Loches (the Roman Leucae)
grew up around a monastery founded about 500 by St. Ours and belonged to the
Counts of Anjou from 886 until 1205. In the latter year it was seized from King
John of England by Philip Augustus, and from the middle of the 13th century
until after the time of Charles IX of France the castle was a residence of the
kings of France, apart for a brief interlude in 1424 when it was heritably
granted to Archibald Douglas, Duke of Touraine. Antoine Guenand, Lord of La
Celle-Guenand was appointed Captain-Governor of Loches in 1441
