Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Clivoy, located 2 km south of Chailland in Mayenne, is attested from the twelfth century under the name N. de Queveio in the cartular of the abbey of the Roë. In 1241 he appeared as Feodum Viviani de Quivay, then in 1498 with his chapel of the Trinity, dependent on the estate. The 18th century archives describe a complex including castle, farmhouses (Boisgelin, Marthelet), fiefs (Trinity, Chassebouverie) and lands such as Size or Primaudière.

In 1609, a dispute between the lady of Clivoy and Gilles de Grasmenil, seigneur of Boisbelin, over the coat of arms of the former lords of Clivoy — one carrying three black swords, the other with five leaves — to be repainted in the church of Saint Stephen. These coats of arms testify to the symbolic importance of the place. In the middle of the 18th century, the estate remained a coherent whole, combining farming (metairies) and seigneurial rights.

The historian Narcisse Henri François Desportes evokes in 1844 the remains of a fortress surrounded by ditches, but Abbé Angot contests this interpretation, finding no trace of a chestnut tree. The local toponymy (Clibus, Cliviacus) suggests an origin related to the Ernea Valley, where the castle is built. The old maps (Cassini, Etat-Major) confirm its presence as a village and mill, anchored in the Mayen landscape.

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