AMBOISE

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 797 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ALM-ANC

AMBOISE , a town of central France in the department of Indre-et-Loire, on the left bank of the Loire, 12 M. E. of Tours by the Orleans railway. Pop. (1906) 4632. Amboise owes its celebrity to the imposing chateau which overlooks the Loire from the rocky eminence above the town. The Logis du Roi, the most important portion, was the

work

WORK

of Charles VIII.; the other wing was built under Louis XII. and Francis I. The ramparts are strengthened by two massive towers containing an inclined plane on which horses and carriages may ascend. The chapel of St Hubert, said to contain the remains of Leonardo da Vinci, who was summoned to Amboise by Francis I., king of France, and died there in 1519, is in the

late

LATE

Gothic

GOTHIC

style; a delicately carved relief over the doorway represents the con-version of St Hubert. The hotel de ville is established in a

mansion

MANSION (through O. Fr. mansion, mod. maison, from Lat. mansio, dwelling-place, stage on a journey; manere, to remain)

of Renaissance architecture; a town gateway of the 15th century, surmounted by a belfry, is also of architectural

interest

INTEREST

. Iron-founding, wool-weaving, and the manufacture of boots and farm implements are among the

industries

INDUSTRIES

.
Amboise at the end of the 11th century was a lordship under the

counts

COUNTS

of Anjou, one of whom, Hugues I., rebuilt the ancient castle. Its territory was united to the domain of the crown of France by Charles VII. about the middle of the 15th century, and thenceforth the chateau became a favourite residence of the French kings. The discovery in 156o of the " conspiracy of Amboise," a plot of the Huguenots to remove Francis II. from the influence of the

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Guise, was avenged by the death of 1200 members of that party. In 1563 Amboise gave its name to a royal edict allowing freedom of

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

to the Huguenot

nobility

NOBILITY

and gentry. After that period the chateau was frequently used as a state prison, and Abd-el-Kader was a captive there from 1848 to 1852. In 1872 it was restored by the National Assembly to the

house

of Orleans, to which it had come by inheritance from the duke of Penthievre in the latter half of the 18th century.

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