when it formed part of the vast tracts belonging to the counts of Valois, an immense forested expanse that reached from Retheuil, Chaudin and Buzancy as far as the river Marne, but was reduced and fragmented by increasing agricultural uses during the Middle Ages.

In 1346, the Valois King Philip VI of France promulgated the first codified forestry law, the ordonnance de Brunoy, which gave birth to the designated Maître des Eaux et Forêts, a member of the Maison du Roi.

The kingdom's first Maître des Eaux et Forêts was installed at the château de Villers-Cotterêts in the Forest of Retz.

The King expressed his appreciation of this forest in numerous works and improvements that included the piercing of rides suited to the hunt now overseen by a Capitaine de chasses, and rebuilding the château de Villers-Cotterêts, for which new sources of water were tapped, which also served the village.

On 8 January 2015, the forest became the center of an extensive manhunt for brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, who were the two main suspects of a terrorist attack against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.