Gabriel Montgommerys and the Nicolas Angos, but its role as a Resistance center in World War II may be its most notable episode.
Château de la Motte sits at the end of a long chestnut tree alley or avenue linking to the commune of Joué-du-Plain and the village of Écouché.
Although numerous villa ruins were found nearby with the recent A88 autoroute construction, it is unknown whether this site was occupied before the Vikings, absent archaeological excavation.
[3]: 74, 90 In the 15th century, when chateaus lost their defensive function, moats fulfilled prestige and aesthetic roles as well as providing fishponds, an important source of protein for peasants.
[4] The first motte and bailey forts were built to defend Viking/Norman power in Normandy, as the lords of Maine in the south, and Brittany, to the west, occasionally intruded in force.
A removable wooden bridge linked the tower to the courtyard and a single fortified gate welcomed the visitor crossing the moat.
[5]: 29 After William the Conqueror's death, his sons revived motte making in the area to consolidate power from nearby Château de Falaise and Argentan.
Like mottes, most exterior wooden walls would have been coated in plaster to reduce fire worries, and making them resemble stone buildings.
[3] Careful orientation toward the south, like most country architecture in France, was moderated on the Atlantic coast, in order to block the storms from the southwest.
[11] During the Middle Ages, a lord's family usually moved between their various lands and residences, leaving the maintenance and farm production to a permanent staff.
[12] A noble household consisted of an extended family including many illegitimate half brothers and sisters, along with descendants from previous mixed offspring.
In turn, their knights and retainers became minor nobles (la petite noblesse), usually barons, which filled out the need for local authority and management.
[15] The known owners are taken from the original charter, which existed at the time of the writing of the book, Histoire du bourg d'Écouché by Alfred de Caix in 1867.
His father, of the same name, was the commander of the Scottish Guard; he accidentally killed King Henry II of France in a jousting tournament.
The tragedy occurred during a joust celebrating the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty with the Habsburgs, which ended the Italian War of 1551-1559, and a marriage of the king's daughter.
The young King's death shook Europe, and made the reputation of the prognosticator Nostradamus, whose recent words seemed to foretell the event.
Ironically, his job as commander of the Scottish Guard in France was to search out Huguenots (French Protestants), as well as protect the King's life.
A year after Nicolas Ango's death (1654) his widow bought Chateau de la Motte and began building the farmhouse.
Numerous other properties in Joué-du-Plain were also purchased, such as the nearby 16th-century manor Haut Mesnil, in order to fulfill the requirements of the acquiring the title of Marquis.
Purchase of the title marquisat brought income to the depleted royal treasury of Louis XIV, but Jean-Baptist Ango earned the King's favor by buying and closing the Huguenot temple property in Joué-du-Plain.
[16] Jean-Baptist Ango married Marie LeFevre of Lezeau, daughter of Nicolas Le Fevre, advisor to the Parliament of Rouen.
Louis XIV chose his most trusted servants from among the rising bourgeois and small nobles; two examples were Vauban for fortifications and Colbert for finances.
Locals recall visiting the body presented in the chateau's tower, and the nephew paying all the communes taxes that year, a custom among the nobility from the Middle Ages.
On April 30, 1944, Charles Moore was flying his P-51 Mustang back from escorting bombers over Germany when four Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters attacked.
Madame Cavelot, a schoolgirl at the time, remembers seeing his parachute float above the countryside and a truck loading up with German soldiers to bring him in.
Moore recalled later that he did not know all the places he hid with the Resistance, but postwar memoires indicated he stayed in Château de la Motte.
Chateau de la Motte was an arms depot for the Resistance, but its discovery by the Nazis led to the mayor of Joué-du-Plain being accused of collaboration.
On the day of the mayor's assassination, 16 July, just before dawn, a German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter crashed into the large pond at Château de la Motte, killing pilot Haibt Oswald.
The Allies under General George Patton approached from the south, but the German occupiers continued local oppression, by managing a withdrawal across the Rhine to mount a final defense.
Because of her media links, numerous British notables passed through la Motte, including the heroine in the movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc starring Milla Jovovich, filmed in nearby Sées.
