The Rambouillet is also known as the Rambouillet Merino

Merino

The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...

 or the French Merino. The development of the Rambouillet breed started in 1786 when Louis XVI

Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....

 purchased over three hundred Spanish Merinos (318 ewes, 41 rams, 7 wethers) from his cousin, King Charles III of Spain

Charles III of Spain

Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...

. The flock was subsequently developed on an experimental royal farm, the Bergerie royale (now Bergerie nationale) owned by Louis XVI, and built on his Domain of Rambouillet, 50 kilometres southwest of Paris. The flock was raised exclusively at the Bergerie, with no sheep being sold for many years.

Outcrossing with English long-wool breeds and selection produced a well-defined breed differing in several important points from the original Spanish Merino. The size was greater with full grown ewes weighing up to two hundred pounds

Pound (mass)

The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...

 and rams up to three hundred pounds, live weight. The wool clips were larger and the wool length had increased to greater than three inch

Inch

An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot...

es.

In 1889, the Rambouillet Association was formed in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 with the aim of preserving the breed. It has been estimated that 50% of the sheep on the US western ranges are of Rambouillet blood
.
Rambouillet stud has also had an enormous influence on the development of the Australian Merino industry though Emperor and the Peppin Merino

Peppin Merino

The Peppin Merino is a breed of Merino Sheep raised for its wool, mostly in Australia. So important is the Peppin Merino that sheep men throughout Australia often classify their sheep simply as being either Peppin, or non-Peppin.....

 stud.

The fleece was valuable in the manufacture of cloth, at times being woven in a mixed fabric of cotton warp

Warp (weaving)

In weaving cloth, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns that are held in tension on a frame or loom. The yarn that is inserted over-and-under the warp threads is called the weft, woof, or filler. Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end or end. Warp means "that which is thrown...

 and wool weft

Weft

In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn through the warp yarns to create cloth. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn"....

, known as delaine.

The breed is well known for its wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

, but also for its meat, both lamb and mutton. It has been described as a dual-purpose breed, with superior wool and near-mutton breed characteristics.