Although the King seems to have only twice visited the castle, he went on with the buildings, and his high opinion of the place is on record.
In 1546 he held a great hunting-party at the castle, and with him were Diane de Poitiers and the future Henri II., in whose affections the King’s mistress soon had the highest place. In 1547 Henri II. succeeded his father, and at once gave Chenonceaux to his lovely Diane, and it was she who built the bridge connecting the castle with the south bank of the river.
THE CHATEAU OF CHENONCEAUX.
One of the most attractive of the castles of Touraine. It is built in the River Cher, and was never the scene of any fighting.
Twelve years later Henri received a mortal wound in the lists when tilting with Montgomery, Captain of the Scottish Guards, and his embittered widow, Catherine de Medici, at once forced Diane de Poitiers to exchange Chenonceaux for Chaumont. In 1559 Catherine received the boy-King, François II., with his Queen, Mary Stuart, at the château in the river. Mary came there from Amboise with the bloody scenes of the castle courtyard fresh in her memory.
While she had Chenonceaux, Catherine built upon the bridge erected by her rival Diane the gallery with a long banqueting-hall above, which makes so attractive a feature from the water-side. She died in 1601, and left the castle to her niece, the beautiful Françoise de Lorraine, Duchesse de Mercœur.
Having been a possession of the Bourbons, Chenonceaux was sold, in 1733, to Fermier Général Dupin, whose widow, Madame Dupin, entertained there most sumptuously for many years, and even survived the Revolution, dying in 1799, at the age of ninety-three. The Revolutionaries did no damage to the buildings, but required Madame Dupin to bring out all her securities, and the priceless pictures and portraits which had been accumulating in the château for three centuries, and all were burnt in a great bonfire.