En un regard
Le château en bref
Valognes Castle, in the Manche department, no longer survives; its site corresponds to the present-day Place du Château. Around 1026, a ducal residence is mentioned, with a great hall, a chamber and a chapel; in 1046, the young William the Bastard escapes a conspiracy there. In 1203, John Lackland and Isabella of Angoulême stay there, and on 18 July 1346 Edward III of England spends the night there. After the cession of the Cotentin to Charles II of Navarre in 1354, the residence is converted into a fortified castle, with documented works from 1364 to 1368; Bertrand du Guesclin besieges it in 1364. Retaken by the French in 1450, the castle is besieged again in 1562, and then in 1649 during the Fronde. It comprised an enceinte, a quadrangular keep to the north-east preceded by a barbican, square, round and polygonal artillery towers, and a bastioned outwork. Its dismantling is ordered in 1688–1689 under Louvois. Excavations carried out since 2011 have uncovered walls in the moats, residential buildings and, in 2019, the entrance and south-east corner of the keep.
