of a niece of Mazarin. In 1740, upon the death of her husband, the marquis de la Tournelle, she attracted the attention of Louis XV.; and by the aid of the duc de Richelieu, who, dominated by Madame de Tencin, hoped to rule both the king and the state, she supplanted her sister, Madame de Mailly, as titular mistress in 1742. Directed by Richelieu, she tried to arouse the king, dragging him off to the armies, and negotiated the alliance with Frederick II. of Prussia, in 1744. Her political rôle, however, has been exaggerated. Her triumph after the passing disgrace provoked by the king’s illness at Metz did not last long, for she died on the 8th of December 1744.
See Ed. and J. de Goncourt, La Duchesse de Châteauroux et ses sœurs (Paris, 1879).
CHATEAUROUX, a town of central France, capital of the department of Indre, situated in a plain on the left bank of the Indre, 88 m. S. of Orleans on the main line of the Orleans railway. Pop. (1906) 21,048. The old town, close to the river, forms a nucleus round which a newer and more extensive quarter, bordered by boulevards, has grown up; the suburbs of St Christophe and Déols (q.v.) lie on the right bank of the Indre. The principal buildings of Châteauroux are the handsome modern church of St André, in the Gothic style, and the Château Raoul, of the 14th and 15th centuries; the latter now forms part of the prefecture. The hôtel de ville contains a library and a museum which possesses a collection of paintings of the Flemish school and some interesting souvenirs of Napoleon I. A statue of General Henri Bertrand (1773–1844) stands in one of the principal squares. Châteauroux is the seat of a prefect and of a court of assizes. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a branch of the Bank of France, a chamber of commerce, a lycée, a college for girls and training colleges. The manufacture of coarse woollens for military clothing and other purposes, and a state tobacco-factory, occupy large numbers of the inhabitants. Wool-spinning, iron-founding, brewing, tanning, and the manufacture of agricultural implements are also carried on. Trade is in wool, iron, grain, sheep, lithographic stone and leather. The castle from which Châteauroux takes its name was founded about the middle of the 10th century by Raoul, prince of Déols, and during the middle ages was the seat of a seigniory, which was raised to the rank of countship in 1497, and in 1616, when it was held by Henry II., prince of Condé, to that of duchy. In 1736 it returned to the crown, and was given by Louis XV. in 1744 to his mistress, Marie Anne de Mailly-Nesle, duchess of Châteauroux.
CHÂTEAU-THIERRY, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Aisne, 59 m. E.N.E. of Paris on the Eastern railway to Nancy. Pop. (1906) 6872. Château-Thierry is built on rising ground on the right bank of the Marne, over which a fine stone bridge leads to the suburb of Marne. On the quay stands a marble statue erected to the memory of La Fontaine, who was born in the town in 1621; his house is still preserved in the street that bears his name. On the top of a hill are the ruins of a castle, which is said to have been built by Charles Martel for the Frankish king, Thierry IV., and is plainly the origin of the name of the town. The chief relic is a gateway flanked by massive round towers, known as the Porte Saint-Pierre. A belfry of the 15th century and the church of St Crépin of the same period are of some interest. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. The distinctive industry is the manufacture of mathematical and musical instruments. There is trade in the white wine of the neighbourhood, and in sheep, cattle and agricultural products. Gypsum, millstone and paving-stone are quarried in the vicinity. Château-Thierry was formerly the capital of the district of Brie Pouilleuse, and received the title of duchy from Charles IX. in 1566. It was captured by the English in 1421, by Charles V. in 1544, and sacked by the Spanish in 1591. During the wars of the Fronde it was pillaged in 1652; and in the campaign of 1814 it suffered severely. On the 12th of February of the latter year the Russo-Prussian forces were beaten by Napoleon in the neighbourhood.
CHÂTELAIN (Med. Lat. castellanus, from castellum, a castle), in France originally merely the equivalent of the English castellan, i.e. the commander of a castle. With the growth of the feudal system, however, the title gained in France a special significance which it never acquired in England, as implying the jurisdiction of which the castle became the centre. The châtelain was originally, in Carolingian times, an official of the count; with the development of feudalism the office became a fief, and so ultimately hereditary. In this as in other respects the châtelain was the equivalent of the viscount (q.v.) sometimes the two titles were combined, but more usually in those provinces where there were châtelains there were no viscounts, and vice versa. The title châtelain continued also to be applied to the inferior officer, or concierge châtelain, who was merely a castellan in the English sense. The power and status of châtelains necessarily varied greatly at different periods and places. Usually their rank in the feudal hierarchy was equivalent to that of the simple sire (dominus), between the baron and the chevalier; but occasionally they were great nobles with an extensive jurisdiction, as in the Low Countries (see Burgrave). This variation was most marked in the cities, where in the struggle for power that of the châtelain depended on the success with which he could assert himself against his feudal superior, lay or ecclesiastical, or, from the 12th century onwards, against the rising power of the communes. The châtellenie (castellania), or jurisdiction of the châtelain, as a territorial division for certain judicial and administrative purposes, survived the disappearance of the title and office of the châtelain in France, and continued till the Revolution.
See Achille Luchaire, Manuel des institutions françaises (Paris, 1892); Du Cange, Glossarium, s. “Castellanus.”
CHATELAINE (Fr. châtelaine, the feminine form of châtelain, a keeper of a castle), the mistress of a castle. From the custom of a châtelaine to carry the keys of the castle suspended from her girdle, the word is now applied to the collection of short chains, often worn by ladies, to which are attached various small articles of domestic and toilet use, as keys, penknife, needlecase, scissors, &c.
