Ancestral seat of the De la Rochefoucauld family in Charente, France, one of the oldest noble families in Europe with documented ties to the Knights Templar. The Rochefoucauld name appears on Zena Halpern's controversial 1347 map of Nova Scotia, and archival research has linked the family to a French fleet dispatched to Nova Scotia in the eighteenth century reportedly carrying treasure.
About This Site
The Château de la Rochefoucauld stands above the River Tardoire in the town of La Rochefoucauld in Charente, southwestern France. It has been in continuous possession of the same family for over a thousand years, making the De la Rochefoucaulds one of the longest-established noble dynasties in Europe. The castle's origins date to around 980 AD, when Foucauld, Lord of La Roche, built the first fortification on the site. The current structure is a blend of medieval defensive architecture and Renaissance elegance, with a monumental spiral staircase modelled on those at the royal châteaux of the Loire Valley.
The family's Templar connections are documented. Members of the De la Rochefoucauld line served in the Crusades and maintained ties to the military orders throughout the medieval period. The family's lands in Charente and Poitou sat within the same region as major Templar commanderies, and the Rochefoucauld name appears in records associated with Templar patronage and land grants. The family survived the suppression of the Templars in 1312 and continued to hold positions of power through the Renaissance and into the modern era, producing diplomats, military commanders, and one of France's greatest writers of maxims, François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680).
Connection to Oak Island
The Rochefoucauld connection to Oak Island operates on two levels. The first is cartographic: the family name appears on the controversial map attributed to 1347 that researcher Zena Halpern presented to the team, which purports to show Nova Scotia with marked locations including what some researchers interpret as Oak Island. If authentic, the map would place French knowledge of the Nova Scotian coast nearly two centuries before any documented voyage, within the period immediately following the Templar suppression.
The second is military, and it is one of the best-documented naval operations in colonial history. In June 1746, the largest French armada ever sent to the New World sailed from Ile d'Aix under the command of Admiral Jean-Baptiste Louis Frederic de La Rochefoucauld de Roye, Duc d'Anville. The fleet comprised over 70 vessels, 20 warships, 32 transports, and 21 auxiliary craft, carrying 3,000 veteran troops and 10,000 sailors. Louis XV had personally commissioned the expedition to retake Louisbourg, recapture Acadia, burn Boston, and ravage New England. Its destination was Chebucto, the harbour the British would later rename Halifax, barely fifty miles from Oak Island. The expedition was a catastrophe. Storms scattered the fleet off Sable Island. Typhus and scurvy killed thousands. D'Anville himself died on September 27, six days after arriving at Chebucto, and was buried on Georges Island in the harbour. His replacement attempted suicide. Of the 13,000 men who left France, only a few thousand returned. The land forces coordinating with the fleet were commanded from Acadia by Nicolas Antoine II Coulon-de-Villiers, the same man who claimed descent from Philippe de Villiers de L'Isle Adam and whose grandfather held the old Templar commandery at Valpendant. A Rochefoucauld leading the fleet. A Villiers commanding on shore. Both families with deep Templar roots, converging on the same stretch of Nova Scotian coast in the same operation.
Fieldwork Notes
Rick Lagina, Alex Lagina, and Peter Fornetti visited the Château de la Rochefoucauld in Season 5, Episode 9 ("The French Connection") during a research trip through France investigating Templar connections to Oak Island. At the château they met Sonia Matossian, a descendant of the Rochefoucauld family, who confirmed the family's historical ties to the Knights Templar and discussed the significance of the family name appearing on the Halpern map. The visit was part of a broader journey that also took the team to the Templar prison at Domme, where they examined medieval graffiti bearing striking similarities to the lead cross found on Oak Island.
