La Maison de l'Argentier du Roy

Once upon a time ....

"..In the Royal Chateau of Loches ... a day of May 1444 .

15 years already ... since that day in May 1429, where the little Joan of Arc (*) returned to the castle, found Charles at Loches, gave him the big news of the release in 6 days, after three years of siege by the "Angloiis" of the good city of Orleans
( .. 3 months later, she led this "little king of Bourges," to Reims from Loches, to be finally crowned King of France, and reconquer his kingdom...)

Charles VII, by date of May 1444, just signed a truce with the English in Tours
(..but will eventually drive them out of France at 1453).
..Charles did not forget Jeanne
(he supported her rehabilitation trial in 1456)

Glad feasting to celebrate that date when it had all begun ... at the same place, in the big hall of the castle, as she returned victorious from Orleans de Loches, where Jeanne asked him to bring him to Reims Cathedral this time.

Among the small company of guests, the beautiful Agnes Sorel (***)
" Royal and official " mistress, since 2 years
She is in discussion with his friend, the King's Great Treasurer : the wealthy and influential Jacques Coeur (****) , Grand Argentier du Roy
( so titled in feb.1439 and knighted in avr.1441 )

Looking him lovingly, she entices her "Little Roy" to join them to tell him of a project of great interest to her :

- My very Dear majesty, I require your help...
- I ask of Master Jacques the establishement in our good town of Loches, of a "little Argenterie" (sort of luxury shop)

- And, within our walls, closer than his larger one he's building in Tours
( ..that he will finish at the end of this year 1444)
near your home of Plessis-les-tours

- He would be present to us first as Royal privilege the wonders he brings back from the Orient on his "galleys" (15th century boats)
Jacques Coeur, became "grand argentier du roy" in 1439, but still in busines activities all around Méditerranean Sea.
Merchant, Entrepreneur, he is also patron and shipowner and shipbuilder too.

- Thus, we could invite more often, all the great noble ladies of the kingdom ?
- To show them our season oufits and silky dresses I create with precious fabrics, they love so much, to wear as I, in the kingdom
These Court Ladies wanted to wear ... "à la façon" d'Agnès (à la façon = "fashion of"), the word is still a symbol of french "savoir-faire".

- Same for, precious stones set in superb jewel and all these surprising spices which are used by every lady in the kingdom for perfumes, remedies or food... What say you, Sire ?

- I reckon it is a grand idea, my love, and we must work at it once with Master Jacques
- ..but.. where would you put it, Jacques ..?

- Sire, I was telling Dame Agnes that one place alone seems perfect ...
- It is in the small Fort St. Ours ..... under your windows, near the Court, protected from the noises and dangers of the town
Noble ladies coming with their Lords will be able to access it directly, through secret undergrounds under th chateau terrace.

And Dame Agnes could then, through their Ladies, put forth the desired diplomacy to the lords, during these pleasant visits of fabrics, and jewelry.

- Interesting !
- But where? This little Sant Ours street is so narrow

- Where stood the monetary workshop that I closed in 1431, after your majesty put me in charge of the mint and silver mining since we now mint closer to our mines for safer transport

- It has very good exposure, south facing for light, which was already essantial to the workshop, and all day from dawn to dusk, all the pretty things we will show will bask in sunlight .

- Furthermore, I want to change the exterior of this austere house by modifying its aspect with fine, superb sculpting all along the façade and around the windows like my Italian merchant friends have their noblemen do in their country
They copy the sculptures we saw on cient monuments and ruins on the road to Damascus, during our trade travels as soon as 1431 with the Saracens from those far away countries
The Italians call it " Il Quattrocento".
Florentine Lords love them and buy these drawings to redecorate their houses ; they are beautiful I'm told, almost like a "Renaissance" of ancient Art.
We shall do the same here as a precusor of this decorative modernity

- So be it !... it's yours, and will be the.. " Maison de l'Argentier du Roy " .

- Use it wellwith Agnès who will have her agreeable office with you to create her "Fashion "; may she influence greatly the Ladies of the Kingdom.
We so love all these incredible hairdos, long trains and low-cut dresses that please both our senses and our time..""





What these three illustrious figures of the history of France, discussing together, did not know...

..They had just launched , in this middle of the fifteenth century, "Fashion and elegance, French vogue and style "
In all these variations of clothing, hair-dressing and make-up new recipes, from gloves and shoes'style to accessories "fashion"
High jewelery too, upgraded :
(the same year 1444, the king offers his beautiful Agnes, his "Lady of Beauty," for 20,600 crowns worth of jewels, (among wich is the first cut diamond, known to date)

Parfumes, fragrances, gastronomy too : Wines' qualities are discussed, and ranked, kitchens' creations are apreciated as a pleasure of life.
All details, together, making the splendor and fame of this new France in all the courts of Europe, at that time just out of the Middle Ages.
The present France is still the flagship World of Fashion .
Thanks to Agnes .!
Thanks to Jacques !
and Thanks to Charles who helped the entreprise of these 2 fellows !)

We know today that he also gave in to the "Italian quattrocento", with some details discovered recently at the Chateau de Loches.
All the following kings followed the momentum, including a certain "Francois 1st", who generalized it in "Renaissance", and massively copied this Italian style, 80 years later, on his return from Italy, after 1515. !.


....and that this facade of the "Maison de l'Argentier du Roy", redecorated with antique sculptures, in the middle of the 15th century, is perhaps...70 years in advance...!...the first site " Renaissance " of France, this rebirth desired by Francis I, upon his amazed return from Italy.... .



That today...The wall is still there, in our garden...! magnificent, monumental (4 meters high, and 12 meters long, and finely carved with original motifs. Preciously preserved.! )

( *** ) Agnès Sorel

..also known under the nickname "Lady of Beauty"
Fashion, Art of living, "French style", owe a lot to him.
Designer and “top model” of her own dresses, with the help of Jacques Coeur; beauty products, perfumes, and jewelry included.
Influencer, beyond the court, for her fashions, and imitated in all the courts of Europe.
She was very influential with Charles VII, and will remain the first official mistress of a King of France, to legitimize his descendants.
Suddenly falling ill, after joining the king at Jummieges, she died at the age of 28 on February 9, 1450.
We now know that she was poisoned by mercury.
She now rests in the Abbey Church of St. Ours, where her white marble recumbent figure is visible.

( **** ) Jacques Coeur

Childhood in Bourges, son of a small trader, and perpetually curious, entrepreneur.
..in 1432 He is in Damascus, Egypt, Italy, buys, resells, and quickly gets rich by transporting these oriental treasures, fabrics, spices, precious stones, and other luxury objects to France. . When Agnes dies suddenly, rumors accuse him. Especially from a Lady of the Court to whom he lent money, Jeanne de Vendôme, accusing him directly. Without serious foundation (she later retracted), he was still tried and imprisoned and "a little forgotten" in the dungeon (he also lent a lot of money to the king..! hence his fate)
Thanks to his connections, he escapes and is welcomed with open arms by his friend Pope Nicholas V, who will entrust him with a fleet of ships to the east.
But, he fell ill in Chios (Homer's island), and died there on November 25, 1456 (...bizarrely on the day of St Catherine?, "his favorite saint", that of Joan of Arc & Agnès Sorel, also )
No proof of his death, and his grave is nowhere to be found (..another mystery). After the announcement of his death, Charles VII rehabilitated him, granting his heirs the remains of the seizures, but without compensation for the ordeal endured by Jacques Coeur during his wrongful detention..!
The novel of his life would be a true Saga, of several volumes, as he was the main actor in the economic renewal of this exhausted France, emerging from a 100-year war

( *** ) Charles VII

.. known as “Charles the Victorious” or even “Charles the Well Served”, born in the Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris on February 22, 1403 and died at the castle of Mehun-sur-Yèvre, between Bourges and Vierzon, on July 22, 1461, was king of France from 1422 to 1461. He was the fifth king of the so-called Valois branch of the Capetian dynasty.
Charles VII is the son of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria. King inseparable from the epic of Joan of Arc, he succeeded, during a long reign of almost forty years, in reversing a compromised situation.
In 1418, the dauphin Charles escaped capture when the Burgundians took power in Paris. He took refuge in Bourges where he proclaimed himself regent of the kingdom of France, given the unavailability of his father suffering from madness, who remained in Paris and fell into the power of Jean "sans peur" (1), Duke of Burgundy. The dauphin is probably the instigator of his latter's assassination on the Montereau bridge on September 10, 1419.
"(1) who, in 1407, had his rival, the king's brother, Louis of Orléans, assassinated. By thus sponsoring the murder of his cousin, the Duke of Burgundy plunged the Kingdom of France into civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians, during which these two factions competed for the capital and the regency. These troubles helped to relaunch the Hundred Years' War, leading the new king of England, Henry V, to seize the opportunity to claim his rights to the crown of France.
In 1419, while attempting reconciliation with the Armagnacs in order to ward off the English offensive, Jean "the Fearless" was in turn assassinated, on the Montereau bridge, in the presence of the dauphin, the future Charles VII. This murder led the Burgundians to ally themselves with the English, and remained throughout the 15th century a major factor in discord between the House of France and the House of Burgundy."

( ** ) Jeannne d'Arc

A short historical life, of 17 years old, a tragic destiny and universally known, still today, 500 years later
- She was ennobled in December 1429
- captured in May 1430
-.. sold in November 1430 to the Duke of Burgundy
-.. who will re-sell her to the English
-.. who will "entrust" her to the church to judge her in the Inquisition, at their expense, and under influence
-.... to end on May 30, 31, on a stake in Rouen.
(...or not.?. if she survived in secret, according to tenacious legends, of a "Lady of Armoises" who lived in a county in the east of France, under the seal of "royal secret"..Legends, mysteries, or impostures, History is full of such romantic adventures..)