The House of Amboise
Amboise
One of the oldest families of the French nobility took its name from the town. After surviving for five hundred years, it finally spluttered out in 1656. Its Arms are included on the town Arms. Loyal members over successive generations fought for king and country.
The first Lord of Amboise died around 1061. Hugues I, Lord of Amboise, took Château Montrichard for the family. He died in 1346 fighting the English at the Battle of Crécy.
Hugues II, Lord of Amboise, died in 1415 fighting the English at the battle of Agincourt.
His son Pierre Amboise, Lord of Chaumont, fought the English with his cousin Louis, Lord of Amboise, alongside Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans in 1429.
Château Royal d'Amboise
In 1431, Charles VII stripped Louis, Lord of Amboise, of his title and took the family Château in Amboise for the Crown. He was told of a plot which Louis, who was in cahoots with Yolande of Aragon, mother-in-law of Charles, tried and failed to murder the man who was bank rolling the impoverished Court.
Louis Amboise died in 1470. The senior branch of The House of Amboise died with him, it was now The House of Amboise Chaumont.
Château Chaumont-sur-Loire
In 1465, Louis XI destroyed the family’s Château Chaumont-sur-Loire, to punish Pierre Amboise who was in cahoots with the King’s brother, plotting against him. Pierre Amboise died in 1473.
The rebuilding of Château Chaumont began with Charles Amboise, Lord of Chaumont. It was completed in 1510 by his son, Charles II Amboise, Lord of Chaumont, with help from his uncle, Cardinal Georges Amboise and Louis XII.
Cardinal Georges Amboise, born in Château Chaumont, was one of nine sons of Pierre Amboise. Four were bishops. In 1491, Bishop Louis Amboise, officiated at the secret wedding of Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany in Château Langeais. He was subsequently made a Cardinal.
In December 1498, Cardinal Georges Amboise secured the annulment of the marriage of Louis XII and Jeanne de Valois so that Louis could marry Anne of Brittany, the widow of Charles VIII. In 1506 he crowned her Queen of France in Saint-Denis, Paris.
He was with Louis XII when the king took Milan. When Louis XII returned to France, Milan was re-taken by Ludovico Sforza. Georges took him prisoner and sent him to France. Sforza ended his life in a Loches dungeon.
When the Cardinal returned to France, he took Andrea Solari with him to work on Château Gaillon, the Cardinal’s summer palace in Normandy, one of the first Renaissance buildings in France. It was the Cardinal who collected the first Renaissance works of art in France. He commissioned an altarpiece painting from Mantegna and a painting by Perugino.
By 1508 Château Gaillon was fit for a king. Georges invited Louis XII and Anne of Brittany to stay.
The Cardinal’s nephew, Charles II of Amboise was born in Château Chaumont. Louis XII appointed him Governor of Milan and Vice Roy of Lombardy. In Florence he became friendly with Leonardo da Vinci.
When Leonardo left Verrocchio’s studio, Charles bought his first painting as a freelance the beautiful Madonna and Child with Flowers*. When it was rediscovered in the 1800s, his Arms were still on its original frame.
Leonardo’s Madonna was copied by his devoted acolytes Raphael and Andrea Solari. Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks is in the National Gallery, London. Solaris’ Madonna with the Green Cushion is in the Louvre, Paris as is his portrait of Charles.
Leonardo was also working on The Virgin of the Rocks and Saint Anne, thought to be commissioned by Louis XII. His wife’s name was Anne. Saint Anne was her patron saint. If so he never saw it. He died before Leonardo finished it. Leonardo took the painting with him when he left Italy for Amboise. It too is in the Louvre.
In 1509 Charles commanded the French vanguard at the battle of Agnadello when Louis XII invaded Venetian territory. In 1510, he took command of the French forces fighting against those of Pope Julius II for which he was excommunicated.
He died of an illness at Correggio in Lombardy in 1511, aged thirty- eight. His body was brought back to Amboise and buried in the chapel of Saint-Jean in the Church of the Cordeliers. The House of Amboise Chaumont ended in 1525 when his son Georges Amboise died in the disastrous Battle of Pavia in Italy at which Francis I was taken prisoner.
The junior branch of the House of Amboise Chaumont Aubijoux died out in 1656 with François-Jacques Amboise.
* in Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg Russia
Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.
