Long Description:It was in the troubled context of the Crusade against the
Albigensians that Castelnaud made its appearance in history. The
castle was at the head of a domain of middling importance; to the
north, the Dordogne River marked the boarder with the lands of the
powerful barons of Beynac. The master of the domain was Bernard de
Casnac, ardent defender of the Cathar faith with a reputation for
cruelty. In 1214, the leader of the Albigensian Crusade, Simon de
Montfort, took the castle and installed a garrison there. But,
Casnac fought back and succeeded in retaking the castle one year
later.
He hanged Montfort's entire garrison before being definitively
driven out himself by the Archbishop of Bordeaux who subsequently
burned the castle.
After the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1259 by Saint Louis and
Henry III, which put an end to the dispute between the Capetians
and the Plantagenets, the Perigord was restored to the English.
Castelnaud thus fell under English rule. In 1273 the castle
reverted back to the legitimate feudal line, that of the
Castelnauds, who gave tribute to the Count of Perigord, vassal of
the king of France.
For Castelnaud, the end of the 13th century heralded in a period
of prosperity and relative calm. The castle established itself as
one of the principle powers of the Perigord. The barons of Beynac
during this epoch were semi-permanently in conflict with the lords
of Castelnaud. Continuously the two rival houses contested control
of the region, trailing after them a section of the Perigord
nobility divided by the two camps. The two castles watched and
spied on each other. Never, however, did an open battle occur. In
1317 the Pope himself intervened to prevent the worst from
happening; Jean XXII authorized a marriage between the two families
to try and put an end to the endemic conflict. This context of
private feud, so common in the Middle Ages, was soon relegated to a
position of secondary importance: in 1337 the Hundred Years' War
broke out.
The first few decades of the war were favorable to the English.
In 1346 at Crecy, the cream of French nobility was decimated by
English archers. In 1356, King John the Good was taken prisoner at
Poitiers. The Treaty of Bretigny-Calais freed the king but ceded
Aquitaine to the English, which was from then on ruled by the
formidable Black Prince.
In 1368, Magne de Castelnaud, sole heiress of Castelnaud,
married Nompar de Caumont. This was a major event for Castelnaud,
as the Caumonts would subsequently continue to be proprietors of
the castle until the Revolution. During the War, the Caumonts were
often in the English camp. Henry IV, King of England, named Nompar
de Caumont his seneschal for Agen.
In 1442, tired of the English hold on Castelnaud, the King of
France ordered the town put under siege. The siege lasted three
weeks. The English commander ended it by giving the keys to the
castle and 400 crowns for his life. Thus the English were finally
driven from Castelnaud. They left French soil after the battle of
Castillon (1452) which marked the end of the Hundred Year's
War.
After a century black with wars, epidemics and hardships, a
great period of prosperity unfolded for Castelnaud. The castle's
reconstruction was begun by Brandelis de Caumont and followed by
his son François and his grandson Charles. The old 13th century
fortress took on a look that conformed more to the style of the
times. François de Caumont, besides enlarging Castelnaud, built a
pleasant Renaissance-style manor not far from Castelnaud: Milandes
Castle.
Castelnaud, which no longer had a strategic purpose, became a
pleasure residence. It was fortified because of its prestigious
function as the center of power of the domain. The imposing
artillery tower, built around 1520, had no function other than that
of a symbol of power.
A new chapter in the history of Castelnaud opened with the
Huguenot Captain Geoffroy de Vivans. Soldier, companion of the
future Henry IV, his life was punctuated by audacious actions which
earned him a great reputation in the country. Geoffroy the warrior
was feared throughout the Perigord, a reputation which assured that
Castelnaud was never disturbed during the Wars of Religion.
Between the exploits of Captain Vivans and the 20th century, the
castle did not live through any other remarkable events. The
Caumont lords preferred Milandes first, then their castle of the
Force near Bergerac. The condition of Castelnaud continued to
deteriorate until it was completely abandoned. After the Revolution
the deterioration accelerated. Soon the castle served as no more
than a stone quarry.
In 1966, Castelnaud Castle was classed as an Historic Monument.
Since then, it has undergone two periods of extensive restoration:
between 1974-1980 and from 1996-1998. Certain parts of the castle
which had collapsed were reconstructed, other parts were only
consolidated due to the lack of information regarding their
original state.