s^oLfbirfor its"r?r - which it was withdrlwnV*’^ latest D„te stamped toow°" o'e ir„'s”4rji - 7 1 .^ 7 ? UNIVERSITY EXTENSION LECTURES SYLLABUS Of A COURSE OF SIX LECTURES PARIS 1. Origins of Paris 2. The Paris of St. Louis 3. The Paris of the English Wars 4. The Paris of the XVII Century 5. The Paris of the Revolution 6. The Siege, the Commune, and Modern Paris HILAIRE BELLOC Late Scholar of Baliol College, Oxford Staff Lecturer to the American Society Series O. No. 8 Price, 10 cent* Copyright, 1897, by The American Society for the Extension of Unirersity Teachinf 111 South Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa, BOOKS. Kitchin’s “History of France.” Vols. I.andlL Especially pages (I) 31-55, 328, 451-484, 523-557. Pages (II) 290-451. (The pages refer to the third edition.) Mes. Gaedinee’s “Small History of the French Revolution.” Espe- cially for small clear map of Revolutionary Paris and leading facts of the Revolution. 1 ^ V S C LECTURE I. The Origins of Paris. The geographical position of Paris — ill-suited for the capital of a highly centralized modern state, (a) no port near it; (6) nor the head of an estuary (like Rouen and London); (c) nor central (like Rome, Berlin, Moscow, Madrid); (d) nor natural centre of commerce (like Lyons, Constantinople) ; (e) nor great military position (like Jeru- salem). Romans make little of it; not on their great main road; the Christian Conversion; St. Dionysius; Paris be- comes prominent in the end of the fourth century; Julian’s Palace; never, however, a true capital of Gaul; how did it become so ? (a) Because with the Barbarian invasions the frontiers of Latin Gaul move westward, and with the large admixture of German blood, the north becomes a separate unit; hence we may look for a new ‘ ‘ centre of gravity ’ ’ for what is to be France. (b) Because in the break-up of the Empire into Feudal- ism (800-1000), the family which possesses Paris happens to be given the nominal title of ‘ ‘ King. ’ ’ Why this accident was so important; character of Feudal- ism after the Empire of Charlemagne; why each nation chose a nominal king; tradition of authority; The Royal power was a shadow, but the shadow was sacred. ’ ’ The Robertian House; the Korman siege of Paris; the Duke of France; Otto’s siege; finally Hugh Capet is made King (987); limits of the City at that period. ( 3 ) 4 LECTtJRE II. The Paris of St. Louis. What all Europe went through with the Crusades; de- velopment of civilization; especially (1) Gothic architecture; (2) Town life; (3) Universities; therefore Thirteenth Cen- tury Paris a good halting-place in the history of the town; limits of town at that epoch; old Lutetia plus a northern bastion; many suburbs, but not included in the walls. (а) The island of the Cite already sacred ground; the Cathedral of Notre Dame; the Sainte Chapelle; the bridges. (б) The Northern bastion; the Louvre; a donjon and towers already built by Philip the Conqueror; be- ginnings of the city hall; Place de greve. (c) University suburb; position of Paris University; only university close to a capital; importance of, this in French history ; ‘ ‘ The university completes ' the microcosm of Paris. ’ ’ Paris is now a complete and typical Mediaeval city; it will continue to be the typical city of its period in all its future stages. LECTURE III. Paris of the English Wars. Slow development of towns in the fourteenth century; Black Death; not a time of great economic development; the limits of Paris in middle fourteenth century; dis- asters under first part of hundred years’ war; Etienne Marcel and the States General; Siege of Paris; the factions surrounding crown; power of middle class everywhere, especially in towns; their distrust of the (a) Southerner, (6) the Feudal Noble (this reappears all through French History; Paris as the head of France consistently fights 5 the privileges and disruption) ; therefore they side with the Burgundians; through the help of Burgundy the English nobles who had become kings attack France; Henry V. occupies Paris; his scheme; the reaction in Paris against the English rule; effect of the victories of Joan of Arc upon the capital; the attack upon the City by the new French King; Joan of Arc is wounded outside St. Denis; Eng- lish power wanes and Eichemont enters Paris in triumph in 1436. Changes in the City during hundred years’ war; with the success of the nation royal power and its appurtenances grow greater; the Chatelet; the Louvre; Montfaucon; Vil- lars’ picture of the Paris of his time (just after the wars). LECTURE IV. Paris of the Seventeenth Century. The religious wars represent to the people of Paris (a) Feudalism, (6) disruption; their past attitude during the St. Bartholomew; their attitude forces Henri IV. to change his religion; he begins the great development; the new Louvre; the Pont-Keuf; the expansion of Paris. After his death till 1659 a period of small development; after that comes the definite break-down of local nobility, the recognition of Paris as a centre and the massing of all national forces in the Capital; the city becomes the centre of Europe; examples in the Drama, in Oratory, in Foreign policy. The city of the grand Siecle,” new architecture, new education, new police, new theatre, new centralization; this Paris still dominates the modern town (many of its streets are all but unchanged; none of the Mediseval streets remain); the limits of the city under Louis XIV.; the great gates; shortly after the King leaves Paris for Ver- sailles. 6 LECTUBE V. The Paris of the Revolution. Scope of the lecture; impossibility of including more than the main facts of the political movement; from the point of view of the City, Paris of the Revolution concerns us as being the material out of which Modern Paris was made. Peculiar conditions of the Capital; abandoned for more than a century by the King and court; its great size; extra- ordinary survivals or rather dead relics of past institutions; the Gilds; the ‘ ‘ Merchant Corporation ’ the Bastille; the anomalous and anarchic administration; the Louvre; the additions of the eighteenth century; lack of great arteries in the town; but it is the intellectual centre of France; Paris becomes industrial. Paris begins the Revolution with the taking of the Bastille (July, 1789); the King brought back to Paris; the Revolutionary parliaments in Paris; prisons where the Royal family were confined; the Place de la Revolution; ” its importance; execution of the King- takes place there, and many of those of the Reign of Terror; that of Robespierre; the Champ de Mars then outside the City; its importance in the Revolution; the lamp, the altar of the Country and the Federation. The Revolution leaves Paris the absolute mistress of France; all is centralized there, and the town itself has received a powerful and simple form of government. 7 LECTURE VI. The Siege, the Commune, and Modern Paris. Paris develops upon purely Revolutionary ideas; that is, it is (1) centralized; (2) the head of France by right of intellect; (3) the point in which the whole of French social energy concentrates; how far is this at the expense of the provincial towns; it was the modern town when besieged in 1870. The map of the siege; the impossibility of long resist- ance; lack of a garrison ; nature of the siege; the capitula- tion of the City; what made the Commune? its history. Paris in the last twenty-six years; (a) what it has rebuilt (notably the Hotel de Ville) ; (6) what it has reorganized within its own boundaries; the police and public order; the city government; (c) how it has affected France; it has (1) caught what is best in the provinces and therefore (2) tended to decentralize; but not even the Commune has made it to be the hegemony of France; the change of the centre of gravity in military affairs.