THE ARCHIVES

The archives are stocked in a room commonly known as the treasure room. This room exited in every important castle : as there is nothing more precious than memory hence the name. The main castles belonging to the family were La Roche-Guyon, Montmirail, Verteuil and Liancourt, therefore the archives deal mostly with these castles.

Although the Revolution in the XVIIIth century was responsible for burning most of the archives (as they represented aristocracy). Nevertheless copies had been made and sent out to the various castles and some therefore escaped destruction, mostly copies made during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries.

These archives take many different forms : either parchement or papier, lone acts or all bound together. As the La Rochefoucauld played a very important part in French history for thousand years, therefore the acts relate that period the most touching being the storytelling letters written by men and women.