Forest of Retz

Forest of Retz French: Forêt de Retz
Walking path in the forest.
Geography
Location	Aisne, Picardie, France
Coordinates	49°15′33″N 3°05′33″E / 49.25929°N 3.09242°E / 49.25929; 3.09242
Area	13,339 hectares (32,960 acres)
Status	Forêt domaniale
Governing body	National Forests Office (France)
Ecology
Forest cover	Western European broadleaf forests
Dominant tree species	Beech (Fagus sylvatica), Red Oak (Quercus robur)

The Forest of Retz (French Forêt de Retz) is one of the largest forests of France, covering some 13,000 hectares in the Aisne about 80 km northeast of Paris. It is a national forest (forêt domaniale) in the Picardie region.

One characteristic that sets the Forest of Retz apart from other French national forests, where the actual forested cover has fluctuated, the forest here has scarcely changed since it was set apart, en futaie, in 1672.

The forest is a relict of the ancient forested cover, though as deforestation progressed, this was not identified as a distinct unity until the 12th century. when it formed part of the vast tracts belonging to the counts of Valois, an immense forested expanse that reached from Retheuil, Chaudin and Buzancy as far as the River Marne, but was reduced and fragmented by increasing agricultural uses during the Middle Ages.

In 1214 Philip Augustus attached the forest to the royal domain and dictated the first ordonnances to guide its maintenance by foresters called sergents du roi, under the governor of royal châteaux of Villers-Cotterêts and of Vivières.

The period of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) marked depredations on the woodlands.

In 1346, the Valois King Philip VI of France promulgated the first codified forestry law, the ordonnance de Brunoy, which gave birth to the designated Maître des Eaux et Forêts, a member of the Maison du Roi. The kingdom's first Maître des Eaux et Forêts was installed at the château de Villers-Cotterêts in the Forest of Retz.