Founded in 1603 by Henri IV, shortly after the king had recalled the Society of Jesus to France, the college prospered, quickly reaching over 1,000 students who followed the curriculum defined in the Ratio Studiorum.

Widowed in 1537, Françoise d'Alençon decided to retire to her seigneury of La Flèche, which she had received in dower from her husband Charles de Bourbon.

Antoine de Bourbon and his wife Jeanne d'Albret, heir to the kingdom of Navarre, stayed at their Château-Neuf in La Flèche on several occasions, in the company of their son, the future King Henri IV.

[3] After equipping the town with a granary and a presidial court, Fouquet de la Varenne decided to found a college there, a project which King Henri IV was in favor of, but did not accelerate.

[4] In 1603, during Henri IV's trip to Metz, Fouquet de la Varenne introduced him to the Jesuit fathers of Verdun, who were eager to ask the king to recall them.

[3] On September 3, 1603, by letters patent sent from Rouen, Henri IV authorized the return to France of the Jesuits, who had been banished by the Paris parliament in 1594 after the failed attempt on the king's life by one of their former students, Jean Châtel.

[5] Without waiting for the edict to be verified by Parliament, Henri IV instructed Father Pierre Coton to take the necessary steps to open the college at La Flèche as soon as possible.

[11] He donated his "Château-Neuf" to the Jesuits, granting them 300,000 livres for the construction of the establishment, as well as an annual income of 20,000 pounds, drawn from the revenues of several abbeys or priories near La Flèche, such as Luché.

Henri IV wanted to entrust responsibility for the project to Brother Étienne Martellange, but the provincial of Lyon, on whom the architect depended, objected to this collaboration.

The deceased's heart was then entrusted to the Jesuits and taken to La Flèche, where the procession entered on the morning of June 4, 1610, led by the Duc de Montbazon.

The development of the "cour des pères" began in 1629 with the demolition of the outbuildings of the "Château-Neuf", and ended in 1653 with the erection of the southern body of the courtyard, opening onto the city through the "portail royal".

After four years of legal wrangling, the conflict was settled by the payment of a thousand écus by the Jesuits to the Marquis, thus putting an end to an episode that had come to be known as the "Frog War".

[24] On April 12, 1643, in accordance with Henri IV's wishes, the heart of Marie de Médicis was transferred to La Flèche to join that of her former husband in the church of Saint-Louis.

At the same time, Conventionnel representative Didier Thirion had the urns containing the hearts of Henri IV and Marie de Médicis opened and burned in the public square.

[26] During the French Revolution, the college buildings were put to a variety of uses, including military hospital, headquarters of the municipal administration and the district of La Flèche, and workshops.

[10] Michel Le Tellier, confessor to Louis XIV, and Georges Fournier, author of a treatise on hydrography, were among the most eminent professors to have taught at La Flèche,[10] prompting the philosopher René Descartes, a boarder from 1607 to 1615, to write, "I was in one of the most famous schools in Europe".

Joachim Bouvet and Jean de Fontaney, mathematicians who had entered the service of the Kangxi emperor and retired to La Flèche after a tour of China, also attended the college.

A student at the college between 1608 and 1617, Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, from Fléch, was fascinated by the accounts of the fathers who had returned from New France, such as those of Énemond Massé.

[38] This teaching was a determining factor for the man who, from 1630 onwards, devoted his life to the creation of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, which founded Ville-Marie, now Montreal.