Vendôme (Loir-et-Cher), La Trinité,
façade. Photograph courtesy of
Whitney S.Stoddard.
sade of 1101 and in the first expedition of Louis IX. In 1212, the town was the center of
the children’s movement to save the Holy Land, led by Étienne de Cloyes. On the death
of Count Bouchard VII in 1374, Vendôme was carried to the house of Bourbon by the
marriage of the count’s sister, Catherine, to Jean I, count of La Marche (r. 1361–93). The
counts remained loyal to the crown during the dark years of the Hundred Years’ War,
with Louis of La Marche/Vendôme (1393–1446) serving as a principal royal commander.
The town with its castle was an important frontier site between French and English
territories during the conflict. The county returned to the crown with the accession of the
Bourbon king Henry IV in 1589.
The history of Vendôme illustrates several steps in early feudal development, with its
records furnishing some of the earliest examples of primogeniture and liege homage, with
a clear assignment of castle guard appearing by the early 11th century. Its counts also led
the way in rural development with the founding of a villeneuve, a market, and a church in
the forest in the 10th century; the introduction of vines from Saintonge in 1055–60; and
the foundation of rural bourgs in the 12th century.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1790