La Ferté-Vidame is a commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Eure-et-Loir

Eure-et-Loir

Eure-et-Loir is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers.-History:Eure-et-Loir is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790 pursuant to the Act of December 22, 1789...

 department in northern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

History

The title of vidame

Vidame

Vidame, a French corruption of the official Latin term vicedominus , was a feudal title in France...

 of Chartres

Chartres

Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located southwest of Paris.-Geography:Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country...

 was, under the Ancien Régime, attached to the lands of [La] Ferté-Arnault. The most famous men to bear the title vidame de Charteres were the English soldier Thomas de Scales, 7th Baron Scales (d. 1460), and the famous memoir

Memoir

A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

ist Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon

Louis de Rouvroy commonly known as Saint-Simon was a French soldier, diplomatist and writer of memoirs, was born in Paris...

. The chateau was Saint-Simon's main country house. At the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 the seigneur was Jean-Joseph de Laborde

Jean-Joseph de Laborde

- Biography:Laborde was born near Jaca in Aragon, into a modest béarnaise family. When he reached adolescence he joined his uncle, who was head of a maritime import-export company at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and took over as head of the business on the cousin's death...

, an ennobled business man with progressive views, who was to be guillotined in 1794. Its chateau is now a roofless shell.

Population