The Château de Lyons-la-Forêt was a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

Lyons-la-Forêt Lyons-la-Forêt () is a commune of the Eure department, Normandy, in northwest France. Lyons-la-Forêt has distinctive historical geography, and architecture, and contemporary culture, as a consequence of the Forest of Lyons, and its bocage, and ...

in the

Eure Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' of France. The castle was constructed at the start of the 12th century by

Henry I of England Henry I ( – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henr ...

, also known as "Henri Beauclerc". He died there in 1135, supposedly from "a surfeit of

lampreys Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are a group of Agnatha, jawless fish comprising the order (biology), order Petromyzontiformes , sole order in the Class (biology), class Petromyzontida. The adult lamprey is characterize ...

".Office de Tourisme du Pays de Lyons-la-Forêt:
Le pays de Lyons à travers l’histoire
''. This site also contains further historical detail concerning the castle and its royal connections. The town and the castle were occupied by King

Philip II Augustus Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), also known as Philip Augustus (), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks (Latin: ''rex Francorum''), but from 1190 onward, Philip became the firs ...

of France in 1193 but the following year,

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199), known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard Cœur de Lion () because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ru ...

, back from captivity, recovered Lyons and stayed there frequently until 1198. The castle had four large towers and four gates, each guarded by a different ''seigneur''.Michel Toussaint Chrétien Duplessis, ''Description géographique et historique de la Haute-Normandie : Le Vexin'', P.-F. Giffart, Paris, 1740 At the beginning of the 17th century it was described as being in ruins, with only the chapel of Saint Nicolas remaining. The foundations of the imposing

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

were exposed during summer 2007.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons la Foret, Chateau de Castles in Eure Ruined castles in Normandy

See also

References

External links