Carolingian Period (714-987 AD)

In the ninth century, Viking ships with terrifying figures of gaping monsters on the prows sailed up the grand rivers and ravaged the valleys. Angers, Tours and Orleans were annihilated and Lavardin did not escape the devastation and pillage either. King Charles the Bald ordered in Missus Dominicus to organize a defense of the valleys. From Beaugency to La Chartre, a series of forts were built. Oucques, Vendôme, Lavardin and Montoire became a line of defense to prevent the Normans of the Loire from joining with the Normans of the Seine.

It seems certain that the first château existed during the tenth century because a charter originating from the Tower of London dated 989, tells us that Bouchard le Venerable, Count of Vendôme, ceded during that year to Foulques Nerra, Count of Anjou, a fortress situated at Lavardin.