THE HISTORY OF THE CHATEAU DE BOURRON

Medieval fortress, chateau rebuilt by transparence in the early XVII th,
the king Louis XV and Marie Leczinska coming in the chateau,
le comte Blaise de Montesquiou-Fezensac,
the spring Saint-Sévère : in the early XX th century and nowadays

The setting of the Château de Bourron, located in the village of Bourron-Marlotte in Seine-et-Marne, has always been extremely favourable to human settlement : between the forest of Fontainebleau in the north, the Loing valley in the south and nearby, the everflowing Saint-Sévère spring. 

The Saint-Sévère spring quite a long time ago	The Saint-Sévère spring nowdays

Therefore, it has always been occupied since the neolithic times - around 5000 years B.C. - the evidence of this being the beautiful ribboned vase displayed at the Museum of National Antiquities, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

It was then invaded by the Celts, who gave the name Bourron to the village, or, according to ancient spelling, Bouvron or Borri, which is derived from Bovron, the Gaelic god of waters.

During the Gaelic-Roman period, the knowledge of cadastral survey allows us to spot a wide agricultural farm, which extended far beyond today's estate : its center, certified by archeological remains, was situated less than fifty meters from the castle,and was still occupied in the Middle-Ages.

The Lords of Bourron and the first castle

Starting in 1150, official papers and settlements made on religious congregations of the area brings some information about the first lords of Bourron : well-established around the Loing valley, from Jacqueville in the west to Saint-Mammès near the Seine, they were able to serve their king at a time when the kingdom of France and the Ile-de-France were one.

With the "trois fusées en fasce" crown, they must have owned since the very beginning a seigneurial castle, a sign of their nobility and institution of their justice, even if it is not described before 1367 during a royal inspection : Bourron was then a fortress "closed with walls and circled with water moats".

One of the first lords was Robert de Borron who collected the Celtic oral tradition stories, the Arthurian cycle of the Round Table, arranging them and going back to their christian origins : with the trilogy of Joseph of Arimathia, Merlin and Perceval, he wrote this way, in late 13th century, the first french prose novel, the Novel of the Holy Grail, which caused quite a stir.

The holy Graal's novel	knights of the circle table

For unknown reason, around 1380, the Bourron estate belonged for about sixty years to the Villiers de l'Isle-Adam family , whose member Jehan left in 1402 "the confession and people census of his castle of Bourron and its belongings" before taking the oath the King of France. It's the first of long series of description about the medieval domain, which, as far as we can say, meets the Gaelic-Roman cadastral survey.

From 1145 to about 1465, this estate belonged to Denis de Chailly, from the great family of the Viscount of Melun, the most important of all the commanders from the Brie, who therefore joined Joan of Arc to reconquers France against the British soldiers. It then belonged to Charles de Melun, who couldn't really enjoy it as he got beheaded in 1368 by order from Louis 11th helping a State prisoner to escape.
His son Antoine died in 1487, leaving so many debts that his viscountcy and his seigneurie of Bourron were seized and sold by auction.

By the end of this long process, the last bidders, the squire Regnault du Chesnay and the knight and great falconer of France, Olivier de Sallard became, on July 15th, 1500, associate owners of the viscountcy of Melun and the seigneurie of Bourron, which the then divided up among themselves.

The "brick and rock" Sallards' castle

Drawing of the castle

In 1502, Olivier de Sallard became the only owner of Bourron. With a family native of Brabant and specialized in falcons taming for the Dukes of Bourgogne, Olivier Salaert de Doncker was a contemporary of Louis 11th, King of France.

Then Dauphin, Louis hired Olivier de Sallard as falconer. The next kings Charles 8th and Louis 12th strengthened his position as Great Falconer of France. Moreover, Charles 8th granted him with his naturalization letters, thus enabling him to be the owner and to found a line in Bourron for two centuries and a half.

Fifty years after he had bought Bourron, the Sallard family had heavy financial problems, as two of their children, Jehan and François, were co-lords of Bourron. In 1562, as they were unmarried, they even made a settlement inter vivos of their possessions. 
Jehan de Sallard soon died, without an heir.
 
His brother François married Diane Clausse, daughter of Henri the 2nd's Finances State secretary, between 1562 and 1574, which brought him a comfortable dowry and enabled him to purchase many lands to build up the domain of Bourron and, most probably, to remplace of the old medieval fortress by the current castle in the late 16th century.

The estate during the classical times

Louis XV

Marie Leszczynska

During the 17th century, it looks like life was quite peaceful in the new castle of Bourron, the Sallard family often staying there, while the father and the elder son were fighting as officers in one of the King's French Guards regiment. Armand-Nicolas de Sallard must have performed amazing military feats, as in 1680, Louis 14th made a marquisate of the estate of Bourron.
When the last Sallard died in 1709 at the battle of Oudenarde, the estate and its title were given to his mother's second husband, Frédéric de Beringhen, himself an officer, who belonged to the youngest branch of a family of Dutch protestants, whose eldest children were First Equerries, laden with honours and esteem, from the kings Louis 13th, Louis 14th and Louis 15th.

This relationship explains why the castle of Bourron was chosen to host, in October 1725, the dethroned King of Poland, Stanislas Leczinski, unable to accomodate at the Court in Fontainebleau because of an etiquette problem, while his daughter was getting married with the young Louis 15th. The new Queen of France came everyday to visit her parents, and even lost a diamond on the grounds..

However, Louis 15th, again because of the etiquette, had to give a hunt in order to meet his father-in-law and introduce himself to him - "Incognito", as wrote the papers at the time - all the princes of royal blood, the whole Court in their hunt carriages, and finally all his ministers and State secretaries ! Following these glorious days, Bourron was at peace again, under the leadership of François-Pierre de Varennes, Mlle de Béringhen's husband, and their son François-Frédéric, both officers. At last, documents show, starting in the 18th century, the life of the estate and of the comfortable but simple home of this representative of average nobility, who was a liveral with passion for chemistry, geography and astronomy.

During the French Revolution, in 1794, the sans culottes from Nemours came; plundered the castle and destroyed the symbols of the abolished feudal system : the entrance gate with seigneurial arms, the pigeon house with square foundation and the ditches that they tried to fill. They brought the marquess of Bourron, then a widow, in Paris, who only owed her life to Robespierre's fall a few months later. Her youngest daughter, Adélaïde-Luce, was kept in custody by the local villager, which was a way to protect her as well as the estate.

The castle had a few more ups and downs, because of Mme de Varenne-Bourron's son who already emprisoned at 18 for debts, stuck to his way of life, and thus, in 1806, had to sell the estate to his main creditor, who broke it up and quickly sold the castle and the grounds to Adélaïde-Luce and her husband, the Marquis of Montgon. The Montgons kept trying to build up the old domain again, parcel after parcel, and their successors carried on this way.

The present days

Count Montesquiou-Fezensac

As a result of legacies, the castle of Bourron was put up for sale three times : by the Montgons in 1849, then the Brandoix in 1862, lastly the Piollencs in 1878.
These two last families took an active part in the village's life, as mayors and benefactors. They rebuilt parts of the 11th century church, at the time when Bourron, and its hamlet Marlotte, lived an intense artistic life : hundreds of painters and writers, like Barbizon, stayed there, attracted by the rustic charm of these houses, and the closeness of the forest of Fontainebleau.

In 1878, the domain was purchased by the Montesquiou-Fezensac family, who still lives there today. From a family of old nobility from the Gers, they boast among their ancestors the famous d'Artagnan, ministers of Louis 14th, as well as Le Tellier de Louvois and Madame de Montesquiou, house-keeper for the young King of Rome who affectionately called her "Maman Quiou". For a century, they dedicated themselves to restoring and refurnishing the castle, using their family heirloom, and laying out the grounds again, mostly after the bombings of the last war. In the continuation of the forest of Fontainebleau, this residence has thus kept its harmonious nature.
 
 

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CHATEAU

The Chateau's plan of construction goes back to the tradition of the moat-surrounded medieval fortress: an unadorned main building with two square wings, occupying one of the shorter sides of the rectangular ground-plot. To its south lie the two lower pavilions which housed the stables, framing the story-high principal door. The door, on which was carved the coat of arms of the house of Bourron, faced the access bridge which was destroyed during the French Revolution.

The main building's relative shallowness gives it a stunning interior light ; it consists of three levels of narrow windows crowned by a skylight-topped attic. The lower level was formerly higher than it is today, due to an elevation of thirty centimeters (about 1 ft.) in the ancient courtyard's paving-stones. The facades are slightly set back from the main building: the southern facade is preceded by a horseshoe-shaped sandstone staircase, while the northen facade's horseshoe staircase is joined to a turning-bridge which spans the moat in an audacious play of stone.

This so-called "brick and stone" style was created in 1528 by Gilles Le Breton for the northen wing of the Cheval Blanc courtyard in the Chateau de Fontainebleau.
More precisely, the walls are made of quarry-stones of the type of sandstone which makes up a large part of the ground of the Biere forest. They are covered with a rough-cast to protect them from humidity, which the sandstone tends to absorb too easily. The lower foundation, the clamping of the walls, and the staircases are all in bonded stone from the sandstone gorges of Apremont ; the stonework of the staircase connected to the turning-bridge is particularly detailed.

The role of the brick is limited and purely decorative, serving to separate the different levels and frame the windows and skylights. However, on the southern facade of the lower pavilions, circles and rectangles of brick are embedded in a sandstone frame,forming a play of colours and shapes to beautiful ornamental effect. In fact, the many colours formed by the clear pebble-coating, the bricks, and the bluish sandstone help offset the more somber slate roof, lightening the soberness of the building and giving it a cheery warmth.

The archives relating to the construction of the Chateau are unfortunately lacking. The year when work on the Chateau began is generally thought to have been 1609, the same year that the Cour des Offices was completed at the Chateau de Fontainebleau (which Bourron indeed greatly resembles). However, a great deal of evidence suggests that the Chateau may instead have been constructed by Francois de Sallard and Diane Clausse towards the end of the 16 th century. In effect, Diane Clausse's dowry could have included the construction of an unpretentious Chateau to accompany a gift of land. The influence of Cosme Clausse, Diane's father, must be taken into account: Clausse had just built the nearby Chateaux of Courances and Fleury-en-Biere in the same "brick and stone" style around 1549-1560, just as Francois de Sallard, gratified by his new post as leader of the King's horsemen, must have wanted to keep up his position.

It also seems probable that the sallard family, who in 1600 began to vacation at bourron along with many relatives and allies, would have preferred to live in a recently built chateau, rather than in a worksite in the middle of construction. In addition, a number of purely stylistic arguments suggest that the Chateau was built before 1600: its layout follows that of the medieval fortress without any particular innovations ; the windows face out awkwardly, leaving large blank spaces between them ; the geometry of the overlapping panels on the lower pavilions is directly inspired by the outbuildings of the Chateau de Fleury-en-Biere, built in 1550-1560; and lastly, the comparison is convincing with regard to other small country-houses built soberly in the "brick and stone" style during the last quarter of the 16 th century around Paris (eg. Neuville, Pontchartrain or La Mormaire), the most striking example being the Cour des Offices at Fontainebleau.

All these arguments tend to suggest that the Chateau de Bourron was Built in the last quarter of the 16 th century, not by an architect, but by a master stonemason very familiar with the "brick and stone" style of the region, Fleury-en-Biere and Fontainebleau in particular. In Bourron, he created a small chateau typical of the aera surrounding Paris: it is no way a showpiece, but a pleasure-house proper to a courtier, a house whose sobriety, imposed by relatively modest means, is nevertheless quite alluring.