250 



FRANCE. (HISTORY.) 



Chainavi, and Catti. After several pmlatory expe- 

 ditions Uirough Gaul, in which they even passed the 

 Pyrenees, they waged bloody vrars with the legions 

 of the Roman emperors Gordian, Maximian, Post- 

 humius, Constantius, and the Csar Julian, in Gaul, 

 in the island of the Batavians, and in Britain, where, 

 together with the Saxons, they supported the usurper 

 Carausius. The Salians, inhabitants of the country 

 on the Saale, were particularly distinguished. They 

 penetrated to the Scheldt, and sustained a severe 

 conflict with Julian. In the fourth century, they 

 became as formidable in the west of the Roman 

 empire as the Goths were in the east, and had already 

 established themselves in Belgic Gaul, and on the 

 Somme, when Clovis the Great, of the Merovingian 

 race, put an end to the Roman dominion in Gaul, by 

 the victory of Soissons, in 486, over the Roman gene- 

 ral Syagrius. This conqueror reduced the Allemanni, 

 on both banks of the Rhine, by the battle of Zulpich 

 (496) ; the Bretons in Armorica (Bretagne), hi 507 ; 

 and the Visigoths in Aquitania (the maritime dis- 

 trict, extending from the Garonne to the Pyrenees) . 

 He also removed his cousins, the princes of different 

 tribes of the Franks, out of his way, by violence or 

 treachery. He crowned himself at Rheims (496), 

 with his own hands, after having been baptized by 

 the bishop Remigius, and anointed with the miracu- 

 lous oil brought by a dove from heaven.* On this 

 account, the successors of Clovis received from the 

 pope the title of most Christian king and eldest son 

 /" the church. The Merovingian dynasty retained 

 the dominion of the Franks in Gaul and Germany 

 until 752. The four sons of Clovis divided the king- 

 dom into Austrasia and Neustria, or the Eastern and 

 Western monarchy ; and the latter again into the 

 kingdoms of Orleans, Soissons, and Paris. They 

 conquered Thuringia and Burgundy, but the divisions 

 of the empire which produced bloody civil wars 

 and family murders the imbecility of the kings, and 

 the invasions of the Saracens from Spain, distracted 

 the empire. But the power of the majores domus 

 (governors of the palace, afterwards maires dupalais) 

 still preserved the unity of the monarchy. These 

 officers finally dispossessed the Merovingians of the 

 throne. Pepin of Heristal, Charles Martel, Charle- 

 magne, and Pepin the Short, are particularly distin- 

 guished in the history of the second or Carlovingian 

 race. Heristal made the Prisons tributary : Martel 

 frustrated the Moors in their plans of conquest, by 

 the victory of Tours, 732; entirely reduced the Pri- 

 sons; compelled the Saxons to pay tribute, and pro- 

 moted the extension of Christianity by means of St 

 Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, who was still 

 more favoured by Carloman and Pepin the Younger. 

 The feeble Childeric III. was finally compelled to 

 exchange the purple for the monastic dress, and the 

 major domus Pepin ascended the throne with the 

 consent of the pope, 752. From him sprang the 

 Carlovingians, who wore the crown of France for 235 

 years. His son Charlemagne extended his dominions 

 from the Ebro to the Lower Elbe, the Saale, and the 

 Raab; from the North sea and the Eyder to the 

 G arigliano, in Naples. On him, the master of France, 

 Germany, and Italy, the pope, Leo III., conferred 

 (800) the imperial crown of the West. The govern- 

 ments of Constantinople and Bagdad treated him 

 with respect and friendship. But the monarchy fell 

 to pieces under his son and successor, Louis le De- 

 bonnaire (8 1 4 840). The sons of Louis, after much 

 bloodshed, divided the empire by the treaty of Ver- 



* A citizen of Rheims is said to have saved the fragments 

 of the Ampoule (see Ampulla}, which was broken during 

 the revolution, with some drops of the ointment it contained. 

 These drops were put in the new flask, used at the corona, 

 tion of Charles X., as all the antiquated flummery was to 

 be revived on that occasion. 



dun (843), which completed the separation of tli 

 German and Italian crowns from the French. Charles 

 I., the Bald, obtained France. The history of the 

 proper kingdom of France begins, therefore, with 

 this treaty, in 843. (See Sismondi's Histoires des 

 Francois.) 



2. From Charles the Bald to Hugh Capet (843 

 987). The decline of the monarchy began with 

 Charles the Bald, who was obliged (877) to render 

 the offices of counts and dukes hereditary. Duriii}? 

 his reign, the nobility acquired the prerogative if 

 being summoned by the arriere ban only when the 

 whole country was threatened by the general ene- 

 mies, such as the Normans and Saracens. The in- 

 cursions of the Normans furnished the barons, who 

 aimed at independence, with a pretence for building 

 strong castles, which soon became the principal sup- 

 port of the feudal nobility, and the strongholds of 

 the oppression which they exercised towards the na- 

 tion. The royal power became a mere suzerainete , 

 or feudal superiority. Charles the Fat reunited, for 

 a short time, the dominions of Charlemagne ; but he 

 was deposed (887). Burgundy was separated from 

 France, and Eudes, count of Paris, chosen king by the 

 estates of France, on account of his great qualities. 

 After a long war, Eudes was obliged to surrender the 

 crown (897) to Charles the Simple. The Carlovin- 

 gians continued to rule in France until 987 ; but the 

 high nobility paid little regard to the royal dignity; 

 they divided the domains of the crown among them- 

 selves, and the crown vassals (the principal of whom 

 were the dukes of Francia, Burgundy, Gascony, 

 Normandy, Aquitania, (Guienne),the counts of Flan- 

 ders, Vermandois, Champagne, Isle de France, 

 and Toulouse), finally made themselves masters 

 of so many provinces, that only Soissons, Laon, and 

 some small districts, remained to the last of the Car- 

 lovingians. Lorraine was united with Germany. 

 In this unhappy condition of the country, the impor- 

 tance of the ruling dynasty declined, until, on the 

 death of Louis V. (987), Hugh Capet, the powerful 

 duke of the Isle de France, count of Paris and Or- 

 leans, ascended the throne. Charles, duke of Lower 

 Lorraine, and uncle of Louis, was excluded from the 

 succession, under the pretext that, as vassal of Otho, 

 emperor of Germany, he could not become king of 

 France ; and the Capetian race (q. v.) occupied the 

 throne of the Carlovingians. The government itself 

 was a monarchy without strength, and limited by a 

 feudal aristocracy. There were, besides, a numerous 

 civil and military nobility, forty powerful vassals, 

 descendants of those who had received shares in the 

 distribution of the conquered territory , which they 

 had rendered hereditary as early as the reign of 

 Charles the Bald ; the bearer of the crown only 

 ruled as primus inter pares. The kings, therefore, 

 were obliged to reconquer the prerogatives of the 

 crown from these proud barons, until the etats gene- 

 raux were finally established. 



3. The Increase of the Power of the Crown, and 

 the Formation of the Feudal Estates (9871328). 

 The hereditary kings of the first Capetian line limited 

 the power of the crown vassals, by uniting with a 

 part against the remainder, and with the church 

 against the lay vassals in general. In this way, they 

 acquired the crown lands and royalties. The state 

 itself, in the middle of the twelfth century, contained 

 only an area equal to about eight or nine of the pre- 

 sent departments, with about 1,500,000 inliabitants. 

 It included the cities of Amiens, Laon, Beauvais, 

 Paris, Melun, Orleans, Nevers,and Moulin ; so much 

 were the proper possessions of the crown diminished 

 by the encroachments of the imperious vassals. 

 (The present population of this district amounts to 

 8,000,000). At that time, 1. Thierry d' Alsace, 



