Nemours

Nemours grew on the left bank of the Loing around a castle built by its twelfth-century lord Orson. The river and the castle shaped a town that became a centre of the Gâtinais, with markets, religious houses and a hospital. In 1404 Nemours was made a duchy, giving its lords a particularly prominent place among the French nobility.

The town fell to the English during the Hundred Years' War, but its duchy continued to pass among great families of the kingdom. In 1585, amid the Wars of Religion, Henry III signed the Edict of Nemours. Yielding to pressure from the Catholic League, the king revoked earlier measures of toleration for Protestants. The decision helped set the stage for a renewed civil war.