Chenonceau was taken for a royal debt, taken from a king's mistress by his widow, and auctioned to a bank after its owner's ruin

Thomas Bohier, a royal finance officer, and his wife Catherine Briçonnet built Chenonceau in the 1510s. An audit found money diverted in his accounts, and the king claimed nearly 190,000 livres from his heirs^†. On 28 May 1535 his son Antoine handed Chenonceau to Francis I. Less than three months after Francis died in 1547, Henry II gave it to his mistress Diane de Poitiers. Henry died on 10 July 1559. His widow, Catherine de' Medici, made Diane return Chenonceau to the crown in exchange for Chaumont; the deed was confirmed on 10 May 1560. Claude Dupin bought it in 1733 for 130,000 livres, and his widow Louise kept it from destruction in the Revolution. In April 1864 Marguerite Pelouze bought the estate and 136 hectares for 850,000 francs. Her restoration cost more than 1.5 million gold francs, and she borrowed to pay for it. Her brother Daniel Wilson, son-in-law of President Jules Grévy, was at the centre of the decorations scandal that broke on 7 October 1887. Grévy resigned that December, and Wilson was sentenced to two years in prison on 23 February 1888. Her creditors, led by the Crédit foncier, foreclosed. On 5 January 1889 the civil court at Tours awarded Chenonceau to the Crédit foncier for 410,000 francs^†. The bank resold it in 1891 for 1 million francs. On 5 April 1913 Henri Menier bought it at auction for 1,361,660 francs^†. In 2026 the Menier family still owns it.