The A château ( French for castle; plural châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of gentry, usually French, with or without fortifications. ...Chateau d'Angers is located in the city of This article needs copyediting (checking for proper English spelling, grammar, usage, etc. ...Angers in the The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas régions. ...departement of Maine_et_Loire is a département in west_central France. ...Maine_et_Loire, in France _ Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...France.

The fortress of This article needs copyediting (checking for proper English spelling, grammar, usage, etc. ...Angers, on a rocky ridge overhanging the river Maine, was one of the sites inhabited by the The Roman Empire is not the Holy Roman Empire (843_1806). ...Romans because of its strategic defensive location.

In the 9th century the fortress came under the authority of the powerful Counts of Anjou, becoming part of the Angevin is the name applied to two distinct medieval dynasties which originated as counts (from 1360, dukes) of the western French province of Anjou (of which angevin is the adjectival form), but later came to rule far greater areas including England, Hungary and Poland (see Angevin Empire). ...Angevin empire of the Angevin is the name applied to two distinct medieval dynasties which originated as counts (from 1360, dukes) of the western French province of Anjou (of which angevin is the adjectival form), but later came to rule far greater areas including England, Hungary and Poland (see Angevin Empire). ...Plantagenet Kings of England during the 12th century. In 1204, the region was conquered by Philip II (French: Philippe II), called Philip Augustus (French: Philippe Auguste) (August 21, 1165 _ July 14, 1223), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. ...King Philippe II and an enormous chateau was built by his grandson, Louis IX of France, as painted by El Greco in the 16th Century. ...King Louis IX ("Saint Louis") in the early part of the 13th century.

Nearly 2,000 feet (600 m) in circumference, and protected by seventeen massive towers, the walls of the chateau encompass 6.17 acres (25,000 m²). In 1352, Jean II, a portrait painted on wood panel ca 1350 (Louvre Museum), the oldest profile portrait in Europe John II the Good (French: Jean II le Bon) (April 16, 1319 – April 8, 1364), was King of France from 1350 to 1364. ...King Jean II (le Bon), gave the chateau to his son, Louis I. Married to the daughter of the wealthy Duke of Traditional coat of arms This article is about the historical duchy and French province, as well as the cultural area of Brittany. ...Brittany, Louis had the chateau modified, and in 1373 commissioned the famous Apocalypse Tapestry from the painter Hennequin de Bruges and the Parisian tapestry-weaver Nicolas Bataille.

Louis II (Louis I's son) and Yolande d'Aragon added a chapel (1405-1412) and royal apartments to the complex. The chapel is a sainte chapelle, the name given to churches which enshrined a relic of the Passion. The relic at Angers was a splinter of the fragment of the According to Christian tradition, the True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. ...True Cross which had been acquired by Louis IX.

In the early part of the 1400's, the hapless The Dauphin was the heir apparent to the throne of France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties. ...dauphin who, with the assistance of Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne dArc) (January 6, 1412 _ May 30, 1431), known as the Maid of Orléans (French: la pucelle dOrléans), is a national heroine of France and saint of the Catholic Church. ...Joan of Arc would become Charles VII the Victorious, a. ...King Charles VII, had to flee Paris and was given sanctuary at the chateau in Angers.

In 1562, Catherine de Medici (April 13, 1519–January 5, 1589), born in Italy as Caterina Maria Romola di Lorenzo de Medici, and later queen of France under the French name Catherine de M dicis, was the wife of King Henry II of France, of the Valois branch of the kings of...Catherine de Medici had the chateau restored as a powerful fortress, but, when the In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. ...Huguenots threatened to take it over, her son, Henry III (French: Henri III; Polish: Henryk III Walezy; September 19, 1551 _ August 2, 1589) was King of Poland (1573_1574) and subsequently King of France (1574_1589). ...King Henri III, had the towers and walls stripped of their embattlements. However, the king made it part of the military, maintaining its defensive capabilities by installing artillery on the chateau's upper terraces. At the end of the 1700's, as a military garrison, it showed its worth when its thick walls withstood a massive bombardment by cannons from the During the French Revolution, the 1793_ 1796 uprising in the Vendée, variously known as the Uprising, Insurrection, Revolt, or Wars in the Vendée, was the largest internal counter_revolution to the new Republic. ...Vendean army. Unable to do anything else, the invaders simply gave up.

A military academy was established in the chateau to train young officers in the strategies of war. In a twist of fate, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1 May 1769–14 September 1852) was an Anglo_Irish soldier and statesman, widely considered one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century. ...Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington ( Events Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen exhibits the Mechanical Turk, a chess_playing machine May 14 _ Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlement of California. ...1769_ 1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...1852) who is best known for his defeat of Bonaparte as general Napoleon Bonaparte ( 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français...Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo Conflict Napoleonic Wars Date June 18, 1815 Place Waterloo, Belgium Result Decisive Allied victory Map of the Waterloo campaign The Battle of Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815, was Napoleon Bonapartes last battle. ...Battle of Waterloo was trained at the Military Academy of Angers.

Still a part of the French military, the chateau was severely damaged during Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (60,000 ft) into the air. ...World War II by the The Nazi party used a right_facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ...Nazis when a munitions storage dump inside the chateau exploded. Today, owned by the City of Angers, the massive, austere chateau has been converted to a museum housing the oldest and largest collection of medieval tapestries in the world, with the 14th century "Apocalypse Tapestry" as one of its priceless treasures.