Amboise

Above the Loire at Amboise rises a royal château, transformed from a fortress into a magnificent residence. Charles VIII rebuilt it at the end of the fifteenth century, bringing Italian craftsmen to work alongside French builders. Under his successors it was a favoured setting for court life and a place where the new art of the Renaissance took root in France.

In 1560 Francis II sought refuge at Amboise after a plot was discovered to remove him from the influence of the powerful Guise family. The Huguenot conspirators were defeated and executed. Francis had come to the throne only the year before, accompanied by his wife Mary, Queen of Scots. The affair exposed the bitter divisions that would soon erupt into the French Wars of Religion.