History of the Chateau de Houetteville

 The Medieval Period

The first mention of a “de Houetteville” family came in the 12^th century. At this time Houetteville was a fiefdom under the earldom of Evreux. The de Houetteville’s were in the service of the King Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart), as he was also at this time the Duke of Normandy.

The cellars date from this time, and the wall that underpins the front terrace would have been the wall of the first chateau.

According to the mayor Mme Saint-Laurent, the entrance of the tunnels, closed up by former owner Madame Chiche, would be at the end of this wall, at the level of the postern. There was a tunnel that led to Hondouville church (approx 3km away) and another that went to the area known as the Coeur des Bois (Heart of the Woods), a neighbouring chateau’s grounds.

The layout of the premises, the turrets and the ditches, made this an inaccessible and impregnable fortress. However, the site of Houetteville lost its military and defensive function in 1200 when King Philippe-Auguste invaded and annexed the earldom of Evreux to the Kingdom of France.

At the beginning of the 13^th century, the lords of Houetteville had close links with the Knights of the Commandership of Renneville.

There are many charters that confirm a donation of a fiefdom by Guillaume de Houetteville and Richard of Houetteville to the knights of Renneville in 1222. This fiefdom having belonged to their father and comprising a piece of land located near Platemare. The Houetteville family possessed other fiefdoms in the area such as Tourneville, Emalleville, le Boulay-Morin and le Mesnil-Vicomte.

The last Lord bearing the family name, Guillaume de Houetteville, had two daughters; Agnes and Jeanne. Jeanne married Jean de Pommereuil, lord of Moulin-Chapel (See “The Legend of the Blue-tit”). Agnes married Richard du Mesnil, lord of Mesnil-Vicomte, to whom now passed the lands of Houetteville.

At the time of the English invasion during the Hundred Years War, their son, Bertrand du Mesnil, who was on the side of the King of France, was dispossessed of his lands. Houetteville was given to the English Knight David Ellie in 1418.

After the war, Guillemette du Mesnil recovered the fiefdoms belonging to her father: Houetteville, Emalleville, le Boulay-Morin and le Mesnil-Vicomte. Then, successive marriages meant Houetteville passed through various noble families: de Mailloc, Garin, de Tessey, d’Oinville.

During the wars of religion, Philippe d’Oinville, lord of Houetteville, fought on the side of the Huguenots (Protestants). He died in 1588, the same year his son was born, and because he had died in the service of the King of France, custom dictated that Henry III became his son’s Godfather. Because of this event, the family built a chapel at Platemare, which soon became a point of pilgrimage for women who were trying to get pregnant.

In the 17^th century, the medieval chateau was in a bad state of repair. Its fortifications not only had no reason to exist, but could be perceived as a challenge to royal authority. Thus it was decided to build an imposing manor house, more in keeping with the tastes of the period.

Of the medieval castle, all that remains is a wall that now underpins the front terrace.

The Modern Chateau

It was the d’Oinville family that owned the domain during the 16^th and 17^th centuries and to whom it is attributed the reconstruction of the chateau.

Between 1524 and 1700 the d’Oinville family gave 6 lords to Houetteville, then through their wives, the domain passed to the families of Tesson de Bellengault, de Chalon d’Auberville, and then de Marle.

Rebuilt in the 17^th century, the Chateau de Houetteville appears on a land registry map of 1810 as a very long building, opposite which stands an outbuilding of the same length and which still exists today, as well as some other large outbuildings housing stables.

This imposing manor (twice as long as the current chateau), built of Ferté-sur-Risle stone, renowned for its strength, no longer had any defensive features (ditches, ramparts or arrow slits), but had a beautiful façade with large windows.

The era of the Knight totally devoted to war, hunting and tournaments was long gone. The nobility had become a land ownership aristocracy, tied to their lands and on which they developed a way of life totally unknown to their ancestors.

Thus, from being a medieval fortress, like many other chateaux of the time, the Chateau de Houetteville became a comfortable home, employing many personnel (domestics, grooms, gamekeeper, chaplain, judge, tutors, steward, etc), and where local peasants came to pay their taxes and discuss the banalities of milling wheat, pressing grapes, baking bread and breeding cattle.

In 1761, the chateau belonged to Count Louis-Antoine de Marle, who did not reside here. Preferring his chateau at Lisors, he leased the domain of Houetteville to middle-class Parisians, Jacques and Judith Signard, who held the usufruct of the property until their death.

The building was no longer in excellent condition and the French Revolution led to its complete decline. As in other parts of France, people looted the chateau, took stone from the walls and set fire to part of the property - thus explaining why the chateau is not still the length of the adjacent outbuilding.

Under the Restoration, Mlle de Marle parted from the property in a rather singular fashion. It was during a ball while playing a game of cards that she actually bet her chateau… and lost to the more fortunate Dominique Hardy.

The Neo-Classical Chateau

Dominique Hardy (1794 – 1835) was a former Eure departmental administrator, chateau owner and mayor of Amfreville-sur-Iton. When he acquired the domain of Houetteville, he razed the former chateau to the ground and built a new neo-classical chateau in brick, a style very popular in the 1830s, with its tall regular façade, framed by pavilions topped with triangular pediments.

The Hardy and Pouyer Families

It was the French Revolution that allowed this family to rise rapidly up the social ladder.

Dominique Marie Alexandre Policarpe HARDY, born around 1768, son of shopkeepers, was himself “in trade”. However, in 1794, in the middle of the “Reign of Terror”, he became an administrator and president of the Eure department. He also married a woman called Rosalie from Amfreville-sur-Iton and together they had two daughters.

Later, he became mayor of Amfreville-sur-Iton at various periods (1795-1799, 1801-1805, 1810-1830) under the Consulate government, the Empire, and the Restoration. At each change in the ruling power he pledged allegiance to the new regime in place.

On his death in 1835, one of his daughters, Rosalie Alexandrine inherited the Chateau de Houetteville. It was Rosalie who had the trees planted along the grand avenue leading up to the chateau gates on the occasion of a visit by Napoleon III to the Eure in either 1858 or 1868. She married, but did not have children and died at Houetteville in 1875.

The Chateau de Houetteville passed to her niece; Fortunée Hardy, already heiress of the chateau d’Amfreville. She married Paul Achille Pouyer, wealthy lawyer and President of the Rouen Civil Tribunal. Widowed in 1885, Mme Pouyer retired to Corrèze, a department in central France. The Chateau de Houetteville passed to her daughter, Herménie Alexandrine, wife of A.F. Desmares, Count, and afterwards Marquis de Trébons, and owner of the Chateau de Bérengeville.

The 20^th Century Chateau

 In 1930 Mme Pellerin acquired the chateau. In approximately 1935 she began major works which would last until the War. The chateau was modified to a half-feudal, half-Renaissance style that was dear to Viollet-le-Duc, a famous 19^th century architect.

 We believe the architect who carried out the transformation was M. Jacquelin, the same man who restored the Chateau Saint-Hilaire at Louviers in 1907-08.

 He used ancient materials - Graubunden stone, rubble and joists salvaged from medieval ruins, notably those of the Chateau de Moulin-Chapelle, which was razed at the beginning of the century (Legend of the Blue-tit).

According to Mme Saint-Laurent, the square turret on the left hand side of the building was constructed with stone from a chateau of the Loire Valley.

During the Occupation, Mme Pellerin was involved with the Resistance and hid American pilots in the cellars, notably the survivors of a plane that came down on 14^th July 1943 at Bérengeville:

          -          Commander Clé HARRISON (USA)

-          Sergeant  Davis Polk JEFFERSON (USA – Oklahoma)

-          Sergeant MAC NEMEN (USA – Virginia)

-          Sergeant Jack CONWALD (USA): mechanic.

Residents remember seeing black American soldiers, hidden in the underground tunnels of the chateau and treated secretly by Dr Bobet, doctor of Acquigny, around 1943-44.

Between 1945-1963 M. Edouard Francois Louis Delamare Deboutteville, grandson of one of the inventors of the automobile, acquired the chateau. He was followed from 1963-1998 by Docteur and Mme Chiche. In 1998, Americans John and Judy Willis retired to the Chateau and lived here until 2006 when they returned to the States. Le Chateau Plus acquired the chateau at this time and began a large refurbishment, modernisation and rebuilding programme.