Loire Kings
The Loire kings are French kings from the House of Valois who did not have their main residence in Paris during the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance , but in castles in the Loire Valley. In particular, Charles VII , Ludwig XI. , Karl VIII. , Louis XII. and Franz I. meant.
After the death of Charles VI. (1422) his successor Charles VII had to retreat to Bourges not far from the Loire, as the English and Burgundians occupied the capital Paris ( Hundred Years War ). From the Loire Valley, Charles VII began to recapture France, as a result of which Paris was recaptured in 1436. However, Charles VII did not return to Paris, but kept his main residence on the Loire even after the war against England was over. This is mainly due to the fact that Paris had made too open a pact with the hostile Burgundians and the king now distrusted the city magistrate too much. Paris nevertheless remained the capital and seat of the highest courts of justice and chambers of peers , as well as the economic center of France. The Loire, on the other hand, had been the territory of the loyal crown vassals during the war and has now developed into the political and cultural center of the kingdom.
During the Loire kingship, the royal administration was divided between Paris and the current residence of the king, so that Blois, for example , could establish itself as a subsidiary capital for a certain time. Francis I ended the time of the Loire Kings, although he himself had one of the largest Loire castles built ( Chambord Castle ). In 1528 he moved the main residence and the entire administration back to Paris and began to push forward the centralization of France with the political and cultural center of Paris. This gave the capital back its old status as it was before 1422. From then on, the kings stayed almost exclusively in and around Paris, especially in the Louvre as well as in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Fontainebleau . The Loire, on the other hand, was rarely used for excursions and as a retreat during the Huguenot Wars .