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THE MAKING OF 
 THE NATIONS 
 
 FRANCE 
 
THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS " SERIES 
 
 This volume is the second of this new scries of histories which 
 
 gives in an essentially modern and readable form the story of 
 
 the growth and development of diflerent peoples 
 
 Already Issued : 
 
 SCOTLAND 
 
 By ROBERT RAIT 
 Fellow and Tutor of New College, Oxford 
 
 SIMILAR VOLUMES 
 THE STORY OF THE PHARAOHS 
 
 By JAMES BAIKIE, F.R.A.S. 
 
 WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND 49 IN THE TEXT 
 
 THE SEA-KINGS OF CRETE 
 
 By JAMES BAIKIE, F.R.A.S. 
 WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 EGYPT IN ASIA 
 
 By GEORGE CORMACK 
 WITH 24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND 23 IN THE TEXT 
 
 BURIED HERCULANEUM 
 
 By ETHEL ROSS BARKER 
 WITH 9 PLANS AND 64 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE 
 
 By EDWARD FOORD 
 
 WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND SEVERAL MAPS 
 
 ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, \V. 
 
 AGENTS 
 
 AMERICA .... THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
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 AVSTBAI^SIA . . . OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
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 MAKIE ANTOINETTE. 
 
 Executed 1793. 
 
 From the painting by Mme. Le Bnm, at Versailles. 
 
THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 BY 
 
 CECIL HEADLAM, M.A. f. 
 
 AUTHOR OF HISTOmpS OF OXFORD, CHARTRES, NUREMBERG, y' — ^^ 
 
 f 
 
 AND PROVENCE AND LANGUEDOC 
 
 WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM 
 ORIGINAL PAINTINGS AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 
 ALSO MAPS AND PLANS IN THE TEXT 
 
 i 
 
 4^ 
 
 ADAM & CHARLES BLACK 
 LONDON MCMXIII 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 PEDIGREE OF THE BOURBON DYNAST F - - - viii 
 
 CHAPTKB 
 
 I. ROMAN GAUL ...... J 
 
 II. THE FRANKISH INVASION - - - - - 16 
 
 in. THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE - - - - 26 
 
 IV. CHARLEMAGNE - - - . . - 36 
 
 V. THE RISE OF FEUDALISM - - - - - 48 
 
 VI. THE DYNASTY OF THE CAPETS, AND THE CRUSADES - 64 
 Vn. LOUIS VI. AND PHILIPPE AUGUSTE — THE ALBIGENSIAN 
 
 CRUSADE - - - - - - 81 
 
 VIII. ST. LOUIS AND PHILIPPE LE HARDI - - - 102 
 
 IX. PHILIPPE LE BEL AND THE LAST OF THE CAPETIANS - 115 
 
 <X. THE VALOIS KINGS AND THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR - 131 
 XI. THE VALOIS KINGS AND THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 
 
 {continued) — charles v. (le sage), chables vi. and 
 
 CHARLES vn. ------ 155 
 
 .XIL LOUIS XL - - - - - - . 175 
 
 Xin. CHARLES Vin. AND LOUIS XII. - - - - 185 
 
 'XIV. FRAN501S I. -.-... 199 
 
 XV. HENRI II. - - - - - - - 220 
 
 XVI. THE WARS OF RELIGION - - . - - 228 
 
 xvn.~'HENRi IV. - - - - - - - 243 
 
 XVni. THE RULE OP RICHELIEU ----- 254 
 
 XIX. MAZARIN AND THE "GRAND MONABQUE " - - 273 
 
 XX. LE ROI SOLEIL ...... 279 
 
 XXI. THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV. - - - - 306. 
 
 XXn. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION .... 326 
 
 XXnL THE REVOLUTION ---..- 341 
 
 XXIV. THE CONSULATE AND EMPIRE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 363 
 
 XXV. FROM WATERLOO TO SEDAN .... 386 
 
 INDEX ....... 401 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PRINTED SEPARATELY FROM THE TEXT 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE . - - - . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAOI 
 
 PALEOLITHIC OBJECTS FROM CAVE-DWELLINGS IN FRANCE - 1 
 
 GALLIC ARMS - - - - - - - 5 
 
 VISIGOTHIC OBJECTS FOUND AT HERPES, DEPARTMENT CHARENTE, 
 
 WESTERN FRANCE - - - - - - 12 
 
 THE PONT-DF-GARD - - - - - - 17 
 
 THE ROMAN TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT ORANGE - - - 32 
 
 THE ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE AT NIMES - - - - 49 
 
 THE CATHEDRAL AT AIX-LA-CHAPELLE - - - - 64 
 
 ON THE WALLS OF CARCASSONNE - - - - 81 
 
 THE WALLED CITY OF AIGUES MORTES, NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE 
 
 RHONE ..--... 96 
 
 RHEIMS CATHEDRAL - - - - - - 113 
 
 THE PAPAL PALACE OF AVIGNON - - - - - 128 
 
 A BATTLE-SCENE ABOUT THE PERIOD OF AGINCOURT - - 143 
 
 CHARLES VII. ....... 160 
 
 THE CASTLE OF ANGERS - - - - - - 177 
 
 FRANgOIS I. - - - - - - - 192 
 
 HENRI n. - - - - - - - - 209 
 
 CATHERINE DB' MEDICI, QUEEN OF HENRI II. - - - 224 
 THE ENGLISH EMBASSY IN PARIS ON THE DAY OF THE MASSACRE 
 
 OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW ..... 245 
 
 CARDINAL DUC DE RICHELIEU ... - - 252 
 A bird's- EYE VIEW OF LA ROCHELLE AT THE TIME OF THE SIEGE 
 
 OF 1627 257 
 
 THE PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU - - - . - 272 
 
 LOUIS XIV. ....... 277 
 
 MADAME DE MAINTENON ...... 284 
 
 THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES - - - - - 289 
 
 LOUIS XV. - - - ----- 304 
 
 THE COMTB DE MIRABEAU - - - - - 321 
 
 NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU ----- 336 
 
 LOUIS XVI. -..---- 341 
 
 MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE - - - - - - 348 
 
 LOUIS XVIII. - . . . . . . 369 
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE ....... 384 
 
 Also sixteen smaller illustrations in the text. 
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FRANCE 
 
 ROMAN GAUL 
 
 The primitive races who once occupied France have left 
 signs of their presence throughout the land. The caves 
 in the mountain districts and the river-banks, north and 
 south, still indicate the dwellings of prehistoric man ; 
 the lake-dwellings of Switzerland were probably once 
 occupied by an Aryan race akin to the Ligurians, who 
 subsequently spread over France. Migrating from the . 
 East, this race of dark, small-headed Ligurians found the 
 land in the possession of the Iberians, and, succeeding 
 to their dominion, occupied the great central plateau of 
 France. 
 
 As to these Iberians, the conquering Romans recognized 
 in the Aquitani,* who dwelt between the Pyrenees and 
 the Garonne, a people nearly related to the Iberians of 
 Spain. And still along the southern quarter of France, 
 from Perigord to the Alps, we find traces of the Iberian 
 type, a long-headed, black-haired race as distinct from the 
 small-headed, dark-haired Ligurians as from the fair- 
 haired, long-headed Northern Celts. 
 
 * The Aquitani, after the invasion of the Spanish Vascones in 
 the sixth century, took the name of Gascons, a term of which 
 Basques is a variant, and was applied to those Aquitani who, living 
 in the cantons of the Lower Pyrenees, preserved their own 
 indigenous race and language untainted by Roman influence. 
 
 1 
 
2 FRANCE 
 
 For as subsequently an invasion of German Franks 
 gave their name to France, so, in the second half of the 
 fifth century B.C., invading GaUi, a race resembling the 
 German type, of Celtic origin, blue-eyed, tall, and fair, 
 burst upon these indigenous races, and gave their name 
 to Gaul. They subdued, but did not supplant, the short, 
 dark natives they found in possession. Rather they 
 thrust a Celtic wedge from the North between the Iberians, 
 who were forced westwards south of the Garonne, and the 
 Ligurians, who were thrust south-eastwards, into the 
 Valley of the Rhone. The main body of conquering Gauls, 
 or Celts, occupied, and ultimately dominated, the north- 
 eastern and central plateau of France. Such was the 
 state of Gaul just before the Roman Conquest. 
 
 But before Iberian, or Ligurian, or Celt took possession 
 of the primitive forests which then covered the land, un- 
 counted generations of an unnamed people, in a neolithic 
 age, had raised their monuments from Brittany to 
 Provence. Menhirs and cromlechs, vast upright mono- 
 liths arranged in lines or circles, and dolmens, two vertical 
 stones carrying a flat one, to serve, perhaps, for the 
 tombs of their heroes, remain now as sphinxes which 
 hold the secret of bygone ages,^«id a vanished race. They 
 point back to an era of which history cannot yet speak 
 with certainty. 
 
 To that neoUthic age succeeded the ages of copper, of 
 bronze, of iron, and then through the mists of antiquity 
 we catch glimpses of Phoenician traders on their way to 
 the mines of Spain, and the tin-mines of the Cassiterides, 
 at the extremity of Cornwall. They brought to the 
 Mediterranean shores of France galleys laden with pottery, 
 arms of bronze, glasswork, and dyed cloth. These they 
 bartered for fish and wood. Using the trade route of the 
 Rhone to Britain by way of the Seine, they left upon the 
 nomenclature of the coast towns many indications of 
 
THE FOUNDING OF MARSEILLES 3 
 
 their presence (1100-500 B.C.). Herakles is identified 
 with the Phoenician god Melkarth. The Pillars of 
 Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar), Heraklea, the old name 
 of St. Gilles, and the Phoenician Islands alike record their 
 presence upon these southern shores. And the great coast 
 road* from Italy and the East to Spain, the road which 
 Hannibal trod and Marius guarded, was the old Via 
 Herculea of the Phoenicians 
 
 The legend of the journey of Hercules, making his way 
 from the Straits of Gibraltar northwards over the 
 Pyrenees, and returning down the Rhone to fight the 
 Ligurians, whom he crushed by a heaven-sent storm of 
 stones, and thus formed the stony desert of La Crau, is, 
 in fact, but a picturesque version of Phoenician voyages 
 through the Pjrrenees, Cevennes, Brittany, and the 
 Cassiterides, in search of gold and tin. 
 
 Upon the heels of the Phoenicians followed a colony of 
 Phocaeans (599 B.C.). Bearing with them the gods of 
 their ancestral shrines, fire from the Prytaneum, and trees 
 from the soil of their native land, these adventurous 
 Greek mariners sailed from Corfu, not, as Herodotus 
 expressly mentions, in ordinary cargo-boats, but in armed 
 pentekonters. They were therefore able not only to defy the 
 privateers of the Tyrrhenian cities on the Mediterranean 
 shores, and gradually to follow in the tracks of commerce 
 which the great Phoenician traders had discovered and 
 most jealously concealed, but also to make good their land- 
 ing in the country east of the Rhone. Legend records 
 the story of their settlement at Marseilles (Massalia). 
 Their leader was a handsome and accompUshed youth, 
 Protis by name. His first step after landing was to send 
 a deputation to Nannus, Chief of the Segobrigse, the most 
 
 * The Via Aurelia, from Rome to Tarascon by La Turbie and 
 Aix, extended later from Beancaire to Spain, by Nimes and 
 B6ziers, under the name of the Via Domitia. 
 
4 FRANCE 
 
 powerful of the aboriginal Ligurian tribes who occupied 
 what is now called Provence. Protis, it is said, by a 
 happy coincidence arrived at Aries, the capital of Nannus, 
 upon the very day on which Gyptis, the beautiful daughter 
 of that King, was to choose a husband from the assembled 
 warriors of the tribe. She was free to choose whom she 
 would, but, according to custom, must fill a goblet at the 
 banquet and present it to the youth of her choice. At 
 that banquet Protis was present. The noble elegance of 
 manner and person, the pohshed ease and regular features 
 of the handsome Greek must have offered a striking con- 
 trast to the wild, untutored native warriors. To the 
 amazement of Nannus and the chagrin of the suitors, 
 
 Gyptis filled the cup and pre- 
 sented it to Protis, the new- 
 comer. But the contract was 
 fulfilled ; the Ligurian Prince 
 gave to Protis the hand of 
 ANCIENT COINS OF MARSEILLES. ^^^ daughter in marriage, and 
 
 to the Phocaeans land upon 
 which to build a city. This legend at least represents 
 the historical fact of some alliance between the Greek 
 settlers and the native tribes. But the rapid growth 
 of the new colony soon roused the jealousy of the 
 Segobrigae. They rudely compared the foreigners' settle- 
 ment to a bitch who, having humbly begged asylum 
 in a shepherd's cottage to drop her pups, refused to 
 depart when they were grown and strong. A conspiracy 
 was formed. At the Feast of Flora, under pretence 
 of joining in the celebrities of the Greek festival, the 
 Ligurians introduced into Marseilles waggons covered 
 with green boughs beneath which men and arms were 
 concealed. But the plot was revealed by a young 
 Ligurian woman to her Greek lover, and the conspirators 
 were slaughtered to a man. 
 
THE GREEK SETTLERS 6 
 
 The youthful colony thus found itself embroiled with 
 the native tribes, who had at first proved friendly. The 
 timely arrival of a second Ionian colony from Phocsea 
 (542 B.C.) turned the scale in their favour. For in the 
 meantime the Ionian cities of Asia Minor had been 
 reduced to subjection by the Medes and Persians. Rather 
 than submit to defeat and slavery, the entire population 
 of Phocaea took to their ships, and sailed away from the 
 clutches of the all-conquering Persians. They reinforced 
 the colony at Marseilles, which soon became the metropolis 
 of the coast. Trading stations were founded at Nice 
 (Nikaia), Antibes (Antipolis), and other places whose 
 names recall their Grecian origin. Ere long the Ligurian 
 shores were dotted with marble temples dedicated to 
 Aphrodite or to Artemis. Some of the gods which the 
 Greeks carved and worshipped in them are preserved in 
 the museums of Provence. And upon the land itself, in 
 its beauty and prosperity, we can still see plainly the 
 fruit of the handiwork of the Greek settlers. For amongst 
 the trees which they brought from their native Phocsea 
 were figs and olives, which they first introduced, as well 
 as the systematic culture of the vine. 
 
 Inland, Aries sprang into being ; Avignon and Cavaillon 
 acknowledged the sway of the Massaliots. But for the 
 most part they remained a seafaring people, whilst the 
 Ligurians clung to the mountain fastnesses of the Esterel 
 and Les Maures. 
 
 The fall of Carthage (201-146 B.C.) left Marseilles Queen 
 of the Mediterranean. But the hostility of the native 
 tribes led the Massaliots to invite the aid of Rome in their 
 efforts to quell them. The frogs had appealed to King 
 Stork. Apart from her desire for expansion, the Republic 
 felt that a forward policy was necessary in order to secure 
 the trade route to Spain. The Roman Conquest of Gaul 
 began in 125 B.C. It comprised the conquest not only 
 
6 FRANCE 
 
 of modern France, but of that Gaul which, bounded by 
 the Alps, the Rhine, the Pyrenees, and the ocean, included 
 also Alsace, Belgium, and Switzerland, Louis XIV. 
 attempted, and the French armies in 1794 succeeded, for 
 a brief space of time, in extending France once more 
 to these her broad, ancient boundaries. 
 
 It is not within the scope of this book to trace the steps 
 by which Gaul was gradually conquered by Rome, and 
 then Romanized. 
 
 Between 121 and 58 B.C. Rome conquered and absorbed 
 Gallia Transalpina, a province of which Narbonne was 
 the capital, and which was gradually extended to include 
 all the land between the Pyrenees, the Rhone, and the 
 Cevennes. Between 58 and 49 B.C. Julius Csesar com- 
 pleted the conquest of the rest of Gaul. The fall of 
 Alesia, the fortified Gallic town, and the captiu*e of 
 Vercingetorix, the great leader who had organized a 
 general rising for a war of deliverance, in 52 B.C., may be 
 regarded as the turning-point of his campaigns. The 
 triumphal arch which Csesar erected at St. Remy, by the 
 side of the monument which celebrates the great victory 
 of his uncle, Gaius Marius, over the Teutons and Ambrons 
 at Aquae Sextise (Aix), 102 B.C., records in Roman fashion 
 this great incident in history. 
 
 It was a conquest of the Celtic conquerors. Rome had 
 already been in conflict with them. 
 
 We have seen that a series of Celto-GaUic migrations, 
 beginning about 450 B.C., had ended in the establishment 
 of the Gauls in the central plateau of France. Other 
 migrations had taken place about 400 B.C., when Italy 
 and the Balkans were invaded by the Celts. The rise of 
 the Germans had sent another wave of Celtic migration 
 sweeping southwards in search of lands to compensate 
 them for those they had lost. They had surged through 
 the Alps to be hurled back by Rome, whilst the great 
 
GALLIC CIVILIZATION 7 
 
 nation of the Volsci (c/. Welsh) occupied the basin of the 
 Rhone, and all the coast from Aries to the Pyrenees, with 
 their capital at Toulouse. The Helvetii and Allobroges 
 (Savoy), Cavari (Vaucluse), eto., settled in the south-east, 
 the Boii in the south-west, with Bordeaux for their 
 capital. In the north the Belgae advanced up to the 
 Seine and Marne. So the Celts, hurled back in Spain by 
 Carthage, in Italy by Rome, and in Asia Minor, had 
 settled down in the dominion of Gaul. Their conquest 
 by the Romans now was only the final act in a series of 
 blows delivered against their world-invasion elsewhere. 
 
 Caesar has described the Celts who occupied Wales, 
 Ireland, Brittany, and the Highlands, and then dominated 
 Gaul, as brave, sociable, and of lively intelligence, but 
 fickle, emotional, undisciplined, and inconstant in enter- 
 prise or reverse. These qualities in themselves could only 
 lead to their being crushed by the scientific advance and 
 disciplined courage of Roman civilization. And, besides, 
 the Gauls were divided into nearly one hundred indepen- 
 dent tribes ; they had no organized miHtary system or 
 poHtical unity, but merely rough scattered strongholds 
 to which the inhabitants could flee for refuge in times 
 of danger. Their society was cast in an aristocratic 
 mould, at the head of which was a sacerdotal hierarchy — 
 the Druids — and a small class of nobles, whose privilege 
 it was, as in Greece and Rome, to form the cavalry of the 
 nation. These Gallic noblemen lived in primitive 
 chateaux, hunting the wild-boar through the vast areas 
 of inaccessible forest, jungle, and morass, which then 
 covered the now almost treeless stretches of the land from 
 Chartres and Blois to Flanders and the Ardennes. They 
 held the lower classes in complete subjection, the poor 
 and weak looking to the richer and stronger for that 
 protection and security which the State was not organized 
 enough to provide, and paying in return with service in 
 
8 FRANCE 
 
 peace and war. The lowest rank of this society con- 
 sisted of slaves. Thus Gaul at the coming of the Romans 
 presented many of the features which were afterwards 
 reproduced in the France of the Middle Ages. The 
 Gallic system of independent units bound by ties of 
 service and protection was to have its counterpart in the 
 great network of feudalism later — a decentralized system 
 which was at once the cause and the consequence of the 
 weakness of the State. For the existence of innumerable 
 petty independent organisms involves perpetual anarchy 
 and inevitable weakness. The Roman conquerors gave 
 now to Gaul that unity of State and that strong, central- 
 ized government after which France has been striving 
 ever since. 
 
 The whole subsequent history of France is the history 
 of a struggle to regain under new conditions, and to 
 evolve from new elements, the unity and strength of 
 government which she lost with the fall of the Roman 
 Empire. 
 
 The Gallic warriors, as depicted on the triumphal 
 arches of Orange or St. Remy, were armed with huge 
 wooden bucklers, covered with iron plates and decorated 
 according to their rank. Swords, javelins, arrows, and 
 helmets mounted with the horns of beasts or wings of 
 birds, completed their equipment. They used war- 
 chariots. Immoderate banquets at a round table — the 
 feature which reappears in the Celtic legend of King 
 Arthur — constituted their chief social pleasure. The 
 worship of the waters — ^rivers, springs, and lakes — was 
 particularly characteristic of the Gallic Celts. The 
 famous fountain at Nimes recalls this cult, and their 
 sacred wells are the starting-points of many of the great 
 Christian cathedrals which were subsequently raised upon 
 the site of the pagan shrines. And from Borvo, their 
 deity of water, is derived the name of that Bourbon 
 
THE DRUIDS 9 
 
 family which was to exercise so profound an influence 
 upon the destinies of France. 
 
 For the rest, the organized clergy of Druids held sway 
 through Britain and the North and Centre of Gaul. 
 They believed in the immortality and transmigration of 
 souls, and practised the cult of the mistletoe, an incident 
 of tree- worship, and of Divine Mothers (Bonce Dece) and 
 Fates (Fatm). Their ritual was performed, not in temples 
 made with hands, but in clearings of the immense forests 
 or upon the mountain-tops. Chartres, in the heart of the 
 woods of the Carnutes, was the chief centre of their priest- 
 craft. They were not a hereditary caste, but prepared 
 novices by a prolonged apprenticeship, and elected an 
 Arch-Druid. They exercised authority, not only in every 
 detail of moral and religious life, but also acted as judges. 
 
 Whilst they practised the ordinary magic, the ju-ju of 
 the priest-class, such as incantations, and the sacrifice of 
 scapegoats when their incantations failed, they monopo- 
 lized the elementary science of the age. In addition to a 
 smattering of medicine, they had a certain knowledge of 
 astronomy. Knowledge is power. With the aid of their 
 observations of sun and moon and stars, and their mystic 
 circles of stones, the Druids were able to construct a 
 calendar, and so to advise the farmers who consulted 
 them as to the right seasons for sowing and other agri- 
 cultural operations. 
 
 Rome civilized the Celts of Gaul and made good 
 Romans of them within a century. The provincials were 
 quickly and willingly absorbed into the advancing civiUza- 
 tion, which offered them the advantages of peace, security, 
 a common law, a common language, a commercial system, 
 and a uniform coinage and justice; whilst the Pax Romana 
 was maintained by the long line of Roman legions and 
 fortifications along the Rhine frontier. 
 
 Caesar had conquered Gaul ; the national idea and its 
 
10 FRANCE 
 
 champions had been crushed. It remained for Augustus 
 to justify the domination of Rome by bringing order into 
 the place of chaos. In an assembly held at Narbonne, 
 27 B.C., he constituted Gallia Narhonensis a separate 
 province, thereby recognizing the political fact that 
 centuries of Greek influence and Roman suzerainty had 
 imbued it with a character sharply differentiated from that 
 of the rest of Gaul, a differentiation markedly noticeable 
 to-day in the temperament of the natives of the Midi, 
 and in the physiognomy, for instance, of the inhabitants 
 of Aries. The enlightened administration of Rome, 
 whilst exacting tribute and military service from her 
 subjects, left their towns free to govern themselves. 
 And the towns of the Province (Provence), like Aries or 
 Nimes, soon aped the manners of the capital ; they 
 became miniature Romes, with baths, temples, aqueducts, 
 theatres, amphitheatres, built in part with the aid of 
 grants from the Imperial Treasury. Art, science, litera- 
 ture, followed in the train of the Pax Romana. Marseilles 
 developed into one of the chief cities of the world. Her 
 territory stretched from Andalusia to the Alpes Maritimes. 
 And whilst she retained her character as a Greek mercan- 
 tile republic governed by a timocracy, an oligarchy of 
 notables, she rose to greater eminence than ever in com- 
 merce and in art. The youth of the Roman Empire 
 flocked hither from all parts to be educated in a town 
 which Cicero had termed the Athens of Gaul, and Pliny 
 the Mistress of the Arts. And through this client city, 
 with her maritime stations of Monaco, Nice, Antibei, 
 and Agde, Rome kept secure the navigation of the coast, 
 and the land-route from the Alps to the Pyrenees, and 
 developed the commercial and political resourcea^^f the 
 interior. "^ 
 
 The remainder of Gaul was divided into {\) fuallia 
 Belgica, which included the whole region between the 
 
ROMAN ADMINISTRATION 11 
 
 Saone, the Rhone, and the Rhine ; (2) Gallia Celtica 
 (I/ugdunensis), stretching from the Saone to the ocean ; 
 and (3) Aquitania, from the Pjn-enees to the Loire. 
 
 The pivot of the Roman economical and administrative 
 system was not Paris, but Lyons, which was the centre 
 of a network of Roman roads, and Hnked to the southern 
 coast by the Rhone, and to Britain by the Saone and the 
 Seine. This was the official residence of the Governor- 
 General, the Legate of the Three Gauls, appointed by 
 Augustus. And here, on the little peninsula formed by 
 the junction of the Rhone and Saone, the altar of Rome 
 and Augustus was erected as the symbol of Roman 
 dominion. To this great altar at Lyons came once a 
 year, on August 1, deputies from the provinces of Belgica, 
 Lugdunensis, and Aquitania, to do homage in Provincial 
 Assembly to the fact and idea of Imperial Unity. The 
 provincials readily adopted the worship of the deified 
 Emperors, as embodying this idea, and even of the 
 members of their family before their death. The ex- 
 quisitely beautiful temple at Nimes, for instance, known 
 as the Maison Carree, was dedicated to the grandsons of 
 Augustus when they were still alive. 
 
 The principal task of the Roman Legates was the 
 administration of justice. They went on circuit in their 
 provinces, holding assizes in the various towns ; and by 
 degrees Roman law was everywhere substituted for Gallic 
 law, a systematized, public, written code for a traditional 
 and customary law interpreted by nobles and priests. 
 Gradually, too, Latin, the language of civilization, took 
 the place of the native Celtic tongue. In architecture, 
 the great examples of the Roman builders, the mighty 
 bridges, and aqueducts like the Pont du Gard, the vast 
 amphitheatres, the triumphal arches at Orange or Vienne, 
 the Grseco-Roman temples, like the Maison Carr6e, pro- 
 duced a profound and lasting impression upon later 
 
12 FRANCE 
 
 French artists; whilst the statues wrought by Greek 
 chisels quickly influenced and developed the crude crafts- 
 manship of the pure Gallic sculptors. Just as the 
 provincials desired to become Roman citizens, so they 
 were ever eager to model the institutions of their cities 
 upon those of their mistress, Rome. Municipalities were 
 formed, in which the aristocratic traditions of the Celts 
 were abandoned, and the forms of government which 
 obtained in the Roman colonies were imitated. They 
 were controlled by two annual magistrates (consuls), 
 elected by a municipal council (curia). 
 
 The Druidical hierarchy had quickly lost its prestige 
 owing to the Roman policy of suppressing political associ- 
 ations of this nature. It was now the turn of the cult 
 of Imperialism to yield to the worship of Christ. The 
 Altar of Rome and Augustus at Lyons was replaced by 
 the Church of St. Peter. In later days a general desire 
 sprang up to trace the evangelization of Gaul to the 
 Apostles or Disciples who had learned the Gospel from 
 the lips of its Founder Himself. There was a rivalry 
 between the towns and churches for such a distinction. 
 The name of an early Bishop, like St. Trophimus of Aries, 
 was easily identified with the disciple of St. Paul. The 
 whole legend of the Three Maries, and the miraculous 
 voyage of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary Magdalen to the 
 shores of France, sprang up in Provence.* The exact 
 date of the evangelization of Gaul is doubtful, but it is at 
 least probable that the new religion of Christ was intro- 
 duced by the beginning of the second century. 
 
 By the end of that century a mission from Smyrna 
 had settled at Lyons, where Pothinius, their leader, and 
 many of his followers suffered martyrdom in the amphi- 
 
 * The origin of this legend has been traced by M. Gilles to the 
 monuments erected in memory of Marius' campaigns. Cf. my 
 Provence and Languedoc. 
 
EVANGELIZATION OF GAUL 13 
 
 theatre. A hundred years later another band of mis- 
 sionaries, led by St. Denis, arrived in Gaul. St. Denis 
 was beheaded on the Hill of the Martyr (Montmartre) in 
 Paris, and was afterwards hailed as the patron saint of 
 France. According to the legend, the holy martyr, after 
 his decapitation, walked for two miles carrying his head 
 in his hands. But in spite of persecution the work of 
 evangelization was bravely carried on. The blood of the 
 martyrs was the seed of the Church. By the Edict of 
 Milan (a.d. 312) Constantine proclaimed the toleration of 
 the new creed. Christianity became the religion of the 
 Emperors. They did their utmost to propagate it, and to 
 force it upon the unwilling people of the country, the 
 pagans {pagv^= pays), who, preferring their mixture of 
 Celtic and Koman mythology, clung obstinately to their 
 own rites. It remained for the son of a Roman soldier 
 born in Pannonia, St. Martin, the ascetic Bishop of Tours 
 (a.d. 372), to bring the necessary eloquence and zeal to 
 convert the country districts. Like the daring Roman 
 soldier that he was, he carried the war into the heart of 
 the ancient sanctuaries, living with his disciples in the 
 grottoes of the Loire. St. Martin and St. Hilary, Bishop 
 of Poitiers, were the central figures of a great evangelizing 
 movement, which succeeded in supplanting the memory 
 of pagan gods by the names and emblems of Christian 
 saints,* and occupying Roman and Celtic shrines in 
 rocks and woods, by lakes and fountains, with Christian 
 fanes and the cells of Christian hermits. 
 
 , The organization of the Church was developed dm-ing 
 the foiu-th and fifth centuries. The country was divided 
 into bishoprics, which recognized the preponderating 
 power of the Bishops of Rome. The Bishops, elected by 
 the people under the direction of their confreres, andsup- 
 
 * So Venus Victrix became Ste. Victoire; Bacchus, St. Bacchus; 
 etc. 
 
 P 
 
14 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 ported by an ecclesiastical hierarchy of priests, deacons, 
 acolytes, etc., began to acquire temporal power by virtue 
 of the spiritual authority they wielded, and before which 
 even Emperors bowed. And with increasing wealth and 
 power those vices of avarice, greed, and simony, in monks 
 and Bishops alike, began to creep in, which roused the 
 indignation of satirists and reformers from St. Martin to 
 Rabelais. 
 
 
 50 100 150 
 
 ^m 
 
 GAUL UNDER THE ROMANS. 
 
II 
 
 THE FRANKISH INVASION 
 A.D. 250—510 
 
 A PERIOD of profound peace and prosperity, during which 
 Gaul became more and more Roman and civilized, closed 
 with an era of military anarchy, civil war, barbarian 
 invasion, and the dismemberment of the Empire. The 
 discipline of the Roman armies which guarded the 
 frontiers had weakened as their political power increased, 
 and as the Emperors came to depend upon their favour. 
 Their numbers were lessened, owing to the need of economy, 
 at the very time when the danger of a German invasion 
 was becoming more ominous. New peoples, all drawing 
 from the Baltic coast — Goths, Vandals, Langobards, 
 Burgundians, Quadi, Suebi, Marcomanni, Alemanni, 
 Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Thuringians — were beginning to 
 press upon the frontiers of the Danube and the Rhine. 
 In 253 the Franks (Franci, the Free), who were estab- 
 lishing themselves in the territory stretching from the 
 North Sea to Mayence on the right bank of the Rhine, 
 and the confederacy of Alemanni {All Men), who were 
 settling between the Main and the Alps, attacked Gaul. 
 Four years later came a great invasion, which devastated 
 the land. The Alemanni, pouring down the basin of the 
 Rhone and crossing the Alps, struck down to Ravenna ; 
 the Franks, passing through Gaul from the north-east 
 to the south-west, swarmed over the Pyrenees, like the 
 
 15 
 
16 FRANCE 
 
 Cimbri before them, and penetrated through Spain even 
 to Africa, leaving a line of utter ruin in their wake. 
 From this time forward there was incessant fighting with 
 the Teutons in the Rhine country. In 275 followed 
 another terrible inundation of Germans, who seized and 
 left in ruins no less than sixty of the leading cities of Gaul. 
 The process was beginning again which the victories of 
 Marius had checked centuries before. 
 
 Brave, rude, and fierce, these Germanic tribes had long 
 been threatening to overrun Gaul. But for the Roman 
 conquest there would long ago have been a Teutonic 
 conquest. The campaigns of Caesar had checked the 
 irruption of Germans under Ariovistus into Celtic terri- 
 tory (71-57 B.C.). But their presence had always inspired 
 the political instinct of the Romans with a prophetic 
 dread ; and now, as their Empire weakened , the repeated 
 invasions of the barbarians prepared the way for the 
 extinction of their civihzation and the new life of the 
 Middle Ages. When the Empire was divided, and Con- 
 stantinople became the capital of the East, Rome had re- 
 mained nominally, but Milan, Treves, or Aries had been 
 adopted more usually as the actual seat of the Emperors 
 of the West. The centre of administration drew closer to 
 the threatened frontiers in the North (300-400). But as 
 the barbarian conquest proceeded, the defence of Gaul, 
 as of Britain, was gradually abandoned. Roman unity 
 vanished with Roman peace. During the fourth century, 
 when bitter experience of the barbarian hordes had made 
 it clear that the Roman armies could no longer be relied 
 upon to keep the frontiers inviolate, the Gallic towns 
 began to fortify themselves, shrinking back within their 
 narrowest limits, and devoting their attention to the sole 
 purpose of security. The great Roman buildings, like 
 the amphitheatres of Nimes or Aries, haK ruined by the 
 barbarians, were allowed to remain in ruins or were used 
 
Pi X 
 
 W 2 
 
GOTHS AND HUNS 17 
 
 as bastions and forts. Men prepared for separate and 
 isolated resistance behind impenetrable walls, and crowded 
 into dark and narrow streets for protection. In the 
 absence of a strong and tutelary government, Gaul re- 
 turned little by little to the state of disintegration 
 whence Rome had drawn it.* 
 
 By the middle of the fourth century the great kingdom 
 of the Goths, stretching from the Don to the Danube, 
 had been formed. Suddenly a storm-cloud came up from 
 the steppes of the Black Sea and burst upon them. The 
 Huns, a horde of nomad Tartars, living upon horseback, 
 were a people so barbarous and terrible, with their 
 yellow faces, flat foreheads, thick noses and narrow eyes, 
 and their utter savagery, that they filled the barbarians 
 of Germany themselves with panic. The Ostrogoths 
 submitted to them ; the Visigoths, abandoning their 
 country, crossed the Danube, and, covering the land 
 "like a rain of ashes from ^tna," destroyed a Roman 
 army at Hadrianople (a.d. 378). Advancing south under 
 Alaric, they were soon dictating terms to the panic- 
 stricken Empire. The Teutonic conquest had begun, 
 though the conquerors were long disguised imder the 
 title of allies (foederati). For on the death of Alaric, 
 Ataulf, renouncing the idea of establishing a permanent 
 Gothic dominion in Italy, turned his people's footsteps 
 into Gaul, where they were given land to occupy. He 
 aimed at incorporating them in the Roman Empire. 
 Under Theodoric, as nominal subjects of Rome, the Visi- 
 goths were granted full sovereignty over the land in 
 South- West Gaul, which had been originally assigned to 
 them for occupation only. They kept their national 
 constitution, but were obliged to render military 
 assistance to the Empire. Their territory in Aquitania 
 stretched from Toulouse to Bordeaux, and was gradually 
 
 * Cf. Lavisse, II. i. 300. 
 
18 FRANCE 
 
 extended northwards to the Loire, and southwards 
 until it included the whole Spanish Peninsula. So it 
 came about that when the Huns, led now by Attila, 
 the Scourge of God, burst again, like an avalanche, upon 
 the Empire in 461, they were hurled back by the joint 
 resistance of the Romans and the German new-comers 
 under Theodoric . 
 
 Meanwhile, under the same pressure from the Tartar 
 hordes in the East, the teeming and seething hosts of 
 Teutons — Franks, Burgundians, Alemanni, with an army 
 of related tribes — had broken through the now defenceless 
 Rhine frontier and occupied Gaul. Whilst (i.) the Visigoths 
 were settling in the south-west, (ii.) the Burgundians, after 
 a few years of aimless plundering, found homes in the 
 south-east upon territory which still bears their name 
 (406-410). They, too, were established as nominal sub- 
 jects of the Empire, but really as an independent State, 
 (iii.) The Alemanni occupied Alsace and the Valley of the 
 Moselle. Nor were these the only States now carved out 
 of the quivering mass of Roman Gaul, (iv.) The Ripuarian 
 Franks advanced from the eastern bank of the Rhine to 
 the Meuse and the Sambre, and took possession of Treves. 
 In the north (v.) the Salian Franks, from the shores of the 
 North Sea, advanced and occupied Gallia Belgica from 
 Namur to the Lys, and the vast forest of Charbonniere, 
 and thus formed the great Flemish district^ Germanic in 
 race and tongue, which fills the north-east corner of 
 France . ( vi . ) And the coasts were ravaged by Saxon pirates , 
 who scoured them from the mouth of the Rhine to the 
 mouth of the Loire. When they presently invaded 
 Britain, the British Celts, fleeing across seas, gave their 
 name to the north-west corner of Gaul — Brittany 
 {circa 480). 
 
 The Gauls were for the most part quickly reconciled 
 to living under the protection of their new masters, 
 
ST. GENEVIEVE , 19 
 
 instead of the now effete and burdensome rule of Rome. 
 The invaders, we have seen, had proved themselves 
 capable of uniting to defend their new country against 
 the scourge of the Huns. When Attila had burned Metz 
 and was threatening Paris (451), the inhabitants awaited 
 his approach with consternation. They were reassured 
 by the courage of a brave and holy shepherd gir], St. 
 Genevieve, who urged them to fight, and not to flee. 
 She prophesied that the Scourge of God would leave 
 their town unscathed. The Huns, in fact, passed on to 
 Orleans, where, and beneath the walls of Troyes, they 
 were defeated with terrible carnage by the united forces 
 of the Burgundians, Armoricans, and Visigoths. Gaul 
 was saved, Attila passed on to Italy, and Paris, delivered, 
 hailed in St. Genevieve, this forerunner of Joan of Arc, 
 the patron saint of the future capital. Thus we see that, 
 at a moment when Teutonic immigrations seemed to 
 be utterly overwhelming the ancient civilization, the 
 influence of Christianity was persisting. Amidst the 
 universal wreckage, indeed, the Christian Church alone 
 retained its organization, ready to teach the barbarian 
 conquerors to assimilate much of the culture and many of 
 the laws and institutions of the conquered, and in the end to 
 rear a new and Holy Roman Empire on the ruins of the old. 
 
 The power of the Church was proved in more striking 
 fashion in the approaching struggle between the Franks 
 and Visigoths for the dominion of Gaul. The latter were 
 ruled by Alaric II., a weak and indolent King, the very 
 opposite of his father ; the former by Clovis. 
 
 Clovis was the son of Childeric, the son (?) of Merovech, 
 the son of Clodio. Under Clodio the Salian Franks had 
 advanced to Tournai, Cambrai, and the Somme (431), 
 crossing the barrier of the great fortified Roman road 
 which had hitherto held them in check. The name of 
 Merovech (Sea-born), and the legend that he was the 
 
20 FRANCE 
 
 son of a sea-monster who had overpowered his mother as 
 she sat by the sea-shore, indicate that the Salian Franks 
 drew from the shores of the North Sea. From him the 
 dynasty of Clovis derives its title of Merovingian. Chil- 
 deric, who died in 483 (?), was buried at his capital, 
 Tournai, and there in 1653 his tomb and body were dis- 
 covered. Under him the Franks had tasted of the riches of 
 the country about the Seine and Loire . But it was reserved 
 for Clovis, a fierce, unscrupulous soldier of iron will and 
 vigorous genius, to consolidate the loose confederacy of 
 tribes and families stretching from the North Sea down the 
 Rhine Valley, and to begin the conquest of Roman Gaul in 
 earnest. First he obtained possession of the country about 
 the Seine (Battle of Soissons, 486) and the Loire ; then, turn- 
 ing his eyes towards the Valley of the Rhone, he married the 
 niece of the Burgundian King, Clotilda. Then he crushed 
 the Alemanni on the Rhine. About 494 the struggle with 
 the great rival power of the Visigoths began. The war 
 was carried on, with varjdng success, for many years. 
 
 The turning-point was reached when Clovis, with a 
 political sagacity resembling that of Henri of Navarre, 
 was converted to Christianity (496), and thereby enlisted 
 in his favour the greater part of Alaric's Gallo-Roman 
 subjects, with the clergy at their head. 
 
 The Christianity of Clovis was the crudest form of super- 
 stition. According to the story, he was converted by 
 the piety of his wife, Clotilda, and as the result of a 
 bargain made with the Christian God when he was losing 
 a battle against the Alemanni. His religion had no in- 
 fluence upon his conduct, which continued to be that of a 
 bloodthirsty and treacherous savage, but he used it as 
 a means of salving his conscience. He gave large sums 
 of money to the clergy, and built many churches, in- 
 cluding one at Paris, which afterwards became the Abbey 
 of St. Genevieve. 
 
CONVERSION OF CLOVIS 21 
 
 None the less, the baptism of this " eldest son of the 
 Church " in the Cathedral of Rheims, together with 3,000 
 of his warriors, was not a mere picturesque incident, but 
 an event of supreme importance in the history of France, 
 since we date from this occasion the passing of the 
 dominant race into the fold of the Catholic Church. It 
 was not a question of belief in the revelation of Christ 
 or conformity to His teaching. The other Germans, in- 
 deed, who had entered the Empire — Burgundians, Ostro- 
 goths, Visigoths, Vandals, Lombards — had already been 
 converted to Christianity, but to that form of it known 
 as Arianism, a Unitarian belief which stood, politically, 
 for separation and local independence. They had no com- 
 mon religious organization ; their triumph would have 
 involved the political as well as the religious disintegra- 
 tion of Europe. The only source of political unity to take 
 the place of that which had disappeared lay in the bond 
 of union offered by the Catholicism, under the primacy 
 of the Bishops of Rome, which was now adopted by Clovis. 
 
 Clovis did not strike at once. The power of the 
 Visigoths was not to be despised. But at length, when 
 he had allied himself with the Burgundians, and could 
 count upon the aid of the Byzantine fleet as well as of 
 the Bishops, Clovis, posing as the champion of the 
 Catholic Church, suddenly crossed the Loire, and, march- 
 ing upon Poitiers, met and overthrew the Gothic army 
 (Campus Vocladensis, 507). Alaric he slew with his own 
 hand. The rule of the Visigoths in Gaul was at an end. 
 Clovis was recognized as the Consul, the delegate of 
 the Emperor, the conqueror of the Arian heretics, the 
 King of Gaul. He could even claim the title of Augustus. 
 But the army of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, 
 presently retook Provence ; the Visigoths remained in 
 possession of Septimania, and King Gondebrand retained 
 his independence in the kingdom of Burgundy. 
 
22 FRANCE 
 
 The Franks were clean-shaven but for a moustache. 
 They wore their fair hair brought forward from the top of 
 the head. From a leather belt which bound their close- 
 fitting garments about their waists hung the long sword, 
 the hanger or scramasax, and their favourite single- 
 bladed axe, known as the francisca, as well as articles of 
 toilet, like scissors or combs of bone. They were also 
 armed with lances and shields, made of wood or wattles 
 covered with skins. They were buried, like warriors 
 awaiting a review, in full armour, and adorned with the 
 jewellery of amber, glass, or gold, which appealed to 
 their barbaric taste. 
 
 To this race of warriors the political inheritance of 
 the Roman Empire had passed, and the task of recon- 
 structing its unity. A new society was now to be formed 
 out of a fusion of German and Roman elements. For 
 under Clovis the Franks had achieved, not a mere im- 
 migration, but a veritable conquest. The result, there- 
 fore, was not a mere absorption of the immigrant into 
 existing society, but a mingling of German and Gallo- 
 Roman institutions into a new civihzation. In the first 
 place, there was grafted upon the weakened native stock 
 a young, vigorous, and healthy race, ignorant indeed, 
 but imbued with the proud spirit of independence and 
 self-reliance characteristic of the German warrior. In 
 the second place, the Germans brought mth them, in 
 their political institutions, the elements out of which have 
 been developed modern free constitutional governments. 
 Their national assemblies, and more especially the 
 smaller local assemblies of the freemen of the hundred or 
 canton, with their judicial functions and representative 
 character, bore within them the germ of modern free 
 legislatures ; whilst their principle of an elected monarchy 
 exercised a profound influence upon the destinies of 
 France, until it was lost sight of in the course of the 
 
THE SALIC LAW 23 
 
 prolonged succession of the Capetian family to the throne. 
 In the third place, they introduced an independent or 
 seK-developing system of customary law, ascertained 
 and declared by the courts — that is, by the people them- 
 selves, since the courts were, as we have seen, public 
 assemblies. Courts and customary or common law were 
 alike destroyed when, at the end of the Middle Ages, the 
 adoption of Koman law introduced a more scientific 
 system of jurisprudence, and along with it the maxim, 
 " Si veut le roi, si veut la loi." Just as, through the 
 force of circumstances, the elected monarchy of the Franks 
 was to pass into the hereditary and absolute monarchy 
 of France, so the power of the people over the law and its 
 making was to cease, and be centred in the Sovereign. 
 
 Though these principles are traceable in the institutions 
 of the Germans at the time of their conquest of Gaul, 
 their actual law and the method of its enforcement were 
 very crude. The familiar Salic Law, which dates from 
 the time of Clovis {circa 500), but expounds and explains 
 their traditional law and ancient usage, reveals a society 
 based on the family, including freemen and slaves. All 
 were subject to the royal authority, which was repre- 
 sented in each of the territorial divisions (pagi) by Counts 
 {Grafio or Gomes). The pagus was further divided into 
 hundreds {centence). Each hundred had its court of 
 judgment (mdl), composed of the freemen. But the 
 provisions of the Salic Law indicate, further, an attempt 
 upon the part of the State to substitute the judicial 
 sentences of a court for the private vengeance of the 
 family. It consists mainly of a tariff of fines payable 
 for crimes, chiefly crimes of violence, as was natural 
 in a community of warriors, famous for their courage, 
 whose ruling passion was war. The fines were based 
 upon the fixed value (wergeld) of the victim. These 
 penalties were to be paid to the plaintiff and the State by 
 
24 FRANCE 
 
 the offender in compensation for his wrong-doing. In 
 order to arrive at such a settlement {compositio), the 
 parties must appear before the local tribunal of the 
 "hundred," subject to the royal tribunal. Trial by- 
 ordeal was admitted, and the testimony of witnesses to 
 the good faith of a litigant. So far, then, punishment 
 was taken out of the hands of the private avenger, though 
 it is not to be supposed that law triumphed at once or 
 universally. Roused by a murder or a rape, the Frankish 
 families long preferred the arbitrament of arms, and 
 chose to exact retribution from the offender and his 
 family at the point of the sword rather than to await the 
 decision of a court in obedience to the exigencies of 
 public order. The Gallo-Romans continued to be judged, 
 at least for some time, according to Roman law. For 
 whatever the contributions of the new Teutonic element, 
 still, as many of the great Christian cathedrals rose upon 
 the site of pagan temples or springs, or, as at Loches, the 
 castle of the Valois is reared upon Roman foundations, 
 themselves built upon a rock pierced Avith the grottoes 
 of primitive cave-dwellers, so the society of the Middle 
 Ages rested upon the basis of its Gallo-Roman past. 
 The guilds, the medieval trade unions, for instance, derive 
 directly from the corporations of Roman artists and 
 workmen (collegia). And the administrative machinery 
 of the Romans, in matters of taxation and so forth, was 
 naturally continued by the conquering Teutons, who had 
 nothing to put in its place. 
 
 With the Frankish conquest of Gaul and the growth 
 of the Germanic State across the Channel, the process 
 was completed by which the centre of gravity of France 
 swung northwards. The first development of civiliza- 
 tion in Gaul had taken place along the Mediterranean 
 coast, when the rivalry of the great empires of the South 
 — Greek, Roman, Carthaginian — filled its shores with 
 
NORTH AND SOUTH 25 
 
 the clash of arms and the jingle of the traders' caravans. 
 But as the pressure of the vast Continental hinterland 
 began to develop on the exposed northern and eastern 
 frontiers — a pressure which has not grown less weak with 
 years — greater power was generated where the greater 
 struggle was called for. The chief frontier ceases to be 
 in the South, and the Seine and Loire usurp the importance 
 of the Rhone. The effort of resistance called Calais, 
 Paris, Treves, Rheims into ever-increasing power, whilst 
 Aries, Nimes, Narbonne receded from their proud pre- 
 dominance. The growing need for expansion of the 
 Anglo-Saxon power across the sea could only be satisfied 
 by expansion in the direction of France. First the North- 
 men and then the English came, and by their coming 
 roused the vigour of the people whose fields they watered 
 with blood — Normandy, Flanders, Brittany, Poitou, 
 Guyenne. No civilized country is altogether the captain 
 of its own fate, the moulder of its own civilization. The 
 unity of France was to be promoted by a series of shocks 
 from without ; and it was for these reasons that Provence 
 was finally to be merged in France, not France in Pro- 
 vence . The physical formation of the country contributed 
 to this process. Between the extremes of north and 
 south, which exhibit an extraordinary variety of soil 
 and temperature, of mountain, plain, and river, of 
 tillage, crops, and inhabitants, the centre of France, from 
 Touraine to Burgundy, appears like a connecting-link or 
 nerve centre, with here a dash of the north, there a touch 
 of the south, binding the country into a connected whole. 
 And the basin of Paris, uniform and accessible, in touch 
 with north and south and east and west, through the 
 Rhone, Saone, Meuse, Seine, and Loire, was soon to prove 
 a veritable Carfax of waterways, at a time when the great 
 Roman roads fell out of repair with the fall of their 
 makers. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE MAYOES OF THE PALACE 
 A.D. 511—768 
 
 On the death of Clovis his sons divided his kingdom, and, 
 whilst quarrelling amongst themselves, completed his 
 career of conquest. They seized the kingdom of Burgundy, 
 which had achieved a certain unity and character of its 
 own, and divided it amongst themselves (534) ; they 
 seized and divided Provence, the territory of the Ostro- 
 goths (536). Though unsuccessful against the Visigoths 
 in Septimania, which remained attached to Spain, they 
 reduced the Saxons and Thuringians to pay tribute. 
 Their methods of warfare were crude and savage ; ruin, 
 pillage, massacre, marked their advance ; but they had 
 thus almost succeeded in carving out for themselves a 
 kingdom of Gaul bounded by the limits set by Caesar. 
 This vast heritage finally passed to the sole survivor of 
 the descendants of Clovis — Clotair (558). 
 
 Clotair left four sons (561) — Caribert, Guntram, Sige- 
 bert, Chilperic. Caribert soon died, and his share — 
 Paris and the west — was divided amongst the others. 
 Sigebert, who inherited Rheims and the east, married 
 Brunehaut, daughter of Athanagilde, King of the Visi- 
 goths of Spain ; and Chilperic, who had received Soissons 
 and the north-west, married her eldest sister, Galswinthe. 
 Her he presently murdered, and married his former 
 mistress, a servant, Fredegonde. Civil war soon broke 
 
 26 
 
EAST AND WEST 
 
 27 
 
 out between them, and continued with the utmost 
 brutality for forty years (573-613). There ensued a series 
 of pillages of towns and monasteries, 
 and of intrigues, murders — in which 
 Fredegonde and Brunehaut played a 
 large part — and massacres, which mark 
 the decadence of the Merovingian dom- 
 ination. Sigebert had proved victorious, 
 when he was struck down by daggers 
 poisoned by Fredegonde (575). Chilper ic , 
 left master of the situation, entered 
 Paris. Cruel, ambitious, debauched, 
 avaricious, using justice and Church 
 preferments as a means of extortion, he 
 had yet some pretensions to literature ; 
 he held views on the Trinity, and was 
 so far a feminist as to wish women to 
 inherit land, contrary to the Salic Law. 
 Gregory of Tours calls him the Nero and 
 Herod of his age. He was a barbarian 
 tyrant rendered doubly corrupt by 
 civilization. 
 
 Guntram, who had inherited Orleans 
 and the Valleys of the Rhone and Saone, 
 was called the " Good," because he was 
 free from the taint of Arian heresy ; 
 but he was almost equally cruel, and he 
 was a prey to nervous terrors, such as 
 beset Italian tyrants of a later day. To 
 save his own kingdom he had taken the 
 part of the weaker in the wars between 
 the kingdoms of the East and West, 
 Austrasia and Neustria. For the line of 
 cleavage in the country, which had appeared early in the 
 days of the Merovingian dynasty, showed deeper as time 
 
 STATUE OF FR^D^- 
 QONDE. 
 
 (7n Notre Dame, 
 Paris.) 
 
28 FRANCE 
 
 went on. Two separate kingdoms emerge as the result of 
 these family feuds, and exhibit different characteristics. 
 In the West, where the Franks were few, Roman usages 
 mainly prevailed. Austrasia, on the contrary, was 
 thoroughly Teutonized. And here, at least, the lives of 
 the royal race reflect but too clearly the lives of their 
 people. Crimes were frequent and brutally avenged. 
 Life and property were utterly insecure. Under such 
 conditions a new nobility found opportunities to increase 
 their wealth and power through the possession of land 
 and office, and the protection they were able to afford to 
 the weaker. 
 
 As the Merovingians grew feebler and more ineffective, 
 they bestowed their rights on Bishops, Seigneurs, Dukes, 
 and Counts, in order to keep them faithful to the Crown. 
 Society broke up into irmumerable small groups of de- 
 pendents, clustering round the rich and strong. The 
 State ceased to be the centre of gravity, and a feudal 
 polyarchy began to take the place of Roman centraliza- 
 tion. By degrees the new nobility so formed grew strong 
 enough to threaten the very existence of the royal power. 
 But, as events turned out, they ended, through the rise 
 of the great Carolingian family, in restoring the vojal 
 authority and in founding a new dynasty. 
 
 From the death of Sigebert the line of Merovingians 
 lost vigour and authority. The name of Dagobert I. 
 alone merits some mention, for he was a King who at 
 least knew how to attempt to check the dismemberment 
 of the Frankish kingdom by policy and arms, and who 
 by his victories, administration of justice, legislation, and 
 patronage of the Church, if not by his private life, earned, 
 in contrast with his predecessors and successors, much of 
 the praise which has been showered upon him (died 639). 
 For the rest, premature marriage and precocious de- 
 bauchery quickly sapped the vitality of the Merovingians. 
 
PUPPET-KINGS 
 
 29 
 
 King after King descended to the grave, dying of old age 
 at twenty-five, and leaving sons begotten at fifteen to 
 succeed them. They became mere figureheads, retain- 
 ing by virtue of the long hair and flowing beards, which 
 were the insignia of the Frankish monarchy, something 
 
 RoE'oeTiauy.V Mar bonne o/ 
 
 
 •'J 
 
 A 
 
 MAP OF GAUL. 
 
 Showing the new divisions — Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy and Brittany- 
 which, under the Franks, took the place of the Roman provinces. 
 
 of a sacrosanct character, as the personified Luck of the 
 State, whilst the power which slipped from the hands 
 of these sluggard or puppet Kings — Rois Faineants — 
 passed to the Mayors of the Palace (Major Domus). 
 All the resources and power of administration of the 
 
30 FRANCE 
 
 kingdom were lodged in these officers of the royal 
 household. The}^ acted as the Representatives, then the 
 Governors, at length almost as the Regents, of these feeble 
 monarchs in Neustria, -Burgundy, and Austrasia. They were 
 also the chiefs of the new nobility. Once a year the King, 
 clothed in royal robes, with his long fair hair streaming 
 down his shoulders, like Absalom, might arrive in a 
 chariot dra\yn by oxen to preside over the annual 
 assembly of his people upon the Champ de Mars, and 
 there, seated upon a golden throne, speak a few words 
 to his subjects. But for the rest he would spend his 
 time in hunting and debauchery, living upon the revenue 
 which reached him through the Mayor.* 
 
 The inevitable tendency of an office of this character 
 is to become hereditary, and then to usurp the throne. 
 Grimoald, who had succeeded Pepin as Mayor of the 
 Palace of Austrasia, made the attempt in 656, when, 
 upon the death of Sigebert, he declared his son King. 
 He was a hundred years ahead of his time, and paid for his 
 precocity with his life. But in fact, if not yet in name, 
 the Mayors were now petty Kings, and, as is the way of 
 petty Kings, they warred against each other in order to 
 increase their dignities and profits. At length the Battle 
 of Testry (687) proved the turning-point, when Pepin II., 
 of Heristal,! at the head of the organized nobles of Aus- 
 trasia, established the ascendancy of the Carolingian 
 family as hereditary Mayors of the Palace in Neustria, 
 Austrasia, and Burgundy, and at the same time began to 
 restore the unity of France. The Teutonic element had 
 triumphed over the Roman. Pepin allied himself to the 
 Church, and in this, as in the wars by which he reim- 
 posed the Frankish suzerainty over the outlying German 
 
 * Eginard. 
 
 t Descendant of Pepin I., through the female Hne, and of 
 the son of the great rival house of Arnulf, Bishop of Metz. 
 
CHARLES MARTEL 31 
 
 provinces, he anticipated the policy which Charles Martel 
 and Charlemagne were to pursue to its fulfilment. Under 
 Pepin and his great sons Gaul was given once more a 
 permanent political existence, but this time under a 
 Teutonic race. 
 
 The position of the Carolingian House was rendered 
 secure by Charles Martel. Pepin II. had left his infant 
 grandson heir of Neustria and Austrasia under the 
 regency of his wife Plectrudis. She threw Charles, 
 Pepin's son by a concubine, Alphaida, into prison, 
 fearing his prowess. But Neustria revolted from her 
 rule, and Charles, escaping from prison, brought her 
 to terms, and, after a three years' struggle, united 
 Neustria and Austrasia under the nominal kingship of 
 Clotair IV. He was preparing to subjugate the Frisians 
 and Saxons and other German tribes who threatened 
 invasion, as well as those outlying provinces, such as 
 Alemannia, Aquitania, Bavaria, Thuringia, which had 
 taken advantage of the dissensions amongst the Franks 
 to resume their independence, under Dukes of their own, 
 when he found himself face to face with a new danger to 
 the Prankish realm. In 711 the Arabs had crossed the 
 Straits of Gibraltar. They quickly mastered Spain, and 
 swarmed over the Pyrenees. 
 
 Eudes (Odo), Duke of Aquitaine, was at this time 
 beginning to despair of maintaining the autonomy of 
 his vast duchy in the basin of the Rhone against the 
 onslaught of Charles Martel. He invited the aid of an 
 Emir of the North of Spain, who was in revolt against 
 the legitimate representative of the Caliph of Damascus, 
 Abd-el- Rahman (Abderrahman), and gave him his 
 daughter in marriage. He soonf^>«fi(i that he had put 
 his money upon the wrong horse .fAbd-el-Rahman invaded 
 Aquitaine, defeated Eudes by the River Dronne, and 
 occupied Bordeaux. Slaying and burning, he advanced 
 
32 FRANCE 
 
 upon Poitiers and Tours, the sacred city of Christian Gaul. 
 Eudes found himself obliged to entreat the aid of Charles 
 Martel. He came, to fight one of the decisive battles of 
 the world, at Cenon, near Poitiers. The stake was no 
 longer the independence of Aquitaine or the supremacy 
 of the Franks. The fate of Europe was to be deter- 
 mined upon the banks of the Vienne. It must be decided 
 whether Europe should become a province of Asia.* The 
 decision trembled in the balance. For a whole week the 
 hosts of Christians and Mussulmans faced each other, as 
 if hesitating to throw the dice and to settle an issue so 
 tremendous. At length, upon October 17, 732, the foe- 
 men closed. 
 
 Charles Martel had massed his troops. Against the 
 serried ranks of the Northmen the brilliant cavalry of 
 the Saracens charged and hurled themselves in vain. 
 It was as though the sun of Africa should attempt 
 to thaw an iceberg in a day. When night fell the 
 issue was yet in debate. Day dawned, and the Franks, 
 seeing the tents of the enemy still unstruck, pre- 
 pared to attack them. But when they drew near, they 
 found the camp deserted. Abd-el-Rahman had been 
 slain. The Saracens had fledv^ut they were still 
 masters of Septimania. Repulsed from the north, they 
 concentrated their efforts upon Provence. They seized 
 Aries and Avignon, and from time to time ravaged and 
 plundered Aquitania and Burgundy, harrying the Chris- 
 tians and their sanctuaries with fire and sword. But 
 
 * I think it is an exaggeration to dismiss Abd-el-Rahman's 
 expedition as a mere plundering raid, and to give the whole 
 credit of repelling the Arab invasion of the West to the stubborn 
 resistance of Const antine IV. (677) and Leo the Isaurian (718) 
 at Constantinople. Charles Martel's victory was at least as 
 important as that of Marius and Catulus at Vercellae, and, in its 
 relation to the struggles before Constantinople, may well be 
 compared with the Battle of the Eaudine Plain in its relation 
 to that of Aquae Sextise. 
 
Nettrdein Frires. 
 
 THE ROMAN TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT ORANGE. PagesSandU. 
 
 Probably built in a.d. 21 to commemorate the victory of the Romans over Sacrovir and Florus 
 in the reign of Tiberius. 
 
THE SARACENS 33 
 
 Charles Martel never rested from his task of expelling 
 the infidels from France. It was a task rendered the 
 more difficult by the disunion of the country. Many of 
 the independent Counts and powerful families in Provence, 
 dreading the dominion of the Franks, allied themselves 
 with the Saracens. But Charles pressed on down the 
 Rhone, took Avignon and marched upon Narbonne, and 
 inflicted a heavy defeat upon the enemy outside its walls 
 (737). Then he withdrew, destroying on his way the 
 fortifications of Agde, B^ziers, and Maguelonne, and set- 
 ting fire to the amphitheatre at Nimes, which had been 
 converted into a fortress by the Saracens. 
 
 Two years later, in alliance with the Lombards, he 
 hurled the wave of infidels back from the Rhone Valley 
 for ever. Though bands of Arabs long continued to 
 harry the coast and to maintain themselves in strong- 
 holds of brigandage in mountain fastnesses, such as Le 
 Grand Fraxinet in Les Maures, to which they have 
 given their name, the main issue had been decided by 
 the hammer-strokes of the Frankish soldier. Meanwhile 
 he had subdued Aquitaine. The Frankish domination 
 was established once more throughout the whole of 
 Gaul. 
 
 Towards the end of his life, the Popes Gregory II. and 
 III. solicited the aid of the conqueror of Islam against 
 the aggression of the Lombards. But Charles could not 
 desert the allies who had helped him to expel the Saracens 
 from Provence. The incident, however, is of importance, 
 since it marks the beginning of pregnant relations between 
 the Carlo vingians and the Papacy. 
 
 Charles Martel died in 741. Even he had not dared to 
 assume the crown of the Franks. But on the death of 
 King Thierry (737) he had left the throne vacant, in order 
 to accustom the people to forget the Merovingian dynasty. 
 When he died, his legitimate sons by Chrotrude — Carlo- 
 
 3 
 
34 FRANCE 
 
 man and Pepin the Short {le Bref) — divided his States with 
 Grippon, the bastard of Swanahild, his Bavarian concu- 
 bine. But they soon quarrelled with him, and the revolt 
 of Aquitania and Alemannia threw the Frankish realm 
 once more into the melting-pot of civil war. Pepiu and 
 Carloman emerged victorious, having vanquished the 
 Germans and crushed Grippon and the Duke of Aquitaine. 
 Carloman retired to a monastery, and left Pepin sole master 
 of the State (749). But it was not till he had obtained 
 the consent of the Pope (Zacharias) that Pepin felt himself 
 strong enough to convoke an assembly of the people at 
 Soissons (751), who should elect him to the throne. With 
 the assent of the Bishops and nobles, they raised their 
 chosen King upon their shields in the old German fashion ; 
 whilst Childeric and his son, the last of the Merovingian 
 line, were solemnly shorn of their long royal hair and sent 
 to a monastery. The new King showed his gratitude 
 to the Church by endowing several monasteries, and 
 reducing the Saxons to momentary tribute and Chris- 
 tianity at the point of the sword. In return for his under- 
 taking to deliver the Papacy from the Lombards, Pope 
 Stephen II. renewed the ceremony of the coronation, 
 and again consecrated him with the " Oil of Holy Anoint- 
 ing " at Saint-Denis (July 28, 754). This rite had been 
 performed by Boniface at Soissons, but was hitherto un- 
 known in Gaul. It raised Pepin in the eyes of the people 
 to the position of the Chosen of the Lord, and thus the 
 Carlovingians drew from Papal sanction the reverence 
 hitherto monopolized by the long-haired Merovingian 
 dynasty. Pepin redeemed his undertaking by two suc- 
 cessful campaigns against the Lombards, which ended in 
 their cession of part of the exarchate of Ravenna to the 
 Pope, and in the secure foundation of the temporal 
 principality of the Papacy. 
 
 Under Charles Martel and Pepin the Short the power 
 
REFOBM OF THE CLERGY 35 
 
 of the central government had been re-established. The 
 nobles were brought to obedience, and the elements of 
 dissolution checked. Narbonne, Aquitaine, and the 
 Saxons, were reduced to subjection. The restoration of 
 order, combined with the close alliance of the Carlovin- 
 gians with the Church, led to a reform of the morals of the 
 clergy. In 748 the ancient Church in Gaul, inspired by 
 St. Boniface, decided to accept the authority of the Pontiff 
 and the discipline of Rome. Carloman and Pepin, both 
 sons of the Church and under the influence of St. Boni- 
 face, devoted themselves to the reform of the priests and 
 the discipline of the monks, as well as to dealing with the 
 scandal of laymen whose military services had been paid 
 for by Charles Martel with ecclesiastical benefices, and 
 who thought nothing of waging war against their brother 
 Bishops or pillaging neighbouring monasteries. The 
 servants of Christ were now forbidden to indulge in 
 war, hunting, adultery, or fornication. The periodical 
 Councils of the Church were re-established. The result 
 was that the debauched and ignorant Merovingian clergy 
 were soon succeeded by a more moral, a better educated, 
 and therefore more politically influential priesthood — a 
 priesthood which was at the same time more largely under 
 the control of the Papacy. 
 
IV 
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 
 A.D. 768—814 
 
 Pepin the Short on his deathbed had summoned the 
 great ecclesiastics and laics to Saint-Denis, and with 
 their consent had divided his realm between his two 
 sons by Bertrada (768). Charles the Great (Charlemagne) 
 received the north-western portion,* Carloman the south- 
 east, f The revolt of Aquitania under Hunald was quickly 
 suppressed by Charles. A divergence between the policy 
 of the two brothers was soon made manifest. Whilst 
 Charles sided with the Pope, Carloman allied himself 
 with the Lombards. Bertrada, however, reconciled the 
 brothers, and persuaded Charles to put aside his Prankish 
 bride, and to marry Desiree, daughter of Didier, King of 
 the Lombards, in spite of the passionate protest of the 
 Pope. Carloman died in the following year (771), and 
 Charlemagne, appearing near Laon, secured the allegiance 
 of his brother's followers. Then he repudiated Desiree, 
 and marched, in response to the Pope's appeal, to crush 
 the Lombard King, who was endeavouring to complete 
 the conquest of Italy. Pa via fell after a siege of nine 
 months (June, 774). Didier ended his days in a monas- 
 tery, and Charlemagne took the title of King of the 
 
 * Austrasia, Neustria north of the Oise, Aquitania, excepting the 
 ecclesiastical province of Bourges. 
 
 t Burgundy, Provence, Septimania, Alsace, Alemannia, Thu- 
 ringia, Hesse, Neustria south of the Oise, and Bourges. 
 
 36 
 
THE SONG OF ROLAND 37 
 
 Lombards. During the siege of Pa via Charlemagne had 
 visited Rome, and there, as the devoted defender of the 
 Holy See, he had cemented that alliance with the Papacy 
 which was now the traditional policy of the Carlo vingians. 
 Two subsequent campaigns in Italy (766, 767) completed 
 the subjugation of the Lombards. But the conqueror 
 wisely made no attempt to amalgamate his kingdoms 
 north and south of the Alps. 
 
 From Italy, Charlemagne turned to Spain. His cam- 
 paign there was little more than a raid, but it gave rise 
 to an event great in history, because great in the poetry 
 of France which it inspired. Spain was still in the hands 
 of the Saracens. Charlemagne, surrounded by a band 
 of chosen knights, called his Paladins, laid siege to 
 Saragossa, but failed to take it. In his retreat to France, 
 his rearguard was caught in a rocky defile south of the 
 Pyrenees, the Valley of Roncevaux (Roncesvalles), and 
 was destroyed to a man by the Basque mountaineers (778). 
 Roland, said to be the nephew of Charlemagne, was in 
 command. Finding himself hard pressed, it is said, he 
 took out his magic ivory horn, Oliphant, and blew a great 
 blast for help. Thrice he blew, and thrice Charlemagne 
 heard his call. But he could not believe that he was in 
 danger, or he thought that perchance he was a-hunting, 
 and did not return till all was over. From a military 
 point of view it was merely a regrettable incident, not 
 a disaster. But the Battle of Roncevaux was magnified 
 in popular imagination, probably because many of Charle- 
 magne's intimate companions were slain there, and it 
 presently gave rise to a whole epic of wonder and of 
 lament — the Iliad of the Middle Ages, in which the 
 spirit of the feudal aristocracy of the eleventh century- 
 is enshrined. The Chanson de Roland is an epic which 
 expresses the Prankish ideal of military conquest and 
 romantic heroism, an ideal at once national and religious. 
 
38 FRANCE 
 
 embodying the vision of France as the champion of 
 Christendom under Charlemagne, and, no less clearly, of 
 St. Louis leading the Crusades. 
 
 From Spain, Charlemagne turned, more wisely and more 
 seriously, to complete the subjugation of the Germans. 
 From the Arabs in Spain there was at that time little 
 danger of aggression. The eastern frontier was less 
 secure. By a succession of bloodthirsty campaigns he 
 reduced first the Bavarians (788), and at length the 
 Saxons, to subjugation and Christianity. By infinite 
 patience and repeated wars for over thirty years, he at 
 last succeeded in incorporating them in the Frankish 
 system, and so eliminated the real and pressing danger 
 of the destruction of Frankish civilization in Gaul by a 
 new influx of Teutonic invaders. He conquered the 
 Baltic Slavs and the Spanish march, and reduced Bohemia 
 and the distant Avars to subjection. Like Alfred, Charle- 
 magne formed a fleet* to guard the mouths of the Rhone 
 and the Garonne, and so to protect the north and west and 
 the interior from pirates and from those Viking marauders 
 whose raids he beheld with prophetic eye. Thus by 803 
 the frontiers of the Frankish Empire seemed to be 
 secured, and from the Elbe and the Danube to the 
 Atlantic, from the German Ocean to the Adriatic, there 
 was at last one people nominally, at least, united under 
 one Sovereign and by the same religion. 
 
 By the end of nearly fifty years of warfare Charlemagne 
 had almost doubled his inheritance. These successes and 
 his relations with the potentates of the East caused him 
 to appear to his contemporaries to have established an 
 almost world-wide empire. And, indeed, the Frankish 
 realm had achieved a unity and an extent which entitled 
 it to a comparison with the Western Empire of Rome. 
 
 * He reviewed it at Boulogne in 811, when the old Pharos of 
 Caligula was restored. 
 
THE CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE 39 
 
 In the eyes of the erudite, to whom the revival of letters 
 had revealed the faded glories of the past, Charlemagne 
 appeared as one of the greatest of the orthodox Emperors 
 of Rome. The title alone was wanting. Nor was the 
 title long denied. Leo III. was compelled to seek the 
 protection of Charlemagne, and on Christmas Day, 800, 
 he placed the imperial crown of the Romans upon the 
 head of his protector in the basilica of St. Peter in Rome. 
 
 But to be a true Roman Emperor of the West it was 
 necessary that he should be recognized at Constantinople as 
 well as at Rome, for the Byzantine Emperors were the legiti- 
 mate heirs of the Caesars. To secure this end Charlemagne 
 wTought with the aid of diplomacy and arms, until at 
 length (812) a treaty was signed by which this recognition 
 was affirmed, and, in theory at least, two Emperors of 
 the East and West reigned side by side over a single and 
 united empire. So far as words and ceremonies go, it 
 was an accomplished fact. But in reality East had become 
 East, and West West. The Roman Empire, with all its 
 institutions and customs, had disappeared from the West 
 in the course of the upheavals and resettlings of the 
 last four centuries. Save in the fond imagination of a 
 Charlemagne, and all those who looked wistfully for 
 unity and peace, it could never return. 
 
 But the ceremony of the coronation in St. Peter's 
 marked the introduction of a new political theory into 
 Western Christendom — the theory of the Holy Roman 
 Empire. According to this new theory, it was the func- 
 tion of the Emperor to protect the Church — a theory 
 reversed in later days, when Popes mastered the State. 
 But in 800, when Leo was seen upon his knees " adoring " 
 the Emperor, men could not foresee Henry IV. standing 
 in the snow at Canossa. It was the policy of Charlemagne 
 to combine innumerable units, immeasurably diverse in 
 race and language, by the link of a common Christianity 
 
40 FRANCE 
 
 and to keep them united by the force of his mailed fist in 
 a sort of federal union of vassal kingdoms. France, Italy, 
 Bavaria, Aquitaine, and so forth, were to be mere branches 
 of a great empire, administered by minor Kings. All 
 alike must acknowledge Christianity and the authority 
 of the Emperor, but with that proviso each was entitled 
 to preserve the laws, customs, and language of his own 
 people. The nations were not compelled to be Franks ; 
 every man might claim to be judged according to the 
 law of his own country. As to the Christianity which 
 Charlemagne imposed, it was merely the political Chris- 
 tianity of the Church — a society of priests and soldiers, 
 in which the former prayed and the latter fought, and 
 both alike were led by Emperor and Pope, the Moses and 
 Aaron of a later dispensation. 
 
 Possessed by the idea of reconstituting the Roman 
 Empire, and founding a more glorious Athens to the 
 glory of God, Charlemagne turned his attention to the 
 encouragement of letters, as the fitting appanage of a 
 great reign, and as the means of providing instruction 
 for the people in the knowledge of Christ. Amongst the 
 Franks there were none capable of such teaching. Charle- 
 magne accordingly invited to his kingdom scholars from 
 Italy, Ireland, Scotland, or wherever they were to be 
 found. But the teacher who exercised the greatest in- 
 fluence was Alcuin, a Northumbrian, who had studied 
 at the school of York, and came to teach the children of 
 the King and of his nobles in the palace of the King. 
 Monastic and episcopal schools, too, were founded, by 
 means of which, and through the channel of the Church, 
 elementary knowledge of the " three R's " and ecclesi- 
 astical music were diffused. Thus was brought about the 
 little Renaissance of literature for which Charlemagne 
 was directly responsible, and from which he derived his 
 reward. For he is the hero of the chief work of the times, 
 
CHANSONS DE GESTES 41 
 
 figuring as the Augustus in the pages of a later Suetonius, 
 the contemporary historian Eginard. Next to theology, 
 history was the main product of the age. As for poetry, 
 apart from versified theology and history, it consisted 
 mainly of dreary imitations of Prudentius, Horace, Lucan, 
 Ovid, or Virgil. All these works were composed, not in 
 Frankish, or the tongue of the people, but in Silver Age 
 Latin, the official language. But, unperturbed by litera- 
 ture, the tongue of the people was forming itself and 
 spreading throughout Gaul — the Romance language, based 
 on Latin, derived not from the polished periods of Cicero, 
 but from the common speech of Cicero's slaves, mingled 
 with native words and modified by the lips of the Celtic 
 and Teutonic races. It was a process typical of a period 
 when, under the government of Charlemagne, the Roman 
 and German elements in Gaul were being rapidly fused 
 into a common whole. 
 
 And this plebeian language had already, if not a litera- 
 ture, yet a song, the beginnings of a great poetry, which 
 was destined to supplant the dying efforts of an imitated 
 classicism. For the soldiers of Charlemagne chanted the 
 high deeds of their mighty leader. The " Battle of Ronce- 
 vaux " and the episodes of the wars with the Saxons were 
 sung in native speech, in rough chansons or cantilence, and 
 these ballads laid the foundation of French epic poetry as 
 surely as the lays of Troy preceded and begot the epics 
 of Homer. 
 
 The Chansons de Gestes are narrative poems dealing 
 with French history. They were composed and sung by 
 troubadours, trouveres, and jongleurs, and date in their 
 present form from the eleventh century. The most 
 famous of them is that Chanson de Roland to which we 
 have already referred, the epic which was presently 
 evolved and elaborated from such simple beginnings, 
 and based on the historical foundation of Eginhard's his- 
 
42 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 tory — a poem wholly warlike and religious in tone, a true 
 echo of the Carlovingian age, in which touches of gallantry 
 and the softer emotions are conspicuous by their absence. 
 
 
 BUST OF CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 At Aix-la-Chapelk. (HacJutte et Cie.) 
 
 In these chansons the working of popular imagination 
 upon the facts of history is shown as clearly and strikingly 
 as the working of history upon the imagination of Charle- 
 
CHARLEMAGNE THE STATESMAN 43 
 
 magne and those who, with him or for him, dreamed of 
 re-establishing a united Roman Empire, blessed with 
 Christianity and the Pax Romana. 
 
 Though Charlemagne himself never learned to write — a 
 manual exercise in itseK without charm and with little 
 significance when a man has secretaries always at hand 
 — he was not therefore illiterate. He knew Latin and a 
 little Greek, studied rhetoric and astronomy, and had a 
 passion for history and theology. Terrible in war, he 
 proved himself a great statesman as well as a great 
 warrior, not only in the direction of hi? arms, but also in 
 his treatment of the vanquished. His conquests, as we 
 have seen, were mainly concerned with the consolida- 
 tion of his realm and the strengthening of its frontiers. 
 His campaigns were waged with extraordinary perse- 
 verance by himself or by his generals, such as Roland or 
 GuiUaume de Toulouse. But, in spite of their prolonged 
 and obstinate resistance, he left the Saxons in full 
 enjoyment of their laws and customs, though not of 
 their religion, whilst introducing the Frankish division 
 into counties, with their hierarchy of Counts and Cen- 
 tenarii. The same policy of pacification was pursued in 
 Lombardy and Aquitaine. In his administration, as in 
 his campaigns, he proved himself a great worker and ruler 
 rather than a great innovator. 
 
 He showed his genius as a conqueror in directing his 
 forces against the greatest source of danger, and his genius 
 as a statesman in moulding and developing the existing 
 tendencies and forms of government. He adapted to the 
 service of the State the new conditions which were head- 
 ing for feudalism. Duchies were abolished, for the growth 
 of large semi-independent provinces was inconsistent with 
 the unity of the empire. The realm was administered 
 by one system. Grafs, or Counts, were appointed over 
 each province, whose duty it was to administer justice 
 
44 FRANCE 
 
 and collect taxes. This was no innovation, for, as we 
 have seen, the Grafs were the chief executive officers of 
 the early Frankish State. But as their wealth and 
 powers had increased it had become increasingly necessary 
 to exercise control over them in their relation to their 
 subordinates, and to bring them into touch with the 
 central government. For this purpose Charlemagne sent 
 Missi on annual circuit to supervise them — inspectors 
 who visited the provinces as his representatives, heard 
 appeals, and reported to the King whether the Counts 
 were doing their duty. Charlemagne showed his prac- 
 tical statesmanship in using for this new office the exist- 
 ing institution of Missi dominici, or royal messengers, 
 whom earlier Kings had been wont to send out upon 
 special missions. In a similar way, the freemen of the 
 Mdl, or Frankish Court, were supervised by scabini 
 (doomsmen), appointed by the Missi. 
 
 More open to criticism as a measure of political wisdom, 
 but one equally consonant with the tradition of Charle- 
 magne's predecessors and with his wider policy of uniting 
 Church and State, was the calling in of the Bishops to aid 
 in this task of supervising the Counts. In return for their 
 unflagging support throughout the empire, Charlemagne 
 made the clergy independent of the secular courts, and 
 gave them a wide jurisdiction in civil causes. The result 
 was to encourage the secularization of the clergy ; for a 
 twofold jurisdiction was established, Counts and Bishops 
 being set up in rivalry in each town or district, the 
 Bishops administering Roman law, and the Counts the 
 Frankish ; and the latter representing the Frankish, the 
 former the Roman, element of the population. 
 
 To protect the frontiers, Charlemagne, like William the 
 Conqueror, organized a series of marches {Mark) — dis- 
 tricts comprising several counties which were placed 
 under Prefects of the Marches, known later as Margraves 
 
THE CAROLINGIAN CONSTITUTION 45 
 
 (Mark Grafs). Roland was Prefect of the March of 
 Bretagne. Later on States grew out of these military 
 cantons. Margravates were the cradles of Austria and 
 Prussia. All alike were subject to the general ordinances 
 of the realm. 
 
 It had been the custom of the Merovingians to hold 
 annual gatherings of the people, general assemblies which 
 formed the principal channel of government. Charlemagne 
 continued this custom.* In theory the whole people was 
 summoned to attend upon the King at some palace or 
 royal town where he might happen to be. In practice, of 
 course, the people could not all assemble at Ratisbon or 
 Aix. But Bishops, Abbots, and Counts arrived with 
 their followings, who represented the people. The chief 
 among these met in the council-halls, and deliberated upon 
 the proposals submitted to them. Charlemagne mingled 
 familiarly with the crowd of lesser dignitaries without, 
 and attended the deliberations of the great within, if they 
 so desired. They submitted their opinion to him, and 
 he then made his decision, and announced it to the people 
 for their consent — that is to say, for their obedience. 
 The decrees thus passed regulated the affairs of the nation 
 for the coming year, and were known as Capitularia. 
 Gradually they would form a constitution and a code. 
 But it should be observed that the Carolingian constitu- 
 tion was not so democratic in fact as might be inferred 
 from the deliberative and judicial functions of this 
 general assembly. For the matters laid before them had 
 been decided previously in the King's secret probouleutic 
 or preconsidering councils ; so that in practice the function 
 of the assemblies would be, so far as legislation was con- 
 cerned, merely to ratify and publish the measures prepared 
 beforehand by the aristocratic counsellors of the King. 
 
 * They were usually held in May, and known as " Fields of 
 May *' — Champs du Mai. 
 
46 FRANCE 
 
 Charlemagne, whose favourite pastimes were bathing 
 and the chase, chose for his political capital an old 
 Roman bathing-station, surrounded by forests teeming 
 with game. At Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) he founded a 
 city so magnificent that its walls and palace, adorned 
 with the spoils of the palace of Theodoric at Ravenna, 
 and the splendid church which gave the place its name, 
 seemed to suggest a second Rome, fitting seat of the new 
 Roman Emperor. 
 
 Planned like San Vitale at Ravenna, where Theodoric 
 had introduced the Byzantine art of Constantinople, 
 Charlemagne's monumental church was the chief centre 
 for diffusing the influence of Eastern art through Western 
 Europe at a time when Roman traditions had fallen into 
 almost complete decay. It was here that Charlemagne 
 was buried. He died in January, 814. A few months 
 previously he had summoned a general assembly at the 
 capital. There a decree was published " to satisfy the 
 needs of the Church of God and the Christian people "; 
 and then in the Church of Aix, with the assent of the 
 people, Charlemagne, after remaining a long time in 
 prayer, turned to his sole surviving son, Louis, and, after 
 exhorting him to love God and honour His churches, he 
 placed the crown of gold upon his head. And all the 
 people cried aloud : " God save the Emperor Louis !" 
 The kingdom of Italy was assigned to Bernard, the son of 
 Pepin.* 
 
 The attempt of Charlemagne ended in failure. Time 
 was not granted him to constitute such a fusion of races 
 and such a solidarity of law and administration as would 
 withstand the influences of disorder and disintegration to 
 which his empire was so soon to be exposed. His con- 
 
 * Charlemagne married (1) D6sir6e (repudiated), (2) Hildegarde, 
 (3) Fastrada, (4) Liutgarde, besides several concubines. His 
 daughters he did not aflow to marry. His three sons — Charles, 
 Pepin, and Louis — were all by Hildegarde. 
 
THE LEGEND OF CHARLEMAGNE 47 
 
 quest of the Saxons and his revival of the schools re- 
 mained, indeed, a permanent and fruitful contribution to 
 civilization. But his political expedients, like the institu- 
 tion of the Missi, disappeared Avith the strong government 
 of which they were a part. Yet he had at least con- 
 structed and maintained a really strong central govern- 
 ment for a generation ; and though this was soon to dis- 
 appear, along with the empire which he had created, yet 
 the ideal he had realized remained — the ideal of a King 
 and a strong government — and it survived even through 
 the succeeding ages of anarchy. In the days of feudal 
 disorder men still looked back to this period as a Golden 
 Age, which shone forth as the example of what was best 
 worth striving for in the evolution of politics. And such 
 an ideal could not but exercise a vast influence upon the 
 destinies of France. 
 
 Besides this, the grandeur of the moral idea of making 
 his empire one great Christian State — a City of God — 
 which appears to have inspired him, has rightly imparted 
 a lustre to the reputation of Charlemagne, and has en- 
 hanced the greatness of his achievements, great as they 
 were, in the eyes of the world. It lent a glamour to his 
 name, which grew more effulgent as it shone across the 
 abysmal chaos of succeeding ages. To the poets of the 
 Gestes and popular tradition he appeared more than 
 human — a hero, in stature as in achievement, greater 
 than men now are. It seemed impossible that such a 
 man must die. The legend grew up that, in the vault of 
 his chapel at Aix, the Emperor was but waiting till the 
 world's great age should begin anew ; that there, clad in 
 the imperial insignia, seated on his throne, his good 
 sword Joyeuse by his side, his sceptre in his hand, the 
 Grospel on his knees, the heir at once of Pepin and Augus- 
 tus, of David and of Solomon, he was waiting to come 
 again and rule with all the glory of a King of Kings. 
 
THE EISE OF FEUDALISM 
 A.D. 814—912 
 
 The death of Charlemagne led almost immediately to 
 the dismemberment of his empire. Only a ruler of his 
 exceptional energy and force of character could have 
 continued and completed his task of consolidating 
 Western Christendom under an Emperor and his subject 
 Kings. His son, Louis the Pious, had many virtues : he 
 was generous, tolerant, moral, well educated, and a 
 mighty hunter ; but the epithet of Debonnaire, which he 
 earned at his Court, indicates his want of steadfast pur- 
 pose and power of will. He lacked the supreme qualities 
 needed to reduce to discipline the varying units of the vast 
 empire which his father had begun to weld together. The 
 control of affairs passed out of his hands to the Bishops, 
 the nobles, his sons, and even his wife. And the process 
 of disintegration, inevitable in the absence of a strong 
 ruler, was hastened by his death (840) ; for his three sons, 
 Lothair, Louis, and Charles-le-Chauve (the Bald), began 
 to fight amongst themselves over their inheritance, 
 whilst the nobles ranged themselves under their banners, 
 according as each promised them lands and honours. 
 After a preliminary struggle, Louis and Charles bound 
 themselves by an oath in the plain of Strasburg against 
 their brother Lothair. This alliance led to the conclusion 
 of the Treaty of Verdun in the following year (843). 
 
 48 
 
;« ; » : «,« 
 
 £ ?. 
 
 
THE SWEET REALM OF FRANCE 49 
 
 The Oath of Strasburg is of interest, because it is the 
 oldest monument of the French language in existence. 
 The Treaty of Verdun marks the end of the united 
 empire of Charlemagne, and the beginning of the history 
 of Italy, France, and Germany as separate kingdoms ; 
 for by this treaty Charles-le-Chauve received the whole 
 of the country to the west of the Meuse, Seine, and 
 Rhone. And France — Francia, the kingdom of the 
 Franks — a term which had followed the conquering race 
 from Franconia across the Rhine, and, spreading with the 
 victories of Clovis to the Loire, had embraced under 
 Charlemagne the whole Frankish realm, with the excep- 
 tion of Italy, now began to be restricted to this western 
 part of Charlemagne's empire which was the portion of 
 Charles-le-Chauve, the " sweet realm of France," bounded 
 by the Scheldt, Ebro, Meuse, and Atlantic. In a special 
 sense it was still further restricted to the lie de France, 
 the country between the Oise, the Seine, and the Mame, 
 which had formed the heart of the Merovingian power. 
 
 Charles-le-Chauve was a man of ability, education, and 
 taste. He succeeded in establishing himself as King of 
 Lorraine, King of Italy, and Emperor. But within this 
 kingdom of Western France he utterly failed to enforce 
 any homogeneity or order, or even to secure his subjects 
 against the raids of foreign foes. By the time the parti- 
 tion of Verdun had settled the limits of his kingdom, the 
 disorder of the civil wars, which had preceded it, had 
 enabled the two evils, which were to destroy the Caro- 
 lingian power, to develop beyond his control. The 
 countries united under his crown were united only in 
 name. Brittany, for instance, and Aquitaine, formed 
 separate entities, sharply distinguished by manners, 
 language, and history from the lie de France. Burgundy 
 was relapsing into a state of utter anarchy. And whilst 
 the country was rendered insecure by roving bands of 
 
 4 
 
50 FRANCE 
 
 brigands, composed of freemen who had lost their all in 
 the disorders of the times, the richer and more powerful 
 had availed themselves of their opportunity to acquire 
 wealth and privileges. The practice of "commenda- 
 tion " grew. The harassed poor turned to the wealthy 
 landowner for protection, only there to be found. Dukes 
 and Counts, taking advantage of the weakness of the 
 central power, made their positions hereditary and prac- 
 tically independent. Feudal principalities sprang up. 
 
 Moreover, the boundaries of the kingdom of Western 
 France were the Atlantic, the Channel, the Mediterranean, 
 the Ebro. But oceans and rivers were boundaries that 
 were no bulwarks against Northmen, the Vikings, the 
 Scandinavian pirates, who since about the year 800 had 
 begun to attack the fair realm of France from north and 
 south. 
 
 It is said that Charlemagne, when first he beheld the 
 curved prows of a Viking fleet far out at sea, shed tears, 
 and exclaimed : " I am exceeding sorrowful, for I perceive 
 what woes these folk will bring upon my people." 
 
 Tall and strong, with fair hair and blue eyes, the 
 Norsemen from Scandinavia and Denmark now descended 
 upon a land divided against itself, and denuded of warriors 
 by internecine warfare. The business and the creed of 
 these fierce sons of the sea was war and bloodshed ; for 
 they believed in a god, Odin, who delighted in the blood 
 of men, and thought that warriors who died in battle were 
 received in Valhalla (the Hall of Heroes), there to feast 
 for ever upon boar's flesh and mead. Their ships, with a 
 dragon for their flgurehead, and their sides gleaming with 
 the bucklers of seventy Vikings apiece, bore them up the 
 Seine, the Somme, the Loire, or the Garonne, where the 
 towns, which had neither walls in repair nor defenders 
 organized to resist them, lay at their mercy. For the 
 rivers served them as highroads which led to the gates of 
 
THE VIKINGS 51 
 
 the rich abbeys and the scattered towns. At the sight 
 of the black sails of their dragon ships the peasants fled 
 to the woods and the townsfolk to the churches, too often 
 to find death in the flames ; whilst the ruthless pirates 
 plundered and pillaged and burned, stabling their horses 
 by the altars, and singing the mass of swords, as they 
 boasted, in the shrines of peace. They plundered Aachen 
 itself, and outraged the Dome which Charlemagne had 
 built. Presently the Northmen began to give up returning 
 to their dark and sterile homes in the winter, as they had 
 been wont, and settled down at the mouths of the rivers 
 — as, for instance, near Rouen — choosing here, as in their 
 Northern homes, those little anchorage grounds from 
 which they derived their names. Vikings, children of the 
 creeks and fjords. 
 
 Charles tried the most fatal of all methods to rid his 
 country of this pest. He bought the marauders off with 
 gold — the most certain means of insuring their return. 
 The sturdiest resistance was offered to them by Robert 
 the Strong, the ancestor of the Capetians, whose courage 
 Charles rewarded with the gift of several counties. He 
 appointed him to defend the country between the Loire 
 and the Seine against the Northmen and Bretons, a 
 great number of whom, along with many native brigands, 
 had joined the pirates in these troublous times. This 
 command developed into a great fief — the Grand-Duchy 
 of France — from which was to spring the third line of 
 France. Robert was slain by Hastings in 866, on his 
 return from Italy. He had attacked the Northmen after 
 they had pillaged Le Mans. They barricaded themselves 
 in the church of Brissarthe, and by a sudden sally caught 
 the gallant Robert unawares. 
 
 When AKred of England had come to terms with them, 
 the Northmen returned again to France in force, appar- 
 ently with the intention of settling there ; and though 
 
62 FRANCE 
 
 Louis III. and the Franks defeated them with great 
 slaughter at Saucourt, near Abbeville, in 881, a great host 
 of them reappeared a few years later under Siegfried, 
 and encamped before Paris (885). Their huge fleet 
 covered the Seine for two leagues below the city. The 
 citizens, who had sought refuge within the old Roman 
 enceinte, asked in terror what had become of their river, 
 for naught but the ships of the Vikings could be seen. 
 It was a critical moment in the history of France. Was 
 she, like England, to purchase unity at the price of a 
 Norman Conquest ? Charles the Bald had been succeeded 
 (877) by his son, Louis II. le Begue (the Stammerer), who 
 had died in 879. The deaths of his two elder sons, 
 Louis III. and Carloman, who had divided the kingdom 
 between them, had left his third son, Charles the Simple, 
 heir to the throne (884). He was only an infant. And 
 so, whilst the bridges which Charles the Bald had fortified 
 held the Northmen at bay, Odo (Eudes), Count of Paris, 
 son of Robert the Strong, and the Bishop of Gozlin, threw 
 themselves into the city to conduct its defence. 
 
 Resistance was maintained with the most desperate 
 heroism. After some months of preparation, during 
 which the Normans entrenched themselves about the 
 city, they delivered two assaults. They were repulsed, 
 but the defence was hopeless, unless relief should come 
 from without. Charles the Fat, grandson of Louis le 
 Debonnaire, Emperor and King of Germany, a devout but 
 feeble creature, had been invited by a meeting of the nobles 
 under Hugh the Abbot to come to the relief of France. 
 But the Emperor delayed . Hugh the Abbot and the Bishop 
 of Gozlin died. The misery of the besieged grew extreme. 
 At last the brave Count Odo, the hero of the defence, 
 made his way out through the lines of the Northmen to 
 summon Charles the Fat in person. He returned so soon 
 as his embassy was accomplished. But it was yet many 
 
COUNT ODO OF PARIS 53 
 
 months before the Emperor arrived with a large army 
 from Germany, and even then it was not to fight, but 
 to buy off Siegfried by giving him Burgundy to plunder. 
 The cowardice and incapacity of the Emperor stood out 
 in strong contrast with the energy and courageous devo- 
 tion of the Count of Paris. Paris by its heroism had 
 won its title to be the capital of France, and Odo by his 
 heroic qualities the right to be the first French King. 
 
 Charles the Simple was still a boy. The Normans 
 were swarming over France. The Bishops, Counts, 
 and Seigneurs, assembled therefore at Tribur (887), and, 
 having deposed Charles the Fat, elected Odo to be their 
 King and champion against the Scandinavian foe. 
 
 In 889 the Danes again laid siege to Paris for three 
 months. They were bought off, but Odo inflicted a 
 crushing defeat upon them at Montpensier. Meantime 
 Charles the Fat had died childless (888), and the dis- 
 memberment of the empire of Charlemagne proceeded 
 apace. Poets and historians, looking back to the great 
 days of Charlemagne, bewailed the glory that was past. 
 "The unity of the empire has departed. Instead of 
 Kings, there are but kinglets ; in place of a kingdom, only 
 the fragments of a kingdom." From Western France 
 tlje kingdoms of Italy, Germany, Lorraine, Navarre, 
 Burgundy, and Provence split off. The two latter were 
 imited under Rudolph II. (933), and presently, taking 
 from their capital the title of the Kingdom of Aries, 
 achieved an independent existence under German domina- 
 tion. Western France, indeed, so weak was it and dis- 
 organized, might easily have followed suit, and fallen 
 under the suzerainty of Germany.* 
 
 Count Odo failed to maintain the position he had won. 
 The feudal spirit which had brought him to the throne 
 broke his power when he tried to exercise the royal 
 ♦ See Lavisse, II. i. 399. 
 
64 FRANCE 
 
 authority in earnest over it. Moreover, the Germanic 
 faction, which favoured the Carolingian dynasty, in- 
 creased in strength as Charles the Simple grew in years. 
 After a period of struggle. Count Odo, who was childless, 
 was obliged to make a compact, as the result of which 
 Charles succeeded to the throne of France upon Odo's death 
 in 898. Charles, in return, confirmed to Robert all the 
 dignities of his brother Odo. As Count of Paris, Anjou, 
 Touraine, and Blois, the possessor of many rich abbeys 
 and benefices, and of the military command of the 
 country between the Seine and the Loire, Robert thus 
 became by far the most powerful Seigneur in France. 
 
 Charles the Simple, in spite of his contemptuous nick- 
 name, solved the problem of his age. The Norman 
 invasions were still following one another like the waves 
 of the sea, devastating the country. The ruthless in- 
 vaders pillaged and burned churches, monasteries, and 
 villages. In 910, RoUo, ancestor of William the Conqueror, 
 appeared before Paris. He was repulsed, and turned to 
 ravage the Chartrain country. The people of La Beauce fled 
 to the forests and the churches for refuge ; but the forests 
 were soon in flames, and the churches were destroyed. 
 The refugees fled to Chartres for the shelter of her walls 
 and the succour of her church and saintly relics. Robert, 
 Count of Paris, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Count of 
 Poitiers, hastened to their relief, and the Normans were 
 beaten back. Charles seized the opportunity to treat 
 with RoUo at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. The Normans, united 
 under that great sea-King, had long regarded Neustria 
 as their own. They had been settling there for a genera- 
 tion. Charles now formally handed over to them the 
 district of the Lower Seine, with Rouen for a centre. In 
 return for this fief and Charles' daughter, Rollo promised 
 to cease from his raids and to embrace Christianity. 
 
 On the borders of Neustria he did homage to his 
 
EOLLO OF NORMANDY 55 
 
 suzerain lord. But, too proud to kiss the King's foot in 
 token of this homage, he deputed a follower to perform 
 the distasteful act. The rough Northman, instead of 
 kneeling, seized the King's foot in his hand, and, raising 
 it to his lips, sent the King sprawling on his back (912). 
 
 Rollo, however, kept to the spirit of his contract. The 
 heathen Northern pirates became French Christians, their 
 descendants feudal nobles, and Pirates' Land the most 
 loyal of the fiefs of France. Normandy formed a bulwark 
 between Paris and the sea. And the energy and roving 
 spirit of the Northmen was directed henceforth towards 
 the aggrandizement of France, not her ruin. The Nor- 
 mans were soon to conquer England and Sicily, and to 
 lead the way in the Crusades. 
 
 Rollo, who took the name of Robert upon his conver- 
 sion, established law and order throughout Normandy. 
 Soon, it is said, a child with a purse of gold in its hand 
 could in safety cross the land which for generations had 
 been a mere desert of ashes. Robert's subjects rapidly 
 adopted the French tongue. Christianity was embraced 
 by all, from Duke to peasant. By the people it was 
 welcomed with an almost passionate fanaticism. 
 
 After a nightmare of rapine and disorder, of war and 
 rumours of war, which had encouraged the belief that 
 the year 1000 would see the end of the world, the people 
 began to breathe afresh. They had prepared for the 
 millennium by every practice of penance and mortifica- 
 tion. Now that they had escaped it, they turned to 
 record their gratitude to the God of Christendom. Every 
 road was crowded with pilgrims. Monasteries, which 
 had long been the sole repositories of learning, rose in 
 every glade, cathedrals in every town. The world roused 
 itself, says the chronicler Raoul Glaber, in a fine phrase, 
 and, casting off its rags, put on the white robe of the 
 churches. The abbey-churches of Jumieges (circa 1040) 
 
56 FRANCE 
 
 and Caen (1064) bore witness to the might of new settlers 
 in France, as surely as the Dom at Aix-la-Chapelle to 
 that of the vanished empire of Charlemagne. This 
 restoration of religious centres meant in a brutal age 
 the assertion of the claims of humanity, and in an age 
 of ignorance the encouragement of learning, commerce, 
 science, and art. Windmills, winepresses, tanneries, 
 sprang up on every side of them, and on every side, too, 
 the castles of the nobles. It is the age of castles. The 
 impregnable fortress perched on the sheer cliff of Falaise,* 
 where Robert the Devil begat William the Conqueror, 
 is at least as typical of the time as the Norman 
 cathedrals. 
 
 For the failure of the Carolingians in the first duty of 
 government, to protect their subjects against the frightful 
 brigandage and appalling devastation in the era of the 
 Northmen's raids, had resulted in the erection of innumer- 
 able feudal strongholds. France bristled with the little 
 capitals of feudal seigneuries, to which the inhabitants of 
 the surrounding district fled at the approach of an enemy. 
 These castles, which the peasants helped to build with 
 willing labour as their only refuge, were destined to 
 become in time the dominating factor in their oppression, 
 and to be torn to pieces at last by the infuriated mobs 
 of their revolted descendants. 
 
 For France was now in the iron grip of feudalism. 
 This was the native land of the feudal system, and here 
 it was developed earliest and most completely. Feudal- 
 ism! involved, in theory at least, a twofold relationship : 
 
 * Falaise and Loches are the earliest fortresses in which 
 Byzantine influence can be clearly traced. 
 
 •f It is not within the scope of this volume to give a fuU account 
 of the origin and details of the feudal system. I must be content 
 to refer the reader to Stubbs' Constitutional History and an 
 admirable chapter (ix.) in Professor Adams' Civilization during 
 the Middle Ages (1910). 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 57 
 
 on the one hand was the tenure of the land, by which the 
 vassal held a benefice or " fief " (joedum) from his lord ; 
 on the other was the bond of mutual service and protec- 
 tion, which united lord and vassal as the condition of that 
 tenure. 
 
 And since the same man who was lord of one vassal was 
 himself, by virtue of his tenure, vassal of another lord, 
 the whole of society was bound together by the grades 
 of the feudal hierarchy. This was the virtue of feudalism. 
 It was at least a political system which preserved the 
 existence of the State as a whole, though it was divided 
 into a myriad fragments. 
 
 Thanks to the anarchy of the ninth and tenth centuries, 
 then, the feudal system supplanted the old monarchical 
 regime. But that system did not spring into existence 
 in a day. The process had begun under the Merovingians, 
 and even before them, but had been held in check by 
 Charlemagne and his immediate successors. In times of 
 stress and danger freemen became clients of the great ; 
 the weaker ranged themselves under the banner of the 
 stronger. The small landowner, exposed to the brig- 
 andage of wandering bands, unprotected by the central 
 authority, at the mercy of the neighbouring Count or any 
 wandering brigand, turned for protection to the strong 
 man in his neighbourhood, who protected him against 
 others of his kidney. Abandoned by the State, he 
 abandoned it in turn, and, fearing to lose his land alto- 
 gether, surrendered it to the larger landowner, and re- 
 ceived it back upon condition of service, binding himself 
 l>y an oath of fidelity in a new relationship to an individual 
 in return for a promise of protection. The large land- 
 owners, thus increasing their possessions, began to be less 
 subject to the central authority. And whilst the Church 
 began to hold benefices, the Kings, in order to purchase 
 support, divested themselves of their royal rights in favour 
 
58 FRANCE 
 
 of the Church and nobles. These processes continued at 
 intervals, and developed into the feudal system. 
 
 When Northmen, Arabs, and Hungarians began to 
 invade the country, and there was no protection from the 
 soldiers or fortresses of the King, the necessity of organ- 
 izing into groups increased. 
 
 Vassalage, which was a social fact under the Mero- 
 vingians, was recognized and sanctioned by the Caro- 
 lingians. The great Carolingians, as we have seen, were 
 obliged to acknowledge and strengthen the growing feudal 
 institutions, and to give them legality, though as states- 
 men they continued to subordinate them to the State. 
 The steps in the progress by which these growing customs 
 were acknowledged are marked, for instance, by the 
 Edict (or Capitulary) of Mersen (847) and the Edict of 
 Quiersy (877). By the first it is recognized that every 
 freeman may choose a lord, either the King or one of his 
 vassals, and granted that no vassal of the King should 
 be obliged to follow him in war, unless against a foreign 
 enemy. By the second, Charles the Bald, on the eve of his 
 departure for Italy, purchased the assistance of the nobles 
 by at least a momentary recognition of hereditary right 
 to benefices. Already, by the death of Charlemagne, 
 almost all freemen were vassals. So it came about that 
 the King had presently two sorts of subjects — vassals 
 whom he governed as Seigneur, and subjects whom he 
 ruled by his right as King or Emperor. 
 
 With the increasing disorders of the Carolingian times, 
 the King, as Seigneur, found he had as great need of his 
 vassals as they had of him. In order to increase the 
 group of his retainers and secure their aid, he was forced 
 to make bargains in land. The vassal pledged his service 
 in return for benefice of land. It was a contract for life 
 only, but the land carried the service if the contract was 
 renewed by the heir. So the principle of feudal service 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 59 
 
 owed in return for lands received was extended to the 
 relations of King and Church and Counts, who held from 
 the King, as much as to their tenants. A hierarchy was 
 * thus established, at the summit of which was the King 
 as Seigneur of Seigneurs — the supreme Suzerain. 
 
 As time went on, the fief tended to become more 
 definitely hereditary, homage being done on accession as 
 a formality. Thus the Counts appropriated the rights 
 which they had held as delegates from the Crown, and 
 held them as hereditary. The Carolingians, when they 
 no longer had lands to give and must give something, 
 ceded the rights of justice and revenue and immunity 
 from royal authority. The Dukes and Counts, who had 
 judged formerly in the name of the King, administered 
 justice now in their own names ; levied and appropriated 
 for their own use the tolls they had formerly collected 
 for the royal exchequer ; and collected armies, but led 
 them, not to the King, but on their own expeditions. 
 They enforced new rights, and became masters in 
 their own counties. Kings in their own pagus, Kings 
 chez lui. Bishops, too, appropriated the royal authority 
 and the rights conceded or delegated to them by the 
 Kings. 
 
 The justice so administered by the Counts and Seigneurs 
 over their vassals was based on a customary law, and was 
 regarded by them chiefly as a means of revenue, based on 
 a scale of fines. These profitable rights of justice were 
 annexed to a fief, and were split up like other feudal rights, 
 passing with the property, and being divided amongst 
 the heirs. 
 
 Thus an extraordinary network or mosaic of fiefs was 
 spread over the whole of France, comprising immense 
 duchies and tiny holdings alike. 
 
 In the first rank of this feudal scale were such great 
 feudatories as the Count of Brittany or the Duke of 
 
60 FRANCE 
 
 Gascony, the Dukes of Burgundy and Aquitaine and 
 Normandy, the Counts of Flanders, Blois, Anjou, Tou- 
 louse, and Barcelona, who were all, by virtue of the 
 rights they had received or wrested from the Kings, 
 practically, to a greater or less degree, the heads of 
 separate and independent nations. In the second rank 
 was a number of lesser Counts — ^from Vermandois to Car- 
 cassonne, from Nevers to Perigord or Nimes — who owed 
 their varying degrees of independence to the strength of 
 their castles, the topography of the district, or the weak- 
 ness of their suzerains. Side by side with these must be 
 reckoned the crowd of Bishops and Archbishops, Kings 
 with two faces, armed with the sword as well as with the 
 cross, who had added to the power of the Church the 
 privileges they had wrested first from the Kings and then 
 from the Counts. 
 
 At the foot of the scale are the smaller seigneuries of 
 the "chatelains," and Viscounts, the subordinates of the 
 Carolingian Counts, who by the usurpation of the rights 
 of justice and heredity have become almost independent 
 of them. Secure in their castles, they live by pillage and 
 theft, at the expense of the peasants they oppress, the 
 monks they despoil, and the Counts and Bishops they 
 harass. For two centuries to come their constant brig- 
 andage is the chief plague of feudalism, which the Kings 
 and high Barons strive in vain to repress. 
 
 In many of the old walled towns of France we still can 
 see a castle, with its crenellated donjon, its massive walls 
 and machicolated entrance - gates, and side by side a 
 cathedral, with its soaring spires, majestic nave, painted 
 windows, and mystic sculptures. They are tyipical, in 
 their juxtaposition, of the temporal and spiritual powers 
 which divided the sway of the land ; for throughout the 
 Middle Ages, side by side with the persistent power of 
 the Bishops and their train of clergy and serfs, persisted 
 
COUNTS AND BISHOPS 61 
 
 also, but waxing and waning with varying fortune, the 
 power of the Counts. From the vassals and dependents 
 of these two powers was destined to spring the modern 
 bourgeoisie. The Coimts pass before us in the vista of 
 history, for ever raising levies, waging wars, and exacting 
 tolls of merchandise. Sometimes they are in accord with 
 the clergy, sometimes in opposition ; at one moment 
 they make large donations to the Church, at another 
 rob it. To-day they fight for their King abroad and on 
 their Crusades, while Viscounts represent them, some- 
 what feebly as a rule, at home. To-morrow they are 
 home again, fighting among themselves, or trying to 
 throw off their allegiance to their King. War and 
 brigandage are mainly their business. They pillage the 
 
 PLOUGHING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 Bishops, and the Bishops excommunicate the pillagers. 
 They raise troops, and the Bishops call their parishioners 
 to arms. They war with the sword only, but the Bishops 
 win with the aid of their pens also, the cunning of their 
 counsel, and the power of the Church. But during this 
 period of disorder the serf waged with his master the 
 same struggle as the vassal was waging with his lord, 
 the lord with the King. The result was similar in all 
 cases. Usurpation of servile tenures accompanied that 
 of liberal tenures, and territorial appropriation having 
 taken place in every rank of society, it was as difficult 
 to dispossess a serf of his manse as a seigneur of his 
 benefice. The serf, therefore, emerged from the condition 
 
62 FRANCE 
 
 of almost absolute slavery in which he was at the fall of 
 the Western Empire, and from the condition of servitude 
 that had been his up to the end of the reign of Charles 
 the Bald. Servitude was transformed into serfage. The 
 serf, having withdrawn his person and his field from his 
 master's hands, owes to him no longer his body and 
 goods, but only a portion of his labour and income. He 
 ceases to be a slave and becomes a tributary. 
 
 With the advent of feudalism the map of the country 
 underwent a change. The Roman arrangement, by which 
 Gaul had been divided into 18 provinces and 127 dioceses, 
 had been little altered by the Franks, but gradually 
 disappeared in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It 
 was preserved only by the Church, the dioceses of which 
 up to the time of the Revolution represented very nearly 
 the ancient divisions of Gaul under the Romans. Before 
 the days of Caesar it was into pagi that Gaul had been 
 divided. The pagus, or pays, persisted now ; more 
 numerous than the cities, they continued to split up and 
 multiply. But from about a.d. 800 onwards they became 
 identified with comtes, or counties, of the same name 
 and extent, as the comte of Chartres, etc. 
 
 From this period of feudal disintegration there emerges 
 a period of reconstruction, when, by a process of mar- 
 riages, alliances, wars, and the construction of castles, 
 great fiefs like the county of Anjou are formed ; and 
 through feudalism the King, despoiled of all his regalian 
 rights, reconstructs his royal authority. As a feudal lord 
 himself, and as Suzerain of all the fiefs, he draws revenue, 
 exercises his devolved rights, and enforces his authority 
 over the neighbouring duchies and counties. As the 
 head of feudalism, he regains once more the authority he 
 had lost as King, whilst as the representative of an 
 extra-feudal kingship, the heir of Charlemagne, and the 
 descendant of the Roman Caesars, with theoretical powers 
 
THE HEAD OF FEUDALISM 63 
 
 of justice and war in defence of his people, and as the 
 anointed of God at Rheims, the representative of Heaven 
 and the hope of the Church, the means are ready to his 
 hand for re-establishing the royal authority. But this 
 period was not yet. It was the task of a new dynasty, 
 begotten of feudalism itself, to found the absolute 
 monarchy of France. 
 
VI 
 
 THE DYNASTY OF THE CAPETS, AND THE CRUSADES 
 A.D. 912—1108 
 
 Charles the Simple recovered the kingship of Lorraine. 
 His preference for that kingdom, combined with other 
 grievances, led to a revolt of the Barons of Western 
 France, who elected Count Robert of Paris King (922). 
 Count Robert was slain at the Battle of Soissons in the 
 following year — a battle which ended, however, in the 
 discomfiture of Charles' troops. The Barons elected 
 Rudolph, Duke of Burgundy, his son-in-law, to reign in 
 his stead. Charles was seized, and kept in prison till his 
 death at Peronne in 929. Rudolph could not make good 
 his hold over Lorraine, which passed to Henry I. of 
 Germany, and became a German duchy. But he forced 
 the Normans to do him homage, and extended his 
 dominions in the south before he died, suddenly and child- 
 less, in 936. Hugh, son of Robert, Count of Paris, seemed 
 his obvious successor. But he could only calculate upon 
 the opposition of other Counts who were his equals, and 
 each of whom would deem himself his superior. He 
 chose rather, and more prudently, to summon his nephew, 
 the son of Charles the Simple, to the vacant throne from 
 the Court of Athelstan. " Louis from be3^ond the Seas " 
 (d'outre Mer) was consecrated at Laon 936, and received 
 the homage of the Barons. Hugh no doubt expected 
 to rule without risk through him, using his own influence 
 as " Duke of the French." 
 
 But Louis d'Outre-Mer was not content to be a mere 
 
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HUGH CAPET 66 
 
 puppet in the hands of Hugh the Great. A struggle 
 took place between the two for supremacy. Louis, 
 having secured the support of Otho of Germany, gained 
 the upper hand, and Hugh was obliged to submit. But 
 whilst the Grands Seigneurs, like the Duke of Normandy 
 or Aquitaine, did homage to Louis, and recognized him 
 as their Suzerain, he himself could boast scarcely any 
 territorial possessions. Without men or money, there- 
 fore, he could do little by himself in the face of the power 
 of Hugh, who now acquired the duchy of Burgundy in 
 addition to the duchy of France. Hugh became the 
 real Regent of the kingdom when Louis was succeeded 
 by his son, Lothair (954) ; for, as if to reward him for not 
 aiming at the kingship, he now received the duchy of 
 Aquitaine also. Lothair was chosen King, and anointed 
 at Rheims, to the exclusion of his younger brother. 
 Thus, the kingship having become elective, the ruinous 
 Frankish custom of dividing the kingdom like a patri- 
 mony amongst the King's sons was happily discarded. 
 
 When Hugh died (956), he had by his sagacious seK- 
 restraint succeeded in making his house so strong that 
 the kingship which he had had the wisdom to deny himself 
 was ripe to fall into the mouths of his descendants. His 
 son, Hugh Capet, took the final step in the foundation 
 of the new dynasty, which his great ancestors had been 
 so long preparing. The protracted struggle between the 
 feudal nobles and the Carolingian Kings drew at length 
 to an end. Without men, money, or lands, the energy 
 and ability of the last of them were of no avail. The 
 way to the throne was open to the House of Capet.* 
 
 * Capet, derived from cappa, and signifying the wearer of a 
 little cape, was probably an old surname of the family. There 
 is no evidence that the Capetians were descended from a Parisian 
 butcher, as tradition, referred to by Dante, asserts. But that 
 tradition at least enshrines a truth — that men of low origin 
 founded feudal families of high rank by their valour and qualities 
 as leaders in the tioublous times of the ninth and tenth centuries. 
 
66 FRANCE 
 
 Lothair made a desperate attempt to rid himself of the 
 tutelage of Hugh on the one hand, and of the Emperor 
 Otho II. of Germany on the other ; but in vain. His 
 attempt to regain the duchy of Lorraine brought him 
 into conflict with the Church, represented by Adalbero, 
 Archbishop of Rheims, and Gerbert, afterwards Pope 
 Sylvester II., whom Adalbero had placed at the head of 
 the famous School of Rheims. Lothair died in 986, and his 
 son, Louis V., died in the following year, before he could 
 humble the Archbishop, whom he had summoned to 
 answer the charge of treason at Compiegne. When the 
 Assembly met at that place there was none to sustain the 
 charge. There was no Carolingian heir to the throne, 
 imless it were Charles, Duke of Lorraine, uncle of the late 
 King, who owed allegiance to the Emperor. The Church, 
 led by Adalbero and the feudal nobility, and assembled at 
 Senlis, elected Hugh Capet to the vacant throne. He was 
 proclaimed King at Noyon, and anointed at Rheims, 
 July 3, 987. 
 
 The election of Hugh Capet was not so much an expres- 
 sion of national feeling against the Germanic Carolingians, 
 nor so much a triumph of French nationality, which was 
 indeed, as yet scarcely born, as the triumph of the leading 
 feudal house, under the wing of ecclesiasticism, over a 
 royal authority claiming to be above and outside of 
 feudalism. Capet was merely a feudal noble — 'primus 
 inter fares — whose power as a Kmg was therefore small. 
 His election left the feudal principalities of Normandy, 
 Champagne, Burgundy, Aquitaine, etc., as strong and 
 independent as his own duch}^ of France. 
 
 Like the Merovingians, the Carolingians had allowed 
 themselves to be stripped of their lands and their rights. 
 They were fatally weakened by the lack of immediate 
 domains. Their kingdom had been divided up into great 
 seigniorial principalities, where their authority was only 
 
PHILIPPE I 67 
 
 felt through the channel of their feudal subordinates. 
 Had they been great feudal nobles, they would have 
 remained Kings. Society without a King was now more 
 than ever inconceivable, since kingship was the necessary 
 coping-stone to the feudal edifice. But a King without 
 lands, when aU wealth and authority had come to be 
 connected with the land, was a thing impossible. The 
 kingship passed therefore to that dynasty which had, 
 with infinite patience, ability, and address, accumulated 
 the greatest possessions in the necessary form of counties, 
 duchies, and abbeys. And the fact that Paris was the 
 centre of the new King's possessions meant that the 
 power of France began to be consolidated round the 
 capital, and thence to spread outwards and to promote 
 the growth of the idea of a French nationality. 
 
 Once on the throne, Hugh succeeded in strengthening 
 his position. He maintained the independence of France 
 against the Empire and the Papacy, and, dying in 996, 
 handed on the crown to his son, Robert the Pious. 
 Neither he nor his successor, Henri I. (1031), made much 
 progress in aggrandizing the kingship, but they secured 
 the succession of their house by associating their sons 
 with them in the kingship during their own lives. 
 
 Philippe I. made more progress in that direction. 
 Ascending the throne in 1060 at the age of eight, and 
 under the regency of Baldwin V., Count of Flanders, 
 he reigned till 1108. It was one of the longest reigns in 
 French history, and one of the least eventful. But with 
 him begins the process to be continued in succeeding 
 reigns, of drawing the scattered fragments of a dis- 
 membered country together, and uniting France into a 
 national whole. 
 
 The monkish chroniclers have little that is good to say 
 of Philippe. They represent him as sensual and avari- 
 cious. But we may suppose that their view of him was 
 
68 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 tinged by prejudice, since in life and policy he was con- 
 tinually at loggerheads with the Church. 
 
 Whatever his shortcomings, Philippe had the political 
 acumen to see very clearly that it was necessary to check 
 the aggrandizement of the Dukes of Normandy. He 
 foresaw that the conquest of England by William the 
 Bastard would prove a disaster to France. The story is 
 well known how, when William was trying to extend his 
 sway over the county of Vexin, the French King sneered 
 at his greed and corpulence. 
 " The King of England is with 
 child ; there will be many candles 
 at his churching." " By the splen- 
 dour of God," retorted William, 
 "I will light a hundred thousand 
 myseK at the expense of Philippe "; 
 and he set fire to Nantes. That 
 was but an incident in the tale 
 of Philippe's long struggle with 
 William the Conqueror, William 
 Rufus, and Henry Beauclerc. 
 He aimed at separating Normandy 
 from England by encouraging the 
 Barons to revolt. The struggle 
 did not always go in his favour. 
 At one time Paris lay almost at 
 the mercy of WiUiam Rufus. But Philippe steadily 
 pursued the policy of accumulating treasure and lands, 
 annexing fiefs like Vexin, Valois, Bourges, and Vermandois, 
 and thus increasing the royal domains, without which 
 kingship, as we have seen, in a feudal state was powerless 
 to fulfil its functions. 
 
 That Philippe was not lacking in determination is 
 proved by his resistance to the Papacy. He foimd him- 
 self involved in a quarrel with Gregory VII., whose 
 
 NORMAN SOLDIER : FROM THE 
 BAYEUX TAPESTRY. 
 
CLUNY 69 
 
 reforms, admirable m themselves, clashed with the 
 temporal interests of Philippe as patron of many bishoprics 
 and abbeys, and involved the domination of Rome over 
 the French Church. Moreover, Philippe's irregular mar- 
 riage with Bertrade de Montfort (wife of Falk, Count of 
 Anjou) brought him into conflict with all the heavy 
 artillery of the Church's excommunication, which he 
 braved. His various motives are curiously suggestive 
 of those which actuated Henry VIII. in his conflict with 
 the Papacy. 
 
 The policy connected with the name of Gregory VII. 
 and Urban II. is derived from a strong and earnest move- 
 ment for reform which had arisen within the Church in 
 the darkest days of the degradation of the Papacy. Whilst 
 the bishopric of Rome was sinking almost to the level of 
 any German benefice within the gift of the Emperor, the 
 Monastery of Cluny, founded in 910 in Eastern France to 
 reform monastic life, was nourishing the seeds of new 
 ideals and ecclesiastical ambitions of incalculable con- 
 sequence. The two great evils of the time, from the 
 point of view of the Church, were the immorality of the 
 clergy and simony, or the purchase of ecclesiastical pre- 
 ferment, which was largely responsible for it. The source 
 of simony was traced to the domination of the lay 
 Seigneurs, who, possessing ecclesiastical benefices, made 
 open traffic in them, and allotted them to the highest 
 bidder. To combat this evil, and so to achieve the reform 
 of the clergy, the programme of Cluny shaped itself. It 
 involved a withdrawal from the feudal system, a com- 
 plete annulling of all lay influence over the clergy, and 
 an absolute subordination of all local churches to a central 
 head — the Pope — and therefore the entire independence 
 of the Church from all control by the State. 
 
 It was reserved for the monk Hildebrand, brought 
 up in the strictest ideas of Cluny, and elected Pope 
 
70 FRANCE 
 
 (Gregory VII.) in 1073, to attempt to realize them and 
 their logical corollaries. 
 
 It was over the theory of the Investiture that Church 
 and State joined issue. The Kings and feudal Princes 
 had everywhere arrogated to themselves the right not 
 only of appointing to bishoprics and abbeys, but also of 
 investing their nominees with their spiritual functions, 
 and exacting homage from them in return. The re- 
 formers of the Church now claimed that the Investiture 
 was essentially a sacrament which it was in the power of 
 the Church alone to give. The reformers insisted, also, 
 upon the celibacy of the clergy and upon the prohibition 
 of simony. Logically these reforms involved a recon- 
 struction of society and the relations of Church and 
 State. If the feudal lord might no longer sell ecclesi- 
 astical benefices and appoint to Church dignities, the 
 Church must be free of the State, and therefore, by virtue 
 of its Divine origin and the function of consecrating the 
 King, so far superior to the State. The right of giving the 
 crown involved the right of taking it away, and of absolv- 
 ing the King's subjects from obedience to their royal 
 master. The Pope must be raised above the Kings of 
 the earth. " The radical theory of reform led directly to 
 a theocracy."* 
 
 The struggle between Church and State lasted for over 
 thirty years, and ended in a compromise agreeable to the 
 views of those moderate men who, like Ive of Chartres, 
 held that the rights of the King must be reconciled with 
 the liberty of the Church. The grotmd of reconciliation 
 was to be foimd in a distinction between the property 
 of the Church and her ecclesiastical heritage ; between 
 the feudal investiture of lands and jurisdiction, and the 
 spiritual investiture which belonged to the Church by 
 right of her religious authority. Philippe made formal 
 * Cf, A. Luchaire, ap. Lavisse, II. ii. 210. 
 
THE "FRENCH CANOSSA " 71 
 
 submission to the Pope at the Council of Paris (1103), 
 and was granted absolution in the matter of Bertrade 
 de Montfort. Four years later the King and his son 
 Louis humbled themselves at the feet of the Pope, 
 Pascal II., at Saint-Denis. The question of the Investi- 
 ture was solved by the King tacitly dropping the spiritual 
 investiture and ceasing to receive the feudal homage 
 of the Bishops. He made no formal renunciation of his 
 rights, and did not refrain from all profit in the matter of 
 nominating prelates. The "French Canossa " was by 
 no means a one-sided victory for the Papacy, but rather 
 the beginning of a reconciliation between the Popes and 
 the Capetians, of an alliance from the date of which the 
 title of " Eldest Son of the Church " was to be the heritage 
 of the wearers of the crown of France till the fall of the 
 ancien regime. 
 
 Against the state of perpetual war, which was at once 
 the business, the pleasure, and the bane of the feudal 
 nobles, the Church had intervened (circa 1000) to secure 
 the inviolability of the clergy and some alleviation for 
 the defenceless. Pacts of peace, leagues into which 
 prelates and Seigneurs entered, and bound themselves by 
 oath not to play the brigand for a stated period, had been 
 promoted.* These "peaces of God," contracts between 
 individuals, developed into "truces of God," periods of 
 cessation from the normal state of war, which, under 
 the encouragement of the Popes and Capetian Kings, 
 were extended throughout whole districts, and length- 
 ened from mere week-ends or the observance of the 
 Sabbath (1027) to the whole periods of the Christian 
 fasts. 
 
 The Crusades against the infidel abroad were only 
 rendered possible by such truces of God at home, by 
 
 * " From May till All Saints I will not seize horse or beast in the 
 fields, burn houses or dig up vines under pretext of war," etc. 
 
72 FRANCE 
 
 which protection was secured to the women, children, 
 castles, and rights of Seigneurs warring abroad. 
 
 Further, through the institution of chivalry — an insti- 
 tution which goes back for the origin both of its forms 
 and ideals to the early Germans, but which reached its 
 height during the Crusades — the Church had begun to 
 turn the warlike spirit and traditions of the feudal noble 
 to the service of God and His clergy, the defence of 
 the fatherless and widow. She now began to divert his 
 predatory instincts from plundering his fellow-Christian 
 to plundering the infidel Turk. 
 
 The first of the Holy Wars was mainly a French expedi- 
 tion. It was preached in France by the Pope and French 
 orators. It was the direct outcome of the new force of 
 Christianity in Europe. Urban II., having proved his 
 power in the West by his struggle over the Investitures, 
 thought himself strong enough to assert Christianity in 
 the East. The direct object of the Crusades (1095-1291) 
 was, indeed, to recover the tomb of Christ, and to hurl 
 back the tide of Mussulman invasion which threatened 
 the Latin world. The result, so far as France was con- 
 cerned, was to weld that kingdom together into her 
 modern form, and to make her predominant in Christen- 
 dom. 
 
 Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre, and Antioch had fallen 
 into the hands of the fanatical Turks (1078-1084). And 
 now an intolerable persecution of Christian pilgrims to 
 the most sacred of their shrines, combined with the Mussul- 
 man invasion of Spain (1087), induced Urban II. to preach 
 a Holy War against the enemies of the Faith. 
 
 On November 28, 1095, at the Council of Clermont, the 
 valorous Pope called upon the assembly of Bishops and 
 Abbots and knights who were gathered together from 
 the centre and south of France to take arms against the 
 infidel. His trumpet-call awoke an extraordinary enthu- 
 
THE FIRST CRUSADE 73 
 
 siasm in his audience, who, in answer to his summons to 
 " take up thy Cross and follow me, " fixed on their shoulders 
 a cross of cloth, and cried aloud, " Dieu le veut ! Dieu 
 le veut !" 
 
 The idea thus promulgated by the enthusiasm and 
 diplomacj^ of the Head of the Church roused the imagina- 
 tion of the people when it was preached to them by the 
 fiery eloquence of men like Peter the Hermit, whose 
 burning zeal, as he traversed France recounting the 
 sufferings of the pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre, set the 
 imaginations of nobles and peasants alike ablaze, and led 
 them in thousands to the rendezvous at Cologne. Thence 
 a wild, disorganized band of fanatics, the "popular 
 Crusade," advanced, pillaging, massacring, dying, to 
 disaster and annihilation in Asia Minor. 
 
 Meanwhile the organized army of the higher Barons 
 assembled and set out in four divisions and by different 
 routes — the first under Raymond IV., Count of Toulouse ; 
 the second, mainly French of the north, under Godfrey 
 of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, and his brother 
 Baldwin; a third, mainly Italian, under Bohemond of 
 Tarentum, and Tancred, his nephew, half-German, half- 
 Sicilian ; the fourth, wholly French, was led by Hugh, 
 Count of Vermandois, brother of the King, Robert II., the 
 Count of Flanders, and the Counts of Chartres and Blois. 
 Kings were noticeable for their absence, for they were at 
 this time in conflict with the Papacy over the Investitures. 
 
 The armies led by French heroes, whose deeds are 
 written large in the page of the world's history, achieved 
 its object. Jerusalem was taken (1099), and its capture 
 was followed by the most atrocious slaughter of the 
 Saracens, of all ages and sexes. 
 
 The motives which prompted the Crusaders to take part 
 in their mission were many and complex. With Christian 
 fervour and the spirit of chivalry mingled the love of 
 
74 FRANCE 
 
 fighting and the love of loot ; to the hope of territorial 
 aggrandizement and the prospect of opening up new 
 markets were added the certain spiritual advantages 
 offered by the Church in the shape of privileges and indul- 
 gences. The promise of salvation in the next world and 
 a general amnesty in this, in return for the risks and 
 hardships of foreign adventure, appealed to all those who 
 shared in the general medieval belief that only by self- 
 sacrifice and asceticism could a man atone for his sins. 
 Though many were actuated by meaner motives, genuine 
 religious fervour undoubtedly inspired the vast majority 
 of these soldiers of Christ — at any rate in the earlier 
 Crusades. 
 
 There is little to be said for the morality of proselji^ism 
 at the point of the sword. But it may be observed that 
 militant Christianity of this sort was an idea to which 
 the practice of the Frankish Kings, from Clovis to Charle- 
 magne, had accustomed the mind of Europe. Whatever 
 their motives or morality, the effects of the Crusades 
 were far-reaching and unforeseen. A social and industrial 
 revolution gradually resulted, which in some respects is 
 comparable to that of more modern times. Two main 
 causes contributed to it. First, the absence of the 
 Seigneur from his fief tended to loosen the bonds of 
 feudalism. Serfs, artisans, merchants, burghers, began 
 to group themselves into associations, and to exact by 
 force or bargain in the country and in the towns some 
 guarantees against the arbitrary exactions of their 
 privileged overlords. In the absence of the Seigneur 
 they felt their strength ; in his need for funds to support 
 him upon his expeditions they found their opportunity. 
 Secondly, in the case of the merchants and burghers of 
 the towns — more especially in the South of France— 
 their ability to seize the occasion was immensely enhanced 
 by the wealth which the new trade with the East, opened 
 
EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADES 75 
 
 up by the Crusades, brought to them. Everywhere, to a 
 greater or less degree, the bourgeoisie began to achieve 
 their emancipation, by banding themselves together, and 
 by exacting from their Seigneur either the concession of 
 his rights or the definite limitation of the arbitrary 
 exactions enforced by him or his agents. The abolition 
 of arbitrary taxation, the personal liberty of the serf, 
 the fixing and reducing of the market dues, the main- 
 tenance of peace and order, the right of administering 
 justice — these, speaking generally, were the objects aimed 
 at and largely secured by the new bourgeoisie, as their 
 growing wealth and organization developed their power 
 in the face of Seigneurs weakened, quarrelling, and im- 
 poverished, by the Crusades. The rise of the communes 
 is the corollary of the Crusades. It was a step towards 
 liberty equally distasteful to the Barons and the Bishops. 
 It was a popular victory won at the expense of the feudal 
 aristocracy. 
 
 The growth of commerce, then, stimulated by the 
 Crusades, encouraged the growth and independence of 
 the towns. The development of cities round about a 
 castle or monastery was the natural outcome of the 
 feudal system. Trades grew where they were fostered 
 and protected. Equally logical, as the cities so founded 
 or revived grew in wealth and population, was the effort 
 made by them to follow the example set by their feudal 
 lords themselves, to gain their freedom from their suzerain 
 and to achieve a practical independence. Their efforts 
 in this direction were crowned with varying success ac- 
 cording to the various conditions prevailing in the different 
 parts of France. But a general movement towards local 
 independence and municipal self-government was fostered 
 by the conditions of the twelfth century. It was stimu- 
 lated, especialty in the south, by the memory and con- 
 tinuance of Roman municipal institutions. At the same 
 
76 FRANCE 
 
 time the prevalence of the feudal system pointed the 
 way to a feudal form which might cloak a development 
 really antagonistic to the spirit of feudalism. 
 
 The formation of a commune was, from this point of 
 view, merely an act of subinfeudation — the recognition 
 of a corporation as a feudal personage, whose obligations 
 as a vassal were now to be no longer arbitrary and in- 
 definite, but were specified in the contract of a fief between 
 suzerain lord and vassal commune. In return for the 
 homage paid and the vassal's oath sworn by the officers 
 of the feudal city, the lord swore to observe his obliga- 
 tions. So far he reduced his own powers and oppor- 
 tunities, and so far the establishment of a commune 
 implied a victory on the part of the merchants and citizens. 
 
 There were many towns which did not achieve the 
 complete local seK-government implied by the word 
 "commune." But there were numerous villes de bour- 
 geoisie, or chartered towns, which obtained by definite 
 contracts more or less extensive rights of this character, 
 combined with freedom from arbitrary exactions. 
 
 Whilst the growth of the communes was at once a 
 cause and a result of the weakening of the feudal nobles, 
 the Kings, who were endeavouring to establish their 
 ascendancy over the latter, favoured the movement as 
 opportunity occurred, and tended to take the communes 
 under their special protection. But as the monarchy 
 grew stronger, and the policy of centralization which it 
 represented prevailed, the Crown, towards the end of the 
 thirteenth century, began to grow jealous of their 
 independence. Royal executive and judicial officers were 
 introduced, and encroachments were made upon the 
 autonomy of towns which then appeared, in their feudal 
 light, as objectionable as the petty local Barons from 
 whom they had won their freedom.* 
 
 * See Chapter VIII., )Jw. 
 
PETER ABELARD 77 
 
 And side by side with this movement towards social 
 liberty there was manifested a tendency towards freedom 
 of thought, which sprang in part from the stimulus given 
 to the mind of the West by contact with the higher civil- 
 ization of the East. It was a first step towards modern 
 science and the revival of learning, and, when shown in 
 the so-called " heresies " of the twelfth century, was 
 vigorously denounced and suppressed by the Church. 
 It is noticeable that, at a time when his great opponent, 
 St. Bernard, was preaching the righteousness of slaying 
 pagans, Abelard, the chief intellectual force of his age, 
 who by the brilliancy of his lectures made the " School 
 of Paris " the centre of education in Europe, dared to 
 inculcate, to the students who crowded from every 
 civilized country to sit at his feet, the humane precept, 
 " Never use force to lead your neighbour into your belief ; 
 faith comes not by force, but through reason." 
 
 For it was the School of Philosophy at Paris which, in 
 this twelfth-century Renaissance, attracted the newly- 
 kindled enthusiasm of the studious. As early as 1109 
 William of Champeaux had opened a School of Logic at 
 Paris, and it was due to the success of his brilliant and 
 combative pupil, Peter Abelard, that a Society of Masters 
 now arose, and constituted a University which traces its 
 origin to the cathedral schools attached to the great 
 churches of Paris. The multitude of disciples who 
 flocked to the lectures of Abelard, and listened with 
 delight to his bold theories and his assertion of the rights 
 of reason against authority, showed that a new spirit 
 of inquiry and speculation was abroad. The poets and 
 orators of antiquity began to be studied with admiration ; 
 the introduction into Europe of some of the Arabian 
 writings on physics and geometry was opening the door 
 to the development of mathematical science. It was the 
 light before a dawn that never broke into day. The flower 
 
78 FRANCE 
 
 of intellectual and scientific inquiry was destined to be 
 nipped in the bud by the blighting influence of Scholasti- 
 cism. Roused to the danger of the new spirit of scepti- 
 cism introduced by the sudden expansion of the field 
 of education, the Church roused herself to fight. Paris 
 became the first home of the Schoolmen. By their aid 
 ecclesiasticism once more triumphed, and the reign of 
 theology was resumed. Soon Scholasticism, with its 
 ingenious and trifling disquisitions, absorbed the whole 
 mental energy of the student world. Meantime, before 
 Abelard had been silenced as a heretic by the Councils of 
 Soissons and Sens (1140), and had given to the world the 
 beautiful and pathetic story of his love for Heloise, the 
 martial poets of the north had sung the epic of Roland 
 and of the pflgrimage of Charlemagne and his twelve 
 peers. And in the south, in the gay land of Provence, 
 where the language had already crystallized into a distract 
 speech, lyric poetry was born again in the castles of 
 Languedoc and Aquitaine.* Here a greater share of 
 independence and prosperity, and a closer acquaintance 
 with the cultivated Saracens, had given rise to a develop- 
 ment of social and intellectual refinement, which found 
 expression in the new order of chivalry, of courtly life 
 and amorous and satirical poetry. 
 
 William IX., Duke of Aquitaine, witty, flippant, tender 
 by turns, but always polished, a Crusader who mocked at 
 the Crusades, a lover who thanked God and St. Julian 
 for his skill in gallantry, and a poet who could boast of 
 the perfection of his art, ushers in for us the long line of 
 troubadours, those professional songsters and lovers, who 
 were drawn from every class without distinction, and who 
 spent their days passing from one castle to another, 
 hymning the praises of their chosen fair. 
 
 * The language of the south became known as langue d'oCy 
 of the north as langue d'oil, from the different forms for ex- 
 pressing the modern oui, "yes." 
 
THE TROUBADOURS 79 
 
 It is one of the curiosities of literature that the first 
 examples of Proven9al poetry preserved to us should be 
 as complete, elaborate, and polished in form, as the last 
 swan-song of the troubadours who were hushed to silence 
 by the horrors of the Albigensian wars. And it is worth 
 observing that the whole doctrine of this chivalrous 
 love and courtly j)oetry which they sang — namely, that 
 love between married people was impossible, and could 
 only exist in perfect form between gracious lady and 
 devoted knight, bound to serve his mistress in deed and 
 art — ^was in itseK an implied revolt against the subjection 
 of woman, assigned in loveless marriage as part of a mere 
 bargain or transaction in the vast network of the feudal 
 system . 
 
 The songs of the troubadours, then, are, so far, the 
 lyric monument of one aspect of a universal attempt 
 to throw off the intellectual and social shackles of 
 feudalism. 
 
 The moral and intellectual Renaissance of the eleventh 
 and twelfth centuries, which we have been describing, 
 was expressed in architecture no less clearly than in 
 literature and action. As if to give utterance to an era 
 of greater intensity of faith and aspiration, springing 
 from the Church's great effort at reform, architecture 
 passed in style from the apogee of the Romanesque to the 
 new creation of pointed arch and soaring nave and tower- 
 ing pinnacle, which is designated by the name of " Gothic." 
 This period witnessed an outburst of church-building, 
 from Aries to Chartres, from Cluny to Caen, in styles 
 slightly varying according to the exact decade and locality 
 of the edifice. About 1 1 50 was accomplished the supreme 
 achievement of French sculpture, the Royal Porch of 
 Chartres, executed by sculptors influenced by the Byzan- 
 tine art which the Crusades had brought closer home, -and 
 fulfilling the reasoned object of medieval masons, which 
 
80 FRANCE 
 
 was to illustrate to the gazing, illiterate crowd without 
 what the Book of God preached by word and painted 
 window within. 
 
 The great Grothic cathedrals were not the work of one 
 man, but of a nation in love with building, inspired by 
 the wonder and beauty of glass and stone strung together 
 into one perfect organism. They are the manifestations 
 of a whole people's spiritual and artistic ideal, stirred by 
 a noble impulse and supremely realized. It is not by 
 accident that they achieved their perfection in this age. 
 
ON THE WALLS OF CARCASSONNE. 
 
 In the masonry of this remarkable old city of Southern France the history of the country is 
 visualized in a remarkable fashion. The lowest of the three clearly marked periods is Roman 
 (fourth century), above is the work of the Visigoths, and the highest is medieval (eleventh and 
 twelfth centuries). 
 
VII 
 
 LOUIS VI. (THE FAT) AND PHILIPPE AUGUSTE— THE 
 
 ALBIGENSIAN CKUSADE 
 
 A.D. 1108—1226 
 
 Owing to Philippe's quarrel with the Papac}^ Louis VI., 
 his son by his first wife Bertha, though associated with 
 him in the crown, was not consecrated by the Church ; 
 but his vigorous and successful resistance to the attacks 
 of the Anglo-Normans in Vexin, and to brigandage in 
 general, had already proved him fit to reign (1108). 
 " By his constant duels with petty feudalism, his pro- 
 tection of the poor, the weak, and the clergy, Louis VI., 
 le Gros (the Fat), secured the grateful memory of his 
 people, and laid the foundations of a popular monarchy, 
 based upon benevolent justice and the good-will of the 
 masses. Personally he was a simple, generous, brave, 
 good-natured soul, with no scorn for the good things of 
 the flesh. He did not marry tiU middle age, and then 
 Adelaide of Savoy bore him six sons and three daughters. 
 To raise the monarchy above feudalism it was neces- 
 sary that the monarch should be the strongest of the 
 feudal nobles. Men and money were needed for this 
 purpose, and for the performance of that duty of police 
 which is the first function of government. Louis pur- 
 sued his father's policy of increasing the Sovereign's 
 domain, which alone could provide him with these 
 necessaries. By every device he worked towards the 
 
 81 6 
 
82 ' FRANCE 
 
 end of making himself the greatest proprietor in the tie 
 de France. That domain was hedged in by the castles 
 of robber-knights, which, as we have seen, had sprung 
 up in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Against these 
 feudal wolves Louis waged incessant warfare with his 
 own hand. He was a soldier who loved fighting of this 
 sort for its own sake, and, in spite of his rank and obesity, 
 persisted in engaging desperately in combat. He did 
 not go on the Crusade, but more wisely stayed at home, 
 and took advantage of the absence of the nobles to extend 
 his own sway. 
 
 Notwithstanding his valiant, and often rash, en- 
 deavours, the force of Louis was not equal to his will. 
 His attempts to reduce the high Barons and the great 
 feudatories, like the Count of Flanders, failed ; and in 
 Normandy he was opposed by a soldier as valiant as 
 himself and a statesman immeasurably superior, Henry 
 Beauclerc, King of England. With him Louis waged 
 an unprofitable and inglorious war. 
 
 Louis VII. (the Young), King of France and Duke of 
 Aquitaine through his wife Eleanor, was sixteen years of 
 age when he came to the throne (1137). Devout and 
 docile in the hands of the clergy, and of his prudent 
 Minister, the monk Suger, Louis was influenced still more 
 by his passionate devotion to his wife. To her, daughter 
 of William, Count of Poitiers, heiress of all the lands 
 between the Loire and the Adour, vain, fickle, and sensual, 
 accomplished in all the arts of love and poetry as they 
 were practised in the Courts of the South, he owed 
 almost all the misfortunes of his reign. 
 
 Louis the Young opened his reign with some spirit. 
 He began by asserting the Queen's right to the county 
 of Toulouse, and laid siege to that town. He maintained 
 his right of presentation to the See of Bourges, although 
 by so doing he was brought into conflict with the Pope. 
 
ST. BERNARD 83 
 
 He punished several refractory nobles, and led his army 
 against Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne. In the 
 course of that campaign he took the Castle of Vitry by 
 storm, and set fire to it. Unhappily, the flames spread 
 to the church, and 1,300 of the inhabitants who had 
 sought refuge there were burnt to death. There is no 
 doubt that Louis was greatly affected by the sight of 
 their charred bodies, and remorse occasioned by this 
 disaster led him into another and a greater. Edessa had 
 fallen into the hands of the Turks. The fiery eloquence 
 of St. Bernard roused his listeners to the pitch of en- 
 thusiasm.* The scenes of Clermont were repeated at 
 Vezelai (1146). Louis took the Cross, and led the second 
 Crusade to the defence of Jerusalem ; but though this 
 expedition was more elaborately organized, and had more 
 of a military and less of a popular and religious character 
 than the former, it ended in the most miserable failure. 
 The piety of the King, who was chiefly concerned, not 
 to fight, but to pray at the Holy Sepulchre, the lack of 
 discipline amongst his followers, and the horde of women 
 who followed the army, contributed to render the 
 Crusade a fiasco. Louis returned with the remnant of 
 his army in 1149, disappointed and discredited. The 
 frivolity and vexatious behaviour of his wife, which had 
 contributed to the failure of the campaign, was rendered 
 doubly intolerable now that her contempt was expressed 
 for a King who was, she said, fit only to be a monk. 
 
 * The second Crusade was largely the work of St. Bernard, 
 the eloquent ascetic. Abbot of Clairvaux, who by sheer force 
 of character dominated Western Christianity throughout the 
 second quarter of the twelfth century. He impressed upon his 
 age the ideal of monastic asceticism which was embodied in the 
 Cistercian Order which he founded — an Order of monks vowed 
 to poverty, obedience, and chastity, virtues long since forgotten 
 by the monks of Cluny, and too soon to be forgotten by the 
 followers of St. Bernard himself. He also helped to found the 
 great Order of the Templars. 
 
84 FRANCE 
 
 He divorced her, and a few weeks later she married Henry 
 Plantagenet, heir to the English crown (1152), Count of 
 Anjou and Duke of Normandy. With her the rich 
 duchy of Aquitaine passed to the English King, who, 
 presently acquiring Brittany by the marriage of his son, 
 became master of almost the whole of Western France. 
 Louis' divorce, if morally correct, was politically 
 fatuous. His failure in the East damaged his influence 
 and that of St. Bernard, who had prophesied his success ; 
 but it only served to brighten the lustre of his prudent 
 Minister, the Abbot Suger, who had never ceased to urge 
 his master not to leave his flock to the mercy of the 
 wolves. In his absence Louis had appointed the trusted 
 Minister of Louis the Fat to act as Regent. His sage 
 and brilHant administration of justice and finance won 
 him the title of the " Solomon of the century." Upon 
 his return, Suger handed over to his royal master a 
 country which his skilful and unselfish statesmanship 
 had rendered peaceful and prosperous. HimseK the most 
 authoritative historian of this epoch, he is perhaps the 
 only writer of her history who influenced the destinies of 
 France. 
 
 For the remaining twenty years of his reign Louis was 
 occupied with the feud in which Eleanor's divorce had 
 involved him. Jealousy, naturally springing from those 
 personal and political causes, led him into a constant 
 struggle with the increasing power of his rival, Henry II. 
 of England. The French King proved himseK more 
 dangerous in intrigue than in arms. He encouraged the 
 rebellion of Henry's sons, and seized the occasion of the 
 murder of Thomas a Becket to enlist the influence of 
 the Church against the English King. 
 
 It was at the tomb of Becket that the devout French 
 King caught the chill from which he died in 1180. He 
 had made a pilgrimage to pray for the recovery of the 
 
86 
 
 French Kingdom 
 
 Dominions of King of England—SHHl 
 Fiefs held by other Feudatories., 
 
 LonR.West of Greenwich O 
 
 ENGLAND AND FRANCE AT THE ACCESSION OF HENRY II. 
 
86 FRANCE 
 
 longed-for heir whom Adele of Champagne had born to 
 him. 
 
 Philippe II., surnamed Augustus from the month of his 
 birth, and Dieudonne by his grateful parents, was but 
 fifteen when he began to reign. His reign marks an im- 
 portant epoch. It is not without reason that he has been 
 termed the real founder of the absolute monarchy in 
 France. Not only did the new King reduce to subjec- 
 tion those Barons who still attempted to rule inde- 
 pendently of him, but he also succeeded in winning back 
 from the English nearly all their possessions in France. 
 
 Fortunately, Phihppe was extraordinarily able and 
 precocious. His first step was to persecute the Jews, 
 and fill his treasury with their ransoms ; the next, to 
 acquire Artois b}^ his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter 
 of the Count of Hainault, and niece of the Count of 
 Flanders. The marriage gave offence to the House of 
 Champagne, which had been disputing with the House 
 of Flanders the perquisite of influencing the King ; and 
 since the Archbishop of Rheims was William of Cham- 
 pagne, the royal pair dispensed with the traditional 
 coronation, and were crowned quietly at St. Denis. 
 Thus the domains of France were extended as far as 
 Flanders. The young King next turned to crush the 
 great Barons who endeavoured to rule independently of 
 him. He queUed the Duke of Burgundy and the Count 
 of Chalons, and added to his domains the counties of 
 Amiens, Valois, Vermandois. He had been aided in his 
 efforts to subdue the Barons by Henry II. of England ; 
 but the ambition of Philippe left no place for gratitude. 
 He had abandoned his father's policy of encouraging 
 the Jews ; he pursued it in the direction of instigating 
 Henry's rebellious sons. 
 
 Jealousy of the English, which he inherited naturally 
 from his father, had sunk deep into his heart as a boy, 
 
C(EUR DE LION 87 
 
 when, beneath the huge elm- tree at Gisors, on the 
 boundary of their territories of France and Normandy, 
 he had witnessed the conferences between Louis and 
 Henry. And more than once the high-spirited Prince 
 had given expression to his indignation at the power of 
 the English King. Such was his intimacy with Richard 
 Cceur de Lion, Duke of Aquitaine, and heir to the 
 English crown, that for a long time the Princes shared 
 the same tent and bed. But that intimacy could not 
 withstand the strain to which the brilliant courage of 
 the Lion Heart, and the natural rivalry between England 
 and France, was soon to put the proud and jealous nature 
 of Philippe. 
 
 Their rivalry was brought to a head in the course of 
 the third Crusade. Jerusalem had fallen into the hands 
 of Saladin. Another Crusade had long been contem- 
 plated. At a meeting of his Barons at Gisors, Coeur de 
 Lion and Philippe took the Cross, and under their leader- 
 ship and that of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa an 
 expedition sailed for the Holy Land in 1190. Acre was 
 taken in the following year ; but by that time the fame 
 of Richard's impetuous daring had grown intolerable to 
 the French King. The heritage of the Count of Flanders, 
 who had fallen before Acre, tempted him. Having first 
 sworn to respect the rights and lands of the English 
 King, he returned to France with intent to seize them. 
 The Pope refused to release him from that oath, but 
 the news of Richard's captivity in Austria encouraged 
 him to ignore it. Entering into an alliance with Richard's 
 brother, John Lackland, who undertook to do homage 
 to the French King, he proceeded to attack Normandy. 
 
 " Have a care for yourself," wrote Philippe to John, 
 when he heard the unwelcome news of Richard's release 
 from an imprisonment which they had endeavoured to 
 bribe the Emperor to prolong, "Have a care — the devil 
 
88 FRANCE 
 
 is unloosed." And Richard, returning, crossed over 
 into Normandy, and waged war with ceaseless energy 
 against his treacherous foe (1194-1199). John, in terror, 
 betrayed his ally, and, after massacring 300 French 
 soldiers, handed over Evreux to his brother. Richard 
 inflicted a humiliating defeat upon Philippe at Freteval, 
 and again at Courcelles. In diplomacy as well as in 
 wealth and military skill he proved himself superior to 
 his rival. To protect Rouen, and to render a French 
 invasion of Normandy impossible, he built upon an 
 isolated promontory in an elbow of the Seine a castle, 
 which he dubbed the Chateau-Gaillard. Its deep moat, 
 hewn in the rock, its triple enceinte and walls 5 feet 
 thick, seemed to render it an impregnable barrier to 
 French aggression for ever. The Chateau-Gaillard marks 
 an epoch in military architecture ; for it was built on the 
 reasoned principles of defence, which had been elaborated 
 in the castles of S3a*ia, whence Richard Coeur de Lion 
 borrowed them. Just before death cut short the career 
 of this brilliant French-English King, he concluded a 
 truce with Philippe, at the instigation of Pope Inno- 
 cent III. By its terms Philippe was forced to yield up 
 the fruits of all his ten years of war. 
 
 But the death of Richard (1199) left an adversary in 
 the field whose vile and pusillanimous character enabled 
 Philippe to win back all and more than he had lost. 
 
 England and Normandy recognized John Lackland as 
 King ; but Philippe supported the claims of Arthur of 
 Brittany against those of his old ally, intending that he 
 should play against John the same part as John had 
 played against Richard. Phihppe, however, was presently 
 obliged to abandon that cause and patch up a temporary 
 peace with King John at Goulet (1200), owing to the 
 crisis brought about by the interdict which the Pope 
 laid upon his kingdom. 
 
CHATEAU-GAILLARD 
 
 89 
 
 Scale of Feet. 
 5.0 IQO 
 
 GROUND-PLAN OF THE ChAtEAU-GAILLARD 
 
 A. High Angle Tower, 
 bB. Smaller Side Towers. 
 CC, DD. Comer Towers. 
 
 B. Outer Enceinte, or Lower Court. 
 
 F. The Well, 
 
 G, H. BuUdiugs in the Lower Court. 
 I. The Moat. 
 
 K. Entrance Gate. 
 L. The Counterscarp. 
 M. The Keep. 
 
 N. The Escarpment. 
 
 O. Postern Tower. 
 
 P. Postern Gate. 
 
 RR. Parapet Walls. 
 
 S. Gate from the Escarpment. 
 
 TT. Flanking Towers. 
 
 V. Outer Tower. 
 
 X. Connecting Wall. 
 
 Y. The Stockade in the River. 
 
 ZZ. The Great Ditches. 
 
 For, on the death of Isabel of Hainault, Philippe had 
 married Ingelburgha, a Princess of Denmark, wishing to 
 cement an alliance with that maritime nation with a 
 
90 FRANCE 
 
 view to his project of invading England (1193). The 
 day after his marriage he took a violent dislike to her, 
 and presently obtained from a council of his clergy at 
 Compiegne a decree of divorce on the usual plea of con- 
 sanguinity. Ingelburgha protested ; she was beautiful, 
 and she was good. Her brother, King Knut VI., invoked 
 the aid of the genealogists, and appealed to the Pope. 
 The Pope declared the decree of divorce void and null. 
 Philippe was furious, and, to clinch the matter, married 
 Agnes of Meran. Innocent III. placed his kingdom 
 under an interdict. So great was the King's influence 
 over his clergy that in many parts the royal Bishops re- 
 fused to publish the sentence ; but the rest of the land 
 groaned under a decree which deprived them of all the 
 consolations and sacraments of the Church. After nine 
 months the King yielded momentarily. Agnes, it is 
 said, died of a broken heart. But for twenty years 
 Philippe refused to live with Ingelburgha, and clamoured 
 for a divorce, defying the Pope more or less openly, 
 according as the state of his military affairs permitted. 
 In the end he was reconciled to his wife (1213). Still, 
 the length and strength of his opposition to the Pope is 
 proof of the immense development of the royal power of 
 France under his reign. 
 
 Meanwhile a fourth Crusade, preached by Foulques, 
 priest of NeuiUy-sur-Marne, upon the suggestion of 
 Innocent III., and undertaken in conjunction with the 
 Venetians, had ended in the taking of Constantinople 
 and the establishment of a Frankish Empire in the 
 East. Baldwin IV., Count of Flanders, was elected to 
 the vain honour of Emperor (1202-1204), and Geoff roi 
 de Villehardouin, almost the first French prose writer 
 worthy of the name, who wrote the history of this 
 episode, was rewarded for his share in it by the title 
 of KiQg of Macedon. Philippe, whose hands were full 
 
ARTHUR OF BRITTANY 91 
 
 enough, was hampered in his wars by the absence of 
 his Barons on this Crusade, but he himseK wisely refused 
 to be drawn into the vortex. 
 
 No sooner was he temporarily reconciled with the 
 Pope than he turned again to his struggle with King 
 John (1202). A pretext was easily found for renewing 
 the quarrel. John had deprived one of his most in- 
 fluential vassals, the Comte de la Marche, of his promised 
 bride, and taken her for himself. The Comte and other 
 nobles of Poitou appealed to Philippe as John's suzerain. 
 John was summoned to Paris to be tried by the feudal 
 court, and, not appearing, was declared to have forfeited 
 all the lands he held as vassal of the King of France.* 
 
 The arms of Philippe made good the pious aspirations 
 of the feudal court. The fall of the Chateau-Gaillard, 
 which had seemed so impregnable, and of Rouen (1204), 
 heralded the conquest of Normandy. Anjou, Maine, 
 Touraine, and Poitou, were also lost to the English 
 Crown. But, meantime, John, in alliance with William 
 of Les Roches, had defeated Arthur of Brittany at 
 Mirabeau (July 30, 1202), and taken him prisoner. John 
 held his nephew and rival tight in his clutches for a year 
 or more, first in the dungeons of Falaise, then of Rouen. 
 Then Arthur, in the phrase of Matthew Paris, disappeared. 
 There is no reason to doubt the popular rumour of the 
 time, that John was responsible for his death ; but so 
 little did that crime benefit him that by 1206 Brittany 
 was in the hands of Philippe. For the first time since 
 the estabhshment of the dynasty a French King held 
 sway among the Bretons to the coast of the Atlantic. 
 By the side of Richard, Philippe had appeared mean 
 and treacherous ; by the side of John, the meanest and 
 
 * M. Bemont, Bevue Historique, 1886, has shown that, as 
 the murder of Arthur of Brittany did not take place till a year 
 later, that was not the occasion of this trial, as is usually said, 
 nor was John condemned to death. 
 
92 FRANCE 
 
 most vainly vicious of men, Philippe, the intriguer, 
 stands forth as conqueror and hero. 
 
 John had hardly raised a hand to defend his posses- 
 sions in France. Thanks to his inertia England ceased 
 to be an appanage of the Continent. If the English King 
 had been the greatest potentate in France, the very 
 extent and diversity of his dominions made him weak. 
 He held his several realms on different conditions and by 
 various titles. He could not concentrate the power of 
 provinces, divided in interests as in language, in customs, 
 and by the sea, upon the one task of overwhelming his 
 brother of Paris. Philippe, indeed, such was his in- 
 satiable ambition and energy, endeavoured to turn the 
 tables upon the Plantagenets, and to annex their realm 
 of England. It was long before the idea was accepted 
 on either side of the Channel that the destinies of the 
 two countries must pursue distinct and divergent lines. 
 
 The idea of invading England, which had tempted 
 Philippe at the beginning of his struggle with Richard, 
 returned with double force as John's weakness and un- 
 popularity increased. He assembled a fleet and army 
 at Boulogne (May, 1213). The Pope had placed John 
 under the ban of Europe, and the expedition took on 
 something of the nature of a Crusade. Philippe's son, 
 Louis, who through his wife, Blanche of Castile, could 
 advance some claims to the English throne, was indicated 
 as John's successor ; but John submitted to the Pope, and 
 the Pope saved his vassal from a French conquest. For 
 a moment it seemed that the tables would be turned once 
 more against Philippe. He marched his armies against 
 Flanders to hide his chagrin, and to extend the French 
 monarchy in that direction by humbling the Count 
 who had rebelled against him ; but the Emperor, Otto of 
 Brunswick, who, with all the Princes of the Netherlands^ 
 had entered into an alliance with John against the 
 
BATTLE OF BOUVINES 93 
 
 French King, came to the relief of the Flemings. The 
 English held the sea. John, landing at Rochelle, began 
 a successful campaign on the French flank in Poitou ; 
 but the people of France rallied round their King, as for a 
 national cause. Philippe confronted the allied armies at 
 Bou vines. So confident were the Flemings of triumphing 
 over their hated enemies that they had already arranged 
 the partition of France. The French force was in- 
 ferior in numbers, and the Barons shrank from joining 
 battle. But as their rearguard was crossing the bridge 
 at Bouvines in order to continue their advance upon 
 Lille, the enemy attacked them. It was August (1214), 
 and the heat was intense. Philippe, overcome by the 
 heat and fatigue, had laid aside his armour, and was eating 
 some bread and wine beneath the shade of a tree ; but 
 at the news of the action he mounted his horse and dashed 
 into battle, as gladly, it was said, as if it had been to a 
 wedding. The Emperor, who had hoped to catch the 
 French army in retreat, found himself faced by a de- 
 termined army which had outmanoeuvred him. A 
 desperate battle ensued, in which the King fought as a 
 hero. At one moment he was unhorsed, and the foe 
 vainly endeavoured to pierce his armour as he lay on the 
 ground. Galon de Montigny, who bore the oriflamme of 
 St. Denis, waved the banner of scarlet silk for help, and 
 succour came only just in time. But it was not only the 
 King and his Barons who proved their bravery ; Bishops, 
 peasants, and burghers, and the militia of the communes 
 fought with equal courage and determination for their 
 King and country. In the event the French gained a 
 brilliant and crushing victory. Philippe's return to 
 Paris was a triumphal procession. An extraordinary 
 demonstration of popular enthusiasm greeted him on the 
 way and in the streets of Paris. It bore witness to the 
 immense progress which Philippe had made in establish- 
 
94 FRANCE 
 
 ing the Capetian monarchy in the hearts of the people, 
 and in evoking thereby the sentiment of national unity. 
 
 Philippe was not merely a conqueror. His policy of 
 encouraging the communes, of endeavouring to limit the 
 power of the clergy to spiritual affairs, and his protection 
 of the merchants and bourgeoisie, all entitle him to the 
 praise of an enlightened and original ruler. The com- 
 munes and the free towns repaid their benefactor by 
 financial and military support. The charters of the 
 communes granted by the King fixed a royal revenue to 
 be paid in return for rights abandoned by him . The towns 
 themselves stood as fortresses against his enemies, and 
 their militia proved their gratitude on the field of Bou- 
 vines and on the confines of his kingdom. 
 
 Not less important than his conquests were the changes 
 introduced by Philippe in the government of the country. 
 They were changes which tended to substitute, for feu- 
 dal irresponsibility and diffusion, the concentration of 
 authority in the King's hands, and to bring the country 
 into real subjection to the Crown and the law. As the 
 head and centre of the State, the King had been accus- 
 tomed to take counsel with members of his royal house- 
 hold, whose offices had graduall}^ become hereditary. 
 Under Philippe these councillors ceased to hold their 
 offices by hereditary right, and were appointed by the 
 King. His Court, the Curia Regis,, indeed, took on 
 something of the character of a modern court of law, 
 and in connection with this court or council an official 
 class gradually came into being. To connect the local 
 with the central organization, Philippe introduced a 
 system analogous to that of the Missi of Charlemagne. 
 Royal officials were created to superintend the actions of 
 the prevots, as the representatives of the monarchy in 
 the royal domain were called, who had been established 
 soon after the accession of Hugh Capet. The new 
 
PHILIPPE'S GOVERNMENT 95 
 
 officials were called haillis in the north, seneschals in the 
 south ; but in the south the seneschals were drawn, not, 
 like the haillis, from the rising official class, but, for the 
 most part, from the local magnates. Their function 
 was, briefly, to hold assizes, and to report to Paris upon 
 the administration of the prevots. Thus control over 
 local administration was secured. 
 
 Philippe left his mark upon Paris as well as upon France. 
 The great castle of the Louvre, with its huge round 
 tower, and the wall and towers with which he surrounded 
 his capital, have indeed disappeared, but the cathedral 
 of Notre Dame dates from his reign (1162). 
 
 Philippe Auguste, with his many-sided activity, did 
 not fail to concern himself in the affairs of the Empire, 
 which, indeed, as master of the kingdom of Aries, closely 
 affected him. He made the power of the French 
 monarchy felt in the choice of the Emperor, and in- 
 augurated the policy which was to become traditional, 
 of encouraging the divisions of Germany in order to 
 prevent it from becoming a strong united Power. 
 
 After the Battle of Bou vines, Philippe devoted himself 
 to administering and consolidating his kingdom. He left 
 it to his son to carry out his darling project of 
 subduing England, and but for the timely death of 
 John it seems probable that Louis VIII. would have 
 been crowned at Westminster (1216). 
 
 Such and so great had been the success of Philippe 
 Auguste north of the Loire. The stars in their courses 
 fought for France. Events so shaped themselves that, 
 almost without any effort on his part, the authority of 
 the French monarchy was to be extended to the Mediter- 
 ranean and the Pyrenees. And yet the Provengals of 
 the southern counties, who looked to the King of Aragon 
 as their suzerain, had, to begin with, more in common 
 with the Spaniards than the French. 
 
96 FRANCE 
 
 The county of Toulouse was the one remaining great 
 feudal State which had hitherto preserved its real in- 
 dependence of the French Crown. 
 
 We have seen that the South of France, under the 
 fostering influence of greater peace and commercial 
 prosperity, had developed a language, literature, and 
 civilization of its own, far in advance of those of the 
 rough warriors north of the Loire. It now seemed 
 as if community of religion was about to disappear, 
 and that the last link that bound the North and South 
 of France together would be severed. In 1170 a rich 
 merchant of Lyons, Pierre Valdo, had inaugurated a 
 reformed religion, which discarded most of the peculiar 
 tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, and concerned 
 itseK mainly with teaching and preaching the Gospel. 
 This religion of the Vaudois rapidly spread down the 
 Valley of the Rhone. A few years previously the 
 people of Languedoc and Gascony had begun to adopt 
 views equally at variance with those of Rome. Our 
 knowledge of what they believed is only derived from 
 the evidence of their persecutors. So effective was to 
 be the persecution of the Albigensians (they took their 
 name from their chief centre, the little town of Albi, near 
 Toulouse), that no independent evidence remains ; but 
 it appears that they had largely adopted the belief of the 
 Manichaeans, who held that there were two Gods — a God 
 of good and a God of evil. It is certain that they bitterly 
 opposed the authority of the Church. This, combined 
 with a tendency to political independence, was their 
 real sin. 
 
 In 1177, Raymond V., Count of Toulouse, sent a 
 formal complaint to the Chapter-General of Citeaux, 
 calling attention to the alarming spread of this heresy. 
 The churches, he declared, were empty, and the priests 
 themselves had succumbed to the contagion. There was 
 
cc c c 
 
ALBIGENSIAN MASSACRE 97 
 
 some suggestion, in the following year, of a joint Crusade 
 against the Albigensians being undertaken by the Kings 
 of France and England. A mild form of persecution 
 was begun in that year ; but the heresies spread amongst 
 high and low. Raymond VI., when he succeeded to the 
 county of Toulouse in 11 94, protected the heretics whom 
 his father had persecuted. Pope Innocent III., who had 
 first endeavoured to check this menace to his Church 
 by the persuasive eloquence of his emissaries, turned at 
 length to more violent methods. He pressed the King of 
 France to lead a Crusade against the heretics (1204-1207) ; 
 but Philippe's hands were full with the business of 
 acquiring the possessions of King John. Meantime, 
 Folquet, Bishop of Marseilles ; a Spanish priest, Dominic 
 of Guzman ; and the Pope's Legates, did their utmost to 
 combat the heresies. The murder of one of the latter, 
 Pierre de Castelnau, by a member of the household of the 
 Count of Toulouse (1208), provoked the crisis. A Crusade 
 was preached. The people of the north were offered the 
 same spiritual advantages as those which had tempted 
 them to the Holy Land, and a prospect of greater and 
 more accessible material plunder. In 1209, 50,000 men 
 assembled at Lyons and marched down the Rhone Valley. 
 In the absence of the King of France, they were com- 
 manded by the Papal Legate, Arnaud Amalric. 
 
 The horrible excesses to which the Crusaders gave way 
 after the capture of Jerusalem or Constantinople were 
 but symptoms of a savage and bloodthirsty bigotry, 
 which was as ready to spiU the blood of a heretic as of 
 an infidel. Even so good a man as St. Louis was wont 
 to say that no theologian ought to dispute with heretics ; 
 the proper argument was a sword through the body of 
 the unbeliever. It was in such a spirit that the armies 
 of the north now marched to subdue the south and ex- 
 terminate the Albigensian heresy. 
 
 7 
 
98 FRANCE 
 
 There is no limit to the atrocities which men under 
 the influence of religious fanaticism will commit ; yet, 
 knowing this, it is still hard to realize that in Languedoc 
 whole populations of Christians — men, women, and 
 children — were murdered and massacred by Christians, 
 who warred with them at the instigation of St. Dominic 
 and the bidding of the Pope, because they chose to differ 
 from the doctrines of the orthodox Church. 
 
 In July the Crusading army appeared before Beziers. 
 Raymond of Toulouse had already made his submission, 
 and been whipped at the shrine of St. Gilles. Raymond 
 Roger, Viscount of Beziers and Carcassonne, had likewise 
 made his submission ; but the Legate, fearing to be 
 balked of all his prey, refused to listen to him, and com- 
 menced the siege of Beziers. The town soon fell. A 
 horrible massacre ensued. Thousands of men, women, 
 and children, who had sought refuge in the Church of 
 the Madeleine, were butchered. "How shall Ave dis- 
 tinguish the innocent from the guilty ?" asked the more 
 scrupulous of the Crusaders. " Slay them all," returned 
 the bloodthirsty Legate. *' God will know His own." 
 
 The young Viscount, Raymond Roger, threw himself 
 into Carcassonne, and bravely defended that mighty 
 stronghold. At length he was forced to make terms. 
 The Legate offered him a safe-conduct. Roger came 
 with 300 of his followers to his tent. "Faith," said 
 the Legate, " is not to be kept with those who have no 
 faith." The Viscount and his friends were seized. Simon 
 de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, a ferocious bigot, who had 
 distinguished himself in the siege by his zeal and valour, 
 was rewarded with the lordships of Carcassoime and 
 Beziers. The Viscount was delivered into his charge, 
 thrown into prison, and disappeared. Ever5rwhere 
 victory crowned the efforts of the Crusaders. Nothing 
 could withstand the energy and resource of Simon. 
 
SIMON DE MONTFORT 99 
 
 Everywhere butchery of the heretics, at scaffold, stake, 
 or point of sword, marked the path of the conquerors. 
 
 The war became more and more an invasion of the 
 south by the north. To save the Count of Toulouse 
 and the independence of Languedoc, and to check the 
 aggrandizement of Simon de Montfort, the King of 
 Aragon intervened. He was defeated and slain at the 
 Battle of Muret (1213). Simon relentlessly completed 
 the conquest of Languedoc. The domains of the Count 
 of Toulouse passed to him, and he justified his acquisition 
 by introducing a regime which was superior to the feudal 
 anarchy, which the Counts of Toulouse had never suc- 
 ceeded in suppressing. In all things, however, he acted 
 as the lieutenant of the King of France. An attempt 
 on the part of Raymond to recover his domains in the 
 Valley of the Rhone, supported by a last effort of the 
 south to recover its independence, interrupted his 
 success. Toulouse revolted, and Simon, pressing the 
 siege, was killed by a stone hurled from the walls (1217-18). 
 His son, Amaury de Montfort, unable to maintain his 
 position, ceded his claims to Louis VIII. A new 
 Crusade was proclaimed. The King marched at the 
 head of a large army towards Languedoc. Avignon alone 
 offered a serious resistance. Thus, during his brief reign 
 (1223-1226), Louis VIII. achieved the subjugation of the 
 whole of Provence and Languedoc, with the exception 
 of Toulouse and Guienne. His chief distinction, however, 
 is that he was the son and the father of two great 
 monarchs. Though he was given the nickname of " the 
 Lion," it was his wife, Blanche of Castile, beautiful, 
 vigorous, virtuous, and determined, who displayed rather 
 the qualities of a lion-heart. For ten years she held 
 the reins of government firmly, whilst she trained her 
 son, Louis IX., to a high ideal of kingship (1226-1236). 
 His life is the noblest monument of his mother's worth . 
 
100 FRANCE 
 
 Before the majority of Louis was proclaimed (1236), 
 the important treaty of Meaux, signed in 1229 by Ray- 
 mond VII. and the Queen Regent, secured to one of his 
 brothers the domains of the Count of Toulouse ; whilst 
 the marriage of another brother, Charles of Anjou, with 
 the heiress of Provence prepared the way for the future 
 union of that fair land with France. Already the King's 
 seneschals were established at Beaucaire and Carcassonne, 
 and the French King was practically master of Southern 
 France ; but, lest the Albigensian heresy should ever 
 again rear its head, there was established in Toulouse 
 an ecclesiastical court to inquire into the case of those 
 suspected of holding heretical opinions, a court which 
 was to prove the most terrible engine of ecclesiastical 
 tyranny ever devised by the wit of man. It was known 
 as the Inquisition, and was composed of Dominicans, a 
 new order of friars, which had been created by the Pope 
 at the instigation of St. Dominic for the extermination 
 of heresy. 
 
 The procedure of the Inquisition exercised far-reaching 
 influence upon the general prosperity of France. The 
 property of all condemned was confiscated to the Crown, 
 or shared between the Crown and the Church ; and the 
 influence of the arbitrary secret course pursued by this 
 high tribunal of ecclesiastical justice a£fected the pro- 
 cedure of criminal law in France, laying the foundations 
 of the atrocious jurisprudence of the ancien regime* 
 It turned the scale in the choice between public prosecu- 
 tions with oral evidence, such as were developed in 
 England from the ancient law, and secret, official prose- 
 cutions. 
 
 These terrible wars utterly wiped out the character- 
 istic civilization of the South. The troubadours were 
 silenced or fled to Spain, and the Courts of Love ceased 
 * Langlois, ap. Lavisse, III. ii. 74. 
 
UNION WITH THE SOUTH 101 
 
 to hold their sway. Northern methods of government 
 were introduced. Feudalism on the one hand, and the 
 independence of the towns on the other, were checked. All 
 danger of a great separate State south of the Loire was 
 dissipated. Yet, though conquered, the South was never 
 wholly reconciled or absorbed. In the Revolution it 
 led the opposition to the Crown ; and to-day, though 
 politically at one with the rest of France, it remains a 
 land apart, with a different language and peculiar 
 customs and national ideas, as the revival of the Felibres 
 has proved. 
 
VIII 
 
 ST. LOUIS (1226—1270) AND PHILIPPE LE HARDI 
 (1270—1285) 
 
 St. Louis has been well described as " the true hero of 
 the Middle Ages, a Prince, pious as he was brave, who 
 venerated the Church, yet knew how to resist its head ; 
 who respected Law, yet placed Justice above it ; a frank 
 and gentle soul, and a loving heart filled with Christian 
 charity, yet one who could condemn to torture the body 
 of the sinner for the salvation of his soul ; who on earth 
 looked only towards heaven, and made of his kingly 
 ofiice a magistracy of order and equity. Rome has 
 canonized him, and the people still see him seated under 
 the oak of Vincennes, dispensing justice to aU comers. 
 This saint, this man of peace, did more in the simplicity 
 of his heart for the advancement of royalty than the most 
 subtle counsellors or ten fighting monarchs, because the 
 King in after-time appeared to the people as the in- 
 carnation of Justice." 
 
 So delicate, indeed, was his conscience that it fre- 
 quently embarrassed his advisers. He even felt scruples 
 as to the justice of his father's conquests. 
 
 His policy and his character alike were moulded by 
 his mother, Blanche of Castile. It was owing to her 
 skilful training that, when Louis reached his majority, 
 he had already given ample proof of those gentle, kingly 
 qualities, that scrupulous wisdom and upright judgment, 
 
 102 
 
BLANCHE OF CASTILE 103 
 
 which were presently to make him the mediator of 
 Europe. It was owing to her statesmanship that he 
 acceded to a kingdom not torn to pieces, but con- 
 solidated, and a throne strengthened, instead of one 
 undermined by the disintegrating forces of feudalism. 
 
 For with masterly determination and consummate 
 address, tempering the fierce blood of the Plantagenets, 
 which ran in her veins, with their prudent skill in affairs, 
 and adding to their ruthless energy the power of a woman's 
 charm, Blanche had faced and defeated the opposition 
 of the magnates of France. Their growing jealousy at 
 the exaltation of the power of the Crown, necessarily 
 achieved at their expense, came to a head when, in the 
 prospect of a long minority, they thought they saw their 
 opportunity under the government of a Regent whom 
 they hated as a foreigner and foolishly despised as a 
 woman. 
 
 Blanche had first to crush the rebellion of the Counts 
 of Champagne, Brittany, and La Marc he. They had 
 entered into alliance with Henry III. of England (1227), 
 who was eager to recover some portion at least of his lost 
 dominions. On the failure of that rebellion a truce had 
 been patched up. The diplomacy of Blanche now drew 
 Theobald, Count of Champagne, to her side ; but Philip, 
 Count of Burgundy, joined Peter of Brittany, and, relying 
 upon the support of Henry, they rose again and again, 
 only to be cheated of their hopes. At last, after many 
 disappointments, Henry landed at St. Malo (1230). But 
 in the face of Blanche and the young King, and the 
 growing strength of the royal party, he achieved nothing, 
 except the expenditure of a huge sum of money and the 
 ruin of his army through sickness and debauchery. A 
 truce for three years was made in 1231 . When it expired, 
 the English King sent 2,000 Welshmen to aid the Count 
 of Brittany ; but his help ended there, and the King of 
 
104 FRANCE 
 
 France entering the field with an overwhelming force, 
 the Count was reduced to subjection. 
 
 By an arrangement with the Count of Champagne, the 
 King presently acquired the suzerainty over the counties 
 of Blois, Chartres, and Sancerre, and the viscounty of 
 Chateaudun. 
 
 In 1242 Louis had once more to face a coalition of 
 rebellious magnates in the south-west, notably the Count 
 of Toulouse and Hugh, Count of La Marche, who alUed 
 themselves with the King of England. He raised a 
 general levy of the kingdom, and at Taillebourg, on the 
 banks of the Charente, and among the vineyards and 
 narrow lanes of Saintes, overwhelmed his allied enemies, 
 who were united only in the selfishness of their desires. 
 Poitou submitted, then the Count of Toulouse, and Henry, 
 deserted by his allies, was compelled to make a truce for 
 five years (1243). The King's triumph over these rebel- 
 lious Barons was the crowning act in the struggle of three 
 reigns. From this time the great feudatories recognized 
 their master in the King of France. Firmly established 
 in his own domain, Louis had humbled Brittany, and 
 practically aruiexed Toulouse and Champagne. The 
 House of Plantagenet had been repulsed in its endeavour 
 to regain a footing in France, and ranked now as a foreign 
 Power, whose support of the Counts brought with it 
 the odium of a foreign invasion. Louis, indeed, allowed 
 the King of England to retain the duchy of Guienne and 
 Gascony,* but only on condition of homage to the Crown. 
 And, as a further step towards weakening his influence, 
 
 * By the Treaty of Abbeville, which was not signed till 1259. 
 About the same time Louis came to an agreement with the King 
 of Aragon, renouncing his shadowy claims to Barcelona and 
 other parts of Catalonia, which had fallen within the Spanish 
 March of Charlemagne, whilst Aragon renounced the pretensions 
 of his house to the lordship over B6ziers, Carcassonne, and most 
 of the county of Toulouse. 
 
QUARREL WITH THE POPE 105 
 
 Louis enacted in Parliament at Paris that the lords who 
 held fiefs from the Kings of France and England must 
 resign one or the other. 
 
 In her struggle with the nobles Blanche had been 
 largely aided by the Church. The great prelates saw that 
 by the failure of the authority of the Crown they^would 
 be left at the mercy of the Barons. Yet Blanche, devout 
 as she might be, was quick to resent any attempt of the 
 Church to encroach upon her temporal authority. When 
 the Archbishops of Rouen and Beauvais refused to answer 
 a summons to appear before the King, claiming to be 
 exempt from feudal law, and to acknowledge no judge 
 but Pope and God, she would not yield an inch, and her 
 firmness triumphed. Throughout this reign, in fact, the 
 Crown insisted that the clergy must be subject in civil 
 matters to the civil courts. 
 
 Similarly, in 1245, when the exactions of the Pope, 
 who required money to carry on his quarrel with the 
 Emperor, had provoked the bitterest discontent in 
 France, Louis sided with the just protests of his people. 
 Assembled in council with his Barons, Louis despatched a 
 remonstrance to the Pope, protesting that it was unheard 
 of that the Roman See should levy for all its needs upon 
 the temporalities of the French Church. The protest fell 
 on deaf ears. The Pope insisted on his levies. The 
 clergy, hard pressed, recouped themselves at the expense 
 of their suzerains and vassals by pressing every ecclesi- 
 astical claim and privilege to the utmost. In 1246 the 
 French Barons met together and entered into a covenant 
 of resistance, and issued a manifesto dwelling upon the 
 intolerable avarice and arrogance of the Church. The 
 Pope fulminated against the league. But his cause was 
 too unpopular in France. A deputation from the French 
 clergy, accompanied by a royal envoy, waited upon 
 Innocent IV. (1247), and formulated their grievances 
 
106 FRANCE 
 
 against the Apostolic See. They complained of the 
 usurpation of jurisdiction, of the authority given to 
 Templars and Hospitallers and other unattached monks 
 dependent on Rome, who wandered through the realm, 
 suspending the clergy and laying excommunication and 
 interdict as they willed upon lay and cleric alike. They 
 complained no less feelingly of the bestowal of benefices 
 and pensions out of the French Church upon Italians 
 and other foreigners with whom the country was flooded, 
 and of the intolerable levies and exactions imposed by 
 the Papal Legates and Nuncios. Their cause was 
 seconded by another deputation, whose tone was even 
 less pleasing to the Papal ears — the envoys of the Barons. 
 They had the open support of the King,* who forbade 
 the French prelates, on pain of forfeiting their lands, to 
 comply with the requisitions of a fresh horde of Franciscan 
 and Dominican monks whom the Pope had let loose upon 
 France. In the face of such opposition the Pope was 
 obliged to temporize, though he was far from yieldmg. 
 
 Abroad, Blanche shaped the foreign policy which her 
 son pursued, and which aimed at holding the English 
 in check, and at maintaining friendship with the Emperor, 
 whilst holding the balance between him and the Pope. 
 On behalf of himseK and his brother, Louis refused the 
 imperial crown which the Pope offered him ; but when the 
 Emperor, Frederick II., detained the French prelates 
 who had gone to Rome to attend a council, Louis firmly 
 demanded and obtained their release. The quarrel 
 between the Papacy and the Empire culminated in the 
 
 * Although the document known as the Pragmatic Sanction, 
 attributed to Louis, is certainly a later invention, it does repre- 
 sent the principles in accordance with which Louis acted towards 
 the Pope in defence of the liberties of the Gallioan Church. It 
 contains nothing of importance which is not contained in the 
 Memorial addressed to the Pope in 1247, which Louis probably 
 signed and certainly supported. 
 
ST. LOUIS TAKES THE CROSS 107 
 
 flight of the Pope from Italy. In 1245 Innocent IV. 
 took refuge at Lyons, solemnly deposed the Emperor, 
 and called upon all Christian Princes to march to the 
 deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 Louis had been more active than either Pope or 
 Emperor in forwarding the ill-fated Crusade of 1239. 
 And now Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of the 
 Khorasmian invaders, and passed for ever out of the 
 hands of the Christians. Rumours of that disaster had 
 arrived when Louis lay sick unto death from a recurrence 
 of a fever contracted on his Poitevin campaign. Waking 
 from a trance which had seemed likely to end in death, 
 the King took the Cross (1244). Nor could the prayers 
 and entreaties of the Queen-mother and his counsellors 
 shake his resolution when he recovered. Everywhere, save 
 in the heart of the King, the enthusiasm of the Crusades 
 had died away. " A man can win heaven weU enough 
 in this country," the trouvere Rutebeuf sang, and so 
 expressed the general disillusionment of his day. But 
 with unflinching determination and unflagging zeal 
 Louis proceeded to set his kingdom in order and to prepare 
 for the Holy War. Truces were made, funds raised, 
 criers proclaimed throughout the land that if any man 
 had cause of complaint, he should lay the matter before 
 the King. Blanche was appointed Regent. Four years 
 thus elapsed. Never, says an old writer, was an impru- 
 dent design more prudently executed. At length, in 
 1248, Louis set sail for Cyprus from Aigues Mortes. That 
 was the only place capable of being converted into a 
 Mediterranean port in his dominions, and he had long 
 been preparing it as the scene of his departure. Some 
 of the Crusaders embarked at Marseilles, notably Louis' 
 brave and faithful Seneschal of Champagne, the Sire de 
 Joinville, the historian of the expedition and the fascina- 
 ting biographer of his royal master and hero. 
 
108 FRANCE 
 
 The capture of Damietta was followed by the Pyrrhic 
 victory of Mansourah. Wasted by disease, weakened by 
 indecision, the Crusaders and the French King were 
 presently surrounded by the Saracens, and obliged to 
 yield themselves prisoners to the Sultan and to pay a 
 heavy ransom for their release. Accompanied by but a 
 few Crusaders, Louis landed in the Holy Land. He stayed 
 there for four more years, until the news of the death of 
 his mother compelled his return. 
 
 Then he sailed from Acre, 1254, and landed at Hyeres. 
 The voyage had been one of great peril, but, like every 
 trial and disaster upon the Crusade, hardship and danger 
 had only served to bring out the Christian fortitude, 
 gentleness, and consideration for others, which were the 
 King's most shining virtues. The pages of JoinviUe are 
 full of beautiful instances of the King's truly saintly 
 qualities. He returned indeed a broken and disap- 
 pointed man ; aU his careful preparations had ended in 
 failure and defeat, in the loss of a fine army and the 
 expenditure of a huge treasure. But whereas other un- 
 successful leaders have had to endure the resentment and 
 ingratitude of their people, Louis on his retm-n was 
 welcomed with joy as if he had been a conqueror. For he 
 had won at least the hearts of his people by the exceeding 
 nobility of his conduct. 
 
 His presence, too, was sorely needed in France. 
 
 The firm and capable hand of the Regent had guided 
 the destinies of France through the difficult period of 
 Louis' misfortunes. She had supplied the immense sums 
 needed for the sojourn in Egypt and Palestine without 
 rousing opposition. She had subdued the curious out- 
 burst of religious and anti-clerical frenzy known as the 
 Shepherds' Crusade. For the news of the captivity of 
 their beloved King had stirred the people deeply. And 
 at the call of a Hungarian monk, who said that he held 
 
THE SHEPHERDS' CRUSADE 109 
 
 the written mandate of the Virgin (1251) to summon 
 shepherds and peasants to the recovery of the Holy Land 
 and the deliverance of the King of France, a vast throng 
 of country people flocked to the banner of the Lamb. 
 The undisciplined crowd plundered the towns as they 
 passed through them, robbing more particularly the 
 clergy, whose wealth and hjrpocrisy their own zealous 
 preachers held up to scorn, and whose exactions and abuse 
 of their authority were partly responsible for this out- 
 break of fanaticism. Blanche had at first given counte- 
 nance to the Pastoureaux. But the violent scenes which 
 occurred at Orleans compelled her to change her policy. 
 The Shepherds were attacked and dispersed, and the 
 movement collapsed as suddenly as it had arisen. 
 
 Louis was fortunate in his epoch. His country had 
 already emerged from the worst disorders, and was most 
 in need of the soothing effects of the benevolent govern- 
 ment which he was pre-eminently qualified to give it. 
 For, from the exertions of his less scrupulous forefathers, 
 he had inherited sufl&cient power to enable him to exercise 
 the milder virtues of justice and charity with the most 
 beneficial effect. Nor was he wanting in firmness and 
 courage when occasion arose. ^ 
 
 With the same sweet reasonableness which had dis- 
 tinguished his conduct in the East, he set himself, on his 
 return, to make amends for his absence by restoring 
 order and inaugurating reforms. Meanwhile he acted as 
 a peacemaker between his great vassals, and also between 
 foreign rulers. His chief reforms were, characteristically, 
 in the direction of the good administration of justice, 
 the best index of good government. Almost his first 
 step was to issue an ordinance containing instructions 
 wisely calculated to secure the integrity of the royal 
 ofiicers, such as Bailiffs, Provosts, and Viscounts. As a 
 further check, a system of enquesters was set up, forming 
 
110 FRANCE 
 
 yet another link in the chain between the local and central 
 authorities. The function of the enquesters was to watch 
 over the local administration, and to correct any mis- 
 carriage of justice due to the royal agents. The Barons' 
 lawless practice of settling their quarrels by private 
 warfare was forbidden ; the ancient custom by which 
 either party in a suit might appeal from the judge's 
 decision to the issue of single combat was abolished. 
 The suitor's remedy, if he were discontented with the 
 verdict of the Baron's court, now lay only in appeal to 
 the court of the King. The proof of witnesses and pro- 
 cedure by writ were substituted for the violence and 
 doubtful justice of the " judicial duel." 
 
 It was, apparently, in order to deal with the increasing 
 amount of legal business entailed b}^ these reforms and 
 the spread of the King's justice that the Parliament of 
 France was now regularly summoned to meet at Paris 
 three or four times a year. The Parhment was that part 
 of the King's Court or Council which was concerned with 
 legal and judicial business. As its work became more 
 clearly specialized, it came to consist of trained la^vyers, 
 and to be recognized as the supreme court of justice in 
 France. The great vassals and Crown officials, not 
 learned in the technicalities of the jurisprudence which 
 was spreading over Europe through the medium of the 
 Universities since Irnerius lectured at Bologna, found 
 their voices of no account in judgments to be pronounced 
 on written procedure. Leaving judicial matters to this 
 body, therefore, the Great Council devoted itself to the 
 administrative and political affairs of the realm, whilst 
 financial business was dealt with by a committee known 
 as the Maitres des Comptes, who met first in 1249, and 
 were soon established as a permanent body. 
 
 As the reputed author of the Etahlissemens de Saint 
 Louis, Louis IX. has received more than his meed of 
 
SOCIAL CHANGES 
 
 111 
 
 praise. He has been hailed as the first giver of a Code 
 to his people. But the Etahlissemens are merely an 
 unofl&cial compilation of the customary practice of civil 
 and feudal laws. It was in this reign, too, that the 
 rules of the trades guilds were reduced to writing in 
 the Livre des Metiers by fitienne Boileau, whom Louis 
 had appointed as Provost of Paris. 
 
 In the thirteenth century the communes, which had 
 by joint effort of rich and poor wrested their privileges 
 
 PARIS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 from the great Seigneurs in the last century, had passed 
 into the hands of a merchant aristocracy, little to the 
 advantage of the poorer classes. In many cases the 
 proletariat of the communes rose against the patriciate, 
 revolting against the unjust share of power which the 
 latter had appropriated, and which was not compensated 
 for in their eyes by the concession of a larger share in 
 the taxes. Such social troubles could only profit the 
 Seigneurs, against whom the communes had been estab- 
 lished, and the royal authority. The extension of the 
 
112 FRANCE 
 
 royal power was accompanied by an extension of the 
 contributions exacted for the royal treasury. But in 
 other directions it worked for the good of the realm. 
 Whilst a special body of armed police was instituted to 
 keep law and order in the hitherto rough and dangerous 
 streets of Paris (1254), travelling in the country was 
 rendered safer by insistence that each Seigneur must 
 be responsible for policing the highways in his domain. 
 Louis developed the trade of the country by protecting 
 foreign merchants, and by a measure of far-reaching 
 economic importance — the establishment of a uniform 
 coinage. Hitherto commerce had been much impeded 
 by the existence of innumerable currencies, of varying 
 degrees of baseness, which were put into circulation by 
 the Barons, whose right it was to coin money. Louis 
 issued an ordinance (1263) that royal money alone 
 should circulate in the domain, that it should pass equally 
 with that of the Barons throughout the realm, and that 
 the Barons should not coin gold pieces. 
 
 Louis' attitude towards the communes was, indeed, 
 exactly similar to his policy towards feudal independence 
 and the clergy. It was to establish the supremacy of the 
 Crown.* While steadily watching over the welfare of the 
 citizens, he worked no less steadily in the direction of 
 putting an end to communal independence, by transform- 
 ing the communes into royal cities . A number of new royal 
 towns were also created by the grant of charters. They 
 were left free to choose ojBficials to manage their internal 
 affairs, but they were dependent on the protection of 
 the King, and answerable to him. The normal extension 
 of the principle of centralization put an end to the 
 existence of the separate, independent communes. And 
 with their disappearance begins the growth of the Third 
 Estate as a political factor. For, to the First Estate of 
 * See p. 76. 
 
RHEIMS CATHEDRAL. Page i\, etc. 
 
 Mainly built between 1211 and 1241 ; the fayade added in the next century. The scene of the 
 crowning of many of the French kings. 
 
SAINTE CHAPELLE 113 
 
 the clergy and the Second Estate of the nobles, was now 
 added the burgher class. The agricultural population 
 was to remain for centuries almost entirely without any 
 political influence. 
 
 After his return from Palestine, Louis had become 
 more and more austere, renouncing the pomps and 
 vanities of the world and imposing upon himself the 
 severest penances. 
 
 He showed his piety, according to the lights of his day, 
 not only by his personal exercise of religion, but also by 
 his hatred of Jews and heretics and his eager acquisition 
 of relics. The Crown of Thorns, which the Emperor 
 Baldwin had presented to him, and a portion of the 
 True Cross, were his most precious possessions. It was 
 to furnish these relics with a fitting shrine that he built 
 the most beautiful and enduring monument of his reign, 
 the exquisite Sainte Chapelle in Paris, one of the most 
 perfect gems in the crown of French Gothic architecture. 
 
 It was with the utmost reluctance that Louis had re- 
 linquished the Cross upon his return to France. The news 
 of fresh disasters suffered by the Christians in Palestine 
 at the hands of the Tartars and the Sultan of Egypt, 
 came to him as a Divine summons to take up the Cross 
 once more. In 1267 he announced his determination to 
 the Parlement at Paris. The dismay and entreaties of 
 his councillors and people left him unmoved. His personal 
 devotion was alone responsible for the last revival of an 
 outworn enthusiasm, which had ceased to have the merit 
 of defending Europe from threatened invasion. 
 
 After three years of preparation, Louis once more sailed 
 from the port of Aigues Mortes with a fleet of Crusaders. 
 He landed first at Carthage, hoping to convert the Sultan 
 of Tunis. It was the height of summer. Heat and lack 
 of water sowed the seeds of disease in the army. The 
 enfeebled frame of Louis quickly fell a victim to it. His 
 
 8 
 
114 FRANCE 
 
 body was brought back to France by his eldest son, 
 Philip III., the Bold (Phihppe le Hardi).* 
 
 When he died, he left the monarchy firmly established, 
 the domains of France largely increased, his people better 
 governed ; by his own life he had afforded an example of 
 kingly virtues for which the w orld was the richer. 
 
 One of the causes which had directed the feet of the 
 Crusaders to Africa was, no doubt, the policy of Charles 
 of Anjou. He had accepted the kingdom of Naples and 
 Sicily as a fief from Pope Urban IV. As King of Sicily 
 he claimed tribute from Tunis. Payment had been 
 refused, and in the success of the Crusaders Charles 
 might hope for an opportunity of enforcing his claims. 
 It was he who involved Philippe le Hardi in the only 
 event of his fifteen years' reign which we need stop to 
 record (1270-1285). The tyrannous oppression of this 
 ambitious Prince had led to a massacre of Frenchmen 
 in Sicily, known as the Sicilian Vespers (1282). That 
 rising took place in conjunction with an invasion by 
 Don Pedro, King of Aragon. On the death of his imcle 
 (1285), Philippe took up the family quarrel of the Valois 
 and, in order to punish the King of Aragon, crossed the 
 Pyrenees with a magnificent army. It was the first war of 
 conquest undertaken by the Capetians outside the proper 
 boundaries of France. But the expedition proved a failure. 
 Disease reduced the army whilst they besieged Gerona, and 
 Philippe died at Perpignan on his way home . The granting 
 of a patent of nobility to a commoner, and the permission 
 given for commoners to enjoy the possession of fiefs, 
 mark the further decay of feudal institutions in this reign. 
 Nobility ceased to be an inalienable hereditary quality, 
 and became a privilege to be conferred by the King. 
 
 * In 1234 Louis liad married Margaret, daughter of Eaymond 
 Berenger, Count of Provence, beautiful, accomplished, and 
 trained by her mother, Beatrix of the House of Savoy, to be the 
 worthy consort of a King. 
 
IX 
 
 PHILIPPE LE BEL AND THE LAST OF THE CAPETIANS 
 A.D. 1285—1328 
 
 Philippe IV., le Bel (the Fair), was but seventeen when 
 he came to the throne (1285), but he lost no time in 
 increasing his domains. His marriage with the heiress of 
 Navarre and Champagne had already brought him two 
 large provinces . By a decree of the Parliament, La Marche 
 and Angoumois were escheated to the Crown. The mar- 
 riage of his second son added the Franche Comte to the 
 royal domain. It was necessary to have recourse to less 
 peaceful methods in order to round off his domain by 
 the acquisition of the territories of such powerful vassals 
 as the Duke of Brittany, the Count of Flanders, and of 
 Edward I. of England, Duke of Guienne. Taking advan- 
 tage of Edward's wars with the Welsh and Scotch, 
 Philippe sent an army into Guienne ; a French fleet 
 pillaged Dover, and the King himself led an army into 
 Flanders. The Count had declared for England, for, like 
 Guienne, Flanders was bound to that country by close 
 ties of commerce. Philippe beat the Flemings at Furnes. 
 The intervention of Pope Boniface VIII. brought about a 
 peace with England. The bond was sealed by the marriage 
 of Edward's son with Isabel, daughter of France, the inno- 
 cent Helen of her country, for this union was later on to 
 prove the pretext of a hundred years of war (1299). The 
 compact left each of the rival Kings, after four years 
 
 115 
 
116 FRANCE 
 
 of warfare, free to deal with the allies which the other 
 had ueserted. Edward pursued his campaigns in Scot- 
 land ; the Count of Flanders submitted to Philippe. 
 But there was a spirit of independence in the strongly 
 walled towns of Flanders, born of conscious strength and 
 commercial success and constant struggle with the sea. 
 The Flemish burghers, proud of their privileges and hard- 
 won wealth, were not inclined to brook the arrogance and 
 oppression of the French Governor, James de Chatillon, 
 who taxed them heavily and deprived them of their 
 municipal liberties. They rose against their conquerors. 
 In Bruges alone 3,000 Frenchmen were massacred. 
 Philippe sent Count Robert of Artois to chastise the 
 rebels. Twenty thousand Flemings awaited him behind 
 a canal at Courtrai (1302). The feudal nobility, the flower 
 of French chivalry, with presumptuous rashness dashed 
 contemptuously at the horde of unmounted commoners, 
 plunged into the canal that covered the Flemish lines, 
 and were speared to death whilst their comrades pressed 
 upon them from the rear. It was a presage of Crecy, 
 Poitiers, Agincourt. The gold spurs of the knights were 
 gathered, it is said, by the bushel after the battle, and 
 the victory was knowoi as the Battle of the Spurs. 
 Philippe hastened to avenge himself. Under pretext of 
 the sumptuary laws, possessors of gold and silver plate 
 were compelled to bring it to the mint, and were paid 
 for it in the debased coinage into which it was converted. 
 The King sold many serfs their freedom and many 
 commoners titles of nobility. A feudal levy was raised, 
 every property yielding 100 livres of rent being ordered 
 to supply one horseman, and the rest in proportion. 
 Genoese galleys were hired for an attack by sea. It was 
 a royal effort and a great one, but that of the Flemish 
 people was greater still.' Eighty thousand men issued 
 from the towns to defend their liberty. Philippe, who 
 
• IT RAINS FLEMINGS '' 117 
 
 was at the height of his quarrel with Boniface, temporized, 
 not daring to risk disaster in such a crisis. On the death 
 of the Pope, however, he resumed the offensive. His 
 fleet gained a victory at Zieriksee ; at Mons-en-Puelle the 
 King himself avenged the defeat of Courtrai, and then 
 advanced upon Lille (1304). The Flemings were de- 
 feated, but not subdued. In a few days they gathered 
 in numbers as great as ever, eager for battle. " But it 
 rains Flemings !" cried the astonished King, who thought 
 he had exterminated them. In face of such resistance 
 he decided to treat. The Flemings ceded Douai, Lille, 
 Bethune, Orchies, and all French-speaking Flanders 
 between the Lys and the Scheldt. In return he restored 
 the Count of Flanders, who did him homage as his vassal. 
 " So French royalty receded before Flemish democracy, 
 as did German royalty almost at the same time before 
 Swiss democracy. The communes of France remained 
 isolated and succumbed ; in Flanders and in Switzerland 
 they united and triumphed."* 
 
 The chief episode of this period is the quarrel between 
 Philippe and the Papacy. It marks the end of the period 
 in which the Popes, thanks to their support of the Cape- 
 tians, had been able to confront their adversaries in Italy, 
 and to establish the theory of the supreme authority of 
 the Holy See over the national Churches. That theory, 
 if rashly put into practice by too proud and ambitious a 
 Pontiff, was certain to provoke the reaction for which all 
 Europe was ripe. The opposition to the political and 
 financial hegemony of Rome was ready to break out in 
 France as in England and Germany. The pretensions 
 of Boniface VIII. caused the smouldering ashes of dis- 
 content to break into flames. 
 
 The Popes had granted an extra impost of a tithe upon 
 the property of the clergy for the " Crusade" against the 
 * Victoire Duruy, Histoire de France. 
 
118 PRANCE 
 
 King of Aragon ; but when the King of France wished to 
 raise a similar contribution for his war with England 
 (1294), some of the clergy proved recalcitrant, and pro- 
 tested to Rome. 
 
 Boniface seized the opportunity afforded him by the 
 complaints of the clergy against the exactions of Philippe 
 to launch the Bull Clericis laicos (February, 1296). By 
 that Bull the clergy were forbidden to pay taxes to 
 temporal rulers. A second Bull (Ineffahilis amor) ex- 
 plained that this might be done with the Pope's consent. 
 It also demanded an explanation of Philippe's decree 
 (August, 1296) forbidding the exportation of gold, mer- 
 chandise, and arms. That measure was intended to 
 injure England and Holland, but it equally affected the 
 revenues of Rome. It was regarded, and presumably 
 in part intended, as a retort to the pretensions of the 
 Pope. And Philippe was threatened with excommunica- 
 tion. 
 
 The literature of the day bears witness to the intense 
 indignation with which this Bull was received at the 
 Court of France. Boniface, embarrassed by political 
 and financial difficulties in Italy, yielded to the storm. 
 The Bulls Etsi de statu (July, 1297) and Noveritis nos 
 formally renounced the claims that had been advanced 
 to defend the property of the clergy against the exactions 
 of the King. The reconciliation was apparently com- 
 plete. Terrified lest the French King should aid his 
 enemies — the Colonna in Italy and the Aragonais in 
 Sicily — the Pope heaped favours upon him. St. Louis 
 was canonized. But the air of peace was deceptive. 
 Philippe used his success to increase his exactions from 
 the clergy. And no sooner had the Pope settled his 
 affairs at home than, buoj^ed up by the success of the 
 Jubilee of 1300 and the support of the Flemings, who 
 hailed him as the universal judge in things temporal as 
 
QUARREL WITH THE PAPACY 119 
 
 well as spiritual, the indefatigable old man returned to 
 the attack. 
 
 Bernard de Saisset, a Papal Legate, who had been ap- 
 pointed by Boniface to the See of Pamiers, was accused 
 (1301) of having attempted to form a conspiracy to rid 
 the county of Toulouse from French domination, and 
 of having uttered in his cups treasonable language against 
 Philippe. He was cited to appear before the King at 
 Senlis. There his crimes were recited before the Assembly 
 of Barons, who clamoured for his blood. He was de- 
 livered into the custody of the Archbishop of Narbonne, 
 who was requested to pronounce his canonical degrada- 
 tion in order that he might be punished by the secular 
 arm. It was contrary to the laws of the Church that 
 a Bishop should be brought up for judgment before a 
 lay court. The Archbishop, much embarrassed, took 
 Saisset into his custody, and referred the matter to the 
 Pope. At the same time envoys were sent from France, 
 requesting Boniface to strip Saisset of his clerical privi- 
 leges. The answer of the Pope was the issue of the 
 famous Bulls Salvator mundi and Ausculta fili. 
 
 By the first he revoked his recent concessions, and 
 forbade the French prelates to make any grant to Philippe 
 without his leave. By the second he asserted that the 
 Crown of France was subject to the Supreme Head of the 
 ecclesiastical hierarchy, constituted by God above Kings 
 and kingdoms, to build and plant, to uproot and to 
 destroy (December, 1301). He summoned the French 
 Bishops to attend a Council at Rome in November, 1302, 
 to deliberate upon Philippe's transgressions. 
 
 The temper in which Philippe received this attack is 
 undoubtedly indicated by a document which has been 
 too readily accepted as being what it professes to be, the 
 actual reply of the King. In it his " Supreme Fatuity,' ' 
 the Pope, is informed that the King's temporal power 
 
120 FRANCE 
 
 is subject to no person whatsoever. The rule of Roman 
 law, which the lawyers who governed under Philippe were 
 anxious to establish, gives to the King absolute power, 
 including that of interfering in the administration of the 
 diocese. But whatever may have been the exact words 
 in which Philippe replied to the Bulls of 1301, he replied 
 in kind to the Pope's summons to Rome. He convoked 
 an Assembly of the Realm to meet at Notre Dame on 
 April 10, 1302. It consisted of the representatives of 
 the Three Estates — clergy, nobles, and burghers — and 
 was summoned " to deliberate upon certain affairs nearly 
 touching the King and the realm, all and each," The 
 Pope had accused Philippe of tyrannizing over his subjects, 
 oppressing the Church, and offending the nobles. He 
 had summoned a Council at Rome to put an end to these 
 oppressions. By the unanimous vote of the Estates, 
 Philippe was able to show that he commanded the 
 confidence of his people, and that, ranged behind him 
 in his resistance to Ultramontane interference, was 
 the full force of French patriotism. But, encouraged by 
 the news of the French King's humiliation at Courtrai, 
 Boniface held the synod in November, and issued the 
 Bull TJnam sanctam. This was the most absolute asser- 
 tion of the doctrine of theocracy formulated in the Middle 
 Ages, and has gained its author the title of the " Great " 
 amongst those who approve of it. Submission to the 
 Roman Pontiff was declared to be a necessary condition 
 of salvation. Several French Bishops had attended the 
 Council at Rome, in spite of Philippe's prohibition. A 
 general sentence of excommunication was now passed 
 against anyone who should prevent the faithful from 
 presenting themselves at the Holy See. A Legate was 
 despatched with an ultimatum to the King. The charges 
 alleged against him were solemnly discussed at an 
 assembly of prelates and Barons summoned by Philippe 
 
THE POPE AT ANAGNI 121 
 
 in January, 1303. A respectful answer was returned. 
 But Boniface treated the reply as frivolous. The Legate 
 was instructed to demand complete submission, or else 
 to declare the King excommunicate (April, 1303). But 
 the French Court, in which the influence of William of 
 Nogaret was now supreme, had already decided upon 
 extreme measures. An assembly of prelates, Barons, and 
 lawyers, was held at the Louvre on March 12, at which it 
 was proposed to summon a General Council to depose the 
 Pope. The Archdeacon of Coutances, who was bringing 
 the Bull of excommunication, was seized at Troyes, and 
 the Bull taken from him before it could be published. 
 
 On June 13 a great assembly was held at the Louvre. 
 The vices, heresies, and crimes, with which the Pope was 
 charged, were formulated in an indictment of twenty-nine 
 articles. It was decided to summon the General Council. 
 Meanwhile William of Nogaret had been despatched to 
 Italy. In alliance with the Colonna, the Pope at Anagni 
 published a Bull in which he threatened Philippe, but did 
 not pronounce his deposition. It was answered by a 
 cowp d'etat. At the head of some hundreds of followers, 
 William entered Anagni. The Pope was seized and con- 
 fined to his room.* But the plan of transporting him 
 to the Council at Lyons failed. The people of Anagni 
 rose and expelled the invaders. The aged Pope died of 
 rage at his humiliation. 
 
 The issue of the struggle depended upon the choice of 
 his successor. Benedict XI., an Italian follower of Boni- 
 face, seems to have aimed at a compromise by striking 
 at the King's advisers and instruments, notably William 
 de Nogaret, and excusing the King. He died, probably 
 of poison, in July, 1304. If the King of France was to 
 triumph, it was evidently necessary that a Frenchman 
 
 * The story that he was insulted and struck by Colonna is 
 probably apocryphal. 
 
122 FRANCE 
 
 who would do his bidding should be set upon the pon- 
 tifical throne. A desperate struggle ensued in the Sacred 
 College between the partisans of France and the Roman 
 tradition. At the end of eleven months, Bertrand de 
 Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux, was elected. The French 
 policy had scored a complete victory. The subsequent 
 conduct of Clement V. seems to make it certain that he 
 had, as a candidate, come to an understanding with the 
 King. He abandoned Rome, and settled at Avignon 
 (1308), a Papal possession beyond the Alps, but where 
 he was directly under the influence of France. So began 
 the " Babylonish Captivity," as the Italians called it, 
 the sojourn of the Popes at Avignon, which was to last 
 until 1376. The docile Pope issued decrees by which 
 the acts and sentences of Boniface were revoked, and 
 Philippe was praised for his " good and just zeal " (1311). 
 
 But it was not merely by such acts of academic 
 recantation that Clement must pay the price of his 
 subjection. 
 
 The Order of Templars had been founded (1118) as a 
 body of " poor knights of Christ," whose first object 
 was to safeguard pilgrims on their way to the Holy 
 Sepulchre. The Order had increased and developed 
 rapidly, and planted its temples and fortresses all over 
 Europe. The soldier-monks had amassed riches, in lands 
 and precious metals, had organized a hierarchy, and had 
 become in some sort the bankers and treasurers of 
 Christendom. Their wealth had provoked the cupidity 
 of Philippe. The laying up of a vast treasure upon earth 
 by a community, each member of which was vowed to 
 poverty, was certain to expose them to attack before 
 long. Nor could it be denied that they had done nothing 
 for many years to redeem their vows to succour Jerusa- 
 lem or protect pilgrims. The secrecy with which their 
 affairs were conducted gave rise to rumours of heretical 
 
AREEST OF THE TEMPLARS 123 
 
 beliefs, impious mysteries, and cynical debaucheries 
 practised by them. In 1307 pressure began to be put 
 upon the Pope by Philippe to inquire into the crimes 
 with which they were charged. The case against them 
 was prepared with the utmost unscrupulousness by 
 William de Nogaret. In October, Jacques de Molai, the 
 Grand Master, and all the Templars in France were 
 arrested and their goods seized in the name of the In- 
 quisition, on the grounds of heresy. Confession was 
 "svrung from them by the extremity of torture. 
 
 As in 1302, so in 1308, Philippe wished to strengthen 
 his hand by a display of popular support. An 
 assembly was summoned to meet at Tours in May. 
 The clergy and Barons received a personal summons ; 
 each important town was invited to send two deputies, 
 and by the term " important towns " even mere villages 
 were included, who sent representatives chosen by uni- 
 versal suffrage or nominated by the Seigneur or by the 
 upper bourgeoisie. The evidence was placed before these 
 deputies, and the King was able to announce that the 
 whole people of France was with him in wishing to purge 
 the world of these pestilent knights. The Provincial 
 Councils also condemned them. The Archbishop of Sens 
 and his suffragans sent fifty-four Templars, who had re- 
 tracted the confessions wrung from them by torture, to be 
 burnt at the stake. The Order itseK was dissolved by 
 the Pope at the Council of Vienne (1312). Their property 
 was assigned to the Hospitallers, but a large proportion 
 of the spoil was secured by the King. The Grand Master, 
 Molai, and the Preceptor of Normandy, Geoff roi de 
 Charnai, who had recanted their confession, and declared 
 the charges against their Order groundless, were tried by 
 three Cardinals appointed by Clement V., and suffered 
 martyrdom at Paris. 
 
 The Templars were not the only class who had to suffer 
 
124 FRANCE 
 
 for Philippe's need of money. The Jews (1306) and the 
 Lombard bankers (1311) were persecuted, their property 
 confiscated, and themselves expelled from the kingdom. 
 Such measures filled the royal coffers for the moment, 
 but could only end by impoverishing the country. Not 
 less disastrous, though temporarily successful in pro- 
 viding the sinews of war for the King, was the alternate 
 debasing and raising of the coinage established by St. 
 Louis. This resource, so fatal to commerce and sound 
 finance, was introduced by Philippe. The temptation 
 of resorting to it, regardless of consequences, proved too 
 great to generations of his successors on the throne of 
 France. 
 
 In England the people profited by the financial em- 
 barrassments of Edward I., the contemporary of Philippe, 
 to extort constitutional concessions from their monarch. 
 In France, as we have seen, the Church remained abso- 
 lutely subservient to the King ; but amongst the nobles 
 and the people who had to endure his exactions a lively 
 spirit of discontent was excited. The principle that the 
 King could require universal service for the defence of 
 the realm, and therefore, by commutation, exact the 
 pecuniary value of such service, had been established ; 
 but the process of evolution by which the King could 
 impose uniform taxes for the government of the country 
 was only beginning. When Philippe was in need of 
 great sums for the war against England, he was obliged 
 to exercise the royal authority by way of loans, more or 
 less voluntary, from rich bankers and citizens, or taxes, 
 such as the maltote, levied on commercial transactions, 
 or subsidies, imposts laid on capital or income. It was 
 in the collection of these taxes that difficulties arose and 
 discontent made itself manifest. Riots occurred in 
 places ; the Seigneurs wrung from the King the restora- 
 tion of some rights, such as that of the judicial combat 
 
LEAGUES OF THE BARONS 125 
 
 and the right of private warfare, which they had lost in 
 previous reigns. And towards the end of the reign a 
 movement took place which might well have had the 
 most far-reaching consequences, if it had been a move- 
 ment, not of a class only, but of the whole nation working 
 for political freedom. Leagues of Barons were formed to 
 resist the imposition of the royal taxes. A confederation 
 of the various leagues next took shape. Philippe yielded 
 to the storm. He had revoked the subvention which 
 was the occasion of the agitation, and had summoned 
 the malcontents to Paris, when he died. His successor, 
 Louis X., gave a grudging and guarded assent to their 
 demands in the form of charters granted to the leagues. 
 Those demands were wholly reactionary, consisting of 
 the restoration of seigniorial rights, such as private war- 
 fare and so forth. Neither the clergy nor the bourgeoisie 
 associated themselves with the leagues, but rather ranged 
 themselves on the side of the King. The movement 
 therefore proved abortive. 
 
 The leagues died away, but the political activity which 
 Philippe's appeals to public opinion had called forth did 
 not die away. Historians, however, are apt to over- 
 estimate Philippe's summoning of the Assembly as an in- 
 novation . The term ' ' Estates General ' ' was not applied to 
 these assemblies till a much later date. Nor is it true to 
 say that in 1302 the bourgeoisie for the first time took part 
 in the affairs of State. We have seen that it was a very 
 ancient custom for the King to summon to his councils 
 people from all parts of his kingdom, plenary assemblies 
 such as Louis IX. convened before the Crusade in Eg}^t. 
 The germ of political life was there, and Philippe de- 
 veloped that germ because he had occasion to associate 
 the nation with him more frequently and more intimately 
 than former Kings had done. He secured the expression 
 of public approval of his extraordinary acts by convoking 
 
126 FRANCE 
 
 the representatives of the clergy, nobility, and commons, 
 and asking their opinion . The importance of the occasions 
 on which the assemblies of 1302 and 1308 were summoned 
 has led to their being wrongly regarded as initiating a 
 system of national representation. 
 
 By a decree in the year 1302 Philippe defined and 
 stereotyped certain changes which had been coming into 
 existence since the reign of Louis IX. We have seen that 
 the increase of judicial, financial, and administrative 
 business had led naturally to a division of the King's 
 Court into three distinct bodies. The functions of the 
 three departments were now clearly differentiated and 
 defined. Political and administrative business was re- 
 served to the Great Council of the King, together with 
 certain judiciary powers in the case of appeals. The 
 second department of the Council was the judiciary 
 Parlement; " his sovereign court of justice, which claimed 
 to exercise its jurisdiction over the whole kingdom, was 
 destined to be the great instrument employed by future 
 Kings to bring the whole of France under their absolute 
 authority."* Philippe appointed it to meet twice a year 
 in Paris, but, with the rapid increase of legal business, 
 it soon became a permanent court, sitting in the Palais 
 de Justice. The function of the Parlement, however, 
 was not exclusively judicial, for the duty of registering 
 the royal edicts was assigned to it. This right was to 
 prove of importance when, in later days, the Parlement 
 declared that no edict was valid until it had been so 
 registered, and thereby claimed the right of remonstra- 
 
 * Duruy. The Parlement was itself divided into three courts — 
 the Grand Chambre, which dealt with appeals ; the Ghambre des 
 Enquites, which prepared appeals fiom the lower courts for 
 further hearing ; and the Ghambre des Bequetes, which decided the 
 cases of first instance brought before the Parlement. Philippe 
 also recognized, and brought under royal control, the old Provincial 
 Courts of Justice, such as the J^chiquier of Normandy and the 
 Grands Jours of Troyes. 
 
PHILIPPE'S ADMINISTRATION 127 
 
 ting with the King, and even of vetoing his decrees. The 
 third department of the Council was the Exchequer 
 Court, the Chambre des Comptes. 
 
 Philippe's dealings with the Church have caused him 
 to be painted as a monster of iniquity. That he was 
 ambitious, and unscrupulous in obtaining the means by 
 which to gratify his ambitions, cannot be denied ; but his 
 work for France was of supreme importance. Not only 
 did he add to the royal domain the conquests and ac- 
 quisitions we have referred to, but, in organizing the 
 new and necessary system of royal administration, in 
 place of that of the feudal lords whose power royalty 
 had assumed, he showed himseK vigorous and states- 
 manlike, if despotic. When he came to the throne 
 French civilization was in a state of transition. The 
 feudal system was gone. In its place a new system of 
 administration had been called into existence. The 
 royal domain extended over nearly two- thirds of France, 
 and a host of officials was required to administer it. 
 The judicial system was being rapidly centralized. The 
 feudal system, by which vassals of the Crown were 
 obliged to give military service, was outworn. The need 
 of a regular army and navy, or of mercenaries, was 
 imperative ; but lawyers, officials, soldiers, and sailors 
 postulate a national revenue. It is to the discredit of 
 Philippe, and the legists who advised him, that in his 
 efforts to solve the new financial problem of a national 
 budget he used devices the most unjust and the most 
 foolish, because commercially disastrous. 
 
 Philippe was succeeded by his son, Louis X. (le Hutin, 
 the Quarrelsome). During his brief reign (1314-1316) 
 the feudal reaction carried the day. The reign of the 
 legists was over. The Barons, headed by the King's 
 uncle, Charles de Valois, turned on the coimcillors of 
 the late King and secured their condemnation on wild 
 
128 FRANCE 
 
 charges of sorcery. Enguerrand de Marigny, his chief 
 Minister, was hanged ; the Chancellor, Pierre de Latilly, 
 William de Nogaret, and Raoul de Presle, were im- 
 prisoned, tortured, and ruined. Many of the old privi- 
 leges of the nobility were revived. An unsuccessful 
 campaign in Flanders left the King without strength 
 or authority to check the Barons. The country was re- 
 lapsing into feudal anarchy, when a draught of cold wine, 
 following upon a severe game of tennis, put an end to 
 his life. His widow was delivered of a posthumous son 
 some months later, who died immediately. His first 
 wife, Marguerite of Burgundy, had died in prison in the 
 Chateau-Gaillard, where Philippe the Fair had confined 
 her, as a punishment for her scandalous behaviom- at his 
 Court. She left a daughter, Jeanne. Her claim was 
 passed over. Philippe V., the King's brother (le Long, 
 the Tall), who had acted as Regent during the pregnancy 
 of Louis' widow, was hailed as King. He devoted his 
 energies to re-establishing and developing the organiza- 
 tion of Philippe the Fair. A terrible persecution of the 
 Jews and lepers disgraced his reign. He was contem- 
 plating the heroic step of introducing a uniform system 
 of weights and measures and currency throughout the 
 kingdom, when he died (1322). His brother, Charles IV. 
 (le Bel), was at once accepted as King, the claims of 
 Philippe's daughters being ignored. He reigned but six 
 years, during which he was chiefly occupied in endeavour- 
 ing to raise funds to carry on his government ; whilst the 
 party of the nobles, which had been repressed by Philippe, 
 regained its ascendancy. Charles died leaving only 
 daughters (1328). 
 
 Philippe the Fair had been dead but fourteen years, 
 and already the House of Capet, which had seemed so 
 strongly established, both in numbers and in kind, was 
 extinct in the male line. The monarchy, which under 
 
THE APPANAGES 129 
 
 Philippe had appeared as strongly planted as it was 
 absolute, and rooted in a highly-organized administra- 
 tion, was already shaken to its foundations. If the 
 seeds of constitutional government had been sown in 
 the establishment of regular law courts, and in the 
 recognition of the Estates General, their growth was 
 checked for centuries. 
 
 The power of the old territorial nobility had been 
 destroyed, and France, united under a King, might have 
 been expected to grow prosperous and content, and to de- 
 velop some system of representative government ; but for 
 a hundred years or more she was to be plunged into the 
 utmost misery of anarchy and war, and to lie at the mercy 
 of foreign invaders and a new royal nobility, whilst the 
 power of the Crown was reduced to almost nothing. 
 Two widely different causes acting in the same direction 
 appear to have been responsible for this catastrophe. 
 The task of annexing Aquitaine, the last and necessary 
 step in the wise policy of creating French territorial unity, 
 might have been accomplished, not without dust and 
 heat, if France had been united in the attempt, even 
 though the difficulties of the last Capetian Kings show 
 that she was hardly yet economically equal to the effort ; 
 but in the feodalite apanagee, the new royal nobility, 
 which the French Kings had created in place of the old 
 feudal baronage, a new disintegrating force, at least as 
 selfish and fatally weakening, had sprung up within her 
 borders. The system of giving appanages to their 
 brothers and younger sons was one against which the 
 Kings of France might well have taken warning from the 
 history of their Frankish predecessors ; but from Henri I. 
 onwards, by gift or testament, they had adopted this 
 practice. As a method of administration it would 
 have been, no doubt, excellent, if it had not been 
 inevitable that the new nobility would prove as eager 
 
 9 
 
130 FRANCE 
 
 for independence, and as reckless of the public weal, 
 as the old.* 
 
 * Henri I. made his brother Duke of Normandy ; Louis VI. 
 gave the county of Dreux to one of his sons ; Philippe Auguste, 
 the counties of Boulogne, Domfront, Mortain, and Clermont, to 
 one of his. Louis VIIL left Artois to his second son, Anjou and 
 Maine to his third, Poitou and Auvergne to his fourth. Louis IX. 
 gave the county of Toulouse to his brother. Count of Artois ; 
 Provence to his brother Charles ; and the county of Clermont to 
 his son Eobert. The English Kings were no wiser, and their 
 country paid the penalty in the Wars of the Koses. 
 
THE VALOIS KINGS AND THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 
 A.D. 1328—1364 
 
 The House of Capet was extinct. When Charles IV., 
 the last son of Philippe the Fair, died (1328), he left only 
 daughters. But his widow was enceinte. What if the 
 expected child proved to be a daughter ? In 1316, on 
 the death of Louis X., and in 1322, on the death of 
 Philippe V.,^ the daughters of the late Kings had been 
 passed by. If the principle were accepted that a woman 
 could not ascend the throne of France, it might yet be 
 contended that the throne should pass to the male heir of 
 the female line. If this were so, Edward III. of England, 
 grandson of Philippe the Fair by his mother, Isabel of 
 France, and nephew of the three last Kings, would inherit 
 the crown of France. Otherwise Philippe de Valois, son of 
 Charles de Valois and nephew of Philippe the Fair, would 
 reign. A great assembly was held at Paris to appoint a 
 Regent. The claims of Edward were put forward. But 
 there was already a strong national feeling against the 
 idea of establishing an English King in France. The 
 Barons declared that by custom no woman, and conse- 
 quently no male heir through her, could succeed to the 
 kingdom of France. Philippe was appointed Regent. 
 The expected child was born, and was a girl. Two 
 months later Philippe VI. was anointed King at Rheims 
 (May 29, 1328), and celebrated his coronation with all 
 the gay splendour dear to chivalry. 
 
 131 
 
132 FRANCE 
 
 He assigned Navarre to Jeanne, Countess of Evreux, 
 daughter of Louis X., but kept Champagne and Brie, for 
 which he gave her compensation. 
 
 The accession of Philippe involved the ascendancy of 
 that new nobility which we have just described. For 
 the House of Valois had always identified itself with 
 their interests and ideas, as against that of the legists 
 and other councillors of the late Kjngs. 
 
 Bruges and other cities had revolted against the 
 oppressive taxation of Louis, Count of Flanders. He 
 appealed to Philippe for help, when he came to do him 
 homage in 1328. Philippe seized the opportunity of 
 beginning his reign in warlike fashion. He summoned 
 his Barons, and they flocked to the banner of the fleur- 
 de-lis, when it was unfurled by so bold and chivalrous 
 a King. The Flemings mustered on the hill of Cassel, 
 and showed a bold front. From the walls of the town 
 a large banner was hung with the insulting motto : 
 
 " Quand ce coq ici chantera 
 Le Roi trouv6 ci entrera." 
 
 But the " upstart King " proved too strong for the 
 burghers. They endeavoured to surprise his army, but 
 were flung back and their force annihilated by the feudal 
 array. The Count of Flanders was restored. He re- 
 ceived a warning from Philippe that if he were called upon 
 again he would come for his own profit. He took the 
 hint, and established order by means of the most ferocious 
 persecution. The prestige of this success- confirmed 
 Philippe on the throne. It was not without its effect 
 upon Edward III. of England, who had hitherto not 
 complied with Philippe's summons to do him homage 
 for Guienne and Ponthieu. 
 
 Yielding at last to threats of confiscation, he came to 
 Amiens and grudgingly did homage (1329). But the 
 
PHILIPPE VI. 
 
 133 
 
 question was raised whether this homage should be 
 simple, or liege, as Philippe insisted. It was not 
 
 NAVARRE*'^, \^( ^ i ^ \^ 
 
 SOUTH WESTERN FRANCE IN THE THIRTEENTH AND 
 FOURTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
 till two years later that the English King admitted that 
 the homage done at Amiens must be considered liege. 
 
 It was at Amiens on the same occasion that Robert 
 of Artois demanded justice of the King. 
 
134 FRANCE 
 
 The appanage of Artois had descended to his aunt, 
 Madame Mahaut. Great-grandson of Robert I., to whom 
 Louis VIII., his father, had left Artois as an appanage, 
 Robert had married the sister of Philippe VI. He had 
 claimed the county, but his claim was set aside by the 
 Court of Peers. He now demanded justice of the King, 
 alleging that he was wrongfully kept out of his inheritance. 
 He produced some forged documents to prove his case. 
 At Madame Mahaut 's instance these were seized. She and 
 her heiress died suddenly of poison. Robert was con- 
 victed of forgery, his accomplice, Jeanne de Divion, burnt, 
 his property confiscated, and he himself banished (1332). 
 He was presently convicted of treason, on the usual 
 charges of sorcery, and declared the King's enemy (1337). 
 Meantime he had taken refuge at the Court of Edward III., 
 where he was received with great honour. 
 
 Philippe was in close alliance with the Popes at Avignon. 
 He took the Cross in 1332, and great preparations were 
 made for a Crusade under the direction of Pope John XXII. 
 But by 1336 it was seen that war with England was in- 
 evitable, and that the absence of the French King would 
 be fatal to his kingdom. In view^ of the perilous situation 
 of affairs in Europe, John's successor, Benedict XII., 
 urged Philippe to abandon the Crusade. 
 
 Pious, well educated, a devoted father, Philippe was 
 a man of large ideas and vague ambitions. Above all, 
 he was a feudal King, a knight of chivaby. He delighted 
 in the pomps and picturesque splendours of feudal society. 
 Such occasions as the arming of his eldest son as a knight 
 were celebrated by fetes and tourneys on the most lavish 
 scale. It was his pleasure to devise jousts and feats of 
 arms and hunting arrays to be celebrated amidst scenes 
 the most magnificent, in the famous park at Vincennes, 
 that most chivalrous sojourn, as Froissart calls it, the 
 brilliant scene-painter of these glittering spectacles. 
 
JEAN FEOISSART 135 
 
 For to record the battles and the tournaments of a 
 reign which revived in so brilliant a fashion all the 
 pageantry and splendour and romance of a dying order, 
 to recount with lively and impartial admiration all the 
 deeds of valour and chivalry and high emprise per- 
 formed on the battle-fields of Europe, was given a 
 chronicler, Jean Froissart, the Walter Scott of the 
 Middle Ages, as Michelet happily termed him. His pen 
 had the skill and magic to reproduce for us the atmosphere 
 of surroundings in which he delighted, the last romantic 
 glories of the Middle Ages, when Edward III. and 
 Philippe VI. vied with one another in kingly rivalry to 
 reproduce the scenes of the era of the Round Table, 
 But beyond knights and ladies, festivals and tourneys, 
 Froissart sees nothing at all. He is so blinded by the 
 afterglow of chivalry in which his heroes move, that he 
 takes no thought for the misery and misgovernment 
 their actions involved. He cares nothing for the wrongs 
 or aspirations of the common people. And yet it was 
 they who must bear the burden of Philippe's extrava- 
 gance, they who must suffer for his rashness in plunging 
 the country into an interminable and disastrous war 
 without having first organized the financial system of his 
 kingdom, and without having first established a regular 
 army to take the place of the spasmodic and limited 
 military service and arriere-ban* of feudal society. Whilst 
 the towns were for the most part allowed to excuse them- 
 selves from military service by paying a contribution to 
 the royal exchequer, and the footmen were foolishly 
 despised, the knights, who thought themselves alone 
 worthy of the profession of arms, were, thanks to an 
 exaggerated development of armour, fast becoming 
 
 * Arriire-han was a levy en masse in case of invasion. The 
 feudal military service, limited to strict and narrow conditions 
 of time and place, was inadequate for a prolonged and general war. 
 
136 FRANCE 
 
 almost ridiculous on the battle-field. Encumbered by 
 swords and lances of prodigious length and weight, 
 encased in armour which rendered them incapable of 
 moving after a fall, bound by rules of etiquette laid down 
 by the romances of chivalry, they dashed into battle as 
 if it were a tourney, to perish at the hands of the bowmen 
 they despised. 
 
 Against this army of unpractical cavalry, acting without 
 reference to a horde of footmen armed with slow and 
 heavy crossbows, or merely with scythes, Edward III. was 
 to put into the field a splendid infantry of men carefully 
 trained from childhood to draw the English long yew 
 bow, archers who could shoot three arrows to one of the 
 crossbowmen. 
 
 England was a small nation, but united, and her army 
 had been trained by her struggles with the Welsh and 
 the Scots. Her weakness was that she had a hostile 
 nation, Scotland, on her back ; and this weakness Philippe 
 used to the uttermost ; but it was balanced by the strate- 
 gical advantage of her position on the Continent. The 
 English Kings now held, indeed, only the counties 
 of Ponthieu and Montreuil, and a strip of territory 
 running from Saintes to Bayonne, the fragmentary 
 remains of the duchy of Guienne and old Aquitaine. 
 But the country was bound closely to England by a 
 profitable trade in the wines of Bordeaux, and by good 
 and conciliatory administration. 
 
 The chroniclers, who are usually content with a pictur- 
 esque and personal reason as the cause of great political 
 events, attribute the outbreak of the war to the impor- 
 tunate suggestions of Robert of Artois, who was never 
 weary of urging Edward to prosecute his claim to the 
 French crown. But there were political and economical 
 reasons which made a war between France and England 
 a natural necessity. Ever since a Duke of Normandy 
 
EDWARD CLAIMS THE FRENCH CROWN 137 
 
 had become King of England, whilst remaining a vassal 
 of France, it had been inevitable that sooner or later a 
 war should be fought to the finish, and that either the 
 two countries should be united under one crown, or that 
 they should recede within their natural boundaries. 
 Philippe caused the outbreak of this war at this moment 
 by his policy of supporting the independence of Scotland. 
 He had given asylum to David Bruce, and in 1336 prepared 
 a great expedition to succour the defeated Scots. The 
 privateers and pirates that had long roamed the Channel 
 from Calais were reinforced by this great assembly of 
 French ships. The English trade with Flanders was 
 seriously threatened . By way of reply Edward announced 
 his claim to the French crown, and determined to strike 
 at France through the Low Countries. There was 
 already much discontent in Flanders, owing to the severe 
 rule of the Count, Louis de Nevers, who represented 
 French aristocratic influence, since the Battle of Cassel. 
 Now, Flanders was the great market for English wool, 
 and depended on England for the raw material of textile 
 industry. With a view to stirring up discontent in the 
 Flemish industrial towns, Edward (August, 1336) forbade 
 the export of wool from his kingdom. The Count of 
 Flanders retorted by seizing the English merchants in 
 Flanders, and Edward then seized all Flemish merchants 
 in England. At the same time he secured the alliance 
 of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria. He anticipated the 
 policy of Grodolphin and Pitt by buying the support of 
 the poorer German Princes. Philippe accepted the 
 challenge, and turned to the conquest of Guienne (May, 
 1337). In October Edward publicly assumed the title 
 of King of France. 
 
 His claim was not serious or the cause of the war. It 
 was rather a provocation or an act of war. The presence 
 of the French fleet, backing up the French pirates in the 
 
138 FRANCE 
 
 Channel, combined with the threatened predominance of 
 French influence in Flanders, made war a commercial 
 necessity for England. The assertion of Edward's claim 
 to the French crown had its political effect in removing 
 from the Flemings any scruple as to a revolt against 
 their suzerain. They could now regard Philippe as a 
 usurper. 
 
 Rallying to the cry of "Work and liberty !" the 
 democratic craftsmen of the Flemish towns ranged them- 
 selves under the leadership of Jacques van Arte veldt, 
 a rich merchant of Ghent, against the hated feudalism of 
 France. Edward readily came to an agreement with 
 them, by which the restrictions on the wool trade were 
 removed and the Flemish towns promised neutrality. 
 He landed in September, 1339, but his campaign in 
 Picardy was ineffective. His German allies were luke- 
 warm, and the French King refused to give him battle. 
 But in the following year he secured the definite alliance 
 of the Flemish, and — acting, it is said, upon the advice 
 of Arteveldt — ^from that time publicly assumed the arms 
 and title of the King of France. But the real struggle 
 was at sea. Philippe had collected a large navy com- 
 posed chiefly of ships from the Norman ports and 
 Genoese mercenaries. They had scoured the Channel 
 and sacked Portsmouth, Pljnnouth, Southampton. They 
 were now moored off Sluys, and endeavoured to pre- 
 vent Edward's landing, when he sailed from the Thames 
 with a large army on June 22, 1340. But their leaders 
 were at variance and foolish. They gave Edward 
 the advantage of the sea, and huddled their 200 ships 
 together in a narrow creek. Their massed crews were 
 an easy mark for the English archers. Two days later 
 they had lost all but thirty ships, and 20,000 men were 
 slain or taken prisoners, The Flemings, who had helped 
 Edward thus to annihilate the French fleet, joined him 
 
WAR IN BRITTANY 
 
 139 
 
 in force on land. With Arteveldt and the Duke of 
 Brabant, he laid siege to Tournai. But nothing came 
 of the campaign. Edward was obliged to raise the siege. 
 His resources were exhausted ; the Scots were rising, the 
 Flemings, discouraged by a check before St. Omer, 
 melting away and returning to their looms ; the French 
 were meeting with successes in Guienne. He signed a 
 truce for six months in September, 1340. 
 
 y=Vaclicourt 
 
 about 3% miles 
 front La Broye, 
 
 D English Cavalry. 
 
 La Broye 4'k miles. 
 Abbeville 10 mUcs. 
 
 Hardly was the truce signed, when a war broke out in 
 Brittany, which was to provide Edward with more zealous 
 and martial allies than the Germans and Flemings. 
 
 The Duke of Brittany had died, and the succession 
 was disputed between his niece, who was married to 
 Charles of Blois, nephew of the King, and her uncle, the 
 Count of Montfort. The King of England was soon in 
 the field in support of the latter and the Bretagne Breton- 
 nante, who favoured England, whilst Philippe took the 
 
HO FRANCE 
 
 field on behalf of his nephew. The Papal Legates, how- 
 ever, persuaded them to a truce which was to last till 
 Michaelmas, 1346, whilst the Pope acted as arbiter 
 (January, 1343). But the turning-point of the war was 
 destined to be reached before that date. Philippe 
 treacherously seized, and beheaded without trial, on a 
 vague charge of treason, some dozen Breton nobles who 
 were friends of the English King. Edward regarded this 
 outrage as putting an end to the truce. A successful 
 campaign was inaugurated by the Earl of Derby in 
 Guienne (July, 1345). Edward presently prepared to 
 sail to his assistance with a large fleet. Baffled by a storm, 
 which drove him back to the English Channel, he landed 
 at La Hogue de Saint Vast (July 22, 1346), and took 
 Caen and Louviers, both wealthy and important towns. 
 Marching along the left bank of the Seine, he was soon 
 within reach of Paris. 
 
 Then, whilst Philippe hesitated, he crossed the river, 
 and hastened by forced marches towards Picardy, where 
 he hoped to join hands with the Flemings. Philippe 
 pursued him in the direction of Amiens, but he managed 
 to sHp across the Somme at Blanquetaque before the 
 French monarch could pin him, and was able to choose 
 his own ground for the inevitable battle on the other side. 
 He pitched his tents near the forest of Crecy (August 25, 
 1346). Next day the English army entrenched itself on 
 a gentle slope in open ground. The 6,000 English archers, 
 drawn up three deep, formed the centre ; their flanks, 
 the vulnerable points of longbowmen, were protected 
 by 2,000 cavalry, who were formed into two solid dis- 
 mounted phalanxes. A few thousand light infantry were 
 interspersed among the lines of bowmen. So, calmly 
 resting in their trenches, their bowstrings prudently 
 protected from the rain beneath their hats, the archers 
 awaited the onslaught of the French army. It consisted 
 
CRECY 141 
 
 of about 40,000 horse and foot, including a large force of 
 Genoese crossbowmen. On August 26 Philippe made 
 a long march from Abbeville in stormy weather. His 
 men arrived before the English position wet and weary. 
 But the French knights insisted upon an immediate attack. 
 It was late in the afternoon. A fierce thunderstorm 
 broke, and then the evening sun shone full in the faces 
 of the French. The bowstrings of the Genoese were 
 wetted. They fired their first round, then were shot 
 down by a cloud of arrows that fell upon them thick as 
 flakes of snow, whilst they were winding up their cross- 
 bows for a second volley. They turned tail, and the 
 French knights charged them, indignant at their cowardice. 
 Horse and foot were mingled in a confused mass beneath 
 the deadly rain of English arrows. Those terrible shafts, 
 sped by trained muscles from the six-foot bows of 
 yew, pierced their vaunted chain armour like paper. 
 With all the ardour and pride of chivalry, the French 
 cavalry charged up the slope to slaughter those imperti- 
 nent yeomen. Not one got within thirty yards of striking 
 distance. Again and again, with superb courage, they 
 charged. The result was always the same. They 
 reached the English flanks, indeed, but could not break 
 the protecting phalanxes. Fifteen hundred knights lay 
 dead on the field ; 12,000 Frenchmen perished. And 
 hardly a blow had reached the English. 
 
 The old blind King of Bohemia fell fighting in the fore- 
 front of the battle. Philippe, who had fought with great 
 courage, fled with a few followers to Amiens. Next day 
 the English, in a thick fog, fell upon some contingents 
 which were coming to join Philippe from the communes of 
 Rouen and Beauvais, and cut them to pieces. Edward 
 then sat down before Calais, determined to make himself 
 master of the port which had been the chief home of 
 the pirates who damaged his trade with Flanders. His 
 
142 FRANCE 
 
 archers were of no use for an assault, but they rendered 
 the siege effective. Philippe marched to the relief of the 
 town (July, 1347), but was unable to effect it. Calais 
 was reduced to extremities. Edward demanded that 
 six citizens, barefooted, and clad only in their shirts, 
 with halters round their necks, should bring him the keys 
 of the citadel and surrender themselves to his discretion. 
 A rich burgher, Eustache de Saint-Pierre, and five 
 companions, nobly undertook this duty on behalf of their 
 fellow-citizens, and only escaped with their lives thanks 
 to the intercession of the English Queen. 
 
 Calais had fallen, and was destined to remain an 
 English town for over 200 years. Flanders and the wool 
 trade were safe. Edward had gained practically every- 
 thing for which he had gone to war. A truce was made 
 which was renewed from time to time till April, 1351. 
 
 But a military revolution had been revealed by the 
 Battle of Crecy. That victory had come as a complete 
 surprise to both parties, although the success of the 
 English archers at the Battle of Sluys and Blanquetaque 
 had foreshadowed it. Not only had the English com- 
 moners proved superior to the chivalry of France, but 
 this superiority, lying in the astonishing missile power 
 of the longbow, was for a generation the monopoly of 
 the English. Only muscles trained from childhood could 
 use it as those English archers had done. France, which 
 had grown so fair and flourishing, lay at the mercy of a 
 marauding army, which had but to land and live at its 
 pleasure. The temptation was not likely to be resisted. 
 A war of plunder began in 1351, and lasted till 1360. 
 It is not necessary to recount the details of it. 
 
 The Battle of Poitiers only repeated the lesson of Crecy. 
 
 In a brilliant passage Michelet has pointed out that 
 the Battle of Crecy involved also a social revolution. It 
 was the death-blow of chivalry. " The whole chivalry 
 
THE BLACK DEATH 143 
 
 of the most chivalrous nation was exterminated by a 
 small band of foot-soldiers. . . . The issue revealed a fact 
 of which none dreamed till then, the military inefficiency 
 of that feudal world, which had thought itseK the only 
 military world. Two easy massacres at Mons-en-Puelle 
 and Cassel had retrieved the reputation they had lost 
 at Courtrai. But from the day of Crecy there was many 
 an unbeliever in the religion of nobility." 
 
 Philippe's resistance to the English was handicapped 
 by lack of money, without which, and without regular 
 military service, it was impossible to keep an army in 
 the field. He had recourse to the States General* and 
 Provincial to provide him with aids of men and subsidies. 
 In 1346 they succeeded in extorting the concession that 
 the new tax on salt {gabelle),-\ which had been imposed in 
 1343, and the impost on sales of merchandise, should be 
 only temporary. With the consent of the Popes at 
 Avignon, a tithe was levied annually upon the net incomes 
 of the clergy, besides many forced loans. The coinage 
 was debased. 
 
 The loss and misery caused by these measures was 
 enhanced by the terrible scourge of the Black Death, 
 which, coming from the East, reached the South of 
 France in 1347, and spread northwards. The mortality 
 in the crowded, insanitary towns was frightful. In Paris, 
 where 800 persons died each day, over 60,000 perished. 
 It is thought that half the population of France had 
 succumbed before the plague abated ( 1 349) . The accumu- 
 lation of horrors which afflicted the unhappy country- 
 led to a strange outburst of religious fanaticism. Bands 
 of Flagellants, starting from the Rhine country, passed 
 
 * The States General of the North and South, of Languedoo 
 and Languedoil, were nearly always held separately. 
 
 t The imposition of this tax, which pressed so hardly on the 
 poor, had given point to Edward's gibe that Philippe was the 
 inventor of the Salic Law. 
 
144 FRANCE 
 
 through France, stark naked, lashing themselves with 
 scourges studded with nails, and singing hymns : 
 
 " Battons nos charognes bien fort 
 En remembrant la grant misere 
 De Dieu, et sa piteuse misere. ..." 
 
 I suppose the idea of propitiating a deity who had 
 chastised the world so cruelly was the origin of this 
 curious mania, and was afterwards merged in other 
 emotions. 
 
 Similar outbursts, arising from the horrors of war, 
 pestilence, and famine, gave rise in the fourteenth 
 century to the hysterical convulsions of the St. Vitus' 
 dance, and in the beginning of the fifteenth to the 
 morbid gaiety of the danse macabre, the dance of the dead, 
 a savage orgy of the cemeteries, when the living made 
 merry in the homes of the dead. 
 
 Philippe de Valois died August, 1350, leaving a king- 
 dom thus afflicted to his son, Jean le Bon (John the 
 Good-natured).* But he had added to the royal domain 
 Montpellier, which the King of Majorca was obliged 
 to sell to him (1349), and, also by purchase "and in 
 the same year, the province of Dauphine, which ex- 
 tended the possessions of France westwards to the 
 Alps. The family of Humbert, Count of Vienne, who 
 sold it, bore a dolphin on their coat of arms. He 
 made it a condition of purchase that the eldest son 
 of the King of France should be henceforth styled the 
 " Dauphin.^' 
 
 Charles the Bad (le Mauvais), King of Navarre, had 
 inherited several fiefs in Normandy. His ambitious 
 designs and treasonable negotiations with the English 
 coincided with the failure of the Papal Court to negotiate 
 a final peace between France and England (1354-55). 
 
 * Eldest son of Philippe VI. and Jeanne de Bourgogne. 
 
ft. ts 
 
 1^ •§ 
 
 o e 
 
 9 I 
 
 2 »5 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE 145 
 
 Jean refused to listen to Edward's demand that his full 
 sovereignty over Guienne and Ponthieu should be recog- 
 nized. Edward landed at Calais, and in October, 1355, 
 ravaged Artois, but was disappointed of the support of the 
 King of Navarre, thanks to some prudent concessions 
 made by Jean. 
 
 As the finances of the kingdom became more and 
 more desperate, the disorder of the country greater, and 
 the need of money more imperative in presence of the 
 pillaging companies of bandits and marauding English 
 who roved the land, the States General raised their 
 head, and began to impose conditions on the absolute 
 monarchy, which by its extravagance and lack of organiza- 
 tion had proved itself inadequate to deal with the crisis. 
 
 In 1355 the Black Prince had plundered the rich land of 
 Languedoc, and returned from Montpellier and Narbonne 
 with a thousand waggon-loads of booty. It was certain 
 that he would come again in the following year. It was 
 essential to raise funds to resist him. But Jean's finance 
 had been of the most reckless order. Almost his sole 
 resource seems to have been to debase the coinage. This 
 had been done almost monthly since 1350.* That device 
 was now exhausted. The value of the livre tournois had 
 been reduced from 17 francs 37 in 1336 to 1 franc 73. 
 National bankruptcy could go no farther. The States 
 General of Languedoil were summoned to meet at Paris. 
 Promising to re-establish " a strong and durable " 
 coinage, and to forgo the obnoxious "right of seizure," 
 the King asked for aid for the war. The three Orders 
 replied by the mouth of their chosen orators, Etienne 
 Marcel, the Provost of the Paris merchants, speaking for 
 the towns. They granted a subsidy to support 30,000 
 men. But they imposed conditions. The subsidy was 
 
 * Eighty-one Acts for altering the coinage have been counted 
 in the years 1350-1355. 
 
 10 
 
146 FRANCE 
 
 to be raised by a tax on salt and an impost of eight deniers 
 per livre on all sales. These taxes were to be paid by all 
 Frenchmen without distinction of rank or profession. 
 They were to be collected, not by royal tax-gatherers, 
 but by officials appointed by the States General, and 
 applied solely to the purpose for which they were intended. 
 The aid was granted for one year only, at the end of 
 which the States General were to meet again, after an 
 intermediate session to audit the account. They exacted 
 from the King a promise that in future wars levies should 
 not be imposed without first consulting the States General. 
 Such was the first great assault delivered upon the abso- 
 lutism of the monarchy. The concessions already 
 amounted in principle to a revolution. To vote and to 
 receive taxes is to reign. The success of the States 
 General would have been greater had the taxes thus 
 granted been paid. But it was found difficult to collect 
 them, and riots occurred in Normandy. The obnoxious 
 taxes were withdrawn when the States General met 
 again in March, 1356, and, by way of concession, a new 
 impost on income was granted, so graduated that the 
 richer a man was the less he paid. For, whilst the poor 
 were ground down by overwhelming burdens and re- 
 strictions, the nobles and privileged classes regarded the 
 idea of paying taxes at all as an outrageous innovation. 
 The resistance organized by the King of Navarre and 
 Count d'Harcourt was quelled by the arrest of the former 
 and the beheadal of the latter at Rouen (April, 1356). 
 King Jean had arrived in Normandy with an army of 
 50,000 men, the great feudal array of ban and arriere-ban, 
 to repress this revolt, when he was summoned south by 
 the news that the Black Prince had returned to ravage 
 Touraine as he had ravaged Languedoc the year before. 
 Marching to Poitiers, Jean cut the communications of 
 the English with Bordeaux and the sea. Northwards 
 
BATTLE OF POITIERS 
 
 147 
 
 they were bound by the Loire. The Black Prince, who 
 had been present as a boy at Crecy, entrenched himself 
 amongst the hedgerows and vineyards on the slopes a 
 few miles south-east of Poitiers. His army was only 
 
 §=^^^yVNAAAAA AAAAAAAA 
 
 
 REFERENCE. 
 
 A Salisbury. 
 
 B — Warwick. 
 C The Prince. 
 
 E. &F. ^^'^'^ 
 Cavalry. 
 
 + Farm of 
 
 Mauser tuit^ 
 
 2. English attack. 
 
 Battle of 
 POITIERS. _ 
 
 8EPT. IStt^ 1356. 
 
 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 ^s^i^'s^tiii^ 
 
 
 ]C 
 
 ^:f-c ?| 
 
 RBFEREKCB. 
 
 1^1 
 
 
 M= 
 
 ..::^.X. 
 
 ^m 
 
 ^*' 4)^ (^.-Salisbury. 
 " B — Wavtvick. 
 C.-The Prince, 
 •^—JFarvi 0/ 
 Matipertuis. 
 G . Dctachtftent sent it- 
 tike the Frenclt. 
 in the rear. 
 
 7,000 strong, that of the French many times that number. 
 Jean had but to surround him, and he must have sub- 
 mitted or starved. But such were not the tactics of 
 chivalr3^ Attributing the disaster of Crecy to the refusal 
 
148 FRANCE 
 
 of their horses to face the English arrows, the French 
 knights advanced on foot. The history of that battle 
 was repeated, save that the slaughter of the French was 
 all the greater. A small company of English detached 
 to take them in the rear completed the disaster. Jean 
 himself, fighting valiantly, was taken prisoner and carried 
 oS to England (September 19, 1356). From that 
 moment it was deemed impossible to fight the English 
 archers at all. For four years they marched about the 
 North and West of France, practically unopposed, 
 plundering the country. They were, however, unable 
 to take walled towns or castles. Negotiations for peace 
 were begun by Jean in London in 1359, but the terms 
 were so humiliating that the Dauphin refused to sanction 
 them. Edward therefore began another campaign from 
 Calais in the following year. But the country, once 
 so rich and flourishing, was now an utter desert ; he met 
 everywhere with the resistance of despair. The Dauphin 
 had concluded a treaty with the Scots. Peace was 
 signed at length at Bretigny, near Chartres (April, 1360). 
 
 Edward waived his claim to the crown of France. The 
 absolute sovereignty of practically all the provinces 
 formerly connected with England were ceded to him — 
 Gascony, Guienne, Poitou, Saintonge, Agenais, Perigord, 
 Limousin, Cahors, Tarbes, the counties of Bigorre and 
 Gaure, Angoumois,Rouergue,Montreuil, Ponthieu, Guines, 
 the seigneurie of Marck, the town and environs of Calais. 
 Jean's ransom was fixed at the enormous sum of 3,000,000 
 golden crowns. The terms were received with patriotic 
 indignation, and even resistance in some parts, some 
 towns, such as La Rochelle and Abbeville, refusing to 
 give themselves over to the hated English ; but on the 
 whole with thankfulness, as a respite from the horrors 
 of the war. 
 
 Meantime, at Paris the Dauphin had assumed the 
 
149 
 
 PossejsiomoniieKingofFrftnce„ 
 after Bretigny 
 
 Domlnion5orth«KingafJEnglandl!iUiill 
 Fiefi held by the French Crown 1 1 
 
 Long. East of Greenwich. 
 
 FRANCE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
160 FRANCE 
 
 regency. He had had to face an opposition, composed of 
 the bourgeoisie, who were determined to strike for freedom 
 such as the Flemish towns had obtained. They were 
 led by Etienne Marcel, who found supporters ready to 
 hand amongst the suffering artisans and refugee peasants 
 who crowded to Paris ; whilst a third claimant to the 
 crown of France in the captive King of Navarre offered 
 a tempting alliance for the revolutionists. The States 
 General met in October, 1356, and appointed a committee 
 to deliberate on their programme. Few nobles attended. 
 The clergy were led by Robert le Coq, Bishop of Laon, 
 a strong partisan of Navarre ; the Third Estate by Marcel. 
 They demanded the dismissal of the King's evil coun- 
 sellors — whom they held responsible for the disastrous 
 financial measures of the past and the exactions and 
 malversations of the royal officials — ^the appointment of 
 a new Council chosen from the States, and the release of 
 the King of Navarre. On these conditions they offered 
 to subsidize an army of 30,000 men for one year. In 
 effect, their demand for the appointment of a permanent 
 Council chosen from their own body amounted to a 
 demand for representative government. The Dauphin 
 to gain time adjourned them, whilst he himself went to 
 seek help from his uncle, the Emperor Charles IV. 
 The States General of Languedoc, meeting at Toulouse, 
 had proved less radical, and voted him supplies for 
 15,000 men to defend the south. The fact shows how 
 France was still divided into two kingdoms. To raise 
 money the Dauphin had recourse to the old bad plan of 
 debasing the coinage (December, 1356). But when he 
 returned from Germany, without success, he found Paris 
 in a fever of indignation. Marcel had insisted that the 
 order for the new coinage should not take effect. The 
 Dauphin was obliged to summon the States General anew, 
 and to yield to their repeated demands. He signed the 
 
THE STATES GENERAL 151 
 
 Great Edict of March, 1357. The sixty-one articles of 
 this famous charter, the Grande Ordonnance, repeat the 
 concessions already made, tending towards the redress of 
 the intolerable evils in financial and judicial administra- 
 tion. But only a partial renewal of the Council was 
 accepted, for which some members were designated by 
 the Estates. In return a subsidy was granted. 
 
 But royal letters soon came from Jean to forbid the 
 collection of the new taxes so imposed. This demons trii- 
 tion of the royal authority, conxbined with the dislike 
 of paying a new imposition, probably accounts for the 
 failure of Marcel's endeavour to obtain for his country 
 a share in its own government. For when the States 
 met again in November, it was evident that he no longer 
 had any strong support in the country, although Paris 
 was with him. In need of an ally, the bourgeois ^"pabrty 
 now invited the King of Navarre to Paris . He had escaped 
 from prison, and came to harangue the multitude in the 
 Pre aux Clercs upon his wrongs and the evils of the 
 Regent's government (November 29, 1357). A few weeks 
 later the Dauphin himself addressed the crowd, throwing 
 the blame on the States General. 
 
 A new alteration of the coinage was decreed (January, 
 1358). It was evidently war to the knife. The danger 
 of his position compelled Marcel to violence. He armed 
 his bourgeoisie, giving them as a rallying sign caps of 
 red and blue. They marched to the palace, and there 
 slew the Marshals of Champagne and Normandy in the 
 presence of the Dauphin. For a moment he was obliged 
 to yield to force, and to sanction " the will of the people," 
 and to receive, if not to wear, the cap of red and blue 
 which Marcel sent him (February 22, 1358). Then, 
 quitting Paris, he summoned the States General to meet 
 at Compiegne, and rallied the nobles round him. 
 
 Amongst the measures passed at Compiegne was one 
 
152 FRANCE 
 
 obliging the Seigneurs to put their castles in order. It 
 was a decree which gave excuse for yet further exactions 
 in money and labour from the unhappy peasantry, and 
 roused the flames of the long-smouldering hatred with 
 which they regarded the nobility. 
 
 Since the catastrophe of Poitiers, the routed soldiery 
 and unpaid mercenaries, joined by a crowd of adven- 
 turers, had resolved themselves into companies of 
 marauders, who scoured and scourged the land. Roving 
 bands of brigands, English, Gascons, Spaniards, Navar- 
 rese, Bretons, roamed through the land, living on it and 
 pillaging the peasants. For these, the churches or the 
 caves in the rocks were the only refuge. So far from 
 fulfilling their feudal duty of protecting them, the nobles 
 too often joined the bands of brigands who pre3''ed on 
 them. To the intolerable burdens of war and pillage 
 were added the taxes wrung from them in order to pay 
 the ransoms of those knights whose failure, and rumoured 
 cowardice, at Cr^cy and Poitiers, had roused their con- 
 tempt, and whose luxury and indifference only increased. 
 For Jacques Bonhomme* nothing remained of feudal in- 
 stitutions except the oppression. Maddened by hunger, 
 and incited perhaps by the example of the Parisian bour- 
 geoisie, the Jacques of the country round about Beauvais 
 burst into sudden, fierce revolt in May, 1358. They 
 grouped themselves under a captain, William Karl, and 
 singing, 
 
 " Cessez, cessez, gens d'armes et pi6tons, 
 De pHler et manger . . . Jacques Bonhomme," 
 
 they marched into Picardy and Champagne, like a pack 
 of wolves, burning the castles of the nobles, plundering, 
 and in some cases slaying their hated masters and out- 
 raging their wives. Their hundreds swelled to thousands 
 
 * The common nickname of the French peasantry. 
 
INSURRECTION OF MARCEL 163 
 
 before the King of Navarre, the Dauphin, and the nobles, 
 joining in the task of mutual preservation, turned upon 
 them and slew them like mad dogs. The insurrection 
 of the Jacques was drowned in a river of blood. 
 
 The country in no way approved of the extreme 
 measures taken by the commune of Paris. The prestige 
 of royalty proved too great for Marcel. He was driven to 
 open rebellion. He fortified Paris. A reign of terror was 
 inaugurated. Marcel, in desperation, sought the aid of 
 the wandering bands of English freebooters, of Charles 
 of Navarre, of the Flemings ; he even negotiated with 
 the Jacques. Each step strengthened the royalist 
 party within the city. On the night of July 31, as he 
 was making a round of the gates, he was struck down 
 at the Porte St. Denis by an Alderman, Jean Maillart, 
 who said that Marcel was about to betray the city and 
 the crown of France to the King of Navarre. Whatever 
 the truth, his last desperate manoeuvres need not blind 
 us to the greatness of this citizen-statesman. He had 
 endeavoured to lead his countrymen, like another Arte- 
 veldt, to that share in their own government which is 
 the foundation of a free State. If he failed to obtain for 
 them the establishment of those principles of equality 
 and representation which another and a bloodier revolu- 
 tion was to obtain so many hundred years later, it was 
 not because he was not just and wise and true, but 
 because he lacked the support of the opinion of his 
 countrymen. 
 
 King Jean's return to France was signalized by an in- 
 crease of taxation and a renewal of the grievous gahelle. 
 He spent his time in foolish and frivolous journeys and 
 gaieties and f eastings, partly with the Pope at Avignon, 
 who had almost persuaded him to depart upon a Crusade, 
 and thus draw off from France the scourge of the Great 
 Companies, who showed as little respect for Pope as for 
 
 
154 PRANCE 
 
 King, when the news that his son* had escaped from the 
 English, by whom he was held hostage for his father's 
 unpaid ransom, determined Jean to return to England 
 in his place. It was an act of kingly honour, though 
 perhaps it was no great hardship to escape from the 
 distress and embarrassment of France to the feastings 
 and fetes in London, of which Jean died in the following 
 winter. 
 
 * The Duke of Burgundy having died without heir in 1361, 
 Jean, claiming to be nearer of kin than Charles of Navarre, 
 assigned the duchy to his youngest son, Philippe, thus founding 
 the great house which, reigning from the Scheldt to the Alps, 
 was presently to endanger the monarchy itself. 
 
XI 
 
 THE VALOIS KINGS AND THE HUNDRED YEARS' 
 WAR {Continued)— CRAnij^S V. (LE SAGE), CHARLES 
 VI. AND CHARLES VII. 
 
 A.D. 1364—1461 
 
 Charles V., the Wise, had need of all his wisdom when he 
 succeeded his father in 1364. Socially and economically 
 the country was in a state of anarchy. The effects of 
 the Black Death and a series of bad harvests were added 
 to the economical disasters of the war and the system of 
 taxation described above. Whilst the nobles lived like 
 bandits on the land, the discontent of the people was 
 indicated, on the one hand, by Marcel's attempt to secure 
 representative government, on the other by the mad 
 rage of the Jacquerie. Could the weakly youth now called 
 to the throne deal with such an accumulation of difficulties, 
 with little to help him, save an empty treasury and re- 
 bellious vassals ? The immense cleverness with which 
 he had dealt with the States General in the preceding 
 years augured well for the answer of that question. And 
 he was, indeed, to prove that a cool head in the council- 
 chamber, an understanding sympathy with the needs 
 of his people, and economical administration were worth 
 more to his country, and were more truly kingly, than 
 the blundering courage and frivolous chivalry of his 
 profuse and foolish father. Frugal in his personal habits, 
 but displaying a regal splendour in public, a kindly scholar 
 
 155 
 
166 FRANCE 
 
 and a devout gentleman, Charles moderated the excesses 
 of the Inquisition, whilst he modelled himself on St, Louis; 
 but his delight in subtle and tortuous diplomacy is in itself 
 enough to prove that he lacked the simplicity and straight- 
 forwardness of his great example. 
 
 Intellectually alert, he summoned to his councils 
 thinkers and writers of the day, and deliberately tried 
 to arrive at the principles of good government and to 
 govern in accordance with them. M. Coville* remarks 
 that in the series of ordinances dealing with procedure, 
 taxation, the administration of justice, police, and the 
 army, which helped to earn Charles his title of the Wise, 
 the influence of such writers as Raoul de Presles, Philippe 
 de Mezieres, and Nicholas Oresmes may clearly be traced. 
 Their ideas, again, were mainly drawn from the Politics 
 of Aristotle ; they extolled a limited monarchy acting 
 according to law, and execrated tjo^anny. It is one more 
 instance of the influence of writers upon history. 
 
 There was a natural reaction in favour of royalty. 
 After the excesses and failure of the States Greneral and 
 the peasant revolt, the need of a strong centralized power 
 was patent. The nobles rallied round the King, and the 
 royal ordinances, which introduced little innovation but 
 a sounder organization, were obeyed because they were 
 justly enforced. So the prestige of the crown was re- 
 trieved. If Charles were obliged to avail himseK of forced 
 loans to pay Du Guesclin's soldiers, he saw to it that those 
 loans were honourably repaid. 
 
 After the failure of the frontal attacks of French 
 chivalry, a new class of professional soldiers had sprung 
 up. Bands of "Free Companies," led by men who had 
 become aware of the advantages of strategy and tactics 
 in war, were roving through the country, and proving 
 their superiority to the knights who had claimed the 
 * Ap. Lavisse, IV. i. 192. 
 
DU GUESCLIN 157 
 
 monopoly of prowess in war. Out of these soldiers of 
 fortune Charles began to form a regular, mercenary, 
 standing, royal army. At the same time he saw to the 
 repairing of the fortresses, and organized his fleet under 
 Jean de Vienne, an Admiral worthy to co-operate with 
 Du Guesclin. 
 
 In the first year of his reign, victories gained by those 
 soldiers of fortune, Du Guesclin the Breton, and Bouci- 
 cault, had settled the claims of the King of Navarre* 
 and the war in Brittany. | Charles V. had the good sense 
 to reward Du Guesclin liberally, and presently to find 
 occupation for his free-lances in Spain. Thirty thousand 
 men marched with him to the south, exacting absolution 
 and 200,000 crowns from the Pope on their way, relieving 
 France of their presence, and earning for Charles the 
 alliance of the Spaniards and the aid of their fleet against 
 England^ (1369). For in that year the Hundred Years' 
 War entered on a new stage. The genius of Du 
 Guesclin, backed by the prudence of Charles, drove the 
 English out of France. In that year Charles felt himseK 
 strong enough to break the Peace of Bretigny. The 
 States backed him loyally. Taxes were voted and forces 
 raised. Du Guesclin was appointed Constable of France, 
 and entrusted with the task of expelling the English. 
 Briefly, the tactics which he adopted in the long struggle, 
 were to refuse to give battle, but to harass the enemy 
 with his cavalry, and by sallies from fortified towns and 
 castles. Realizing that it was fatal to attack the English 
 archers from the front, he utilized the superior numbers 
 
 * Charles the Bad had rebelled upon the occasion of Jean's dis- 
 posal of the duchy of Burgundy, which he claimed through his 
 wife, daughter of Marguerite of Burgundy, Queen of Louis 
 Hutin. 
 
 t Battle of Cocherel, May, and Aurai, September, 1364. 
 
 j In 1372 the combined fleets defeated Lord Pembroke off 
 La Rochelle. 
 
158 FRANCE 
 
 and cavalry of the French, by circling round the enemy 
 on their march with innumerable small divisions. He 
 was aided in this guerrilla warfare by the villagers, whom 
 Charles had ordered to be armed and trained to the use 
 of the bow. Supplies were cut off from the coast ; the 
 English were compelled to move from place to place, and 
 whilst on the march were obliged to give many oppor- 
 tunities to the French cavalry to attack them from the 
 rear. In hand-to-hand combat their superiority was 
 gone, nor could they force a pitched battle. By degrees 
 they were edged out of France or shut up in the coast 
 towns. After a truce in 1388, there was little more 
 fighting till 1394, when the English surrendered prac- 
 tically everything except Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne. 
 
 Worn out by toil and physical suffering, Charles died 
 at the earty age of forty-three, within a few weeks of his 
 great captain, Du Guesclin (1380). Neither, therefore, 
 lived to see their struggle crowned with success. 
 
 Charles VI. was only twelve years of age. His coming 
 of age had been fixed by his father at fourteen. The 
 regency was divided between his uncles, the Dukes 
 of Anjou, Burgundy, and Bourbon.* Between them 
 and the Duke of Berry a scramble for place, power and 
 money at once began, which resulted in a feudal reaction, 
 but not before an attempt to assert the liberty of the 
 people had been made and crushed . 
 
 For an echo of the Wat Tyler Rebellion was heard 
 throughout France in 1382, from Rouen and Rheims to 
 Carcassonne. It was mainly a rising against taxes and 
 tax-gatherers. In Paris a riot was provoked when a 
 tax-gatherer demanded payment on a piece of cress sold 
 by an old woman. Arming themselves with mallets, the 
 Maillotins broke open the prisons and demanded the 
 
 * Anjou was chiefly concerned with the kingdom of Naples; 
 Burgundy with the fief of Flanders, when he inherited it in 1384 
 
JVIAILLOTINS AND MARMOUSETS 169 
 
 abolition of the hearth taxes (fouages), gabelles, and tax on 
 sales. A return to the financial regime of Louis IX. was 
 demanded, and promised by the King. But the Dukes 
 regarded the riot as a threatened revolt of the democracy 
 in imitation of the rising against the nobles in Flanders, 
 where Ghent, under Philip van Arte veldt, led the way. 
 In answer to an appeal from the Count of Flanders, they 
 crushed the Flemish communes at Roosebeke (1382), and 
 then, returning to Paris victorious, disarmed the threaten- 
 ing multitude of mallet-men. Here and elsewhere the 
 badly organized rebels were first crushed by the feudal 
 coalitions, then ruthlessly executed or fined. All the old 
 taxes were renewed, and the proceeds went to enrich the 
 conquerors, not the treasury. 
 
 An end might have been put to the misgovernment of 
 the Dukes, when Charles VI. assumed the reins of govern- 
 ment in 1388. He restored the councillors of his father, 
 the Marmousets, as they were called, who were chiefly 
 draw^n from the lesser nobility and bourgeoisie. But 
 four years later the King was struck down with inter- 
 mittent insanity, the effect of prolonged dissipation, and 
 the unceasing gaieties of his Court, upon weak nerves. 
 The blow fell upon him as he was setting out to avenge 
 the attempted assassination of his Constable, Olivier de 
 Clisson, leader of the Marmousets, by one of the party 
 of nobles (1392). Then the uncles of the King, returning 
 to power, took vengeance on the Marmousets. It was 
 they who signed a twenty-eight years' truce with England 
 (Treaty of Guines, 1395), giving to Eachard II. Isabella, 
 daughter of Charles VI., in marriage. 
 
 The Duke of Burgundy, Philippe le Hardi, retained the 
 sovereign power until he died in 1404. He was succeeded 
 by his son, John the Fearless (Jean sans Peur), who, as 
 Count of Nevers, had led a Crusade in 1396 against the 
 Turks, who were threatening Hungary. That expedition, 
 
160 FKANCE 
 
 undertaken and conducted as though it were one of those 
 pleasure trips, accompanied by " jousts and balls and 
 incomparable fetes," which King Jean and Charles VI 
 delighted to make through France, had ended in utter 
 disaster at the hands of the Sultan Bajazet. 
 
 Charles VI. had married Isabella of Bavaria, a beautiful 
 fifteen-year-old bride (1385). Following the example of 
 her husband and of his corrupt and frivolous Court, she 
 sank into a career of debauchery. The mad King's 
 brother, Duke of Orleans, was her lover, and through her 
 and the Dauphin, a lad fast falling into the vicious ways 
 of his parents, now held the reins of power. He had no 
 intention of handing them over to the Duke of Burgundy's 
 successor. John the Fearless arrived in Paris with a whole 
 army of Burgundian retainers ; he won the hearts of the 
 Parisians by posing as a reformer and denouncing the 
 luxury, extravagance, and exactions of the Orleans 
 party. The Duke surrounding himseK with his vassals, 
 it seemed as if civil war must break out within the 
 capital itself. A reconciliation was at length brought 
 about through the intervention of the aged Duke of Berry. 
 A few days later (November 23, 1407) the Duke of Orleans 
 was foully murdered. The Duke of Burgundy fled to his 
 possessions in Flanders, and there proclaimed and justified 
 his guilt. He had, he said, rid the world of a tyrant. 
 Having crushed a rebellion of the Liegeois, he returned 
 victorious to Paris, and exacted from Charles a letter of 
 forgiveness for his brother's murder (March, 1409). 
 
 John the Fearless gained the support both of the Uni- 
 versity and of the people. The University could not 
 forgive the Duke of Orleans for his opposition to its policy 
 with the Pope at Avignon,* whilst John's policy of oppo- 
 
 * At this period, during the Great Schism of the West, 
 it was the Armagnac party which identified itself with the 
 *' Gallican " policy, maintaining the freedom of the French Chiu-ch 
 from Papal taxation. ^ • 
 
Au£: Risc/ijs'tts. 
 
 CHARLES VII. (1422-1461). Page Idi. 
 From the jmintivg by Jean Fouguet in the Louvre. 
 
ARMAGNACS AND BURGUNDIANS 161 
 
 sing the increased taxation, which, on the pretext of war 
 with England, had been appropriated by the Duke of 
 Orleans, secured him the friendship of the people. They 
 looked to him to restore the government of the Three 
 Estates, and to relieve the poor of the gabelles and all 
 impositions. Against a noble who thus pandered to the 
 people of the market-place, feudalism gathered beneath 
 the banner of the Count d'Armagnac, the father-in-law 
 of one of the sons of Orleans. It was civil war at last 
 (1411). The whole country took sides. In the south 
 and west the white scarf of the Armagnacs prevailed ; in 
 the north and east the green caps and white cross of 
 St. Andrew, worn by the Burgundians, were victorious. 
 A period of disorganized pillage and bloodshed ensued, 
 during which both sides sought the aid of the English. 
 At first the Duke of Burgundy, allying himself with the 
 populace and the powerful corporation of butchers, held 
 Paris. 
 
 Mob violence, under the leadership of a slaughterer 
 named Caboche, broke out into the wildest excesses. A 
 reaction ensued. The Armagnacs gained the upper hand, 
 and put an end to the mob rule. John the Fearless fled 
 to Flanders. Charles VI. conducted a campaign against 
 him, and a truce was made between the two parties, known 
 as the Treaty of Arras (September, 1414). The success 
 of the Armagnacs in Paris meant the revocation of what 
 is wrongly called the " Ordonnance Cabochienne," This 
 was an ordinance obtained from the King by the bour- 
 geoisie and the moderate men of the royal and Burgundian 
 party (May 26, 1413). It provided for a thorough ad- 
 ministrative reform, through deliberative councils which 
 should elect all officials . There was nothing revolutionary 
 or democratic about this important charter. It was 
 too wise and moderate to suit the views either of the wild 
 butchers or the reactionary Armagnacs. 
 
 11 
 
162 FRANCE 
 
 Thus, in a lucid moment, the King had at length 
 established some kind of order in a land so torn by 
 factions, when Henry V. landed at Harfleur (August, 
 1416). 
 
 The success of the Armagnacs in the previous year 
 had led John the Fearless to negotiate with the 
 English King. Henry was fascinated by the idea of 
 obtaining the French crown. Besides, a successful 
 foreign war would strengthen the weak position of the 
 King in England. He seized the favourable moment 
 of French faction, and in 1414 demanded of Charles 
 the restoration of the kingdom of France, and the 
 hand of his daughter Catherine. It was merely an 
 excuse for war. 
 
 The campaign that followed was an almost exact 
 repetition of that of Crecy . The lessons learned then seem 
 to have been wholly forgotten by the new French nobility. 
 After losing haK his army in the siege of Harfleur, Henry 
 marched across country to Calais with the remainder, 
 some 15,000 men. The French army, at least three times 
 as large, awaited him near Agincourt, encamped on a 
 plain newly ploughed and sodden with rain (October 25, 
 1415). The heavy soil rendered the French cavalry, 
 overweighted with a prodigious mass of armour, more 
 than ever powerless in the presence of the English archers. 
 They were shot down as they endeavoured to charge, 
 and when night fell 10,000 French gentlemen lay dead 
 upon the field. The English lost but a few hundred. 
 But in a moment of alarm during the battle, when it was 
 reported that a French corps was attacking his rear, 
 Henry ordered the French prisoners to be kiUed, so that 
 his men might be left free to fight. He seems to have 
 stopped the slaughter when the alarm proved false. 
 But he had earned the title of the Butcher of Agin- 
 court, 
 
AFTER AGINCOURT 163 
 
 He returned with a large army to complete his con- 
 quest in August, 1417. The Armagnacs still held Paris 
 with an iron grip. But in May, 1418, the gates were 
 treacherously opened to John and his army of Bur- 
 gundians. Yet again the streets ran with blood, as his 
 supporters, the butchers and flayers, under the leader- 
 ship of the hangman Capeluche, wrought their murderous 
 wiU on men and women alike. And meanwhile Henry V. 
 was making good his hold on Normandy. By July it 
 only remained to reduce the great city of Rouen. For 
 six months the place held out. John the Fearless, true 
 to his agreement with Henry, would not raise a finger to 
 relieve it. On January 19, 1419, it fell, and Henry was 
 master of all Normandy. In two short years he had 
 undone the whole work of Philippe Auguste. Then the 
 English advanced slowly up the Seine, intending to 
 starve Paris by blocking the river. The Dauphin, a lad 
 of sixteen, placing himself at the head of the Armagnacs, 
 had retired to the south. In this crisis the Duke of 
 Burgundy, whose anglicizing policy was making his 
 position untenable, was induced to meet the Dauphin 
 on the Bridge of Montereau, with a view to a reconcilia- 
 tion. There he was treacherously murdered (September, 
 1419). A hundred years later, a monk, showing his skull 
 to Fran9ois I., remarked that the hole in it was the 
 door by which the English entered France. In verity, 
 the immediate result of the murder was that, in their in- 
 dignation, John's son, Philippe the Good, and his party 
 openly joined the English. In May, 1420, Charles VI. was 
 made to sign the Treaty of Troyes, by which he recog- 
 nized Henry V. as his son and heir in place of the 
 "soi-disant Dauphin,* guilty of horrible and enormous 
 crimes." Henry was to retain Normandy and his other 
 
 * Thus his father and mother were ready to hint at his ille- 
 gitimacy. He was said to be the child of Orleans. 
 
164 FRANCE 
 
 conquests as a sort of appanage, and to rule the State in 
 conjunction with Philip of Burgundy until he or his 
 heir should succeed Charles. France had become an 
 annex of England. Exhausted by anarchy and starva- 
 tion, Burgundian Paris, the University, and the States 
 General forgot their patriotism, and accepted the humilia- 
 tion, for at least it brought them good government in 
 place of anarchy. But the Dauphin refused to recognize 
 the treaty which deprived him of his inheritance. The 
 Armagnacs became the French party. Languedoc sided 
 with the Dauphin, and he remained master of the kingdom 
 south of the Loire. But, feeble, indolent, and luxurious, 
 he could make no way against the English soldier-King. 
 When Henry died (August, 1422), he left an infant heir 
 ten months old, the fruit of his union with Catherine 
 of France, whom he had married at the time of the 
 Treaty of Troyes. Two months later Charles VI. 
 followed his son-in-law into the grave. The infant, 
 Henry VI., was acclaimed in Paris as King of France 
 and England. 
 
 France was now ruled by the English Regent, the 
 Duke of Bedford. Charles VII., " the King of Bourges," 
 as he was contemptuously called, held sway, indeed, in 
 Languedoc, Touraine, Poitou, Orleanais, Berry, Bour- 
 bonnais, Auvergne, Lyonnais, and Dauphine. 
 
 But this weak, cowardly son of a madman and a 
 debauched woman was the chief weakness of his party. 
 Nineteen years old when he succeeded his father, his 
 spirit was not equal to the burden of war and struggle 
 which was set upon his feeble shoulders. Without re- 
 sources, and yet extravagant, he was the last man to 
 organize a campaign of resistance against odds. The 
 Battles of Cravant (1423) and of Verneuil (1424), where 
 the Scots and Gascons he had called to his aid were 
 severely defeated, soon proved his weakness. His diplo- 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE HERRINGS 165 
 
 macy promised to be more successful, when Humphrey, 
 Duke of Gloucester, the Regent of England, gave offence 
 to Philip of Burgundy by marrying Jacqueline, Countess 
 of Holland, Hainault, and the neighbouring provinces, 
 and thus becoming master of a district which it was most 
 important for Philippe, as Duke of Burgundy, to control. 
 It was only by great concessions of territory to him in 
 the north by Bedford, and by Gloucester's desertion of 
 his wife, that the Duke of Burgundy was prevented from 
 abandoning the English cause. 
 
 In view of the feebleness of Charles' resistance, the 
 English in 1427 began to press upon his frontier, the 
 Loire. A reverse at Montargis, where the Bastard of 
 Orleans and La Hire* scored a brilliant success, did not 
 prevent them undertaking the siege of Orleans in the 
 following year. 
 
 If Orleans, the key to Berry, Bourbonnais, and Poitou, 
 were captured, the Dauphin's sway would be confined to 
 Languedoc and Dauphine. In October, 1428, there- 
 fore, the Duke of Bedford decided to lay vigorous siege 
 to that city. 
 
 The resistance was conducted with great determina- 
 tion, the French artillery proving very effective, until 
 February, when the failure of a reinforcement under the 
 Count of Clermont, aided by the dashing soldier La Hire, 
 to capture an English convoy from Paris — a failure 
 ending a rout — utterly disheartened the besieged. The 
 convoy was commanded by Sir John Falstaff, one of 
 the two English members of the Regent's Great Council 
 
 * fitienne de Vignolles, nicknamed La Hire, is the popular 
 type of the brigand hero, whose prowess and that of his comrades 
 served Charles in lieu of an army. After the disaster of Agincourt 
 and that of Verneuil, hardly less terrible, the French had to learn 
 again the lesson which Du Guesclin had taught them. The tactics 
 of chivalry had once more to be discarded, and the less heroic, 
 but more profitable, process of guerrilla warfare led to the same 
 desired result. 
 
166 FRANCE 
 
 at Paris.* It consisted partly of 300 waggon-loads of 
 herrings for the besieging army, and this fact gained for 
 the engagement the title of the Battle of the Herrings 
 from the ironical Orleanais. 
 
 This reverse broke the spirit of the besieged. The 
 leaders and Bishops deserted the sinking ship. The 
 Orleanais, in despair, offered themselves to the Duke of 
 Burgundy. But Bedford told him that he had not beaten 
 the bushes in order that others might get the birds. 
 Charles remained helpless and inert. There was no one to 
 unite the forces of French patriotism and lead them to 
 any successful effort of resistance. Orleans seemed certain 
 to fall, when suddenly a leader and a saviour appeared. 
 
 Joan of Arcf was the daughter of a farmer, born 
 about 1412 at Domremy. Exceedingly devout, the 
 stories of St. Catherine, St. Margaret, and St. Michael 
 inspired her. The miseries of her unhappy country 
 burned into her soul, and in a series of visions the little 
 village girl seemed to see her favourite saints appear and 
 bid her lead the armies of France to victory. The peril 
 of Orleans decided her. All France was waiting, in 
 helpless sympathy, for the fall of that gallant city. From 
 the Marches of Lorraine, Jeannette made her way to 
 Chinon, and obtained the King's consent to lead an 
 army to the deliverance of Orleans. There had been 
 some demur at first. Perhaps she was an emissary of 
 the devil ? The fact of her virginity was ascertained, 
 and settled the question in her favour. Charles gave her 
 
 * Whilst governing the country through French civilians, and 
 in accordance with French customs and traditions, the English 
 in Normandy held all the chief miUtary posts. The Duke of 
 Bedford's administration was marked by great moderation and 
 justice ; he was endeavouring to reconcile the country to English 
 rule, and to found a Lancastrian dynasty in France. But the 
 resistance of the patriotic party completed the devastation which 
 the civil war and Henry's campaigns had begun. 
 
 t Jeanne d'Aro, or Dare. 
 
REVIVAL OF PATRIOTISM 167 
 
 a suit of armour. The rough Breton and Gascon soldiers, 
 the rude captains, like La Hire, the Armagnac nobles, 
 all flocked to her standard, their patriotism stirred by 
 her enthusiasm, their efforts united, directed, and in- 
 spired by the Heaven-sent maid, Jehanne la Pucelle. 
 The undisciplined bands of Armagnac brigands became 
 docile Christians, fighting as it were in a holy war, 
 obedient to the authority of the peasant girl.* 
 
 The writings of such patriotic poets as Robert Blondel, 
 Olivier Basselin, and Alain Chartier, and the pamphlets 
 of Jouvenel des Ursins, show how strong was the latent 
 feeling of nationality, which the domination of Bur- 
 gundians and English had only served to develop and 
 strengthen. The cynicism, licence, and brutality of this age 
 of war and misery are depicted in the wonderful Ijnrics 
 of the thief, murderer, Bohemian, poet, Frangois Villon. 
 
 All, then, that France had needed was for patriotism, 
 already awakened, to be concentrated on some issue and 
 under one banner. The authority which the King could 
 not wield was exercised for him by the girl who believed 
 that he held the throne of France as the Vicar of God. 
 She led her soldiers to victory. She was wounded, but her 
 courage never failed her, her conviction never wavered. 
 Orleans was relieved (May 8, 1429). The effect upon 
 France was to rouse the whole spirit of the nation. The 
 English, paralyzed by superstition, lost place after place, 
 and on June 18 suffered a severe defeat at Patay from 
 the army led by the Maid, whom they regarded as a 
 disciple of the devil. 
 
 Joan of Arc was now intent on executing the second 
 part of her mission. Her " voices " had bidden her to 
 assure the King that he was the true heir of France, and 
 
 * So complete was the reformation that swearing was forbidden 
 — a deprivation beyond the strength of the valorous La Hire, 
 who received a dispensation from the Maid. He was allowed to 
 swear by his staff. 
 
168 FRANCE 
 
 to persuade him to be anointed and crowned at Rheims. 
 Before his people could be united in a whole-hearted 
 effort to expel the English, it was necessary that the 
 doubt publicly cast upon the legitimacy of Charles by 
 the Treaty of Troyes should be removed, and that his 
 kingship should be proclaimed by the solemn sanction of 
 the Church through the traditional ceremony at Rheims. 
 Henry VI. had not been so anointed. With that swift 
 common sense and simple concentration upon the main 
 issue which distinguished every action of this wonderful 
 peasant girl, and which in controversy enabled her to 
 silence every theological casuist who tried to trip her, 
 whether at Charles 'Com*t or in the dungeons at Rouen, she 
 pressed forward now to the achievement of that function 
 which should give to the people a true anointed King, 
 on whom to focus their national sentiment in opposition 
 to the alien domination. The patriotism of Joan of Arc 
 was bound up with devotion to the King, It was, 
 indeed, only the monarchy which, by recovering its 
 prestige, could rescue the unhappy country from the 
 state of anarchy and misery into which it had fallen. 
 Borne upon a tide of popular enthusiasm, which swept 
 all resistance from its path, led by the Maid, the indolent 
 King suffered himself to be carried to Rheims, and was 
 there consecrated (July 17, 1429). It remained to take 
 the capital. In spite of Charles' vacillation, Joan of Arc 
 induced him to make the attempt. On September 8 an 
 assault was delivered on the walls of Paris. The Maid 
 was wounded before the Porte Saint-Honore. Charles 
 at once stopped the attack and made a truce with the 
 Duke of Burgundy. From the beginning, part of his 
 entourage had been jealous of the Maid's prestige. 
 
 She was now given a small military command, and 
 presently feU a victim to her own bravery. Captured 
 by the Anglo-Burgundians in a salh^ from Compiegne, 
 
JOAN OF ARC 169 
 
 which she was defending (May, 1430), she was taken to 
 Rouen. There, after a most iniquitous trial, conducted 
 by the Bishop of Beauvais, in which she showed ex- 
 treme fortitude and all the ability of straightforward 
 innocence in defending herself and the King she served, 
 she was condemned for a relapsed heretic, an idolatress 
 and apostate. On May 30, 1431, the Maid was burned 
 at the stake, as pure a saint and as noble a martyr as 
 history can show, dying as she had lived, for her ideal 
 of God, and King, and country. 
 
 Her King had never moved a finger to save her, though 
 he held the English champion a prisoner, Talbot, the Earl 
 of Shrewsbury, captured at Patay, upon whom he might 
 have threatened to take reprisal. Not a single French- 
 man, soldier, statesman, or ecclesiastic, raised his voice 
 on her behalf. 
 
 The news of her death was received with indifference 
 at the French Court, and roused no outburst of indigna- 
 tion among the people. It was not till a quarter of a 
 century afterwards that, upon the request of Charles VII., 
 the Pope revised her trial, and the rehabilitation of the 
 Maid of Orleans was solemnly proclaimed (July 7, 1456). 
 
 The English had satisfied their thirst for vengeance. 
 They had removed from their path the witch who, accord- 
 ing to the crude superstition of the age, had paralyzed 
 their arms. But with her removal success did not 
 return. In vain was young Henry crowned King of 
 France in Burgundian Paris. 
 
 Gradually, very gradually, during fifteen years of 
 anarchy and pillage, the inevitable happened. The small 
 invading nation was edged out of France. A strong 
 and capable King, rousing the national sentiment, 
 and gathering round him the natural defenders of the 
 land, as Joan of Arc had done, might easily have achieved 
 his result long before. As it was, the weakening of the 
 
170 I^RANCE 
 
 English, owing to domestic troubles and the secession 
 of the Duke of Burgundy (Treaty of Arras, 1435), dearly 
 bought by concessions from the King, and partly induced 
 by the threatening attitude of the Emperor Sigismund, 
 who had entered into alliance with Charles, produced the 
 desired end. The final blow was struck when the English, 
 making a last effort to retrieve a long series of disasters, 
 were defeated at Castillon, chiefly by the French free- 
 archers and peasant infantry, and Charles VII. entered 
 Bordeaux in triumph (October 19, 1453). The Hundred 
 Years' War was at an end. The English " wolves " had 
 been chased from the good land of France,* and retained 
 only Calais and a couple of small towns in that neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 With the coming of peace a change came over the whole 
 government of the country. Slowly, very slowly, order 
 was re-established, and France, which had been rendered 
 a desert, recovered her prosperity. And with this change 
 the prestige of the Crown grew daily. Charles is entitled 
 to little of the praise with which he is usually accredited 
 for the reforming zeal displayed during the latter part 
 of his reign. He is supposed to have acquired not only 
 wisdom, but energy, with years. In fact, the slothful 
 debauchee was wholly given up to wine and women. But 
 he was truly named "the weU served " {le bien servi). 
 He was surrounded by capable advisers, like the Constable, 
 Count of Richemont, as wise a counsellor as he was a 
 brave soldier, and by others, like Jacques Coeur, the 
 merchant-prince, drawn from the bourgeoisie and petite 
 noblesse, A small reforming council of this kind, strongly 
 opposed to the haute noblesse, directed the affairs of the 
 kingdom, and laboured to restore the work of Charles V. 
 The King did what they told him. He was guided in 
 
 * '• Escachiet les leux, 
 
 Hors du boin pais franchois." 
 
 Ballad of 1436. 
 
THE PEAGUERIE 171 
 
 this course, which was both wise and easy, by his mother- 
 in-law, Yolande of Anjou, a woman of masculine intelli- 
 gence, who knew how to influence him by means of others, 
 whether through a saint, like Joan of Arc, or a mistress, 
 like Agnes Sorel. For from this time dates the period 
 when the King's favourites, publicly acknowledged and 
 rewarded, swayed the fate of France. 
 
 The first step was to return to the task of organizing 
 a regular army. It was necessary to suppress the 
 ecorcheurs and routiers, the bands of undisciplined mer- 
 cenary soldiers on whom, since the breakdown of feudalism, 
 the King had hitherto had to rely. Just before the truce 
 of 1444, which was the beginning of the end of the war, 
 Charles summoned the States General at Orleans. They 
 voted a subsidy, and a decree was issued (November, 
 1439) which repeated the provisions of 1374 for pro- 
 viding a regular body of gendarmerie under the imme- 
 diate authority of the King. It was a blow at the 
 powier of the feudal lords, and provoked a rebellion 
 amongst the ecorcheurs, whose occupation of licensed 
 brig'andage was thus threatened. But the bourgeoisie 
 and the people were on the side of law and order, and the 
 execution of a dozen captains of those free companies 
 soon crushed the Praguerie — for so the rebellion was 
 called, in allusion to the Hussite revolt at Prague. By 
 a decree of 1445, disciplined companies of regular cavalry, 
 recruited from the old routiers, were established, to be 
 quartered in certain towns, and commanded by captains 
 nominated by the Crown. A permanent land-tax — the 
 taille des gens de guerre — was imposed for their support,* 
 For infantry, by decrees of 1448 and 1451, besides the 
 town militias and trained bands of archers and cross- 
 
 * The records of the States General are very incomplete ; but 
 t it appears that this was the last time they were summoned by 
 Charles. Thereafter the land-tax was annually reimposed by the 
 King in Council without them. 
 
172 FRANCE 
 
 bowmen formed for the defence of the towns, it was 
 ordained that each parish, or group of fifty hearths, 
 should provide an archer to be always ready for the 
 King's service (francs-archers). This new organization, 
 incomplete as it was, sufficed to put an end to the terrible 
 military anarchy which had devastated and depopulated 
 the country, to recover Normandy and Guienne from the 
 English (1449-1453), and thereafter to provide the King 
 with the nucleus of a standing army, to the great profit 
 both of the country and the monarchy. 
 
 The support of the clergy was secured by the Prag- 
 matic Sanction of Bourges (1438), which asserted the 
 independence of the Gallic an Church, and at the same 
 time reduced to a minimum the rights of the Holy See 
 in the matter of French ecclesiastical benefices. Whilst 
 protecting the French clergy from the intolerable exactions 
 of Rome, the Pragmatic Sanction added to the power 
 and resources of the Crown and the nobles ; for Charles 
 went beyond the decrees of the Council of Bale, and 
 recognized the right of noble patrons to present to 
 benefices (c/. p. 201). 
 
 Steps were taken to improve the administration of 
 justice. Nor were the financial reforms inaugurated by the 
 Chancellor Jacques Cceur of less far-reaching importance. 
 Receivers and administrators alike were obliged to return 
 their accounts regularly to the King, and thus a central 
 control and check was established over the peculation 
 of the gens du roi. Jacques Coeur himself, however, 
 could not keep his hands clean. He was convicted of 
 embezzlement in 1451. Though undoubtedly guilty, his 
 fall probably indicates a temporary success on the part 
 of the opposition, the nobles with whom the Dauphin 
 and the Duke of Burgundy had identified themselves. 
 This opposition gave much trouble to the King in the 
 closing years of his reign ; he is said, indeed, to have 
 
THE OLD ORDER CHANGES 173 
 
 starved himself to death for fear of being poisoned by 
 the supporters of the Dauphin. 
 
 It is typical of the cosmopolitan character and influ- 
 ence of the Universities of those days that, whilst France 
 was at the lowest ebb of her power, the theologians of 
 the University of Paris were yet able to take the lead in 
 promoting those universal Councils at Pisa, Constance, 
 and Bale, which, assuming an authority superior to that 
 of the Pope, at length put an end to the scandal of the 
 luxurious Papal Court at Avignon and the amazing 
 interlude of the Great Schism. 
 
 The pretensions of the nobility remained unaltered, 
 but during the last haK-century a gradual change had 
 come over their personnel. An enormous number of 
 the old nobility had perished in the great battles and 
 plagues of the Hundred Years' War ; many, too, had 
 been ruined by the luxury and extravagance which was 
 maintained at their Courts in spite of the penury and 
 devastation of the country. The places of the old feudal 
 Barons and Knights were filled and their numbers in- 
 creased by the new class of gentilhomme, the courtly 
 Seigneur, whose families required to be supported by 
 posts and pensions, and who arrogated to themselves 
 the emoluments and exemptions of the official class. The 
 permanent establishment of the tax upon land, levied 
 only upon the property of the roturiers (plebeians), left 
 the clergy and nobility, who were exempt from it, with- 
 out motive for resisting, through the States General, the 
 increasing power of the CroAvn. After 1439 they aban- 
 doned the championship of the great principles insisted 
 upon by the States General in 1355-56, that no tax should 
 be levied without the assent of that body, and that the 
 three Orders should be subjected to the same taxes. 
 Henceforth it was admitted that the clergy paid with 
 their prayers, the nobility with their swords, and the 
 
174 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 people with their money. The Third Estate, thus aban- 
 doned by the privileged classes, turned to the King, and 
 supported every attack made by the Crown upon the 
 rights of the clergy and nobility. When those rights were 
 abolished the Crown was absolute, and, being absolute, 
 was left alone to face the people who had made it so. 
 " The defection of the clergy and nobility was the first 
 cause of the establishment of absolute power, and of the 
 Revolution which was accomplished 350 years later."* 
 
 ♦ Rambaud, Hist, de la Civilisation Francaise. 
 
 ONE OF THE DUNGEONS IN LOUIS XI. S CASTLE 
 AT LOCHBS. 
 
XII 
 
 LOUIS XI. 
 A.D. 1461—1483 
 
 Louis XI. was thirty-eight years of age when he 
 came to the throne. Son of the feeble Charles VII., 
 grandson of the madman Charles VI., he was a man of 
 immense ability and restless energy, who spent his life 
 on circuit through his kingdom, with little escort and no 
 display. Ambassadors, who desired an audience, might 
 have to travel all over France to find him, and then be 
 received in a peasant's cottage by a King so shabbily 
 dressed that his horse and clothes together were not 
 worth twenty francs, as the astonished citizens of Abbe- 
 ville marvelled to observe. For he hated ceremonials, 
 banquets, balls, and preferred the company of the bour- 
 geoisie. One of his maxims was that a King must have 
 acquaintance with everything and everybody ; another, 
 that he who does not know how to dissemble does not 
 know how to reign. For himseK, he was from first to 
 last enamoured of the task of reigning, an indefatigable 
 worker, who was never weary of studying men and things 
 first-hand, and of using his knowledge and power to 
 devise cunning political combinations to outwit his 
 enemies and increase his might. Never tired of learning, 
 he never forgot what he learned. Curious as a woman, 
 he organized a service of royal posts (1464), in order that 
 he might be kept informed of all events. His statesman- 
 
 175 
 
176 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 ship was Machiavellian, and so adept was he in intrigue 
 that the Milanese Ambassador confessed that he might 
 have been an Italian. Crafty and unscrupulous, he had, 
 
 as Dauphin, already given proof enough of his insatiable 
 ambition. And he knew how to use his great personal 
 charm and powers of cajolery to ensnare his victim and 
 conceal his designs. 
 
«2 ^ 
 
LOUIS XI. 177 
 
 By nature cruel and vindictive, talkative and passionate, 
 his self-control was so great that " he seldom sprang on 
 his prey till it was fairly within his grasp, and till all hope 
 of rescue was vain ; and his movements were so studiously 
 disguised that his success was generally what first an- 
 nounced to the world the object he had been manoeuvring 
 to attain . " * He was devout, too , after the curious medieval 
 fashion, eager to have on his side anyone of influence in 
 Paradise, and using his piety to cloak his crimes. Loved 
 by his friends, for he was generous, hated by his enemies, 
 he inspired fear in all — " the most terrible King that ever 
 reigned in France," so a contemporary described him. 
 
 When Louis XI. succeeded, he found the bureaucracy 
 which had reconstituted the State more powerful than 
 ever. He himself as Dauphin had suffered prolonged 
 exile, under the protection of the Duke of Burgundy, as 
 the champion of the old feudal nobility. But as King 
 he intended to be ruled neither by the nobility nor by the 
 bourgeoisie, but to establish a personal despotism, and to 
 enjoy the absolutism which the latter had helped to restore. 
 
 By repealing the Pragmatic Sanction he secured the 
 support of the Pope, but at the expense of the opposition 
 of the partisans of a national Church, of the nobles and 
 Seigneurs who had gained what the Pope had lost, and 
 of all who objected to money going out of the country to 
 replenish the coffers of Rome. The Pope, in gratitude, 
 likened this " Very Christian King " to Const an tine and 
 Charlemagne. But Louis soon repented of his bargain. 
 He never formally restored the Pragmatic, but applied 
 or withdrew it, according as he wished to put diplomatic 
 pressure on the Papacy or not. 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward. Our knowledge of 
 Louis XL is derived from his own letters, despatches of Ambas- 
 sadors, chroniclers like (the prejudiced) Basin and Molinet, 
 and, above all, from the great historian of his reign, Philippe 
 de Commines, his Minister and passionate admirer. 
 
 12 
 
178 FRANCE 
 
 At his coronation at Rheims the high Barons assembled, 
 expecting a speedy restoration of their feudal privileges. 
 The Duke of Burgundy, their leader, prayed the King 
 to pardon those whom he believed to have been his 
 enemies as Dauphin. The answer of Louis was char- 
 acteristic. He would pardon them all, except seven, 
 whom he would not name. In fact, more than seven, and 
 amongst them some of the most distinguished advisers 
 of Charles VII., found their way to the dungeons of 
 Loches or the Bastille. Very many of Charles' officials 
 were dismissed, and Louis filled their places by men 
 chosen from every nationality and class, whose zeal and 
 ability he could trust. Chiefly he preferred men of the 
 middle class or of no position at all. But later, recog- 
 nizing the merits of his father's advisers, he restored 
 most of them. As for the people, who expected a re- 
 mission of taxation at the coronation, they were chastised 
 with scorpions. The taxes were increased, and when 
 this provoked a riot at Rheims, several of the citizens 
 were docked of an ear. The University of Paris and the 
 Parliaments fared little better, and the clergy were de- 
 prived of some of their exemptions. The nobles were 
 equally disappointed ; so far from having their privileges 
 restored, they were even forbidden to hunt without the 
 permission of the King. The chief Houses which Louis 
 had to reduce, in order to complete his task of destroying 
 the political power of a class which was now only a 
 menace to peace and good government, were Anjou, 
 Brittany, and Burgundy. The first included the scattered 
 provinces of Anjou, Provence, Maine, and Lorraine. Even 
 had they been capable of combined resistance, their 
 weak and amiable Prince, the " Good King Rene," still 
 so dear to the hearts of the Proven9als, could never 
 have withstood the political cunning of the King of 
 France. 
 
WAR OF THE PUBLIC WEAL 179 
 
 Louis had begun somewhat recklessly for so astute a 
 man. The discontent to which these various measures 
 gave rise had issue in the War of the Public Weal 
 (1465-1472). A league was formed, headed by the 
 King's brother, Charles of France, and the Duke of 
 Burgundy,* which was joined by Brittany and the 
 holders of such appanages as Bourbon, Alen9on, Armag- 
 nac, Dunois. In spite of its high-sounding name, the 
 War of the Public Weal was but another, though a more 
 dangerous, Praguerie. The weal which this league of 
 nobles sought was that of their own hereditary power. 
 The bourgeoisie and the people of the towns and country 
 were not long in doubt when they had to choose between 
 a King who kept discipline in his army, and was clearly 
 endeavouring to re-establish economic order and pros- 
 perity in his kingdom, and nobles whose attentions to 
 their weal had hitherto been that of oppressors, and whose 
 league was loosely knit together by the self-interest of 
 each Baron. Success, however, was at first with the 
 feudal coalition. It was only defeated by the steadfast 
 policy of the diplomatic King. The war which was to 
 end with the ruin of the House of Burgundy seemed at 
 one time as if it might enable the son of Philip the Good 
 to found an independent centralized State. The Battle 
 of Montlhery (July, 1465), without being decisive, com- 
 pelled Louis to retreat to Paris and sign the Treaty of 
 Conflans in October, by which he conceded all the de- 
 mands of the confederates, and practically placed him- 
 self under their control. His object, doubtless, was to 
 gain time and to break up the league by giving to each 
 important ligueur all that he desired, and then to attack 
 each singly. For, two months after he had given his 
 brother the Duchy of Normandy as an appanage by this 
 
 * Philip the Good died in 1467. He was succeeded by Charles 
 the Bold {Le Temeraire). 
 
180 FRANCE 
 
 treaty, he pounced upon it and took it back. Pitiless 
 as always in his triumphs, he kept his Provost-Marshal, 
 Tristan I'Hermite, busy executing those whom he sus- 
 pected of having acted against the Crown. His next step 
 was to make an alliance with the Liegeois, and to propose 
 that the King of England should invade Picardy. Both 
 moves involved war with Charles of Burgundy. But it 
 was Charles who gained the alliance of England, as well 
 as of Denmark and Savoy ; the Duke of Brittany, in 
 concert with him, invaded Normandy (October, 1467). 
 Louis then summoned the States General, and appealed 
 to his people (February, 1468). They approved of his 
 action in Normandy, declaring that in no case could 
 Normandy be alienated. A royal army invaded Brittany, 
 and forced the Duke, Francois II., to sign a peace. But 
 Louis did not trust himseK to fight Charles the Bold. As 
 leader of the feudal nobility, he had, perhaps, learned the 
 folly of chivalrous glory. At any rate, he certainly 
 shrank from risking on the chance of a battle-field the 
 fruits of all that he hoped to gain by his skill in diplo- 
 macy. Instead, he decided upon a daring stroke. He 
 obtained a safe-conduct from the Duke, and went to 
 Peronne to confer with him (October, 1468). Suddenly 
 came the news that Liege had risen at the instigation 
 of Louis' emissaries. Charles was furious, and held the 
 King prisoner. Louis was obliged to sign a new treaty, 
 granting great concessions to the Duke. He swore upon 
 the Holy Cross that he knew nothing of the Liege afipair, 
 and consented to undergo the humiliation of marching 
 with Charles to reduce that place. The unhappy in- 
 habitants whom he had encouraged to revolt beheld him, 
 to their dismay, shouting, "Vive Bourgogne !" beneath 
 their walls. Their town was utterly destroyed. 
 
 But Louis XL never swerved from his purpose. Re- 
 warding his foes or those who failed him with the scaffold 
 
" THE UNIVERSAL SPIDER " 181 
 
 or the dungeon,* heaping riches and honours upon those 
 who served him well, whatever their characters, " the 
 universal spider," as he is termed in the ballads of the 
 day, never ceased to spin the web of his intrigues. 
 
 Having thus ignominiously escaped from the clutches 
 of the Duke, Louis set himself with redoubled energy to 
 the task of humbling his enemy. The struggle lasted 
 till 1472, when, after two unsuccessful campaigns, the 
 Duke was obliged to make terms. And then, one after 
 the other, aU the old baronial houses were reduced to 
 submission. In vain had they, in order to save them- 
 selves from their destroyer, invited Edward IV. to take 
 the Crown of France. He who wore it prevailed upon 
 the English King by gold and compliments to retire. 
 And then once more the executioner and the assassin 
 were busy Avith the King's vengeance. The Count of 
 Saint-Pol and the Duke of Nemours were among his 
 victims. 
 
 The old King Rene and his nephew Charles had been 
 persuaded to recognize Louis as heir to Maine, Anjou, 
 and Provence. When Charles the Bold died in 1477 at 
 Nancy, in his disastrous campaign against the Swiss, the 
 question arose as to the succession to his immense domains . 
 
 Louis lost no time in annexing the County and Duchy 
 of Burgundy, Picardy, the County of Boulogne, and 
 Artois. He answered the resistance of Arras by wiping 
 it out of existence. He based his claim on the grounds 
 that the fiefs of Charles the Bold lapsed to the Crown in 
 default of a male heir. In reality, they were capable of 
 female holding. f When Mary, Charles' daughter, and 
 
 * On returning to Paris, he found that his intimate adviser. 
 Cardinal Balue, was carrying on a treasonable correspondence 
 with Burgundy. He rewarded him with eleven years' confine- 
 ment in the Castle of Loches, in an iron cage in which he could 
 not stand upright — a torture invented by the Cardinal himself. 
 
 t A. de Bidder, Les droits de Charles-Quint au Duche de Bovrgogne 
 
182 FRANCE 
 
 heiress of Flanders, Hainault, and the Low Countries, 
 appealed to him as her godfather, Louis announced his 
 intention of marrying her to his son, the Dauphin Charles, 
 a boy of eight. But Mary had been betrothed to Maxi- 
 milian of Austria, son of the Emperor, and he secured 
 the prize (1477). Louis, coveting Flanders above all 
 things, promptly invaded Hainault. Maximilian, after 
 two campaigns, gained an indecisive victory over the 
 French at Guinegate, before Therouanne (August, 1479). 
 The death of Mary of Burgundy (1482) led to the Peace 
 of Arras (December). Marguerite, the infant daughter 
 of Maximilian, was betrothed to the Dauphin, and was 
 to bring to him as her dowry the Franche-Comte and 
 Artois. Thus Louis had secured the greater part of the 
 Burgundian inheritance for France. But by throwing 
 Mary into the arms of Maximilian through an error of 
 intrigue, he had introduced the House of Austria into 
 the Low Countries, and brought into existence a new 
 danger to the French monarch}^ 
 
 The last few years of Louis' life were spent in seclusion 
 at Plessis-les-Tours, where, behind a network of defences, 
 he lived a prey to nervous fear, not unlike some of those 
 Italian despots upon whom he had modelled his conduct. 
 When he died in 1483 he had recovered for the monarchy 
 the position it held under Philippe IV. Brittany alone 
 of the great feudal territories remained independent. In 
 order to accomplish his will, Louis had not only increased 
 the standing army, but added to it large numbers of 
 Swiss and Scotch mercenaries. To pay for this costly 
 army and for the King's political intrigues, the country 
 had been bled white. The taille had been continually 
 raised. The bourgeoisie was compelled to contribute 
 heavily. But it was upon their steadfast support that 
 Louis relied for his success. He has been called the 
 King of the petites gens, but, in fact, he had no sympathy 
 
LAST YEARS OF LOUIS XI, 
 
 183 
 
 whatever with democracy. He was rather the King of 
 the bourgeois, who knew that in the power of the Crown 
 
 was their one protection against the]^feudal coalitions. In 
 order to keep the good- will of "the merchant aristocracies 
 
18^ FRANCE 
 
 - -'*''■ *? 
 of the towns, Louis therefore encouraged commerce, not 
 
 only by organizing and developing the trade corporations 
 for the benefit of the masters rather than of the men, but 
 also by introducing new industries, such as the manu- 
 facture of silk. He was liberal enough, too, to encourage 
 the introduction of the new art of printing into France.* 
 
 Louis had pursued to the end his ideal of personal 
 government, but he had pursued it as the head of a 
 nation. On this point, at least, he had a conscience. 
 This bad man, as M. Martin puts it, was not a bad French- 
 man. His reign, so troublous and oppressive to the 
 people, had accomplished much for the unity of the 
 nation. Besides subordinating the power of great and 
 petty nobles alike, and developing the power of the 
 industrial middle classes, it gave to France Picardy from 
 the sources of the Oise to Burgundy, Provence, Anjou, 
 Maine, Barrois, and Roussillon, Artois, and Franche- 
 Comte. It upheld the power of France to the Pjrrenees, 
 the Jura, and the Maritime Alps, and made a long stride 
 towards establishing the natural frontiers of the realm. 
 
 Like the Sovereigns of England and Spain, and not at 
 all like the Italian despots he otherwise imitated, Louis 
 directed his individual covetousness towards the aggran- 
 dizement of the State, as something greater and more 
 endurable than his own private gains. In this he showed 
 himself a far better Frenchman than the next of his 
 name, who has received much higher praise, much less 
 deserved. 
 
 * Charles VII. had sent to Mayence in 1458 to try to learn the 
 secret of the new industry. In 1469 two Professors of the 
 University summoned Ulrich Gering, Michel Friburger, and 
 Martin Kranz to Paris, and installed them with their presses in 
 the buildings of the Sorbonne itself. Books were soon pouring 
 from presses all over France. 
 
XIII 
 
 CHARLES VIII. (1483-1498) AND LOUIS XII. (1498-1515) 
 
 Charles VIII . was but thirteen years of age when Louis 
 died. The decree of Charles V. had fixed fourteen as 
 the age for the majority of the Kings of France. Fortu- 
 nately for the King, his eldest sister, Anne of Beaujeu, 
 had inherited much of her father's political ability and 
 tenacity of purpose. " She is the least foolish woman in 
 the world," Louis had said, "for there is no such thing 
 as a wise one." Aided by her husband, Pierre de Beaujeu, 
 she managed to stem the tide of reaction which set in 
 with the death of Louis. The Parliament of Paris at 
 once took vengeance upon some of Louis' advisers. But 
 the cleverness of the Beaujeu saved the majority, and 
 the policy they represented, from shipwreck at the hands 
 of the cabal of nobles which was formed to recover the 
 power they had lost. " Madame " at once endeavoured 
 to disarm the malcontents by promises and favours. 
 The natural leader of the opposition was Louis, Duke 
 of Orleans, first Prince of the blood. He was made 
 Governor of the tie de France and Champagne ; the Count 
 of Dunois, Governor of Dauphine. The Duke of Bourbon 
 was appointed Constable of France. Both parties agreed 
 to summon the States General, each hoping to derive 
 paramount authority in the Council from that Assembly.* 
 
 * The States met at Tours January 15, 1484. It was decided 
 that the Council should be composed of the Princes of the blood 
 and twelve members selected from the Deputies to the States 
 
 185 
 
186 FRANCE 
 
 The Deputies of the Three Estates were ordered to 
 be elected in common ; the electors of each bailiwick, 
 or senechaussee, were required to send three repre- 
 sentatives — one of the Church, one of the nobles, 
 and one of the "common estate." In some parts — 
 Touraine, for instance — the elections were so made, 
 and in others — for instance, Lyonnais — the more im- 
 portant of the peasantry were consulted. The phrase 
 Tiers Etat appears for the first time in the documents 
 relating to this Assembly, but the Third Estate does 
 not seem to have played a very important part in its 
 proceedings. Thus the change was completed from the 
 old feudal character of the Estates, when the prelates, 
 Barons, and representatives of the bonnes villes, were 
 summoned to attend as feudatories of the King ; instead, 
 the electors of the administrative divisions now sent 
 their representatives as subjects of the realm. This 
 Assembly of 1484 was really, and for the first time, a 
 States Greneral. All the Provinces except Brittany were 
 represented. " It was a startling manifestation of the 
 unity of France, as the Hundred Years' War and the 
 royal policy had constituted it."* 
 
 The Estates demanded a reform of abuses. But the 
 Council played upon the jealousy of the Provinces. The 
 Deputies were divided into six nations, v/ho debated in 
 separate chambers. Even so, they insisted upon the 
 diminution of the taille and a repartition of the imposts. 
 And they would only grant a subsidy for two years, and 
 that on condition that they were summoned at the end 
 of that time, for henceforth no tax should be levied 
 without their consent. This was accepted, and they 
 
 General, in addition to the existing councillors. The Duke of 
 Orleans was appointed President. The importance of this 
 meeting of the States is great, not owing to its measures, but to 
 its constitution. 
 
 * Petit-Dutaillis, ap. Lavisse, TV., ii., p. 424. 
 
THE BEAUJEU REGENCY 187 
 
 were abruptly dismissed (March 11). A closer union of 
 purpose on the part of the Three Orders and the Provinces 
 they represented might, no doubt, have resulted upon 
 this occasion in more important progress towards a con- 
 stitutional government. 
 
 As it was, by making a few concessions and some 
 promises, the Beaujeu had stemmed the tide of reaction 
 against the monarchy. The aristocratic agitation of the 
 Duke of Orleans and his friends left the people cold. His 
 struggle with the Beaujeu soon passed beyond the Council- 
 chamber. Once more the country was plunged into civil 
 war— a war of the " Public Weal " ! (1485). 
 
 The Duke failed to obtain the support of the towns, 
 but contrived an alliance with the Emperor Maximilian, 
 the King of Navarre, the Dukes of Brittany, Bourbon, 
 and Lorraine, and the Counts of Narbonne, Nevers, 
 Commines, Dunois, Angouleme, Albret, and others. The 
 insurrection which he had fostered was finally quelled 
 by a victory at St. Aubin in Brittany, when La Tremouille 
 defeated the rebels and captured the Duke of Orleans 
 (July, 1488). A few weeks later Frangois II. of Brittany 
 died. The Duchy was in a terrible state of exhaustion, pil- 
 laged by Charles' troops, English troops — ^for Henry VII., 
 fishing in troubled waters, was hoping to regain Guienne — 
 Grerman troops — for Maximilian, King of the Romans, 
 wished to become Duke of Brittany and recover the 
 heritage of Charles the Bold — and Spanish troops — ^for 
 Ferdinand wanted RoussiUon. A girl of thirteen, lively 
 and charming, was Francois' heiress. Maximilian 
 secured the hand of Anne of Brittany, and was married 
 to her by proxy in December, 1490. Charles and his 
 wise councillors, the Beaujeu, at once changed their 
 tactics. Hitherto he had been attempting to reduce 
 Brittany by force, laying claim to it as a male fief. 
 He now besieged Anne in Rennes. She yielded. The 
 
188 FRANCE 
 
 marriage with Maximilian, concluded without the con- 
 sent of her suzerain, was declared nuU. On December 6, 
 1491, Charles VIII. and Anne of Brittany were married, 
 the bride undertaking, if Charles died without issue, not 
 to marry again, unless it were his successor or the nearest 
 heir to the throne. 
 
 Brittany was incorporated with France, and thus, 
 after the efforts of three reigns, France had realized her 
 natural desire and become territorially one. But in- 
 stead of consolidating his kingdom and repulsing the 
 enemies who gathered on his borders, Charles VIII., 
 sighing for new worlds to conquer, plunged at once into 
 war with Italy. He had outgro^vn his sister's leading- 
 strings, and when she retired from the helm of State, 
 Charles had no one to prevent him from indulging his 
 own romantic desire to conquer an empire. His nobles, 
 inspired, like himself, by notions of an outworn feudalism, 
 encouraged him. There was even tsAk of a Crusade. If 
 the voice of Madame and of wisdom had been listened to, 
 and expansion were necessary, Charles would have begun 
 in the direction of Flanders and the North. Possibly 
 he feared Maximilian and a war with the Empire. At 
 any rate, he was drawn into the maze of corrupt and 
 petty Italian politics by the invitation of the Italians 
 themselves. Lodovico Sforza (II Moro) was insecure at 
 Milan. He invited the King of France to come to his 
 aid, promising in return to support him in prosecuting 
 the rights of the Angevins. 
 
 And Charles, who had inherited through Charles of 
 Anjou certain claims to the kingdom of Naples,* gladly 
 availed himself of the opportunity. Had not Louis, his 
 
 * The claim was based on the conquest of that kingdom by 
 Charles I. of Anjou, brother of St. Louis, passing through Jean 
 le Bon and the second French House of Anjou. The Hoise of 
 Aragon, with claims hardly better founded, had the advantage 
 of being in possession of the throne. 
 
INVASION OF ITALY 189 
 
 father, acted as the arbiter of Italy ? In August, 1494, 
 he crossed the Alps. By so doing he opened a new 
 act in the drama of European history. Henceforth the 
 principle of the balance of power was to give unity to the 
 poHtical plot of modern Europe. And before the struggle 
 for Italy was ended by the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis 
 (1559), the nations had all awakened to their national 
 individuality. Italy gave to her invaders all the treasures 
 of the new art and knowledge of mankind and literature 
 which had come to her with the fall of Constantinople 
 (1453), and the rediscovery of Greek. But the invasion 
 of Italy now begun, and continued by the successors of 
 Charles (1494-1518), not only thereafter involved France 
 in a tremendous struggle with the Austro-Spanish Power, 
 but left her financially exhausted when that struggle 
 commenced. Had she not foolishly wasted her resources 
 in these wars of aggression, her strength in the following 
 centuries would have been wellnigh irresistible. 
 
 As it was, though France contributed singularly little 
 to the innovations of the age, yet, thanks to her contact 
 with foreign nations, she assimilated and profited by 
 them. The Renaissance in art and literature, like the 
 printing-press ; the Reformation, like the discovery of 
 America, were inventions of other lands, but France, 
 with her ever-ready acceptance of new ideas, adopted 
 them, and imprinted on them the stamp of her peculiar 
 genius. 
 
 Before starting for Italy, Charles must needs secure 
 the neutrality of the enemies who were threatening his 
 frontiers. His marriage had given Maximilian a pretext 
 to utilize the wrath of the English and the Spaniards. 
 The English, who saw in the unity of France their 
 last hopes of recovering Normandy and Guienne dis- 
 appear, determined to be paid for it. Henry VII. 
 landed an army at Calais. Charles bought him off for 
 
190 FRANCE 
 
 745,000 crowns (Treaty of Etaples, November, 1492). 
 Ferdinand of Aragon, threatening to cross the Pjrrenees, 
 was given the Provinces of Cerdagne and Roussillon 
 (Treaty of Barcelona, January, 1493). Maximilian had 
 not only been cheated of Brittany and a wife, but in- 
 sulted by the sending back of his daughter Margaret. 
 But at least he recovered with her the dowry of Franche- 
 Comte and Artois, promised by the Treaty of Arras. 
 By the Treaty of Senlis (May, 1493), Charles ceded these 
 territories, with Charolais, to him. So much, in so 
 short a time and for so little gain, was the work of 
 Louis XL undone. 
 
 Charles marched through Italy in triumph, his briUiant 
 entourage, his disciplined army and artillery filling the 
 Italians with admiration. From Pa via and Florence he 
 passed to Rome, from Rome to Naples, and assumed the 
 nominal kingship of that realm without striking a blow. 
 But Lodovico and the rest of the ItaUans, who had them- 
 selves opened the gates of Italy to the foreign invader, 
 were soon anxious to be rid of their dissolute and insolent 
 guests. Commines, from Venice, sent warning to Charles 
 at Naples that a new league, of Pope and Maximilian, of 
 Venice, Spain, and Milan, had been formed to drive the 
 French out of. Italy (March 25, 1495). Charles had no 
 choice but to beat a retreat. At Fornovo, in the Duchy 
 of Parma, his way was barred by a formidable army of 
 the confederates. With great heroism the French army 
 cut its way through superior numbers. The *' finest army 
 Italy has ever seen " — so the Marquis of Mantua had 
 described it — only succeeded in plundering the French 
 baggage- waggons (July 5, 1495). It was in this battle 
 that Pierre du Terrail, Chevalier de Bayard, the flower 
 of French chivalry, performed his first feats of arms. 
 Three years later Charles died of an accidental blow — " a 
 Prince," says Commines, "of insignificant appearance 
 
LOUIS XII. 191 
 
 and indifferent ability, but a better creature could not 
 be found." On the eve of his death he had been pre- 
 paring a second attack upon Italy in alliance with Spain 
 (Treaty of Alcala, November 25, 1497). 
 
 With him the direct line of Valois became extinct. 
 He was succeeded by his cousin, of the collateral branch 
 of Valois-Orleans, descended from Louis I., Duke of 
 Orleans, second son of Charles V. 
 
 Since Charles had generously released him from prison 
 at Bourges, where he had been confined after his capture 
 at St. Aubin, Louis of Orleans had been loyal to the 
 Crown. As Louis XII. he soon established himself firmly 
 on the throne by acting upon the prudent and generous 
 maxim that it would ill become the King of France to 
 avenge the wrongs of the Duke of Orleans. Whilst still 
 young and gay, he had been forced to marry Jeanne, 
 daughter of Louis XL, whose gentle nature did not, in 
 his eyes, compensate for her revolting ugHness. Now, 
 by the marriage contract of Charles and Anne, their 
 respective rights over Brittany had been merged in the 
 survivor. The Duchy had therefore returned to the 
 widow, and was once more separated from France. It 
 was an evident political necessity that it should be again 
 united to the Crown. Anne had made extravagant 
 demonstrations of grief for Charles, being, indeed, the 
 first widow of France to wear black as a symbol of con- 
 stancy. But her ambition and the public weal might 
 induce her not to quit the throne. The Pope, Alex- 
 ander VI., readily granted Louis a divorce ; for that 
 <^3^nical sensualist was anxious to found a principality 
 in the Papal States for the benefit of his favourite son, 
 Cesare Borgia. 
 
 He undertook to second Louis' designs on Italy, pro- 
 vided that Borgia had his share in the spoil. The latter 
 came himself to France ; terms were arranged ; Borgia 
 
 I 
 
192 FRANCE 
 
 received the Duch}^ of UiValentinois ; the unfortunate 
 Jeanne was repudiated ; and Anne of Brittany, " vowing 
 she would ne'er consent, consented " (January, 1499). 
 The marriage contract shows how much Arme was master 
 of the situation, and that, if she was a good Bretonne, 
 she was a bad Frenchwoman. For not only was the 
 administration of Brittany preserved to the Duchess, 
 and its independence maintained mtact, but it was 
 stipulated that the Duchy should pass, not to the heir 
 of France, but to the second son issuing from this mar- 
 riage, or, failing him, to the second grandson. Reunion 
 with the kingdom was thus provided against. 
 
 After a stormy and passionate youth, the new King 
 had settled down into a calm and kindly middle age. He 
 remained devoted to his wife, and throughout his reign 
 was dommated by her practical mtelligence and the 
 counsel of his friend, the Cardinal-Legate, Georges d'Am- 
 boise. But he maintained certain obstinate preposses- 
 sions of his own. Unfortunately, he was encouraged by 
 the Cardinal to prosecute the principal of these — namely, 
 to continue the Italian poUcy of his predecessor, to 
 assert the right of the House of Anjou to Naples, and his 
 own private claim to the Duchy of Milan. That claim, 
 based on the marriage of Louis of Orleans with the 
 daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1387), was none 
 of the strongest. 
 
 But Lodovico Sforza was doubly hateful as a usurper 
 and the betrayer of Charles VIII. Assuming the title 
 of Duke of Milan, and making treaties with Spain, Venice, 
 the Swiss Cantons, and Denmark, Louis marched an 
 army, in concert with the Pope and the Venetians, and 
 under the generalship of the ItaUan condottiere Trivulzio, 
 upon MUan. Lodovico fled to Como. Louis entered 
 Milan in triumph through streets decorated with fleurs- 
 de-lis (October, 1499). But in February, Lodovico 
 
• 'hi 
 
 "'*. t'r,»ii A 
 
 V>/'\LJ V "..'rU' 
 
 ^f ?<r>-. RiscJtgttz. 
 
 FRANgOIS I. (1515-1547). 
 fro?H </ie portrait by Titian in the Louvre. 
 
THE LAST CRUSADE 193 
 
 appeared with an army of Swiss and Germans. The 
 tables were tm*ned for a moment. Then Louis sent a 
 fresh army across the Alps, and the day of No vara sealed 
 the fate of the Sforza. Lodovico, deserted by his Swiss 
 mercenaries, was taken prisoner, and ended his days in 
 a dark and dismal dungeon, cut out of the solid rock, 
 in the Castle of Loches. 
 
 The idea of a Crusade, which had been in the air since 
 the fall of Constantinople, was actually realized at this 
 time. In 1499 and in 1501, Louis XII. sent a fleet to act 
 in concert with the Venetians, whose welcome to a new 
 sea Power in the Mediterranean was not likely to be whole- 
 hearted. The expedition, the last of the French Crusades, 
 ended in the inevitable failure of such a combination. 
 Meantime, an alliance even more foolish and more fatal 
 had been entered into by Louis with Ferdinand of 
 Aragon. By a treaty signed at Granada, November 11, 
 1600, the two Sovereigns agreed to share the kingdom of 
 Naples in a vague partition. Thus Ferdinand was given 
 a footing in the Peninsula. In June a French army 
 marched from Milan, and Federigo, King of Naples, was 
 forced to capitulate. He was given Anjou in compensa- 
 tion. The French and Spaniards were now installed 
 side by side in the country ; the division of the spoils was 
 Hkely to cause more trouble than their winning. They 
 were soon at loggerheads, and a series of smaU encounters 
 and of chivakous combats took place, in which the 
 Chevalier de Bayard gained great renown. But the 
 French lost ground, and in August, 1503, Louis, who had 
 been easily deceived by Ferdinand's pacific pretensions, 
 was roused to make a great effort to regain his ascendancy. 
 An army was sent to attack the Spaniards in Roussillon. 
 It failed miserably. Another army was raised to succour 
 the French at Naples. But three months were wasted 
 before the gates of Rome, whilst Georges d'Amboise was 
 
 13 
 
194 FRANCE 
 
 endeavouring, but in vain, to secure for himself the Holy 
 See, vacated by the death of Alexander VI. When at 
 length, in October, this army joined the French forces at 
 the mouth of the Garigliano, the Spaniards had had time 
 to concentrate their forces under Gonzalvo. He refused 
 to give battle, being content to contam the French till 
 time forced them to retire upon Gaeta. There they 
 \^ere compelled to treat. Naples was lost for ever. In 
 March, 1504. Louis signed a truce for three years with 
 Spain. 
 
 It was now (September, 1504) that Louis signed the 
 incredible Conventions of Blois, the provisions of which 
 had already been considered in 1501. He was anxious 
 to gain the support of MaximiUan in Italy against the 
 Venetians, whose neighbourhood to Milan must soon 
 lead to hostilities. He was anxious, too, to receive from 
 the King of the Romans the "investiture," which would 
 place his position as Duke of Milan beyond dispute. In 
 return, he promised his infant daughter Claude m mar- 
 riage to Maximilian's grandson, Charles of Luxemburg, 
 afterwards Charles V., and, as her dowry. Burgundy, 
 Milan, Genoa, Brittany, and the counties of Asti and 
 Blois — half of France, not to mention Italy.* 
 
 MaximiUan, King of the Romans, Austrian Sovereign, 
 and, through the rights of his son Philippe le Beau, Bur- 
 gundian Prince, was consumed by a vague ambition of 
 forming Spain, Italy, Flanders, and the Empire into 
 one dominion under his descendants. But what are we 
 to think of a King of France and his Cardinal adviser, 
 
 * Charles was grandson also of Ferdinand and Isabella of 
 Spain. 
 
 Maximilian. Ferdinand = Isabella. 
 
 I I 
 
 Philippe le Beau=Jiiana. 
 
 Charles (V.) of Luxemburg, 
 afterwards of Castile. 
 
LEAGUE OF CAMBEAI 1»5 
 
 who for the sake of the private possession of Milan could 
 thus dismember France ? It seems probable that the 
 jealousy and ambition of the Queen were largely 
 responsible. 
 
 Anne of Brittany had no son. She was madly jealous 
 of Louise of Angouleme, whose son Franyois was heir 
 to the throne.* For that reason, and to make sure 
 that Brittany would remain under the government of 
 her daughter Claude, she opposed the idea of her 
 marriage with Fran9ois. 
 
 Hardly were the Conventions signed, however, when 
 Isabella of Spain died, and left to Ferdinand the adminis- 
 tration of Castile, to the exclusion of her daughter and 
 Philippe le Beau. The latter at once assumed the title 
 of Eang, and entered into lively opposition to Ferdinand. 
 This fact, or the fact that he had received the coveted in- 
 vestiture, seems to have changed Louis' policy. In May, 
 1505, he made a will in which the marriage of Claude with 
 Fran9ois, Count of Angouleme, was ordered. The Estates 
 were summoned to meet at Tours (May, 1506), and de- 
 clared the national eagerness for the match. The betrothal 
 then took place, equally to the disgust of Anne, Maximilian, 
 and Philippe le Beau. 
 
 The scene in the struggle for the balance of power 
 amongst the nations, of which we cannot recount all the 
 diplomatic interludes, changed once more to Italy. The 
 revolt of Genoa, and its suppression by Louis, seemed for 
 a moment to have made him master of that desired land 
 (1507). InDecember, 1508, he entered with Pope Julius II., 
 Maximilian, and Ferdinand into the League of Cambrai, 
 formed to destroy the growing power of his old allies, the 
 Venetians. In April Louis crossed the Alps with an army, 
 which, in place of the turbulent and expensive Swiss mer- 
 
 * Louise of Savoy married Charles of Angouleme, great-grand- 
 son of Charles V. 
 
196 FRANCE 
 
 cenaries of his former expeditions, was largely composed 
 of the national French infantry, which Charles VII. had 
 called into being, and Louis XI., fearing like a despot, had 
 disbanded. They gained a brilliant victory over the 
 Venetians at Agnadello (May, 1509). This success at once 
 dissolved the League. The warUke and treacherous Pope, 
 having gained what he wanted from Venice, immediately 
 began to contrive the Holy League to drive the French 
 barbarians out of Italy. It was joined by MaximiUan, 
 Henry VIII., Ferdinand, the Swiss, and Venice. Against 
 this League, Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours, the King's 
 nephew, fought valiantly for France, till, in winning the 
 Battle of Ravenna (April, 1512), he lost his life. His 
 mihtary genius had revealed itself in a series of rapid 
 infantry marches. With him the French resistance came 
 quickly and ignominiously to an end. By the Battle of 
 No vara (June, 1513) the Swiss drove the French out of 
 Milan. 
 
 In the north, Henry VIII. landed at Calais, and, 
 acting in concert with MaximiUan, routed the French 
 at Guinegate (August, 1513), whilst Louis' only 
 allies, the Scots, were beaten at Flodden Field. En- 
 couraged by Marguerite of Austria, the Swiss entered 
 Burgundy. Left without men, money, or instructions, 
 the French general. La Tremouille, signed the Treaty 
 of Dijon (September, 1513). The King was to aban- 
 don Italy, to pay the Swiss 400,000 crowns, and not 
 to raise any more levies in Switzerland without the 
 consent of the cantons. This treaty Louis could not 
 bring himself to ratify, much to the annoyance of the 
 Swiss . 
 
 At last the death of Anne of Brittany opened the door 
 to a settlement of these wearisome wars and kaleidoscopic 
 aUiances. Not only was the marriage of Claude with 
 Fran9ois, which the jealous Queen had refused to allow 
 
"LAISSEZ FATRE A GEORGES" 197 
 
 to be celebrated, at length consummated (May, 1514),* but 
 the King of France himself was now in the diplomatic 
 marriage market. After signing a new truce with Ferdi- 
 nand, and giving his adhesion to the Council of Lateran 
 to conciliate the Pope, he detached England from the 
 Austrian alliance. A peace was concluded in London, 
 whereby Henry was granted Tournai, and a yearly 
 pension of 100,000 crowns for ten years. Louis married 
 Mary Tudor, Henry's young and charming sister, whose 
 hand Marguerite had hoped to secure for Charles of 
 Austria. But the gaieties of a bridegroom of fifty-four, 
 seduced by the charms of a bride of sixteen, proved too 
 much for the enfeebled constitution of the King. He 
 died within a few months (January 1, 1515). His 
 devoted people called him the Father of his Country, 
 and likened his end to that of the pelican. His foreign 
 policy, indeed, had proved as obstinate and unsuccessful 
 as it was politically inept. But his countrymen took 
 pride in the operations of their King. Louis' real claim 
 to the devotion of his people rests upon his administration 
 of affairs at home. In this he shared the credit with 
 Georges d'Amboise, the first of those Cardinal-Ministers 
 who were to play so large a part in the future history of 
 the kingdom. "Let George do as he pleases," Louis 
 used to say. And this policy of Laissez faire a Georges 
 led to an extraordinary revival of prosperity in France. 
 Seconded by the marvellous power of recuperation which 
 has always distinguished the French nation, and by a 
 just and economical administration^ which established 
 order and security, and encouraged commerce, the land 
 recovered as if by magic from the devastations of foreign 
 invaders and civil disorder. Cities expanded, villages 
 
 * Fran9ois afterwards succeeded in persuading Claude to 
 bequeath her duchy of Brittany to her eldest son, and from that 
 time (1532) onwards the history of Brittany is merged in that of 
 France. 
 
198 FRANCE 
 
 arose, as by enchantment, in the woods and waste places. 
 The land was put once more under cultivation, and the 
 revenue from the royal estates, rising in common with 
 the rest, increased so rapidly that Louis was able to 
 carry out his enterprises abroad, whilst reducing taxation 
 at home. Nor were the Italian wars barren of good 
 results. With the increased security of communication, 
 merchants thought less now of going to Naples or London 
 than formerly to Lyons or Geneva. And this communica- 
 tion with the rich markets and highly-developed art and 
 luxury of Italy diffused a vivifying influence upon French 
 art, commerce, and civilization. The Italian Renais- 
 sance stimulated and modified French art before over- 
 whelming it under Frangois I. The treasures of art and 
 ancient literature, the artists themselves, brought from 
 Italy by the French conquerors who had seen the Char- 
 treuse of Pa via, and admired the paintings of Leonardo, did 
 not create a new birth of intellectual and artistic interest 
 so much as direct an already existing taste into new 
 channels. 
 
 The Cardinal-Minister was himseK an inteUigent patron 
 of this movement. His chateau of Gaillon, near Rouen, 
 and the Palais de Justice of Rouen connect his name 
 with some of the finest examples of early French Renais- 
 sance architecture, before French art had lost its origin- 
 ality and become wholly Italianized. They preserve the 
 traditions of the castles of Blois, and graft upon them the 
 ornamentation of the Chartreuse of Pa via. '^ . 
 
XIV 
 
 FRANCOIS I. 
 A.D. 1515—1547 
 
 Brought up in an atmosphere of maternal adoration, 
 and nourished on the romances of chivalry, Frangois from 
 first to last was eager to shine as an Amadis rather than 
 a Sovereign ; to accompUsh some great and brilliant feat 
 of arms rather than to earn the gratitude of his people 
 by humdrum attention to the business of governing. 
 Italy was the only theatre for such achievements as he 
 desired. Brave and handsome, endowed with great 
 personal charm, skilled in arms and pleasure - loving, 
 clever, shallow, vain, Italy called him with a siren voice 
 to the land where poets sang of Orlando. From first to 
 last Milan and Naples occupied the thoughts of Frangois I. 
 
 Within a few days of his accession Charles of Austria 
 came of age, at fifteen, and thus the two great rivals 
 entered upon the scene at the same moment. As possible 
 husbands, we have seen, they had already been of impor- 
 tance. An agreement was shortly signed by which Charles 
 was to marry Renee, second daughter of Louis XII., who 
 was to bring as her dower Berry and 200,000 crowns. 
 
 Frangois lost no time in invading Italy. By August he 
 had crossed the Alps with a magnificent army, numbering 
 some 30,000 infantry, of which 10,000 were Frenchmen, 
 and the rest lansquenets (Germans). The Swiss held the 
 passes, but, making a brilliant turning movement, Fran9ois 
 
 199 
 
200 FRANCE 
 
 surmounted the Route de Larche, a steep and narrow 
 defile which had been left unguarded as impracticable. 
 Amazed at the appearance of the French upon their flank, 
 the forces of the Holy League retreated to Chiasso, whilst 
 the French occupied Turin and No vara. Marching to 
 Marignano, Fran9ois entered into negotiations \vith the 
 Swiss in Milan ; but the Cardinal Schinner, hoping to take 
 him by surprise, made a sortie. Fran9ois' Venetian allies 
 were encamped at Lodi, some miles distant from Marig- 
 nano. The dust raised by the troops of the League gave 
 timely warning. The battle raged till nightfall, and 
 remained undecided. On the morrow the arrival of the 
 Venetians turned the scale. The Swiss fought valiantly ; 
 14,000 of the enemy lay dead upon the battle-field. 
 Frangois was master of Milan (September 13-14, 1515). 
 The King had won his spurs, and it is characteristic of 
 his romantic love of chivalry that he insisted upon being 
 knighted after the battle by the bravest of his knights, 
 the Chevalier Bayard (Ze Chevalier sans peur et sans 
 reproche). The victory of Marignano cast a halo of glory 
 round the young King, which throughout all his career 
 of impulsive and extravagant action, and ill-directed 
 diplomacy, was never whoUy eclipsed. 
 
 Marignano had not settled everything. In the spring 
 Maximilian appeared with an army of 30,000 men outside 
 Milan. But after a stay of three days he abandoned his 
 troops in the night, and returned to Grermany. Mean- 
 time the Pope had come to terms with Fran9ois. He 
 recognized his right to Milan, Parma, and Piacenza, in 
 return for Fran9ois' alliance with Florence and the 
 Church. 
 
 And at Bologna in December was negotiated the Con- 
 cordat, an agreement of capital importance in the social 
 and ecclesiastical history of France. By it the Prag- 
 matic Sanction of 1438, promulgated by Charles VII., sup- 
 
THE CONCORDAT 201 
 
 pressed by Louis XI., and maintained by Charles VIIT. 
 and Louis XII., was revoked. 
 
 The Pragmatic Sanction had recognized the supremacy 
 of the Councils over the sovereign Pontiffs, and, suppress- 
 ing the rights of reversion and expectative,* and the first- 
 fruits (annates) claimed by the Pope, had granted to 
 the Chapters of the Churches the right of electing to all 
 vacant benefices. The churches were now deprived of 
 their traditional right of election. For it was agreed 
 that the King should have the right of nominating to 
 benefices, with some reservations, and the Pope that of 
 instituting the candidate presented by the King. 
 
 The Pope renounced the rights of reversion and ex- 
 pectative, but upon the question of first-fruits, as of 
 Councils, there was a significant silence in the Concordat, 
 which was no doubt intended to be interpreted, as it 
 soon was, to the advantage of the Holy See. 
 
 The Concordat was not registered mthout protest from 
 the Parlement of Paris. The King's Chancellor, Duprat, 
 claimed that it was a triumph for GaUicanism. In a 
 sense, indeed, it was. But it was much more a triumph 
 of the absolute power of the Crown. Throughout his 
 reign Fran9ois dispensed with the States General, and he 
 now usurped the rights of the Church. For the spiritual 
 power, which the Pope thus ceded in exchange for tem- 
 poral blessings, was ceded, not to the GaUic Church, but 
 to the temporal despot of France. The disastrous effect 
 upon the morality of the upper clergy can hardly be 
 exaggerated. They were composed of relations or 
 favourites of the King, of soldiers, artists, or officials, 
 whose services or merits were rewarded with the revenues 
 of an abbey, or of clients of the Papal Court, whose com- 
 
 * I.e., the right of the Pope to reserve for a candidate nomi- 
 nated by him a benefice even before it was vacant. Annates were the 
 revenues of the first year of every benefice conferred (See p. 172). 
 
202 FRANCE 
 
 plaisance was bought by the emolument of a French 
 bishopric. These formed an aristocracy within the 
 Church, which grew more and more out of touch with the 
 cures and vicars of the parishes. The opposition of this 
 democratic clergy to the proud and wealthy royal clergy 
 soon passed into opposition to royalty itself, with which 
 they were identified. First the bitterness of the wars of 
 religion, then the scepticism which prepared the way for 
 the Revolution, can largely be traced to the Concordat 
 of Pope Leo X. and Francois I. 
 
 The moral deterioration which accompanied an age 
 of licentious Courts, political Churchmen, and religious 
 fanatics, was reflected but too clearly in the Judicature. 
 The Parlement of Paris lost its reputation for rectitude. 
 Those Judges who were not corrupt were religiously 
 unjust. 
 
 Meanwhile a " Perpetual Peace " was signed with the 
 Swiss cantons at Fribourg in November, 1516, at the 
 price of a huge indemnity ; for the Swiss, like the Dutch, 
 never made the mistake of asking too little. In August 
 friendly relations had been established with Charles, who 
 had succeeded Ferdinand of Spain ; by the Treaty of 
 Noyon it was agreed that Charles should marry Frangois' 
 infant daughter, with a dowry of the French share of 
 Naples ; the Treaty of Cambrai (March, 1517) settled the 
 differences of Fran9ois and Maximilian. There was talk 
 of a Crusade against the Turks, for the success of the 
 Sultan Selim was beginning to cause disquiet in Europe. 
 FranQois, too, made some foolish proposals for a joint 
 attack upon England, which were presently revealed to 
 Henry VIII. But there was a general peace till 1519. 
 It was the lull before the storm. The wars for Italy were 
 over ; they had only resulted in the precarious tenure of 
 Milan. But already the dazzling prospect of a prize more 
 dear even than Italy had begun to tempt the vanity of 
 
THE EMPIRE OF CHARLES V. 203 
 
 Fran9ois. In November, 1516, Count Francis of Sickingen 
 had come to Amboise to promise the French King his 
 aid when next an Emperor was to be elected. The 
 struggle for the Imperial Crown was about to begin, 
 involving that for the preponderance of the House of 
 France or Austria in Europe, which was not to end till 
 1559. In 1519 Maximilian died, and the Empire was 
 vacant. 
 
 In spite of Fran<?ois' utmost efforts, Charles V. was 
 elected. Charles was now not only Emperor and King 
 of Spain, and therefore a claimant to the kingdom of 
 Naples ; he not only possessed Austria, Styria, Carinthia, 
 and the Tyrol, but also, as grandson of Maximilian and 
 Mary of Burgundy, he was the heir of Charles the Bold. 
 And this inheritance alone, of Burgundy and its depen- 
 dencies, with Artois, Franc he-Comte, the towns of the 
 Somme, and Flanders, made him the natural enemy of 
 France. 
 
 Great as was the power of such an Emperor, it was 
 diffused ; though powerful, Charles was poor. His might 
 was always balanced by this weakness. The strength of 
 France lay in her new unity ; the French King could wield 
 a highly concentrated power, levy taxes without the 
 consent of his people, and direct an organized, if not 
 homogeneous, army. When asked by Charles V. how 
 much money he derived from his subjects, Francois 
 replied : "As much as I want." But whilst Charles 
 had no money, Fran9ois squandered his. Yet without 
 alUes France would have been overmatched. She was 
 compelled, as we shall see, to seek the assistance of 
 the Turks, and even to support the Lutherans abroad. 
 For many years, indeed, the policy of being Catholic at 
 home and Protestant abroad was to be pursued by the 
 French politicians. 
 
 Without aiming at a universal monarchy, Charles, 
 
204 FRANCE 
 
 as Emperor, regarded himself as the temporal chief of 
 Christianity, whose duty it was to combat heretics, like 
 the Tm-ks, abroad, and heretics, like the Reformers, at 
 home. Moreover, it was his duty to reconstitute the 
 integrity of the Empire by conquering once more all fiefs 
 and territory — Uke the kingdom of Aries, for instance, or 
 Milan — of which it had at any time been deprived. 
 
 To humble his ambitious rival, FranQois first en- 
 deavoured to make an alliance with Henrj^ Yill. In 
 1620 it was arranged that the two Sovereigns should 
 meet. The sumptuous splendours of the Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold, near Guines, are known to every English 
 reader. But that extravagant display, those jousts and 
 tourneys and banquets, and chivalrous encounters of 
 King and King, were rather signs of mutual jealousy 
 between Sovereigns, each anxious to dazzle the world, 
 than symptoms of a cordial understanding. They parted 
 on June 24, calling each other " brother." A treaty, 
 indeed, was signed, which reiterated the indebtedness 
 of the French King, according to the agreements of 
 1514 and 1518. But if Fran9ois thought that he had 
 engaged his " brother's " support against the Emperor, he 
 was soon undeceived. On his way home Henry had an 
 interview, less brilliant but more cordial, with Charles V., 
 and signed a secret treaty with him, in which the two 
 Sovereigns agreed to discuss their several interests. 
 
 Hostilities between France and the Emperor com- 
 menced in March, 1521 ; Francois would have been better 
 advised to begin them earlier. As it was, Charles, having 
 been allowed time enough to settle internal affairs and 
 procure alliances, by the end of a year had regained 
 Navarre, and almost driven the French out of Italy. It 
 was in Italy that Frangois had made his greatest effort. 
 There Lautrec de Foix, the Governor of Milan, who 
 owed his position to the fact that his sister, Madame de 
 
CHARLES, DUKE OF BOURBON 205 
 
 Chateaubriant, was the King's mistress, had received 
 a reinforcement of 16,000 Swiss, without the money to 
 pay them. He was deserted by his soldiers, and defeated 
 at the Battle of Bicocca (April, 1522). 
 
 The last act in the long struggle between the Kings of 
 France and their great vassals apanages was now to be 
 played out. 
 
 Charles, Duke of Bourbon, Constable of France, was 
 the head of the only great house which, imprudently 
 strengthened by the Bangs themselves, remained to rival 
 those of Orleans and Angouleme. Suzanne, the daughter 
 and heiress of Pierre and Anne de Beaujeu, who had 
 succeeded in largely augmenting their domaios, had 
 married her cousin, Charles of Bourbon, and thus 
 vmited the two branches of Bourbons and Montpen- 
 siers.* The whole of the centre of France therefore 
 contributed its wealth to the clever and ambitious 
 Constable of France. In 1521 he was left a widower 
 and childless. It is said that the King's mother, 
 Louise of Savoy, fell in love with this handsome Prince 
 and gallant soldier, and that his refusal to marry her 
 caused her to plot his ruin. In any case, in the absence 
 of a male heir to the domaias of the Bourbons, and in the 
 presence of a nobleman so proud, powerful, and ambitious, 
 it became an obvious matter of high poUcy for the King 
 to claim the reversion of those counties which, belonging 
 
 * Jean I. 
 Bourbons. \ Montpensiers. 
 
 Charles I. Louis. 
 
 Pierre de=f=Anne of Marguerite=j=Philip of Gilbert. 
 Beaujeu France. Savoy. 
 
 Lte=j=] 
 
 Suzanne = Charles Louise of Charles =Suz£ 
 
 the Savoy. the 
 
 Constable. Constable. 
 
206 FRANCE 
 
 originally to the royal domain, had been granted to the 
 Bourbons as appanages ; whilst the Queen-mother claimed 
 other fiefs as the granddaughter of Charles I. of Bourbon, 
 and therefore heiress of Suzanne. So the power of this 
 too influential Bourbon would be reduced. The case 
 was tried at length, but before it was decided Anne of 
 Beaujeu died (November, 1522), and Frangois promptly 
 laid his hands on some of the domains which were svb 
 judice. The injustice of this proceeding drove the 
 Constable to extremities. For some time past he had 
 been in negotiation with the enemy. At last, in July, 
 1523, he entered into agreements with Hemy VIII. and 
 Charles V. The Emperor was to attack Narboime in 
 August, Henry to land in Normandy, and Bourbon, with 
 his followers, was to co-operate with 10,000 men raised 
 for him in Germany. He was to receive Leonora, the 
 Emperor's sister, in marriage, and undertook to recognize 
 Henry VIII. as King of France. But his decision, when 
 made, came too late. The Spaniards only succeeded in 
 capturing Fontarabia, the German lansquenets were almost 
 annihilated by the Count of Guise in crossing the Meuse, 
 and the English, after advancing to within a few miles 
 of Paris, recoiled before reinforcements sent by Frangois. 
 Bourbon, waiting for the arrival of the lansquenets before 
 declaring himself, hesitated too long. Fran9ois, on his 
 way to Italy with an army, called upon the Constable 
 to accompany him. He replied by fleeing with one 
 attendant to the Emperor, a reinforcement which was of 
 little value to Charles. 
 
 After suffering severely during the winter before Milan, 
 the French army in Italy, under Bonivet, met with a 
 reverse in their retreat in the spring, whilst crossing the 
 Sesia. In this engagement the gaUant Chevaher Bayard 
 lost his life. Still obsessed with the idea of recovering 
 the Duchy of Milan, Fran9ois once more crossed the Alps 
 
BATTLE OF PA VIA 207 
 
 in October, 1534, and laid siege to Pavia. Strongly- 
 fortified, the place held out whilst the imperial army 
 gathered round the besiegers in the Park of MirabeUo. 
 Ensued the bloody Battle of Pavia, when some 8,000 
 Frenchmen were slain, and Fran9ois, wounded and fight- 
 ing gallantly to the last, was taken prisoner (February 25, 
 1525). From the fortress of Pizzighettone he wrote the 
 famous letter to his mother: "Nothing remains to me 
 save honour and my life." He was taken to Madrid, 
 where Charles kept him until March, 1526, discussing the 
 terms of his release. 
 
 The victory of Pavia had placed Charles in a position 
 so overwhelming that his allies immediately began to 
 restore the balance. The Italians were ready to league 
 against him. Henry VIII. quickly made a defensive 
 alliance with the Queen-Regent, who undertook to pay 
 him 100,000 crowns a year for life (August, 1525). The 
 Turks threatened to invade Hungary. The unrest in 
 Spain and Flanders also caused Charles some uneasiness. 
 These considerations induced him to sign the Treaty of 
 Madrid (January, 1526). 
 
 Fran9ois, who had at one time, in a fit of heroism, 
 declared himself ready to abdicate rather than cede a 
 single province, agreed to restore Burgundy and its 
 dependencies ; to renounce his claims to Naples, Milan, 
 Asti, and Genoa ; to cede Tournai and the suzerainty 
 of Artois and Flanders ; to furnish a fleet and army for 
 the crowning of the Emperor at Rome, and for a Crusade 
 against the infidels ; to restore Bourbon to all his property 
 and privileges ; to abandon his aUies, the Pope, Venice, 
 Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre, and the Dukes of 
 Gelderland, Wiirtemberg, and La Mark ; to take over 
 Charles' debts to Henry VIIL, and, as a pledge of peace 
 (since Queen Claude was dead), to espouse Leonora of 
 Portugal, the Emperor's sister. His two sons were given 
 
208 FRANCE 
 
 in hostage for the accomplishment of these conditions, 
 which were to be ratified by the States General and the 
 (Jourts of the kingdom, and if not fulfilled within four 
 months Fran9ois himself was to return to prison at Madrid. 
 No sooner was he free than Fran9ois found every en- 
 couragement not to fulfil his obhgations, which if per- 
 formed would ruin his kingdom, and if not performed 
 must stain his honour. The EngUsh and Itahans ahke 
 were anxious to check the ambition of Charles. At 
 Cognac, May, 1526, a treaty was signed between Frangois, 
 the Pope, the Venetians, Florence, and other Italian 
 States, for the deliverance of Italy and the release of the 
 sons of France. It was stipulated that Slorza should be 
 allowed to keep possession of Milan. 
 
 Fran9ois, however, at first took no action in support 
 of his Itahan aUies. He was busy with the pleasures 
 of the Court and the chase, or negotiating with 
 Henry, with whom he concluded a " perpetual peace." 
 In order to avoid redeeming his word, or, in default of 
 fulfilling the conditions of Madrid, returning to captivity, 
 the King and his advisers — Madame, Duprat, Montmor- 
 ency, and so forth — decided that it was necessary to make 
 a show of national sentiment in favour of his breaking 
 his engagements. Deputies from Burgundy had already 
 declared that it was contrary to the coronation oath for 
 a French King to ahenate any portion of the domain, and 
 protested against the transfer of their province to the 
 Emperor. An Assembly was therefore summoned at 
 Paris (December, 1527). But it was not an Assembly 
 of the Three Estates — there was something too demo- 
 cratic in the States General to suit the taste of the 
 absolute monarch — but an Assembly of Notables, as it 
 was called, consisting of Cardinals, Archbishops, Princes 
 of the Blood, Grands Seigneurs, Gentlemen, and Presidents 
 of the Provincial Parliaments. Before this select audience 
 
• ••• -•,, »», 
 
A us:. RiscJigifs. 
 
 HENHI II. (1517-1550). 
 From a painting in the Louvre. 
 
A VERSA AND LANDRIANO 209 
 
 the King recounted, with much eloquence and pathos, the 
 events of his reign, declared himself ready to return to 
 Madrid if honour and his country required it, and ex- 
 plained that much money was needed, whether for a 
 ransom for his sons or for a war with the Emperor. The 
 Notables assured him that he was absolved from an oath 
 taken under protest and compulsion, granted him the 
 aid he sought, and thanked him for " asking graciously 
 where it was within his power to demand." 
 
 The war was resumed in Italy. After a successful 
 campaign Lautrec laid siege to Naples. Venetian and 
 Genoese fleets blockaded the port. The town was saved 
 by the defection of Andrea Doria ; Montmorency and 
 Duprat foolishly insisted on fortifying Savona, and rais- 
 ing it into a commercial rival to Genoa. The Genoese 
 repUed by throwing in their lot with the Emperor. The 
 French were obUged to raise the siege of Naples, and the 
 army, retreating, was almost annihilated at Aversa. In 
 the following year the Count of Saint-Pol was defeated 
 and taken prisoner at Landriano (June, 1529). So one 
 more was added to the hst of French failures in Italy. 
 " It would have been better worth while to give six 
 Savonas than to offend Doria," was Wolsey's comment 
 upon such diplomacy. 
 
 That diplomacy, indeed, and the direction of affairs, had 
 passed into the hands of inefficient and unworthy hands. 
 Whilst Frangois was spending the money that might 
 have defrayed the wages of his soldiers, in building lordly 
 pleasure-houses on the Loire, and was becoming accus- 
 tomed to be governed by his mistress, Madame d'Etampes, 
 affairs were bungled by the self-seeking or incapacity of 
 his Ministers, Admiral de Brion, Duprat, Chabot, Mont- 
 morency, and Madame, his mother, Louise of Savoy. 
 
 Of these, Madame and Montmorency were now anxious 
 Mk for peace. The Turks and the Protestants were embar- 
 
210 FRANCE 
 
 rassing the Emperor in Germany. After prolonged 
 negotiations, therefore, at Cambrai, where Louise of 
 Savoy and Margaret of Austria negotiated for France 
 and the Emperor respectively, the Treaty of Cambrai 
 was signed (August, 1529). The " Ladies' Peace " was a 
 repetition of the Treaty of Madrid, with some slight 
 alterations. The cession of Burgundy and its depen- 
 dencies, and the towns of the Somme, was waived, for 
 Charles recognized that the sentiment of the nation was 
 against it. The Dauphin and the Duke of Orleans were 
 to be ransomed with 2,000,000 crowns ; otherwise the 
 ignominious concessions of Madrid were repeated. In 
 July of the following year the young Princes were paid 
 for and released, and Fran9ois' marriage with Leonora, 
 so long delayed, was consummated. 
 
 With the conclusion of this treaty, Montmorency, who 
 was throughout identified with a policy of peace and even 
 friendship with the Emperor, became the chief of the 
 Government. No other policy, indeed, but peace was 
 possible. The country was exhausted by profitless wars 
 and expensive conventions ; nor was the occasion ripe for 
 an aggressive policy on the part of a Prince who had 
 shown at Madrid and Cambrai that he would not keep 
 his engagements whether with friend or foe. But 
 Fran9ois would never despair of reconquering Italy, and 
 in these circumstances Montmorency's diplomacy was 
 ridiculous. Whilst hoping to gain the support of the 
 Lutherans in Germany, he persecuted the Reformers in 
 France. By a rapprochement with the Pope* he com- 
 promised the alliance with Henry VIII., and, whilst 
 intriguing in Italy and elsewhere with the enemies of the 
 Emperor, he hoped to arrive at a friendly understanding 
 
 * It was to secure the alliance of the Pope that Fran9ois married 
 his second son, Henri, to Catherine de' Medici (1533). The 
 Dauphin died a few years later, leaving Henri heir to the throne, 
 
THE LADIES PEACE 211 
 
 with him. In fact, the Treaty of Cambrai could not 
 be a lasting settlement. The fall of Montmorency was 
 the necessary prelude to the outbreak of war in 1536. 
 Once more aggression in Italy was the pretext and the 
 cause. 
 
 In preparing for this war Francois had introduced 
 changes in his army which are of social as well as 
 mihtary moment. For the modern soldier dates from this 
 epoch. The old francs-archers were abolished. The 
 increasing importance of a native infantry was recognized. 
 The greedy, ill-disciplined, and often treacherous Swiss 
 mercenaries, who had hitherto formed the bulk of that 
 arm, were largely replaced by territorial legions of 6,000 
 men apiece, raised in Normandy, Picardy, Brittany, Bur- 
 gundy, Champagne, Dauphine, Languedoc, Provence, and 
 Guienne.* 
 
 With this new army Fran9ois invaded Savoy and 
 Piedmont in February, 1536. The Emperor denounced 
 the ambition of his rival before the Pope at Rome. The 
 dogs of war were once more let loose. 
 
 The Emperor crossed the Alps at the end of July, 
 intending to co-operate with a Spanish army from the 
 Pyrenees in the invasion of Provence, whilst the Flemings 
 overran Picardy. But the Spaniards were repulsed 
 before Narbonne, and Montmorency, who had been 
 recalled to command, conducted a defensive campaign in 
 Provence, which defeated the invader almost without a 
 blow. Refusing to join issue, and retreating as far as 
 Avignon, he laid the country desert. Charles marched 
 onwards " without glory, for he saw no enemy ; without 
 food, for every field was bare." Famine, and the failure 
 of the army from Spain, compelled him to retreat. When 
 he regained Italy in September he had lost haK his army 
 from sickness and starvation. In the north, the Count 
 
 * Lemonnier, ap. Lavisse, V. ii. 84 et seq. 
 
212 FRANCE 
 
 of Nassau was held in check by the gallant defence of 
 Peronne. 
 
 Frangois prefaced the campaign of the ensuing year by 
 a parody of Charles' denunciation of him to the Pope. 
 Summoning a Bed of Justice at the Louvre, he declared 
 that his rebeUious vassal had forfeited his tenure of 
 Flanders, Artois, and Charolais. Some desultory cam- 
 paigns concluded in a truce after Montmorency had 
 recovered Piedmont. The truce was renewed at Nice in 
 the following June, and in July the two Princes, meeting 
 at Aigues-Mortes, declared themselves the firmest of 
 friends. To the astonishment of Europe, Charles marched 
 in friendly triumph across France, and was feted at 
 Paris (January, 1540), on his way to crush a rebellion at 
 Ghent. Then, having attained his object and avoided a 
 sea-passage, he turned and denounced Frangois as the ally 
 of the infidel Suleiman, and bestowed the Duchy of Milan 
 on his own son Phihp. Throughout these proceedings 
 Frangois had been duped by the suggestion, if not the 
 promise, that the Emperor would give Milan and the 
 hand of his daughter Maria to the youngest son of 
 France. 
 
 Disillusionment brought about the fall of Montmorency, 
 who had, as ever, encouraged the idea of friendship with 
 Charles. A succession of Ministers followed, but Madame 
 d'Etampes reigned supreme. Between her and Diane de 
 Poitiers, the clever and accomplished mistress of the 
 Dauphin, there had long been a bitter rivalry, which 
 divided the Court and poHcy of France. Montmorency 
 had thrown in his lot with the Dauphin. 
 
 In July, 1542, then, Frangois once more tried the fortune 
 of war in the hope of regaining his darUng Milan, this 
 time in conjunction with his Ottoman aUies. With these 
 allies installed at Toulon, ignoring the ominous rebellion 
 of La Rochelle, which gave voice to the growing resent- 
 
TREATIES OF CREPY AND ARDRES 213 
 
 ment of an overtaxed country, ignoring the combined 
 attack upon his northern frontiers by Charles and 
 Henry VIII., Frangois, ever intent upon Italy, made a last 
 effort in Piedmont. The Duke of Enghien and Monluc 
 gained a briUiant victory over the Imperial forces under 
 the Marquis del Vasto at Ceresole (April, 1544). But the 
 victory availed nothing, since the concerted advance of 
 the Emperor and Henry VIII. upon Paris compelled 
 Frangois to recall his troops in haste from Italy. 
 
 A treaty with the Emperor was hastily signed at Crepy 
 (September, 1544). Charles, who had no money to pay 
 his army, and was embarrassed by the activity of the 
 Protestants and Turks, agreed to decide within four 
 months whether the Duke of Orleans should marry his 
 daughter Maria, with the Low Countries and Franche- 
 Comte for dowry, or a daughter of Ferdinand, with the 
 dowry of the Duchy of Milan. The death of the Duke of 
 Orleans soon solved the difficulty of the alternative. 
 Franyois renounced Flanders, Artois, Piedmont and Savoy, 
 and Charles Burgundy. But the kernel of the treaty lay 
 in a mutual engagement to fight the Turks and to restore 
 " religious unity." 
 
 Meanwhile the EngUsh had taken Boulogne. In 1545 
 a combined movement was projected by the French to 
 recover Boulogne, invade England, and intervene in 
 Scotland on behalf of Mary Stuart. All three campaigns 
 failed, and in June, 1546, Frangois was compelled to sign 
 the Treaty of Ardres, by which he undertook to pay the 
 Enghsh 2,000,000 golden crowns within eight years. 
 Boulogne was to be restored when the debt was paid. 
 
 In fact, the last years of Frangois' reign were devoted 
 to restoring " rehgious unity "by a furious persecu- 
 tion of the Lutherans. 
 
 At the beginning of the century the scandalous de- 
 bauchery of the Bishops, priests, and monks had lent 
 
214 FRANCE 
 
 force to a new movement for reform within the Chm-ch in 
 France — an effort to reconcile the great truths of rehgious 
 dogma with the hght of the Renaissance which originated 
 with the University itseK. But the doctrines of Luther 
 and Zwingli, the apparition of Protestantism (1517-1529), 
 put an end to any hopes of pacific reform, and drew the 
 more ardent reformers into the vortex of revolt against 
 the official Church. The spirit of the Renaissance, coming 
 from the South, had touched only the upper and leisured 
 classes ; the spirit of the Reformation was breathed from 
 the North, and touched the moral and rehgious sentiments 
 of the people. In 1523 the persecution of the Lutheran 
 heresy was begun ; Jean Valliere, of Falaise, was the first 
 victim of the theologians of the Sorbonne. He was 
 burnt at the stake in Paris, August, 1523. It was in that 
 year that Jean Calvin, aged fourteen, came to study at 
 the University. Fran9ois himself was at first far from 
 sharing the views of the extremists. Before his return 
 from Madrid, he had written to the Parlement of Paris 
 exhorting them to moderation. But in 1528, during the 
 deliberations of the Council of Sens upon the doctrines 
 of Lutheranism, a statue of the Virgin was mutilated. 
 The rage of the Catholics broke loose, and thenceforth 
 Fran90is, anxious to conciliate the clergy for their vote 
 of money, followed the lead of the Parlement and the 
 Sorbonne. There was soon no room for compromise. 
 On the night of October 17, 1534, Paris was placarded 
 with a coarse Protestant attack upon the Mass. A 
 terrible outburst of fanaticism followed. Lutherans were 
 burned by the score (1534-1547). The Press was 
 muzzled.* The works of Calvin, Luther, Melanchthon, 
 
 * Driven from France in 1534, Calvin had published his great 
 work, the Institution Chretienne, in the following year from Bale. 
 In 1536 he settled in Geneva, which became the centre of the 
 persecuted Reformers, whence issued the doctrine which has 
 affected the religious life of Europe ever since. 
 
PERSECUTION OF THE PROTESTANTS 216 
 
 Dolet, Marot, and the translations of the Holy Scriptures, 
 were proscribed (1543). 
 
 The Place Maubert was the scene of the executions 
 in Paris. Here Etienne Dolet was hanged, and then 
 burned. At Meaux fourteen pyres were erected in one 
 day, and all over the country, from Rouen to Toulouse, 
 the Reformers and their books were burned. These odious 
 executions reached a climax: in the war of extermina- 
 tion directed against a whole people. At Merindol and 
 Cabrieres, and the surrounding villages amongst the Alps 
 of Provence, dwelt the descendants of the Vaudois 
 (Waldenses) of the tweKth century. The pure and simple 
 hves of this peaceful peasantry were no protection to 
 them, seeing that they were attached to the rehgious 
 doctrines of their ancestors. An ordinance was issued to 
 pousser about les Vaudois. The Bishops of Provence and 
 the Parlement of Aix raged furiously against them. In 
 1545 Fran9ois sanctioned the decree, passed by the Parle- 
 ment at Aix in 1 540, condemning Merindol to destruction. 
 The Baron d'Oppede, President of the Parlement, and 
 PoHn de la Garde then conducted a regular miUtary 
 expedition against these unfortunate heretics. Merindol, 
 Cabrieres, and the surrounding villages were destroyed, 
 the country laid waste, the unarmed population scattered, 
 starved, destroyed, and hundreds of men, women, and 
 children, who had sought refuge in their church, were 
 burned to death. 
 
 The King, who had authorized these horrors, perhaps 
 partly in ignorance, and certainly under the influence of 
 the fanatical Cardinal of Tournon, died in February, 1547. 
 
 What might he not have achieved if, instead of wasting 
 his strength for the sake of a bauble of a kingdom beyond 
 the Alps, he had spent his resources in seconding those 
 adventurous pioneers of Brittany and Dieppe, who had 
 begun to take a share in the discovery of the mines 
 
216 FRANCE 
 
 and fisheries of the New Continent, and in directing the 
 energies of his people towards the colonization of Canada ?* 
 He supported, indeed, but half-heartedly, the three 
 voyages of Jacques Cartier of St. Malo, who in 1534, 
 1535, 1541, had explored the St. Lawrence, and given 
 the name of Nouvelle France to the country which had 
 yet to wait more than half a century for the coming 
 of Champlain. This much, at least, Fran9ois achieved 
 — his opposition to Charles V. prevented the estabUsh- 
 ment of the Spanish-Hapsburg monarchy as supreme in 
 Europe. 
 
 It is not as a statesman or a patriot that France owes 
 aught to the memory of that clever, attractive, but selfish 
 King, so dull of foresight and infirm of purpose. The 
 wars of aggression of this Roi Chevalier were popular, 
 indeed, until they became too expensive, for chivalrous 
 pomp and mihtary glory, and the monarchy itself were 
 always dear to the heart of the French nation. But he 
 left his country a legacy of unsatisfied ambition, of finan- 
 cial disorder and economic exhaustion — a heritage of 
 religious intolerance, of petticoat government, and of 
 murderous folly. And he left her, in Henri II., an heir 
 but too worthy of his heritage. The persecution of the 
 Reformers was not only criminal, but foolish ; for in the 
 nature of things it bled France of much of her best and 
 staunchest blood, whilst it stimulated the secret propa- 
 gandism of a mihtant and poHtical creed. 
 
 The extravagance of Fran9ois' wars, his Court, his 
 buildings, and display had once more plunged the 
 
 * For, following in the footsteps of Spain and Portugal, the 
 French adventurers had begun to traffic with Brazil, where 
 Jean Denis of Honfleur touched as early as 1504. In 1506 Denis 
 visited Newfoundland, and was followed in 1508 by Aubert of 
 Dieppe, who sailed in a vessel fitted out by Jean Ango, father of 
 the great and enterprising shipowner of that town. The Bretons 
 discovered and named Cape Breton, and began to develop the 
 cod-fisheries of those coasts. 
 
FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES 
 
 217 
 
 finances of the kingdom into utter confusion. It was 
 characteristic that, when he found himself too much in 
 debt, he had turned upon his Superintendent of Finance, 
 
 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS, QUEEN OF NAVARRE. 
 (From a drawing in the Bibliotheque Nationals) 
 
 Semblangay, and hanged him for obeying his orders and 
 raising money at all hazards. At the beginning of the 
 reign of Hem'i II., a rebellion on the part of Bordeaux 
 
218 FRANCE 
 
 against an increase in the gabelle was savagely repressed 
 by Montmorency. 
 
 It is, then, rather as the King of Culture that Fran9ois 
 claims a thought of gratitude in the history of French 
 civiHzation. He not only enormously increased the 
 size of his Court by creating a large number of offices, 
 which he bestowed upon gentlemen of birth, who were 
 awarded titles even though they did not possess lands, 
 but, whilst thus rendering his Court the centre of social 
 attraction, he deUghted in making it also the most culti- 
 vated and brilliant in Europe. Artists like Leonardo da 
 Vinci, scholars Uke Erasmus, men of letters and men of 
 science, Greeks, ItaUans, were invited to this gay, elegant, 
 and learned Court, where Mary Stuart was to be brought 
 up under the eyes of Catherine de' Medici. 
 
 Something of the frivoHty, the Ucentiousness, the intel- 
 lectuality, and the cultivated sensuaKty of the French 
 Court in these Renaissance days is mirrored in the 
 Contes of the King's sister, Marguerite de Navarre, and of 
 her servant, Bona venture des Periers.* 
 
 And to house this gay and pleasure-loving Court, and 
 to employ the chisels or brushes of the great Italian 
 artists — Leonardo, Cellini, Rosso, Andrea del Sarto — 
 whom Francois vied with the other monarchs of his age in 
 pressing into his service, there sprang into being those 
 charming chateaux on the banks of the Loire, which, with 
 their forests of turrets, spires, aerial campaniles, and 
 lofty roofs, their terraced gardens, superb staircases, and 
 rich, flowing ItaUan ornament and arabesques, express 
 the new spirit of the age in contrast to the gloomy feudal 
 fortresses of the civil wars. Villers-Cotterets, Saint- 
 Germain, the H6tel-de-Ville of Paris, Pontainebleau (1528- 
 1547), Chantilly, Blois, Madrid (the retreat in the Bois de 
 Boulogne, which Frangois so named to recall his imprison- 
 * The Heptameron and the Contes et Joyeux Devis. 
 
EABELAIS 219 
 
 ment in Spain), and, above all, Chambord (1519-1550) — 
 these are some of the deHghtful creations in which, before 
 captive Italy wholly domiaated her captors, the national 
 architecture proved its vitaUty by a last effort of briUiant 
 and original invention. 
 
 It is characteristic of the age that, in all probabiHty, 
 the same year (1538) saw Loyola, Calvin, and Rabelais 
 treading the streets of Paris. Rabelais, like the architects 
 of his period, preserves in his work much of medieval 
 French tradition, overlaid with the ornamentation and 
 knowledge derived from the New Birth of Antiquity. 
 But, breaking away from medieval asceticism and 
 hypocrisy, and the intellectual bondage of scholasticism, 
 returning to Nature and preaching the enjoyment of the 
 things of the flesh, as well as of the mind, he voices the 
 unbridled laughter, the unschooled learning, the unre- 
 strained, full-blooded life of the Renaissance. Loving the 
 Calvinists as Httle as the vicious, ignorant, and avaricious 
 monks, he draws his picture of the ideal Abbey of Theleme, 
 where young men and maidens were to be occupied with 
 noble toil and every high delight, and whose rule was the 
 single maxim : " Do what you will." 
 
XV 
 
 HENRI II. 
 A.D. 1547—1559 
 
 Henri II., though physically robust and expert in 
 manly exercises, was a man of little spirit and no will- 
 power. Proud, gloomy, egotistical, and unforgiving, he 
 allowed himself to be dominated throughout his life by 
 Diane de Poitiers, a mistress twenty years his senior, by 
 Montmorency, and the Guises. On succeeding to the 
 throne, his first step was to replace at Court his father's 
 advisers by those who had supported him and Mont- 
 morency during the period of their disgrace. But for the 
 ambition of the Guises — the Duke, his numerous sons, 
 and his brother, the Cardinal Jean de Lorraine — the Duke 
 of Montmorency, the high-handed, avaricious, ambitious, 
 forbidding Constable and Marshal of France, would have 
 been absolute master of the realm. But Diane de 
 Poitiers, dry and severe, who Hved on good terms with 
 Queen Catherine, was clever enough to play off the 
 ambitions of the Guises against those of Montmorency. 
 Their rivalry, indeed, dominates the politics of France 
 throughout the reign. But on one point Henri's mistress 
 and advisers were agreed. All alike were inspired with 
 a fanatical zeal against the Reformers and Calvinists. 
 
 The Enghsh were still in possession of Boulogne. The 
 Scots, who had been left out of the Treaty of Ardres, 
 were smarting from Somerset's successful invasion. 
 
 220 
 
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS 221 
 
 The Queen-mother, Mary of Guise, therefore appealed 
 to France for help, proposing to betroth her infant 
 daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Dauphin. At 
 the same time the English renewed the project of a 
 marriage between Edward VI. and Mary. The Guises, 
 finding their family interests involved, determined to 
 support the Scots. A fleet was sent to Scotland, and, 
 after a perilous voyage, the little Queen, escaping 
 from the English cruisers, was brought to the Court of 
 Catherine de' Medici (August, 1548). Peace was at 
 length made between the three countries in 1550, England 
 giving up Boulogne in exchange for 400,000 crowns in 
 place of double that sum agreed upon in the Treaty of 
 Ardres. 
 
 Henri pursued the policy of war with the Emperor 
 inherited from his father, and for the same reasons — 
 personal jealousy, a desire to reclaim Italy and Navarre, 
 and the vaguer sense of the necessity of combating the 
 preponderance of the House of Hapsburg. With this 
 view, though so little a Reformer himself, he encouraged 
 the Lutheran Princes to resist the Emperor in Germany. 
 At Chambord, in January, 1552, he signed a treaty with 
 Maurice of Saxony and the Reformers, promising them 
 subsidies, and receiving in exchange the towns of Metz, 
 Toul, and Verdun. 
 
 Thus threatened, Charles quickly came to terms with 
 the German Lutherans. The persecution of their brethren 
 in France was not likely to keep them long friendly with 
 that country. The struggle now centred round Metz, to 
 which siege was laid in October by the Imperial army. 
 The defence was conducted with extraordinary spirit and 
 courage by Francois, now Due de Guise. Piqued by the 
 resistance of a place which was hardly fortified, Charles 
 concentrated an enormous force upon it, and came himself 
 to direct the investment. But so stubborn was the defence, 
 
222 FRANCE 
 
 so feeble the attack of his miscellaneous army, so terrible 
 the losses of a winter siege, so empty was the Imperial 
 treasury, that the Emperor was compelled to raise the 
 siege at the end of December, swearing by the wounds 
 of God at one moment that he would renounce his faith, 
 at another that he would turn Franciscan. Of 60,000 
 men, the Due de Guise reported, only 12,000 remained 
 whole and sound in the imperial army. 
 
 The vigour of Guise's action contrasted strongly with 
 the nerveless and ineffective campaigns conducted by 
 Montmorency and the King in the North-East. The 
 Constable, indeed, proved himself both cowardly and 
 incapable, and his action was almost restricted to ravaging 
 the country, whether friendly or hostile. 
 
 Meantime Charles had cemented an alUance with 
 England by the marriage of his son, Philip II. of Spain, 
 with Mary Tudor. And now, weary and worn out by 
 the cares of Empire, which he had so long and so ably 
 sustained, and which had brought him no nearer to his 
 goal, Charles, who had been preparing to abdicate and 
 to seek repose in the Monastery of San Yuste, signed a 
 truce with Henri for five years (Vaucelles, February, 
 . 1556), in which the status quo was recognized. Henri 
 broke the truce within the year. 
 
 Charles had not only ceded Italy, the Low Countries, 
 and Spain to PhiHp, but it had been agreed that the son 
 of Philip and Mary should reign over the Low Countries 
 and England, whilst Don Carlos, Phihp's son by his 
 first marriage, should inherit his Spanish possessions. 
 Thus, the frontiers of France were threatened on every 
 side by the power of her rival, who was, at the same 
 time, since he was not Emperor, free from the embarrass- 
 ment of German Protestantism. Mary Tudor, cruel and 
 vindictive, gave herself wholly to the poHcy of her 
 husband and CathoHc fanaticism. In Italy, the hot- 
 
SAINT QUENTIN 228 
 
 headed octogenarian Pope, Paul IV., found himself, with 
 the Spaniards at Milan and Naples, in a similar position 
 to Henri II. It was the inevitable policy of Pope and 
 France to combine, and to endeavour to throw the 
 Spaniards back behind the Pyrenees.* 
 
 Montmorency, indeed, was still in favour of peace, and 
 still, in spite of his miserable performance during the last 
 war, maintained his influence with the King. But the 
 Guises were eager for war, and they carried the day, the 
 King himself, so far as he counted, being inclined to the 
 exercise of arms, and not devoid of ambition. 
 
 War was declared at the beginning of 1557. The Due 
 de Guise conducted an abortive campaign in Italy. But 
 it was in the North-East of France that the day was lost. 
 Philip had not only secured the support of Mary Tudor, 
 but he was served by a soldier of real abiHty, Emmanuel- 
 Philibert, Duke of Savoy, whose object was to regain his 
 inheritance of Savoy and Piedmont, of which Fran9ois I. 
 had despoiled his father. Collecting an army of 60,000 
 men in the Netherlands, he made a feint on Champagne ; 
 then appeared unexpectedly before Saint Quentin, with his 
 English allies. Admiral Coligny threw himself into the 
 place with less than a thousand men, intending to hold it 
 until relieved by Montmorency's army. The Constable 
 came, indeed, to his relief. But he was marvellously 
 maladroit in his coming. In crossing the Somme he 
 exposed his whole flank to the enemy, and Philibert, 
 attacking his scattered troops, utterly routed them. Some 
 10,000 men were killed or wounded ; Montmorency himself 
 was amongst the 6,000 prisoners (August, 1557). 
 
 " Is my son at Paris ?" cried Charles, when the news of 
 this startHng victory reached that retired monarch in his 
 
 * M. Lemonnier, ap. Lavisse, V., ii., p. 166, thinks the renewal 
 of the war was a grave mistake, since by the Treaty of Vaucelles 
 France had retained all her conquests. He seeitfs to ignore the 
 strategical position of Spain, as suggested above. 
 
224 FRANCE 
 
 retreat at San Yuste. But Philip, who came to join the 
 army, wasted his time in besieging Saint Quentin, Ham, 
 Le Catelet. It seems certain that if he had marched 
 upon Paris, he might have dictated terms of the most 
 disastrous peace to Henri. But the Spanish ELing had 
 the defects of his cold and calculating quaUties ; he 
 lacked the fire and dash necessary for such a move. 
 M. Lemonnier, indeed, attempts to justify him, dwelHng on 
 his lack of money and provisions. But these wants were 
 not to be suppUed by besieging Saint Quentin or Ham. 
 The gallant CoUgny, knowing that the fate of France hung 
 on his efforts, made a desperate defence of the former city, 
 and held it against overwhelming odds for a fortnight, 
 before he was compelled to surrender. Paris, which had 
 been panic-stricken, was saved. Phihp, indeed, took and 
 burned Noyon in October ; but by the end of the month, 
 Fran9ois, Due de Guise, recalled from Italy, was in the 
 field to oppose him. He retired to the Low Countries, 
 and Guise, moving with celerity, secrecy, and scientific 
 precision, turned on Calais and surprised it (January 8, 
 1558), For the English, believing the place to be im- 
 pregnable, had been accustomed to leave but a small 
 garrison there through the winter. Thus the work of 
 Joan of Arc was at last completed. And the hero of 
 Metz, adding this brilhant success to his laurels, was justly 
 held by a grateful people to have atoned for his failure in 
 Italy. 
 
 The news of the taking of Calais arrived opportunely 
 for the King. In desperate straits for money, he had 
 summoned an Assembly of Notables, and demanded a 
 loan, to which exception was being taken, when the 
 happy news drowned all opposition in an outburst of 
 patriotic fervour. 
 
 Both France and Spain were financially exhausted, and 
 needed peace. In September, 1558, negotiations were 
 
ylus: Risc7if^'tz. 
 
 CATHERINE DE MEDICI, QUEEN OF HENRI II. 
 From the painting by Clouet at Chantilly. 
 
CATEAU-CAMBRfiSIS 225 
 
 begun. In April was signed the Treaty of Cateau- 
 Cambr^sis, which closed the period of the Italian wars. 
 In conducting the negotiations France was seriously 
 handicapped by the conflicting interests of Montmorency 
 and the Guises. The latter, as Henri warned Mont- 
 morency, were eager to continue the war. It had brought 
 them success, and so long as it Igisted their rival could be 
 kept in Philip's hands. That was a policy which did not 
 appeal to Montmorency. He had always been an advo- 
 cate of peace, he had proved his utter incapacity in war, 
 and he had no desire to remain a prisoner. Henri, too, 
 eager to regain the favourite on whom he relied, was not 
 less anxious for a peace which Diane de Poitiers also 
 recommended. Moreover, suggestions were thrown out for 
 an alliance between France and Spain for the suppression 
 of heresy. Mary Tudor had died, and Elizabeth had 
 ascended the English throne. It seemed to Philip — that 
 sombre and fanatical spirit — that, as the armed leader of 
 Catholicism, to crush Protestantism which was fer- 
 menting in France, spreading in the Netherlands, and 
 triumphing in Germany, England, and Scotland, would 
 not only profit the cause of the orthodox Faith, but lead 
 him, by another road, to that supremacy in Europe to 
 which he, like his father, aspired. These considerations 
 will, perhaps, explain all the provisions of the much- 
 debated Peace of Cateau-Cambresis. 
 
 France was allowed to retain Calais,* which she had 
 won from England, and the three bishoprics — Metz, Toul, 
 and Verdun — which she had taken from Germany. In 
 Italy she gave up all that she had been fighting for since 
 1494 — Savoy, Piedmont, Bugey, Bresse, Montferrat, Cor- 
 sica, the Milanese — and Marienbourg, Thionville, Dam- 
 villers, Montmedy, and the county of Charolais, in the 
 North. Such were the surrenders to which France con- 
 
 * If she paid 500,000 crowns within eight years. 
 
 ' 16 
 
226 FRANCE 
 
 sented in return for Saint Quentin, Ham, Le Catelet, 
 Therouanne. These sacrifices were bitterly resented by 
 soldiers like Monluc, Brissac, Guise. " Sire," cried the 
 latter, " you give in one day what you could not lose in 
 thirty years of reverses." "In an hour, by the stroke 
 of a pen, three or four drops of ink blackened the fruits 
 of all our splendid victories," wrote Brantome. But for 
 France there was this much of good in a treaty involving 
 unnecessary concessions — that by withdrawing from 
 Italy, recovering Calais, and securing the three bishoprics, 
 she established herself as a compact and unified kingdom 
 within her natural borders. 
 
 The treaty was sealed by two marriages. The sister 
 of Henri II., Marguerite, was to marry the Duke of 
 Savoy, Emmanuel-Philibert ; Henri's daughter Ehzabeth 
 to espouse the King of Spain. The festivities with 
 which the Court began to celebrate these alliances, and 
 perhaps to disguise the surrenders of Cateau-Cambresis, 
 resulted in the death of Henri. In June, 1559, the 
 lists were set in Paris near the Palais des Tournelles, 
 at the foot of the Bastille. For three days Princes and 
 lords tilted in the presence of the Court. At last the 
 King, wearing the colours of his lady, the white and 
 black of the widow Diane, called upon the Count of 
 Montgomery to break a lance with him. The jousters 
 met and skilfully broke their lances., But Montgomery 
 failed to throw away the fragment of the broken weapon 
 remaining in his hand, as the rule was. Carried on by 
 the impetus of the charge, his lance pierced the visor of 
 his King, and in a few days the Protestants of Europe 
 hailed the death of the persecutor as the direct interven- 
 tion of the Almighty. But it profited them little. 
 
 The rebuilding of the Louvre (1546-1581) in the style 
 of the French Renaissance, carefully following the re- 
 strained proportions of classical buildings, was begun in 
 
THE PLEIADE 227 
 
 the last year of Fran9ois I. Pierre Lescot was the archi- 
 tect ; Jean Goujon, the most famous of the sculptors em- 
 ployed upon this famous building. Their work, in style 
 and feeUng, is exactly similar to the work of the P16iade 
 in contemporary literature, the classical odes and elegies 
 in the classical language of Eonsard and Du Bellay. This 
 new movement in literature cast aside the ballads and 
 chansons of the Middle Ages as too facile for the high art 
 and severe beauty of true Poesy, which, it was maintained, 
 must be wrought in imitation of the masterpieces of Greek 
 and Roman Hterature. It was a movement in accord 
 with the spirit of an intellectual aristocracy, typical of 
 the Renaissance movement, and far removed from the 
 popular sympathy to which the chansons had appealed. 
 
XVI 
 
 THE WARS OF RELIGION 
 A.D. 1559—1589 
 
 Europe was now to become the scene of the great struggle 
 between PhiHpof Spain and Elizabeth of England, between 
 Protestantism and Catholicism in its most militant mood. 
 Whilst Elizabeth, " the woman," as Philip bitterly com- 
 plained, " possessed of a hundred thousand devils," 
 played with the statesmen of Europe and outwitted them 
 all, France, passing under the rule of Henri's young sons, 
 weakly and incapable of governing, lay at the mercy of 
 contending factions, waiting on rehgious strife, and 
 almost ceased to count in the international struggle. 
 And whilst the Council of Trent, reconstituting Catholi- 
 cism, prepared the way for a violent reaction against 
 heresy in any form, in France the Lutherans were rapidly 
 being replaced by the organized religious and political 
 body of Calvinists. 
 
 Just as beneath the religious fervour of the Crusades 
 there underlay the political and commercial idea of ex- 
 pansion in the East, and, beneath the horrible Albigensian 
 massacres, the pohtical idea of the unity of the North 
 and South, so, in the not less horrible religious wars which 
 were now to begin between Catholics and Calvinists, there 
 was the conflict of pohtical and social ideas. 
 
 Calvin at Geneva had proved himself no less intolerant 
 than the Cathohcs. His system was not confined to 
 
 228 
 
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS 229 
 
 dogma ; it was social and political as well as moral. He 
 founded both a religion and a State on a democratic but 
 highly inquisitorial and intolerant basis. From about 
 the year 1555 Lutheranism in France gave place almost 
 entirely to Calvinism. Calvin was a Frenchman ; his 
 doctrine appealed to all those who, resenting a despotic 
 government, a corrupt Court, and a pompous and mystic 
 reUgion administered by an aristocratic and indifferent 
 clergy, sighed for a pure and simple Gospel, taught by 
 ministers chosen by the people, in a State where the 
 governed elected their own governors, and exacted from 
 them the practice of the moraUty which they preached. 
 The spectacle of such a Christian Commonwealth seemed 
 to be presented to their longing gaze across the border 
 at Geneva. In fact, however, as the inspired head of a 
 revealed reHgion, Calvin from Geneva affirmed the prin- 
 ciple of authority, and exacted a submission no less blind 
 and absolute than the Pope himself. 
 
 Throughout his reign, Henri II. had opposed the spread 
 of the Reformation. But the Reformers, who had hitherto 
 been drawn mainly from the ranks of the lower middle 
 classes, now began to count among their converts men and 
 women of social and poUtical importance, and to develop 
 an organization. 
 
 The new King, Frangois II., was an ailing lad of fifteen. 
 He was completely under the influence of the lively and 
 attractive girl-Queen, whom he had married the year 
 before. Mary Stuart, now, at the age of seventeen, in 
 the full exercise of her rare personal charm, her wit, her 
 gaiety, and her beauty, threw herself heedlessly into the life 
 and pleasures of the brilliant French Court. Surrounded 
 by poets, artists, men of science, and men of pleasure, who 
 held the cup of enjoyment brimming to her sensuous Hps, 
 she thought there could be no better plan than for her 
 feeble husband to cast the cares of State upon the 
 
230 FRANCE 
 
 shoulders of her haughty and powerful uncles — the great 
 soldier, Fran9ois, Due de Guise, and the ambitious bigot, 
 Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine.* The support of the Queen- 
 mother, whose ambition no one yet suspected, was easily 
 secured by the Guises. They sacrificed to her vengeance 
 Diane de Poitiers. At last Catherine de' Medici was able to 
 turn upon the rival whom she had been obliged to endure 
 for the whole of her married life. She compelled Diane to 
 quit Paris, to give up all the jewels of the Crown, and to 
 accept Chaumont instead of the exquisite chateau of 
 Chenonceaux, which Catherine coveted. The aged Con- 
 stable, Montmorency, was then dismissed. He joined 
 the Huguenots, as the Protestants were called, with whom 
 indeed many nobles and soldiers, offended by the haughty 
 manners and sole dominion of the Guises, now threw in 
 their lot. 
 
 And thus, just at the time when the persecution of the 
 Protestants became more savage, their numbers were 
 increased by the accession of many men of a class and 
 temper not likely to submit to the stake with the Chris- 
 tian humility and enthusiasm that had characterized the 
 first martyrs. The Huguenots became, therefore, more 
 and more a political party, and were committed to all 
 those acts of violence and intrigue to which a persecuted 
 opposition is so often driven. They counted amongst 
 their leaders the three Coligny brothers, of whom the 
 Admiral Cohgny stands out as perhaps the noblest figure 
 in these stormy times, and the Princes of the Blood — 
 Antoine de Bourbon, Kiag of Navarre, and his brother, 
 Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, whose place as 
 advisers of the King had been usurped by the Guises. A 
 meeting was held at Nantes in February, 1 560, of Protestants 
 from all parts of the country. They declared themselves 
 
 * The House of Guise was a younger branch of the Ducal 
 House of Lorraine. 
 
THE AMBOISE PLOT 231 
 
 the representatives of the people, and a plot was formed 
 to seize the Guises, and to demand from the King the 
 reformation of Church and State. The Court was 
 travelling from Blois to Amboise, when information 
 of the scheme reached the ears of the Guises. Incredulous 
 at first, they presently cut short their journey, and shut 
 themselves up with the King in the strong castle of 
 Amboise. 
 
 Thus well prepared, the Duke of Guise laid his plans 
 with great skill. He wished to draw on his enemies to 
 commit themselves. It had been arranged that a com- 
 bined attack should be made upon the castle on March 16 
 by various bands of conspirators converging from the 
 neighbourhood. It was made, but failed, for traitors in 
 the camp had kept the Duke acquainted with each step 
 in the plot. Then the Guises took the oJGfensive. The woods 
 were scoured. Swarms of cavalry were sent in pursuit, 
 and brought back troops of prisoners. The Duke of Guise 
 had promised pardon to all conspirators who returned 
 peaceably to their houses (March 17). But the number 
 of the prisoners, and their defence, for aU declared their 
 loyalty to the King, and that their grievance was against 
 his Ministers, caused him to change his tactics to a course 
 of bloody revenge. The prisoners were either executed 
 on the spot, or thrown into the Loire in sacks. The 
 castle battlements were crowned with the heads of the 
 victims. And the King and Queen and Ladies of the 
 Court found amusement in watching these scenes of 
 blood. 
 
 But the Guises could not be content unless they struck 
 down the leaders of the movement. The Prince de Conde 
 alone was implicated by confessions wrung from the lips 
 of prisoners by torture. The Prince proudly claimed 
 /the right to clear himself of suspicion. A Court was 
 held, and Conde, disdaining to defend himself except as a 
 
232 FRANCE 
 
 knight, challenged his accuser to appear and prove 
 in single combat which of the twain was traitor. Guise 
 arose, but not to accept the challenge. He proposed 
 himself as the Prince's second, should anyone dare to 
 take up the gauntlet so gallantly flung down. 
 
 In truth, the violence of Amboise had caused something 
 of a reaction against the favourites, and this was the 
 moment skilfully chosen by Catherine de' Medici to begin 
 to assert herself. She appointed Michel de I'Hopital 
 Chancellor, and coquetted with a policy of compromise 
 and reconciUation. Thus encouraged, at an Assembly of 
 Notables held at Fontainebleau, Coligny and the Protestant 
 leaders boldly demanded toleration, and the summoning 
 of the States General. It was, indeed, decided to summon 
 them. But the boldness of the Protestants on this occa- 
 sion and the intrigues of the Bourbons, who attempted 
 to seize Lyons and convert it into a stronghold of rebel- 
 lion, induced Catherine to join hands with the Guises, and 
 to return to a policy of violence. Reinforced by troops 
 set free through the failure of Catholicism in Scotland 
 (Treaty of Edinburgh, 1560), Guise massed troops in 
 Orleans, where the States General had been summoned 
 to meet. The King of Navarre and the Prince de Conde 
 were summoned to attend. 
 
 To refuse was to declare war. Navarre, always 
 anxious for his kingdom, and never wilUng to fight in the 
 open, yielded, much to the indignation and disgust of 
 the Reformers. The Bourbons entered the armed camp 
 of the Catholics. Conde was at once arrested. He had 
 been condemned to death when the King fell mortally 
 ill. The future King, Charles IX., was but ten years old. 
 Catherine used the occasion with a terrible coolness. 
 IntelUgent, energetic, endowed with all the artistic tastes, 
 political ability and unscrupulousness of the Italian 
 despots from whom she sprang, this extraordinary 
 
CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 233 
 
 woman, at the age of forty-one, emerged from the role of 
 complaisant wife and devoted mother, and won her way, 
 as Regent, to the sole direction of affairs. For, as the 
 price of his own life and that of his brother, she induced 
 the King of Navarre to forgo his claim, as first Prince of 
 the Blood, to the coming Regency. The Guises fell from 
 power, and Mary Stuart, her reign over, bade adieu to 
 the dear land of France she would never see again (Decem- 
 ber, 1560). 
 
 In the new Assembly which Catherine had to meet, 
 the three Orders, elected separately, dehberated separ- 
 ately. All were agreed as to the need of reform in the 
 administration of the State, and of lowering the taxes, 
 though the Treasury was immensely in debt. But as to 
 reform of the Church or freedom of conscience they were 
 pretty equally divided. The States were prorogued 
 January, 1561, and an ordinance was issued granting some 
 of their demands, which was soon revoked. But what 
 ^vas of more importance, Catherine and her Chancellor, 
 I'Hopital, declared themselves for a policy of toleration, 
 and made an effort to heal the sores of the kingdom by 
 this remedy. Unhappily, the remedy provoked a worse 
 outbreak of the disease. The Protestants demanded 
 liberty of worship as well as Uberty of conscience. The 
 horrified Cathohcs replied by sanctioning the Order 
 of Jesuits, founded by Loyola for the defence of the 
 Faith, and regarded hitherto with suspicion, owing to 
 its Spanish origin and its vow of absolute obedience 
 to the Pope. Guise, reconciUng himself to his enemies, 
 formed a " Triumvirate " with the Constable de Mont- 
 morency, and the Marshal Saint-Andre, and sought the 
 aid of PhiUp of Spain in defence of the Catholic religion. 
 Navarre, anxious for his kingdom, joined them. 
 
 Under the regime of tolerance, the Protestants had 
 enormously increased in numbers — some said that they in- 
 
234 FRANCE 
 
 eluded a quarter of the kingdom. Catherine seems to have 
 thought that they were the part}^ of the future, and, being 
 swayed more by poUtical considerations than rehgious 
 passion, she decided to encourage them. In January, 1 562, 
 a decree was passed permitting them to worship outside 
 the walls of a town — a " Five-Mile Act," which amounted, 
 comparatively, to a charter of hberty. 
 
 On a Sunday in March the Duke of Guise was passing 
 through the little town of Vassy when he heard that the 
 Huguenots were worshipping in a barn within sound of 
 the church. He approached to rebuke them, and was 
 received with a volley of stones. His escort turned upon 
 the assailants, and slew or wounded the greater part of 
 the congregation. The CathoUcs celebrated this mas- 
 sacre as a victory The Huguenots, with Conde and 
 the Admiral Coligny at their head, flew to arms, de- 
 manding justice. Guise seized the Queen-mother and 
 King, and carried them to CathoHc Paris. Catherine, 
 compelled to give up all hope of compromise, wept with 
 rage, and stood forth as the leader of the CathoUcs, since 
 they held her captive. So began the war which was to 
 deluge France with blood for over thirty years. 
 
 Whilst Philip of Spain helped the Catholics, Elizabeth 
 of England sent aid to Conde. 
 
 The first stage of this war, in which each sect strove to 
 exterminate the other, was brought to a close by the 
 Battle of Dreux (December, 1562), when Conde, having 
 taken Montmorency prisoner, was himself made captive by 
 Guise, and by the murder of Guise by a Huguenot fanatic, 
 named Poltrot de Mere, when he was besieging Orleans 
 in the following February. Coligny, whom the Guises 
 always regarded as the instigator of this murder, was 
 probably innocent, but he acclaimed the event as a mani- 
 festation of the love of God for his Church. Catherine, 
 now head of the Catholic party, whose strength and popu- 
 
EDICT OF AMBOISE 236 
 
 larity were clear to her, made peace with Conde (March, 
 1563). The Edict of Amboise granted full hberty of 
 worship to the Protestants within the towns which they 
 held at that time, but otherwise gave greater freedom of 
 conscience to the nobles and gentry than to the bourgeois 
 and peasant. It was regarded by many Huguenots, there- 
 fore, as a betrayal of their interests, whilst the Pope 
 denounced it as a shameful surrender. 
 
 Catherine endeavoured to maintain peace by enhancing 
 the prestige of the King, who had now reached his 
 majority, and by charming the discontented nobles with 
 the attractions of a gay and brilliant Court, and the 
 seductions of her " flying squadron " pf beautiful maids 
 of honour. Conde himself fell a victim for a while to such 
 snares. 
 
 But so artificial a calm could not be long maintained. 
 The Protestants, goaded by resentment at the curtail- 
 ment of their promised and past privileges through a 
 series of edicts, and by distrust of troops raised by the 
 Court on flimsy pretext, resorted once more to arms. Led 
 by Coligny, they made an attempt in September, 1567, 
 to seize the person of the King by surprise at Meaux. They 
 failed. But priests were butchered in the South, and a 
 demand was raised for the summoning of the States 
 General. Paris was besieged. The Constable de Mont- 
 morency was killed in a skirmish at St. Denis. But the 
 Protestants could not sustain the war. In March, 1568, 
 the Peace of Longjumeau renewed the Edict of Amboise. 
 
 But the attempt at Meaux had ruined the cause of 
 toleration. Michel de I'Hopital, who had always sup- 
 ported it, fell from power. 
 
 It is thought that both Philip of Spain and Catherine, 
 when driven to abandon her policy of tolerance, had for 
 some time instilled into the mind of the young King 
 the idea, not hard to believe in face of the attitude 
 
236 FRANCE 
 
 of the Huguenots, that the safety of the Crown depended 
 upon the success of CathoHcism. The power of the Duke 
 of Lorraine, representing the extreme CathoHc reaction, 
 was re-esta^bhshed. His protege, the Duke of Anjou, 
 Catherine's favourite son, took the field when, a few 
 months after the Peace of Longjumeau, resort was had 
 once more to arms. In a battle at Jarnac (March, 1569), 
 Conde paid for his courage with his life. The loss of 
 their brave leader, who represented also the protest of 
 the Royal Blood against the King's advisers, might well 
 have proved fatal to the cause of the Protestants had 
 not the Queen of Navarre brought to their camp her young 
 son, Henri of Beam (the future Henri IV.), and Louis II. 
 de Bourbon, the young Prince of Conde. The presence 
 of these lads, as the pages of Admiral Coligny, put new 
 heart into the Huguenots. Yet again they were defeated, 
 at Moncontour (October, 1569), and still their resistance 
 continued as stubborn and implacable as ever. At La 
 Rochelle, in Provence, Languedoc, and Beam, Catherine 
 saw the party, which such victories had promised to crush, 
 raise its head undiminished, bloody, but not bowed. She 
 returned to her old policy of conciliation. The House of 
 Lorraine and the Catholic zealots were disgraced. By 
 the Peace of St .-Germain (August 8, 1570), the Protes- 
 tants were granted liberty of worship in the suburbs of 
 two towns in each province, and in all places where the 
 reformed religion had been established before the war. 
 Was this peace, to be violated so soon and so terribly, a 
 mere trap to secure the disarmament of the Huguenots, 
 in order to their extermination ? The theory has been 
 advanced by the panegyrists of Catherine's Machiavellian 
 wisdom. Nothing but the event is in favour of this view. 
 In pursuance, it seems, of the more statesmanlike policy 
 of peace and toleration, Catherine tried to form Protes- 
 tant alliances by marrying the Duke of Anjou to Elizabeth 
 
ADMIRAL COLIGNY 237 
 
 of England, and Marguerite de Valois* to Henri of 
 Navarre. Meantime, Admiral Coligny was received with 
 favour at Court, and Charles IX., asserting his ambition to 
 be freed of his mother's apron-strings, was induced to 
 favour the idea of intervening on behalf of the Protestants 
 of the Low Countries against Philip of Spain. To secure 
 domestic peace by using the energies of his Protestant 
 followers to enlarge the boundaries of France through the 
 acquisition of the Spanish Netherlands, or by colonization 
 in America, was a scheme eminently worthy of the stead- 
 fast purpose and patriotic spirit of CoHgny. But the 
 King was weak and impulsive ; the Catholic extremists 
 would have preferred the success of Spain to that of the 
 Huguenots, and Catherine feared the might of Spain. 
 Yet the determination of Cohgny was fixed. His influence 
 over Charles was so great that, in spite of the opposition 
 of Catherine and the Council, he obliged him to commit 
 himself more and more to the poHcy of supporting the 
 Prince of Orange and the Huguenots in the Netherlands. 
 Such success, in opposition to such a woman, was the 
 signing of his own death-warrant. A few days later, 
 after consultation with the Guises and the Duke of Anjou, 
 she arranged with Madame de Nemours that Cohgny 
 should be assassinated. The plot miscarried, for he was 
 only wounded (August 22, 1572). The King was furious, 
 and insisted that justice should be done. Paris was full of 
 Huguenots — gentlemen who had come to celebrate the 
 nuptials of Catherine' s unwilling daughter and the King of 
 Navarre. They demanded justice, and threatened to 
 exact it. The complicity of the Guises was suspected. 
 Civil war seemed once more inevitable. The position of 
 Catherine, if her guilt were revealed, would be fatally 
 compromised. She determined to hide her guilt, and to 
 
 * The King's third sister. She had given her love to the 
 young Duke of Gruise. 
 
238 FRANCE 
 
 destroy the power of the Huguenots at one blow by a 
 general massacre of the Protestants and then* leaders. 
 In conjunction with Henri, Duke of Anjou, the Queen- 
 mother played upon the fears of the wretched King. He 
 had proclaimed his loyalty to Coligny. She warned him 
 that the Protestants were arming in the city, reminded 
 him that it was Coligny who had made the attempt to 
 seize him at Meaux. 
 
 With cunning boldness she confessed that she and 
 Henri were impUcated in the attempt upon the Admiral's 
 life, and added that the Huguenots, aware of this, were 
 preparing to take a terrible revenge upon the King and 
 Court. The Admiral must be killed, and the other 
 Protestant leaders. In an access of rage and terror the 
 wretched King gave his consent. " Kill all the Huguenots 
 in France," he cried at last, " that there may not be one 
 left to reproach me." His orders were readily obeyed. 
 The dawn of St. Bartholomew's Day (August 24) was 
 greeted by the ringing of all the church bells in Paris. 
 The Duke of Guise and his followers beset the house 
 where the wounded Coligny lay, and despatched him. 
 And throughout the city, in the Louvre itself, the mur- 
 derous work went on ; all through that night, all through 
 the week, the horrible butchery of men and women of all 
 ages continued. Hardly were the King of Navarre and 
 the Prince de Cond6 themselves spared. The King 
 granted them their lives only on condition that they 
 changed their religion. And the massacre, begun by the 
 maddened Catholics in Paris, was pursued in the Provinces 
 with a bloodthirstiness not less shocking. Between 
 20,000 and 100,000 Protestants — the numbers are natur- 
 ally uncertain — thus met their deaths. 
 
 A solemn service of thanksgiving was held at St. Peter's, 
 at Rome, for this " great victory of the Church." But 
 the victory was not so great as had appeared. Paralyzed 
 
ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY 239 
 
 for a moment, the Huguenots rallied. La Rochelle 
 successfully sustained a siege. The Duke of Anjou, 
 chosen King of Poland, could no longer wage war against 
 the Protestants. A treaty was made, granting liberty of 
 worship to Nimes, Montauban, and La Rochelle (July, 
 1573). The destruction of the Huguenot leaders had 
 left Catherine face to face with the people. They knew no 
 compromise, and were beyond the reach of her diplomacy. 
 And these steadfast Protestants were now reinforced by a 
 growing party of Moderates — Politiques, as they were 
 called — liberal-minded Catholics, who were disgusted by 
 the atrocities of St. Bartholomew's Day, and desired the 
 establishment of order through reHgious tolerance. They 
 espoused, in fact, the pohcy which Catherine had deserted. 
 Her violence, by stimulating this moderate party, actually 
 helped to bring about the final settlement of this long, 
 disastrous struggle. 
 
 Charles IX. had died in 1574, his last hours haunted, 
 and his end perhaps hastened, by the vision of the horrors 
 he had witnessed and promoted, but for which his mother 
 was really responsible He was succeeded by Catherine's 
 favourite son, Henri III., the most contemptible of all 
 her vicious brood. Well-meaning, indeed, cultivated 
 and voluble, but weak, effeminate, perverted, this de- 
 generate man-Queen, or woman-King — men doubted 
 which to dub him — with his painted face, his female airs 
 and finery, and his company of lapdogs and handsome 
 youths, his mignons, was a fit conclusion to the tainted 
 race of Valois joined to the blood of Medici. Devout in 
 the intervals of debauchery, he placed himself at the 
 head of the Catholic extremists. 
 
 Henri of Navarre, a man so different, so courageous, 
 quick of brain, and virile, escaped from his detention at 
 Paris during a hunting-party at the beginning of 1676. 
 He resumed the Protestant faith, and his adherents flocked 
 
240 FRANCE 
 
 to the " Whit6 Plume " he wore so gallantly upon the field 
 of battle. In concert with the Duke of Alenyon, heir to 
 the throne, who was the leader of the Politiques, they soon 
 wrung from Henri '' the Peace of Monsieur "* (May, 1576). 
 The Reformers were granted full Uberty of worship every- 
 where, except in Paris. 
 
 So great a concession roused the CathoHc zealots to 
 fury. A Holy League of irreconcilables was formed, 
 bound to spare neither friend nor foe till the hated heresy 
 was extirpated. The Pope and Philip of Spain applauded 
 their determination, and promised them support, whilst at 
 home the Catholic Parisians found in Henri of Guise, 
 a leader capable of stirring them to the wildest enthusiasm. 
 In him they saw a possible successor to the throne in place 
 of the hated Protestant, Henri of Navarre. For 
 Henri III. was childless, and the Duke d'Alenyon might 
 die, as he did in 1584. 
 
 The Estates met at Blois (1576), and an interdict was 
 laid upon the Protestant rehgion. Once more the 
 Huguenots sprang to arms. With unflagging cheerful- 
 ness, unceasing courage, unfailing skill, Henri of Navarre, 
 called Balafre, for he bore the scars of battle on his face, 
 led the followers of the White Plume against the heavy 
 odds of the fanatical Ligue, backed by Spain and Rome. 
 So for years he maintained the unequal fight, sharing the 
 hardships of the campaigns with his followers, and 
 rewarded by smaU successes, and at last, in 1587, by one 
 great victory at Coutras. On the other side, the feebleness 
 and failure of the King only served to heighten the popu- 
 larity of Guise, who had gained some slight successes on 
 the frontier, and followed them up with ruthless energy. 
 The Ligueurs exploited the emotion felt by the Catholics 
 at the news of the execution of Mary Stuart. In defiance 
 of the King's orders. Guise entered Paris, and was received 
 * The title of the King's eldest brother. 
 
ASSASSINATION OF GUISE 241 
 
 with enthusiasm by the populace. The train was laid ; 
 the match was set to it by the appearance of some 
 Swiss soldiers whom Henri III. introduced in order to 
 overawe the citizens. The mob flew to arms. Barri- 
 cades were erected in the streets, isolating the Swiss 
 pickets. The Royal troops were attacked, and would 
 have been overwhelmed had not Henri appealed to Guise 
 to save them. " The King of Paris " responded gallantly, 
 whilst the King of France fled to Chartres (May, 1588). 
 He now signed the Edict of the Union, in which he com- 
 pletely capitulated to the League. Granting an amnesty 
 to Paris, he swore to banish heresy from the kingdom, and 
 bade his subjects swear that they would never accept as 
 King a heretic, or one that favoured heretics. He ap- 
 pointed the Duke of Guise Lieutenant-General. The 
 States General met at Blois in October. They soon 
 showed that the influence of Guise was supreme with 
 them, and showed it by humiUating the King still further. 
 It was not without provocation, then, that the galled, 
 neurotic creature determined to rid himself of this insolent 
 Duke. 
 
 Guise received several warnings. " He would not 
 dare," was his contemptuous reply. On December 23 
 he was struck down and done to death in the presence of 
 the King. Next day his brother, the Cardinal, was 
 killed, and several members of the States General were 
 arrested. " Mother," said the King to Catherine, who 
 lay on her death-bed in this appropriate atmosphere of 
 blood, " I am King again." *' God grant you have not 
 made yourself King of nothing," repUed that wise woman. 
 Henri thought that by killing Guise he had crushed the 
 League. In fact, seeing now that a J^rotestant was heir 
 to the throne, and that its occupant was opposed to them, 
 the bigoted Catholics of Paris became frankly revolu- 
 tionary, anti-monarchical, and anti-national. 
 
 16 
 
242 FRANCE 
 
 The Duke of Mayenne, the brother of the murdered 
 Guise, was elected Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. 
 Hemri was excommunicated by the Pope. Nothing was 
 wanting but a formal deposition of the King, when, in 
 despair, he turned to his cousin, Henri of Navarre, for 
 aid. Royalists and Huguenots joined forces and marched 
 upon Paris, and laid siege to the headquarters of the 
 League. For it was clear to Navarre that the success of 
 the League meant his own exclusion from the throne, and 
 the prolongation of civil and rehgious war. Within 
 Paris a Council of Sixteen was set up, a sort of Committee 
 of PubUc Safety, which sought, by means of terrorism, to 
 assert its authority throughout France. Without the 
 walls, these curious democrats called in the aid of Spain, 
 whilst a fanatic monk, Jacques Clement, under pretence 
 of presenting a letter to him, stabbed to death the King 
 who had betrayed Cathohcism. So died Henri III., 
 naming as his successor Henri of Navarre (August, 1589). 
 
XVII 
 
 HENRI IV. 
 A.D. 1589—1610 
 
 A King in the prime of life, hardy, affable, gallant, with 
 a sane mind in a sane body, had come to replace the 
 diseased and degenerate Valois stock. But the first of 
 the Bourbons* must win his way to the throne as a soldier. 
 All the large towns still clung to the League. Henri 
 could not attempt to take Paris. After an indecisive 
 campaign in Normandy, where Mayenne besieged him 
 at Arques, he fixed his headquarters at Tours. He 
 proved his energy by a winter campaign, which placed 
 Normandy in his hands. Mayenne was compelled to 
 action by the clamour of the Parisians. Reinforced by 
 some troops sent by the Duke of Parma, for Phihp of 
 Spain had openly joined the Leaguers and called upon all 
 CathoUc Princes to extirpate the heretics, he marched to 
 the rehef of Dreux, which Henri was besieging. The 
 King, though his army was largely outnumbered, deter- 
 mined to force a decisive engagement. He could not 
 afford delay. For money was scarce, and his soldiers a 
 motley crowd of Enghsh, French, Germans, and Swiss. 
 He chose his battle-ground between Anet and Ivry, on 
 the banks of the Eure. At first victory seemed to declare 
 for the CathoHcs. Then Henri turned to his followers. 
 "Comrades," he cried, "God is for us. There are His 
 
 ♦ See Appendix. 
 248 
 
244 FRANCE 
 
 enemies and ours. Here is your King ! At them ! If 
 your ensign fails you, rally round my white plume ; you 
 will find it in the path of victory and honour." The 
 famous speech was as characteristic as true. After a 
 desperate hand-to-hand fight, the enemy fled. Henri 
 himseK pursued Mayenne to the very gates of Mantes 
 (March 14, 1590). 
 
 In May he invested Paris. It was impossible, with 
 his small army of 12,000 men, to assault a city which 
 could boast a garrison of 50,000, and was so fired with 
 warhke reUgious enthusiasm that even the monks formed 
 themselves into regiments for the defence. Henri there- 
 fore decided to reduce the capital by famine. But for 
 four months Paris held out, existing on one month's 
 provisions. Henri showed both his humanity and 
 his pohtical wisdom in allowing some six thousand 
 starving poor to escape. " Paris must not become a 
 graveyard," he said. "I do not wish to reign over 
 the dead." The same moderation had always distin- 
 guished him in the hour of victory. After Coutras he 
 had treated his prisoners with kindness, and only de- 
 manded the re-enactment of the Edict of 1577. At Ivry 
 he had urged his men to spare the French nobihty. He 
 never forgot that his foes were one day to be his subjects. 
 But the siege cost the lives of some 50,000 persons. So 
 desperate was the position that Paris was on the point 
 of yielding when the Duke of Parma with his Spanish 
 soldiers entered France, and, drawing off Henri's army, 
 enabled the place to be revictualled. 
 
 The siege and its relief made two things clear. First, to 
 Henri, that in the face of such intense fanaticism he could 
 never reign, as Henri III. had warned him with his dying 
 breath, except as a Catholic ; secondly, to patriotic 
 CathoHcs, that their resistance must depend upon foreign 
 aid. The more fanatical, indeed, were willing, upon the 
 
" PARIS WORTH A MASS " 245 
 
 death of "Charles X." (1590), to entertain the preten- 
 sions of Philip, to set aside the Salic law, the prophylactic 
 of French patriotism, and to recognize the Infanta of 
 Spain as the Queen of France. On every side, in fact, 
 claimants appeared to the vacant Catholic throne, and 
 on every frontier foreign vultures gathered to devour 
 the carcass of the expiring kingdom. To a man with 
 the broad mind and deep patriotism of Henri of Navarre, 
 it became obvious that the only way to save the realm 
 was for him to turn Catholic and to secure toleration for 
 the Protestants. He took that step of supreme poHtical 
 wisdom and courage. On May 16, 1593, he announced 
 his intention of abjuring his religion. " Paris," he said, 
 in one of those striking phrases which endeared him to 
 a people ever susceptible to an epigram, " was well 
 worth a Mass." And in gaining Paris, which received 
 him with the wildest enthusiasm, he had gained France. 
 Since Rheims was in the hands of Guise, he chose to be 
 consecrated at that other great Catholic shrine, Chartres 
 (February 27, 1594). 
 
 If the League had failed, Catholicism had won. And 
 with it the Monarchy. The Parisian revolutionists, the 
 democrats of town and country with whom Guise had 
 intrigued, had been discredited by their failure and by 
 their alliances with the foreigner. The monarchy under 
 Henri IV. was once again revealed as the symbol of 
 French unity and patriotism, and, as it seemed, the only 
 possible form of strong centraHzed administration. And 
 this, rather than constitutional government, was always 
 the thing dearest to the heart of the French people. 
 
 Henri at once set himseK to restore the unity and 
 prosperity of the country by a policy of pacification, of 
 financial reform, and of opposition to the foreigner. The 
 extremists still regarded him with suspicion ; and of the 
 extremists none were more suspect than the company of 
 
246 FRANCE 
 
 Jesuits, whose Spanish origin, their absolute devotion to 
 Rome, and their wealth alike rendered them obnoxious 
 to the Gallicans. Two attempts to assassinate Henri 
 were made by men who were proved to have been 
 instigated by the regicide doctrines taught bj^ the 
 Jesuits. The Society was banished from France as 
 " corruptors of youth, disturbers of the public peace, 
 and enemies of the King and State " (1595). 
 
 Henri received absolution from the Pope in Sep- 
 tember, 1595. In the beginning of this year, when he 
 was sure of being reconciled to the Holy See, he had 
 decided to change the civil war into a national one by 
 declaring war against Spain, and driving the foreigner 
 out of France. In spite of his vigour and personal valour, 
 he met with reverses at the hands of the Spaniards and 
 Ligueurs. But the Ligueurs were rapidly coming over 
 to his side. In October Mayenne made his submission. 
 Provence, too, was pacified. And though the next two 
 years saw the Spaniards still successful in the field, their 
 success in seizing Calais threw EKzabeth upon his side. 
 By a great effort Henri recaptured Amiens, then found 
 himself without money and without men. Luckily Spain 
 also was at the end of her resources, and if she gained 
 successes, it was none the less clear that she could not 
 conquer France. The Pope intervened. He could not 
 view with equanimity these two Catholic Powers ex- 
 hausting each other in the presence of the prosperous 
 Protestant countries. Henri threw over his Dutch and 
 EngHsh allies, and a peace was signed at Vervins, May, ^ 
 1598, which renewed that of Cateau-Cambresis. 
 
 The Treaty of Vervins marked the beginning of the 
 decline of Spain, of the failure of Philip's ideal of universal 
 empire, in face of French resistance and English seaman- 
 ship. It was preceded by a few weeks by the Peace of 
 Nantes,- which marks the end of the Wars of ReUgion and 
 
THE EDICT OF NANTES 
 
 247 
 
 the beginning of an era of toleration. The Edict of 
 Nantes, signed by Henri, April 13, 1598, was a charter 
 of the rights of Protestants to freedom of conscience. 
 
 HENRI OF B^ARN, KING OF NAVARRE. 
 
 {From a drawing in the BibliotMque Nationdle,) 
 
 They were granted liberty of public worship in two 
 places in every baillage or senechaussee, and in all places 
 where it already existed. Full civil rights were granted 
 
248 FRANCE 
 
 to all Protestants, and, as a guarantee, they were allowed 
 to retain complete control of the 200 cities which they 
 still held. 
 
 It was, said the Pope, the most accursed edict imagin- 
 able. 
 
 And now that peace was restored, Henri turned to the 
 no less difficult task of curing the ruin and desolation 
 which France had suffered from the wars and massacres 
 perpetrated in the name of religion. The Minister whom 
 he chose to help him in this endeavour was a man of strong 
 sense, sound business instincts, and a soldier of high 
 courage — a Protestant named Maximilian de Bethune, 
 afterwards Duke of Sully. Sully, says M. Duruy happily, 
 was neither a Colbert nor a Bayard, but he had some of 
 the qualities of both. As Superintendent of the Finances, 
 by reorganizing the methods of collecting the taxes and 
 checking the accounts, he put an end to peculation, and 
 produced order out of the most terrible chaos. His mea- 
 sures were not heroic ; though he encouraged agriculture 
 by wise measures, he had not the clear vision to perceive, 
 like his royal master, the importance of commerce and 
 manufactures ; but, as the result of fifteen years of honest 
 and capable administration, he could point to a reserve 
 of miUions stored in the cellars of the Bastille, in place of 
 a bankrupt treasury. 
 
 Henri's saying that he wished every peasant to have 
 a fowl in his pot on Sundays was typical of the humanity 
 and bonhomie of the man, but he did not attempt to 
 hasten the realization of his ideal by curtailing the ex- 
 travagance of his Court. The reign of the Mignons was 
 succeeded by that of a series of mistresses. But they 
 were never allowed to influence him in affairs. Queen 
 Margot had not atoned to her unwilling mate by pre- 
 senting him with an heir. Henri was glad to rid himself 
 by a divorce from that dissolute woman. He then married 
 
PACIFICATION 249 
 
 Marie de' Medici, who became the mother of Louis 
 XIII. 
 
 Constitutionally, Henri was to be satisfied with nothing 
 less than absolute sovereignty. He reduced the Council, 
 which under the last Valois had been open to Princes of 
 the Blood, Cardinals, Bishops, Grands Seigneurs, and 
 favourites, to a select body of twelve men chosen for their 
 abihty. He quickly forgot his promise to summon the 
 States General. Nor did the people, contented with the 
 prudent administration of Sully, raise any great outcry. 
 
 Neither this absolutism, nor the pacification of the 
 country, was achieved in a day. There were Protestants 
 and Catholics alike among the malcontents, Protestants 
 who would be content with nothing less than the repubU- 
 canism of Calvin, Catholics imbued with the doctrines of 
 the Jesuits, or nobles determined to revive the influence 
 of their Order. The gens dfepee were ill-pleased to see 
 the power of the State passing from their hands, and 
 being transferred to the officers of the King, the gens de 
 robe. The nobles, indeed, impoverished and demoralized 
 by the events of the last century, tended to leave their 
 lands, and to depend more and more upon the patronage 
 of the Court. It was a tendency which could not but 
 increase the latent hostility of the peasants towards their 
 lords — hostility which occasionally broke out into actual 
 violent demonstrations of revolt. The great nobles, on 
 the other hand, approached Henri with a proposal that 
 the present Governors of Provinces should be allowed to 
 hold them in fief, and transmit them to their descendants. 
 It was to renew the feudal system. Henri angrily re fused. 
 Not that it was his way to be angry or severe, save in 
 extremities. He won over many by his frank and amiable 
 leniency. Typical of his temper was his reception of the 
 Duke of Mayenne, when he came to offer his submission 
 in 1 596. Engaging him in conversation, he walked rapidly 
 
250 FRANCE 
 
 up and down the garden in the heat. The fat Duke puffed 
 and panted after his athletic King. "It is the only 
 revenge I ever mean to take for your disloyalty," laughed 
 Henri. 
 
 But some malcontents were irreconcilable. Amongst 
 them was the Marshal de Biron, an old comrade in arms, 
 who had tried both religions, and discarded them in favour 
 of astrology — a man of morbid vanity, ambition, and 
 jealousy. Flattered by the Spaniards, tempted by the 
 promise of Burgundy as his reward, recognized as the 
 leader of the Catholic malcontents, he entered into 
 traitorous agreements with the Duke of Savoy, and, when 
 Henri made war on that Prince, he endeavoured to com- 
 pass the death of the King by leading him within range 
 of the enemy's guns during the siege of the Fort St. 
 Catherine. Henri, aware of his intrigues, made every 
 effort to induce him to confess his treachery and to renew 
 his loyalty. But Biron persisted in his treason. He was 
 arrested, tried before the Parlement, and beheaded. In 
 this treason, both Henri's mistress, Henriette d'En- 
 tr agues, and her half-brother, the Comte d'Auvergne, a 
 bastard of Charles IX., were concerned. 
 
 After the death of Gabrielle d'Estrees (1599), to whom 
 he was passionately devoted, and before he married Marie 
 de' Medici, Henri had fallen violently in love with 
 Henriette. Before yielding to her royal lover, she had ex- 
 torted a written promise from him that, if she had a son 
 within the year, he would marry her. Her child was still- 
 born. But a second, a son, had been born about the 
 same time as the Dauphin. It would seem that the 
 Entragues were anxious to get rid of Henri, and to push 
 the claims of their descendant. Henri, however, con- 
 tented himself with punishing Biron, and forgave the 
 Count' of 'Auvergne. But the Entragues renewed their 
 treasonable plotting with the Spaniards. They were 
 
THE " GEEAT DESIGN " 251 
 
 seized, tried, and condemned to death. So enamoured, 
 however, was Henri that he forgave his mistress, and, 
 after withdrawing the famous written promise, commuted 
 the sentence of Auvergne to imprisonment in the Bastille 
 (1605). 
 
 Writing in his old age, and in the light of Richelieu's 
 achievements, Sully* ascribed to Henry IV. the con- 
 ception of a " Great Design," which has been taken au 
 serieux by many historians, and has prompted the praise 
 its author intended. Henri is credited, shortly after the 
 Peace of Vervins, with having arranged with Elizabeth of 
 England to " liberate " Christian Europe, and to organize 
 therein fifteen States, in which free and public worship 
 should be allowed to CathoHcism, the Augsburg Con- 
 fession, and Calvinism. Any differences between these 
 States were to be settled by periodical Congresses. 
 Christianity, thus at last assured of perpetual peace, 
 was to join forces to expel the Turk from Europe. The 
 Great Design is the afterthought of an imaginative hero- 
 worshipper. Henri was prudent, practical, pacific, con- 
 cerned with the immediate necessity rather than the 
 vague ideal, with prompt results rather than distant 
 possibilities. But if we cannot credit such a man with 
 the imaginative poHcy of the Great Design, yet his 
 diplomacy was certainly directed towards the accom- 
 plishment of the true pohcy of France. 
 
 The tide of CathoUc reaction was flowing strong. And 
 though Holland, Hke England, had successfully resisted 
 Spain hitherto, PhiUp, allied with Austria, and sup- 
 ported by the Papacy, promised to crush Protestantism 
 on the Continent, and to estabHsh once more a Hapsburg 
 supremacy in Europe. Henri IV. saw clearly enough 
 that the policy of France must be that which she had 
 pursued, somewhat blindly, it is true, up to the time 
 * Economies Moyales. 
 
262 FRANCE 
 
 of the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis. Against Philip, as 
 against Charles V., she must strive to maintain the balance 
 of power, to check the power of Vienna and Madrid, to 
 insure the liberty of the United Provinces and the States 
 of the Empire, and incidentally to save Protestantism 
 from the advancing might of the Jesuits.* To this end 
 Henri had allied himself with England, when the dagger 
 of an assassin reached home at last. 
 
 The Court of the Very Christian King resembled too 
 much the harem of the Grand Turk. To save his bride, 
 the young and lovely Charlotte de Montmorency, from 
 the lascivious advances of the King, the young Prince of 
 Conde had fled from the Court, and placed his wife under 
 the protection of the Archduke Albert, Sovereign of the 
 Low Countries under the suzerainty of the King of Spain. 
 Piqued by this innocent abduction, Henri foolishly de- 
 manded her restoration, which was correctly refused by 
 the Court of Brussels. He threatened war, and the cry 
 was raised that Europe was about to be deluged in blood 
 for another Helen. 
 
 War which could be assigned to such a cause, or for 
 
 which the pretext was to put the Protestant claimants 
 
 into the heritage of Ziilich-Cleves, could not be popular 
 
 with the country, much less with the Catholic extremists. 
 
 At last one of the fanatics, excited by the teaching of the 
 
 Jesuits, struck home. Franyois Ravaillac stabbed Henri 
 
 to death as he was driving in the streets of Paris. It was 
 
 the last of a long series of attempts upon his life. The 
 
 utter despair and grief with which his people received the 
 
 news of his death was at once testimony to the greatness 
 
 of the achievements of this most national of Kings in the 
 
 * Henri had allowed them to return to France in 1603. From 
 that moment, -with unceasing cleverness and zeal, they forwarded 
 the ultramontane propaganda, striving against the spirit of 
 Gallicanism to establish the doctrine of pontifical supremacy, 
 spiritual and temporal. 
 
^IttSr- Rischgtts. 
 
 CARDINAL, DUG DE KICHELIEU. Chapter XVIII. 
 
 Died 1642. 
 
 From the picture by Philippe de Champaigne in the Louvre. 
 
I 
 
ASSASSINATION OF HENRI TV. 253 
 
 cause of France, and no exaggerated foreboding of the 
 irretrievable disaster this calamity was to entail (May 14, 
 1610). In a moment men remembered the horrors of the 
 League, and contrasted the peace and good order of 1610 
 with the bloodshed and ruin of 1589. And they saw how 
 bright the sun had been when they looked backward into 
 the darkness and forward into gloom. France, driven 
 from her course hke a rudderless ship, disappeared from 
 the sea of foreign poHtics for half a generation. Europe , 
 plunged into the Thirty Years' War. 
 
XVIII 
 
 THE RULE OF RICHELIEU 
 (Louis XIIL, A.D. 1610—1643) , 
 
 Louis XIII . was but nine years old. Preparing to 
 invade Navarre, Henri had appointed the Queen- 
 mother to act as Regent in his absence. She was able, 
 therefore, upon his death to assume that position with 
 little difficulty. Once more the House of Florentine 
 bankers was to rule France. But Marie de' Medici had 
 little of the energy or abiUty of Catherine. She was a 
 commonplace, self-indulgent woman of mediocre intelli- 
 gence, bigoted in her religion, and easily controlled by 
 favourites : the kind of woman most likely to be used 
 and then tossed aside by a man of Richelieu's vigorous 
 understanding and far-seeing ambition, which knew no 
 such weakness as gratitude. At present, Marie was 
 completely dominated by a low-born Italian adventuress, 
 Leonora Galigai, who had accompanied her as a lady-in- 
 waiting from Italy, and by her no less vulgar husband, 
 Concini. 
 
 Sully was at once dismissed. The money with which he 
 had so laboriously fiUed the Treasury was quickly dissi- 
 pated in bribing discontented nobles, and in satisfying 
 the hungry foreigners in Marie's suite. The war which 
 Henri had projected agaiust the House of Austria was 
 hastily dropped, and a rapprochement negotiated with 
 Spain, signalized by the marriage of Louis XIII . with the 
 
 254 
 
THE STATES GENERAL OF 1614 255 
 
 Infanta, Anne of Austria, and of Elizabeth, Marie's 
 daughter, with the heir-apparent of Spain. All claim to 
 the Spanish throne was renounced, and a truce made for 
 ten years (1615). 
 
 Louis XIII. attained his majority in October, 1614. 
 At the same time the States General met in Paris. 
 They had been summoned by the Queen-'Regent. 
 
 For the demands of the nobles had increased as Marie's 
 feeble Government yielded to their blackmail, and tried 
 to buy their loyalty with governorships and pensions. 
 The Prince of Conde, their leader, had taken up arms, 
 and issued a manifesto, in which he accused the Court of 
 having debased the nobility, taxed the poor, and ruined 
 the country by profusion and prodigality — an amusing 
 reproach, as Richelieu remarked, seeing that it was him- 
 self and his friends who had profited. In order to make 
 some show of zeal for the public interests, he concluded 
 his manifesto by the customary demand for the summon- 
 ing of the States General. To this demand Marie 
 acquiesced, whilst attempting to pacify Conde and his 
 friends by further grants. 
 
 The States General of 1614 achieved nothing. But 
 this Assembly is remarkable in French history. For it 
 was destined to be the last Assembly held until the 
 Revolution, when it was invoked as a precedent. And 
 it was as a delegate of the clergy that the young Bishop 
 of Lu9on, Armand du Plessis de Richelieu, found his 
 opportunity to enter public life. 
 
 The feeling of the Deputies, who numbered 140 clergy, 
 1^2 nobles, and 192 of the Third Estate, was at least unani- 
 mous in opposition to the ambitious cabals of the Princes 
 of the Blood, Conde, Soissons, and the rest. The three 
 Orders deliberated separately in the Augustine Monastery, 
 and met together for royal audiences at the Hotel de 
 Bourbon. But their fundamental rivalry was soon 
 
266 FRANCE 
 
 apparent. Peace, prosperity, commerce, had enriched 
 the bourgeoisie. And it was the aristocracy of this class, 
 a noblesse de robe, which had absorbed the offices of judi- 
 cature and finance, and allied itself with the hereditary 
 nobility, noblesse de race, which now entirely composed the 
 Third Estate, formerly representative, to some extent at 
 least, of the common people. This noblesse de robe had 
 established its hereditary character by virtue of its money 
 and the paulette.'^ Parlement had become a corporation 
 of hereditary lawyers. 
 
 The high nobles, on the other hand, impoverished 
 by the wars and by the depreciation in the purchasing 
 power of money, caused by the gold-mines of America 
 (" Spanish money "), were excluded by law and custom 
 from repairing their fortunes through commerce. They 
 were forced to marry the daughters of the rich bour- 
 geoisie, whom they despised, and to support their ex- 
 pensive state by acquiring hereditary governorships and 
 hereditary pensions. 
 
 Now the nobles clamoured for retrenchment and 
 reform — that is to say, the aboUtion of the hereditary 
 character and profits of the official class, by abolishing 
 the paulette ; the Third Estate retorted by demanding the 
 abolition of the pensions of the nobles. As for the direct 
 taxes, the nobles, clergy, and officials alike were 
 exempt from them, and were only stirred by a sense of 
 humanity to demand relief for the people. And their 
 self-interest prevented them from combining to maintain 
 the weapon of financial control. Accordingly, whilst the 
 
 * The system by which officials were allowed to nominate their 
 successors, who paid a sort of succession duty to the Crown. It 
 was so called from Charles Paulet, who farmed this source of 
 revenue under Sully, by whom it was inaugurated. Thus offices, 
 instead of being put up to sale, became hereditary, at a price, 
 and a class was created which only a revolution could destroy 
 (1604). 
 
Fourtraid de lif ville de la Rochelle auec fc . fortereUes ,comine eile elt a preienc. 
 
 
 A BIRD'8-EYE view OF LA EOCHELLE AT THE TIME OF THE SIEGE OF 1627. 
 
 Pages 26C-266. 
 
 The entrance to the basin for ships is defended by two towers, and there are fifteen others on the' 
 
 walls, and a dozen bastions in most ir stances constructed with retired flankers. 
 
 From a print in the British Museum. 
 
THE PROTEST OF "PARLEMENT" 257 
 
 Orders thus fell out, the Crown came by its own easily 
 enough. The States were adjourned — till the Revolution. 
 They had proved a failure as a means of obtaining or 
 conducting constitutional government. 
 
 Richelieu, who had distinguished himself in the debate 
 of the clergy, next appears as a Minister of the Queen- 
 Regent, after the fall of Villeroy and the other old 
 Ministers of Henri IV. That fall was brought about 
 by the Treaty of Loudun (May, 1616). 
 
 For after the States General had been adjourned, the 
 Parlement of Paris had taken a step which might well 
 have been fraught with immense consequences. Raising 
 a cry against the weakness of the Ministers and the 
 extravagance of the foreign favourites, they came forward 
 as the representatives of the people, and invited the 
 Dukes and Peers to sit with them, to consider the public 
 affairs of the State, and to complete the work which the 
 States General had left undone (March, 1615). In 
 reality, the legists and officials were terrified at the advice 
 which had been offered to the King to abolish the paulette, 
 and with it their hereditary position. It was that 
 hereditary position, indeed, which had given them the 
 power and independence they were now showing. They 
 were encouraged by Conde. And though he pusillani- 
 mously acquiesced, when the Court forbade the Peers 
 to join them, Parlement still asserted their right to 
 take part in public affairs, and protested against the ultra- 
 montane policy and influences, as well as against all the 
 abuses which cried for reform. 
 
 - They concluded by threatening to name the advisers of 
 the Crown, whom they held to be responsible for the 
 disorders of the realm. Next day an edict was issued 
 forbidding Parlement to meddle for the future with the 
 affairs of State. And Parlement meekly apologized. The 
 Princes — Bouillon, Longueville, Mayenne, and Cond^ — 
 
 17 
 
268 FRANCE 
 
 on whose support they had relied, had left Paris. Marie 
 summoned Conde to accompany her to the Spanish 
 frontier, whither the Court was bound for the conclusion 
 of the royal marriages. He refused, until the evils com- 
 plained of by the Estates were remedied, and he named 
 the advisers of the King, and chiefly Concini — now the 
 Marshal d'Ancre — as responsible for them. He demanded 
 the rejection of the Council of Trent, and was joined by 
 the Protestants under the upright and generous Henri, 
 Due de Rohan. The King, who had raised two armies 
 — one to watch the Princes, the other to escort him to his 
 wedding — declared Conde and his accomplices rebels (Sep- 
 tember 10). Then, when the marriage had been celebrated 
 at Bordeaux, Marie, yielding to the advice of Villeroy and 
 Jeannin, made terms with the Princes and the Protestants 
 (Loudun) . Whilst refusing to ac quiesce in all the demands 
 of the Third Estate, she consented to deprive Ancre of 
 Amiens, not to publish the Council of Trent, and to admit 
 Conde to be Chief of the Council and to sign all 
 decrees. The weakness shown by the Ministers in these 
 negotiations led to their fall. Barbin and Mangot took 
 their places. The former introduced Richelieu to 
 Concini. He was appointed Secretary of State. We 
 may, perhaps, trace to his influence a sudden ebullition 
 of energy in Marie's weak and vacillating polic3^ Cond6 
 was arrested and sent to the Bastille. Three armies took 
 the field to suppress the rebellious nobles who still chose 
 to appeal to arms under the leadership of the Duke of 
 Nevers. But Ministers, however energetic, could avail 
 little so long as they were the creatures of the hated and 
 presumptuous Italian favourite. For the removal of 
 Cond6 had left the field open to the ambition of Concini. 
 The moment was ripe for Louis XIII. to assert himseK, 
 and chase the foreigners from his Court. He was now 
 fifteen, but Marie and Concini had sedulously excluded 
 
ASSASSINATION OF CONCINI 259 
 
 him from public affairs. They encouraged his love of 
 falcom-y, and gave him for companion a Proven9al gentle- 
 man, Charles d 'Albert de Luynes, well skilled in that art, 
 and wrongly supposed to be incapable of intrigue. 
 
 But the young King, chafing at the humiliations to 
 which he was subjected by his mother and the Italian 
 upstart, plotted with his falconer and with Vitry, Captain 
 of the Guard. On April 24, 1617, Concini was shot by 
 the conspirators as he was entering the Louvre. "Now 
 I am King," cried Louis, and all France rallied round him 
 in delight at being dehvered from the tyrannical foreigner. 
 Parlement declared its approval, and condemned Leonora 
 to death as a sorceress. The rebels laid down their arms. 
 Marie retired perforce to Blois, amidst insults from the 
 Parisians, which plainly intimated that her reign was 
 over. But though she declared that she only looked now 
 for a heavenly crown, she was far from being resigned 
 to losing the Crown of France. She encouraged the 
 Princes of the Blood to make a show of civil war. 
 Escaping through a window from Blois, she herself joined 
 the powerful and turbulent Duke of ^fipernon. But it was 
 Luynes who was now the real master of the realm. The 
 young King cared only for the chase, and was incapable 
 of devoting himself to the serious business of reigning. 
 The favourite falconer inherited in a day all the wealth 
 and honours which the Concini had accumulated, with 
 greater scandal, indeed, but also with greater pains. At 
 the time of the Queen's fall, Richelieu, to whom she was 
 by this time devoted, had been banished to his bishopric . 
 He was now recalled to advise her. Luynes calculated, 
 no doubt, that his advice would be sagacious. Sagacious 
 it was. Richelieu urged the Queen to make terms. She 
 could not hope to resist the royal army ; his own return 
 to power clearly depended upon his success as a mediator. 
 By the Treaty of Angers (1620), a formal reconcilia- 
 
260 FRANCE 
 
 tion was arranged between the King and the Queen- 
 mother. 
 
 The Grovernment was now free to deal with the Pro- 
 testants of Beam and Navarre. 
 
 Since the Edict of Nantes, a revival of Catholicism had 
 taken place. Languedoc and the West remained the 
 strongholds of Protestantism, but even these districts had 
 been invaded by the Jesuits and Capucins. Luynes him- 
 self was a sworn foe of the Huguenots. A decree was 
 issued in 1617 restoring to the Catholic Church lands 
 which had been for half a century in the hands of the 
 Protestants. The Huguenots protested in an Assembly 
 at Loudun ; but Louis now marched to Pau, enforced 
 the decree, and pronounced the reunion of B6arn and 
 Navarre with the Crown. Alarmed and indignant at this 
 infraction of their rights, the Protestants met in assembly 
 at La Rochelle (December 25, 1620). Levies were raised, 
 and Bouillon appointed Commander-in-Chief. In imita- 
 tion of the United Provinces of Holland, the Huguenots 
 divided France into eight departments, each of which had 
 its General. The cry was raised that they wished to form 
 a Republic within the State. Court and Catholicism com- 
 bined to crush them. A royal army occupied Saumur, 
 took St. Jean d'Angely, which had been gallantly defended 
 by Soubise, and besieged Montauban (August, 1621), 
 which was defended no less resolutely by La Force. 
 When the Due de Rohan came to its relief, Luynes, 
 who, though ignorant of arms, had assumed the office of 
 Constable of France, opened negotiations. Rohan re- 
 jected them, and by November Luynes was obliged to 
 raise the siege. The moderation of the Constable's policy, 
 and his feeble conduct of the campaign, roused the resent- 
 ment of the more violent Catholics. The favourite would 
 probably have fallen from power had he not died in 
 December after the sacking of Monheur. In spite of his 
 
THE RISE OF RICHELIEU 261 
 
 greed of power, he had shown himself more capable of 
 prudent direction of affairs than the Concini, whom he 
 supplanted. The field was now open to Richelieu, who, 
 as the trusted adviser of the Queen-mother, now reconciled 
 to the King, gradually absorbed the whole direction of 
 affairs. He received the Cardinal's robe, beneath which 
 he was to hide so many secret designs, in September, 1622. 
 A few weeks later, when Conde had ineffectually besieged 
 Montpellier, the peace named after that place was signed. 
 It reaffirmed the Edict of Nantes. But of the 200 
 strongholds formerly conceded to the Huguenots, only 
 two, Montauban and La Rochelle, were allowed to 
 remain in their hands. And Protestant Assemblies were 
 forbidden for the future. 
 
 Thanks to the persistence of the Queen-mother, 
 Richelieu had been appointed to the Council, though only 
 on condition that he held no office. But no conditions 
 could fetter such genius as his. He had only to wait till 
 the Chief of the Council, the Marquis de la Vieuville, 
 had revealed his incapacity by his blundering and contra- 
 dictory foreign policy in attempting to treat with Holland, 
 England, and Spain at once. Then Richelieu took his 
 place as Chief of the Council. 
 
 For eighteen years he remained the chief, and practically 
 the sole, Minister of a jealous, capricious, sullen-tempered 
 King, whose normal attitude of lazy indifference was 
 rendered more dangerous by fits of spasmodic energy. 
 Yet Richelieu managed to keep his master faithful to 
 him, in spite of the perpetual and virulent opposition of 
 priests, courtiers, and women, all united in the desire to 
 overthrow the imperious Cardinal. No doubt the perma- 
 nence of his Ministry depended upon its unfailing success. 
 But Richelieu knew how to manage the jealous and 
 capricious temper of the King ; he was always on the 
 watch lest he should be influenced by others, and, posing 
 
262 FRANCE 
 
 as his shadow, always represented himself as the mouth- 
 piece of the King's desires and the exponent of the royal 
 policy. It is to Louis' credit that he was capable of 
 appreciating the greatness of his servant, of curbing his 
 petulance for the benefit of his kingdom, and of sub- 
 mitting to the domination of a strong man, whose strength 
 was unquestionably exerted for the glory of France. 
 
 Kichelieu had long been preparing the young King's 
 mind for the policy which he was now to put in practice. 
 As friend and foe, the Cardinal had learned the temper 
 of the Huguenot minority, and was determined to crush 
 it once for all. Abroad, the vacillating policy of France 
 had allowed Spain and Austria to expand. Richelieu 
 was determined to undermine the Hapsburg supremacy. 
 At home, the turbulence of the nobles, the repubUcanism 
 of the Huguenot Assemblies, the disorder of the finances, 
 all called, in his eyes, for similar treatment. He was 
 determined to apply it, and, by establishing an absolute 
 despotism at home, to make his country once more a 
 leading Power in Europe. 
 
 His first move was to check the aggression of the House 
 of Austria in the Valtelline. That strip of territory, on 
 the lines of communication between France and Germany, 
 belonged to a Protestant confederacy, the Alpine Giisons. 
 The Spaniards had made this a pretext for conquering it 
 in the name of the Pope. Richelieu, dropping the feeble 
 expostulations of his predecessor, despatched an army 
 which promptly put an end to the Spanish scheme. In 
 the matrimonial region of diplomacy, Richelieu atoned 
 for this opposition to Catholicism. He negotiated a 
 marriage between Henrietta Maria, the beautiful sister 
 of Louis XIII., and the Prince of Wales (Charles I.) — a 
 union which had been in the air ever since that Prince 
 and the Duke of Buckingham, on their way to Spain, had 
 met her, themselves in disguise, at a dance at Marie's 
 
RICHELIEU AND THE HUGUENOTS 263 
 
 Court at Paris. But whereas La Vieuville had been 
 ready to waive the question of the treatment of the 
 Catholics in England, Richelieu insisted that the English 
 King should promise to allow his Catholic subjects to 
 practice their religion in private. On the other hand, he 
 maintained the alliance with the Dutch. Thanks to this 
 combination, he was free to deal with the Huguenots, and 
 to suppress an ill-contrived rising on their part under 
 the Duke of Rohan and his brother, Soubise. "Whilst 
 the Huguenots keep foot in France, the King will never 
 be master at home, nor be able to undertake any glorious 
 enterprise abroad." So Richelieu commented in May, 
 1625. But he bided his time whilst he constructed a fleet 
 which should be able, without relying on Dutch or 
 English, who had lent him very grudging aid on this 
 occasion, to take La Rochelle, and expel the hated 
 Protestants from France. 
 
 Meantime, he concluded a peace (February, 1626) with 
 them, by which the King retained Fort Louis, merely 
 undertaking not to annoy the commerce of La Rochelle, 
 which that stronghold menaced. 
 
 The English had encouraged the Huguenots to accept 
 these terms, thinking that, if the French King were free 
 from fear of trouble at home, he would attack Spain. 
 But at the same time Richelieu concluded a treaty with 
 Spain (Mon9on, March 5, 1626), by which the sovereignty 
 of the Orisons over Valtelline was recognized, and 
 Catholicism alone was to be practised there. English, 
 Spaniards, Huguenot? alike had been tricked ; the 
 Venetians, Savoyards, and Orisons were no better pleased 
 when they found that their French allies had been making 
 terms behind their backs. 
 
 The Cardinal had need now of all his coolness and 
 cunning to extricate himself from the intrigues set on foot 
 by cabals of Princes of the Blood, and the high dames 
 
264 PRANCE 
 
 of the Court, to compass his ruin, together with that of 
 the Queen-mother. 
 
 Never had women been more influential in Court 
 intrigues, never had they been more highly cultivated 
 and intellectual than at this period, when Richelieu built 
 for himself the magnificent Palais-Royal at Paris, and 
 founded the French Academy to encom^age learning ; 
 when the Marquise de Rambouillet held, in the salon bleu 
 of her beautiful hotel, those meetings of clever and 
 brilliant guests, writers and grands seigneurs, who, amidst 
 surroundings the most exquisite, cultivated the art of 
 refined conversation. This salon, with which the history 
 of French salons opens, was a real power in France from 
 1624 to 1648. The reigning hostess and her friends 
 exercised a sort of literary jurisdiction over taste and 
 morals. With the example of the Queen-mothers, 
 Catherine and Marie de' Medici, before them, the Grandes 
 Dames naturally extended their influence to political 
 intrigue. "In France," whites one in 1623, "all great 
 events usually depend upon women." 
 
 The young KLing was cold and chaste ; the Queen, Anne 
 of Austria, was beautiful and neglected. Her bosom 
 friend was Marie de Rohan, the widow of Luynes, now 
 Madame de Chevreuse. She had fallen in love with 
 Henry Rich, Lord Holland, one of the negotiators of the 
 Enghsh marriage, and she led the young Queen to accept 
 as her cavaliere sirvente the gai,y, handsome, reckless Duke 
 of Buckingham, the English Minister who had come to 
 escort the Princess Henrietta Maria to England (May, 
 1625). Buckingham pressed his suite ardently and with- 
 out discretion. Marie de' Medici invited him to leave the 
 Court. He returned to take a last passionate farewell of 
 the young Queen, and, kneeling by her bedside, gave 
 utterance to his deep devotion. The Queen rebuked him, 
 but not in anger. The King was furious. And Richelieu 
 
I 
 
 SIEGE OF LA ROCHELLE 265 
 
 and Buckingham are said from that moment to have con- 
 ceived for each other a mutual hatred, from whatever 
 motive, which was soon to affect the policies of their 
 countries. A coolness also arose between the Queen and 
 the Cardinal. The lovers, it would seem, regarded him 
 as responsible for their separation. It was not long before 
 Anne even indulged her spite to the extent of intriguing 
 with Spain in order to embarrass the Minister of France. 
 
 The time had now arrived when the Cardinal was ready- 
 to strike the blow, long prepared, against the Protestants. 
 Abroad, England, irritated by the Romanizing attitude 
 of Henrietta Maria, was eager to espouse their cause. 
 Buckingham, for private and public reasons alike, was 
 anxious to help them. In July, 1627, he sailed with a 
 fleet to La Rochelle. But whilst he wasted time outside 
 the harbour, a greater than he brought his forces up to 
 the walls and mighty bastions of the rebellious city. 
 At the Cardinal's word, a cordon of forts was drawn 
 round the town ; an immense mole and boom were built 
 across the harbour. Elaborately organized, the campaign 
 everywhere betrayed the master-hand of Richelieu, who, 
 in the King's absence, acted as Commander-in-Chief, and, 
 never happier than when on the battle-field, imposed upon 
 his army a discipline rare in those days. Completely 
 blockaded, the Rochellais resisted with the utmost 
 obstinacy, waiting desperately for the return of the 
 English fleet. 
 
 For Buckingham had been obliged to retire ignomini- 
 ously in November. In the following May the English 
 fleet returned, effected nothing, retired, and returned 
 again to effect as little in October. Richelieu's mole and 
 batteries had rendered attack from the sea hopeless. La 
 Rochelle had long been in extremis. The people had 
 elected Guiton, a resolute sailor, as their Mayor, who, 
 upon his election, had laid his dagger upon the table, and 
 
266 FRANCE 
 
 declared that he would slay with it the first person who 
 spoke of surrendering. His spirit reflected the determina- 
 tion of the Protestants. But the besiegers were no less 
 determined. No supplies could run the close blockade 
 by land and sea. When provisions were wellnigh ex- 
 hausted, the women, children, and infirm were turned 
 out of the town, to seek succour in the enemy's camp. 
 They were stripped, and driven back. The famine 
 grew terrible. Leather and cats were almost luxuries. 
 Thousands of the besieged died of starvation. At length, 
 when their English allies failed them, the inevitable 
 surrender was made (October 28, 1628). The garrison 
 was reduced to sixty-four Frenchmen and ninety 
 Englishmen. 
 
 The surviving Huguenots were granted their lives, 
 and the right of free exercise of their religion within La 
 Rochelle. The fortifications were raised, and all the 
 rights and privileges of the town, which were many and 
 valuable, were forfeited. The municipal administration 
 was placed under royal officials. The moderation of 
 these terms, however, was anything but popular with 
 Catholic zealots. But whilst aiming at establishing unity 
 of faith, Richelieu did not think violence the likeliest way 
 to achieve it. Towards the Church his policy was emi- 
 nently national. He checked any tendency to increase 
 the infiuence of Rome in France with a strong hand, but 
 he was equally opposed to the claims of Gallicanism 
 when it strove to assert its independence of the Crown. 
 
 When, after fifteen months of siege, La Rochelle had 
 bowed to his will, Richelieu in person undertook a cam- 
 paign to save Casale and Mantua, the citadels of Italy, 
 from the Spaniards. By the capture of Pinerolo, he 
 checked once more the Hapsburg designs (1630). Then, 
 fresh from crushing the Protestants at home, he entered 
 the field of German politics as the protector of Protestant 
 
THE TRIUMPH OF FRANCE 267 
 
 Princes against the aggression of a Catholic Emperor. 
 For during the whole of Richelieu's Ministry the Thirty- 
 Years' War was in progress. For a time the Hapsburgs, 
 aided by the genius of Wallenstein, carried all before them 
 in their endeavour to win back Europe to Roman Catholi- 
 cism. To maintain the balance of power, Richelieu 
 entered into an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus of 
 Sweden, whose victories saved the Protestant cause in 
 Grermany. The struggle absorbed all the energies of the 
 Minister and all the resources of the country. But whilst 
 Richelieu was thus moulding the destinies of Germany, 
 he was making France the leading Power in Europe. 
 For after the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the war 
 resolved itself into a duel between the Houses of Hapsburg 
 and Bourbon. Obliged at length to drop his system of 
 indirect attacks through opposing alliances, Richelieu 
 declared war with Spain in May, 1635. 
 
 In spite of occasional reverses, he conducted it with 
 extraordinary success (1635-1642). Alsace was con- 
 quered ; Catalonia and Rousillon, revolting from the 
 Spanish Crown, were united to France. To hamper the 
 Austrians on their flanks, Richelieu made alliances with 
 Sweden, Turkey, and Poland ; he helped Portugal to 
 establish her independence, made treaties with the Italian 
 Princes to expel the enemy from Italy, intrigued in 
 Germany against the Emperor, and tried to secure the 
 co-operation of the Dutch at sea. When he died, the 
 triumph of France, after many vicissitudes, was not 
 complete, but it was assured. The Hapsburgs had been 
 checked at every point. Richelieu's work was brought 
 to a successful conclusion by his follower, Mazarin. The 
 Peace of Westphalia was soon to trumpet the triumph 
 of French policy over the House of Austria, and the 
 Peace of the Pyrenees to announce the fall of Spain 
 from her high estate . 
 
268 FRANCE 
 
 That Richelieu was able to conduct his policy to a so 
 triumphant issue is the more amazing, since he was 
 handicapped not only by the lack of means for sus- 
 taining a permanent army, but also by treachery and 
 intrigue on every hand. Masterly and merciless, never 
 swerving from his purpose or ceasing from toil to accom- 
 plish it, he defeated the treacherous scheming of the 
 King's confessor, the jealous intrigues of his royal mother, 
 the cowardly baseness of his brother Gaston of Orleans, 
 and the pious persuasion of his favourite, La Fayette, 
 murmuring sweet fooUshness from her convent cell. For 
 the dominant force of the Cardinal's mind always imposed 
 itself upon the feeble and indolent monarch, and made it 
 clear to him that France had need of this hated, invalid 
 Minister of the iron will and unfailing resource. The 
 cabals of the nobles against him culminated in failure 
 when they seemed nearest success, on the Day of Dupes 
 (November 11, 1630), when Marie de' Medici retired into 
 exile shaking the dust of France from off her feet, and 
 leaving her ungrateful, and now hated, lover to rule, as 
 always, without reference to her incompetent advice. 
 
 Michelet has painted in vivid colours the torments of 
 struggle and the complex character of the Cardinal : 
 
 " One can easily understand that he was always ill. 
 The insufficiency of his resources, the continual effort to 
 invent impossible money ; on the other hand, the Court 
 intrigues, the pricks of no one knows how many invisible 
 insects, were something to keep him in a terrible agitation. 
 But even that was not enough ; twenty other devils 
 haunted this restless soul, Hke a house swept and garnished 
 — the battle of women, tardy gallantries ; moreover, 
 theology and the wild desire to write, to make verses, 
 tragedies ! What tragedy could be more gloomy than 
 his very person ! Macbeth is gay in comparison. And 
 he had attacks of violence in which his inner fury would 
 have strangled him, had he not, Uke Hamlet, massacred 
 
THE POLICY OF RICHELIEU 269 
 
 tapestries with the blows of his dagger. More often he 
 swallowed his bitterness and fury, covered everything 
 with the outward seeming of ecclesiastical decency. His 
 powerlessness, his passion, turned within, worked them- 
 selves out on his body ; the red iron burned his soul, and 
 he was near to death." 
 
 Richelieu laid down the principles which were to guide 
 French foreign policy until the diplomatic Revolution, 
 the "reversal of alliances" of 1756. He achieved 
 another not less important work by substituting perma- 
 nent officials (Intendants) for the nobles as Governors 
 of the Provinces. The bad government of these nobles 
 invited this step towards centralization ; their factious 
 independence and selfish endeavours to re-establish a 
 spurious feudalism at the expense of the Crown and the 
 people prompted and justified the Edict of 1626, by which 
 it was decreed that aU castles not necessary for frontier 
 defence should be destroyed, and that no fortification of 
 private houses should be permitted. 
 
 " In France there are too many chateaux," said an old 
 proverb. The destruction of many of these feudal strong- 
 holds was an evident sign that the career of the robber- 
 baron was at an end, and that the King's law was hence- 
 forth to prevail. 
 
 Whilst the Intendants brought the Government into 
 closer touch with the Provinces, and the King's Council 
 was reorganized so as to be capable of dealing with the 
 increase of administrative business, the Provincial 
 Estates were either abolished or deprived of much of 
 their independence. Political power was taken from the 
 Parlement of Paris, as it had been from the Huguenots and 
 the nobles when, by an Edict of 1641, it was forbidden to 
 take cognizance of affairs of State on its own initiative. 
 
 The administrative system of centralized and absolute 
 government, thus constructed by Richelieu upon the 
 
270 FRANCE 
 
 ruins of noble and provincial liberties, was to last until 
 the Revolution. In view of the circumstances he could 
 have done no more. Constitutional government was out 
 of the question at the time. Only so great a diplomatist 
 and iron- willed a Minister could have achieved so much. 
 
 The nobles did not submit without a blow to the loss of 
 their political power, although their immense privileges 
 and exemptions were left them. Conspiracy after con- 
 spiracy to overthrow him was formed by the Condes, the 
 Soissons, the Montmorencys, the Epernons, by Gaston 
 of Orleans, and Cinq-Mars, only to be defeated by the 
 vigilance, nerve, and adroitness of the threatened Minister. 
 The Bastille was filled with prisoners of note. Richelieu's 
 spies and agents were everywhere. Arbitrary trials, con- 
 ducted by Commissioners appointed by the Cardinal, sent 
 his enemies to the scaffold, for "reasons of State." For 
 to Richelieu, his enemies were the enemies of that strong 
 united France, which he was labouring with such super- 
 human energy and determination to build up. Even 
 Henri, Due de Montmorency, Governor of Languedoc, who 
 had joined the insurrection of Gaston of Orleans in 1632, 
 was beheaded, in spite of all prayers and threats. The 
 lesson must be taught that no one, however highly born, 
 could bear arms against his Sovereign without risk of a 
 felon's death. So in the end the nobles had to choose 
 between exile, prison, or submission. Their fall rendered 
 the monarchy more absolute and supreme. 
 
 Richelieu had neither the time nor the knowledge, 
 though he had the desire, to reconstitute the financial 
 position of the country. The maintenance of six armies 
 in the field and lavish expenditure at home yearly 
 increased the embarrassments of the country. As the 
 Budget grew larger, the condition of the unhappy taxpayer 
 grew worse. The misery of the groaning peasantry 
 found expression in furious, hopeless uprisings, like that 
 
RICHELIEU'S ACHIEVEMENT 271 
 
 led by " Barefooted John " at the head of an " army of 
 suffering." They were ruthlessly crushed by the iron 
 hand of the Cardinal. 
 
 The colonial poUcy of Richelieu was in harmony with 
 the grandeur of his other ideas, but was atrophied by the 
 same cause. He encouraged Chartered Companies to 
 make settlements, which, when at war with half Europe, 
 he had not sufficient resources to develop. An attempt 
 was made to occupy Madagascar, and some of the West 
 Indies were settled. But the companies launched under 
 the aegis of the Minister found their chief strength in the 
 efforts of great pioneers like Champlain* in Canada, and 
 in the embarrassing devotion of the Jesuits, whose zeal 
 in converting the Indians absorbed to a great extent the 
 colonizing energy of the French. 
 
 As Richelieu drew all the threads of government more 
 and more into his own hands, he became more proud and 
 imperious. He built palaces on a royal scale, and his 
 train was as magnificent as Wolsey 's . He could almost say, 
 " Uijtat, c'est moi ./" He chose his subordinates carefully. 
 
 They were for the most part capable nonentities, who 
 faithfully aided him in his immense toil of governing. 
 But one there was, Jules Mazarin,t who was no mediocrity. 
 It was upon his shoulders that the mantle of Richelieu 
 fell when the great Minister died in 1642, in a blaze of 
 triumph, after crushing the last conspiracy against him, 
 that of Cinq-Mars . 
 
 Richelieu had made France the great miKtary Power of 
 
 * During the siege of La Rochelle, the English forced Champlain 
 to capitulate. He returned to Quebec with 200 colonists and 
 sailors after the Treaty of St. Germain (1632), when Quebec and 
 Nova Scotia were restored to Canada by the English. 
 
 t Giulio Mazarini, the supple Italian Abb6, had helped Richelieu 
 in his intrigues in Italy before the Treaty of Ratisbon (1630). 
 He brought him to France to fill the place of his right-hand man, 
 P^re Joseph, in 1638, and made him a Cardinal. 
 
272 FRANCE 
 
 Europe. His own words best indicate the scope of 
 his patriotic ambition. " I have tried to give to Gaul 
 the boundaries that Nature intended for it, and to identify 
 Gaul with France." He died, as he had lived, with few 
 friends and many enemies, detested by the people for 
 the merciless severity of his rule. But, posterity has 
 repaid him with its gratitude, because it acknowledges 
 that he secured for France the glory of occupying the 
 foremost place among the nations for a century. 
 
3 > J J J 
 
XIX 
 
 MAZARIN AND THE " GRAND MONARQUE » 
 (Louis XIV., A.D. 1643—1661) 
 
 Seven months after the death of Richeheu, died his 
 "illustrious slave," Louis XIII. Thanks to the pious 
 offices of his favourite, Mademoiselle de La Fayette, he had 
 been reconciled to his Queen. And on September 5, 1638, 
 an heir had been born to him, Louis XIV., who destroyed 
 for ever the hopes of that incorrigible and cowardly con- 
 spirator, Gaston, Duke of Orleans. Gaston had been heir 
 to the throne for twenty-eight years. He was now sup- 
 planted by a babe, whose reign was to prove the longest 
 in history until recent years,* and one of the most eventful. 
 
 A reaction very similar to that which followed upon the 
 deaths of Phihppe le Bel, Louis XI., and Henri IV., 
 ensued upon the death of Louis XIII. 
 
 The crowd of exiles who now returned from abroad 
 expected the dismissal of Richelieu's creatures and the 
 reward of their devotion to the Queen's cause. They 
 were soon disillusioned. Anne had neither the abiUty 
 nor the temperament to rule, but she had a queenly 
 carriage worthy of the blood of Charles V., and made a 
 good figurehead as Regent. She appointed her lover, 
 the prodigal and avaricious Cardinal Mazarin, to preside 
 over the Council. Whether that subtle statesman was 
 
 * The reigns of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, and of the 
 Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, have surpassed that of 
 Louis XIV. 
 
 273 18 
 
274 FRANCE 
 
 in truth the father of her second son, the Duke of Orleans, 
 or not, certain it is that now, by a strange trick of love 
 and fortune, the destinies of France lay in the hands of a 
 Spanish Princess and a Neapolitan major-domo. Issue 
 was soon joined with the reactionary^ nobles, when they, 
 anxious to regain their position as feudal Princes, began 
 to demand that the government of the Provinces should 
 be restored to them, and Richelieu's Intendants abolished. 
 For ten years the struggle lasted. At the end of that time 
 Mazarin could boast that the system perfected by 
 Richeheu was intact. But not before civil war had 
 devastated the country, not before the Queen and her 
 Court had twice been forced to fly from Paris and suffer 
 indigence, not before Mazarin himself had twice been 
 driven into exile . 
 
 The first of the series of insurrections known as the 
 Fronde* arose out of an attempt on the part of the 
 Parlement of Paris to check wasteful administration and 
 excessive taxation by refusing to register edicts which 
 only promised to increase the burdens of the people for 
 the profit of the financiers. But the magistrates were 
 chiefly concerned in opposing Mazarin, since he proposed 
 to deprive them of their hereditary right to office by sus- 
 pending the paulette. They were too much concerned 
 for their own pockets to use this opportunity to force 
 a constitutional issue. Whilst clamouring for reform, 
 they thought first of their own caste and right of exemp- 
 tion. The people, however, exasperated by taxation and 
 disgusted at the extravagant prosperity of the Italian 
 adventurer, rose when Broussel, one of the chief spokesmen 
 of the discontent, was arrested. Riots ensued in Paris, 
 and the streets were barricaded (the Day of Barricades, 
 August 26, 1648), But the crowd was blind and leader- 
 
 * Called after a children's game {fronde=a, sling or catapult) 
 forbidden by the police. 
 
THE " FRONDE " 275 
 
 less. An insurrection which was aimless was easily pre- 
 vented from developing into a revolution. 
 
 The second phase of the Fronde (1649-1653) was the 
 work of the nobles, all struggling for pensions and govern- 
 ments, but each blindly for his selfish ends, siding first 
 mth the Court and then against it, and always without a 
 thought of patriotism or political progress. Mademoiselle 
 de Montpensier, La Grande Demoiselle, daughter of 
 Gaston, Duke of Orleans, turned the guns of the Bastille 
 upon the royalist part. The great Conde and his adven- 
 turous sister, the Duchess de Longueville, led the Fronde ; 
 Marshall Turenne joined the rebels. The Prince de Conde 
 and Turenne even allied themselves with the Spaniards, 
 and helped them to invade France. Their very lack of 
 patriotism ruined their cause. 
 
 By degrees the chaos of disorder, in which each fought 
 for himself and his vague idea of liberty and profit, pro- 
 duced a reaction in favour of the monarchy, a reaction 
 hastened by Conde's intrigues with Spain and England. 
 Louis returned to Paris in October, 1652, and recalled 
 Mazarin. The triumph of the Minister was complete, and 
 was signalized by the collapse of the Parlement. The very 
 magistrates who had recently set a price on his head now- 
 sought his protection, and condemned the rebel Conde to 
 death . 
 
 Parliament, and people, and nobles alike had proved 
 their lack of creative political ideas. The anarchy of the 
 Fronde makes it clear to us, as it made it clear to 
 Louis XIV. himself, that an absolute monarchy was the 
 only possible form of government at this time. It was in 
 this sense that Louis used the famous phrase, *' UEtat, 
 c'est moi P' 
 
 It is astonishing that through a decade of such wild 
 disorder, distress, famine, plague, and anarchy France, 
 under the guidance of Mazarin, was yet able to complete 
 
276 FRANCE 
 
 the task which Richelieu had mapped out for her abroad. 
 The new reign had been inaugurated by a great victory 
 gained by the Due d'Enghien, at Rocroi (May, 1643), 
 over the Spaniards, who were advancing from the Nether- 
 lands into France. This battle not only revealed a 
 brilliant General in the Due d'Enghien, son of Henri II. de 
 Bourbon, Prince de Conde, but also inflicted a staggering 
 blow upon the Spanish forces. In Enghien and Henri 
 de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, France had 
 now two great Generals, whose campaigns in Italy, on 
 the Rhine, Flanders, and Bavaria, compelled the Emperor 
 to sign the Peace of Westphalia (October 24, 1648). 
 By this treaty France obtained Pignerolo in Italy, and 
 secured a foothold in Germany by the acquisition of 
 Breisach, and the right to garrison Philippsburg, and 
 to navigate the Rhine. She continued to occupy Lor- 
 raine ; and the cession of Alsace (with the exception of 
 Strasburg) and the Three Bishoprics (Metz, Toul, and 
 Verdun) strengthened and extended her Rhine frontier. 
 
 The Treaty of Westphalia signalized the success of the 
 policy by which France, since the days of Francis I. and 
 Charles V., had set herself, by arms and alliances, whether 
 with Denmark, Sweden, Poland, HoUand, or Turkey, to 
 oppose the union and supremacy of the two Hapsburg 
 Houses. For whilst Austria acknowledged her defeat, 
 Spain, hoping to profit by the troubles of the Fronde, with- 
 drew at the last moment, and took no part in the peace. 
 
 Civil war delaj^ed, indeed, but did not avert, the 
 final success of France. She suffered losses in Italy, 
 Spain, and Flanders. But whilst Turenne, at the head 
 of a veteran French army, was pitting his genius against 
 Conde and his raw Spanish levies in Flanders, and the 
 skill of those great French Generals was holding the balance 
 between the two monarchies, Mazarin secured the co- 
 operation of Cromwell, and of the League of the Electors 
 
LOUIS XIV. (1643-1715). 
 From the picture by Rigaucl at the Louvre. 
 
PEACE OF THE PYRENEES 277 
 
 of the Rhine, and turned the scale (1657). Before the 
 walls of Dunkirk, at the Battle of the Dunes (June 14, 
 1658), the final blow was struck. Turenne, with the help 
 of the English, destroyed the Spanish army. Dunkirk 
 was surrendered, and handed over to the English. It 
 remained for Mazarin to negotiate the peace with Spain 
 which this victory had forced. After prolonged and 
 difficult negotiations, the famous Peace of the Pjrrenees 
 was concluded (November 7, 1659). It was an apparently 
 brilliant conclusion for France, and secured peace to an 
 exhausted country, whilst full of diplomatic possibilities 
 for the future. The Spanish Netherlands, indeed, still 
 eluded the eager grasp of Mazarin, and he was obliged 
 to desert the alliance with Portugal, whilst Spain insisted 
 upon France regaining a great General by being recon- 
 ciled with Conde. But the crux of the treaty lay in the 
 negotiations for the marriage of Maria Theresa, the 
 Infanta, with Louis XIV. Mazarin secured this alliance 
 of the Houses of France and Spain, destined to prove so 
 fatal to Europe, upon the condition that no issue of the 
 marriage could succeed to the throne of Spain. Maria 
 Theresa was to receive a dowry of 500,000 crowns. Only 
 a fifth of that sum was ever paid. It seems likely that 
 ^ Mazarin calculated upon Spain's inability to pay, and 
 foresaw that in such a case the renunciation of the French 
 claim to the Spanish Succession, as well as to the Spanish 
 Netherlands and Franche-Comte as the marriage portion 
 of Maria Theresa, could be declared void. He was a 
 great gambler in private life, and backed his luck in 
 politics. As events proved, he won. But the game 
 brought no honour and no profit to France. It involved 
 her in the war by which she lost her colonies and gained 
 nothing. Mazarin returned to Paris in almost regal 
 triumph, and passed the remainder of his life in extrava- 
 gant pomp, discarding the stern rule of Richelieu, and 
 
278 FRANCE 
 
 endeavouring to soothe the discontent of the nobles by- 
 indulging his own taste for fetes and gallantry, and all 
 the lavish display of a brilliant Court. When he died, in 
 1661, he handed over to the young monarch a country 
 which had emerged victorious from the struggle with 
 Spain and Austria, enriched by Spanish and German 
 territory, arbitress of the Peace of the North, the pro- 
 tectress of the League of the Rhine, more powerful in 
 Grermany than the Emperor himself — the greatest Power, 
 in fact, in Europe.* 
 
 . * Cf. Lavisse, vii. 1, 77 
 
 
XX 
 
 LE ROI SOLEIL 
 (Louis XIV., A.D. 1661—1716) 
 
 Louis could not reign during the lifetime of Mazarin. 
 But upon the death of that astute and grasping Minister 
 he soon made it evident that a new sun had risen, and 
 that, so long as it remained above the horizon, there was 
 to be no place for lesser lights . Mazarin had advised him 
 to appoint no new First Minister. And now, when 
 Ministers and courtiers came to ask the King to whom 
 they should address themselves, he replied, to their 
 amazement : "To me." The King was to be his own 
 Prime Minister, and for fifty years he laboured, with a 
 regularity and application almost incredible, at the 
 business of State. "It is by work one reigns," he told 
 his son, and he adhered faithfully to the standard imposed, 
 so he believed, upon a Sovereign as the representative of 
 Grod upon earth. 
 
 No one, it is true, ever enjoyed the business of being 
 King more. And in appearance, as in manner, in am- 
 bition, if not altogether in achievement, he was every 
 inch a King. Handsome and courtly, if egotistical, of a 
 kindly disposition, if amorous and self-indulgent, Louis 
 was eminently fitted by Nature to play the part of an 
 autocrat. He succeeded to the throne at a moment 
 when, after centuries of struggle, real national govern- 
 ment had been evolved out of feudal chaos, when practic- 
 
 279 
 
280 FRANCE 
 
 ally every function of general and local government was 
 exercised by the King, and scarce a vestige remained of 
 any constitutional check upon his irresponsible will. Si 
 veut le roi, si veut la loi. Educated by an indulgent 
 mother, and in statesmanship by the teaching of Mazarin, 
 as well as by his experience of the Fronde, Louis' concep- 
 tion of kingship was necessarily that of an absolute 
 monarchy. The story is well known how, in 1655, when 
 Parlement, after registering certain fiscal edicts, sought to 
 reassert its independence by discussing them and remon- 
 strating, the young King galloped from Vincennes to 
 Paris in his hunting-clothes, and, whip in hand, entered 
 the Palais de Justice. There he scolded the astonished 
 legists, and forbade them to deliberate upon his edicts in 
 future. And when the President appealed to the interest 
 of the State, the King replied : " UEtat, c'est moi /" 
 In fact his conduct was not so brusque, but the story 
 indicates truly enough, in a brisk, if inaccurate, form, the 
 policy of the autocrat who was to rule France for half a 
 century. 
 
 No despotism can be maintained without the aid of an 
 efficient police. This reign saw the multiplication of 
 lettres de cachet, the worst of all outrages upon pubhc 
 liberty, by which, at the King's order, citizens were 
 arrested and imprisoned without explanation or trial. 
 Nicholas de la Reynie and the Marquis d'Argenson were 
 the two famous Lieutenants of PoUce who served the 
 Grand Monarque, not only in this department, but also 
 by executing the duties of a city police, lighting and 
 improving the streets, and thereby enormously advancing 
 the decency and security of Paris. 
 
 To do honour to Le Roi Soleil (" Sun-King "), all the 
 nobility of France crowded to Paris or Versailles, and 
 spent their time in observing the rules of the rigid etiquette 
 in which he delighted. For Louis, never at ease in Paris, 
 
VERSAILLES 281 
 
 spent millions ^in transforming the hunting-box of 
 Louis XIII. into a magnificent palace, and the marshes of 
 Versailles into wonderful gardens. The grandeur of the 
 architecture of Versailles (Mansart), its marble halls and 
 splendid paintings, set amidst formal fountains and 
 lawns and flower-beds and shrubberies, still reflects 
 very vividly the majestic splendour of the Grand 
 Monarque. Still, in its stately solitude, that vast gilded 
 palace conjures up the vision of the immense and super- 
 ficially brilliant Court, where Louis XIV. reigned in the 
 midst of a France made in his image. Here banquets 
 were spread, and sweet music breathed among the trees, 
 and fireworks were reflected in the waters of the lakes, 
 and nymphs emerged from the illuminated grottoes to 
 sing the praises of the great King . For fetes and carousals 
 succeeded one another at this brilliant Court, to amuse 
 and honour the successive mistresses of the insatiable 
 monarch.* 
 
 Literature also reflected the artificial atmosphere of 
 the Court. Under the influence of Malherbe and Boileau, 
 poetry proper withered. Poets betook themselves to 
 courtly compliment, stately diction, and polished phras- 
 ing, or to the artificial and elaborate drama encouraged 
 by the Court. The Senecan tragedies of Racine and 
 Corneille harmonize with the neo-classicism of Versailles. 
 The sonorous sermons of Bossuet resound with the 
 supreme eloquence of loyal adulation. But whilst Lebrun 
 was decorating the palace with the apotheosis of the Sun- 
 King, Moliere was satirizing the foibles, fashions, and 
 
 * Notably Mademoiselle de la Vallidre and the Marquise de 
 Montespan. The latter was supplanted by Madame de Maintenon, 
 widow of the burlesque poet, Scarron. She hadbeen the governess 
 of Madame de Montespan's bastards, and, caUing piety to the aid 
 of her charms, ousted her benefactress by that admixture of 
 religion and gallantry which then best appealed to the prematurely 
 aged and disillusioned monarch. She was secretly married to 
 him in 1686. 
 
282 FRANCE 
 
 social abuses of an artificial age. And whilst Bossuet 
 was preaching, Pascal was thinking, and laying the 
 foundations of rationalism in France. 
 
 The splendours of Louis' Court could hide, but must 
 increase the financial sores of the country. Mazarin 
 and Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finance, filled 
 their pockets with untold sums, but in the very year 
 of the Peace of the Pyrenees, Colbert wrote that the 
 King's credit was exhausted, and that bankruptcy 
 was imminent The financiers, who were growing enor- 
 mously rich, would only advance money on the most 
 exorbitant terms, and the Superintendent acted at 
 once as the Minister and the Creditor of the King. Pecula- 
 tion and corruption were rampant ; scarce a third of the 
 annual revenue reached the Treasury. At length the 
 pride and ambition of Fouquet led to his fall. The very 
 splendour of a fete which he gave to Louis at his house 
 at Vaux determined the needy monarch to make his 
 rapacious Minister disgorge his prey (1661). He was 
 imprisoned for life,* and Jean-Bap tiste Colbert was 
 called to take his place, side by side with Le Tellier and 
 Hugues de Lionne, as one of the small Council which 
 advised the Grand Monarque in the task of governing his 
 kingdom himself. The days of great Ministers — especi- 
 ally Cardinal-Ministers — were in eclipse. 
 
 But the work which Colbert did and the work of which 
 he dreamed was not the less important. To restore the 
 shattered finances of the kingdom, he counselled economy 
 and the encouragement of commerce. The greatness of a 
 country, he argued, depends upon its wealth . The greater 
 the country, the greater the monarch. To this end, to 
 economize and stimulate production, he worked with a 
 prodigious and desperate energy. 
 
 * He was long supposed to be the mysterious prisoner known 
 as the Man in the Iron Mask. 
 
* COLBERT 283 
 
 He encouraged agriculture by relieving it from taxation, 
 improving the breeds of cattle, and introducing a code for 
 highways and forests ; he encouraged industry by foster- 
 ing the textile trades, commerce by regulating customs, 
 reducing tariffs, and constructing great canals. To bring 
 wealth to the kingdom he revived the drooping enterprise 
 of the Colonial Companies, to which he granted loans, and 
 planted new settlements in Canada (1665), Senegal, the 
 West Indies, Newfoundland, and Madagascar. In Asia 
 the Compagnie des Indes (1664) was established at Surat, 
 Chandernagore, and Pondicherry. 
 
 French colonization was, however, largely a forced 
 and artificial movement, inspired by the zeal of the Court 
 for the propagation of Catholicism, and Louis' dreams of 
 worldwide Empire. Richelieu had developed New 
 France energetically, if artificially, with the intention of 
 checking the growth of Spain's transatlantic possessions. 
 Under Louis, Canada was administered like a province 
 of France. The brilliant daring of individual French 
 explorers, and the skill of French traders and Jesuits in 
 dealing with the natives, were not backed up by the nation 
 at large. Jacques Bonhomme, for the most part, bound 
 by his love for the productive soil of La belle France, 
 preferred to stay at home and work it with unsparing 
 zeal and toil. The Colonial movement, inaugurated 
 from the top, was maintained by a population of priests, 
 officials, soldiers, and a few genuine traders and colonists, 
 and by relays of criminals and paupers, who were shipped 
 over together with innocent or immoral women, who 
 iv^ere seized, exported, and forcibly married to the garri- 
 sons. Moreover, owing to the expense of the wars and 
 the loss of sea-power. Government aid even of this kind 
 was spasmodic and intermittent. 
 
 Minister of Marine after 1669, Colbert built a great 
 navy in the hope of gaining wealth by aimexing Holland 
 
284 FRANCE 
 
 But all his efforts, which can only be faintly indicated here, 
 were nullified by the extravagance of the King and his 
 Court, and by the impossible handicap of an ever-increas- 
 ing horde of privileged classes — idle nobles, unproductive 
 clergy, and officials who paid no taxes. Son of a shop- 
 keeper at Rheims, Colbert was a veritable revolutionary 
 in his bitter hatred of the unproductive castes of nuns, 
 lawyers, monks, and nobles. He reduced the number of 
 the privileged by revoking the irregular patents of nobihty 
 granted during the last thirty years ; he reduced the 
 gahelle and the taille (tax on landed property) ; he en- 
 deavoured to make Louis adapt his expenditure to income. 
 He placed the ugly facts of extravagance, waste, and 
 misery before his royal master with bitter forcefulness. 
 The roads and towns were decaying under the weight of 
 taxation ; the price of salt had been multiplied five 
 times since the days of Henri IV. ; viticulture was being 
 ruined by impositions ; every manufactured article had 
 increased five times in price, and goods, in passing from 
 one Province to another, became twenty times dearer 
 through exorbitant Customs. It was all in vain. Colbert's 
 dreams for regulating and co-ordinating taxation were 
 doomed to be unrealized, because economy and peace 
 were the necessary preliminaries. Louis built Versailles, 
 and plunged into war ; and whilst his Minister struck at 
 the privileged classes, the King was " ennobling " the 
 nation and keeping the noblesse d^e'pee in luxury and 
 idleness. 
 
 Colbert died in disgrace ; economists are seldom 
 popular with autocrats. The tax-farmers were always 
 ready to advance loans, at a price to be wrung from the 
 workers. When Colbert had gone, Louis was soon 
 borrowing at 400 per cent. 
 
 As things were, it is easy to see that Colbert was 
 attempting the impossible. But had he succeeded in 
 
Atis:. Risch^its. 
 
 MME. DE MAINTENON. Pa</es 281-30T. 
 From the portrait by Mignard at Versailles. 
 
LOUIS XIV. AND THE HUGUENOTS 285 
 
 cleansing the Augean stable of financial maladministration 
 and correcting the abuses accumulated in the course of 
 centuries of disorder, he might well have enabled the 
 Monarchy to save itself. The splendours of Versailles 
 and the elegance of the Court of Le Roi Soleil, the 
 grandeur of his ambitions, the imposing greatness of his 
 military forces, may easily blind us to the critical position 
 of the Crown at this period. But the harmony of the 
 praises of the poets and the courtier eloquence of the 
 Bishops is rudely disturbed by the reports of Colbert. 
 Behind all the glitter and magnificence of the Court and 
 Camp, he reveals to us the hunger and misery of the 
 peasants and the people, harassed by tax-gatherers, 
 irritated by impositions and the seizure of their produce, 
 ruined by exactions which paralyzed the market-place, 
 starving and diseased for lack of salt to season their pot 
 or preserve their bacon. He gave the warning clearly to 
 the old regime, but the officials and privileged classes 
 turned a deaf ear to his jeremiads. They were being 
 tried in the balance and found wanting, whilst the ideas 
 of justice and equality began to grow in the soil they were 
 preparing by their selfish ineptitude. 
 
 Louis' treatment of the Protestants dealt a no less 
 deadly blow to the prosperity and resources of his king- 
 dom. Always religious, he grew more devout as he grew 
 older. The memory of his sins, which had been many 
 in the course of an unbridled and passionate youth, 
 weighed heavily upon the conscience of the exhausted 
 rotte. In his earlier days he quarrelled with the Pope, in 
 order to check the temporal power of the Papacy and its 
 claim to control the Gallican Church. But from 1680 
 onwards, as he passed more and more under the influence 
 of Madame de Maintenon and his Jesuit confessors, his 
 pious zeal increased ; he became more and more anxious 
 to demonstrate his orthodoxy by exercising a sort of 
 
286 FRANCE 
 
 vicarious penance. The Court converted itself as the 
 King grew more devout. Fenelon taught him that it 
 was a King's duty to chastise heretics more rigorously 
 than atheists. Under the direction of Pere de la Chaise, 
 his natural incHnations ripened into undertaking the 
 " great design " — the enforcement of rehgious uniformity 
 within the kingdom. Every good Frenchman, thought 
 Louis, ought to profess the religion of his King. All 
 Protestant countries offered too dangerous an example 
 of liberty to please so absolute a monarch. 
 
 Increasing pressure, therefore, began to be put upon 
 the Protestants. At first the attempt was made to 
 convert them by offering favours and rewards to " New 
 CathoHcs," whilst the recalcitrants were excluded from 
 professions and offices. Nor was this all. Bands of 
 missionaries, backed by detachments of dragoons, were 
 quartered upon the Huguenots of Poitou. They made 
 30,000 converts at the point of the sword, the result of 
 cruel outrages which were, officially, only half authorized. 
 But the policy of dragooning, proved so successful, was 
 applied in every direction. At the same time war was 
 openly waged upon the liberty of the Protestants, their 
 schools and churches. All these hardships were borne 
 with a patience that was deceptive. One or two risings 
 were easily suppressed. Louis was led to believe, by the 
 bigoted Le Tellier, Louvois, and others, that it only 
 remained to announce the destruction of the remaining 
 few, and to eliminate the Protestant ministers, who 
 might induce a backsliding amongst the New Catholics. 
 In Januar}', 1685, the Protestants appealed to the 
 King, instancing their loyalty during the Fronde, and 
 praying for the observance of the Edict of Nantes. 
 Their answer was given in October. The Edict was 
 revoked. Protestant worship was proscribed, the demo- 
 lition of Protestant meeting-houses ordered, Protestant 
 
REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES 287 
 
 ministers were banished and their schools closed. Cal- 
 vinists attempting to emigrate were condemned to the 
 galleys. A campaign of violent proselytism, reinforced 
 by bribes and torture, was opened. " Tortm-e, abjm-a- 
 tion, and enforced communion often took place within 
 twenty-four hours," St. Simon notes. Houses were 
 wrecked, babes were torn from their parents, and sentence 
 of death was pronounced on all who practised any but 
 the Catholic reHgion. The clock of toleration had been 
 put back a century — not that that was a virtue practised 
 by the Protestants themselves. The " FHght of Israel " 
 ensued. More than 200,000 of the most intelligent, 
 moral, and energetic of her citizens escaped from France 
 to Holland, England, Geneva or the English colonies, 
 whilst thousands of " incorrigible Huguenots," who 
 refused to conform to CathoUcism, were sent to the 
 Bastille, to the Tour de Constance at Aigues Mortes, or 
 to toil for life at the galleys. The mere loss to France in 
 mental, moral, physical, and material force was enormous. 
 And her loss was the gain of her enemies. Henceforth, on 
 every battle-field she found her fiercest foes in her own 
 persecuted emigrants, whom England, Holland, Prussia, 
 and Switzerland counted amongst their most energetic, 
 capable, and enlightened citizens. And those who stayed 
 at home, forcibly converted, remained rebellious at 
 heart. 
 
 The Revocation of the Edict, however, was immensely 
 popular with Catholic France. Madame de Sevign6 and 
 Bossuet wrote in terms of extravagant eulogy of its 
 author ; it was approved of by such men as La Fontaine 
 and La Bruyere. 
 
 And yet Louis' idea of uniting France in one religion 
 under one master, a Priest-King, was not to be achieved 
 by such methods. Though persecution raged in Langue- 
 doc, Dauphine, and the Cevennes, the Protestants con- 
 
288 FRANCE 
 
 tinued indomitable. Insurrections, based on the hope 
 of foreign aid, broke out, sporadic, but fanatical in 
 intensity (1702-1710). Ill-armed, undisciplined, few in 
 numbers, the Protestant peasants and artisans — Cami- 
 sards, as they were termed — fought on for their faith, and 
 died at the hands of their comitrymen amongst the rocky 
 ravines of the Cevennes. In despair at reducing a whole 
 population in arms, the Catholic Royalists resorted to 
 the brutal method of burning, devastating, and depopu- 
 lating the whole countryside from Mende to Nimes, and 
 from Beziers to Pont-Saint-Esprit. And yet Protestant- 
 ism survived. It began to revive again after fifty years 
 of open persecution, though little helped by foreign aid, 
 and though abandoned in treaties by Protestant countries, 
 when Louis refused to discuss the question with them, 
 as being one of internal policy. 
 
 Jansenism, no less than Calvinism, was regarded by 
 Louis and the Church as a heresy to be suppressed, as a 
 note quite out of harmony with the political and religious 
 unity of a kingdom ruled by a Priest-King, in which no 
 sound of criticism or dissent should be heard. The 
 Jansenists, who held the tenets of a Bishop of Ypres — one 
 Jansenius, who died in 1638 — had a large following 
 amongst the magistracy. They formed a politico-reli- 
 gious opposition to Louis and the Pope. The studious 
 and ascetic brethren of Port Royal, the Jansenist strong- 
 hold, challenged the worldly policy of the Jesuits, and 
 in Pascal's " Provincial Letters " published a deadly 
 criticism of that society and its methods. Louis first 
 suppressed the monastery of Port Royal, and then ordered 
 the buildings to be razed to the ground. This policy of 
 repression intensified the political aspect of Jansenism, 
 which became more and more a duel between Parlement 
 and the Pope, between France and the ultramontane 
 policy of the Holy See. 
 
< ^ 
 
THE NEW ARMY 289 
 
 Whilst Colbert had built and manned a navy, and 
 partly developed the resources of the country, Fran9ois- 
 Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, had reorganized 
 the army almost on modern lines. Guns and bayonets 
 were substituted for the pike ; regiments, artillery schools, 
 and engineer corps instituted ; the French infantry, 
 drilled and trained, became the finest in the world. 
 Vauban introduced new science into the art of defending 
 and attacking towns. In what direction and to what 
 end was Louis to turn these mighty engines of glory, 
 destruction, and gain ? Taste, ambition, tradition alike 
 impelled him to seek glory by arms rather than in the 
 peaceful avenues of commerce. Up to the end of the 
 century, Louis aimed at making himself the master of 
 Europe, a second Charlemagne, who, as Emperor in place 
 of the fallen Hapsburgs, should be the supreme head of 
 Catholicism and defender of Christendom. He pursued 
 the policy of Richelieu in the endeavour to extend 
 the limits of France to the "natural boundaries" of 
 ancient Gaul, but pursued it without the great Car- 
 dinal's caution and self-restraint. He carried his at- 
 titude of absolute monarch — je veux et faurai — into 
 foreign politics, and sought to dictate to Emperor, Pope, 
 and Europe, as he dictated to his own subjects. Aiming 
 at the absorption of Spain and the German States, and 
 at competition with England and Holland in America, 
 India, and Africa, he did not attempt to conceal his ends. 
 Nor did he appreciate the disastrous influence which such 
 unscrupulous actions as the seizure of Strasburg and the 
 annexation of territory filched from the Empire in time 
 of peace were bound to exercise. Then, whilst his violence 
 and ambition were alarming all Europe, and advertising 
 the fact that the danger of a French supremacy had 
 succeeded to the Spanish peril, Louis suddenly threw all 
 the Protestant States of Germany, whose interests France 
 
 19 
 
290 FRANCE 
 
 had so long supported against the House of Austria, into 
 the arms of the Emperor, and at the same time earned 
 the undying hatred of England and Holland, already 
 opposed to him through their colonial and commercial 
 interests, by his fatal persecution of the Protestants and 
 his championship of the Jacobite cause. From 1683 
 dates the downward course of France to the disastrous 
 Peace of Utrecht (1713). She was left to continue the 
 struggle with England for supremacy at sea and for 
 colonial empire with a ruined fleet and shattered finances, 
 until the Peace of Paris (1763) acknowledged the inevitable 
 result. 
 
 Anxious to secure the support of the Dutch in his 
 projected attack upon the Spanish Netherlands, Louis 
 entered into a defensive and commercial treaty with 
 them (1662), as with Poland and Denmark. He took 
 little part, however, in the Dutch war with England, 
 which ended m the Treaty of Breda (July, 1667), for he 
 was preparing to assert the claims of Anne and Maria 
 Theresa to the Spanish Netherlands. The will of Philip 
 of Spain (1665) had emphasized their renunciation. But 
 in May, 1667, Louis denounced that renunciation, and, 
 declaring that he could obtain no justice in Madrid for 
 Maria Theresa's rights, he entered Flanders with Turenne, 
 and caught Spain unprepared. Tournai, Oudenarde, 
 Lille, and other towns were captured, thanks to the 
 science of Vauban. A carefully prepared winter cam- 
 paign under Conde (February, 1668) resulted in the 
 seizure of the Franche-Comte. Spain stood helpless 
 before the threats and prowess of Louis' brilliant forces. 
 Frightened by his aggressive attitude, England, Holland, 
 and Sweden formed a Triple AlUance to protect Spain 
 and hold the French King to the Treaty of the Pyrenees. 
 Their intervention led to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 
 (May, 1668), by which Louis retained the towns he had 
 
THE TREATY OF DOVER 291 
 
 captured, but restored Franche-Comte. From that 
 moment he determined to crush the proud, rich, imper- 
 tinent Protestant Republic which had dared to bar the 
 progress of the Catholic monarch in extending his boun- 
 daries to the natural limits of Gaul. 
 
 His first step was to isolate the United Provinces by 
 diplomacy and bribes. Through the agency of Madame 
 Henrietta,* the secret Treaty of Dover was negotiated 
 with Charles II. of England (June, 1670). The Stuart 
 King undertook to reconcile himseK with the Church of 
 Rome so soon as the affairs of his kingdom would 
 permit, and to aid Louis in his war with Holland. In 
 return he was to receive an annual subsidy of 3,000,000 
 Uvres until the conclusion of peace, when Flushing, 
 Middleburgh, and other valuable places were to be con- 
 ceded to him, which would establish England upon the 
 Scheldt. Sweden, too, was bribed to attack those 
 Princes of the Empire who should attempt to succour 
 the United Provinces ; Lorraine, which threatened to 
 be hostile, was seized. Meantime, Holland was being 
 enfeebled by intestine struggles between two parties, 
 one of which was led by Jan de Witt, and the other aimed 
 at the restoration of the young Prince of Orange to the 
 heritage of his ancestors. 
 
 In the spring of 1672 two armies of 120,000 men, 
 under Turenne and Conde, and accompanied by the King, 
 converged upon the little Republic. The Rhine was 
 crossed in June ; but Louis' triumphal march was checked 
 when the Dutchmen opened their sluices and flooded the 
 country round Amsterdam. The French were forced to 
 retreat before the inundation. Meanwhile, WilUam, 
 Prince of Orange, was elected Stadtholder in place of the 
 
 * Henrietta of England, wife of the degenerate Philippe, Duke 
 of Orleans, shared the wit and charm of her brother, Charles II., 
 and had fascinated her brother-in-law, Louis XIV. 
 
292 FRANCE 
 
 old Republican leader, Jan de Witt. The two great pro- 
 tagonists of the century were now face to face. Few 
 could have foreseen that it was William who was to 
 emerge victorious. 
 
 In the following year Maestricht fell to Louis and 
 Vauban. Holland was ravaged. But by this time 
 Europe was thoroughly alarmed. The Elector of Bran- 
 denburgh, the Duke of Lorraine, and other German 
 Princes, with Spain and Austria, came to the assistance 
 of the Dutch. The Anglo-French fleet failed, and the 
 English Parliament would no longer brook war with their 
 fellow- Protestants. But the dazzling campaigns of 
 Turenne and Conde in Alsace, the Netherlands, and the 
 Palatinate, enabled France to hold her o^\ti against 
 Europe, and, by a series of treaties with the members of 
 the Coalition, to obtain peace with honour at the expense 
 of Spain. At Nimeguen (August, 1678) a treaty of peace 
 and commerce, by which France renounced the hostile 
 tariff erected by Colbert, was signed with Holland. But 
 Spain was obliged to accept Louis' ultimatum. She 
 received back the places surrendered by the Treaty of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, and some others recently captured in 
 Catalonia, but ceded the whole of Franche-Comte and 
 half Flanders. Louis thus gained a series of strongholds 
 forming a firm frontier to France from Dunkirk (which 
 he had purchased from England) to the Maas. Peace 
 was made with the Emperor in the following year. 
 Brandenburgh and Denmark were compelled to resign 
 the advantages they had gained by conquering Sweden. 
 Louis returned in triumph to Paris, to be hailed as the con- 
 queror of Europe, and to receive the title of " the Great." 
 
 He had, indeed, achieved much. His proud device. 
 Nee pluribus impar, was amply justified. But his hopes 
 were not all fulfilled. Whether it was peace or war, he 
 and his ambitious minister, Louvois, would not rest from 
 
THE REUNIONS 293 
 
 their policy of aggrandizement until they had advanced 
 the French frontier to the Scheldt and the Rhine. In 
 1679, Louvois began a series of movements which scantily 
 concealed the grossest aggression under the guise of law. 
 First he occupied Homburg and Bitche, dependencies of 
 Lorraine, which had been pledged by Duke Charles IV. 
 to the Electors of Treves and Mainz. Then he made the 
 Parliament of Bezan9on declare the "reunion" to 
 Franche-Comte of the principality of Montb^liard, the 
 property of the Dukes of Wiirtemberg. At the Parlia- 
 ment of Metz he instituted a chambre de reunion to search 
 out all the territories which could possibly be claimed 
 as fiefs of the Three Bishoprics. As the result, he gave 
 instructions for the passing of decrees for the reunion 
 with France of some eighty fiefs. The seizure of the 
 county of Zweibriicken in this way threw Charles XI. 
 of Sweden, the principal claimant to it, on to the side of 
 the enemies of Louis. In the same way he proceeded 
 with the suppression of the jurisdiction of the Emperor 
 in Alsace and the reunion of territories in those parts. 
 But the reunion of Strasburg, a free imperial city, was 
 achieved by a still more flagrant abuse of force. The 
 town was suddenly seized , by troops who had been 
 secretly massed in Alsace (September 27, 1681). At the 
 same time and in the same way Casale was seized — a step 
 towards the domination of Piedmont and, through 
 Piedmont, of Italy. And then, claiming the county of 
 Chiny, which belonged to Spain, Louvois prepared to 
 seize Luxemburg as he had seized Strasburg. 
 
 But by this time the Powers were thoroughly alarmed 
 and irritated by these peaceful acquisitions through 
 chambres de reunion, backed by 140,000 men under arms. 
 William of Orange was able to focus the nervousness of 
 Europe in a second Coalition against France. By the 
 middle of 1682 the Emperor, Spain, and the German 
 
294 FRANCE 
 
 Princes had all joined with Holland and Sweden in a league 
 for the maintenance of the Treaty of Nimeguen. But 
 Louis, conducting his course of violence and ruse with 
 great diplomatic skill, emerged triumphant. Refusing 
 to be drawn into a crusade against the Turks, who were 
 threatening Vienna and so paralyzing the Coalition, he 
 kept Denmark, Brandenburgh, and England at peace 
 with him. He forced Spain to a declaration of war 
 (October, 1683), and then reduced her to accept his 
 ultimatum. Genoa, which was building some ships for 
 Spain, was bombarded and humbled. Again Europe had 
 been compelled to bow to the Grand Monarque. At 
 Ratisbon a truce for twenty years was signed between 
 France and the Emperor, and France and Spain (August, 
 1684). The Emperor, embarrassed by a Protestant 
 rebellion in Hungary, which Louis had fomented, ceded 
 Strasburg, Kehl, and all the "reunions," on condition 
 that Louis ceased to aid the Hungarian rebels. Spain 
 gave up Luxemburg, Bou vines, Beaumont, and Chimay, 
 in return for Courtrai and Dixmude, captured in the 
 previous year. 
 
 The conclusion of this treaty seemed to promise a 
 long period of peace. Louis believed himself the con- 
 queror of Europe. But it is from this moment that his 
 sun begins to set. In reality, France was much ex- 
 hausted. It was in vain that Colbert had economized 
 and increased the revenue. Louis always lived beyond his 
 income. Moreover, Europe, already so injured and 
 resentful, was soon stung to protest by the Very Christian 
 King's treatment of the Protestants. 
 
 For now that peace was concluded, considerations of 
 State no longer restrained the zeal of the Catholics . Louis 
 had kept England neutral by pensioning the Stuart 
 Kings with the French pistoles they loved so well, and 
 so keeping them independent of Parliament. He now 
 
WILLIAM OF ORANGE 295 
 
 encouraged James II. in his eager attempt to establish 
 autocracy and Catholicism in the teeth of the English 
 nation, and thus hastened the very Revolution which 
 was to prove so fatal to his schemes . And the Revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes enabled William of Orange and 
 the Emperor Leopold to unite the Protestant powers in 
 a league against him. Spain needed no urging to ven- 
 geance ; even the Catholic States were inclined to side 
 with the Emperor, thanks to Louis' intrigues with the 
 Turks. In July, 1686, the League of Augsburg took 
 shape ; the Emperor, Spain, Sweden, the Elector of 
 Bavaria, and other German Princes bound themselves to 
 enforce the Treaties of Westphalia, Nimeguen, and 
 Ratisbon, and to resist further aggression on the part of 
 Louis. The league was soon joined by Victor Amadeus, 
 Duke of Savoy, and other Italian Princes. Yet at this 
 moment, when Louis was already involved in a quarrel 
 with the Pope over the right of investiture of the See of 
 Cologne, and was entering upon war with Europe by 
 advancing against the cities of the Rhine, he allowed 
 William of Orange to sail for England and to take pos- 
 session of the throne of the Stuarts. It was a pardonable 
 error. Louis could not foresee the startling rapidity 
 with which the Protestant Revolution was to be achieved,, 
 leaving his inveterate enemy free to direct against him 
 the power which had for so long been bribed into 
 abeyance. Rather he calculated that England and the 
 United Provinces would both be eliminated from the 
 coming struggle. At first it seemed as if that would be 
 the case. Whilst Louvois ravaged and devastated the 
 fair land of the Palatinate, and Catinat overwhelmed 
 Victor Amadeus in Italy (Marsaglia, 1690, 1693) ; whilst 
 the Marechal de Luxemburg, assisted by the Grand 
 Monarque himself, conducted a successful campaign in 
 the Netherlands (Fleurus. 1690), William had to struggle 
 
296 FRANCE 
 
 with the Jacobite Scots and Irish. France was still 
 mistress of the sea. Her fleets, under Chateau Renault, 
 defeated the English and Dutch off Bantry Bay, and 
 landed French troops and munitions of war to help 
 James II. in Ireland. In May, 1689, therefore, William 
 declared war with France, on the grounds of her support 
 of James and aggression in New York and Hudson's Bay. 
 The naval successes of the French under Tourville were 
 soon counterbalanced by the Battle of the Bojme (1690). 
 James fled to France, and William was left free to attack 
 Louis by land and sea. Louis turned to take the offensive 
 by invading England. But the Anglo-Dutch fleet dealt 
 a smashing blow to his navy at St. Vaast La Hougue 
 (June 2, 1 692) . And in the Netherlands William maintained 
 a heroic resistance, always beaten, but never yielding. 
 Though the Duke of Luxemburg might take Namur, and 
 defeat William at Steinkirk (1692) and Neerwinden (1693), 
 these bloody battles only hastened the exhaustion of 
 France. If the allies were jealous and disunited, she was 
 isolated, and was pouring out blood and treasure in Italy, 
 Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, on the Rhine, and the 
 high seas at once. D'Estrees scoured the Mediterranean, 
 and Tourville defeated Rooke off Cape St. Vincent, 
 capturing a rich convoy bound for the East. But the 
 victories gained were not sufficiently overwhelming to 
 force a peace. In face of approaching bankruptcy, of 
 bad harvests, and the question of the Spanish succession, 
 Louis was therefore driven to grant it with all the pose 
 of magnanimity he could. He came to terms with the 
 Duke of Savoy, who regained Pignerolo, and then, by the 
 Treaty of Ryswick (September 20, 1697), in act, though 
 not in word, he confessed himself beaten by William and 
 the Coalition of Vienna. He undertook not to help, 
 directly or indirectly, the enemies of the King of England, 
 thus recognizing a Government hateful to him, and 
 
TREATY OF RYSWICK 297 
 
 pledging himself to abandon the cause of the Stuarts. 
 He promised to restore to the English their settlements 
 in Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland. Lorraine was given 
 up. Louis kept Strasburg, but restored to the Empire 
 all places outside Alsace occupied during the war and 
 taken by way of reunion. Spain regained Luxemburg 
 and almost all the places taken since Nimeguen ; the 
 Dutch were granted commercial concessions, and restored 
 Pondicherry, which they had captured in 1693. 
 
 Louis was now free to prepare for enforcing his claim 
 to the Spanish succession. Spain was exhausted and as 
 moribund as her King, the weakly Charles II., who was 
 tottering, childless, to a premature grave. Among the 
 numerous claimants to the throne, France, in the natural 
 order of succession, had the prior claim. The Grand 
 Dauphin was the nephew of Charles II. But the rights 
 of Anna Maria and of Maria Theresa had been renounced 
 upon their marriage with Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. 
 The conditions of the Treaty of the P3n?enees, however, 
 as we have seen, had not been fulfilled. The rights of 
 sovereignty, it could also be argued, were inalienable ; 
 the Princesses concerned had not acted in full liberty. 
 In any case, France did not intend to respect that re- 
 nunciation. And yet it was certain that Europe could not 
 sit idly by, whilst Spain was absorbed by the hated French 
 monarchy, and her vast colonies and the Netherlands 
 were added to the possessions of France. 
 
 Next to France, ranked the claim of Joseph Ferdinand, 
 Electoral Prince of Bavaria, son of Marie Antoinette, the 
 only daughter of the Emperor Leopold I. of Austria by 
 Margarita Theresa. The latter was the younger sister 
 of Maria Theresa. If the French claims were disallowed, 
 the succession would pass to the Grcrman Hne. But here 
 again there was a renunciation to be considered . Leopold, 
 in marrying his daughter to the Elector of Bavaria, had 
 
298 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 renounced her claim. This act was said to be ultra vires, 
 and Spain had never recognized it. But, whilst Bavaria 
 held this view, Leopold himself naturally upheld that 
 renunciation, and claimed the throne through his mother, 
 Maria Anna, daughter of Philip III. of Spain, and pro- 
 posed to transmit it to his second son, the Archduke 
 Charles.* 
 
 England and Holland favoured the claim of Joseph 
 Ferdinand as least likely to upset the balance of power, 
 badly poised as it already was. 
 
 Whilst the Emperor intrigued at the Court of Spain 
 through Charles' second wife, Maria Anna of Neubourg, 
 who was devoted to the Austrian interest, Louis, 
 keeping his troops ready, but acting with cleverness 
 and moderation, negotiated with the maritime powers 
 (Sept. — Oct., 1698). A Treaty of Partition was signed 
 at the Hague, with England and Holland, by which 
 
 * Philip II. of Spain. 
 
 i 
 
 Phihp III. 
 
 I 
 
 AnnazpLouis XIII. 
 Maria of France. 
 
 PhUip IV. 
 
 Louis XIV. =F Maria 
 Theresa. 
 
 The Grand Dauphin. 
 
 Due de Bourgogne. 
 Due d'Anjou (Philip V.). 
 Due de Berri. 
 
 Charles II. 
 
 (d. s.p. 
 
 1700). 
 
 Maria ^1= Emperor Ferdi- 
 Anna I nand III. 
 
 Margarita =F Leopold I. qp 
 Theresa (3rd) Eleo- 
 nora of 
 Neubourg. 
 
 Joseph I. 
 
 and 
 Charles VI. 
 
 Marie Antoinettes Max-Emmanuel (Elector 
 of Bavaria). 
 
 Ferdi 
 
 Joseph Ferdinand (Electoral-Prince). 
 
THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 299 
 
 it was agreed that the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, 
 or, in the event of his death, his father, should succeed 
 to Spain, the Indies, and Netherlands ; the Archduke 
 Charles to the Milanese ; and the Dauphin to Naples, 
 Sicily, the Spanish towns on the coast of Tuscany, with 
 the Marquisate of Finale and the province of Giupuzcoa. 
 Upon the news of this Treaty, the Spaniards were in- 
 dignant at the proposed dismemberment of their country, 
 and Charles II. made a wiU in favour of the Prince- 
 Electoral (Nov.). At this the Emperor was furious. But 
 three months later the little Prince of Bavaria died. 
 France and Austria were left face to face. Again Louis 
 sought to engage the support of the maritime powers, and 
 a second Treaty of Partition was signed (March, 1700). 
 The adherence of the Emperor was invited, but refused. 
 This treaty provided that Spain, the Indies, and the 
 Netherlands should pass to the Archduke Charles, with 
 the proviso that they should never be united to the 
 Empire ; that the Dauphin should have the Duchy of 
 Lorraine, in addition to all that had been assigned to him 
 by the former treaty ; and the Duke of Lorraine, in compen- 
 sation, the Milanese. The effect of either of these arrange- 
 ments would have been to convert the Mediterranean 
 into a French lake, an object as ardently desired by 
 Louis XIV. as by Napoleon I. Charles and the Spaniards 
 were again enraged when the treaty was communicated 
 to them. In desperate and patriotic hope of avoiding 
 the dismemberment of his Empire and civil war, the 
 Spanish monarch made a final will a month before his 
 death (November 1, 1700), and left all his possessions 
 to a hated Bourbon, the second grandson of the dreaded 
 Louis Philippe, Due d'Anjou. 
 
 Europe was astounded. The Emperor protested ; but 
 Louis, to the delight of France, accepted the Spanish 
 Crown for Philip V., and in an outburst of triumph it 
 
300 FRANCE 
 
 was declared that the Pyrenees no longer existed. The 
 Bourbons ruled France and Spain, and Louis, in his 
 overweening pride, took no pains to conceal his intention 
 of ruling the Netherlands. The two crowns were prac- 
 tically united on his head. Neither England nor Holland 
 was willing to fight over the Spanish succession. But 
 Louis' precipitancy forced them into the war which was 
 to be his undoing. Whilst publicly reserving to the Duke 
 of Anjou his rights in the order of succession to the French 
 Crown, he replaced the Dutch garrisons in the Belgian 
 " barrier " towns, which they held by virtue of the Treaty 
 of Byswick, with French troops. Europe was alarmed ; 
 the United Provinces threatened and insulted ; it remained 
 to drive England to arms by recognizing the Pretender, 
 upon the death of James 11. , as King of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland (September, 1701). This was to 
 denounce the Protestant succession, and to break the 
 Treaty of Ryswick. The influence of the devout Madame 
 de Maintenon and her advisers outweighed the entreaties 
 of all Louis' ministers. 
 
 Already the Emperor had entered into a grand alliance 
 with England and Holland at the Hague (September, 
 1701) to insure the separation of the two crowns, and, 
 if Louis did not prove tractable, to conquer the Spanish 
 Netherlands in order to secure the United Provinces, 
 and the Milanese, Naples, and Sicily, in order to protect 
 Austria and Anglo-Dutch commerce. Wilham III. died 
 on the eve of the declaration of war (May 15, 1702). 
 But the work of Louis' great adversary was almost done. 
 The League was joined by Denmark and the German 
 Princes. England strained every nerve to pour troops 
 and money into the coalition camp, which was directed 
 by Heinsius, Prince Eugene, and Marlborough, the 
 triumvirate of the League. 
 
 Campaigns in the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and 
 
THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM 301 
 
 on the Rhine, and the destruction of the French fleet 
 at Vigo (October, 1702), were followed by the accession 
 of Savoy and Portugal to the League. There was now 
 no longer talk of partition ; the AUies determined to place 
 the Archduke Charles upon the Spanish throne in place 
 of PhiHp V. 
 
 And, whilst the enemies of France increased in numbers 
 and determination, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
 was sorely weakening her within her own borders. The 
 Pope preached a crusade against the Gamisards, and the 
 Protestants of the Cevennes accepted the help of England 
 and Savoy, only to be crushed and wellnigh exterminated 
 by Villars. So France lost 100,000 of her bravest and 
 most determined citizens. In the field she could only 
 oppose to the genius of Marlborough and Eugene the 
 inferior skiU of Tallard, ViUars, Villeroi, and Vendome. 
 
 At the beginning of 1704 the French armies, in con- 
 junction with the Elector of Bavaria, were threatening 
 Vienna, when Marlborough, boldly advancing to the 
 Danube, gained the brilliant and overwhelming victory 
 of Blenheim (August 13, 1704), and drove them back 
 beyond the Rhine. Then, returning to Flanders, he 
 manoeuvred to secure another crushing victory which 
 should drive the French from the Spanish Netherlands. 
 Louis and Villeroi at length gave him the opportunity he 
 sought. By the Battle of Ramillies (May 23, 1706), the 
 great General achieved his purpose. 
 
 Shortly afterwards a victory gained by Prince Eugene 
 over the Duke of Orleans at Turin led to the evacuation 
 of Italy. And the English, in conjunction with the Por- 
 tuguese, entering Madrid, proclaimed the Archduke Charles 
 King of Spain (June 25, 1706). The year 1707, however, 
 saw Berwick and Orleans victorious in Spain (Almanza, 
 April 25) , and the AlUes repulsed in an attack upon Provence . 
 
 An attempt to create a diversion against England by 
 
302 FRANCE 
 
 an expedition to Scotland with the Pretender (1708) was 
 rendered nugatory by the presence of the English fleet. 
 Then, at Oudenarde (July 11), in the Low Countries, 
 Marlborough and Eugene inflicted another defeat upon 
 the French arms, which were handicapped by the in- 
 competence, if not the cowardice, of Louis' grandson, 
 the Due de Bourgogne, who shared the command with the 
 Due de Vendome. Lille surrendered ; the French frontier 
 lay open ; Paris was hardly safe ; the resources of the 
 country were exhausted. Negotiations for peace were 
 begun, but they were broken off when the Allies insisted 
 that Louis should guarantee that his grandson should 
 evacuate the Spanish throne. "If I am to continue 
 fighting," the Grand Monarque retorted gallantly, "I 
 would rather fight my enemies than my children." In 
 the next campaign that gallant soldier, Villars, and the 
 old Marechal de Boufflers were beaten at Malplaquet by 
 Marlborough and Eugene, but it was a defeat that was 
 almost as good as a victory (September 11, 1709), so 
 heavy were the losses of the Allies. 
 
 It was in the face of such reverses, whilst the military 
 prestige of France was being shattered and her resources 
 crippled, that the aged monarch showed himself in his 
 most kingly light. His courage, determination, and 
 resource never wavered. His plate was melted down, 
 and the treasures of Versailles pledged ; the coinage was 
 debased. And yet when, after a series of bad harvests, 
 the financiers refused to advance a penny, Louis invited 
 Samuel Bernard, the great banker, to Versailles, and 
 there the coolness of the King and the splendour of the 
 Court so impressed the financier that he engaged his 
 vast fortune in the royal service to his own undoing. 
 Criticism of the despot, of his ruinous wars, and incom- 
 petent Generals, was vigorously suppressed by the royal 
 pohce which held Paris in terror. 
 
PEACE OF UTRECHT 303 
 
 And now, as if to reward the King's determination, 
 the sun at last broke through the dark clouds which had 
 overcast the sky of French poUcy. Sacheverell and 
 Mrs. Masham achieved what all the warriors and states- 
 men of Versailles had failed to do. Marlborough fell. 
 A change came over the pblicy of England. The Tories 
 clamoured for peace. The English suspended hostilities, 
 and Conferences were opened at Utrecht at the beginning 
 of 1712. But the Dutch and Imperialists were still eager 
 to continue the war, and were threatening Paris. Louis 
 despatched Villars to dispute the way with them, coun- 
 selling him, if he were defeated, to retire behind the 
 Somme, and promising then to join him at Peronne, there 
 to make a last effort to save the State or perish, " for I 
 will never consent to allow the enemy to approach my 
 capital." Villars, by a last great effort at Denain (July 24, 
 1712), hurled the enemy back. The victory brought the 
 flush of new hope to France. A treaty was concluded 
 with England, and, in view of her defection, the aUies 
 were forced to come to terms. 
 
 One of the difficulties in arriving at conditions of peace 
 was to insure a valid renunciation of the claims of France 
 and Spain, so that the two crowns should never be 
 united. The monarch's word could clearly no longer be 
 relied on. The English demanded the formal consent 
 of the States General, but the autocrat of France would 
 not hear of this. The allies had to be content with the 
 solemn registration of the renunciation in the Parlement 
 of Paris and the Cortes of Spain. By the Peace of Utrecht 
 (April 11, 1713), separate treaties were entered into with 
 England, Holland, Portugal, the Duke of Savoy, and the 
 King of Prussia. The Emperor alone was obdurate. In 
 the English agreement Louis recognized the Protestant 
 succession, and undertook to harbour the Stuarts no more. 
 He promised to destroy the fortifications and port of 
 
304 FRANCE 
 
 Dunkirk, whence privateers had so sorely damaged English 
 commerce, and to surrender Hudson's Bay and Straits, 
 Acadie (Nova Scotia), St. Kitt's, and Newfoundland, 
 retaining the right of the French to fish and cure their 
 catch on the side of that island known as the " Petit- 
 Nord." Some hostile tariffs were removed, and com- 
 mercial relations generally were re-established as in 1664. 
 
 In the treaty with the United Provinces , Louis renounced 
 all claim to the Spanish Netherlands, and handed them 
 over to the Dutch, until an agreement should be arrived 
 at with Austria. A successful campaign by Villars in 
 Germany and on the Rhine brought the Emperor to 
 terms (Treaty of Rastadt, March, 1714). To compensate 
 him for the abandonment of his claim to Spain, the 
 Austrian was given Milan, Naples, the Tuscan towns, and 
 Sardinia, as well as the Spanish Netherlands, the Dutch 
 retaining the right to garrison the towns which formed the 
 " barrier " against France (Namur, Tournai, Ypres, etc.). 
 Louis retained Lille and French Flanders, as well as Alsace 
 (including Strasburg). He recognized the Elector of 
 Brandenburg's title as King of Prussia, and his sovereignty 
 over Neuchatel and Valengin ; to Portugal he ceded 
 territory in dispute on the frontiers of Bresi and the 
 French Guyane ; and to Victor Amedeus restored Nice 
 and Savoy, receiving, in return for some territory on the 
 Piedmont side, the Valley of Barcelonnette. He promised 
 him the kingdom of Sicily and the succession to the 
 Spanish throne in the event of the extinction of the 
 Bourbon dynasty in Spain. 
 
 As the result of all his ambitious efforts, Louis had made 
 a small addition to French territory,* but, in doing so, he 
 had gambled away the prestige of France and ruined her 
 finances. " I have been too fond of war. . Do not imitate 
 me in that, nor in my excessive expenditure." So the 
 * French Flanders, Strasburg, and the Franche-Comt6. 
 
i 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 "^ %. 
 
 
 «$ 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 MM^^m.J^ \ 
 
 f -^^ ' 
 
 
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 f 
 
 A ^^is^ 
 
 
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 '^'''4:3 
 
 Mm 
 
 1' 
 
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 : -fi %^i.-iM 
 
 ^^BL^^'JB 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 v 
 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 , W^^ 
 
 Br* 
 
 ^f M^. Rischgitz. 
 
 LOUIS XV. (1715-1774). 
 From ihe picture by Charles Andreio Vanloo at Versailles. 
 
DEATH OF THE GRAND MONARQUE 305 
 
 aged monarch confessed his failure, when on his death-bed 
 he handed on the task of autocracy to his sole surviving 
 legitimate descendant, Louis XV., a beautiful child of five. 
 But whilst France was thus weakened ; whilst her invincible 
 army had been beaten again and again, her fleet destroyed, 
 her colonies crippled ; and whilst her people were starving, 
 England, Protestant, united and free, had risen to be 
 the foremost maritime Power. In Austria the House of 
 Hapsburg had lost Spain, but gained the Netherlands 
 and much in Italy, and, whilst retaining the title of 
 Emperor and the European complications it involved, 
 had almost succeeded by this time in winning Hungary 
 from the Turks. And the new sun of Prussia was rising 
 above the horizon of the Rhine. Frederick- William I. 
 was beginning to prepare the army and resources of 
 Frederick the Great. 
 
 Louis the Great died on September 1, 1715. He had 
 lived seventy-seven years, reigned seventy- two, and 
 governed for fifty-four. All the warnings of Colbert 
 had been ignored. In the absence of economy, his pre- 
 dictions were verified. By 1715 the annual expenditure 
 almost doubled the receipts of the Treasury. The 
 country was practical^ bankrupt. Flourishing in her 
 prime with her great King, says Martin, France had grown 
 old with him. For the rest of the century we have to 
 watch the process of her dissolution as a monarchy, 
 prior to her new birth as a sovereign nation, free and 
 democratic, and guided by a people's will, however 
 vacillating. 
 
 20 
 
XXI 
 
 THE EEGENCY 
 (Louis XV., A.D. 1715—1774) 
 
 Louis XV. was the second child of the Dauphin, the 
 Duke of Burgundy, of whose achievements as King high 
 hopes had been formed, only to be shattered by his sudden 
 death in 1711. To settle the problem of the Regency 
 during the long minority of his great-grandson, Louis XIV. 
 had made provisions in a will drawn up with great pains, 
 but destined, as he himself foretold, to be put aside in a 
 day. Louis loved his bastard, the Duke of Maine, and 
 appointed him to be guardian of the child-King. He 
 distrusted the natural Regent, his nephew, the Duke of 
 Orleans,* who had long lived in dissipation and disgrace. 
 To control him, he appointed a co-optative Council of 
 Regency, over which he was to preside. The Regent 
 was clever, cultivated, cynical, without ambition, and 
 without respect for any principle or ideal. Liberal in 
 outlook, he was mentally suited to a new age. His 
 ability was as undoubted as his unbridled gaiety. He had 
 a rapid insight into men. But he dissipated his energies 
 in frivolity, and shattered his powers of concentration and 
 work by continual drunkenness and debauchery. He was 
 capable, however, of sudden flashes of courage and reso- 
 lution, and upon Louis' death at once asserted his right 
 to full control of the government, and, led by the Due de 
 
 ♦ Son of Philippe, Duke of Orleans, by his second wife. 
 306 
 
THE REGENT 307 
 
 St. Simon and his old tutor, the clever but disreputable 
 Abbe Dubois, he carried the day. In a sharp struggle 
 with the party of the Due de Maine, Madame de Main- 
 tenon, and the ultramontanes, backed by the Pope and 
 Spain, he was supported by all the elements of opposition 
 to the regime of Louis XIV., by the Jansenists, the 
 Parlement, the Peers, and the English Hanoverians. The 
 fight was soon over. The will of Louis was at once set 
 aside, and at a Bed of Justice held by the infant King 
 the Duke of Orleans was made Regent, with the right 
 of appointing a Council of his own choice. The Duke of 
 Maine was entrusted with the education of the King. 
 
 Under the Regent's liberal administration there was a 
 momentary revolt against absolutism. The example of the 
 political liberty of England was regarded by many with 
 longing eyes . But there were in France no institutions left 
 on which to base constitutional government. The path of 
 reform could not be trodden in a day. And the Regent 
 lacked the energy, the sincerity, and the application to 
 work out the salvation of his country. Some faltering 
 steps, however, were taken in that direction. Parlement 
 received back its right of remonstrance, taxes were 
 lowered, inter-provincial restrictions upon trade were 
 removed, roads were built, the persecuted Jansenists 
 were released from the Bastille, and the Secretaries of 
 State were replaced by seven departmental Councils, 
 chiefly composed of the noblesse d^epee and the noblesse de 
 robe. 
 
 Manners experienced a still more striking reaction. 
 Under Louis XIV., in his enfeebled old age, when his piety 
 was stimulated by the devout severity of Madame de 
 Maintenon, the Court, in St. Simon's phrase, bad 
 " sweated hypocrisy." The boredom of official austerity 
 could only be relieved by secret debauches. Under the 
 Regent, as at the Restoration, immorality became a 
 
308 FRANCE 
 
 matter of bon ton, and intoxication the fashion. Every 
 courtier prided himself on imitating the example of 
 reckless excess and cynical freedom of conversation set 
 by the Regent and his roues, his boon companions, and 
 the abandoned ladies of his Court, such as the Duchesse de 
 Berry, at his petits soupers at the Palais Royal, and bals 
 masques at the opera. It was in such an atmosphere 
 of free thinking and loose living that a young poet, 
 Voltaire (Frangois-Marie Arouet), began his career by 
 being consigned to the Bastille for a satire on the 
 memory of Louis XIV. His tragedies, with their lightly 
 veiled ironies against religion and royalty, reflected the 
 free conversation of the Regent's own table, and an- 
 nounced the philosophy of the new century. It was in 
 the Paris of these days that Watteau painted on his 
 exquisite canvases the artificial life of that fashionable 
 world, in all its false luxury, in a period of brilliant 
 extravagance and paper credit. 
 
 When the Grand Monarque died, the revenue had been 
 anticipated for nearly three years. State promissory 
 notes circulated at only one-quarter of their face value. 
 The financial position was so difficult that St. Simon 
 urged out-and-out bankruptcy as the only royal road to 
 solvency. The remedy was deemed too heroic. Some 
 economies were eJffected, and rearrangements on the old 
 lines, including a debasement of the coinage, contrary to 
 the pledges of Louis XIV. and the Regent himself, were 
 made by the Due de Noailles, and then by the Marquis 
 d'Argenson. For the Regent first appointed the terrible 
 Lieutenant of PoHce Chancellor, in order to overawe the 
 Parlement, and then President of the Council of Finance, 
 in order that the Scotsman, John Law, might have a free 
 hand to apply his panacea of credit and paper money to 
 the financial sores of the nation. That handsome Scottish 
 adventurer had learned something of fmance in England, 
 
JOHN LAW 309 
 
 Italy, and Amsterdam. Gambler by nature, sanguine and 
 ambitious, he was a man of large ideas, with a genius for 
 figures. The philosophy at which he had arrived, through 
 much calculation and experience, and which he poured 
 into the receptive mind of the Kegent, was an exaggera- 
 tion of half-truths. Money, he argued, was the root of 
 all prosperity ; multiply your currency, and you enrich 
 the nation and increase its commerce. To increase your 
 currency cheaply, and to the desired extent, there is 
 nothing like paper. He proposed, therefore — and it was 
 in this that his originality consisted — to apply to the 
 State the principles upon which he had found that private 
 banks were flourishing all over Europe. He wished to 
 found a State bank, which was to be the sole banker and 
 trader of France, using the credit of the depositors to 
 develop the resources and enterprises of the country, and 
 issuing paper currency to stimulate and increase its 
 productiveness. This "system," rejected by the Due de 
 Noailles, was applied successfully by Law in the case of 
 a private discount bank, with a right to issue notes payable 
 at first to bearer, which he obtained permission to establish 
 in 1716. In concurrence with it he established in the 
 following year the Compagnie d'Occident, popularly 
 known as the Mississippi Company, to develop under 
 an exclusive charter the colony of Louisiana. This 
 colony, at the mouth of the Mississippi, had been founded 
 by La Salle and D 'Iberville (1682). The monopoly of its 
 trade had long been enjoyed by Antoine Crozat. That 
 trade was languishing. Law, perceiving its possibilities, 
 now acquired the right to take it over and float a company 
 for its development, financed by the bank. 
 
 The latter proved so successful that it was presently 
 converted into a royal bank, with Law as director 
 (December, 1718). Parlement, which was busy with an 
 endeavour to establish a veto upon legislation by 
 
310 FRANCE • 
 
 refusing to register edicts, remonstrated, and attacked 
 Law, but was reduced to silence by a Bed of Justice held 
 at the Tuileries (August, 1718). 
 
 The shares in the new company were only purchasable 
 with State paper, and were negotiable at sight. Specula- 
 tion was soon rife, and as the demand increased, stimu- 
 lated by many ingenious manoeuvres, all tending at the^ 
 same time to extend the operations and monopolies of 
 the State bank and its companies, the price of the shares 
 rose and rose, and the bank profited accordingly. Once 
 embarked upon this fatal path, the course of the boom 
 could not be checked without producing the inevitable 
 crash. The longer it was delayed, the greater must be 
 the disaster. But the most ingenious devices and the 
 wildest edicts followed one another in bewildering suc- 
 cession in order to gain time. The fever of speculation 
 spread from Paris to the provinces and foreign countries. 
 Everybody crowded to the capital, eager to buy and sell 
 shares, and make a fortune in a day. In the Rue Quin- 
 campoix, the Stock Exchange of the bank, valets, 
 countrymen, and cooks jostled with lords and ladies, and 
 passed all-night vigils in the streets in the hope of profit- 
 ing by the market in the morning. A hunchback made a 
 fortune by hiring his hump to the speculators to sign 
 their shares upon. Law was appointed Controleur-General 
 des Finances ; his house and private rooms were besieged 
 by applicants for shares (1720). 
 
 But time is needed to make a colony a paying concern. 
 The sweepings of the gaols and hospitals were shipped out 
 to populate it, and there forcibly married to innocent 
 girls seized by press-gangs. But the public could not 
 wait for the operations of Nature to take effect in the 
 plantations of Louisiana. As the price of the shares was 
 forced up, the amount of money required to pay a dividend 
 sufficiently large to keep them up to their inflated value 
 
COLLAPSE OF "THE SYSTEM*' 311 
 
 became enormous. The notes of the royal bank were 
 issued to an unlimited amount, against no adequate reserve 
 of gold, and its assets were not realizable. The moment, 
 therefore, that the price of the shares began to fall, the 
 panic, in a country quite uneducated in the operations of 
 the Stock Exchange, was prodigious. A run on the bank 
 began ; half the speculators were ruined. Law's carriage 
 was mobbed, and that financial enthusiast fled penniless 
 from France (December, 1720). Amidst universal panic, 
 the bank was abolished. Its creditors were paid a few 
 shillings in the pound, and a mighty mass of papers was 
 burned in the bank court, the auto-da-fe of a " system " 
 which had developed too quickly and evaded the control 
 of its author. All, however, was not loss. L 'Orient and 
 New Orleans remain to remind us of the genius of the 
 man who called those flourishing ports into being in the 
 two hemispheres. Agriculture profited by the general 
 rise in prices, and in the hey-day of speculation there had 
 been a redistribution of wealth which was socially and 
 economically beneficial. Whilst cooks and valets rose 
 to riches in a day, and disported themselves, bedecked in 
 diamonds, at the opera, many ruined^iobles had also 
 seized the opportunity of redressing their fortunes. The 
 great outburst of luxury which accompanied these new 
 riches was evanescent ; the stimulus given to trade by 
 Law's operations and ideas was lasting. 
 
 In the less exciting region of administration, the 
 expedient of government by bureaux, through the depart- 
 mental Councils, soon failed. Whilst the gens d'epee 
 quarrelled with the gens de robe, and once more proved 
 their own incompetence to take a share in government, 
 the people remained indifferent to a reform which merely 
 interfered with the established despotism, without giving 
 them a voice in affairs. There was discontent with 
 despotism, indeed, but mainly because there was no 
 
312 FRANCE 
 
 capable and benevolent despot to carry it on. So by 
 degrees the administration drifted back to the system of 
 Secretaries of State and the absolutism of Louis XIV., 
 with the Abbe Dubois as Chief Minister. Under him 
 there was a renewal of ultramontanism and of the perse- 
 cution of the Jansenists. The Bull Unigenitus was 
 accepted by the Grand Council, and its registration was 
 the price paid by Parlement for release from the exile at 
 Pontoise, to which the Eegent had condemned the 
 recalcitrant Courts. 
 
 Unscrupulous, clever, debauched, and avaricious, a 
 libertine with an immense power of work, Dubois raised 
 himself from the dregs of the people to the summit of his 
 ambition ; he became a Cardinal and the First Minister of 
 France. He had^made his mark as director of her foreign 
 affairs. Spain, renewing her youth under Alberoni, was 
 preparing to reassert herself, and to undo the Treaty of 
 Utrecht. Philip V. detested the Regent, whom he re- 
 garded with the utmost jealousy and suspicion. For he 
 blocked the way of the Spanish King to the French 
 throne, and trod upon his heels in the succession to the 
 throne of Spain. The Regent had begun by pursuing 
 the policy of Louis XIV. ; he had helped the Pretender in 
 his attempt upon England in the '15, and harboured 
 him on his return. This was to keep France in danger 
 and isolation. She had need of England's aid against 
 Spain. Dubois conducted, with great skill, the difficult 
 negotiations to this end, and, consenting to abandon the 
 Pretender and the Fort of Mardick, which was being 
 converted into a second Dunkirk, arranged the Triple 
 Alliance of England, France, and Holland in January, 
 1717. That alliance was joined in the following year by 
 the Emperor, with whom Spain had imprudently fallen 
 out, thanks to the aggression of Elizabeth Farnese in 
 Italy. A good pretext for declaring war with Spain was 
 
THE CELLAMARE CONSPIRACY 313 
 
 soon found. A conspiracy against the Regent, entered 
 into by the Duchesse de Maine* and the Spanish 
 Ambassador, Cellamare, was detected by Dubois. The 
 papers of the Ambassador were seized, and war with 
 Spain declared by England (December 28) and France 
 (January 9, 1719). Under the able leadership of the 
 Duke of Berwick, son of James II., the French invaded 
 Spain, and captured Fontarabia and St. Sebastian. 
 Philip, whose troops were in Sicily, was reduced to 
 declaring himself King of France, and calling upon the 
 French to join him. His attempts to create a diversion 
 in Scotland and Brittany failed. Alberoni was sacrificed, 
 and, Philip having declared his adherence to the Quad- 
 ruple Alliance, the reconciliation presently ripened into a 
 new Triple Alliance between England, France, and Spain 
 (March, 1721). To cement his friendship with France, 
 and to prepare the way for his contemplated abdication, 
 Philip V. exchanged Princesses with her. The Infanta 
 Maria Anna Victoria, a child of three, was betrothed to 
 Louis XV., a boy of eleven, and the eldest son of the King 
 of Spain to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the Regent's 
 daughter. This arrangement was upset by the deaths of 
 Dubois and the Regent (1723). The Due de Bourbon 
 then became Minister, a stupid Prince, guided by his 
 mistress, that "sylph-like beauty," the Marquise de Prie, 
 and a rich contractor, one Paris-Duverney." The dread 
 of keeping the succession open for the Duke of Orleans 
 decided them to break off the Spanish match. Louis was 
 a well-grown boy of fifteen years, spoilt, indolent, blas6, 
 cruel, and without natural affections, whose intemperate 
 passion for hunting occasionally caused him violent 
 attacks of illness. If he died without an heir, the Duke 
 
 * Much to the scandal of the Peers, Louis XIV. had legitima- 
 tized the Ducde Maine and his other bastards as Princes of the 
 Blood. They had now been reduced from the rank of Prince to 
 that of Peer, to the great indignation of the Duchess. 
 
314 FRANCE 
 
 of Orleans would succeed, and probably plunge the 
 country into civil war. The little Spanish Infanta was 
 therefore sent back to Madrid, to the great indignation 
 of the Spaniards. Religion barred an English marriage. 
 Maria, daughter of Stanislaus Leszczinski, the dis- 
 possessed King of Poland, was chosen to be Louis' bride 
 (September 5, 1725). She was older than the King, 
 ugly and poor. Her very insignificance promised to 
 render her grateful for her promotion to Bourbon and 
 his mistress. 
 
 The irritation of the Spaniards led to an aUiance between 
 Spain and Austria. Then the dread of a Hapsburg pre- 
 dominance suddenly revived. The alliance of Hanover 
 was formed between England, France, and Prussia (Sep- 
 tember, 1725), joined in the following year by Holland. 
 The object of this alliance was to maintain the balance of 
 power in Europe, threatened, as it seemed, by the pro- 
 posed marriage of Don Carlos with Maria Theresa. 
 
 Bourbon's ministry was a series of blunders ; his ex- 
 travagance had increased taxation till Duverney had been 
 obliged to revive the universal income-tax of 2 per cent., 
 and roused the protests of the clergy against a breach 
 of their immunity, and of the Parlement against the 
 registration of financial edicts in a Bed of Justice. 
 Bourbon's government was felt to be of a provisional 
 nature. But it might have lasted for a long time had he 
 not tried to get rid of Fleury. Fleury was the King's 
 tutor, and his influence over his pupil was so great that 
 it was popularly attributed to magic . In trying that fall, 
 the Minister was himself thrown. Fleury took up the 
 reins (June 11, 1726), and the mild old tutor became 
 the real ruler of France through the Council which 
 he was to dominate for so many years as Minister of 
 State. 
 
 Louis XV., a handsome youth of good abilities, sullen 
 
CARDINAL FLEURY 315 
 
 and faroiLche, devoted all his energies, first to his hounds, 
 and afterwards to his hounds and his mistresses. Pushed 
 into infidelity, in the hope that it might save him from 
 his chronic boredom and the excessive fatigue of hunting, 
 he extended his attentions from Madame de Mailly to 
 Madame de Vintimille, her sister, and then to an ever- 
 widening circle of mistresses, when Madame de Pompadour 
 submitted to his pleasure the inmates of the Parc-aux- 
 Cerfs. But he confessed regularly, and a touch of 
 rheumatism would make him brood gloomily over his 
 sins. As a ruler, he was a roi- faineant, confident that 
 the monarchy would last his time. 
 
 The future of the kingdom depended upon whether 
 Fleury could, as he desired, keep France at peace, indulge 
 her in the rest-cure he prescribed, and give her time, as 
 Walpole gave England, to recuperate and develop, after 
 the wars and extravagance of Louis XIV., the fever 
 and upset of Law's system, and the subsequent partial 
 bankruptcy. 
 
 So long as peace was maintained, the old Cardinal, 
 though ignorant of finance, at least managed to economize 
 sufficiently to keep expenses within revenue, whilst the 
 Colonial trade was being developed. But even so the 
 mass of the people were upon the verge of starvation. 
 There were famine riots in 1740 ; D'Argenson said that 
 more Frenchmen died of starvation between 1738 and 
 1 740 than in all the wars of Louis XIV. The preposterous 
 financial system could only lead to bankruptcy and the 
 downfall of the monarchy. That end was hastened by 
 the foolish foreign policy upon which France now 
 embarked. 
 
 Fleury wisely wished to keep peace with Spain and 
 Austria, and to maintain the alliance with England, and 
 he succeeded for a while, in spite of the opposition of 
 Chauvelin, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who sup- 
 
316 FRANCE 
 
 ported the traditional, but outworn, poKcy of an alliance 
 with Spain and war with Austria. War, indeed, was 
 forced upon him in connection with the Polish Succes- 
 sion, but that was a war of negotiation and armistice 
 rather than of arms (1733). The election of Stanislaus 
 Leszczinski, the father-in-law of Louis XV., to the Crown 
 of Poland, at the instigation of the French Court, was 
 countered by Russia and Austria, who intervened on 
 behalf of Augustus, Elector of Saxony. France, supported 
 by Spain and the King of Sardinia, declared war. After 
 prolonged negotiations, it was agreed (Treaty of Vienna, 
 November, 1738) that Augustus of Saxony should receive 
 the Crown of Poland, and Leszczinski the Duchy of 
 Lorraine, which upon his death was to revert formally 
 to the French Crown. The Duke of Lorraine was to 
 receive compensation in the shape of Tuscany, and the 
 Spanish Bourbons obtained Naples. 
 
 So far the policy of fishing in troubled waters had 
 proved very successful. Another opportunity equally 
 tempting soon presented itself. For during this period 
 hardly a pretence of public right guarded the State 
 system of Europe. What Queen Caroline wittily observed 
 of the Triple Alliance was equally true of the other com- 
 binations of the age. It always put her in mind, she 
 said, of the South Sea scheme — people went into it 
 knowing that it was all a cheat, but hoping to get some- 
 thing out of it, everybody meaning, when he had made 
 his own fortune, to be the first in scrambling away, and 
 each thinking himself sharp enough to be able to leave 
 his fellow-adventurers in the lurch. 
 
 The War of the Austrian Succession (1740) arose out of 
 the anxiety of the Emperor, Charles VI., to establish a 
 law of succession (the Pragmatic Sanction) in Austria, 
 and by rendering it retrospective to secure the throne 
 for his daughter, Maria Theresa. None of the European 
 
THE WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION 317 
 
 States, except Bavaria, who claimed the succession for 
 her Elector, was genuinely concerned in the matter. But 
 Frederick the Great, who succeeded to the throne of 
 Prussia and an army strongly organized for war a few 
 months before the death of Charles, saw his opportunity, 
 and took it. His object was clear and limited. He in- 
 tended to take Silesia and absorb it. But he needed an 
 ally, and opened negotiations at Versailles. Louis XV., 
 indolent and timid, had little to do with the Government, 
 only occasionally interfering in foreign affairs at the 
 instigation of a mistress (Madame de Chateauroux). 
 Cardinal Fleury was too old for the business of war ; he 
 had given a guarded recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction 
 at the Treaty of Vienna, and he knew that the finances of 
 the country rendered peace imperative . But his influence 
 was on the wane, and there was a war party at Court, 
 headed by the Comte de Belle Isle, who was eager to com- 
 mand an army. Frederick's offer was tempting. Bavaria 
 would join them, and probably Spain ; the Austrians 
 would have no allies. The work of Richelieu would be 
 completed. The old enemy would be crushed, and France 
 would be rewarded with the Austrian Netherlands 
 (Belgium). She swallowed the bait. The war party 
 triumphed, not realizing the condition of the Treasury, 
 and not suspecting that Frederick would play false. 
 France played the Prussian game against Austria now, 
 and then, in the Seven Years' War, the Austrian game 
 against Prussia, so frittering away her strength and losing 
 her colonies for her pains. 
 
 When, therefore, Charles VI. died suddenly in October, 
 1740, and Frederick entered Silesia, France, Bavaria, and 
 Spain declared for him. The position of Austria looked 
 hopeless. The French drove her out of Bohemia. By 
 October, 1741, Vienna was untenable, and the Austrian 
 army had almost disappeared. Austria was saved by the 
 
318 FRANCE 
 
 intervention of England* and by the action of the Hun- 
 garians, who, in answer to the dramatic appeal of Maria 
 Theresa, took the field on her behalf. Even so Vienna must 
 have fallen, had Frederick co-operated with the French 
 Generals . But he did not intend to help France to gain the 
 Netherlands. He chose rather to make a secret conven- 
 tion with Maria Theresa, followed by a formal peace, whilst 
 the Elector of Bavaria, who had been chosen Emperor 
 (Charles VII.) also entered into a convention of neutrality 
 with her (1742). Thus left in the lurch, the French were 
 beaten by the Hungarian army, and locked up in Prague, 
 whence Belle Isle effected a famous retreat, forcing his 
 way out by the Beraun VaUey to Eger, but only after 
 suffering terrible hardships and heavy losses (December, 
 1742-43). 
 
 But the French, still hungering for the Netherlands, 
 continued the war. The Grand Alliance of 1701 was 
 reconstituted. The fiction that France and England were 
 at peace was, indeed, still maintained. But the "Prag- 
 matic army," consisting of Anglo - Dutch - Hanoverian 
 troops under George II., beat the French at Dettingen 
 (1743), and drove them out of Hanover and the Nether- 
 lands . In the following year the French overran Flanders, 
 until their career was checked by an Austrian invasion of 
 Alsace. At the same time an English fleet, in spite of a 
 reverse at Toulon, held the Franco-Spanish fleet powerless 
 in the Mediterranean. Then Frederick, not wishing 
 Austria to gain too great an advantage, struck at Bohemia, 
 and compelled her to withdraw her troops from Alsace. 
 The next year saw heavy fighting in the Netherlands and 
 Bohemia. The Pragmatic army was defeated at Fon- 
 tenoy (1745), where Louis XV. won immense popularity 
 with his martial people by his courageous conduct on 
 
 * England was already at war with Spain. She could not 
 tolerate French aggression in the Netherlands, and was herself 
 casting longing eyes on the French colonies. 
 
PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE 319 
 
 the battle-field. Ensued the " '45," which paralyzed 
 English action for six months. Frederick, content, re- 
 tired from the war (Treaty of Dresden). But the French 
 were not satisfied merely to have been used as his cat's- 
 paw. Having gained the upper hand in the Netherlands, 
 they meant to complete their conquest. So for three 
 years the war dragged on, until, in October, 1748, the 
 Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, on the basis of the 
 status quo ante for all the Powers, except Prussia, which 
 kept Silesia. France restored the Austrian Netherlands. 
 She was forced to this lame conclusion, because Austria, 
 financed by England, could have continued the war for 
 a year or two. France would have been bankrupt in six 
 months, and her colonies were at stake. A pause was 
 imperative. 
 
 For the struggle for Colonial and naval supremacy had 
 begun definitely when France declared war with England 
 in March, 1744. In the following year the English seized 
 Louisburg, and the New England Militia captured Cape 
 Breton. And though the French took Madras in 1746, 
 the victories of Anson and Hawke in the Bay of Biscay 
 prevented their reinforcements from reaching Canada 
 and the Indies. The English navy, which was at this 
 time almost double that of France, was sweeping the 
 French mercantile marine from off the seas, and rapidly 
 increasing the financial distress of the country. The 
 English, indeed, had clearly seen that the fight for 
 supremacy must be waged in the Western Seas and the 
 Indian Ocean ; the French people, though they had given 
 some attention to their Navy in view of the coming 
 struggle, were by nature and tradition more concerned 
 with the conflict on the Continent. 
 
 The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle satisfied neither France 
 nor England. In America the colonists of the rival 
 nations were determined to fight to a finish. The struggle 
 
320 FRANCE 
 
 there began on the morrow of the peace, over the vaguely 
 defined boundaries of Nova Scotia. 
 
 The French Government, seeing that war was inevitable, 
 prepared for it. But their preparations, whilst strength- 
 ening them, hastened the war they wished to defer. They 
 sent out fresh troops, and began to make good their vast 
 vague claims to the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio 
 by building and garrisoning a line of forts from Canada 
 to Louisiana. This move threatened to cut off the 
 EngUsh from the West, and in the end to drive them 
 into the sea. In response, though England did not act 
 directly, the colonists, much perturbed, obtained leave 
 to make an attempt to destroy the threatening forts 
 (1754). They were beaten by the trained French soldiers. 
 Negotiations ensued, and were not broken off till 1756, 
 when war was finally declared. Fighting had been going 
 on all the time, but England had not used her sea-power. 
 The French opened with successes in the Mediterranean, 
 capturing Minorca and landing in Corsica. But in the 
 following year they made the fatal mistake of allowing 
 themselves to be dragged into the Seven Years' War. 
 They needed every penny for their struggle with England. 
 As it was, their foolish action on the Continent made 
 England's triumph unnecessarily complete . It was always 
 inevitable, because of her overwhelming naval superiority. 
 
 In preparation for the struggle, and in order to secure 
 Hanover and the Netherlands, England had entered into 
 a defensive aUiance, first with Russia, and then with 
 Prussia. The Russian Empress, who hated Frederick, 
 thereupon denounced her convention wdth England, and 
 made overtures to Austria. Kaunitz, the Austrian 
 Minister, determined to recover Silesia, had long been 
 working through Madame Pompadour,* Louis' new 
 
 ♦ Fleury had died in 1743. The " Eegency of Pompadour" 
 dates from about 1747. She was exceedingly unpopular on 
 account of her extravagance. 
 
THE COMTE DE MIRABEAU. Pa&e« 335-350. 
 
 Died 1791. 
 
 From a iMinting by Bose at Versailles. 
 
THE REVERSAL OF ALLIANCES 321 
 
 favourite, to induce him to declare war against Prussia. 
 The French Ministers were hesitating, when Frederick 
 struck suddenly, seized Saxony (August, 1756), and pre- 
 cipitated the war with Austria and France. A treaty 
 directed against Prussia had already been signed by those 
 countries in May ; it was joined by Russia in December, 
 and renewed in the following year.* The Reversal of 
 Alliances was complete . The determination of the French 
 to attack Hanover brought England, with her subsidies 
 and naval power, to the rescue of Frederick. The French 
 at first made every effort to overthrow Prussia, in order to 
 maintain the system established by the Peace of West- 
 phalia, and in hopes of obtaining the Austrian Netherlands, 
 until Frederick outmanoeuvred the Prince of Soubise, and 
 defeated his insubordinate army at Rossbach (November, 
 1757). From that moment the aUied Army of Obser- 
 vation, under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, kept the 
 French out of Grcrmany. Rossbach, said Napoleon, 
 ruined the monarchy ; but, as usual, he underrated the 
 effect of English naval power. It wais not only Rossbach 
 that rendered the French army practically ineffective after 
 the two first years of the Continental War. By 1759 the 
 Enghsh were masters of the sea. The French Govern- 
 ment began to realize the terrible mistake they had 
 made, but which still continued to exhaust them. They 
 had to fight against such commanders as Hawke and 
 Rodney, and a fleet of over 400 sail on the high seas, 
 and a statesman like William Pitt at home. They had 
 to fight them with an army and a navy as corrupt and 
 undisciplined as the Court itself under the Regency of 
 Pompadour. Whilst the French were preparing to 
 invade England, Hawke destroyed their fleet at Quiberon 
 Bay (November 20, 1759), after an ignoble resistance, 
 and swept them off the seas. In America, in spite of the 
 
 * Treaties of Versailles, May 1, 1756 and 1757. 
 
 21 
 
322 FRANCE 
 
 heroic efforts of Montcalm, the fall of Louisburg was 
 followed by Wolfe's capture of Quebec (September, 1759) 
 — a brilliant feat of arms, only rendered possible by the 
 predominance of the EngMsh fleet. The French pos- 
 sessions about the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes 
 passed to the English. By 1762 France only retained 
 Louisiana, Cayenne, and half St. Domingo. 
 
 As in America France can boast the names of Cham- 
 plain and Montcalm, so in India she was served by great 
 explorers and pioneers like Fran9ois Marten and Dupleix. 
 Soldier, statesman, and diplomatist of extraordinary 
 energy and abiUt}^ the latter became Governor of Pondi- 
 cherry in 1761. His poUcy was to expel the English 
 from the Coromandel coast by combinations with the 
 native rulers. But here again the supremacy of the 
 English at sea decided the issue. The disaster of Wandi- 
 wash echoed Hawke's victory at Quiberon Bay. Whilst 
 Robert Clive rose to win India for his Company, the 
 French East India Company, at the end of their resources, 
 had been compelled to recall Dupleix (1754), whose 
 schemes were involving them in heavy debt . By January, 
 1763, the fall of Pondicherry had put an end to the French 
 occupation of India. 
 
 The French Minister, the Due de Choiseul, seeing 
 bankruptcy staring him in the face, had long been anxious 
 for peace. But Pitt would not yield an inch. Choiseul 
 sought for fresh support in the "Family Compact," by 
 which the French and Spanish Bourbons guaranteed each 
 other's possessions (August 15, 1761). It was part of a 
 larger scheme by which Choiseul hoped in vain to con- 
 struct a great CathoHc League to crush Protestant 
 Prussia and England. The "Family Compact," joined 
 also by the King of the Two Sicilies and the Duke of 
 Parma, was a diplomatic event of equal importance with 
 the Reversal of Alliances at the beginning of the war, 
 
THE FAMILY COMPACT 323 
 
 but it was foolish, since Spain could lend but little military 
 help. Its chief effect was to enrich England at the 
 expense of Spain, when the fall of Pitt prepared the way 
 for the inevitable and disastrous peace. By the Treaty 
 of Paris (February 10, 1763) France recovered Martinique, 
 Guadeloupe, and Belle Isle, taken during the war, in 
 exchange for Minorca. In India she was allowed to retain 
 a few trading stations, including Chandernagore and 
 Pondicherry ; in America a few fishing rights. She ceded 
 Canada and Cape Breton, the isles of the St. Lawrence, 
 the Valley of the Ohio, and the left bank of the Mississippi ; 
 in the West Indies, Dominica, St. Vincent, Tobago, 
 Grenada, and the Grenadines, as well as Senegal. To 
 recover Havana, which the English had taken, Spain 
 ceded Florida to them, and received in exchange 
 Louisiana from France. Such were the firstfruits of 
 the Family Compact. Even so they were less to the 
 advantage of England than the military situation 
 warranted. 
 
 Choiseul affected to regard the acquisition of Corsica 
 (purchased from the Genoese in 1768) as compensation 
 for the loss of Canada. Talleyrand described him as " one 
 of the most prophetically-minded men of our generation." 
 In action he was blundering and inconsequent, but he 
 anticipated Napoleon in conceiving Egypt as a French 
 province, and instituting a new French Empire in Southern 
 America. And foreseeing that the American colonies, 
 freed from the fear of the French, would soon break o£E 
 from England, he prepared for revenge by labouring to 
 restore the army and navy, and strengthening the bonds 
 of the Family Compact. Like other Ministers of this 
 period, his position depended upon the favour of favour- 
 ites. He had risen through the patronage of the Pompa- 
 dour, and fell through the resentment of Madame du 
 Barry when on the eve of plunging into war with England 
 
324 FRANCE 
 
 (December, 1770). It was with the object of preventing 
 Austria from allying herself with Prussia in the coming 
 war that he had concluded, in this year, the marriage 
 of the Dauphin, grandson of Louis XV., with the 
 elegant and vivacious Archduchess of Austria, Marie 
 Antoinette. 
 
 He was succeeded by a Ministry of mediocrities, the 
 Due d'Aiguillon, the Abbe Terray, and M. de 
 Maupeou, a triumvirate supported by Madame du Barry 
 and the adherents of the Jesuits . Their chief exploit was 
 the destruction of the Parlements. For the last twenty 
 years the Parlemeni of Paris , in the absence of the States 
 General, had been attempting to play a political role, and 
 to convert its right of remonstrance into real control 
 over the royal edicts and taxation. At one time their 
 opposition was rewarded with banishment to Pontoise 
 (1753), at other times they were compelled to adopt 
 edicts for extraordinary taxation in the presence of 
 the King. In their protest against the "deluge of 
 taxes " in 1764, Voltaire beheld the seeds of coming 
 revolution. But, in fact, the magistrates were not pre- 
 pared for reforms which affected their own pockets, or 
 which did not add to their monopoly of the administra- 
 tion of justice. 
 
 Maupeou, the new Chancellor, entered eagerly on the 
 task of consolidating the absolute monarchy by destroying 
 the Parlements. On January 21, 1771, the Parisian 
 Parlement was again exiled, and a new Parlement substi- 
 tuted, composed of Maupeou 's nominees. Its jurisdiction 
 was curtailed by the constitution of six other Courts of 
 Justice. The provincial Parlements were treated in the 
 same fashion. The sale of legal offices was done away 
 with, and justice proclaimed free to all. So far the 
 reform was beneficial. The Parlements, however, were 
 restored in the first year of Louis XVI. It was soon 
 
DEATH OF LOUIS XV. 325 
 
 evident that they intended to wage war against the 
 authority of the Crown. 
 
 In 1774 Louis XV. died of smallpox. His people, who 
 had exhibited the utmost solicitude during his illness in 
 1744, displayed utter indifference at his death, so alienated 
 were their affections by a life devoted to hunting and 
 debauchery, whilst France was falling out of account in 
 the Councils of Europe. 
 
XXII 
 
 THE EVE OF THE KEVOLUTION 
 (Louis XVI., A.D. 1774—1789) 
 
 The humiliation of the Peace of Paris echoed the dis- 
 astrous conduct of the war. It brought bitterly home to 
 France that she had lost her Colonial Empire, and that her 
 navy and finances were ruined. It reflected the achieve- 
 ment of an army of demoralized, tax-eating courtiers, 
 incompetent Generals, and rebellious troops, of a country 
 administered by a rotten bureaucracy, and a policy 
 directed by the low-born and extravagant mistresses of 
 a brutalized and sensual King. France, famine-stricken 
 and bankrupt, could forgive financial bungling, and endure 
 material misery. Her extraordinary natural wealth and 
 the spirit of her people could always enable her to re- 
 cover with incredible rapidity from the most staggering 
 blows ; but to be humbled before Europe was unendurably 
 galling to a nation ever proud of her military prowess, 
 and long accustomed to dictate to Europe. The influence 
 of the monarchy had received a blow from which it was 
 never to recover. 
 
 Louis XV. had taken enough interest in foreign policy 
 to handicap his Ministers, and to deserve part of the 
 odium of their failure. The saying attributed to him — 
 Apres moi le deluge — is typical of his cynical and slothful 
 egoism. The lethargy and depravity, of which the King 
 was the supreme exemplar, had affected every department 
 
 826 
 
THE ENCYCLOPiEDISTS 327 
 
 of national life, demoralizing the army and the French 
 India Company, paralyzing Ministers and tradesmen 
 alike. 
 
 The spectacle of an incompetent, idle, and self-in- 
 dulgent aristocracy, supported by a paid, privileged, 
 persecuting, and corrupt higher clergy, helped to spread 
 the new Ideas which were to give birth to the new Facts 
 of the century. 
 
 The stream of these ideas ranintwo converging channels 
 — on the one hand was the anti-religious teaching of 
 Voltaire, a reforming Conservative who aimed at destroy- 
 ing the Church, whilst preserving an intelligent des- 
 potism ; on the other were the Philosophical Economists, 
 such as Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, D'Alembert. 
 All were inspired by the English political philosophers, 
 Bacon and Locke, and by the example of English con- 
 stitutional freedom. 
 
 The spirit of reaction against the despotism of 
 Louis XIV. had been expressed in the brilliant and daring 
 Lettres Persanes of Montesquieu. In 1748 appeared his 
 Esprit des Lois, in which, whilst exhibiting the principles 
 from which human laws proceed, he criticized the political 
 and social arrangements of France in the light of a liberal 
 intellect, deeply influenced by admiration for the British 
 Constitution. The book was denounced by Jansenists 
 and Jesuits alike ; but there have been few greater works 
 in any language for breadth of view, originality of out- 
 look, and influence upon thought. 
 
 The first volume of the Encyclopcedia, mainly the work 
 of Diderot and D'Alembert, and based on the English 
 Chambers's Encyclopcedia, appeared in 1751. It was char- 
 acteristic of the weakness of the Government that the 
 completed work was forbidden to appear in 1759, and 
 allowed in 1765. In the interval the King, yielding to the 
 Parlement and Jansenists, backed by public opinion, had 
 
328 FRANCE 
 
 consented to the suppression of the Society of Jesuits 
 (1761-62) ; whilst a fresh outburst of persecution of the 
 Protestants had given point to the writings of Voltaire 
 and the philosophers. 
 
 Roused by the judicial persecution of Protestants, like 
 Jean Galas, Sirven and La Barre, and inspired by English 
 ideas of liberty and tolerance, Voltaire zealously 
 championed their cause. In a series of telling pamphlets 
 he attacked, with a bitter smile and mocking irony, and 
 a terrible lucidity of style and logic, the exclusive domina- 
 tion of Cathohcism in France, and urged the Encyclo- 
 paedists to "crush the infamy " of intolerant superstition. 
 Incidentally, he proclaimed the need of a reform of the 
 magistracy, and of the atrocious system of criminal 
 jurisprudence. To the fanaticism of the united Church 
 and State, he and the philosophers opposed the ideas of 
 toleration, Hberty, equahty, and humanity. 
 
 Enemies of Ecclesiasticism, the Encyclopaedists put 
 their trust in the natural goodness of mankind. Basing 
 their system on such theoretical optimism, without over- 
 much regard to facts, they hoped to deduce from Reason 
 a political science, upon which a just and equitable society 
 could be estabhshed. Praise of labour, in all its forms, 
 is one of the chief features of the Encyclopcedia, and was 
 one of the first symptoms of a return to Nature, and a 
 revolt against the claims of an idle and artificial NobiHty. 
 The goodness of the citizen, according to Diderot and his 
 disciples, depended on, and followed from, the goodness 
 of the laws. The simple deduction from this teaching 
 was revolutionary : that all faults in the citizen and the 
 State are the product of bad government, and chargeable 
 to those who govern. Reform these, and society will at 
 once enter on the millennium. Upon such theorizing the 
 history of the Revolution is the grimmest of all possible 
 commentaries. 
 
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU 329 
 
 The path of this desired reform was indicated by the 
 policy of extreme democratic decentralization advocated 
 by Jean- Jacques Rousseau. He supplemented the reason 
 of the philosophers by an appeal to the emotions, com- 
 pelling conviction, and rousing excitement through 
 the charm of his sentimental outlook, and the vibrating 
 quality of his style. Rousseau pictured primitive man 
 as, morally and socially, the perfect being. This absurd 
 paradox captivated by its appeal to the sentiments of 
 liberty, equality, and fraternity, and by its glorification 
 of agriculture, manual labour, and the simple life. In his 
 Contrat Social (1762) he supplied a waiting nation with a 
 new creed. Society, according to this investigation, was 
 the result of a bargain for mutual protection, based on 
 the condition that the individual subjects himself to the 
 general will, which is Sovereign. Rulers are, therefore, 
 only the delegates of the people. 
 
 Such were the ideas disseminated through the salons, 
 the letter- writers, and an ineffectively censored press, 
 ideas which captivated the educated classes and presently 
 filtered down to their suffering subordinates. 
 
 Welcomed by the nobles and ecclesiastics, these ideas 
 shook their belief in the legitimacy of their own privi- 
 leges ; read by the ambitious commons, and repeated by 
 their orators to the populations of the great towns, 
 they encouraged them to claim a part in political life ; 
 filtering through to the ignorant country folk, their echo 
 awoke in them at least a confused sense of the injustice 
 of the suffering and poverty which overwhelmed them. 
 For it was the educated Liberals, recruited from the 
 ranks of the nobility and the Church, who led the 
 revolutionary movement, and were followed by the un- 
 civilized mass of townsfolk and peasants. It was the 
 educated aristocrats who applauded to the echo Beau- 
 marchais' bitter railings against the injustice and in- 
 
330 FRANCE 
 
 equalities of society, when the Manage de Figaro, long 
 censored, was at last produced at the Comedie Frangaise 
 (1784). Their gospel was the Contrat Social. They 
 eagerly accepted Rousseau's speculations, without 
 criticism, as ascertained verities. 
 
 Verities or not, the need for a new creed and some 
 political panacea was becoming daily more insistent. 
 The Church was rapidly losing its hold on the upper class, 
 though it remained deeply rooted in the affections of the 
 lower. It was a rich body, of which the majority of the 
 members, the ordinary parish priests, were very poor and 
 faithful, and the minority were very rich, but hardly 
 even pretended to be Christians. As to the Government, 
 it was now in the hands of a Council of State, consisting 
 of Ministers nominally appointed by the King, but 
 actually the creatures of Court intrigue. Legislation 
 was by royal edicts, which had to be registered by the 
 Parlements, the great Courts of Justice, whose right of 
 protest was of no practical use. These Parlements, as 
 we have seen, were the supreme Courts of Appeal of the 
 provinces. They had to deal with codes of law and 
 customs which varied enormously in the different dis- 
 tricts, and the mass of which was unwritten. The courts 
 below the Parlements were utterly confused as to their 
 jurisdiction. Half the trials that took place were to 
 decide before which court a case should be heard. Pro- 
 cedure, especially in civil cases, was so incredibly slow 
 that the case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce and all the delays 
 of the old English Chancery Bar were rapid in comparison. 
 
 The old nobility of birth had nothing to do with the 
 government of the State, except when one of them was 
 appointed to the Council. They lived largely on pensions, 
 and relied upon the King to pay their debts. 
 
 France, as a whole, was governed, as we have seen, 
 by an hereditary official class. Every official post was 
 
L'ANCIEN RfiGIME 331 
 
 hereditary, except those of the Councillors of State 
 and the Intendants. The latter, however, were always 
 members of high official famihes, forming the distinct 
 nobility — the noblesse de robe. 
 
 The Intendants were absolute in their districts, and were 
 responsible to their Secretaries of State alone. Beneath 
 them were a multitude of officials, most of them with no 
 functions, and none of them with any initiative. The 
 results were a terrible congestion of business and a great 
 leakage of money, but a government that was mild rather 
 than tyrannical. As to taxation, that could be increased 
 indefinitely by mere administrative orders, unless a new 
 tax was to be imposed. The most important of the 
 direct taxes was the taille, a tax assessed on property, 
 from which the nobility, clergy, and whole official class 
 was exempt — practically all the well-to-do people in 
 France. There was no exemption, theoretically, from 
 the income-tax (vingtieme) or graduated poll-tax, but in 
 practice the nobility and high officials only paid a fraction 
 of what was due from them. The deficiency had to be 
 made up by the taille. 
 
 "Taxation," says De Tocqueville, "fell not upon those 
 who could best pay it, but upon those who could least 
 escape it." The indirect taxation was even more 
 grievous. There were the custom duties (aides) levied 
 not only upon foreign trade, but also upon goods moving 
 from province to province. A boat from Languedoc to 
 Paris would lose a fortnight in paying some forty tolls. 
 There was the hated gabelle, the Government monopoly 
 of salt, by which the peasants were compelled to buy as 
 much as was thought good for them, and at an immense 
 profit. And yet, owing to the variety of systems under 
 which the tax was imposed, the price of salt varied 
 enormously in the different districts ; so that a premium 
 was put upon smuggling, the country was kept in per- 
 
332 FRANCE 
 
 petual ferment, and the galleys were crowded with 
 convicted smugglers. 
 
 In spite of all these drawbacks, the people were better 
 off than they had been at the beginning of the century. 
 Even so, peasants and artisans alike were living on the 
 verge of starvation. Local failure of the harvest im- 
 mediately produced local riots, only to be pacified by 
 Government relief. Failure of the harvest all over 
 France must mean revolution. 
 
 Agriculture was still the occupation of three-quarters 
 of the population. The Revolution in its first phase was, 
 above all, an agrarian revolution, concerned with ameHor- 
 ating the social condition of the 20,000,000 peasants, who 
 had hitherto failed to make their voices heard. All other 
 occupations — officials, industry, commerce, the liberal 
 professions — only employed 6,000,000 inhabitants of 
 France. 
 
 At the end of the fourteenth century had occurred that 
 process of evolution by which the vilain, who was a 
 serf, had been transformed into the vilain who could 
 call himself a free man. And these had nearly all be- 
 come proprietors in their own right. It was this immense 
 number of small-holders who gave France her great wealth 
 and strength and power of recuperation. And it was they 
 who had to bear practically the whole burden of royal 
 taxation, to pay dues to the lord, tithes to the Church, 
 tolls on roads, rivers, and markets, and to render statute 
 labour to the Crown.* 
 
 Whilst the clergy had absorbed the largest domains 
 in France, one-third of the national territory, according 
 to Arthur Young, had passed into the hands of these 
 peasant proprietors. From their tiny farms they looked 
 
 ** The royal corvee, for instance, was a toll of labour, by which 
 the peasant was hable to be called off his farm to keep the roads 
 in order. 
 
LOUIS XVI. 333 
 
 with jealous eyes upon the huge sporting estates of the 
 Grands Seigneurs, and the immense undeveloped domains 
 of the clergy. The least sign of improvement in their 
 own lands was a signal for a visit from the tax-collector ; 
 and the nobles, as they drifted to Court, or, becoming 
 poor, sold their lands, had always retained along with their 
 chateaux a right of sovereignty over them, with the privilege 
 of shooting and fishing, and exacting a variety of irritat- 
 ing and more or less profitable feudal dues. The peasant 
 was compelled to use the wine-press, the mill, and the 
 ovens of the seigneur ;* to pay tolls and percentages on 
 his vintage and sales ; to pay for exemption from duties 
 which had ceased to be practicable for centuries, or, if 
 practicable, were no longer performed ; for the nobles 
 who resided in their chateaux were impoverished, and the 
 rich nobles who lived on pensions at Versailles, con- 
 tributing to the enormous expense of the King's house- 
 hold and courting the valets of the Superintendents of 
 Finance, entirely neglected their estates. 
 
 It was over a country so seething with discontent that 
 Louis XVI. was called to reign. "What a burden!" 
 cried the young King, when they told him that he had 
 inherited the Crown. "And they have taught me 
 nothing." If ever there was need upon the throne of a 
 strong will and firm courage, guided by a large under- 
 standing, it was now ; but this well - meaning and 
 scrupulous youth was ill-educated, of feeble will, and 
 mediocre intelligence. He reformed the morals of his 
 Court ; he tried to surround himself with a party of 
 "honest men"; he was eager for reform, eager to 
 economize, in order that the poor might eat " bread at 
 two 502^." He was devoted to his Queen, Marie — the 
 
 * The seigneur probably did not obtain from the land half the 
 rent paid to an English landlord ; but the seigniorial charges were 
 exasperating in form, and doubly grievous, since so little was done 
 in return for them. 
 
334 FRANCE 
 
 light-hearted and pleasure-loving Marie Antoinette, whose 
 grace and gaiety at first charmed everybody, and half- 
 concealed her complete ignorance. Despising her 
 husband, and surrounding herself with frivolous 
 favourites, she soon became unpopular, and the subject 
 of malicious gossip. Unfortunately, she did not confine 
 her activities to the routine of pleasure at the Petit- 
 Trianon, but, instigated by her mother, Maria Theresa, 
 was continually interfering in politics on behalf of Austria. 
 The famous story of the diamond necklace illustrates the 
 nature of her reputation. 
 
 The Cardinal de Rohan, a handsome and dissipated 
 courtier, had fallen from the favour of Marie Antoinette. 
 He was eager to retrieve his position. Seduced by 
 the promises of an unscrupulous lady of the Court, the 
 Comtesse de La Motte, and that sublime charlatan, the 
 " Comte de Cagliostro," he was led to act as an inter- 
 mediary in obtaining for the Queen a diamond necklace, 
 worth 1,600,000 limes, which had been made for Madame 
 Du Barry, and left upon the jeweller's hands. The 
 Queen, he was assured, wished to buy it secretly ; by 
 acting for her he would be sure to regain her good graces. 
 In a twilight interview in the gardens of Versailles a 
 woman, whom he thought to be Marie Antoinette, 
 whispered to him that he might hope for forgiveness. 
 He obtained the necklace, and received a forged accept- 
 ance of the bill in the name of Marie Antoinette . Madame 
 de La Motte sold the necklace, and the Cardinal found 
 himself unable to pay the bill. When the affair reached 
 the ears of the King, he caused the Cardinal to be arrested 
 as he was about to celebrate Mass, and to be sent to the 
 BastiUe. He then allowed him to stand his trial. The 
 case caused incredible excitement. At length, after ten 
 months, Parlement acquitted Rohan by three votes. The 
 Comtesse de La Motte was branded and confined. It was 
 
THE DIAMOND NECKLACE 335 
 
 evident that the Cardinal was the dupe of a gang of 
 rogues, and that the Queen was wholly innocent. But 
 the verdict was hailed as a sentence against the Queen, 
 who was known to have been eager for the Cardinal's 
 condemnation. The vision of the clerical aristocrat 
 buying the favours of a venal and frivolous Queen had 
 been held before the eyes of France for a year, and so 
 intense was the odium created against Court and Crown 
 that Goethe has called this trial the " Preface of the 
 Revolution." 
 
 This episode also brought into prominence the odious 
 system of arbitrary imprisonment by the King's order — 
 the lettre de cachet — without trial or cause assigned. The 
 right was seldom put into force now, but Parlement 
 vehemently opposed any such exercise of the King's 
 personal jurisdiction. The eloquent descriptions of 
 Mirabeau represented to the people's imagination the 
 dungeons of the Bastille as the centre and symbol of 
 tyranny ; public opinion was shocked by the story of the 
 unhappy prisoner discovered there by Malesherbes — a 
 prisoner who had been left in those dungeons, forgotten, 
 for sixty years, and who, when set free, finding himself 
 without friends or relations, and knowing not where to 
 turn, asked, as a sole favour, for leave to return home — 
 to prison in the Bastille. 
 
 In foreign affairs, Louis was served by an exceedingly 
 able and experienced Minister, Vergennes. He resented 
 being dragged at the apron-strings of Austria, and, whilst 
 wishing to avoid a rupture, hoped to maintain the balance 
 of power, and to curb the ambitions of England and 
 Austria, by alliances with the weaker Powers. Accor- 
 dingly, when Joseph II. proposed to annex Bavaria 
 and another slice of Turkey, and to give France part of 
 the Netherlands for her support (1777), Vergennes re- 
 fused ; and when Austria moved against Bavaria in the 
 
336 FRANCE 
 
 following year, Louis, in spite of the solicitations of Marie 
 Antoinette , remained neutral . The intervention of Russia 
 and France brought about the Peace of Teschen (May, 
 1779), and secured the balance of power in Europe. By 
 that time France had entered upon the campaign of 
 vengeance, foreshadowed by Choiseul. When the war 
 between England and her American colonies had broken 
 out (1775), French volunteers had rushed to the aid of 
 the colonists ; but Vergennes waited to declare war until 
 he had received assurances of her concurrence from Spain 
 in virtue of the Family Compact. He waited for those 
 assurances in vain. But French feeling became more 
 and more warhke, and the success of the colonists at 
 Saratoga, decided Vergennes. On February 6, 1778, he 
 signed a treaty of alliance with the United States. Spain 
 joined, and the young Marquis de La Fayette, returning 
 from America, prepared an abortive invasion of England. 
 France declared for the freedom of navigation of neutrals, 
 as against the English claim to a right of search. But 
 the Bourbons made little progress on the seas , whether in 
 the Mediterranean or the West Indies. In the East, the 
 capitulation of Pondicherry was followed by the expulsion 
 of the French from Chandernagore, and their other 
 settlements in India. Off the coast of Coromandel, 
 however, the brilliant and gallant Suffren scored a series 
 of naval successes (1781-1783). But an army despatched 
 to America in May, 1780, under the Comte de Rocham- 
 beau, helped to bring the war to a conclusion. La Fayette 
 and Washington surrounded Cornwalhs. The capitula- 
 tion of Yorktown led to the Peace of Versailles (Sep- 
 tember 3, 1783). Rodney's victory over the French fleet 
 off Dominica (April, 1782) was too late to have much effect. 
 Suffren 's victories and five years of war had only resulted 
 in restoring Senegal and Goree to France, and the right of 
 fortifying Dunkirk ; she received Sta. Lucia and Tobago and 
 
Auff. Rischs^itz. 
 
 NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU, MARCH 31, 1S14. Paat 383. 
 After the picture by Delaroche at Buckinoham Palace. 
 
THE AMERICAN WAR 337 
 
 fishery rights in Newfoundland in exchange for 
 Dominica and other West Indian islands. But Ver- 
 gennes was content to have restored the prestige of his 
 country in some measure ; he cared little for Colonial 
 enterprise, and was only anxious for peace, and to have 
 his hands free to deal with the East. Joseph II. had 
 come to an understanding with Catherine of Russia (1781) 
 for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, and 
 offered Egypt to France . Vergennes , refusing the tempta- 
 tion of conquest, induced Turkey to yield to Catherine 
 (1784). Against the wishes of Marie Antoinette, he 
 prevented an outbreak of war between Austria and 
 Holland, patching up the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1785), 
 and making a defensive alliance with HoUand. He had 
 checked the ambition of Austria ; but the war with 
 England had cost too dear. France was financially in- 
 capable of action, as was proved two years later, when, 
 in the face of the EngMsh and Prussians, she could not 
 make good her word to defend the " Patriots " of the 
 United Provinces against foreign aggression. An alliance 
 between England, Prussia, and Holland resulted. France 
 dropped out of her place in the Councils of Europe. 
 
 The War of American Independence precipitated the 
 French Revolution ; for not only did the American 
 Declaration of Rights inspire the French nobles who 
 served in that war, and came home Republicans, but it 
 also made the bankruptcy of the Government inevitable.* 
 
 Ever since 1715 the country had been more or less 
 insolvent. Failure was now certain. The crash was pre- 
 cipitated by the commercial treaties made by Vergennes 
 with England (1786), which had opened the French 
 
 * The French King had fought in America, for the principle 
 that taxation without representation is robbery. If he was right 
 in America, his Government was condemned a hundredfold in 
 France. 0/. Lord Acton's Lectures on the French Bevolution: 
 
338 FRANCE 
 
 markets to English manufacturers, and produced an 
 industrial crisis ;* whilst a series of bad harvests (1787- 
 1789), and the increasing price of bread, caused famine 
 riots all over the country. The hunger of the poor 
 deepened their murmurs against the rich. 
 
 Louis was eager to economize, eager for reform ; but one 
 after another the able and honest enthusiasts whom he 
 called in to reform the finances of the country fell before 
 the resentment of the privileged classes, threatened by 
 their reforms. Their monarch had not the strength of 
 will and clearness of vision to save them. Turgot 
 (Controlem'-General, 1774-1776), an enthusiastic humani- 
 tarian, a theorist, a forerunner of Adam Smith, who 
 believed in freeing trade from all encumbrances, came in 
 with a policy of retrenchment. There was to be no 
 bankruptcy; no increase of taxation, no borrowing ; only 
 the farmers - general must suffer, and corvees, duties, 
 offices must be suppressed, The Vested Interests rose up 
 against him — tax-gatherers, clergy, Parlement, fought for 
 their threatened perquisites ; the Queen interfered on 
 behalf of favourites whose privileges were to be "re- 
 trenched." Only the King, the People, and the Thinkers 
 supported him. He fell. To the man of theory and 
 enthusiasm succeeded the man of practical expedient — 
 Necker, a Protestant of Geneva, a philanthropist also, a 
 prudent reformer, vigorous, and self-confident. Director- 
 General of Finance under Maurepas, he raised great hopes 
 by his careful tinkering. But tinkering and radical reform 
 alike must be at the expense of the privileged. The old 
 opposition was roused, the Court triumphed, and Necker's 
 dismissal filled the country with consternation (1781). 
 There was a return to the old ways, offices and taxes were 
 multiplied, and loans raised to pay for the American War. 
 Parlements protested ; but the only way to avoid bank- 
 ♦ Lavisse, ix, 1, 229. 
 
ASSEMBLY OF NOTABLES 339 
 
 ruptcy was to abolish privilege, and experience had 
 proved to Calonne, the new Contr61eur-G6n6ral, that the 
 Parlements themselves would not sacrifice their privileges. 
 He proposed, therefore, to the King that he should 
 summon an Assembly of Notables to pass a programme of 
 pure Neckerism — the abolition of exemptions and the 
 equal distribution of taxes. The Assembly met at 
 Versailles. Calonne confessed to a deficit of 80,000,000 
 livres — it was, in truth, larger — and declared that in the 
 abolition of abuses alone lay the salvation of the State ; 
 but his proposal to abolish privileges seemed revolutionary 
 to the Assembly of privileged Notables. The Queen de- 
 nounced him as a madman. The King was persuaded to 
 dismiss him ; but the issue of social inequality and fiscal 
 abuses had now been placed before the nation. The 
 new Controleur-General, Brienne, could only adopt a 
 similar programme of a territorial subvention. The 
 Assembly of Notables declared against it and was dis- 
 missed (1787), but not before La Fayette had given voice 
 to the growing demand for a National Assembly, that 
 neglected institution, which had long been held before 
 the country as the panacea of all ills. Parlement echoed 
 that demand, refusing to register the decree for a terri- 
 torial subvention, protesting against an increased stamp- 
 duty, and declaring that the States General must be 
 consulted before a new tax of unlimited duration could 
 be imposed. Amidst great excitement, Parlement was 
 banished to Troyes (August). Brienne, however, effected 
 a reconciliation. Parlement returned, and the obnoxious 
 edicts were withdrawn. Then genuine reformers ceased 
 to hope any more from King or magistrates . They formed 
 themselves into the Nationalist party. Riots were fostered 
 all over the country. The deficit increased with the 
 increasing disorder. The army was affected, the Ministry 
 divided ; the King was despised, and the Queen hated. 
 
340 FRANUE 
 
 The Notables had failed to solve the problem. Brienne 
 was obliged to suspend pajnnent. There was nothing for 
 it but to summon the States General. Necker, who 
 disliked this expedient, but hoped to limit the coming 
 change to carrying equality of taxation through its 
 agency, was appointed to direct the new order of things 
 (August 25, 1788). Funds rose 30 per cent., and a great 
 outburst of national rejoicing greeted the King's summons 
 (August 8) to the National Assembly to meet on May 1, 
 1789, "to the end " as he proclaimed, " that the nation 
 might settle its own government in perpetuity." In 
 other words, representative government was to be sub- 
 stituted for the absolute monarchy of France. 
 
,^;<i'. Risch^rtts. 
 
 LOUIS XVI. (1774-1793). 
 From the picture by Diiplcssis at Versailles. 
 
XXIII 
 
 THE REVOLUTION 
 (A.D. 1789—1795) 
 
 Everything depended upon the composition of the 
 States General. The archives were searched to dis- 
 cover the machinery of that obsolete institution. Necker 
 consulted the Notables again. They resolved that the 
 Commons should be elected, virtually, by universal 
 suffrage, and that the parish clergy and lesser nobles 
 should be represented like the greater. But they voted 
 that each Order should be equal in number, so that the 
 Third Estate would be in a hopeless minority. WTien 
 this was known, there came from the Provinces a protest, 
 like the first rush of wind which heralds the coming 
 storm. 
 
 The National party, led by such men as Talleyrand, 
 Bishop of Autun, the Comte de Mirabeau, the Marquis de 
 La Fayette, and the Abbe Sieyes, had organized itself to 
 destroy privilege and to introduce a limited monarchy on 
 the English model. They had inaugurated a system of 
 political clubs, for, said Mirabeau, ten men acting together 
 can make 100,000 tremble. The Press had recently been 
 made practically free. In the cafes and the provinces a 
 flood of political tracts, the eloquence of IMirabeau, and 
 the brilliant brochures of Sieyes, had been preparing the 
 people with the victorious formula of the Revolution. 
 " What is the Third Estate ?" Siej^es wrote. " Every- 
 
 341 
 
342 FRANCE 
 
 thing. What is it in the political order ? Nothing. 
 What does it ask ? To become something.'*' 
 
 And now an explosion of pent-up feeling betrayed the 
 success of the agitation. The Commons, it was clear, 
 intended to have their way. Necker could but yield. 
 With intense delight, the country learned that the As- 
 sembly was to consist of 300 deputies for the Clergy, 
 300 for the Nobles, and 600 for the Commons (January 24, 
 1797). 
 
 The Instructions {Cahiers) to their representatives, 
 drawn up by the constituencies in accordance with 
 ancient custom, show that there was a general desire 
 throughout the country for moderate reform, and for 
 the essential institutions of limited monarchy. They 
 foreshadow the Charter of 1814. There was to be an 
 end of the whole rotten system of ministerial despotism, 
 corrupt officialdom, and fiscal inequality. The power of 
 the King was to be limited, and a periodical, deliberative 
 Assembly was to control taxation. 
 
 The people were not yet either anti-monarchical or 
 anti-clerical. They only became so when King and 
 Church identified themselves with abuses which had been 
 found to be intolerable. 
 
 Amongst the Deputies themselves, the Clergy generally 
 were opposed to the liberty of the Press, freedom of 
 conscience, and the " Rights of Man," which the Noblesse, 
 like the leaders of the Third Estate, impregnated with 
 the ideas of the Philosophers, demanded. The two latter 
 classes w^ere hostile to the rich clergy and the monastic 
 Orders ; but there was no one general idea of reform. 
 Monarchy according to Turgot (a King ruling over a 
 level democracy) and monarchy according to Rousseau 
 (democracy self-governing through a King) were long 
 contending notions in the first Assembly. But one thing 
 was certain, though not perceived by the King and his 
 
THE STATES GENERAL 343 
 
 Ministers : political reform was, as so often, to open the 
 door to social revolution. The Commons did not intend 
 to be content with mere equality of taxation, or to rest 
 after the abolition of only the fiscal privileges of the 
 aristocracy. 
 
 In order to make the numbers of the Third Estate tell, 
 it was necessary that the three Orders should sit in a 
 united Assembly ; but the majority of the nobles and 
 priests insisted that they should sit separately. Necker, 
 too, hoped to deprive the Third Estate of their power by 
 this means. Then, he thought, if the Nobles and Clergy 
 submitted to equal taxation of their own accord, any 
 further demand for political power might be checked. 
 
 When, therefore, the States General met on May 5 at 
 Versailles — at Versailles, because that suited the King's 
 hunting arrangements — ^Necker encouraged the two 
 Orders to surrender their right of exemption, and said 
 nothing about a Constitution. 
 
 " It may be too late to-morrow," said Malouet to 
 Necker, and urged him to give the people a Constitution 
 at once, before the problem of fiscal inequality was 
 merged in the greater debate of social equality. It was 
 too late to-morrow. Instead of giving a lead to the in- 
 experienced men who composed the Assembly, Louis and 
 his Ministers left them to decide for themselves the 
 momentous question, Was the more numerous Order to 
 absorb the Nobles and Clergy ? Were the Commons to 
 be free in presence of the owners of the soil, as they were 
 free already in face of the submission of the absolute 
 monarchy, as, encouraged by the teaching of England 
 and America, they were determined to be free ? The 
 answer involved, within the next seven weeks, the over- 
 throw of the Monarchy itself. For when it became 
 evident to the privileged classes that a free self-governing 
 community was about to insist on the abolition of every 
 
344 FRANCE 
 
 vestige of feudalism, they hurriedly closed their ranks 
 and became a Conservative party. They refused to put 
 themselves at the mercy of a hostile majority, or even to 
 make the promised fiscal surrender, till they knew where 
 the attack on privilege was to end. They claimed the 
 support of the King, and ruined him as well as themselves. 
 
 The defection of some fifty nobles and one hundred 
 clergy to the cause of the Commons rendered the victory of 
 the latter certain. On June 10 Sieyes opened the attack. 
 The Third Estate, he had proclaimed, was the nation. 
 He now moved that, if the other Orders insisted upon 
 acting separately, as their Instructions and the King had 
 prescribed, the Third Estate should act without them, 
 and declare themselves the National Assembly. This 
 motion was carried on June 17. Two days later the 
 majority of the priests — the inferior clergy, that is, as 
 opposed to the prelates — joined them. 
 
 It was at this moment that Talleyrand begged a 
 secret audience of the King, and proposed that Necker 
 and the Assembly should be alike dismissed, and that the 
 Crown should take the initiative in carrying out the 
 constitutional changes upon which the nation insisted. 
 It was almost the King's last chance of saving the Mon- 
 archy. The Comte d'Artois, who twenty-five years later, 
 as Louis XVIII., was to receive the crown from the hands 
 of Talleyrand, brought word to him that the King 
 refused. The King refused because he had just taken 
 the momentous resolution to grant to the people a large 
 and liberal Constitution prepared by Necker. Such 
 action would have superseded the Assembly. It came 
 a few hours too late. The Assembly was suspended till 
 the 22nd, and the hall in which they were then to meet 
 to hear the Royal pronoimcement was, meanwhile, closed 
 to the Commons. Angry, suspicious, and ignorant of 
 the proposed concessions, the Deputies adjourned to the 
 
THE TENNIS-COURT OATH 346 
 
 Tennis Court hard by, and bound themselves by oath 
 never to separate until they had given a Constitution to 
 Franc5e. The National Assembly had dej&nitely com- 
 mitted itself to revolution. The King was frightened 
 into an alliance with the nobility, who were powerless to 
 save him, and whose interests were not his own. In his 
 speech on June 23 he promised reform, but rescinded the 
 recent Acts of the Assembly. He insisted that the three 
 Orders must sit apart, and debate the constitutional 
 question separately. All the rights of the privileged 
 classes were to be maintained unless voluntarily aban- 
 doned. 
 
 Ignoring the King's order to depart, the Third Estate 
 remained sitting, and debated the Royal speech. " The 
 nation is assembled here and receives no orders !" ex- 
 claimed the President, Bailly, when that order was re- 
 peated. " What we were yesterday, we are to-day," 
 said Sieyes. "Let us deliberate." So royalty was set 
 aside with a superb simplicity. " The King," said 
 Mirabeau, by far the most brilliant and far-seeing states- 
 man of the Revolution, "has taken the road to the 
 scaffold." The resolutions of June 17 were renewed. In 
 face of this open defiance, the King must either yield or 
 dissolve the Assembly. But dissolution meant bank- 
 ruptcy, and, in an appeal to force, the army could not 
 be trusted. Some faithful regiments of Swiss, Alsatians, 
 and Walloons were summoned to the scene ; meanwhile, 
 to gain time, the King yielded, decreeing that the Nobles 
 and Clergy, for the sake of peace, should sit with the 
 Commons (June 27). 
 
 On July 8, Mirabeau rose to move an address to the 
 King, warning him that, unless he withdrew the troops 
 which were being massed to overawe Paris and the 
 Assembly, the streets of the capital would run with blood. 
 Louis refused, and banished Necker. Breteuil was ap- 
 
346 FRANCE 
 
 pointed as a chief Minister, capable of leading the re- 
 sistance with firmness. The answer of the people of 
 Paris to this threat of reaction was given on July 14. 
 The aristocracy was plotting and preparing to use force ; 
 the popular party in Paris had been plotting, too. 
 
 The failure of the harvest had produced universal 
 famine. There had been a series of bread-riots in Paris 
 and all over France. Men, like Danton, had arisen who 
 knew how to direct the social discontent of the masses. 
 Through the Press and by their eloquence they guided 
 the mob to the overthrow of the Monarchy. On the 
 12th, Camille Desmoulins, a clever journalist with a gift 
 of incendiary rhetoric, harangued the people in the garden 
 of the Pajis Royal, and incited them to violence. The 
 Bastille, the great disused prison which overshadowed 
 the city, was the emblem of tyranny. To destro}^ it 
 would be a sign of deliverance, a message plainly in- 
 telligible to Versailles. It represented, in the popular 
 imagination, the exactions of the tax-collector, and the 
 arbitrary rule of an absolute Monarchy, which could 
 despatch thither, without trial and for ever, those who 
 offended it. It was rumoured that great stores of grain 
 and flour were stored there. Arms were seized at Les 
 Invalides, and distributed. In a frenzy of rage, of hunger, 
 and of triumph, the mob surged up to the grim walls of 
 the mighty prison. The Bastille was stormed. Paris 
 was in the hands of the insurgents. Roused in the night, 
 Louis learnt the news from the lips of the Duke de 
 Liancourt. " But this is a great revolt !" he exclaimed. 
 " Nay, Sire," Liancourt replied ; " it is a great revolu- 
 tion." Guided by him, the King went down to the 
 Assembly, donned the tricolour cockade, and made his 
 submission. Necker was recalled. To maintain order, 
 the National Guard, the citizen militia, was formed, 
 and La Fayette, the Vice-President of the Assembly, 
 
TAKING OF THE BASTILLE 
 
 347 
 
 took oath to the people, as its Commander. For it was 
 the people of Paris, not the King, nor the Assembly at 
 Versailles, which was now the ruler of France, by virtue 
 of an outbreak of pure anarchy, heralded by the murder 
 of obnoxious officials in the capital. 
 
 The stronghold of absolutism had fallen in Paris ; at 
 the news of the taking of the Bastille the flames of revolt 
 went leaping skjrward. In the country the cottage rose 
 
 THE TAKING OF THE BASTILLE. 
 
 against the castle ; the strongholds of feudalism were 
 assailed and burnt, with all their records and title-deeds 
 to the right of oppression. 
 
 The Constituent Assembly proceeded to register decrees 
 which, for the most part, really only recorded the facts of 
 an immense, triumphant Revolution. On August 4 the 
 Nobles and Churchmen made the sacrifice of their privi- 
 leges, merely reserving a claim to compensation for seigni- 
 orial dues which had originated, not in feudalism, but in 
 
348 FRANCE 
 
 contract — compensation that was never paid. The right of 
 holding ofl&ce by purchase was abolished. Justice was 
 declared gratuitous ; servitude at an end ; all employ- 
 ments were thrown open to all classes. The France of 
 the new democracy was established. 
 
 As to the Church, the whole of its endowment was 
 confiscated, and tithes were abolished. Henceforth all 
 beneficed clergy were to be appointed and salaried by the 
 State. The appropriation of the enormous wealth of the 
 Church, amounting to a revenue of 230,000,000 livres, 
 and an immediate issue of assignats — ^negotiable orders on 
 the Church property ordered to be sold — saved the 
 country from bankruptcy. But the provision that all 
 priests must take the oath of fidelity to the new Constitu- 
 tion (June, 1790), which involved the renunciation of 
 all Papal claims, was a blunder. It threw practically all 
 the clergy and their followers into opposition ; it com- 
 mitted the Grovernment of toleration and freedom to a 
 career of persecution, and drove the devout King to his 
 final act of folly, when he had at last been compelled to 
 consent to the Civil Constitution. This Constitution, 
 drawn up gradually between 1789 and 1791, amidst 
 stormy debates and terrible incidents, was introduced 
 by a Declaration of the Bights of Man, to balance the 
 abolition of privilege and absolutism (August 26, 1789). 
 
 Based on the works of the Abbe Sieyes, the new Con- 
 stitution consisted of a single chamber, absolute in legisla- 
 tion, and selected on a low but not universal suffrage. 
 The King remained as a figurehead. The administrative 
 scheme embodied the ideas of Rousseau. Extreme demo- 
 cratic decentralization was secured by entrusting all real 
 power to municipal or village councils. The historic 
 provinces were abolished, and eighty departments sub- 
 stituted. These were divided up into 44,000 communes — 
 44,000 sovereign assemblies ! Such a nightmare of de- 
 
:uff. Rt'scltsitz. 
 
 MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE. Pages Zm ft. 
 
 Died 1834. 
 
 From the imture by Court at Versailles. 
 
 c 
 
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES 349 
 
 centralization was the prelude of an awakening to 
 tyranny the most terrible in the history of Europe. 
 
 Meantime, the King pursued a policy of lamentable 
 indecision. He came to Paris and delivered himself into 
 the power of the Sansculottes, who had just learnt how 
 to use it ; then he returned to Versailles and listened to 
 the advice of reactionary courtiers. The Flanders 
 regiment was summoned to Versailles to protect the 
 Crown from the threatening forces in Paris. Exasperated 
 by the summoning of these troops, which seemed to 
 threaten civil war, and by the news of a royalist demon- 
 stration in the theatre on their arrival, a crowd of famishing 
 men and women, rendered desperate by famine, marched 
 out to Versailles, followed by La Fayette with the National 
 Guard. They compelled the King, Queen, and Dauphin to 
 return to Paris, " to make bread cheaper " (October 5, 6). 
 Sansculottism had made a prisoner of its King. This 
 was mainly a famine riot ; the pressure of hunger in Paris, 
 owing to failing harvests, was now greater than ever it 
 was during the siege of 1870. The crowd that marched 
 to Versailles was largely composed of infuriated mothers 
 of starving children ; but it was led by Stanislas Maillard, 
 one of the conquerors of the Bastille, and manipulated 
 by men like Marat and Danton, who intended to put 
 pressure on the Crown and the Assembly in order that 
 democratic Paris should have its way. For the Assembly 
 soon followed the Royal Family ; but their reign, toOj was 
 already over. Authority had passed to La Fayette and 
 his soldiers, and, beyond them, to the men who managed 
 ±he masses. 
 
 The King might still have headed the Revolution and 
 directed its course ; instead, his conduct was both treach- 
 erous and weak, a combination pleasing to neither Gods nor 
 Cato. The populace was exasperated when it saw emigre 
 nobles departing each day to join the King's nearest rela- 
 
360 FRANCE 
 
 tives in their appeal for help to foreign Courts. The King 
 began to be associated with a policy of retrogression and 
 high treason to the nation ; the Revolution began to 
 assume a patriotic as well as a social character. 
 
 Necker, helpless, had resigned in September, 1790. 
 Mirabeau, who, since the abolition of privilege, had been 
 working with and for the King, hoping, as always, to 
 establish a constitutional monarchy upon the ruins of 
 absolutism, died prematurely in April, 1791. 
 
 When the eyes of Mirabeau were closed, Danton, 
 CamiUe Desmoulins, and their comrades in the club of 
 the Cordeliers, soon became more powerful than La Fayette, 
 Bailly, and the frequenters of the salon of Madame de 
 Stael. The power of the Press was on their side ; it was 
 a new thing, and never was it more potent, never more 
 violent, than when it was directed at this time by Des- 
 moulins and by Marat. Mirabeau had advised the King 
 to escape to Metz and raise civil war, which would end 
 in the restoration of authority and a better system of 
 constitutional laws ; but Marie Antoinette applied to 
 her brother of Austria for 30,000 men, and, with the King, 
 took the step which, if successful, meant an Austrian 
 invasion as weU as civil war. On June 20, 1791, they 
 attempted to escape from France and to join the Comte 
 d'Artois and the Prince de Conde in an appeal to Europe. 
 
 The flight of Louis opened the door for the Republic. 
 He had left behind him a manifesto denouncing all that 
 had been done since he suffered violence at Versailles. 
 By act and word he recanted all that he had approved, 
 published himself as a perjurer, avowed his hostility to 
 the institutions he was called upon to administer, and 
 proclaimed his approval of the foreign invasion which 
 it would be his duty to the nation to resist ; for the 
 feebleness and duplicity of the King had allowed the 
 Queen to take his place, and her intrigues with Austria 
 
THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES S51 
 
 convinced a resentful people that Marie Antoinette in- 
 tended to rule through the intervention of foreign op- 
 pressors. 
 
 The King's flight was badly bungled. Arrested at 
 Varennes, he was brought back to Paris. The Assembly 
 first suspended him from his functions, and then, before 
 dissolving itself, restored him under the new Constitution 
 (September 30). Next day the new Legislative Chamber 
 met. By a foolish self-denying ordinance, the Assembly 
 had decreed that none of its members should be eligible 
 to the new Chamber. It was therefore composed of 
 utterly inexperienced men, whose main achievement was 
 to plunge the country into war, and so to change the 
 whole course of the Revolution. 
 
 Three parties are discernible in the new Assembly — 
 the FeuiHants, named after their club, and pledged to 
 the ideal of a constitutional monarchy ; the Republican 
 Girondins, so-caUed from the department of the Gironde, 
 whence they chiefly haled ; and the more violent Montag- 
 nards, or Extreme Left, led by Robespierre and the 
 Jacobin Club, who gradually separated from Brissot and 
 the Girondins. 
 
 Two extreme measures quickly brought these parties 
 into the open. The emigres, who on the frontier and at 
 Brussels were promoting a foreign invasion, were sum- 
 moned to return under pain of confiscation and then of 
 death. The non-juring priests were deprived of their 
 salaries. 
 
 The European Powers had hitherto been rather pleased 
 than otherwise at the course of events in France. They 
 agreed with Pitt, who, prophesying the exact opposite 
 of the truth, foretold twenty years of peace for Europe 
 as the result of the anarchy and bankruptcy of France. 
 The French Princes had therefore received but a cold 
 welcome hitherto, save at Stockholm and St. Petersburg. 
 
362 FRANCE 
 
 For Gustavus III. saw whither events were leading, and 
 Catherine II. of Russia was eager to embroil Europe, and 
 to be left free herself to deal with Poland and Turkey. 
 But after the suspension of the King, the Emperor 
 Leopold II. of Austria and the King of Prussia issued 
 the " Declaration of Pilnitz," proclaiming their inten- 
 tion to restore the monarchy in France. This was merely 
 intended as a threat. But it was made the most of by 
 the emigre nobles, who were organizing themselves on the 
 Rhine, with intent to restore the old order of things, and it 
 had the effect of confirming the belief of the French in 
 the hostility of Austria, and of playing into the hands of 
 the minority of the extremists in the Legislative Assembly, 
 whose aim was war. The strength of the Girondin or 
 Jacobin party was greater than their mere numbers, for 
 they possessed the Jacobin Club. They wished for war 
 for sentimental reasons, regarding it as their mission to 
 regenerate Europe, and for practical reasons. For they 
 intended to destroy the new Constitution, to abolish the 
 Monarchy and central government, and to suppress the 
 discontented clergy. But the country was settling down 
 under the influence of good harvests and diminishing 
 distress. War was the best cure for such premature con- 
 tent. Louis had vetoed a decree of expulsion against 
 the non-juring ecclesiastics ; war would make his position 
 impossible. 
 
 Obediently, on April 20, 1792, Louis declared war 
 with Austria. Secretly he joined the Queen in her appeals 
 to hasten the advance of the Austrian army. Under the 
 famous General, the Duke of Brunswick, Austria and 
 Prussia prepared for a parade march to Paris, welcoming 
 an excuse for the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine. 
 But the French people, judging from a manifesto, prompted 
 by Marie Antoinette and issued by the Allies, to the 
 effect that the success of the emigres would involve the 
 
VALMY 353 
 
 restoration of the old regime, took the invasion very 
 seriously. 
 
 The manifesto, which threatened Paris and the Re- 
 publicans with destruction, was intended to stay the hands 
 of the regicides. But its effect was to identify the extreme 
 Republicans with the nation and the army, and to mark 
 their leaders, such as Danton, as the representatives of 
 the French people. La Fayette, failing to uphold the 
 Constitution, retired. Dumouriez succeeded to his com- 
 mand. A force of volunteers, who elected their own 
 officers, replaced the royalist fine gentlemen who had 
 emigrated. But if the Allies had advanced swiftly and 
 boldly, they must have reached Paris. As it was, when, 
 after the fall of Longwy and Verdun, the French for the 
 first time made a stand at Valmy (September 20), the 
 Allies halted, and presently fell back behind the frontier, 
 leaving Louis to his fate. For that stand, though un- 
 important from a military point of view, had shown that, 
 politically, the Republicans had triumphed. Austrians 
 and Prussians distrusted each other, but the French 
 people were rallying as one man to the defence of their 
 land. The war was carried into the enemy's country. 
 The Battle of Jemmapes (November 8) rendered Dumou- 
 riez master of the Low Countries. Then, by a decree of 
 November 19, the Convention proffered sympathy and 
 succour to every people that struck a blow for freedom . 
 This decree was aimed particularly at England, in the 
 hope of disabling her from interference by encouraging 
 Irish rebellion. But the lust of conquest was not deemed 
 inconsistent with the Rights of Man. The cloven hoof of 
 annexation soon appeared. War was to be carried on, it 
 was avowed, in order that the financial needs of France 
 might be supplied at the expense of the peoples delivered 
 by her arms. 
 
 War, as the Girondins had foreseen, rendered the King's 
 
354 FRANCE 
 
 position impossible, since he was known to be hoping for 
 the success of his country's invaders. The Girondin 
 Ministry, composed of such men as Dumouriez, Servan, 
 and Roland, had resigned when Louis refused to sanction 
 a decree banishing the non-juring priests. It was time, 
 declared Danton, to resort to terrorism. 
 
 On June 20 an angry crowd, organized by Girondins and 
 Jacobins, invaded the Tuileries, in order to frighten the 
 King into abandoning the priests and accepting his 
 Ministers from the populace. Louis stiffened his back, 
 faced the mob, and prepared to die in the cause of religion. 
 He refused to recall the Girondins. 
 
 Contingents were summoned from the provinces, and 
 trusty men marched from Toulon, Brest, and Marseilles, 
 to Paris, singing the thrilling strains of Rouge t de Lisle 's 
 revolutionary hymn. La Marseillaise. They came pre- 
 pared to obey the orders of the Revolutionists when the 
 final blow was to be dealt. Their arrival at the end of July 
 coincided with the publication of Brunswick's manifesto. 
 Panic had increased as the Allies advanced. The country 
 was in danger, and the cause of the danger was the King 
 and his foreign Allies. The King must be suspended or 
 dethroned. 
 
 On August 9 the Jacobin leaders gave the word to 
 their partisans in the sections of Paris to elect representa- 
 tives who should take the place of the existing Municipal 
 Council. Under the direction of this new Commime, 
 composed of revolutionary town councillors who were the 
 creatures of Danton, the insurgents advanced on the 
 Tuileries (August 10). Louis could not rouse his guards to 
 fight, and fled for protection to the Assembly. There he 
 listened from the reporters' box whilst he was again 
 suspended, and a National Convention was summoned — 
 a single chamber to be elected by universal suffrage. 
 The new Commune was recognized. Danton was master 
 
DANTON AND MORAT 355 
 
 of Paris. The Tuileries was sacked, and the Swiss 
 guards and all the occupants slaughtered. 
 
 The government of Paris had passed into the hands 
 of the extremists. Robespierre, Marat (who had already 
 proposed that obnoxious Deputies should be tortured to 
 death), CoUot, Billaud, were all members of the new 
 Town Council. The split between the Girondins and 
 Jacobins had already begun. In political theory they 
 were agreed, aiming at an ideally democratic republic, 
 extremely decentralized ; but whilst the Girondins in- 
 sisted on proceeding with this policy at once, the Jacobins 
 perceived that the immediate necessity — if Paris was to 
 be defended at all against the invaders, and reaction 
 avoided — ^was a strong central Government. The soul 
 of the Jacobins was Dan ton, a man neither fanatic nor 
 fool — a strong man, who cared little for the ferocious 
 doctrines of Marat, based on the Contrat Social, but only 
 believed, being himself very much in debt, that the poor 
 should be relieved at the expense of the rich. He saw 
 clearly not only the immediate necessity of organizing 
 a strong central Government, but also that it could be 
 done through the agency of the thousands of political 
 clubs scattered through France. The first step was 
 achieved by the establishment of the new Commune. 
 But the extremists were a small minority. Danton 
 resorted at once to terrorism in order to secure a majority 
 in the coming Convention. " France," he said, " is not 
 yet Republican ; we can only establish a Republic by 
 intimidation." 
 
 With Danton, and behind the violent declamations of 
 Marat, worked Robespierre, methodical and relentless. 
 The Commime claimed the King ; he was confined in the 
 Temple, the ancient treasure-house of the Valois. The 
 Press was censored, voters disfranchised, opponents 
 flung into prison. When the news of the fall of Longwy 
 
366 FKANCE 
 
 and Vc^rdun came, there was an organized and methodical 
 massacre of the priests and political prisoners with whom 
 the gaols were crowded (September 2-5). 
 
 The Assembly and the Girondins were horrified, but 
 helpless. The National Guard was in the hands of the 
 Commune, and officered by Jacobins. Paris was cowed. 
 The audacity of the minority produced the illusion of 
 power. In such an atmosphere of blood and terror the 
 elections were held. Even so, except in Paris, the 
 majority of Deputies sent to the National Convention 
 (September 20) were neither Girondins nor Jacobins ; 
 but between these the struggle for supremacy lay, for the 
 rest were terrified. 
 
 The Jacobins obtained the mastery by June, 1793. 
 For whilst the Jacobins held Paris, the influence of the 
 Girondins, who relied for support on the provinces, was 
 ruined by the reaction which followed upon the execu- 
 tion of Louis (January 21, 1793). Dan ton and Robes- 
 pierre had forced on his trial for that purpose. Dan ton 
 had long hoped to effect a compromise with the Girondins. 
 But they attacked Danton ; they attacked Robespierre ; 
 they challenged the September massacres. Then on 
 May 31 the insurrectionary masses invaded the Assembly, 
 and on June 2 the arrest of some thirty Girondins on a 
 charge of high treason was decreed. The Jacobins were 
 now absolute in Paris ; but in the departments, at Lyons 
 and Bordeaux, at Caen and Marseilles, there were risings 
 of Girondins, and it was some time before the Jacobin 
 conquest of France was complete. Before that time the 
 dagger of Charlotte Corday had reached the heart of 
 Marat as he lay in his bath (July 13), and the young 
 assassin had paid with her life for the murder of 
 the monster whom she regarded as responsible for 
 the proscription of the Girondins. The Reign of 
 Terror was begun, and by the end of October 180 
 
THE REIGN OP TERROR 367 
 
 Girondin Deputies had been imprisoned, dispersed, or 
 guillotined. 
 
 The Reign of Terror lasted until July, 1794. It was 
 conducted by the Jacobin club at Paris, acting through 
 the Convention, in touch with the Jacobin clubs through- 
 out the country, and backed by the National Guard. 
 The whole machinery of government was worked by the 
 Committee of Public Safety, a Jacobin Committee of the 
 Convention, a kind of dictatorship of nine persons, 
 endowed with almost absolute powers to carry on the 
 war and prevent sedition. It worked to these ends with 
 feverish energy. Robespierre and Carnot were the lead- 
 ing spirits. Emissaries were despatched to the provinces 
 to collect supplies and superintend executions of the 
 suspect. Revolutionary Tribunals were instituted all 
 over France (April to October) to enforce unanimity of 
 government by the justice of terror and the unvarying 
 punishment of death. 
 
 Meanwhile, Cambon achieved the conversion of the 
 Public Debt, and Cambaceres and a Committee of 
 Legislation began that great Code of Civil Law which 
 they were to complete imder Napoleon. A new calendar 
 — a marvel of absurd nomenclature — was introduced, in 
 order to proclaim the substitution of Science for Chris- 
 tianity. The churches were closed, and a new worship of 
 Reason was inaugurated by an actress, who, with the red 
 cap of Liberty on her head, descended from the high- 
 altar of Notre-Dame. 
 
 The execution of the King, and the declaration of the 
 Convention (November 19) that they would help all 
 nations struggling to recover their liberties, had thrown 
 the whole of Europe into consternation. " The coalized 
 Kings threaten us," cried Danton. "We hurl at their 
 feet, as gage of battle, the head of a King." And, in- 
 toxicated by the success of Valmy and the Republican 
 
358 FRANCE 
 
 arms in Italy and on the Rhine, the Committee declared 
 war with England, Holland, and Spain (March and April), 
 in addition to Prussia and Austria. The English navy 
 swept the seas, and added to the acute distress occasioned 
 by a failure of the harvest. The Western Provinces 
 were in revolt (La Vendee), exasperated by the overthrow 
 of the Church, the nobility, and the throne, and by the 
 new conscription for the army. Dumouriez, failing in an 
 unprovoked attack upon Holland, was defeated at Neer- 
 winden, and went over to the enemy. Belgium was lost 
 as easily as it had been won. Nothing could have saved 
 Paris if the Prussians had chosen to exert themselves. 
 Nothing, as it was, but the extraordinary energy of the 
 Jacobin leaders could have saved France. 
 
 Apart from the Declaration of November 19, and 
 indignation at the execution of Louis, the French un- 
 provoked invasion of Holland sufficed to make English 
 interference inevitable. At sea the English fleet alone 
 was overwhelming ; allied with Spain, Holland, Portugal, 
 and Naples, and pitted against a navy which had lost 
 nearly all its officers, its force was irresistible. The French 
 ships were confined to port, the French West Indian 
 Islands and Corsica annexed, and, though the gaUant 
 crew of the Vengeur went down shouting " Vive la 
 Republique !" (June 1, 1794), the commerce which it was 
 their province to protect was swept off the seas. 
 
 But on land the Coalition failed because Catherine of 
 Russia seized the opportunity to move against Poland, 
 thereby causing the Prussians to back out of the war, and 
 to use the English subsidies against Russia. The Aus- 
 trians could not make headway alone. 
 
 By his levee en masse (August, 1793), Carnot turned 
 France into a nation of soldiers ; by the end of the year 
 Hoche, Moreau, and Massena had come to the fore ; 
 Jourdan had rolled back the tide of foreign invasion by 
 
ROBESPIERRE AND MARIE ANTOINETTE 359 
 
 his great victory over the Austrians at Fleurus (June 1) ; 
 Holland and the Netherlands were occupied ; the insur- 
 gents of the West had been driven back ; and Bonaparte 
 had recaptured Toulon. 
 
 Combined with the Terror, Carnot's able conduct 
 of the war kept the Jacobins in power. Their 
 government fell the moment the country was relieved 
 from the danger on the frontier. Danton, supported 
 by Desmoulins, had resigned when the Committee 
 of Safety had entered upon its career of systematic 
 murder. But he had done nothing to prevent the blood- 
 shed. His retirement brought him to the guillotine. 
 Robespierre secured his condemnation on April 5, 1794. 
 A struggle for supremacy then began between Robespierre 
 (supported by St. Just) and Couthon, and Billaud-Varennes 
 and CoUot. It soon became a matter of life and death who 
 could strike first. The guillotine was so busy that it was 
 almost as dangerous to sit still as to move. The unhappy 
 Queen had paid for her royalty and her treason with her 
 life (October 15, 1793) ; and now, whilst the heads of the 
 suspect fell by hundreds, the Jacobin minority, which 
 had begun to rule by terror, and could only continue to 
 rule by terror, increased the pressure as they themselves 
 grew more conscious of their weakness. They scrutinized 
 the zeal of their own members, expelling and guillotining 
 those who were guilty of hesitation. Themselves almost 
 mad with fear, they justified their murders by the com- 
 forting doctrine of Robespierre, that it was necessary 
 to wipe out the bad blood of those who were not fit to 
 be citizens of the ideal Republic. When, in May, the 
 National Convention was forced to submit its own mem- 
 bers to the Revolutionary Tribunal upon the order of 
 the Committee, they readily joined Billaud and Collot 
 in the coup d'etat of the " 9th of Thermidor," which 
 closed the Reign of Terror. 
 
360 FRANCE 
 
 For such coercion was an act of tyranny unsurpassed by 
 any in the history of the absolute monarchy, a measure 
 so desperate that it must produce the crisis it strove to 
 avert. On June 8, Robespierre, absolute tyrant of France, 
 had walked at the head of the Convention to the Champ 
 de Mars to re-establish national religion in the shape of a 
 Feast of the Supreme Being. Seven weeks later he was 
 arrested on a charge of meditating a dictatorship, and 
 his head rolled into the basket of the guillotine amidst 
 the cheers and execrations of the mob (July 28, 1794). 
 
 The fall of Robespierre gave the signal for a violent 
 reaction. The whole country rose and swept away every 
 trace of the Jacobin clubs and organization ; only the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris was retained, to con- 
 demn and execute the Jacobin leaders. 
 
 A year of negotiation, during which Louis XVII. died 
 in prison, issued in peace with Spain and Prussia (Bale, 
 April and July, 1795). Negotiations with Austria and 
 England, however, broke down, because France insisted 
 upon the cession of the Austrian Netherlands. The Con- 
 vention was able, however, to boast of a brilliant success 
 by Hoche, who destroyed a band of emigres whom the 
 English were endeavouring to land in Quiberon Bay, in 
 order to revive the dying flames of the insurrection in the 
 western provinces known as La Vendee (July 21, 1795). 
 
 The moment had now come when the National Con- 
 vention w^as to propound the new Constitution they had 
 prepared, and to declare their own task completed. 
 The Directory Constitution, compared with that of 1791, 
 was a great step towards centralization. The local 
 councils, indeed, were left less independent than they 
 had been under the King. Experience had proved the 
 absolute necessity of a bicameral system, unless the 
 object was to relapse into barbarism and tyranny. 
 Legislative power was therefore placed in the hands of two 
 
THE DIRECTORY 361 
 
 Chambers : with a Chamber of 500 lay the initiative, but 
 the consent of a Chamber of 260 Ancients was necessary 
 for any law. The Chambers were to be perennial, but 
 one-third of their members were to retire annually. 
 All executive functions were vested in five Directors, equal 
 and absolute, chosen by the Chambers, one of whom was 
 to retire each year. In the first election two- thirds of 
 the Deputies were to be chosen from the existing Con- 
 vention. This provision was in itself enough to wreck 
 the Constitution of the Year III. 
 
 For it secured a majority of Jacobins to the Executive 
 for five years. The Jacobins were feared and hated, and, 
 with the exception of Carnot, who was necessary at the 
 War Office, scarce one would have been re-elected had 
 the elections been free. Forty thousand conservative and 
 royalist bourgeois, alarmed and indignant at the prospect 
 of power being perpetuated in the hands of the existing 
 Deputies, rose and marched on the Tuileries (October 5, 
 13 Vendemiaire). The army of the Convention was 
 small ; but a young officer, who was to prove the most 
 brilliant figure on the battle-fields of Europe — Murat — ^had 
 brought up cannon from the country ; and a protege 
 of Barras^ the Director in command, had been entrusted 
 with the defence. This was that youthful artillery officer, 
 Bonaparte, steeped in the philosophy of Rousseau and 
 the study of military history, an epileptic Corsican, who 
 had almost been born an English subject, and who had 
 won distinction in the siege of Toulon. Under his direc- 
 tion every approach to the Louvre and Tuileries was com- 
 manded by batteries. After half an hour's fighting in the 
 Rue St. Honore, the mob broke, dominated by a master 
 whose genius was to render the Revolution triumphant 
 on the Continent. Similar risings in the provincial 
 towns were suppressed in a similar way. From the first, 
 therefore, the Directory rested on the army, and the 
 
362 FRANCE 
 
 army alone. The Revolution had begun by an attack 
 upon authority, by weakening the Executive and decen- 
 tralizing power. It was continued in the hour of national 
 peril by the Jacobins, who governed on the principle 
 that power, coming from the people, ought to be con- 
 centrated in the fewest possible hands, and rendered 
 absolutely irresistible and irresponsible. The Constitu- 
 tion of the Year III. closed the period of Revolution, but 
 at the same time it began the process which led to the 
 Consulate, when the army, upon which the Government 
 was dependent, should choose its own man. 
 
 The artificial majority of the Directors disappeared in 
 two years, as the electors regained their freedom. In 
 the face of a hostile majority, who refused supplies, the 
 Directors must either resign or resort to force. They 
 resorted to force. 
 
 Meantime, the country, dazed and bleeding, after 
 experiences so terrible, turned to drown the memory of 
 its Terror in amusements of any kind. There was a 
 notable deterioration of morals. Business was at a 
 standstill, the roads were in ruins and infested by 
 brigands, but a mania for luxury and speculation pre- 
 vailed. In the theatre scenes of blood and thunder 
 held the boards, and though Paris gave itself up to 
 a round of concerts and balls, there was in its gaiety 
 something of the macabrous humour of the Dance of 
 Death. 
 
 Stunned by novelties and horrors, the people remained 
 inert and apathetic. Only the Royalists began to raise 
 their heads and to see in the misgovernment of the 
 Directory hope for the return of Legitimate Monarchy. 
 
XXIV 
 
 THE CONSULATE AND EMPIRE OF NAPOLEON 
 BONAPARTE 
 
 A.D. 1796—1815 
 
 The force which the Directors needed was again supplied 
 by Bonaparte. A large part of Europe was still arrayed 
 against the French Republic. In the autumn of 1795 a 
 disastrous campaign against the Austrians on the Rhine 
 had not been balanced by the victory of Scherer in 
 Italy (Loano, Nov. 23, 24). But in 1796 Camot decided 
 to take the offensive with the magnificent armies 
 he had created, and planned a triple advance upon 
 Vienna. Hoche was to defend the coast of Brittany, 
 Jourdan to advance by the Valley of the Main, 
 Moreau by the Valley of the Neckar, and Bonaparte to 
 move through Piedmont, which was allied to Austria. 
 Bonaparte alone succeeded. Whilst Hoche, having paci- 
 fied La Vendee, failed in an attempt to land in Ireland ; 
 whilst the English beat the combined French and Spanish 
 fleets off Cape St. Vincent (Feb. 14, 1797); whilst the 
 Archduke Charles held Moreau and Jourdan in check, 
 Bonaparte, by a series of brilliant victories with an 
 inferior force, made himself master of Northern Italy 
 (April 12 to Jan., 1797). His extraordinary energy 
 and resourcefulness, and the wonderful enthusiasm and 
 devotion with which, now and always, he inspired his 
 men, enabled him, after the most daring campaign of 
 modern times, to drive the Austrians back into Tyrol. 
 
 363 
 
364 FRANCE 
 
 Within a twelvemonth he had conquered Piedmont and 
 reduced the King of Sardinia to an ignominious peace, 
 recaptured Corsica from the British, subdued Lombardy 
 and Mantua, detached the King of Naples, as well as 
 Parma and Tuscany, from the Coalition, laid Venice and 
 Genoa* under tribute, and mulcted the Holy See of a 
 year's revenue and a third of its dominions (Tolentino, 
 February, 1797). And he had not only supported and 
 enriched his army with the spoils of Italy, but had sent 
 thirty million francs home to the Directors, who were 
 crippled by reckless issues of assignats. 
 
 After the victories of Areola (Nov.) and Rivoli (Jan. 
 14-16), and the fall of Mantua (Jan. 2), Bonaparte, 
 with incredible temerity, pressed forward towards 
 Vienna, and forced the Austrians to sign the pre- 
 liminaries of peace at Leoben (April 18), without con- 
 sulting the Directors. That was a military operation, 
 he afterwards said. He did not know that at that very 
 moment the armies of the Rhine, now under Hoche and 
 Moreau, were beginning a victorious advance, and he 
 was justly afraid of having his communications cut, and 
 of being isolated, if he advanced farther. These pre- 
 liminaries, still with scant attention to the Directors, he 
 converted into the Treaty of Campo Formio (Oct. 17, 
 1797). Austria ceded the Austrian Netherlands, recog- 
 nized the Cisalpine Republic (composed of Austrian 
 Lombardy, Modena, and the Legations of Bologna, 
 Ferrara, and the Romagna), and the French claims 
 to the left bank of the Rhine. But the most signifi- 
 cant part of the treaty is that Austria was allowed to 
 seize Venice and Dalmatia in return for her recognition 
 of the claim of France to the Ionian Islands. In order 
 to gain the " key to the East," Bonaparte sacrificed 
 
 * Grenoa and the adjacent territory was soon afterwards con- 
 verted into the Ligurian Bepublic (June, 1797). 
 
CAMPO FORMIO 365 
 
 Venice, which once " had held the glorious East in fee.'* 
 Already the ambitious dream of conquering an eastern 
 empire had taken possession of his ardent imagination, 
 a dream doubly enticing, since its accomplishment 
 would involve the destruction of the trade and empire 
 of the only enemy of France which remained uncrushed — 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Meantime the Directors had made their cowp d'etat 
 (Sept. 4, 1797= 18 Fructidor, Ann. V.). The other 
 armies gave no sign in their favour, but Augereau, the 
 representative of Napoleon and his army, moved on the 
 Tuileries . The Deputies were arrested, and half a hundred 
 innocent legislators were brutally handled and transported. 
 The two moderate Directors, Carnot and Barthelemy, 
 were also exiled. Henceforward the three Directors, 
 Barras, Rewbell, and La Revedllere-Lepeaux, ruled by 
 the " Law of the Sword." And the sword was Bona- 
 parte's. He returned, after Campo Formio, to receive 
 the frantic applause of the populace. Rejecting the 
 proposal of the Directors that he should command a 
 projected invasion of England, he obtained their sanction 
 for an expedition to Egypt, which would not only be a 
 menace to British commerce, but also a step towards the 
 realization of his dreams of Eastern conquest, and a 
 continuation of French policy from the days of the Due 
 de Choiseul, and even of the Crusades themselves. The 
 Directors were only too glad to be rid of so capable and 
 ambitious a soldier. War was the breath of life to them. 
 Only by successful war could they hope to pay the troops, 
 and to prevent the army from sharing the disgust of the 
 country for their rule. Negotiations for peace, which 
 had been begun with England and Portugal, were there- 
 fore broken off. Armies were sent to revolutionize and 
 plunder Switzerland and Italy. The Roman and the 
 Helvetic Republics were proclaimed, the Pope de- 
 
366 FRANCE 
 
 throned, and enough money was extracted from the 
 Swiss to enable the bankrupt Government to finance 
 the Egyptian expedition. On May 19, 1798, Bonaparte 
 sailed from Toulon " to take possession of Egypt and 
 Malta, and to chase the English from all their posses- 
 sions in the East." 
 
 English command of the sea made the expedition 
 hopeless from the first, but it was thought, apparently, 
 that the threat of invasion and of an Irish rebellion 
 would pin the English fleet to the Channel. But at the 
 Battle of the Nile Nelson destroyed the French fleet under 
 Brueys (Aug. 1, 1798), and, with England mistress of the 
 sea, the French troops were locked up in Egypt, never 
 to get out save as prisoners of war. That issue was 
 decided by Nelson's fleet and Abercrombie's forces at 
 Alexandria (March, 1801). 
 
 Egypt, however, served Bonaparte's turn. After 
 failing to take St. Jean d'Acre, he inflicted a crushing 
 blow upon the Turkish forces at Aboukir (July, 1799). 
 But his troops were now exhausted, and he was badly 
 supplied with money and stores. At this moment he 
 learned that things were going badly with the Directory 
 and its armies in Europe. He at once abandoned his 
 ill-equipped forces, and, falsely proclaiming that the 
 conquest of Egypt was assured, slipped across to Frejus 
 (Oct. 9). There he landed in the nick of time, in a 
 blaze of military and melodramatic glory, appearing as 
 the French conqueror of the East and the saviour of his 
 country from the hideous menace of another Jacobin 
 regime, from chronic terror and from disastrous war. He 
 was without a rival. Hoche was dead, Camot gone, 
 Joubert slain. 
 
 The Directors had been only too successful in their 
 policy of stirring up war. They had intended to force 
 Austria into hostilities whilst keeping Prussia neutral ; 
 
BONAPARTE RETURNS FROM EGYPT 367 
 
 they were soon face to face with the Second Coalition, 
 organized by Pitt, and including England, Austria, 
 Russia, and Turkey. 
 
 The campaigns of 1799 began with some partial 
 successes in Naples, but in March Jourdan was defeated 
 by the Archduke Charles at Stockach ; in April Scherer 
 and Moreau were defeated and driven out of Piedmont ; 
 in June Macdonald was beaten by Suvoroff, the great 
 Russian General, on the Trebbia ; and in August Joubert 
 was defeated and killed at Novi. All Italy was lost. 
 
 Lack of co-operation alone prevented the Allies from 
 invading the Republic and bringing her to her knees. 
 The French armies were badly equipped, for the Directory 
 had no money ; their best troops were locked up in Egypt ; 
 and France, deprived of her political liberty, was in a 
 state of passive rebellion. But the stupidity of the 
 Austrians, who hampered Suvoroff in every way, saved 
 France. After the crushing victory of Massena over 
 the Russians at Ziirich (Sept. 25), and the failure of an 
 Anglo-Russian descent upon Holland, Paul I. backed 
 out of so unsatisfactory an alliance. 
 
 The Directors, who had been obliged to declare a partial 
 bankruptcy in 1797, had proved themselves corrupt, in- 
 solvent, violent, and ineffective. They had succeeded 
 neither in making a brilliant peace nor in waging a success- 
 ful war. Their time was now come. By manipulating the 
 elections they had kept in power so long, but the 
 choice of Sieyes, who had never approved of the Direc- 
 tory Constitution, to take the place of RewbeU as Director 
 -(May 11, 1799) pointed to the beginning of the end. 
 
 Bonaparte was hailed by all parties as the one man 
 with the clear vision and strong will who would reconcile 
 liberty with order, and allow the Revolution to be 
 delivered of its full message of revised laws, financial 
 reform, and political equality. " What." he asked of 
 
368 FRANCE 
 
 the Directory, " have you done with this France which 
 I left so brilliant ? I left you peace ; I find war. I 
 left you victories ; I find defeats. I left you the millions 
 of Italy ; I find laws of spoliation and misery." The 
 antithesis was too true, the criticism too deadly. A 
 speech to the Ancients and a show of force from his 
 grenadiers, caused the Council of Five Hundred to be 
 dissolved (Nov. 9=18 Brumaire). 
 
 Under a new Constitution, adapted by Bonaparte 
 himself from a scheme drawn up by that experienced 
 constitution-monger, the Abbe Sieyes, he took the title 
 of First Consul for ten years, with two colleagues, 
 Cambaceres and Lebrun, who had merely a consultative 
 voice in affairs. There was a Senate, Tribunate, Legis- 
 lative Chamber, and Council of State, all practically 
 composed of nominees of the First Consul, and an official 
 hierarchy appointed and dismissed at his pleasure. All 
 real authority and legislative initiative rested with the 
 Government, and the Government was Bonaparte. The 
 electors were left with mere formalities to perform. 
 Crude democracy, Sieyes had declared, is an absurdity. 
 The highly complicated machinery of the " Constitution 
 of the Year VIII.," under a specious appearance of con- 
 stitutional democracy, cleverly disguised an undivided 
 despotism. Submitted to the plebiscite of the nation, 
 it received an overwhelming approval. 
 
 Peace, in order to the restoration of national order and 
 prosperity, was now the first necessity ; peace not only 
 abroad, but with the people, clergy, nobles, royalists, 
 and financiers at home. Bonaparte therefore made 
 overtures to England and Austria on the basis of 
 the stattis quo. But they distrusted him ; they thought 
 France was more exhausted than she really was, and 
 Austria hoped to recover the Netherlands and Lombardy. 
 A very brilliant campaign settled the question. Bona- 
 
A 7(0. Risc7tg^if~. 
 
 LOUIS XVIII. (1814-1824). 
 From a mezzotint by C. Turner, from the painting by Ruet Villiers. 
 
MARENGO 369 
 
 parte led the Austrians to expect that he would advance 
 from the Rhine, where Moreau was manoeuvring cleverly 
 with a veteran army, and then suddenly crossed the Alps 
 by the narrow and dangerous pass of the Great St. Bernard 
 (May 15-20), and burst like a thunder-cloud upon the 
 plains of Lombardy. Thanks to the heroism of Desaix 
 and his opportune arrival with reinforcements, defeat 
 at Marengo was converted into a crushing victory 
 (June 14, 1800). Then, as Austria would not sign a 
 peace without England, this was followed up by a 
 smashing blow from Moreau at Hohenlinden (Dec. 2). 
 By the Treaty of Luneville (Feb. 9, 1801) Austria was 
 obliged to cede to France the boundaries for which she 
 had fought so long ; Belgium and Luxemburg were to be 
 hers in addition to the German territory on the left bank 
 of the Rhine. Meanwhile brilliant successes by Brune, 
 Macdonald, and Murat had brought Italy once more under 
 French control. France occupied Piedmont ; the King 
 of Naples was compelled to maintain a French garrison 
 at Taranto ; the Cisalpine, Batavian, Helvetian, and 
 Ligurian Republics were recognized as constituted by 
 France, but Austria stipulated for their independence. 
 Rome and Tuscany, now converted into the kingdom of 
 Etruria, were at the mercy of Bonaparte (Treaty of 
 Florence, March, 1801), and compelled to close their 
 ports to the English, Spain ceded Louisiana to France, 
 and undertook to compel Portugal to recede from her 
 alliance with England. By closing to her merchants 
 every port which he could control Bonaparte hoped to 
 force the English to make peace, for England alone, 
 supported by Portugal, still remained in arms. But with 
 the aid of the League of Armed Neutrality, formed by 
 Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia, to protect the 
 rights of neutrals at sea against the pretensions of England, 
 Bonaparte hoped to deal with the English fleet. He had 
 
 24 
 
370 FRANCE 
 
 begun to assemble in the camp at Boulogne a force for 
 the invasion of England, and was planning to strike at 
 her through Egypt and the East, when Nelson's victory 
 over the Danes at Copenhagen, and the death of 
 Paul I., dissolved the League of Neutrals, and destroyed 
 Napoleon's dream of blockading the coast of England, 
 and driving the English from the Mediterranean. The 
 accession of Alexander I. led to an imderstanding between 
 England and Russia, and also introduced on to the 
 European stage a youthful Czar, jealous of the " Corsican 
 upstart," and eager to replace the supremacy of France 
 by the supremacy of Russia. In spite of these advan- 
 tages and of her success in Egypt, England consented to 
 make peace. It was a peace of exhaustion. The whole 
 world was weary of war. By the Treaty of Amiens (May, 
 1802), England undertook to restore to France and her 
 aUies, Spain and Holland, aU her maritime conquests, 
 except Ceylon and Trinidad, to recognize the Treaty of 
 Luneville, and to evacuate Malta within three months. 
 France was to evacuate Naples. Egypt was restored to 
 Turkey, and the independence of the Ionian Islands was 
 guaranteed. 
 
 On the conclusion of this treaty Napoleon, as he now 
 began to be called, forced the Assemblies to name him 
 Consul for life. With Josephine at the Tuileries lie 
 inaugurated a Court, and the Republican titles of Citoyen 
 and Citoyenne gave place to the old politenesses. The 
 longed-for universal peace appeared to have been estab- 
 lished. Mistress of Holland, Belgium, the left bank of 
 the Rhine, of Switzerland and Italy, never had France 
 been more powerful. Simultaneous treaties with Russia, 
 Turkey, Bavaria, and Prussia had been hailed with fervent 
 joy. At home the Jacobins had been proscribed, and 
 the rising of Royalist Chouans in the West had been sternly 
 repressed. True, the Press and the Theatre were severely 
 
THE "CODE NAPOLfiON" 371 
 
 censored, and there was still a strong opposition of 
 Royalists and Republicans, especially in the army, to 
 the personal rule of " Sultan Bonaparte." But Napoleon, 
 attaching himself neither to the Red Heels nor the Red 
 Caps, was working to that end with marvellous versatility 
 and resource by forming a party of his own. A national 
 plebiscite demonstrated that, in gratitude for the restora- 
 tion of peace and order, an overwhelming majority of his 
 countrymen approved of the new Csesarism in the person 
 of the Sole Consul. Two years later, by a flagrant breach 
 of international law and domestic justice. Napoleon 
 caused the Due d'Enghien, son of the Due de Bourbon, 
 to be arrested at Ettenheim, in Baden territory, and shot 
 for his alleged share in a Royalist plot, in which Moreau 
 was implicated (May, 1804). Napoleon availed himself 
 of the excitement caused by this incident to get himself 
 declared Emperor, and his throne hereditary. 
 
 During these years (1799-1804) of feverish activity and 
 elaborate intrigue at home and abroad Bonaparte created 
 contemporary France. Whilst confirming the work of the 
 Revolution, which had made all equal before the Law, he 
 restored the centralized absolutism of the old Monarchy. 
 Order and regularity were introduced into every branch 
 of the Administration. 
 
 The Council of State, appointed by the First Consul, 
 and responsible to him alone, comprised the heads of all 
 the great departments, and was also a quasi-legislative 
 and judicial body. Under the direction of Bonaparte, 
 and in obedience to the driving power of his immense 
 .genius for work, organization, and initiative, it was 
 responsible for the great and lasting achievements which 
 render his fame as a statesman immortal. 
 
 Local government through the communal districts 
 {arrondissements) was organized (Feb., 1800), and forms 
 the basis of the present system. The worthless aasig- 
 
372 FRANCE 
 
 nats of the Revolution and Directory were repudiated, 
 the finances restored, and the Bank of France established. 
 Within a decade, thanks to the enormous energy of 
 Bonaparte, the Code Napoleon was completed, a Code 
 which was admirably suited to the French people, and 
 which forms the framework of modern French society. It 
 involved the unification of the innumerable existing 
 codes of law, and, by an immense simplification of law 
 and procedure, rendered justice comparatively rapid and 
 cheap. The medieval criminal law was modified ; weights, 
 measures, and coinage were unified, and the decimal and 
 metric systems introduced. Not without reason did 
 Napoleon at St. Helena claim that this work, which 
 in its faults and merits alike bears the imprint of his 
 genius in every line, and became a model for other 
 nations, constitutes his title to the benediction of 
 posterity. 
 
 After the civic oaths exacted from the Clergy had been 
 commuted to a simple declaration of fidelity to the 
 Constitution, complete reconciliation with the Church 
 was effected by a concordat with the Pope. On Easter 
 Sunday, 1802, the Te Deum, sung in Notre-Dame, and 
 attended by the Consular Court with all the pomp of 
 ancient monarchy, proclaimed the reconciliation of France 
 and Catholicism. Similarly, steps were taken to pacify 
 the ci-devant nobility. With a few exceptions, pardon 
 was offered to the 150,000 proscribed emigres who 
 still remained abroad, on condition of their returning 
 by Sept., 1802, and taking the oath of fidelity to the 
 Constitution . 
 
 The repair and development of the roads, canals, and 
 ports were pressed forward. Ere long a system of 
 National Schools was introduced. Under the guidance 
 of Napoleon, indeed, France emerged from a state of 
 anarchy and insolvency into the best system of govern- 
 
NAPOLEON'S DREAMS 373 
 
 ment that had been known upon the Continent since the 
 days of the Roman Empire. Such and so great was the 
 gift of this amazing soldier to his country. But the im- 
 mense labour of these salutary measures could only 
 absorb a small part of his boundless and restless vigour. 
 
 Vast schemes of universal empire seethed in his teem- 
 ing brain ; immense visions of territorial and colonial 
 aggrandizement combined with the vague desire to 
 spread the democratic principles of France beyond her 
 boundaries, and with the very definite personal ambition, 
 born of an insane and unscrupulous egotism, to raise the 
 name of the " Corsican upstart " upon a pinnacle of 
 political glory to be erected by the arms of France. 
 Dependent at first upon the army, as the Directors had 
 been, the success of his domestic government had made 
 him hugely popular. By 1803 he was independent of 
 the army, and had no need of war. This was the moment 
 he chose to enter upon a career of international brigandage 
 and crime, and to force on a war with England, which 
 was only to end, after the waste of millions of lives, with 
 the catastrophe of Waterloo. 
 
 " Between the old monarchies and a young Republic," 
 he declared, " the spirit of hostility must always exist. 
 Every treaty of peace means to me no more than a brief 
 armistice." And if France was to lose her political 
 liberty and the best blood of her sons in the career of 
 military aggrandizement upon which she now embarked, 
 her victorious armies did at least spread throughout 
 Europe the ideas which had destroyed medieval feudalism 
 within her own borders, and contributed to the formation 
 of modern Italy, Germany, and Holland. 
 
 No sooner had the Treaty of Amiens been signed than 
 Napoleon began to build a fleet, with which to challenge 
 the supremacy of Great Britain upon the seas. He pre- 
 pared to annex Spain and Portugal, in order to add their 
 
374 FRANCE 
 
 fleets to those of Holland and Italy, and to close all ports 
 to English goods. Great colonial expeditions were fitted 
 out for the Antilles, Mauritius, Louisiana, Madagascar, 
 and India ; and a series of aggressive measures, very 
 like those of the Directory in 1798, and, like them, bound 
 to provoke war, was undertaken, intended to strengthen 
 the position of France upon her frontiers. 
 
 In the autumn of 1802 Napoleon suddenly demanded 
 that the English Government should expel all French 
 subjects residing in that country without his leave. 
 Upon their refusal, he defmitely annexed Piedmont and 
 Elba, refused to evacuate Flushing and Utrecht, and 
 marched 30,000 troops under Marshal Ney into Switzer- 
 land. Posing as " Mediator " there, he forced a new 
 federation upon the Helvetian Republic, and converted 
 her into a mere satellite of France (Feb., 1803). He 
 imposed a new centralized Constitution upon Lom- 
 bardy, and got himself elected President of the Cisalpine 
 Republic. He made similar moves in the direction of 
 the Ligurian and Batavian Republics and of the German 
 principalities. 
 
 The M0niteur, his official organ, announced that France 
 intended to annex Egypt. It was evident that there was 
 to be no limit to the restless ambition and aggressiveness 
 of the Sole Consul. The independence of Holland and 
 Switzerland were vital to England. The Treaty of Amiens 
 had become intensely unpopular there as soon as it 
 was known that Bonaparte had flatly refused to make 
 any mercantile agreement or to remove his embargo 
 on British merchandise. England saw her maritime 
 supremacy and her colonial empire threatened, and that 
 the Treaty of Luneville had been broken by Bonaparte's 
 aggression. She now refused to keep the Treaty of 
 Amiens by restoring Malta unless the conditions of 1802 
 were re-established. Napoleon made a scene with the 
 
ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 375 
 
 English Ambassador, and cried for " Malta, or war." 
 England gave him war on May 18, 1803. Napoleon 
 replied by seizing all English travellers in Prance and 
 detaining them as hostages. A few days later a French 
 army corps invaded Hanover. Threats to invade Eng- 
 land were accompanied by great naval preparations 
 and the concentration of a huge army at Boulogne. 
 Spain, the reluctant ally of France, declared war against 
 England in December, 1804. Napoleon exchanged the 
 title of President of the Cisalpine Republic for that of 
 King of Italy, annexed Liguria, and placed upon his head 
 the Iron Crown of the Lombards in May, 1805. Mean- 
 time Pitt, after prolonged endeavours, induced Austria 
 and Russia, Sweden and Naples to form the Third Coali- 
 tion. Unfortunately for the Coalition and herself, Prussia 
 refused to join (April, 1805). 
 
 The French army, trained in the camp at Boulogne, 
 was magnificently ready for war. Given three days of 
 east wind, said Napoleon, he was ready to invade Eng- 
 land. He probably regarded the threatened invasion 
 merely as the second string he always liked to have to 
 his bow, and meantime it acted as a bait and a blind to 
 the Austrians. The eastern frontier of France was bare 
 of troops. 
 
 Instead of waiting for their Russian allies, the Austrians 
 advanced . Then the French army in Hanover and the Grand 
 Army of Boulogne were marched with amazing rapidity on 
 converging lines upon the Danube. Completely outman- 
 oeuvred, the Austrian army was forced to lay down its 
 arms at Ulm (Oct. 20), and Napoleon entered Vienna. 
 His position, however, was dangerous. Kutusoff, with 
 100,000 Russians and Austrians, was in Moravia. The 
 Czar was in Berlin, urging the King of Prussia to avenge 
 the insult of the French, who had marched through his 
 territory without leave on the way to Ulm. Frederick 
 
376 FRANCE 
 
 William II. was roused to despatch an ultimatum. 
 Napoleon, now in touch with the Russian armyin Moravia, 
 referred it to Talleyrand at Vienna. But before it was 
 answered the Czar foolishly insisted upon advancing. 
 The briUiant sun of Austerlitz shone upon Napoleon's 
 supreme achievement in generalship (Dec. 2). Kutusoff's 
 army was annihilated, the Prussian envoy pocketed his 
 ultimatum, and Napoleon was master of Central Europe. 
 
 Russia refused, indeed, to make peace, but Austria 
 (Treaty of Presburg, Dec. 26, 1805) was compelled to 
 pay an indemnity and to cede Venetia and Dalmatia 
 to the Kingdom of Italy. The Tyrol and Austrian Suabia 
 were divided between the Dukes of Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, 
 and Baden. Thus the influence of France was extended 
 over those German States, and at the same time Prussia, 
 which Napoleon wished to embroil with England, was 
 compelled to accept, as the reward of her admiration for 
 the victor, Hanover in exchange for Cleves, Wesel, and 
 Neuchatel. This was a first step towards the formation 
 of the Confederation of the Rhine, which was completed 
 by the following August, and by which all South Germany 
 became, for purposes of war and foreign policy, part of 
 the Empire of Napoleon. Francis II. resigning the Im- 
 perial dignity, the Holy Roman Empire came at length 
 to an end. 
 
 It was now part of Napoleon's policy to strengthen his 
 dynasty by providing crowns and principalities for his 
 brothers and favourite Generals, as he created a new 
 nobility and rewarded his army with decorations and 
 doles. He deposed the Neapolitan Bourbons, and de- 
 clared Joseph Bonaparte King of Naples, and Louis 
 Bonaparte King of Holland. 
 
 The English Lion alone remained in his path. Between 
 England and the military and commercial aggression of 
 Napoleon there could be no compromise. Two days after 
 
THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR 377 
 
 Ulm Nelson destroyed the united French and Spanish 
 fleets at Trafalgar (Oct. 21). Ulm and Austerlitz for 
 the moment obscured the significance of that disaster ; 
 but Trafalgar was the really decisive battle of the Napo- 
 leonic era. It enabled England to continue her efforts 
 unceasingly to oppose the conqueror on the Continent, 
 and in Pitt's famous phrase, after having " saved herself 
 by her exertions," to "save Europe by her example." 
 
 Napoleon could no longer strike at England directly. 
 It only remained for him to attempt to regain the dominion 
 of the sea by his conquests on land, to subdue all Europe 
 in order to treat England as a fortress, and to starve her 
 out by a blockade. 
 
 First he used some insincere negotiations for peace, 
 which he opened with Fox's Ministry, to force a war with 
 Prussia ; for during those negotiations, which he broke 
 off because England was pledged to maintain the King of 
 Naples in Sicily, and Napoleon wished to be master of 
 the Mediterranean, as of everything else, he offered to 
 take Hanover away again from Prussia, and to hand it 
 back to England. The Prussians were furiously indignant 
 at such contemptuous treatment, and, thinking that the 
 French were still the " men of Rossbach," and Napoleon 
 would not be ready, they declared war (Sept., 1806). 
 Within a month, after the twin battles of Jena and Auer- 
 stadt, their armies were practically annihilated, and 
 Napoleon was in Berlin issuing the decrees of Berlin 
 (Nov. 21). All the smaller German States were 
 compelled to join the Federation of the Rhine ; and 
 now master of the German coast. Napoleon, by the 
 decrees of Berlin and Milan, announced the Continental 
 Blockade, by which he hoped to bring Great Britain to 
 her knees, and was very nearly successful. 
 
 Every country which wished to remain in friendly 
 relations with France was commanded to abandon all 
 
378 FRANCE 
 
 commerce with Great Britain, to confiscate all British 
 property, and to imprison all British subjects. Whether 
 the blockade could be enforced depended upon the coming 
 campaign with the Russians. Napoleon left Berlin for 
 Posen and Warsaw, and conducted a midwinter cam- 
 paign, which ended with a hard-fought battle in a snow- 
 storm at Eylau (Feb. 8, 1807). It was a technical 
 victory for the French, but the stubborn Russian infantry 
 gave Napoleon his first check in a pitched battle. He 
 was obliged to return to his winter - quarters on the 
 Vistula, and to await the arrival of fresh troops. A 
 third levy of men and boys was called for within twelve 
 months. Thus reinforced, Napoleon reopened the cam- 
 paign in the spring. Manoeuvring the Russians into a 
 trap at Friedland (June 14, 1807), he scored the decisive 
 victory which brought Prussia and the Czar to terms 
 (Treaty of Tilsit, July 8). 
 
 Prussia was deprived of all her territory west of the 
 Elbe and of Prussian Poland, and was bound to maintain 
 a huge French garrison till she paid an indemnity obvi- 
 ously beyond her means. Both Russia and Prussia 
 recognized Napoleon's arrangement of the map, and 
 accepted the " Continental system." A new kingdom of 
 Westphalia was erected, comprising Brunswick, Hesse- 
 Cassel, and part of Hanover, with Jerome Bonaparte for 
 King. At the same time a secret understanding was 
 arrived at between Alexander and Napoleon, which gave 
 the latter a free hand to enforce the blockade throughout 
 Europe, whilst the Czar was granted liberty to seize 
 Finland and the Danubian provinces of Turkey. Political 
 and international morality had long ceased to count in 
 the scheme of Napoleon's monarchical ambition. But 
 there were spots in the sun of his dazzling triumph. 
 Prussia, crushed and humiliated, was bitterly resentful ; 
 the acceptance of the blockade by Russia was suicidal, 
 
THE CONTINENTAL BLOCKADE 379 
 
 for to close the Baltic to English trade was to ruin St. 
 Petersburg ; the ports of Sweden and Portugal were still 
 open to British trade. What of Denmark ? Judging by 
 what he knew of the Treaty of Tilsit, Canning concluded 
 that Napoleon intended to compel her to join him. She 
 had shown friendliness to Napoleon, and Napoleon re- 
 garded her aid as essential to his schemes. Her small 
 fleet might turn the scale in this desperate struggle. In 
 September an English fleet appeared off Copenhagen, 
 bombarded the town, and cut out the Danish fleet. 
 
 The Danes, incensed, closed their ports to England ; 
 but the violent fit of epileptic rage into which Napoleon 
 fell on hearing the news is the best justification of Can- 
 ning's high-handed action. The English outrage was 
 soon balanced by that of the French in Spain. Through 
 the Tagus English goods were stiU finding their way into 
 the Peninsula. To subjugate Portugal and to complete 
 the conquest of the Mediterranean, it was still necessary 
 for Napoleon to seize Egypt, Corfu, Sicily, and, above 
 all, Spain. In October Junot marched from Bayonne 
 upon Lisbon. 
 
 Portugal was secured ; it was now the turn of Spain. 
 Taking advantage of the quarrel between Charles IV. and 
 his son Ferdinand, Napoleon pushed troops into that 
 country. Charles abdicated, and Napoleon, summoning 
 an Assembly of Spanish nobles at Bayonne, compelled 
 Ferdinand to sign away his rights, and placed Joseph 
 Bonaparte upon the throne of Spain. Murat succeeded 
 Joseph on the throne oi Naples. So far, the violence and 
 monstrous Machiavellism of the Emperor had suc- 
 ceeded. But before long he was to learn that the seem- 
 ing triumph of Bayonne was in truth for him a tragedy. 
 He thought he had got Spain, but he had only obtained 
 Ferdinand's worthless signature. He had not bargained 
 with Spanish patriotism, stimulated by the resentment 
 
380 FRANCE 
 
 of the Catholic world at his treatment of the Pope ; for 
 when the latter had refused to recognize Joseph as King 
 of Naples, or to allow the States of the Church to join in 
 the Continental Blockade, Napoleon (1808) kept the 
 Pontiff in captivity at Savona, and transformed the Papal 
 States into simple Departments of France. A sudden 
 and violent rising all over Spain hurled the French back 
 to the Pyrenees. Europe was astounded and encouraged 
 when it learnt that Dupont, with 20,000 men, had been 
 forced to capitulate at Baylen (June, 1808), Junot, 
 isolated in Portugal, was compelled to evacuate the 
 country ; for the English had landed an army, and at 
 the Battle of Vimeiro Wellesley gained his first European 
 victory, and revealed the master-hand which was to wear 
 down the brilliant Corsican. The result of his aggression 
 in Spain was to divide Napoleon's forces, and to expose 
 a wing to the English soldiers. 
 
 Napoleon hurried back to Madrid with reinforcements 
 from Prussia, where he had been imposing his own con- 
 ditions on that country, since it could not pay the in- 
 demnity of Tilsit. But before he could complete the 
 conquest or pacification of Spain he was obliged to return 
 post-haste to France. Austria, anxious to recover her 
 lost provinces, and encouraged by English subsidies and 
 the Spanish rising, and the hope of similar risings in 
 Italy and Germany, declared war in April. Their own 
 slowness and the rapidity of Napoleon destroyed the 
 chance of the Austrians. After some desperate fighting 
 on the Danube, Napoleon entered Vienna in triumph 
 (May 13). He endeavoured to cross the Danube, but the 
 bloody Battle of Essling obliged him to wait till reinforce- 
 ments arrived from Italy. Then the victory of Wagram 
 (July 6) ended the matter. By the Treaty of Vienna 
 (Oct. 14) Austria ceded to France practically the whole 
 of her coastline on the Adriatic, and various portions of 
 
THE MARCH TO MOSCOW 381 
 
 her territory to Bavaria, Warsaw, and Russia. By the 
 apparent moderation of these terms, and by allying him- 
 self with an Austrian Princess, Napoleon hoped to keep 
 Austria neutral in the struggle which he foresaw was 
 coming with Germany and Russia. He divorced the 
 devoted Josephine, widow of General Beauharnais, who 
 had given him no heir, and married the Archduchess 
 Marie Louise (April 1, 1810). Their son, born in the 
 following year, was given the title of the King of Rome. 
 But Austria, though powerless for the moment, was not 
 to be reconciled so. It was a matter of life and death 
 for her to recover her lost provinces and coastline. 
 
 The Continental Blockade had almost ruined the 
 Dutch. Napoleon turned out his brother Louis, who 
 endeavoured to support the interest of his subjects, and 
 annexed Holland (July 29, 1810), as well as all the terri- 
 tory between Holland and the Elbe. The boundaries of 
 France now exceeded the boundaries of ancient Gaul. But 
 the Continental System was also ruining St. Petersburg. 
 The Czar refused any longer to close the Baltic to English 
 trade. Instead of ignoring him and finishing the war in 
 Spain, Napoleon chose to leave that " running sore," and 
 with an army of 600,000 men, half of them French, 
 marched upon Moscow (Feb., 1812). He proposed, 
 apparently, to advance thence towards British India. It 
 was the insane enterprise of a restless and reckless megalo- 
 maniac. In the undeveloped state of Russia the capture 
 of Moscow would not mean ruin for her. Russia was 
 economically a jelty-fish, and a jelly-fish has no heart. 
 For sentimental reasons, indeed, Alexander fought and 
 lost the Battle of Borodino (Sept. 7) to cover Moscow. 
 It was the bloodiest battle of modern times. But when 
 Napoleon entered the city a fortnight later he found it 
 deserted. The few patriotic citizens who remained soon set 
 it in flames. The Czar refused to negotiate whilst a single 
 
382 FRANCE 
 
 enemy remained on Russian soil. There was nothing for 
 it but to retreat (Oct. 18). The advance across 600 
 miles of barren country with all the enormous stores 
 necessary for so huge an army had already cost over 
 100,000 men. The retreat of the ragged and starving 
 horde, harassed by Russians and Cossacks, living on 
 horseflesh, suffering from snow-sickness, frost-bitten, and 
 floundering through the ice and snow, forms a tale of 
 horror which has passed into a legend, and which no pen 
 can exaggerate. 
 
 Napoleon, who had left the army and ridden back to 
 Paris, at once ordered a new conscription. He had lost 
 nearly half a million men and nearly all the old officers of 
 the Grand Army ; he had lost his prestige and popularity. 
 Taxation rose at a bound, and his military empire began 
 to crumble. Two hundred thousand men were locked up 
 in Spain, where jealous Generals and the immense diffi- 
 culties of war so far from their base were enabling Welling- 
 ton to press slowly forward towards the French frontier. 
 Sweden, under Napoleon's old General, Bernadotte, had 
 joined Great Britain. All North Germany rose as one 
 man against the hated despotism of the French Emperor. 
 Napoleon endeavoured to smash Russia and Prussia 
 before Austria joined them. The victories of Liitzen and 
 Bautzen (May 2 and 21) justified him. He granted an 
 armistice, but refused to treat on condition of ceding 
 Illyria and his German possessions. It was not enough 
 to keep Italy, the Rhine frontier, and the Netherlands. 
 The refusal was insane. Austria, intent on regaining her 
 coast provinces, declared war (Aug. 21). Napoleon 
 brought up reinforcements from Spain, but Prussians, 
 Russians, Austrians closed upon him in increasing num- 
 bers. Gradually encircled at Leipzic, after three days* 
 terrific fighting, in which he lost some 70,000 men, the 
 Emperor began his retreat to France (Oct. 19). As 
 
"THE HUNDRED DAYS" 383 
 
 he still refused to treat, the Allies advanced. Wellington 
 was approaching from the south. Napoleon fought on 
 against overwhelming odds with the most desperate 
 valour, but on March 31 the victorious Allies marched 
 into Paris, and on April 11 the Emperor abdicated. 
 
 At the instigation of Talleyrand recourse was had to 
 the principle of legitimacy. The Bourbon line was re- 
 stored, and Louis XVIII. recognized as King. The 
 French frontier was to be as it was in 1791 (Treaty of 
 Paris). The Powers of Europe met in the Congress of 
 Vienna to rearrange the map of Europe. Napoleon, 
 treated with a generosity to which he himself had ever 
 been a stranger, took leave of the Old Guard at Fontaine- 
 bleau, was granted Elba in fuU sovereignty, and occupied 
 himself in entirely reconstructing the administrative 
 sj^stem of that island. 
 
 Upon his restoration, Louis XVIII. granted a Charter 
 of Constitutional Government, which was far more real 
 and satisfactory than that of Napoleon. Republican and 
 Democratic ideas were quite discredited, and though the 
 Bourbon dynasty suffer 3d from the odium of being re- 
 stored by foreign armies, and had to bear the burden of 
 Napoleon's legacy of national humiliation and financial 
 embarrassment, nobody but a few veteran soldiers wished 
 for the return of the Emperor. Louis XVTII., instead of 
 being content to live down the unpopularity of a restored 
 dynasty, went out of his way to secure his own dethrone- 
 ment. He was obliged to reduce the army, but he 
 offended the pride of the nation in the soldiers, who had 
 won for it so much glory, by supplanting Napoleon's 
 faithful officers with emigres who had been fighting 
 against France. Though really prepared to act as a 
 Constitutional Monarch, he allowed himself to be forced 
 into a reactionary attitude by his entourage of emigres. 
 The result was " The Hundred Days." 
 
384 FRANCE 
 
 When France was thoroughly alarmed at the prospect 
 of a wholesale policy of reaction, Napoleon, who had kept 
 himself well informed of the state of public opinion, sud- 
 denly landed in the Gulf of Juan (March 1, 1815), and, 
 posing as an Apostle of Peace and a Constitutional 
 Monarch coming to deliver his country from a reactionary 
 Government, was received with enthusiasm by the army. 
 His journey to Paris, however, was not the triumphal 
 march of 1799. Ney joined him, but many towns shut 
 their gates as he passed. Louis XVJII. fled from his 
 capital. The eight Powers denounced Napoleon as an 
 outlaw and a disturber of the world's peace, seeing that 
 he had broken the Convention of the preceding April. 
 They dared not give him time to raise and train the half 
 million men he calculated upon by October. The Eng- 
 lish and Prussians, therefore, without waiting for the 
 Austrians and Russians, who would have made the odds 
 overwhelming, advanced at once into Belgium. Napoleon 
 saw his chance, and made the most of it. Massing 
 120,000 men on the Belgian frontier, where 210,000 
 British, Hanoverians, Dutch, Belgians, and Prussians 
 were extended along a frontier of 100 miles, he attempted 
 to surprise Wellington, and very nearly succeeded. 
 Making a sudden and unexpected advance with an army 
 which, if not large enough, was purely French and fiercely 
 enthusiastic, he struck the Prussians under Bliicher at 
 Ligny, whilst Ney held Wellington at Quatre-Bras (June 16). 
 But for counter-orders issued by Ney, a flank attack by 
 Count d'Erlon would have destroyed the Prussians. As it 
 was, they were hurled back, and, if they had been pursued 
 more vigorously, might have been annihilated. Welling- 
 ton fell back upon a strong defensive position at Waterloo, 
 promising to hold it if Bliicher would come to his aid on 
 the morning of June 18, 1815. The indomitable Prussian 
 endeavoured to keep his word, but did not achieve his 
 
Aug: Rischg^itz. 
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-1848). 
 Fiom an engraving by Skelton and Hopv-ood, from a painting by Eug. Lami. 
 
WATERLOO 385 
 
 daring flank march until 7.30 in the evening. All that 
 day Napoleon, whose health had long been breaking up, 
 and who had wasted precious time after Ligny, staked 
 his own existence and that of his army upon the chance 
 of smashing the thin red line, that crowned the slopes of 
 Waterloo, before the Prussians could come up. There 
 was no room for prudence. Politically, he was bound 
 either to win or lose this battle. He underrated the 
 generalship of Wellington and the steadfastness of British 
 infantry, for he had not met them in Spain. He hurled 
 against them a terrific frontal attack ; there was a whirl- 
 wind of wonderful infantry and cavalry charges, and the 
 final heroic charge of the Old Guard, heroically met ; and 
 still the English crowned the hill. Bliicher came up in 
 time to hamper Napoleon's last effort and take up the 
 pursuit, which did not end until Wellington and Bliicher 
 had occupied Paris and restored Louis XVIII. (July 8). 
 
 Before the hostile attitude of the Deputies, who, at the 
 suggestion of La Fayette, had declared themselves in per- 
 manent session, Napoleon had abdicated in favour of his 
 son (June 23), and then, finding the coast narrowly 
 watched, delivered himself up to Captain Maitland on 
 the Bellerophon. Acting as gaoler responsible to the 
 other Powers, who, with her, had suffered so much at 
 the hands of this restless and unscrupulous schemer, 
 Great Britain kept him in careful confinement at St. 
 Helena. Brute force and material gain were the only 
 arguments he had ever used or respected. After his 
 escape from Elba it was impossible to trust to his honour. 
 Had Bliicher caught him, he intended to shoot him for a 
 brigand. The Last Phase of Napoleon, viewed in the 
 light of his own history and the safety of Europe, requires 
 no apology. 
 
 25 
 
XXV 
 
 FKOM WATEELOO TO SEDAN 
 A.D. 1815—1871 
 
 Louis XVIII. had learnt his lesson. He could not check 
 the violent outburst of Koyalist vengeance in the South, 
 known as the "White Terror," to distinguish it from 
 the " Ked Terror " of Robespierre ; but thereafter he 
 turned a deaf ear to the reactionaries, and the rest of 
 his reign was uneventful. France earnestly desired 
 peace, and peace was not broken except for an expedition 
 into Spain to restore Ferdinand VII. as absolute monarch. 
 Louis' successor was less wise. As Comte d'Artois, he 
 had identified himself with clerical reactionaries and the 
 ultra-loyalists, and on his accession (September 16, 1824) 
 as Charles X., he entered on a course which compelled 
 the nation to dethrone him. First the rentiers and finan- 
 ciers were exasperated by the conversion of the Five 
 per Cents, into Three per Cents., the money so saved 
 being assigned to those who had lost lands or rights in 
 the Revolution. Then a series of reactionary measures 
 were introduced by his Minister, Villele, into the Chamber 
 of Deputies, only to be rejected by the Liberal majority. 
 Exasperated by opposition, and beheving himseK to 
 be the Divinely appointed saviour of royalty and religion, 
 Charles, in 1830, appealed to force he did not possess. 
 Dissolving the recently elected Chamber, since a majority 
 of Liberals had been returned, he issued (July 25) a series 
 
THE " THREE GLORIOUS DAYS " 387 
 
 of Ordinances restoring the censorship of the Press and 
 suspending the Constitution, whilst he proposed to exer- 
 cise dictatorial powers. " Three glorious days " of battle, 
 first in the Press and then in the streets of Paris, ensued. 
 Charles withdrew the Ordinances, but too late. The 
 dissolved Chambers had already met and dethroned him. 
 He fled to England, and a likely King, with Liberal views, 
 was found in the younger branch of the Bourbons. Louis- 
 Philippe, Duke of Orleans, accepted the Crown and the 
 Charter of August 9. 
 
 This was an amended edition of the Charter of 1814. 
 Catholicism ceased to be the State religion, but a law 
 for liberty of public instruction was promised. The Press 
 was freed. For the Divine right of the Sovereign was 
 substituted the choice of the people. 
 
 Practically the whole bourgeoisie was enfranchised. 
 Both Chambers were to initiate legislation. But the 
 Upper Chamber was politically sterile, for it was composed 
 of life peers nominated by the King, and the Chamber 
 of Deputies consisted of men who paid 500 francs in 
 taxes, elected by those who paid 200 francs. This fran- 
 chise led directly to the breakdown of 1848. For not only 
 was the electorate really very small — about 240,000 — but 
 representation was so badly distributed as to render 
 even these inarticulate. The property quahfication for 
 the Deputies also prevented the lower bourgeoisie from 
 choosing their own men. Unrepresentative as it was, the 
 Chamber was divided into half a dozen groups, constantly 
 changing in their attitude and aims. The modern 
 " Grovernment of the Centre " had begun under 
 "Louis XVIII. Between the extreme Right (Conservative) 
 and the extreme Left (Radical), a fluid body of Deputies 
 kept, and still keeps, the Government moderately Liberal, 
 but always on the verge of dissolution. 
 
 At first the Ministries of Louis-Philippe, led by Casimir- 
 
388 FRANCE 
 
 P6rier, Soult, Due de Broglie, Mole, and Thiers and 
 Guizot, a group of cultivated doctrinaires enamoured of 
 the British Constitution, which they profoundly misunder- 
 stood, proved strong enough to repress discontent ; but 
 after an attempt upon the life of the bourgeois King 
 in 1835, the reactionary " Laws of September " multiplied 
 the revolutionary Republicans. On the whole, however, 
 the Government was not reactionary ; its fault was that 
 it was staidly Conservative, and that whilst Thiers and 
 Guizot were absorbed in manoeuvring a Parhamentary 
 majority, they ignored the growing popular demand for 
 electoral, Parliamentary, and social reform — electoral 
 reform, for the franchise was too narrow ; Parliamentary 
 reform, for a series of State trials revealed the methods 
 of corruption in the Chamber and the Government depart- 
 ments by which majorities were maintained ; social reform, 
 for this is the period of the development of modern 
 Socialism . Fourier, Saint-Simon, Leroux, Louis Blanc , and 
 Carl Marx were writing, and their doctrines were finding a 
 ready audience amongst the artisans of the towns, whose 
 numbers were being increased by the industrial develop- 
 ment of the age, and who were left voteless. Violent 
 mihtant Socialism was preached in the clubs of the great 
 towns and Paris. Moreover, Guizot had failed to solve 
 the religious question by his measures in fulfilment of 
 the promise to restore liberty of teaching in secondary 
 education. The Clergy, therefore, already hostile to the 
 "July Monarchy," threw in their lot with the Re- 
 pubhcans. 
 
 The foreign policy of the Government was also un- 
 popular. True, Algeria was conquered and added to the 
 possessions of France (1830-1847). But Louis-Philippe was 
 blamed for helping the English to establish and maintain 
 the independence of Belgium, rather than annexing 
 it (1830-1839) ; for not helping the Poles against Russia ; 
 
THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 389 
 
 for resisting the national demand for war when the 
 Powers checkmated French designs upon Egypt ; and, 
 again, for throwing away the valued entente cordiale with 
 England and favouring the policy of Austria in Switzer- 
 land and Italy, in order to aggrandize his family, when, 
 through Guizot, he arranged the marriage of his son, the 
 Duo de Montpensier, with the sister of the Queen of Spain. 
 So it came about that when, after they had spent the 
 autumn in proclaiming that Parliamentary government 
 in France was a farce, and in demanding an extension of 
 the sujBfrage, the Opposition of moderate Liberals an- 
 nounced their intention of holding a public demonstration 
 on February 22, in the then popular form of an open-air 
 banquet, they lit a train which they had not the least 
 idea was attached to a powder-magazine. The banquet 
 was forbidden, and the Opposition leaders, who wished 
 for reform, but did not dream of revolution, obeyed. But 
 the SociaHst artisans of the Faubourg St. Antoine turned 
 out in force. As everybody cried, " Vive la Reforme !" 
 the bourgeoisie thought that the workmen were shouting 
 for them. Accordingly, when the demonstration de- 
 veloped into a riot, the National Guard, composed mainly 
 of small shopkeepers, refused to act against the insurgents. 
 After a collision with the soldiers, a huge armed mob 
 marched upon the Tuileries (February 24). The King 
 abdicated, and the mob, invading the Chamber, set up a 
 Provisional Grovernment of a strongly Sociahstic character, 
 including Ledru-Rollin ; Lamartine, a RepubHcan poet, 
 honest, well-meaning, eloquent, and exceedingly vague ; 
 Louis Blanc, the Socialist writer ; and Albert, an artisan. 
 The RepubUc was proclaimed (February 26, 1848). France 
 was astonished. Outside a few large towns Socialism had 
 no supporters. The first step of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment was to commit suicide. In accordance with their 
 principles, they summoned a National Assembly, a single 
 
390 FRANCE 
 
 Chamber of paid Deputies to be elected on universal 
 suffrage (over twenty-one years of age). Nine million 
 electors were thus suddenly enfranchised, and, granted at 
 last complete political equality, were allowed to speak 
 their minds. They declared at once that they intended 
 to have nothing to do with Socialism. They returned a 
 great majority of moderate RepubHcans, a strong Royalist 
 minority, and hardly any Socialists at all. 
 
 Meantime the Provisional Grovernment had passed 
 some measures, most of which did more credit to their 
 hearts than to their understandings. The best of these 
 were the Factory Acts and the emancipation of slaves in 
 the colonies ; the most foolish the disastrous creation of 
 national workshops (February 27). Louis Blanc was 
 identified with the theory that every man has a " right " to 
 work and to be paid wages . The Provisional Government 
 made itself responsible for supplying both, and began the 
 experiment in Paris. Workmen and vagabonds poured 
 in from every part of the country. A series of reckless 
 strikes began, the workmen calculating that if they lost 
 they could still count on work from the Government. A 
 financial panic, created by these Socialistic measures, 
 compelled many employers to shut down their works. 
 Within a month or so, 100,000 claimants to the right to 
 work, concentrated on the outskirts of Paris, were being 
 fed and paid for work which had not yet been provided — 
 a besieging army prepared for revolution the moment 
 the Government should be compelled for want of money 
 to cease from its costly and impracticable experiment. 
 
 The Assembly, which met on May 4, appointed an 
 Executive Committee of Five, including Lamartine and 
 Ledru-RoUin. An attempt was made by the Socialist 
 mob to terrorize the Chamber, when it was seen that it 
 was composed of moderate men, and that violence was 
 their only hope. The Socialist clubs organized an attack, 
 
THE " FOUR DAYS OF JUNE " 391 
 
 headed by Albert and Barbes, and similar to that of 
 February 22, on pretence of urging the Grovernment to 
 support the Polish Insurrection, since it was regarded as 
 the duty of Republics to wage war with Kings. The 
 National Guard, however, saved the situation (May 16). 
 The mob was queUed. It remained to deal with the 
 national workshops. After some hesitation, the promise 
 of work and wages was abruptly cancelled (June 21), and 
 the workmen were ordered to disperse to the provinces 
 or enter the army. Instead of dispersing, they began 
 to build barricades. Half of Paris was turned into a sort 
 of fort. It was evident that all compromise between 
 the Republicans and the Socialist artisans was at an end. 
 The Committee of Five resigned, and General Cavaignac 
 was appointed Military Dictator. The attack on the 
 barricades began on June 23. For four days there was 
 desperate fighting and terrible bloodshed. Government 
 artillery turned the scale. Several thousand insurgents 
 were exiled (June 27). The first attempt since the days 
 of Robespierre to force the views of a Jacobin minority 
 upon an unwilling people had failed. 
 
 The Assembly had won ; but the "four days of June " 
 led to its fall. The bourgeoisie, panic-stricken, realized 
 that the existence of private property had been at stake, 
 and Communism within an ace of triumphing : this they 
 were determined to resist now, as in 1871 ; they demanded 
 the establishment of a strong centralized Government at 
 once. The vanquished artisans, who had hoped to 
 realize in a day the whole programme of present-day 
 Socialism, were bitterly resentful against the Republicans. 
 Monarchy under some form must be re-established. But 
 the Assembly was pledged to Republicanism. They drew 
 up a Constitution, therefore, which, under the guise of a 
 Republic, gave to its President far more power than had 
 been enjoyed by Louis-Philippe (November 4, 1848). 
 
392 FRANCE 
 
 He was to be elected by direct, universal suffrage ; to 
 hold office for four years, and not to be re-elected ; he was 
 to name his own Ministers, and they were to divide 
 responsibility with him. Such was the Executive, 
 completely severed from a single Legislative Chamber, 
 elected by universal suffrage, with a hfetime of three 
 years. Revision of this unworkable scheme was ren- 
 dered practically impossible. Such, after half a century 
 of constitution-mongering, was the supreme achieve- 
 ment of French political science. "We must trust 
 to Providence !" cried Lamartine, and stood for the 
 Presidency. And Providence, speaking through the 
 electorate — a Conservative peasantry and a scared middle 
 class — voted for the restoration of order, chose neither 
 high-fljring Socialist, nor sturdy RepubHcan like Greneral 
 Cavaignac, but, by an overwhelming majority, Prince 
 Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Louis, once King of 
 Holland, and nephew of the great Napoleon (Decem- 
 ber 10, 1848). The first result of universal suffrage, 
 therefore, was the establishment of an arbitrary monar- 
 chical Government. 
 
 France knew little of Louis-Napoleon, save that he had 
 made two abortive Bonapartist demonstrations — at Stras- 
 burg (1836) and Boulogne (1840) — and had pubMshed, 
 during his consequent imprisonment in the fortress of 
 Ham, some books which breathed the spirit of senti- 
 mental and mystical Socialism. Since his escape (1846), 
 he had conducted his propaganda from England, and 
 when elected to the last Chamber had declared himself 
 a RepubHcan. But he was the inheritor of an immense 
 renown and of a dynasty which had been absent long 
 enough for its virtues only to be remembered. He was 
 the heir to the Napoleonic legend, created by the Martyr 
 of St. Helena and his followers, which represented the 
 aggression of Bonaparte as that of the archangel of 
 
THE SECOND EMPIRE 393 
 
 Liberty. The histories of Thiers, the memorial of Las 
 Casas, the ballads of Beranger, following upon the great 
 Romantic Revival which had ensued upon the fall of 
 Napoleon I., all tended to increase the glamour of the 
 memory of the "little corporal with his grey military 
 coat." Vague dreams of a glorious foreign policy, and of 
 ya liberal programme such as Monarchy and RepubKc 
 \\ike had hitherto refused, rallied to the standard of his 
 nephew all those who saw in any other choice the threat 
 of Communism or of clerical reaction. 
 
 Apart from his tradition, the Constitution itself gave 
 every incentive to a man of ambition to override it. Was 
 the chosen of the people likely to retire into obscurity 
 at the end of four years ? He played his hand with great 
 dexterity. After the intervention of France in Italy 
 on behalf of the Pope (1849), parties resolved themselves 
 into Catholic Reactionaries and Republican Democrats. 
 Louis-Napoleon had only to steer a course between the 
 two, and to ingratiate himself, as he well knew how, with 
 all the leading men of the day, without committing himself 
 with any of them. Then, under pretence of exalting 
 authority, he passed from the Dictatorship of October, 
 1849, to hereditary Empire as Napoleon III.* (November, 
 1852). For, after a series of terrorist measures, a coup 
 d'etat (December, 1851) was followed by the seizure and 
 transportation of aU the Republican and Socialist 
 leaders, including Victor Hugo. And on December 21 
 some seven million electors, weary of impotent factions 
 and partisan squabbles, and sighing for the strong and 
 glorious government of Napoleon I., had delegated to 
 his nephew the task of drawing up a Constitution. He 
 bestowed upon them a Constitution which concentrated 
 all power in his own hands, with Council and Senate 
 nominated by himself, and an Assembly which had no 
 * Napoleon II., " L'Aiglon," King of Rome, had never reigned. 
 
394 FRANCE 
 
 right of initiative or amendment. The Press was gagged 
 and public meetings suppressed. 
 
 Obstinate, crafty, a dreamer and yet impulsive, b}^ nature 
 and history a schemer, nobody believed in his mission to 
 realize the " Ideas of Napoleon," to reconcile order with 
 liberty and popular rights with the principle of authority, 
 more firmly than Louis-Napoleon himseK. A man of 
 kindly and generous temperament and of liberal views, 
 he had long indulged in beautiful, vague dreams of the 
 abolition of poverty through Sociahsm and universal 
 peace. France was to be the centre of a European 
 Confederacy pledged to maintain liberty and national 
 autonomy. To this end, and to secure the Napoleonic 
 dynasty — the first and most important blessing of man- 
 kind, as it seemed to him — he endeavoured to rally all 
 classes to his support, with the aid of the army and a 
 searching police. 
 
 The " Man of Order " set himself first to develop 
 national industry, to promote order, and to ameliorate 
 the condition of the working classes. It was a condition 
 of his existence that he should keep the masses contented 
 by economic and social reforms. Great public works 
 were set on foot to satisfy the unemployed. Paris was 
 rebuilt, and became a city beautiful, with broad boule- 
 vards and magnificent public spaces and buildings, de- 
 signed by the hand of Haussmann — a city as gay as it 
 was beautiful, since the theory of the time was that it 
 was necessary to spend and entertain in order to promote 
 prosperity. The Great Exhibitions of Paris (1855 and 
 1867) were the apotheosis of the Emperor's industrial 
 policy. 
 
 It was another condition of the Napoleonic regime that 
 the national love of military glory should be satisfied. 
 Thus, though actuated by very different motives, Louis- 
 Napoleon was led to commit the same errors as the Grand 
 
THE IDEAS OF NAPOLEON 396 
 
 Monarque. Expenditure at home and abroad produced 
 financial embarrassment, which was further increased 
 by a sudden plunge in the direction of Free Trade. 
 Abandoning the Protectionist principles which had 
 governed French trade since the time of Colbert, he, like 
 Vergennes, made a commercial treaty with England, and 
 by so doing hit the French cotton-spinners hard (1860). 
 
 Meantime the Crimean War (1854-1856) satisfied the 
 national desire for the glory of Napoleonic arms abroad, 
 and the Clergy, who had supported Louis-Napoleon as 
 the heir of Napoleon, the "restorer of the altars," were 
 rewarded by regaining control of education. Since the 
 Courts of Europe looked askance upon the new dynasty, 
 Louis-Napoleon concluded a love-match with a beautiful 
 and charming, but ignorant, woman, Eugenie, Countess 
 de Teba, who was completely subject to Ultramontane 
 influence, and helped the clerical party at the Tuileries. 
 But the "party of the priests " was soon to be alienated by 
 the foreign policy of the Emperor, and to join the growing 
 opposition of injured Protectionists, disappointed Re- 
 publicans, suppressed Socialists, and irreconcilable 
 Legitimists. Intoxicated by the military triumph of the 
 Crimean War, Louis-Napoleon at last thought himself 
 strong enough to indulge in the realization of his dreams, 
 and to act as the liberator of the nations, in fulfilment of 
 the "Ideas of Napoleon." After interfering in Rou- 
 mania, he decided "to do something for Italy." The 
 Italian War was the first step towards his dethronement. 
 It was the fault of his diplomacy that, like all second-rate 
 statesmen, he was always making decisive moves without 
 any clear idea as to their practical results. In May, 1859, 
 he undertook to help Italy to regain her independence 
 "as far as the Adriatic." This promise was only half 
 kept. For after the victories of Magenta and SoKerino 
 in June, Napoleon abruptly made peace with Austria 
 
396 FRANCE 
 
 (Treaty of Villafranca and Zurich, November), and then, 
 by the Treaty of Turin with Piedmont, annexed Nice and 
 Savoy (March, 1860). The Italians were disappointed, the 
 French Ultramontanes alienated, since war on behalf of 
 ItaUan independence had involved their Emperor in oppo- 
 sition to the temporal power of the Pope ; and the whole 
 affair advertised throughout Europe the curse of his inheri- 
 tance, the dread of Napoleonic aggression. This evil im- 
 pression was accentuated by remonstrances with Russia on 
 the Polish question, and by a rash expedition to Mexico, 
 where Napoleon dreamed of making the Archduke Maxi- 
 milian of Austria the ruler of a Latin Empire. The 
 project collapsed in ruin and bloodshed after four 3/ears 
 of costly struggle (1862-1866). The disastrous result was 
 that when Prussia, in alliance with Italy, had swiftly and 
 suddenly overthrown Austria at Sadowa (July 3, 1866), 
 Napoleon, with his best troops locked up in Mexico, 
 found his army unready, and was unable to play the part 
 of an armed mediator. The Treaty of Nikolsburg allowed 
 the Germanic Confederacy to fall under the hegemony of 
 Berlin. The interests of France called for intervention, 
 but Napoleon, expecting Austria to win, had waited to 
 intervene on behalf of Prussia. It was now too late ; 
 Napoleon must either fight or accept a national humilia- 
 tion. Through his Ambassador, Benedetti, he attempted 
 to retrieve his prestige by securing compensation for 
 Bismarck's success and the coming union of all Germany, 
 which threatened to upset the balance of power. He 
 demanded the cession of the Palatinate and Mainz. Bis- 
 marck rejected this "hotel-keeper's bill." It was a 
 challenge to fight which Napoleon could not take up. 
 Benedetti was then led on to make the fatal proposal 
 that Prussia should help France to occupy Luxemburg 
 and Belgium. 
 
 Public confidence in the absolute regime was shaken. 
 
" THE LAST BUTTON " 397 
 
 The " humiliation of Sadowa " increased the general 
 discontent ; the demand for the " indispensable liberties,*' 
 as Thiers phrased it, grew more pressing. Napoleon had 
 already begun to modify the mock Constitution of 1852 
 by granting the legislative body the right of presenting 
 an Address each year in reply to the Speech from the 
 Throne, and the publication of their debates thereon 
 (November, 1860). Further facilities for public discussion 
 of the Government policy were now granted. The gag 
 upon the Press and public meetings was partly withdrawn. 
 These concessions were made in order to pass the Army 
 Act of 1868, for in face of the Mexican fiasco and the 
 military position of Prussia, it was essential to reorganize 
 the army. But the most dangerous moment for a bad 
 Government is when it begins to reform. The election 
 of 1869 proved that the Government was on the edge of 
 an abyss. Napoleon hoped to stave off revolution by 
 making concessions in the direction of a constitutional 
 monarchy and by successful war. Tenure of the throne 
 depended upon the prestige of the throne, and this could 
 only be retrieved by military glory achieved at the 
 expense of Prussia. He was told that the army was 
 ready " to the last button." It was not ; but there was 
 an army across the border that was — a nation in arms, 
 every detail of whose machinery and campaign had been 
 prepared through years of toil by the Prussian King, by 
 Bismarck, Moltke, and Roon. 
 
 Bismarck, in order to complete the union of the South 
 Grerman States with the Hohenzollern, had long foreseen 
 that he would have to fight France in order to free them 
 from the menace of such a neighbour at Strasburg and on 
 the left bank of the Rhine. He had frustrated Napoleon's 
 repeated attempts to strengthen his eastern frontier. 
 Napoleon himself had sacrificed all hope of help from 
 Austria or Italy when, in obedience to his Roman Catholic 
 
398 FRANCE 
 
 friends, he had despatched his troops to protect the Pope 
 against the Italian patriots (November, 1867). The 
 chassepots (new breech-loading rifles) of the French army 
 had routed Garibaldi's troops at Mentana ; but in so 
 doing had not only sacrificed the hope of Itahan aid against 
 Prussia, but strengthened the RepubHcan opposition, led 
 by Jules Favre, Emile Ollivier, Leon Gambetta, and a 
 strong labour party, at home. Bismarck knew that the 
 proposal of Benedetti for the acquisition of Belgium 
 would estrange England and complete the isolation of 
 France.* He was now prepared to force on a war, for 
 which, as we have seen, Napoleon was not undesirous, and 
 in which Bismarck intended that he should appear the 
 aggressor. 
 
 On July 3, 1870, it was announced that Prince Leopold 
 von Hohenzollern was a candidate for the vacant throne 
 of Spain. He had accepted the candidature under pressure 
 from Bismarck. France could not possibly permit 
 Spain to fall under the influence of Prussia, Benedetti 
 therefore pressed King William for an immediate renun- 
 ciation of Leopold's claims. His candidature was with- 
 drawn. Over-eager to press home a diplomatic triumph, 
 the French Foreign Minister, the Due de Grammont, 
 further demanded a promise that King William would 
 never sanction any such proposal. The demand was 
 refused poUtely, but Bismarck contrived to convey the 
 impression, by a telegram published in Paris, that the 
 French Ambassador had been treated with disrespect. 
 Carried away by an outburst of popular indignation, 
 Napoleon decided to declare war. In Germany the famous 
 telegram, falsely dated from Ems, had given the im- 
 pression that Benedetti had forced his demands upon 
 the privacy of King William. Both sides began to 
 
 * He published it in the Times, after the declaration of the war, 
 with the desired effect. 
 
SEDAN 399 
 
 mobilize on July 14. Everything depended upon the 
 rapidity with which this was done. If France could 
 strike at once, the South German States might hesitate ; 
 Italy, Austria, and Denmark might come to her aid. 
 But the French mobilization was inadequate and con- 
 fused ; the army and navy were hopelessly ill-prepared. 
 With amazing rapidity three German armies advanced 
 towards the Rhine to meet the French armies, which, so 
 the railway system imposed, must be concentrated about 
 Metz and Strasburg, but divided by the Vosges Moun- 
 tains. The army of Alsace was commanded by Marshal 
 Macmahon, the army of Lorraine ("the army of the 
 Rhine ") by the Emperor and Marshal Bazaine. The 
 reserve was at Chalons. Within a week (August 2 to 6) 
 the bubble of French military prestige was pricked. 
 On August 7 the French fell back behind the Moselle. 
 
 It was necessary — to pacify the Parisians — to make 
 a stand east of Metz. But the murderous battle of 
 Gravelotte (August 18) compelled Bazaine to take shelter 
 beneath the guns of Metz. That fortress was invested, 
 and an army of 240,000 Germans was presently advancing 
 on Paris by way of Chalons, where a new army was being 
 formed under Macmahon. He wished to retreat upon 
 Paris ; but that meant revolution, since it would be 
 construed by the mob as the abandonment of the army of 
 the Rhine shut up in Metz. Deceived by a message 
 from Bazaine, who announced his intention of breaking 
 out in the direction of Chalons or Sedan, Macmahon 
 therefore ordered the fatal march to the Meuse, hoping to 
 join Bazaine at Montmedy. Bazaine, however, failed 
 to break out from Metz, and Macmahon, falling into 
 Moltke's trap at Sedan, was surrounded, and suffered 
 the most tremendous disaster of modern warfare. One 
 hundred thousand men surrendered, including the Em- 
 peror, who, sick and broken, had elected to stay and suffer 
 
400 PKANCE 
 
 with his soldiers (September 1). The Prussians advanced 
 on Paris, and in September began the siege which was to 
 last for five and a half months. Whilst Thiers sought in 
 vain for help at foreign Courts, Gambetta's heroic efforts 
 to relieve the capital, though they did much to restore 
 the prestige of French arms and national spirit, were no 
 less vain. A desperate sortie from the starving capital 
 (January 19) failed to break through the Prussian lines. 
 On the 23rd Jules Favre opened negotiations for capitula- 
 tion, and on the 28th an armistice was arranged. 
 
 At the news of the disaster of Sedan, the Paris mob 
 rose and overthrew the Assembly. A Republic was pro- 
 claimed, and a Government of National Defence was 
 formed, with General Trochu for President. But in the 
 task of defending Paris during the siege (September 16, 
 1870, to January 28, 1871) the Government of Septem- 
 ber 4 was hampered by the Parisian Sociahsts . Instead of 
 uniting to show a common front to the enemy, the Social 
 Democrats organized insurrections within the walls of 
 the besieged city. When the armistice was concluded, 
 elections were held, and a new Assembly met at Bordeaux. 
 Once more the voice of the nation declared against 
 anarchy and revolutionary schemes. A majority hostile 
 to the democratic Socialism of Paris had been returned. 
 It fell to Thiers, at the head of the new Government, with 
 Jules Favre and Ernest Picard, to negotiate the peace 
 with Bismarck. By the Treaty of Frankfort (May 10) 
 France ceded all Alsace, except Belfort, and German 
 Lorraine, with Metz. The enormous indemnity of 
 £200,000,000 was exacted. The rapidity with which 
 the French people recovered from this smashing blow 
 to their prosperity and prestige is one of the most re- 
 markable features in their brilliant and eventful history. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbeville, 52, 141, 148 ; 
 
 (T.), 104 
 Abd-el-Rahman, 31, 32 
 Abelard, 77 
 Aboukir (b.), 366 
 Acre, 87, 108 
 Agincoiirt (b.), 162 
 Agnadello (b.), 196 
 Aigruee Mortes, 107, 113, 
 
 212 287 
 Aix-la'-Chapelle, 45-47, 
 
 51 ; (T.). 290, 292, 319 
 Alario I., 17 ; II., 19, 21 
 Alberoni, 312 
 Albifirensian Crusade, 79, 
 
 96-100 
 Alcala(T.), 191 
 Alcuin, 40 
 Alemanni, 15, 18, 20, 
 
 31, 34 
 Alexandria (b.), 366 
 Alfred, King, 38, 51 
 Algeria, 388 
 Almanza (b.), 301 
 Alsace. 267, 276, 292, 
 
 297, 304, 318, 399,400 
 Amboise, Edict of, 234 
 Amboise, Georges, Car- 
 dinal d', 192-4, 197, 
 
 198 
 Amboise, plot of, 231 
 American War, 336-343 
 Amiens, 86, 132, 133, 
 
 140, 141, 247 (T.), 370 
 Ancre, Due d', 258, 259 
 Angers (T.), 259 
 Anjou, 91, 181, 193; 
 
 Counts of, 60, 69, 84, 
 
 100, 114, 178 jGT.; Duke 
 
 of, 158, 236, 239 ; and 
 
 see Philip V. of Spain 
 Anne of Austria, 255, 
 
 264, 273 JSr., 290 
 Appanages, the, 129, 130, 
 
 132, 205, 206 
 Aqu88 Sextiae (b.), 6 
 Aquitaine, 1, 11, 17, 31, 
 
 34-36, 43, 49, 59, 65, 
 - 66, 78, 82-84, 87, 129 
 Aragon, King of, 95, 99, 
 
 104, 114, 118; and see 
 
 Ferdinand 
 Arc, Joan of, 166-169 
 Archers, English, 136, 
 
 138jQr., 162 
 Architecture. See s.v. 
 
 French 
 Areola (b.), 364 
 Ardree (T.), 213, 220, 221 
 
 [b. = battle, T. = Treaty.] 
 
 Argenson, 280, 308 
 Arianism, 21, 27 
 Ariovistus, 16 
 Aries, 5, 7, 10, 12, 16, 
 
 25, 33, 79 
 Aries, Kingdom of, 53, 
 
 95, 204 
 Armagnacs, the, 161 jQT. 
 ' Arras, 181; (T.), 161, 170, 
 
 183 
 Arteveldt, J. v., 138 
 Artois, 86, 181, 183, 190, 
 
 213 
 Artois, Comte Robert d', 
 
 116, 133, 134, 136 
 Assembly of Barons, etc., 
 
 45, 46, 66, 119, 121, 
 
 131,208,224,232,330- 
 
 341 ; and see States 
 
 General 
 Assembly, Constituent, 
 
 344-351 
 Assembly, National, 344, 
 
 389, 400 
 Assignats, 348, 364, 372 
 Attila, 18, 19 
 Auerstadt (b.), 377 
 Augsbiu'g League, 295, 
 
 300 
 Aural (b.), 157 
 Austerlitz (b.), 376 
 xlustrasia, 27 if. 
 Austria, 196, 197, 203, 
 
 251, 252, 254, 262, 
 
 289-294, 303-305, 314, 
 
 316 ff., 337, 350-359, 
 
 362-384, 389, 395; 
 
 and see Emperors 
 Aversa (b.), 209 
 Avignon, 5, 33, 99, 122, 
 
 153, 173, 211 
 
 Bailly, 345 
 
 " Balance of Power," 
 
 the, 189, 195, 251, 252, 
 
 314, 336 
 Baltic, the, 379, 381 
 Bank, the State, 309- 
 
 311 ; of France, 372 
 Bantry Bay (b.), 296 
 Barcelona, 60, 104 ; (T.), 
 
 190 
 Barons' Wars, 64, 68, 
 
 81 jQf., 103jGr., 106, 110, 
 
 112, 125, 127,128, 177j5f. 
 Barons. See Nobles 
 Barras, 361, 365 
 Barricades, the, 274, 391 
 I Barrier towns, 300, 304 
 
 401 
 
 ! Basques, the, 1, 37 
 i Bastille, the, 251, 270. 
 ! 275, 287, 308, 336, 
 j 346, 347 
 
 Bata\ian Republic, 369, 
 1 374 
 
 , Bautzen (b.), 382 
 Bavaria, 31, 38, 160, 276, 
 
 295-299, 301, 317 ff., 
 
 335, 376 
 Bayard, 190, 193, 200, 206 
 Baylen (b.), 380 
 Bayonne, 158, 379 
 Bazaine, M., 399l 
 B6arn, 236, 260 
 Beaujeu, Anne de, 185 ff.; 
 
 Suzanne de, 205 
 Beaumarchais, 329, 330 
 Bedford, Duke of, 164 j^T. 
 Belgium, 7, 388, 396 
 Belle Isle, 323 
 Belle Isle, Comte de, 317 
 
 318 
 Benedetti, 396-398 
 Beranger, 393 
 Berlin decrees, 377 
 Bemadotte, 382 
 Bernard, son of Pepin, 46 
 Berry, Due de, 158, 160 
 Berry, Duchesse de, 199, 
 
 308 
 BerWick,Dukeof, 301, 313 
 B6zier6, 33, 98 
 Bicocca (b.), 205 
 Billaud - Varennes, 355, 
 
 359 
 Biron, M. de, 250 
 Bishops, the, 13, 14, 19, 
 
 21, 28, 34, 35, 37. 39, 
 
 44, 45, 48, 53, 59 ff., 
 
 72, 75, 90 ; and see 
 
 Clergy, Papacy 
 Bishoprics, the three, 221, 
 
 225, 276, 293 
 Bismarck, 396-400 
 Black Death, 143, 155 
 Blanc, Louis, 388-390 
 Blanquetaque (b.), 140, 
 
 142 
 Blenheim (b.), 301 
 Blois, 60, 73, 104, 109, 
 
 198, 218, 240, 259 
 Blois, Conventions of, 194 
 Blois, plot of, 231 
 Bltioher, 384, 385 
 Bohemia, 141, 317, 318 
 Boileau, ^., 111; N., 281 
 Bonap£krte: Jerome, 378 ; 
 
 Joseph, 376, 379, 380 ; 
 
 26 
 
402 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 Louis, 376, 381 ; and 
 see Napoleon 
 
 Bordeaux, 7, 17, 136, 146, 
 158,170,217,258,356, 
 400 
 
 Borgia, Cesare, 192 
 
 Borodino (b.), 381 
 
 Bossuet, 281, 287 
 
 Boucicault, 157 
 
 Boulogne, 38, 92, 181, 
 213,220,221,370,375, 
 392 
 
 Bourbon, Due de, 158, 
 185, 187, 205, 230, 236, 
 313 
 
 Bourbons, the, 8, 205, 
 230, 243 ; and Appen- 
 dix, 299, 300, 383, 387 
 
 Bourgeoisie, the, 75, 76, 
 150,159,161,170,175- 
 183, 256, 387 
 
 Bourges, 68, 82, 164 
 
 Bourges, Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion, 172, 177,200, 201 
 
 Bouvines, 294; (b.), 93 
 
 Boyne, the (b.), 296 
 
 Br6tigny (T.), 148, 157 
 
 Brienne, 339 
 
 Brigands, 49-56, 152, 362 
 
 Brion, de, 209 
 
 Brissartho (b.), 51 
 
 Brissot, 351 
 
 Brittany, 18, 25, 49, 59, 
 84, 103, 104, 139, 183, 
 187 jGT., 191, 194, 197. 
 215,'313; Anne of, 187, 
 188,191,192,195,196; 
 Arthur of, 88, 91; Duke 
 of, 115, 178, 180, 187 
 
 Broussel, 274 
 
 Brunehaut, 26, 27 
 
 Brunswick, Duke of, 321, 
 352-354 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 
 262, 264, 265 
 
 Burgundians, 15, 18-21, 
 26, 30, 33 ; party of, 
 
 159 jsr. 
 
 Burgundy, 49, 53, 66, 103, 
 194,196,203,207-213 
 
 Bui^undy, Dukes of, 53, 
 54, 64, 59, 86, 154, 158- ' 
 163, 177 ff., 194, 302, 
 306; Mary of, 181-183 
 
 Byzantine art, 46, 79 
 
 Cabochiens, 161 
 Caen, 56, 79, 140, 356 i 
 Caesar, Julius, 6, 7, 16, 26 i 
 Cagliostro, Comte de, 334 l 
 Calais, 25, 137, 141, 142, | 
 145,148,158,170,189, ' 
 196, 224, 247 i 
 
 Calendar, the new, 357 
 
 Calonne, 339 
 I Calvin,2l4,219, 228, 229: 
 I and see Protestants 
 ' Cambac6res, 357, 368 
 Cambon, 357 
 : Cambrai League, 195, 
 I 196 ;(T.), 202, 210 
 I Camisards, the, 288, 301 
 : Campo P'ormio (T.), 364 
 Canada, 216, 271, 283, 
 . 319, 322, 323 
 Canning, 379 
 Canossa, " the French," 
 
 71 
 Cape Breton, 216, 319, 
 
 323 
 Cape St. Vincent, 296, 363 
 Capet, Hugh, 65 
 Capetians, 51, 65 jSf., 128 
 CapUtUaria, 45 
 Carcassonne, 97, 100, 104 
 Carloman, 34, 36, 52 
 Camot, 357-363, 365 
 Carthage, 5, 7, 113 
 Cartier, Jacques, 216 
 Casale, 266, 293 
 Cassel, 132 ; (b.), 137 
 CastUe, Blanche of, 92, 
 
 99, 101-109 
 Castillon (b.), 170 
 Castles,56, 82, 88,152, 269 
 Cateau-Cambr^sis (T.), 
 
 189, 225 
 Cathedrals, 8, 55, 79 
 I Catherine of France, 164 
 i Catherine de' Medici, 210, 
 I 220, 230, 232 J5f., 241 
 i Cavaignac, General, 391 
 i Cave-dwellings, 1, 13 
 Cellamare, 313 
 Celts, 1, 6 jQf. 
 I Cenon (b.), 32 
 Ceresole (b.), 213 
 Chambord, 219, 221 
 Champagne, 66, 83, 86, 
 103, 104, 115, 132, 151 
 Champlain, 216, 271 
 Champs du Mai, 45 
 Chandernagore, 283, 323, 
 
 336 
 Chansons de Gestes, 37-43 
 Charlemagne, 31, 36-48 
 Charles I. of England, 
 
 262 ; II., 291 
 Charles II. of Spain, 297- 
 
 299 ; IV., 379 
 Charles V. See Em- 
 peror Charles V. I 
 Chajles IV. of France, 
 128, 131; v., 148-158, | 
 191; VI., 158; VII., | 
 164 ff. ; VIII., 185 ff. ; i 
 IX., 232 ff. ; X., 386, 
 387 I 
 
 I Charles, Archduke of 
 Austria, 298 ff., 301, 
 
 ' 363,367; -le-Chauve, 48 
 
 j jQf. ; Martel, 31-35; of 
 
 I NavaiTo, 144, 146 ; the 
 
 Simple, 52-64 
 Chartres, 7, 9, 54, 70, 73, 
 79, 104, 148, 241, 245 
 Ch&teaubriand, Mme. de, 
 
 ; 204 
 Chateau-Gajllard, 88, 91, 
 
 128, 198 
 Chateau -Renault, 296 
 Ch&teauroux, Mme. de, 
 
 317 
 Chauvelin, 315 
 Chevreuse, Mme. de, 264 
 Childeric, 19, 20, 34 
 Chilperic, 26, 27 
 Choiseul, Due de, 322, 
 
 323, 365 
 Chouans, the, 370 
 
 Christians, 12, 13, 19, 20, 
 40, 54, 55 
 
 Church, disendowment 
 of, 348; and see Papacy, 
 Councils, Clergy, Pro- 
 testants, Crusades, 
 Bishops, Albigensians, 
 Galilean 
 
 Church, power of, 19-21, 
 31, 62, 66, 77 jCr., 96 
 
 Cinq -Mars, 270 
 
 Cisalpine Republic, 364, 
 374 
 
 Claude of France^ 194 
 
 C16ment, J., 242 
 
 Clergy, the, 112, 113, 
 118 ff., 125, 201, 202, 
 284,314,327,329,330, 
 332,338, 341-355, 386, 
 388, 393, 395 
 
 Clergy, the, exemption 
 of, 143, 173, 174 
 
 Clisson, O. de, 159 
 
 Clodio, 19 
 
 Clotair, 26 
 
 Clotair IV., 31 
 
 Clovis, 19-21, 22, 26 
 
 Clubs, 341, 350-360 
 
 Cluny Monastery, 69, 79 
 
 Cocherel (b.), 157 
 
 Code, Napol6ou. 357, 371- 
 373 
 
 Coeur, Jacques, 170, 172 
 
 Cognac (T.), 208 
 
 Coinage, 112, 128, 372 
 
 Coinage, debasement of, 
 124, 145, 151, 302, 308 
 
 Colbert, 282-284, 292, 
 294, 305 
 
 Coligny, Admiral de, 
 223 ff., 230-238 
 
 Collot, 355, 359 
 
INDEX 
 
 403 
 
 Colonies, 215, 216, 237, 
 
 271. 283,297,309,310, 
 
 318-323, 336, 337 
 Combat, judicial, 110, 125 
 Commines, 177, 190 
 Committee of Public 
 
 Safety, 357-360 
 Commune. See Paris 
 Communes, the, 74 ff., 
 
 101, 111-113, 117, 348; 
 
 militia of, 93, 94, 135, 
 
 141 
 Companies, free, 153 
 Compifigne, 66, 90, 151, 
 
 169 
 Comptes, Chambre des, 
 
 110, 127 
 Concini, 254, 258, 259 
 Concordat, 200, 201, 372 
 Cond6, campaigns, 290 J5f. 
 Cond6, l»rince de, 230 J5f., 
 
 236, 252-257, 275 jQr. 
 Conflans (T.), 179 
 Constantinople, 13,16, 32, 
 
 39, 90, 189 
 Constitution, the Civil, 
 
 348, 351 ff. ; the Direc- 
 tory, 360 ; of 1814, 383, 
 
 387 ; of 1848, 391 ; of 
 
 1852, 393, 397 
 Consulate, the, 368-371 
 Continental blockade, 
 
 369 jQT. 
 Contrat Social, 329, 355 
 Copenhagen, 370, 379 
 Corday, Charlotte, 356 
 Cornell le, 281 
 Corsica, 320, 323, 358, 364 
 Corvee, the, 322 
 Council, the King's, 94, 
 
 110,126,150,185,249, 
 
 282, 330 ; and see Par- 
 
 lement 
 Councils of the Church, 
 
 35, 201 ; (Bale), 172, 
 
 173 ; (Clermont), 72 ; 
 
 (Lateran), 197 ; (Sens), 
 
 78, 214 ; (Soissons), 78 ; 
 
 (Trent), 228, 258; (Vi- 
 
 enne), 123 
 Counts, 23, 28, 43, 44, 45, 
 
 50, 53, 59 ff., 62, 103 ; 
 
 and see Nobles 
 Courcelles (b.), 88 
 Court.the, 218, 235, 281- 
 
 285, 321,370 
 Courtrai, 120, 294 ; (b.), 
 
 116 
 Couthon, 359 
 Coutras (b.), 240 
 Cravant (b.), 164 
 Cr6cy (b.), 140-152 
 Cr6py(T.), 213 
 Crimean War, 395 
 
 Cromwell, 276 
 Crozat, A., 309 
 Crusades, the, 38, 71-75, 
 
 87-90, 97 ; (1239), 107 ; 
 
 (1267), 113, 114, 134, 
 
 188, 193, 228, 365 ; and 
 
 see Albigensian 
 
 Dagobert I., 28 
 Dalmatia, 364, 376 
 Damietta, 108 
 Dance of the Dead, 144 
 Danton, 346-359 
 Dauphin^, the, 144, 287 
 Denain (b.), 303 
 Denmark, 89, 180, 192, 
 290, 292, 294, 369, 370 
 Desaix, 369 
 Design, the great, 251 
 Desmoulins, 346, 350, 359 
 Dettingen (b.), 318 
 Di«imond necklace, 334 
 Diapede Poitiers, 212-230 
 Diderot, 327 
 Didier. 36 
 
 Dijon (T.) (1513), 196 
 Directory, the, 360-368 
 Divion, Jeanne de, 134 
 Dolet, :6tienne, 215 
 Dover, 115 ; (T.), 291 
 Dresden (T.), 319 
 Dronne (b.), 32 
 Druids, 7-9 
 
 Da Barry, Mme., 323, 334 
 Du Bois, 307, 312 ff. 
 Duchies, 28, 43, 50, 59 //. 
 Du Guesclin, 156 
 Dumouriez, 353, 354, 358 
 Dunes, the (b.), 277 
 Dunkirk,277,292,304,336 
 Dupes, Day of, 268 
 Dupleix, 322 
 Dupont, 380 
 Duprat, 201, 208 
 
 Edict of the Union, 241 
 
 Edward I., 115 JST. ; III., 
 131-143; IV., 181; the 
 Black Prince, 145-148 
 
 Eginard, 30, 41 
 
 Egypt, 323, 337, 365, 
 366, 370, 374, 389 
 
 Elba, 374, 383 
 
 Eleanor of Aquitaine, 83 
 
 Elizabeth : of France, 
 226, 255; Queen, 225, 
 234, 237 
 
 Emperor, the,105; (1682), 
 293, 294 ; and see Aus- 
 tria ; Charles the Fat, 
 52 ff. ; Charles V., 194- 
 212, 221 jf.; Charles 
 VI., 316; Frederick II., 
 106; Joseph II., 335j5r.; 
 
 Leopold I., 295-304: 
 Leopold II., 352 ff.l 
 Louis of Bavaria, 137 ; 
 Maximilian, 182-202 ; 
 Otto of Brunswick, 92 ; 
 Sigismund, 170 
 
 Empire, Holy Roman, 
 19, 39, 95, 289, 376 
 
 Ems telegram, 398 
 
 EnciJClopcBdists, 327, 328 
 
 Enghien, Due d', 213, 
 276, 371 
 
 England: IS, 25, 84-97, 
 103, 104, 115, 118, 
 129 ff., 137, 161, 162, 
 180, 189-192, 202,206, 
 252,261,275-277,289, 
 290,292jGr.,298//.,303, 
 305, 312, 314, 318 ff., 
 389 
 
 England: Amiens (T.), 
 370, 373, 374; com- 
 mercial treaties, 337, 
 395 ; and the Conti- 
 nental Blockade, 369 
 ff. ; invasions of, 90, 92, 
 296, 365-375 ; and the 
 Napoleonic Wars, 362- 
 385 ; influence of, 307, 
 343, 388 ; strugKle for 
 Colonial Empire, 319- 
 323 ; and American In- 
 dependence, 323, 336, 
 337 ; and see Colonies, 
 Hundred Yeajs' War 
 
 English Navy, 358-366 
 
 Enquesters, 109, 110 
 
 Entragues, conspiracy , 
 250 
 
 fipernon. Due d', 259 
 
 Erlon, Comte d', 384 
 
 Essling (b.), 380 
 
 Estate, Third, 112, 150, 
 173, 174, 186, 256 
 
 Estr6es, Gabrielle d', 250 
 
 Etablissements de Saint 
 Louis, 110, 111 
 
 :i^itampes, Mme, d', 212 
 
 Staples (T.), 190 
 
 Etruria, Kingdom of, 369 
 
 Eudes (Odo), Count, 52 jQT. 
 
 Eudes, Duke, 31 
 
 Eugene, Prince, 300 ff. 
 
 Eugenie, Empress, 396 
 
 Eylau (b.), 378 
 
 Falaise, 56 
 
 FalstaflF, Sir John, 165 
 
 " Family Compact," 322, 
 
 336 
 Favre, Jules, 398, 400 
 F6nelon, Bishop, 286 
 Ferdinand of Aragon, 
 
 187-197 
 
404 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 Ferdinand VII., 386 
 Feudalism, 28, 43, 50, 
 56j5r., 66. 101,116,138, 
 171, 188, 344, 347; de- 
 cay of , 74jCr., 94, 114, 
 127, 129, 173 
 Feudal reaction, 127, 
 
 131-136, 158, 161 jCr. 
 Feuillants, the, 351 
 Field, Cloth of Gold, 204 
 Finances, 127, 216, 217, 
 305, 308 ff., 315, 317, 
 319, 337-343, 353, 357, 
 386 ; and see Taxation 
 Flagellants, the, 143 
 Flanders, 25, 128, 137, 
 161,182,183,207,213, 
 276. 290. 292, 304 
 Flanders, Count of, 60, 67, 
 73, 86, 87, 90, 92, 115, 
 
 117. 132, 137. 159 
 Flemings, the, 93, 115- 
 
 118, 132-140, 211 
 Fieurus (b.), 295, 359 
 Fleury, 314-317 
 Florence, 190, 200, 208 ; 
 
 (T.), 369 
 
 Foix, Gaston de. 196 
 
 Foix, de, 204, 209 
 
 Fontainebleau, 218, 232, 
 383;(T.), 337 
 
 Fontenoy (b.), 318 
 
 Fornovo (b.), 190 
 
 Fouquet, 282 
 
 France. 2, 25, 49 ; coali- 
 tions against, 292, 293 
 jGr.,300j5r., 362 jSr.; com- 
 merce of, 2,5,9, 10,75, 
 304, 337, 395; supre- 
 macy of, 279, 289 ft., 
 362 ff. 
 
 Franche, Comt4, 115, 
 183,190,213.277,290, 
 292. 293, 304 
 
 Franoois I., 163, 195, 
 196, 198-219 II., 229 
 
 Frankfort (T.), 400 
 
 Franks, 2, 15, 18, 22-25, 
 38. 49, 90 
 
 Fr6d6gonde, 26, 27 
 
 Frederick the Great, 305, 
 317-322 
 
 Free-archers, the,170,211 
 
 French architecture and 
 art, 11, 46, 79, 80, 88, 
 113,218,226, 227, 281, 
 308; language, 11, 41, 
 44, 55, 78, 79, 101; 
 literature, 37. 41 ff., 
 77-80. 90, 107. 156. 
 161,189.198, 218,219, 
 281, 327 ff., 393 
 
 Fr6teval (b.), 88 
 
 Fribourg (T.), 202 
 
 I Friedland (b.). 378 
 I Froissart, 135, 136 
 [ Fronde, the, 274, 275 
 i Fvirnes (b.), 115 
 I 
 " Oabelle," 143, 146, 153, 
 
 159, 161,218,284,331 
 Galigai, L., 254, 259 
 Galilean Church, the, 
 
 160,172,177,201,246, 
 
 252, 266, 285 
 Galswinthe, 26 
 Gambetta, L., 400 
 Garibaldi, 398 
 Gascony, 1, 59, 96, 104, 
 
 164 
 Gaul, 2-18 
 Geneva, 214, 229 
 Genoa, 194, 195, 294, 364 
 Genoese,116,138, 141,209 
 George II.. 318 
 German Protestants, 266 ; 
 
 invasion, 15-25 ; States, 
 
 the, 53, 95, 289, 300.lSf., 
 
 373, 396-399 
 Girondins, the, 351-362 
 Giupuzcoa. 299 
 Gloucester. Duke of, 165 
 Gondibrand, 21 
 Goths, 15, 17 
 Goulet (T.), 88 
 Grammont, Due de, 398 
 Granada (T.), 193 
 Gravelotte (b.), 399 
 Greek settlements, 3-12 
 Grimoald, 30 
 Guard, National, 346, 349, 
 
 356, 389, 391; Old, 383, 
 
 385 
 Guienne, 25, 99, 104, 132, 
 
 137, 139, 140, 172, 189 
 Guinegatte (b.), 183, 196 
 Guines (T.), 159 
 Guise, Due de, 206, 220 ; 
 
 FranQois de, 221, 230 
 
 ff.; Henri, 240-242 
 Guiton, 265 
 Guizot, 388, 389 
 Guntram, 26, 27 
 
 Hainault,86, 165, 182, 183 
 Ham, 224, 226, 392 
 Hanover, 318 jCT., 375 jQf. 
 Hanover, Alliance of, 314 
 Hapsburg monarchy, 
 the, 216, 221, 251, 262- 
 267, 276, 305, 314 
 Hawke, 319, 321, 322 
 Helvetic Republic, 365, 
 
 374 
 Helvetii, 7 
 
 Henrietta, Madame, 291 
 Henrietta Maria, 262, 265 
 Henri I., 67, 129, 130 
 
 Henri II., 210. 220 jOT. 
 Henri III., 239. )5r. 
 Henri IV., 20, 236-252 
 Henry I., 68, 82 
 Henry II., 84-86 
 Henry III., 103, 104 
 Henry V., 162 ff. 
 Henry VI., 164. 169 
 Henry VII., 187-190 
 Henry VIII., 69, 196-213 
 Herakles, 3 
 Heresies. See Papacy, 
 
 Protestants, Albigen- 
 
 sians 
 Hermite, Tristan 1', 180 
 Herrings (b.), 166 
 Hildegarde, 46 
 Hoohe, 358-366 
 Hohenlinden (b.), 369 
 Hohenzollem, von, 398 
 Holland, 261. 263, 267, 
 
 283, 289-304,312, 314, 
 
 337, 358, 363-385 
 H6pital,M. de 1', 232-235 
 Hudson's Bay, 296, 304 
 Hugh Capet, 65 
 Hugh. Count of Paris, 64 
 Hugo, Victor, 393 
 Hunald, 36 
 
 Hundred Days, the, 383 
 Hundred Years' War, 
 
 115, 129 jCr.. 170-174 
 Hungary. 159, 294, 318 
 Huns, 17-19 
 
 Iberians, 1, 2 
 
 Iberville, d', 309 
 
 Indes, Compagnie des, 
 
 283, 323-327 
 India, 319-323, 336, 374 
 Ingelburgha, Queen, 89 
 Inquisition, the, 100 
 Intendants, 269, 274, 331 
 Ionian Islands, 364, 370 
 Ireland, 296, 366 
 Isabella of Bavaria, 160 
 Isabella of France, 115, 
 
 131, 159 
 Isabella of Spain, 195 
 Italy, 36, 37, 49, 58, 121, 
 193 J5f., 373, 393, 395 ; 
 French campaigns in, 
 188-210, 221, 266,267, 
 276,293,358,367-369; 
 influence of, upon 
 France, 189, 198 ; Na- 
 poleon, King of, 375 
 Ivry (b.), 243. 244 
 
 Jacobins, the, 351-362 
 Jacobites, the, 290, 294 ff. 
 Jacquerie, the, 152-155 
 James II., 295 if. 
 JanseuiiJts, 288, 307, 327 
 
INDEX 
 
 405 
 
 Jarnao (b.), 236 
 
 Jean le Bon, King, 144 
 
 Jeanne of France, 128, 
 
 132, 191 
 Jemniapes (b.), 353 
 Jena (b.). 377 
 Jerusalem, 72, 73, 83, 107 
 Jesuits, 233, 246. 249. 
 
 252, 271, 285, 327, 
 
 328 
 Jews, persecuted, 86, 
 
 124, 128 
 John the Fearless, 159 ff. 
 John Lackland, 87 ff., 91 
 Joinville, 107, 108 
 Josephine, E., 370, 381 
 Joseph, P6re, 271 
 Joubert, 366, 367 
 Jourdan, 359, 363, 367 
 Junot, 379, 380 
 Jumidges, 55 
 
 Karl, William, 152 
 Kutusofl, 375 
 
 La Fayette, Mdlle. de, 2 7 3 
 La Fayette, Meurquis de, 
 
 268, 336, 339, 341, 346, 
 
 349, 353, 385 
 La Hire, 165, 167 
 La Hogue de Saint Vast, 
 
 140, 296 
 La Marche, Comte de, 
 
 91, 103, 104, 115 
 Lamartine, 389-392 
 La Motte, C. de, 334 
 Landriano (b.), 209 
 Languedoo, 78, 95-100, 
 
 143,146,150,164,230, 
 
 287 
 La Rocholle, 93, 148, 212. 
 
 236, 239, 260-266 ;(b.), 
 
 157 
 La Salle, 309 
 La Tr6mouille, 196 
 La Vendue, 358, 360, 363 
 Law, Feudal, French.etc., 
 
 99 ff., 110, 126, 330, 
 
 371 ; avd see Parlement 
 Law, Frankish, 23, 44 
 Law, John, 308-311 
 Law, Roman, 9, 11, 19, 
 
 23, 24, 28, 44 
 League. See Augsburg 
 
 League 
 League : of the Barons, 
 
 125, 179jGr.; of Cambrai, 
 
 195 ; of Neutrality, 369, 
 
 370; the Holy, 196, 
 
 200; (1576), 240 
 Leipzig (b.), 382 
 L6oben (T.), 364 
 Leonardo, 198, 218 
 Leszczinski, 314, 316 
 
 Le Tellier, 282, 286, 289 
 Leitres de cachet, 280, 335 
 Li6ge, 160, 180 
 Ligny (b.), 38 1 
 Ligue, the, 240-247 
 Ligurian Republic, 384, 
 
 374 
 Ligurians, 1, 2, 4 
 Lille, 93, 117, 290, 304 
 Literature. See French 
 Liwe des MHiers, 111 
 Local government, 75, 
 
 95 371 
 Loches, 178, 181, 193 
 Loire, 13, 25, 165, 218 
 Lombards, 33-43 
 Lombardy, 364, 369, 374 
 Longjumeau (T.), 235 
 Longueville, Mme.de, 275 
 Longwy (b.), 353, 355 
 L' Orient, 311 
 Lorraine, 49. 53, 64, 66, 
 178,276, 291,293,297, 
 316, 399, 400; C. de, 
 220, 230 ; Due de, 66, 
 73, 236, 292, 299 
 Lothair, 48, 65, 66 
 Loudun (T.), 257, 260 
 Louisberg, 319, 322 
 Loui8l.46,48j5r.;IL,52; 
 III., 52 ; IV., 64 ; v., 
 66; VL, 81 ff., 130; 
 VII., 82 ; VIII., 95 ff., 
 130; IX. (Saint), 97, 
 99 ff., 102-114, 125, 
 
 130 ; X., 125 jgt.; XI., 
 
 175j5r.;XIL. 185-187, 
 191 ff.; XIII., 249, 
 254j9r.,273;XIV.,273- 
 305; XV., 305j5r., 326 ; 
 XVI., 333-356; XVII., 
 3WnCVIH.v844, 350, 
 383-387 
 
 Louis-Philippe, 387-389 
 
 Louise of Savoy, 195-210 
 
 Louisiana, 309, 310, 322, 
 323, 369, 374 
 
 LouvoiB, M. de, 286-295 
 
 Loyola, 219, 233 
 
 Lun6ville (T.), 369, 370 
 
 LUtzen (b.), 382 
 
 Luxemburg,293-297, 369, 
 396 ; and see Charles V. 
 
 Luynes, 259-261 
 
 Lyons, 11, 12, 107, 121, 
 232, 356 
 
 Madagascar, 271, 283, 374 
 Madrid (T.), 207, 218 
 Magenta (b.), 395 
 Mahaut, Mme., 134 
 Maillard, J., 163 
 Maillotins, 158 
 Maine. 91. 181 
 
 Maine, Duke of, 306, 313 
 Maintenon, Mme. de, 
 
 281, 285, 300, 307 
 Mai, the, 23, 44 
 Malplaquet (b.), 302 
 Malta, 366, 374, 375 
 Man in Iron Mask, 282 
 Mansourah (b.), 108 
 Mantua, 266, 364 
 Marat, 349, 355, 356 
 Marcel, 6tienne, 145, 150 
 Marches, Prefects, 43-45 
 Marengo (b.), 369 
 Marguerite de Valois, 218 
 Maria Theresa, 277, 290, 
 
 297, 314-318, 334 
 Marie Antoinette, 324, 
 
 333-335, 349-359 
 Marie Louise, E., 381 
 Marie de* Medici, 249 , 
 
 254 jy., 268 
 Marignano (b.), 200 
 Marius, C, 3, 6 
 Marlborough, 300-303 
 Marmouseis, the, 159 
 Marot, 215 
 Marsaglia (b.), 295 
 Marseillaise, the, 354 
 Marseilles, 3 ff., 10. 356 
 Mary Stuart, 213-240 
 Mary Tudor, 197 
 Mass6na, 358, 367 
 Maup6ou, 324 
 Maximilian. -See Em- 
 peror. 
 Ma. enne,Duc de,242-249 
 Mayors, the, 26 ff. 
 Mazarin, 267, 271-277 
 Meaux,236;(T.),100,215 
 Mediterranean, the, 299, 
 
 318,320, 336, 377, 379 
 Montana (b.), 398 
 M6ran, Agnes of, 90 
 M6r6, Poltrot de, 234 
 Merovech, 19, 20 
 Mersen Edict, 58 
 Metz, 221, 225, 276, 350, 
 
 399, 400 
 Mexico, 396, 397 
 Milan, 13, 188-212, 225, 
 
 299, 304; decrees of , 377 
 Millennium, the, 55 
 Minorca, 320, 323 
 Mirabeau, O. de, 335, 350 
 Mirabeau (b.), 91 
 Missi dominici, 44 
 Mississippi Company, 
 
 309-311 
 Molidre, 281 
 Monasteries, 14, 55, 69 
 Moncon (T.), 263 
 Moncontour (b.), 236 
 Monks, the, 83, 100, 106, 
 
 122, 123. 219 
 
406 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 Monluc, 213, 226 
 Mons-en-puello (b.). 117 
 Montauban, 339, 260 
 Montcalm, 322 
 Moiite«pan, Mme. de, 281 
 Montesquieu, 327 
 Montfort : Bertrade do, 
 
 69, 71; Simon de, 98 
 Montlli6ry (b.), 179 
 Montmorency, Due de, 
 
 208 jCr., 220-230, 270 
 Montpellier,144;(T.),261 
 Montpensier (b.), 53 ; 
 
 Mdlle. de, 275, 313; 
 
 Due de, 205, 389 
 " Monsieur, Peace of," 
 
 240 
 Moroau, 358-371 
 Moscow, 381, 382 
 Municipalities, Roman, 
 
 12, 75 
 Murat, 361, 369, 379 
 Muret (b.), 99 
 
 Namur, 296, 304 
 Nantes. 68, 230; Edict 
 of, 247, 260, 286, 287, 
 295, 301 
 Naples, 199, 202, 209, 
 304, 316, 358, 364, 367, 
 369, 375-385; Kingdom 
 of, 114, 188, 192-203 
 Napoleon I., 321, 359, 
 361-385 ; Legend of, 
 392-396; II., 381; III., 
 392-400 
 Narbonne, 6, 25 ; (b.), 33, 
 
 35, 211 
 Nationalists, the, 339 
 Navarre, 53, 115, 132, 
 204,221,260; Kings of, 
 144, 146, 150, 157, 187, 
 230 j5r.; and see Henri 
 IV.; Queen of, 217 
 Navy, the French, 38, 
 138,263,283,296,301, 
 318, 319, 358,363, 374 
 Necker, 338-344, 346, 350 
 Neerwinden (b.), 296, 358 
 Nelson, 366, 370 
 Nemours, Mme. de, 237 
 Netherlands, the, 92, 
 182,183,213,223,292, 
 295, 320 jSr., 335, 353; 
 Austrian, 317, 319, 360, 
 364, 368-370 ; Spanish. 
 238, 252, 277, 290, 299- 
 304 
 Neustria, 27 ff., 54 
 Nevers, Due de, 258 
 Newfoundland, 283, 297, 
 
 304, 337 
 New Orleans, 311 
 Ney, Marshal, 374, 384 
 
 Nice, 5, 10, 304, 396 
 j Nikolsburg (T.), 396 
 
 Nile (b.), 366 
 ' Nimeguen(T.), 292, 294 
 ! Nlmes, 8, 11, 25, 33, 239, 
 i 288 
 
 I Noailles, Due de, 308 
 I Nobles, the, 75, 114, 116, 
 I 135 ff., 151, 156, 170, 
 171, 258, 329 ; and see 
 I Barons, Assembly 
 
 Nobles, ^/wiflrr^s, 349-363, 
 368-372, 383 
 I Noblesse, the, 173, 255, 
 ! 339-349; d'ip6e, 249, 
 I 269, 270, 274 jy., 284, 
 i 307; ard see Appan- 
 i ages; derohe, 173,249, 
 ! 256, 330, 331 
 ' Nogaret, William of, 121 
 
 Normandy, 25, 54 ff., 82, 
 87, 88, 91, 137, 146, 
 163,164,172,179,180, 
 189, 243 ; Duke of, 59, 
 65-68, 84 
 j Normans, 25, 38, SOjGT. 
 
 Notables, Assembly, 208, 
 I 339, 341 
 I Novara(b.), 193, 196 
 
 Nova Scotia, 304, 320 
 
 Novi (b.), 367 
 
 Noyon, 66,224; (T.), 202 
 
 Orange arch, 8, 11 
 
 Orange, William III., 
 Prince of, 237, 291 ff. 
 
 Ordonnance, Orande, 151 
 
 Orleans, 27, 109, 165 //., 
 171; Duke of, 160, 163, 
 185, 187; Duke of. Re- 
 gent, 301, 306 ff. ; re- 
 forms of, 307-312; Gas- 
 ton, Duke of, 268-274 
 
 Orleans, Valois-, 191 
 
 Ostrogoths, 21, 26 
 
 Oudenarde, 290; (b.), 302 
 
 Pagans, the, 8-13 [340 
 
 Palais Royal, 264, 308, 
 
 Palatinate, 292, 295, 396 
 
 Papacy, the, 21, 33-35, 
 
 36, 39, 67 ff., 82, 83, 
 
 88 ff., 105, 106, 117- 
 
 120,122, 127, 134,140, 
 
 143, 144, 153,157, 160, 
 
 169, 172, 177, 190-194, 
 
 200 ff., 208, 210, 223, 
 
 234, 235, 238, 240, 242, 
 
 243, 247, 248, 285 ff., 
 
 294 ff., 311, 364, 372, 
 
 380, 393-396 
 
 Paris, 13, 19, 20, 25, 26, 
 
 27, 52 ff., 67, 68, 71, 
 
 93, 95, 123, 125, 131, 
 
 140, 143, 145, 150, 158, 
 160-165, 168, 169, 179, 
 206,208,212,214,218, 
 224, 226, 234, 237-245, 
 255,264,274,275,292, 
 302,308,384,385,391, 
 394, 399, 400; Com- 
 mune, 151-154, 354; 
 Exhibitions of, 394 ; 
 Louvre, the, 95, 121, 
 226; Notre-Dame, 95. 
 357,372; police of, 112. 
 280 ; and the Revolu- 
 tion, 345 ff. Sainte- 
 Chapelle,113;(T.),290, 
 323, 326, 383 ; Univer- 
 sity of, 77, 160, 173, 178 
 Parlement, 110, 113, 115, 
 126, 129,185,201,202, 
 214,250,256,257,259, 
 274,275,280,288,303, 
 307,312,314,324,327, 
 330, 334, 335, 339 
 Parma, Duke of, 243, 
 
 244, 322, 364 
 Partition Treaties, 298 
 Pascal, 282, 288 
 Pastoureaux, 108, 109 
 Patay (b.), 167, 169 
 Paulette, 256-258, 274 
 Pavia, 36, 190; (b.), 198, 
 
 207 
 " Peaces of God," 71 
 P6pin I., 30 ; II., 30, 31 
 
 le Bref, 34 
 P6ronne,64, 180,212,303 
 Peter the Hermit, 73 
 Philip II. of Spain, 222, 
 226, 243 ff., 298 ff., 
 304, 312-314 
 Philippe I., 67-71 ; II., 
 Auguste, 86-97, 130; 
 III., 114; IV., 116 jQT.; 
 v., 128; VL, 131 JGT. 
 Philosophers, the, 327 ff. 
 Phocseans, 3 ff. 
 Phoenicians, 2 ff. 
 Piedmont, 211-213, 225, 
 293, 364-369, 374, 396 
 Pilnitz, Declaration, 352 
 Pinerolo, 266, 276, 296 
 PUiade, the, 227 
 Poitiers (b.), 21, 32, 82, 
 
 146-148, 152 
 Poitou, 25, 91, 93, 104 
 Poland, 267, 290, 314, 
 
 316,388,391,396 
 Politiques, the, 239 
 Pompadour, 315-323 
 Pondicherry, 283, 297, 
 
 322, 323, 336 
 Pont du Gard, 11 
 Popes, the. See Papacy ; 
 Alexander VI., 190. 
 
INDEX 
 
 407 
 
 194 ; Benedict XI., 
 121; Benedict XII., 
 134; Boniface VIII., 
 115; Clement v., 122; 
 Gregory II., 33 ; Greg- 
 ory' III., 33; Gregory 
 VII., 68 jGT. ; Innocent 
 III., 88, 90, 97 ; Inno- 
 cent IV., 107; John 
 XXII., 134; Julius II., 
 195, 196, 200; Leo III., 
 39; Pascal II., 71; Paul 
 IV,, 223 ; Stephen II., 
 34; Urban II., 69, 72; 
 Urban IV., 114; Zach- 
 arias, 34 
 
 Port Royal, 288 
 
 Portugal, 267, 277, 301- 
 304,358, 365-380; Leo- 
 nora of, 206, 207, 210 
 
 Pragmatic Seuiction, the, 
 106,316; Bourges, 172, 
 177, 200 
 
 Praguerie, the, 171, 179 
 
 Presburg (T.), 376 
 
 Presles, 128, 156 
 
 Press, the, 341, 346, 350, 
 355,370,387,394,397 
 
 Prie, Mme. de, 313 [184 
 
 Printing, introduction of. 
 
 Privileged Classes, the, 
 284, 285, 331-333, 338- 
 347 ; and see Clergy, 
 Nobles, ParlemerU 
 
 Protestants, the, 203, 204, 
 209, 210, 219-221, 225, 
 226, 228 ff., 252, 258, 
 260,288,294,296,322; 
 persecution of, 213, 
 215, 236-238, 260-267, 
 285 jGT., 301,328 
 
 Provence, 4, 10, 12, 21, 
 25, 26, 32, 33, 53, 78, 
 95-100, 114, 178, 181, 
 211, 236, 301 
 
 Prussia, 303-305, 314, 
 317 jgf., 337, 352, 385 
 
 Pyrenees (T.), 267, 277, 
 297 
 
 Quebec, fall of, 322 
 Quiberon (b.), 321, 360 
 Quiersy Edict, 58 
 
 Rabelais, 14, 219 
 Racine, 28 
 Rambouillet, 264 
 RamJllies (b.), 301 
 Rastadt (T.), 304 [294 
 Ratisbon, 45; (T.), 271, 
 Ravaillac, F., 252, 253 
 Ravenna, 34, 46 ; (b.), 196 
 Reformation, the. See 
 Protestants 
 
 Renaissance, 40-42, 77j5r., 
 
 189, 198, 214, 218, 
 
 226 
 
 Ren6 of Anjou, 178, 181 
 
 Republic, the, 350, 353, 
 
 355, 400 
 Reunions, the, 293-297 
 Reversal of Alliances, 
 
 the, 269, 321 
 Revolution, the, 326-362 
 Revolutionary Tribunals, 
 
 the, 357, 359. 360 
 Rewbell, 365, 367 
 Rheims, 21, 25, 26, 63, 
 65, 66, 86, 131, 168, 
 178,245,284 
 Rhine Confederation, 
 376 jSr. ; Frontier, 9, 16, 
 276,293,295,300.301, 
 358, 369, 397-400 
 Rhone, 2, 7, 11, 25-37 
 Richard L, 87 ; n., 159 
 Richelieu, Cardinal Due 
 
 de, 251,254-273,283 
 Riohemont, C. de, 170 
 Rights of Man, 337-348 
 Robert, of Paris, 54, 64 ; 
 the Devil, 56; the 
 Pious, 67 ; the Strong, 
 51 
 Robespierre, 351-360 
 Rocroi (b.), 276 
 Rodney, 321, 336 
 Rohan, Cardinal de, 334 
 Rohan, Due de, 258-263 
 Rohan, Marie de, 264 
 Rois Faineants, the, 28-34 
 Roland, 37-45, 78 ; 354 
 Rollo of Normandy, 54 
 Roman architecture, 11 ; 
 Conquest of Gaul, 2, 5 ; 
 Institutions, survival 
 of, 24, 75, 76; haw, 
 120 ; and see Law ; 
 Republic, 366 
 Romance language, 41 
 Romantic Revival, 393 
 Rome, 39, 120, 190, 193, 
 
 369 
 Roncevaux, 37-41 
 Ronsard, 227 
 Roosebeke (b.), 159 
 Rossbaoh (b.), 321, 377 
 Rouen, 51, 54, 88, 91, 
 105,141,146,163,169, 
 198 I 
 
 Rousillon, 187-193, 267 ! 
 Rousseau, 327-348 I 
 
 RoiUiers, the, ni I 
 
 Russia, 316, 320 jQT., 336, I 
 337,352,358,367,369, i 
 388, 396; Alexander I. | 
 of, 370-384 1 
 
 Ryswick (T.), 296, 300 
 
 Sadowa, 396, 397 
 Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, 54 
 Saint-Denis, 34, 36, 86 
 Saint-Germain, 218 ; (T.), 
 
 236 271 
 Saint-PoJ, C de, 181, 209 
 Saint-Quentin (b.), 223, 
 
 224, 226 
 Salic Law, 23, 27, 245 
 Salons, the, 264, 329 
 Saracens, 31-33, 37, 38, 
 I 73, 78, 108 
 
 Sardinia, 304, 316, 364 
 i Sauoourt (b.), 52 
 i Savona, 209, 380 
 ! Savoy, 81, 180, 211, 213, 
 i 223-226, 250, 301, 303, 
 ! 304, 396 ; Victor Ama- 
 I deus, 295, 296 
 i Saxons, 15, 18, 26, 31, 
 I 34, 35, 38 
 Saxony, Elector of, 221, 
 
 316 321 
 Scheldt, 117, 291, 293 
 Schism, Great, 160, 173 
 Scotland, 137, 148, 164. 
 
 183, 196, 213. 220, 232, 
 
 302,313 ; and see Mary 
 
 Stuart 
 Sedan (b.), 399, 400 
 Seigneurs, 53, 58, 59, 71, 
 
 74 ff., 111-113, 124. 
 
 125. 152, 173, 333 
 Seine, the, 2, 7, 11, 25. 
 
 49, 50, 52, 163 
 Semblangay, 217 
 Senegal, 283, 323 
 Seneschals, the, 95, 100 
 Senlis, 66,119; (T.). 190 
 September, laws of, 388 
 September mas8acres,356 
 Sepfcimania, 21, 32 
 Serf, the, 61, 332 ; and 
 
 see Feudalism 
 Sesia (b.), 206 
 Seven Years' War, 317 jQT. 
 Sevign6, Mme. de, 287 
 Sforza, 188, 190, 192 
 Sicilian Vespers, 114 
 Sicily, 114, 304, 322 
 SieySs, Abb6, 341, 344, 
 
 345, 348, 367. 368 
 Sigebert, 26, 27, 28, 30 
 Sluys, the (b.), 138, 142 
 Socialists, the, 388-400 
 Soissons, 26, 34; (b.), 64 
 Solferino (b.), 395 
 Sorbonne, the, 184, 214 
 Sorel, Agnes, 170 
 Spain, 31, 37, 38, 72, 95, 
 
 157, 187, 189, 192 ff., 
 
 222,223,247,251,252, 
 
 261, 262, 267, 275-277, 
 
 289-295, 312-316, 322, 
 
408 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 333, 336, 358. 363-385, 
 398 ; and see Aragon, 
 Emperor Charles V. 
 
 SpanishI: marriages, 254, 
 389 ; Succession, 277, 
 290, 297j5r., 303,304,312 
 
 Spurs, battle of the, 116 
 
 States General (1302), 
 120 ; (1308), 123, 125 ; 
 126, 129 ; (1346), 143 ; 
 (1355),145, 146; (1356), 
 150;(1357),151;(1369), 
 157, 161 ; (1439), 171, 
 173, 174; (1484), 185- 
 187, 195,201,208,232; 
 (1560),233;(1567),235; 
 (1576),240, 241;(1614), 
 255; (1789), 339-351 
 
 St. Andr6, M. de, 233 
 
 St. Aubin (b.), 187 
 
 St. Bartholomew's Day, 
 236-238 
 
 St. Bernard, 77, 83, 84 
 
 St. Boniface, 34, 35 
 
 St. Denis, 13, 71, 235 
 
 St. Dominic, 97, 100 
 
 St. Genevidve, 19, 20 
 
 St. Gilles, 3 
 
 St. Hilary, 13 
 
 St. Jean d'Acre, 366 
 
 St. Jean d'Ang61y, 260 
 
 St. Just, 359 
 
 St. Martin, 13, 14 
 
 St. Remy, 6, 8 
 
 St. Simon,Duode, 306-308 
 
 Steinkirk (b.), 296 
 
 Stockach (b.), 367 
 
 Strasburg, 289-297, 304, 
 392,397, 399; Oath, 48 
 
 Stuarts,294-297, 300-304, 
 312; and see Mary 
 
 Suflren, 336 
 
 Suger, 82, 84 
 
 Sully,Duc de,248,251-256 
 
 Suv6roflf, 367 
 
 Sweden, 267, 290 - 295, 
 352, 369, 375, 379, 382 
 
 Swiss, the, 183, 192, 196, 
 199,202, 205,211,241, 
 314,345,355,365,366 
 
 TaiZZc, the, 171, 173, 174, 
 
 183, 186, 331 
 Taillebourg (b.), 104 
 TaUeyrand, 323, 341, 
 
 344,376,383 
 Taxation, 123, 124, 143- 
 146,153, 158, 161, 171, 
 173,174,178,183, 192, 
 216-218, 233, 270, 274, 
 284, 307, 314, 331 
 Templars, 106, 122, 123 
 Tennis Court Oath, 345 
 Terror, Reign of. 356, 360 
 
 Terror, the White, 386 
 Tertry (b.), 30 
 Teschen (T.), 336 
 Teutons, 15 jOT. 
 Theodoric, 17, 21 
 Thierry, King, 34 
 Thiers, 388, 393, 397, 400 
 Thirty Years' War, 253 ff. 
 Three Maries, the, 12 
 Tilsit (T.), 378-380 
 Tolontino (T.), 364 
 Toul, 221, 225, 276 
 Toulon, 212, 359, 366 
 Toulou8e,7, 17,95-104,150 
 Toulouse, C. of, 43, 60, 
 
 73, 82, 96, 97, 104, 119 
 Touraine, 25, 91, 146 
 Tournai, 19,139, 197, 304 
 Tournon, Cardinal of, 216 
 Tours, 32, 195 
 Trafalgar (b.), 377 
 Trebbia, the (b.), 367 
 Trochu, General, 400 
 Troubadours, 79-82, 100 
 Troyes, 121, 339; (T.), 
 
 163, 168 
 Tuileries, the, 310, 354, 
 
 355, 361, 365, 371,389 
 Tunis, 113, 114 
 Turenne, Campaigns of, 
 
 279j5r., 290j5f. 
 Turgot, 338, 342 
 Turin (T.), 396 
 Turkey, 267, 335, 337. 
 
 367, 370, 378 
 Turks,the, 72j5r., 83, 159, 
 
 202-213, 251, 294, 295, 
 
 366 
 Tuscany, towns of, 299, 
 
 304, 316, 364, 369 
 
 Ulm (b.), 375 
 Ultramontanes, the, 120, 
 
 252, 288, 395, 396 
 Utrecht (T.), U90-312 
 
 » 
 Valliere, Jean, 214 \ 
 Valli^e, Mdlle. de la, 
 Valmy (b.), 353, 357 [281 
 Valois, House of, 68, 86, 
 
 114,127,131,191,218, 
 
 219, 237, 248 
 Valtelline, the, 262, 263 
 Vandals, 15 
 Varennes, flight to, 351 
 Vassalage, 58 
 Vassy, Massacre of, 234 
 Vauban, 289, 290, 292 
 Vaucelles (T.), 222 
 Vaudois, 96, 215 
 Vend6me,Duc de, 301,302 
 Vengeur, the, 358 
 Venice, 90, 190-209, 364, 
 
 365, 376 
 
 Veroingetorix, 6 
 Verdun (T.), 48, 49, 221, 
 
 225,276,353,356 
 Vergennes, 335 ff. 
 Verneuil (b.) (1424), 164 
 Versailles, 280-281, 285, 
 
 333,334,343,349 
 Versailles (T.), 336 
 Vervains (T.), 247 
 Via Herculea, etc., 3, 10 
 Vienna, Congress of, 383 
 Vienna (T.), 316, 380 
 Vienne, arch of, 11 
 Vienne, Jean de, 157 
 Vieuville, M. de la, 261 
 Vigo (b.), 301 
 Villafranca (T.), 396 
 Villars, 301-304 
 VillehardoiTin, 90 
 Vill^le, 386 
 Villeroi, 257, 258, 301 
 Villon, F., 167 
 Vimeiro (b.), 380 
 Vincennes, 102, 134 
 Visconti, 192 j 
 Visigoths, 17-21, 26 
 Vitry, 83, 259 
 Volsci, 7 
 Voltaire, 308, 324-328 
 
 Wagram (b.), 380 
 
 Wallenstein, 267 
 
 Wandiwash, 322 
 
 War : American Indepen- 
 dence, 336, 337 ; Aus- 
 trian Succession, 3 1 6jf. ; 
 Crimean, 395; Hundred 
 Year8M15,129j5r.,l70- 
 174 ; Polish Succession, 
 316; Public Weal, 179 
 jQT., 187 ; Seven Years', 
 317 ff.; Spanish Suc- 
 cession, 297 jsr. ; Thirty 
 Years*, 253 ff., 267 
 
 Wars : of Napoleon, 363- 
 369, 373-385; of Re- 
 ligion, 228 ff. 
 
 Waterloo (b.), 384, 385 
 
 Watteau, 308 
 
 Wellington, 380-385 
 
 West Indies, 283, 304, 
 322, 323, 336. 337, 
 379 
 
 Westphalia, 378 ; (T.), 
 267, 276 
 
 William I., 54, 56, 68; 
 XL, 68 ; III., 291-300 
 
 Witt, Jan de, 291 
 
 WorkshopSiNational, 390 
 
 Wiirtemberg, 293, 376 
 
 Zieriksee (b.), 117 
 Zurich, 367 ; (T.), 396 
 Zweibriicken, 293 
 
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