RAMBOUILLET  , a

town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Oise, 3o m . S.W. of Paris on the railway to Chartres . Pop . (1go6) town, 3965; commune, 6165 . Rambouillet derives its whole interest from the associations connected with the ancient chateau, dating originally from the 14th century, but often rebuilt . A great machicolated tower is all that remains of the medieval building; some apartments with good woodwork are also of interest . The chateau is surrounded by a beautiful park of 3000 acres and by an extensive forest . The gardens, partly in French, partly in English style, are picturesque, and have an avenue of Louisiana cypress unique in Europe . The park contains the national sheep-farm, where in the 18th century the first flock of merino sheep in France was raised, a school of sheep-farming, and, close to the latter, a small dairy built by Louis XVI . The shooting of the famous coverts of Rambouillet is reserved for the presidents of the Republic . The town is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance and a preparatory infantry school . Trade is in grain, wool, flour and wood .

Watch-springs are manufactured . Originally a royal domain, the lands of Rambouillet passed in the 14th century to the D'Angennes family, who held them for three hundred years and built the chateau . Francis I. died there in 1547; and Charles IX. and Catherine de Medicis found a refuge there in the Wars of Religion, as Henry III. did after them . The title became a marquisate in 1612, at which time it was held by Charles d'Angennes, husband of Catherine de Vivonne (q.v.), the famous marchioness of Rambouillet . Created a duchy and peerage in favour of the duke of Toulouse, son of Louis XIV., Rambouillet was subsequently bought and embellished by Louis XVI., who erected a model farm and other buildings . The place was a hunting-seat of Napoleon I. and Charles X., and it was here that in 183o the latter signed his abdication .