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Origin and history

The abbey of Joyenval, located in Chambourcy in the Yvelines, was founded or re-founded in 1221 by Barthélemy de Roye (or Retz), the chambrier of King Philippe Augustus, who was buried there in 1224. This pre-demonstrated monastery slew in the valley of Montjoye, on the site of a legendary hermitage linked to the Princess Clotilde, wife of Clovis, and to the Fountain of Lys, symbol of the conversion of the Frank King. The monks also claimed the primitive guard of the Montjoie oriflamme, a royal relic later transferred to Saint-Denis.

The abbey church, dedicated to Saint Laurent and then to Saint Barthélemy after 1261, became a place of burial for the family of Roy, including Nicolas de Roye, Bishop of Noyon. In 1306, after the expulsion of the Jews from France, their local property was confiscated for the benefit of the abbey, as evidenced by an oven offered by Philip the Bel in 1313. Protected by Philip VI of Valois in 1328, the abbey was burned on 13 Aug. 1346 during the riding of Edward III during the Hundred Years War.

The monks owned a Parisian hotel on Rue Aux-Moines-de-Joienval (now rue des Moines), replaced in 1698 by a salt attic. The abbey, destroyed during the Revolution, remains only by remains inscribed in historical monuments since 1989, integrated into the Joyenval golf course. Its history reflects the links between royal power, nobility (the Brûlart family of Genlis in the 16th-17th centuries) and monastic life, as well as the political and religious upheavals of medieval and modern France.

Notable abbots include Charles Brûlart de Genlis (1571–1649), diplomat and state councillor under Louis XIII, or Georges d'Aubusson de La Feuillade, the last abbot before the transformation into a priory in 1697. The archives also reveal seigneurial gifts, such as that of Jehan de Montjoie in 1239, transferring the fief of Montesson to the abbey, illustrating his economic and spiritual role in the region.

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