Commarque Castle (France)

In the heart of the Dordogne, in the Périgord Noir, the emotion that overwhelms the visitor who crosses the edge of the woods to advance into the valley and discover the Château de Commarque appearing outside time and space, belongs to the realm of the unreal.

Built in the 12th and 14th centuries in the Dordogne, the fortified castle of Commarque is probably the most complex medieval ensemble in Périgord. It was in fact a "co-seigneury": the seigneurial families lived in the various towers of this fortified village. It is also the most curious castral complex of southern Périgord with its complex defenses, its successive moats, its concentric ramparts and the vertiginous verticalism of its keep, 80 meters high, in a beautiful structure overlooking a natural setting preserved and protected in the Vézère valley. .

It is likely that we can attribute the foundation of a first dungeon, in wood, to one of the two abbots of the same name who succeeded each other on the abbey seat of Sarlat at the beginning of the 12th century: Garin or Randulphe de Commarque. . The first lord was a "castri milites" Commarque, a knight, dependent on the abbey of Sarlat.

Very quickly in the 12th century, around 1116, Gérard de Commarque, Head of the eldest branch of "the House which had given its name to a considerable castle in Sarladais for all time," who had become a knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. of its goods to this order, reserving part of the patrimonial goods to the younger ones consisting of a fortress within the castrum. They erected the enormous dungeon. (Genealogy of Courcelles 1825)

This newly created Hospitaller Order (1113) takes its name from the founding of a first hospital near the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Jerusalem. Commarque then became the seat of one of the commanderies of the Order, hence the name given to the chapel of Saint Jean de Commarque.

After the tragic disappearance of the order, the commandery mysteriously passed into the hands of the Beynacs, who thus inherited the decision-making power over the erection of the towers.

Over time, the Knights of Commarque felt the need to strengthen their position. This development is all the more imperative as more or less powerful neighbors soon joined them: noble families settled slightly below like the Gondrix and the Escars, another just outside the castrum, the family of the Chapel. Commarque then becomes a coseigneury. Each tower house is made up of an enclosure, its own entrances and ditches. .

During the 14th century, the two major lineages carried out the first consolidation by successive acquisitions. The Beynacs succeeded in constituting a veritable châtellenie around Commarque when they took over the justice of Marquay and Sireuil from the Cendrieux and imposed their suzerainty over Laussel's lair. The Commarques take back the lands and the rights of the descendants of the other Castri militias, by purchase or by alliance. From the middle of the 14th century, the entire poultry yard became the noble house of the Commarques: they now have a defensive perimeter that greatly exceeds that of the Beynac castle. Work undertaken between 1370 and 1380 made it possible to enhance the keep and the curtain wall and to build the crown of machicolations inspired by the Palais des Papes in Avignon.

During the Hundred Years War, the Beynacs remained the faithful defenders of the crown of France. Pons de Beynac enjoyed a great deal of political support: he was a patron of the Beaufort-Turenne, the Avignon papacy and the Anjou party. Battling for France, having become master of almost all of the Périgord Noir, he married Philippa in 1379, who was only 12 years old at the time. She did not have to live long since in 1405 Pons remarried to Magne de Castelnaud. Through these two marriages, he allied himself with the most powerful lords of the Dordogne valley: Beynac and Castelnaud. On April 23, 1406, Commarque was invested by the troops of Archambaud d´Abzac. Pons and his family are taken prisoner by the English. A tax, ordered by the king, is levied on the inhabitants of Périgord and Quercy to pay the requested ransom. Their captivity will last six months. As a reward for the services rendered, Pons de Beynac will receive the Château de Campagne from King Charles VII. He died in 1440. His successors will not have his wisdom. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, they ravaged and ransomed travelers. In 1441, the Beynacs passed in the wake of the Count of Périgord, a clear sign of their decline.

During the Wars of Religion, the Beynacs were devoted to the cause of the Reformation alongside the famous Geoffroy de Vivans, guardian of Castelnaud, and his neighbor Lord of Beynac. From Commarque, which is his base of operations, Geoffroy, baron of Beynac and lord of Commarque, launches several attacks on Catholic lairs in the area and even stealthily seizes Sarlat. In 1569, after a fierce battle, the Château de Commarque was taken over by the Catholics led by the Sénéchal and the Governor of Périgord (it was undoubtedly the day after this siege that the vaulted hall collapsed).

Fearing that he would not be able to hold the place, King Charles IX ordered its demolition. But a Commarque, pleading his cause, obtains the revocation of the sentence, and thus saves the castle of Commarque.

In the 1500s, it seemed that the castrum of Commarque was already beginning to be deserted by resident families. This is the case with the younger branch of the Commarques, which left the original site to take up residence on the other side, in the Château de Laussel.

The site then fell asleep for four centuries ... before being (re) discovered and saved by a direct descendant of the same name.

Today, the family of Commarque is one of those who in the Middle Ages inspired epics, one of the last to survive and remain in the land of his ancestors.