Esnes Castle

Esnes Castle, locally known as Château d'Esnes, lies in the village of the same name in the Nord department in France.

Esnes Castle was built in 1007 by Alard d'Esnes. In the beginning of the 12th century the castle passes to Eustache de Landas, Lord of Eyne in Flanders, through marriage. His descendants started to call themselves De Landas d'Esnes.  Around 1260 Alix de Landas d'Esnes married Alard de Croisille, who then started to call himself Alard d'Esnes.

The Lords of Esnes mostly paid homage to the Count of Hainaut and served in his army in various campaigns against the Duchies of Brabant, Limburg and Flanders. When, however, the Count of Hainaut sided with the English during the Hundred Years' War, Jean I of Esnes went to serve the King of France. Jean died in the Battle of Poitiers in 1358.

Several Lords of Esnes were also Bailiffs of the towns of Cambrai and Amiens. In 1411 Robert d'Esnes was steward of Coucy Castle serving the Duke of Orleans. He withstood a siege for 3 months when Coucy was besieged by the Count of Saint-Pol, only surrendering when provisions ran out.

In 1603 Esnes Castle was sold by a descendant of Jeanne d'Esnes to Jean de Beauffremez. Later, a female descendant of Jean de Beauffremez married the Marquess of Assignies, who was a great-grandson of Marguerite d'Esnes. And so the castle came into the Esnes family again. Their descendants, the d'Estutt d'Assay family, still own the castle today.

After the French Revolution the castle was converted into a farm. During WWI the castle was occupied by the Germans. They used it as a prison for Russian soldiers.

Esnes Castle is private property and still serves as a farm. It can be visited on some days. But it can easily be seen from the public road. A nice castle, unfortunately it was closed when I came by. Haucourt Tower is nearby.

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