FRANCE 



had not been revealed, and a dis- 

 trust of politicians who had come 

 badly out of the investigation. 



HISTORY. Little is known of the 

 Gallic tribes who inhabited the 

 greater part of France before the 

 Romans conquered it in the 1st 

 century A.D. They were Celts who 

 came, it is conjectured, from the 

 Danubian plains in the 6th century 

 B.C. Tall, red-haired, with blue 

 eyes and fair complexions, they 

 drove the earlier, darker inhabi- 

 tants before them and dwelt in 

 loosely organized communities, 

 mostly under chieftains. 



The Influence of Rome 



Caesar, who gives an account of 

 them in his Gallic War, managed 

 to bring them under the authority 

 of the Roman empire. For several 

 centuries the French were proud 

 to belong to that empire, and 

 Rome showed that they interested 

 her by planting among them the 

 elements of her civilization. In 

 those centuries the character of 

 the race was fixed. Although 

 not Latin by descent, it became 

 Latin by adoption. The Roman 

 love of military prowess, the hard 

 Roman tone of authority used by 

 officials, the preference for the 

 concrete and for prose over ab- 

 stractions and poetry, were all 

 absorbed by the French mind. 



During the decline and fall of 

 the Roman empire France suffered 

 in common with all its provinces. 

 It was almost a relief when some- 

 thing like stable government was 

 established by the chiefs of a tribe 

 from Germany known as the 

 Franks. This marks the intro- 

 duction of the name which replaced 

 Gaul. These Franks founded the 

 Merovingian dynasty, called after 

 a certain Merovech (Merwig), 

 which lasted until half-way through 

 the 8th century. Almost from the 

 first the Merovingians fought 

 among themselves, considered the 

 country as their private estate, 

 and fell into subjection to the 

 powerful officials known as mayors 

 of the palace. 



In course of time the kings be- 

 came mere figures of ceremony, 

 and eventually a mayor of the 

 palace became himself king. His 

 name was Pepin, and his family 

 was called Carolingian because it 

 was founded by his father, Charles 

 Martel or Charles the Hammer, a 

 man of vigorous personality who 

 ruled for years in the name of 

 shadowy monarchs seldom even 

 seen. The grandson of Charles . 

 Martel inherited his genius and 

 surpassed his exploits. His name 

 was Charlemagne, ajid he suc- 

 ceeded in bringing almost the 

 whole of Europe under his rule. 

 He strove to fit himself for the 



3296 



exercise of his vast responsibilities 

 by submitting himself to teachers 

 long after he had reached man's 

 estate. He kept on good terms 

 with the Church, and when he 

 determined to declare himself 

 emperor was solemnly crowned by 

 the pope in S. Peter's at Rome. 

 Thus he revived the empire of the 

 West, which had been crushed by 

 the barbarian invaders after the 

 setting up at Constantinople of an 

 empire of the East, and this empire 

 survived nominally in a truncated 

 and decrepit form until the Great 

 War swept away the Hapsburgs 

 and the last remains of Charle- 

 magne's dominion. 



After his death there followed 

 the same family feuds which had 

 ruined the Merovingians. For 

 nearly 200 years what passes for 

 the history of France is a monoton- 

 ous record of struggles between 

 men greedy for power. Then the 

 descendants of Charles Martel dis- 

 appeared, and the Capet family 

 came upon the scene. By this time 

 France had fallen under the feudal 

 system, which soon took root in 

 England also. The conquest of 

 England by William, duke of Nor- 

 mandy, a rival prince to the kings 

 of France, brought England and 

 France into a conflict which con- 

 tinued on and off for 700 years. The 

 kings of England, being foreigners, 

 and having interests in France no 

 less dear to them than their 

 English possessions, were fre- 

 quently moved to defend those 

 interests, or to encroach upon those 

 of French rulers. The throne had 

 little territory or power. The 

 country was parcelled out among 

 small feudal chieftains, despotic, 

 and actively jealous of each other. 

 8. Louis and the Crusades 



With these independent rivals 

 the kings of France struggled, until 

 at the beginning of the 13th cen- 

 tury Philip Augustus managed, 

 partly by force, partly by skilful 

 negotiation, to bring the whole 

 country under his sovereignty. 

 His son, Louis IX (S. Louis), tried 

 to do for Europe what his father 

 had done for France. He was an 

 idealist whose mind was set upon 

 a crusade to free the Holy Sepul- 

 chre from the infidels ; he dreamed 

 of seeing all the monarchs and their 

 peoples unite for this sacred end. 

 Under his successor many circum- 

 stances were brought to light 

 which helped to explain the Cru- 

 sades, and the real object with 

 <which they were undertaken. The 

 Order of Knights Templars had 

 taken a prominent part in the 

 Crusades. It had grown immensely 

 rich. It lent money to the crusaders 

 and profited by the opening up of 

 trade routes, and by pillage from 



FRANCE 



the Saracens. Philip the Fair set 

 covetous eyes upon the Templars' 

 riches, and induced the Holy In- 

 quisition to enquiry into their con- 

 duct. The inquiry revealed many 

 startling facts not known by King 

 Louis and the enthusiastic be- 

 lievers in the Crusades. 



Early in the 14th century the 

 last of the direct male Capets died, 

 and a younger branch of the family, 

 the Valois, took up the burden of 

 rule. War broke out in 1337 be- 

 tween Edward III of England and 

 Philip VI of France. Edward 

 thought he was being cheated of 

 his right to the French throne, and 

 used this as a pretext for the war, 

 which was really caused by the 

 rival trade interests of France and 

 England in Flanders. For a long 

 time the tide of success ran strongly 

 in Edward's favour. He marched 

 far into France and gained the day 

 at Crecy. Calais remained in 

 English hands. France lost heavily 

 again at Poitiers, and the king had 

 to surrender to save his life. Power 

 then passed nominally into the 

 hands of the young heir, Charles, 

 the king remaining in captivity 

 until his death. An attempt was 

 being made to put the government 

 upon a more popular basis by 

 limiting the royal authority. The 

 reformers, led by a merchant 

 named fitienne Marcel, frightened 

 the young prince from Paris. But 

 they had no constructive pro- 

 gramme, and, lacking the support 

 of the nobles, they failed, and the 

 chance of reforms, which might 

 have made unnecessary the Re- 

 volution of four centuries later, 

 slipped away. 



In the years of peace which fol- 

 lowed, no attempts were made to 

 restore prosperity and order ; the 

 same struggle for power went on, 

 for the opportunity to rule in the 

 name of another young and feeble 

 boy-king. The country was di- 

 vided ; civil war raged. At the 

 height of the misery and disruption 

 Henry V of England saw his oppor- 

 tunity and renewed the war. At 

 Agincourt he won an easy victory. 

 S. Jeanne d'Arc 



The French nobility could offer no 

 serious resistance. From one suc- 

 cess the English armies went on to 

 others, and by 1428 they had sub- 

 dued the greater part of France. 

 At this time the French king was 

 a wretched creature who had no 

 stomach for fighting, no head for 

 affairs. The country seemed des- 

 tined to remain a dependency of 

 England, and for some time it 

 must have done so had not Jeanne 

 d'Arc appeared and put fresh heart 

 into the French people. 



Jeanne, deeply religious by 

 temperament, believed that she 



