Collégiale St-Ours

Touraine


This Romanesque church, in the Cité Royale near the Logis Royal, contains the tomb of Agnès Sorel, Charles VII’s mistress, who lived in the château during their long affair. For details in English on the richly coloured stained glass, pick up a plasticised sheet from a wall rack.

Fiercely intelligent and strikingly beautiful, Agnès earned many enemies at court because of her powerful influence on the king. After bearing the king three daughters (among them an ancestor of Felipe VI of Spain), she died in mysterious circumstances while pregnant with their fourth child. The official cause of death was dysentery, but some scientists speculate that elevated levels of mercury in her body indicate that she was poisoned.


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