A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE BY B. VAN VORST A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE gPH. OF CALIF. LIBRARY. LOS POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE BY B. VAN VORST WITH NINETY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS AND TWO MAPS NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1918, by FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY All rights reserved PREFACE For the last four years the eyes of the world have been fixed upon France. From the far cor- ners of the earth, from the East and from the West, soldiers have come to fight upon the soil of this country, side by side with the French, against an invasion of the Huns. Millions of Americans have landed in France. More are coming every day. Many of them have never crossed the ocean before. All of them want to know something about the people with whom they are thrown daily into close con- tact. Yet it is not a time when men may sit down to study the problems of the past. The purpose therefore of this little book is to give a rapid review of the history of France, a brief account of the important events which have taken place since the First Battle of the Marne fought against the Huns in 451 together with a short presentation of the most eminent people, the great men and women, who have de- termined these events. In a word this is a concise summary of the progress of civilization in France, and of the principal movements which have encouraged greater political unity in the country, greater freedom and knowledge among the people, 2133471 vi PREFACE greater chivalry in their customs, greater com- merce with the outside world. (A list of the rulers of France in their chron- ological order will be found at the end of the book.) CONTENTS I. EARLY DAYS Pages Gauls and Romans 9 The First Battle of the Marne 13 II. THE MIDDLE AGES The Merovingians IS The Carolingians 16 The Normans 19 The Capetians 20 The Feudal System . 21 The Crusades 25 The Orders of Chivalry 3 2 The Commons 33 Louis IX, the Saint 36 The States General -4 The Hundred Years' War 41 III. JEANNE D'ARC IV. MODERN TIMES Louis XI 81 Great Inventions and Discoveries 83 The Chevalier Bayard 84 The Renaissance 85 The Massacre of Saint-Barthelemy 9 Henri of Navarre 9 1 Richelieu 94 Louis XIV 96 The Philosophers 105 V. THE REVOLUTION Causes and Outbreak 109 The Call to Arms "6 Bonaparte 122 VI. THE XIX CENTURY The First Empire 126 The Restoration I 4 The Second Empire *44 The Franco-German War 148 The Siege of Paris 15 The Third Republic 154 The French Colonies . 166 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE I. EARLY DAYS GAULS AND ROMANS Long ago France was known under the name of Gaul. Its frontiers, including almost all of Switzerland, and Belgium, reached to the east and to the north as far as the river Rhine. The beauty and the riches of this country were such that the Romans great explorers and colonizers who penetrated as far as the valley of the Rhone, wanted to settle and live in this pleasant land, where the sun shone on fertile plains, and where the wine was abundant. In the year 58 B. C., Julius Caesar, the great- est of the Roman generals, determined to take entire possession of Gaul. The inhabitants, or the Gauls, commanded by their famous leader, Vercingetorix, made an heroic stand against this Roman invasion. For eight years they defended their country bravely. Then, finally, in 50, Cassar's armies, victorious, occupied the whole of Gaul, which for 400 years remained under Roman rule. io A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE The two races which were united in this Gallo- Roman civilization showed, as many as two thou- sand years ago, the very same characteristics which to-day distinguish the French. The Gauls, or Celts, were idealists, the Romans were law Vcrcingetorix, Chief of the Gauls, surrenders to Julius Cssar in 52 B. C. makers ; the Gauls were temperamental, they had a contempt of death, they were extremely valiant, they believed in the immortality of the soul and they studied philosophy, ethics, and the natural sciences. They were generous, disinterested, lovers of justice, always ready to defend the weak against those who wished to oppress them. The Romans, on the contrary, were methodi- cal; they preferred to conquer others rather than EARLY DAYS 11 to give them their freedom. Rome was built by the slaves which the Roman armies had brought back captive from the regions their forces had invaded. From a material point of view, the influence of the Romans was undoubtedly civilizing: they built bridges, aqueducts and roads of such a rare quality that they are almost indestructible ; they The First invasion of Gaul by the Huns. dried the marshes, and accomplished wonderful improvements in the way of hot baths and plumbing! The Gauls meanwhile, preoccupied more with ideas than with mechanisms, added many refine- ments to life : they invented soap and mattresses, and beds, and ornamental carpets, and coats of mail, and the plating and enameling of silver. They were not only heroic, but they were some- what dandified: they were proud of their figures. In fact a sort of standard belt existed which was tried publicly on the Gallic youths. Those un- 12 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE able to clasp it over their too ample forms were severely punished! The Gauls were too great a people to be ab- sorbed by an enemy. In 52 B. C., after the conquest of Gaul by Caesar, and in spite of this subjection, they did not submit to the Romans. They collaborated rather with them, completing them in certain ways, learning from them in others, and furthering thus the progress of hu- manity. When, about 150 years after Christ, the apostles of the new doctrine began to preach Christianity in Gaul, the Romans persecuted them in a horrible manner. Many of these early martyrs: Saint Denis, Sainte Blandine, etc., are commemorated in the history of France. These courageous souls were tortured and put to death by the Romans; yet, because of the idealism of the Gauls, the cause rapidly tri- umphed, and paganism was replaced by Chris- tianity throughout Gaul. Meanwhile the Roman Empire, having passed the moment of its greatest strength was itself to be invaded, as its soldiers had invaded other countries. Hordes of barbarians, pouring down from the north and the east, spread themselves out in the river valleys. Three different peoples came to settle themselves in Gaul: the Visigoths, who took up their abode in the south between the Loire and the Pyrenees, the Burgundians, who EARLY DAYS 13 remained in the east, between the Rhone and the Alps, and the Franks, who stopped in the north, between the Somme and the Rhine. The Gallo- Romans occupied the center of the country. As often happens, a fresh invasion of bar- barians was now to effect greater unity among these somewhat divided elements. THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE In 451, Attila, the Chief of the Huns, who called himself proudly "the Curse of God," had set out from the Far East with vast armies, whose determination, like that of Von Kluck, almost fifteen hundred years later, was at all costs to reach Paris. In 451 Paris was only a small town, called Lutece (Lutetia). The inhabitants were alarmed at the approach of these ferocious barbarians led by Attila. They wished to abandon the city. A young shepherdess, Genevieve, acting with an exalted sort of inspiration, exhorted them to re- main, and to have faith in the victory of Gaul against the Huns. In the great battle which took place in the region of the Marne, on the Catalaunic plains, between Troyes and Chalons, Attila was van- quished. He was driven from the country. To-day Genevieve is beloved as the Patron Saint of Paris. Her name will forever be linked 14 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE with those of the Poilus, who, in 1914, a second time saved Paris. Genevieve in 451, during the first Battle of the Marne, exhorts the Parisians. The history of France, it may be said, begins with the victory over Attila, this first Battle of the Marne, fought by the Franks and the Gallo- Romans against the Huns in 451. II. THE MIDDLE AGES THE MEROVINGIANS The first king of the Franks, chosen at this time, was Merovee. He gave his name to the Merovingian dynas- ty, which from 448 to 751 ruled in this new country. The most impor- tant of the descend- ants of Merovee was his grandson, Clovis I (481-511). He is to be remembered for two reasons of the greatest importance in French history: A pagan himself, Clovis married a Christian woman, Clothilde, and through her in- fluence he adopted the Christian Faith. Moreover he estab- lished the political Baptism of Clovis, the first Christian unity of Gaul. He conquered the Gallo-Romans (486), the Visi- 15 16 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE goths (500), the Burgundians (507). He be- came master of all Gaul. In 496 he was baptized in Rheims, where since then, almost without exception, the Kings as long as there were Kings in France were anointed. This first effort toward national unity, so suc- cessfully undertaken by Clovis, was not to be maintained. When Clovis died, the kingdom remained in the hands of the Franks, but it was broken up into several smaller realms, divided among the descendants of the first Merovingian. This condition of subdivision in the kingdom was to last for over a thousand years, until finally, in 1643, the King, Louis XIV, was to become the absolute monarch of a united kingdom. Gradually, the grandsons and great-grandsons of Clovis, who were constantly fighting among each other, so far weakened their power that, several hundred years later, when the Arabs in- vaded Gaul, they were obliged to call upon the people for assistance. A brilliant warrior pre- sented himself: Charles, surnamed the Hammer (le Martel). Under his inspiring leadership (in 732) the Arabs were vanquished at Poitiers. THE CAROLINGIANS After this victory, the new Chief became the founder of a dynasty, called the Carolingians or descendants of Charles, or Carolus. For 236 years from 751 to 987 this dynasty was to give to France her Kings. The greatest of the Carolingians, and one of the most illustrious Kings in French history, was Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus, or Charles the Great). He became King in 768. The longest Charlemagne, the great Emperor of the Occident. war which he undertook was waged against the Saxons, who were still pagans. This war lasted for 33 years and was finally won by Charle- magne. His other victories made him master of Gaul, of Germania, of Italy and of part of Spain. On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned in Rome as Emperor of the Occident. 1 8 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE His work was one not only of conquest but of organization : he made wise laws for the admin- istration of the various provinces under his do- minion, he appointed inspectors to enquire into and study the needs of his people. He sent for learned men from all parts of the world and founded a great number of schools. This period of early medieval history is full of romance. The story of Roland, for example, has been sung in all languages. Returning from a campaign in Spain, Roland was harassed by the enemy in the Pyrenees mountains, on the pass of Roncevaux. With his ivory horn he sounded the cry of distress which Charlemagne heard and answered, alas, too late. Before perishing under the rocks which the enemy hurled upon him, Roland lifted his sword, Durandal, and smote the mountain side with such force that a cleft was made, says the legend. This rift is still called: "Roland's Breach" (la breche de Ro- land) . At the death of Charlemagne, history was to repeat itself: the empire was once again divided by his quarreling descendants. The Carolingians, whose strength was wasted by their personal jeal- ousies, were not powerful enough to stem a fresh invasion from the north. THE NORMANS The Norsmen, or Normans, were Danish and Norwegian pirates, who every year took to the high seas in the spring time, landing on the coasts, sailing up the rivers of their neighbors' coun- tries, which they pillaged and robbed at will. The Normans pillaging a church of Gaul. In 885, twenty thousand Normans, led by their chiefs, the famous "Vikings," arrived with a fleet of 700 ships, determined to conquer the fertile lands of France. They laid siege to Paris, which, in those days, was a small town, covering only a little more ground than the island on which Notre-Dame stands to-day. In spite of their barbaric customs, the Nor- mans had many admirable qualities which still 20 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Gauls Gauls gih nth I2th (Country) (City) cent. cent. cent. Philippe I3th Jeanne the Bold cent, de Bourbon characterize the inhabitants of Normandy: a certain smartness and thrift, an ability to defend their own rights, an almost untiring capacity for work. Appreciating their strength and their deter- mination to occupy this rich territory, which is the most beautiful farming country in France, the King decided, in the year 911, to form an alliance with them. He gave his daughter in marriage to the Norman chief, Rollon, and a dowry which comprised all of the province of Normandy. Rollon became a Christian and a subject of the King. THE CAPETIANS During the struggle with the Normans a new leader had distinguished himself: Hugues Capet. When the last of the increasingly incompetent Carolingians had been deposed, Hugues Capet, who had won the confidence of the nobles and the THE MIDDLE AGES 21 people, was chosen to found a new dynasty: the Capetians. They remained in power over three hundred years. At the time when the Capetians began to reign society was organized according to certain fixed The feudal castle of Pierrefonds as it stands, restored, to-day. regulations which were known as the "feudal sys- tem." THE FEUDAL SYSTEM Little by little the rich landed proprietors, or Lords, had become as powerful in their own do- mains as the King was in his. The Dukes of Nor- mandy, of Burgundy, the Counts of Champagne, of Poitou, etc., had their own armed forces; they levied their own taxes, they dispensed justice, 22 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE they cast the guilty into prison, or condemned them to death if they deemed fit, with an author- ity which no one could contest. However, as it was through favor with the King that they had acquired their vast properties, they were obliged to swear allegiance to His Majesty. The King was considered as sovereign of all the Lords, and the Lords were his vassals. They in turn, by the concession of less important lands, made vassals of certain lords inferior to themselves. This was the Feudal System of the middle ages, which the Capetians found in vogue when they ascended the throne. The relatively restricted class of exceedingly rich landed proprietors formed the nobility. Cer- tain members of the clergy were also possessed of fiefs or domains, which gave them the right to a title. Less privileged than the nobles was the class known as the bourgeois, or the mer- chant class. They inhabited the cities. Beneath them were the vilains, or rotur'iers, who lived in the country, but who occupied themselves about the commercial interests of the region. Lowest of all were the serfs, who were practically slaves. They were not allowed to leave the estate of a lord without his permission. Many of the feudal castles have been ruined but a few still remain, as for example that at Pierrefonds. This medieval aristocratic dwell- ing or chateau was built on a hill top or height THE MIDDLE AGES 23 which dominated the surrounding country and served as a point of observation and defense dur- ing the frequent attacks made by hostile neigh- bors. The principal entrance was flanked by towers. There was an outer wall, surrounding ditches full of water spanned by a draw-bridge; a portcullis or iron door, which could be closed in such a way as to cut off all communication with the outside world. The walls were crowned with parapets and towers, where the sentinels stood on guard. The parapets were surmounted with battlements which were pierced in such a way as to permit the dropping of hot oil and stones and burning tar upon the enemies who attempted to approach the castle. In spite of the constant state of war in which the feudal lords spent their days, they surrounded themselves with objects of priceless beauty: tapes- tries, stained glass, carved wood, work of the finest sort wrought in iron, chiseled in silver and in gold. The interior of these medieval chateaux pre- sented incomparable harmony. Nothing in those days had been vulgarized by the machine; the smallest objects which served for the humblest daily needs were made by hand from the designs of artists. Nor was the intellectual progress of the world a matter of indifference to the feudal lords. In 24 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE the splendid halls of their domains, they assem- bled the great poets of the day to sing to them ; they invited the travelers who had been on pil- grimages to relate the stories of distant lands. Warriors and patrons of the arts, these great lords, however, thought little of the poor who The troubadors or poets of the middle ages. were dependent upon them for a living. The land, which served continually as a battlefield, was little by little impoverished. Houses were burned, villages destroyed. At last, in the year 1000, a terrible famine devastated France. The Church, preoccupied at the vast propor- tions which the general misery had assumed, decreed what was known as the "Truce of God." Whatever their quarrels, the people were obliged to interrupt them between Wednesday nights and Monday mornings, nor were they permitted to fight on feast days and holidays! THE CRUSADES During the reign of the Capetians, which lasted 341 years from 987 to 1328 many things occurred of importance to France from every point of view. The first of the Capetians, Hugues Capet, established the royal residence in Paris. In 1066, the Normans under William, sur- named the Conqueror, crossed the Channel, and, after the victorious Battle of Hastings, became the masters of England. The same year saw the beginning of a great religious movement. In 1076, the Turks invaded Asia Minor and took Jerusalem. This was the moment to rouse a wide-spread movement of indignation. The emotions which every man felt at the outrages committed against the Christians and the tomb of Christ, were united in a feeling of common exultation by Peter the Hermit. He was a Frenchman of humble origin. He had been first a soldier, then a husband and a father, before finally becoming a monk who consecrated his life to solitary meditation. Born in Amiens in 1050, Peter the Hermit had first made the journey to Jerusalem merely to pray at the tomb of the Saviour. The suffering which he witnessed among the Christians who were being martyrized by the Turks, stirred him 26 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE to the depths of his contemplative soul. He be- came thenceforth a man of action. He vowed that he would let the world know of the horrors which he had witnessed. He was convinced that, once enlightened, the men of all nations would set out to deliver their afflicted brothers. Peter the Hermit was a small man, insignificant in appearance, but his spirit was great and he In 1099 the Crusaders stormed and captured Jerusalem. had an unusual gift of eloquence. Thrilled with the beauty of his mission, he visited the towns of Italy and of France, preaching the cause wher- ever he went. ^ Finally, in 1095, a great reunion was held at Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne. Peter the Her- mit spoke to the assembled masses; he related the atrocities he had seen, and he told of his own sufferings in Jerusalem. He spoke with that touch of human interest which reaches the hearts of all. THE MIDDLE AGES 27 When he had finished, the Pope, Urbain II, made a resounding appeal: "Think of Jerusalem," he said, "the Royal City, the Redeemer of Mankind. Jerusalem which was made glorious by the presence of Jesus, consecrated by his Passion, and by his Death, re- Crusaders of the XI and XII centuries. nowned forever because of his Sepulcher. Jerusalem now implores you to deliver her!" Exhorting the French people, the Pope con- tinued: "Remember the virtue of your ancestors, the greatness of Charlemagne, of your other Kings. Set out now upon the way !" One resounding cry greeted this appeal. From the throats of all rose the answer: "God wills it! God wills it!" 28 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE First the lower classes, then the middle classes, then the most powerful princes and priests, and finally women both of the nobility and of the people determined to undertake the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was decided that the first crusaders were to set out for the Holy Land eight months later, Crusaders of the XIII century. toward the end of August, 1096. But such was the enthusiasm of the people that nothing could keep them back. By the beginning of March three expeditions were already under way: the first was composed of about 100,000 people, the other two of about 20,000 each. Men, women and children, whole families abandoned their homes, their villages, their interests of every sort, confident that their Faith would carry them triumphant through every difficulty. Every THE MIDDLE AGES 29 Crusader wore on his forehead, or on his breast, a red cross which gave him his name of crusader, or crossader, and which was the emblem of his inspiration. The second crusade was placed under the guid- ance of a great French man: Godfroy de Bouil- lon. His contemporaries said of him: "His no- The Sepulcher where Christ is buried in Jerusalem. bility was shown both in his manner of dealing with the affairs of this world and with those of Heaven! For ardor in war he resembled his father, who was a gallant soldier, for serving God he had as example his mother. He was com- passionate for those who suffered, generous and forgiving toward sinners, humble, gentle, moder- ate and chaste." Godfroy de Bouillon is one of the most celebrated and the most sympathetic characters of the Crusades. 30 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE On July 15, 1099, after heartrending adven- tures and a siege which lasted forty days, Jerusa- lem was taken by the Crusaders. (Jerusalem was taken by the British troops on December n, 1917, after 6 months of fighting against the Turks.) Godfrey de Bouillon was elected King of Jerusalem. He accepted the responsibilities of such a charge, but he refused the title. He said: "I could never wear a crown of gold in the very place where our Saviour wore a crown of thorns." The suffering of the crusaders, before this final victory was achieved, included every form of human misery. The first expeditions had set out for the long journey across Europe without or- ganization or equipment, and without provisions. The routes followed lay across Germany, Hun- gary and Bulgaria, or through Italy and over the Mediterranean Sea. These vast hordes of peo- ple, moving like an army through unknown lands, wrought trouble wherever they passed: hungry, they seized what food they could lay hands upon, they pillaged farms and houses. Many of them were massacred by outraged proprietors, many of them fell ill of fever and pest. Finally they were most unwelcome to the reigning King of Jerusalem, who opposed them in every possible manner. Jerusalem continued to be disputed for cen- turies by the East and the West. In 1 147 a sec- ond Crusade was inspired by Bernard, later canonized as Saint Bernard. Toward the end of the twelfth century the Kings of France and of England, Philippe Au- guste and Richard the Lion Hearted, set out upon the Third Crusade. The most important event which transpired during the Fourth Crusade (1202) was the tak- ing of Constantinople by the French, who re- mained its master for over fifty years, giving five rulers to the Empire of the Orient. Louis IX was the hero of the Seventh Crusade in 1248, and, in 1270, of the Eighth and last Crusade. Yet, in spite of the multitudes left upon the way during the first crusades, the good accom- plished contributed with lasting effect to the pro- gress of civilization. In the first place, this gath- ering together of masses which included the rich, the poor, scholars, ignorant peasants, feudal lords and their humblest servants, was something entirely new. People of all classes were for the first time united in social fraternity by their be- lief in a common ideal; the direct influence of the suffering endured during the crusades was demo- cratic. The feudal lord, his vassals, his warring neigh- bors, instead of remaining at home to fight against each other, were now traveling on an errand which drew them together in the closest of spiritual bonds. The physical miseries of 32 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE these exalted pilgrims were agonizing indeed, but the world, through just such sacrifices, became thereafter a better place to live in. THE ORDERS OF CHIVALRY Meanwhile, in France, the Church, endeavor- ing to still further modify the cruel customs A Lord of the middle ages conferring upon a page the order of knighthood. which years of constant strife had established, instituted a religious order, known as the order of Chivalry. The members of this order, known as the Knights of Chivalry, were pledged to pro- tect the Church and to uphold the weak against the strong. The training of a gentleman's son, until those days, had been one of physical endurance, which prepared him to defend his honor and his inter- ests. At seven a boy entered the service of some nobleman, as his page. At fifteen, he became THE MIDDLE AGES 33 equerry. At the age of twenty-one, he was to become a Knight. The ceremony of his initia- tion was at the same time religious and military. After a night passed in prayer, the young French gentleman appeared before the lord in whose service he had spent his youth as a page. The noble lord embraced him, touched him with his sword, and pronounced him a Knight. THE COMMONS Another movement of extreme importance to be noted during the Capetian dynasty was that made by the people as early as 1130 to assert their individual rights. In a great number of towns the popular indignation had been growing against the oppression of the nobles. Finally these diverse outbursts were organized in the form of societies which were called "communes," or commons : all the members swore that in com- mon they would resist the Lords. Hundreds of years later this movement of the oppressed against the oppressors was to result in the great French Revolution and in the be- heading of the King. In the early days, on the contrary, the extreme radical tendency was favored by the sovereign: he saw in it a chance to weaken the power of the noblemen who were always an annoyance to him, sometimes even a menace to the throne. The royal domain in the I2th century was re- 34 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Vinesman. Times of Charles V. i4th cent. Lady and About isth Gardener. Peasant. Courtiers. her attendants. 1480. cent. stricted to a comparatively small part of France : the He de France, the Orleanais and Picardie. Normandy, after the days of the Battle of Has- tings, when the sons of William the Conqueror had become the Kings of England, remained a Normano-English duchy, over which however the King of France retained the rights of suzerainty. Thus, side by side, four distinct branches of human progress were contributing to the evolu- tion of France : political action which tended ever toward greater national unity; moral action which emphasized the spiritual importance of chivalry; intellectual action which increased the possibili- ties of learning; social action which encouraged the expression of individual rights. Unity, chiv- alry, education and liberty, these forms of activ- ity, which date from the middle ages when wars were constant, are characteristic of the civiliza- tion of France. An alliance contracted at about this time, to- ward the end of the I2th century, was to be THE MIDDLE AGES 35 the cause of many years of war. Louis VII, one of the great-great-grandsons of Hugues Capet, repudiated his wife. Exceedingly rich, her dowry comprised the provinces of Aquitaine, Perigord, Limousin, Poitou and Angoumois. Notre-Dame of Paris, begun in 1163, completed at about 1230. Thus, when she married a second time Henry Plantagenet, the future King of England, these vast domains passed into the royal keeping of the English crown. They were to become again the property of the French only after years and years, and many, many wars. One of the greatest of the Capetian Kings, Philippe Auguste, came to the throne in 1180. His exploits and enterprises were varied. Though 36 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE he succeeded in winning back the province of Normandy and of Poitou for the crown of France, his chief preoccupation was not war, but peace: he instigated a form of justice known as "the King's Quarantine": no private war could be undertaken by the feudal lords until forty days had passed after the incident which had given rise to the dispute. In the interval the King en- deavored to discover and punish the culprit re- sponsible for the aggression. Philippe Auguste organized the great market place of the Halles, in Paris; he completed the Cathedral of Notre- Dame, he built the royal residence of the Louvre, he ordered the streets of Paris to be paved, he united the various colleges of Paris into a Uni- versity, which was attended by young men from all parts of the world, attracted by the oppor- tunities of learning which it afforded. With Rich- ard the Lion Hearted, King of England, Philippe Auguste also went on a crusade to Jerusalem. LOUIS IX, THE SAINT The greatest of all the Capetian Kings how- ever was Louis IX. He embodied the spirit of the times and was its finest expression. His life was led with the constant thought for the wel- fare and happiness of his people, with respect and tenderness for his mother, with a devout belief in God. He has been canonized as one of the Saints of the Catholic Church. THE MIDDLE AGES 37 Louis IX was born in 1226. He came to the throne when he was eleven years old, at the death of his father, who had reconquered from the English several more of the French provinces. The government of the kingdom was entrusted momentarily to the Queen Mother, Blanche of Castille. Between this mother and this son there Bust of the King Saint Louis. The mother of Saint Louis, Blanche of Castille. existed a beautiful friendship. During his boy- hood and youth, at this time when France was enduring days of cruel warfare, the constant com- panionship of such a* remarkable woman made upon the character of Louis IX a lasting mark. Though his moral sense was as delicate, his hu- man pity as tender as those of the mother who had brought him up, he was not lacking in energy. During his minority, the English, who con- sidered this occasion favorable, .had attacked the throne of France. In 1242, Louis IX took up 38 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE arms against these enemies and defeated Henry III of England. The same year he went on a crusade to the Holy Land, where he was made a prisoner by the Turks. Louis IX seems to have sought to make him- self rather loved than feared and no one, it is said, ever saw him show anger. Saint Louis dispensing justice at Vincennes, near Paris. During his absence on this first pilgrimage, the shepherds and peasants revolted: bands of them went about pillaging in all parts of France. Blanche of Castille was able to quiet this violent outburst of popular discontent. When Louis IX returned, he endeavored to bring to an end the constant wars which so depleted the country and dissatisfied the people. Thus he drew the nobles about him and confided to them great resoon- THE MIDDLE AGES 39 sibilities at his own court. He founded a number of hospitals where the sick and old could be cared for. Among them the most important was the Hopital des Quinze-Vingts for the blind, in Paris, in which Louis IX gave hospitality to those who in the middle ages had lost their eyesight. To- The Sainte Chapelle erected by Louis IX in Paris. The seal of Saint Louis. day the very same building shelters those who in the present war have entered into eternal dark- ness. Finally, in 1270, the King set out again for the Holy Land, but he fell ill of the pest in Tunis, where he died with a fortitude and resignation which inspired admiration even from his enemies. The early years of the I4th century saw re- newed fighting in the same region near the Lys 40 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE and the Yser where the Allies have been at war since 1914. The quarrel was over the province of Guyenne, which had been annexed to the throne. The Flemish joined with the English against the Kings of France in a war which lasted for six years. THE STATES GENERAL During the reign of the grandson of Louis IX, Philippe IV, surnamed le Bel or the Beauti- ful, another important modification was brought about in governmental administration, and in the spirit of religious independence. All Christian countries, in those days before the Reformation, or Protestantism, were divided into two religious governments : those of the East, who were known as the Orthodox, and whose spiritual director was the Patriarch of Jerusalem; those of the West, who were Catholics, and whose chief was the Pope in Rome. France, Italy and England belonged to the latter coun- tries; Russia, Serbia, Greece, etc., belonged to the former. The clergy in France had not been obliged to pay taxes until the days of Philippe IV, who decreed that priests and curates were to be treated in this respect like the laymen of his king- dom. The Pope, Boniface VIII, violently disapprov- ing this new measure, ordered the French King THE MIDDLE AGES 41 to be excommunicated. The moment was critical, and it was to mark, once again, the spirit of in- dependence innate to the French. Hitherto, the sovereign had been alone to make all decisions concerning the administration of his country. Philippe IV now declared that the Pope had no right to interfere in this admin- istration. Very shrewdly, however, he realized that he could not stand alone against the Pope, that he must be sustained by his people. So he did what no King had ever done before him in France. He constituted a regular assembly com- posed not only of the nobles, and of the clergy, but also of the bourgeois, or commercial class. He called together members of these three groups in a congress thereafter known as the States Gen- eral (Etats Generaux). The newly appointed body of representative men upheld their King on this occasion. Strangely enough it was this same States Gen- eral which, during the Revolution of 1789-93, was to vote the downfall of Louis XVI. Philippe le Bel was the last of the Capetians whose reign left a mark on the history of France. His sons died without leaving a direct heir. THE HUNDRED YEARS* WAR The dispute which arose over this succession to the throne gave rise to a war with England 42 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE which lasted from 1337 to 1453, and was known as the Hundred Years' War. Two heirs claimed the right to reign in France : Philippe of Valois and Edward III of England; they were cousins of each other and of the last King of France. It was arranged that the succession should pass into the hands of Valois. This decision the King of England would not accept. He invaded France with an admirable body of soldiers and opened hostilities which were to last for a century. The situation in those days was quite the oppo- site to that in which France and England found themselves at the beginning of the present war: as early as the i3th century and even before, the Kings of England had formed regiments of in- fantry, in which service was compulsory and the training severe. The French, on the contrary, had reserved the profession of arms for the no- bility; the soldiers formed part of the household of the feudal lords. Thus, in 1346, Edward III advanced through Normandy, ravaging the coun- try as he passed, and arrived almost at the gates of Paris. Driven back across the Somme, near Abbeville, the English army won a great victory at Crecy. The Battle of Crecy was a triumph of the infantry, and for the first time several pieces of cannon were also used. Calais was the next town to fall into the hands of the English, who kept it for over a hundred years. The siege of Calais lasted for more than THE MIDDLE AGES 43 Gentleman Lady About Gentleman Bourgeois Henri III Reign of time of 4 1510 1528 1579 time of Henri IV Louis XII Charles IX a year. The defense made by the inhabitants was so heroic that Edward III wished to kill them all. Six of the most important bourgeois, rich merchants of the city, offered themselves as hostages if the King would spare their fellow towns-people. As they stood before the sover- eign, bareheaded, a rope around their necks, of- fering the keys of Calais to Edward III, who was about to have them beheaded, their spirit of sacri- fice touched the Queen. She interceded and obtained grace for them. The Bourgeois of Calais have remained celebrated in French his- tory. This is not the end of the French defeats. In 1356 the English obtained another great vic- tory at Poitiers. The Prince of Wales, sur- named the Black Prince, seized the King of France and took him a captive to London, where, in 1364, he died in his prison cell. Not however before he had signed a treaty in which he aban- doned to the English about one third of his king- 44 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE dom. The people of Paris revolted at this shameful treachery, but without an army power- ful enough to organize their resistance, this op- position only added to the general misery in France. The King of England, on receipt of a large ransom, renounced his pretensions to the throne of France, but he retained the provinces of Aquitaine, Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and the city of Calais. A period of disturbance followed: there were uprisings of the peasants against the nobles, violent quarrels between the nobles and the King. France moreover was overrun by bands of mer- cenaries who, when peace was signed, found themselves unemployed. They pillaged and burned without scruple the property of others. All this suffering and distress were to be re- lieved not by the King, but by one of his captains, Du Guesclin, famous in French history as a great hero of the middle ages. He was said in his childhood to be the ugliest boy in Brittany; snub- nosed, awkward, ill-tempered, he was moreover not particularly intelligent, as his tutors never succeeded in teaching him to read. Nothing in- dicated in the young Du Guesclin a hero who was to render incomparable services to his country. He had a habit of running away from home to play war in the neighboring villages where he organized the children into hostile bands. As soon as he was old enough to take up arms in THE MIDDLE AGES 45 reality he went into the service of the Counts of France against the English. The King at this time had but one hope: to drive the English out of France. He found in Du Guesclin the Hercules he needed to execute his fondest wishes. In 1378 he obtained such a decisive victory over the English that their possessions in France were reduced to the five cities: Calais, Cher- bourg, Brest, Bordeaux and Bayonne. Du Guesclin was amazingly courageous, a veritable hero. He was full of ingenuity, violent with his enemies, merciful to the poor and the weak, fear- less at all times. He is one of the most sympa- thetic characters of the middle ages. The King made him Commander-in-Chief of all his armies and when in 1380 he died he was laid beside the Kings of France in the Chapel of Saint-Denis, near Paris. New misfortunes however were to befall France. The kingdom having passed into the hands of a poor mad man, Charles VI, the de- fense of the country became completely disor- ganized. In 1415 the English landed again with consid- erable forces in France, where they won a great victory at Azincourt. The Queen, a Bavarian by birth, was persuaded by the English to use her influence with the mad King. She urged him to sign a disastrous treaty: the King of England 4 6 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE was proclaimed the successor of Charles VI to the throne of France. The wars to which this treacherous agreement led were to call forth the genius of the greatest of French heroines : Jeanne d'Arc. Du Guesclin. III. JEANNE D'ARC Indeed, Charles VII, the rightful heir to the throne, was excluded, by the treaty of Troyes, from his heritage. A civil war ensued. The Burgundians and the English led the hostile opposition to the King of France. Several important cities, how- ever, remained loyal to him. It was at this moment that France once again, as in the days of the first Battle of the Marne, was to be saved by a peasant girl : Jeanne d'Arc. Jeanne d'Arc was born on January 16, 1412, at Domremy, a small village which lies between Neufchateau and Vaucouleurs, on the border line of the two old provinces: Champagne and Lor- raine. She was the child of honorable but poor farmers. According to her neighbors "she was simple, good, kind, and never idle." She helped her mother to sew and spin, she took the sheep to pasture; sometimes she was allowed by her father to take charge of the herd of cattle which the people of the village of Domremy owned in common. Jeanne, or Jeannette (little Jeanne), as her friends called her at Domremy, used to go often with her playmates to the "fountain of the cur- rants." There they used to sing and eat cakes 47 48 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE under an old beech which was known as the "tree of the fairies." Jeanne did not care for dancing; on the con- trary, she was so devout that her comrades teased her sometimes, calling her too pious. She went to church often and to communion, and she loved the sound of the bells as they rang the hours for service, or for the angelus. Jeanne d'Arc tending her sheep. The house, in the village of Domremy where she was born, exists to-day. The little towns of Domremy and Vaucouleurs had remained faithful to the King of France. So they were exposed to the constant attacks made by the bands of English and Burgundians, who went about devastating the provinces which resisted them. Thus when Jeanne was only nine years old, she saw the young men of the parish of Domremy return to their homes wounded and bleeding after their encounters with the King's enemies. She JEANNE D'ARC 49 saw the neighboring regions pillaged by these hostile invaders and she was distressed and tor- mented and could not understand how God could allow such disaster to befall her beloved France. One day, when she was about thirteen, she was working in her father's' garden when she heard a voice speaking to her. It seemed to come from the direction of the church, and, at the same time, she saw a great light. She was afraid at first, but, as she expressed it, "the voice seemed worthy." So she took heart, and when she was called a second time she realized that these were the voices of angels speaking to her. Indeed she saw the angels as clearly, she said later, as she saw the judges who were to condemn her to death at Rouen. They spoke to her of the sad state of affairs in the Kingdom of France and they exhorted her to go to the rescue of the Dauphin, Charles VII. She would have pre- ferred to follow the angels. Indeed she said that, when they left her, "she could have cried because they did not take her with them." From that moment the visions became more and more frequent. The voices supplicated her to save the kingdom of France. Oppressed by the strange mystery of these repeated appeals which she did not understand, she finally confided all to her father, who was a most skeptical and unsym- pathetic listener. He flew into a rage and threatened to punish Jeanne severely if she should even contemplate such a thing as trying 50 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE to save the kingdom of France. In fact he ap- pealed to Jeanne's brother, saying: "If I thought that Jeanne was going to leave here with such an idea in her head, I would beg you to drown her, and if you refused I would drown her myself." Jeanne had been brought up to respect and obey her parents. She did not suppose that the heavenly voices could ask her to displease her father. And yet she could think of nothing else but this divine message to save France. When the vision took the form of Saint-Michel and when this Saint exhorted her to set out with- out delay, she responded: "Sir, I am only a poor girl. I would not know how to ride a horse, or to lead a company of men!" "God will show you the way," the archangel responded. Meanwhile, her father, with a very human interest in the welfare of his child, and the natural desire that she should be like other girls, planned a marriage for her. He appealed to one of Jeanne's suitors to declare that she had promised to become his bride. This Jeanne stoutly denied, and, when at last the matter was brought before the elders of the church, every one believed and respected Jeanne. Yet all this did not simplify matters for the poor young peasant girl whose inspirations so far surpassed the understanding of those nearest her in kin. Finally she imagined a device which could give her momentary encouragement and freedom. JEANNE D'ARC 51 One of her aunts who lived in a neighboring village had fallen ill. Jeanne asked permission to go and care for her. The extraordinary con- viction with which she talked to this aunt and to her uncle of her mission, convinced them that she must be assisted. It was quite natural in those days that the poor peasants who wanted to accomplish any- thing should turn first to their lords and masters. So Jeanne, after long conversations with her uncle, in which she repeated to him the prophecy that "a woman should lose France, and that a young girl should save the country," finally per- suaded him to go with her to see the Sire Robert de Baudricourt, one of the lords of the region of Vaucouleurs. When Jeanne was in the presence of the Sire of Baudricourt, she said to him: "I am sent by our Lord. You are to tell the Dauphin that he is not to give in to his enemies, he must hold out a little longer. The Lord will send him help." "What Lord?" asked the Sire of Baudricourt. "The Lord of Heaven," answered Jeanne d'Arc. Baudricourt greeted this response in a brutal manner. Jeanne insisted. She declared: "I have been sent by God in order thut I my- self may lead the Dauphin to be crowned." "This girl is mad," said Baudricourt, and he advised her uncle to take her back to her parents. 52 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE He even added that her ears should be boxed! Jeanne, in all humility, returned to Domremy, but the voices continued to call her, to call her upon the greatest mission that ever a woman was born to undertake. In 1428 the news was bad; the Burgundians once again had invaded Domremy, and shortly afterward word came that the English were be- sieging Orleans. Jeanne set out again for Vaucouleurs. She visited the Sire of Baudricourt and she said to him: "This time I am going, even though I should walk my legs off up to the knees !" Complete independence had come to the spirit of Jeanne, nothing could hold her back. "If I had a hundred fathers and a hundred mothers," she declared, "or if I were the daugh- ter of a King, I would go!" Baudricourt, while he was not convinced, was impressed. He allowed Jeanne to remain at Vaucouleurs and he spoke of her to his friends, seeking their opinion. He talked with the Duke of Lorraine and other noblemen of this extraor- dinary case. Jeanne remained at Vaucouleurs, in the house of a poor woman, whom she helped to spin and sew as she had helped her own mother, going often to church and waiting to know what would be her fate. Her ardent conviction and her peculiarly strong and noble personality were to JEANNE D'ARC 53 win for her unknown friends. A certain noble- man Jean de Metz attached to the household of the Sire of Baudricourt, came to visit Jeanne at Vaucouleurs. He questioned her as to her purpose and was so much impressed by her answers, that he took her hands in his and declared: "By Heaven, I shall lead you to the King! When do you wish to leave?" "Better now than to-morrow," Jeanne replied, "Better to-morrow than later." Vaucouleurs rang with this incident, and shortly another nobleman offered to accompany Jeanne to the King. Her reputation spread far and wide. Finally the Duke of Lorraine became so inter- ested in all the reports about Jeanne that he asked to see her. He was old and ill and wished to consult her about his failing health. She replied to this great Lord that she could not heal him, but that she urged him to return to his wife whom he had abandoned. He gave her a cer- tain sum of money and she went back to Vaucou- leurs greatly encouraged. Jean de Metz, who was to accompany her on her mission, was not the only one to be inspired by her great faith. Indeed all the poor people in the country round about brought her gifts so that she might be properly fitted out for her undertaking. Jean de Metz asked her if she intended traveling in her peasant's skirts. 54 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE "I am quite willing," Jeanne answered, "to dress as a man." So a collection was taken up in order to buy her an appropriate costume ; they gave her a horse, a sword, and the complete equipment of a soldier. Thus, on the 25th of January, 1429, accom- panied by a royal messenger and a bowsman, Jeanne set out upon her mission, the mission which has made her glorious throughout the history of the world. "Go!" cried the Sire of Baudricourt, "and Heaven knows what may become of you !" "God keep you!" cried the people, and the women wept until she was out of sight. * * * Chinon was a long way off, and the journey thither was very dangerous. The English and the Burgundians were masters of the country in some of the regions where Jeanne and her little escort were forced to travel by night and to hide themselves by day. Her companions, alarmed, were inclined to return to Vaucouleurs. "Fear not," she said to them, "God will show me the way. My brothers in Paradise will tell me what to do." Jeanne and her companions had a journey of about 275 miles to cover before reaching the Castle of Chinon in the Touraine, where Charles VII held his much disputed court. It took them eleven days to travel over this distance, but JEANNE D'ARC 55 Jeanne exhorted her brothers in arms to fear nothing. "God is leading me," she declared. "It was for this that I was born." Finally, having reached the village of Sainte- Catherine-de-Fierbois, near Chinon, Jeanne went three times to communion in the village church, and she wrote to the King the same day, announc- ing her arrival and begging him to receive her. She explained to him that she had come a long way in order to tell him things of the greatest interest. Charles VII and his courtiers were not con- vinced. They could scarcely believe that a peas- ant girl of Lorraine could bring the King assist- ance greater than that given by his own follow- ers. The courtiers who were in especial favor, and who feared any new influence, opposed the reception of Jeanne d'Arc by their King; those of a more generous disposition urged the sov- ereign to receive this young girl. The Sire of Baudricourt had deemed her worthy of interest, and, moreover, as soon as she appeared it would be easy to judge of her merits, so why not give her an audience? Two women, it is curious to note, plead in favor of Jeanne d'Arc: one was the Queen of Sicily, mother-in-law to the King of France, the other was her daughter, the young Queen, Marie of Anjou. They insisted that Jeanne d'Arc be received at court. 56 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE On March 6, 1429, she arrived, with her com- panions at Chinon, where she was allowed to re- main for several days, while the King still de- liberated as to whether or not he should see her. The news from Orleans was bad. The King had neither troops nor money at his disposal. If Orleans fell into the hands of the enemy he would be obliged to seek refuge in Spain or in Scotland. The promise of Jeanne was that she would deliver Orleans. The partisans of Jeanne at the court begged earnestly that this chance of salvation should not be thrown away. Finally, toward evening, when the nobles of the court were all gathered together in the great hall of Chinon, where fifty torches were lighted, Jeanne was introduced. In order not to attract the attention of this young shepherdess who had never seen the King, Charles VII had dressed himself in clothes more simple than those of his courtiers, and he held himself somewhat apart from them. Jeanne however recognized him by inspiration. Going straight to him, she kneeled down and said: "May God bless you, dear Dauphin !" (Jeanne called him Dauphin, or prince, believing that until he had been crowned at Rheims, he should not be addressed as "King.") "I am not the King," Charles VII answered her, "This is he," and he showed one of his nobles. "You are he and no other!" Jeanne declared. JEANNE D'ARC 57 "The King of Heaven bids me tell you that you shall be anointed and crowned." She begged him to give her troops so that she could raise the siege of Orleans, and drive the English out of the country. Charles VII was impressed, but still he hesi- tated. He saw Jeanne several times and she understood the doubts which were troubling him. At the Castle of Chinon, near Tours, Jeanne d'Arc recognizes Charles VII though she has never seen him before. "Gentle Dauphin," she said, "why don't you believe in me? I tell you that God has pity on you and on your kingdom and your people. Saint Louis and Charlemagne are on their knees praying for you. . . . You must believe." Charles VII, his contemporaries say, was a beautiful prince and he knew how to speak gra- ciously with every one. He was merciful toward the poor and he armed himself reluctantly and did not care about war. His hope was that war 58 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE might be avoided. He was not a politician, nor was he a chivalrous soul. He was a rather weak and hesitating character, who was easily in- fluenced by his courtiers, and who tried to avoid rather than to assume responsibilities. Thus, he could not decide the matter of what to do about Jeanne d'Arc; he preferred to have her questioned by the priests and doctors at Poitiers, where Parliament was sitting. So Jeanne took up her abode with one of the honorable families of Poitiers, resigned to her fate, sure that God would guide her and aid her to the end. The Archbishop of Rheims, the Chancellor of France, the councilors of the King and many other important people were assembled to inter- rogate Jeanne. For three long weeks they ques- tioned her; they tormented her with all sorts of sly remarks. "There is more in the book of God than in your books," she answered them. "I don't know my alphabet, but I have been sent by our Heavenly Father." Her interlocutors responded that God did not need an armed force in order to deliver France. Thereupon she rose up with indignation and cried out: "Those who are armed shall fight and God will give them the Victory!" Then she begged that they let her go to Or- leans. JEANNE D'ARC 59 "I have not come to discuss at Poitiers," she explained. "Let me have a handful of men and I shall go to Orleans and give proof of the reason why I was sent." She dictated an appeal to the English, in which she exhorted them to leave France. "If they do not obey," she wrote, "I shall drive them out of France whether they will or no. Duke of Bedford," she concluded, exhorting the English chief, "if you do not yield, you who pre- tend to be the Regent of France, I, a mere girl, shall accomplish the most splendid act which has been seen in Christian times!" In Poitiers, as at Vaucouleurs, the people were fired with enthusiasm. They looked upon Jeanne as an inspired saint. The doctors and the wise men of the church were obliged to give way before the acclamations of the crowd. Jeanne d'Arc had already won popular confidence, as she seemed to embody the hopes of the people re- garding France. Charles VII could no longer hesitate. He gave orders that this remarkable young girl should be treated as a "war chief." She was given an equerry, a page, two heralds, a chaplain, besides valets and servants in number. She was fitted out with a complete suit of armor. The King himself wished to present her with a sword. She asked for one that she had seen in the chapel of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois and she requested also that a standard be given her 6o // POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE of white cloth, strewn with fleurs-de-lys and bear- ing the image of God seated among the clouds holding the world in his hand. The words "Jesus. Marie," were embroidered on this banner. Thus equipped and more than ever anxious to be off for the battlefield, Jeanne and her little company set out on Thursday, April 28, 1429. She led the way, her banner flying in the wind, singing the Vem Creator. She wanted to march straight to Orleans. The chiefs thought it more prudent to take the left bank of the Loire. At Checy, about seven miles from Orleans, it was necessary to cross the river, but no boats were to be found. Jeanne continued with a part of her escort; the remainder of her troops were obliged to return to Blois, and to proceed from there to Orleans by way of Beauce. This breaking up of her group sorely tried Jeanne's soul. She confided her banner to those who were to follow her later, and proceeded under escort of a small body of two hundred men, with provisions and arms, to Orleans. To the officer who came out to meet her on her way she declared: "I am bringing you the best possible help, the help of the Heavenly Father; it does not come from me, but from God Himself, who, answering the prayers of Saint Louis and of Charlemagne, has taken pity on the City of Orleans." At eight o'clock in the evening Jeanne entered The triumphant entry of Jeanne d'Arc into the city of Orleans. 61 62 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Orleans. The people threw themselves before her. By torch light she traversed the town, pass- ing through a crowd so dense that she could scarcely make her way. Men, women and chil- dren pressed forward; they wanted to get near her, to touch her horse, if nothing else; they showed as much joy as though -'God had ap- peared among them." The feeling of relief was general. The masses who had seen Jeanne were comforted, so say the ancient records and they seemed to have been delivered by the divine virtue of this simple peasant girl. Jeanne talked with them gently, she promised to save them. She asked to be led to the church, wanting, first of all, to give thanks to God. As one of the old men of the town said to Jeanne, referring to the English : "Daughter, they are strong, and well fortified. It would be a great thing if we could drive them out." Jeanne answered: "With God nothing is im- possible." Thus her confidence won the trust of all with whom she came in contact. The inhabitants of Orleans, who, the day before, had been panic- stricken, wanted now to throw themselves on the enemy and seize all the fortresses. Dunois, the chief officer, fearing a defeat, decided that, before beginning an attack, they must wait for the reinforcements whom they had left behind JEANNE D'ARC 63 at the crossing of the Loire. Jeanne meanwhile commanded the English to withdraw and to re- turn to their own country. They answered her sneeringly. Time went on and no news came from the troops at Blois. Dunois finally set out to expe- dite matters. It was none too soon. The arch- bishop of Rheims, having reconsidered his first decision, was about to send the troops back to their garrison. Dunois was soon leading them on the way to Orleans. In anticipation of their arrival, Jeanne left Orleans, on May 4. Sur- rounded by the clergy of the town, and followed by the greater part of the population, she pro- ceeded, advancing to meet Dunois' army. She passed the English fortifications, going and com- ing, without the enemy daring to attack the army which had placed itself under the protection of the priests and of a young girl. That same day, as Jeanne was resting, she roused herself with a start and cried out: "Oh, God! The blood of our soldiers is be- ing shed upon the ground. This should not be ! Why did they not call me? Quickly, my arms and my horse !" Aided by the women of the household, she armed herself rapidly, and springing into the sad- dle she set out at a gallop, her standard in her hand, riding directly toward the gate of Bur- gundy. She sped on so quickly that the sparks flew from the pavement under the horse's hoofs. 64 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE It was quite true that, without any warning, the fortress of Saint Loup had been attacked. This maneuver had met with failure and the French were withdrawing in disorder. Jeanne rallied them, led them back to face the enemy, and started a fresh offensive. Talbot tried in vain to reach the English and help them. Jeanne, standing at the foot of the ramparts, exhorted her men. The English held out for three hours. In spite of their desperate defense, the fortress fell. The English had lost. Victorious, Jeanne entered Orleans. But, as she was returning toward the city, her heart over- flowing with joy, she felt suddenly overwhelmed as she caught sight of the dead and wounded. She began to weep, thinking "that they had died without being able to confess their sins." She said that she had "never seen the blood of France flow without her hair standing on end." It was urgent to decide now how the offensive against the English was to be carried on to suc- cess. The Chiefs, who did not care much to be led by a simple farmer's daughter, or to share with her the glories of victory, got together in secret to discuss the best plan to follow. Jeanne presented herself at this council, and, as the Chancellor of the Duke of Orleans sought to conceal from her the decisions which had been arrived at: "Tell me," she cried, indignant, "what it is JEANNE D'ARC 65 that you have decided to do. I can keep greater secrets than this!" Then she added: "You have held your council, and I have held mine. Rest assured that the wisdom of God will triumph and yours will perish. You must get up early to-morrow morning, for I shall have much to do, more than I have ever had in my life." * * * The next day, the 6th of May, she seized the fortress of the Augustins. Saturday, the yth, at daybreak, the attack was begun on the fortress of Tournelles. Jeanne had gone down into the trenches, and had placed a ladder against the enemy's parapets. At this moment a crossbow sent its arrow through her shoulder. She pulled the steel from her arm and when they asked her if she wanted some one to "charm" the wound she refused. "I would rather die," she said, "than do what might be contrary to the will of God." She prayed for a long time while the troops were resting. Then giving orders for a fresh assault, she threw herself into the midst of the combat, calling out to the soldiers: "All is yours! Forward!" The fortress was taken, and all those who were defending it perished. There was only one Englishman left alive on the left bank of the Loire. 66 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE The following Sunday, the English drew up in battle line on the right bank of the Loire. Jeanne forbade an attack being made. She set up an altar and mass was celebrated in the pres- ence of the entire army. When the ceremony was over she said to those who surrounded her : "See whether the English have their faces or their backs turned toward us." As she was told that the English were retiring in the direction of Meung, she said: "In the name of God, if they are withdrawing, let them go; it does not please the Lord that we should fight them to-day: you will get them an- other time." Orleans, which had been besieged for eight months, was delivered in four days. The news of its rescue spread far and wide, proving to all the divinity of Jeanne's mission. With a saintly sort of modesty she wished to avoid the expressions of gratitude of the inhabi- tants of Orleans. She returned with all speed to Chinon. Profiting by the general enthusiasm which she had aroused, she desired now to leave at once for Rheims, and to induce the King to go with her, so that he might be anointed. The King received her with great honors, but he refused to follow her. It was decided that Jeanne should attack the other strongholds which the English still occupied on the banks of the Loire. JEANNE D'ARC 67 On June u, the French had advanced as far as the outskirts of Jargeau. The following day, at dawn, Jeanne gave the signal for combat. The Duke of Alencon wanted to postpone the attack: "Forward, kind Duke," Jeanne said to him. "Have no doubts this is God's hour. Work, and God will work." She climbed up on the parapet, but she was overcome by a stone which struck her on the head. She sprang up however, calling out to her people: "Friends, forward, be upon them! God is against the English; they are ours now. Cour age!" The English, in flight, were pursued to the town bridge, where they were captured or killed. Suffolk was taken prisoner. On June 15, the French were masters of the bridge of Meung; the 1 6th they laid seige to Beaugency, the I7th the city capitulated. On June i8th, Jeanne had overtaken the Eng- lish army near Patay. Talbot and Falstaff were in command. "In God's name we must fight them," she said, "if they must be hung as high as the clouds, we shall get them, because God has sent them to us for us to punish them. Our dear King shall to- day have the greatest victory he has seen." She wanted to be first in line, but they held her back. La Hire was ordered to attack the 68 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE English and to make them face about, while the French troops were gaining time to get into posi- tion. La Hire's offensive was so violent that he carried everything before him. When Jeanne rode up with her men the English were retreating in disorder. Their retreat became a flight. Talbot was taken prisoner. The Cathedral of Rheims before the passage of the Huns who, since 1914, have practically destroyed it. "You did not think this morning that such a thing could happen to you," said the Duke of Alengon. "Such are the fortunes of war," Talbot re- plied. The English lost four thousand dead and two hundred prisoners. Jeanne's heart was as com- passionate for the wounded English as for those of her own army. For that matter she faced JEANNE D'ARC 69 battle, was often wounded herself, but would not ever use her sword; her standard was her only arm. On July 1 6, the King made his entry into the city of Rheims at the head of his troops. The following day the ceremony of the coronation was held, in the midst of a great crowd of nobles and people, in the very cathedral which the Ger- mans have bombarded and endeavored to de- stroy since the beginning of the present war. Jeanne stood behind the King, her standard in her hand. "This standard," she said, "has suffered often. It has been present at many sad scenes, it is just that it should share in the honors." When Charles VII had received from the Archbishop Regnault de Chartres the sacred oint- ment and the crown, Jeanne threw herself at his feet, kissed his knees and with the tears pouring from her eyes she said: "Oh, gentle Sire, the good will of God has been accomplished. He wanted me to bring you to Rheims to be anointed, to show that you are the .true King and that the kingdom of France belongs to you!" The old chronicles say: "All who saw her at that moment more than ever believed that she was one who had been sent by God." "Oh, the good and devout people!" cried Jeanne as she saw the enthusiasm of the crowd 70 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE around the King. "If I were to die I would be happy to be buried here!" Nothing could have been more touching than the eagerness of the people as they crowded around Jeanne. They vied with each other to kiss her hands, her clothes. They brought her little children to bless, and rosaries, and sacred pictures, so that she might sanctify them by the mere touch of her fingers. And she, with great humility, discouraged these expressions of adora- tion; she smiled and made light of the belief which these poor people showed in her power. She asked them on what days and at what hours their children went to communion, so that she could go with them. Her compassion was with all who suffered, and her tenderness went out to the children and to the poor. She felt as though she were their sister, as though she had been born among them. Later, when she was accused of having encour- aged this adoration of the people, she answered simply: "Many people were anxious to see me, but I kept them as best I could from kissing my hands. The poor came to me naturally because I did not offend them." * * * After the coronation at Rheims, Jeanne wanted to set out at once for Paris and take the capital of the kingdom. The King was uncertain, and his hesitation gave the English time to prepare JEANNE D'ARC 71 their defense. Their first attack was repulsed; Jeanne was wounded by a lance which pierced her thigh. They had to carry her by force from the ramparts in order to make her desist from fighting. The following day the King insisted that the attack should not be resumed. The King was not so brave as Jeanne, and this enforced surrender was overwhelming for her. Jeanne d'Arc is taken prisoner by the English at Compiegne. From that moment she ceased to appear invinc- ible in the eyes of all. And it seemed as though she felt this waning of her forces. Before leaving the neighborhood of Paris, she made an offering on the altar of the cathedral at Saint-Denis. She placed her arms upon the altar, those arms which until then had known only victory. She prayed for a long time. Per- haps she had the presentiment that her glorious mission was ended, and that great trials were in 72 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE store for her. Yet she made no protestation, and, with her heart as heavy as death, she fol- lowed the King to Gien. The army was dis- banded. The people at court felt that there had been enough of wars. They were moreover jealous of Jeanne and thought it time her suc- cesses should cease. Jeanne could not accept this role of idleness they wished to impose upon her. Abandoned and without aid, during the siege of La Charite, she realized that she could expect no help from Charles VII. Finally, toward the end of March 1430, with- out taking leave of the King, she set out to rejoin at Lagny the French troops who were having daily skirmishes with the English. During Easter week, as she had just been to mass and to communion at the church of Saint Jacques, in Compiegne, she began to weep, hid- ing herself behind one of the columns of the church. The people of the town and the children gathered about her and she said to them : "Friends and children, I must tell you that I have been sold and betrayed, and that soon I shall be delivered up to my death. I beg you to pray for me, for never again shall I have the power to serve the King and the kingdom of France." On May 23, finding herself at Crespy, she learned that the Burgundians were closing down Jeanne d'Arc. This statue, by Fremiet, stands on the Place des Pyramides, Paris. 74 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE upon the city of Compiegne. She hastened thither with four hundred combatants and en- tered the town on the 24th, at dawn. Then, taking part of the garrison with her, she attacked the Burgundians. But the English came to fight her, and they forced the French to withdraw. "Think only of forging ahead, of riding into them," she cried. "It is in your hands not to be overcome." But she was obliged to fall back in the general retreat. Brought to the ramparts of Compiegne again, the French found the draw-bridge lifted and the portcullis closed. Jeanne, driven into the ditches, continued an heroic defense. A whole company threw themselves upon her. "Give yourself up!" they cried. "I have pledged my faith to another than you," she answered, "and I shall keep my promise to Him!" But resistance was vain. Dragged from her horse, she was made captive and though the governor of Compiegne saw them take her prisoner, he did nothing to help her. Jeanne was led to Margny, amidst the shouts of joy of her enemies. The English and Bur- gundian leaders, the Duke of Burgundy himself, hastened to see this "sorceress." They found themselves face to face with a girl of eighteen years old. Jeanne was the prisoner of Jean de Luxem- bourg, a gentleman without fortune, who did not JEANNE D'ARC 75 scorn making something out of his prize. Ten thousand francs was the price paid for Jeanne d'Arc by the English. Nor did Charles VII propose to ransom this captive who had made him King of France. It almost seemed as though those who owed Jeanne the most were now seized with a superstitious terror which made them afraid to show her even common loyalty. She was imprisoned by Jean de Luxembourg, first in one castle, then in another; and though she was always under close watch, she tried twice to escape. The second time, in October 1430, she jumped from the top of the dungeon in which they had locked her. The cords, which she had fastened about her waist, broke with the weight of her body and she fell, bruised and bleeding, at the foot of the wall where she lay as though dead. She was however to recover from these wounds: a more cruel fate awaited her. Her youth, her courage, and her wonderful character were to win her friends even in her prison cell. Both the wife and the aunt of Jean de Luxembourg showed an affectionate interest in Jeanne d'Arc, and tried to make her captivity less cruel. These two women were more con- ventional than their illustrious protegee. They objected strongly that Jeanne should wear men's clothes. They even went so far as to offer dresses of their own or material to make her 76 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE some more feminine garb, but she replied cour- teously that she had not yet been released by the Saviour, and that it was too soon to think of such things. When the English questioned Jean de Luxem- bourg in the hope of buying his prisoner from him, his aunt besought him not to dishonor the family name by such disgraceful traffic. But Jean de Luxembourg was unscrupulous. He took advantage of a clause in the law which pro- vided that the English had the right to purchase any war prisoner, be he King, dauphin, or prince, for the sum of ten thousand francs to be allotted to the captor. The hesitations of Jean de Luxembourg were brought suddenly to an end by the death of the aunt who momentarily had stirred his conscience. On November 13, the King of England, in- formed, deposited in the right hands the value of ten thousand francs in English gold. Just one week later, Jean de Luxembourg had over- come his last scruples and, on November 21, 1430, Jeanne d'Arc became the possession of the King of England. On the same day the rectors of the University of Paris begged this sovereign, whom they recognized as the King of France, to have Jeanne d'Arc prosecuted by the Church. Jeanne was taken, not to Paris, but to Rouen, which was then the veritable English capital in JEANNE D'ARC 77 France. Here she was cast into prison, await- ing her trial. Jean de Luxembourg, moved perhaps by an uneasy conscience, visited the prisoner with sev- eral of the English Lords, the Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Stafford and others. "Jeanne," Luxembourg said to her, "I have come to give you money, and to arrange for your ransom. You need only promise that you will never take up arms against us again." "In the name of God," Jeanne answered, "you are making fun of me, I suppose? You want to ransom me? You have neither the means nor the power!" The Count insisted; and Jeanne replied: "I know that the English will put me to death. Yet, though there were one hundred thousand more God-damns than there are already in France, they shall not have the kingdom!" The Earl of Stafford thereupon unsheathed his dagger as though he were about to strike Jeanne, but Warwick stopped him. The visi- tors left the prison and Jeanne was given over to her judges. Strangely enough or rather naturally enough the Scotchmen who were in France espoused the cause of Jeanne d'Arc. As she was trans- ferred from one prison to another, at Arras a Scotchman showed her a portrait of herself which he always carried with him as a symbol of the devotion which her followers felt for her. 78 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE At Amiens she was given communion by the chancellor of the cathedral. At Abbeville, the noblewomen of the neighborhood walked fifteen miles in order to visit Jeanne; they praised her for her unfailing faith in Jesus, and they wept in taking leave of her. Though her destiny was now to be ever in- creasingly tragic, she was still the idol of those who loved France, and who believed in God. Her trial lasted from February 21 until May 3Oth, 1431. Most of the forty sessions were held in the chapel of the Castle of Rouen, some of them in the prison cell, where Jeanne was at first put in an iron cage and afterward simply chained to the wall. The long and painful inquisition to which Jeanne was submitted by her judges forms one of the most poignant documents of religious per- secution. Not even the menace of torture, when the instruments were placed before her eyes, could force this heroic martyr to confess one word which did not appear to her as absolute truth, nor even to make statements which might in any way compromise those to whom she owed loyalty. Finally, Jeanne was condemned, by the eccle- siasts who were her judges, to perpetual confine- ment with a diet of bread and water. The Church, which considered her a heretic, was satisfied. The King of England and his councilors were not. They were animated by JEANNE D'ARC 79 fear of what Jeanne might do if she were allowed to live, and by a desire to avenge what she had already accomplished. As the trial dragged on, the English, finding that it did not proceed rapidly enough, cried out to the members of the Court: "Judges, you are not earning your payl" To this Jeanne replied: "I came to the King of France, sent by God, by the Virgin Mary. You say that you are my judges? Beware lest you yourselves be in dan- ger. I am sent by God." This sacred heroine was at last condemned as a heretic, an idolatress, a renegade. The sen- tence read that she was to be burned alive on the square of the Vieux Marche at Rouen. "Bishop," she said, addressing herself to her chief judge, Cauchon, "I die because of you." On May 3Oth, Jeanne confessed her sins and took Holy Communion. When she had reached the foot of the scaffold, she knelt and invoked God, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints with whom she had so often been in close and mysterious touch. Then, turning toward the Bishops, toward her judges, her ene- mies, she begged them reverently to have masses said for her soul. She mounted serenely the platform upon which she was to be burned, submitted quietly, while her executioners bound her lest she might escape, and lighted the fagots under her feet. 8o A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE As the flames crept up about her, she died, pronouncing the name of Jesus. Every one was weeping. One of the secretaries of the English King cried out: "We are lost! We have burned a Saint." Nor did the English derive any benefit from the martyrdom which they had inflicted upon Jeanne d'Arc. The French, on the contrary, in- spired by what she had accomplished, redoubled their attack against the enemy, and succeeded in driving him from France. In 1453, tne on ^Y city held by the English, at the close of the Hun- dred Years' War, was Calais. Charles VII organized a strong army for de- fense and, moreover, with the assistance of Jacques Coeur, his silversmith, or what to-day would be called his banker, he elaborated plans for the lasting encouragement of commerce. The banner of Jeanne d'Arc. IV. MODERN TIMES LOUIS XI The son of Charles VII Louis XI was to be one of the most terrible and one of the greatest Kings of France. i Louis XI, the democratic despot. As soon as he came to the throne, he started to fight the Feudal Lords. The most powerful of them was the Duke of Burgundy, Charles, surnamed the Bold. Louis XI, with ferocious tenacity, pursued Charles the Bold to his death. The latter was killed near Nancy in 1477 and Louis XI became the possessor of Burgundy. He added also to 81 82 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE the kingdom of France the provinces of Maine, Anjou and Provence. This gradual elimination of the various hos- tile states within the State was a most important work. It contributed to the suppression of the constant conflict of interests between the nobles and the King, but the methods of Louis XI were ferociously cruel. He was a sort of democratic despot. He affected great simplicity in his dress and in his manner of living. In striking contrast to the Feudal Lords, who clad themselves in gold cloth and velvets, and who surrounded themselves with luxurious splendor, Louis XI wore a short coat, sometimes mended with patches, and a small, shabby felt hat. He was superstitious and always hung around his neck a collection of medals and relics. His greatest friends were his barber, Olivier Le Daim, and his executioner, Tristan 1'Hermite. History records his character as having been hypocritical, vindictive and wicked. He is sup- posed to have promised much and given nothing. He lived in his Chateau at Plessis-lez-Tours, in the Touraine. This habitation, which he pre- ferred to all others, was in the midst of a somber and lugubrious forest; his only neighbors were the crows who lived in the trees. Quite without scruples, Louis XI cast his ene- mies into prison and had them executed, or he shut them up in cages to perish slowly.- The dungeons where he tortured his victims are still MODERN TIMES 83 to be seen at the castle of Loches, in the neigh- borhood of Tours. In spite of his personal cruelty, Louis XI made good laws; he was a revolution in himself, as he finally destroyed the. party of nobles which for so long had been a menace to the throne of France. He died at Plessis-lez-Tours, in 1483. GREAT INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES During this eventful century (1400-1500) which, broadly speaking, marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times, several inventions and discoveries were made, important enough to change the character of civilization. In 1436, printing was invented by Jean Guten- berg, who was born at Mayence. Before this, all books had been written or printed by hand, and they naturally cost such a great price that only the very rich could afford to own a library. As soon as Gutenberg had invented the printing press, great quantities of books were distributed among the people, who began from that moment to study widely. Another discovery which changed the nature, not of peaceful pursuits, but of war itself, was that of the adaptation of Chinese gunpowder to fire arms. After the battle of Crecy in 1346, cannon and rifles were used generally. Finally, the invention of the compass per- 84 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE mitted those of a venturesome mind to explore the seas in search of new continents. Christo- pher Columbus thus set forth upon the Atlantic Ocean on the expedition which, on October 12, 1492, resulted in the discovery of America. This greater activity upon the high seas had an immediate effect in encouraging the commerce of France. THE CHEVALIER BAYARD Charles VIII, son of Louis XI, was the last of the Capetian-Valois dynasty. Married to Anne, the Duchess, he united to the throne, by this alliance, the vast province of Brittany. The great hero of these times was Bayard, surnamed "the Chevalier without fear and with- out reproach." He was born near Grenoble in 1477- When Charles VIII undertook his first cam- paign in Italy, Bayard, at the age of eighteen, distinguished himself as an incomparable war- rior. Two horses were killed under him, but he managed to seize the enemy's standard and carry it triumphant to the King. Alone, single- handed, on another occasion, he held a bridge, over which the enemy was passing. One by one, as the Spanish and Italians advanced, he struck them down, and thus, unaided, he saved the French army. He died on the battlefield in 1524. His last request was that he should be turned about so as to face the enemy, to whom, he declared, he had never shown his back. Louis XII, the next King (1498-1515), was a cousin of Charles VIII, who died without heirs. He continued the wars against Italy begun by The Castle of Blois, one of the most remarkable chateaux in France. his predecessor, and he married the widow of Charles VIII, thus by this second alliance weld- ing the duchy of Brittany to the throne of France. He was good and wise and was called "the father of his country." THE RENAISSANCE The next century (1500-1600), the century of the Renaissance or rebirth of the arts, was of 86 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE great importance in the history of civilization, because of its refining effect upon society. Intel- lectual pursuits were stimulated and religious freedom encouraged. Frangois I who started the Renaissance of art in France. The Kings of France who succeeded each other during these hundred years were all of the same family of Valois. They were: Fran- c,ois I, his son Henri II, and the sons of Henri II, three of whom, Henri III, Francois II, Charles IX, were kings like their father and grandfather. The conflict which occupied the military exist- ence of Francois I, his long struggle against Charles V, King of Austria and of Spain, sur- MODERN TIMES 87 named Charles-Quint, was in reality a secondary matter. The story of the exploits of Francois I are varied and brilliant: defeated by his enemy, he was made prisoner and kept in close confine- ment for a year at Madrid, the capital of Spain. Finally, having signed an ignominious treaty, he was given his liberty. No sooner had he set The vast Renaissance Castle of Chambord, as it stands to-day, near Tours. It was built by Francois I er . foot in France than he again rallied around him his faithful troops. After a first great victory, he was vanquished and, in 1547, he died. Thus the pages of history, which speak only of the diplomatic and military service rendered by Frangois I to his country, are more or less meager. The glory which surrounds his name results 88 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE from his understanding not of war but of the arts which could embellish the peaceful history of the French. The inspiration of the Middle Ages had been spiritual. In the turmoil of incessant wars, men The Castle of Chenonceaux, begun in 1515, partly in gothic, partly in Renaissance style. had found time to lift up their hearts, to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, to found the Or- der of Chivalry. After the action and reaction of battle and of prayer, it was only natural that the French, with their perfect equilibrium, should now yearn for intellectual glory. During the wars which Frangois I fought in Italy, he was amazed at the splendid pictures MODERN TIMES 89 and architecture with which that country is filled. On his return to France he summoned to his court some of the great Italian painters. They decorated the palace of Fontainebleau with fres- coes, which are still in perfect preservation. This was the beginning of the Renaissance, or the rebirth of art, in France. The gifted French sculptors of this time were Germain Pilon and Jean Goujon, whose Fon- taine des Innocents in Paris, and whose beautiful decorations in the Palace of the Louvre are un- surpassed masterpieces. With the same love of literature as of art, Francois I founded the College de France, which, with the Sorbonne, to-day remains one of the greatest universities in the world. The celebrated writers of the Renaissance in France were Rabelais, who satirized the human side of life; Montaigne, who analyzed with deli- cacy the moral phases of existence; Ronsard, the most tender poet who ever sung of love and war, and Calvin, the first great French Protes- tant. When Luther had made the break, known as the Reformation, between Catholics and Re- formists, Calvin became the leader of the Protes- tant party. The influence of Frangois I was from every point of view humanizing, civilizing. The long wars against the nobles had come to an end in the days of Louis XI. The King became the center of the Government, and his Court was the go A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE place around which, subservient to their Master, the warring lords of old then rallied. The Court of France was at that time the most powerful and the most important of Eu- rope. The castles, which for centuries had been fortresses where the nobles defended themselves, became the pleasant habitations of a more peace- loving society. Francois I, because of his interest in the arts, was surnamed "the father of letters." His son, Henri II, continued the wars already begun against Charles-Quint. As in the present war, the menace for France came from the east. Charles-Quint laid siege to the three strongholds on the eastern frontier: Metz, Toul and Verdun. His failure to occupy them rapidly in 1553 was similar to that of the Kronprinz before Verdun in 1916. In 1558, the English also were driven from Calais, which they had held for more than two hundred years. Peace was signed with Italy the following year. THE MASSACRE OF SAINT-BARTHELEMY Henri II had married an Italian, Catherine de Medicis. Her three sons were to reign as Kings of France, at a time when the country was divided in its religious opinions. Calvin, the great French Protestant, had begun to preach the new belief to the people of France. MODERN TIMES 91 Catherine de Medicis, deeply Catholic in spirit, and fearing perhaps the political influence of the Protestants, resorted to every intrigue in order to obtain full power during the reign of her sons, Francois II and Charles IX. These princes, young and with no force of character, are remem- bered for the horrible religious wars, carried on, one might say, under their very windows. In 1572, on the night of Saint-Barthelemy, Charles IX gave the signal, from the balcony of the Louvre, for the massacre of the Protestants. Even women and children were assassinated in the streets. This horrible slaughter of the inno- cent was plotted and combined by Catherine de Medicis, the Queen Mother, who was an Italian by birth. Overwhelmed by remorse, Charles IX died two years later. So this family, which had degenerated from the admirable Francois I to the almost abject Henri III, was to disappear with the last son of Catherine de Medicis and Henri II. Henri III was frivolous; he was preoccupied only about his pleasures and his dress. He died without leaving any heirs. HENRI iv, OR "HENRI OF NAVARRE" The throne thus unexpectedly passed into the hands of one of the most interesting Kings of France: Henri IV, or Henri of Navarre. Brought up almost as a peasant, he used to run 92 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE about barefoot when he was a child, wearing rough clothes, eating coarse food, and playing with the children of the poor. Henri IV was a Protestant. It is easy to understand that, after the religious wars which had shaken France at its base, the Catholic Party was not ready to recognize this heretic King. Henri IV, King of France. Catherine de Medicis. The league of Catholics were so opposed to Henri of Navarre, or Henri IV, that they made him fight for the kingdom which he had inherited from his cousin, Henri III. Though victorious, he did not wish to pro- long the dissensions that were destroying the unity of the country. So he joined the Catholic faith, to which the majority of his subjects be- longed. Immediately, the cities which had been closed to him, opened their doors. The lesson which Henri IV seems to have MODERN TIMES 93 Beginning 1638-40 1637 1630 Dandy Peasants Gentleman. ofi6thcent. 1670 1675-76 learned in this bitter experience of religious con- flict is one of tolerance. In 1598, by the Edict of Nantes, he accorded perfect liberty to the Protestants in the exercise of their religion. This resolution ended the religious wars. Henri IV devoted the rest of his life to the peaceful organization of his country. He en- couraged Champlain to colonize Canada. Aided by a great statesman, Sully, he developed the industries, the commerce, and the agriculture of France. He protected the peasants and founded homes for the poor and hospitals for the sick. There was something great, human and captivating about the personality of Henri IV. When, in 1610, he was assassinated by a miserable lunatic, all France wept for this King, who had shown a great heart, a love of his country and people, a simplicity and cheerful- ness of character which had endeared him to all. The conception held by this man of genius concerning foreign politics resembled in principle 94 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE President Wilson's plan for a League of Nations. Henri IV proposed a grand uniting of Europe in what he called the "Christian Republic." All conflicts were to be referred to a supreme coun- cil, composed of delegates from every State. It is three hundred years since Henri of Navarre dreamed this dream. The unity of France was at that time menaced not only politi- cally from without, but it was threatened by religious strife from within. Indeed the last of the rebellious nobles did not surrender for many years, and the principles of democracy were not to triumph, even in theory, until the Revolution of 1789. RICHELIEU The work of organization which Henri IV, aided by Sully, had accomplished, was not to be continued. His heir, Louis XIII, was but a child when his father was assassinated. Imme- diately he became a prey to the intrigues of an Italian mother: Marie de Medicis, and of her dependents. They soon squandered the econo- mies of Sully. Yet, as always happened in France, this new crisis, which resulted in the uprising of the nobles, aroused the genius of one of the greatest statesmen which France has known: Richelieu. During the entire reign of Louis XIII, Richelieu was the power behind the throne. His policy was to combat the enemies who menaced or retarded the unity of France. MODERN TIMES 95 He determined to ruin the Protestant party, to crush the nobles, and to abolish the influence of Austria. To this end, he began by seizing La Rochelle, which was the stronghold of the Protestants. Richelieu. He left them free to keep their faith, but forced them to surrender politically to his superior force. The nobles he treated with a high hand : those who disobeyed him were cast into prison, or put to death on the scaffold. Richelieu died in 1642, before he had ended the war which he undertook against the Aus- 96 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE trians. To persecute those whose ideals dis- pleased him was not his sole occupation. He was also a devoted patron of the arts; he founded the French Academy, an intellectual and literary body of forty men who to-day still have more prestige than any similar group throughout Part of the Palace of Louvre, the most important public building in Paris. It served as royal residence for 400 years. the world. The members are elected for life by the suffrage of the colleagues. They are known as the "Forty Immortals." LOUIS XIV In 1643 Louis XIV came to the throne. He was at that time only five years old, so that the MODERN TIMES 97 direction of the Government was assumed by his mother, the regent, and by an Italian states- man, Mazarin, who rendered many services to France. He had been designated for this pur- Louis XIV, by Rigaud. pose by Richelieu, who had him appointed a Car- dinal. As Cardinal-Minister, Mazarin directed successful 'wars against Austria and Spain who were at that time the arch-enemies of France. These were ended with the signing of a peace favorable to France. The two military heroes of the day were Conde and Turenne. But 98 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Mazarin was not liked by the people, and a civil war, called the Fronde, broke out in Paris. Mazarin was stronger than those who op- posed him. The most gifted military General, the Prince of Conde, a Frondeur, rather than yield to Mazarin, whom he hated, passed over to the Spanish and led an army against France. The Right wing of the Palace of Versailles, seen from the court- yard, built by Louis XIV (1661-1710). Near Dunkirk, in 1658, he was defeated by the other great 'General of the hour, Turenne. Spain asked for peace and again a treaty fa- vorable to France was concluded. The final acquisitions of territory restored to France by these two treaties, signed 'toward the middle of the iyth century, completed the unity of the kingdom for which the French had been struggling for so many centuries, for over a thou- sand years in fact. MODERN TIMES 99 In 1 66 1, at the death of Cardinal Mazarin, Louis XIV became the absolute monarch of France, which was the most powerful State in Europe. There was scarcely a time, however, during the reign of Louis XIV, when he was not at war with some power: his first campaign was under- The Left wing of the Palace of Versailles seen from the court- yard. About 10,000 people could dwell in this royal residence. taken in 1668 against the Spanish, who were forced to give up Flanders to the French. The second war, which lasted for six years (1672- 1678), was fought by most of the powers of Europe England, Spain and Germany against France, whose army triumphed on land as did her fleet on sea. The important province of Franche-Comte was added to the royal domains. In 1688 another war broke out. Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes (1685) whereby ioo A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Henri IV had permitted the Protestants to freely practice their religion. The Protestant Hugue- nots left France in great numbers, and the war which resulted lasted nine years. The French were defeated at last on the sea, and the only advantage they obtained on land was the at- tribution, when peace was signed, of the city of Strasburg. The Prince of Conde. Turenne. Still another war was undertaken in 1701. The King of England, William III, formed an alliance with Holland, Prussia, Austria, Portu- gal, Sweden and Savoy. France's only ally was Bavaria, and this struggle dragged on for twelve years. Finally, in 1713, a peace was signed, dis- astrous to the French. The following year Louis XIV died at Ver- sailles. He had been for seventy-two years on the throne of France and he left the kingdom, in spite of the depletion caused by incessant wars. MODERN TIMES 101 greater from every point of view than when he came into power. Pierre Corneille. The constant campaigns on land and sea called forth the military and naval genius of many ardent patriots. Turenne, Conde, Villars, Lux- embourg, the names of these generals and of the La Fontaine. Moliere. admirals Duquesne, Tourville, and the corsair Jean Bart, are renowned in history. 102 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Yet it is not the exploits of the army during the reign of Louis XIV which have remained of last- ing interest to humanity. It is the progress made in the arts, in literature, in architecture, in the industrial arts and in the forms of social inter- course. To be sure, bath-tubs were still rare in those days and steam heat and modern plumbing had not been invented. Civilization, however, has not surpassed the perfection then reached in cooking, in house-furnishing, in moral refinement, in the entertainment of friends, in worldly con- duct, in politeness and courtesy, in the grace of all human relations. The art of living, as it was practiced at the Court of Louis XIV, in his palace at Versailles, remains an example to the rest of the world. Around this imposing King were gathered the great men of France: the immortal playwrights whose dramas and comedies were given at the royal palace before being offered to the public, were Corneille, Racine and Moliere. La Fontaine wrote at this time the fables which have made him famous. The prose authors were Pascal, Bossuet, Fenelon, each of whom has made a characteristic mark in French letters. The architects and landscape gardeners, who embellished the palace of the Louvre and de- signed the palace and gardens of Versailles and the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, were Perrault, Mansart and Le Notre. The painters and sculptors who left great MODERN TIMES 103 works were Le Brun, Poussin, Puget, Largilliere, Rigaud, Van der Meulen. The luxury with which Louis XIV surrounded himself, while it was unscrupulous, was never sordid. An anecdote will give an idea of what one might call the distinguished frivolity of these times. The Prince of Conti, wishing to show his admiration for some beautiful lady of the court, ordered a present for her. Knowing that she owned a canary of which she was particularly fond, he asked some well-known painter to make a portrait of this favorite bird, in a miniature small enough to be worn as a ring. The setting was a diamond cut in such a way that it covered the miniature without concealing it. This stone, because of its size, shape and quality, cost the enormous sum of one hundred thousand dollars. The fair lady, of course, found it too precious a gift to accept. She returned it to her extrava- gant admirer. Thereupon the Prince of Conti had the gem ground to powder. He wrote a despairing love-letter to his ador- able friend and dried the ink with diamond dust! When Louis XIV came to be absolute monarch of France, he made a celebrated declaration: "L'Etat, c'est mot," he said; "I am the State." He had forgotten the two important forces which had been at work in France since the Middle Ages: one, the association of the people in the "commons" for the defense of their rights; the other, the excellent schools and universities open 104 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Lady 1729 1730-40 Lady Abby Dandy Lady and 1702 Louis XV 1779-80 servant 1785 to all who cared to perfect their education. This brilliant and tyrannical king had no thought what- ever for the poor, for those who worked in pov- erty and obscurity. But his indifference could not undo the progress which for centuries had been slowly emancipating the people. Indeed, his unscrupulous extravagance and his ferocious egoism undoubtedly precipitated the revolution which was to end disastrously for the monarchy. At his death, in 1715, Louis XIV was suc- ceeded by his greatgrandson, Louis XV. Like his illustrious ancestor, he was a child of five when he came to the throne. Married to the daughter of a former King of Poland, Louis XV attempted to succeed his fa- ther-in-law, Stanislas, on the throne of that coun- try. This pretension aroused the ire of Austria and resulted in another war, in which England and Holland were once more joined. A treaty of peace favorable to every nation but France had no sooner been signed, in 1738, than a new con- MODERN TIMES 105 flict broke out. England, allied with Prussia, declared war against France and Austria, a war which lasted seven years and which is known as "The Seven Years' War." The Prussian armies were commanded by Frederick the Great. The French suffered defeat on sea and on land. In this long and disastrous campaign they lost some of their most important colonies and the better part of their fleet. When Louis XV first came to the throne he was called "the beautiful." All the hopes cen- tered in him met with deception. His excessive selfishness amounted to a vice. His desire for pleasure and diversion, whatever the cost, domi- nated his preoccupations for his country. When at last, in 1774, he died of small-pox at Versailles, there was general rejoicing. THE PHILOSOPHERS Little by little the power had for centuries been accumulating in the hands of the monarch; now it had become so much greater that the King him- self felt that it was soon to escape him. The spirit of independence, the love of learning and of truth among the people were to make them- selves felt. In the days of Louis XV and of Louis XVI the dominating influence was not that of the kings; it was the philosophers, the learned men, who were listened to with conviction; the French thinkers of the eighteenth century formu- io6 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE lated the program of human liberty which the masses were to execute in the unfortunately vio- lent form of a revolution. The writers of genius during the reign of Louis XV were Voltaire, who ridiculed all that was not human; Rousseau, who, in a most arti- ficial society, made nature fashionable; Montes- J.-J. Rousseau. Voltaire, statue by Houdon. quieu, who wrote about foreign lands and theo- rized about modern law; Buff on, whose love of animals has made him celebrated. All of these men were opposed to the monarchical system, whereby the King, the nobility and the clergy claimed extravagant privileges merely through right of birth. Politeness is such an essential of French life and of the French mind, that these independent thinkers did not openly attack the King and his MODERN TIMES 107 somewhat dissolute courtiers. They wrote satires with the most delicate wit, they made fun of all that was not fraternal and democratic in the cus- toms of the day. Science had also begun to be discussed: Lavois- ier was the first great chemist; Montgolfier in- vented the balloon. But even in these more arid branches of knowledge the French never con- Montesquieu. Lavoisier. sidered study the end and object of existence; they considered learning as a means of making life itself better and more just for all. So the great lesson became apparent, that it was not Kings with their vast fortunes and their absolute power, presumably bestowed upon them by divine right, who were to remain the inevitable masters. As long as the monarch served the in- terests of the nation by seeking to unite unde'r a single government the various warring elements which threatened to divide the land, so long was io8 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE the King a useful representative of popular jus- tice. But, when the unity of France was estab- lished and when, his work accomplished, the King had, so to speak, become a man of leisure, who sought only his own pleasure, then he could no longer hold the foremost place in the thoughts or in the feelings of his people. The breach which had widened for centuries between the sov- ereign and his subjects was filled now by the con- structive ideas of the great thinkers, whose minds and hearts, brilliant and human, made clear and possible the way to emancipation. Louis XVI, and his Austrian wife, Marie- Antoinette, who succeeded Louis XV, were more and more indifferent to the poignant truths of ex- istence; they felt more and more lightly the re- sponsibilities of their heavy charge. The frivol- ity of the Court became scandalous; the taxes imposed upon the middle and lower classes were overwhelming. The cost of the King's Guard, composed of 9,050 men, amounted to almost 8,000,000 fr. a year. There were 1857 horses and 217 carriages in the stables. To look after them 1458 persons were employed whose liveries alone cost 500,000 fr., bringing the total for rid- ing and driving to over six million francs. Fur- ther astounding items are: 3,660,491 fr. for the table expenses, 300,000 fr. for wines, and an extra million a year for fish and game ! V. THE REVOLUTION CAUSES AND OUTBREAK Men whose minds are free can never be made the slaves of any one. Moreover, the French themselves- were the first to use the motto: "Ridi- cule kills." The principles of the Court were dis- Benjamin Franklin. solute; what reason remained for respecting the King and his courtiers? The terrible reaction which, during the reign of Louis XVI, spread like wild-fire over France, ended in the bloodiest of revolutions. Before the first acts of violence were accomplished there was a movement for freedom in France, which directly affected the United States. 109 i io A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE While Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were still at the Court of Versailles, they were visited by the incomparable Benjamin Franklin and by other statesmen, Silas Deane, John Jay, etc., who roused the interest of France in the cause of American liberty. The greatest impulse was given at this time to our struggling Yankee armies by the young Marquis de Lafayette. He was sup- Rochambeau. Lafayette. ping at Metz with the brother of the King of England, when he heard of the revolt of the American colonies. His decision was prompt: a new people were fighting for freedom, he wished to go at once to their aid. As soon as possible, al- though he was only nineteen, already married, a father, and entrusted with an important office at Court, he left France, setting sail for America with troops and supplies. This was only a be- ginning of the vast assistance which was given to LAFAYETTE ei WASHINGTON Lafayette and Washington. This monument stands on the Place des fitats-Unis, in Paris. Ill ii2 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Washington by the French, by Rochambeau on land, by Grasse at sea, and which actually de- termined the final victory over the English at Yorktown. The group of French noblemen who fought in the war of Independence were ably fitted, on their return to France, to propagate ideas of liberty and freedom. It was too late to influence the King three generations too late. He was going to his ruin, hastened thither by the influence of the Queen Marie-Antoinette, an Austrian, whose faith in God and the royal dynasty were the same. When at last the Court, overwhelmed with debts, had so far crushed the people with taxes that they had no bread to eat, Marie-Antoinette cried out: "If they have no bread, let them eat cake!" The tragic death of Marie-Antoinette on the scaffold and her dignity in her extreme suffering and hu- miliation have more than atoned for her pitiful weaknesses. At last, in 1789, Louis XVI, beginning dimly to understand the folly of his egoism and to fear for his life, assembled the States General (Etats- Generaux). This body of men, which included the nobles, the clergy and the bourgeois, had, as we have seen, been convoked for the first time five hundred years before, in the days of Philippe IV, surnamed "the Beautiful." As the King had assumed more and more power, the States Gen- eral had fallen into desuetude. It was now to be THE RESOLUTION found by Louis XVI that the time for union among his subjects had passed. On May 5th, 1789, the States General was called at Versailles, only to be immediately adjourned. The nobles and clergy refused to sit with the bourgeois, or members of the middle class. The middle class thereupon refused further obedience to the King. They assembled in a Mirabeau. building of Versailles called the "Jeu de Paume" ; there, under the new name of the Constituant As- sembly, they swore that they would not separate until they had given France a Constitution. They proclaimed the sovereignty of the Nation and abolished the privileges of the nobility, they de- clared that all Frenchmen were equal in the eyes of the law, that every man must have his chance to win all the honors he merited to the full ex- ii 4 A P'OPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE tent of his personal ability; they opened to all certain professions which had been reserved for the nobles; they declared that work of every kind, the exercise of all industries, the holding of po- litical opinions and the practice of religious be- liefs should be free. The King and the Court were in violent oppo- sition to these natural adversaries. The final In the hall of the Jeu de Paume at Versailles the deputies swear to give France a Constitution and liberty. clash came on July 14, 1789, when the people of Paris in a general uprising seized the Bastille, a vast prison where, since the Middle Ages, all po- litical prisoners had been incarcerated by the Kings, sometimes for long years, with no other condemnation than the royal displeasure which they had incurred. The Bastille had been mock- ingly called by the people: "The King's Closet." The following year, on July 14, the anniver- sary of the seizing of the Bastille was celebrated, as it is now every year, by the French people. THE REVOLUTION 115 They called this holiday "Federation Day," as it symbolized for them the union of all the loyal French. A National Guard was established in the vari- ous cities throughout France, and the former white flag of the royal party was replaced by the red, white and blue flag which to-day is the flag of the French Republic. The taking of the Bastille, on July 14, 1789, which date commemorates the independence of the French people. The King, perceiving that he had no further chance of dominating the people, and fearing for his life, attempted to escape. He was captured at Varennes, in 1791, and brought back to Paris. This sudden strike for freedom, this popular outburst against autocracy had begun to disturb the royal neighbors of Louis XVI. All the Kings of Europe threatened to invade France. Many of the French noblemen had escaped to other countries and they now enlisted in the forces about to take up arms against liberty-loving n6 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE France. ' Popular indignation against the nobles had increased as this fact became known. But the Constituant, or, as it was now called, the Legislative Assembly, did not lose courage nor alter its determination. On the contrary, it took the offensive and declared war against Prus- sia and Austria. The crowds of Paris marched in a body to the royal palace of the Louvre, they seized the King and Queen, their children and the various mem- bers of the royal family, whom they led in cap- tivity to the Temple, where they were impris- oned. THE CALL TO ARMS Meanwhile an army of volunteers was being formed. On all the public places and squares, platforms were set up, draped with wreaths and flags. Throngs of young men and old came to enlist for the defense of the Republic against the invading armies of the Coalition. The first battles brought defeat to the Repub- licans, but, in 1792, the French troops vanquished the Prussians at Valmy. The national hymn of the "Marseillaise" had just been composed by Rouget de Lisle in Strasburg. It was sung as the blood of the French was shed for the first time in the cause of human liberty. The Legislative 1 Assembly was replaced by the Convention, which formally abolished Royalty THE REVOLUTION 117 and openly proclaimed the Republic on January 21, 1793. This body of men also condemned the King to death. Louis XVI was beheaded in Paris on the guillotine which stood on the Place de la Concorde (formerly the Place Louis XV and then the Place de la Revolution). Rouget de Lisle singing the first time the Marseillaise in Strasburg, by Pils. The effect of this extreme act was twofold : it roused greater hostility on the part of the kings of Europe and in France it provoked civil war. Brittany and Vendee, two provinces of France which had remained loyal to the monarchical regime, took up arms. Lyons, Marseilles, Tou- louse, Toulon, rose up in defense of the Republic. To cope with the ever-increasing confusion in national affairs, the Convention formed a Com- mittee of Public Safety (Comite de Salut Public), n8 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE which thenceforth governed France, and a Revo- lutionary Tribunal, which tried and condemned all conspirators. Any one who was even suspected of hostility to the Republic was sent immediately to the scaffold. The Queen, Marie-Antoinette, the sister of Louis XVI, Madame Elizabeth, the Royalist deputies of the Gironde, and thousands of others perished, one after the other, on the guillotine. Indeed, during the period which is known as the Reign of Terror the members of the Revolutionary Tribunal suspected each other: Robespierre condemned Danton, whom he con- sidered too moderate in his opinions, but a coali- tion of the liberals with a part of the extremists in turn condemned Robespierre to death. At least ten thousand victims perished during these terrible months of the Terror, which lasted from June 2, 1793, until Robespierre had lost his head on the guillotine, on July 17, 1794. The price paid for liberty was dear indeed. Many innocent women, many fine men had been beheaded simply because, by birth, they belonged to the Royalist party. But the war was not one against persons, it was in opposition to the prin- ciple of autocracy. In the days of the kings it had been established that the heir to the throne was sovereign by Divine Right. His coronation had always been celebrated with the solemnity of a Holy Sacrament. The Archbishop of Rheims, as the representative of God, had placed the crown upon the head of the king, declaring: "Re- The Volunteers, by Rude. This high-relief is part of the decoration of the Arc de Triomphe de 1'fitoile in Paris. An engraving of it is given to the family of every French soldier killed during the war. 119 120 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE ceive this crown, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." The last kings had proved far from worthy of this spiritual heritage. It was inevitable that it should be taken from them, and that the mystery which had surrounded all these ceremonies should be dissipated. The divine right of every man, according to the tenets of the new republic, was not that he should, by the mere accident of birth, be a king, but that he should feel his responsibilities as a living, hu- man conscience. Thus, whatever the violence and even the brutality which the members of the Convention had been obliged to show, the Republic had come to life, and never again, in spite of its many ad- ventures and its numerous enemies, was it to be entirely crushed. The new spirit with which the troops were now animated, though they were insufficiently nour- ished and clad in rags, gave them victory all along the line. Commanded by Hoche, Marceau, and other young generals of extraordinary military genius, at Wattignies and at Fleurus they van- quished the European Powers who were fighting against them and who were forced at last, in 1795, to ask for peace. The civil war also had been brought to an end by General Hoche, who gained a decisive victory over the province of Vendee. Immediately realizing that the great misfor- tunes of any country are brought about by igno- Ill 2 > 5 THE REVOLUTION 121 1790 1794 1797 "Incredible" tst Empire "Marvellous" 1827 ranee, the Convention began to organize primary schools, high schools and normal schools. Slav- ery was abolished in the French colonies, a sys- tem of weights and measures was established, a project was elaborated for a new Civil Code. It became necessary to give the government a more definite form than that which had sufficed during the Revolution. In 1795 the Convention was therefore replaced by a Directory composed of five members who were aided in their task by two assemblies: the Council of the Ancients and the Council of the Five Hundred. But the troubles of France were not over: England and Austria had not wanted to make peace with her after the Battle of Fleurus. In such days of unending wars it was natural that a military genius should reveal himself. Almost as soon as the man who was to occupy Europe with his exploits, took command of an army, his officers declared: "We have found our master." 122 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE BONAPARTE Born in Corsica in 1769, Bonaparte was now twenty-six years old. He had made his way in the world by his natural gifts. At the age of nine he had won a prize which gave him the right Bonaparte crossing the Alps. to continue his studies at a military school in France. At fifteen he was designated for the Military School of Paris, where his talents at- tracted attention. At the age of twenty-four, after his gallant conduct during the siege which the English had laid before Toulon, he had been made General. Now he was to undertake a bril- THE REVOLUTION 123 liant campaign against the Austrians, who were established in Italy. He beat them in half a The i8th of Brumaire (November 9, 1799) after the painting by Bouchot. dozen places and finally, in 1797, peace was signed. The exercise of his talents in the defense of France had given Bonaparte a longing for con- quest. He determined to occupy Egypt in order 124 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE to keep the English from the direct route to In- dia, where they possessed vast colonies. This was the beginning of the great Napoleonic cam- paigns, the long struggle between Napoleon and the English, which was to end for him in disaster and exile. Bonaparte, for he was still Bonaparte, and not yet Napoleon, was victorious in Egypt. He seized Cairo, the capital, but during these successful exploits on land, the French fleet was destroyed and the European Powers were once more form- ing a Coalition, in which England wished to in- clude Russia, Austria, Turkey, the kingdoms of Naples and Sardinia. Leaving his Egyptian army in the command of Kleber, Bonaparte returned to Paris, and there, making a sudden strike for power, he overthrew the Directory and, on November 9, 1799, he was named First Consul. The Consulate was to last from 1799 to 1804. Continuing the wars against Austria, Bonaparte finally, after further victories in Italy, obtained a treaty of peace whereby the left bank of the Rhine was restored to the French. In Egypt, however, the French had met with reverses. Kleber had been assassinated and the disorganization which followed was serious. Finally peace was signed with England but France was forced to abandon Egypt. Bonaparte, in 1801, concluded an agreement with the Pope. This Concordat, as it was called, THE REVOLUTION 125 specified the relations between the Church and the State. Many of the members of the Catholic Party who had been hostile to the religious policy of the Revolution, were, by this diplomatic act, reconciled to the First Consul. The personal ambition of Bonaparte was in- domitable. The obstacles which assailed him he converted into so many irresistible reasons for becoming the supreme ruler. Already, as early as the year 1800, an attempt upon his life made in Paris, at the moment when he was on his way to the Opera, had aroused his suspicion of the Republicans. He ordered thirty of them deported, without any previous judgment or trial. In 1802, it was decreed on his demand that the Consulate should be made a life office. VI. THE XIX CENTURY THE FIRST EMPIRE On May 18, 1804, Bonaparte, under the title of Napoleon I, was proclaimed Emperor of the French. Napoleon I, Emperor. Hostile to this new monarch, the English fa- vored the descendants of Louis XVI. War short- 126 THE XIX CENTURY 127 ly broke out between England and France. Na- poleon massed his armies at Boulogne, prepared to cross the channel and fight the English on their own territory. The English, alarmed, induced Austria and Russia to join with them against the The Coronation of Napoleon, at Notre-Dame of Paris, after the painting by David. French. Napoleon, advancing through Europe as far as Vienna, crushed the Austro-Russian armies at Austerlitz. This battle was fought on December 2, the anniversary of the day when Napoleon had crowned himself at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. His soldiers, who fol- lowed him to the end with the intense, passionate attachment that men feel for such a military lead- 128 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE er, had promised that on this holiday they would bring him the flags of the enemy. They remem- bered the astounding gesture of Napoleon at the solemn hour of his Coronation. Though the Pope, Pius VII, was present, as the "representa- tive of God," Napoleon took the crown from him, and placed it upon his own head. Such was the custom of the most despotic Czars. After the defeat at Austerlitz, Austria soon had enough of this conflict with Napoleon's troops. She signed a treaty of peace in 1805. An old foe of France but a new foe of Na- poleon now joined the ranks of his enemies: Prussia. Napoleon beat the Germans at Jena in 1 806 ; he beat the Russians at Eylau and at Fried- land. Finally, in 1807, peace was once more signed. Magnified by these victories, Napoleon's ambi- tion now bestowed upon the various members of his family the small kingdoms and duchies which his armies had conquered. In 1808 he placed his brother on the throne of Spain. The result was a war which lasted for five years and cost the lives of many of Napoleon's best troops. While Napoleon was in Spain, England planned with Austria another war against France. The Austrians were beaten at Wagram and, in 1809, at Vienna, still another treaty of peace was signed. Before his first campaign in Italy, Bonaparte had married Josephine de Beauhar- nais. It was now imperative that Napoleon THE XIX CENTURY 129 should have a son and heir. The marriage with Josephine was childless. For no other reason she was divorced in 1810 and her place was taken by the Archduchess Marie-Louise, the daughter of the Emperor of Austria. The son who was born of this union never came to the throne. By his extraordinary magnetic personality and because of his astounding military genius, Na- The Battle of Austerlitz, one of the great victories of Napoleon's armies. poleon had arrived at the same concentration of power which had brought Louis XIV and his suc- cessors to ruin. His will recognized no obstacles. When he feared that the young Duke of Enghien, a descendant of the Bourbon family, was plotting against him, although he was only Consul, he had this rival arrested without justification, con- demned without witnesses and shot without any proof whatever of his guilt. When his ambitions impelled him to begin a campaign in Spain, he persisted for five long years in a hopeless under- 130 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE taking and he sacrificed the better part of his army to gratify his vanity. When the moment came for him to found a dynasty he repudiated his childless wife in order to marry the daughter of an Emperor. Judged from the human point of view, Na- poleon's life is a succession of projects so unlim- ited that they must finally meet with disappoint- ment. The world in those days, as in these, could not be conquered by mere force. The violent movement in favor of individual freedom which the French people had made during the Revolu- tion, though it had seemingly subsided, was smoldering only. This people who had won their liberty at the cost of a most blood-thirsty reign of terror would not accept without reflection an Emperor, constant wars against all Europe, many of them disastrous to France, and an Em- press in the place of the Queen whom they had beheaded. The very organizations which Napoleon had planned were to turn against him; they were to help the people to establish with greater stability the Republic. It was Napoleon who elaborated the adminis- trative system which is still in use in France. The Courts of Justice and the nomination of the judges, some of them for life, were regulated. The Bank of France was given the unique right to issue bank-notes. The revolutionary committees had drawn up THE XIX CENTURY 131 in detail various legal projects which Napoleon studied and grouped in the form of a Civil Code, or the Code Napoleon. This voluminous work, inspired by the spirit of the Revolutionists, was based on the principle of respect for individual liberty and property, of equality for all, in the eyes of the law. The Code determined the so- The Empress Josephine, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Empress Marie-Louise, second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. cial status of each person, and the conditions necessary to him for the enjoyment of civil rights; it made the registration of births, marriages and deaths obligatory; it regulated the legal constitu- tion of the family, and finally it determined the disposition of worldly belongings, whether by the transfer or sale of property during life, or its bequeathal after death. The Code Napoleon is the basis of French social existence to-day. Napoleon founded the Order of the Legion of Honor as a recompense for those who serve and 132 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE honor their country. He organised the Comedie- Frangaise, which existed already as a classic thea- ter, but he regulated the system of appointment, remuneration and pensioning of the members of this illustrious troop of actors. He established a censorship which stifled the newspapers; their popularity, he believed, had facilitated the spreading of public opinion during the Revolu- tion. These were the works of Napoleon's peace- ful moments, but the wars had not yet ended. Unable to settle with the Czar of Russia cer- tain discussions which he found had dragged on too long and involved too many of his interests, Napoleon, with an army of 500,000 men, in- vaded Russia on June 24, 1812. After successive victories, these troops entered Moscow. The em- peror established himself in the Palace of the Russian Czars. But the Russians preferred to see their city destroyed rather than in the hands of the enemy: Moscow was soon in flames and Napoleon was forced in the early winter to begin a retreat which proved a gigantic disaster. Al- most his entire army perished of cold and misery. This was the moment for the enemies of France to form a new coalition. Abandoning the army in Russia, which was re- duced from 500,000 to 40,000 men, Napoleon hastened to Paris and set out upon another cam- paign against Germany; he was victorious at Dresden, but he lost the battle of Leipzig in 1813, and France was again invaded. Prussia, THE XIX CENTURY 133 taking the lead, persuaded Sweden to join with her. Denmark sided with France. France had now been fighting almost incessant- ly for twenty years. Though she was exhausted, she mobilized an army of 300,000 men, who were at first victorious, in 1813. Austria proposed to mediate, but Napoleon refused this offer, and the Emperor of Austria, though his daughter was Empress of France, joined with the other Powers against Napoleon. A second great battle which lasted three days, October 16, 17, 18, was fought at Leipzig. More than 100,000 men met their death in this battle which was called the battle of Nations. The French were obliged to fall back, fighting as they retreated. His army was practically wiped out. Yet such was the prestige of France that her enemies preferred to treat with her, rather than to fight her on her own soil. The Chancellor of the Austrian Empire was charged by the co-allied powers to propose peace. France, according to this treaty, was to main- tain her natural frontiers, the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. Napoleon refused to nego- tiate. Like an avalanche, the enemies then de- scended upon France. Closing in from the North and the South, the Prussians had soon driven Napoleon's brothers from the thrones of Hol- land and of Spain, where he had placed them. Murat, King of Naples, whom Napoleon had put upon the throne of Naples, which was then a 134 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE separate kingdom, betrayed his friend and his country; in order to save his own position, he passed over to the enemy. Denmark, isolated, was forced to make peace with Russia and England. Napoleon was left with only 60,000 men to face the most formidable coalition which had ever threatened a nation. The enemies were pouring into France from the Pyrenees, from the Alps, from the North-East, from all sides. These overwhelming difficulties seemed to bring new inspiration to the military genius of Napoleon. In January, 1814, fighting in the same ground which has now been disputed for four years, he beat the Prussians on the Marne, at Montmirail, at Craonne and at Rheims; he triumphed over the Russians, the Prussians and the Swedes; at Montereau he crushed the Aus- trians and forced them to fall back upon Troyes. Once more, as in the days of Attila, in 451, as in the days of Von Kluck in 1914, the enemies' troops massed at Chalons, prepared to descend upon Paris by the valleys of the Seine and of the Marne. On March 30, 1814, Napoleon, hasten- ing with all speed to the capital, learned that Paris had surrendered. He was vanquished by his foes, abandoned by his friends; his generals themselves had failed him. The Senate pro- nounced his downfall. On April n, 1814, Napoleon signed his ab- dication in the Palace of Fontainebleau, where THE XIX CENTURY 135 he had once held the Pope as prisoner, and where he had spent the first hours of his imperial ex- istence after his manage with the Archduchess, Marie-Louise. Napoleon, with several of his faithful follow- ers and a few soldiers, embarked for the Island of Elba, off the French coast in the Mediterran- ean, where he was to be kept a prisoner by his enemies. An attempt was then made to restore the old regime. One of the brothers of Louis XVI, under the title of Louis XVIII, became King of France. (Louis XVII was the unfortunate son of Louis XVI ; a child at the time of the Revolu- tion, he was cast into prison, and tortured by his brutal keepers. His final destiny remains a mys- tery: no one knows in reality what became of this heir to the throne of France.) There was a radical difference between the power as exercised by the last King of France, Louis XVI and his successor, Louis XVIII. Louis XVIII, conscious of the transformation which the Revolution had wrought in public opin- ion, did not pretend to be sovereign by divine right; he established a representative government composed of the King, a Chamber of Deputies, and a House of Lords. This measure was wise but it was accompanied by others which were disastrous for the cause of a liberal monarchy: Louis XVIII replaced the red, white and blue flag by the white flag of the 136 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE pre-revolutionary Royalists; he endeavored as far as possible to reestablish the privileges of the aristocracy. As it was upon this very question that the guillotine had been called into action, he could not hope for popularity. Moreover he re- tired the officers of Napoleon's armies on half pay and he gave the places of favor to the nobles who had emigrated at the time of the Revolution. Napoleon, well acquainted with the growing hostility which the people felt toward Louis XVIII, considered the moment propitious for him to attempt a coup d'Etat. He escaped from the island of Elba. He landed on the coast of France near Nice, at Gulf Joan and reached Paris on March 20, 1815. His entry was tri- umphal. His marvelous personality seemed once more to electrify all who came in contact with him. The troops who had been sent to resist him, as soon as he appeared fell at his feet with wild enthusiasm. Louis XVIII escaped to Ghent in Belgium. Napoleon was again the master. His domina- tion was to last for One Hundred Days. Convinced that he could appease his enemies as he had captivated those of his former follow- ers, who had momentarily been untrue to him, Napoleon vowed strictly to observe the treaty which had been drawn up by the co-allied powers. But these powers did not even listen to his propo- sitions. They determined upon immediate action against this man of genius. Bliicher took com- THE XIX CENTURY 137 mand of the Prussians, Wellington was placed at the head of the English. These armies were to join forces in Belgium, while waiting for the Austrians and Russians to arrive on the eastern frontier of France. Hoping to keep the Prussians and English from massing their forces, Napoleon immediately The Battle of Waterloo. took the offensive. He beat the Prussians at Ligny, on June 16, 1815, and was about to attack the English. In spite of the torrential rain which made the roads almost impassable, Napoleon, with his armies, arrived the following day June 17 on the famous plateau near Waterloo. Wellington, who had preceded him, had already drawn his troops up on the most favorable positions: slight eminences gave him the advantage both for at- tack and for observation. i 3 8 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE June 1 8, 1815, marks a never-to-be forgotten date : the Battle of Waterloo. At one moment it seemed that Napoleon was the victor, but the forces of his enemies were The Dome of the Invalides, in Paris. increased disastrously for him by the arrival of the Prussian army under Bliicher. The scenes of this battle are known to every school-boy; the heroism of the French remains legendary. Fighting to the end, the Old Guard, Na- THE XIX CENTURY 139 poleon's Imperial Guard, were rallied to the last man by the resounding appeal of their general: "The Guard dies, it does not surrender!" Napoleon vanquished: these two words seemed a contradiction. On June 22, 1815, for the second time, the Senate forced the Emperor to abdicate. Counting The Tomb of Napoleon in the Invalides. upon the generosity of the English, he gave him- self up to them as prisoner. But they exiled him to the far distant island of Saint Helena, where he died on May 21, 1821. During this essentially military period there were few writers whose names are to be remem- bered, aside from those of Chateaubriand and Madame de Stael. The prestige of these twenty years of war re- mains with the leaders of Napoleon's armies: i 4 o A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Ney, Soult, Lannes, Murat, Berthier, Davout, etc., fourteen field-marshals in all. The only remarkable scientific method estab- lished during such trying hostilities was that of Cuvier, a French scholar, whereby the entire skeleton of a prehistoric animal was recon- structed from a few existing bones. Industrial chemistry made certain strides: Chaptal discov- ered a process for manufacturing alum and salt- peter, for steam-bleaching and for dyeing cotton, or making Turkey-red, as it is called. The first work-rooms were opened by Richard and Lenoir for the spinning and weaving of cotton. These men and others, who perfected minor inventions, were the pioneers of modern industry. After the exceeding grace manifested, during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, in the arts of painting and house decoration, there was a classic reaction, which gave an appearance al- most of military severity to all the productions of the Empire. The groups of artisans who had worked with an unbroken tradition until the end of the 1 8th century had been disorganized by the Revolution. THE RESTORATION It was perhaps inevitable that a second resto- ration of the monarchy should now be attempted. The enemies entered Paris on July 5,1815, fol- lowed three days later by Louis XVIII, who was again made King. THE XIX CENTURY 141 The situation in France was terrible. Defeat had added to the general political confusion. It was difficult for a people to react after so many years of constant war with its attendant miseries and depletion, followed by the victory of enemies who included almost all the powers of Europe. The treaty signed by the French on November 20, 1815, forced them to yield territory in the north and the east, to pay an indemnity of 700,- 000,000 francs, and for five years to support 150,000 enemy soldiers on their own soil. These foreign troops, quartered in the towns and vil- lages among the people who were obliged to lodge and feed them, comported themselves with- out scruple, pillaging even the public monuments and museums. The bitterness felt in some regions by the more conservative of the population caused occasional violent outbreaks. The Royalists laid the blame for the afflictions of France on the partisans of the Revolution and the Empire. In certain de- partments there was almost a civil war. Indeed the ultra-royalist party went to such extremes that the King, Louis XVIII, became alarmed, and took certain measures to suppress the centers of reaction. Finally, in 1818, French territory was evacu- ated definitely by the enemies' troops. But the state of unrest was too deep-seated for a peaceful period to ensue at once. On February 13, 1820, a member of the royal 142 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE 1829 1836 1840 1848 1850 1854 1863 1869 family was assassinated by a workman. The liberal party were accused by the ultra-royalists of complicity in the crime and the freedom of the press and individual liberty were at once sup- pressed. Many secret societies were founded by the Liberals, the most notable among them be- ing the celebrated Carbonari. In 1824, Louis XVIII died and was succeeded by his brother Charles X. During his reign, France took part in the Revolution which Greece was fighting to gain freedom from Turkish dom- ination. France also became mistress at this time of the province of Algiers, in Africa. In 1830, the old revolutionary longing for lib- erty and independence again broke out stronger than ever. Charles X, obliged by the people to abandon the throne, died in exile. He was succeeded by Louis-Philippe, son of the Duke of Orleans Philippe-Egalite, who had voted the death of the King at the time of the Revolution. THE XIX CENTURY 143 Louis-Philippe occupied the throne for eight- een years ( 1 830-48 ) . During this time there was less attention given to governing the nation than to discussing how it should be ruled. Aside from an expedition of 50,000 troops dispatched to help Belgium win her freedom from Holland, and the definitive occupation of Algiers, there was for the time being a peaceful reaction after so many years of war. The direct effect upon lit- erature was the creation of a romantic school. The poets and writers of this period are re- nowned: Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Alfred de Musset, Alfred de Vigny were equally remark- able as poets, playwrights and novelists; Scribe devoted his lively wits to composing comedies which have diverted society for three genera- tions; Sainte-Beuve won a great name as critic and portraitist; Thiers, Augustin Thierry, Guizot, Mignet, Michelet were the authors of delightful histories relating to various epochs of French history. In spite of the broad principles of individual rights which had been elaborated by the leaders of the Revolution, only the rich at this time were entitled to vote. The people intended that every honest French man, rich or poor, should be an elector. The King was opposed to this idea. So, in 1848, a new uprising made it necessary for Louis-Philippe to escape from France. He died an exile. The Second Republic was pro- 144 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE claimed and the nephew of Napoleon I, Louis- Napoleon, was elected President. THE SECOND EMPIRE Three years later Louis-Napoleon overthrew the Republic and, in 1852, he had himself named Napoleon III, Emperor. Emperor of the French, under the title of Na- poleon III. For this coup d'fitat of 1851 Napoleon chose the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz, De- THE XIX CENTURY 145 cember 2, when his uncle, Napoleon I, had scored a brilliant victory against the Austrians. Paris awoke on that bright winter morning to find that the government had changed during the night from a republic to an empire. So radical a trans- formation was not accomplished without some brutality. There were political victims, worse than that, there were innocent women and chil- dren killed in the streets of the city by the sol- diers of Napoleon III, who had determined to establish his authority as emperor. His reign, begun by an act of violence, was to end by a war disastrous to France. To be sure, ever since the days of the Revolution, whatever the regime, there had been a gradual betterment of material and social conditions among the French people. Various enterprises and reforms, inspired by the generous ideas of those who love liberty better than life, had continued to develop slowly and surely. When Napoleon had estab- lished himself as Emperor, he founded a conva- lescent home for workmen, he provided free dis- trict doctors for the poor people in the country, and, in the city, he gave shelters or creches, where mothers could place their babies in safe-keeping during working hours. Old-age pensions were constituted for laborers. Commerce was made free to all, who could follow any branch of trade they chose, the railroads were extended, tele- graph wires were stretched far and wide over the land, the coast was marked out by a system of 146 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE lighthouses; 2,000 miles of highways and 75,000 miles of narrower intersecting roads were built. In 1859 work was begun on the Isthmus of Suez. The piercing of this canal was a prodigious piece of engineering due to the genius of F. de Lesseps, and it shortened by thousands of miles the route between Europe and Asia. 7 F. de Lesseps. Yet, though the French nation and humanity at large benefited directly by these accomplish- ments, the fundamental principle of the imperial government was in contradiction with the French popular ideal. Under Napoleon III the regime was, as of old, one of privilege. The court formed a group of favorites. The chief pre- occupation of the emperor seems to have been to increase the worldly brilliance of France rather than to collaborate with the people in assuming the responsibilities of the nation. So, while an outward grandeur was maintained by this self- THE XIX CENTURY 147 elected emperor, the people at heart did not sus- tain their sovereign's aim. The breach between him and those he governed grew always wider. The French had been "bled white" during the early part of the century. They wanted now to work in peace. Yet during the 18 years Napoleon III occupied the throne he undertook aggressive military expe- ditions in China, Cochin-China, Syria, as well as four important wars. The first of these was necessitated in 1852 by the disloyal attitude of the Mexicans toward the French, English and Spanish. The second, known as the war of the Crimea, was undertaken in 1854 by the French, English and Turks against the Russians, who, it was feared, might occupy Constantinople. The Rus- sians were defeated at Sebastopol (1855). Meanwhile the Italians, as at the present mo- ment, were fighting the Austrians. Napoleon joined with his neighbors and helped to rid Ital- ian territory of the long-time enemy. He himself led an army of 100,000 troops over the Alps and obtained two victories, at Magenta and at Solferino. France, as her reward for this as- sistance, was given the Italian counties of Nice and of Savoy. These years both of active military combat and of lesser military effort, weakened the French armies so greatly that, in 1870, when the war broke out between Prussia and France, the 148 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE French, after seven months of heroic struggle, were defeated. THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR The cause of the Franco-German war can be traced, like that of the present war, to the Prus- The brilliant charge of the Cuirassiers at Riechshoffen. Covering the armies in retreat they were completely annihilated. sian autocratic ambitions. Bismarck had, in those early days, conceived the idea of a "Welt- politik," or a policy which would make the Hohenzollerns masters of the entire world. Previous to the year 1866, Qermany had been a confederation of principalities and duchies, the official head of which was the Emperor of Aus- tria. In 1866, after the victory won by the Prus- sians over the Austrians, at Sadowa, Prussia be- THE XIX CENTURY 149 came the dominating power of the German con- federation. In 1870, as the throne of Spain was momen- tarily without an heir, Bismarck decided to con- fer this heritage upon a Prince of the Hohen- zollern dynasty. Such a decision was not ac- ceptable to Napoleon III. A diplomatic discus- sion ensued. Bismarck, determined upon war, deliberately falsified a dispatch sent to him by the Emperor of Prussia and which is known, and has become famous as the "Ems dispatch." (Ems was the watering place where William, the grand- father of the present Kaiser, was taking a "cure" in the month of July, 1870, .when these impor- tant matters were being decided.) This dispatch, the full text of which is quoted in French popular encyclopedias, showed a decidedly conciliatory tone, and the desire to continue the discussions be- gun with France. As the dispatch, rewritten, left the hands of Bismarck, it could mean only a direct rupture with Napoleon III. The French nation, which little wanted war, still less could tolerate such an insult. Thus war was declared and fighting began on August 2, 1870. The Germans invaded France from the east- ern frontier, obtaining victories at Wissembourg and at Reichshoffen. In spite of their heroic re- sistance at Gravelotte and Saint-Privat, the French were compelled to make a general retreat. Napoleon III was made prisoner at Sedan, and 150 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE shortly afterward the French people proclaimed his downfall. On September 4, 1870, for the third and last time in less than a century, the Re- public was established. After the disgrace of the Emperor the war continued. The Prussians, as to-day, had their hopes fixed upon Paris. Their troops marched on, advancing toward the capital, spreading out on the roads to Soissons, Compiegne, Creil, Rheims, and in the valley of the Marne, where they occupied Epernay, Montmirail, Coulom- miers, etc., etc., finally completely surrounding Paris. THE SIEGE OF PARIS The siege of the capital began on September 19, 1870. By October 21 there were 250,000 Germans outside the gates. Two things enabled the city to make an heroic resistance which sur- prised not only the Germans but all of Europe : one was the remarkable ardor and determina- tion of the civil population, who were ready to make every sacrifice even to that of starvation, the other was the improvised organization of an army of defense. The first humiliating military defeats had de- moralized the generals of the Empire. But the hero of the hour was a man who typified the spirit of democracy: Gambetta. Minister of the Na- tional Defense which, with the republican govern- ment, had remained in the besieged capital, Gam- THE XIX CENTURY 151 betta felt that his services could be of more use in some place where he could display greater activity. He escaped from Paris in a balloon. In spite of the aerial attacks made upon him in his flight the Germans occupied at this time Dreux, Evreux, Chartres, Beauvais, Amiens, Rouen Gambetta reached in safety the town of Tours. Here, with the assistance of able men Gambetta. such as Freycinet, and such as the republican gen- erals, he succeeded, after a gigantic effort, in call- ing together and arming one million men, divided into several armies which distinguished them- selves. They were not, however, able to sur- mount the complications which had resulted in- evitably from a radical change of governmental regime during war time, from a complete lack of unity, and a total absence of organization. On January 28, 1871, an armistice was signed. Paris had been obliged to capitulate. For a long 152 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE 1870 1873 1892 1896 1915 Cyclists Chauffeurs. time, and this during the severest winter in many years, there had been neither food nor fuel in the capital. The trees of the Bois de Boulogne had been burned; horses, cats, rats had become the rarest luxuries on the menus of certain once fash- ionable restaurants which, with a spirited deter- mination to die rather than to give in to the Boches, had kept their hospitable doors open to the public. The bread of the siege, samples of which are still to be had, was kneaded with a mix- ture of bran and straw. The treaty of peace was signed in the beautiful Salle des Glaces (Hall of the Mirrors) in the Palace of Versailles, just outside of Paris, which the Germans had used as headquarters during the siege. From this spot they had, with the same spirit which characterizes them to-day, bom- barded the museums of art and the hospitals of Paris. The terms of the treaty were hard for a proud nation to bear: the French were to endure the oc- cupation of their territory by the Germans until THE XIX CENTURY 153 1906 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1917 1918 they had paid, to the last cent, an indemnity of one thousand million dollars. More cruel than this was the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, the two provinces which were seized and definitely held by the Germans. The French inhabitants had no choice but to emigrate or to adopt German na- tionality, and to speak the German language. French was forbidden in the schools. One of the very principles for which the Allies are fighting to-day is that a victorious nation, victorious through a war of conquest, shall not be allowed to impose upon the people it has con- quered a nationality or a language other than their own. The national aspirations of the Alsa- tians and the Lorrains have never been German, nor in sympathy with German despotism and autocracy. Freedom will be brought to these long suffering people when the final military vic- tory is won over the dynasty of the Hohenzol- lerns. At the conclusion of the treaty of Versailles a feeling of rage swept over France. The people 154 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE had not lost courage ; though they were at the end of many months of war, and though they had been defeated, they paid the war indemnity from their personal savings one thousand million dol- lars i n five months' time. They had determined moreover that, whatever the cost, they would now organize themselves in such a way as to render impossible the return of a despot, however lib- eral. THE THIRD REPUBLIC On March 18, 1871, the people of Paris, who had been the keenest sufferers during the war, proclaimed the Commune and started an insur- rection which lasted until the end of May. The guillotine was not brought into use, but there were acts committed of terrible violence. Before order was established about 30,000 persons per- ished. A Republic was proclaimed which has lasted ever since. The first presidency of the Third Republic was confided to the great French statesman: Thiers. He undertook the organization of the country and was so successful that for a time he was looked upon as the liberator of France. As early as September, 1872, the last soldier of the army of occupation had been sent back to Germany. A government loan launched at this time, and which was the second since the conclusion of the war, was oversubscribed fourteen times. This was only one of the manifestations of the THE XIX CENTURY 155 high spirit with which the French determined at once to react from their defeat. The civil up- risings which had definitely established the Re- public, had subsided only toward the end of May, 1871. It was four years (1875) before a Con- stitution, acceptable to all, had been formulated. Yet in 1878, Paris, like a gracious hostess, opened her doors to the world. The French Gov- Thiers, First President Sadi-Carnot, President of of the Third Republic. the French Republic. ernment inaugurated a brilliant Fair, or Uni- versal Exhibition, in which all the nations of Europe, as well as America and the Colonies, participated. The Palace of the Trocadero, built for this occasion, remains as a souvenir of this revival of industrial energy in France. It is approached by a broad avenue, formerly called the Avenue du Trocadero, but to which the French have now given the name of "President Wilson." 156 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Eleven years later, Paris again became the center for a World's Fair which was opened in 1889, by President Carnot. He was the grand- son of the patriotic Carnot, who had been one of the active instigators of the Revolution. The astonishing feature of the exhibition of 1889 was the Eiffel Tower. It is still the tallest structure in the world, measuring 984 feet, which is almost double the height of the Washington Monument. Throughout the Nineteenth century the rulers of France, whatever the political party to which they belonged, showed an especial pride in beauti- fying the capital, Paris. Napoleon I (1805-1806) erected the triumphal arch which stands at the entrance of the Champs-Elysees. This "Arc de 1'Etoile" is the largest of its sort in the world. On the facade of one of the side arches the carv- ing in high-relief by Rude represents the volun- teers of the Revolution marching to victory. The twelve avenues which lead to the Arc de 1'Etoile were named for the greatest battles and the most renowned generals of the Revolution and the First Empire : Jena, Wagram, Friedland, Hoche, Marceau, etc. Napoleon III, in turn, added considerably to the beauty and to the practical convenience of Paris. Certain of the city's very old quarters still give an idea of the picturesque but unsanitary con- ditions in which many Parisians were formerly obliged to live. Whole blocks of houses were re- THE XIX CENTURY 157 placed during the Second Empire by broad boule- vards, by squares and parks, among them the Boulevards Saint-Michel, Saint-Germain, Hauss- mann, familiar to all Americans. The Paris Opera House is also due to the in- spiration of Napoleon III. Although it seats only 2,158 people, it covers almost three acres of ground and is the largest theater in the world. The sumptuous staircase and the very magnificent foyer are typical expressions of the voluntarily imposing taste of the Second Empire. Another gift for which the world may be grate- ful to Napoleon III is that of the Bois de Bou- logne, a park of 2,250 acres (nearly three times as large as Central Park in New York). The charm of the Bois lies in its stretches of woodland, which make it seem like a small forest at the very gates of Paris. The Avenue du Bois de Boulogne is famous as the rendezvous of fash- ion during the Paris "Season." It is 420 feet wide and stretches from the Arc de 1'Etoile to the entrance of the Bois. At the time of the last Exposition Universelle, in 1900, Paris was again made more perfect by the opening of a magnificent avenue which spans the river and joins the Champs-Elysees with the Invalides. The bridge Alexandre III, and the two Palaces which flank it, are as fine as any con- tribution to modern municipal architecture. * * * In spite of the efforts of the Germans to im- 158 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE pose their point of view upon the intellects of the universe, the most sympathetic figure of the scien- tific world during the last century is unquestion- ably the French chemist's and bacteriologist, Pasteur. Pasteur was born in Dole, near Dijon, in 1822, in a small house where his father made a humble living as a tanner. A few years ago, the Ameri- can millionaire John D. Rockefeller happened to see this house as he was automobiling through Dole. He stopped long enough to buy it and give it to the little town which was proud and grateful to make of it a museum of souvenirs. Pasteur's father had been one of Napoleon's brave sol- diers. He had won a decoration for his gallant conduct on the battlefield. One of the sentiments commemorated by the children of Dole to-day is the love of their great Pasteur for his father and for his mother. Though Pasteur made many discoveries, such as a perfected system for filtering water and for the conservation of beer, etc., etc. he gave these inventions to the public, preferring to die poor rather than to commercialize science, which he believed should belong to all. His most important contribution toward the re- lief of human suffering was that of the vaccine against hydrophobia. Unlike the German bacteriologists who are as- sociated only with microbes, Pasteur was first of all a humanitarian. He believed religiously in THE XIX CENTURY 159 God and he loved his fellow men. The nobility of his character, the serenity of his personality attracted every one who approached him. His theories revolutionized modern science. Pasteur. Victor Hugo. A personage of equal grandeur in the literary world of the XIX century was Victor Hugo. His father, a General in the French army, was a na- tive of Lorraine. Victor Hugo was born in 1802, in the picturesque town of Besancon. For three quarters of a century he filled the world with the beauty of his songs, in poetry and in prose, his dramas, his novels. It is true that the literature of a country fol- lows rather than creates its political movements. Victor Hugo's writings were the expression in fiction of the struggle which had overwhelmed society for a hundred years. He symbolized the conflict of privilege and responsibility. In his 160 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE immortal story, The Miserables, he chose as his hero, Jean Valjean, a criminal who had been un- justly condemned to long years of service in the galleys, but who, once free again, bore in his ever human heart the longing for love. The regenera- tion of Jean Valjean begins through the chance The Great Opera House in Paris. encounter with a man who embodies the demo- cratic and humanitarian principles for which the French have fought repeatedly since the days of their first Revolution. Thus, whether it be in science or in letters, the vision of the great French men never fails to grasp and to become the exponent of the suffer- ing which love and human tenderness alone can remedy. The political Constitution adopted on Febru- THE XIX CENTURY 161 ary 25, 1875, ' ls ^ill ' n vigor. By its terms the President is named for seven years. He is not elected by direct, popular vote, but by the Sena- tors and Deputies united in a National Assembly, or Congress, held at Versailles. At the last general election in May, 1914, there were 602 Deputies chosen. Since the war, there have been no elections, not even to replace the members of both Houses who have died or been killed in action. In peace times, the Cham- ber is renewed entirely every four years. One third of the 300 Senators who compose the Upper House are renewed every three years, the full term being nine years. The principal difference between our govern- ment and that of France is that the President names only his Prime Minister, who in turn has full power to appoint his cabinet officers. The individual ministers, of Finance, of War, of Jus- tice, etc., all take part in the political discus- sions at the Chamber of Deputies, at which they must be' present, even though they need not necessarily be themselves members of the Cham- ber. The President never appears at either House. He promulgates the laws voted by both Houses, and ensures their execution. He has not the right of veto, but he can, with the consent of the Sen- ate, dissolve the Chamber of Deputies; in this case, which has occurred only once, new elections take place immediately. 1 62 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE The President of the French Republic to-day is Raymond Poincare (born 1856). He was elected in 1913. The house in which the President lives The Eiffel Tower. during his term of office is the Palace of the Elysee, in the Faubourg Saint-Honore, Paris. The somewhat restricted personal power of the President is the only remaining indication that the French still feel the lurking dread of a I6 3 164 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE dictator. It is true that the divisions in the two Houses, the Chamber of Deputies and the Sen- ate, are made, not on commercial questions such as free trade, nor on moral questions such as temperance, but on purely political matters, on matters of governmental form. A glance at the House in session shows that class distinction still exists in France as one of the heritages of the system of privilege. The task of those who have directed the des- tinies of the nation since 1871 has been twofold: to maintain the political balance in favor of dem- ocratic ideals, and to determine, legally, the greatest possible social progress. The various in- stitutions of every sort, public instruction, the ad- ministration of the railroads, the development of French industries, the growth of the French cities, stand to-day as the enduring evidence of the nation-wide growth, material, intellectual and moral, that has steadily been accomplished under the fostering guidance of these ideals. The way in which the "poilus" have comported themselves on the battlefield during this war, the presence among them of such leaders as Joffre, Petain, Foch, Maunoury, Castelnau, Mangin, Gouraud, etc., etc., attest sufficiently to the fact that the French, individually and collectively, are great enough to live up to the magnificent ideals set forth throughout their whole long history, and summarized in the watch words of their Revolu- tion: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity 1 President POINCARE. JOFFRE, French Generalissimo, 1914-1916. FOCH, General PETAIN, Generalissimo of the Allied Armies. French Generalissimo, 1917-191? 165 166 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE THE FRENCH COLONIES The French colonies and protectorates are spread about in various parts of the world and they cover an area of about 4.000,000 square miles in all, with a population, native and white, of 44,600,000 souls. The Report of the Budget Commission for 1914 gives the following details concerning the area and population of the colonial domain of France : IN ASIA: SQ. M. POP. India (Pondichery, etc.) 196 273,000 Annam, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Ton- king, Laos 309,980 14,500,000 IN AFRICA: Algeria 222,067 5,563,828 Sahara 1,544,000 800,000 Tunis . 45.799 1,878,620 Senegal 1,250,000 Upper Senegal and Niger. . % 5,100,000 Guinea L T ,arr 1,900,000 Ivory Coast 't5*I i )40O ,ooo Dahomey 900,000 Mauritania J 250,000 Congo 553,030 3,900,000 Reunion 970 1 74,000 Madagascar 226,015 3,258,000 Mayotte 840 94,400 Somali Coast 5>79O 14,000 IN AMERICA: Saint Pierre and Miquelon 96 4,200 Gaudeloupe 688 212,500 Martinique 378 185,000 Guiana 31,060 48,800 IN OCEANIA: New Caledonia, Tahiti, etc | 8,744 ' 81,100 THE XIX CENTURY 167 The French possessions in India, in America, and part of those in Senegal, have belonged to France for about three hundred years. All the other colonies have been acquired since the mid- dle of the nineteenth century. The Ministry of the Colonies controls the administration of the colonies which, however, exercise some measure of self-government. The older colonies have di- rect representatives in the French legislature: Reunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe send each a senator and two deputies to Congress; Senegal, Guiana and Cochin-China each a deputy, etc. (It will be remembered that thus far no British Colony has ever had a representative in the Eng- lish Parliament.) Algiers, the most valuable of the French pos- sessions, outside of France, is considered not as a colony, but as a part of the mother country. Tunis and Morocco are attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, somewhat in the manner of our territories. The colonial army, which has played a brilliant part in the present war, is entirely distinct from the metropolitan army. It consists partly of white, partly of native troops. The colonial troops are recruited principally by voluntary en- listment, but conscription is applied in West Africa when the case demands. Before the War the number of the troops in Algiers and Tunis was about 85,000; in the re- mainder of the colonial army there was a total 1 68 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE of about 60,000 men. It is impossible to state what the figures are at the present date, but every one has remarked the loyalty of these overseas troops, some of them black men from the heart of Africa. They have adopted France as their mother country and they give their lives glori- ously in her defense. TABLE OF THE RULERS OF FRANCE THE MEROVINGIANS Clodion about 428 Merovee, his son 448-458 Childeric I, his son 458-481 Clovis, his son 481-511 The sons of Clovis 511-561 The sons and grandsons of Clotaire 1 561-678 Dagobert 1 628-638 The Lazy Kings and the Mayors of the Palace 638-751 THE CAROLINGIANS Pepin le Bref (the Short) 752-768 Charlemagne, his son 768-814 Louis I, le Debonnaire (the Light-Hearted), his son. 814-840 Charles II, le Chauve (the Bald), his son 840-877 Louis II, le Begue (the Stammerer), his son 877-879 Louis III and Carloman, his sons 879-884 Charles le Gros (the Fat) 884-887 Eudes, Duke of the Franks 887-898 Charles III, (the Simple), son of Louis II 898-922 The last Carolingians 922-987 THE CAPETIANS Hugues Capet 987-996 Robert II, le Pieux (the Pious), his son 996-1031 Henri I, his son 1031-1060 Philippe I, his son 1060-1 108 Louis VI, le Gros (the Fat), his son 1108-1137 Louis VII, le Jeune (the Young), his son 1137-1180 169 170 A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE Philippe II Auguste, his son 1180-1223 Louis VIII, his son 1223-1226 Louis IX (Saint Louis), his son 1226-1270 Philippe III, le Hardi (the Bold), his son 1270-1285 Philippe IV, le Bel (the Beautiful), his son 1285-1314 Louis X, le Hutin (the Headstrong), his son 1314-1316 Philippe V, le Long (the Tall), his brother 1316-1322 Charles IV, le Bel (the Beautiful), his brother.... 1322-1328 THE CAPETIANS-VALOIS (Descended from Charles de Valois, brother of Philippe le Bel.) Philippe VI de Valois (nephew of Philip IV).... 1328-1350 Jean II, le Bon (the Good), his son 1350-1364 Charles V, le Sage (the Wise), his SJH 1364-1380 Charles VI, his son 1380-1422 Charles VII, his son 1422-1461 Louis XI, his son 1461-1483 Charles VIII, his son 1483-1498 THE CAPETIANS-VALOIS-ORLEANS Louis XII (grandson of Louis d'Orleans, brother of Charles VI) 1498-1515 THE CAPETIANS-VALOIS-ANGOULEME Francois I (grandson of Louis d'Orleans) 1515-1547 Henri II, his son i547- I 559 Frangois II, his son 1559-1560 Charles IX, his brother 1560-1574 Henri III, his brother 1574-1589 THE CAPETIANS-BOURBONS (Descended from Robert, count of Clermont, 6th son of Saint Louis.) Henri IV 1589-1610 Louis XIII, his son 1610-1643 Louis XIV, his son 1643-1715 Louis XV, his great-grandson 1715-1774 Louis XVI, his grandson 1774-1793 RULERS OF FRANCE 171 THE REVOLUTION (1789-1792) The Republic 1792-1799 The Consulate (Napoleon Bonaparte First Consul) 1799-1804 THE FIRST EMPIRE Napoleon I, Emperor 1804-1814-1815 THE RESTORATION Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI 1814-1824 Charles X, his brother 1824-1830 BOURBONS-ORLEANS (Descended from Philippe d'Orleans, brother of Louis XIV.) Louis-Philippe 1 1830-1848 THE SECOND REPUBLIC (1848-1852) THE SECOND EMPIRE Napoleon III, Emperor 1852-1870 THE THIRD REPUBLIC The Republic (September 4) 1870 Thiers (President) 1871-1873 Mac-Mahon 1873-1879 Jules Grevy 1879-1887 Sadi-Carnot 1887-1894 Casimir-Perier ... 1894-1895 Felix Faure 1895-1899 Emile Loubet 1899-1906 Armand Fallieres. 1906-1913 Raymond Poincare 1913 A 000 035 927 3