Birthplace of a Queen: Hotel St Pol, Paris

On a street corner in Paris stands a faded stone wall. It's all that remains of a once famous royal residence that became the birthplace of a queen.

The remains of the Church of St Paul, the only part of Hotel St Pol still standing

(By Tangopaso - Own work, Public Domain,Wiki Commons)

The Hotel St Pol is where Katherine of Valois made her debut on October 27th 1401. The tenth child and youngest daughter of King Charles VI and Queen Isabeau of France was born within its walls. At the time of Katherine's birth, this was a modern and unusual royal home. The Hotel St Pol lay outside the medieval Cite de Paris, in a part of the capital known for its fresh air.

It had been chosen for its comparatively rural location within Paris by Charles V who had turned it into a royal home from around 1360 onwards. It was, in fact, a series of buildings. The Hotel des Etampes was bought by Charles V in 1361 and became part of the complex, Eventually, the Hotel St Pol comprised residences for the king, the queen and the royal children with plenty of room for guests. There were banqueting halls and chapels as well as state rooms for the gathering of government. And the whole complex sat in endless pretty grounds.

It was also home to a formidable collection of books, begun by Charles V who drew inspiration from his own father, Jean II, who had been a bibliophile. This impressive royal collection would end up forming the basis of the Royal Library which, in turn, became the National Library of France.

The glory of the Hotel St. Pol didn't last long. By the time Katherine of Valois married Henry V in Troyes Cathedral in 1420, it had already begun to fall from royal favour and in the tumultuous times that followed, as her French family fought to regain control of the throne from her English relatives, it became disused. By the 16th century, it had fallen into ruin and ended up being sold to help bolster the royal coffers. Eventually, it was demolished. All that remains is a wall from the Church of St. Paul that was once part of the royal residence. So anyone wanting to gaze on this former wonder that became the birthplace of a famous English queen will have to stand on a street corner in Paris and dream.