Talmont-Saint-Hilaire castle and the knights' torture
And also
The tops
Founded in 1020 by Guillaume V the Great, count of Poitou, Talmont was at that time a small wooden fortress, rebuilt in 1130.
20 years later, Guillaume the Bald started the construction of a 2 floors dwelling house, surrounded by a wall and bathed by the sea.
1138. Young king of France Louis VII (a teenager of 17 years old), who just married the beautiful Eleanor of Aquitaine, paid visit to the lord of Talmont, Guillaume de Lezay.
A naughty lord reputed for his treacherousness... And there, treacherous or not, he didn’t want to subject himself to his king. So there! He really didn’t want to!
Cut to the quick, Louis finally besieged the castle of Talmont and burnt it. Whoa, what a royal punishment!
But Lezay didn’t suffer from that: his soldiers, hiding behind the fortress, suffered the most. Chronicles wrote the king finally cut the soldiers’ feet with his own sword, a torture which took a long time, because of the king’s lack of strength...