On August 6, 1626, after a failed conspiracy in Nantes,
Duke Gaston reluctantly accepted to marry the wealthy lady
Duchess Marie of Montpensier, as
Cardinal Richelieu wanted him to do. As a gift, he received the
duchies of Orléans and of
Chartres, plus the
county of Blois. When Gaston died, his
Orléans-based apanage came back to the Crown.
King Louis XIV decided to give it to his own younger brother,
Duke Philippe, excepted
Bloisian (and so the
châteaux of
Blois and
Chambord) as well as
Languedoc. Therefore, the county became definitively part of French territory. ==References==