For over 800 years, Château-Gaillard has towered over the town of Les Andelys and a bend of the river Seine. This castle, designed to protect the Seine and the city of Rouen from the French, was built in record time between 1197 and 1198. King Philip Augustus of France had claims on Normandy and in order to weaken the Anglo-Normans, he imposed a blockade on the fortress. After seven months of siege, he launched the attack in March 1204: the French thus entered the castle and took it over. With the exception of the Channel Islands, all of Normandy became part of the Kingdom of France in that same year.