Castle of Face

The ruins of the castle of Face , of the 15th century/16th century, are on the commune of Torcé-Fish pond-in-Charnie, in Mayenne.

It remains today of the old castle a tower transformed into dwelling house.
At the beginning of the 20th century the Abbé Angot thus described what it remained about it: the ruins, which cover today a space of several hectares, still present some interesting parts: the old home, simple constraints of the castle probably; the gross tower, with its arched basements; the vault or crypt with-half buried; the tower of the treasure, in style of the Rebirth, beautiful sample of what was the last castle, frame of 1490 with 1510 . Between these more or less ruinous buildings, the foundations of the principal buildings tangle up in all the directions, and, though one cannot reconstitute their unit any more, leave the impression of one of most regrettable devastations started with the elements and completed by the men. The texts alone can today make speak these ruins and this debris.

Geography

The valley, where the castle was located at 1km in the north of the borough of Torcé, between the hillocks of Viviers to the south and those of Voutré in north, gives rise to rivers of which the ones from go away to the Erve, the others with the Vègre. Face is at the point of separation of the two basins.

History

During the War One hundred Year old, the English seize this castle; they are driven out by it by Ambroise de Loré, defender of Holy-Suzanne.

Description of the castle at the 17th century

The marquis Rene de Quatrebarbes thus describes the field and the castle such as it had seen them in the middle of the XVIIe century:

the ground of Face is of so great extent, which in addition to the forest of Charnie which one sees of the castle of Face, it made up of the seigniories of seven or eight parishes and is enriched by sixty smallholdings located in the valley by the Erve, best country of the Maine; which places all are built like houses of nobility and are accompanied by wood of futaye. The castle and the borough of Face were burned at the time of the war of Anglois, which forced Foucquet de Bouillé and Jeanne de Boisgamats , his wife, to take refuge in the town of Laval and to remain during some time, sometimes in a house of the street of the River, sometimes in Boisgamaz. The castle of Face, increased successively, ressembloit rather at a city that at a particular house; also the fire from which we come to speak, forced to rebuild it and to do of them one of the most beautiful houses of the kingdom.

the castle , writes one in 1689, is composed of an entirety main building, where there are several accompaniments and residences of low and high rooms, rooms and anterooms, cabinets, kitchens, offices, cellars below, a vault at the end of the known as accompaniment, a large closed wall court, three courses around icelle; stables, terraces, carriage entrances, drawbridges and small planks and covered ditches of strong walls; a farmyard made up of several buildings and stables, barns and cattle sheds; all the aforementioned covered slate buildings; gardens, orchards and exits uniting the aforementioned castle; three covered wood avenues of high futaye; two young people wood of high futaye near avenues, named Sown the , containing approximately three arpens, in the medium of which is a tenantable building with a vault, named the vault of Sown , founded under the name of Saint Rene ; the field of 200 journeaux of arable land and six twenty hommées the pre ones; the wood of mature standing timber and coppice of the Charnie, containing more than 2000 arpens and 700 arpens of moors.

The family of Face

The family of Face is a mayennaise family whose notoriety covered especially the 16th century and the 17th century. One wants to attach it to that of the same name in Auvergne, whose weapons have some similarity, and with as much of probability to that which, in Anjou, took its name of the parishes of Face-Ménard and Face-Thévalles . The Faces of the Maine take row in the nobility by their alliances and their richness during the 15th century.

In addition to the patrimonial ground of Face, those of Mézangers, Chelé to Hambers, Bourgneuf in Jublains, to only quote most important of their possessions, attest their fortune. The share that the Faces took with forwarding Charles VIII in Italy (1494) explains the artistic tastes which appeared in the buildings of Face, Mézangers and Chelé. The really historical role of the family starts with the wars of religion. One proverbially said to time Jean-Baptiste Colbert: noble Face, rich Vase .

Blasonnement

Of money to the hooped fasce of sand mouths, accompanied by two burelles of mouths.

Lords of Face

Jean de Bouillé , widowed of Marie de Tigné, marries Jeanne of Vaucelle , from which is born:
Fouquet de Bouillé , wife in 1420 Jeanne of Boisgamats .
Marguerite de Bouillé , girl of Foulques, was abbess of Étival-in-Charnie of 1461 with 1477, and resigned on October 6th 1477 in favor of Jeanne of Laval , sister of Gilles of Laval-Rented , bishop of Sées of 1493 with 1502.
1485 Louis de Bouillé , knight, founds the vault of Saint-Adrien in the church of Torcé.
1498 Jean de Bouillé Madeleine wife the Mayor , girl of the lord of Mézangers. One finds it among the heirs to Rene of Vaucelle, lord of Audray, in Beaulieu. He declares that him and its predecessors always made their principal demeurance in the house of Face .
1510 marriage of François de Bouillé , which succeeded his/her father. He is qualified knight in 1525. Marguerite of Jaille , her widow, lived in 1541.
Rene de Bouillé , only sons, was count de Créance in consequence of his marriage with Jacquine d' Estouteville . It made several loans in the chapter of Mans in 1560, 1561. Before 1576 dies.
Rene de Bouillé , oldest son, played a great part in the wars of the time.
Claude of Face , brother of the precedent. Like junior by the family, it was intended initially for the Church and accepted the tonsure in the Abbaye of Étival-in-Charnie of the hands of Charles d' Angennes , in 1565. But soon, his brother following the example of and in the same party, he embraced the military career, under the control of Mr. de Chourses , lord of Malicorne. It defended Holy-Suzanne against the members of a league in 1589, was useful under the orders of his brother the following year, under the name of count de Créance the young person , appeared with the battle of Craon in 1592, then with the seat of Mayenne. Named governor of this last place in 1593, it kept this title until the end of the civil war, and was also lieutenant of the duke of Longueville in Normandy. An act of August 10th 1597 qualifies it knight of the Ordre of Saint-Michel.
Rene de Bouillé , oldest son of Rene de Bouillé and Renee of Laval, made set up the ground of Face in marquisat or, at least, took the name of marquis de Bouillé . One named it in the country: " the large king of the Charnie " . Married initially with Marthe de Beaumanoir , then with Miss of Guiche de Saint-Géran , he lived in 1644 more. Living at one time of relative peace, it did not on the occasion to be announced like his father and his uncle Claude, but profited from their services, which were rewarded in its person by titles and favors. The marquisat was created for him, it was to advise of State and sword, captain of 50 men-at-arms, knight about the king, deputy of the nobility to the states of Sens (1614) and of Paris (1615), governor of Laval (of 1614 with 1644).
Éléonore-Renee de Bouillé , only heiress of an immense fortune, married in 1644 Henri de Daillon , marquis d' Illiers, wire of the count of Lude, of which it did not have children. Éléonore († 1681) is one of the most famous figures of the family of Face. Mentioned in the correspondence of Madam de Sévigné, it appears however little at the Court and prefers to be devoted to its passion, hunting, in forest of Charnie. It was the subject of legends putting in scene its cruelty. It is said that his spectrum, that of the green Lady , haunted the walls of the Château of the Rock to Mézangers, property of the family of Face starting from 1624.
See also: Castle of the Rock
It left the remainder of its fortune, Bouillé especially, with the grandchildren of Urbain de Bouillé , his uncle. This one had died in Grazay in 1655, leaving Anne de Feschal , Philippe de Bouillé , count de Créance, lord of Champfleury, which had a son and a girl, Anne-Louise , victim too flexible of the abduction of this damné of Pomenars, whose stories defrayed the city and the court. Jacques-Philippe de Charnacé , which she married then, had of other disgraces; the fortune of the Face, already obérée with died of the marchioness of Lude, was compromised more and more.
the castle of Face, initially sold in 1684 to the duke of Conti by an act which the princess of Conti revoked, was definitively acquired by Jean-louis Portail , knight, lord of Vaudreuil, govern mortar at the Parliament of Paris, on March 26th 1732.
a national sale of the field, divided into nineteen batches, took place the 1st messidor An II, on Aglaé de Conflans de Rohan-Montbazon , heir to Louis-Gabriel, marquis de Conflans, and of Antoinette Portail.

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