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
 
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