Origin and history
The Château de Montflaux, mentioned in 1367 as I. de Montflaut, evolved over the centuries: manor house in 1592, seigneurial house in 1603, then land erected in county in 1670 with annexation of neighbouring lands like Champorin or Carelles. The seigneury, moving from Mayenne by Charné-Bazeille, was an influential fief including parish rights and seigneurial justice. The present castle, built in the mid-17th century by Charles de Froulay, replaces a medieval mansion. Its sober architecture, made of braided granite, is distinguished by two wings, pavilions of angle, and an absidial chapel integrated into the moat enclosure, equipped with a tapered campanile.
The French Revolution marked a violent turning point for Montflaux. On 1 June 1790, a hundred emeutiers invaded the estate, threatening the farmer-general Testard-Maisonneuve and claiming the grain reserves formerly distributed by the chestnut, Renée-Caroline-Victoire de Froulay, marquise de Créquy. The castle then became a refuge for chiefs like Châteauneuf in 1798, then a headquarters for 500 insurgents in December 1799, who took 1,400 pounds of lead before leaving.
In the 20th century, Abbé Angot pointed out that the gallery of the castle housed portraits of the Froulay, revolutionaries like Ledru-Rollin or Cavaignac, as well as memories of the Talleyrand-Périgord, including the table of the demise of Napoleon I. The chapel, transferred from Ivoy by decree in 1723, served as a place of worship for the inhabitants of the area, with Sunday Masses and feasts. The estate, passed by successive alliances to the Créquy, Matignon, and then Talleyrand, embodies nearly seven centuries of noble history and political upheavals.
The lords of Montflaux, from the powerful family of Froulay, marked local history from the fourteenth century. Among them, Guillaume de Froulay, killed in Castillon in 1453, or René de Froulay, father of the bishop of Avranches Gabriel-Philippe (1669-1689). André de Froulay founded a collegiate church in Saint-Denis-de-Gastines in 1616, while Charles de Froulay, married to a daughter of honor of Anne of Austria, died in 1671. The last heir, Renée-Caroline-Victoire, bequeathed the estate to Louis-Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, whose descendants, like Vincent Charles Henri d'Etchegoyen, kept it until the 19th century.
The castle, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1929, is described by the archives as a building built with an antique, surrounded by moats, a drawbridge, and a maze with orangery. The old maps (Jaillot, Cassini) also mention a mill, a pond, and three avenues leading to Saint-Denis-de-Gastines, Carelles, and the Censive. Pierre-François Davelu (1780) highlighted his active chapel, his beautiful avenues, and his social role for the surrounding inhabitants, many of whom attended the offices.
La Chouannerie leaves a lasting impression in Montflaux. In 1798 the chief Châteauneuf stayed there, just like Jean-Baptiste Le Dauphin, says Le Vengeur. The judicial archives confirmed the presence of 400 to 500 Chouans in the castle in December 1799, illustrating its strategic role during the civil wars in the West. These episodes, added to the lootings of 1790, reflect tensions between aristocracy and peasantry in an area deeply marked by counter-revolution.
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