Le château de Beaumesnil

Beaumesnil Castle is a residence located in the French commune of Beaumesnil in the Eure department, in the Normandy region.
The existence of an estate in Beaumesnil has been documented since 911, the date of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. The current castle, built between 1633 and 1640, probably remained unfinished. Restored in the 19th and 20th centuries, it houses a bookbinding museum.
The castle entered the Harcourt family through marriage in the 12th century, and in the 13th century, it became the appanage of the younger branch of Robert d'Harcourt, "dominus de Bellomesnillo," who established his residence there. Upon the death of the last of his line at the Battle of Agincourt, his estates fell to his cousin Marie de Tournebu. The latter saw the "manor, castle, motte, dovecote, and court" of Beaumesnil almost immediately confiscated by the King of England, who gave them to Lord Willoughby. The place was returned in 1441, in view of the "bombards and cannons that were sharpened" in front of its walls, to Pierre de Brézé, who used it as a base for raids in the region. Jean de Tournebu then recovered the castle, which he soon after ceded to the Duke of Lorraine.
In 1604, Charles de Lorraine detached the castle from the Duchy of Elbeuf in favor of Félix Le Conte, Marquis de Nonant, gentleman in ordinary of the king's chamber, and his lieutenant in the bailiwick of Alençon. Jacques Le Conte, after holding a grand celebration in the old castle, entrusted its reconstruction to the Rouen "master mason" Jean Gaillard and the contractor Martin La Flèche. The stone, masonry, and carpentry contracts spanned between 1631 and 1633. It was the Marquise de Nonant, granddaughter of the Chancellor of Sillery, who, after Jacques Le Conte's death, completed the work, as evidenced by the number "MDC" repeated several times on the façade.