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 7 c<lc^ 
 
 OUTLINES 
 
 HISTORY OF FRANCE: 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE 
 REVOLUTION OF 1848. 
 
 FOR SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES. 
 
 W^il^ Numerous Eugtabinss, 
 
 
 QUESTIONS FOE THE EXAMINATION OF PUPILS. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: , 
 THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & CO. 
 
 1848. 
 
iTHE LIBRARY 
 or CONGRESS 
 
 IwAsmHGToir 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by 
 Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co., in the office of the clerk of the 
 District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Stereotyped by J. 
 
 Printed by Smith & Peters. 
 
 
 (4) 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The following Outlines are founded entirely on the 
 authority of the French writers who have recently 
 applied themselves with so much earnestness to the 
 investigation of their own national annals, and particu- 
 larly that portion which relates to the period of the 
 middle ages. In the general plan of this work, the 
 author has conformed to that of the other Outline His- 
 tories of the series to which it appertains. The style 
 he has endeavoured to make intelligible to young 
 readers ; and the necessary explanation of terms is 
 comprised in the text. The engravings are from 
 authentic originals, and serve to elucidate histories I 
 characters, events, and costumes. 
 
 1* (v) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ancient Gaul— The Celts.— Iberians.— Cymri.—Druidism.— Bel- 
 gians. — Emigration of the Gauls. — Julius Cffisar. — The Ro- 
 mans. — The Christian Religion. — Invasion. — Vandals. — 
 Visigoths.— Huns,— Franks.— Downfall of the Roman Empire. 
 Division of Gaul Page 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Merovingian Dijnastif.—Meroveus.—Childenc 1.— Clovis.— 
 Thierry I.— Clodomir.— Childebert I. — Clothaire I. — Chilperic 
 I. — Sigebert I. — Childebert II. — Clothaire II.— Dagobert I.— 
 Rois Faineants.— Pepin d'H6ristal.— Charles Martel.— Pepin . . 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Tke Carlovingian Race. — Pepin. — Charlemagne 38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Carlovingian Race. — Louis 1. — Charles I. — Louis II. — Louis 
 III.— Charles II.— Eudes.— Charles III.— Raoul.— Louis IV.— 
 Lothaire.— Louis V 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Capetien Dynasty.— Hugh Capet.— Robert the Pious.— Henry 
 I.— Philip I.— Louis VI.— Louis VII.— Philip II.— Louis VIII. 5.7 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Capetien Dynasty. — Louis IX. — Philip III. — Philip IV. — 
 
 Louis X.— John I.— Philip V.— Charles IV 80 
 
 (Vii) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Race of Capet.— Direct brancJi of Fa^is.— Philip VI.— John 
 II.— Charles v.— Charles VI 97 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 Race of Capet. — House of Valois direct. — Charles VII. — Louia 
 XL— Charles VIII 125 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Race of Capet. — Orleans branch of the House of Valois. — Louis 
 XII 139 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Race of Capet.— House of Valois.— Branch of Jlngouleme.— Fran- 
 cis I 145 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Race of Capet.— House of Valois.— Branch of ^ngouleme.—Uenry 
 II.— Francis II.— Charles IX.— Henry III 154 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Race of Capet,— House of Bourbon.— Henry IV.— Louis XIII 168 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 Race of Capet.— House of Bourbon.— Louis XIV -. 177 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Race of Capet. — House of Bourbon. — Louis XV. — Louis XVI. — 
 Revolution 189 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Consulate.— The Empire 207 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Tlie Restoration.— Loxxis XVIII.— Charles X.— Louis Philippe I. 216 
 
Ancient Gaulish Warrior. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCIENT GAUL. 
 
 The Celts. — Iberians, — Cymri.—Druidism.—Belgians. 
 — Emigration of the Gauls. — Julius CcBsar. — The 
 Romans. — The Christian Religion. — Invasion. — 
 Vandals. — Visigoths. — Huns. — Franks. — Downfall 
 of the Roman Empire. — Division of Gaul. 
 France was known to the Romans by the name of 
 Gaul ; but the country which then bore that name was 
 somewhat larger than modern France. It was bounded 
 
 C9) 
 
10 ANCIENT GAUL — EARLY INHABITANTS. 
 
 then, as now, on the west and south by the ocean, the 
 Pyrenees, and the Mediterranean; but on the north 
 and east it extended to the Rhine, throughout the 
 whole length of that river, and then along the western 
 spur of the Alps to the sea. Ancient Gaul, conse- 
 quently, included modern France, Belgium, and the 
 greater part of Switzerland. 
 
 This vast region v/as inhabited in the most remote 
 times by two distinct races, the Celts and the Iberians. 
 Both these races were divided into numerous tribes, 
 having separate names and chieftains, and acknowledg- 
 ing relationship with the other tribes only in times of 
 extraordinary danger. The principal Celtic tribe, the 
 Galli, having driven the Iberians across the Pyrenees 
 into Spain, remained in possession of the entire soil, 
 and formed the basis of the population of Gaul. A 
 Phcenician colony, subsequently planted on the shore 
 of the Mediterranean, founded the town of Marseilles. 
 Another Celtic tribe, the Gymri, afterwards made an 
 irruption into Gaul, and settled on the banks of the 
 Seine and the Loire. The Cymri were a little more 
 civilized than the Galli; they received their laws and 
 worship from certain priests, called Druids, who ex- 
 ercised great power over them, pretending to the gift 
 of prophecy, and the confidence of their gods. They 
 sat in the war-councils, were arbiters of the rights of 
 individuals and of cities, and those who refused to yield 
 implicit obedience to their sentences, were devoted to 
 public execration. The religion of the Cymri was su- 
 perior to that of the Galli, and is supposed to have ad- 
 mitted the belief in a Supreme Being, and the doctrine 
 of a future state. Nevertheless, they acknowledged 
 several other divinities, v/hose images they worshipped, 
 suspended from the branches of the oak. They held 
 the oak to be sacred, and it was from it that they de- 
 rived their name of Druids^ or men of the oak. The 
 altars of the Druids were often dyed with the blood of 
 human victims, offered up as sacrifices to appease the 
 wrath of their offended gods. Their worship was 
 adopted by a portion of the ancient tribe of the Galli. 
 
WAR THE CHIEF OCCUPATION. 
 
 11 
 
 Druids. 
 
 The invasion of the Cymri was succeeded by that 
 of the Belgians, who traversed the whole country from 
 north to south. These three nations, known under 
 the generic name of Gauls, were soon broken up into 
 a multitude of small tribes, which waged continual 
 war with each other. Their arms were rarely out of 
 their hands: their women assisted at their councils, 
 fought by their sides, and animated the courage of their 
 husbands by their cries ; the poets, whom they called 
 bards, sang the exploits of their heroes. 
 
 War being the principal occupation of these barba- 
 rians, on the increase of their numbers, the natural 
 products of the soil were found to be insufficient for 
 their support, and immense numbers of them emigrated, 
 like vast herds of v/ild cattle, in search of food. Some 
 of them, crossing the Rhine, entered Germany ; others 
 took the road to Italy, and often threatened Rome. 
 
12 GAUL A ROMAN PROVINCE. 
 
 One of these tribes, led by Brennus, took possession of 
 that city three hundred and ninety years before Christ, 
 but were finally forced to retire. About a hundred 
 years afterwards, the Gauls reached Greece, and me- 
 naced the temple of Delphos, which is said to have 
 been saved by the god Pan, who spread that fear 
 through the hosts of the invaders, which has since been, 
 from this circumstance, denominated a panic. Finally, 
 some of the Gauls crossed the Bosphorus, and under 
 the name of Gallatians, established themselves in Asia 
 Minor. 
 
 Thus did Gaul remain in a state of barbarism and 
 in continual war until the period when she was invaded 
 and conquered by the great Roman general, Julius 
 CsBsar, about fifty years before the Christian era. At 
 that time the country was divided between the Belgians 
 in the north, the Aquitanians in the south, and the 
 Celts, who inhabited the intermediate region. The 
 ancient denominations of Galli and Cymbri had become 
 gradually effaced. Such was the distracted and di- 
 vided state of the country, that in less than ten years 
 Caesar completely subdued it, and converted it into a 
 Roman province. The civilization and luxury of the 
 conquerors, soon softened the manners of the vanquish- 
 ed ; flourishing cities, and celebrated schools arose, as 
 if by enchantment, in the midst of druidical forests. 
 Rome filled the senate with Gauls, and sometimes even 
 chose her emperors from among them. 
 
 But imperial Rome was hastening towards her de- 
 cline ; and more than once the spirit of freedom, which 
 still survived in the breasts of the Gauls, led them to 
 revolt from her authority. The time for deliverance 
 had not yet, however, arrived. The insurrection was 
 in every case quelled by the aid of the Gauls them- 
 selves, who took the pay of Rome, and served in her 
 armies. At the same time, another element began to 
 be infused into the social system of the Gauls : the 
 Christian religion had already begun to spread and to 
 scatter its benign and pacifying influences over their 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN GAUL. 
 
 13 
 
 A Romanized Gaul. 
 
 hitherto barbarous minds. It is not to be supposed, 
 however, that its increase was not opposed; on the 
 contrary, the Druids and Pagan priests exerted their 
 influence to the utmost to smother it on its first appear- 
 ance ; and many were the martyrs whom they sacri- 
 ficed in their ungovernable rage, not thinking that such 
 a course would, in the end, advance the doctrines 
 which they wished to eradicate. 
 2 
 
14 IRRUPTION OF THE BARBARIANS. 
 
 About the beginning of the fifth century, the barba- , 
 rians of the north, attracted by the climate and fertility 
 of the countries lying to the southward, attempted to . 
 penetrate the frontiers of the Roman empire. At first, , 
 repulsed, they were compelled to retire, but only to re- ■ 
 turn reinforced, and driven onward by immense num- 
 bers who pressed upon the rear. Revolts and civil ! 
 dissensions in the interior obliged Rome to recall her : 
 legions from the frontiers, and to entrust their defence 
 to the nearest tribes of the barbarians, who, for some 
 time, well and faithfully battled against the Huns, who 
 pressed upon them from the direction of the Euxine. 
 The anarchy which now reigned at Rome, led the em- 
 perors to forget their hardy defenders, and the agents 
 of the empire oppressed them by refiising the pay to 
 which they were entitled, and thus subjecting them to 
 the ravages of famine. Incensed at the treatment 
 which they received, they advanced to pillage the em- 
 pire, and to take by force the bread which they claimed I 
 as a right. In vain did Rome seek to conciliate the 
 advancing hordes by an offer of tribute, and, to arrest 
 their course by making large presents to their chiefs. 
 The sight of the wealth, and the weakness of their 
 prey, only hastened their approach. The tide of inva- 
 sion had set in, and notwithstanding some temporary 
 triumphs to the Roman arms, the destroying flood t 
 paused not, until it had swallowed up Rome herself. 
 
 The Vandals made an irruption into Gaul in 406 ; 
 and from that year till 476, Italy and Gaul were one 
 vast theatre of carnage and desolation, where a host of 
 nations were engaged in a prolonged and furious 
 struggle, the one against the other. 
 
 The Vandals passed through Gaul, fell upon Spain, 
 and finally penetrated into Africa, where they settled. 
 The Visigoths, the ancient allies of Rome, marched 
 into Italy, and under Alaric, their terrible leader, took 
 and sacked the city. Then, in pursuance of a treaty 
 which they concluded with the Emperor Honorius, they 
 evacuated Italy, established themselves in Gaul to the 
 
ATTILA, THE SCOURGE OF GOD. 15 
 
 westward of the Rhone, agreeing to defend that pro- 
 vince as a Roman colony, and to receive, in return for 
 their military services, about two-thirds of the land. 
 It was about the time of the settlement of Alaric in 
 Gaul, that Great Britain emancipated herself from the 
 yoke of the Romans. 
 
 The Visigoths had not long settled in Gaul, when 
 their military services were required by the Romans. 
 The Armorican provinces to the westward of them re- 
 belled, and in 420 the Franks, led by Pharamond, pass- 
 ed the Rhine, and took Treves, whilst the Burgundians 
 entered Belgium. The Huns, a Scythian nation, the 
 most cruel and ferocious of all the barbarians, at last, 
 presented themselves, and poured into Gaul, under their 
 dreaded leader Attila. This new horde exceeded all 
 the others in number; and, as if animated by the in- 
 stinct of destruction, they named themselves the 
 Scourge of God, and declared that their course lay 
 wherever his wrath called them. Entering Gaul, they 
 advanced as far as Orleans, burning and ravaging all 
 before them, but were finally obliged to retire by the 
 junction of the Visigoths, under Theodoric, and the 
 Romans, under Aetius. Attila fell back into Cham- 
 pagne, where a dreadful battle was fought in 451, 
 which the Romans gained, and which was followed by 
 a most frightful carnage. It is said that three hundred 
 thousand men perished on that day. The vanquished 
 Attila soon collected a fresh force, and penetrated into 
 Italy as far as the gates of Rome, when he suddenly 
 withdrew his army, and shortly afterwards died. 
 
 In the mean time, the Roman empire, plunged in 
 luxury, effeminacy, ignorance, and anarchy, lingered 
 in existence, or rather was permitted to remain a name 
 until the year 476, when the last of the emperors of 
 the west was deposed by Odoacer, king of the Goths. 
 All Italy submitted to his rule, whilst Gaul was di- 
 vided between the Visigoths in the south, the Armori- 
 cans in the west, the Burgundians in the east, and the 
 Salian Franks in the north. The Romans still pos- 
 
16 
 
 SETTLEMENTS IN GAUL. 
 
 sessed a portion of Belgian Gaul, under Syagrius ; 
 whilst a number of Britons took up their abode on the 
 extreme western point of Armorica, and founded the 
 province of Brittany. Small colonies of Saxons also 
 established themselves in Normandy, Maine, and 
 Anjou. 
 
 Such was the state of Gaul in 481, when Clovis, the 
 son of Childeric, and the grandson of Meroveus, the 
 founder of the Merovingian dynasty, was elected chief 
 of the tribe of Salian Franks. 
 
 Ancient Celts or Cymri, called by Herodotus, Cimmehans. 
 
Meroveus. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 THE MEROVINGIAN DYNASTY. 
 
 Meroveus. — Childeric I. — Clovis. — Thierry I. — Clo- 
 domir. — Childebert I. — Clothaire I. — Chilperic I. — 
 Sigebert I. — Childebert IL — Clothaire II. — Dago- 
 bert I. — Rois Faineants. — Pepin d^Heristal, — 
 Charles Marlel. — Pepin. 
 
 Meroveus, who was chosen chief of the Salian 
 
 Franks about the year A. D, 448, and reigned ten 
 
 years, may be considered as the head of the long line 
 
 of French kings. The tribe who had chosen hira as 
 
 2* (17) 
 
18 
 
 THE TRANKS. 
 
 their leader, obeyed the Salic law, which derived its 
 name from them, and which enjoined that " no portion 
 of the inheritance in Salic land can fall to females, but 
 that the whole must pass to the males." 
 
 The title of King, in the language of the Franks, 
 had the same signification that chief now has, and was 
 awarded by election. On the death of a king, the 
 Franks assembled for the choice of a successor, whom 
 they inaugurated by lifting him on a shield, while they 
 rent the air with their acclamations. 
 
 Inauguration of a King of the Franks. 
 
 The principal duty of the chief, so chosen, was to 
 lead his followers against the enemy, or in search of 
 plunder. He received the largest share of all spoil — 
 consisting often of cities and extensive territories. 
 When a king died, his sons inherited his lands ; and, 
 being richer than their companions, were generally in 
 
CLOVIS. 
 
 19 
 
 a condition to secure the votes of the electors ; so that 
 the supreme authority was at first transmitted from 
 father to son, by election, and afterwards by custom, 
 which eventually became law. 
 
 When the Huns invaded Gaul, Meroveus led the 
 Franks to the aid of the Romans, Burgundians, and 
 Visigoths, and contributed to their final expulsion from 
 the land. 
 
 On the death of Meroveus, in 458, his son, Childeric 
 I., was raised upon the buckler ; but his excesses and 
 effeminacy disgnsted his hardy followers, who deposed 
 him, and chose the Count Egidius, a Roman governor, 
 for their king. Egidius dying at the end of eight 
 years, Childeric, who had retired into Thuringia, was 
 recalled, and he reigned until his death in 481. During 
 his exile, a son was born to him, who was destined to 
 be his successor, and to take the highest place in the 
 history of the Merovingian dynasty : this was Clovis. 
 
 Clovis. 
 
20 
 
 THE FRANKS ATTACK THE ROMANS. 
 
 Hardy, bold, and ambitious, he was not content with 
 the possession of one-fifth of Gaul ; and his followers, 
 desirous of plunder, clamoured loudly for him to lead 
 them to conquest. The first foe whom he attacked 
 was Syagrius, the Roman general, and governor of 
 that part of Gaul which still continued independent of 
 the barbarians. 
 
 By a rapid march, Clovis, with five or six thousand 
 men, succeeded in surprising Syagrius, near Soissons, 
 and in the battle which followed completely defeated 
 him, and extended the limits of the Frank tribe as far 
 as the Seine. It was after this battle and the sacking 
 of the city of Soissons, tliat an incident occurred, 
 showing the little authority possessed by the kings of 
 
 The Vase of Soissons. 
 
CLOVIS EMBRACES CHRISTIANITY. 21 
 
 the Franks over their subjects. Saint Remi, the Bishop 
 of Rheims, demanded of Clovis a sacred vase, which 
 he had seen among the spoils of the city. Willing to 
 propitiate the priests, and if possible gain them to his 
 interest, Clovis was going to take up the vase and give 
 it to the bishop, when a soldier, springing forward, 
 struck it a violent blow with his battle-axe, which 
 broke it into many pieces, declaring that he would not 
 let the king take any thing belonging to his part of the 
 booty. Clovis for a time restrained his anger; but, 
 about a year afterwards, seizing the opportunity of a 
 review of his troops, he struck the battle-axe from the 
 hand of the soldier, and while he stooped to pick it up, 
 he killed him with a stroke of his own axe, saying, 
 " Remember the vase of Soissons." 
 
 After his victory of Syagrius, Clovis remained in 
 peaceful possession of the north and of the centre of 
 Gaul for ten years, when his territory was threatened 
 by fresh hordes of Germans. In the mean time he 
 married Clotilda, the daughter of a Burgundian king, 
 who was soon after murdered by his brother Gondebaud, 
 who took possession of his throne. Clotilda was a 
 Christian, and professed the religion of Rome, while 
 the rest of her tribe had become converts to the doc- 
 trine of Arius. Clovis was urged by his wife, and by 
 the bishops of Gaul, to embrace the Christian religion, 
 and deliver the whole land from the hands of the Arian 
 heretics. Fearing to displease the Pagan Franks, he 
 resisted their entreaties. 
 
 It was at this time (A. D. 496) that a fresh horde of 
 German barbarians invaded Gaul. Clovis marched 
 against them and gave them battle at Tolbiac. Vic- 
 tory, which was long undecided, seemed, at last, to 
 favour the invaders, when Clovis, raising his hands to- 
 wards heaven, vowed to worship the God of Clotilda, 
 if he gained the battle. Urging on his followers, they 
 attacked the barbarians with such fury, that they were 
 put to flight and completely defeated. 
 
 Clovis remembered his vow, and was baptized with 
 
22 
 
 CLOVIS DEFEATS THE BURGUNDIANS. 
 
 Clovis at the Battle of Tolbiac. 
 
 three thousand of his followers, in the church of Rheims, 
 by Saint Remi. He immediately sent presents to 
 Rome, as tribute to the Pope, and from that time, such 
 was the aid he received from the bishops, that he ex- 
 tended his conquests over all northern Gaul, without 
 further effusion of blood. 
 
 The bishops of the Burgundian states sent deputa- 
 tions to the conqueror, imploring him to deliver them 
 from the dominion of the Arian heretics ; and Clovis, 
 at their solicitation, declared war against the Burgun- 
 dian king, Gondebaud, the murderer of Clotilda's 
 father, whom he reduced to a tributary. (A. D. 500.) 
 
 Six years afterwards, Clovis, meditating new con- 
 quests, turned his eyes towards the fertile provinces of 
 
FTIRTHER CONQUESTS OF CLOVIS. 23 
 
 the south, occupied by the Visigoths, the ancient allies 
 of his tribe. Leading his Franks across the Loire, the 
 battle of Vougle, near Poitiers, decided the war at 
 once. (507.) The natives fought on the side of the 
 Goths ; but their efforts were unavailing. Alaric II., 
 the king of the Goths, was slain, and the whole country 
 as far as the Garonne submitted to Clovis. Prevented 
 from extending his conquests farther in that direction 
 by the opposition of the great Theodoric, he marched 
 westward, and compelled the Armoricans to submit to 
 his authority, and pay him an annual tribute. 
 
 Several other German tribes, the most considerable 
 of which was that of the Ripuarians, having also cross- 
 ed the Rhine and established themselves within the 
 bounds of Gaul, Clovis, whose new religion had neither 
 repressed his ambition nor softened his ferocity, next 
 determined to bring them into subjection to him. To 
 accomplish this end, he employed both violence and 
 treachery, causing their kings, many of whom were 
 his own relations, to be assassinated. Thus, by victo- 
 ries and murders, he contrived to unite beneath his 
 sway, almost the whole of the country comprised be- 
 tween the Rhine, the Rhone, the ocean and the Pyre- 
 nees. 
 
 The power which Clovis had thus gained, obtained 
 for him, from Anastasius, emperor of the east, the con- 
 sular insignia, and the title of Augustus ; whilst his 
 liberality to the clergy obtained for him the title of the 
 Eldest son of the Church, which he transmitted to his 
 successors. He died in 511, leaving four sons, Thierry, 
 Clodomir, Childebert and Clothaire, all of whom were 
 chosen kings by the warrior Franks. 
 
 The kingdom of Clovis was divided into four king- 
 doms, and one of them was given to each of his sons. 
 Austrasia, with Metz as its capital, was given to 
 Thierry; Neustria, with Soissons, to Clothaire; the 
 region around Orleans was given to Clodomir; and 
 that about Paris, to Childebert. 
 
 The reigns of the sons of Clovis are marked only by 
 
24 WARS AND MURDERS. 
 
 fratricidal wars and atrocious crimes. They first at- 
 tacked the Thuringians, a neighbouring nation, defeat- 
 ed them in battle, murdered their princes, and annexed 
 their territory to their own, which may hereafter be 
 called France. 
 
 Thierry L died in 534, and was succeeded by his 
 son Theodebert, who, being invited to aid the eastern 
 emperor Justinian against the Ostrogoths, and the Os- 
 trogoths against Justinian, raised an army, crossed the 
 Alps, took money from both sides, and then, in con- 
 tempt of his engagements, made a frightful slaughter 
 of both armies, swept Lombardy with fire and sword, 
 burned Genoa and Pavia, and took Provence from the 
 Goths. He was meditating further atrocities, when he 
 died in 548, leaving the throne to his son Theodebald, 
 who reigned only seven years. Dying without issue, 
 his grand-uncle, Clothaire, seized upon his kingdom. 
 
 Clotilda, the widow of Clovis, called upon her sons 
 to revenge the murder of her father. Clodorair and 
 Clothaire immediately entered Burgundy, and took 
 king Sigismond, the son of Gondebaud the murderer, 
 prisoner in battle, and threw him, with his wife and 
 children, into a well near Orleans. (523.) But the 
 following year, Gondemar, the brother and successor of 
 Sigismond, defeated the array of Clodomir at the battle 
 of Veseronce, on the banks of the Rhone, slew that 
 prince, drove the Franks from his dominions, and was 
 acknowledged king by the Burgundians, over whom he 
 reigned till the year 532. In the mean time, the two 
 brothers, Clothaire and Childebert, determined to divide 
 between themselves the kingdom of Orleans, which 
 belonged, of right, to the three sons of Clodomir. 
 These three young children, on the death of their 
 father, were left in the care of their grandmother Clo- 
 tilda. The two kings sent a trusty messenger to bring 
 these children to their presence, under pretence of 
 having them crowned; but no sooner did they put 
 themselves in their power, than they were thrown into 
 prison. They then sent to Clotilda a pair of scissors 
 
ROYAL ATROCITIES 
 
 25 
 
 and a dagger, desiring her to choose between the 
 cloister and the grave for her grand-children. " Rather 
 death !" replied the enraged Clotilda, whereupon the 
 kings repaired to their nephews, two of whom Clothaire 
 murdered with his own hands. The third son, Clodo- 
 ald, escaped the fury of his uncles, and fled to a monas- 
 tery. Becoming a monk, he subsequently founded the 
 monastery of Saint-Clodoald, or Saint-Cloud. 
 
 Childebert, jealous of the power which fell to Clo- 
 thaire, after seizing on the kingdom of Austrasia, in- 
 stigated Chramme, the son of Clothaire, tc^ make war 
 upon his father, and, for a time, aided him with his 
 arms. He himself, however, soon after sickened, and 
 died at Paris. 
 
 Clothaire I. was now sole monarch of the whole 
 kingdom of France. (558.) He vigorously pursued 
 his rebel son, whom he took prisoner, and caused to 
 3 
 
26 THE SONS or CLOTH AIRE. 
 
 be burnt alive, together with his wife and children. 
 This terrible deed is the sole record which remains of 
 the two years during which he swayed the Frankish 
 sceptre alone. He died a year after the murder of 
 his son, leaving four sons, Caribert, Gontran, Chilperic, 
 and Sigebert. 
 
 After the example of the sons of Clovis, the sons of 
 Clothaire drew lots for their dominions and capitals. 
 (561.) Paris and a part of Aquitania fell to Caribert ; 
 Neustria, to Chilperic ; Austrasia, to Sigebert; and 
 Burgundy, with Orleans, to Gontran. 
 
 Caribert died, after a reign of six years, without 
 male issue, and his brothers divided his dominions be- 
 tween them. Discord soon began to show itself in the 
 hatred which the kings of Neustria and Austrasia bore 
 to each other. A reconciliation, brought about by 
 Gontran, was followed by a double alliance, which 
 seemed to promise a lasting union and perfect agree- 
 ment. Sigebert married Brunehaut, and Chilperic, 
 Galsevinthe, both daughters of the king of the Visi- 
 goths. But Galsevinthe was queen of Neustria only 
 a few days, when she was found strangled in her bed. 
 This act was supposed to be done at the instigation of 
 Fredegonde, whom Chilperic shortly afterwards mar- 
 ried. Brunehaut swore to avenge her sister, and the 
 animosities of these two queens caused torrents of blood 
 to flow. War was immediately declared between the 
 two brothers. Sigebert invaded Neustria, took Paris 
 by assault, and compelled Chilperic to shut himself up 
 with his wife and children in Tournay. Sigebert was 
 raised upon the buckler, and proclaimed by his warriors 
 king of Neustria : but at that very moment he was as- 
 sassinated, by the orders of Fredegonde, and his brother 
 was again triumphant. (575.) Brunehaut, with her 
 son Childebert, was imprisoned in the tower of Rouen, 
 where she expected only death from the malice and 
 hatred of Fredegonde. But her beauty saved her. 
 Meroveus, a son of Chilperic by a former wife, seeing 
 her, became enamoured of her, opened her prison gates, 
 
CRIMES OF FREDEGONDE. 
 
 27 
 
 Fredegonde. 
 
 and fled with her to Austrasia, where her young son 
 was proclaimed king*, under the title of Childebert 11. 
 Gontran, who was surnamed the good, came to the aid 
 of his sister-in-law and his young nephew, whom he 
 took under his special protection. Fredegonde armed 
 Chilperic against his son Meroveus, and pursued him 
 like a fury herself. In vain did the pious Gregory, 
 bishop of Tours, endeavour to appease her rage, and 
 save Meroveus: that prince killed himself to avoid 
 falling into the hands of his father. But Fredegonde 
 was not permitted to reap the benefit of her crimes. 
 Her children died, one after the other, in early youth, 
 and finally the old king, Chilperic L, perished by the 
 dagger at Chelles, and it was a matter of uncertainty 
 whether Brunehaut or Fredegonde was the instigator 
 of his death. 
 
 Chilperic left a son of five or six months old, named 
 Clothaire, the only one remaining to Fredegonde, who 
 
2d DECAY OF MEROVINGIAN POWER. 
 
 placed him under the protection of his uncle Gontran, 
 king of the Burgundians. (584.) 
 
 The civil wars of the Merovingian family, about this 
 time, inspired people of the south with a desire for 
 liberty, and with the hope of having a king of their 
 own. Accordingly, the Aquitanians and Provencals 
 invited Gondevald from Constantinople to rule over 
 them. With the aid of their nobles, Gondevald made 
 rapid progress, nearly all the cities of the south falling 
 into his power. The aged Gontran combined against 
 him with the Austrasians, adopting their king Childe- 
 bert, his nephew, as his heir. Alarmed at this alliance, 
 the Aquitanians abandoned Gondevald, who was soon 
 after betrayed and slain. 
 
 Shortly afterwards Gontran died, and Childebert 11.^ 
 his nephew and heir, took possession of Burgundy. 
 The treaty which made Childebert the heir of Gontran, 
 was executed at Andelot, and proved one of the means 
 of hastening the downfall of the Merovingian race. It 
 contained a clause, granting to the leudes, (the richest 
 and most powerful of the king's followers,) the right 
 of transmitting their benefices to their descendants. 
 
 There was an old German custom, according to 
 which, the chief of a troop of warriors was expected 
 to grant them, from time to time, some mark of his 
 favour, generally an ornamented battle-axe, or a fine 
 war-horse. When the Franks were established in 
 Gaul, and the chief had become the king, instead of 
 arms and horses, he preferred to distribute among them 
 a part of his domains. Originally, these benefices were 
 only temporary, being reunited to the royal domain 
 after the death of the chief to whom they had been 
 granted, or even during his life, in case of forfeiture or 
 of treason. Thus the king's favours seldom lessened 
 his means ; but, when he consented to alienate for ever 
 portions more or less considerable of his domain, he 
 soon found it impossible to repair his prodigalities. 
 When the leudes could obtain no more from the king, 
 they began to desert him ; an independent aristocracy 
 
CONTINUED CIVIL WARS. 
 
 29 
 
 was formed, which daily increased in power as the 
 royal authority became less. It was the Austrasian 
 leudes who first obtained this right by the treaty of 
 Andelot : the Neustrian and Burgundian leudes were 
 not slow in demanding and obtaining it also. It was 
 thus that the Merovingian kingdom became gradually 
 the kingdom of the Roisfaineants of the Idler kings. 
 
 Gontran saw not the deplorable consequences of the 
 treaty of Andelot. His heir, Childebert II., did not 
 long survive him, but dying in 596, left his large king- 
 dom to his two sons, Thierry II. and Theodebert II., 
 whom disgraceful rivalry armed against each other. 
 Theodebert, vanquished at Tolbiac, was killed by order 
 of his brother, who, himself, soon after died. There 
 remained then, of the r^ce of Clothaire I., the son of 
 
 Fredegonde, Clothaire II. Brunehaut was yet alive ; 
 she attempted to form a plot against the authority of 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 DEATH OF BRUNEHAUT. 
 
 the son of her rival ; but, betrayed by the Austrasians, 
 she was delivered to Clothaire, and condemned by him 
 to a cruel death. After causing her to be publicly re- 
 proached vi^ith her crimes, he ordered her to be tied by 
 the hair to the tail of a vi^ild horse, which dragged her, 
 according to the ancient chroniclers, " through bushes 
 and hedges, over mountains, and, through rivers and 
 valleys, until her limbs were torn from her body, and 
 her body from her head." Fredegonde died a natural 
 death. 
 
 For fifteen years after the death of Brunehaut, (613,) 
 Clothaire II. reigned alone ; but the facts of his reign 
 are almost wholly unknown. He died iii 628, leaving 
 two sons, Dagobert and Caribert. 
 
 Throne of Dagobert, in the Museum at Paris. 
 
 Contrary to custom Dagobert reigned alone ; Cari- 
 bert, and on his death, his sons, holding Aquitaine 
 
MAYORS OF THE PALACE. 31 
 
 under the title of a duchy. Dagobert is the first of the 
 rois faineantes; shut up in his palace at Clichy, he 
 abandoned the administration of the affairs of the king- 
 dom to the mayors of the palace, Pepin de Landen, 
 Armelfe, Ega, and the goldsmith Saint Eloi, who regu- 
 lated the finances of the kingdom. DagolDert died at 
 Saint Denis in 638, leaving two sons, Sigebert and 
 Clovis, both infants. 
 
 From the death of Dagobert to the end of the Me- 
 rovingian dynasty, the history of France is only the 
 history of the nobles and the maires du palais. These 
 mayors of the palace were at first placed near the per- 
 sons of the kings, in the character of head-domestics ; 
 but profiting by the weakness of their rulers, they at 
 last usurped all the power. Originally chosen by the 
 kings themselves, they were subsequently elected by 
 the leudes, on whom they long leaned for support in 
 maintaining their sway over the sovereigns. But, when 
 their power was finally established, they crushed the 
 nobles, and took the entire authority into their own 
 hands. They then associated their sons with them- 
 selves, and thus transmitted to them their office, — 
 which came, at length, to be considered as the appan- 
 age of a single family, as completely as the sceptre was 
 established in the race of Clovis. 
 
 At the death of Sigebert 11. , the son of Dagobert, 
 and king of Austrasia, Grimwald, the son of Pepin, 
 and his successor as mayor of the palace, secretly sent 
 the legitimate heir of the crown to Ireland, while he 
 attempted to substitute for him his own son; but the 
 people revolted, and declared Clovis IL, the son of 
 Dagobert, their king. Clovis was thus sole sovereign 
 of the three kingdoms of Burgundy, Neustria, and 
 Austrasia ; which, at his death, he transmitted to his 
 two infant sons, Childeric II. and Clothaire III. 
 
 At the death of Clothaire, Ebrouin, the mayor of the 
 palace, offended the nobles of Neustria, by offering the 
 crown to Thierry III., Clothaire's brother, without con- 
 sulting them. They accordingly gave the sceptre to 
 
32 DAGOBERT II. MURDERED. 
 
 Childeric IL, the king- of Austrasia, who, marching 
 against Ebrouin, forced him, as well as his king Thierry, 
 to enter a monastery. 
 
 The new king did not know how to inspire his sub- 
 jects either with respect or fear. Violent and impe- 
 rious in his temper, he soon sent his mayor of the palace. 
 Saint Leger, to share the captivity of Ebrouin, and 
 even dared, one day, to cause one of his leudes named 
 Bodilon, to be beaten with rods. The nobles never 
 pardoned this insult, and soon after, Childeric was sur- 
 prised in a forest and assassinated, together with his 
 wife and children. Such violent proceedings were 
 characteristic of the age. 
 
 Thierry III. was taken from his monastery and 
 placed upon the throne of Neustria. He recalled 
 Ebrouin, who commenced his administration by putting 
 out the eyes of Saint Leger ; and who soon became 
 the dread of the nobles, whom he attempted to restrain 
 by confiscations and executions. 
 
 In the mean time, the Austrasians, always disposed 
 to revolt, sent to Ireland, and brought thence, Dago- 
 bert II., who had been confined there by Grimwald, and 
 declared him their king. But Dagobert, educated 
 among the monks of an Irish monastery, was incapable 
 of satisfying the belligerent Austrasians, who, living 
 nearer to Germany, the land of their fathers, had lost 
 less Oi" ^heir primitive ferocity than the Neustrians, who 
 had been Drought into close contact with the Gallo- 
 Roman population. With them, as with their ances- 
 tors, a king was only a military chieftain ; that which 
 constituted his principal title to the throne being his 
 personal bravery and physical talents. If he had not 
 these qualities, he was judged unfit and deposed. This 
 was now the case with the Austrasians. They de- 
 throned Dagobert II. ; but not content with dethroning 
 him, as their ancestors would have been, they went 
 farther, and murdered him ; declaring that the race of 
 Clovis had degenerated, they resolved to do without a 
 king, and to be governed by two dukes or chiefs. For 
 
PEPIN. 33 
 
 their first dukes they chose Pepin d'Heristal and Mar- 
 tin, grandsons of Armilfe and of Pepin de Landen. 
 
 The frightful regicide committed by the Austrasians 
 spread terror through Neustria. The people flew to 
 arms. Ebrouin, at first, gained a battle over the two 
 dukes at Leucofao, in which Martin was slain, but the 
 conqueror was assassinated shortly after. There was 
 none in Neustria fit to replace Ebrouin, and oppose 
 Pepin with any chance of success. Many of the 
 nobles and bishops joined the party of Pepin, so that 
 when he presented himself with a new army to re- 
 venge his defeat, he completely crushed the Neustrians 
 at the battle of Testry, near Peronne. (687.) He took 
 king Thierry prisoner, but satisfied that no one could 
 be better fitted than he to play the part of a phantom 
 king, he acknowledged him sovereign of Neustria and 
 Austrasia; and governed in his name, putting down 
 the remains of the party opposed to the nobles. 
 
 The empire of the Franks now fell rapidly to pieces. 
 The princes of the Saxons, Frisons, Allemands, Bava- 
 rians and Thuringians, after having contributed to the 
 victory of Testry, esteemed themselves the equals of 
 duke Pepin, and refused to yield him obedience ; whilst 
 the dukes of Aquitaine, Burgundy and Provence, ex- 
 cused themselves from appearing at the Mallum or 
 general congress of the Champ de Mars, which Pepin 
 assembled every year. The nobles of Aquitaine were 
 the first to rebel, and Pepin now repented having put 
 down the popular party. 
 
 After the death of Thierry, he caused to be crowned 
 in succession, the two sons of that prince Clovis, in 
 691, and Childebert in 695, and afterwards his grand- 
 son Dagobert III. in 711. Pepin associated with him- 
 self in the government, his two sons, Drogon and Grim- 
 wald, but both of them dying before him, he appointed, 
 as his successor in office, Theodebald, a son of Grim- 
 wald, and who was yet an infant. Pepin died in 715, 
 leaving thus two children at the head of the monarchy, 
 
34 ADVANCE OF THE SARACENS. 
 
 under the guardianship of an aged woman, named 
 Plectrude, the grandmother of Theodebald. 
 
 Indignant at this state of things, the Neustrians re- 
 volted from Plectrude and her son, and chose Ragin- 
 fred for mayor of the palace. Then, in concert with 
 the Saxons and Frisons, they made war upon Austrasia, 
 incited by the almost defenceless condition of the king- 
 dom. The Austrasians, pressed on all sides, abandoned 
 in despair Plectrude and her son, and summoned from 
 the cloister Charles a natural son of Pepin d'Heristal, 
 Pepin had caused his son Charles to be thrown into a 
 monastery in Cologne, whence he was now called by 
 the people and acknowledged with enthusiasm as their 
 chief. 
 
 The new mayor Charles, immediately placed him- 
 self at the head of the small army of Austrasia, and 
 marched first against the Frisons, whom he completely 
 defeated. The celebrity gained by his first victory, 
 brought to his aid several German tribes, which had 
 recently crossed the Rhine, and with them as his allies, 
 he surprised and defeated the Neustrians with great 
 slaughter at Vincy, near Cambray. The vanquished 
 Neustrians called to their aid Eudes, duke of Aquitaine, 
 who had already declared himself independent of Aus- 
 trasia. The allies formed a junction near Soissons, 
 where they were attacked and again defeated by 
 Charles, who now overran and reduced to submission 
 the whole of Neustria and Aquitaine. 
 
 On the death of Dagohert III, (716,) Chilperic IL 
 was crowned king by Charles ; whilst he permitted 
 Eudes to retain the dukedom of Aquitaine, and Ragin- 
 fred the government of Neustria. On the death of 
 Chilperic in 720, Thierry IV., another son of Dagohert 
 III., was crowned king. 
 
 But a more terrible enemy than the Neustrians now 
 menaced Gaul, in common with the whole Christian 
 world. The followers of Mohammed had already in- 
 vaded portions of Asia, Africa, and Spain, and were 
 now advancing into Gaul. These terrible Arabs, then 
 
BATTLE or TOURS. 
 
 35 
 
 called Saracens, led by Abderam, crossed the Pyrenees, 
 fell upon Aquitaine, and compelled Eudes to implore 
 the aid of Charles, who came to his assistance and gave 
 battle to the invaders at Tours, near Poitiers. (732.) 
 
 Charles Martel, at the Battle of Tours. 
 
 Charles gained a complete victory, Abderam being 
 slain, together with upwards of three hundred thousand 
 of his followers. The remainder fled on their fleet 
 steeds beyond the Pyrenees, and Charles was saluted 
 by all Europe as the preserver of the Christian religion. 
 This victory, in which he was said to have hammered 
 the Saracens, procured for him the illustrious name of 
 Martel, (a hammer,) which posterity has preserved. 
 
36 EXTINCTION OF THE MEROVINGIAN RACE. 
 
 His victory was sullied by the license taken by his 
 followers, and which he did not or could not prevent. 
 They pillaged and burned the property of the Aqui- 
 tanians, and even murdered the people when they 
 dared to interfere. 
 
 During- the period of Charles's rule, the progress of 
 ecclesiastical authority was suspended. His entire 
 strength lay in the army ; and for the purpose of more 
 firmly attaching it to his person, he had the boldness 
 to seize on the property of the church, and divide it 
 among his warriors. Though he did not assume the 
 title of king, yet he gave no successor to Thierry IV., 
 and before he himself died, which happened in 741, he 
 divided his authority between his three sons, Pepin, 
 Carloman, and Griifon. The last of these was dispos- 
 sessed by his brothers, the second retired into a monas- 
 tery, after subduing the Allemands, the Bavarians and 
 the Saxons, leaving Pepin the whole of the paternal 
 inheritance. 
 
 A last prince of the Merovingian race was taken 
 from the cloister, and proclaimed king by Pepin in 
 742, by the title of Childeric HI. But Pepin, growing 
 weary at length of reigning without a sceptre, solicited, 
 and obtained the title of king from pope Zachariah. 
 He was consecrated in 752, by Saint Boniface, or Win- 
 fred, the apostle of Germany. The comitise or general 
 assembly of the leudes of the kingdom was convened 
 at Soissons ; and there, on the strength of his own 
 power, the fame of his father, and the pope's sanction, 
 he was elected king of France. Childeric returned to 
 his cloister, whence his race never again emerged to 
 ascend the steps of the throne ; and Pepin founded the 
 second royal dynasty, which took the name of Carlo- 
 vingian, from his son Charlemagne. 
 
 The Merovingian kings have sometimes been called 
 les rois chevelures^ or the long-haired kings, from the 
 custom amongst the ancient Franks of distinguishing 
 the members of the royal family from the rest of the 
 people by their long hair, which they wore hanging 
 
CUSTOM AS TO THE SUCCESSION. 
 
 37 
 
 down in curls over their shoulders, whilst all the other 
 Franks had it cut very short. 
 
 Though the crown was hereditary, and in ordinary 
 cases the direct heir had a preference, yet it was not 
 very unusual to set the direct heir aside, and to elect 
 another member of the royal family, who for any reason 
 might be better qualified or more popular. 
 
 In the beginning of the sixth century some natives 
 of Britain fled from the persecutions of their Saxon 
 conquerors, and took refuge on the coasts of Armorica, 
 which from them acquired the name of Bretagne. 
 
 These Bretons, although they held themselves sub- 
 ject to the kings of France, still remained a distinct 
 people, were governed by their own laws, and retained 
 many of their own customs. And, notwithstanding the 
 length of time since they settled in France, their pos- 
 terity still retam the manners and appearance of a 
 separate race. 
 
 Ancient Helmet, Shield, and Saddle. 
 
Charlemagne, from a Mosaic made by order of Pope Leo IIL 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 
 
 Pepin. — Charlemagne. 
 
 Pepin lb Bref* was the first monarch who recog- 
 nised the right of the Roman pontiff to dispose of the 
 crowns of the earth. The authority most respected in 
 those days, was that of the church, and Pepin felt the 
 necessity of giving an imposing sanction to his usur- 
 pation. Accordingly, when Stephen II., the successor 
 of pope Zachariah, came to France to implore the help 
 
 * From the Latin brevis — signifying 
 given on account of his small stature. 
 
 short : a title which was 
 
 (38) 
 
THE FRANKS INVADE ITALY. 39 
 
 of the Franks against the Lombards of Italy, Pepin 
 showered honours upon him, and caused himself to be 
 crowned again, together with his wife, and his two 
 sons, Charles and Carloman. 
 
 When Gregory III. was menaced by Luitprand, king 
 of the Lombards, he sought the aid of Charles Martel. 
 All of these princes died before the help granted could 
 produce any useful results. Astolpho, the new king 
 of the Lombards, renewed the war against the city of 
 Rome, and already, at the commencement of the reign 
 of Pepin, he had burned the suburbs of the city. It 
 was at this juncture that Stephen II. came to seek the 
 aid of the king of the Franks. 
 
 After vain negotiations and useless remonstrances, 
 to which Astolpho refused to listen, Pepin, in 754, pro- 
 claimed war against him, and entered Italy at the head 
 of his army. Driven from place to place by the victo- 
 rious Franks, Astolpho was at last besieged in Pavia, 
 and fearing the loss of his whole kingdom, he promised 
 to abandon to the pope the country around Rome, and 
 to give him, besides, the exarchate of Ravenna. 
 
 Pepin returned to France, but he was soon recalled 
 to Italy, in order to force Astolpho to execute the treaty. 
 By a solemn act, he presented to the pope the before- 
 mentioned territories, which were afterwards known as 
 the patrimony of St. Peter. 
 
 Pepin next turned his attention to Languedoc, where 
 the Saracens had established a colony ; and it was not 
 until the year 759, when his soldiers took possession of 
 Nar bonne, that ancient Roman strong-hold, that he was 
 finally successful. 
 
 Another war was soon kindled within the bounds of 
 France. Aquitaine had never formally acknowledged 
 the supremacy of the Austrasian Franks. As soon as 
 the fear of the Saracens was removed, their duke, 
 Eudes, began again to incite his subjects to make war 
 against Charles Martel. And when Pepin mounted 
 the throne, Guaifer, the grandson of Eudes, declared 
 Aquitaine entirely independent of the Franks. A war 
 
40 CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 followed, which raged for nine years, and was not 
 terminated when Charlemagne came to the throne. 
 During this war Pepin burned Berry, Auvergne, and 
 Limonsin, while Guaifer repaid the Franks ravage ibr 
 ravage. Having at length lost Clermont, Bourges, and 
 many more of his principal towns, Guaifer caused the 
 walls of the others to be levelled, and he, being shortly 
 afterwards assassinated by some of his own followers, 
 the grand duchy of Aquitaine was subjected to the 
 crown of the Franks. Pepin died in 768, after a reign 
 of seventeen years, leaving Neustria and Aquitaine to 
 his son Charles, and to Carloman, Austrasia and Bur- 
 gundy. 
 
 The two brothers did not live long on good terms. 
 They had married two sisters, daughters of Didier, 
 king of Lombardy ; but Charles, without any lawful 
 motive, obtained a divorce from his wife and sent her 
 home to her father. The wife of Carloman called 
 upon him to resent the insult offered to her sister. Ac- 
 cordingly, in the war against Aquitaine, which was not 
 yet ended, Carloman suddenly withdrew his forces, and 
 abandoned his brother in a dangerous position. Yet, 
 the ability of Charles, though unassisted, soon put an 
 end to the war, and Aquitaine, as before mentioned, 
 was at last subdued. 
 
 The death of Carloman, in 779, extinguished the 
 flame of civil war ; and Charles usurped the dominions 
 of his brother, to the prejudice of his nephews, who, 
 with their mother, fled to the court of Didier. Then 
 commenced that series of victories which 'has caused 
 the title of Great to be joined inseparably to the name 
 of Charles. He was called Carolus Magnus; and is 
 familiarly known in history as Charlemagne. 
 
 Didier attempted to compel pope Adrian I, to crown 
 the sons of Carloman, by threatening, in case of his 
 refusal, to retake the states of the patrimony of St. 
 Peter, which Rome held as the gift of Pepin. 
 
 Charlemagne, called by the pontiff to his aid, assem- 
 bled his troops, crossed the Alps, and besieged Didier 
 
THE SAXONS SUBJUGATED. 41 
 
 in Pavia, and his son-in-law, Arigise, in Verona. 
 During the blockade of these two cities, he repaired to 
 Rome, where he presented himself humbly before the 
 pope, whose saviour he was, kissing every step of the 
 pontifical palace as he ascended. He was received 
 with the honours reserved for Roman patricians, by 
 pope Adrian, at the head of his clergy. Returning to 
 the siege of Pavia, he captured the city, took Didier 
 prisoner, and sent him, with his family, to end his days 
 in a French monastery. Arigise alone escaped from 
 Verona, and fled to the court of Constantinople ; and 
 Charlemagne was crowned at Pavia with the iron 
 crown of Lombardy. 
 
 The attention of Charlemagne was next drawn to 
 the northern frontiers of his empire, where the pagan 
 Saxons, but half reduced by Charles Martel and Pepin, 
 had murdered the missionaries sent to convert them to 
 the Christian religion, and burned the church of Da- 
 venter. Such was the first act of hostility, of a war 
 which lasted more than thirty years. (772 — 804.) It 
 is unnecessary to enter into the details of this war, as 
 it was distinguished only by the cruelty which was 
 practised on both sides. Of the fifty-three expeditions 
 made by Charlemagne during his reign, eighteen were 
 against the Saxons ; of the thirty-five general assem- 
 blies which he called together, sixteen were held in 
 the very heart of Saxony. Once the Saxons pretended 
 to submit, and being armed by the Franks, in order to 
 aid them in repelling an invasion of the Slavi, they re- 
 volted, and defeated the king's generals. The punish- 
 ment inflicted by Charlemagne for this act was terrible. 
 He hastened to the camp. Those of the Saxons who 
 had been unable to make their escape were seized, dis- 
 armed, and assembled with their women and children 
 on the very spot which had witnessed their desertion 
 and temporary triumph, and there delivered to the fury 
 of the soldiers. On that day four thousand five hun- 
 dred Saxon prisoners were murdered. In this long 
 and cruel war, Charlemagne's most powerful adversary 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 THE SAXONS BAPTIZED. 
 
 was Witikind, who, though twenty times defeated, 
 always escaped. At last, tired of the conflict, and 
 despairing of success, he laid down his arms, in 785, 
 did homage to the king of the Franks, and was bap- 
 tized with the remainder of his army. Though thus 
 
 Charlemagne receives the Submission of Witikind. 
 
 apparently completely subdued and converted, (accord- 
 ing to the vague notions of the day,) many of the 
 Saxons returned to their idolatrous practices, and con- 
 tinued the war against their Catholic neighbours, until 
 about the year 804. 
 
 Whilst Charlemagne was thus actively engaged in 
 the north, his aid was solicited by both of the great 
 
CHARLEMAGNE RESTORES LEO III. 43 
 
 families of Mussulmans, who divided Spain between 
 them, but could not agree among themselves. He de- 
 cided in favour of those who were farthest removed 
 from his frontiers ; and crossing the Pyrenees at the 
 head of a formidable army, he subdued a portion of 
 Navarre and Catalonia. But his presence being re- 
 quired in Saxony, he retreated, in haste, from Spain. 
 In crossing the mountains, he fought and lost the battle 
 of Roncesvalles, so celebrated in the romances of chi- 
 valry. It was in this battle that the famous paladin 
 Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, perished. He 
 was in command of the rear-guard, when the Saracens, 
 led by the traitor Lope, fell upon him as he was cross- 
 ing the difficult passes of the Pyrenees. He fought 
 long and furiously, but at last most of his men being 
 slain, he wounded, and his good sword Durandal, 
 broken, he raised his horn of ivory to his mouth, and 
 sounded it three times with such violence, that the 
 veins of his neck burst, and he died. Charlemagne 
 did not hear the call of his faithful follower, having 
 been led, on some pretence, far in advance, by another 
 traitor, Ganelon of Mentz. 
 
 The Bavarians next rose against the Franks, and 
 drew into their conspiracy the Frisons, the Avari, and 
 the Slavi. Charlemagne first destroyed the nationality 
 of Bavaria, as he had before that of Lombardy, and 
 then despatched his son Pepin into Hungary for the 
 punishment of the Avari. Pepin completely subdued 
 them, seizing upon their fortified camp called the Ring^ 
 from its shape, where for many years they had heaped 
 up the spoils taken from the empires of the east and 
 west. 
 
 Leo III., who, in 795, had succeeded pope^ Adrian, 
 had been dragged from the throne by a conspiracy of 
 priests. He implored the aid of Charlemagne, by 
 whom he was re-established on his throne. For this 
 service he received a brilliant reward. On Christmas 
 day, in the year 800, he was kneeling in the church 
 of St. Peter, when the pope approached and placed the 
 
44 THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 imperial crown upon his head. The people immedi- 
 ately saluted him by the title of Augustus ; and Charle- 
 magne thenceforth looked upon himself as the true 
 successor of the Roman emperors of the west. He 
 removed his court from Paris to Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 where ambassadors from every part of the world came 
 to seek his alliance and his friendship for their masters. 
 Egbert, the king- of the Anglo-Saxons, lived long at 
 his court ; the emperors of the east saluted him as their 
 brother; the Christian kings of the Asturias did him 
 homage, presenting for his acceptance trophies taken 
 from the Moors of Spain ; but the most famous embassy 
 was that of Haroun-al-Raschid, the celebrated caliph 
 of Bagdad, who sent him a wooden clock that struck 
 the hours, an ape, an elephant, and the keys of the holy 
 sepulchre of Jerusalem, promising him that the pil- 
 grims who should visit the holy city should always be 
 respected and defended. 
 
 Having brought the wars which occupied the greater 
 part of his reign to a close, Charlemagne next turned 
 his attention to the improvement of the government 
 and laws, and the cultivation of literature and the arts. 
 His immense empire was divided into provinces, govern- 
 ed by dukes or counts, who had under their orders vis- 
 counts and commanders of hundreds. Imperial envoys, 
 called missi dominici, were appointed to maintain a 
 general supervision over the empire, and to make an 
 annual report to the emperor of every thing that trans- 
 pired. Twice in each year, in the spring and in the 
 autumn, Charlemagne convoked the national assemblies 
 of bishops, abbots, and nobles, to confer on the situation 
 and necessities of the state. The autumn assembly 
 discussed the interests of the nation, proposed remedies 
 for abuses, and prepared the subjects of deliberation for 
 the asserpbly to be held in the ensuing spring. The 
 latter alone, which was called the Champ de Mai, 
 made the laws, and was formed of three bodies, the 
 clergy, the nobles, and tv»^elve representatives from the 
 people of each county. In the absence of these assem- 
 
CHARLEMAGNE S CARE FOR EDUCATION. 45 
 
 plies, Charlemagne issued ordinances, called capitula- 
 ries, which were afterwards confirmed or repealed by 
 the spring assembly. 
 
 Knowing that the best mode of enforcing obedience 
 to the authority of the magistrate is to educate the 
 people, Charles attempted to revive a taste for litera- 
 ture and the arts. He invited to his court the most 
 learned men of all nations, encouraged the monks in 
 their literary labours, and founded and supported many 
 schools in different parts of the empire. One of these 
 schools he established in his own palace, for the educa- 
 tion of the children of his followers, without respect to 
 their comparative wealth or dignity. But in this school 
 of the ninth century occurred what too frequently hap- 
 pens even now. The children of the rich nobles, proud 
 of their titles and their fortune, neglected their studies, 
 whilst the others, whose humble situation imposed on 
 them the necessity of labour, studied eagerly the les- 
 sons assigned them by the emperor. So, when Charle- 
 magne came one day to examine the progress made by 
 the pupils of his palace school, he was struck with this 
 fact, and, after praising the poor and studious for their 
 diligence, he turned to the rich and indolent, and said, 
 " Because you are rich and sons of the first men in my 
 kingdom, you imagine that your birth and riches are 
 sufficient, and that you have no need of those studies 
 whose pursuit would do you so much honour. You 
 think only of dress, play, and pleasure. But remember 
 that I reckon for nothing that nobility of birth and that 
 wealth which are the grounds of the reverence paid 
 you ; and that unless you repair as speedily as possible, 
 by assiduous study, the time which you have squan- 
 dered in trifles, never, no never, need you look for any 
 favour at the hands of Charles." 
 
 Many of the bishops and abbots, following the ex- 
 ample of the emperor, opened schools in their several 
 churches, and knowledge, which had hitherto been en- 
 tirely confined to the cloisters, began to spread among 
 the people. Towards the close of the reign of Charle- 
 
46 
 
 DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 magne, the Danes and Northmen began to infest his 
 coasts ; but he, causing large vessels to be constructed 
 for the defence of the mouths of the rivers, they were 
 effectually prevented from invading his kingdom during 
 his life-time. 
 
 He gave the kingdom of Italy to Pepin, who died 
 before his father, leaving a son named Bernard, as his 
 successor in the kingdom of Italy. At the same time 
 he associated with himself in the empire, his son Louis, 
 king of Aquitaine, whom he appointed his successor. 
 He survived these arrangements but a short time, and 
 died at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the year 814, the seventy- 
 second of his age, and the forty-sixth of his reign, 
 leaving large legacies to the churches, convents, and 
 monasteries. 
 
 Charlemagne visiting; his School 
 
or Odon. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 
 
 Louis I. — Charles I. — Louis II. — Louis III. — -Charles 
 II. — Eudes. — Charles III. — Raoul. — Louis IV, — 
 Lothaire. — Louis V. 
 
 Louis L, surnamed le Debonnaire (Beneficent), was 
 no sooner seated on the throne, than he associated with 
 him in the government his three sons. Lothaire, the 
 elder, was associated with him in the empire, while 
 Louis and Pepin were made kings of Bavaria and Aqui- 
 taine. Bernard remained king" of Italy. This latter 
 
48 HUMILIATION OF LOUIS I. 
 
 prince, whose father had been the eldest son of Charle- 
 magne, looked with a jealous eye upon the elevation 
 of Lothaire, having hoped to obtain the imperial crown, 
 after the death of his uncle, as the head of the Carlo- 
 vingian family. The emperor had commenced a sys- 
 tem of strict reform, punishing culprits in power, and 
 removing burdens from the oppressed people. This, 
 while it gave him favour in the eyes of the people 
 whom he relieved, incensed the nobles, and those 
 who had hitherto lived with impunity by extortion; 
 and hearing of Bernard's discontent, they urged him 
 to assert his rights, and took up arms in his favour. 
 Louis marched to meet his nephew, who, betrayed by 
 his troops, was condemned at the instance of the em- 
 press Hermengarde to lose his sight. He did not sur- 
 vive the execution of this cruel sentence. Louis after- 
 wards bitterly repented the commission of this crime, 
 and sought to obtain pardon for it, by performing a 
 public penance. This was considered by his fiery fol- 
 lowers as a sign of weakness, and his humility as an 
 outrage to the dignity of the crown. They disdained 
 his authority. Internal dissensions and invasions from 
 without followed with rapidity. 
 
 At the death of the cruel Hermengarde, who did not 
 long survive her victim, the emperor had married Ju- 
 dith, the daughter of a Bavarian noble. The new 
 empress wished to secure to her son Charles equal 
 rights with his brothers, the sons of Hermengarde. 
 Louis, willing to gratify her, at the diet of Worms, held 
 in 829, gave to Charles the kingdom of Germany. His 
 other sons protested against this subdivision of the em- 
 pire, and uneasy about their own possessions, com- 
 menced an impious and sacrilegious war against their 
 father. Twice betrayed by his troops, twice dethroned 
 by his own sons, Louis was reseated on the throne by 
 the people, who still loved him. The plain of Colmar, 
 where the army had for the second time abandoned 
 him, was called the Field of Falsehood. After that 
 defection, the emperor, prematurely grown grey from 
 
BLOODY CIVIL WAR. 49 
 
 grief, was dragged from city to city by Lothaire, to the 
 cathedral of Soissons, where, stripped of the imperial 
 mantle, he was compelled to prostrate himself on a 
 carpet of horse-hair, and to read on his knees an avowal 
 of imaginary crimes. He was then led a prisoner to 
 Aix-la~Chapelle, the scene of all his former greatness. 
 His two sons, Louis and Pepin, declared themselves his 
 avengers, less from filial tenderness than from jealousy 
 of their brother. The latter, deserted by his adherents, 
 fled into Italy ; and the emperor, in 835, resumed his 
 crown. He then pardoned Lothaire, but in 838, in the 
 assembly held at Kersey-sur-Oise, he disinherited his 
 elder sons, in favour of Charles, the youngest, who 
 thus at the age of nineteen took possession of half the 
 empire. 
 
 Louis of Bavaria, injured by this partition, revolted 
 against his father ; but the emperor, as he was march- 
 ing against him, was smitten with a malady, which in 
 forty days brought him to the grave. (840.) He died 
 at Ingelheim, aged sixty-two years. 
 
 After the death of Louis L, the empire remained for 
 ten years in a state of fearful anarchy. His three sons 
 and his grandson Pepin of Aquitaine, levied troops in 
 their respective provinces, and made fierce war upon 
 each other. Lothaire and Pepin combined against 
 Charles and Louis. A bloody battle was fought be- 
 tween these four princes, near Auxerre, in the plains 
 of Fontenay, (841,) ui which a hundred thousand men 
 are said to have perished. Lothaire was defeated, and 
 fled into Italy. In 843, a partition of the empire was 
 made at Verdun, which finally separated the interests 
 of Gaul, as a power, from those of Germany. Charles, 
 afi;erwards called Le Chauve, (the Bald,) obtained 
 France from the ocean to a line formed by the Mouse, 
 the Saone, and the Rhone, together with the north of 
 Spain as far as the Ebro. Louis took Germany as far 
 as the Rhine, with the title of emperor ; and Lothaire 
 united Italy with the countries lying between the re- 
 spective dominions of his brothers, into a kingdom, 
 5 
 
50 RAVAGES OF THE NORTHMEN. 
 
 called from its sovereign Lotharingia, and afterwards 
 Lorraine. 
 
 Charles, the Bald. 
 
 Charles the Bald, being now sole master of France, 
 had to contend single-handed against the Northmen and 
 the Saracens, who carried fire and sword through the 
 frontiers ; the former even penetrating as far as Paris, 
 with three hundred ships, and pillaging the capital, 
 which they abandoned only to secure their booty, and 
 to return again in greater numbers. Ascending the 
 rivers from the unguarded coasts, they ravaged all the 
 towns of the interior which they found undefended, and 
 driving the people like cattle before them, they fled 
 before Charles could prevent them. 
 
 On the death of the emperor, Louis II., the son of 
 Lothaire, in 875, his uncle, Charles the Bald, assumed 
 the imperial crown. But on his head it was only the 
 shadow of the crown of Charlemagne. The power of 
 the sovereign diminished as his titles increased, while, 
 at the same time, the power of his vassals, the nobles 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 51 
 
 and clergy increased as his diminished. The bishops 
 directed all things, temporal and spiritual, war and 
 peace ; while the nobles put the finishing stroke to the 
 royal authority, by extorting from Charles, in 877, the 
 celebrated edict of Kiersy, which recognised the here- 
 ditary character of their title to counties. From that 
 moment, it was no longer the kings who elected the 
 counts, but the counts who disposed of the crown. The 
 dismemberment of the empire proceeded rapidly ; and 
 a new order of things, known as tlie Feudal system, 
 was the consequence of this edict, the last important 
 act of Charles's reign. He died that same year in a 
 village at the foot of Mont Cenis. France had by this 
 time become a theocracy — that is to say, a state go- 
 verned by the priests, — Italy a confederation of princes, 
 — and Germany almost a republic, under several kings, 
 the sons of Louis of Bavaria, the brother of Charles, 
 the Bald. 
 
 Louis IL, le Begue, (the Stammerer,) the son and 
 successor of Charles the Bald, in Italy and France, was 
 remarkable only for his weakness and his prodigalities. 
 He lost, by successive revolts, Italy, Brittany, Lorraine 
 and Gascony, and solenmly acknowledged that he held 
 his crown only by election of the nobles, bishops and 
 people. He reigned but two years, and died in 879, 
 leaving his crown to his two sons, Louis III. and Car- 
 
 LOMAN. 
 
 These two princes did all in their power to restrain 
 the incursions of the Northmen, and divided the king- 
 dom between them for the purpose of defence. They 
 gained some successes at first, but being feebly sup- 
 ported by their followers, they failed to realize the 
 hopes which the commencement of their career had 
 called up. Louis III. was killed by a fall from a horse 
 in 882, and in 884, Carloman was killed by a wild 
 boar, while hunting. 
 
 Charles II. , le Gros, (the Fat,) the son of Louis 
 of Bavaria, succeeded to the throne, and united nomi- 
 nally beneath his sceptre, Gaul, Germany, and Italy. 
 
52 TERRITORY CEDED TO ROLLO. 
 
 He was distinguished only for his imbecility, his pusil- 
 lanimity, and his misfortunes. The Northmen prose- 
 cuted their daring incursions beneath his very eyes. 
 In 886, they appeared before Paris, and closely be- 
 sieged the capital of the kingdom. The valour of two 
 brothers, Eudes, count of Paris, and his brother Robert, 
 the sons of Robert the Strong, who, about twenty years 
 before, had been slain by the same foes, now saved the 
 city. Aided by the bishop Gozlin, they vigorously re- 
 pulsed the assailants, and after a close struggle, com- 
 pelled them to retire from the city. 
 
 In the mean time the king, at the head of an army 
 assembled for the protection of his people, entered into 
 a dastardly compromise with the piratical invaders, 
 whereby he abandoned to them the pillage of the richest 
 provinces. A cry of indignation arose on all sides, and 
 Charles II. was deposed at the diet of Tribur in 888, 
 and died the same year, in indigence, deserted by all. 
 
 For a short time, the Carlovingian line was inter- 
 rupted in France. Eudes, the courageous defender of 
 Paris, was elected king ; while another party offered 
 the crown to Charles the Simple, a posthumous son of 
 Louis the Stammerer, and brother of Louis III. and 
 Carloman. After a struggle of several years, the rival 
 kings divided the kingdom between them, until tlie 
 death of Eudes, who left Charles in possession of the 
 crown. 
 
 The most remarkable event of the generally peace- 
 ful reign of Charles III, was the cession which he 
 made in 912, to Rollo, chief of the Northmen, of that 
 territory which took from them the name of Normandy. 
 Rollo did homage to Charles, became a convert to 
 Christianity, and divided his large territory into fiefs. 
 Under the discipline of severe laws, his warriors be- 
 came the fathers of a great people, who soon formed 
 the most powerful bulwark of France against German 
 invasion. 
 
 Some years afterwards, Robert, the duke of France, 
 the brother of king Eudes, and his son Hugh the Great, 
 
INVASION OF OTHO II. 53 
 
 laid claim to the crown, and made war against Charles 
 the Simple. Robert was proclaimed king-, but was 
 soon after killed in a battle fought near Soissons. 
 Charles was taken prisoner, and Hugh gave the crown 
 of France to his brother-in-law Rodolpii, the son of 
 Richard, duke of Burgundy. (923.) Charles lived sub- 
 sequently, for some time, without a vestige of authority, 
 and died a captive in 929, On the death of this usurper, 
 which took place in 936, Hugh the Great recalled from 
 England a son of Charles the Simple, whom his mother 
 had hidden during the captivity of her husband. 
 
 Louis IV., who was surnamed (TOutremer, (from 
 beyond the sea,) returned into France, accepted the 
 crown, and reigned at first under the direction of Hugh 
 the Great, count of the Isle of France, who had re- 
 called him. He afterwards tried in vain to break the 
 yoke of the count, and died without success. He was 
 killed by a fall from his horse, at Rheiins, in 954. 
 
 LoTHAiRE, the eldest of his two sons, succeeded him 
 on the throne, to the exclusion of his brother Charles, 
 to whom was afterwards given the duchy of Lorraine. 
 Lothaire, in order to make himself popular with his 
 subjects, declared himself the enemy of the Germans. 
 This provoked Otho II., the emperor, and he marched 
 a large army to the very gates of Paris, whence, after 
 singing the hymn of the martyrs in the hearing of the 
 French king, they retired, spreading devastation over 
 the countries through which they passed. The French 
 murmured at the weakness of their king in thus per- 
 mitting the escape of their enemies, and from that time 
 his power rapidly, though silently, passed from him, 
 into the hands of Hugh Capet, count of the Isle of 
 France, and of Anjou, the son and successor of Hugh 
 the Great, who died in 956. Lothaire died in 986. 
 
 Louis V., surnamed le Faineant, (the Idler,) suc- 
 ceeded his father, bringing with him to the throne no 
 quality but indolence. He reigned only in name, Hugh 
 Capet being the real sovereign, and who had already 
 taken the preliminary steps to secure his legal title to 
 5* 
 
54 A DARK ERA. 
 
 what was actually in his possession. He accomplished 
 tliis by ingratiating himself into the favour of the em- 
 peror Otho III., the clergy and nobles of France. Louis 
 died after having reigned one year, (987,) and his uncle 
 Charles, the brother of Lothaire, laid claim to the 
 crown. But the archbishop of Rheims consecrated 
 Hugh Capet king, and the great majority of the nobles 
 and people supporting him, the hereditary claimant was 
 left with but few partisans. He died in Orleans, where 
 Hugh Capet had caused him to be imprisoned ; his two 
 sons, banished from France, sought an asylum in Ger- 
 many ; and with them the historical existence of the 
 race of Charlemagne terminated. With them also ex- 
 pired the dominion of the Franks or Germans in Gaul ; 
 and a national royalty was substituted for a government 
 which had been founded on conquest. 
 
 The period between the accession of Charles the 
 Bald to the throne, and the termination of the Carlo- 
 vingian dynasty, is one of the most obscure and disas- 
 trous periods of French history. It was during that 
 one hundred and fifty years that society experienced 
 one of the greatest changes that has ever taken place 
 since the creation of the world. Every thing gave 
 way at once ; the pious zeal and virtues of the clergy, 
 the authority of the laws, the independence of the peo- 
 ple. The Saracens, Germans, and Normans, laid waste 
 the fields of France, and burned her towns. The latter 
 were no longer the seats of government of the kings 
 or of the subordinate administrations. Neither were 
 they the residence of the wealthy, whose fortified cas- 
 tles alone afforded shelter against foreign invasion and 
 civil wars. All those in authority retired thither, and 
 there the courts were held and justice was administer- 
 ed. Commerce disappeared, and with it the burghers 
 and industrious, leaving no connecting class between 
 the nobles and the serfs. Around every castle arose 
 miserable cabins tenanted by serfs, who were the me- 
 chanics or agricultural labourers of their lords. So 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 55 
 
 great was the frig'htful misery and general desolation 
 of the land, that it was universally believed that the 
 end of the world was approaching-, and would actually 
 happen in the year 1000. 
 
 Whilst, however, the ancient order of things was 
 thus perishing, and in the very midst of its decay, a 
 new order was gradually forming, founded by the small 
 number of men who, in the shelter of their fortresses, 
 had preserved liberty, wealth, and power. This novel 
 system of things, to which has been given the name 
 of Feudalism, had, for a century past, been striking 
 deep roots ; and was finally the means, notwithstand- 
 ing its enormous abuses, of preventing the total disso- 
 lution of social ties, and a rapid return to the bar- 
 barism of the early ages. 
 
 When the hereditary character of titles and tenures 
 was acknowledged by the edict of Kiersy, the dukes 
 and counts began to look upon themselves as masters 
 of provinces, wherein they conceived that their will 
 alone had the force of law. Independent of the crown, 
 in fact, most of them remained, though nominally sub- 
 ject thereto, by their oath of fidelity, and they willingly 
 promised to follow their king to his wars with a cer- 
 tain number of men, for a certain period of time. Of 
 their own authority they distributed domains among the 
 nobles, who received them, on condition of like fidelity, 
 homage, and military service ; and these again granted 
 lesser fiefs to freemen, to hold by the same title. 
 Throughout the whole extent of France, the lands 
 were thus considered as vassal or subject one to an- 
 other. In this constellation of sovereignties, that pro- 
 vince which had the title of kingdom was considered 
 first ; and this title, at the coronation of Hugh Capet, 
 devolved upon the ancient duchy of the Isle of France, 
 which, by its central position, the warlike character 
 of its inhabitants, and the extinction of the title of king 
 in the surrounding states, was in a favourable condition 
 for ultimately establishing a real and substantial su- 
 
56 EXTENSION OF FEUDALISM. , 
 
 premacy. The feudal system rapidly spread over the 
 whole of Europe; and it was that which laid the 
 foundation of the great states, and held the place, for 
 two hundred and forty years, of social and legislative 
 ties. 
 
 Ships of the Northmen, or Normans. 
 
Hugh Capet. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CAPETIEN DYNASTY. 
 
 Hugh Capet. — Robert the Pious. — Henry I. — Philip 
 I. — Louis VI. — Louis VIL — Philip IL — Louis 
 VIIL 
 
 The authority of Hugh Capet, and his three imme- 
 diate successors, was very limited. The counts or dukes 
 of Poitou, Limousin, Auvergne, Languedoc, and Pro- 
 vence, acknowledged no suzerain or superior. Those 
 of Lorraine, Franche-Comte, a portion of Burgundy, 
 and a portion of Flanders, held of the crown of Ger- 
 many ; while Brittany was a fief, holding of the duchy 
 of Normandy. The first soveTeigns of the new dynasty 
 
 (57) 
 
58 HUGH CAPET. 
 
 did very little to extend their authority. The founder 
 of the race, Hugh Capet, was illustrious only on ac- 
 count of that fact, which is to be attributed far more to 
 circumstances than to his genius. His crown, accord- 
 ing to the custom established by the feudal system, be- 
 came transmissible by hereditary right, like those of 
 the dukes and counts, his great vassals. For the pur- 
 pose, however, of better securing its possession in his 
 race, he thought right to place it under the protection 
 of the church, and caused his son Robert to be crowned 
 during his life-time. He placed himself in absolute 
 dependence upon the priests, and loaded them with 
 riches and honours. 
 
 The course of his reign was marked only by the 
 cruel wars which raged between his great vassals. 
 The frightful calamities to which his people were ex- 
 posed, confirmed them in their belief that the end of 
 the world was at hand. A dreadful plague ravaged 
 Aquitaine and France ; and such was the suffering of 
 the people, that the expectation of universal destruc- 
 tion inspired generally more of hope than fear. The 
 rich and powerful, sharing in the general belief, lavish- 
 ed their wealth upon the clergy. Many valiant chiefs 
 laid aside the sword for the cowl, and Hugh Capet 
 himself reigned without wearing his diadem. He died 
 in 996, recommending to his son, above all things, to 
 watch over the interests of the clergy, and submit him- 
 self unreservedly to the pope, in order that he might 
 secure his salvation. 
 
 Robert was so faithful to these instructions that he 
 obtained from his contemporaries the surname of the 
 Pious. Deeply moved by the sufferings of his people, 
 he strove to relieve the wretched by a charity which 
 knew no bounds, and to disarm the rigour of heaven 
 by angelic patience and the most fervent devotion. 
 His fervent piety, however, could not shield him from 
 the ecclesiastical censures and violent persecution of 
 the church of Rome. 
 
 Hugh, the father of Robert, had been kept in a state 
 
ROBERT EXCOMMUNICATED. 
 
 69 
 
 Robert the Pious. 
 
 of uneasiness by the Normans established at Blois, who 
 refused to acknowledge his authority ; but he finally 
 succeeded in gaining them over by causing his son to 
 marry the celebrated Bertha, the widow of Eudes I. 
 of Blois. This princess possessed claims to the duchy 
 of Burgundy, bequeathed by her brother Rodolph to the 
 empire, which claims she had the right of transferring 
 to the house of France. The emperor Otho III. took 
 the alarm ; and pope Gregory V., who was devoted to 
 him, seized upon the pretext of a distant relationship, 
 to require that Robert should abandon his wife. This 
 he refused to do, and was excommunicated. Such 
 were the terrors which followed in the train of excom- 
 munication, that the king was at once abandoned by all 
 his servants. Robert was at last compelled to divorce 
 Bertha ; and he afterwards married the haughty Con- 
 stance of Toulouse. She soon assumed the reins of 
 government, setting her husband's authority at defiance, 
 and committing cruelties before unheard of. It was 
 
60 HENRY I. 
 
 Constance that first kindled in France the flames of 
 the stake for the destruction of heretics. Robert, 
 though kind and gentle to a fault, was greatly to blame 
 in suffering his wife thus to counteract all the good of 
 which he was the author. 
 
 The nobles, encouraged by the weakness of the king, 
 had already begun to oppress their vassals. Murmurs 
 not yet loud, but deep, began to arise from the inhabit- 
 ants of the towns. Some appealed to their ancient 
 rights, while others, forming corporations, organized 
 themselves into bands of militia, built walls around 
 their dwellings, fortified their walls and guarded their 
 gates. Then commenced that resistance to tyranny 
 and oppression, which led to the revolution, that in the 
 next century enfranchised the communes. They laid 
 their complaints before Robert, but he was too poor to 
 redeem their misery, and too powerless to overawe 
 their oppressors. He died in 1031, having previously 
 caused his son Henry to be crowned and acknowledged 
 as his successor. 
 
 Henry I., at the beginning of his reign, had to sus- 
 tain a family wai* against his mother Constance, who 
 wished to place his younger brother Robert on the 
 throne. The church declared for Henry, and the cele- 
 brated Robert the Magnificent, duke of Normandy, 
 aided him with his sword, and secured him the crown. 
 Henry defeated his brother, pardoned him, and gave 
 him the duchy of Burgundy, which continued in his 
 family upwards of three hundred years. The remain- 
 der of the reign of Henry I. was signalized only by a 
 dreadful famine, which spread over the greater part of 
 his kingdom, and by the cruel and barbarous wars carried 
 on by his great vassals against each other. The king 
 also commenced an unfortunate war against William, 
 duke of Normandy, the son of his former ally and vas- 
 sal Robert ; but was frightened out of its prosecution 
 by a stratagem of William's. Henry had three sons 
 by the princess Anne, daughter of the Czar of Russia, 
 the eldest of whom, Philip, he caused to be crowned 
 
CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 61 
 
 in his life-time. He died in 1060, after a reign of 
 twenty-nine years. 
 
 William the Conqueror receives the Crown. 
 
 Philip 1. was eight years old when he succeeded 
 his father, under the guardianship of Baldwin, count 
 of Flanders. The most important event which took 
 place during his minority — but in which he had no 
 share whatever — was the conquest of England by 
 William, duke of Normandy. William landed in Eng- 
 land, met Harold the king at Hastings, and defeated 
 his army, killing the king, and subduing the kingdom. 
 William, after receiving the crown, divided atl the 
 lands in fiefs among his knights and barons ; and the 
 feudal system extended over the whole of that country, 
 as it had already spread through France, Germany and 
 Italy.* 
 
 * The banner at the mast head of William's ship, in the ac- 
 companying cut, is the one which was blessed by the pope when 
 he gave his sanction to the expedition against Harold. 
 
 6 
 
PHILIP I. 
 
 Ship in which William the Conqueror sailed to Engl; 
 
 After the death of his guardian, and when Philip 
 was old enough to take the reins of government into 
 his own hands, his first act was to march with an army 
 into Flanders, to assist the grandson of Baldwin, who 
 had been driven from his rightful possessions by his 
 uncle Robert of Friesland. The intervention of the 
 young king, though honourable to himself, was unsuc- 
 cessful. He was defeated at Cassel ; but the following 
 year, he received the homage of the new count of 
 Flanders, who gave him his grand-daughter. Bertha of 
 Holland, in marriage. This marriage was unhappy. 
 Growing tired of her, he imprisoned her, and subse- 
 quently carried off Bertrade, the wife of the count of 
 Anjou, and married her. 
 
 Urban II., who then filled the pontifical chair, or- 
 dered Philip to put away Bertrade. He refused. 
 Whereupon he was excommunicated by a council as- 
 
REIGN OF PHILIP. Dd 
 
 sembled at Autun, in 1094 ; first, because of his ille- 
 gitimate marriage ; and secondly, because he had sold 
 some of the ecclesiastical benefices in his kingdom at 
 public sale to the highest bidder. It was only about 
 three years before his death that he was readmitted to 
 communion with the church. 
 
 Philip also commenced and prosecuted a twelve 
 years' war against William the Conqueror, which was 
 not, however, marked by any memorable event. Wil- 
 liam corrupted the counsellors and partisans of Philip, 
 by the bribe of large domains in England ; and Philip, 
 on his side, offered protection to all the discontented 
 Normans, and took part with Robert, William's eldest 
 son, who had revolted against his father. William suf- 
 fered himself to be so far provoked by a witticism of 
 Philip, that he assembled a formidable army, and was 
 preparing to carry fire and sword through the domi- 
 nions of the French monarch, when his career was 
 stopped by death at the town of Mantes, which he had 
 plundered and burned. (1087.) He was succeeded in 
 Normandy by his eldest son Robert, and in England by 
 his second son,, William Rufus, who, subsequently, in 
 the absence of his brother, seized also upon Normandy. 
 
 The death of William was a subject of great rejoic- 
 ing to Philip, who was now left at liberty to pursue, 
 undisturbed, his indolent and scandalous career. Some 
 time before his death, he associated his son Louis with 
 him in the government; and this prince, by his wisdom, 
 activity, and judicious exertions, succeeded, in soma 
 degree, in repairing the neglect of his father. He 
 marched with rapidity and force against the vassals of 
 the crown, who were perpetually in insurrection, and 
 thus gradually acquired general respect for the royal 
 authority, and diminished the excessive power and ar- 
 rogance of the nobles. Bertrade, the king's mistress, 
 at one time attempted to poison the young prince, but 
 he recovered, and she was punished. 
 
 Before his death, Philip laid aside the insignia of 
 royalty, and being afflicted with painful infirmities, he 
 
64 
 
 PETER THE HERMIT. 
 
 ceased to reign save in name. A haunting- fear of 
 death took possession of his mind, and he died in 1108, 
 at the age of sixty, under the garb of a Benedictine 
 monk. 
 
 PhiUpL 
 
 It was under the reign of Philip I. that those great 
 expeditions commenced against the Saracens of the 
 east, known by the name of the Crusades. At the 
 council of Clermont, held in 1095, by pope Urban II., 
 an enthusiast, named Peter the Hermit, who had re- 
 turned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, appeared, and 
 recounted the indignities heaped upon visiters to the 
 holy sepulchre by the Turks, who then were in pos- 
 session of the country. He had already traversed the 
 west, urging the kings, nobles, and people, to take up 
 the cross, and march to the rescue of the holy city, 
 promising salvation to those who should die in the ex- 
 
THE FIRST CRUSADE. 65 
 
 pedition. At the council of Clermont, Urban, who 
 saw in this movement a powerful means of strengthen- 
 ing his own power and the authority of the church, 
 seized with avidity the idea thrown out by the Hermit, 
 and addressing the assembled multitude of kings, priests 
 and nobles, he drew a pathetic picture of the desola- 
 tion of the holy places, and the sufferings of the Chris- 
 tians in Palestine. The assembly replied vi^ith tears 
 and sobs ; and when the pontiff proceeded to trace the 
 insolence and audacity of the enemies of Christ, their 
 indignation and enthusiasm were loud and general, and 
 the cry of ^^Bieu le veutT (God wills it!) resounded 
 on every side. "Go then," said the pontiff, "brave 
 soldiers of Jesus ! and let your shout of to-day, Dieu le 
 veut ! be the war-cry of your holy enterprise !" 
 
 The princes and nobles present received each a cross 
 of red stuff from the hands of the pope, which they 
 fastened on their right shoulders, and separated to 
 gather together their armies to commence the crusade 
 in the ensuing spring. Though the indolent Philip 
 took no part in this great enterprise, yet many of his 
 subjects were found among those who took arms and 
 the cross, and among them his brother Hugo, the count 
 of Vermandois. The commander-in-chief of the cru- 
 sade was Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lower Lorraine. 
 Among the other chieftains may be mentioned the 
 pope's legate, Adhemar of Monteil, the bishop of Puy, 
 Raymond, count of Toulouse, Baldwin and Eustace, 
 the, brothers of Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert IL, duke 
 of Normandy, Bohemond, prince of Tarentum, and his 
 nephew Tancred. Ten thousand knights and seventy 
 thousand foot-soldiers followed Godfrey from Francej 
 Lorraine, and Germany, to Constantinople. Then 
 crossing the Bosphorus, they took NicaBa, and after- 
 wards Antioch, and finally succeeded in making the 
 conquest of Jerusalem. (1099.) A Christian kingdom 
 was established in Palestine, and the crown of Jeru- 
 salem conferred upon Godfrey of Bouillon, who, un- 
 willing to wear a crown of gold where the King of 
 6* 
 
bb LOUIS THE FAT. 
 
 kings had worn one of thorns, contented himself with 
 the title of Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. He died in 
 1100, one year afterwards. The feudal system was 
 organized in the east, and the kingdom of Jerusalem 
 endured till its destruction by Saladin in 1187. During 
 that time many attempts were made by the Maho- 
 metans to recover a territory which they considered 
 their own. Soon after the capture of Jerusalem by 
 Godfrey, two powerful societies of military monks were 
 formed for the defence of the Christians in Palestine, 
 the Knights Templars, and the Knights Hospitallers 
 of St. John of Jerusalem, afterwards known as the 
 Knights of Malta. Besides the support of these two 
 warlike fraternities for the defence of the holy land, 
 other crusades were formed from time to time. Not 
 more than one-tenth of those who took part in the first 
 crusade ever returned to Europe. Nearly all of the 
 foot-soldiers perished. 
 
 Louis VI., surnamed VEveille, (the Wakeful,) and 
 afterwards le Gros, (the Fat,) was the first knight of 
 his kingdom; and it was with helmet on head and 
 lance in hand that he sought and won universal respect. 
 Some of the nobles of the kingdom had turned robbers, 
 and infested the roads to Paris and Orleans, plundering 
 the villages, and stripping the merchants and travellers. 
 The king reduced many of these to obedience or to 
 impotence, and established public security throughout 
 his dominions. He compelled the lords of Coucy and 
 Montlhery to do homage for their possessions. While 
 thus contending with the nobles, he attached the popu- 
 lace to himself^ by protecting them from the depreda- 
 tions of theif superiors. He sanctioned the enfran- 
 chisement of the cities north of the Loire, giving the 
 authority of law to the freedom which they had already 
 won from their immediate masters. In the midst of 
 these attempts to increase and strengthen the royal au- 
 thority, Louis had also to sustain a war against the 
 Anglo-Normans. The possession of the little town of 
 Gisors, was the pretext on which this war was com- 
 
 I 
 
WAR WITH ENGLAND. 67 
 
 menced ; but it was afterwards carried on for the purpose 
 of reinstating- the son of Robert, duke of Normandy, in 
 his possessions. Henry I., the king- of England, had 
 taken possession of it v/ithout any legitimate right. 
 Louis VI. girded on his armour and hastened to resent 
 the affront. Though he gained some advantage at 
 Neaufle, he was beaten at Brenneville, where there 
 were but three men slain. (1119.) Small as this num- 
 ber is, one of them was killed by the king himself. 
 " The king is taken ! the king is taken !" said a soldier, 
 seizing the bridle of his horse. "Learn," replied 
 Louis, " that the king is never taken, even in the game 
 
 Louis VI. and the Soldier. 
 
 of chess;" and so saying, he killed the audacious sol- 
 dier with a single blow of his sword. The pope sum- 
 moned a council to meet at Rheiras, principally for the 
 purpose of inducing Louis to make peace with the kir^ 
 of England. The conditions of peace, dictated by this 
 council, were agreed to by the contending parties, 
 Henry retaining Normandy, for which his son William 
 did homage to the king of France. 
 
 During the reign of Louis, the schools of Paris ac- 
 quired great celebrity. Among those distinguished at 
 that early day for their learning and genius, may be 
 mentioned Pierre Abeilard, and the celebrated Suger, 
 
68 LOUIS THE YOUNG. 
 
 Abbe of St. Denis. The great reputation of Sugar as 
 a statesman, politician and scholar, lent itself to the 
 vassals over whom his authority extended. Montjoie 
 and St. Denis ! was long the war-cry of the French ; 
 and the banner under which the vassals of that abbey 
 fought, became the national standard. Louis le Gros 
 and his successors took it solemnly from the altar when 
 they started on an expedition, and brought it back in 
 pomp at the close of the war. It bore the name of 
 Oriflamme, because the staff was covered with gold, 
 and the lower edge of the banner was cut into the 
 shape of flames. 
 
 The eldest son of Louis perishing by an accident, he 
 associated with himself, in the government, his second 
 son Louis, whom he left as his successor at his death 
 in 1137. 
 
 Louis VII., le Jeune, (the Young,) succeeded his 
 father at the age of eighteen. A short time before his 
 father's death, he had married Eleonore, the daughter 
 of William, duke of Aquitaine, who had for her mar- 
 riage portion that rich duchy, nearly equal in extent to 
 all that was then included under the title of France. 
 
 On ascending the throne, Louis le Jeune gave token 
 of a disposition as warlike as that of his father. He 
 assisted Geoffrey Plantagenet to conquer Normandy 
 from his brother Stephen ; he restrained the nobles and 
 clergy within the bounds of their respective duties ; 
 and drew upon his head the maledictions of pope Inno- 
 cent II., by opposing his usurpations, and refusing to 
 acknowledge an archbishop of his appointment. 
 
 The most memorable event of this reign is the second 
 crusade, preached with great success by Saint Bernard, 
 and commanded by the king in person. Louis con- 
 sidered himself as having a great crime to expiate. In 
 a war against Thibaut, count of Champagne, he had 
 set fire to the church of Vitry, where thirteen hundred 
 persons had taken refuge, and they had all perished in 
 the flames. Appalled by this disaster, he thought he 
 could do no better than to engage in the crusade which 
 
THE SECOND CRUSADE. 
 
 A Crusader in fuJl Armour. 
 
 Saint Bernard was then preaching. His minister 
 Suger, the abbot of Saint Denis, vainly opposed his 
 departure. He received absolution from Celestin, the 
 successor of Innocent ; but his conscience still impel- 
 ling him, he received the oriflamme from Suger, and 
 leaving to him the regency, set out at the head of a 
 hundred thousand soldiers of France. His w^ife Eleo- 
 nore accompanied him. The expedition was unlucky 
 and disastrous. The emperor of Germany, who had 
 preceded him, had been surprised, and his army de- 
 
70 QUEEN ELEONORE. 
 
 stroyed in Laodicea. Louis collected the wreck of the 
 emperor's army, but lost the half of his own in the 
 mountains; all his attempts were disastrous, and 
 finally his vast expedition dwindled down into a devo- 
 tional pilgrimage on his part to the holy sepulchre; 
 whence he returned to Europe with a mere handful of 
 soldiers, the remains of his once brilliant army. 
 
 Queen Eleonore, indignant at the weakness and mis- 
 fortunes of her spouse, caused her marriage with him 
 to be dissolved on the plea of relationship (1152) ; and 
 soon afterwards gave her hand to Henry Plantagenet, 
 afterwards king of England, carrying with her as her 
 dowry Aquitaine, lost to France by this fatal divorce. 
 Unhappiness followed queen Eleonore. She incited 
 the three sons of Henry to revolt against him, and 
 Louis VIL supported them in their infamous war. In 
 return for his services, they did homage to him for 
 Normandy, Aquitaine, and Brittany ; but they were de- 
 feated by their father at Verneuil and Rouen, and a 
 reconciliation soon afterv/ards took place between the 
 two kings. Louis caused his son Philip Augustus to 
 be crowned, and died, after having made a pilgrimage 
 to the tomb of Thomas a Becket. He left behind him 
 the reputation of a devout king, full of respect for the 
 sacred orders, and benevolence towards his subjects, 
 but destitute of all greatness of mind and political 
 ability. He lived too long for his own glory and the 
 prosperity of France ; which lost, in the second half of 
 his reign, the provinces which he had acquired by mar- 
 riage in the first, and which were finally recovered 
 only after centuries of war and disaster. 
 
 Philip IL, surnamed Augustus, succeeded his father 
 on the throne of France in 1 180, at the age of fifteen 
 years. At that time the territory of which France is 
 now composed was almost entirely held of powerful 
 sovereigns. Most of the provinces, once independent, 
 had acknowledged some monarch as their suzerain: 
 those of the west, for the most part obeyed the king of 
 England ; those of the east, the emperor of Germany ; 
 
PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 
 
 71 
 
 Philip IT. 
 
 those of the north, the king- of France ; and finally, 
 Provence and a part of Languedoc were fiefs of the 
 crown of Aragon. Philip lived to see all these rival 
 pretensions extinguished in his own ; and it is his glory 
 to have been the first of his race, who made his influ- 
 ence felt from the Scheldt to the Mediterranean, and 
 from the Rhine to the ocean. 
 
 He began his reign by a series of cruel persecutions, 
 directed against the Jews, a set of heretics called Pa- 
 terins, and all blasphemers, causing them to be plun- 
 dered, condemned to the flames, or expelled the king- 
 dom. He showed his skill in diplomacy, by fomenting 
 civil wars among his neighbours, and involving his 
 great vassals in contentions with each other, in order 
 that they might, by diminishing their own power, in- 
 crease his influence. Not content with thus embroil- 
 ing his own subjects, he incited the children of Henry 
 n. again to make war against their father, until at last 
 they were the cause of his death. Henry died of grief, 
 at Chinon, after having signed a humiliating treaty 
 
72 DISSENSIONS OF THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 with Philip Augustus and his own son Richard, and re- 
 ceiving tidings of the revolt of his third son John. 
 Richard, afterwards called the lion-hearted, succeeded 
 him on the throne of England. 
 
 Bound at first by the strictest bonds of friendship, 
 Richard and Philip, hearing of the capture of Jerusa- 
 lem by Saladin, set out together with their respective 
 armies on another crusade. But, hardly had they ar- 
 rived in Sicily, when causes of dissension sprung up 
 between them. Richard, who had been betrothed to 
 Adelaide of France, secretly married Berengere of 
 Navarre; whilst Philip, on his arrival at Palermo, 
 having seen the English flag floating over the castle, 
 ordered it to be pulled down, and that of France hoisted 
 in its place, using thus, in all their rigour, the rights 
 given by the feudal system to the suzerain over his 
 vassal. The two fleets sailed separately from Sicily. 
 Philip, arriving first, laid siege to Saint Jean d'Acre, 
 which was carried by assault on the arrival of Richard. 
 Here the two kings again quarrelled, and they finally 
 determined to separate, Philip to return to France, and 
 Richard, taking the command of both armies, to prose- 
 cute the war against Saladin. Philip took an oath to 
 undertake no expedition against the dominions of the 
 English king during his absence, but to defend them as 
 he would his own. 
 
 Richard pursued his heroic career in Palestine, 
 achieved brilliant victories without result, and finally 
 concluding a treaty with Saladin, by which Christians 
 were to be allowed, unmolested, to visit the holy sepul- 
 chre, he returned to Europe, and was thrown by ship- 
 wreck into the hands of his mortal enemy, Leopold, 
 duke of Austria, who delivered him to the emperor 
 Henry VI., by whom he was held in captivity. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Philip lost no time in applying 
 to the pope to release him from his oath. On the pon- 
 tiff's refusal, the king looked about him in search of 
 some pious act by which he might compensate for 
 his contemplated breach of faith. Accordingly, he 
 
WAR WITH RICHARD OF ENGLAND. 
 
 73 
 
 caused eighty Jews to be thrown into the fire, and then 
 commenced the war against his imprisoned brother in 
 arms. Richard was also betrayed by his own brother 
 John, whom he had left in charge of his kingdom, who 
 seized upon a portion of Iiis territories, and offered 
 large sums of money to the emperor, to induce him to 
 retain his prisoner. But the public clamour compelled 
 him at last to release him, after extorting an exorbitant 
 ransom. Richard reappeared suddenly in his dominions, 
 reduced his brother to submission, and avenged himself 
 on Philip, by making alliances with some powerful 
 counts, enemies of the latter. The war was continued 
 between the two rivals with various success, and finally 
 they signed a truce for five years. Richard was soon 
 after killed at the siege of Chaluz, which was held 
 against him by one of his vassals. (1199.) John seized 
 upon the crown to the exclusion of his nephew, Arthur 
 
 Death of Prince Arthur. 
 
74 BATTLE OF EOUVINES. 
 
 of Brittany. Philip, who had been the firm ally of 
 John, while he only pretended a right to the crown, 
 now that he had seized upon it, declared in favour of 
 the young prince Arthur, who promised him homage 
 for all his possessions in France, and ceded Normandy 
 in his favour. A sanguinary war ensued, in which 
 Arthur was taken prisoner by king John, and died by 
 assassination, perhaps by the hand of his uncle. The 
 king of France summoned the king of England, as his 
 vassal, to appear before a court of his peers, to answer, 
 among other charges, that of the murder of his nephew. 
 John did not deny the jurisdiction, but dreading the 
 sentence of the tribunal, he failed to appear. The 
 court of peers thereupon condemned him to death as 
 contumacious ; and Normandy, and all other territories 
 which he held as fiefs of France, were declared to be 
 confiscated, and reattached to the crown of that country. 
 Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Poitou, were reunited 
 to the royal domain, but not without many struggles and 
 much bloodshed ; Guienne, alone, of all her continental 
 possessions, remained to England. Alarmed at the pro- 
 ceedings of the king of France, who was assembling 
 an army for the invasion of England, John entered into 
 a league against him, with Ferrand, the count of Flan- 
 ders, and the emperor of Germany, OthoIV. of Bruns- 
 wick. Thirty thousand knights, and two hundred 
 thousand foot-soldiers, Germans, Flemings, and Eng- 
 lish, under the command of Otho in person, appeared 
 on the north of France. Philip advanced to meet 
 them. The armies met near Bouvines, between Lille 
 and Tournai, and a terrible battle ensued. (1214.) 
 Struck by the hooked lance of an English foot-soldier, 
 and thrown from his horse, Philip would have been 
 killed, had tie not been saved by the bishop of Beauvais. 
 Encased in armour, this prelate, in order not to violate 
 the precepts of the Scripture, which forbid priests to 
 shed blood, fought with a heavy mace, with which he 
 beat down and stunned all who opposed him. At last 
 the allied army was completely routed. The emperor 
 
PHILIP S TRIUMPH. 
 
 75 
 
 Otho had only time to save himself, leaving to the con- 
 querors the imperial eagle, which had been gilded and 
 raised upon an elevated chariot, so as to be seen by the 
 whole army, and serve as a rallying point to the im- 
 perial troops. The count of Flanders, less happy, or 
 Jess agile than his suzerain, was captured and carried 
 to Paris, where he was imprisoned in the Louvre.* 
 The entrance of Philip into his capital partook of the 
 character of the old Roman triumphs. He was re- 
 ceived with the acclamations of his people ; and the 
 
 King John of England- 
 
 *See Frontispiece. 
 
76 CONSTANTINOPLE CAPTURED. 
 
 glorious battle of Bouvines, in which he had vanquish- 
 ed three sovereigns, added greatly to the renown and 
 consideration of the Capet dynasty throughout Europe. 
 
 The victory of Bouvines, procured for Philip a tri- 
 umph still more glorious. The English barons, dis- 
 contented with their king, deposed him, and offered the 
 crown to Louis of France, the son of Philip Augustus. 
 Prince Louis was at first favourably received in Eng- 
 land, but at the death of the deposed monarch, king 
 John, the partisans of the Plantagenets rallied around 
 his infant son Henry, and proclaimed him their king. 
 Louis was defeated at Lincoln, by the earl of Pem- 
 broke, and forced to abdicate his kingdom of a day. 
 He returned to France, after having contributed to es- 
 tablish the liberties of England upon a more secure 
 basis. 
 
 The reign of Philip Augustus, already filled with 
 important events, was signalized by two other crusades, 
 besides that in which he was personally engaged. The 
 first, composed of French and Flemish knights, led 
 by Thibaut of Champagne, and afterwards by the 
 marquis of Montferrat, and Baldwin, count of Flanders, 
 never reached the holy land, the primary object of the 
 expedition. The intrigues of the Venetians, and the 
 solicitations of a young Greek prince, who sought their 
 aid in the recovery of the throne of his father, Isaac 
 Comnenus, drew the attention of the crusaders \o Con- 
 stantinople, which they twice captured; first for the 
 Greek prince, and then for themselves. On its second 
 capture, the empire was dismembered and partitioned 
 into fiefs, and Baldwin, count of Flanders, elected em- 
 peror of Constantinople. (1204.) 
 
 The other crusade, the third of the reign of Philip 
 Augustus, was directed, not against the Saracens of the 
 east, but against the heretics of the south of France, 
 called Albigenses, from the name of the city, Aibi, 
 where their doctrines first took root. The count of 
 Toulouse, Raymond VI., the viscount of Beziers, and 
 other nobles who were supposed to favour the new doc- 
 
ALBIGENSES. 77 
 
 trines, were excommunicated. An army, commanded 
 by the ferocious Simon de Montfort, entered Languedoc 
 in 1213, and gained the battle of Murel, in which king 
 Pedro II. of Aragon, the ally and suzerain of Raymond 
 of Toulouse, was slain. Montfort, to whom the pope 
 gave all the lands which he could conquer from the 
 Albigenses, laid siege to Toulouse, but he was killed 
 before the walls ; and Raymond was once more re- 
 ceived with acclamations by his subjects. Amoury, 
 the son of Simon, too feeble to resist the Albigenses, 
 implored the aid of Louis VIII., who had succeeded to 
 the throne of France, offering to cede to him his right 
 over the conquered territories. At the end of twenty- 
 two years from the commencement of the war, when 
 all had grown tired of butchery, and when the fine 
 arts, language and industry of these provinces had dis- 
 appeared with the persecution, the war was at last ter- 
 minated by the treaty of Meaux, signed in 1229, by 
 which the greater part of Languedoc was ceded, by 
 Raymond VII., to the crown of France. This was the 
 last struggle for independence of the south against the 
 men of the north. This terrible war, and the establish- 
 ment of the inquisition, destroyed all hopes of liberty 
 in the south of France. 
 
 Philip Augustus took no active share in this war of 
 extermination ; on the contrary, he sought to repair its 
 disastrous effects. Whilst fanaticism was deluging the 
 southern countries with blood, he extended his domi- 
 nions and made them flourish. The national assem- 
 blies had fallen into disuse ; but Philip summoned his 
 chief barons to council, and asked their sanction for his 
 decrees. He conquered Normandy, Maine, Anjou, 
 Touraine, and Poitou, from the king of England ; Pi- 
 cardy and Auvergne from the counts, their possessors, 
 and annexed Artois to the crown by his marriage with 
 Isabella of Hainault. These acquisitions were as much 
 the results of his policy as of his valour. He made the 
 great vassals bend to his authority, and obtained over 
 them, by means of his victories, substantially that 
 7* 
 
78 
 
 LOUIS VIII. 
 
 superiority which the theory of the times attached to 
 the royal title. The citation of king" John to his tri- 
 bunal, and the sentence pronounced against that mo- 
 narch, gave a mortal blow to the feudal aristocracy, the 
 equilibrium of whose powers was from that moment 
 disturbed. 
 
 Louis VIII. succeeded his father Philip Augustus in 
 1223, and reigned only three years. The principal 
 acts of his life were performed before he came to the 
 throne, and have been narrated in the history of the 
 reign of his father. His reign was signalized only by 
 a last expedition which he undertook, with the object 
 of completing the subjection of the Albigenses. All 
 the principal towns opened their gates as he approach- 
 ed ; and he was marching against Toulouse, when an 
 epidemic fever appeared and spread with rapidity in 
 his army. Louis died at Montpensier, (1226,) either a 
 
SONS OF LOUIS VIII. 
 
 79 
 
 victim to the malady, or to poison administered by Thi- 
 baut of Champag-ne, who was greatly enamoured of the 
 queen, Blanche of Castile. He left behind him four 
 sons, Louis IX., who reigned after him, Robert, count 
 d'Artois, Alphonso, count of Poitiers, and Charles, 
 count of Anjou. They were all infants at the time of 
 the death of their father. 
 
 Hgares taken from monurnents of the twelfth century. 
 
Louis DC. and Blanche of Castile. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CAPETIEN DYNASTY. 
 
 Louis IX. — Philip III. — Philip IV. — Louis X.— 
 John I. — Philip V. — Charles IV. 
 
 Louis IX., better known by the name of Saint Louis, 
 was only eleven years of age when his father died, and 
 he was crowned king of France. The regency, which 
 was confided to the hand of his mother, queen Blanche, 
 was troubled by the aggressions of the turbulent nobles, 
 who eagerly seized the occasion of a minority to at- 
 tempt the extension of their authority. Thibaut IV., 
 count of Champagne, and afterwards king of Navarre, 
 
 C80) 
 
SAINT LOUIS. 81 
 
 and Peter, duke of Brittany, surnamed Mauclerc, were 
 the leaders of the rebellion. The address of the queen 
 regent, soon detached the first of these noblemen from 
 the league, and, with his help, the second was reduced 
 to submission. 
 
 It was Blanche who secured to France the fruits of 
 the dreadful war against the Albigenses. The treaty 
 of Meaux, sometimes called the treaty of Paris, signed 
 in 1229, subjected to the crown a great portion of the 
 estates of count Raymond VII. ; and the remainder, in- 
 cluding the county of Toulouse, constituted the dowry 
 which Jane, the heiress of Raymond, brought to Al- 
 phonso, the count of Poitiers, and brother of the king. 
 
 As fervent a Christian as she was an able queen, 
 Blanche of Castile was not contented with making her 
 son a great king ; she gave him excellent instructions, 
 and caused him to be brought up in the fear of God. 
 Notwithstanding her tenderness, she said that she 
 would rather see her son dead, than that he should be 
 guilty of a mortal sin. The affection of Blanche for 
 her son was unbounded. It was so great that it some- 
 times amounted to jealousy. It is said that she could 
 never be brought to trust him in his infancy to a nurse, 
 but always nourished him at her own breast. This 
 maternal jealousy even extended to the wife which 
 Louis, by the advice of his mother, married at the age 
 of nineteen. She was Margaret of Provence, and was 
 but thirteen years of age at the time of her marriage. 
 Queen Blanche kept them apart for six years, carrying 
 her jealousy, in some instances, even to persecution. 
 Margaret's sister, a few years afterwards, married 
 Henry III, king of England, who thus became the 
 brother-in-law of Saint Louis. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one, Louis took the reins of 
 government in his own hands. He was soon called to 
 oppose the king of England ; who, aided by the counts 
 of La Marche, Foix and Toulouse, attempted to regain 
 the territory which Philip Augustus had wrested from 
 England. The young king covered himself with glory 
 
82 LOUIS GOES TO PALESTINE. 
 
 at the bridge of Tailleboiirg-, and subsequently at the 
 town of Saintes, where he met and defeated the allied 
 armies. It was at the first of these battles that he 
 sustained alone, for some time, at the end of the bridg-e, 
 the shock of the entire English army, thus giving to 
 modern nations an example equal to that which Hora- 
 tius Codes gave to the ancient Romans. The rebel 
 lords submitted, and Henry returned to England. 
 
 During a dangerous illness, in 1244, Louis made a 
 vow to assume the cross if he should recover; and on 
 the completion of his cure prepared, notwithstanding 
 the tears and entreaties of his wife and mother, to ful- 
 fil his pledge. Accordingly, leaving the regency to 
 his mother, he took the pilgrim's stafi" and oriflamme at 
 St. Denis, and quitted Paris in 1248, for the purpose 
 of embarking for the east. He was accompanied by 
 his young queen, his brothers, and his principal ser- 
 vants, among whom were Gaucher de Chatillon, his 
 banner-bearer, and John de Joinville, the seneschal of 
 Champagne, the beloved companion of the good king, 
 and afterwards distinguished as an historian. The 
 safest course to the holy land would have been by 
 tlie way of Sicily, then subject to Frederic II. ; but 
 that emperor had been excommunicated by the pope, 
 and Louis, fearing to rest in the dominions of a monarch 
 in a state of reprobation, determined to proceed into 
 Egypt by the way of Cyprus, instead of passing through 
 Sicily into Syria. This pious error was fatal to his 
 expedition. Arriving at Damietta, Louis, followed by 
 his knights, sprung into the sea in complete armour, 
 waded ashore, repulsed the enemy, and took possession 
 of that strong city with its immense resources. 
 
 Leaving the women and baggage of his army at 
 Damietta, Louis next attempted to penetrate to Cairo, 
 but the rise of the Nile, and the flooding of the coun- 
 try, surprised and prevented him. After five months 
 of inactivity, he at last appeared, without sufficient 
 caution, before Massoura, where he was surrounded by 
 the Turks, and forced to give battle in an unfavourable 
 
LOUIS TAKEN CAPTIVE. 8d 
 
 position. (1249.) The Turkish emir, Fakreddin, was 
 slain in the battle ; but Louis lost his brother Robert, 
 and a great number of knights Templars and knights 
 of St. John, with nearly half of his foot-soldiers. A 
 retreat to Damietta was commenced ; but the Turkish 
 galleys intercepted his passage ; and, destitute of re- 
 sources, the king, with all his army, except that part 
 which had remained with the queen to garrison Da- 
 mietta, fell into the hands of the Mussulmans. The 
 king's resignation and magnanimity in misfortune, were 
 so much admired, that his captors wished to make him 
 their sultan. 
 
 Whilst at Damietta, queen Margaret gave birth to a 
 son, to whom she gave the name of Tristan, on account 
 of the sad circumstances by which she was then sur- 
 rounded. While the king was a prisoner, she showed 
 herself, in every respect, worthy of him. Fearful of 
 talHng into the power of the Turks, should they cap- 
 ture the city, she entreated an aged knight attached to 
 her person to grant her a favour — to bind himself by 
 an oath to kill her with his sword before the Mussul- 
 mans should lay hands on her. " Madam," said the old 
 warrior, " I had thought of doing so." And he wil- 
 lingly took the proffered vow. Damietta, however, 
 was not taken, and Margaret held it as a pledge for 
 her husband's security. She offered it, with four hun- 
 dred thousand livres, for the king's ransom; and at 
 that price Louis regained his liberty. His barons re- 
 turned into France, but he remained in Syria four 
 years longer, employing his treasures in the fortifica- 
 tion of Tyre, Sidon, and the other towns of Palestine, 
 in possession of the Christians. Recalled, at last, to 
 France, by the death of his mother, queen Blanche, 
 (1253,) he left the holy land with the hope of soon re- 
 luming, with relief, to the city of Jerusalem, which 
 had been captured by the enemy. 
 
 Louis entered Paris in 1254, and found the affairs of 
 his kingdom in such a condition as absolutely to forbid 
 his return to Palestine for many years. He employed 
 
84 HIS WISE MEASURES. 
 
 himself actively, however, in the renovation of his 
 kingdom, and exhibited the qualities of a great legis- 
 lator. He completed the overthrow of the sovereign 
 authority of the nobles, by depriving them of the right 
 of dispensing arbitrary justice. He published the code 
 of Roman laws, known as the Pandects of Justinian, 
 and constituted a court of justice for their explanation 
 and interpretation. He strove to put an end to the 
 civil wars between his barons, and forbade the practice 
 of judicial combat. He decreed, that after an offence 
 given, the two parties should refrain from taking up 
 arms, during a truce of forty days ; that judicial com- 
 bat should be superseded by legal argument; and he 
 greatly increased the authority of the crown, by taking 
 under his own jurisdiction the determination of contro- 
 versies between vassals and their lords. He published 
 the collection of ordinances, known by the name of 
 Etablissements de Saint Louis, (Institutes of St. Louis,) 
 which contains wise and useful laws against venality 
 of justice, avidity of creditors, corporal imprisonment, 
 and usurious profits. Louis further evinced the firm- 
 ness and independence of his spirit, by the publication 
 of the Pragmatic Sanction, forbidding the raising of 
 money in the kingdom, for the use of Rome, without 
 the king's authority, and prescribing certain cases in 
 which a right of appeal was given from ecclesiastical 
 to the royal judgment. Eighty of his nobles had the 
 right of coining in their domains. Louis regulated and 
 fixed the value of the money of each of these, and or- 
 dered that his own coinage should have currency every- 
 where. He established a public library at Paris, 
 created the hospital of Quinze- Vingts for the recep- 
 tion of three hundred blind persons, and finally, under 
 his reign, Robert de Sorbon founded the celebrated 
 college which bears his name. Uniting with fervent 
 piety great purity of intention and an ardent love of 
 equity, he set, in his own person, the example of re- 
 spect for the laws. He loved to administer justice to 
 his people, seated in his gardens, or under shadow of 
 
HIS PENALTIES AGAINST HERETICS. 
 
 85 
 
 the oaks in the forest of Vincennes ; and, on more than 
 one occasion, he pronounced severe sentences against 
 members of his own family, and nobles with whom he 
 lived in a state of intimacy. 
 
 Saiut Louis dispensing justice. 
 
 Notwithstanding his wisdom, his devotion, which was 
 in some instances misdirected, caused him to fall into 
 serious errors. He pronounced atrocious penalties 
 against Jews, heretics, and blasphemers ; and the con- 
 fiscations of Philip Augustus against the English crown, 
 weighing upon his conscience, he, in 1255, concluded 
 a treaty with Henry III., by which he restored to Eng- 
 land Perigord, Limousin, Agenois, Quercy, and Sain- 
 tonge ; whilst Henry, on his part, renounced his rights 
 over Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Poitou. 
 8 
 
FUNERAL OF ST. LOUIS. 
 
DEATH OF ST. LOUIS. 87 
 
 The east, soon after, attracted more strongly than 
 ever the attention of $aint Louis. The Latin empire 
 of Constantinople was no more, — the Greeks having 
 retaken that city in 1261. Profiting- by the divisions 
 of the Christians in Syria, Bendocdar, the sultan of 
 Egypt, had made rapid conquests in Palestine : Cesarea, 
 Jaffa, and Antioch, had fallen, one after the other, into 
 his hands, and a hundred thousand Christians had been 
 massacred in the last-named place. On the receipt of 
 this dreadful intelligence. Saint Louis made a vow to 
 take the cross a second time. He undertook a pilgrim- 
 age to the principal churches of his kingdom, and em- 
 barking once more for the holy land, set sail for Tunis. 
 His brother, Charles of Anjou, king of Naples and 
 Sicily, had agreed to meet him within the walls of 
 Carthage, and accompany him in the crusade ; and ac- 
 cordingly, he landed opposite that ruined city, where 
 he had to undergo intolerable sufferings from the 
 aridity of the soil, the scorching heat of the sun, and 
 the arrows of the Moors. The plague soon carried off 
 a portion of his army, which he retained in a state of 
 fatal inaction ; — smote his two sons, Tristan, the count 
 of Poitiers, and the count of Nevers, and attacked him- 
 self at the end of a month. He employed his latter 
 moments in giving useful counsel to Philip, his third 
 son and heir ; and gave himself wholly up to the offices 
 of religion. Before he died, he desired to be laid upon 
 a bed of ashes, where he expired on the 25th of Au- 
 gust, 1270, after having appointed Matthew de Saint 
 Denis, and Roger de Nesle, regents of the kingdom. 
 His remains were carried to France to be buried in the 
 tombs of the kings. 
 
 Philip IIL, surnamed le Hardi, (the Bold,) was pro- 
 claimed king in Africa, amidst the ruins of Carthage. 
 On his return to France, he reunited Champagne to the 
 royal domain, and secured Navarre to his family by the 
 marriage of his son Philip to Jane, the grand-daughter 
 of Thibaut, the king of Navarre, who had died of the 
 contao-ion in Africa. 
 
88 PHILIP THE FAIR. 
 
 Charles of Anjou, having seized upon the crown of 
 Naples and Sicily, and murdered young Conradin, the 
 son of Conrad IV., and the heir to the throne, deemed 
 himself secure, and free to oppress his new subjects 
 with an intolerable tyranny. But vengeance was 
 brooding in all hearts, and a plot was laid and executed 
 by John of Procida, aided by the king of Aragon, by 
 which, on Easter Monday, of the year 1282, as the 
 vesper-bells of the cathedral of Palemo sounded, the 
 populace arose and massacred all the Frenchmen who 
 were to be found in the streets of their city ; and be- 
 fore the end of a month, all Sicily followed the example 
 of the capital. This dreadful massacre is known in 
 history by the name of the Sicilian Vespers. The 
 Sicilians fearing the vengeance of Charles of Anjou, 
 offered the throne to Peter III., king of Aragon, and 
 from that day the island was lost to the Angevins, who, 
 however, retained the kingdom of Naples. Charles 
 implored the aid of his nephew, Philip of France, and 
 the pope, Martin IV. The pontiff excommunicated 
 the king of Aragon, and preached a crusade against 
 him. Philip raised an army, but his expedition result- 
 ed only in the capture of Gizon, in Aragon. The war 
 was suspended in 1285, by the death of the pope and 
 the three kings of France, Naples, and Aragon. 
 
 Philip IV., le Bel, (the Fair,) the son and successor 
 of Philip the Bold, king of France and of Navarre, was 
 but seventeen years of age when he came to the throne ; 
 but such was his firm and resolute mind, that he had 
 need neither of guardians nor counsellors. His great 
 youth occasioned no confusion ; and the nobles flocked 
 around hira as subjects devoted to his service. 
 
 Philip carried on the war, commenced by his father, 
 against Aragon, for several years, but it led to no im- 
 portant result. 
 
 The earliest ordinances of Philip's reign were in 
 favour of the citizens and the Jews ; but he soon 
 changed his tone. His character being harsh, irascible 
 and covetous, he put no restraint on his pride and 
 
QUARREL WITH ENGLAND. 89 
 
 4hr 
 
 Philip the Fair. 
 
 cupidity, oppressing his subjects without remorse, and 
 justifying his proceedings by the sanction of unprin- 
 cipled lawyers, conspicuous alike for their skill in chi- 
 canery, and their base and servile spirit of compliance. 
 The king devised innumerable means of violent and 
 cruel extortion, and the tribunals supported and aided 
 him by their decrees. 
 
 Peace, which had now subsisted for thirty-five years 
 between the crowns of France and England, was in- 
 terrupted by a quarrel between a Norman and a Gascon 
 sailor, which led to a battle between their two vessels. 
 This was used as a pretext by Philip to summon Ed- 
 ward I. of England, as his vassal for Aquitaine, to ap- 
 pear before the count of Paris, and answer for the dis- 
 turbances occasioned by the rivalries between the sai- 
 lors of their respective nations. Upon his refusal to 
 appear, the constable de Nesle seized upon Guienne, 
 in the name of France ; whilst Edv/ard allied himself 
 8* 
 
90 QUARREL WITH THE POPE. 
 
 with Guy de Dampierre, count of Flanders, who 
 refused the acknowledgment of Philip as his suzerain. 
 The troops of Flanders were beaten at Furnes, by- 
 Robert d'Artois ; and Guy, induced by the promises of 
 the French king, placed himself in his power, when he 
 was instantly thrown into prison, and his states con- 
 fiscated to the crown. The count of Saint Paul was 
 appointed governor of Flanders ; but he, with the nobles 
 of his court, despised the burghers of that industrious 
 country, and tyrannized over them in such a cruel and 
 intolerable manner, that the Flemings were once more 
 driven to revolt. In 1302, four years after the con- 
 quest of the country, the corporations of the trades as- 
 sembled, massacred the French in Bruges and other 
 towns, and restored the independence of their country. 
 Robert d'Artois, the conqueror of the Flemish nobles at 
 Furnes, disdaining to take any precaution against the 
 serfs, was attacked by them at Courtray, when he, with 
 six thousand knights, was slain in the battle. Shortly 
 afterwards Philip recognised the independence of the 
 Flemings by treaty. 
 
 Philip, in common with all his race, was destined to 
 be embroiled in difficulties with the pope of Rome. 
 Boniface VIII. had taken for his model the famous 
 Gregory VII. He wished to extend the pontifical au- 
 thority over all the thrones and powers of the world. 
 Philip dared to resist his pretensions, nay more, he de- 
 clared himself the friend of the Colonnas, the enemies 
 of the pope. Boniface commissioned the bishop of 
 Pamiers to examine into the conduct of Philip with 
 respect to the church, and mediate between the holy 
 see and the crown of France. Irritated at the preten- 
 sions of the pope and the reproaches of the bishop, 
 Philip instructed his lawyers to seek ground of com- 
 plaint against the latter. These men soon found grounds 
 enough against the bishop to justify his arrest. Philip 
 accordingly gave orders to that effect, and demanded 
 of the pope the prelate's degradation. But Boniface 
 referred the matter to his own tribunal, and issued a 
 
THE FRENCH POPES. 91 
 
 bull, reproving- the king for his errors and presumption. 
 Transported with rage, and supported by the university 
 of Paris, Philip convoked the first assemblage of the 
 states-general, in which the deputies for towns ever 
 sat, along with the barons and clergy. He laid the bull 
 before them, and caused it to be burned in their pre- 
 sence. Boniface avenged himself by excommunicating 
 the king; and the two rivals prepared for a fierce 
 struggle, by reconciling themselves with their respec- 
 tive enemies, and sacrificing all other interests to that 
 of their mutual hatred. The pope allied himself with 
 Albert of Austria, and Philip restored Guienne, as a 
 fief, to Edward. The barons of France, convened by 
 him, assembled at the Louvre ; and William de Nogaret^ 
 his procureur, pronounced the pope a heretic before them 
 all. He obtained sentence to be passed against him, 
 and took upon himself its execution. Repairing- to 
 Anagni, where the pope resided, he seized upon his 
 person ; and Sciarra Colonna, who accompanied him, 
 struck the old man with his iron gauntlet. But Boni- 
 face, by his courage, awed even his enemies ! — " Be- 
 hold," he said, " my neck, and here is my head ! Be- 
 trayed, and prepared to die, at least I will die pope !" 
 Though delivered by the populace, he expired a month 
 afterwards, at Rome, of a violent fever, induced by in- 
 dignation and surprise. (1303.) The conclave of Pe- 
 rouse, obedient to the voice of Philip the Fair, gave 
 the tiara to a Frenchman, Bertrand de Goth, archbishop 
 of Bordeaux, who took the name of Clement V. This 
 pontiff, truly a creature of Philip, suddenly left Rome, 
 under the pretext of freeing himself from the domina- 
 tion of factions, and took up his residence at Avignon, 
 in the kingdom of France. Six popes, all French, fol- 
 lowed the example of Clement V., till the year 1377, 
 when the head of the church returned to Rome. 
 
 Long before the removal of the holy seat, the de- 
 struction of the knights Templars had been determined 
 upon between the pope and the king of France. The 
 power of this order was offensive to the monarch's 
 
92 PHILIP DESTROYS THE TEMPLARS. 
 
 pride, and their vast wealth alluring- to his cupidity. 
 Its ramifications extended throughout all the countries 
 of civilized Europe, but their centre was in France, 
 and there the grand-master resided. 
 
 In a single night in 1807, and before any suspicion 
 of his design had arisen, Philip caused all the Templars 
 in Paris and in the provinces to be arrested and thrown 
 into dungeons. They were accused of odious and im- 
 pious superstitions, and of rebellion against God and 
 the king. Then commenced against those soldier- 
 monks a fearful process, in which the proofs were fur- 
 nished by the torture, and the judge's office performed 
 by lawyers, sold, soul and body, to Philip. In the 
 year 1310, several knights were burned at Paris ; in 
 1312, the pope, at the council of Vienna, issued an 
 order for the suppression of the order of the Temple; 
 and finally, in 1314, an immense funeral pile was 
 lighted near the western side of the city of Paris, and 
 there Jacques Molay, the grand-master, and fifty-nine 
 knights, perished in the midst of the flames. It is said, 
 that before he expired, the grand-master protested his 
 innocence, and summoned the monarch and the pontiflf 
 to appear before God in the course of the year. Both 
 died within the time. 
 
 Not content with practising these atrocious crimes 
 himself, Philip induced the "kings of England and 
 Naples to follow his example. They seized the Tem- 
 plars in their dominions, and upwards of fifteen thou- 
 sand families were smitten to gratify the cupidity of 
 one man. 
 
 Philip still continued his odious oppressions. He 
 levied enormous taxes, debased the currency, and, after 
 its issue, refused to receive it back as depreciated by 
 himself He imprisoned, in one day, all the Jews 
 throughout the kingdom, and stripped them of their 
 wealth in the shape of ransom. Towards the close of 
 his life, he practised severities upon his own family. 
 The wives of his three sons were accused simulta- 
 neously of adultery, and thrown into prison. He ex- 
 
pired shortly after, within the year 1314, and was soon 
 followed- to the tomb by his accomplice, Clement V. 
 Philip IV. left three sons, Louis, Philip, and Charles, 
 all of whom succeeded to the throne, m their turn. 
 
 Louis X., surnamed le Hutin, because of his disor- 
 derly life, took the means already employed by his 
 father to raise money, namely, the spoliation of the 
 Jews and the Lombards, and the alteration of the cur- 
 rency. Enguerrand de Marigny, the prime minister 
 of Philip IV., accused by Charles of Valois, the king's 
 uncle, of malversation, tyranny, and sorcery, was con- 
 demned and executed on the gibbet of Montfaucon. 
 The only wise measure of the reign of Louis X., was 
 the freeing of the serfs of the crown. He died in 1316, 
 leaving a daughter six years old. Shortly after a son, 
 John L, le Posthume, was born to him, who lived but 
 five days. 
 
94 
 
 PHILIP V, 
 
 Philip V. 
 
 In the mean time, Philip V., called the Tall, the 
 brother of Louis X,, seized upon the regency to the ex- 
 clusion of the queen, and procured a decree from the 
 states-general and the university of France, extending 
 to the crown the principles of the Salic law, by which 
 females were for ever excluded from the throne of 
 France. By virtue of this law, he became the legiti- 
 mate king. His reign was of but little importance, and 
 was only signalized by the barbarous and cruel pro- 
 ceedings which he instigated against heretics, sorcerers, 
 Jews, and lepers. In the midst of these atrocious exe- 
 cutions, the king fell into a languishing illness, which 
 resulted in his death at Longchamp, in 1322. He had 
 one son and four daughters when he demanded of the 
 states the perpetual exclusion of females from the 
 throne. He lost his son a few months afterwards, and 
 was, therefore, the first to suffer in his paternal feelings 
 by the law which he had caused to be passed. 
 
THE HOUSE OF VALOIS. 90 
 
 Charles IV., le Bel, (the Handsome,) the third son 
 of Philip the Fair, succeeded his brother without oppo- 
 sition. He reigned for six years, but left no interesting 
 traces in history. He founded the floral games at 
 Toulouse, and issued ordinances for ameliorating the 
 condition of lepers and Jews. Towards the end of the 
 year 1327, the king died without children. He was 
 the last king of the direct branch of the Capets. After 
 him, the crown passed to the collateral branch of the 
 Valois, in the person of Philip VI., the grandson, by 
 Charles of Valois, of Philip the Bold. 
 
 Of Charles of Valois it has been said, as of John of 
 Gaunt, that he was the son, the brother, the uncle, and 
 the father of kings, but was never a king himself His 
 disorder, which was of the mind, occasioned by re- 
 morse, completely bafHed his physicians, " who could 
 not minister to a mind diseased." It was, therefore, 
 attributed to magic, which was at that time the con- 
 venient way of accounting for every unknown disorder. 
 
 Charles IV. died in the 33d year of his age and fifth 
 of his reign. He was married three times : first, to 
 Blanch of Burgundy, whom he divorced ; secondly, to 
 Mary of Luxemburg, sister to Henry VIL, emperor of 
 Germany ; and lastly, to Jane d'Evreux, by whom he 
 had two daughters: 
 
 Mary, who died young, a few years after her father. 
 
 Blanch, a posthumous child, married Philip, son of 
 Philip of Valois. 
 
 As Blanch was not born till some months after the 
 king's death, a regency was appointed ; but when the 
 expected child proved a daughter, Philip of Valois, the 
 late king's cousin, assumed the crown, as being the 
 nearest male heir. 
 
 France, at the close of the thirteenth and commence- 
 ment of the fourteenth centuries, groaned beneath a 
 yoke of iron; and, notv/ithstanding the heroism dis- 
 played two hundred years before in the communal re- 
 volutions, she remained almost a stranger to the spirit 
 of liberty which was agitating many of the nations 
 
96 
 
 A GLANCE AT EUROPE. 
 
 of Europe, and to which Italy and Flanders owed 
 their arts and industry. Robert Bruce, in Scotland, 
 and William Tell, in Switzerland, had freed their re- 
 spective lands : — Yet the great commotions by which 
 states were shaken in that day, were caused far less 
 by the spirit of individual liberty than by the love of 
 national independence; and most of the European 
 populations, having once severally achieved their ex- 
 istence as nations, fell once more beneath a yoke as 
 oppressive as that from which they had just succeeded 
 in releasing themselves. 
 
 Ladies of the Twelfth Century. 
 
A Knight of the Fourteenth Century. 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 THE RACE OF CAPET. DIRECT BRANCH OF VALOIS. 
 
 Philip VI.~John IL— Charles V.— Charles VI. 
 
 The succession to the throne was contested by Ed- 
 ward III., king of England, the son of Isabella, the 
 daughter of Philip the Fair, and sister to the last three 
 kings of France. The states-general solemnly ad- 
 9 (97) 
 
98 REVOLT IN FLANDERS. 
 
 judged the crown to Philip VI. de Valois, thus de- 
 claring-, for the third time, that females were excluded 
 from all right to the crown. This decision was thence- 
 forth recognised as a fundamental law of the kingdom. 
 Edward affected to abandon his pretensions, and even 
 consented to do homage to Philip for the duchy of 
 Guienne. Before doing this, however, he attempted to 
 render it of no avail by entering a protest in parliament 
 against the right of the new king to demand such 
 homage ; and he refused to take the oath on his knees, 
 until compelled to do so ; and when the ceremony was 
 over, he departed, smothering his anger until a favour- 
 able opportunity should occur for its more effectual ex- 
 ercise. This opportunity soon presented itself The 
 cruelties of count Louis of Flanders had driven his 
 subjects to revolt. Philip marched to the assistance 
 of his vassal ; and the bloody battle of Cassel, in which 
 thirteen thousand Flemings were slain, restored the 
 count to his estates. The city of Cassel was reduced 
 to ashes, and the count signalized his return by the 
 death and torture of ten thousand citizens. 
 
 A second, and more serious revolt, broke out in 
 Ghent, which soon spread over the whole of Flanders. 
 The celebrated brewer, Jacques Artavelde, the leader 
 of the revolt, having need of the support of England, 
 aclmowledged Edward, in the name of Flanders, as 
 king of France. From that moment, Edward assumed 
 the title of king of France ; and entering Flanders, at 
 the head of an army, (1338,) he there confirmed all the 
 privileges of the Flemings. Philip, with superior 
 forces, maintained a defensive war against him, de- 
 clining any general engagement. The English, how- 
 ever, surprised the French fleet, shut up in a narrow 
 creek, near Helvoetsluys, to w]iich they gave battle, 
 and gained a complete victory. (1340.) France lost 
 ninety ships, and more than thirty thousand men; 
 whereupon an armistice was concluded between the 
 two nations. 
 
CALAMITOUS CIVIL WAR. 
 
 99 
 
 Fliilip VI. 
 
 In the following year, a sang-uinary war, most fatal 
 to France, broke out in Brittany. Two candidates, 
 Charles of Blois, the nephew of the king- of France, 
 and John de Montfort, laid claim to the duchy made 
 vacant by the death of the duke John TIL The court 
 of peers, devoted to the king, adjudged the duchy to 
 his nephew, whereupon Montfort seized upon the most 
 important strongholds, and did homage for Brittany to 
 king Edward, whose succour he implored. This war 
 lasted for twenty-five years without intermission, and 
 presented one long series of atrocious robberies and 
 heartless perfidies. The cruelty and partiality of the 
 king of France multiplied his enemies. At a tourna- 
 ment, to which the Breton knights had repaired, with- 
 out misgiving, twelve of the Montfort party were ar- 
 rested and beheaded, without trial, and without cause 
 
IGO 
 
 THE ENGLISH INVADE FRANCE. 
 
 assigned. The relatives and friends of the murdered 
 knights went over in a body to the party of Montfort, 
 and called in the enemy. Accordingly, an English 
 army, commanded by king Edward in person, landed in 
 Normandy, and under the guidance of GeofFroy d'Har- 
 court, ravaged the kingdom, without opposition, up to 
 the very walls of Paris. Philip, however, calling 
 
 Battle of Crecy. 
 
BATTLE OF CRECY. 101 
 
 around him the nobles of France, assembled a formida- 
 ble army, and compelled Edward to retire in haste. 
 The retreat of the English was a difficult one. Far 
 inferior in numbers to the French, they crossed the 
 Somme at the ford of Blanquetagne, and being closely 
 followed by Philip, Edward, agamst his own judgment, 
 was compelled to fortify himself upon a rising ground 
 which overlooked the village of Crecy. (1346.) The 
 French had followed by forced marches; and, had some 
 time for repose been allowed them, prudent arrange- 
 ments ought to have secured them the victory. But 
 scarcely had they arrived within sight of the enemy, 
 ere the impatient Philip commanded the Genoese 
 archers, who formed the advanced guard, to begin the 
 attack. In vain did they represent that they were ex- 
 hausted with hunger and fatigue, and that the rain had 
 rendered their bows unfit for use. The order was re- 
 newed, and they rushed bravely forward, but were re- 
 pulsed. Philip then inhumanly ordered the due 
 d'Alen(;on to advance over the archers with his cavalry. 
 This ferocious act was the destruction of his army. 
 The English took advantage of the confusion in his 
 front ranks to make a vigorous attack. The advanced 
 guard was already broken, and was soon driven back 
 upon the main body, which, overcome by the panic, 
 fled in every direction. A frightful carnage ensued. 
 Thirty thousand French, among whom were eleven 
 princes, and twelve hundred nobles and knights, perish- 
 ed on the field. The famous Black Prince, then only 
 fifteen years of age, had the command of the English, 
 under his father, king Edward, and contributed power- 
 fully to the victory. Philip, twice wounded, and torn 
 from the field of battle by his attendants, entered Ab- 
 beville, followed by only four knights. 
 
 Though Edward was greatly astonished at this un- 
 expected victory, he did not fail to profit by it; he laid 
 siege to Calais, the key of the kingdom, on the side of 
 England. After a gallant defence of eleven months, 
 the inhabitants of the town were compelled by famine 
 9# 
 
102 
 
 SIEGE OF CALAIS. 
 
 to capitulate. Edward, exasperated by their resistance, 
 demanded that six of the principal inhabitants should 
 be delivered up to his vengeance. This strange 
 order filled the citizens with great grief; but Eustache 
 de Saint-Pierre, and five other brave men, devoted 
 themselves for their fellow-citizens. Bare-headed, bare- 
 footed, almost naked, with ropes around their necks, 
 and carrying the keys of the town, this courageous 
 
 Surrender of Calais. 
 
 company of men was conducted to the English camp. 
 On their appearance, Edward summoned the execu- 
 tioner. The queen, Philippa of Hainault, and her son, 
 Jiowever, interceded tor them, and obtained their pardon. 
 The inhabitants of Calais were driven from the town, 
 which became an English colony, and for two hundred 
 years left France open to the invasions of foreign 
 
DAUPHINE REUNITED TO FRANCE. 103 
 
 aimies. The capture of this important place was fol- 
 lowed by a truce between the two monarchs. (1347.) 
 
 The frightful pestilence, known as the plague of 
 Tlorence, ravaged France during the year 1348, and 
 vas estimated to have carried off about one-third of the 
 mtire population. 
 
 The last years of the reign of Philip of Valois, re- 
 paired, in part, the evils of the first. He reunited to 
 the crown the county of Montpelier, and the province 
 of Dauphine, which from that time became the ap- 
 panage of the eldest sons of the kings of France ; and 
 from it they derived their title of Dauphin. 
 
 In 1350, though advanced in years, Philip married 
 the youthful Blanche of Navarre ; and died, a few 
 months afterwards, at the age of fifty-eight. 
 
 John IL 
 
 John II., surnamed le Bon, (the Good,) was upwards 
 of thirty years of age, when, in 1350, he succeeded 
 his father, Philip of Valois. Impetuous in temper, ir- 
 resolute in mind, rash as well as brave, prodigal, obsti- 
 
104 CRUELTY OF JOHN II. 
 
 nate, vindictive, and proud, John II., at the very com- 
 mencement of his reign, by his severity and cruelty, 
 rekindled the hatred vvhicii had been smothered, not 
 extinguished. The count d'Eu, constable of France, 
 was accused of treason by the king, who caused him 
 to be beheaded without a trial. This offended the king 
 of England, who had captured the constable in battle, 
 and had now permitted him to return to France to col- 
 lect his ransom money. About the same time, John 
 offended his son-in-law, Charles the Bad, king of 
 Navarre, by making the Spaniard, John de la Cerda, 
 his personal enemy, the constable of the kingdom. 
 Charles the Bad soon after surprised the constable at 
 Aigle, in Normandy, and put him to death ; then sum- 
 moning around him his bai'ons and the Norman nobles, 
 he openly defied king John, who, seeing himself un- 
 able to overcome him by force of arms, dissimulated, 
 and offered him a pardon, which Charles gladly ac- 
 cepted. The reconciliation of the king, however, was 
 only feigned ; and a short time after, his anger was 
 again kindled, on hearing that the king of Navarre 
 fostered and encouraged a revolt which had broken out 
 among the people dissatisfied with the operation of a 
 tax on salt. Accordingly, he eagerly availed himself 
 of an opportunity, which soon presented itself, for satis- 
 fying at once his former and his present resentment. 
 Learning that on a certain day the dauphin was to 
 receive the Navarrese, at table, in the city of Rouen, 
 he instantly quitted Orleans, where he then was, en- 
 tered Rouen on the appointed day, attended by a nu- 
 merous escort, and unexpectedly presented himself, at 
 the head of his guards, in the banquet hall. With his 
 own hands he arrested king Charles, his favourite 
 d'Harcourt, (the son of Geoffrey d'Harcourt, who had 
 guided Edward into the kingdom before the battle of 
 Crecy,) and several of his officers. He caused d'Har- 
 court, and four of the nobles of Charles's suite, to be 
 beheaded in his presence. Charles he retained prisoner, 
 
ENGLISH INVASION. 
 
 1(^' 
 
 John II. marching to Rouen. 
 
 shut him up in the tower of the Louvre, ana took pos- 
 session of his appanage. 
 
 The friends of the king of Navarre, and of the be- 
 headed nobles, instantly allied themselves with the king- 
 of England, acknowledging him as king of France, and 
 doing him homage for their dominions. Edward de- 
 clared himself the avenger of the murdered nobles, 
 and sent a formidable army into Normandy, under the 
 command of the Prince of Wales. He carried fire and 
 sword into the heart of the kingdom, ravaging Au- 
 vergne, Limousin, and Berri. John, calling upon his 
 
106 BATTLE OF POITIERS. 
 
 great barons, vassals, and gentlemen, to follow him, 
 and repel the invaders, collected his army together, 
 and came up with the Englisli, near the village of Poi- 
 tiers. (1356.) Famine had already made its appear- 
 ance in the English camp, and the Black Prince olfered 
 very advantageous terms to France. But the French 
 army numbered sixty thousand, while that of the ene- 
 my amounted /Only to eight thousand. King John, 
 therefore, regarding more the chivalry and honour than 
 the safety of his followers, determined to fight, since he 
 had a right to reckon on the victory. 
 
 As at Crecy, the battle commenced without order on 
 the side of the French, and with the most perfect cool- 
 ness and regularity on that of the English. At the 
 commencement of the action, the first two divisions of 
 the French, commanded by the dauphin and the duke 
 of Orleans, brother to the king, were seized with a 
 panic, and fled, together with their leaders. The divi- 
 sion commanded by the king in person, alone stood its 
 ground ; but the fugitives carried disorder into its 
 ranks, and a dreadful carnage ensued around the per- 
 sons of the king and his youngest son Philip. At 
 length, after performing prodigies of valour, the French 
 monarch, wounded in several places, yielded up his 
 sword, and was made prisoner, along with his son, and 
 a great number of illustrious knights. The Black 
 Prince,- scarcely twenty-six years of age, showed him- 
 self worthy of his great fortune. Pie surrounded the 
 vanquished king with every mark of respect, declaring 
 that he had merited the prize of valour on this memo- 
 rable day. Such was the disastrous issue of the famous 
 battle of Poitiers. The dauphin, Charles, who had 
 been already appointed by his father lieutenant-gene- 
 ral of the kingdom, assumed the reins of government 
 during the captivity of the king. 
 
 The dauphin being but twenty years of age, and de- 
 prived of many of the old counsellors of his father, the 
 states-general attempted to establish their power upon 
 the ruins of the royal authority. Guided by Robert le 
 
CAPTIVITY OF JOHN II. 
 
 107 
 
 John II. a prisoner, conducted into London by the Black Prince. 
 
 Coq, the bishop of Leon, and Etienne Marcel, the 
 mayor of Paris, both zealous partisans of the king of 
 Navarre, the assembly expressed their sorrow for the 
 condition of the kingdom, but granted no subsidies by 
 which the evil might be ameliorated. Growing bolder, 
 they claimed many privileges, as the conditions on 
 which they would grant the means necessary to enable 
 the dauphin to carry on the war. They then proceed- 
 ed to use threats to compel the prince to grant their 
 requests, and finally appointed thirty-six commissioners, 
 chosen from among themselves, to administer the 
 finances, and assist the prince in the direction of the 
 afiairs of the nation. Soon after, the dauphin was or- 
 dered to discharge those of his father's counsellors who 
 still remained at his court. Charles refused to part 
 with his counsellors ; and a truce of two years having 
 been concluded with England, he turned his attention 
 entirely to the strengthening of the royal power, and 
 the humbling of that of the nobles and tiers Etat, 
 
108 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 which had attained their highest point during the as- 
 semblies of 1357. Having attained his majority, the 
 dauphin dismissed the thirty -six commissioners appoint- 
 ed by the states, declared himself regent of the king- 
 dom, and drew the counsellors of his father closer 
 around him. Alarmed at these proceedings, the nobles 
 attacked the castle in which the king of Navarre was 
 imprisoned, and having released him, they placed them- 
 selves under his command, and called upon him to de- 
 liver them from the tyranny of the dauphin. 
 
 In the mean titne, the people of Paris, harassed for 
 money, laid the blame of the exactions under which 
 they suffered upon the counsellors of the dauphin. 
 Headed by Marcel, they repaired furiously into the 
 presence of the regent, and massacred, even at his 
 side, two of his most faithful servants, the marshals of 
 Champagne and Normandy. The prince-regent owed 
 his life to the protection of Marcel, who placed upon 
 his head a parti-coloured cap of red and white, which 
 the insurgents had adopted as a rallying sign. This 
 outrage excited the implacable resentment of the 
 nobles. The states-general were summoned to meet 
 at Compeigne ; and the nobles only appeared there. 
 They uttered loud vows of vengeance against the 
 rabble of Paris and their leader Marcel. He, seeing 
 the storm gathering, seized upon the Louvre, and ad- 
 vised his followers to declare Charles the Bad, king of 
 Navarre, their captain-general. The regent summon- 
 ed the nobles about him and assembled seven thousand 
 lancers. Thus civil war broke out, and with it came 
 another scourge. 
 
 The rural population, overwhelmed with imposts by 
 their lords, scorned by the citizens, and pillaged by the 
 soldiers, groaned beneath an intolerable load of suffer- 
 ing. United by the instinct of despair, and urged on 
 by one common feeling — a wild revenge — these half- 
 naked peasants rose in mass, and vowed a war of ex- 
 termination against their oppressors. They committed 
 every excess to which ignorant and barbarous men can 
 
THE JACQUERIE. 109 
 
 be driven by a long series of cruel oppression. This 
 insurrection, known by the name of the Jacquerie, was 
 soon suppressed; for the nobles, encased in armour, 
 subjugated them with ease. They implored the aid 
 of the king of Navarre, but he marched against them 
 and slaughtered them by thousands. 
 
 France was also, at this time, infested by numerous 
 bands of armed adventurers, who roamed about the 
 country committing depredations on all who fell in 
 their way, and ready to espouse any cause, at any mo- 
 ment, if they were well paid for so doing. Marcel 
 tampered with these adventurers, and by that means 
 worked his own ruin. He disgusted the king of Na- 
 varre, whom the other nobles shamed out of his alli- 
 ance with the citizens. Marcel, however, had no hope 
 but in Charles the Bad ; and he prevailed upon him, 
 by means of tempting promises, to enter the city, and 
 again espouse his cause. It required some caution to 
 admit the Navarrese into the city, without alarming the 
 army of the dauphin, which lay close to the gates. It 
 was agreed between the mayor and the king, that the 
 former, on a certain night, should quietly open the gate 
 of Saint-Antoine, and admit the latter with his fol- 
 lowers. A citizen, named Maillard, a partisan of the 
 regent, and a personal enemy of the mayor, had pene- 
 trated this design. At night he placed himself beside 
 the gate, and as Marcel advanced to open it, struck 
 him in the forehead with a battle-axe and killed him. 
 The death of their leader was fatal to his party. The 
 very next day they supplicated Charles to take pos- 
 session of their city, which he entered as a victor, and 
 the king of Navarre formally declared war against 
 France. 
 
 The jacquerie were soon vanquished, thousands of 
 them being massacred at Meaux and other places 
 throughout the kingdom ; the adventurers removed to- 
 wards the south, and hope began again to revive. 
 
 In the mean time, John, weary of his long captivity, 
 had signed a shameful treaty, which ceded to England 
 10 
 
110 CHARLES THE WISE. 
 
 one-half of France. This treaty was unanimously re- 
 jected by the regent and the assembly of the states 
 of 1359, and, consequently, the English again invaded 
 France, and laid siege to Rheims. But, at length, in 
 1360, the war was ended by the celebrated treaty of 
 Bretigny. Its principal articles provided that Guienne, 
 Poitou, Saintonge and Limousin, should belong to the 
 king of England — that Edward should renounce his 
 pretensions to the crown of France, and to Normandy, 
 Maine, Touraine, and Anjou, possessed by his ances- 
 tors, — and that John should pay three millions of golden 
 crowns for his ransom. John was permitted to return 
 to France, on leaving his second son Louis, and some 
 other nobles, in England, as hostages for the payment 
 of the ransom, or his return to captivity. 
 
 In 1362, " faithful to his word of honour," king John 
 returned to his captivity, because his son, the duke of 
 Anjou, notwithstanding his oath, had escaped from 
 England. It was on that occasion that John said that 
 "if justice and good faith were banished from all the 
 world beside, they should still be found in the hearts 
 of kings." He died, a prisoner in England, in 1364. 
 
 Charles V., le Sage, (the Wise,) was twenty-nine 
 years of age when he ascended the throne in the year 
 1364. He had already governed France as regent, for 
 a period of nearly eight years, but had, in that time, 
 given no indications that he was destined to be the re- 
 storer of the monarchy. By his address and prudence, 
 however, he succeeded in reconquering most of the 
 provinces lost under the reign of his father. He re- 
 stored order within the kingdom, — a task, however, 
 only to be achieved by the sacrifice of the states-gene- 
 ral, whose authority he finally annulled. His chief 
 merit lay in the sagacity with which he estimated men 
 and measures ; attaching to his service able ministers 
 and great captains. The triumphs of Bertrand du 
 Guesclin have rendered his reign illustrious, though 
 he is justly accused of having respected neither trea- 
 ties nor the rights of his subjects. 
 
CHARLES V. 
 
 in 
 
 Charles V. 
 
 The first triumphs of Charles V. were achieved 
 against the king- of Navarre. He gained possession 
 by treachery, of the towns of Mantes and Meulan, be- 
 longing to that prince; and, shortly afterwards, the 
 battle of Cocherel, gained by Boucicault and Du Gues- 
 clin, opened to him a number of fortified places in 
 Normandy, and enabled him to sign an advantageous 
 treaty. 
 
 The war in Brittany was still going on, between the 
 two pretenders to the duchy, John de Montfort and 
 Charles de Blois. The celebrated battle of Aurai, in 
 which the latter was killed, and which was speedily 
 followed by the treaty of Guerande, secured the in- 
 heritance to Montfort, who immediately repaired to 
 Paris, and there did homage for his duchy to the king. 
 
 The bands of adventurers, which had so greatly dis- 
 turbed the peace of the country after the battle of Poi- 
 
112 
 
 DU GUESCLIN. 
 
 tiers, still infested the south. Charles eagerly profited 
 by the suggestion of Du Guesclin to rid his kingdom 
 of them, by espousing the cause of Henry of Trans- 
 tamera, against his brother, the tyrant, Pedro the Cruel, 
 king of Castile. The companies of adventurers were 
 organized into a formidable army, and placed under 
 the command of Du Guesclin, who twice raised Henry 
 to the throne. On his return to France, the war being 
 about to recommence against England, the king made 
 him constable of the kingdom. But now, the Black 
 Prince, weakened by disease, could no longer lead the 
 armies of his father ; and the command of the new ex- 
 pedition was entrusted to Sir Robert Knolles. 
 
 Hardly had he landed at Calais, before he found him- 
 self in the presence of the army of the constable, 
 which, in obedience to the commands of the king, who 
 still remembered Crecy and Poitiers, watched and 
 
 The Constable Du Guesclin, 
 
 ^^!^^ 
 
CHARLES V. FOILS THE ENGLISH. 113 
 
 harassed him in his march, avoiding- a general engage- 
 ment, until the English, exhausted and greatly reduced 
 in number, sought refuge in Guienne, without having 
 captured a single city. Profiting by his success, Du 
 Guesclin penetrated into Poitou and Saintonge, which 
 he compelled to submit. It was with extreme repug- 
 nance that, at the absolute command of the king, he 
 carried his arms into Brittany, his native country, 
 against de Montfort, who had espoused the cause of 
 England. He, however, conducted his operations with 
 such wisdom, mildness, and skill, that he gained over 
 to the side of Charles V. his compatriots, the barons 
 and nobles of Brittany, who, driving the duke from his 
 duchy, allied themselves with France, against king 
 Edward. 
 
 Another powerful English army, in 1375, landed at 
 Calais, under the command of the dukes of Lancaster 
 and Brittany. Du Guesclin was again commanded by 
 the king to watch the enemy's movements, to harass 
 their steps, and destroy their resources, but on no ac- 
 count to give them battle. His orders were obeyed ; 
 and the valour of the French, restrained by the cau- 
 tion of their monarch, bore all the insulting provoca- 
 tions of the enemy from Calais into Guienne, where the 
 army of the latter arrived, like that commanded by 
 Knolles, exhausted, and nearly destroyed, by sickness, 
 famine, and fatigue. 
 
 The fortunes of England were beginning to totter ; 
 her hero, the Prince of Wales, had just expired ; and 
 the redoubtable Edward was, himself, on the brink of 
 the grave, and about to leave his sceptre to the hands 
 of an infant. His fleet had been defeated at Rochelle ; 
 his powerful army had consumed itself; and already 
 the fruits of victory had fallen from his grasp, and 
 France had recovered nearly all her provinces. The 
 aged king, so formidable once, and now so humbled, 
 signed a truce with Charles V., (1375,) and died, soon 
 afterwards, leaving the throne to his grandson, the un- 
 fortunate Richard 11. 
 10* 
 
114 DEATH OF DU GUESCLIN. 
 
 In the mean time, Du Guesclin, prosecuting the war 
 with vigour, completed the conquest of Guienne and 
 Gascony. He was surprised by death, while besieging 
 the castle of Randon, in Languedoc. The governor 
 of the castle had promised to surrender it on a certain 
 day, if not relieved in the interval. Du Guesclin, who 
 was attacked by a violent fever, expired before the ap- 
 pointed day arrived, and the governor was advised by 
 his people not to observe his agreement ; but he de- 
 clared that he would be as true to that great warrior 
 in death, as he would have been to him in life ; and on 
 the day originally fixed, he marched, followed by his 
 garrison, to the French camp, and surrendered the 
 keys of his castle on the bier of the deceased hero. 
 
 Charles V. was deeply grieved by the death of Du 
 Guesclin; he erected a magnificent monument to his 
 memory in the abbey of St. Denis, and raised to the 
 office of constable, his fellow-countryman, Oliver de 
 Clisson, the son of one of the Breton lords, whom Philip 
 of Valois had caused to be beheaded. 
 
 The king's health had been declining for some years, 
 and in 1380, he followed his faithful captain to the 
 tomb, leaving the crown to his son Charles, then only 
 eleven years of age. At the end of his reign, the 
 English had lost all their possessions in France except 
 Bayonne, Bordeaux, Cherbourg, Brest and Calais. 
 
 It was Charles V. who issued the ordinance, which 
 afterwards, in its results, proved so often fatal to France, 
 by which the majority of the sovereign was fixed at 
 fourteen years. He also issued an ordinance forbidding 
 the parliament to modify or suspend its decrees, in 
 compliance with any order under the royal seal. 
 
 As early as the thirteenth century, clocks moved by 
 wheels, spectacles, paper, porcelain, and crystal mir- 
 rors were known in Italy. The use of gunpowder, 
 though frequent in sieges, was, as yet, despised in bat- 
 tles, — those of knightly station being unwilling to en- 
 courage the employment of arms which, by neutralizing 
 ind ividual strength, must contribute to the levelling of 
 ranks. 
 
REGENCIES IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 115 
 
 Citizens of Paris ia the Reign of Charles V. 
 
 France and England now both groaned under the 
 evils of a minority. Charles VL and Richard II. 
 reigned under the guardianship of their uncles; in 
 France, the dukes of Berri, Anjou, and Burgundy; and 
 in England, the dukes of York, Lancaster, and Glouces- 
 ter. In both kingdoms, the royal treasuries were 
 robbed by the covetous regents. The treasure amassed 
 by Charles V. passed into the hands of the duke of 
 Anjou, who seized it, in order to enable him to under- 
 take an expedition into Italy, to subdue Naples, which 
 had been left to him by the late queen Joanna, to the 
 exclusion of the rightful heir, Charles Durazzo. A 
 numerous army was soon equipped, which perished in 
 Italy, cut off by privation, fatigue, and sickness ; and 
 the duke himself died of want in the kingdom which 
 he had gone to subdue. 
 
 The oppressions of the regents led to wild and 
 furious revolts of the people, which, being repressed 
 with great cruelty, saturated the soil of France with 
 the blood of some of her best citizens. At Rouen 
 arose the sedition of la Harelle ; at Paris the insurrec- 
 tion of the Maillotins, so called from the leaden mal- 
 
116 
 
 FREQUENT INSURRECTIONS. 
 
 Charles VL 
 
 lets with which the citizens armed themselves ; and in 
 Languedoc, the revolt of the Tuchins, a crowd of 
 miserable wretches who, under the guidance of a chief- 
 tain of the old adventurers, stationed themselves in the 
 forests, and were long the terror of the rich and the 
 noble. 
 
 The duke of Burgundy now assumed the reins of 
 power in France, and used them as his brother had 
 done, for his own purposes. He had married the heiress 
 of the earl of Flanders, and, in 1382, he engaged the 
 young king in a war with the Flemings, to quell an 
 insurrection they had raised against their earl. The 
 French troops gained a victory at Rosebecque, when 
 Philip von Artavelde, the chief of the revolt, and the 
 son of the famous leader of the same nam.e, was slain. 
 The towns of Flanders were delivered up to fire and 
 pillage, and the whole country, with the exception of 
 
MADMAN OF CHARLES VI. Il7 
 
 the single town of Ghent, submitted to the arms of 
 France. The young king, Charles VI., had accom- 
 panied his army in person into Flanders. On his re- 
 turn to Paris, he found the city in the midst of the in- 
 surrection of the Maillotins, who had revolted, on 
 account of the exorbitancy of the taxes. The insur- 
 rection was soon quelled, and the offenders punished 
 with great severity. Some were publicly executed, 
 and others were put in sacks and thrown into the river, 
 while their estates were confiscated to the crown. 
 
 Adventure of Charles VI. in the Forest of Mans. 
 
 The king had hardly reached his twenty-third year, 
 when a sad event deprived him of his reason. The 
 duke of Brittany having refused to give up the assas- 
 sin, Peter de Craon, who had attempted to murder the 
 constable, Oliver de Clisson, Charles marched against 
 him. He was passing from Mans, at the head of his 
 troops, in the month of July, 1392, and was traversing 
 a forest, when a madman suddenly threw himself be- 
 fore the king, and seizing the bridle of his horse, ex- 
 claimed :— " Go no farther, king ; you are betrayed !" 
 The guards removed the man ; and the king, without 
 making any observation, continued his march. But the 
 
118 INSANITY OF CHARLES. 
 
 words had made an impression on his mind ; and sud- 
 denly, his lance, which was carried immediately behind 
 him, by one of his pages, struck against the helmet of 
 his squire. Charles immediately started at the sound ; 
 and turning round exclaimed : — "I am betrayed !" 
 Then putting his horse into full gallop he fell, sword 
 in hand, upon his own officers, and slew those whom he 
 could reach. The king was a maniac. He was car- 
 ried to Paris, and the dukes once more assumed the 
 government, which the king had lately taken upon 
 himself. The king's uncles divided the supreme au- 
 thority between themselves and the queen, Isabella of 
 Bavaria, and afterwards, the king's brother Louis, duke 
 of Orleans, who was at first excluded, laid claim to his 
 share of the government, and showed himself the equal 
 of the others in despotism and rapacity. Charles was 
 still considered as reigning ; and each one sought to get 
 possession of him, by turns, and all lay in wait for his 
 lucid moments, to secure themselves in power. But 
 his flashes of reason were even more fatal than his fits^ 
 of delirium. Influenced at all times by the dominant 
 party, he appeared to enjoy occasional gleams of reason, 
 for no other purpose than that of sanctioning the most 
 tyrannical acts and the most odious abuses. And thus 
 for twenty-eight years the kingdom of France was 
 governed. 
 
 A truce of twenty-eight years had been concluded 
 with the English, when the aid of the French was so- 
 licited by Sigismond, king of Hungary, against the re- 
 doubtable Bajazet, the Turkish sultan ; and the count 
 de Nevers, John-sans-Peur, (John-the-fearless,) son of 
 the duke of Burgundy, led a numerous army to his re- 
 lief. This force was defeated beneath the walls of 
 Nicopolis ; and the flower of the warriors of France 
 were slain or made prisoners on that fatal day. The 
 count de Nevers was ransomed by the people of Bur- 
 gundy for two hundred thousand crowns. 
 
 When the duke of Burgundy died in 1404, the duke 
 of Orleans, bringing all the other princes under his 
 
JOHN THE FEARLESS. 
 
 119 
 
 John the Fearless before Nicopolis. 
 
 authority, exercised absolute power. But a formidable 
 rival soon appeared in the person of John the Fearless, 
 the duke of Burgundy, who returned to France at the 
 head of an army, raised in Flanders. On his approach 
 the queen and Louis of Orleans retired, and John the 
 Fearless, obtaining possession of the person of the king, 
 reigned in his name. Both parties now assembled 
 troops, and a civil war seemed on the point of breaking 
 out, when the two dukes were apparently reconciled to 
 each other. Suddenly, however, the duke of Orleans 
 
120 
 
 ARMAGNACS AND BURGUNDIANS. 
 
 Philip the Bold. 
 
 John the Fearless, 
 Dukes of Burgundy, 
 
 Philip the Good. 
 
 was assassinated in PariSi Burgundy acknowledged 
 and gloried in the murder, and so great was the terror 
 inspired by his followers, that many were found pub- 
 licly to maintain that the duke of Orleans was a des- 
 pot, and that it is a duty to put tyrants to death. 
 
 It was not till a year afterwards that the murderer 
 consented to ask pardon of the king and the young 
 princes of Orleans ; peace was sworn between them 
 at Chartres, in 1409, and the insincerity of the parties 
 procured it the name of the counterfeit peace. 
 
 Louis of Orleans left four sons. The eldest, Charles 
 of Orleans, the son-in-law of the count d'Armagnac, 
 united with him to avenge the murder of his father; 
 and the kingdom was divided into the two factions of 
 Arraagnacs and Burgundians. 
 
BATTLE OF AZINCOURT. 
 
 121 
 
 Henry V. of England. 
 
 The state of France seemed to Henry V., king- of 
 England, to be favourable for making a descent on that 
 country, and attempting to regain some of his posses- 
 sions on the continent ; and he accordingly landed in 
 Normandy with a large army. Charles VT. assembled 
 a force three times as great, but his generals lost the 
 battle of Azincourt, (1415,) where eight thousand 
 French knights perished. The duke of Orleans was 
 made prisoner, and two brothers of the duke of Bur- 
 gundy slain. Henry not being strong enough to profit 
 
122 
 
 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans taken prisoner at Azincourt. 
 
 by his victory, retired to Calais, and thence to Eng- 
 land. 
 
 The generals of the ri^,val parties recommenced their 
 quarrels and threatened the complete ruin of the kingdom. 
 The balance of power seemed at first to incline to the 
 house of Orleans. The count d'Armagnac was ap- 
 pointed constable, and queen Isabella was banished to 
 Tours; but this proved to be only a temporary triumph. 
 John the Fearless became master of the populace of 
 Paris, leagued himself with the butchers, called Ca- 
 bochiens, from their leader, John Caboche, and others 
 of the rabble who w^ere led by the executioner Cape- 
 luche. These miscreants opened the gates of Paris to 
 the Burgundians, and then seizing the count d'Armag- 
 nac and his partisans, threw them into prison, and 
 massacred them. The dauphin, then about sixteen 
 years of age, was saved by Tanneguy du Chatel, who 
 carried him off beyond the Loire, to the midst of his 
 friends, by whom he was recognised as the leader of 
 the Armagnac party. There the dauphin took the title 
 
JOHN THE FEARLESS ASSASSINATED. 
 
 123 
 
 of regent, during the sickness of his father, so that 
 there were then two kingdoms, as well as two parlia- 
 ments, and two universities. The English having again 
 invaded the kingdom, John the Fearless entreated the 
 dauphin to unite with him for the common defence. The 
 young prince agreed to an interview with him on the 
 bridge of Montereau. John the Fearless repaired 
 thither, and Tanneguy du Chatel struck the duke 
 with his battle-axe, and assassinated him before the 
 prince, who pursued all the Burgundians present at the 
 interview to the last extremity. This murder rendered 
 
 Cathariue, wife of Heuj/ r . ui En 
 
124 DEATH OF CHARLES VI. 
 
 peace impossible. The new duke of Burgundy offered 
 the crown to Henry of England, and Isabella gave him 
 her daughter Catharine in marriage. The nuptial 
 ceremony was celebrated at Troyes, where Henry V. 
 and Charles VI., on the 21st of May, 1420, signed the 
 famous treaty by which Henry was declared regent of 
 France during the life of Charles, and the crown of 
 France at his death was to devolve in perpetuity upon 
 Henry and his descendants. The dauphin was con- 
 demned by the parliament for homicide upon the per- 
 son of the duke of Burgundy, and declared to have for- 
 feited his right to the crown. This young prince wan- 
 dered about the southern provinces for a long time, 
 flying before the English army, and abandoning his 
 faithful towns to the mercy of the conqueror. The 
 sudden death of Henry V., on the last day of ^ugiist, 
 1422, prepared a new destiny for him. Charles VI. 
 died shortly after, having filled the throne for forty-two 
 years. 
 
 Ladies of the Twelfth Century. 
 
Charles VU. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RACE OF CAPET. — HOUSE OF VALOIS DIRECT. 
 
 Charles VIL— Louis XL— Charles VIIL 
 
 Charles VIL, surnamed le Victorieux, (the Victo- 
 rious,) was proclaimed king of France at Bourg-es, on 
 the death of his father Charles VI., and soon after was 
 crowned at Poitiers, the city of Rheims, where the 
 ceremony of coronation was usually performed, being 
 in possession of the English, At the same time, Henry 
 VI. was proclaimed in Paris kmg of France and Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Charles, gathering around him his attached followers, 
 the counts Dunois, La Hire, XaintraQles, and Riche- 
 11* (125) 
 
126 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 mont, made preparations to reconquer his kingdom. 
 His first efforts were unsuccessful. Three battles lost, 
 threw him beyond the Loire ; and the English in con- 
 tempt called him the king of Bourges. He now drove 
 Tanneguy du Chatel, the murderer of the duke of 
 Burgundy, from his court, and appointed the celebrated 
 count Richemont, brother of the duke of Brittany, Con- 
 stable, and by this measure at once gained the hearts 
 of all Frenchmen, without distinction of party, and the 
 help of a powerful suzerain. Driven from all his 
 strongholds he took refuge in the town of Orleans, the 
 last bulwark of his feeble states. That city is soon 
 besieged by the earl of Salisbury ; and Charles, almost 
 in despair, looks around for help. 
 
 Suddenly, in 1429, a young girl, named Joan of Arc, 
 of the village of Domremy, near Vaucouleurs, in Lor- 
 raine, arrives at his court, and announces that she has 
 a mandate from heaven to raise the siege of Orleans, 
 and conduct the king to Rheims for his coronation. 
 The oldest warriors obey the voice of a girl of twenty ; 
 they listen eagerly to her words ; they follow her. She 
 delivers Orleans, takes the duke of Suffolk prisoner, 
 defeats and captures the famous Talbot, and from vic- 
 tory to victory, from city to city, leads Charles triumph- 
 antly to Rheims, where she assists at his coronation. 
 Believing her mission accomplished, she seeks permis- 
 sion to return to her parents ; but Charles, knowing the 
 awe and fear inspired by her presence, retains her. It 
 seems, however, that the divine inspiration dwells in 
 her no longer; wounded and taken prisoner by the 
 Burgundians at the defence of Compiegne, she is by 
 them delivered to the duke of Bedford, one of the 
 guardians of the young king of England, and regent 
 of France under the treaty of Troyes. Rendered 
 furious by having been so often vanquished by a woman, 
 the English accuse her of sorcery, and invent a thou- 
 sand vexations to torture her in prison. Tried at 
 Rouen by the brutal bishop of Beauvais, she is con- 
 demned to perish at the stake as a heretic and a ma- 
 gician. 
 
TREATY OF ARRAS. 
 
 127 
 
 Coronation of Charles VII. 
 
 This cowardly vengeance of the English, inspires 
 the French with new hatred against them ; and even 
 Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, indignant at the 
 pride and arrogance of Bedford, abandons his alliance ; 
 and finally, the treaty of Arras formally reconciles the 
 duke of Burgundy and the king of France. About the 
 same time the duke of Bedford dies, and Paris opens 
 her gates to Charles VII. (1436.) 
 
 The triumphs of Charles the Victorious are suspend- 
 ed for a short time by an unnatural revolt, which, in 
 its effects upon the king's mind, became most serious 
 in its consequences. The dauphin Louis, sustained by 
 
128 DEATH OF CHARLES VII. 
 
 la Tremouille, the dukes of Bourbon and Alen^on, and 
 the counts de Vendome and of Dunois, takes up arms 
 ag-ainst his father. (1440.) This revolt is known as 
 the Praguerie, and was easily suppressed. The princes 
 submit, and the dauphin retires into his domain of Dau- 
 phine, and from that time, until the death of the king", 
 the greatest enmity subsiieted between him and his son. 
 
 The English power in France now declined rapidly. 
 Richemont subdued Normandy, and Dunois, again re- 
 stored to favour, conquered Guienne and Gascony. In 
 1451, of all their possessions in France at the com- 
 mencement of Charles's reign, the English only re- 
 tained Calais. 
 
 Towards the close of his reign, the king fancied him- 
 self beset with snares, and surrounded by the emissa- 
 ries of his son, till, at last, fearful of being poisoned 
 by them, he dared not take any nourishment at all, and 
 died of hunger, on the 22d of July, 1461, in his fifty- 
 eighth year. 
 
 During a reign so full of war and danger, Charles 
 VII. found time to introduce wise and important regu- 
 lations into the government. The parliament of Paris 
 was made permanent, and another was established at 
 Toulouse. A standing army was created, consisting 
 of fifteen companies of cavalry, numbering about nine 
 thousand men ; and a corps of about twenty-two thou- 
 sand foot-archers, besides the Scotch guards, which had 
 been employed since the year 1421. For the payment 
 of these troops, the king a^ked and obtained a perpetual 
 tajt of one million two hundred thousand livres. Turn- 
 ing his attention to the church in 1438, he solemnly 
 promulgated the pragmatic sanction in presence of the 
 clergy of the kingdom assembled at Bourges. This 
 ordinance proclaimed the liberties of the Galilean 
 church, recognised the superiority of a council-general 
 over the pope, reduced the right of appeal to the court 
 of Rome to a very small number of cases, and confided 
 the election of bishops to the chapters of churches. 
 Commerce and industry also flourished under the su- 
 
ACCESSION OF LOUIS XI. 
 
 129 
 
 perintending care of Jacques Coeur, who for a long 
 time administered the finances of the king-, and whom 
 the jealousy of the nobles caused to be unjustly con- 
 demned and banished the kingdom. 
 
 Louis XI. 
 
 Louis XL was thirty-eight years old when he as- 
 cended the throne on the death of his father, in 1461. 
 The beginning of his reign was troubled by the ag- 
 gressions of the nobles, who, like himself, had disturbed 
 the quietness of the kingdom towards the end of his 
 father's reign. Hardly had he come to the throne, 
 when he dismissed all his father's ministers, and re- 
 placed them by men of low extraction and mean habits 
 — men who would be more likely to be subservient to 
 him, than he could expect those of a higher station to 
 be. Though bound by friendship, at least in appear- 
 ance, with Philip the Good, who had given him an 
 
130 TREATY OF CONFLANS. 
 
 asylum in his states, he made his son, the count of 
 Charolais, his greatest enemy, by deceiving him with 
 respect to a grant of the government of Normandy, 
 which he had promised to give him. The malcontents 
 of the reign of Charles VII. had for their leader the 
 son of the king; those of the reign of Louis XL 
 placed at their head his brother, the duke of Berri, who 
 was deprived of every thing that had been bestowed 
 upon him, except the duchy of Berri. These two 
 nobles forming a confederacy with the dukes of Bour- 
 bon, Brittany, and Nemours, and the counts of Albret, 
 Armagnac and Dunois, declared themselves the cham- 
 pions of the people, and styled their confederacy the 
 League of the Public Good. 
 
 The confederates assembled an army before Paris, 
 while the king was absent, quelling an insurrection in 
 the dominions of Bourbon. Hearing of the rebellion, 
 Louis hastened to interpose himself between the allies 
 and his capital, and in the attempt to gain that position 
 he encountered the troops of the count of Charolais, at 
 Montlhery, where a bloody but indecisive battle was 
 fought, the king leaving the field in the possession of 
 his vassal, and entering Paris with the wreck of his 
 army. After this battle the confederates encamped 
 near Charenton, where they remained until the treaty 
 of Conflans was signed by the king. By this treaty 
 he surrendered Normandy to his brother, the duke of 
 Berri, gave Picardy to the count of Charolais, and 
 made the count of St. Pol Constable of the kingdom. 
 But Louis did not think himself obliged to observe a 
 treaty so manifestly disadvantageous, extorted from 
 him while in the power of his enemies. He accord- 
 ingly made a study of his enemies, taking care to at- 
 tach the ablest among them to himself, at whatever 
 price, and to sow discord between the others. In this 
 way he attached to himself the duke of Bourbon, and 
 several of his father's ministers. He studied to in- 
 gratiate himself with the citizens of Paris, styling 
 them his equals and his special friends, and distributing 
 
IKSURRECTION AT LI^GE. 131 
 
 amongf them valuable presents. Aided by the advice 
 of his principal counsellors, Oliver le Dain, or le Bia- 
 hie, and Tristan the hermit, he succeeded in ridding 
 himself, little by little, of all who were suspected of 
 favouring- the Burgundians. Normandy, which had 
 been granted to the duke of Berri, was reconquered b}^ 
 the royal troops ; whilst, on the other hand, the count 
 of Charolais, by the death of his father become duke 
 of Burgundy, was endeavouring to repress an insur- 
 rection at Liege, a town of Flanders, which had been 
 incited to revolt by the emissaries of the king of 
 France. Just as the duke of Burgundy had succeeded 
 in restoring order in Flanders, and was preparing again 
 to turn his arms against France, Louis, badly counsel- 
 led, and perhaps betrayed by the cardinal la Balue, 
 repaired to Peronne, and put himself into the power 
 of his enemy. Scarcely had he arrived there ere the 
 revolt of Liege again broke out ; and Charles, enraged, 
 compelled the king to accompany him, and aid him to 
 crush the rebels. Louis beheld the destruction of the 
 city, which he had himself excited to revolt, and saw 
 nearly all the inhabitants massacred. He was then 
 set at liberty, after signing the treaty of Peronne, 
 (1468,) by which he divested himself of all sovereignty 
 over the estates of Burgundy, and gave to his brother 
 Champagne and Brie, as an appanage. 
 
 On his return to Paris, the king's first care was to 
 seize the cardinal la Balue, and the bishop of Verdun, 
 his accomplice, and imprison them in the Bastille, 
 where they were confined in iron cages for ten years. 
 It was about this time that the order of the knights of 
 Saint Michael was founded. The duke of Brittany 
 refused the dignity of the new order, saying that he 
 did not wish to hazard his neck in the chains of 
 Louis XL 
 
 The treaty of Peronne was not more faithfully exe- 
 cuted than that of Conflans. As soon as Louis was 
 freed from the apprehension of danger firom the Eng- 
 lish, by the defeat of the royal army by the earl of 
 
132 INTERNAL DISORDERS." 
 
 Ancient Cannon of the Fifteenth .Century. 
 
 Warwick, he convoked an assembly of notables, and 
 caused them to annul the treaty of Peronne, under the 
 pretext that it had been imposed by Charles, in viola- 
 tion of his word. In ridding himself of his obligations, 
 however, Louis only surrounded himself by new dan- 
 gers. Edward IV., with the aid of the duke of Bur- 
 gundy, regained his crown. The duke of Brittany 
 renewed his intrigues ; and the constable, St. Pol, sold 
 his services to each of the parties, in the hopes of ag- 
 grandizing himself at the expense of both. The king 
 saw himself threatened by a new storm. The duke 
 of Burgundy agreed with the king of England upon 
 the dismemberment of France. Guienne and Nor- 
 mandy were to be bestowed upon the English ; the 
 duke of Burgundy was to take possession of Picardy 
 and Champagne ; and the rest of the kingdom was 
 decreed to the king's brother. The king, in the mean 
 time, manifested no symptoms of fear ; but made his 
 preparations and awaited the result. His brother soon 
 after died suddenly at Bordeaux, after eating a peach, 
 which was supposed to have been poisoned. The duke 
 of Burgundy marched his troops into Picardy, but the 
 admirable defence of Beauvais, in which Jeanne Ha- 
 chette immortalized herself by her courage, arrested 
 
CHARLES OF BURGUNDY- 133 
 
 his army ; whilst St, Pol seized upon some towns of 
 Burgundy on his own account. Louis gained to his 
 side, by intrigue, some of his enemy's principal coun- 
 sellors. Charles of Burgundy marched against the 
 constable St. Pol. The duke of Brittany signed a 
 new truce. The duke d'Alen9on, condemned to death 
 by the parliament, died in prison. The coimt d'Ar- 
 magnac was besieged, captured, and slain in Lectoure, 
 by the cardinal d'Albi, who had been commissioned to 
 punish him for his many crimes. Some time after- 
 wards, the constable, St. Pol, who had been taken pri- 
 soner by Burgundy, was delivered up to Louis XL and 
 beheaded, and towards the close of the reign, the duke 
 of Nemours also lost his head upon the scaffold. Thus 
 Louis contrived to weaken the power of the nobles 
 and increase his own, by fomenting strife between 
 them, by executions, and by the confiscation of their 
 estates. He was, consequently, the better enabled to 
 concentrate his forces against Charles, the duke of 
 Burgundy, now his only remaining formidable rival. 
 Still Louis preferred, when possible, to make use of 
 others to effect his object. It was then with pleasure 
 that he saw the duke preparing to add Lorraine, part 
 of Switzerland, and the dominions of Rene, count of 
 Provence, to his present possessions, and thus attempt- 
 ing to recompose the ancient kingdom of Lorraine, as 
 it had existed under the Carlovingians ; well knowing 
 the valour and hardihood of the foe with which he was 
 going to contend. 
 
 Repulsed at the siege of Neuss, Burgundy invaded 
 Lorraine, and soon found himself in presence of the 
 Swiss, who had been called to the aid of their neigh- 
 bours. These hardy mountaineers drew upon them- 
 selves the anger of the duke, by allying themselves 
 with the imperial cities, whose independence he had 
 threatened. After dispossessing the duke of Lorraine 
 of the greater part of his dominions, he endeavoured 
 to subjugate the Swiss, but from them he met with an 
 unexpected repulse. They destroyed successively two 
 12 
 
134 DEATH OF CHARLES OF BURGUNDY. 
 
 Burgundian armies in the famous fields of Granson 
 and Morat, (1476.) These defeats, however, instead 
 of checking his ambitious projects, only made him pur- 
 sue them the more frantically, and against all prudent 
 counsel, until, in a battle fought near Nancy, in January 
 1477, his army was a third time defeated, and he him- 
 self lost his life. Two days after the battle, the duke's 
 body was found in a morass, half covered with snow, 
 and so fast frozen to the ground that it was impossible 
 to extricate it without the aid of pickaxes. 
 
 Thus fell Charles the Bold, the last duke of Bur- 
 gundy, and the most terrible enemy of Louis XT. By 
 his death, his large possessions, extending from the 
 northern limits of Holland to the frontiers of Switzer- 
 land, descended to his only child, Mary of Burgundy. 
 By causing her to marry the dauphin Charles, Louis 
 XL might have secured to the crown the inheritance 
 of his rival; but his haste in seizing upon Artois, 
 Picardy, and the duchy of Burgundy, induced the other 
 states more remote from France, to put themselves on 
 the defensive. In the mean time, Mary married 
 
DEATH OF LOUIS XI. 135 
 
 Maximilian of Austria, who claimed all the posses- 
 sions of Charles the Bold as his by inheritance, and 
 prepared to enforce his claim against the king- of 
 France by force of arms. The bloody and indecisive 
 battle of Guineg-ate, fought in 1479, by the French, 
 against the Flemish and Burgundian troops of Maximi- 
 lian, was followed by a truce ; and four years later, 
 after the death of Mary, her daughter, Margaret of 
 Austria, was betrothed, at the age of two years, to the 
 dauphin. The treaty of Arras secured to Louis the 
 possession of the two Burgundies and of Artois. 
 
 Rene of Provence had died a few years before this 
 time, leaving Provence and Anjou to the crown of 
 France. 
 
 The treaty of Arras was the last political act of the 
 reign of Louis. Growing melancholy and jealous of 
 his power, he shut himself up in his castle of Plessis- 
 les-Tours, which he garrisoned with a band of Scotch 
 archers. All his precautions, however, could not ar- 
 rest the progress of age. This king, who made all 
 France to tremble, now himself trembled before his 
 physician, Jacques Cottier, who pretended that an 
 astrologer had predicted that his death should take 
 place a few days before that of the king. Profoundly 
 superstitious, the king, feeling his last days approach- 
 ing, sent for a hermit of Calabria, Francis de Paule, who 
 had the reputation of working miracles, and on his knees 
 besought him to prolong his life. The holy man repre- 
 sented to him that such power belonged only to God. 
 Still his death was evidently approaching ; and at last, 
 when he believed himself about to expire, he ordered his 
 chief officers to go to his son at Amboise, and to con- 
 sider him as their master. He committed the regency, 
 during Charles's minority, to his sister, Anne of Beau- 
 jeau, and died on the 30th of August, 1483. 
 
 Louis added greatly to the territories of the crown 
 of France, especially after the death of the duke of 
 Burgundy. The extinction of the house of Anjou, by 
 the death of Rene, count of Anjou and duke of Pro- 
 
136 
 
 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 vence, and his nephew, had reunited to the crown, 
 Anjou, Maine, and Provence, with the claims of that 
 house to the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. The 
 county of Boulogne he acquired by purchase. 
 
 In this reign the art of printing was introduced into 
 France, and posts and couriers established for the con- 
 veyance of letters. Parliaments were also instituted 
 at Grenoble, Bordeaux, and Dijon. 
 
 Charles VHL 
 
 Chahles VIII. was but thirteen years of age when 
 he succeeded his father. During the whole period of 
 his minority, the country was involved in a civil war 
 between the states-general, who acknowledged and 
 supported Anne of Beaujeau as the king's guardian 
 and regent of the kingdom, and Louis, duke of Or- 
 leans, grandson of the assassin of John-sans-Peur, who 
 
CHARLES VIII, INVADES ITALY. 137 
 
 claimed the regency as his right. The duke of Orleans 
 was conquered in a battle fought between the two 
 parties at Saint Aubin-du-Cormier, and obliged to shuli 
 himself up in his tower of Bourges, where he remain- 
 ed a close prisoner until the majority of the king. But 
 Charles no sooner assumed the reins of government, 
 than he again abandoned them to Anne of Beaujeau, 
 and collecting a considerable army, he crossed the Alps 
 for the purpose of making good his pretensions to the 
 kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, which had been left by 
 will to his father. This expedition was throughout but 
 a brilliant military procession, without any lasting re- 
 sult. Received with acclamations at Florence, Pavia, 
 and Rome, as the deliverer of the people from the op- 
 pressions of their rulers, Charles proceeded onwards 
 until he finally entered Naples in triumph, and was 
 acknowledged as emperor of the east, and king of 
 Naples and Jerusalem. The injustice and cruelty of 
 the French, however, soon excited the hatred of the 
 Neapolitans ; w^hile, on the other hand, a plot was dis- 
 covered by Philip of Comines, then ambassador at the 
 court of Venice, by which that republic, leagued with 
 Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, the pope, Alexander 
 VI., the kings of Aragon and England, and the em- 
 peror of Germany, was to prevent the return of Charles 
 VIII. to France. Charles immediately ordered a re- 
 treat, leaving Gilbert de Montpensier, with a part of 
 his army, to defend the city of Naples. He, then, with 
 the remainder of his once glorious army, rapidly tra- 
 versed Italy, fought a vastly superior army of Italians 
 at Fornova, and made good his retreat to France, after 
 having signed the treaty of Verceil, by which he 
 secured the retreat of the garrison of Novara, where 
 the duke of Orleans was besieged. This treaty ac- 
 knowledged Ludovico Sforza as duke of Milan ; and 
 that prince in return agreed to hold Genoa, in fief, 
 of the crown of France. In the mean time, Gon- 
 zalvo de Cordova, the great captain, attacked the 
 French left in the kingdom of Naples, and, aided by 
 12* 
 
138 DEATH OF CHARLES VIII. 
 
 famine and the pestilence, compelled them to capitu- 
 late. Naples and Sicily were lost to France. The 
 king projected a second expedition, when, in 1498, he 
 was smitten with apoplexy, and died, at the age of 
 twenty-eight He left no sons ; and with him the di- 
 rect line of the house of Valois became extinct. He 
 united Brittany to the crown of France, by his mar- 
 riage with Anne, the heiress of that duchy. 
 
 Louis XL and Francis de Paule. 
 
Louis XII. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 RACE OP CAPET.— ORLEANS BRANCH OF THE HOUSE OF 
 VALOIS. 
 
 Louis XII. 
 
 The duke of Orleans, the nearest male heir to the 
 crown, was thirty-six years of age, when, in 1498, 
 under the name of Louis XIL, he ascended the throne. 
 His wise regulations for the administration of justice, 
 and the henefit of his subjects, soon gained for him the 
 title of " le Pere du peuple,'' (Father of his people.) 
 His foreign policy, however, was very injudicious. 
 France suffered extremely from the ruinous wars in 
 which he engaged without foresight, and prosecuted 
 without vigour. 
 
 Hardly was he seated on the throne, when he ob- 
 
 a39:» 
 
140 LOUIS XII. IN ITALY. 
 
 tained a divorce from Jane of France, daughter of 
 Louis XL, whom he had married against his will, and 
 solicited the hand of the widowed queen of Charles 
 VIIL, Anne of Brittany. She accepted his suit ; their 
 marriage was celebrated in January 1499; and the 
 union of Brittany with France was confirmed. 
 
 Being, about this time, importuned by his courtiers to 
 remove from the command of the army a brave old 
 general, named La Tremouille, who had taken him 
 prisoner at the battle of St. Aubin, he magnanimously 
 replied, that " it did not become a king of France to 
 revenge the quarrels of the duke of Orleans." He 
 would have avoided many difficulties had he at the 
 same time forgotten the claims of the duke of Orleans 
 upon the duchy of Milan. But he was the grandson 
 of Valentine Visconti, and, as he conceived, the right- 
 ful heir of Milan, while he inherited his predecessor's 
 title to the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. He ac- 
 cordingly sent an army into Italy, which, in twenty 
 days, completely subdued the Milanese. The cardinal 
 d'Amboise was made governor of the conquered duchy ; 
 but he oppressed the people, and as soon as the French 
 king had withdrawn to his own kingdom, the duke 
 Ludovico Sforza reappeared with a numerous army, 
 and laid siege to Novara. The people revolted in 
 favour of their duke, and the French authority in Milan 
 was again tottering, when La Tremouille arrived with 
 an army, regained possession of the country, and took 
 Sforza prisoner. Louis XIT. ordered his illustrious 
 captive to be cast into the tower of Loche, where he 
 was kept in close captivity until his death, ten years 
 afterwards. 
 
 When Louis was crowned at Rheims, he took to 
 himself the titles of Duke of Milan, and King of 
 Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem. Milan having sub- 
 mitted, he turned his arms' against Naples; but not 
 conceiving himself sufficiently powerful to accomplish 
 without assistance so great an enterprise, he concluded 
 the secret treaty of Grenada, with Ferdinand the 
 
LOUIS FOILED IN ITALY. 141 
 
 Catholic, the king of Aragon, by which he divided the ' 
 kingdom of Naples with him, and nominated viceroy, 
 the young Louis d'Armagnac, count de Nemours. The 
 allied armies soon, by force or cunning, became pos- 
 sessed of the kingdom ; but hardly had the conquest 
 been accomplished, when the crafty Ferdinand threw 
 off his mask, and ordered his lieutenant, Gonzalvo de 
 Cordova, to seize the part reserved to the French by 
 the treaty of Grenada. A war between the spoliators 
 ensued. Gonzalvo conquered and captured d'Aubigny 
 at the battle of Seminara ; and Louis d'Armagnac, the 
 young viceroy, was defeated and killed a week after- 
 wards, at the battle of Cerignola. (1503.) At the same 
 time, the death of two popes made way for the eleva- 
 tion of Julius XL, a mortal enemy of France, to the 
 papal throne. Louis assembled three new armies, two 
 of which he sent into Spain to chastise Ferdinand. 
 The third was destined to attempt the recovery of 
 Naples. Both expeditions were unsuccessful; the 
 French were everywhere repulsed, and the kingdom 
 of Naples was a second time lost to France. This loss 
 was rendered still more degrading by the shameful 
 treaty of Blois, by which, Milan being secured to the 
 crown of France, Louis gave the hand of his niece, 
 Germaine de Foix, to the king of Aragon, and pro- 
 mised to Charles of Luxembourg, afterwards Charles 
 v., that of his daughter Claude of France, ceding to 
 him, as her dowry, Brittany, Burgundy, and Milan ; 
 whilst his title to the kingdom of Naples was presented 
 to Ferdinand as the dowry of Germaine de Foix. The 
 states-general of Tours remonstrated against such a 
 dismemberment of the kingdom, and petitioned the 
 king to confer the hand of his daughter upon Francis, 
 count d'Angouleme, and heir presumptive to the throne 
 of France. 
 
 In 1508, Louis most unwisely entered into the league 
 of Cambray. This was an alliance, formed by the pope, 
 the emperor Maximilian, and the king of Aragon, 
 against the republic of Venice. Louis, in person, 
 gained a great victory over the Venetians in the battle 
 
142 
 
 LEAGUE AGAINST FRANCE. 
 
 of Aignadel, (1509,) and the republic was stripped of 
 a considerable portion of its territory, but afterwards 
 in part recovered its losses. Julius II. then broke off 
 from the league of Cambray, and uniting with the 
 Venetians, the Swiss, and the king of Aragon, formed 
 another, called the Holy League, which was directed 
 against the French, and intended to expel them for 
 ever from Italy. In the terrible struggle which fol- 
 
 Gaston de Foix. 
 
 lowed, Louis XII. gave the command of his army to 
 the young Gaston de Foix, duke of Nemours, who im- 
 mediately marched against the allies, and gained three 
 battles in three months. With the srlorious battle of 
 
LOUIS DEFEATED. 143 
 
 Ravenna, in which this victorious prince met his death, 
 terminated the successes of Louis XII. in Italy. (1512.) 
 In less than two months, la Palisse, the successor of 
 the duke of Nemours, was forced to fall back upon 
 Piedmont. Happily for France, her greatest enemy, 
 Julius II., died in 1513. He was succeeded by the 
 cardinal de Medicis, who took the name of Leo X. 
 He, too, though with less animosity, adopted a policy 
 adverse to France. Hostilities continued; la Tre- 
 mouille, who led a French force into Lombardy, was 
 defeated by the Swiss at Novara. His army repassed 
 the Alps ; and Italy was lost beyond recovery. 
 
 In the same year, 1513, a new enemy rose up against 
 Louis. Henry VIII. of England entered into a league 
 with the emperor Maximilian, and the two sovereigns 
 invaded France. A battle was fought near Guinegate 
 in Picardy, in which the French were defeated. This 
 action has been called the battle of the Spurs, because 
 it was said that on that day the French made more use 
 of their spurs than of their swords. 
 
 Louis was now weary of the unsuccessful warfare 
 in which he had been so long engaged. He saw him- 
 self on every side defeated and disappointed. His 
 most illustrious captains, (among others La Palisse 
 Bussy d'Amboise, and the chevalier Bayard,) were 
 prisoners in the hands of the English. Pressed at the 
 same moment by the Swiss, who were besieging Dijon, 
 by the Spaniards, by the English and Germans, and 
 deprived of his single ally, the king of Scotland, who 
 was slain on Flodden-field, Louis sued for peace, and 
 in 1514, at Orleans, signed a truce with all the liostile 
 powers. To 'strengthen these treaties, he married, 
 notwithstanding his age, Mary, the young and beauti- 
 ful sister of Henry VIIL Anne of Brittany had died 
 in January 1514, a few months previously. " To please 
 his young bride, " says the biographer of Bayard, " the 
 good king gave up his regular hours and quiet habit 
 of life ; he relinquished his former custom of dining at 
 eight o'clock in the morning, and retiring to rest at 
 six in the evening. He adopted, iiistead, the fashion- 
 
144 DEATH OF LOUIS XII. 
 
 ably late dinner hour of twelve at noon, and would sit 
 up at dances and gay assemblies till midnight." These 
 altered habits disagreed with his health, which had 
 long been in a declining state, and he died on the first 
 of January, 1515, sincerely regretted by the people, 
 whose taxes he had diminished, and whom he had 
 never failed to protect from the rapacity of his troops. 
 
 Louis left two daughters, Claude, who, notwithstand- 
 ing her betrothal to Charles V., married her cousin, the 
 count d'Angouleme, and Rene, who married the duke 
 of Ferrara. The king having left no son, his cousin 
 Francis, count d'Angouleme, was the nearest male heir 
 to the crown. 
 
 It was during the reign of Louis XIL that the know- 
 ledge of the existence of America was spread in 
 France. It had been discovered by Columbus in 1492. 
 In 1498 the Portuguese, Vasco de Gama, found the 
 way to India, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope ; and 
 maritime commerce began to abandon the Mediterra- 
 nean to cover the ocean with its fleets. 
 
 A Courtier of the Fifteenth, Ceatury. 
 
Francis I. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RACE OF CAPET. — HOUSE OF VALOIS. — BRANCH OF 
 ANGOULEME. 
 
 Francis 1. 
 
 Francis I., surnamed le Pere des lettres, (the Father 
 of letters,) was twenty years of age at the time of his 
 accession to the throne. He was the son of Louise of 
 Savoy, and Charles of Angouleme, the cousin-german 
 of Louis XII. Generous and chivalric, incapable of 
 suspecting fraud in others, he allowed Charles V. to 
 deceive him, as Louis XIL had been deceived by 
 Ferdinand of Aragon. 
 
 Scarcely had he assumed the sceptre ere he cast his 
 eyes upon Italy, and raised, with a view to the con- 
 13 (145) 
 
146 BATTLE OF MARIGNANO. 
 
 quest of Milan, a formidable army, adorned by the 
 presence of the most illustrious of the warriors of 
 France. Leaving his mother regent of France, Francis 
 advanced rapidly at their head, and so astonished his 
 enemies by his quick appearance in sight of Milan, 
 that they sued for peace. Scarcely, however, had the 
 negotiations begun, when they were broken by the 
 arrival of a body of Swiss reinforcements, who, eager 
 for plunder, demanded to be instantly led to battle. 
 The commanders were obliged to comply, and at four 
 o'clock in the afternoon of October 13, 1515, the Swiss 
 commenced the battle of Marignano, which contuiued 
 until night separated the combatants. Both armies 
 slept in their armoar on the field, and with the first 
 light of day recommenced the battle. At about nine 
 in the morning, the Swiss, seeing the Venetians ad- 
 vancing to the aid of the French, retired in good 
 order, but with the loss of ten thousand slain. The 
 French general Trivulzio, who had been in eighteen 
 pitched battles, declared that they were all children's 
 play in comparison with this, which he called " the 
 battle of giants." The day after the engagement, Francis 
 I. received the order of knighthood, from the hands of 
 Bayard, the knight sans peur et sans reproche, who, 
 of all his brave captains, had most distinguished him- 
 self at Marignano. This victory gave Francis, for 
 a time, the desired possession of Milan ; and to render 
 it more secure, an alliance was concluded with the 
 Swiss, who long formed a protective barrier to the 
 weakest frontier of his kingdom. 
 
 Ferdinand of Aragon died in 1516, leaving to his 
 grandson, the archduke Charles, already master of the 
 Low Countries, the crowns of Castile and Aragon. 
 Soon after Maximilian, the emperor of Germany, also 
 died. The empire was not yet hereditary ; the diet of 
 electors, which assembled at Frankfort, had the power 
 to dispose of it. Three monarchs presented themselves 
 as candidates for the crown ; Henry VIII. of England, 
 who soon withdrew; Charles, king of Spain, and 
 
WAR WITH CHARLES V. 147 
 
 Francis of France. The election was long- undecided, 
 but the intrigues and gold of the king of Spain finally 
 procured the votes of the electors, and he was crowned 
 at Aix-la-Chapelle, under the title, of Charles V. 
 
 Francis I., wounded to the heart at his rejection, 
 summoned Charles to give up Naples, and to appear 
 and do homage for the county of Flanders. Each of 
 them applied for the aid of Henry VIIL, the king of 
 England. He was invited to visit the French king in 
 his dominions, and an interview took place at Guines, 
 near Calais. The excessive magnificence displayed 
 on both sides, has given to the scene of this conference 
 the name of the field of the cloth of gold. The two 
 kings signed a treaty of alliance, which turned out to 
 be a mere delusion, as the able Spaniard had already 
 gained to his side, Cardinal Wolsey, the all-powerful 
 minister of Henry, and he acted so judiciously, that 
 the king of England returned to his island, prepos- 
 sessed in favour of the emperor. 
 
 Hostilities at length commenced: — a French army 
 invaded and ravaged Navarre ; and the emperor's cap- 
 tains violated the territory of France, for the purpose 
 of attacking Robert de la Marck, an ally of that king- 
 dom. War broke out in the north and in the south. 
 The imperialists took Mouzon and Tournay, and be- 
 sieged Mezieres, which was saved, however, by Anne 
 de Montmorency, and the chevalier Bayard. The 
 Milanese was lost, — the brave Lautrec being driven 
 out for want of money. Four hundred thousand crowns 
 had been promised him by Francis I. ; but Louise of 
 Savoy had, without the knowledge of her son, the king, 
 compelled Semblan9ay, the minister of finance, to de- 
 liver up this sum to her ; and she afterwards caused 
 him to be put to death, in order to conceal her crime. 
 
 At this moment, Henry VIII. declared in favour of 
 Charles; and these two sovereigns proclaimed war 
 against Francis ; whilst, at the same time, Adrian VI., 
 formerly preceptor to Charles V., ascended the ponti- 
 fical throne. To add to the perils which seemed to be 
 
148 THE CONSTABLE BOURBON. 
 
 » 
 
 closing around the French throne, Louise of Savoy 
 commenced and carried on an unjust process against 
 the constable Charles, duke of Bourbon, the most 
 powerfiil lord of the kingdom. Seconded by the chan- 
 cellor Duprat, the favourite of the king, she succeeded 
 
 r - jhancellor Duprat and his Wife. 
 
 in obtaining a decree of confiscation against the house 
 of Bourbon. Driven to despair, Bourbon fled to Charles, 
 and offered to divide France with him and Henry VIII,, 
 and soon reappeared at the head of the imperial army. 
 This treason obliged Francis to remain in his king- 
 dom ; but, his heart being firmly set on the recovery 
 of the Milanese, he sent there an army, under the 
 command of the admiral Bonnivet. Bonnivet had to 
 contend with Lannoy and Pescara, two of Charles's 
 best generals. He was driven from all his posts, and 
 being severely wounded while retreating before the 
 enemy, he consigned the command of the army to the 
 
THE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 
 
 149 
 
 The Chevalier Bayard. 
 
 chevalier Bayard, who, being always the first to ad- 
 vance and the last to retreat, was mortally wounded 
 in a skirmish near Romagnano. The old knight caused 
 himself to be carried to the foot of a tree, and seated 
 with his face to the enemy ; then calmly fixing his 
 eyes upon the guard of his sword, which served him 
 in place of a crucifix, he patiently awaited death. The 
 Spaniards advancing, the duke of Bourbon hastened 
 towards him, and expressed his anxious pity. Bayard 
 replied to him ; " Weep not for me ; I am not to be 
 pitied ; I die as a man of honour in the service of my 
 country ; but you, who fought against your king, your 
 country, and your vov/, I pity you." He soon after 
 expired, 
 
 13* 
 
150 BATTLE OF PAVIA. 
 
 The imperial army followed Bonnivet into France, 
 and many towns submitted to them. Marseilles, how- 
 ever, resisted them for forty days, when the advance 
 of Francis, in person, compelled them to retire. 
 
 Francis again marched into Italy, and raised the 
 siege of Pavia. The imperialists, under the command 
 of Lannoy, Pescara, and Bourbon, approached him at 
 the end of three months, and offered him battle on the 
 25th of February, 1525. The French were gaining 
 ground, when a large body of Swiss in their ranks sud- 
 denly took to flight. This alarmed the entire body of 
 infantry, and they believing the whole army in full re- 
 treat, fled also, leaving the king, who was fighting on 
 foot, to sustain the assault of the whole imperial army. 
 Surrounded by his knights, he performed the most 
 heroic exploits, but in vain. He saw his best officers 
 fall around him; the Marshal de Foix, La Palisse, 
 Chaumont, La Tremouille, and Bonnivet were slain, 
 and the king himself was wounded in two places, 
 when he was summoned by Bourbon to surrender. He 
 refused to give up his sword to any but Lannoy, who 
 received it respectfully on his knees. He was con- 
 ducted to a tent which was soon prepared for his re- 
 ception, and afterwards to the castle of Pizzighittone. 
 Ten thousand Frenchmen were slain in the bloody 
 battle of Pavia. News of the disaster was sent to the 
 king's mother, in a letter from her son, containing only 
 these memorable words : " Madam, all is lost, but 
 honour." The wisdom and firmness of the duchess of 
 Angouleme, soon placed the frontiers of the kingdom 
 in such a state as to defy invasion. 
 
 The captivity of Francis I., who was transferred to 
 a prison in Madrid by order of the emperor, was soft- 
 ened by the presence and attention of his sister Mar- 
 garet ; and finally, the emperor himself consented to 
 visit his royal captive, not as a conqueror, but as a 
 friend, at least to all appearance. Francis at last, in 
 March 1526, purchased his liberty by signing the treaty 
 of Madrid, by which he contracted to marry Eleanorj 
 
WAR RECOMMENCED. 151 
 
 the emperor's sister, to resign Burgundy to him, and 
 to relinquish his pretensions to Naples and Milan. 
 Eleanor, accordingly, he afterwards married, but the 
 other conditions he had no intention to perform. As 
 soon as the king had crossed the Bidassoa, he mounted 
 his horse, and waving his cap over his head, exclaimed 
 joyfully, "I am yet a king!" He refused to deliver 
 up Burgundy, or to relinquish his pretensions to the 
 Italian states, saying that treaties concluded while he 
 was a prisoner were not binding, and he could not 
 transfer his subjects to a foreign prince without their 
 consent. 
 
 He soon after learned the death of the duke de 
 Bourbon, who was killed at the siege of Rome, which 
 was captured by the im.perialists, and the fall of Bour- 
 bon was revenged by the sack of the city, and a fear- 
 ful massacre. 
 
 Hostilities recommenced with new fury, and con- 
 tinued until the death of Francis I., being only inter- 
 rupted by the treaty of Cambray and the truce of 
 Nice. It was during this truce that the two kings 
 agreed to meet each other in a friendly interview, and 
 together they visited the tomb of Saint Denis, present- 
 ing to the world the strange spectacle of two deadly 
 enemies, two sovereigns who had deluged the world 
 with blood, meeting each other with open arms and 
 mutual expressions of everlasting regard. 
 
 A revolt of the people of Ghent shortly afterwards 
 summoned Charles V. into the Low Countries. He 
 was in Spain at the moment, and his direct way lay 
 through France. Accordingly, he demanded permis- 
 sion to pass through that kingdom, and offered to give 
 up the Milanese to him in return for this favour. 
 Francis gladly accepted the offer, and Charles passed 
 safely through France, being treated during his jour- 
 ney with the courtesy due to a royal visitor. But 
 when he was afterwards called on to fulfil his promise, 
 he refused, and in 1542 the war recommenced. Henry 
 VIII. invaded France on the north and west, w^hile 
 
152 
 
 FRANCE INVADED. 
 
 Francis and Charles V. visiting the Tomb of St. Denis. 
 
 Charles V. advanced towards Meaux. Francis in- 
 vaded Luxemburg, and in concert with the famous 
 corsair Barbarossa, besieged Nice. The town was 
 taken, but the castle held out, and the Turk ravaged 
 the coasts of Italy, taking many prisoners. The Eng- 
 lish took Boulogne, and the Spaniards St. Dizier. The 
 battle of Cerisoles, gained in 1544, in Piedmont, by the 
 duke d'Enghien, over du Gast, could not arrest this 
 double and formidable invasion. The dauphin, who 
 had collected a considerable force, now, in some de- 
 gree, checked the imperial army, as well by the force 
 of arms, as by the removal of all means of sustenance 
 
DEATH OF FRANCIS I. 153 
 
 from the route by which the enemy was advancing. 
 The emperor, finding his troops suffering from famine, 
 and in danger of being surrounded by the continually 
 increasing army under the command of the dauphin, 
 concluded a treaty with Francis at Crespy, by which 
 he was permitted to retire in safety, on the condition 
 that he would give either his niece or his daughter to 
 the duke of Orleans, the youngest son of Francis, with 
 Milan or the Low Countries for her dower. The deatli 
 of the duke of Orleans released the emperor from hiS 
 engagement, and though he refused any compensation 
 to the French king, yet the peace was not broken. 
 
 In June 1546, Henry and Francis made peace ; the 
 latter binding himself to pay a hundred thousand 
 crowns a year for eight years, at the end of which 
 time the former promised to restore Boulogne. But in 
 the course of the very next year, both these monarchs 
 died, Henry in January, and Francis in March, 1547. 
 
 Though Francis issued more than one severe edict 
 against the newly-invented art of printing, the protec- 
 tion which he uniformly extended to talent and learn- 
 ing, obtained for him the title of " the father and re- 
 storer of letters." A poet himself, he encouraged and 
 protected Clement Marot, Saint-Gelais, Rabelais, Bude, 
 the historians Du Bellay, and the painters Etienne and 
 Cousin. He built portions of the chateaux of Fontaine- 
 bleau, Saint-Germaine, and Chambord, and commenced 
 the building of the Louvre. 
 
 In this reign Luther laid the foundation of the re- 
 formed or protestant church. His doctrines found their 
 way into France ; but the converts to them were in 
 general treated with great severity, and many suffered 
 martyrdom. It was also in this reign that Anthony 
 du Prat, who had been first Francis's tutor, and was 
 afterwards chancellor, introduced the practice of sell- 
 ing the offices of judicature ; a practice which was 
 not abolished until the Revolution. 
 
Henry II. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 RACE OF CAPET. — HOUSE OF VALOIS. ■ 
 ANGOULEME. 
 
 BRANCH OF 
 
 Henry IL — Francis II. — Charles IX. — Henry HI. 
 
 Henry IL was twenty-nine years old when he as- 
 cended the throne. (L547.) He commenced his reign 
 by aggravating the punishments pronounced against 
 heretics, and, together with his queen, Catharine de 
 Medicis, witnessed the execution of several protest- 
 ants, who were burned alive in presence of the whole 
 court. 
 
 (154) 
 
CHARLES V. ABDICATES. 155 
 
 In 1552, war again commenced with the emperor. 
 Aided in Germany by the co-operation of the protest- 
 ant princes, he seized the three bishoprics of Metz, 
 Toul, and Verdun, which opened to him a passage into 
 Alsace. He was advancing upon Strasburg, but the 
 appearance of Cliarles V. with a large army compelled 
 him to fall back. The German states made a treaty 
 for themselves at Passau, which secured their religious 
 liberties from future invasion. Hostilities were pro- 
 longed for three years more between Henry and 
 Charles. The principal events of that war, are the 
 im.mortal defence of Metz, by the duke of Guise, in 
 1552, against Charles V., who besieged it with one 
 hundred thousand soldiers, and a formidable artillery 
 force — the raising of the siege, in which the emperor 
 lost forty thousand men — the ravaging of Picardy by 
 the imperial army, and of Hainault by that of France, 
 — the battle of Renti, in Italy, wherein the duke of 
 Guise, Coligny, and Tavannes, greatly distinguished 
 themselves — and the campaign against the duke of 
 Alba in Piedmont, led by the Marshal de Brissac. 
 
 At the close of this war Charles V. abdicated the 
 thrones of Spain and Flanders, resigning them into the 
 hands of his son Philip II., (1555,) and six months 
 afterwards, he resigned the imperial crown to his 
 brother Ferdinand, and retired to the monastery of 
 Saint-Just, where he soon after died. Philip soon be- 
 came entangled in a dispute with the pope Paul IV. 
 Paul called on the king of France for assistance against 
 Philip, and Henry, by the advice of his favourites, de- 
 clared war against Spain. Queen Mary of England 
 had married Philip of Spain, and consequently, an 
 English army of twelve thousand men landed in Flan- 
 ders, and under the Spanish general, Philibert Emanuel 
 of Savoy, laid siege to Saint-Quentin. The constable 
 de Montmorency advanced to the aid of the besieged, 
 but was completely defeated, with the loss of ten thou- 
 sand men. The constable, himself, the Marshal de 
 Saint Andre, and more than three hundred gentlemen, 
 
156 
 
 TREATY OF PEACE. 
 
 were taken prisoners. The road to Paris was open, 
 and the indecision of Philip, alone, saved France from 
 heavier disasters. The duke of Guise was recalled 
 from Italy, and he soon restored confidence to the 
 French people by the recovery of Calais, which had 
 been in the possession of the English for more than two 
 hundred years. (1558.) The ascendancy thus obtain- 
 ed by the duke of Guise over the minds of the people, 
 was soon after increased by his connection with the 
 royal family, by the marriage of his niece Mary, the 
 young queen of Scotland, to the dauphin. 
 
 The tilting between Henry II. and the Count de Montgomery. 
 
 In 1559, a definitive treaty of peace was signed be- 
 tween France, Spain, and England, at Gateau Cam- 
 bresis. France retained Calais and the three bishop- 
 rics, but renounced all other conquests, together with 
 her rights over Genoa, Corsica, and Naples. To ce- 
 ment this peace, two marriages were agreed on ; the 
 one between Philip and Elizabeth, Henry's eldest 
 daughter; the other between Margaret, the king's 
 sister, and the duke of Savoy. A splendid tournament 
 was held in honour of these marriages, at which the 
 king insisted on trying his skill against the count of 
 Montgomery. Montgomery's lance broke against the 
 king's helmet, but a splinter entered the right eye 
 
FRANCIS II. 157 
 
 and passed into the brain. He was carried from the 
 lists to his bed, where he lay for eleven days without 
 speech or sense, and then died at the age of forty-one. 
 (1559.) 
 
 Francis H. 
 
 Frajicis XL, the eldest son of Henry II., ascended 
 the throne at the age of sixteen. The introduction 
 of the reformed religion had excited a general ferment, 
 and had caused breaches and divisions in all orders of 
 society. The court was split into parties. The two 
 principal factions were that of the duke of Guise, the 
 young queen's uncle, to which the queen's mother, 
 Catharine de Medicis, had united herself; and the fac- 
 tion of Montmorency, including the old constable, to- 
 gether with the princes of the blood, Antoine de Bour- 
 bon, king of Navarre, and his brother Louis prince de 
 Conde. The party of Montmorency was weakened by 
 14 
 
158 CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE. 
 
 divisions which sprung up in the family. His nephews, 
 Coligny and d'Andelot, became Huguenots, as the pro- 
 testants were called in France, and he, himself, in ab- 
 horrence of their heresy, at length united himself with 
 the duke of Guise. 
 
 The duke of Guise was induced by his brother the 
 cardinal of Lorraine, to persecute the Huguenots with 
 furious zeal, and great numbers of them suffered death 
 for their religion. 
 
 The people murmured at the authority usurped by 
 the Guises, who took upon themselves the administra- 
 'tion of affairs ; and several plots were formed to dis- 
 place them. The most formidable of these plots was 
 called the conspiracy of Amboise, the object of which 
 was to seize upon the person of the king, and bring the 
 Guises to trial for treason. This plot, conducted by the 
 faction of Montmorency, was made known to the 
 Guises, who instantly took such measures as secured 
 the failure of the enterprise, as well as the capture of 
 the principal persons concerned in it. The prince of 
 Conde was arrested, but was soon set at liberty ; but 
 some time afterwards, the Guises, having become more 
 powerful, convened, in the king's name, an assembly 
 of the states-general, at Orleans, to which the king of 
 Navarre and the prince were summoned to answer for 
 their conduct. They obeyed the summons ; and on his 
 arrival at Orleans, Conde was arrested, tried and con- 
 demned to be beheaded ; though, as a prince of the 
 blood, he should only have been tried before the parlia- 
 ment of Paris, and by his peers. The chancellor 
 d'Hopital, the only honest minister in France at that 
 time, interposed vafious obstacles to the execution of 
 the sentence ; and the refusal of the count de Sancerre 
 to sign the warrant for his execution, saved his life ; 
 for the death of Francis 11. , who perished of a languish- 
 ing malady, deprived the Guises of their authority, and 
 prevented the sentence from being carried into effect 
 The young king died in 1560, without children, leav- 
 ing three brothers, the sole remaining male descend- 
 ants of the house of Valois. 
 
CHARLES IX. 
 
 159 
 
 Charles IX. 
 
 Charles IX. was but ten years of age when he suc- 
 ceeded to the throne of his brother. Catharine de 
 Medicis assumed the regency, and named the king of 
 Navarre lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Conde 
 was liberated, and Montmorency recalled to court, 
 where, however, the Guises still remained strong and 
 formidable. The court was now divided into two par- 
 ties, that of Catharine and the Bourbons, and the 
 Catholic triumvirate, consisting of the duke of Guise, 
 the constable de Montmorency, and the marshal de 
 Saint Andre. The first act of the queen-regent was 
 the promulgation of an edict, granting to the Hugue- 
 nots the privilege of worshipping God as they chose, 
 but outside of the towns, and unarmed. This edict 
 was received with enthusiasm by the reformers, but 
 with a fierce and gloomy silence by the Catholics. 
 
160 RELIGIOUS CIVIL WAR. 
 
 The first breach of the peace was occasioned by the 
 attendants of the duke of Guise, falling upon a company 
 of Protestants, at the little town of Vassy, in Cham- 
 pagne, and putting about sixty of them to the sword. 
 The duke of Guise was wounded in the cheek during 
 the massacre. Such was the opening of a civil war, 
 which continued for more than thirty years. Both 
 parties took up arms. The triumvirate seized the per- 
 son of the king, and of his mother ; Conde, and the 
 brothers de Chatillon, Coligny, and d'Andelot, took pos- 
 session of Orleans, and there assembled their forces, 
 purchasing the assistance of Elizabeth of England with 
 the ports of Dieppe and Havre. The Catholics were 
 assisted by the king of Spain, and purchased the assist- 
 ance of the duke of Savoy at the price of the city of 
 Turin. The city of Rouen, held by Montgomery, the 
 involuntary slayer of Henry II., was besieged by An- 
 toine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, who was killed 
 beneath its walls. The sole glory of this prince is that 
 of having given birth to Henry IV., the first of the 
 Bourbon branch of the kings of France. Shortly after 
 the capture of Rouen, the armies of the opposing parties 
 met near Dreux; the duke of Guise, Montmorency, 
 and Saint Andre, commanding on one side, and on the 
 other Conde, d'Andelot, and Coligny. A bloody battle 
 ensued, in which Saint Andre was killed. Montmo- 
 rency was taken prisoner by the Protestants, and Conde 
 by the Catholics, who finally gained the victory. 
 
 The duke of Guise, now alone, at the head of his 
 party, lost no time in negotiating for the ransom of the 
 constable, bat marched at once upon Orleans, the siege 
 of which he pressed vigorously. There terminated 
 his successes and his life. A protestant, named Poltrot 
 de Mere, assassinated him by a pistol-shot, and his death 
 saved Orleans. The assassin was apprehended and 
 put to the torture ; the excruciating agony which he 
 was made to endure, wrung from him an acknowledg- 
 ment that the admiral Coligny was his accomplice. 
 His statements, however, were contradictory, and the 
 
DEATH OF MONTMORENCY. 
 
 161 
 
 high character of the admiral would seem to place himi 
 above the suspicion of being a party to an assassination. 
 Henry, the son of Francis of Guise, took the accusation 
 for proof, and, though then only thirteen years of age, 
 vowed an implacable hatred against Coligny. 
 
 Hostilities, suspended for some time by the conven- 
 tion of Amboise, again broke out upon an attempt made 
 by Conde to obtain possession of the person of the king, 
 at Monceaux, and afterwards at Meaux. (1567.) The 
 two armies met and fought at Saint Denis. The battle 
 was gained by the Catholics, under the constable 
 Montmorency, but he himself was assassinated by a 
 Scotch soldier, named Robert Stuart. Henry, count 
 
 The Monument of Montmorency. 
 
 of Anjou, the brother of the king, was made lieutenant- 
 general of the kingdom, under the guidance of the 
 Marshal Tavannes, for he was then only sixteen years 
 of age. In the following year, the Protestants lost the 
 battles of Jarnac and Montcontour. At the first of 
 these actions the heroic Conde was murdered, after 
 having surrendered. Thus, of all the old leaders, there 
 were none left on either side, except Coligny. Both 
 14* 
 
162 MARRIAGE OF HENRY. 
 
 Catharine de Medicis. 
 
 parties now earnestly longed for repose, and peace was 
 signed at Saint Germaine, in 1570. Catharine de 
 Medicis now proposed, as a means of healing all dis- 
 sensions, that her daughter Margaret should marry 
 Henry, the young king of Navarre, now at the head of 
 the Huguenots. The marriage being agreed upon, the 
 Protestant nobility were invited to Paris to witness the 
 ceremony, and to partake in the festivities with which 
 it was to be celebrated. This invitation, however, was 
 only a lure thrown out to bring the Protestant leaders 
 within the reach of their enemies, when, having them 
 in their power, the king and his mother formed a plot 
 to massacre all who professed that faith. The unsus- 
 pecting Protestants, rejoicing in the hope of freedom 
 and a lasting peace, came to the capital from all parts 
 of the kingdom. On the 18th of August, 1572, the 
 marriage ceremony was performed, on a platform, before 
 the whole multitude, and fetes and entertainments were 
 given at court to commemorate it. On the evening of 
 
MASSACRE OP ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 163 
 
 the 22d, as Colig-ny was walking- through the streets, 
 he was shot, and severely but not mortally wounded, by 
 a person in the service of the duke of Guise. Two 
 days afterwards, the dreadful massacre of Saint Bar- 
 tholomew took place. About half-past one on the 
 morning of the 25th, the signal being given by the toll- 
 ing of a bell, the bloody work commenced. Coligny 
 was among the first victims. He was slain at prayer, 
 and his body was thrown into the street. More than 
 five thousand Protestants were massacred in the city 
 of Paris alone. Orders were sent into the provinces to 
 put the Huguenots to the sword, and in many places 
 these orders were but too well obeyed. The viscount 
 d'Ortez, governor of Bayonne, however, in answer to 
 the king's mandate, replied, " Your majesty has many 
 good citizens and faithful soldiers in Bayonne, but not 
 one executioner." The young king of Navarre, and 
 Henry of Conde, the son of the great prince, were or- 
 dered into the presence of the king, who threateningly 
 proposed for their choice, " the mass, the Bastille, or 
 death !" Yielding to circumstances, the two princes 
 made a feigned abjuration, and were detained prisoners. 
 The intelligence of this fearful massacre was received 
 in Rome with enthusiasm, the court of Spain approved 
 it, while that of England denounced it as a dark and 
 dreadful crime. 
 
 The Huguenots, at first paralyzed with horror, soon 
 regained their activity and flew to arms. Rochelle 
 was besieged by the royal army, but was defended with 
 so much vigour during a protracted siege, that the 
 duke of Anjou, who commanded the assailants, found 
 it expedient to negotiate. A treaty was concluded 
 with the whole Huguenot party on the 6th of July, 
 1573. 
 
 Charles IX., since the day of St. Bartholomew, had 
 been the prey of a strange disease. At times he ap- 
 peared subject to a violent delirium ; and beheld in its 
 paroxysms, the spectres of his victims rise up before 
 him. He finally died of a bloody-flax, on the 30th of 
 May, 1574, at the early age of twenty-four years, leav- 
 
164 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 ing" only one child, a daughter, who died a few years 
 afterwards. 
 
 Henry III. and his Queen. 
 
 Henry III., the third son of Henry H., who had been 
 elected king of Poland, no sooner heard of the death 
 of his brother, than he hastened to ascend the vacant 
 throne. He had distinguished himself much, both for 
 bravery and skill, as a young man, when leading the 
 Catholic army against the Huguenots ; but, although 
 gifted with naturally good talents, he had a weak and 
 base mind. Like his mother, Catharine, he was false 
 and cruel, and no crime could stop him in a plan he 
 had once determined on for his own profit or amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 Shortly after he ascended the throne, the war again 
 broke out with the Huguenots, and as they were now 
 joined by the duke of Alen^on, the king's younger 
 brother, and Henry, king of Navarre, their attempts 
 threatened to be very serious. After a campaign of 
 little importance, a peace was concluded, much to the 
 
BATTLE or CONTRAS. 165 
 
 advantage of the Huguenots. The duke of Alencon 
 was made duke of Anjou, and the Huguenots were 
 granted many towns. These terms gave offence to the 
 Catholics, who agreed to strengthen themselves by- 
 uniting under one head. The union was called the 
 " Holy League," and Henry, duke of Guise, was chosen 
 as the chief. 
 
 When information was brought to Henry of this for- 
 midable union, he evinced that talent for policy which 
 he had inherited from his mother. He declared him- 
 self at the head of the League, and by this means less- 
 ened the power of the ambitious Guise. The duke of 
 Anjou being invited to assist the Flemings in their 
 efforts to throw off the Spanish yoke, entered the Ne- 
 therlands with a considerable force. He captured 
 several towns from the Spanish forces, but manifesting 
 a design of making himself king of the country, and 
 practising great cruelties upon the inhabitants, he was 
 obliged to return to France, where he died, humiliated 
 and dejected, in 1584. 
 
 By the death of the duke of Anjou, the king of Na- 
 varre became next heir to the throne ; but in the eyes 
 of the people, his religion disqualified him for filling it, 
 and they opb.^iX* declared themselves in favour of the 
 duke of Guise, ^ho claimed descent in a direct line 
 from Charlemagne Henry TIL deemed it advisable to 
 reconcile himself to ^'■■^^- duke of Guise, and they to- 
 gether commenced anotner war on the Huguenots, and 
 their leader, the heir apparent. This war was named 
 " the war of the three Henries." (1584.) Two im- 
 mense armies were marched against Henry of Navarre, 
 while he could barely muster five thousand men. He, 
 however, possessed one advantage in being greatly 
 beloved by those about him, and his army consisted 
 principally of nobles and gentlemen, who would gladly 
 have died for him. He met the army of the king, 
 commanded by the duke of Joyeuse, near Contras, and 
 the entire army of Joyeuse was destroyed, he himself 
 perishing in the fight. (1587.) This victory was far 
 from terminating the war. 
 
166 
 
 GUISE ASSASSINATED. 
 
 The Dukes of Guise. 
 
 The League now rose again with fresh power. The 
 duke of Guise established himself at its head, and march- 
 ed directly to Paris. His partisans completely block- 
 aded the streets of that city, and obliged the king to 
 fly. It was then their earnest wish to make him their 
 king, but the duke preferred to treat with Henry III., 
 and an edict was issued, by which Henry of Navarre 
 was disinherited, Henry of Guise named generalissimo, 
 and the king bound himself to destroy the Huguenots, 
 to the last man. 
 
 Such was the outward appearance which events 
 wore, when the States-general were summoned to as- 
 semble at Blois. The duke of Guise, who was present, 
 was sent for by the king into his private apartment, 
 where he was basely murdered by one of the king's 
 guards. This event at once roused all the Catholics. 
 Paris was in an uproar, and Henry had no place to fly. 
 to for protection, and no friends sufficiently strong to 
 defend him. His only resource was to unite hunself 
 
HENRY III. ASSASSINATED. 
 
 167 
 
 with Navarre and the Huguenots. This he determined 
 to do, and Navarre generously came to his aid. Their 
 armies united, and marched against Paris, but the unex- 
 pected death of the king prevented further proceedings. 
 A monk named Jacques Clement repaired to the camp 
 of Henry III. and asked to speak with him. Being in- 
 troduced into his tent, he fell on his knees, and present- 
 ing a petition to the ijionarch, struck him at the same 
 moment in the stomach with a knife. The king with- 
 drew the weapon from the wound and smote the assa&» 
 sin with it, in the forehead, who was instantly 
 despatched by the guards. Henry's wound was mortal. 
 He died in the arms of the king of Navarre, whom he 
 named as his successor, advising him to embrace the 
 Catholic faith, if he desired to reign over France. 
 (1589.) With Henry HI. the house of Valois became 
 extinct, after having occupied the throne two hundred 
 and sixty-one years, and given thirteen kings to France. 
 Catharine de Medicis died a short time before her son. 
 
 Valet and Footman of Henry III. 
 
Henry IV., his Queen, and the Dauphin. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RACE OF CAPET.— =-HOTJSE OF BOURBON. 
 
 Henry IV. — Louis XIII. 
 
 The duke of Navarre, of the house of Bourbon, de- 
 scended from Robert of Clermont, the son of Saint 
 Louis, was proclaimed king under the title of Henry 
 IV., afterwards surnamed the great,, and the good. 
 Known to most of the people only as a Huguenot, 
 whose heresy should prevent him from ascending the 
 throne, he soon found himself deserted by the Catholics, 
 and was consequently obliged to raise the siege of 
 Paris. The duke of Mayenne, brother to the late duke 
 of Guise, who was then at the head of the League, 
 caused the old cardinal de Bourbon, then a prisoner in 
 
 (168) 
 
henry's victories. 169 
 
 the hands of Henry IV., to be proclaimed king in Paris, 
 under the title of Charles X., he taking to himself the 
 title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Henry 
 retired into Normandy, whither he was followed by 
 Mayenne, with an army of thirty thousand men, that 
 of Henry being only about seven thousand. They met 
 at Arques, and the king gained a brilliant victory; after 
 which, being strengthened by the arrival of five thou- 
 sand English soldiers, he advanced and again laid siege 
 to Paris ; but was again obliged to retire, for want of 
 a sufficient number of men to prosecute the siege. He 
 was followed into Normandy by Mayenne, who offered 
 him battle in the plain of Ivry, near Dreux. Henry 
 displayed great talent in the arrangement of his troops, 
 and by his courage, cheerfulness, and decision, inspired 
 them with confidence. "My children," said he to his 
 soldiers, just before the commencement of the battle, 
 " if you should lose sight of our standards, follow my 
 white plume; you will always find it on the road to 
 honour." He then gave the signal to charge ; and the 
 army of Mayenne, though far superior in point of num- 
 bers, was almost entirely destroyed. (1590.) The 
 conqueror marched directly upon Paris, which he in- 
 vested with his troops ; and about the same time, his 
 rival and prisoner, the old cardinal de Bourbon, died. 
 After gaining some advantages, Henry was again 
 obliged to abandon the siege of his capital, the duke of 
 Parma having entered France with a large army to 
 assist the citizens. While the royal army was before 
 Paris, a dreadful plague raged in the city ; and more 
 than thirty thousand persons died of hunger. In the 
 mean time, the duke of Parma, hotly pressed by the 
 king, retired into Holland, and Henry laid siege to 
 Rouen. In 1592, the duke of Parma returned, and 
 forced the king to raise the siege of Rouen, having 
 gained a slight advantage at the battle of Aumale, 
 where the king was wounded. Henry now proceeded 
 with more prudence, and soon, by a succession of bril- 
 liant manoeuvres, succeeded in hemming in the Span- 
 15 
 
170 
 
 HENRY BECOMES A CATHOLIC. 
 
 iards between the sea, the Seine, and his army ; and 
 had not Parma, in the greatest silence and secresy, in 
 one nig-ht built a bridge over the Seine, and made 
 good his retreat, he would no doubt have been com- 
 pletely defeated. Thus freed from a foreign invasion, 
 Henry again turned his attention to Paris, but finding 
 that the French would not be governed by a Protestant 
 king, he determined, at length, by the advice of his 
 friends, to embrace the Catholic religion. 
 
 Entrance of Henry IV. into Paris. 
 
 All his difficulties now vanished. Paris gladly re- 
 ceived him. He made his public entry into the city 
 on the 22d of March, 1594. His former enemies ar- 
 ranged themselves around him as friends, and among 
 them was Mayenne, the chief of the league. The war 
 
henry's second marriage. 
 
 .<rU\___.IL_t1fi^- liiii 
 
 171 
 
 Henry IV. visiting: Sully. 
 
 with Spain was soon after terminated by the treaty of 
 Vervins. The government of France, however, was 
 still attended with great difficulties; for when the 
 Catholics were pleased, the Protestants were dissatis- 
 fied, until tranquillity was finally established in the 
 kingdom in 1598, by the famous edict of Nantes, which 
 secured equality of rights to the professors of both 
 religions. 
 
 In 1600, Henry having obtained a divorce from his 
 wife, Margaret of Valois, married Mary de Medicis. 
 Three children were the result of this union : — the 
 dauphin Louis, who afterwards became Louis XIIL ; 
 Gaston, duke of Orleans, and the princess Henriette, 
 who became the wife of Charles L of England. 
 
 The latter part of Henry's life was much occupied 
 in making preparations for a war with Austria, and he 
 at length determined to march against it. Mary de 
 Medicis was declared regent of the kingdom while he 
 should be absent. The queen wished to be crowned at 
 Saint Denis before the departure of the king. The 
 
172 HENRY ASSASSINATED. 
 
 ceremony was performed on the 13th of MTay, and on 
 the 14th, the king rode out to visit his faithful minister, 
 the duke of Sully, who Vv^as confined to his residence, 
 at the arsenal, by indisposition. On turning into the 
 Rue de la Ferronnerie, the street being blocked up by 
 a hay-wagon and a dray laden with wine, the king's 
 carriage drew up, while his footmen hastened forward 
 to open the passage. At this moment, a man named 
 Ravaillac mounted on the wheel, and struck the king 
 two blows with a knife. The last cut reached Henry's 
 heart, and he died instantly. The assassin remained 
 motionless on the spot as if glorying in his crime. He 
 was arrested, put to the torture, and died, refusing to 
 acknowledge any accomplices. (1610.) Thus perished 
 Henry IV., in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and 
 the twenty-second of his reign. He was succeeded by 
 the dauphin Louis. 
 
 Louis XIIL, the Just, being but nine years of age 
 when his father was killed, his mother, Mary de Me- 
 dicis was declared by the parliament regent of the 
 kingdom. She was soon surrounded by many ambi- 
 tious princes, who demanded money and places, which 
 the queen regent was too weak to refuse. To please 
 them, the old ministers of Henry IV. were dismissed, 
 and among them Sully, though he retained, for a short 
 time longer, his situation of minister of finance. The 
 favourites of Mary were a Florentine, named Concini, 
 and his wife Leonora Galigai. Concini became suc- 
 cessively marquis d'Ancre, first gentleman of the 
 chamber, and finally marshal of France, though he 
 had never borne arms. This rapid elevation of a 
 foreigner excited the jealousy of the French nobles, 
 who soon found an occasion, by poisoning the mind of 
 the young king against his mother's favourite, to pro- 
 cure his assassination. 
 
 During the whole period of the regency of Mary, 
 France was in a very unsettled state. The armies, 
 which had been raised by Henry IV., were disbanded 
 without fulfilling the engagements of the king, or 
 
LOUIS XIII- 
 
 173 
 
 Louis XIII. 
 
 gaining either honour or renown. The nobles became 
 very proud and haughty, the commons were oppressed, 
 and the protestants dissatisfied. Mary had neither 
 talent nor power to correct these disorders. She 
 thought to strengthen herself by an alliance with 
 Spain. This was effected by a double marriage ; that 
 of Louis XIII. with Anne of Austria, the infanta of 
 Spain, and of Elizabeth of France with the son of the 
 king of Spain. The prince of Conde, who had given 
 much trouble to Mary, was seized and imprisoned ; but 
 this act was only a forerunner of her own fall. Her 
 favourites, Concini and his wife, having become odiouis 
 to the young king, the former was shot by his attend- 
 ants, and the latter tried and burned as a witch. Louis 
 having attained the age of fifteen, was declared of age, 
 and began to reign in person. He was a prince of 
 very weak intellect. He selected a favourite, whose 
 15* 
 
174 
 
 RICHELIEU. 
 
 name was Luynes. It was by this man's advice that 
 Louis had shaken off the influence of his mother, and 
 by whom he was led into a war with the Huguenots. 
 The duke de Rohan, son-in-law to Sully, was the great 
 protestant general ; but though he led them on with 
 great bravery and determination, they suffered severely 
 during the struggle. De Luynes died of a fever while 
 with the army. (1621.) 
 
 It was about a year afterwards that the person of 
 the most importance in the reign of Louis came into 
 notice. This was Armand Duplessis, bishop de Lu9on, 
 and soon afterwards created cardinal de Richelieu, a 
 man of great talent, decision, and cunning. He began 
 his career by gaining the favour of Mary ; he then ob- 
 tained that of her son, who committed the whole go- 
 vernment into his hands, and allowed him to rule with 
 a rod of iron. He devoted all his energies to two 
 objects ; to ruin the power of the Huguenots, in France, 
 and to humble the house of Austria. In order to ac- 
 complish these objects, he began by lulling the protest- 
 ants into security by an advantageous treaty, until he 
 should have humbled the pride of the great nobles. 
 He first quarrelled with the queen, and with her 
 youngest son Gaston, duke of Orleans. The latter 
 being forced by Richelieu into a marriage which he dis- 
 liked, appeared in open rebellion ; but both he and his 
 mother Mary were obliged to flee from France. The 
 duke of Montgomery, a nobleman greatly beloved by 
 all who knew him, unfortunately joined in the rebellion 
 of Gaston, and took up arms to aid him, but he was 
 taken prisoner ; and notwithstanding every effort made 
 to save him, he was condemned to die on the scaffold. 
 Thrown into consternation by the rigour of the minis- 
 ter, and the acquiescence of the king, the nobility did 
 not dare to murmur. 
 
 Richelieu now turned his attention to the Huguenots. 
 He caused the edict of Nantes to be violated, and the 
 treaties concluded by the king with the protestants to 
 be broken. They complauied, and withdrawing to their 
 
SIEGE OF ROCHELLE. 175 
 
 Gaston, Duke of Orleans. 
 
 fortified cities, put themselves in a state of defence. 
 Their principal stronghold was the city of Rochelle, 
 which, being menaced by the cardinal, called in the 
 aid of the protestants of England. It was in vain ; 
 Richelieu shut the entrance of the port against the 
 English ships by means of a mole, stretching for more 
 than a mile from one shore to the other. The city, thus 
 deprived of S,ll succour, sustained a long siege, but 
 finally, reduced by a cruel famine, its brave defenders 
 were compelled to surrender at discretion. (1628.) Of 
 thirty thousand inhabitants included within her walls 
 at the beginning of the war, but five thousand remain- 
 ed alive to the end. The next year Nismes and Mont- 
 auban, and other cities professing the doctrines of the 
 reformers, also surrendered, and the Huguenots have 
 ever since been at the mercy of the crown. 
 
 During the rest of this reign, the chief object of the 
 French government, or rather of the cardinal de Riche- 
 
176 DEATH OF RICHELIEU. 
 
 lieu, was to repress, in Germany, Spain, and Italy, the 
 power of the house of Austria. Direct hostilities began 
 in 1635 ; and the war was continued until the death of 
 the king-, without making on the enemy's territory any 
 very deep or decisive impression. Richelieu showed 
 great military talent in directing the French arms, and 
 was generally successful when present in person. On 
 the whole, the French acquired a progressive supe- 
 riority, but failed in the grand design of the minister, 
 of annihilating the power of the house of Austria. 
 During this war several attempts were made to assas- 
 sinate the minister, but without success. In 1642, 
 Louis conducted his army into Catalonia, and under- 
 took the siege of Perpignan. Richelieu accompanied 
 him as far as Narbonne, where sickness compelled him 
 to stop. He was carried to Paris in a closed litter, 
 where he died on the 4th of December, 1642, leaving 
 to the king a palace which he had built for himself, and 
 called the Palais-Cardinal : it has since been known as 
 the Palais-Royal. 
 
 Perpignan had, in the mean time, fallen before the 
 French arms, and Louis returned to Paris, but to follow 
 his minister. He died on the 14th of May, 1643, after 
 having appointed the queen Anne of Austria, sole re- 
 gent during the minority of the dauphin, who was then 
 but five years of age. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 RACE OF CAPET. — HOUSE OF BOURBON. 
 
 Louis XIV. 
 
 Louis XIV., the Great, came to the throne in 1643. 
 His mother, Anne of Austria, the regent, chose an 
 Italian cardinal, Mazarin, a favourite of Richelieu, to 
 aid her in the government. The army in Flanders 
 was now under the command of Louis of Bourbon, duke 
 d'Enghien, son of the prince of Conde, and himself 
 afterwards known in history as "the great Conde." 
 Rocroi, besieged by the Spanish general Fuentes, was 
 relieved by the young duke, who gained a brilliant 
 victory over the hitherto invincible Spanish infantry. 
 
 (177) 
 
178 THE FRONDE 
 
 In 1644, he gained the battle of Fribourg-, and the next 
 year, that of Nordlingen. In October 1646, he cap- 
 tured the important fortress of Dunkirk, which surren- 
 dered in sight of the Spanish army. In the same year, 
 his father, the prince of Conde, died, and he succeeded 
 to the title. In 1648, he gained still another victory, 
 near Lens. Since the foundation of the monarchy, the 
 French had never gained so many successive victories, 
 nor displayed so much conduct or courage. The war 
 with the emperor was terminated by the peace of 
 Westphalia, signed at Munster, on the 24th of Octo- 
 ber, 1648, in which several important cessions were 
 made to France. Peace was also restored between 
 Spain and the Dutch provinces, in which the inde- 
 pendence of these provinces was acknowledged after 
 a struggle of eighty years. Spain was thus at liberty 
 to direct her whole force against France ; and in France 
 itself civil dissensions arose which facilitated the pro- 
 gress of the Spanish arms. 
 
 The insurrection, commonly called that of the 
 Fronde^ broke out. The parliament rose against Ma- 
 zarin, who had made himself obnoxious to them by 
 levying taxes. Paul de Gondi, who afterwards became 
 the cardinal de Retz, was at the head of the faction, 
 aided by the dukes of Longueville, Bouillon, and Beau- 
 fort. The royal family were obliged to fly from Paris, 
 and were reduced to such extremity that they wanted 
 even the necessaries of food and fire. Conde came to 
 the relief of the king, and for a time restored order ; 
 but his attachment to the king proved very unsteady ; 
 for, on the faction breaking out again, he joined it, and 
 by this means made himself enemies on both sides. In 
 one day, Mazarin caused the prince of Conde, the car- 
 dinal de Retz, and the duke of Longueville, to be ar- 
 rested and imprisoned, first at Vincennes, and after- 
 wards at Havre. In February 1651, Conde was re- 
 leased, and Mazarin sent into exile ; but through the 
 efforts of Anne of Austria, who could not exist with^ 
 out her minister, he soon returned, and by his intrigues 
 
LOUIS XIV. 179 
 
 The Prince of Conde. 
 
 succeeded in gaining over Turenne from the side of 
 the parliament. Conde, who had fled into Spain, now- 
 led an army into France, and a battle was fought at 
 St. Antoine between the prince and Turenne. Conde 
 was the victor, and on his entry into Paris, was re- 
 ceived with great honours; but his haughty bearing 
 and pride soon deprived him of his popularity, and he 
 was again compelled to leave the capital. The faction 
 of the Fronde terminated in the return of the king to 
 his capital, and in the exile of de Retz. 
 
 Louis XIV., who was now sixteen years of age, 
 fought personally in the war against Spain. Conde 
 had joined that nation, and led its armies. In 1654 he 
 laid siege to Arras, which was, however, relieved by 
 Turenne, who, in the following year, took Landreci 
 and Quesnoi ; and in 1656, though repulsed from Va- 
 lenciennes, besieged and took La Capelle. The 
 power of Louis being greatly increased by an alliance 
 with Cromwell, the protector of England, the French 
 
180 
 
 PEACE WITH SPAIN. 
 
 Cardinal Mazarin. 
 
 and English armies captured from Conde Mardyke and 
 Dunkirk, which were given to the English. Success 
 attended the French arms everywhere, until finally in 
 1659, Spain having lost Furnes, Oudenarde, Ypres, 
 and many other towns, became weary of the war, and 
 sued for peace ; and on November 7th the treaty of the 
 Pyrenees was signed, by which it was agreed that 
 Louis XIV. should marry Maria Theresa, the only 
 daughter of Philip IV. of Spain, that France should 
 keep possession of Artois, part of Flanders and Rous- 
 sillon, and that the king should pardon the rebellion of 
 the prince of Conde. The treaty of the Pyrenees was 
 the last political act of cardinal Mazarin, who died in 
 1661, at which time Louis took the administration of 
 the affairs of the nation into his own hands. 
 
 On the death of Philip IV., king of Spain, in 1665, 
 Louis claimed Flanders, Brabant, and Franche-Comte, 
 in the name of his wife, Maria Theresa. War did not 
 actually commence until May, 1667, when the French 
 army, with Louis himself and Turenne at its head, 
 entered Flanders, and conquered almost the whole., 
 
WAR AGAINST HOLLAND. 181 
 
 country in the short space of two months. Conde, 
 again at the head of a French army, entered, and in 
 three weeks made himself master of all Franche- 
 Comte. Spain, terrified at such a rapid conquest, and 
 England, Holland and Sweden, trembling for the inde- 
 pendence of Europe, Louis was induced to conclude the 
 peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), restoring Franche- 
 Comte to Spain, but retaining his acquisitions in 
 Flanders. 
 
 Impatient under the restraints of peace, Louis used 
 every art to induce England and Sweden to withdraw 
 from the league with Holland, and when he succeeded, 
 he immediately declared war against the United Pro- 
 vinces, and proceeded at the head of an immense army, 
 accompanied by Conde, Turenne, Vauban, and Lux- 
 embourg, all great generals, to carry fire and sword 
 into the heart of the country. He was opposed by 
 William of Orange, afterwards king of England, and 
 Montecuculi, the conqueror of Saint-Gothard. This 
 war continued for seven years, and many great battles 
 were lost and won. In the commencement of the 
 war, Holland, humiliated, offered advantageous propo- 
 sitions for peace to Louis ; but he, instigated by his 
 proud minister, Louvois, rejected them, and despair 
 urged his enemies to make extraordinary exertions. 
 Amsterdam was saved only by opening the sluices of 
 the canals, and compelling the French army to retire 
 before the sea, by which the whole country was inun- 
 dated. The Emperor of Germany, the king of Spain, 
 the king of England, and the German princes, now 
 took the part of Holland. Louis, undaunted, continued 
 the war, and made himself master of the provinces of 
 Gueldres, Overyssel, and Utrecht. He took Naerden 
 and Maestricht. In six weeks he a second time re- 
 duced Franche-Comte, and Conde gained the bloody 
 battle of Senef. Turenne opposed Montecuculi on the 
 side of the Rhine, but was killed in a battle near Salz- 
 bach (1675) ; his body was carried to Saint Denis, and 
 buried in the royal sepulchre, an honour before ac- 
 
182 PEACE OF NIMEGUEN. 
 
 corded to none but du Guesclin. The great Conde 
 succeeded Turenne in the command of the army on the 
 Rhine, but at the end of the year he retired from active 
 service, and passed the short remnant of his life at 
 Chantilly. He died in 1686. In the mean time the 
 maritime power of France was rapidly increasingf. 
 On the 7th of June, 1672, the Dutch fleet, under the 
 command of De Ruyter, and the combined fleets under 
 the count d'Estrees and the duke of York, engaged in 
 the bay of Solebay, but neither side gained any deci- 
 sive advantage. In the following year three other 
 indecisive battles were fought, between the same ofii- 
 cers. At Messina, the French fleet was successful 
 against that of Spain ; and at Agosta, De Ruyter was 
 killed, and Duquesne and Vivonne, two great French 
 admirals, made themselves masters of the Mediterra- 
 nean. By the mediation of the king of England, who 
 had given his niece Mary to the prince of Orange in 
 marriage, the peace of Nimeguen was concluded, and 
 the war ended in the summer of 1679. Louis retained 
 Flanders and Franche-Comte, besides several impor- 
 tant towns in the Netherlands. After the treaty was 
 signed, the prince of Orange attacked Marshal Lux- 
 emburg near Mons, but was defeated with the loss of 
 tour thousand men. 
 
 The peace of Nimeguen placed Louis at the pinna- 
 cle of his glory ; his name excited mingled hatred, ad- 
 miration and terror, throughout Europe. Literature, 
 the fine arts, mechanical industry and commerce, found 
 in him, or in his ministers, enlightened protectors. The 
 importance of the scientific labours and discoveries of 
 that time, — the creations of Colbert, Louvois, and 
 Vauban — the conquests of Turenne and Conde — the 
 eloquence of Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Flechier, and Fene- 
 lon — the master-pieces of Corneille, Moliere, Racine, 
 Boileau, la Fontaine — the profound writings of the 
 great thinkers and moralists, such as Pascal, Descartes, 
 La Bruyere and La Rochefoucauld — the prodigies per- 
 formed in the arts cultivated by such men as Girardon, 
 
REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 183 
 
 Puget, Le Brun, Le Sueur, Poussin, Mansard, Le 
 Notre— all combined to give an unrivalJed lustre to that 
 portion of this reign which we have sketched, and 
 contributed to win from posterity, for the monarch, the 
 surname of Great, and for the age in which he reign- 
 ed, the title of The Age of Louis XIV. 
 
 Unhappily, we must now enter upon a period sig- 
 nalized only by faults, reverses, and vices. Colbert 
 and the queen Maria Theresa died in 1683 ; Louvois 
 and Madame de Main tenon, divided between them an 
 influence which they knew not how to direct for the 
 well-being of the kingdom. The revocation of the 
 edict of Nantes, (1685,) struck a fatal blow at French 
 industry. Germany, England, and Prussia, profited by 
 the emigration of the protestants. A hundred thou- 
 sand working families escaped from France, and they 
 enriched their adopted countries by their industry, at 
 the expense of the country of their nativity. At the 
 same time, Louis, wishing to break the bounds imposed 
 on him by treaties, commenced an unjust war. Whilst 
 Duquesne and Tourville bombarded Algiers and Tri- 
 poli, and whilst the former forced the doge of Genoa 
 to come in person to Versailles, and humble himself at 
 
184 LEAGUE AGAINST FRANCE. 
 
 the feet of the great king, a new league was formed 
 at Augsburg against France. The empire, Spain, Hol- 
 land, Savoy, and nearly all Italy, coalesced to curb the 
 power and humble the pride of Louis. A revolution 
 in England threw that nation also into the league. 
 James II. was dethroned by his son-in-law, William III., 
 prince of Orange. (1688.) The unfortunate Stuart 
 fled to France, and some useless efforts were made by 
 the king to overthrow the usurper. The battle of the 
 Boyne, in Ireland, decided the fate of the dethroned 
 king. His ill fortune seemed to follow him, and even 
 to fasten upon his protectors; for, soon after, the Frenck 
 fleet was almost entirely destroyed at La Hogue. This 
 defeat, however, was not without glory. The French , 
 forces, inferior by one-half to the English, made the 
 most heroic efforts to gain the battle which had been 
 commenced by the formal order of the king. Tour- 
 ville fought so gallantly, that he was received by the 
 court at Versailles as a conqueror, the king graciously 
 saying, as he came into his presence, " We can replace 
 a fleet, but we could not replace Tourville." Still 
 many victories signalized the arms of Louis XIV. 
 Catinat at Staffarde and Marsaille, and Luxembourg 
 at Fleurus, Steinkerque, and Nerwinde, recalled the 
 remembrance of Turenne and Conde. Unhappily, 
 Luxembourg died, leaving William III., whom he had 
 always beaten, to gain the advantage over his successor, 
 the Marshal de Villeroi. Finally, peace was signed at 
 Ryswick, in Holland, in 1697, by which France ceded 
 none of her former conquests, but by which she ac- 
 knowledged William III. as the lawful sovereign of 
 England. 
 
 Hardly had Europe enjoyed a moment of repose, 
 when the death of Charles II., the king of Spain, 
 plunged her again into the horrors of a bloody war. 
 Indignant at the arrogance of the emperor Leopold, 
 who had already disposed of Spain in favour of one of 
 his children, Charles had chosen as his heir, Philip, 
 duke of Anjou, the grandson of Louis XIV. The king 
 
WAR AGAIN. 
 
 185 
 
 i 
 
 
 Marlborough. 
 
 of France accepted the honour, and Philip V. was pro- 
 claimed at Madrid, and officially recognised at Ver- 
 sailles by the Spanish ambassador. "Henceforth," 
 said Louis, in presenting the new king to the assembled 
 court, " there shall be no Pyrenees." But Europe, al- 
 ways jealous of France, saw with chagrin this increase 
 of the fortune of the house of Bourbon. The emperor 
 Leopold asserted the right of his son, the archduke 
 Charles of Austria, to the throne of Spain, and suc- 
 ceeded in interesting England, Holland, Sweden,-r-in 
 a word, all Europe in his favour. To the generals of 
 Louis XIV., England opposed Churchill, duke of Marl- 
 borough, and the empire, the prince Eugene of Savoy. 
 Villars, proclaimed a marshal of France by his soldiers 
 after his victory at Friedlingen, gained the first battle 
 of Hochstedt; bat the following year, on the same 
 spot, the French, under Tallard and Marsin, were 
 beaten by Eugene and Mcirlborough, (1704.) Other 
 defeats, still more terrible, that of Ramillies, in which 
 Villeroi was beaten by Marlborough, and that of Turin, 
 16* 
 
189 
 
 BLOODY BATTLES. 
 
 Prince Eugene. 
 
 when sixty thousand French soldiers, commanded by 
 the duke of Orleans, were put to flight by Eugene, 
 carried the greatest consternation into the kingdom. 
 Then followed the defeat of Oudenarde, and the taking 
 of Lille, notwithstanding its gallant defence by Bouf- 
 flers, the terrible and indecisive battle of Malplaquet, 
 in which Villars, being wounded, was succeeded in the 
 command by the defender of Lille. (1710.) In Spain, 
 Philip V. was more fortunate. The marshal of Ber- 
 wick gained for him the battle of Almanza ; and he, 
 himself, aided by the duke de Vendome, won a deci- 
 sive victory over the archduke Charles, at Villaviciosa, 
 (1711,) and preserved to himself the crown of Spain. 
 
 Louis, notwithstanding, sued for peace ; but it was 
 impossible for him to accept the conditions which the 
 Dutch wished to impose upon him. They demanded 
 that he should unite with them in expelling his grand- 
 son from Spain. Louis replied, " If I must make war, 
 I would rather do so against my enemies than against 
 my own children." But a revolution in the English 
 cabinet inclined queen Anne to peace. Marlborough 
 lost his influence, and was recalled from the command, 
 while the duke of Ormond, his successor, had orders to 
 
LOUIS UNrORTUNATE. 
 
 187 
 
 remain neutral; and finally, peace was signed at 
 Utrecht, between France, Holland, and England, in 
 1713. In the mean time, hostilities continued between 
 France and the empire. Eugene entered France, and 
 menaced Paris. Louis ordered Villars to meet him, 
 saying, " If you are beaten, write only to rae. With 
 your letter in my hand, I will go through the streets 
 of Paris, and raise you a hundred thousand men." It 
 was not necessary to proceed to such extreme measures; 
 Villars gained the battle of Denain, forced Eugene to 
 retreat, and placed the northern frontiers of the king- 
 dom in a state of security. This victory hastened the 
 conclusion of the war. Peace with the empire was 
 signed at Radstadt in 1714. 
 
 By the treaties of Utrecht and Radstadt, France lost 
 part of Flanders, Newfoundland and Acadia in North 
 America, while Philip V. of Spain renounced his right 
 to the crown of France. Misfortunes accumulated 
 rapidly upon Louis. Humiliated as a king, he was 
 now to suffer in his domestic affections. Death entered 
 
 The Grand Dauphin and a Lady of the Court. 
 
188 DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 his family. The dauphin died in 1711 ; the duke of 
 Burgundy, his son, the cherished pupil of Fenelon, to- 
 gether with his duchess and tlieir eldest son, died with- 
 in two months of each other. So many losses deeply 
 affected the heart of the old king. He must now leave 
 the crown to a child only five years of age, the second 
 son of the duke of Burgundy, and he knew by expe- 
 rience what dangers might menace the royal authority 
 during a minority. He seemed heartily to regret upon 
 his death-bed his warlike propensities, as well as the 
 prodigality with which he had lavished the treasures 
 of the kingdom, " My child," said he to his great- 
 grandson, " you are about to be a king of a great na- 
 tion. Endeavour to cultivate peace with your neigh- 
 bours ; in that respect shun my example, as well as in 
 that of the vast expenditure which I have incurred." 
 He died at Versailles, on the 1st of September, 1715, at 
 the age of seventy-seven years, and after a reign of 
 seventy-two. Massillon pronounced his funeral oration. 
 That of the prince de Conde had been made by Bossuet, 
 and Turenne's by Flechier. 
 
 The Tmllenes. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RACE OF CAPET. HOUSE OF BOURBON. 
 
 Louis XV. — Louis XVI. — Revolution. 
 
 Louis XV. ascended the throne of France in the 
 year 1715, at the age of five years ; and Philip, duke 
 of Orleans, and nephew of the late king, was declared 
 regent, though not without opposition. He was op- 
 posed by the duke of Maine, and the count of Toulouse, 
 who were aided by cardinal Alberoni, the ambitious 
 minister of Philip V., the king of Spain ; who wished 
 to secure for his master the crown of France, and for 
 himself the place which had been so ably filled by 
 
190 REGENCY OF ORLEANS, 
 
 Richelieu. The Spanish ambassador entered into a 
 correspondence with the duke of Maine ; but the in- 
 trigue was discovered, the ambassador dismissed, and 
 Maine was thrown into prison. The conduct of Spain 
 produced a short war, which soon terminated to the 
 entire advantage of France. Alberoni was disgraced, 
 and retired to Italy. Spain acceded to the quadruple 
 alliance, vv^hich had been formed between France, Eng- 
 land, Holland, and Austria ; and Philip again renounced 
 all pretensions to the crown of France. 
 
 About the time of the conclusion of the peace with 
 Spain, a scheme which had been projected by a Scotch- 
 man named Law, called the Mississippi scheme, for the 
 purpose of improving the financial condition of the 
 country, exploded, and involved many families in the 
 deepest distress. Law fled to Venice, where he died 
 of want. 
 
 The regency of Orleans was disgraced by the power 
 which he allowed the infamous Dubois to acquire. He 
 became successively the archbishop of Cambray, cardi- 
 nal, and at the majority of the king, prime minister. 
 Happily for France, he did not long exercise his power; 
 he died in 1723, and was almost immediately followed 
 by his protector, the duke of Orleans. The government 
 was then confided to the duke of Bourbon, a prince of 
 the noble house of Conde. The only event of interest 
 that took place during his administration was the mar- 
 riage of the young king with Maria Leczinski, daugh- 
 ter of Stanislaus, the dethroned king of Poland. At 
 the end of three years Bourbon was dismissed, and the 
 king appointed cardinal Fleury, his preceptor, as his 
 successor. (1726). 
 
 The new minister, who was wise and prudent, 
 though perhaps too timid, soon found himself, against 
 his will, involved in wars, which he consequently car- 
 ried on without vigour, and ended to the disgrace of 
 France. The first of these broke out at the death of 
 Augustus II., the king of Poland, and the successful 
 rival of Stanislaus. Russia and Austria declared for 
 
DEATH OF CHARLES VI. 
 
 191 
 
 Frederick the Great. 
 
 his son, Frederick Augustus TIL, but the king of France 
 took the part of his father-in-law, Stanislaus. The 
 war, which commenced at first between these three 
 powers, soon became complicated by the intervention 
 of Spain, which took the side of France, but was finally 
 concluded by the treaty of Vienna, in 1735. By tiiis 
 treaty, Frederick Augustus kept the crown of Poland, 
 but Stanislaus received the duchy of Lorraine, which 
 after his death was to be united to France, as the mar- 
 riage portion of his daughter. Spain, by the war, 
 gained Naples and Sicily, which were ceded to Don 
 Carlos, the son of Philip V. 
 
 The general peace which seemed so well established 
 by this treaty, was again broken in 1741. The empe- 
 ror Charles VI. dying, left his states to his daughter, 
 
192 
 
 BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 
 
 Maria Theresa, the wife of Francis of Lorraine, duke 
 of Tuscany. Bavaria, Saxony, France, Spain, and 
 Prussia, united to despoil this unfortunate princess. 
 Fleury long resisted this unjust and impolitic war, but 
 he was not able to resist the influence of the king's 
 favourites, the brothers Belle-Isle. Maria Theresa 
 retired into Hungary, and presented herself with her 
 infant son before the nobles, who swore to defend her 
 with their lives, exclaiming as with one voice, " We 
 will die for our king, Maria Theresa !" Notwithstand- 
 ing, the Austrian succession fell into the hands of the 
 confederates. Frederick II., the king of Prussia, con- 
 quered Silesia; the elector of Bavaria, aided by a 
 French army, caused himself to be crowned archduke 
 of Austria, and king of Bohemia and Prague. The 
 fortune of war now suddenly changed. The Austrians 
 followed the example of their neighbours of Hungary."^ 
 England and Holland declared in favour of Maria 
 Theresa. The Croats and Pandours entered and laid 
 waste the whole of Bavaria. The king of Prussia 
 made a treaty for himself, by which he secured the 
 possession of Silesia. The French were expelled from 
 Bohemia, and were also defeated in a battle with the 
 English at Dettingen, June, 1743. Fleury was now 
 dead, and France was menaced with invasion. Louis 
 XV., throwing aside his apathy, put himself at the 
 head of his troops. Followed by the Marshal Saxe, 
 who in his old age displayed still the vigour of youth, 
 he met, at Fontenoy, the combined army of England, 
 Holland, and Austria. The victory, long disputed, was 
 finally decided in favour of the French; a terrible 
 English column, long vainly assailed, was at last broken 
 by the artillery and the reiterated charges of the king's 
 troops. (1745.) France gained other victories in the 
 two following years, and possessed herself of almost 
 the whole of the Austrian Low Countries. The elec- 
 tor of Bavaria, who had been elevated to the imperial 
 crown, died in January, 1745. The grand duke of 
 Tuscany, husband of Maria Theresa, was elected em- 
 
THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 193 
 
 Marshal Saxe. 
 
 peror, with the title of Francis I. Philip V., king" of 
 Spain, died in 1746, and was succeeded by his eldest 
 son, Ferdinand VI. Negotiations for a general peace 
 were commenced at Aix-la-Chapelle in tlie beginning 
 of the year 1748, and in October the treaty was signed. 
 France surrendered all her conquests in the low coun- 
 tries. The Pragmatic Sanction of the emperor Charles 
 VI., which secured to his daughter the Austrian suc- 
 cession, was again solemnly recognised and guaranteed ; 
 and England restored to France the Island of Cape 
 Breton, which had been taken in the year 1745. 
 
 From the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, till the year 
 1756, the domestic state of France was disturbed by 
 disputes between the Jansenists, the Catholics, and the 
 infidels ; while the king, who now submitted himself 
 entirely to the influence of Madame de Pompadour, 
 had not energy enough to repress them. In 1756, the 
 seven years' war commenced. England and Prussia 
 were opposed to France and Austria. The marshal 
 Richelieu invaded Hanover; but his successor, the 
 prince of Clermont, was defeated at Crevelt, and forced 
 to abandon the country. The duke of Choiseul was 
 made prime minister in 1758. The family compact, 
 17 
 
194 RELIGIOUS DISPUTES. 
 
 conceived and realized by him, united in strict alliance 
 the Bourbons of France, Spain, Naples, and Parma. 
 By the extraordinary efforts of the new minister, the 
 royal troops once more obtained some advantages. The 
 marquis de Castries gained the battle of Clostercamp 
 in 1760. Finally, peace commissioners met at Hu- 
 bertsbourg, and a definitive treaty of peace vi^as signed 
 at Paris in 1763. The chief articles were, that France 
 surrendered to England, Canada and all its dependen- 
 cies, and also several captured islands in the West 
 Indies. Minorca was restored to the English, and 
 Florida given up to them. Cuba, which had been cap- 
 tured during the war, was restored to Spain ; while the 
 king of Prussia retained Silesia. 
 
 In the mean time, France was in a state of internal 
 commotion, caused by the disputes between the Janse- 
 sists on one side, and on the other the Catholics and the 
 infidels ; or, as they styled themselves, the philosophers, 
 at whose head we find Voltaire, Rousseau, and Mon- 
 tesquieu. Infidelity spread rapidly over all France ; 
 even the highest classes embraced the new ideas of 
 reform with avidity ; and the parliament became in- 
 fected. In 1764, Choiseul suppressed the order of the 
 Jesuits in the kingdom, and thus, in some degree, pro- 
 moted the cause of Jansenism ; but he, himself, soon 
 fell under the blows of his enemies. Raised to power 
 by Madame de Pompadour, he was disgraced and ban- 
 ished from court in 1770, through the influence of 
 Madame du Barry, a new mistress of the king. The 
 parliament of Paris, who preferred Choiseul to the new 
 minister, the duke d'Aiguillon, accused the latter of 
 extravagance in the government of Brittany, and 
 brought him to trial against the wishes of the king and 
 his chancellor Maupeou. In the struggle which, fol- 
 lowed, Maupeou took the lead and proved the strongest. 
 In the month of January 1771, he dissolved all the par- 
 liaments of the kingdom, and supplied their places by 
 six superior councils, or councils of state; that of Paris 
 was distinguished by the name of Maupeou's parlia- 
 
LOUIS XVI. 195 
 
 ment. This state of things continued until the death 
 of the king, which happened in 1774. 
 
 Louis XVI. 
 
 Louis XVI. , the grandson of the late king, succeed- 
 ed him at the age of twenty. During the ministry of 
 Choiseul, he had married Marie Antoinette, arch- 
 duchess of Austria. Pious and tolerant, economical 
 without being avaricious, full of pity for the misfortunes 
 of the people, Louis XVL had all the virtues of a good^ 
 man ; but he had not the decision and firnmess neces- 
 sary to a king. Hardly had he ascended the throne, 
 when, seeing the necessity of reform, he removed from 
 office the ministers of his grandfather, and appointed 
 in their places Maurepas, Turgot, Malesherbes, and the 
 count of Saint-Germain. The new ministry at once, 
 by the advice of the king, suppressed the tax of the 
 
196 WAR WITH ENGLAND. 
 
 joyeux avenement, which all his predecessors had ex- 
 acted. The next act of Maurepas was to recall the old 
 parliament. This body, still smarting from the blows 
 of Maupeou, did not show the requisite deference to his 
 successors; on the contrary, they met the wise and 
 good plans of Maurepas for the reformation of the go- 
 vernment, by a systematic and uniform opposition, 
 which finally caused the overthrow of both parliament 
 and royalty. Malesherbes and Turgot retired ; a Ge- 
 nevese banker, Necker, replaced the latter as minister 
 of finance ; but, unfortunately for his plans of economy, 
 a new war was kindled between France and England. 
 
 Franklin. 
 
 The illustrious Franklin had been commissioned by his 
 fellow-citizens of America, revolted against the Eng- 
 lish, to seek for aid in France. The marquis de La- 
 fayette, and the count de Rochambeau, accompanied 
 by many young Frenchmen of distinguished families, 
 left their native land to sustain the cause of independ- 
 ence and the efforts of Washington. In 1778, a treaty 
 of alliance and commerce was concluded with the 
 Americans ; and the French navy, in the war with 
 England which followed, gained for itself immortal 
 glory. 
 
THE STATES-GENERAL. 
 
 197 
 
 But this struggle, so glorious for France, increased 
 enormously the deficiency in the treasury. Necker, 
 attacked on all sides, as Turgot had been, was dismiss- 
 ed. Joly de Fleury, d'Ormesson, Calonne, Lomenie 
 de Brienne, successively filled the office with no better 
 success. Finally, Brienne, after a violent struggle 
 ag'ainst the parliament, retired, advising the king to 
 recall Necker, and to assemble the states-general. This 
 counsel was followed in every particular. The states- 
 general opened at Versailles on the 5th of May, 1789. 
 One thousand and thirty-nine deputies were named, of 
 whom more than one-half belonged to the commons, or 
 
198 THE GREAT REVOLUTION. 
 
 tiers-etat. The king delivered a short speech from the 
 throne, in which he congratulated himself in thus meet- 
 ing his people, and expressed a hope that this epoch 
 might become for ever memorable from the happiness 
 and prosperity which would succeed it. His wishes 
 proved Utopian. From the second day of the sitting, 
 dissensions spread among the different orders, when the 
 subject of the verification of their powers was brought 
 up. On the 17th of June, the commons, separating 
 from the clergy and the nobility, declared themselves 
 the national assembly. The revolution commenced. 
 On the 20th, the deputies, finding the doors of the hall, 
 in which they had been accustomed to sit, closed, fol- 
 lowed their president, Bailly, to the tennis-court, and 
 there, with uplifted hands, swore never to separate 
 until they had given a constitution to France. This 
 firmness of the commons astonished the other orders, 
 who, little by little, came to take their places in the 
 national assembly. 
 
 Necker, the only person about the king who possess- 
 ed the public confidence, was a second time dismissed. 
 This step was taken on the 11th of July. Paris was 
 thrown into commotion by the intelligence of his dis- 
 missal. The citizens armed, and incorporating with 
 themselves a portion of the regular army, took the ap- 
 pellation of the " national guard." On the 14th of 
 July, this newly formed army, accompanied by a mob 
 of both sexes, attacked and stormed the Bastille, v/hich 
 was but feebly defended, murdering the governor and 
 the second in command. Bailly was named mayor of 
 Paris, and Lafayette commandant of the national guard. 
 The princes of the blood and their adherents, now emi- 
 grated to escape the destruction which seemed to be 
 imminent. The constituent assemblj'-, at Versailles, 
 next proceeded to sap the foundations of the old mo- 
 narchy; the titles and privileges of the nobles and 
 clergy were abolished, one after the other. An im- 
 mense mob next marched from Paris and attacked the 
 palace at Versailles. Accusing the queen of revelling 
 17* 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 199 
 
 The Bastille. 
 
 in luxury, while they were dying of want, they dis- 
 persed the guards of the palace, and entered the queen's 
 private apartment; but she had escaped through a 
 secret door and placed herself under the protection of 
 the king. When the king showed himself to the mob, 
 she boldly stood by his side, holding the dauphin by the 
 hand. The king was forced to go with this blood- 
 thirsty mob to Paris, where he assumed the tricoloured 
 cockade, the distinctive badge of the national guard. 
 
 The assembly removed to Paris and established itself 
 ih the Tuilleries. The deputies divided the kingdom 
 into eighty-three departments, abolished the parlia- 
 ments, and established instead of them tribunals whose 
 members were elective and temporary, and issued as- 
 signats, a kind of paper money, which soon depreciated, 
 and left the finances in a worse condition than that in 
 which they before were. In the mean time, the royal 
 
200 LAFAYETTE. 
 
 party began to take confidence. Mirabeau, the leader 
 of the commons, joined tiie king, but his usefulness was 
 prevented by his death, which took place soon after. 
 
 The situation of the king being now rendered more 
 dangerous by the approach of an army formed by the 
 emigrated nobles of France, aided by Austria, he yield- 
 ing to the wishes of the queen, secretly left the Tuil- 
 leries, and fled toward Montmedy, where he hoped to. 
 join the troops under tlie command of the marquis de 
 Bouilie. But he was recognised at Varennes, arrested, 
 and carried to Paris. The constituent assembly, having 
 completed the constitution, dissolved itself on the 30th 
 of September ; and the second, which was called the 
 legislative assembly, opened on the 1st of October, and. 
 soon gave proof of a most lamentable unfitness for the! 
 important functions which devolved upon it. 
 
 Lafayette. 
 
 When the king was brought to Paris, the semblance 
 of freedom was given to him; but the mob becoming 
 incensed at the appearance of the Austrian and Prus- 
 sian armies, which threatened their frontiers, armed, 
 and then became ungovernable. The Tuilleries were 
 attacked on the 20th of June, 1792, and a most bloody 
 massacre took place. Lafayette now came to the as- 
 
FRANCE DECLARED A REPUBLIC. 201 
 
 sislance of the king, and openly and steadily denounced 
 the attacks made upon him ; but Louis distrusted him, 
 and rejected all his offers of assistance. On the 10th 
 of August, another attack was made upon the Tuille- 
 ries, which was defended by the Swiss guard, and these 
 faithful soldiers were literally butchered by the in- 
 furiated mob. The king, the queen, and their two 
 children, took refuge in the chamber of the legislative 
 assembly; but instead of receiving protection, they 
 were treated with every indignity, and left the cham- 
 ber only to be led to prison. The place chosen for 
 their confinement was the Temple; and there they 
 were subjected to every privation and indignity which 
 it was in the power of a brutal and heartless populace 
 to inflict. 
 
 The allied army advanced upon Paris. The country 
 was declared in danger, and troops raised and officered, 
 but before they left Paris, the mob murdered the pri- 
 soners who had been crowded into the Abbaye, the 
 Chatelet, La Force, and Bicetre. In this massacre the 
 princess Lamballe perished, and her head was carried 
 on a pike under the windows of the Temple, that Louis 
 and his family might see and recognise it. The honour 
 of France then seemed to be confined to the army. 
 Dumouriez opened a road towards the Prussians through 
 the forest of Argonne. The battle of Valmy, at which 
 the young duke of Chartres, son of the duke of Or- 
 leans, (afterwards king of the French,) greatly distin- 
 guished himself, compelled the invaders to retire from 
 the kingdom. 
 
 Finally, on the 21st September, 1792, the National 
 Convention met. This body was divided into the 
 Gironde, or moderate party, and the Mountain, or the 
 party of the Jacobins, at the head of which were Danton 
 and Robespierre. On the 22d this body declared 
 royalty abolished, and proclaimed France a republic. 
 Whilst Dumouriez, bravely seconded by the duke of 
 Chartres, gained over the Austrians the battle of 
 Jommapes, and conquered Belgium, the king was ac- 
 
202 EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 
 
 Robespierre and Danton. 
 
 cused before the convention of having- committed 
 various crimes against the sovereignty and liberty of 
 the people. Tronchet, Malesherbes, and de Seze pre- 
 pared his defence, at which he himself laboured with 
 the greatest calmness, though without hope of success. 
 In fact, he was condemned to death, 387 out of 721 
 voting for his immediate execution. He was executed 
 on the 21st of January, 1793, at the Place of the Revo- 
 lution, immediately in front of the palace where his 
 ancestors and he himself had reigned, Louis, being 
 conducted to the scaffold by Edgeworth, his confessor, 
 wished to speak to the people, but his voice was 
 drowned by the beating of drums and the shouts of the 
 populace. He then turned towards his executioners, 
 who placed him on the guillotine. Edgeworth, kneel- 
 ing, with his face near the king, said, " Son of Saint 
 Louis, ascend to heaven," when the blow was given, 
 and the head of the king separated from his body. 
 Soon after, the queen, Marie Antoinette, and Madaijie 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 203 
 
 Elizabeth, the sister of the king, were condemned and 
 executed. The dauphin, or rather the king-, Louis 
 XVIL, was long cruelly confined in a dark room in the 
 Temple, where he finally, on the 9th of June, 1795, 
 died of hunger and extreme debility. 
 
 France was now deluged with blood. War was 
 proclaimed and carried on against England, Holland, 
 Austria and Prussia, in short, with all the European 
 nations; while at the same time, in La Vendee, a civil 
 war broke out against the assassins of the king. Even 
 in the convention a struggle was maintained between 
 the two great parties until the Gironde yielded. The 
 insurrections of the 31st of May and the 2d of June 
 decided their ruin ; but the Mountain lost Marat, one 
 of their leaders, who was assassinated by Charlotte 
 Corday. Twenty-one of the Girondists were executed ; 
 and after them fell the duke of Orleans, who was among 
 the first to vote "death to the king;" then Madam 
 Roland, Bailly, Barnave, and a crowd of inferior victims. 
 This was the reign of terror. War raged without and 
 within. Toulon opened her gates to the English. 
 Lyons revolted, but after a siege of two months, was 
 compelled to surrender to the troops of the convention. 
 Valenciennes surrendered to the English. The people 
 of La Vendee were for some time successful ; but were 
 finally overcome, and the barbarities which were in- 
 flicted on the conquered party almost exceed belief. 
 Carnot, a member of the committee of public safety, 
 directed the military operations. Fourteen armies 
 were sent to the frontiers, and against the rebels of the 
 interior. Collot d'Herbois and Fouche at Lyons, and 
 Carrier at Nantes, executed the decrees of the commit- 
 tee with the greatest cruelty. The scaffold being too 
 slow for their vengeance, the vanquished insurgents 
 were mowed down with grape-shot in the public 
 squares. At length the prediction of Vergniaud, that 
 " the revolution was like Saturn, and would soon devour 
 her own children," was realized. The terrorists were 
 divided, and Danton and Camille Desmoulins were 
 
204 VICTORIES OF BONAPARTE. 
 
 executed by Robespierre, who was himself beheaded 
 on the 27th of July, 1794, with St. Just and Couthon. 
 When these executions were over, confidence returned ; 
 France breathed afresh, and the reign of terror was at 
 an end. The Girondists who had not perished were 
 recalled to their seats in the convention; and the Jaco- 
 bin clubs were suppressed. La Vendee submitted after 
 a bloody resistance, and the emigrants, who had been 
 landed on the coast by English vessels, were defeated 
 at Quiberon. The national convention, after many 
 convulsions of party, terminated its disgraceful career 
 on October 27th, 1795. 
 
 A new constitution succeeded, by which the legisla- 
 ture was divided into two assemblies, that of the Art" 
 dents, consisting of 250 members, and that of the Five 
 Hundred. The executive power was placed in the 
 hands of a directory, consisting of five members, one 
 of whom v/as elected every year. Three able generals 
 were put at the heads of the armies ; Jourdan on the 
 Meuse, Moreau on the Rhine, and Bonaparte in Italy. 
 This last soon gained the victories of Montenotte, Mil- 
 iesimo, Mondovi, and Lodi ; Milan also opened her 
 gates to him. It was in vain that Austria replaced 
 Beaulieu by Wurmser, and Wurmser by Alvinzi; the 
 two battles of Areola and Rivoli, and the capture of 
 Mantua, completely subverted her power. The con- 
 quest of the Tyrol opened to Bonaparte the road to 
 Vienna, when the emperor of Austria stopped the vic- 
 torious march of the French army by signing the pre- 
 liminaries of peace at Leoben, which was afterwards 
 fully approved and confirmed by the treaty of Campo- 
 Formio. (1797.) Austria recognised the independence 
 of the Cisalpine republics, founded in Lombardy and at 
 Genoa. 
 
 Dismayed by the popularity of the young general, 
 whom the war could no longer confine to Italy, the 
 directory gave him the command of an expedition 
 against Egypt, for the purpose of lessening the influ- 
 ence of the English in the east. Egypt proved for 
 
BONAPARTE IN EGYPT AND SYRIA. 205 
 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 Bonaparte only a new field on which he might reap 
 new triumphs. He defeated the Mamelukes at the 
 foot of the pyramids; but the French fleet was destroy- 
 ed at the battle of the Nile, by the English admiral 
 Nelson. In the mean time, Bonaparte passed into 
 Syria, twice vainly attacked Saint Jean d'Acre, op- 
 posed his invincible columns to the attacks of the Turks 
 at the battle of Mount Tabor, and returned to Egypt 
 to exterminate a new army on the banks of Aboukir. 
 18 
 
206 
 
 BONAPARTE CHOSEN FIRST CONSUL. 
 
 (1799.) He suddenly quitted Egypt in secret, leaving 
 the army under the command of Kleber, and returned 
 to France, to humble the directory, whose authority was 
 already shaken. His journey from Frejus to Paris was 
 a triumphant procession. A month after he landed he 
 repaired to Saint-Cloud, where the two councils were 
 sitting, and presented himself before the five hundred, 
 over whom his brother Lucien then presided. On his 
 appearance, a frightful tumult broke out : " Down with 
 the dictator! out with the tyrant!" resounded from 
 every side. Poignards glistened in the hands of the 
 members; but, at the same instant, a battalion of 
 grenadiers entered the hall, surrounded their general, 
 and forced his adversaries to save themselves by flight. 
 A military revolution was accomplished. The directory 
 was succeeded by the consulate. Bonaparte was named 
 first consul, with Cambaceres and Lebrun as his col- 
 leagues. 
 
 Marengo. 
 
Napoleon taking leave of the Army after his First Abdication. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The Consulate. — The Empire. 
 
 Bonaparte being- appointed first consul, at once 
 filled up the different departments of the government ; 
 and a new constitution being drawn up, it was accepted 
 by the people on the 24th of December, 1799. 
 
 France was still at war with Austria and England. 
 Bonaparte, sending Duroc on a mission to Berlin, to 
 secure the continued neutrality of Prussia, placed him- 
 self at the head of the army destined to operate against 
 the Austrians and their allies in Italy. He crossed the 
 Alps by the Great Saint Bernard, and appeared sud- 
 denly in Milan, before the passage of the Alps by the 
 
 (207) 
 
208 BONAPARTE DECLARED EMPEROR. 
 
 French army was known there. Lannes repulsed the 
 Austrians at Montebello ; whilst the first consul him- 
 self met Melas, the general-in-chief of the Austrian 
 forces on the the plain of Marengo. (14th June, 1800.) 
 At the end of eight hours of a continued struggle, in 
 which the brave Desaix was killed, the enemy fled, 
 with the loss of eleven thousand men. The Austrians 
 soon after demanded an armistice ; but the war recom- 
 menced, and they were again defeated by Moreau at 
 Hoheniinden. Austria was at length forced to sue for 
 peace, and a treaty was accordingly concluded between 
 the emperor and the French republic at Luneville, in 
 February 1801. During that year, the French were 
 expelled from Egypt by the English; and Bonaparte 
 was preparing an expedition for the invasion of Great 
 Britain, which was prevented by the wish of England 
 to conclude a peace. Preliminaries were signed in 
 London, October 1, 1801, and a definitive treaty con- 
 cluded afterwards at Amiens, (March 1802.) 
 
 Bonaparte's genius was as great in peace as in war ; 
 the civil code, the council of state, the university, the 
 legion of honour, the bank of France, all testify to this 
 fact. But great as he was, there were men in France 
 base enough to attempt his life. One evening, in going 
 to the opera, an infernal machine burst near his car- 
 riage, by which his life was endangered. England was 
 accused of having hired the assassins ; and soon hostili- 
 ties commenced against that country, which were has- 
 tened by the issue of letters of marque, and an em- 
 bargo on French vessels in English ports, by the Eng- 
 lish government, in May 1803. Bonaparte replied by 
 arresting all British subjects found in France or Hol- 
 land, and General Mortier was sent to occupy the elec- 
 torate of Hanover, belonging to the king of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 On the 3d of May, 1804, a decree passed the Tribu- 
 nate and Senate of the French republic, declaring 
 Bonaparte "Emperor of the French," and making the 
 title hereditary in his family. His coronation took place 
 
PEACE WITH AUSTRIA. 
 
 209 
 
 on the 19th of November, pope Pius VII. performing- 
 the ceremony of crowning him, and Napoleon himself 
 crowning Josephme. On the 26th of May, he was 
 crowned at Milan, king of Italy. 
 
 Napoleon crowning Josephine. 
 
 In the mean time Russia and Austria coalesced with 
 England in her war against France. The emperor 
 Napoleon, with his characteristic impetuosity, burst 
 into Germany in the beginning of October 1805. Wur- 
 temburg, Baden, and Bavaria, joined their forces to his, 
 and the duke of Wurtemburg, and the elector of Ba- 
 varia, were rewarded by his conferring on them the 
 title of king. Ulm surrendered on the 17th of Octo- 
 ber. On the 13th of November, the French army en- 
 tered Vienna; and on the 2d of December, the great 
 battle of Austerlitz was fought, which resulted in the 
 complete defeat of the Russians and Austrians, and en- 
 abled Napoleon to dictate a peace with Austria. By 
 the terms of this peace, which was dated at Presburg, 
 December the 26th, 1805, the title of the emperor Na- 
 18* 
 
210 BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 poleon was recognised, together with the titles of the 
 newly-made kings of Bavaria and Wurtemburg. The 
 electorate of Baden was, at the same time, changed 
 into a grand duchy. Venice was ceded to Napoleon, 
 as king of Italy. The emperor of Russia withdrew 
 his troops into his own territories. The king of Prussia, 
 who had remained neutral in this contest, received 
 Hanover as the reward of his neutrality ; or, as is most 
 probable, that electorate was conferred on him for the 
 purpose of placing his interests in opposition to those 
 of the king of England, who, it was supposed, would 
 seize the first opportunity of reclaiming his ancient in- 
 heritance. 
 
 Thus was this formidable coalition dissolved in the 
 short space of three months, the arms of the new em- 
 pire proving universally successful, except on that ele- 
 ment in which the power of England still reigned 
 without a rival. On the 21st of October, the combined 
 fleets of France and Spain were defeated off Cape 
 Trafalgar, by lord Nelson. The Trench and Spanish 
 fleets were almost entirely destroyed, but the exulta- 
 tion of the English was enSljittered by the loss of the 
 gallant Nelson, who was killed in the action. 
 
 The European powers, terrified by the rapid increase 
 of Napoleon's power, again commenced the war in 
 
 1806. Prussia entered into a league with Russia, and 
 took up arms. Napoleon instantly set his troops in 
 motion. The battles of Jena and Auerstaedt sealed 
 the ruin of Prussia. The French entered Berlin on 
 the 7th of October, and soon afterwards they marched 
 against the Russians in Poland. There, too. Napoleon 
 was successful, afler a longer and harder contest, de- 
 feating the enemy at Eylau on the 8th of February, 
 
 1807, and at Friedland on the 14th of June. The 
 emperor Alexander then entered into negotiations, and 
 a peace was concluded at Tilsit, on the 7th of July, by 
 which the king of Prussia was stripped of half his 
 dominions. 
 
 In order to humble England, the only power which 
 
PENINSULAR WAR. 211 
 
 he could not overcome without a navy, Napoleon estab- 
 lished what was called the continental blockade, for- 
 bidding the nations of the continent to carry on any 
 commercial communication with England. 
 
 Germany reduced, the covetous conqueror turned to- 
 wards the Spanish peninsula, and formed the design 
 of reuniting it to the empire. The king of Spain was 
 intimidated, and prevailed on to resign his crown to the 
 French emperor, who placed on the throne his brother 
 Joseph, king of Naples, and advanced Murat, one of 
 his marshals, to the crown of Naples, in Joseph's room. 
 But the Spaniards revolted, and then commenced that 
 terrible war, which consumed the forces of France, by 
 useless victories. An English army, under Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley, was despatched to assist the struggles of the 
 Spaniards and Portuguese against French dominion. 
 Already had Junot, the French general, and king 
 Joseph, been expelled from the country, when Napoleon 
 himself entered, and compelled the greater part of the 
 peninsula to submit. He entered Madrid on the 4th 
 of December, and was proceeding completely to subject 
 the whole country, when insurrections in Austria, 
 Prussia and Westphalia recalled him. Returning 
 hastily from Madrid, he crossed the Rhine, and pene- 
 trating into the heart of Germany, gained successive 
 victories at Eckmuhl and Essling, and a second time 
 took possession of Vienna. Though worsted in an ob- 
 stinate battle at Asperne, he, a short time afterwards, 
 conquered at Wagram. He then dictated a peace, 
 called the peace of Vienna, wliich was signed in Oc- 
 tober 1809. 
 
 In 1810, Napoleon divorced the empress Josephine, 
 and was married to Maria Louisa, the archduchess of 
 Austria, a daughter of the emperor Francis 11. In the 
 following year, the new empress gave an heir to the 
 emperor, to whom was given, at his birth, the title of 
 king of Rome. 
 
 The continent was now again prostrate at the feet 
 of Napoleon. The blockade almost entirely destroyed 
 
212 CAMPAIGN in: RUSSIA. 
 
 the commerce of England ; but the emperor of Russia, 
 who had been in close alliance with France since the 
 conclusion of the peace of Tilsit, began to repent of a 
 policy which daily added strength to the overbearing 
 power of that nation. In tlie beginning of the year 
 1811, he renewed his intercourse with England, and 
 prepared for a desperate struggle against the emperor, 
 the terror of the world. Napoleon, indignant at this 
 desertion, raised an army of six hundred thousand men, 
 traversed Germany and Poland, and penetrated into 
 the heart of Russia. Victory followed victory, until 
 this grand army arrived in the immediate vicinity of 
 Moscow. They met with their first repulse on the 7th 
 of September, 1812, at Borodino, but the Russians re- 
 tired before them, and they entered the capital on the 
 14th, which the governor Rostopchin had set on fire 
 before he evacuated it. The flames spread with fear- 
 ful rapidity, and nearly the whole city was destroyed 
 before they could be extinguished. The troops were 
 thus deprived of comfortable winter-quarters, and the 
 Russian emperor refiising to negotiate, Napoleon was 
 under the necessity of commencing his retreat, though 
 in the depth of a Russian winter. The retreat com- 
 menced on the 18th of October, and those who succeed- 
 ed in escaping death or captivity by the inclemency of 
 the weather, or the attacks of the enemy to the number 
 of about fifty thousand, arrived at the river Niemen, the 
 boundary of Russia. This terrible retreat is without 
 a parallel in the annals of history. It was one fright- 
 ful continuation of horrors and miseries from its com- 
 mencement until its conclusion. Napoleon arrived at 
 Paris at midnight, on the 18th of December. This 
 was the beginning of the fall of the French empire. 
 The emperor used every exertion to replace the losses 
 which his army had sustained, but it was impossible 
 wholly to compensate by new levies the absence of the 
 veterans v^^ho had perished, or had been made prisoners 
 in Russia. But still a very large and powerful force 
 was marched into Germany early in the spring. New 
 
BATTLE OF DRESDEN. 
 
 213 
 
 Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow. 
 
 enemies had arisen in the mean time. Prussia, Ger- 
 many, and Sweden united with Russia in the league 
 against France. 
 
 Nevertheless, Napoleon was still active and intrepid. 
 In May, 1813, he gained the two great victories of 
 Lutzen and Bautzen, over the allied Russian and Prus- 
 sian armies. In June and July a congress sat at 
 Prague, for the purpose of considering terms of peace. 
 The terms proposed were, that the French empire 
 should be botmded by the Alps, the Rhine, and the 
 Meuse, and that the German states should be restored 
 to their independence. These humiliating terms were 
 positively rejected by Napoleon, and immediately after- 
 wards his father-in-law, the emperor of Austria, joined 
 the ranks of his enemies. 
 
 In a great battle near Dresden, on the 26th and 27th 
 of August, Napoleon defeated the allies and compelled 
 
214 FRANCE INVADED ON ALL SIDES. 
 
 them to retreat. But the force of his enemies waa 
 daily increasing. The Bavarians deserted him and 
 joined the Austrians; and at length, in a series of 
 conflicts at Leipsic, in which the Saxons also deserted 
 him in the midst of a battle, the power of this great 
 conqueror was finally broken, and he was compelled to 
 a retreat, which was less calamitous than that from 
 Moscow, only because a shorter distance was to be 
 crossed before he could arrive at a place of safety ; and 
 because he had not now to contend with the climate of 
 Russia, or with the hardships of a rigorous season. 
 Tlie great conflict at Leipsic took place on the 18th 
 and 19th of October, 1813. On the 7th of November 
 Napoleon crossed the Rhine at Mentz, and two days 
 afterwards arrived in Paris. 
 
 Napoleon still possessed interest enough to obtain 
 from the senate a levy of 300,000 men, and he now 
 prepared with the greatest ardour for a campaign in 
 which the tide of war was rolled back upon France, 
 and in which she found it necessary to defend herself 
 against five immense armies, acting separately, it is 
 true, but having only one object. The Russian army, 
 numbering 150,000 men, was advancing on the fron- 
 tier of Switzerland; the Austrian army, under prince 
 Schwartzenberg, attacked the dominions of the king 
 of Italy. Blucher, the Prussian general, with 130,000 
 men, was advancing from Frankfort ; and Bernadotte, 
 with 100,000 Swedes, by the way of the Netherlands ; 
 while the English army, under Lord Wellington, which 
 in the course of the five preceding campaigns had suc- 
 ceeded in expelling the French from the Spanish pe- 
 ninsula, had crossed the Bidassoa, and was advancing 
 towards Bayonne. Napoleon disconcerted the allies 
 by the rapidity of his movements, and he gained seve- 
 ral brilliant but useless victories, useless because they 
 could not prevent the approach of the allies to Paris. 
 A futile attempt at negotiation was made in January, 
 1814. The allies still advanced, and on the 30th of 
 March, a battle was fought on the heights near Moat- 
 
LOUIS XVIII. HESTOREB. 215 
 
 martre, which laid the city of Paris open to their as- 
 saults. The city capitulated on the following day. 
 
 On the 1st of April the senate decreed that Napoleon 
 had forfeited the throne, that the hereditary right in his 
 family was abolished, and that the people and army 
 were released from their oath of fidelity. He at first 
 determined to march upon Paris, but his marshals re- 
 fused to support him, and seeing plainly that the strug- 
 gle was hopeless, he formally signed his abdication of 
 the crown at Fontainebleau, on the 11th of April ; and 
 the island of Elba, in the Mediterranean, was assigned 
 to him in full sovereignty as his future residence. He 
 embarked for his new principality on the 28th of April, 
 and on the 3d of May, Louis XVIIL, who had been re- 
 called by the senate, made his public entry into Paris. 
 
 Napoleon at Elba. 
 
Return of Napoleon from Elba. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE RESTORATION. 
 
 Louis XVIII. — Charles X. — Louis Philippe L 
 
 The first restoration of the Bourbons took place on 
 the 3d of May, 1814, when Louis XVIII., the brother 
 of the unfortunate Louis XVI., re-entered his capital, 
 with his brother Charles, count of Artois, and his 
 nephews, the dukes of Berri and Ang-ouleme. In June 
 he granted to the people a constitutional charter, by 
 which the representative government was confirmed, 
 A treaty was concluded with the allies, and they had 
 already withdrawn most of their troops from the king- 
 dom, when suddenly the news arrived of the escape of 
 Napoleon from Elba, and his landing on the coast of 
 
 ^ (216) 
 
BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 217 
 
 France. He arrived at Cannes on the 1st of March, 
 1815, with about 900 men, and advanced directly to- 
 wards Paris. His march was one continual triumph, 
 his old soldiers flocking to his standard at every step. 
 On the evening of the 20th he re-entered the capital, 
 which the king had quitted on the same morning. 
 
 At the news of these daring successes all Europe 
 was aroused, and the ban of the nations was again pro- 
 nounced against Napoleon. Ninety thousand English 
 and Dutch, commanded by Wellington, and ninety 
 thousand Prussians, under the orders of Blucher, occu- 
 pied Belgium. Germany armed in haste, and the Rus- 
 sian columns and the hordes of Tartary were already 
 in motion. The genius of Napoleon raised in a few 
 days an army of 300,000 fighting men. Placing him- 
 self at the head of 110,000 of them, he marched on the 
 12th of June, with the intention of engaging Welling- 
 ton and Blucher, and overthrowing them separately, 
 and then making head against Austria and Russia. 
 On the 16th the Prussians were defeated near the vil- 
 lage of Ligny, and leaving Grouchy with 33,000 men, 
 to keep back the beaten troops of Blucher, and prevent 
 their junction with Wellington, Napoleon himself ad- 
 vanced with 70,000 men, and met the English at 
 Waterloo. The battle began on the 18th of June, at 
 eleven o'clock in the morning. For several hours the 
 French had the advantage, and already the enemy 
 began to entertain thoughts of retreating. About six 
 o'clock. Napoleon ordered a formidable charge, and the 
 English began to give way. It was evident that the 
 arrival of either Grouchy or Blucher would decide the 
 victory. Suddenly, a numerous body of men was seen 
 in the distance, on the right flank of the French army. 
 On both sides anxiety was, for a moment, at its height ; 
 but the confidence of Wellington was soon restored, 
 and his victory assured, for he had recognised the 
 Prussians. Blucher had evaded Grouchy, and the 
 struggle was decided. The rout of the French army 
 was complete, and the carnage fearful. Bewildered 
 19 
 
218 EXILE AND DEATH OF BONAPARTE. 
 
 and distracted, in the midst of this irremediable disaster, 
 Napoleon presented his breast to the bullets which 
 ilew around him, but death seemed to shun him. At 
 length, despairing of his fortune, he abandoned the 
 wreck of his army, returned to Paris, abdicated the 
 second time, attempted to escape to the United States ; 
 but being prevented, surrendered himself to the Eng- 
 lish, by whom he was exiled to the island of Saint 
 Helena; which became first his prison, and on his 
 death (May 5th, 1821), his tomb. 
 
 On the 8th of July the king again entered Paris, 
 whilst the allies were still in possession, and thus was 
 accomplished the second restoration. The first years 
 of the reign of Louis XVIII. were signalized by the 
 violent reaction of the ultra-royalist party; and for 
 some time the miseries of France were at their height. 
 Tyrannised over by a hundred and fifty thousand for- 
 eigners, who, scattered throughout its fortresses, over- 
 whelmed it with ruinous expenses, and agitated by 
 internal factions, France groaned, in addition, beneath 
 the horrors of famine. Public executions again became 
 numerous. Assassins walked the streets with impu- 
 nity, and the most cold-blooded murders were perpe- 
 trated, and looked upon with indifference by the repre- 
 sentatives of the people assembled in Paris. In 
 February, 1820, the duke de Berri was mortally 
 wounded by the assassin Louvel. Tranquillity was 
 finally restored in France by many concessions and 
 self-denials on all sides, the principal motive being to 
 rid the country of the foreign soldiers who were still 
 quartered in it, under the pretence that the Bourbons 
 were not strong enough to retain the reins of govern- 
 ment without their aid. The foreign troops were now 
 speedily withdrawn, and many of the evils to which 
 France had been so long subject ceased at once. In 
 1823, a considerable army, under the command of the 
 duke of Angouleme, was sent into Spain, to re-establish 
 Ferdinand VIL, who had been deposed by the Cortes, 
 oa the throne of that kingdom. The duke was emi- 
 
DETHRONEMENT OF CHARLES X. 219 
 
 nently successful, and France began once more to take 
 her accustomed place among the monarchies of Europe. 
 Louis XVIII. died on the 13th of September, 1824. 
 leaving no children. 
 
 Charles X., who had been count d'Artois, succeeded 
 his brother. Strongly attached to the ultra-royalists, 
 he gave his confidence to ministers whose only desires 
 were to restrain the liberties granted to the kingdom 
 by Louis XVIII. In 1827, a French fleet, under admi- 
 ral de Rigny, was sent to the coast of the Morea, for 
 the purpose of aiding the English in putting a stop to 
 the barbarous warfare between the Greeks and Turks. 
 De Rigny, and the English admiral, Codrington, acted 
 in concert in the battle fought in the bay of Navarino, 
 in which the Turkish fleet was destroyed ; and France, 
 in like manner, subsequently became a party to the 
 treaties by which Greece was finally extricated from 
 the Turkish yoke, and made an independent state. 
 
 In the same year some disputes took place with 
 Algiers, and a blockading squadron was sent there to 
 demand satisfaction. In 1830, an army of 37,000 
 sailed from Toulon, and about the middle of June landed 
 on the coast of Africa. Algiers was immediately be- 
 sieged, and on the 4th of July surrendered to France, 
 in whose hands it has since remained. 
 
 On the 26th of July the king issued several orders, 
 abolishing the freedom of the press; dissolving the 
 chamber of deputies; changing the mode of election; 
 and, in short, entirely subverting the charter granted 
 by Louis XVIII. The people of Paris revolted. On 
 the 27th of July they arose en masse, hoisted the tri- 
 coloured flag, and repelled the guards who were sent 
 against them. On the 28th and 29th the contest con- 
 tinued, and about noon on the latter day, being joined 
 by the regiments of the line, they entered and took 
 possession of the Louvre. The guards were compelled 
 to fly, and Marmont, the commander of the royal forces, 
 was compelled to relinquish the possession of the city 
 to the insurgents. On the afternoon of the 29th the 
 
220 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The Revolution of the Three Days, 
 
 king repealed the obnoxious decrees, but before his 
 orders were received in Paris, the citizens had deter- 
 mined that he should not be permitted to re-ascend the 
 throne. The deputies formed and proclaimed a provi- 
 sional government. The national guard was called 
 out; Lafayette was appointed to the command; and 
 before the close of the day, order was restored through- 
 out the city, and the revolution of the three days was 
 accomplished. The news of this revolution was re- 
 ceived with joy in all parts of the kingdom. The tri- 
 colour flag waved everywhere. On the 2d of August 
 the king and the dauphin, then at Ramboullet, signed 
 
LOUIS PHILIPPE. 
 
 221 
 
 an act of abdication, the one of the crown itself, and 
 the other of his right of succession. The chamber of 
 deputies, on the 6th and 7th of August, revised the 
 charter, and offered the crown to Louis Philippe of 
 Orleans, who was to assume the title of king of the 
 French. The declaration and charter adopted by the 
 deputies was agreed to by the chamber of peers, and on 
 the 9th of August, 1830, the constitution, as thus created, 
 was formally tendered to, and accepted by, the new 
 sovereign. Charles X. died in exile, in 1836 ; and his 
 son, who had renounced the succession for himself, 
 immediately proclaimed the duke of Bordeaux, the son 
 of the unfortunate duke de Berry, king of France and 
 Navarre, by the title of Henry V. 
 
 Louis Philippe L, the last king of the French, 
 ascended the throne in 1830, at the age of fifty-seven. 
 Instead of fulfilling the promise of being truly a " citi- 
 zen king," he bent his efibrts chiefly towards the in- 
 crease of his own fortune and the formation of a per- 
 manent dynasty in his own family. For this purpose 
 he tightened the reins of government, and formed alli- 
 ances with the despotic powers of Europe. He in- 
 creased the public debt, and consequently the taxes 
 upon industry, to an intolerable degree; and caused 
 an accumulation of grievances, and prepared the way 
 for the utter destruction of the monarchy. 
 
 In 1831, Belgium separating itself from Holland, by 
 an insurrection like that just accomplished in France, 
 offered the government to the duke de Nemours, the 
 second son of Louis Philippe. The king refused the 
 crown for his son, but taking their cause into his hands, 
 he sent a French army to their aid. 
 
 In 1840, with the consent of the English government, 
 a small French squadron, under the command of the 
 prince of Joinville, was sent to bring the remains of 
 Napoleon from Saint Helena to France. They were 
 received with the greatest respect at Havre, where 
 they were first landed, and afterwards at Paris, where 
 19* 
 
222 POLITICAL BANQUETS. 
 
 they were re-interred in the church of the Invalids, on 
 the 18th of December in that year. 
 
 The duke of Orleans, the eldest son of the king, was 
 killed by a fall from his horse, on the 13th of July, 
 1842. A law was passed in the chambers assuring the 
 regency to the duke de Nemours, in case of the- kmg's 
 death before the majority of his grandson, Louis Philippe 
 Albert, count of Paris, the eldest son of the duke of 
 Orleans, who was born in 1838. 
 
 The liberal party in France, in 1847, began in a new 
 method to give expression to their opinions in favour 
 of a more extended franchise ; and this method was 
 that of political dinners. About sixty of these banquets 
 were given between July and December, at which the 
 opposition leaders made speeches in favour of reform. 
 The minister, M. Guizot, determined to suppress these 
 meetings, and for this purpose revived an obsolete law 
 of the year 1790. It was a bold measure, as the event 
 showed. Immense military preparations were made 
 to prevent the celebration of a banquet appointed for 
 the 20th of February, 1848, but postponed till the 22d. 
 The opposition deputies announced to the public of 
 Paris their determination not to attend the banquet. 
 Proclamations forbidding it were placarded on the walls 
 and torn down by the people, who assembled on the 
 morning of the 22d in immense multitudes in the streets 
 and public squares. In the chamber of deputies articles 
 of impeachment against the ministers were presented, 
 while the people were erecting barricades and singing 
 the Marseilles hymn in the streets. Collisions between 
 the military and the people took place, but the national 
 guards fraternized with the people, and the regular 
 troops evinced great reluctance to employ force for re- 
 pressing the agitation. 
 
 On the 23d the king dismissed his ministers, and 
 directed count Mole to form a new cabinet ; but count 
 Mole declining, he sent for M. Thiers, who readily 
 undertook an office which he was not destined to fulfil. 
 On Wednesday night several persons were killed and 
 
ANOTHER REVOLUTION. 223 
 
 wounded by the military ; and on Thursday morning 
 the people were in full insurrection. At noon the king 
 had abdicated in favour of his grandson, the count of 
 Paris. The mob attacked the Palais Royale, and after 
 a bloody contest, in which a good many lives were lost, 
 sacked it completely, burning the furniture in the court. 
 The king, on hearing of this, left the Tuilleries, pro- 
 tected by a strong escort ; and the duchess of Orleans, 
 with the heir apparent of the throne, repaired to the 
 chamber of deputies. No sooner had they left the 
 palace, than the insurgents occupied it and commenced 
 their work of destruction. The pictures of the king 
 and his family were destroyed ; but the other valuables 
 were protected from plunderers. The throne — a gilt 
 arm-chair, with velvet cushions, and L. P., surmounted 
 by a crown, embroidered in gold upon the back, was 
 carried in procession to the Place de la Bastile, and 
 burnt by a procession of workmen, who stopped and 
 sung the Marseillaise hymn on the spot yet red with 
 the blood of those murdered the evening before at 
 Guizot's hotel. 
 
 Meanwhile, the duchess of Orleans repaired to the 
 chamber of deputies, accompanied by the two princes and 
 the dukes de Nemours and Montpensier. The young 
 count de Paris entered first, led by one of the members 
 of the house. He penetrated with difficulty as far as 
 the semi-circle, which was crowded with officers and 
 soldiers of the national guard. His presence produced 
 a lively impression on the assembly. Almost imme- 
 diately afterwards the duchess entered. 
 
 The hall was then forcibly entered by a multitude 
 of armed men of the lower orders, and national guards. 
 The princess and her children then retired to one of 
 tlie upper benches of the centre, opposite the presiden- 
 tial chair. 
 
 The greatest agitation and uproar prevailed, and 
 when silence was restored, M. Dupin arose and an- 
 nounced to the assembly that the king had abdicated 
 in favour of his grandson, and conferred the regency on 
 
224 FRANCE DECLARED A REPUBLIC. 
 
 the duchess of Orleans. A voice from the public gal- 
 lery exclaimed, " It is too late !" 
 
 An indescribable scene of tumult ensued. A number 
 of deputies collected round the duchess and her chil- 
 dren, and the dukes of Nemours and Montpensier. 
 National guards also rallied around the royal family. 
 
 M. Marie then ascended the tribune ; his voice was 
 drowned by deafening cries. When silence was re- 
 stored, M. Marie said that in the critical situation in 
 which the capital was placed, it was urgently neces- , 
 sary to adopt some measures calculated to calm the 
 population. Since morning the evil has made immense ! 
 progress. Shall w^e proclaim the duke de Nemours or 
 the duchess of Orleans regent? M. Cremieux, who 
 followed, was disposed to uphold the new government. 
 M. Genoude thought that an appeal ought to be ad- 
 dressed to the people. M. Odilon Barrot next ascended 
 the tribune, and advocated the rights of the duchess de 
 Orleans. M. Larochejaquelin supported the appeal to 
 the people. M. Lamartine and M. Ledru Rollin in- 
 sisted on the necessity of appointing a provisional gov- 
 ernment. M. Sauzet here put on his hat and concluded 
 the sitting. The princes retired, followed by all the 
 members of the Centre, those of the Left alone remain- 
 ing in the hall. The insurgents then called, or rather, 
 carried M. Dupont de I'Eure to the presidential chair. 
 The tribune and all the seats were occupied by the 
 people and the national guards, and the names of the 
 following members of the provisional government were 
 proclaimed amidst a scene which has not been wit- 
 nessed since the convention of the revolution of 1789 : 
 M. Garnier Pages, M. Ledru Rollin, 
 
 M. Arago, M. Lamartine, 
 
 M. Marie, M. Cremieux. 
 
 The list was received with cries of Vive la Repiib- 
 lique, and the assembly then adjourned to the hotel de 
 Ville, to instal the provisional government. 
 
 Since these stirring events, the provisional govern- 
 ment has been recognized by the United States, Eng- 
 
FERMENT IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 225 
 
 land, Belgium, and Switzerland. Order was restored in 
 the capital. Universal suffrage was declared, and the 
 election of a national convention or congress, of 900 
 members, was appointed to take place on the 9th of 
 April. This body was to assemble on the 20th, and 
 form a new constitution for France. 
 
 The German states exhibited a determination to fol- 
 low the example of France ; and Italy was convulsed 
 with popular agitations, exteniding through most of the 
 states of the Peninsula. 
 
QUESTIONS 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 EXAMINATION OF PUPILS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 What was the ancient name of France 1 What was 
 the extent of Gaul 1 By whom was it inhabited in the 
 earliest times ? Who were the Cymri 1 What was the 
 nature of their religion 1 What was the internal state of 
 Gaul after the invasion of the Belgians "? What compelled 
 the Gauls to emigrate '{ How far did their emigrations 
 extend 1 What was the internal state of Gaul at the time 
 of its invasion by Julius Caesar ? What effects did the 
 manners of the Romans produce upon the people 1 How 
 was the Christian religion received in Gaul 1 When did 
 the first invasion of the Roman empire take place 1 What 
 was the cause of it 1 How did it succeed 1 When did 
 the irruption of the Vandals into Gaul occur 1 Give an 
 account of the invasion of the Visigoths. Of the Huns. 
 How was Gaul divided at the downfal of the Western em- 
 
 481] 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Who was the first king of the Merovingian race 1 When 
 was he chosen 1 What remarkable law was obeyed by his 
 followers'? How were the kings of the Franks chosen 
 and inaugurated 1 Why was the son of the king generally 
 
 (227) 
 
228 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 chosen to succeed his father 1 Who succeeded Meroveus ? 
 When] Give an account of the reign of Childeric I. 
 Who succeeded him 1 What was the character of Clovis ] 
 Give an account of his attack upon the Romans. Relate 
 the anecdote of the Vase of Soissons. What is known of 
 Clotilda 1 What induced Clovis to embrace Christianity ] 
 How did Clovis gain new territories'? How did he tri- 
 umph over the Ripuarians 1 What titles were conferred 
 upon him 1 V/hen did he die 1 How was his kingdom 
 divided among his sons 1 By what were the reigns of the 
 sons of Clovis distinguished 1 Who was Theodebeft 1 
 Give an account of his wars in Italy. How did Clothaire 
 gain possession of Austrasia 1 Why did the sons of Clovis 
 make war upon the king of Burgundy 1 With what suc- 
 cess? How did Clothaire and Childebert act towards their 
 brother's children 1 By whom was the monastery of Saint 
 Cloud founded 1 How did Childebert act towards his 
 brother 1 How long did Clothaire I. reign over the whole 
 kingdom of France 1 What is the only act recorded of 
 him during that time 1 When did he die 1 How was the 
 kingdom divided among his sonsi What led to a war 
 between Sigebert and Chilperic 1 Give an account of the 
 war. What was its result 1 How was Brunehaut's life 
 saved 1 What was the conduct of Fredegonde towards 
 Meroveus 1 What disasters befel the family of Fredegonde 1 
 Relate the incidents attending the irruption of Gondevald. 
 By whom was Gontran succeeded 1 What were the prin- 
 cipal causes of the decay of the Merovingian power ? 
 When did Childebert II. die 1 To whom did he leave his 
 kingdom"? What is related of the reigns of these two 
 kings 1 Who was now the sole survivor of the race of 
 Clothaire 1. 1 What was the fate of Brunehaut 1 When 
 did Clothaire H. die, and to whom did he leave his king- 
 dom ? What was the character of the reign of Dagobert "? 
 Who were the maires du palais ? How did their office 
 become hereditary 1 What name has been given to the 
 kings who followed Dagobert ] How did Clovis II. become 
 sovereign of the three kingdoms ] To whom did he trans- 
 mit them/? How did Childeric II. obtain the government 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 229 
 
 of Neustria 1 What was the fate of Childeric ] How did 
 Thierry III. commence his reign in Neustria 1 Upon 
 whom did the Austrasians confer the government of their 
 kingdom 1 How did Dagobert H, displease them 1 What 
 crime did they commit 1 What change did they make in 
 the government 1 What was the result of the war between 
 Neustria and Austrasia 1 What led to the downfal of the 
 Frankish empire 1 Whom did Pepin cause to be crowned 
 after the death of Thierry 1 When did Pepin die 1 Whom 
 did he leave at the head of the government ] What revolt 
 took place 1 Who was placed at the head of the Austra- 
 sia^ government ? Give an account of the war which fol- 
 lowed. Who succeeded Dagobert HI. ] When did 
 Thierry IV. ascend the throne 1 Who now invaded 
 France! By whom were the Saracens opposed] What 
 was the result of the battle of Tours 1 Why was the 
 Mayor Charles afterwards called Martel? Who succeeded 
 Charles Martel in the office of maire du palais ? Whom 
 did he proclaim king 1 How did Pepin obtain the crown 
 for himself ] What race of kings did he found 1 Why 
 were the Merovingian kings called les rois chevelures? 
 Relate the circumstances attending the settlement of Bre- 
 tagne. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Why did Pepin cause himself to be crowned by the 
 pope 1 What led the pope to seek the aid of the king of 
 the Franks ] What was the result of Pepin's war in Italy ] 
 When did he take Narbonne from the Saracens 1 What 
 was the origin and result of the war with Aquitaine ? 
 When did Pepin die? To whom did he leave his king- 
 dom? What led to a disagreement between Charles and 
 Carloman ? When did Carloman die? Who usurped 
 the dominions of his sons ? What surname was afterwards 
 applied to Charles ? Give an account of his wars in Italy 
 against Didier. What was the result of his wars against 
 the Saxons ? What induced Charlemagne to enter Spain "* 
 What was the result of the expedition ? Relate the par- 
 ticulars of the death of Roland. What was the result ol 
 20 
 
230 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 Charlemagne's contest with the Bavarians and Avaril 
 What service did he yield to Leo III. 1 How was he re- 
 warded'? How was he regarded by the other sovereigns 
 of the world 1 How did the new emperor improve the 
 internal political condition of the empire 1 How did he 
 encourage education 1 By whom were the coasts of France 
 infested during the latter part of his reign 1 How did he 
 guard against them ? To whom did he give the kingdom 
 of Italy? Whom did he appoint to succeed him in the 
 empire 1 When did Charlemagne die 1 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 How did Louis I. weaken his authority 1 What induced 
 Bernard, the king of Italy, to make war upon him 1 What 
 was the fate of Bernard 1 What effect had that upon 
 Louis 1 Upon his power 1 What led the sons of Louis 
 to make war upon their father 1 Relate the principal events 
 of the remainder of the reign of Louis I. When did he 
 die ? What was the state of the empire immediately after 
 his death 1 How were the princes divided against each 
 other ] What was the result of the battle of Fontenoy 1 
 When was a partition of the empire made 1 To whose lot 
 did France fall 1 Who became emperor 1 What ravages 
 were committed by the Northmen in France 1 When did 
 Charles the Bald assume the imperial crown 1 By what 
 acts was Charles' power diminished 1 When did he die "? 
 What was the nature of the governments of Europe at that 
 time ■? What were the events of the reign of Louis II. ? 
 To whom did he leave his crown 1 How did they attempt 
 to restrain the incursions of the Northmen 1 With what 
 success 1 What was the fate of Louis III. and Carloman 1 
 Who succeeded them 1 What progress did the Northmen 
 make during his reign 1 Who saved Paris from falling 
 into their hands 1 What led to the deposition of Charles 
 II.'? Who were declared kings? What was the principal 
 event of the reign of Charles III. ? What was the result 
 of the insurrection of Robert, duke of France ? To whom 
 did Hugh the Great give the crown in 923 ? When did 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 231 
 
 Charles III. die] When did king Rodolph die"? To 
 whom did Hugh the Great then give the crown 1 Relate 
 the events of the reign of Louis IV. Who succeeded him 1 
 How did Lothaire involve himself in a war with Germany 1 
 What was done by the emperor 1 When did Lothaire 
 diel Who succeeded himi Who exercised the actual 
 authority during his reign 1 How did Hugh Capet procure 
 the crown for himself? What became of the survivors of 
 the Carlovingian race? What was the state of France 
 from the accession of Charles the Bald till the end of the 
 Carlovingian dynasty 1 What new system took root at 
 this time 1 How were lands held under the Feudal system ? 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 How was the power of Hugh Capet limited 1 What 
 were the principal events that occurred during his reign 1 
 When did he die ] What advice did he give his son 1 
 How did Robert I, follow his father's instructions 1 How 
 was he persecuted by the pope 1 Was he compelled to 
 divorce Bertha"? Whom did he afterwards marry "? How 
 did she conduct herself 1 What effects were produced by 
 the oppressions practised by the nobles'? Why did not 
 Robert protect his subjects 1 When did he die ] In what 
 war was Henry I. plunged on his accession to the throne 1 
 How did it end 1 By what was the remainder of his reign 
 signalized 1 When did he die ] Who succeeded him "? 
 How old was he when he ascended the throne "? Who 
 was appointed his guardian 1 What important event took 
 place during the minority of Philip I. "? What was the 
 first act of the young king on attaining his majority? 
 What caused his excommunication 1 Relate the principal 
 events of the war between Philip and William the Con- 
 queror. What was the character of Phihp's government ] 
 Whom did he invite to aid him in the government ] What 
 services. did Louis render before his father's death? When 
 did Philip die 1 What remarkable expedition took place 
 during the reign of Philip 1. 1 Relate the events leading 
 to the first crusade. , What part was taken by the nobles 
 
232 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 of France in the first crusade ? What was its result 1 
 How long did the kingdom of Jerusalem continue 1 What 
 celebrated societies were established after the capture of 
 Jerusalem by Godfrey ] Who succeeded Philip 1. 1 How 
 did he win respect and power for the crown 1 What led 
 him to make war upon the Anglo-Normans 1 Relate the 
 principal events of that war. What were the conditions 
 on which peace was declared 1 What distinguished men 
 lived during the reign of Louis VI.'? When did Louis 
 VL die 1 Who succeeded him 1 What territory did he 
 unite to France by marriage ] How did he evince his 
 power on ascending the throne 1 What part did he take 
 in the second crusade 1 What was the result of the expe- 
 dition 1 How was the duchy of Aquitaine lost to the 
 crown of France 1 What was afterwards the conduct of 
 queen Eleonore 1 What reputation did Louis leave behind 
 him, at his death ] When did Philip Augustus ascend the 
 throne ] What was the state of France at that time 1 
 What is bis peculiar glory] How did he begin his reign 1 
 How did he act until the death of Henry H. of England 1 
 What expedition was undertaken by Philip and Richard 1 
 What led to dissensions between them 1 What oath did 
 Philip take before returning to France ] What was done 
 by Richard after the departure of his ally ] Why did 
 PhiUp cause eighty Jews to be burned 1 Relate the events 
 of the war which followed. When was Richard killed 1 
 What induced Philip to declare war against king John, 
 his former ally 1 What charge was made against the king 
 of England 1 Did he appear, to defend himself? What 
 was the consequence? What defensive measures were 
 taken by John ] What was the result of the battle of 
 Bouvinesi What honour did it procure for the house of 
 Capet ] Give the particulars of the second crusade of 
 Philip's reign. Who was elected emperor of Constanti- 
 nople 1 Relate the causes and events of the crusade against 
 the Albigenses. How did Philip extend his dominions in 
 the mean time 1 By whom was he succeeded 1 When I 
 By what was his reign signalized 1 When did he die "^ 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 233 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 How old was Louis IX. when his father died 1 To 
 whom was the regency confided 1 How did she check the 
 turbulent spirit of the nobles 1 What was secured to the 
 crown by the treaty of Meaux 1 How did Blanche mani- 
 fest her affection for her son 1 How did Louis conduct the 
 war against England 1 What expedition did he undertake 
 in 1248'? What mistake did he make in regard to the 
 route to be taken 1 Give an account of his misfortunes in 
 Egypt. What anecdote is related of queen Margaret 1 
 When did Louis return to France 1 What measures did 
 he take for the renovation of his kingdom"? Into what 
 errors did his misdirected devotion lead himi What in- 
 duced him to undertake a second crusade 1 Relate the 
 principal events of the expedition. When and where did 
 Saint Louis die ] Where was Philip III. crowned 1 How 
 did he add to the dominions of the crown 1 What were 
 the Sicilian Vespers 1 How did France become involved 
 in a war with Aragon 1 By what was the war, for a time, 
 suspended'? Who succeeded Philip the Bold"? What 
 was the character of his government in the beginning of 
 his reign 1 What led to a war between France and Eng- 
 land 1 Who joined the English 1 What was the result 1 
 What led to a quarrel between Philip the Fair and the 
 pope 1 Relate the particulars. What was the result "? 
 How long did the popes reside in France "? Why did the 
 king wish to destroy the Knights Templars 1 How did he 
 accomplish his purpose "? Hov/ was the end of his reign 
 characterized '? Relate the events of the reign of Louis X. 
 What became of John I., the son of Louis X. "? Who 
 seized upon the regency "? How did he secure the crown 
 to himself '? What effect had the Salic law upon his own 
 children 1 When did he die 1 Who succeeded him 1 
 What is related of the reign of Charles IV. '? To whom 
 did the crown pass at his death 1 What was the state of 
 France at the close of the thirteenth century *? 
 20* 
 
234 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Who contested the right of Philip VI. to the crown of 
 France 1 How did the States General decide the question 1 
 Relate the particulars of the first revolt in Flanders. Of 
 the second revolt. Whom did the Flemings declare king 
 of France ] What civil war broke out in 1341 1 Who 
 was invited by the party of Montfort to aid them 1 How 
 did the English army proceed 1 Relate the particulars of 
 the battle of Crecy. How did Edward profit by his vic- 
 tory 1 How were the inhabitants of Calais treated ] 
 From what do the eldest sons of the kings of France derive 
 the title of Dauphin ] When did Phihp of Valois die ] 
 By whom was he succeeded ] What was the character of 
 John II. ] How did he offend the kings of England and 
 Navarre "? What was the consequence ] Who invaded 
 the kingdom 1 When did John meet the English 1 Give 
 the particulars of the battle. What became of the king 1 
 How did the States-general attempt to take advantage of 
 the youth of the Dauphin ] How did Charles act 1 What 
 disorders followed 1 Give the particulars of the insurrec- 
 tion of the Jacquerie. Why did the English invade France 
 in 1359 1 What were the principal terms of the treaty of 
 Bretigny 1 Why did John return to captivity ] When 
 and where did he die 1 When did Charles V. ascend the 
 throne ? What rendered his reign illustrious ] How did 
 Charles conduct the war against the king of Navarre '? 
 How was the war in Brittany ended 1 What was done 
 by Du Guesclin in Castile 1 How did Du Guesclin con- 
 duct the war against the English? What remarkable 
 incident occurred at the time of his death 1 When did the 
 king die 1 What important ordinances were issued by 
 Charles V. 1 How old was Charles VI. at the death of 
 his father 1 How did the duke of Anjou use his power 1 
 What was the consequence of his oppressions'? How did 
 the duke of Burgundy plunge France into a war with 
 Flanders 1 V/hat was the result of the war ? What de- 
 prived Charles VI. of his reason 1 Who seized upon the 
 government 1 How did they administer it 1 What was 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 235 
 
 done by John the Fearless in the east 1 What on his re- 
 turn to France? Of what crime was he guilty] Into 
 what two factions was the kingdom now divided 1 What 
 induced Henry V. of England to invade France 1 What 
 was the result of the battle of Azincourt 1 Relate the 
 events of the civil war which followed. What took place 
 at the bridge of Montereau 1 To whom was the crown 
 offered by the duke of Burgundy ? When was the treaty 
 of Troyes signed 1 What were its principal stipulations 1 
 When did Charles VI. die 1 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Where was Charles VII, crowned? Who was pro- 
 claimed king in Paris? What was the result of the first 
 efforts of Charles for the recovery of his kingdom 1 What 
 was done by Joan of Arc 1 What was her fate 1 When 
 did Charles enter Paris? Who were concerned in the 
 revolt of the Praguerie ? What was the extent of the 
 English power in France in 1451? When and how did 
 the king die? What important regulations did Charles 
 VII. introduce into the government "^ When did he pro- 
 mulgate the Pragmatic Sanction ? What was the nature 
 of that ordinance ? When did Louis XL ascend the throne ? 
 What were his first acts ? What led to the establishment 
 of the League of the Public Good ? Who were the leaders 
 of the League? What was the result of the civil war 
 which followed ? What were the stipulations of the treaty 
 of Conflans ? How did the king break the treaty ? How 
 did the duke of Burgundy get possession of the king's per- 
 son ? How did Louis gain his liberty ? How did he 
 punish la Balue and the bishop of Verdun ? How did he 
 attempt to evade the execution of the treaty of Peronne ? 
 What was the consequence? How did Louis turn the 
 disorders of his kingdom to his advantage? How was the 
 power of the duke of Burgundy lessened ? When and how 
 did he die? To whom did his possessions descend? 
 Whom did she marry ? What was the result of the battle 
 of Guinegate ? What did the treaty of Arras secure to 
 
236 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 Louis ] How were Provence and Anjou united to the 
 crown of France 1 Give an account of the last days of the 
 king. What civil war raged during the minority of Charles 
 VIII. ] For what purpose did he lead an army into Italy 1 
 How did he proceed 1 What caused his hasty retreat 1 
 Wnat were the terms of the treaty of Verceil 1 When did 
 Charles VIII. diel How did he add to the extent of 
 France? 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 When did Louis XII. ascend the throne ] Whom did 
 he marry 1 Give an account of the operations of the 
 French army in Italy 1 What titles did the king take at 
 his coronation 1 Who aided him in his conquest of Naples 1 
 How did Ferdinand act afterwards 1 What was the con- 
 sequence 1 What were the terms of the treaty of Blois 1 
 What was the object of the league of Cambray 1 What 
 was the object of the Holy League 1 How did Louis XII. 
 defend himself? What was the result] Who invaded 
 France in 1513 ] What induced Louis to sue for peace] 
 When and where was a truce signed 1 How was peace 
 confirmed ] What is said to have caused the death of the 
 king] When did he die] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 How old was Francis I. when he ascended the throne ] 
 Relate the particulars of his conquest of Milan. Who was 
 chosen emperor of Germany on the death of Maximilian ] 
 What led Francis to make war upon Charles ] How did 
 the war commence ] What caused the loss of the Mila- 
 nese] Who offered their aid to Charles] What was 
 done by the duke of Bourbon ] Relate the operations of 
 Bonnivet in Milan. Give the particulars of the death of 
 Bayard. What was the result of the battle of Pavia ] How 
 did Francis regain his liberty ] How did he observe the 
 treaty of Madrid ] What led to the renewal of hostilities 
 in 1542 ] Relate the principal events of the war till the 
 treaty of Crespy. When did Francis make peace with 
 England ] On what terms ] When did Henry VIII. and 
 Francis I. die] What distinguished men flourished in 
 France during the reign of Francis I. ] 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 237 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 When did Henry II. ascend the throne 1 How did he 
 begin his reign 1 Relate the principal events of the war 
 between Henry II. and Charles V. What was the result 
 of the war with England and Spain 1 What were the 
 terms of the treaty of Cambresis ] When and how did 
 Henry II. die 1 Who was his successor ] Relate the 
 principal events of the reign of Francis II. How old was 
 Charles IX. when he ascended the throne 1 Who assumed 
 the regency 1 Into what two parties was the court divided "I 
 How did the civil war commence ] Relate the principal 
 events of the war. When was peace concluded 1 How 
 was the peace of the kingdom again disturbed 1 Give an 
 account of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's. When and 
 how did Charles IX. die 1 Who was his successor 1 What 
 led to the formation of the Holy League 1 What caused 
 the death of the duke of Anjou 1 Who was the next heir 
 to the crown 1 Who disputed his claim ] Relate the 
 events of the war of the three Henries. The assassination 
 of the duke of Guise. The death of Henry III. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Who succeeded Henry IIL 1 Who opposed him 1 Give 
 an account of the battle of Ivry. What prevented his 
 entrance into Paris. How did he finally overcome the 
 Spaniards 1 What led him to embrace the Catholic reli- 
 gion ? When did he make his public entry into the capi- 
 tal 1 How was tranquillity between the Catholics and 
 Protestants finally established 1 Whom did Henry marry 
 in 1600? For what war did he then prepare? Relate 
 the particulars of his death. When did Louis XIII. ascend 
 the throne 1 Who was declared regent 1 What was the 
 state of France during the regency of Mary ? What mar- 
 riages did she promote ? When did Louis XIII. assume the 
 government? By whom was he incited against the Hugue- 
 nots? To what two objects did Richelieu devote all his ener- 
 gies ? How did he prepare to effect these designs ? How did 
 he ruin the power of the Huguenots in France ? Did he suc- 
 ceed in destroying the power of the house of Austria ? Where 
 and when did Richelieu die ? Where and when did Louis 
 Xm. die? 
 
238 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION, 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 When did Louis the Great ascend the throne 1 Who 
 commanded the French army in Flanders ] How did he 
 carry on the war ] When and where was peace concluded 
 with the emperor 1 Relate the particulars of the insurrec- 
 tion of the Fronde. The war with Spain. When was the ^ 
 treaty of the Pyrenees signed 1 What were its terms ? 
 What led to hostiUties against Spain in 1667? What 
 powers united to compel Louis to make peace 1 When 
 and where was peace again concluded 1 How did Louis 
 again make preparations for war? Relate the principal 
 events of the war against Holland. How was Louis now 
 regarded throughout Europe] By what was the age of 
 Louis the Great distinguished ] What was the effect of 
 the revocation of the edict of Nantes ? What unjust war 
 did the king commence 1 What nations formed a league 
 against him 1 Relate the principal events of the war until 
 the conclusion of the peace of Ryswick. How was Europe 
 again plunged into war 1 By whom were the armies of 
 the different nations commanded 1 Relate the principal 
 events of the war. Who sued for peace 1 When was 
 peace concluded between France, Holland, and England 1 
 How did the war with the empire continue ] When and 
 where was peace with the empire signed? What did 
 France lose by these treaties ] What domestic misfortunes 
 befel Louis 1 When did Louis XIV. die 1 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 When did Louis XV. ascend the throne 1 Who was 
 declared regent 1 What attempt was made by Alberoni 1 
 How did it succeed 1 What was the result of the Missis- 
 sippi scheme 1 How was the regency of Orleans disgraced 1 
 W^hat was the only event of interest which took place 
 during the ministry of Bourbon 1 By whom was the duke 
 of Bourbon succeeded 1 What was his character 1 Relate 
 the origin, events, and conclusion of the Polish war. What 
 occasioned the breaking out of a new war in 1741 1 Re-^ 
 late the principal events of the war. Where did Louis gain 
 a great victory 1 When was a general peace signed 1 
 What were the principal provisions of the treaty of Aix-la- 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 239 
 
 Chapelle 1 When did the seven years' war commence 1 
 What nations were engaged in this war 1 When was it 
 concluded, and with what results ] When did Louis XV. 
 die? Who succeeded him] What was his character? 
 How did he organize his cabinet 1 What were his first 
 acts 1 What part did France take in the American revo- 
 lution 1 What led to the assembling of the States-general 1 
 What extraordinary step was taken by the commons? 
 How did the revolution commence 1 Give an account of 
 the storming of the Bastile. Of the attack upon the palace 
 at Versailles. What internal regulations were next made 
 by the deputies 1 What increased the king's danger 1 
 How did he attempt to escape 1 When was the constituent 
 assembly dissolved 1 What was the second assembly called 1 
 What increased the ferocity of the mob ] When were the 
 Tuilleries attacked? How were the invaders compelled 
 to retire from the kingdom? When did the National 
 Convention meet ? Give an account of the trial and exe- 
 cution of Louis XVI. When and how did Louis XVIL 
 die? Relate the principal events of the reign of terror. 
 When did the National Convention close its career? 
 What were the principal provisions of the new constitution ? 
 Who were placed at the head of the armies of the republic ? 
 Name the principal victories of Bonaparte, to the treaty of 
 Campo-Formio. How did he carry on the war in Egypt ? 
 What was his object in returning to France ? What fol- 
 lowed his return ? 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Relate the principal events of the war against the Aus- 
 trians and their allies till the peace of Luneville. When 
 was a peace with England concluded ? What attempt 
 was made on the life of Bonaparte? How did that disturb 
 the relations of France with England ? When was Bona- 
 parte declared emperor? What nations joined England 
 in her war against France ? Relate the principal events 
 of the war until the peace of Presburg. What was 
 the result of the battle of Trafalgar ? What nations 
 re-commenced the war in 1806? Relate the events of 
 the war before the peace of Tilsit. How did Napoleon 
 
240 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 attempt to humble England 1 Relate the principal events 
 of the war in Spain, until the peace of Vienna. When 
 was the peace of Vienna signed? When and how did 
 the emperor of Russia break the peace of Tilsit 1 Relate 
 the principal events of Napoleon's campaign in Russia. 
 When did he again reach Paris'? What nations now 
 united with Russia against France ] Relate the principal 
 events of the campaign of 1813. What were the numbers 
 of the opposing forces at the beginning of 18141 What 
 was the result of the battle of Montmartre 1 What decree 
 was passed by the senate on the 1st of April? When did 
 Napoleon abdicate? When did he embark for Elba? 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 When did the first restoratien of the Bourbons take 
 place 1 How did Louis XVHI. commence his reign 1 
 When did Napoleon return from Elba 1 How did he pro- 
 ceed on landing in France 1 What effect had the news of 
 his escape on the European nations? Relate the particu- 
 lars of the battle of Waterloo. What was the fate of 
 Napoleon ? When did the second restoration of the Bour- 
 bons take place ? By what were the first years of his 
 reign characterized ? How was tranquillity restored ? 
 What was done in Spain in 1823 ? When did Louis 
 XVni. die ? Who succeeded him ? What maritime ex- 
 peditions were undertaken during his reign ? What led 
 to the revolution of 1830 ? Relate its events. When did 
 Charles X. abdicate the throne ? To whom did the depu- 
 ties offer the crown ? What title did he assume ? To 
 what did he first turn his attention ? With what success ? 
 What happened in 1831 ? By whom were the remains 
 of Napoleon brought to France ? Where were they 
 buried? What unfortunate accident occurred in 1842? 
 What led to the revolution of 1848 ? What took place on 
 Wednesday, the 23d of February? When did Louis 
 Philippe abdicate ? In whose favour ? What took place 
 in the chamber of deputies after the abdication of the king ? 
 What were the principal acts of the provisional govern- 
 ment ? What influence had these events upon Germany ? 
 How was Italy affected ? / 
 
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