FRANCE. (HISTORY.) 



251 



count of Flanders, possessed, with sovereign power, 

 sixteen of the present departments, which, now con- 

 tain 5,600,000 inhabitants ; 2. Thibaut, count of 

 Champagne, seven departments, with the towns of 

 Mezieres, Chalons, Troyes, Chaumont, Chartres, and 

 Blois, now containing 1,800,000 inhabitants ; 3. the 

 duke of Burgundy, six departments (the duchy of 

 Burgundy and the Franche-Comte), which have at 

 present a population of 2,000,000. 4. All Southern 

 France belonged to several sovereign princes the 

 counts of Toulouse, Languedoc, Lyons, Provence, 

 &c. 5. But the most important part belonged to the 

 king of England, Henry II., who possessed twenty- 

 eight of the present departments, now containing 

 10,500,000 inhabitants. In this portion were Nantes, 

 Bretagne, Gueret, Limoges, all the provinces from 

 the mouth of the Garonne to its source, from Car- 

 cassone to Bayonne, and Boulogne in the north. All 

 these territories were destined to be recovered, suc- 

 cessively, by the crown. The crusades favoured this 

 design, and, after the short administration of the 

 abbe Suger, under Louis VI. (died 1137,) the gradual 

 disappearance of bondage, and the rise of the free 

 cities, prepared the way for the civil existence of the 

 people. Under Philip II., Augustus (11801223), 

 the number of the pares regni was limited to six 

 ecclesiastical and six lay vassals. Louis IX., the 

 Saint (1270), by the introduction of a new adminis- 

 tration of justice, gave new power to the crown. 

 Another blow to the already declining power of the 

 nobles was the introduction of letters of nobility in 

 the reign of Philip III. (died 1285). Still more im- 

 portant was the introduction, in the reign of Philip 

 IV., le Bel (died 1314), of the third estate (tiers- 

 etaf), or deputies of the cities (1301), in the general 

 assemblies of the clergy and the nobility. (See 

 Champ de Mars, and Champ de Mai). With the 

 assistance of these feudal estates, Philip IV. resisted 

 the interdict of Boniface VIII. and the clergy. The 

 same Philip extended the jurisdiction of the parlia- 

 ment of Paris over all the crown lands. But the 

 whole kingdom was still formed of discordant ma- 

 terials, and the cruel extirpation of the Templars 

 (q. v.), 1314, is characteristic of an age in which jus- 

 tice was the victim of power. 



4. Military Power and Policy of Conquest in 

 France. The Valois, the second branch of the male 

 line of the house of Capet (1328 1589), ascended 

 the throne with the consent of the states, in the per- 

 son of Philip VI. (grandson of Philip III). During 

 this period, the wars with England kindled the spirit 

 of revolt in the nobility, transformed the soldiers into 

 robbers, and the suffering peasants into wild beasts. 

 The king of England, Edward III. nephew of Philip 



IV. of France, made pretensions to the French throne; 

 the Salic law, which excludes females from the 

 throne, not having as yet been established as a fun- 

 damental law of the kingdom. W hile the conqueror 

 of Crecy took Calais (1347), and compelled the cap- 

 tive king, John the Good, to resign Guienne and 

 other provinces to England, by the treaty of Bre- 

 tigny, 1360, France was plundered by banditti, and 

 the Jacquerie, a mass of furious peasants (about 

 1358), satiated their spirit of vengeance in the blood 

 of the nobility. Charles V., the Wise (died 1380), 

 and his constable, the brave Dii Guesclin, were able 

 to restore order only for a short time. Then came, 

 under Charles VI. (died insane, 1422), the epoch of 

 the Armagnacs. A civil war of the crown-vassals, 

 conducted by Orleans and Burgundy, was stained by 

 assassination, and the succession was settled on Henry 



V. of England, son-in-law of Charles VI. to the ex- 

 elusion ot the dauphin, afterwards king Charles VII. 

 IJ<>nry V. died before Charles VI. and his son Henry 

 VI., a minor, was acknowledged as king by the 



greater part of France, and crowned (1431) in Paris. 

 At this time (1429), amidst the licentiousness of war, 

 of factions, and of manners, a peasant girl (see Joan 

 of Arc) animated the French in the cause of the 

 dauphin, and the English lost all their possessions in 

 France except Calais. During this period, the kings 

 increased the extent of the crown-lands (Philip VI. for 

 example (1349), acquired Dauphiny); and the war 

 enabled them to raise taxes without the consent of the 

 states. Charles VII. was the first who instituted a 

 standing army (1444). From that time, it was the 

 policy of the kings to obtain an unlimited authority 

 by destroying the liberties of the states, and, at the 

 same time, to turn the warlike spirit of the natirn to 

 foreign conquests. The despotic policy of Louis X I . 

 (1461 83), whose maxim was, Dissimuler c'est 

 regner, obtained this object by violence and cunning. 

 The 280 years' quarrel with the house of Hapsburg, 

 which obtained the inheritance of Burgundy on the 

 death of Charles the Bold (1477), originated during 

 his reign. (See Netherlands.) On the contrary, his 

 sonand successor, Charles VIII. (died 1498), obtained 

 the hand of the heiress of Bretagne, and thus accom- 

 plished the union of that duchy with France. He 

 then concluded a peace with Austria, at Senlis, 1493, 

 and undertook the conquest of Naples (1494), to 

 which he made pretensions as heir of the house of 

 Anjou. Here began the schemes of conquest which 

 armed the kings of France against Italy, Germany, 

 and the Netherlands, and finally produced the 

 modem political system of Europe. Charles was the 

 last king of the direct line of Valois ; which was suc- 

 ceeded by the collateral branch of Valois-Orleans, 

 1498. The kind-hearted Louis XII. (q. v.) married 

 Anne, heiress of Bretagne. He was a stranger to 

 the Machiavellism of his predecessors, and the 

 country was indebted to him for a paternal domestic 

 administration ; but the ambition of conquest involv- 

 ed him in disadvantageous wars. He maintained 

 the pretensions of his family to Milan, by taking 

 possession of that duchy ; he conquered the kingdom 

 of Naples, which he divided with Ferdinand, the 

 Catholic king of Spain; but his ally soon deprived 

 him of his portion of the spoil; and in the war with 

 the league formed against him by the pope, Julius II. 

 whose confederates were Spain, Austria, England, 

 Switzerland and Venice, he lost Milan and the supre- 

 macy of Genoa. His successor, Francis I. (1515 

 47), and the son of the latter, Henry II. contested in 

 five wars the power of Charles V. and Philip II. and 

 concluded an ineffectual alliance with the Ottoman 

 Porte. On the other hand, Francis I. united the 

 duchy of Bretagne permanently with the crown, and 

 rendered the royal power absolute; whilst the power- 

 ful vassals accepted offices at court, and even the 

 parliament began to yield to the wishes of the king. 

 Henry II. recovered Calais from the English (1558). 

 and, in alliance with Maurice of Saxony, for the pro- 

 tection of the freedom of Germany, conquered the 

 German bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. In 

 the time of Francis I. (q. v.), religious persecution 

 opposed the progress of the reformation in France. 

 During his reign and those of his successors, Henry 

 II. (1547 59) and Francis II. (died 1560), Calvinists 

 were burned in France ; so little had the refinement 

 of manners and the cultivation which flourished under 

 Francis I. softened the ferocity of fanaticism. The 

 foundation of the national debt, the weight of which 

 broke down the throne 250 years later, was laid in 

 this period. Intrigue and corruption gave to women 

 a dangerous influence at court and in public affairs. 

 Under the administration of Charles IX. (conducted 

 during his minority by the queen-mother, Catharine 

 of Medici), France was inundated with the blood of 

 Frenchmen, shed in the religious wars from 1562. 



