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Les
Normands |
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In
911, King Charles III le Simple gave to Rollon, the king of the
Vikings, the land now known as Normandy. Roger I de Montgommery,
a good friend of the Viking king, received lands in this area
and so began the age long association between the Montgommery
family and Normandy.
The grandchild of Roger, named Roger II de Montgommery, became
a faithful companion to William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy,
and fought beside him during the Norman conquest of 1066. For
his efforts, Roger II received the earldoms of Arundel, Chichester
and Shrewsbury.
The children of Roger II were expelled from England in 1102 by
Henri I Beauclerc. Some members of the family went to Scotland
and some to France. The centuries passed until Jacques I de Montgommery,
then captain of the Scottish Guard to the French King, Francois
I, married Claude de la Bossiere, daughter of a nobleman in Ducey.
In doing so, he realised his ambition of reclaiming the Norman
lands once lost by his family.
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Gabriel Ier de Montgommery
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"Le lion jeune
le vieux surmontera
En champ bellique par singulier duel,
Dans cage d'or les yeux lui crèvera,
Deux classes une, puis mourir, mort cruelle"
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Nostradamus.
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In
1559, however, tragedy struck. The son of Jacques I, Gabriel
I de Montgommery, had taken on the position of Captain to
the King’s Scottish guard. In a tournament at Paris,
he accidentally killed Henri II. The King had jousted with
great success all day and decided to tilt one last time at
his captain of the Scottish guard. Despite the Queen’s
reservations concerning this last joust, he charged wearing
the colours of his official mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who
was sitting next to the Queen. The captain’s lance smashed
to pieces in the clash. The king stumbled and fell from his
horse.
On his
death bed, the King asked for Gabriel, but he had taken flight,
fearing for his life. Before dying, the King absolved Gabriel
of all fault.
Gabriel
retreated to the English royal Court. Here he converted to
Protestantism and returned to Normandy at the request of the
Norman nobles to help reform the area and impose the new religion
in the land of his ancestors. He fought in sundry battles
and became one of the great leaders of Huguenot Normandy,
until he was taken after the siege of Domfront and beheaded
on 26th June, 1574 by the order of Catherine de Médicis.
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Gabriel II de Montgommery
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However,
in 1576 Henri III publicly restored the good name of Gabriel
I and returned his lands to his children. Gabriel left behind
him sons faithful to his cause, who fought throughout the ensuing
religious conflicts. In 1593, Gabriel II de Montgommery married
Suzanne de Bouquetot, a high ranking nobleman’s daughter.
Five years later, he bought the Ducey estate back from his brother,
Jacques.
And so, at the beginning of the 17th century, Gabriel II de
Montgommery began the construction of his chateau at Ducey.
In 1635 he died without seeing the final result.
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To
know more:
A book is sold at the Tourism's office of Ducey or
the Maison de la Presse of Ducey.
Price : 22 €
02.33.60.21.53
for informations. |
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