Jean le Bon et ses fils
Jean II (the Good), King of France during the disastrous battle of Poitiers lost against the English in 1356, is said to have passed through Chauvigny before the battle before sending his three sons to take refuge there when the outcome of the battle was no longer in doubt.
A brilliant example of military strategy, 10 years after Crécy.
Duguesclin
In the middle of the 100 Years War, in 1372, Bertrand Duguesclin drove the English out of Chauvigny.
They will not be long in coming back, but still, it’s good to have tried.
L’amiral de Coligny
We would have preferred that he didn’t come. Indeed, with his troop of Huguenots, he pillaged and set fire to the city, the castle and St. Peter’s Church in 1569.
Chauvigny was avenged three years later, during the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.
Louis XIV
Yes, Louis the fourteenth himself laid his august seat at the Chauvigny “auberge du soleil” in 1651. He was only thirteen years old but already had a very sure taste in dress, all in sobriety.
The old Auberge du Soleil, the house known as “King John’s” house, still exists at the bottom of the Rue des trois rois.