Sancerre

Sancerre was a county centred on a fortified hilltown above the Loire in Upper Berry. In 1337 Count Louis II of the Blois family held it as a French fief.

Louis fell fighting the English at Crécy in 1346; his younger son later became constable of France. Sancerre twice repelled English attacks during the Hundred Years’ War. A Huguenot stronghold, it endured an eight-month siege in 1572–1573, and in 1637 the county was sold to Henry II of Bourbon, prince of Condé.