In the year 1538, the castle of Arlempdes, then owned by the Poitiers family (loyal to the King of France), was attacked by a new threat, at the dawn of the religious wars, the Huguenots. The latter, Protestants, wanted to overthrow the royal power in France and, supported by Italian mercenaries (the kingdom of France being in the middle of the Italian wars) seized the castle, then the first bastion of the Loire, and strategic property of the King of France.