Foix
In the Cathar wars Count Raymond-Roger of Foix (d.1223), was a defender
of Toulouse, despite the fact he had actually Crusaded in the Holy Land
with King Philip Augustus in the 1190s. Consequently the fortress
was besieged by Simon Montfort in 1211, 1212 and 1213, but held out on
each occasion. In trying to avoid further attacks the lordship
and castle was granted to the custody of Pope Innocent, but was
returned to Count Raymond-Roger (d.1223) on the election of the pacific
Pope Honorius III in 1216. Before this the counts of Foix had
owed allegiance to the counts of Toulouse and Barcelona, after the
Crusade they held directly from the French Crown.
In 1272 Count Roger-Bernard III Foix (d.1303) rebelled and King Philip
III (d.1285) marched against Foix with an army to personally besiege
the castle, which surrendered after just 3 days. Despite this, in
1278 the count became co-prince of Andorra. Later Roger-Bernard
added Bearn to the family estates through marriage in 1290 on the death
of his father-in-law, Gaston VII. He named his eldest son Gaston
in his honour.
During the 100 years war Foix was held for the French kings by Count
Gaston III (d.1391) as a bulwark against Gascony. During his time
Froissart (d.c.1405) recounted a banquet at which he had assisted in
the castle in 1381:
And this was what I saw in Foix County: The Count [Gaston III, d.1391]
left his chamber to sup at midnight, the way to the great hall being
led by twelve varlets, bearing twelve lit torches. The great hall
was crowded with knights and esquires, and those who would supped,
saying nothing meanwhile. Mostly game seemed to be the favourite
meat, and the legs and wings only of fowl were eaten. Music and
chants were the invariable accompaniment, and the company remained at
table until after two in the morning. Little or nothing was drunk.
However things then went downhill as the count killed his own son on the same night - a tragic ending to the banquet.
"Ha! traitor," the count said in the local patois as he entered his
sleeping son's chamber; "why do you not sup with us? He is surely
a traitor who will not join at table." And with a swift, but
gentle drawing of his coutel (knife) across his successor's throat he
calmly went back to supper.
So ended Gaston's only legitimate son, another Gaston. With no
legitimate heir to succeed him Gaston III granted his lands to his
overlord, King Charles VI (d.1422). Charles in turn passed the lands
on to Matthew Foix (1398), a great grandson of the original Count
Gaston Foix (d.1315). On his death Count Archambault Grailly
(d.1413), the husband of Matthew Foix's sister, Isabella (d.1426),
seized the castle and barony. Their great grandson, Francisco
Febo Foix became king of Navarre in 1479 and Foix passed via his
sister, Catalina (d.1517), on his death in 1483, to the Albret kings of
Navarre. Despite this the castle was captured in 1486 and
dismantled with the cisterns being filled in to render the site indefensible.
When Catalina's great grandson became King Henry IV of France (d.1610)
Foix became a part of the royal domain of France. Henry's son,
King Louis XIII (d.1643), planned to further demilitarise the castle,
but was persuaded not to by Richelieu himself. During the reign
of his son, Louis XIV (d.1715), the castle was used as a prison,
barracks and archive and remained in use as a prison until the end of
the nineteenth century when the fortress was cleared of prison
buildings and the walls heavily over-restored by Paul Boeswilwald, the
son in law of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc.
Description
The rock on which the castle stands has a summit roughly 360' N-S by
250' E-W at its maximum extant. The inner ward of the castle from
tower to tower is about 220' N-S by about 90' E-W. The heavy
restoration of the castle makes it very difficult to decide which
part dates to which age and indeed which part is castle and which later
revetmenting. The three great towers are traditionally dated,
with the north rectangular one, known as the Arget Tower and some 100'
high, being said to be eleventh century. If this is true, then
only the bottom two storeys are likely to be of this age or
older. This
can be judged as the north wall is twice the thickness at the base, the
bottom section being part of a north curtain wall, supposedly of
fifteenth century date. Certainly the ‘wallwalk' passes
through the building as can be seen by the NE doorway ending in space
at first floor
level. The curtain to the NE that this once fed into has now
gone, although the toothing for it is still clear. On the other
side of the tower soil is packed up within a rectangular walled
enclosure, perhaps
indicating the site of an old motte, or more likely representing soil
clearance from the nineteenth century.
Entrance to the Arget Tower was
gained at first floor level to the south where there is what appears to
be
a shoulder headed doorway of the thirteenth century residing within a
Romanesque doorway with a tympanum. This is clearly a restoration
as it is surrounded by the new stonework that has replaced the original
quoins. Within the quoins on the south face are the original
stones of the tower, small rectangular blocks, similar to that found at
Carcassonne city
and thought to be Roman. A floor above the doorway this stonework
changes and every few lines of masonry, a line of 3 red 'Roman' tiles
appears. This too is possibly 'restoration' and is a feature on
all 4 sides of the tower.
The basement
of the Arget Tower is a cistern, which with the first floor might be be ancient. The two upper floors
are possibly thirteenth century, or even as late as the rebuilt
fifteenth century battlements, though they appear to contain much
brickwork. Internally the tower had wooden floors and no
stairways, while the north wall interally loses a third of its
thickness on each of the top 2 floors. It is noticeable that the
tower and north curtain are on a separate alignment to the rest of
the castle remains, which may again suggest an early date for both,
rather than the late date suggested for the curtain. The north
face of the tower shows 'early' rubblework to the NE side of the lower
portion of the tower, but a mass of irregular rubble where the tower
and curtain 'join' to the NW. No doubt this is mostly
'restoration'.
South of the Agret Tower is the middle rectangular tower. This is of
two storeys and a basement and has a probable window on each upper
level facing the north. They have both been blocked with
brick. The three windows to the south all have Romanesque
relieving arches, while there is a small bricked up window arch on the
top floor, next to the open modern window. The tower is claimed
to be twelfth century and both it and the north tower appear on the
seal of the counts from 1215. It is therefore logical that both
towers predate 1215, even if the stylised depiction does seem to show
two equal towers with ground floor doors in their wooden western
faces. As on the seal, between both towers is a hall block that
currently stands only one floor high. This has modern windows to
the east and double-splayed loops to the west. The middle tower basement
is entered from a doorway from the hall at ground floor level.
The basement is vaulted as are the 2 floors above, the
middle one having carved corbels of busts. From the first floor north entrance a spiral
vice in a projecting stair turret to the NE leads to the upper floors and battlements.
Surrounding the hall
block and its 2 rectangular towers is a much damaged curtain wall that is best preserved on the
E&W fronts. This shows a thin wall, although the west wall
has one section opposite the
middle tower that is three times the normal thickness. This section also contains two triangular headed
latrine chutes partially made up with Roman tiles and set in modern
concrete. Possibly only this section is authentic medieval.
The entrance to the inner enceinte originally seems to have been from
the east and runs up a long barbican to a destroyed entrance next to
the north tower. The east wall is of a universal thinness and has
what seems to have been a small, backless square turret to the
SE. The south corner of this enceinte is taken up by the later
round tower. This great round tower is some 140' high and is said
to date from the fifteenth century. Its extra height against the
other two towers is somewhat nullified by it occupying a lower place on
the crag that makes up the inner enceinte. The tower consists of
four storeys and a basement, entered by a modern doorway to the
north. It also has a spiral stair in its north wall by its first
floor Romanesque entrance. Its north and east faces are otherwise
unbroken by apertures, unlike the other two sides.
Surrounding this inner enceinte was an outer ward which ran around the
crag's edge. This is possibly the oldest part of the castle and
roughly takes the form of a fat horse's head, with the mouth to the
south and the top of the head to the SW. The castle was
originally entered from the town to the NE via a rectangular
barbican. There seems to have been several lines of defence as
the entrance path wound its way up the crag to the main enceinte.
On the east front is a small rectangular projecting turret with a
boldly projecting plinth. Further east than this a small solid D
shaped turret has been added to the curtain. To the west is
another entrance next to a chatelet, both probably dating to the
fifteenth century. As another rocky hill castle, Foix is quite dissimilar to other rock castles in the district, like Termes or Roquefixade.
Beneath the crag was an abbey in its own lower
defences and a large fortified town to the S&E.
Why not join me here and at other French
castles? Information on this and other tours can be found at Scholarly
Sojourns.
Copyright©2019
Paul Martin Remfry