A great "Lady of Beauty"
Agnès Sorel, lady-in-waiting to Isabelle of Lorraine, caught the eye of King Charles VII, twenty years her senior. She entered the service of the monarch's wife, Queen Marie of Anjou. Very quickly, she acquired the status of "royal favorite" and became the most important woman in the kingdom.
A woman of considerable influence, she imposed her friends in the king's entourage and incurred the wrath of the Dauphin, the future Louis XI. He insulted and threatened her to the point of being exiled, far from the Court.
The beautiful Agnes moves into the Royal city of Loches which quickly became his favorite residence. A masterpiece of military architecture, its 37-meter-high keep is one of the best preserved in Europe. It is located very close to the royal residence where Charles VII and Agnès Sorel lived through years of intense passion marked by the many political upheavals of the time. In the space of six years, Agnès gave birth to three daughters who were legitimized and married to high-ranking lords of the kingdom.
A most mysterious ending
One evening in January 1450, a monk went to Loches to warn the king's mistress that the Dauphin, aided by the Duke of Burgundy, was plotting against him. Although pregnant with her fourth child, the young woman did not hesitate and decided to go and warn the monarch, who was then in Normandy. Exhausted by the arduous journey, she gave birth prematurely to another little girl who lived only a few months. On February 9th, seized by violent stomach pains, Agnès died suddenly; a death so sudden that it was immediately deemed suspicious.
According to her wishes, the favorite's heart was placed in the abbey of Jumièges, while the rest of her body was buried in the middle of the collegiate church of Loches, where a sumptuous tomb was erected at the initiative of Charles VII. Her recumbent effigy of alabaster and marble still enhances this very beautiful building.
In 2005, 555 years after the death of the Lady of Beauty, 22 French doctors and scientists studied the remains of the royal favorite and discovered that she had been poisoned by mercury. Crime or accident? Hard to say…
