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ILIMBAIKy

DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

Cforerrton (presa £&eriee

HISTORY OF FRANCE
KITCHIN

VOL. I.

HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OP OXFORD

LONDON, EDINBURGH AND NEW YORK

Cfounfcon tpviee §kt-vtt<s

HISTORY OF FRANCE

G. W. KITCHIN, D.D., F.S.A.
DEAN OF DURHAM

VOL. I.
(B.C. 58 — A.D. I453)

FOURTH EDITION, REVISED

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

MDCCCXCIX

©jcforfc
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

PREFACE TO VOLUME I

This volume attempts to avoid the dryness of a summary,
while it professes to deal with a very long space of time. All
the more important periods of the history have, as far as pos
sible, been written directly from original sources, and are treated
at considerable length. The parts between, connecting one
stirring time with another, have been treated very briefly, so as
simply to carry on the narration Avithout a break : like a road in
a dull country between a chain of ancient and historic cities.
The guiding-line throughout this volume is the growth of the
French Monarchy and Kingdom: and this is here brought
down to the time when, freed from foreign dangers, France
Avas about to enter on the great struggle between royalty and
the disintegrating forces of fifteenth-century feudalism. The
history of that struggle, the almost dramatic rivalry between the
House of Burgundy, the last great representative of the medieval
world, and the House of Valois, the steadfast representative of
the growing forces of European Monarchy, will form the in
troduction to the remainder of the work, Avhich will attempt to
follow the fortunes of France into more modern times.
I have divided the work by the natural epochs in the history,
rather than by the accession of Kings: for these latter are

vi P RE FA C E.
points of time of very uneven importance, which sometimes
mark an epoch, and somelimes are hardly worthy of more than
a passing notice. Thus too, though this volume, ending at the
year 1453, breaks off in the middle of the reign of Charles VII,
we know that we are at a moment recognised as an epoch, both in
general European history, and specially (from the final expulsion
of the English, and the close of what is called the ' Hundred
Years' War'), in the history of France.
As to the spelling of Proper Names, in those of early times
I have chiefly retained the early Germanic forms, because the
men were Germans. When the chief actors became French
men, I have adopted the French spelling, except in the case of
names familiar to us in an English form. It would be mere
affectation to write Henri or Philippe. In passing down the
book it may be noticed that some names are gradually modi
fied; that is because the persons who owned them changed.
Thus the German Hlodowig of the sixth century becomes
Hludwig in Australian days ; then Ludwig, finally Louis.
I have not used such intermediate forms as Loois, Lois, &c,
because they do not appear to me to have been permanent
enough for adoption ; nor have I spelt the word in the older
English fashion as Lewis ; for the modern French form is now
equally common in England, and the form Lewis is a deviation
from both the German and the French spelling.
The Maps and Tables of this volume are intended to indicate
the actual progress of the French Monarchy. We are too apt to
assumejhat what is now France was always France : we forget,
for example, that it was not till the fifteenth century that the
French Monarchy found footing across the Rhone, and there
thrust back the frontiers of the Empire.
My best wish for this book is that it should lead students to
original authorities, and teach them to recognise the fact that
history demands an honest and disciplined use of the evidence

PREFA CE.

Vll

those sources supply, and that Ave can only grasp the inner
truth of history by transporting ourselves into the scenes de
scribed by contemporary writers : the study of their works will
at once sharpen our critical faculties and develop the healthy
action of imagination.
Jan. 1 88 1.

NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION
This edition has had the very great advantage of the super
vision of Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, M.A., of New College, Oxford. He
has brought to it a great and accurate knowledge of medieval
institutions, and has corrected and enlarged my Avork where it
was weakest.
Deanery, Winchester,
November, 1891.

viii PREFACE.

NOTE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
The fourth edition of this History of France demands the
expression of my gratitude tOAvards those who have so kindly
improved it, by bringing it into harmony with the conclusions
now reached by more modern students of history. Thanks are
specially due to Mr. Francis Urquhart, M.A., FelloAV of Balliol
College, Avhose revision, suggestions, and corrections have made
the book far more fit to be laid before the Avorld than if it had
been left in my old hands. This edition also owes much to
Mr. Rashdall for the light he has thrown on the growth and
position of the University of Paris ; it has been much helped by
Mr. Oman's 'Art of War,' and I must thank him and his publishers,
Messrs. Methuen, for their kind permission to make use of that
book and the plans in it for Crdcy and Poitiers. It is happy
that some do still care for fighting, and tell us how it all went.
One is apt to forget that battles, hateful as they are, shoAv the
national characteristics of the different races. In trying to
rescue history from being an unintelligent chronicle of kings
and their quarrels, we have sometimes thought to give due weight
to the victories of peace by passing lightly over the conflicts of
the past, and have so made our record one-sided. I am grateful
to those who have corrected this fault ; and launch this volume
on the critical deep with less than usual diffidence, because of
the great kindness and valuable help it has received.
Deanery, Durham,
September, 1898.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Authorities. . . xv
Chronological Table xix
Introductory Chapter.— The Geographical Character
istics of Modern France . I

BOOK I.
The Gaul .... 8
Gaul before the time of Caesar 19
Caesar in Gaul. B.C. 58-50 27
Gaul under Roman Influences, B.C. 50-A. D. 476 : 35
i. The final struggle against Rome. B.C. 50-
A. D. 70  36
V. ii. Gaul under the Empire to the accession of
Diocletian. A. D. 70-284 ... 44
VI. iii. The age of barbarian incursions and the
struggle against the Germans. A.D. 284-
406  48
VII. iv. The age of German settlements, to the era
of Hlodowig (Clovis). A. D. 406-476 . 58

Chap.

I.

JJ

II.

•>¦>

III.

IV.

C ON TEN TS.

BOOK II.
Part I. — The Neustrian Franks. PAGE
Chap. I. Of the Franks and Hlodowig (Clovis). a.d.
481-511  67
„ II. The Neustrian Kings, a.d. 511-687 . . 81
i. From the partition at Hlodowig's death to
the formation of the three kingdoms, Aus-
trasia, Neustria, Burgundy, a.d. 511-
567  82
ii. The struggle between Austrasia and Neu
stria, under Brunhild and Fredegond.
a.d. 567-613  86
iii. Dagobert, Kingof Neustria. a.d. 613-638 94
iv. The Royal Nonentities, down to the Battle
ofTestry. A.D. 638-687. ... 96

Part II. — The Austrasian Franks.

Chap. I.

II.

III.

IV.
V.

The Family of Pippin, or the Carolings (Caro-
lingians). A.D. 687-752 .... 99
Pippin the Short, the first Caroling King. A.D.
752-768  114
Charles the Great, otherwise called Charlemagne.
a.d. 768-814  118
i. The life of Charles  118
ii. The administration of Gaul under Charles 136
iii. The state of society in Gaul under Charles 146
Hludwig 'the Pious' and his sons. a.d. 814-843 153
From the Peace of Verdun to Hugh Capet.
a.d. 843-987  162
i. The Origin of the French language . . 162
ii. The later Carolings  165
(1) From A.D. 843-888 . . .166
(2) From a.d. 888-911 . . . 170
(3) From a.d. 911-987 . . .178

CONTENTS. XJ
BOOK III.
The Growth of the French Monarchy.
Its Rise. a.d. 987-1328. PAGE
Chap. I. Introductory ... 189
i. The aim of this Book 189
ii. The condition of the country at Hugh
Capet's accession . . . . .190
iii. The limits of Hugh Capet's kingship . 193
,, II. From the accession of Hugh Capet to the age of
the First Crusade. A.D. 987-1066 . . 195
„ III. The age of the First Crusade. A.D. 1066-1100 . 216
„ IV. Of Feudalism and Chivalry .... 241
„ V. Louis VI, sumamed 'leGros.' A.D. 1100-1137 255
„ VI. Louis VII, 'the Young,' and the growth of civic
liberties. A.D. 1137-1180 .... 267
„ VII. Philip II, sumamed Augustus, and Louis VIII . 285
i. From a.d. 1180-1199 .... 286
ii. Philip Augustus adds Normandy to his
dominions, a.d. 1199-1206 . . . 293
iii. The Provencal Crusade. A.D. 1207-1215 309
iv. The Day of Bouvines. a.d. 1214 . . 317
v. To the death of Philip, a.d. 1214-1223 . 323
vi. Louis VIII. A.D. 1223-1226 327
„ VIII. Louis IX, called Saint Louis . 329
i. The King's youth. A.D. 1226-1244 . 329
ii. The King's First Crusade. A.D. 1 245-1 254 339
iii. The King's later life. a.d. 1 254-1 270 . 348
„ IX. Philip III. a.d. 1270-1285 358
„ X. Philip IV, 'the Fair' . . 367
i. From a.d. 1285-1296 369
ii. The quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII.
A.D. 1 296-1 304  373
iii. The epoch of the Templars. A.D. 1304-
1314 .... 391
XL The three sons of Philip ' the Fair ' 397
i. Louis X, 'the 'Quarrelsome.' A.D. 1314-
1316  397
ii. Philip V, ' the Tall.' A.D. 1316-1322 : 400
iii. Charles IV, ' the Fair.' A.D. 1322-1328 . 402

xu

CON TEN TS.

BOOK IV.
Monarchy and Feudalism.
Period of the ' Hundred Years' War: A.D. 1 328-1453
Chap. I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

The forebodings of the ' Hundred Years' War.'
a.d. 1328-1337 
The 'Hundred Years' War.' Period I. A.D.
1337-1360 i. A.D. 1 337-1 347
ii. From the Truce of 1347 to the Battle of
Poitiers. A.D. 1347-1356 .
iii. Etienne Marcel and the Bourgeoisie of
Paris, a.d. 1356-1360.
iv. The Treaty of Bretigny. a.d. 1360
The Deeds of Charles V, 'the Wise.' A.D. 1360-
1380 
i. As Regent. A.D. 1 360- 1364
ii. As King. A.D. 1364-1369
iii. The ' Hundred Years' War.' Period II.
Charles V makes war on England.
A.D. 1369-1380
Charles VI. A.D. 1380-1422
i. The Great Schism .
ii. The early years of the King. A.D. 1380-
1392 
iii. The King's madness. A.D. 1 392-141 5 .
The 'Hundred Years' War.' Period III. A.D.
1415-1422 
The ' Hundred Years' War.' Period IV. The
age of Jeanne Dare. a.d. 1422-1431
i. To the siege of Orleans. A.D. 1422-1429
ii. Jeanne Dare. a.d. 1429-1431
The 'Hundred Years' War.' Period V. Expul
sion of the English. A.D. 1431-1453

Index

405 414 414
434 447 462466466

476

491499 515532 532
538 556 575

XU1

TABLES

PAGE
I. Pedigree of the Merwing or Merovingian Kings . (to face) 67
II. The Merwing Kings and their territories ... ,, 67
III. Pedigree of the Caroling Princes .... „ 99
IV. The fragments of the Empire of Charles the Great . „ 163
V. The origin of the French language  162
VI. The Feudal States of Northern France . . . {to face) 184
VII. The Feudal States of Southern France .... 184
VIII. Absorption of the chief Feudal States into the Kingdom
of France  185
IX. Successive additions to the French Monarchy . . 186,187
X. Pedigree of Hugh Capet  194
XL The Kings of France  (to face) 195
XII. The Succession to the French throne .... 404
XIII. The Breton Pedigree  421
XIV. The relationships of the Valois Princes .... 438

XIV

MAPS AND PLANS

I. Gaul about B.C. 60 ...
II. Gaul in Provinces, after Augustus .
III. Gaul under the Germans .
IV. Charles the Great's Empire. A. D. 800
V. ' Francia Occidentalis,' and the Kingdom of Aquitaine
VI. France at the accession of Hugh Capet
VII. The Environs of Chateau Gaillard .
VIII. Plan of Chateau Gaillard, enlarged
IX. France under the Valois. a.d. 1328
X. Flanders and Brabant
XI. Northern France at the time of the Hundred Years' War
XII. Plan of the Battle of Crecy .
XIII. Plan of the Battle of Poitiers .
XIV. Plan of Paris in the days of Etienne Marcel ; circ. A.D. 1350
XV. Plan of the Battle of Azincourt
XVI. Plan of Orleans in the fifteenth century
XVII. France after the expulsion of the English

(to face)

27

j.

35

>>

67

;,

133

7)

137

,.

193

301

3°5

(to face)

4°5

,7

415

ar „

42.3

429

441
35°
453
•
521
535
(to face) 569
XV

AUTHORITIES

General History, —
Martin (Henri). Histoire de France. 4th edit, Paris, 1855-60, 19
vols. 8°.
Michelet (J.). Histoire de France depuis les origines jusqu'en 1780.
Paris, 1871-74, 17 vols. 8°.
Duruy (Victor). Histoire de France. Paris, 1888, 1 vols.
Lavallee. Histoire des Francais depuis le temps des Gaulois jusqu'en
1873. Paris, 1864-73, 7 vols. 120.
Langlois. Lectures historiques. 1890.
Rambaud. Histoire de la civilisation francaise. 3 vols.
Vaisette. Histoire generate de Languedoc. Toulouse, 1872-9, 10 vols.
4° (in course of publication).
Oman. European History, 476-918. London, 1893.
Tout. The Empire and the Papacy [918-1273]. London, 1898, 8°.
Lavisse et Rambaud. Histoire Ginirale de V Europe. Paris, 1894-8.
Geography, —
Longnon. Atlas historique de la France (in course of publication).
Poole (R. L.). The Oxford Historical Atlas.
History of Institutions, —
Waitz. Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. Kiel, 1844-84, 7 vols.
Guizot. Histoire de la civilisation en France. Paris, 1857, 4 vols. 8°.
Guizot. Essais sur I'/iistoire de France. Paris, 1823, 8°.
Viollet. Histoire des institutions politiques et administratives de la
France. Paris, vol. 1, 1890.
Sohm (R.). Die Frankische Reichs- und Gerichtsverfassung. Weimar,
1871, 8°.
Fustel de Coulanges. Histoire des institutions politiques de I'ancienne
France. Paris, 1876, 8°.
Fustel de Coulanges. La Monarchie Franque. 1891, 8".
Fustel de Coulanges. Le Benefice et le Patronat. 1890, 8°.
Luchaire. Histoire des institutions monarchiques de la France sous les
f premiers Cape"tiens, 987-1180. Paris, 1883, 2 vols. 8°.
b

XVI AUTHORITIES.
LUCHAIRE. Les Communes francaises a I'Spoque des Captftiens directs.
Paris, 1S90.
Gautier (L.). La Chevalerie. 2nd ed. 1890.
GlRY. Les Etablissements de Rouen. Paris, 1883-?, 2 vols.
Langlois (C. V.). Texles relatifs a I'kistoire du Par lenient.
Aubert. Le Parlement de Paris de Philippe le Bel a Charles VII.
Paris, 1886, 1890, 2 vols. 8".
PlCOT (G.). Histoire des Etats Giniraux. Paris, 1872, 4 vols. S°.
Thomas (A.). Les Etats Provinciaux de la France centrale sous Charles
VII. Paris, 1879, 2 v°ls- s°-
Boutaric. Institutions militaires de la France avant les armies per-
manentes. Paris, 1863, 8°.
Vuitry. Eludes sur le rigime financier de la France avant la Revolution
de 1789. Paris, 1878-83, 3 vols. 8".
Oman. The Art of War in the Middle Ages. London, 1898, 8°.
Lea. History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. London, 1888.
Social and Economic, —
Doniol. Histoire des Classes rurales en France. Paris, 1S57, 8°.
Guerard. Polyptique de V ' Abbi d ' Irminon. Paris, 1844, 2 vols. 40.
Guerard. Cartulaire de Viglise de A'otre Dame de Paris. Paris, 1850,
4 vols. 40.
Delisle (L.). Etudes sur la condition de la classe agricole et de I'tflat de
i agriculture en Normandie pendant le moyen Sge. Paris, 1851, 8°.
Fustel de Coulanges. L'Alleu el le Domains rural.. Paris, 1890, 8°.
Thierry. Essai sur V histoire de la formation et du frogris du tiers etat
en France. Paris, 1853, 8°.
Bourquelot. Les foires de Champagne. Paris, 1865, 8°:
Fagniez. Etudes sur V Industrie el la classe industrielle a Paris an XIIIs
et au XIV siecle. Paris, 1878, 8°.
Fagniez. Documents relatifs a I'histoire de Vindustrie et du commerce en
France. Paris, 1898.
Levasseur. Histoire des classes ouvrieres en France depuis la conquete de
J. Cesar jusqu'a la Revolution. Paris, 1859, 2 vols. 8°.
Pigeonneau. Histoire du Commerce de la France. 1885, 8°.
Norgate (K.). England under the Angevin Kings. London, 1887.
Special W orks on Political History, —
L 'Histoire de France racontte par les Contemporains ; ed. B. Zeller. 69 vols .
(the volumes can be obtained separately). (Hachette.)
Fustel de Coulanges. La Conqulte romaine.
Fustel de Coulanges. V Empire romain. 1887, 8°.
Thierry. Histoire de la Gaule sous V administration romaine. Paris
1840-42, 8°.
Thierry. Ricits des temps merovingiens . Paris, 1840, 8°.
Thierry. Lettres sur I'histoire de France. Paris, 1827, 8°.
Fauriel. Histoire de la Gaule miridionale sous les conquirants Germains.
Paris, 1836, 4 vols. 8°.
'Breysig. Die Zeit Karl Martells. Leipzig, 1S69.

AUTHORITIES. xvii
Kalckstein. Geschichte des franzosischen Koniglhums miter den ersten
Capetingern. Leipzig, 1877, 8".
Mourin. Les comtes de Paris. Paris, 8°.
Mullinger (J. B.). The Schools of Charles the Great and the Restora
tion of Education in the ninth Century. London, 1877, 8°.
Haureau. Charlemagne el sa cour. Paris, 1868.
Mombert. History of Charles the Great. London, 1889, 8°.
Capefigue. Histoire de Philippe Auguste. Paris, 1829, 4 vols. 8°;
1841, 2 vols. 12°.
Delisle (L.). Catalogue des actes de Philippe Auguste. Paris, 1856, 1 vol. 8°.
Molinier (Aug.). Catalogue des actes de Simon et d'Amauri de Mont
fort. Paris, 1874, 8°.
Molinier (Aug.). L' inquisition dans lemidide France. Paris, 1881, 8°.
A¥allon. St. Louis et son temps. Paris, 1875, 2 vols. 8°.
Boutaric. St. Louis et Alphonse de Poitiers. Paris, 1870, 8°.
Boutaric. La France sous Philippe le Bel. Paris, 1861, 8°.
Brissaud. Les Anglais en Guyenne. Paris, 1875, 8°.
Lavisse. Etude sur le pouvoir royal au temps de Charles V. (Rev. Hist.
xxvi. 233.)
Lavisse. Etudes sur I'histoire d'Allemagne. (Rev. des Deux Mondes,
Dec. 18S5, 1887.)
Secousse. Mtmoires pour servir a I'histoire de Charles le Mauvais.
Paris, 1755,4°.
Secousse. Preuves de I'histoire de Charles le Mauvais. Paris, 1758, 40.
Perrens. La Dimocratie au XIV" siecle. Paris, 1875, 8°.
Perrens. Etienne Marcel. Paris, 1875, 40.
Luce (S.). Histoire de la Jacquerie. Paris, 1859, 8°-
Luce (S.). Histoire de Bertrand du Guesclin. Paris, 1876, 8°.
Delaville le Roulx. La France en Orient au XIV" siecle. Parii,
1S86, 8°.
Quicherat. Prods de condamnation et de rehabilitation de Jeanne
d'Arc. Paris, 1841-49, 5 vols. 8°.
Schwab (J. B.). Johannes Gerson. Wiirzburg, 1858, 8°.
Vallet de Viriville. Isabeau de Baviire. Paris, 1859, 8°.
Vallet de Viriville. Histoire de Charles VII et de son epoque. Paris,
1862, 3 vols. 8°.
G. DU Fresne Beaucourt. Histoire de Charles VII (in course of publi
cation).
AVallon. Jeanne d'Arc. Paris, 1875, 2 vols. 8°.
Luce. Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy. Paris, 1886, 2 vols. 8°.
Cosneau. Le Connitable de Richemont. Paris, 1886, 8°.
Clement. Jacques Cesar et Charles VII. Paris, 1865, 8°.
Bonnechose. Les lieformateurs avant la Reforme. Paris, 1853, 2 vols. 8°.
Lot. Les dernier s Carolingiens. Paris, 1891, 8°.
Monod. Etudes sur I'histoire de Hugues Capet.
Pfister. Etude sur le regne de Robert ie Pieux. Paris, 1888, 8°.
Hodgkin. Charles the Great. London, 1898, 8°.
b 2

Xviii AUTHORITIES.
Hutton (W. H.). Philip Augustus. London, 1896, 8°.
Peyrat. Histoire des Albigeois.
Douai. Les Albigeois.
Berger. Histoire de Blanche de Castille. Paris, 1895.
Petit-Dutaillis. JEtude sur la vie et le regne de Louis VIII. Paris,
1894, 8°.
History of Public Instruction, Literature and Arts, —
Thurot. De V Organisation de I'enseignement dans V Universiti de
Paris au moyen 6ge. Paris, 1850, 8°.
Denifle. Die Universitaten des Mittelalters bis 1400. Berlin, 1885.
Denifle. Cartularium Universitatis Parisiensis . Paris, 1889, foi.
Fournier. Les statuts et privileges des Universitis francaises depuis leur
fondalion jusqii en 1789. Paris, 1891.
Histoire littiraire de la France. (Acad, des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.)
Paris, 4°, 1753 seq.
Petit de Julleville. Histoire de la Langue et de la Littirature,
Francaise. Paris, 1891.
Rashdall. The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Oxford, 1895.-
Saintsbury. Short History of French Literature. Oxford, 1882, 8°.
Gaston Paris. La litterature francaise aumoyen dge. Paris, 1888, 8°.
Diez. Leben und Werke der Troubadours. Leipzig, 1882, 8°.
Haureau. Histoire de la Philosophie scolastique. Paris, 1872-80, 8°.
Viollet-le-Duc. Dictionnaire de V architecture francaise du XI" au
XVI* siecle. 1875, 10 vols. 8°.
Bibliographies, —
Monod. Bibliographic de I'histoire de France. Paris, 1888.
Gustave Masson. Early Chronicles of Europe — France (with chrono
logical table of principal French chronicles). London, 1879, 8°.

XIX

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

B.C. 154 Marseilles calls in Roman help.
122 Aquae Sextiae (Aix in Pro
vence) founded by Sextius.
118 Narbo Martius (Narbonne)
founded.
102 Marius utterly defeats the
Teutons at Aix.
100 Birth of Caesar.
58 Caesar in Gaul.
51 Gaul ' pacified.'
A.D. 37 Caligula in Gaul.
41 Claudius Emperor.
70 Fall of Civilis.
160 (?) Christians settle at Lyons.
251 (?) Dionysius founds the Church
of Northern France at Lu-
tetia Parisiorum (Paris).
274 Gaul again joined to Rome by
Aurelian.
284 Diocletian becomes Emperor ;
the German incursions begin.
312 Constantine, supportedby Gallic
Christians, enters Rome.
355 Julian commands the Gallic
army.
357 He makes Paris the seat of
Roman government.
406 The German settlements begin.
451 Attila (Etzel) defeated in the
Campi Catalaunici.
476 Fall of the Roman Empire.
486 Battle of Soissons.

A.D.
496 Battle of Zulpich. Hlodowig
(Clovis) a Christian.
507 Battle of the Vocladensian
Plain (Vougle), in which
Hlodowig kills Alaric.
510 Hlodowig sole King of Franks.
511 Death of Hlodowig. FirstParti-
tion of the Frankish Empire.
567 Division of Frankish Gaul into
three Kingdoms. Austrasia,
Neustria, Burgundy.
613 Death of Brunhild.
628 Dagobert King : sole King in
632.
638 Death of Dagobert.
687 Battle of Testry won by Pippin
of Heristal over the Neus-
trians. Austrasian period
begins.
717 Charles Martel, Duke of Aus
trasia.
752 Pippin the Short becomes
King.
768 Death of Pippin. Charles and
Carloman succeed.
771 CHAKLES THE GREAT
(Charlemagne), King of
-France and Lombardy.
800 Charles the Great, Em
peror.
814 He dies. Succeeded by Lud-
wig I (' Louis le Debonaire ')
as Emperor.

XX

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

A D.
• S40

S?5
S77s79SS2ss4S93911 'J-i
929936 954 9.869S7
996
1 03 1
1060 1066i°951099 1108
1122"37 11471 1 52

"5411S0

Charles II (the Bald) becomes
King of Neustria and Bur
gundy.
Charles becomes Emperor.
Ludwig II (the Stammerer),
King of France.
Ludwig III, King of Northern
France.
Charles (the Fat) Emperor.
„ „ King of France.
Charles III (the Simple), King
of France.
Charles cedes Lower Seine and
Brittany to Northmen.
Rodolph of Burgundy, created
King.
Death of Charles III, his rival.
Ludwig IV (d'Oulremar).
Lothar. Ludwig V (the Do-naught).
HUGH CAPET.
Eobert. Henry I.
Philip I.
[Conquest of England by
AVilliam the Bastard.]
Council of Clermont. First
Crusade preached.
Godfrey of Bouillon made
King of Jerusalem.
Louis AT (the Fat).
[Close of the Investiture
struggle.]
Louis VII (the Young).
Second Crusade, joined by
Louis VII.
Eleanor, divorced from Louis,
marries Henry of Anjou,
afterwards Henry II of
England.
[Henry II, King of England.]
Philip II (Augustus).
[The Third Crusade, headed by
Frederick Barbarossa.]

A.D. 1 195 [The Fourth Crusade, headed
by Emp. Henry VI.]
1 198-1202 [The Fifth Crusade.]
1 203 Philip reduces Normandy.
1206, 1207 Albigensian Crusade.
1 2 12 Innocent's Bull gives the king
dom of England to Philip
Augustus.
1213 [King John of England sub
mits.]
T2I4 Battle of Bouvines.
1215 [King John signs Magna
Charta. Frederick II crowned
King at Aix-la-Chapelle ;
Emperor at Rome 1220.]
1216 Louis (son of Philip) lands in
England.
1223 Louis VIII.
1226 Louis IX (Saint Louis) , under
regency and tutelage of
Blanche.
1228 [Sixth Crusade, under Frede
rick II.]
1242 St. Louis defeats Henry HI of
England at Taillebourg and
Saintes.
1248 Seventh Crusade, headed by St.
Louis, to Egypt.
1254 St. Louis returns to Paris.
1 261 [Latin Empire of Constan
tinople ends.]
1270 Eighth and last Crusade,
headed by St. Louis, to
Tunis.
„ Philip III (the Rash).
1273 [Rudolph of Habsburg elected
King of the Romans.]
12S2 The Sicilian Vespers.
1285 Philip IV (the Fair).
1296 Philip resists the Papacy.
War in Guienne against
Edward I.
1301 Philip's quarrel with Boniface.
1302 Battle of Courtrai.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

A.D. 1303 Boniface taken prisoner by
Nogaret.
1304 Philip defeats the Flemings
at Mons-en-Puelle.
1307-9 Trial of the Templars.
131 2 Abolition of the Order.
1 314 Louis X (' le Hutin,' the Tur
bulent).
1 316 Philip V (the Tall).
1322 Charles V (the Handsome).
1328 PHILIP VI (House of Va
lois).
1337 Beginning of the 'Hundred
Years' War.'
1340 Sea-fight off Sluys.
1346 Battle of Crecy.
1347 Edward III takes Calais.
1339 Charles, eldest son of John,
son of Philip VI, takes the
title of Dauphin.
1350 John II (the Goodnatured).
1356 Battle of Poitiers.
1358 The Jacquerie. Murder of
Etienne Marcel.
1359 Open war between the Regent
and the King of Navarre,
Charles the Bad.
„ Du Guesclin appears.
1360 Treaty of Bretigny.
1361 Burgundy, on death of Philip
de Rouvre, falls to the Crown.
1363 It is ceded as an appanage by
John to Philip (the Bold), his
fourth son.
1364 Charles V (the Wise). War
with Charles the Bad, of
Navarre. Battle of Auray.
1366 Du Guesclin in Spain.
1369 Warwith Edward III renewed.
1376 [Death of Edward the Black
Prince.]
1377 [Death of Edward III.]
Charles conquers all Guienne
except Bordeaux.

'379138013821385
i3»7 1392

t399

1404

1407

1410

i4!3 14181419

1420

1421

1422

1424

[The Great Schism begins.]
Death of Du Guesclin.
Charles VI.
Battle of Roosebek. Death of
Philip van Arteveld.
Death of Louis of Anjou.
Death of Charles the Bad,
King of Navarre.
Madness of Charles VI.
Disputes begin between the
Houses of Burgundy and
Orleans.
[Revolution in England. Henry
IV of the House of Lancaster
proclaimed King.]
Death of Philip the Bold of
Burgundy ; succeeded by
John the Fearless.
Assassination of the Duke of
Orleans with approval of
John of Burgundy.
Burgundians and Armagnacs.
The Cabochians appear at
Paris.
[Henry V of England.]
Battle of Agincourt.
Henry V occupies Normandy.
Takes Rouen. Duke of Bur
gundy assassinated by the
Dauphin's friends.
Treaty of Troyes. Henry V
heir to the throne of France,
and Regent of France.
Battle of Beauge, in which
Scottish and French troops
defeat the Duke of Clarence.
Henry V returns, occupies
Paris, dies at Vincennes.
His brother, the Duke of
Bedford, Regent in France
for Henry VI.
Charles VII (the Well-served,
the Victorious).
Battle of Arerneuil.

XX11

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

1428 Siege of Orleans by Bedford
and Burgundy.
1429 'Day of the Herrings.' The
Maid of Orleans, Jeanne
Dare, appears. Siege raised
8th May.
„ Battle of Patay.
„ Charles VII crowned at
Rheims.
1430 Jeanne Dare taken by the
Burgundians at Compiegne.
1431 Trial and martyrdom of Jeanne
Dare.
,, [Council of Basel begins its
sittings.]
1435 Peace of Arras, between
Charles VII and Philip (the
Good) of Burgundy.
„ Death of the Regent Bedford.
1436 Paris retaken by the French.

1438 Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.
1440 The Pragueriej under the Dau
phin Louis.
1441 Pontoise taken from the Eng
lish.
1444 Charles VII helps Rene1 against
Metz ; Louis takes an army
into Switzerland.
1445 Institution of a standing army,
and of fixed taxation.
1449 War renewed with England.
1450 Battle of Formigny. Nor
mandy finally taken from
the English.
1453 [Taking of Constantinople by
Mahomet II.]
„ Final submission of Guienne
to the French crown : end of
the ' Hundred Years' War.'

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The Geographical Characteristics of Modern France.
About three miles beyond the little town of Mentone the
highway from Nice to Genoa, the famous Corniche road,
crosses a torrent, which dashes down from the Alps into the
Mediterranean. And here begins the arbitrary border-line
between France and Italy, as the frontiers are now adjusted1
The line runs northward to the ridge of the Alps ; and Avhen it
has reached the watershed, turns north-west, dividing the ter
ritory of Nice from Piedmont. Following the summit-ridge of
the Alps, it skirts Dauphine-, going northwards as far as the
Pass of Mont Cenis. Then it bends suddenly to the east, so as
to embrace the new French territory of Savoy. Still rising and
falling with the Alps, it climbs at last to the summit of Mont
Blanc, where France now shares with Italy the possession of
the highest point in Europe. Thence it passes northwards, till
it gradually drops down towards the shores of the Lake of
Geneva, a short distance west of the point at which the muddy
Rhone falls into that lovely inland sea. The lake lies between
Savoy, France and Switzerland, except just at its foot, where the
territory of the Swiss Canton of Geneva drives the line of the
French frontier southward, and makes it fetch a circuit round
that ancient home of liberty. Then falling in with the old
1 That is, since Nice and Savoy were ceded by Italy to France in 1859.
VOL. I. B

2 THE GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS
boundary of France (as it Avas before the cession of Savoy), it
climbs the Jura, and passes along its ridge, north-eastward, to
within a few miles of that other SAviss frontier-city, Basel. Here
it no longer comes down to the Rhine, as it did before the war
with Germany in 1870, but turns reluctantly from it, catching
glimpses of it from afar, though it is no longer entitled to touch
the stream. From this point the border keeps to the hills ;
running across the Trouee de Belfort, that all-important pass
and gateway from France into Germany, or from Germany into
France, according as the one or the other people holds the key,
— the famous stronghold of Belfort. Thence it seeks, the ridge
of the Vosges mountains ; follows that line northwards to a point
nearly opposite Strasburg, where it abandons the hills, crossing
the plain-land to the north-west, so as to cut Lorraine in half; it
leaves the great fortress of Metz to the Germans, together with
Thionville (Diedenhofen) and some other frontier places. Then
along the Luxemburg and Belgian frontiers, by an arbitrary
line, through the Ardennes forest, across the more level lands of
Hainault and Flanders, till it meets the sea riear Dunkirk, the
most northerly town of France. If a straight line be drawn
from Strasburg to London, it will almost coincide with this west-
north-west portion of the frontier. Thence the sea bounds
France along the Avest. First, the British Channel, next, the
open Atlantic, lastly, the Bay of Biscay, wash first the shores
of Picardy and the rocky coasts of Normandy and Brittany,
then the plains of La Vendue and the Landes, till the peaks of
the Pyrenees come in sight, stretching due east and Avest.
A little below Bayonne the frontier, here dividing France from
Spain, leaves the coast, and mounts to the ridge of the Pyrenees.
Along it runs the line, till it drops down on the Mediterranean,
south of Perpignan. Then comes again coast-line, past Nar-
bonne and Montpellier, along the uninhabitable swamps formed
by the Rhone, past Marseilles, the great southern port of France,
along the sunny coast of Provence to the river Var, the old limit
between France and Italy. Thence by Nice, under the bold
mountains of western Liguria, till it is suddenly arrested by the

OF MODERN FRANCE. 3
rock of Monaco, where a tiny independent Prince rules over
Monte Carlo, and a beautiful promontory, crowned with a little
city, which boasts an unrivalled site, and a commonplace palace.
Here for a few miles the line runs away from the Mediterranean ;
but soon coming down again to the water, it passes Mentone,
and ends at the little stream and humble custom-house from
which we started.
This line, which bounds the France of to-day, makes of her
an irregular hexagon, of Avhich three sides are sea, and three
are land. From the Mediterranean to the point where the. line
leaves the Vosges is the first side; from the Vosges to the
North Sea, the second ; from Dunkirk to Ushant the third ; from
Ushant to Bayonne, the fourth; the Pyrenees, the fifth; and
lastly, the Mediterranean coast.
It is a land blessed with innumerable advantages and oppor
tunities. To the ambition and commerce of France lie open the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic; the country is compact and
central, with a delightful variety of climate, all Avithin the
temperate zone ; its productions answer to the richness of the soil
and the friendly temperature ; it is watered by many fine rivers,
helpful alike for traffic and cultivation ; inhabited sufficiently,
not too densely, by an intelligent, industrious, thrifty and
vivacious race. The faults and virtues of the nation have joined
to make her annals splendid. Seated in the heart of Europe, in
touch with England, Germany, Italy, and Spain, influencing them
by the force of her cleverness, taste, love of approbation, and
ambition, France has ever boasted with some show of truth
that she leads the ideas of Europe. She has influenced our
politics, philosophy, mathematical sciences, literature, habits,
and dress. In a century she passed from one absolutism,
through many successive stages, to another. Other nations,
beginning centuries earlier, have not yet traA'elled so far. The
France of the Franks, of Feudalism, of the Crusades ; the France
which raised the Papacy to its highest, and then curbed that
towering ambition for power, and held it captive at Avignon ;
the France which Avas the home of scholasticism; which first

4 THE GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS
built up. a great absolute monarchy as a pattern for Europe ;
first turned the Reformation into a purely political movement ;
first led the Continent along the noble if perilous path of revolu
tion and re-construction, and helped to destroy that idol of
Europe, the Balance of Power ; — the nation that could do and
be all this surely has a right to claim a place among the fore
most. But in the deeper movements of mankind, France has
not been so prominent. Though Paris was the Schoolmen's
School, the dim gigantic figures we discern therein were Italian,
German, English, rarely French. The Reformation, in its
deeper aspects, took little hold on the French mind. France
has often shoAvn herself careless of individual freedom. Her
movements, moral, mental, or theological (like the onslaughts
of her armies in old times), are rapid, fearless, overwhelming,
and perhaps deficient in endurance. Consequently, she
is little fitted to achieve the slow work of colonisation. Her
people are not venturesome on the high seas ; it is at home
only that the Frenchman is at home. His race increases
slowly ; and indeed it can hardly be said to increase at all.
His influence, out of Europe, is not so great as it should
be. There are forces daily growing up outside the European
circle, which will one day change the whole balance of the
world's politics : these feel little or nothing of French influences,
and care little for French ideas. Not however to forecast the
future, but to chronicle the past is the historian's chief task ; and
as we look back OA'er the pages of French history, we may
readily grant that the ' great nation,' as she loves to style herself,
has played a very brilliant part in the drama of national life.
We may not concede all the admiration she claims, or re-echo
the words of a French historian \ who calls his fatherland the
1 Centre of life, heart of Europe, France of Charlemagne.
St. Louis, Napoleon ! ' Still, eA'en deducting the great Corsican
and greater German from this trio of her heroes, we gladly
grant to France high place among the nations, and will try to
trace her history, not from an English point of view, but as we
1 La Vallee, Histoire des Francais.

OF MODERN FRANCE. 5
might conceive it told by those who live in some neutral city
across the sea, far from the disturbing influences Avhich we feel ;
Avho can trace the onward course of affairs without prejudice,
and with no desire to write on every page the self-conscious
comment ' quorum pars magna fui.'
France is in the main a level land, save to east and south.
The Alps, and, north of them, part of the Jura chain, and, farther
north, the Vosges, form the eastern frontier : on the west of
the Rhone run the Cevennes, from the sources of the Garonne
to near Lyons, whence they stretch in loAver ridges in an almost
continuous chain, parallel to the Alps and the Jura. Detached
from them, on the west, rise the volcanic mountains of Auvergne *.
By far the largest part of France is to the west of these ranges ;
and lesser lines of hills, running out westward nearly at right
angles, to these ranges, divide the plain of France into three
parts, the districts of the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne.
The northernmost of these higher grounds looks over that
vast plain of Northern Europe, Avhich stretches thence to the
Baltic. Four fine rivers drain the surface of France. Of these, the
first, unlike the others, runs from north to south, and falls into
the Mediterranean : betAveen the Alps and the Cevennes, the
Rhone rolls a rapid stream through a land of vines and olives,
under the walls of many ancient towns, chief of which is Lyons,
second' city of France, with her silk manufacture and busy trade ;
then come Vienne, Orange, Avignon, Aries, with Nimes and
Marseilles in the valley, though not on the river,— all cities of
the past, rich in relics of Roman power and dominion. The
other rivers run from east to west, and fall into the ocean. The
districts drained by them lie parallel to each other, separated by
the above-mentioned lower lines of hills. Of these rivers, the
southernmost is the Garonne, which drains Gascony and Guyenne,
and after passing by Bordeaux through the Landes, becomes
1 Brittany, a land by itself, lying out of the general system of river valleys
and of French characteristics, is hilly and wild, but can scarcely be called
a mountain district.

6 THE GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS
a broad estuary, which discharges itself into the Bay of Biscay.
Next comes the Loire, which waters the central plain of France,
and runs from the Cevennes past Nevers, Orleans, Blois, Tours,
and Nantes, to the south of the Breton coast. North again lies
the basin of the Seine, which flows through a comparatively level
country from the Vosges past Troyes, Paris, Rouen, till it meets
the sea at Havre.
The Rhone valley may be divided into tAvo districts ; that
above and that below Lyons — the valley of the Sadne, and that
of the Rhone. The former, famous for its Avines, has a popula
tion in the main Gallic, Avith a certain fusion of Burgundian or
Teutonic blood. The latter is the ancient Roman Province,
a land of sub-tropical products, the olive, the fig, the prickly
pear : its inhabitants have strongly-marked peculiarities of
speech, habits, and appearance. They are mostly Iberian, Avith
some Greek and more Roman blood in them. Ethnologically
speaking, they have little or nothing to do with the French
race. On the southernmost part of the western slope of France
we have another marked variety of man ; it is the Euskarian '
land, peopled by an Iberian race unmixed Avith other blood ;
untouched by Roman or other civilisation. This race dwells in
the south-western corner of France, in the angle between the
Pyrenees and the sea. Beyond the Garonne northward the true
Gallic race begins ; and the basin of the Loire and Brittany contain
the purest Celtic blood in France. This is specially the case
with Brittany, where Celtic race, speech, customs, remain almost
unchanged to this day. The rest of France, the France of
Paris, the corn-growing district, has also a large proportion of
Celtic blood, but of the Belgic, not the Gallic stock 2, modified
by a great influx of Germans and Northmen ; as may specially
be seen in Normandy.
Thus it is clear that the French are mainly Celtic in origin.
If Ave would appreciate French history aright, we must begin
Avith this branch of mankind ; for the qualities Avhich so strongly
1 Eusk — , Vasc = , Gasc — , Basque.
2 For the difference between Belgic and Gallic, see below, p. 9.

OF MODERN FRANCE. 7
marked that race still mark the Frenchman. Two thousand
years ago a Gallic chief stood as victor on the Roman Capitol.
From that day to this, whether conqueror or conquered, the
Gaul has been the same man ; his history is one history. There
fore it is not enough to begin French history with the Capets
and the Dukedom of Paris : we must go back to the first picture
of the French people, drawn for us by Caesar. In the pages of
that maker and narrator of history, we may read passages which
might have been written of the Frenchman of to-day1. His
graphic picture of his Gallic foes and friends — the earliest
trustworthy record that Ave have — is as fresh and as true now as
it was when it was first written.
1 Thus in the De Bello Gallico, 6. 20, we read, 'Magistrates quae visa
sunt occultant ; quaeque esse ex usu iudicaverint, multitudini produnt. De
re publica nisi per concilium loqui non conceditur.' Might not this have
been penned at Brussels of Imperial France ?

BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
The Gatd.
Gadhel, or Gael, says an old Irish tradition1, was the son of
Neim-heidh, whose name appears in such names of places as
Nimes (Nem-ausus), Nantes (Nam-netes). But tradition knows
nothing of this parent of a race which has written its name on
many shores ; nor is Gadhel himself more than the shadoAvy
hero, the naming-father of a widespread family of men.
At the opening of history this race is found dwelling in many
lands. The British Isles, Jutland, part of the Baltic shores,
Northern Greece, Italy, Spain, parts of Germany, as well as
Gaul, are filled Avith different branches of the race, under many
names, — Belgians, Gauls, or Celts.
There is some uncertainty as to the name by which those who
dwelt in Gaul should be called. Are they Celts or Gauls ? Or are
these names two forms of one word, and does ' Celt' come from
the Greek way of spelling Gallus 2 ? Perhaps we shall do well
to use the word Gaul for the race, so far as the inhabitants of
ancient Gaul are concerned; for the words Celt, Celtic, are
more commonly used of the race generally.
1 See Martin, Histoire de France, I. I, note I.
2 Kek-roi, Gal-li (cp. Galat-ae, Ammianus Marc. 15. 9, 3), Gael. Martin
derives it from Gallic koilte, a forest. It appears also in the Spanish
Celtiberia. Caesar, Bell. Gall. 1. 1, says, ' qui ipsorum lingua Celiac nostra
Galli appellantur.'

THE GAUL. 9
Side by side Avith these names Ave find another, that of
the Belgae1. It is almost certain that long after the Gaul
had settled in France, even within historic range, he was
attacked by vast hordes of savages, also of Gallic blood, who
Avere thrust westward by some cause or other. Passing into
Gaul over the Rhine, they filled all the valley of the Seine, and
part at least of that of the Loire 2. In the very South of France,
along the Mediterranean, there were two tribes, the Volcae Tecto-
sages and the .Volcae Arecomici, whose first name is held to
indicate that they were of the Belgic stock 3. These later comers
seem to have been a finer race than the Gauls, taller, longer in
the head, fiercer in Avar ; but still blood-relations, and no more
unlike the Gauls than the Teutonic German is unlike the
Swede. It is thought by some that the name Belgae is rather
the title of a confederation of Avarriors than the name of a race
of men.These later comers seem to have thrust the older settlers into
the eastern and southern hill-countries. Though many stayed
• — as is always the case after an invasion of men who need both
%vives and slaves — and though no distinct line can he drawn at
Avhich the Belgae end and Gauls begin, still it is certain that in
Auvergne and the Cevennes, in Savoy and in Switzerland, the
Gallic type is common, while the longer-headed Belgae may to
this day i be distinctly traced as dominant in the rest of France,
except in the district beloAv the Garonne, in which dwell a totally
different race, shorter, darker, lovers of sober clothing, Avith
less of dash, but more of resisting power, kinsfolk in blood,
appearance, and character to the Spaniard across the moun-
1 The name Armorican (Ar = on, mor = the sea) is local, and peculiar to
the Western Celts who peopled Brittany and its neighbourhood. It is true
that Pliny (Nat. Hist. 4. 17) uses the name Armorica for Aquitaine ; but
he is probably in error in this statement, as it stands quite alone.
2 Th.e districts in Map II marked Belgae and Galli show how far they
spread. 3 Vole may be the Latin form of Bolg = Belg. Caesar says that
a part of this tribe was left behind and settled in the Hartz. — Bell. Gall.
6. 24.
1 See M. W. F. Edwards' valuable monograph, Des caracteres physio-
logiques des races humaines, pp. 48, 62.

10 THE GAUL.
tains. These southerners, Aquitanians, — whose name still lives
in Gascony and the word Basque, — clinging to their mountains,
and showing something of a fondness for guerilla Avarfare,
carried the principle of clanship to its utmost in the custom
of ' devotions,' in which warriors, sometimes by hundreds,
attached themselves to a chief, to fight for him, and lay their
lives at his feet.
The points of distinction between the Gauls and the Belgae
are worthy of study. For the Gaul we should visit Dauphine\ Bur
gundy, and Savoy; for the Belgae, Rheims, or any part of France
north of the Seine. The Gaul's head, we shall see, is round,
almost bullet-shaped, his forehead of average size, rounded,
receding at the temples ; his eyes large and open, nose nearly
straight, not very long, rounded at the tip, chin not strong, also
rounded at the end — a face blunted like a Avell-worn river
pebble. He was spare of habit, counting fatness a disgrace ;
of average height, taller than the Latin, shorter than the
German ; his colouring fair, with blue eyes and long yellow
hair, which, like some later tribes, he coloured red, to add to
his attractions.
The Belgae were taller, and generally more like the German.
Head longer, forehead high and square at the temples, nose
long, slightly curved, pointed, with a rather distended nostril ;
chin sharp and well-defined. In colouring they were like the
Gaul. In character more staid, less vivacious and active, more
confident in their own powers, less easily disheartened, more
thoughtful, less the victim of impressions. Merchants and
their luxuries, so welcome to the Gaul, found no footing among
the Belgae ' ; they retained much of their old savageness. It
is not unlikely that they had in them a good deal of Teutonic
blood, though this is uncertain z.
1 ' Minime ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea, quae ad effemin-
andos animos pertinent, important.' — Caesar, Bell. Gall. i. i.
2 Caesar, Bell. Gall. 2. 4, says, ' Reperiebat plerosque Belgas esse ortos
a Germanis, Rhenumque antiquitus traductos,' &c. But this may only
mean that they came originally from the other side of the Rhine, without
indicating that they were Germans. All Belgic names are said to be Celtic
(D'Arbois de Jubainville, Rev. Hist. torn. 30. p. 39).

THE GAUL. II
These differences having been noted, we may now go on to
sketch the general characteristics common to both branches
of the race, so far as we can make them out across the ages, or
read them reflected in the modern Frenchman.
An eminently intelligent race : open to every impression,
touched by heroism and greatness, by intellect and genius;
a people of rare sensibility, who readily received the civilisation
imposed on them by their masters. Theirs was a frank and open
disposition, scorning subterfuge : if they lied, it was through
vivacity and heedlessness, rather than of set purpose. They
knew nothing of strategy and despised it : a fierce onslaught,
straightforward, summed up their tactics. They could easily
be circumvented-. Caesar knew this, and acted on it. They
had a vigorous imagination ; their' poetry was full of feeling,
and dealt with nature and man, love, war, and the world un
seen, in strange proportions. Ossian's poems may not be what
they profess to be ; yet they have the true Gallic spirit. Merlin,
Arthur, Guinevere, and the like, with whom Ave are now familiar,
though retouched by the fashions of a later chivalry, are yet
true Celtic figures, embodying the real characteristics of the
race. Theirs too is the sense of honour, taking the form of
passionate bravery, bitter feuds; they were fearless even against
the powers of nature1, despised death in battle, and even, if their
chieftain perished, slew themselves on his funeral cairn. To
them, rather than to the Germans, belongs the sense of
chivalry. Theirs Avere the Gawains and the Lancelots, and theirs
the 'Round Table,' at which all were equal, and none could
quarrel for the higher or lower seat. But with these splendid
qualities were weaknesses which undermined their strength.
They Avere fickle ; ' knew when they were beaten,' their very
intelligence working them evil ; they could make no long efforts
or patient combinations ; were ostentatious and vain ; greedy
of glory; apt to boast; very self-conscious, and sensitive as
to praise and blame ; ' unbearable,' says Strabo, ' as victors,
1 ' The Celts fear not even the ocean waves.' — Aelian, Var. Hist. 12. 23,
and Aristot. Eth. Eud. 3. r.

12 THE GAUL.
hopelessly dejected if vanquished.' Added to this, their genius
led them to group themselves in clans, each round its family
chieftain ; and endless Avere the feuds handed doAvn for
generations. We do indeed hear several times of a council of
all Gaul (concilium totius Galliae) which met now and again in
the land of the Arverni ; but such unions were probably short
lived and brittle1- The clannish feeling made any true national
effort impossible. To this Caesar owed his triumph over Gaul.
There was indeed one real element of unity, Druidism ; but the
eastern Gaul cared little for it: it hid itself in deep forests, it
dealt too little with the realities of life ; its powers failed before
tribe-differences : and by Caesar's time the Druid was less
powerful in Gaul than the ' knight,' as the Roman calls him,
the representative of aristocratic soldier-life. We should natu
rally expect such a race to be eloquent : and in fact we find
that Gaul provided even Rome herself with teachers of rhetoric.
The love of speech is innate in the Celtic race. Their sensi
bility, imaginativeness, quickness, all joined to give them the
' true genius of France, the genius for oratory2.' As in speech,
so in appearance : the Gaul loved a light and picturesque
costume. His was the genius for display in every sense.
Splendid apparel 3, fine horses and arms, were dear to him.
His usual dress was a sleeved shirt, with a rich embroidered
overcoat of colours; and underneath this were breeches or
trews (the words are Celtic) reaching to the foot. The Avealthier
sort wore collars, bracelets, rings, of gold ; silver also and coral
were set much store by ; altogether a Gallic gentleman Avas a
splendid sight. Such an one was Luern, described by Posei-
donius ; who drove full-dress through the crowd of his Arver-
nian subjects, scattering gold and silver as he went ; a brilliant
specimen of the ostentatious, praise-loving Gallic young man.
1 Viollet, Histoire des Institutions politiques de la France, p. 7 (quoting
Caesar 1. 30, 4. 6, 5. 24, 54, 6. 3, 44, 7. 1, 2, 63, 75).
2 The more singular, as we know that the Gaul prided himself on an
abrupt address and harsh guttural speech. Diod. Sic. 5. 31 (p. 213).
3 Witness the brilliant tartans, used as distinctive dresses by the clans of
northern Scotland.

THE DRUID. 13
And when he Avent forth to war the hero Avas still more
splendidly barbaric. In earlier times he fought stripped, but
finding this neither convenient nor brilliant, he devised for
himself a lordly fighting-dress. He adopted the Latin body-
armour, and combined Avith it his own peculiar taste in costume.
A metal helmet crowned with horns of ox or stag, or bearing,
as a crest, some dragon or monster, above which waved tall
plumes, raised his stature to superhuman dimensions. On his
buckler was emblazoned some figure or symbol, origin of the
coat of arms (just as his head-gear Avas the origin of the more
modern crest) ; beneath it, a Roman cuirass ; girt at his side
was a long two-handed sword, a great ' excalibur,' the copper
or iron chain of Avhich clanked on his breast : a rich em
broidered belt and golden bracelets completed his costume1.
But the short thrusting sword of the Roman, in the iron hand
of that strong-willed race, proved too much for all this bravery.
The Latin soldier knew that, if he could but hold out against
the first onset, the day was won ; and in this faith he fought
and conquered.
Another figure must be dressed up by us — that of the warrior's
rival, the mysterious Druid. We all know the circles of stone,
silent memorials of the faith of those who dAvelt here and in
Western France. They are open-air temples, centres of Druid
worship. No image or work of art or beauty is there. The
circle may mean eternity ; the open heavens immensity ; the
two together may symbolise the unlimited in time and space.
Here dwelt Hesus, ' the Terrible,' ' the Unknown.' In its early
purity, Druidism knew no bodily form or qualities attributed to
this mysterious being. To him the oak was sacred, his the
deep forests, in the recesses of which the mistletoe was cut with
awful ceremony. The territory of the Carnutes *, nearly the very
centre of Gallic France, was also the centre of Gallic worship.
Thither the Druids went yearly, and under primeval forests
performed their most sacred rites. It is probable that, before
1 Diod. Sic. 5. 30 (p. 213).
2 Who gave its later name to Autricum, the modem Chartres.

14 THE GAUL.
the historic age, each different confederation of Gaul, perhaps
even each tribe, had its own centre of worship. Alesia, after
wards the scene of the last struggle of Vercingetorix against
Caesar, was the centre-point for the older Gauls ; and it seems
probable that all those ancient towns, which were named
Medio-lann 1, were centres of Druid worship. Be this as it may,
Ave know that at an early time the Druids had concentrated all
on a point near Chartres (Autricum). Here they held solemn
assemblies, at which the great confederations of Gallic blood
Avere represented. Justice was done, and religious rites per
formed. Excommunication was launched against any turbulent
chief who disregarded the decrees of the assembly. At their
highest point of power the Druids seemed to have ruled over all
Gauls ; even the chiefs, for all their fierceness and bravery, bowed
for a time before these mysterious possessors of unearthly
powers. These Druids, whose religion and philosophy have perhaps
been overrated of late years, were certainly far above the rest
of the race in intelligence and knowledge. They Avere sole
depositaries of such religion and learning as existed ; they were
the poets also, and the teachers of a warlike and imaginative
race, Avho sang the prowess of their ancestors, and roused their
sons to like deeds. Thus they Avere not only the clergy, but
the clerks. They were not a class marked off from other men
for sacred life and religious functions ; nor an hereditary caste,
like the priesthoods of India, Egypt, or of the Jews ; nor were
they mixed up with civil life, like the priests and augurs of Greece
or Rome, who merged the priestly office in the general duties of
society. They held a position peculiar to themselves, though not
altogether unlike that of the clergy in the earlier middle ages.
They trained the Gallic youth in colleges, teaching them to learn
by heart the verses which contained their philosophy. This
exclusive hold over the education of their people was one of
1 Medio-lann is ' middle-town,' — meadhon = middle, and lann = enclosure
walled place, city. There was one among the Santones, one among the
Eburovices, near the Seine, a third in the Aednan territory, as well as the
great Milan of Lombardy.

THE DRUID. 15
their chief sources of power. They paid no tribute, nor service
of war; they administered justice; they communed with an
other Avorld, without withdrawing themselves from this. Their
dreadful excommunications struck terror into every heart, and
enabled them to cope with the fierce warriors among whom
they moved. They had also power to offer up, on great occa
sions, even human sacrifices.
In their later time at least the Druids were divided into a
graduated hierarchy, consisting of three orders — the Ouadd, or
Ovate ' ; the Bard ; and the Druid, rightly so called.
Of these, the Ouadd held the lowest grade, that of the
sacrificing priest. He studied the facts of nature, and acted
as augur and medicine-man. The work he had to do was all
practical and in detail. He might slay the victim, and note
its last agonies, but he could not rise to heights of inspiration,
or enquire into the causes of things.
The next grade is that of the Bard, the inspired and sacred
prophet of his race. The divine power entered into him, though
he was not permitted to hold communion with it. Herein lay
his superiority over the Ouadd, his inferiority to the Druid.
For the Ouadd had no inspiration, while the Druid held con
verse with the Divine. The Bard with his harp sat in chieftains'
halls, pouring forth God-inspired strains, singing of heroes, or
the wisdom of great men of old. His it was to rouse to war,
or to still the passions of the people. He was the historian, the
poet, the teacher of a people greedy of glory. He was the
link between Druid and chieftain. It was an evil day for
Druidism, and a convincing proof of degeneracy in Gaul, when
the Bard became the mere flatterer and parasite of the great.
But the crown of the edifice was the Druid2 himself; aAvful,
1 A name probably connected with ' vates.' Ammianus Marcellinus (15.
9. 8) writes the word Euhages ; perhaps connecting it with tiayi]s, holy.
2 The derivation of the word Druid is uncertain. Zeuss in his Grammatica
Celtica gives us the Welsh derw, an oak, whence Derwydd, a Druid.
D'Arbois de Jubainville (Introduction a l'Etude de la Literature Celtique,
1. pp. 117-128) thinks this is impossible; he does not know what Dru
means ; it occurs in the word ' Drunemeton,' the place where the Galatian
senate used to meet.

16 THE GAUL.
seldom seen, a religious mystic and a philosopher, he dispensed
wisdom from the depth of some sacred wood, under the oaks,
or from some grotto, where dimness added solemnity to his
person and his words. When he appeared in the outer Avorld,
it must be on some occasion Avorthy of him. Without his awful
sanction no sacrifice could be done. The Ouadd or sacrificing-
priest did not dare to lift his hand till he vouchsafed his
presence. At times, when the spirit was on him, he sang,
like the Bard, of things mystical ; and thus his order embraced
within itself both the others. He came forth to cut, at due
time and Avith much solemnity, the golden bough, the sacred
mistletoe of the oak. But the chief part of his life passed in
strict seclusion. He was supposed to commune with the un
seen world, to learn the will of God, and to act as mediator. He
contemplated the mysteries of nature, and uttered dark sayings
as to the destinies of man, the life to come, the Deity himself.
Over the whole presided the Arch-Druid, as he is sometimes
called, whose authority Avas supreme over all the grades. He
was elected by the votes of the Druids alone \
The Druid lore was not committed to writing till a later
date; and consequently whoever aspired to join the priestly
ranks was obliged to learn the sacred verses off by heart,
spending sometimes as long as twenty years at the task. These
poems seem to have shadowed forth the doctrines of God as
a First Cause, and of the immortality of the soul and its trans
migration, according to that fine verse of the Latin poet 2, Avho
tells us they regarded death as ' the middle point of a long life.'
To this they added speculations as to nature, her origin
and powers. This was their inner philosophy. All outward
nature they held to be symbolical of this inner world ; and
they appear to have given special honour to the qualities of
the circle. All this, no doubt, Avas a later development of the
religious sense among them; the early Druidism cannot lay
claim to more philosophy than is contained in that sense of
1 Caesar, Bell. Gall. 6. 13.
2 Lucan, Phars. 1. 457. The whole passage deserves study.

GALLIC SOCIETY. 17
wonder and curiosity Avhich the Gauls certainly had in common
with other wild races of men.
And, indeed, the cruel human sacrifices, the butcheries of
men, which characterised Druidism in its full power, destroy any
illusion as to the ennobling character of the religion. It was, at
best, barbaric, in spite of all its striking features.
These were the main elements of Gallic society : — the Chief
tain, — an elected, not hereditary, head over his clan, — with his
followers, the ' Knights ' and freemen ; and, at his side, the
Priest- Philosopher : beneath these lay the usual herd of slaves.
There seems to have been a time when the whole nation was
subject to the Druids, Avho formed a kind of aristocracy of
priests, with a lay- democracy, headed by its strongest and most
popular members. In time this national unity (if indeed it ever
really was such) perished ; the chieftains became almost inde
pendent sovereigns, each with his OAvn aims and feuds, an easy
prey for the Roman aggressor.
But we must not regard the Gaul of this time as a civilised
member of a fixed body politic. The warrior-chief was almost
a savage ; the Druid-philosopher very like an impostor. Warrior
and priest had few arts of peace, and had made little approach
towards civilisation. Nor can we describe the steps by which
they passed out of barbarism1 It must suffice us to have
drawn the Gaul as he was long before his real history begins.
We may imagine him living in open villages, in clearings of the
forests, or beside the rivers, in circular wattled huts, each hut
sheltered by a large roof, each family apart. Sometimes the
Gauls built themselves fortified towns, surrounded with rough
earthworks, traces of Avhich still remain z ; sometimes they hid
themselves in retreats of wood or marsh, protected by palisades
and ditches ; or in strong natural positions, hill-tops, like Alesia
or Gergovia. There they dwelt, by their clans ; a social, com
munity-loving race : for while the German was the man of inde
pendent life, and the Italian the man of cities, the Gaul was the
* See M. Edwards' admirable pamphlet, quoted above.
2 There is one not far from Dieppe.
VOL. I. C

1 8 THE GAUL.
man of tribal life, in clans whose bond was supposed to be that
of blood.
The family usages of the Gaul are obscure. The marriage
tie does not seem to have been much honoured by the men :
the women were remarkable for high virtues : writers Avho
blame the men most praise the women. They had little or
no polygamy; nor is it clear that Caesar was right in saying
that the wife became the husband's chattel. The clan, thus
composed of rather indistinct families, was under one chieftain,
selected by them. He Avas not absolute, but must listen to the
ancients, and obey the armed council of his tribe. There
appear to have been two classes of men enjoying freedom :
the ' high man,' or horseman ; and the simple freeman. One
discerns, at least at first, no barrier between them : the ' high
men ' Avere a pure aristocracy of merit ; that is, of prowess.
Under these were, first, degraded members of the tribe; and
then, at the bottom of the social scale, the slaves of the sword.
There exist vivid descriptions of their splendour and squalor,
of excess of revelry, and want : as these belong to a rather later
time, the period of decay, this' must next occupy our attention.

CHAPTER II.
Gaul before the time of Caesar.
'It would seem,' says Martin, 'as, though the Gauls could
neither live apart nor together V They clung to one another
in clans, while each clan was in ceaseless commotion ; personal
quarrels within, clan rivalries without. Even Druidism could
not cure this evil, which at last laid Gaul prostrate at the con
queror's feet. Druidism, in course of time, fell from its pre
eminence. The chieftains wrested the power from the Druids'
hands 2, and established a despotic rule over the clans, with (for
a time at least) hereditary succession. The Druids proper, not
being of this Avorld, hermits who neither lived the village life,
nor attached themselves to the tribe, were powerless against
these representatives of a more active existence. The other
sacred orders, the Bard and the Ouadd, sank into contempt.
The Ouadd became his chiefs domestic chaplain ; the Bard the
humble ornament of his feast. The Ouadd did sacrifice, as it
were, in his master's interest ; he went with him to war, or gave
religious sanction to his despotism at home : such was his
clerical life and duty. The Bard, at the chief's table, struck his
harp and sang his master's deeds of war, his open hand, his
ancestry. He was repaid in cash or in victuals 3- Poseidonius,
a philosopher of Caesar's day, tells us the following tale of
1 Martin, Histoire des Francais, torn. i. p. 34.
2 See Amende Thierry, Histoire des Gaulois, torn. 4. ch. i.
, 3 Athenaeus, Deipnos. Bk. 6. p. 246 D (ed. Casaubon).
C 2

20 GAUL BEFORE THE TIME OF CAESAR.
Luern, a Gallic ' king.' He gave a feast, and bade his bard be
, there. By some mishap, he did not come in time ; when he
arrived, Luern was mounting his chariot to go forth in state.
The bard, to do the best he could, girt up his robe, struck on
his harp a sad chord, and as he ran sang his master's praises,
and bewailed his own ill-luck in being too late for the feast.
The chief flung to the dusty breathless singer a purse of gold.
He picked it up, struck a joyful note, and now in jubilant strains
sang that the honoured ground over which his master passed
blossomed with flowers of gold. So they moved on, Luern in
his glory, the bard in the heat and dust by his side 1.
Meanwhile, Avealth increased; villages grew into towns, and
the despot-chiefs had to give way. Thus in 121 B.C. the Arver-
nians had a 'king'; but in 60 B.C. they were ruled by a magis
tracy, who actually condemned a man to death for grasping at
kingly power. This change, though in itself probably a change
for the better, lessened the power of resistance. Caesar's best
opponents were not councils of magistrates, but single heroes,
Avho rose above the tribal feuds, and held a sort of dictatorial
power. From the time of the decline of the Druids foreign expe
ditions had ceased : the Gaul Avas either struggling against his
brethren, or lapped in peaceful, even luxurious, ease. Wealth
and poverty increased : the passion for display grew, and with
it the love of pleasure and self-indulgence; the low-toned moral
sense of the Gaul and his great vivacity laid him open to
many degrading influences. He lost barbaric virtues, and
took up the vices of civilised life. No high ideal of duty or
national existence came in to save him. He began to traffic ;
sent his goods through Massilia to Rome, his woollen robes,
Sequanian hams, and the like ; and bartered them for casks of
wine and other luxuries. Merchants passed through the land,
corrupting all they touched. They were set down at the feast,
and bidden to tell their traveller's tales to the Gaul, who was
never weary of hearing some new thing. They taught the
1 Told by Athenaeus, Deipnos. Bk. 4. p. 152 E (ed. Casaubon).

GALLIC INVENTIONS. 21
natives to look up with aAve to the splendour and vices of Rome.
The Gaul was a ready scholar. He began at once to assimilate
himself to the Imperial race ; borrowed their ideas and habits,
and at last their speech. Thus the process began; nor has it
ever ceased since. The influence of Latin institutions and ideas
has ever been supreme in France.
At first the Gaul caught only the love of outAvard splendour.
He must be moulded by the great conqueror's hammer before
he could accept that Law and Order which it was the mission
of Rome to preach in all the Western world.
Thus then, at this early time, Gaul began her education in
the world : began it in the eager seeking for national splendour
and enjoyment. She invented 'German silver,' to make a
greater show at less expense ; she found out bright dyes, forged
armour for parade, not for battle ; she cured unrivalled hams ;
her cheeses, prepared in the highlands, sold well in Italy; her
beer was good ; she invented yeast, employed sometimes to
make bread, and sometimes to improve the complexion ; she
grew fine wines, and invented wooden casks to keep them in.
The old honourable equality of neither wealth nor poverty de
parted : debt and slavery and wealth, squalid and splendid vices
came in : property was insecure ; but all tended to strengthen
the strong, to enrich the rich. Strongholds Avere built, to
defend not the nation, but its property. In Caesar's day the
state of Gallic society was very bad. ' In all Gaul,' says he,
' there are but two classes of men Avho are of honour and
account ; for the common folk are reckoned as but little better
than slaves, dare nothing of themselves, have no voice in council.
Most of them ' (the old freemen of Gaul) ' when overwhelmed
with debt or taxation, or with gross injustice done them by the
stronger, make themselves slaves to the nobles. The two
classes left are Druids and Knights V Of these the ' Knights,'
sole remnant of the original chivalry of Gaul, were still poAverful :
the Druids were a picturesque relic of the past.
This was the enfeebled and degraded society Avhich Avas
1 Caesar, Bell. Gall. 6. 13.

22 GAUL BEFORE THE TIME OF CAESAR.
summoned to resist the solid practical Romans, led by the chief
captain of their history.
It is time for us to trace the early relations between the tAVO
races. About 388 b.c. a Gallic host under its 'Brenos' took
and sacked Rome, in spite of Camillus. For half a century the
Senonian Gauls threatened the feeble little republic, and Rome
could barely make head against them. In 349 B.C. there is
a Gallic war going on in the Pomptine district. Early in the
next century the Senonians support the Etruscans against
Rome : in 283 B.C. they meet with their first great check from
the Consul Dolabella. In the subjugation of Gallia Senonensis
(Sinigaglia and Rimini) we find proof that the tide has turned.
After a half-century of quiet, the struggle recommenced. Rome
ever advanced, added post to post, stretching tOAvards the white
barriers of the Alps. But in 218 b.c. came a new enemy.
Hannibal, as he passed through Gaul, found the natives
generally eager to count him their champion ; they helped him
forwards, they swelled his ranks. Through Gallic help alone
could his grand schemes succeed; their inability to follow up
and sustain a great movement was one chief cause of his failure
in the end.
While Hannibal Avas ascending the Rhone valley, a Roman
army under Scipio landed at Massilia. For the first time a
Roman soldier set foot in Gaul. Massilia, rival of Carthage,
favoured the Roman side : and through her interested action
the Romans gained their first foothold. Massilia had been
founded by Phocaean settlers about six hundred years before
Christ. It was the first foreign settlement on Gallic soil, and
for four hundred years Ave cannot trace its influence on Gallic
history. The traveller, Avhen he visits the ' southern doorway
of France,' looks with interest at a city which has now stood
nearly 2,500 years, and at the critical moment opened its gates
to the Roman invader, who came to lay the foundations of
Modern France.
Though Hannibal failed, Rome did not fully subdue North
Italy till 191 b.c. Then the Cisalpine Gaul, Avith national

PROGRESS OF ROMANS IN GAUL. 23
docility, soon took Roman dress and habits, and his land be
came the ' Gallia Togata ' of Roman history. Massilia became
the second seaport city of the Mediterranean, Alexandria alone
surpassing her. In 154 b.c, much vexed by her old Ligurian
neighbours and foes, she called in the Romans to help her.
They came gladly. Opimius penetrated into Celto-Liguria,
subdued the Oxybii and Deceates, who dwelt near the Var just
above Antipolis (Aniibes), and handed them over to Massilia. •
Thirty years later the Salyes were conquered, and the Avhole sea
board from Var to Rhone was given to the Massiliots, Avhile
Rome took the interior ; and Caius Sextius, proconsul, founded
the first Roman city in Gaul (122 b.c), calling it by his name,
the Aquae Sextiae (Aix in Provence) ; it is a city standing in
a lovely valley, blest with hot and cold springs, and girt in with
tree-clad mountains. Thus began the Roman occupation, which
soon spread northwards. The Cavares, a race dwelling round
Arausio (Orange), and the Vocontii, submitted. The Romans
touched the Isara. Here they met a brave and powerful tribe,
the Allobrogians, Avho dwelt in the land between Vienne and
Geneva. But here too were those feuds which were ever so helpful
to them. The Arvernians and Aeduans led the two parties of
Eastern Gaul. The latter were at war Avith the Allobrogians,
Avho accordingly were in alliance with the Arvernians. Massilia
stept in and arranged terms between the Aeduans and Rome.
They became ' the frjends of Rome,' and the storm of war burst
on their Gallic rivals. Bituit 1, head of the Arvernian league,
was beaten in battle by Domitius and Quintus Fabius Maximus:
it is said that he lost 120,000 men. Bituit himself, decoyed by
Domitius to a conference, learnt as a captive the ' more than
Punic perfidy' of Rome. He was sent to Rome, Avhere his
painted armour, silver chariot, and strange looks made a show
for the sovereign people. The Romans treated the Arvernians
Avell, but, finding it convenient, confiscated the lands of the
Allobrogians. The whole Rhone-valley, on its eastern side,
from Geneva to the mouth, except the Massiliot territory,
1 Son of that Luern who has been already mentioned on p. 20.

24 GAUL BEFORE THE TIME OF CAESAR.
became a province, Gallia Braccata ; that is, the Gaul whose
people wore the native ' breeks,' as opposed to Gallia Togata,
in which they had donned the Roman toga. The God Terminus
moved forward along the western coast, as far as to the Pyre
nees, and inland to the Cevennes. In 1 18 b.c. a new capital was
founded for the province, indicating its changed dimensions,
at Narbo Martius (Narbonne), famous as the first Gallic muni-
cipium, or city enjoying all rights of Roman citizenship except
the suffrage. Thus there arose on the seaboard a proud and
famous city, with a station for the fleet, good harbourage, and
proconsular residence. From that day the political splendour
of Marseilles waned.
The same Domitius1 also built the great highway, the via
Domitia, along the Ligurian Alps : it was the first great ' Cor-
niche road.' Colonies multiplied throughout the Province, cities
sprang up with Roman forms and different degrees of Roman
citizenship, destined to bear fruit long afterAvards in the influence
of tOAvn-life over the southern districts of France.
Not long after this time a terrible earthquake in Northern
Europe is said to have set the Cimbrians of Jutland and the
Teutons of North Germany moving southwards. They streamed
on till they reached Gaul ; they overthrew the legions sent to
resist them. In 107 b.c they reached the west bank of the
Rhone. The Volcae-Tectosages, impatient of their Roman
neighbours, seized Tolosa (Toulouse), and joined the Gallo-
Teutonic alliance. Caepio retook Tolosa, and carried off all
the vast treasures he found in the temple of Belen and else
where, among which Avere said to be the spoils of the temple
of Delphi, sacked long before by the Gauls. As Caepio Avith
drew, he was overtaken on the Rhone, his army utterly destroyed,
his treasure lost2
Marius remained to make head against the Gallo-Teutons.
1 Sumamed Ahenobarbus, 'bronze-bearded.'
2 A Latin proverb as to accursed gains long commemorated this mishap.
' Habet aurum Tolosanum ' was said of any one whose wealth — the wealth
so often of rapine and extortion— seemed to carry a curse with it.  Anlus
Gellius, 3. 9.

MARIUS IN GAUL. 25
While they, careless of the worth of time, delayed, he drew his
forces together, established himself near Arelate (Aries), and cut
a deep canal (the Fossa Mariana J) from Aries through the district
of the Crau 2 to the sea. The barbarians crossed the Rhone,
and offered battle, which Marius refused. As they passed on
towards Aquae Sextiae they shouted into his camp 'What.
messages for your wives?' But the Romans held their peace.
When, however, the great host was past, Marius broke up and
followed. In the hills not far from Aix (102 b.c) he forced
them to fight one of the world's decisive battles. Had he
failed, they would have penetrated into Italy to join the
Cimbrians, descending from the Tyrol; and who knows what
might have been the end? As it was, Marius defeated them
with horrible carnage ; and afterwards, on the other side of the
Alps, fell on the Cimbrians and crushed them also.
Not long after this, in 100 b.c, Caesar, in more than one Avay
the greater successor of Marius, was born.
The social and civil wars of Rome brought great trouble on
the Province. But another danger impended: about 62 b.c
a mixed horde of Germans, under Ariovistus, were called in
by the Sequanians ; for they wished to use them as a coun
terpoise to the Aeduans 3, who, thanks to Roman friendship,
lorded it over the other tribes, shutting off from the Se
quanians the commerce of the Saone, and that of the Loire
from the Arvernians. The combined Gauls and Germans fell
on the Aeduans, defeated them, and drove them to submission.
Divitiacus the Druid alone refused to yield. He hastened to
Rome and prayed the Senate to help his people. Though
Rome was ready enough, for a time she lacked the poAver;
meanwhile the Germans kept pouring in through this new
1 This canal has given its name to the village of Foz, situated at its
mouth. The French government has proposed to reopen it, so as to avoid
the dangerous navigation of the Rhone mouths.
2 The Crau is a strange flat district below Aries, covered thickly with
rounded pebbles. Its name is Celtic. Crau is the Celtic kraeg, whence our
' crag,' and the Alpes Craiae or Graiae.
3 The Aeduans were much under Druid influences, and kept up the old
elective headship ; the Sequanians had a hereditary succession.

26 GAUL BEFORE THE TIME OF CAESAR.
opening into Eastern Gaul. Through this same opening, where
the land drops between the Jura and the Vosges, one of the
most vulnerable portions of the frontier, poured in later days
the Allemans, the Huns, the Burgundians, and in modern times
the Allies on their way to Paris in 1814. By 58 b.c Ariovistus
could boast that Germany, like Rome, had her province in
Gaul. Gaul at this time leant on three external powers. The
older tribes of the south-east depended on Roman civilisation ;
the Gauls, all the central and western tribes, and especially the
Armoricans, leant upon Britain ; while the purer Belgae of the
north, proud of their more barbarous state, drew towards
Germany. The Nervians and Trevirans, a little later, affected
a German origin, though they were really Gallic. The Aqui-
tanians, after their natural bent, stood aloof, on the defensive.
Lastly, the Helvetians, a Gallic race dwelling in Switzerland,
retained their Avaiiike habits, and were straitened for room.
Their chieftain Orgetorix, seeing that his country lay between
Germans and Romans, and that if Gaul fell it must also fall,
conceived the bold plan of a great Gallic confederation, headed
by the Helvetians, who, to be in a more central position, should
emigrate to the shores of the ocean, in the territory of the Santones.
There, under one chief, they should direct and reinspire the
whole Gallic race. But Orgetorix fell a victim to his plan. The
Helvetian chieftains, jealous of his genius, called him to judg
ment. He appeared, with all his clan, his friends, his debtors,
above ten thousand men in arms, behind him. The chiefs were
fain to let him march away free. But the opposition to him was
too strong ; and the great Helvetian, to withdraw from among
them the cause of civil war, slew himself in the year 59 b.c
His emigration plan did not perish with him. The Helve
tians made ready to move. Then Rome heard of it, and sent
forth her greatest general to resist it. Caesar was made Pro
consul of Gaul first for five years, from 58 to 54 b.c, and after
wards his command was prolonged for five years more, from
53 to 49 B.C.

Wvenusfif

MAP 1

lilt r inn's Fj-anrf- T.

CHAPTER III.
Caesar in Gaul B.C. 58-50.
The social and civil wars did three things for Rome. They
destroyed the old breed of citizens ; they taught men to regard
the army as the only remaining power ; and they paved the way
for Caesar.
Caesar saw clearly the position he was in. He was the
darling of the people, the deadly foe of the aristocracy. The
people thought him the successor of Marius, his kinsman. But
Avhile the Senatorial aristocracy Avas still strong, there was only
one power that could overcome it — the army. Caesar therefore
shaped his course towards the possession of that power. In
60 b.c he formed a secret agreement with Pompey and Crassus,
to divide equally the authority at Rome. The Triumvirate was
hollow ; but it sufficed for Caesar's aims. He had need to
prove himself a great soldier ; this could only be done at a
distance from Rome, and it was necessary for him to leave
his rear, as it were, defended, by putting Rome into friendly
hands. Pompey and Crassus Avere, for the time, willing to
remain at home ; and Caesar, who already had fought Avith
credit in Spain, got for himself the legions destined for the
West. In b.c 59 the people voted him lllyricum and Cisalpine
Gaul as his provinces, with three legions, for five years ; and
the Senate, thinking to remove him farther from Rome, added
Transalpine Gaul as well, with an additional legion.
In the spring of 58 b.c he set forth. He kneAv of the move-

28 CAESAR IN GAUL. B.C. 58—
ment going on in the high Alps, and went straight to meet
it. Eight days after he left Rome he was at Geneva. The
Helvetians had two lines of exit ; one through the Sequanian
land, the other by Geneva and the Rhone. They first tried the
Sequanian line; but Caesar, when Consul in 59 b.c, had secured
the Sequanians in the interest of Rome, and the Helvetians were
refused a passage. They then turned towards Geneva ; and here
Caesar headed them, breaking down the Rhone bridge. Their
ambassadors came, asking for peaceful passage through the
Province ; he replied that he must take a few days to reflect on
their demand. His reflections took the shape of earthworks
along the Rhone ; for he was specially great as a spade-soldier ;
he gathered troops (for in his haste he had outrun his army), and
when the Helvetians came for his reply, he refused them passage,
and was able to enforce his refusal. Again they turned towards
the other route; by help of the Aeduan Dumnorix they got
leave, and safely crossed the Jura. But the Aeduans resisted
them at the passage of the Arar (Saone), and though their
opposition Avas but slight (for there Avere among them the usual
factions), they wasted precious time, and enabled Caesar to hasten
into Italy, to gather five legions, and to return and catch the
Helvetian rear in the act of crossing the Saone. These he fell
on and defeated, then passed the river and followed them. At
Bibracte (Autun) they faced round and fought. After a tough
struggle they were utterly routed, and driven northward into the
Lingonian country, where Caesar again came up Avith them and
reduced them to submission. The Boians were permitted to settle
in Gaul, in consideration of their bravery : the rest returned to
their old homes, and are the ancestors of the French-speaking
Swiss. Not a third of their numbers recrossed the Jura.
Ariovistus and his Germans, fairly settled in the northern
Sequanian lands, ought in prudence to have joined the Hel
vetians. But they stood by, awaiting their time. It soon came.
Caesar, who hitherto had flattered the German chieftain, sent
him a message that he must stop the flow of Teutons into
Gaul, and give up the Aeduans he held as hostages. The

—B.C. 50. CAESAR CRUSHES ARIOVISTUS. 29
proud German defied Caesar and Rome, — little knowing what
he did. He thought he had all Germany at his back ; it Avas
rumoured that the hundred Suevian cantons were crossing the
Rhine into the lands of the Trevirans to help him. But Caesar
gave them no time. He marched on Vesontio (Besan£on), the
capital of the Sequanians, a strong position, key of the whole
campaign, got there before Ariovistus, and made it his head
quarters. His men began to show signs of fear. New and
fierce Avas the foe : all counted the Teuton as far more terrible
than the Gaul. But Caesar could use words as Avell as spades
or swords. He called his legions together, and said, ' Abandon
me, if you will, you others — but give me my tenth legion —
the tenth does not desert ; with it alone I will conquer.' He
touched the right chord ; the soldiers Avere his tools from that
moment, and his way to Empire lay open. He at once attacked
the Teuton camp ; forced it after a savage fight, and massacred
its defenders. The Germans were thrust back on the Rhine,
and perished almost to a man. Ariovistus crossed the river
and died in Germany. The Suevians, hearing of the disaster,
Avithdrew with all speed, and with no small loss.
Thus Caesar crushed two formidable foes in one year. The
Aeduans recovered their threatened supremacy, and Caesar was
welcomed as a deliverer. Next year (57 b. c.) the Belgae of north
ern Gaul Avere in motion. Caesar, who had gone into Cisalpine
Gaul1, returned promptly to his army, which lay in winter-quar
ters in Sequania. He had already secured the friendship of the
Trevirans and Remi, thanks to the ceaseless tribal jealousies.
The Trevirans had fallen under his influence when pressed by
the Suevian Germans ; and the Remi hoped, by the favour of
Rome, to hold the first place in the Northern confederacy, as
the Aeduans did in the Eastern. They opened the gates of their
capital Durocortorum (Rheims) to the Romans: and the Belgae,
to punish them, marched into their country. But the Aeduans
1 To watch over the rest of his province, and his interests at home : —
ivravSa Ka0T]fievos iSr/iiayuiyei, says Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar,
p. 717.

30 CAESAR IN GAUL. B.C. 58-
pushed' on as far as to the borders of the Bellovaci (Beauvais),
in the Roman interest ; and the Belgae broke up, to defend
their threatened homes. Caesar followed them, took Noviodunum
(Soissons), and reduced at once the Suessones and Bellovaci.
The Nervians, a warlike tribe, proved themselves more worthy
foes. They assaulted the Roman camp with so much fury,
that had not Caesar united the skill of a general with the
daring of a common soldier, all had been lost. It was his
day of greatest peril. The Nervians scorned to yield : out of
sixty thousand fighting men, scarcely five hundred remained
unwounded. Caesar shoAved wisdom and generosity : he
guaranteed to the wreck of the tribe its lands and goods. Then
he attacked the Aduatici in the Ardennes, and enslaved the
whole tribe. In the spring of 56 B.C. Armorica Avas over
run ; and Caesar destroyed the fleet of the Veneti, who had
headed a new league against Rome, while Sabinus routed their
land forces. The younger Crassus overcame the Aquitanians ;
and the Avhole circuit was complete. From Provence, by
Helvetia, Sequania, the Belgic tribes, the Veneti in Armorica,
the Loire, and Aquitania, and so round to Provence again ; —
this was the triumphant course of the legions. The Morini
and Menapii, people of marsh and woodland, in the north
eastern corner of Gaul, hard by the Batavian island, alone stood
out unsubdued.
In 55 b.c, after a raid into Germany, he overcame the Morini.
And lastly, he determined to sever the connection between Gaul
and Britain, the home of Gallic traditions and faith. Hence his
British expeditions that year and the next. It is doubtful
'whether he gained much : — some glory to himself, but little
benefit to Rome. He brought back from his second expedition
islaves and a few pearls, and the nominal submission of Cas
sivelaunus. Britain remained as she was ; the tribute imposed on
Cassivelaunus was never paid ; and meanwhile the Gallic tribes-
had time to breathe, and organise a great revolt against their stern
master. And this time the Aeduans, Rome's old allies, feeling
that Caesar in attacking the sacred island was smiting Druidism

— B.Cl 50. CAESAR IN BRITAIN. 31
to the heart, threw off their allegiance and joined the national
movement. Caesar speaks of this rising in such a tone as
conquerors are ever apt to use. The love of liberty, the spirit
of patriotism, are branded as the fickleness of a race which
ought to know itself beaten and be quiet : a subject race, when
it tries to throw off the yoke, is always counted traitorous by its
masters. The Gauls seemed to Caesar to be unreasonable
and troublesome. The expedition into Britain, Avhich should
have been lucrative and dazzling, and the last act of a series of
splendid campaigns, proved to be but the beginning of neAv
dangers. The triumph was delayed, Avho could say hoAV long ?
and the fortunes of Avar, proverbially fickle, might change. No
new glory could be Avon, and all as yet gathered might be
lost. Returning from Britain he had met the Gallic deputies
" at Samarobriva (Amiens), and finding all tranquil, had put
his troops into winter-quarters along the north coast and the
Meuse. He was starting for Italy, when the sound of an ex
plosion in the territory of the Carnutes, the centre of Druid faith,
fell on his ear. The Gaul, too impatient by nature to Avait, had
broken out too soon. The Eburones rose, and destroyed
Sabinus' army. Ambiorix, their victorious chief, called on his
countrymen: the Nervians and Aduaticans replied. All Northern
Gaul was moved. Cicero, the orator's brother, who was win
tering in the Nervian country, was beleaguered by them ; but
Caesar, with incredible speed and boldness, saved him, and saved
himself. Now all Gaul began to stir. Tidings of nightly meet
ings in desert spots reached him from every side. The Senones
revolted ; the Trevirans were in motion ; but Indutiomar, chief
of the anti-Roman party there, was surprised and slain. Thus,
with this ominous swaying and writhing, closed the year 54.
Early in 53 Caesar had gathered together ten legions— his
largest army. He ravaged the Nervian country, and held
another assembly at Samarobriva. The Senones, Carnutes,
and Trevirans did not appear. He moved the conference to
a marshy islet on the Sequana (Seine), and there, in the poor
little village of Lutetia, the sice of the ' cite- ' of Paris, he held

32 CAESAR IN GAUL. B.C. 58—
converse with the Gallic chiefs. He speedily quieted the insur
gent clans, as he thought, and returned to Italy.
The moment he was gone the Carnutes rose again. They
seized Genabum, the central Druidical town, and other cities
in their parts, murdering all foreigners. The Arvernians also
revolted, placing the young Vercingetorix ' at their head. Young,
tall, and vigorous, skilful at arms, and bravest of Gauls, he com
bined at their best all the qualities of the race. He inspired first
his own tribe, then the whole of Gaul, with a really national en
thusiasm. The noblest figure of independent Gaul, he is also
the last. When he submitted, resistance Avas over. It has been
well said of him that, ' to take rank among the greatest of men
he only needed another enemy and another historian.' Unfor
tunately, the same consummate and ungenerous captain who
conquered him also drew his picture.
Vercingetorix collected an army, and moved northwards, to
crush the scattered legions and to raise the Belgae, while his
second in command went south, to rouse the southern Gauls
and to overwhelm the Province. Caesar returned hot-foot from
Italy, and fell on the Arvernian lands ; so that the Arvernians
in the Gallic army, like the Bellovaci before, abandoned the
general cause to defend their homes ; and the legions were
saved. Then Caesar hastened with only a troop of horse
through the Aeduan land, and rejoined his army. Thence
southwards again to Noviodunum (Nevers), Avhich he took.
Vercingetorix now saw that the time for open force Avas past,
and induced his countrymen to take a terrible resolution. They
would destroy all their towns and houses, and starve out the
enemy. Over twenty Biturigan towns were burnt in one day.
But when they came to Avaricum (Bourges), their hearts failed,
and it Avas spared; — spared that Caesar might presently storm
it, and put every human being to the sword — and find in it
1 Vercingetorix means ' the great chief of a hundred kings.' ' A/er '
(Welsh vawr) = great ; ' cin,' ' kin ' (or kenna) = chief ; ' geto,' ' keto,' ' kedo '
(Greek k-mT-6v) = a hundred, and 'rix' (Lat. rar)=king. It is not quite
clear whether it is a proper name or a title of office. At any rate it is
characteristically Gallic in its splendour.

—B.C. 50. VERCINGETORIX AT ALESIA. 33
ample food and munitions of Avar. Thus their sacrifices were
rendered null, because they had not heart to carry them out
completely. Four legions were now sent Avith Labienus to the
north ; with six Caesar marched on Gergovia in the land of
the Arvernians. But there Vercingetorix won a splendid victory
over him ; and he had to raise the siege and fall back on La
bienus. The Gallic hero was now strong enough to revert to
his old plan. He moved northward against Caesar, and sent
a subsidiary army into the Province. But Caesar gave him
battle not far from Divio (Dijon), defeated him, and broke the
Gallic spirit. The heroism that would willingly have died
could not bear defeat. Vercingetorix was compelled to with
draw his weakened forces into the fortress-town of Alesia in
the Mandubian country, till the Gauls had time to recover
spirit. Alesia stood on the crown of an oval hill, in the midst
of an amphitheatre of mountains, its feet washed by two rivers.
The town and its works covered the whole plateau of the hill ;
its sides were steep and unassailable. Here was the theatre
of the last struggle between independent Gaul and Rome*
between Vercingetorix and Caesar. The Gallic cavalry were
sent forth to rouse the land ; the infantry held the town. It
was a last effort, and all heard the cry and came, except the
Remi, the old and faithful friends of Rome. Meanwhile the
garrison suffered horribly; it became a question of starving or
expelling the non-combatants. They were driven forth to
perish between the rocky Avails of the fortress and the not less
stony lines of the besiegers, like the wretched citizens under
the walls of Chateau Gaillard in 1204. Caesar's skill as a
spade-soldier again served him in good stead. He drew great
lines round the place, and rested in them, awaiting the supreme
moment. At last the relieving army came. From within and
without the Gauls threAV themselves on the Roman works.
There was a hill so large that the Roman earthworks could
not encircle it. Two legions held it ; it was the key of the
position, and against it the chief efforts of the Gauls were in
vain directed. After a long and terrible struggle the Roman
vol. 1. r>

34

CAESAR IN GAUL. B.C. 50.

remained master of the place. The relieving army was driven
back ; Vercingetorix withdrew into Alesia. Next day he called
his men together, and told them he was going to Caesar, that
by sacrificing himself he might save them. And the last scene
was Avorthy of the rest, and eminently Gallic. Caesar sat on
a high tribunal within the Roman lines. Suddenly a splendid
horseman, fully armed, his steed covered with bright trappings,
came in at a gallop, and reined up his horse at Caesar's feet. It
was Vercingetorix, who dismounted, threw down his arms, and
silently awaited his doom, beaten but not broken, before the man
whose ' lines of destiny ' had so cruelly crossed his own. Caesar
shewed the unworthy side of the Roman character. The patriot
was in his eyes only a rebel, the hero a barbarian. He broke
out into bitter words, and bade the lictors seize him. Vercinge
torix was reserved ' to make a Roman show'; then for six years
he lay in prison, before the axe fell and released his noble soul.
But he had saved the Arvernians from ruin. Caesar set free
twenty thousand captives : the war lingered on, in a petty way,
through 51 b.c ; by the winter Gaul was ' pacified,' and at the
conqueror's feet.
From that moment Caesar's Avhole policy changed. He
became kind, almost indulgent. He had read the Gallic cha
racter, and saw what great use he could make of it. With the
legions devoted to him, and an exhaustless reserve of Gauls,
his path to Rome was open. Ere long we have the Gallic
legion, the ' Alauda ' or Lark, so called from the figure of a
lark, a relic of the old Gallic splendour, on their helmets; and
this body did Caesar good service at Pharsalia and elsewhere.
He lightened the Gallic tribute, and called it by a softer name :
he did what he could to lessen the evils of debt and clientship —
other names for slavery; forbade human sacrifices, and repressed
Druidism, the lifespring of their national existence. The Romans
grumbled ; for he seemed to slight them, — as indeed he did,
despising the motley crew. He seems really to have liked the
gallant Gaul better than the dissolute and unworthy successors
of old Rome, the mongrel occupants of the Imperial City.

MAPI

Kit ch iris France T.

CHAPTER IV.
Gaul under Roman Influences.
B.C. 50-A.D. 476.
We shall treat of this period only in so far as it is needful
to trace the education of the Gaul in Roman ideas, and the
growth of a certain civilisation in the country. It is not
interesting; for it is a time of ever-increasing wretchedness,
first under the Roman heel, then under the equally crush
ing domination of the German. It would seem as though the
light and impressible Gaul needed this severe discipline before
he could take his right place in history; and the modification
of his ideas under Roman influences gives us the clue to much
of his later character. His conceptions of universal empire,
whether intellectual or martial, come from Rome ; thence also
comes his habit of living by law, his desire for ' logical sequence,'
and his tendency to reduce all things to their principles and to
codes ; hence also springs his delight in centralised city-life ;
hence his deep belief in the equality of all mankind, which
again is joined with indifference as to personal freedom ; hence
perhaps also comes what has seemed to be an inaptness for
constitutional ways of government; hence come, finally, his
nomenclature and his language.

36 THE FINAL STRUGGLE AGAINST ROME. B.C. 50—
We may divide this period into four parts :
I. The final struggle against Rome, b.c 50-A.D. 70.
II. Gaul under the Empire to the accession of Diocletian,
a.d. 70-284.
III. The age of barbarian incursions and the struggle
against the Germans, a.d. 284-406.
IV. The age of German settlements to the era of Hlodowig
(Clovis), a.d. 406-476.
I. The final struggle against Rome, B.C. 50-A.D. 70.
Plutarch tells us that Caesar fought in Gaul against three
millions : one million perished ; one million was enslaved ;
one remained free l. And thus Avas Gaul ' pacified ' ! She lay
prostrate at her master's feet. But the race quickly recovered
its numbers. ' They are fruitful,' says Strabo, ' and good at
nurturing children.' In spite of oppression and slavery the
Gaul made some progress during the five centuries of Roman
domination. At the beginning they were savages, and their
land a land of forests, Avild hills, and waste fertile valleys, in
habited by quarrelsome clans, scanty in numbers, subsisting on
precarious hunting-spoil, on the banks of desolate rivers.
They had scarcely a town or a road. At the end of the
period there were fine cities ; much of the land was under
cultivation ; the inhabitants wore the Roman dress, lived in
large part under Roman laAV, and had adopted Roman arts of
life, language, and letters.
It is obvious that Roman influences would naturally spread
from the Province outAvards, and that the Province would be
thoroughly Roman long before the rest of Gaul. There is a
risk lest the observations of ancient travellers, which really refer
to the state of the Province, should be taken to apply to the
Avhole country. Light came from the East to Gaul. The
Mediterranean cities, Tyre, Carthage, Athens, Rome, Alexandria,
were centres of learning, thought, and commerce ; and from them,
1 Plut. Caes. p. 715.

—B.C. 49. JULIUS SUBDUES THE PROVINCES. 37
with the Mediterranean as a highway, came the early civilisation
of Marseilles, Narbonne, and other cities of the Province. From
them it passed inland to Toulouse, Aries, Nimes, Vienne. And so
the South took the lead, and kept it through the early Middle Ages,
till activity of thought brought it into collision with the Church
and with France ; then it fell by the hand of De Montfort J-
The struggles of the thirteenth century may be traced back to
the barbarian invasions, which changed the balance of Europe ;
for the power of the North grew ever stronger. The Northern
and Southern influences met in France, and France became
the chief battlefield. At one time it might Avell have been a
question whether Lyons or Paris should be the chief city of
France ; the northern influences, however, were the stronger,
and Paris, a city lying on the northernmost of her great rivers,
became the capital.
In the North the German influences Avere strong in after-
times ; but the German never imprinted his mark on the Gallic
character so deeply as did the Roman. The Roman was the
first teacher ; the pupil Avas fresh and eager to learn.
The year after the close of the ten years' war (b.c 49)
Massilia fell. Her evil star led her, with the Province, to join
Pompey's party ; and Caesar attacked and vanquished her. To
secure the unwilling allegiance of the Province and the humilia
tion of Massilia, he established military colonies filled with his
partisans. Aries was recolonised ; he founded Forum Julii
(Frdjus) 2, with a fine harbour which made it a formidable rival to
Marseilles ; Frejus was as detrimental to the Eastern trade as Nar
bonne Avas to the Western commerce of the Phocaean capital.
Though Caesar Avas suspicious of the Provincials, and masterful
towards them, he had no such feelings tOAvards the rest of Gaul.
He had already granted citizenship to the whole Legion of the
Lark ; and the imperial city was daily expecting some new
violation of her sanctity, when the old Senatorial party, taking
1 The corresponding civilisation of Sicily culminated and began to wane
at the same time, under the great Emperor Frederick II.
2 Frejus, which lies between Toulon and Antibes, is now a poor little
town two or three miles from the sea.

38 THE FINAL STRUGCLE AGAINST ROME. B.C. 44—
advantage of the jealousies of the moment, murdered Caesar on
the Ides of March, 44 b.c The foreigners at Rome made them
selves conspicuous by the marked share they took in the public
mourning. They knew that their friend was gone, and that old
Rome had struck at them through him.
Julius had left Gaul very much to herself; Augustus set
himself to tutor her. His'gift of organisation there found a fine
field. The Julian towns had all been built in the interests of
Caesar's party ; the Augustan cities had all a political aim. He
centralised authority by making Lyons, a new town, the capital.
His policy was to build a new city wherever it might destroy
the influence of some city already venerable in Gallic eyes.
Thus Lyons overshadowed Vienne ; Augustonemetum (Clermont-
Ferrand) supplanted Gergovia. He gave new names (often the
names of old clans) to old cities *. Bibracte was renamed Augusto-
dunum (Autun); Noviodunum, Augusta Suessionum (Soissons);
and, probably, Avaricum, Biturigae (Bourges). He favoured
local jealousies, and crushed local patriotism. He divided the
country into four provinces, so arranged as to cut across all
older distinctions of race 2. These were the Belgica, which, with
a fringe of wild half-Germanised lands between its marches and
the Rhine, spread from the English Channel along the Seine to
the eastern limits of Helvetia (the Sequanian territory being
reckoned in with it), and ran down to a point below Geneva :
then the Lugdunensis stretching as a narrow strip from the
Armorican coast to Lyons, between the Seine and the Loire;
thirdly, Aquitania, which lay in a solid mass from the Loire to
the Spanish frontier, and ran from near Toulouse up to Lyons ;
and lastly, the Narbonensis, which touched both the Spanish
and the Italian frontiers, and had its northernmost point at
Lyons. Thus Lyons became the manifest centre of the system,
not included specially in any province, but accessible to all.
In fifteen years Augustus raised it from a village to a great city.
It had a fine market, a mint, a splendid central temple; it
1 The reverse process to that of the ' eadem magistratuum nomina'
2 As may be seen by comparing Maps II (p. 35) and III (p. 67).

— A.D. 21. AUGUSTUS ORGANISES ROMAN GAUL. 39
teemed with rhetoricians, and had booksellers' shops. Strabo
says it was next in size to Narbo. The central temple, built
where the Arar (Saone) and the Rhone meet, was dedicated to
Augustus and Rome. There stood the Emperor's altar, sur
rounded by statues of the sixty-four Gallic ' cities Y symbolising
the centralisation and subjection of the country 2. Every year
each city sent its delegates to Lyons, where they celebrated
a solemn sacrifice in honour of the Emperor and the Goddess
Rome. The assembly so constituted for religious purposes
became a sort of national assembly representative of the whole
country; it discussed grievances, it apportioned the taxation,
kept a common treasury, and afforded an outlet for provincial
ambitions. Lyons was also the centre of the Emperor's road-
system. Besides the way into Helvetia through Geneva, and
the still more important communication with Italy over the
Cottian Alps, both of which ran from Lyons, there were four
great Augustan roads, the main arteries of traffic throughout all
Gaul. One, to the north, passed through Cabillonum (Chalons-
sur-Sa6ne), Divodurum (Metz), Augusta Trevirorum (Trier or
Treves), and ended at Confluentes (Coblenz). The second, to
the north-west, ran through Augustodunum (Autun) and Agen-
dincum (Sens), and ended at Gesoriacum (Boulogne). The third,
due west, crossed the Arvernian hills, through Augustoritum
(Limoges), and came down to the ocean. The fourth, to the
south, dropped down the left bank of the Rhone to Tarasco,
where it split asunder; one branch to Massilia, the other to
Narbo. Under the eye of Augustus, Roman influences spread, specially
among the young nobles. ProA'ence became more Italian than
Italy herself, as Pliny said ; and in the ' Imperial Province,' as
the rest of Gaul was called 3, civic life began to supplant the old
1 They were rather cantons, or small states.
2 The temple was on the Athenaeum, a name still surviving in the church
of Aisnay, two sides of whose central dome are still supported by one of
the huge columns of the temple, cut in two.
3 Augustus divided the Roman world into Provinces, Senatorial and Im
perial. The Senatorial were those quiet countries which needed no special

40 THE FINAL STRUGGLE AGAINST ROME. A.D. 21.
clan feeling. Centralised organisation prevailed: schools were
established ; for Greek learning, Massilia ; for Latin, Augusto-
dunum: and the Gaul was before long found teaching Latin
to the Latins at Rome. Rhetoric, that Celtic gift, flourished.
Druidism was discouraged ; and the polytheism of eastern Gaul
was Wrought into one system with the polytheism of Rome.
The rights of Imperial citizenship dazzled the ambition of the
younger chiefs ; Roman law was introduced, and took root in
the south ; though the ' breeks ' lingered on, the young . chief
tain donned the toga proudly, and deemed himself a Roman.
His quick imagination was touched by the glory, and fascinated
by the impure civilisation of the Eternal City. The altar of
Rome was at Lyons ; she was looked on as divine as Avell as
eternal, personal as well as omnipotent. Grand buildings, on
Roman lines, sprang up. And though this foreign splendour
Avas laden with heavy taxes, yet it spread ; till by the time
of Tiberius a great transformation had been accomplished in
the race.
This burden of taxation, and a certain clinging to down
trodden Druidism, led to an uprising, headed by the Trevirans
under Florus, and the Aeduans under Sacrovir1, in a.d. 21. It
was soon subdued ; and the reign of Tiberius is only marked
by the increased severity of the government. Caligula (a.d. 37)
returned to a milder policy ; and by his acts in Gaul poured
a half-crazy contempt on Rome. At Lyons, before the. very
altar of Augustus, he held forced competitions in eloquence.
Each victor won a prize and a panegyric, which the defeated
competitors had to compose. The author of a condemned piece
Avas made to wipe it off the waxed tablets with his tongue, or
perhaps was beaten, or, chance times, throAvn into the Rhone.
The Emperor also played the auctioneer, and sold to the highest
bidder the heir-looms of the Empire, giving the history of each
watchfulness ; the Imperial were all border-lands, mostly newly conquered
territories. Consequently, the Narbonensis was Senatorial, the rest of Gaul
Imperial. 1 Was Sacrovir the translation of the name of a Druidical office ?

A.D. 41. CLAUDIUS BEFRIENDS GAUL. 41
piece. ' This vase is Egyptian, it belonged once to Antony,
Augustus took it at Actium;' or, ' This piece Avas my father's; '
and so on till he had dragged the greatest names of old Rome
in the mire. There is nothing more curious than the alienation
of the Caesars from Rome. Claudius (emperor in 41 a.d.) was
born at Lyons : all his sympathies Avere Provincial. He spoke
Latin Avith an accent ; he openly preferred Greek, and boasted
of his Sabine origin and Gallic birthplace — he was proud of
anything except Rome. A speech he made in the Senate,
advocating the throwing open of that august assembly to the
Gallic chiefs, has been preserved in a short form by Tacitus.
Part of it, engraved on a metal tablet, is still to be seen among
the archives of Lyons. He visited all parts of Gaul, examining
and regulating everything ; he prohibited human sacrifices, and
the Druid worship. In his time the sense of the equality of
all men under the law grew stronger. He raised, as far as
he could, the more degraded classes, and established schools.
The provinces were governed by procurators, mostly freedmen ;
slaves Avere emancipated; the old Romans were taught to
regard the Gauls as their equals, even their brethren, under
the law.
Nero, Avith his Greek sympathies, cared little for ' Imperial '
Gaul ; but to the Province, so full of Greek elements, he was
friendly enough. He rebuilt Lyons after a great fire ; at his
death no city mourned more sincerely for him. Gaul bore her
full share of the troubles which his death entailed ; at last she
broke out into revolt. In 69 a.d. the old Druid party rose,
under one Marie, who said he had come down from heaven ;
a few cohorts scattered the loose levy of peasants, and took
their leader. A great trouble was at hand — a last Gallic war,
in which the northern tribes, led by a German, gallantly resisted
all the power of Rome.
Augustus had marked off a narrow strip along the left bank
of the Rhine, from Basel to the Batavian island. This district
being chiefly peopled with Germans, received the high-sounding
names of the Upper and LoAver Germanies. Here, too, the

42 THE FINAL STRUGGLE A.D. 70.
eight frontier-legions lay in a chain of strong military tOAvns 1.
These troops were largely recruited from the natives of the dis
trict ; they seldom changed quarters. They looked forward to
permanent settlement on the soil at the end of their service ;
they identified themselves with the district and its people. The
officers even wore the Gallic dress : we read that Vitellius him
self marched as consul before the eagles in the Gallic treAvs :
Caecina, Avho commanded a legion in the Upper Germany, wore
his light plaid cloak and trousers even in Italy2. But this
tendency towards combination between Gaul and Rome was
ever thwarted by the stream of German immigrants from over
the Rhine ; and the Batavian insurrection was a protest against
the influence of the legions. These declared for Vitellius ; the
national party for Vespasian ; hoping thereby to win inde
pendence, or at least to damage the legions. Though the
Batavian s island had been peopled by a wild tribe of Gauls,
a little before the Christian era a horde of Catti4, a German tribe,
had entered the island, and being men of large stature and fierce
bravery, soon became interesting to Roman eyes. Tacitus calls
them ' bravest of Germans.' They formed the imperial body
guard till Vespasian's time. Their valour turned the tide of
battle at Pharsalia ; they were exempt from taxes, being allies
not subjects of Rome. Rome treated them as so many living
weapons *. These men, Germans not Gauls, headed the last
revolt. As the one race died, the other awoke : the Roman
power indeed prevailed, but Civilis foreshadowed at the same
moment the coming pre-eminence of the German race. All Gaul
was moved except the old Province. The eastern cities sought
an independent government of the Roman type — indicating to
what extent Roman ideas had already taken root : western and
central Gaul rose in behalf of Druidism : the Belgae desired
1 This is why almost all the Rhine cities are on the left bank, Cologne,
Bonn, Andemach, Coblenz, Bingen, Mainz, Spiers, Worms, &c.
2 Tac. Hist. 2. 20.
3 Possibly from the Gallic Bat-av, ' deep-water.'
* Their home was on the Weser, in the Cassel country.
5 ' A/elut tela atque arma, bellis reservantur,' says Tacitus, Germ. 29.

A.D. 70. AGAINST ROME. 43
freedom and a military chief, after the instincts of their half-
German nature. The eastern cities and the Remi yielded
without a struggle ; the central rising was easily put down ; the
western tribes and the Belgae would not fight away from home,
and so the whole brunt fell on Civilis and his Batavians. He,
who had won a Roman name and Roman skill in Avar by service
Avith the legions, made a glorious resistance. He is fortunate
in his historian, Tacitus, Avhose Histories, as we have them, break
off abruptly at the very moment when Civilis, abandoned by his
followers, stands on the broken bridge treating for terms of sur
render with the Roman Cerealis. There the darkness suddenly
closes in on his noble figure, grand even in defeat ; and the
independent life of ancient Gaul is ended.

CHAPTER V.
II. Gaul under the Empire, A.D. 70-284.
It is not always true that ' happy is the land which has no
annals.' Gaul after the fall of Civilis has no history for a
century : yet it was a time of groAving misery. Tacitus had
been struck, at the beginning of this period, Avith the listless-
ness and sloth of the race : moral degradation speedily followed.
The Romanised chiefs lost their vigour, becoming rich, idle, and
dissolute ; the common folk sank into despair : the citizens fell
gradually, with a groAving outward display of civilisation, into
a wretched state. Trajan, Adrian, the Antonines, were friendly
towards Gaul: public buildings rose on every side; Gallic artists,
sophists, and rhetoricians were welcome at their courts. But
these outward splendours did but cloak over the inner corrup
tion. And though these emperors broke down all barriers, and
gave Gaul full rights of citizenship, still the gates Avere only
opened that the Gaul might share in decay and moral downfall.
The degradation of Rome and Gaul went on with equal paces :
slavery, cause and consequence, ever increased. Throughout
the second century the barbarians left Gaul untouched : she
was ripening for destruction. They gave her time to accept the
Roman law, and the Roman dogma of the equality of all men,
the basis of Roman law and philosophy. As the old political
distinctions faded aAvay with the old polytheism, this better faith
gradually asserted itself. It could not arrest the downfall ; but
it sowed seed Avhich bore fruit : it cleared the way for Chris
tianity — the one prominent historical fact of this period. Druids

A.D. 160. THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. 45
had taught the immortality of the soul and monotheism ; so
far they had helped : Rome had preached order and law, and
the first rights of mankind; and she also helped: then came
the Gospel, in which a new freedom and a broader equality
were preached ; an equality of man and woman, of bond and
free. One of the first Christian martyrs of Gaul was Blandina,
a woman, and a slave.
At Lyons there were representatives of many races : among
them Asiatics, and doubtless Christians. In the year 160 or
161 a. d., an Asiatic priest, one Pothinus l, settled there, and
became first bishop of Lyons. With him came Irenaeus. They
ministered to their countrymen, there and at Vienne. Thus
Christianity first found footing in Gaul ; coming not from Rome,
but from the East. The Church at Lyons long bore the stamp
of Greek origin ; her ritual Avas Greek ; she still retains a certain
independence of worship. The Church in Rome (at that time
also Greek) was struggling for life, and had no spare energies for
missionary work. At first the few Christians whose names we
know in Lyons are Greek ; but Gallo-Roman names soon
appear. Prosecution folloAved ; for Montanist opinions vexed
the infant Church. Irenaeus, second bishop of Lyons, with one
hand spread the faith, with the other repressed Gnostic and other
misbeliefs. The orthodoxy of the Gallican Church, thus early
tested, was destined to have considerable political results when
Orthodox Frank and Arian Goth struggled for the mastery.
From Lyons the Gospel spread ; at Augustodunum (Autun),
Divio (Dijon), Vesontio (Besancon), and elsewhere, small com
munities formed themselves. There the progress was slow,
except in the Province. Not till the reign of the Emperor Philip
(244 a. d.) can any decided movement be remarked. Rome at
that time sent forth a new mission. The Latin Christians won far
greater triumphs than the Greek had enjoyed. Fabian, bishop of
Rome, sent seven bishops into Gaul. They would not touch at
Marseilles, ' that most zealous worshipper of Roman devils,' as
1 Pothinus, iroSav6s ; or perhaps Photinus, ¦pantos. It is uncertain
which.

46 GAUL UNDER THE EMPIRE. A.D. 244.
the Acts of St. Victor call it, from its obstinate adherence to the
old pagan worship. They' landed at Narbo, and pushed inland.
Augustoritum (Limoges) and Caesarodunum (Tours), became
new centres of the Gospel. Dionysius (251 a.d.) pushed on
farther, and with eleven brethren settled at Lutetia (Paris), and
there founded the church of Northern France. To him the
church of St. Denis was afterwards dedicated. From this time
Christianity spread swiftly ; so swiftly that in three generations
almost all Gaul had embraced the faith : the final struggle
between Christendom and Paganism was, in reality, fought out
on Gallic soil.
This is also the time of what is sometimes called the ' Gallo-
Roman Empire.' The provincial emperors or 'tyrants,' who
tried to sever West from East, belong not to Gallic but to Roman
history. Though Gaul was the centre of their operations, they
neither affected her progress nor arrested her decay. The
barbarians begin to move. Allemans make themselves felt in
214 a.d., Franks in 241. A little after the latter date, hordes
of Franks pass through the whole length of Gaul, and ravage
Spain : — they even take ship and make a raid on the African
coast. Gaul, for the first time, is severed from Italy.
In 273, 274 a.d., Gaul Avas again joined to Rome by Aurelian ;
under Probus his successor, the barbarians Avere driven back
beyond the Rhine. With Frankish captives Probus recolonised
the two Germanies, and let Germans settle in Toxandria (Flan
ders), and even in Nervian and Treviran lands. These German
colonists, who thus permanently thrust back the Gallic frontier,
are called by Latin writers Laett, a name which is probably akin
to the German 'lass' (tired, slow). This name seems first to
have been employed in reference to the many Germans who
settled as agriculturists in Gaul, and then to have come to denote
a whole class of small husbandmen, Avhether German or not, who
held their lands by a semi-servile tenure \
By this time the ancient names of places in Gaul had mostly
1 Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer, p. 305 ; Waitz, Das alte Recht
der salischen Franken, p. 288; Guerard, Polyptique d'Irminon, Proleg.

A.D. 284. AN AGE OF TRANSITION. 47
perished. The towns were modelled on the municipal form, and
governed by a curia or senate ; sometimes (in the south) under
consuls. These municipal senates found the duty of government
burdensome. Like the early holders of a seat in Parliament
in England, they would gladly have escaped from a perilous
and expensive honour. Unwillingly they laid the foundations
of the civic liberties of their country, just as the English towns
unwillingly began the political liberties we now enjoy.
The state of things was transitional. While Rome withered
and the moral state of Gaul grew worse, Christianity and bar
barism pushed forward from opposite points. Presently they
meet, having conquered the Gaul, and with their alliance begins
a neAV era.

CHAPTER VI.
III. The age of barbarian incursions and the struggle
against the Germans, A.D. 284-406.
It is time we turned our attention to the German— the chief
figure for centuries in our history. He is described to us as
a bigger man than the Gaul, gigantic in comparison with the
Roman. His bright blue eyes and shaggy red hair are well-
knoAvn to us. The description of the Gaul by Roman writers
goes far to show that at some distant time he had been a
cousin of the German ; and philology also proves the claim of
kin. The likeness however is almost all on the surface. In habits,
character, and manners, he was very different. The German wore
a skin round his body, fastened by a coarse pin or skewer, and
had none of the Gallic love of colour — a difference which dis
tinguishes German from French dress even in our day. He
had none of the Gaul's vivacity or fickleness: his tenden
cies were simple, constant, some will say rather common
place. He felt the dark mysteries of the forest, while he had
little or none of the bright and playful imagination of the
Gaul. He hated the restraints of town life. To live by
hunting seemed to him to be the only true life. He was no
great talker, being rather heavy than not : the Gaul, we know,
could talk and boast for ever. His domestic relations Avere
simple and pure. His tendencies were towards personal free
dom, and independent life ; the opposites of Gallic devotion
and clan-feeling. Connected with this was his disposition
to seek God in the solitude of the forest, in an independent
way, each man standing in direct relation to his Maker;

A.D. 284. THE CHIEF GERMAN TRIBES.

49

Avhereas the Gaul had an organised hierarchy between him and
the Almighty, and wished to serve him as a member of his clan,
rather than as an individual. Here is one germ of that differ
ence of character Avhich afterwards made the North German a
Protestant, Avhile the Frenchman clung to the more social and
hierarchical system of Rome. Finally, while the slave Avas a promi
nent object in a Gallic household, the German's hearth was girt
with trusty and free companions. He had his ' leudes,' his
'trusty fellows' (' antrustions'), his 'comrades' ('gesellen' or
' gesithas '), all free, and attached to him not by clanship but by
a personal tie. This strong individuality was needed to pene
trate the level mass of Roman society, to develop the qualities
called out by Christianity, and to give to modern civilisation its
many-sided character.
Such was the race, which now began to pour over the ill-
defended frontiers into corrupt and unwarlike Gaul. There were
great differences between the tribes : the less barbarous, com
ing into the more civilised districts, fell in readily with Roman
ways : others retained their first simplicity and fierceness. The
Franks, who long retained the German characteristics, especially
affected the history of Gaul ; they also overran and influenced
Gaul at two different times ; the work begun by the Neustrians
being carried on by the Austrasians under the house of
Pippin. The following are the chief federations of Teutonic, and
kindred nations which entered Gaul :
i. The Goths; two of whose subdivisions, Visigoths (or West-
Goths) and Ostrogoths (East-Goths), interest us most. They
dwelt first in Scandinavia (whence Gothland, &c), and after-
Avards spread across Europe to the Black Sea, and southwards
even into Spain. The Ostrogoths settled in Italy; the Visi
goths in Southern France and Spain.
2. The Vandals; among whom the Burgundians, Herulians,
and Langobards are important to us. Their home lay between
the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic. They spread through
Spain into Africa. The Burgundians established themselves
VOL. I. E

50 AGE OF BARBARIAN INCURSIONS. A.D. 284.
in Eastern Gaul: the Langobards and Herulians in Northern
Italy. 3. The Allemans and Suabians (Suevi), who lay betAveen the
Main, Rhine, and Danube, threatening the very vitals of the
Roman Empire. These have left but slight traces, of themselves
in Gaul.
4. The Franks; a confederation of Northern tribes. Their
chief divisions Avere the Salians, dwelling on the river Sala (or
Yssel) ; and the Ripuarians, on the banks of the Rhine. These
were the chief conquerors of Gaul, and have given her her
modern name.
Such were the main divisions of the barbarians who, at the
beginning of Diocletian's reign, threatened the frontiers of the
Empire. It must not be forgotten that these Teutonic tribes came in as
conquerors rather than destroyers. They had learnt to respect
the great name of Rome before they seized her fairest provinces.
They were not at all like the Huns, whose incursions meant
utter ruin. They prided themselves on Roman titles ; their
more ambitious chiefs entered the imperial service. The Goths
especially wished to imitate Rome, and modelled their govern
ment on Roman forms.
The reign of Diocletian (a. d. 284) is important to us, because
of the change of system begun by him and carried out by Con
stantine. Hitherto the Empire had been, in theory, a nation
of equal citizens under the Emperor as their head: hence
forward it began to sink into a nation of slaves, absolutely
dependent on that Emperor's will. The army was no longer
omnipotent. ' The reign of the legions ends : the power of
the palace-domestics begins1.' The old names of offices dis
appear: dukes and counts arise. The Empire seemed to
be under an Oriental despotism : Diocletian had his palace at
Nicomedia, and held court in Persian fashion. The Empire
Avas divided into tetrarchies, the provinces parcelled out into
' dioceses/ or circles of administration, each with its chief town.
1 La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, *. 5.

A.D. 312. DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE. 51
Gaul was in two vicariates : one in the south, the Narbonensis
and Aquitania ; the other north of the Loire, stretching to the
Rhine. The Gauls sank into great misery; and a peasant
Avar broke out. This early Jacquerie followed the usual course :
the people slew and ate the cattle, pillaged the houses of the
rich, sacked the towns. They destroyed Augustodunum with
her Latin schools. In some way the outbreak was mixed up
with the ferment caused by the preaching of Christianity. It
was easily suppressed.
The Avork begun by Diocletian in the east was continued by
Constantine on the western side of the Empire. Born in the west,
preferring it to the east, indeed to Rome herself, he was the man
who, had the evils of the time been curable, would have cured
them. But the curse of slavery crushed society, and Gaul went
on sinking ever deeper. Yet she arouses a fresh interest, as
being the field on which the battle between Christianity and
Paganism Avas finally fought out. It was the strength which
Christianity had won in Gaul that made Constantine declare
himself Christian : no sooner had he done so, than he found
himself, like Henry IV of France long after, able to march
straight to supreme power. , The Gauls flocked to him, eager
to fight under the Labarum1; and in a.d. 312 Constantine and
Christianity entered Rome in triumph. He sanctioned public
Christian worship : the Church modelled her dioceses on those
of the civil poAver — they were similar in government, conter
minous in extent. The Christian religion passed through a
change answering closely to that of the State. The chief clergy,
hitherto only private persons, became important magistrates :
the Church, instinctively and unconsciously, adopted that form
which best prepared it to cope afterwards with the barbarians.
The bishop of each city, with his clergy, now took charge of it,
1 It was a lance near whose head a cross-bar was fixed, from which hung
a purple veil interwoven with gold threads and starred with precious stones.
Above it rose the sacred monogram of our Lord, encircled with a golden
crown. Its motto was 'Sub hoc signo vinces.' It was always carried near
the emperor, defended by the flower of his army ; the origin of the name is
unknown. The Oriflamme of the Vexin was afterwards regarded with like
feelings of reverence. E 2

52 AGE OF BARBARIAN INCURSIONS. A.D. 312.
and laid the foundations of that lofty position to which aftenvards
the bishops of the eighth and ninth century were raised. The
curials (or members of the civil municipality) lost their authority,
and the clergy, the aristocracy of the fourth and fifth centuries,
took their place. What Avas before a simple ministry of the
Gospel under chief pastors or bishops, now became a grand
hierarchical system. In many places, in which the Christian
religion was dominant, the curials handed over to the Church
the temples, and even the law courts or basilicas. Where the
Roman law had once been dispensed, the law and worship of
Christ now alone Avere heard ; figures of Christ and the Apostles
replaced the images of the Caesars. Thus the new power was
strengthened to work not only on the hearts of men, but on
the outer Avorld. Public buildings were transferred and adapted
to Christian uses; the outward symbols of the older faith
abolished : pagan idols, tombs, sculptures, all fell before the
zeal of the Christians. It is interesting to notice that this epoch,
in Avhich the Church entered into new and close relations with
the State, is the moment at which there came a great severance
of the old relations between Church and State. In Pagan times
the emperor had been Supreme Pontiff, and head of the Church.
Henceforth he ceased to have any such claim or office : he
was no longer supreme head over the religion of mankind.
And this separation prepared the way for the claims of the
Papacy at a later date. The Pope inherited the great name of
Supreme Pontiff thus abandoned by the State, and rose to
an imperial height in Rome, deserted by her Emperors.
Thus, then, the Church prepared herself for her part in the
future; she also did this by facing the theological questions
which arose, and which especially affected the progress of
Christianity in Gaul. This Avas the day of Arianism, which
seemed likely to become the faith of Western Christendom.
For it was adopted by the Goths and most of the Christianised
barbarians, it filled Italy, it was accepted by Emperors. It was
thrust back by the Gallican Church. Athanasius, in his banish
ment, settled at Tieves, and was the teacher of Hilary of Aries.

A.D. 312. GAUL IN CONSTANTINE'S DAYS.

53

Ambrose, the great Bishop of Milan, was a Gaul. The Gallic
Church, during the Frankish era, smote doAvn Arianism in a
coarse and practical way, and settled the main question as to
the dominant faith of Western Europe.
The state of Gallic society in the time of Constantine
deserves some notice. At the head stood the Senatorial families,
wealthy owners of at least half the soil of Gaul, sprung from
the chiefs of the old clans, free from taxation. Brilliant as their
condition seemed to be, it was precarious and sad. They had
no power, no influence, no independence : the Emperor could
seize their wealth and destroy them at will. Next to them came
the curials, the municipal senators, Avho were responsible for the
collection of the taxes in their cities; the responsibility crushed
them. In this century we hear much of their desperate struggles
to escape from these ruinous honours. The Empire forbade
them to change their condition; neither as soldiers nor as
churchmen could they find relief. They tried to become slaves ;
and even that consolation Avas forbidden them. They could do
nothing but perish ; as indeed they did. The government had
to step in and give to the town-populations the right of electing
an officer in each city called ' the Defender.' He Avas to see that
the poor Avere not overtaxed and to protect his people from
the license of the soldiery. As the office was compulsory,
gratuitous and costly to the holder, it must have been confined
to the wealthy, and indeed we find that as time went on, it Avas
usually filled by the bishop. Next came the small proprietors,
a scanty body ; then the merchants ; then free labourers in
cities, Avho, almost all freed-men, were of no account or in
fluence. Last came the slaves, closing the dreary procession :
these formed the vast majority of the people : slaves of the
house and field, the germ of death in the constitution of the
Empire. Standing in an independent position, the clergy alone offered
promise of the future. They were powerless to stay the down
fall ; but Avould be very powerful in building up again with new
materials. This is probably the time in which the Gallic tongue

54 AGE OF BARBARIAN INCURSIONS. A.D. 355.
perished, except in Armorica, the ' Lugdunensis tertia.' Among
the upper classes it had long gone : the towns had abandoned
it; the clergy discouraged it; even the slaves lost it rapidly. For
as they perished in crowds, they were replaced by others from
a distance, to whom the tongue was unknown. Thus a kind of
Latin sprang up, a dialect as distinct from the Latin of ordinary
speech, as that was from the classical Latin of books ' ; and
parent of that ' Roman ' tongue which Avas spoken generally in
the eighth century, and was in its turn parent of the French
language. Julian is the next emperor who calls for notice from us. His
life was spent in struggles Avith the barbarians. The Allemans
and Franks occupied all his energies. He was appointed head
of the Gallic army in 355 a. d., and Ammianus Marcellinus, the
historian, and Martin, afterwards the sainted Bishop of Tours,
served under him. Julian drove the Franks back into the
Batavian island : then fell on the Allemans at Argentoratum
(Strasburg), defeated them, crossed the Rhine after them, and
brought them to terms.
Still, henceforth the Franks were irrepressible. Though one of
the latest born of German tribes ; — in fact no tribe at all, but a
confederation, traceable only to the middle of the third century; —
they Avere full of vigour, ambition, and wild bravery. Magnentius,
who made himself an emperor in 350 a. d., was a Frank. It is
said he could neither read nor write. Northern Gaul, Batavia, and
Toxandria, Avere filled with Franks. The seat of government
Avas now withdraAvn from Treves to Paris. There Constantius
Chlorus built the famous palace on the left bank of the Seine,
the ruins of which remain to this day. There Julian spent
the winter of 357-8. Hitherto it had been a mere village on
an island in the Seine ; henceforth it becomes famous in history.
1 If one may trust a chance passage, there was an independent Gallic
speech. Sulpicius Severus (circ. A.D. 400) speaking of St. Martin's death, says
the people in their eagerness to hear tell ot Martin did not care what dialect
was used. ' Celtice aut, si mavis, Gallice loquere, dummodo iam Martinum
loquaris.' — Dial. 1. 20. Here 'Celtice' and 'Gallice' seem to refer re
spectively to the old ' Celtic ' tongue, and to some mixed dialects of the
Latin then in use in Gaul.

A.D. 377. JULIAN FOUNDS PARIS. 55
Julian ' the Apostate ' is the true founder of the capital of
France. He loved the place : called it his ' darling Lutetia,'
praised its situation, vines, figs, its pleasant ' sea-breezes ' ; he
built a palace on the left bank of the Seine. Ammianus tells us
that in 355 both court and army were full of Franks. The
names of the officers in Gaul are often barbarous at this time ;
Dagalausus, Charrietto, Balchobaudus, and the like, are in high
place. A little later (a.d. 377) Nerobaldus, a Frankish 'king,'
appears with Gratian in the Consular Fasti. These Franks
changed neither name nor dress. A little later, Arbogast, Frank
and Pagan, became virtual Emperor of the West, though he was
nominally count, at first under Theodosius (a.d. 387-394);
and he filled all offices with Franks. From his time may be
dated that half-contemptuous, half-respectful feeling which
sprang up in the Frankish mind towards the dying civilisation
of the Empire. After Theodosius, Valentinian, nominal Em
peror of the West, was a mere puppet. He tried to depose
Argobast, handing him a writ of degradation, which the Frank
took, and tore before his face, and trampled under foot. Soon
after Valentinian was found dead in his bed, strangled. Even
then Argobast did not make himself Emperor, but set up one
Eugenius, who had been a schoolmaster ; he contented himself
with becoming an imperial ' Mayor of the Palace.'
Thus, though the Allemans were thrust back1, the Franks
entered in. Others also followed. The Saxons took ship, and
sailed from their Elbe to the Seine and Loire ; they even ' pulled
over ' their boats to the Rhone, and descended that river, none
hindering them.
An entirely new invasion also followed: Maximus rebelled
in Britain, and, followed by hordes of British, sailed for Gaul.
He settled with his followers in Armorica, which hence ob
tained the name of Brittany.
Once more invasion took place ; saddest of all : — the invasion
of bloodshed and persecution into the Church. One Pris-
1 They were again thrust back by Gratian (a.d. 378) afte a defeat at
Argentaria (Colmar).

56 AGE OF BARBARIAN INCURSIONS, A.D. 385.
cillian, a Spaniard, became the teacher of a strange impure
Gnosticism. He and his Avere condemned in a. d. 380 at
Saragossa, and tAvo bishops, Ithacius and Idacius, travelled all
the way to Treves to obtain Gratian's judgment against the sect.
Gratian died, and the same bishops, with unwearied zeal, ap
peared before Maximus, and got from him sentence of death
on the heretics. The Spaniard has ever signalised himself
by the activity and joy Avith which he has persecuted: he
has the credit of having begun the system for Christianity. An
universal horror seized on Christendom. Ambrose of Milan
and Martin of Tours protested against the sentence, and
refused to communicate with the Spanish bishops. Martin
especially denounced with eloquent and Christian warmth this
new ' heresy of Ithacius,' that blood should be shed by Chris
tians. Thus the great evangelist of Gaul, the pitiless destroyer
of temples, the firm foe of Arianism, shewed that he drew
a line between false opinions and the men who held them.
Yet, though he was the most powerful man of his time, canon
ised by public acclaim before his death, he could not avert
the shedding of blood. . Priscillian and his folloAvers Avere be
headed at Treves. Martin had prophesied that he should
' be slain by Antichrist.' If it is true that his latter days
were embittered and his end hastened by this misfortune that
had befallen Christendom, his prophecy was to a certain
extent fulfilled. The demon of Christian persecution, which
tasted its first blood in 385, has been an Antichrist through
out the after-history of the Church : opposed to Christ, in being
opposed to that love for man which is the highest quality of the
Gospel. We have already mentioned Arbogast as shewing hoAv the
Frank had penetrated into Gaul. He has another side ; he
was the last upholder of Pagan reaction in Gaul. But Chris
tianity, thanks chiefly to St. Martin, was too strong for him.
The cry of the Christians reached the ears of Theodosius,
Avho hastened to the rescue. Arbogast advanced to meet
him : under the walls of Aquileia Christian and Pa°-an met

A.D. 304. PERSECUTION IN THE CHURCH. 57
(a.d. 394). There for two days the struggle raged. The first
day the Frank held his own : it is said that ten thousand Goths,
fighting under Theodosius, perished. But next day the Avestern
army was utterly defeated. Eugenius, the schoolmaster-emperor,
Avas given up by his guards, and killed; Arbogast fell on his
sword, and died. So ended this Pagan reaction, hopeless from
the beginning. Never again could the faith of old Rome lift
its head : and Gaul itself was more and more felt to be the
heart of Western Christendom.
The Roman had taught the nation equity under the Empire
and the law ; Christianity had taught it the equality of all men
before God ; neither had as yet lessened the evils of slavery.
The Frank was to follow. His sense of personal independ
ence was next to be infused into the Gaul : he, too, would
leave slavery unmitigated. Yet the three influences Avere each
really opposed in principle to the radical characteristics of
slavery: and from their joint action, after ages of suffering,
modern civilisation, — a civilisation free in the main from the
curse of slavery, — has begun to Avork out its principles.
It is now time to trace out the introduction of this third
element, — the Frank.

CHAPTER VII.
IV. The German Settlements in Gaul down to Clovis,
A.D. 406-476.
' Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered
together.' The Romans had now ruled Gaul for some four
hundred and fifty years. They had oppressed the country with
a crushing and almost incredible load of taxation \ From the
days of Nero the currency had been lowered to half its nominal
value, and the small freeholders became almost extinct. Peasant
revolts broke out from time to time, and devastated Gaul.
Even Christians began to look towards the barbarians for aid
against the general misery of the times. Already Germans had
served in the Imperial armies, and been settled as cultivators on
the deserted fields : a slow and steady infiltration had been going
on for two centuries, though as yet it had reinforced only the
agricultural classes. Now the time had come when the German,
noble and keen as the eagle 2, his favourite bird, was to swoop
down on Gaul and destroy the last remnant of Roman rule.
On the night of the last day of the year 406, a great horde
crossed the Rhine on the ice, and entered Gaul. Alans, Vandals,
Goths, and Huns were there. They fell on Moguntiacum
(Mainz), took it, and slaughtered thousands of its citizens in
the cathedral. All Northern Gaul fell at once. City after city was
taken and plundered. The great host pressed on across the
land; they passed the Loire, and entered even Novempopulania3-
The inhabitants suffered terribly along their devastating line of
march. The old rising of peasants, called Bagaudes4, again
1 The land-tax alone has been calculated at 20 millions sterling.
2 Adel, edel, Adler.
3 The ' land of the nine peoples ' lay in the extreme south-west of Gaul,
from Bordeaux to the Pyrenees.
* The Bagaudes (a name derived from Celtic bagad, a company, troop)

A.D. 409. THE GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN GAUL. 59
took place in the West, and spread across almost all Gaul ; it
embraced noAv not only runaway-slaves, but wretched cities and
the wrecks of society. At the same time the Armoricans, incited
by their kinsmen across the channel, expelled the Roman
officials and set up for themselves a kind of Republic1 In
409 the mixed crowd of barbarians streamed over into Spain.
This brought no peace to Gaul; for in 412 the Visigoths left
North Italy, and under Ataulf (whose name is latinized as
Adolphus) came down to the Rhone, to settle, not to plunder. It
seemed well to him to make in Southern Gaul a kingdom and a
home. He had married Placidia, sister of the Emperor Honorius,
so binding himself to the social life and conditions of Rome. He
dreamed of restoring the Empire, reorganising it and welding into
it the new elements ; joining the civilised to the barbarian, the
old polish to the new vigour. He thought that nothing but the
wild madness of his Goths hindered the fulfilment of the scheme2.
But the decay of the Empire was at least as much in fault as the
rudeness of the Goths; for the old government could bear no such
mending as that. This dream of the Gothic king is worthy of
notice, as shewing us the influence that Roman ideas had over
the German, and as a forecast of that transfer of Empire, under
very changed conditions, from the Latin to the German Avhich
is so prominent a feature of the Middle Ages. It slumbered
till the days of Charles the Great; after him it became for
centuries one of the central ideas of European politics.
At this time the Burgundians8 took the district between
the Rhone and the Jura, the old Sequanian land. They were
a friendly, thrifty race, hot very eager to seize the houses and
goods of others; large of stature, good-natured, easy-going.
They treated the Gallo-Romans like brethren, as Orosius says 4-
revolted against Rome, first about A.D. 270, and now again under pressure
of the invasions.
1 Loth, L'Emigration bretonne en Armorique.
" Orosius, 7. 43.
3 The Burgundians are said to derive their names from the burgs they
built. If so, it indicates their more peaceful and settled habits of lite.
4 Orosius, 7. 32. Blande, mansuete, innocenterque vivunt, non quasi
cum subjectis Gallis, sed vere cum fratribus Christianis.

6b THE GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN GAUL. A.D. 419.
They Avere Christians, mostly Arians ; the Gallo-Romans were
orthodox. ¦
At this time the Franks also made raids on the northern
frontier; sacking Treves and other cities, but not settling.
They are of small account during this half-century.
In 419 Honorius ceded by treaty the second Aquitania,
the second Narbonensis, and part of Novempopulania, to the
Visigoths. Poitiers, Saintes, Angouleme, Bordeaux, Perigueux,
Toulouse became theirs by this cession as well as by occupa
tion. It is the first example of a distinct alienation of part of Gaul
from the Empire. The inhabitants Avere the gainers : the Visi
goths did not interfere with their faith ; — for the Western Arian
Avas no persecutor : — they kept their laws and customs, and lived
in peace and equality. Population increased, and the soil, ever
fruitful, bore plentifully. The Visigoths were nominally under
the Empire ; both Ataulf and Wallia, his successor, were Roman
generals. Both Visigoth and Burgundian aimed at a peaceable
settlement. They shared lands and goods with the older
owners ; the Roman possessor Avas styled ' the host,' the
German shared his 'lot'; his forcible taking of it was glossed
over by the term 'hospitality.' He took half of all forests and
gardens, two-thirds of all cultivated lands, one-third of all
slaves ; and so settled down in peace. And all would have
been well, but for Ae'tius, a Scythian and a Roman general, Avho,
under pretext of defence, ravaged the whole of Gaul. His army
was largely composed of Huns ; and from them tidings of the
good land spread to their brethren in the East.
In the year 450 all Gaul was filled Avith terror: for the
dreaded Attila (Etzel1), Avith a host of strange figures, Huns,
Tartars, Slaves, Teutons, head of an empire of true barbarians,
drew near her borders. Barbarism — not the milder incursion
of Goth or Vandal or even Frank, but the barbarism which
lived only to destroy — now threatened the world. It had levied
a shameful tribute on Constantinople ; it now threatened the
farthest West. If Gaul fell, Spain would fall, and Italy, and
1 He is the dark figure in the great German epic, the Niebelungen Lied.

A.D. 451. ATTILA IN GAUL. 6l
Rome ; and Attila would reign supreme, with an empire of deso
lation, over all the earth. Theoderic the Goth and Aetius tried
to combine all Gaul against him. Attila reached Aureliacum
(Orleans); but at the critical moment, just as the sacred city
was about to be given up to destruction, Theoderic appeared ;
and Attila, having the nomadic horror of towns and of being
cooped up in them, dreading also a hill country, in which his
cavalry would suffer, fell back into the Champagne district to
the plain of Chalons-sur-Marne (the Campi Catalaunici), Avhere
there was room enough for his gigantic host to spread out its
limbs. There the supreme battle was fought : Goth against
Goth, Frank against Frank, Burgundian against Burgundian;
there were even Huns in both armies. The Gallo-Romans
seized the key of the position, a hill above the plain. There
Aetius and Thorismond, son of Theoderic, established them
selves securely. The battle began towards afternoon, and raged
with a wild fury. There Avere no tactics ; it was a simple mur
derous hand-to-hand struggle. At last the Visigoths decided
the day. They repelled their kinsmen, the Ostrogoths, and then
attacked the main army of the Huns in flank. Though Theoderic
was killed, the attack succeeded : the Huns were broken, and
took refuge behind their wall of chariots. Night fell, after
a horrible carnage, of which the numbers given are incredible ;
still they attest the tremendous nature of the struggle. Not till
next morning did men know that Theoderic had perished.
With cries and wild clashing of shields the Goths made Thoris
mond their king. Attila, it is said, made ready for death ; he
piled up a huge funeral-pyre of saddles, and was ready to mount
it, if the Romans assaulted his camp. But Aetius was too much
exhausted to attempt it. He now took up a policy of inaction.
He sent Thorismond home to the south, and Merowig, the
Frankish chief, to the north, and lay watching Attila. The
Hun, after a time, suddenly broke up his camp and withdrew,
still attended by the vigilant Aetius. He moved northwards,
recrossing the Rhine ; and Gaul was freed, and with her all the
West, from the scourge of a Tartar supremacy.

62 THE GERMAN, SETTLEMENTS IN GAUL. A.D. 464.
But though the Empire was saved for a time it could not
be for long. The evils of the age culminated in assassination.
Stilicho, the great Vandal, who had so Avell defended the
Empire, was murdered in 408 : the young Thorismond, fresh
from his laurels at Chalons, perished by the hand of his
brothers: and Aetius himself, 'the Atlas of this tottering world,'
Avas foully murdered by Valentinian's own hand 1. These,
and a crowd of others weltering in their life-blood testify
to the evil of the times, and the imminent downfall of the
Empire. Aegidius was the last defender of the Empire in Gaul : he
made a gallant stand at Arelate (Aries), the southern capital.
In a.d. 464 he too had his reward; he was assassinated.
Syagrius his son, ' King of the Romans,' as Gregory of Tours
calls him, Avas almost independent in the North : the hilly Arver-
nian district, the very citadel of Gaul, afforded the Roman party
a last standing ground : Armorica, always peculiar and dwelling
apart, did not fall into the hands of the Germans. Ewarik,
greatest and most ambitious of Visigothic kings, undertook to
reduce the Arvernians ; who, shut up in rocky Clermont, de
fended themselves Avith daily ' rogations,' or penitential pro
cessions, headed by Sidonius their bishop2; also by the stub
born wills of the hardy inhabitants. Though Rome left them
to their fate, they forced the Goths to raise the siege. Then,
finding themselves alone, they were presently obliged to cede to
negotiation the liberty they had so well protected against force.
In 474 the shadowy Emperor of the West, Julius Nepos, granted
all Gaul west of the Rhone to the Visigoths : it was the last act
of imperial disgrace. All the provinces of the dying Empire
lay desolate ; cities were abandoned to beasts of prey, domestic
animals perished, cultivation ceased. ' Gaul had been devastated :
the ocean sweeping over it could not have added to the desola
tion.' Britain was in flames3; Greece a mere wreck; Spain
1 Martin, Histoire des Francais, I. 380.
s He was shut up with them, and has left us an account of this war.
3 I quote from Salvian and Jerome. It is known that the Roman cities
in Britain perished in flames,— Silchester, Wroxeter, &c.

A.D. 476. THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 63
and Italy fared little better. Twice had Rome herself felt
the hand of the barbarian. The nominal Emperor, Avho had
long abandoned Rome, was now about to vanish. In 475
Romulus was proclaimed; the people nicknamed him Augus-
tulus ; the Greeks altered his name in jest, and called him
Momyllus. Rome began and ended with a Romulus ; the last
almost as shadowy as the first. Odoacer, a Herulian or Goth,
seized on Rome, deposed the puppet Emperor, the secretary's
son1, and sent the imperial emblems to Constantinople in 476 2.
The Eastern Caesar received the gift, and in return repaid
Odoacer with the vague title of Patrician : the Herulian took to
himself the more distinct name of King. The obsequious senate
decreed that one emperor was enough in the world — perhaps
not so far wrong in that : and that the seat of the Empire should
henceforth be on the Bosphorus. Thus fell the Imperial mis
tress of the West. For twelve centuries she had moved a queen
among the nations; and her death had left all Europe in ruins.
Yet even so her influences survived. That strange mixture of
docility and strength, the German, was destined to carry on her
traditions, deeply modified by his own character, leading in due
time to the ' Holy Roman Empire,' of Avhich the foundations
were laid by Charles the Great in the year 800. On the other
hand, the Church in her due time would build up her empire
also, a spiritual 'Holy Roman Empire,' imbued with imperial
ideas, parallel to and rival of the great lay-empire the seat of
which was on the Rhine. Roman law, language, municipal
institutions, magistrates, forms of procedure, survived, affecting
the career and institutions of the German chiefs, Avho drew the
consular robe over their national furs, and thought to combine
the old civilisation with the bolder qualities of barbarians.
Before Rome had perished, Gaul had been granted by her
to Ewarik (or Euric), the sagacious Visigothic king; and it
seemed likely that, in the general confusion, he would succeed
1 Orestes, father of Romulus, had been Attila's secretary.
2 Gibbon, ch. 36 (vol. iii. pp. 334, 335), doubts whether the date should
not be 479. I have followed the usual chronology. The very year of the
fall of great Rome is doubtful !

64 THE GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN GAUL. A.D. 476.
in securing the grant to himself. Odoacer, in 478, gave up to
Ewarik all his authority over the Empire west of the Alps, and
contented himself Avith a humane and prudent rule in Italy.
Ewarik made Toulouse the centre of his system: he tried lo
combine the civilisation of Rome or Constantinople with the
vigour of Germany. At this same moment Theoderic (Dietrich),
the Ostrogoth, who had been brought up at Constantinople, fell
on Italy and defeated Odoacer. The two branches of the
Gothic family seemed likely to divide between them the Western
Empire. But this did not take place in Gaul; for the Goths
were too polished for the work, and a conqueror of a coarser
fibre was wanted ; they were also hindered by their Arianism,
which made it impossible for them to be in harmony with Gallic
Christianity. Add to these reasons the untimely death in 485 of
Ewarik, who left behind him only a feeble boy, Alaric II. At this
moment Hlodowig 1 (Clovis), a pagan, a youth of nineteen, was
already the acknowledged head of a petty Frankish tribe. He
was destined to give permanent form to the German occupation
of Gaul, and to begin a new period of European history.
In most parts of Gaul the whole vigour of the Gallo-Romans
appears to have perished : there Avas no notable resistance to
the invader, no public spirit, no combination. The whole of
what we call the middle classes had disappeared. On the one side
was despotism, all-devouring, with its administration of horse
leeches, its legions to pay, its foes to buy off, its pleasures to pro
vide, its idleness to amuse with games : on the other side a spirit
less crowd of slaves, who Avere the only inhabitants of the country
districts, and formed also a large part of the town-populations.
The Gallo-Roman could have no patriotism : what enthusiasm
could he feel for Rome ? and at home the excessive weight
of taxation had crushed the citizens. One independent body of
men alone remained,— the clergy. The Church had grown in
1 Hlodowig or Hlodewig, the first letter of whose name was a guttural, now
lost (cp. A.-S. . hl&{= loaf), is usually called Clovis ; the guttural being
hardened into a c, gives the Latinised form Chlodovechus, whence Ludovicus.
It is the same name as the German Ludwig, and the French Louis ; of which
the English Lewis is an old form.

A.D.476. THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 65
esteem and wealthr She protected the fallen; she bettered the
state of the slave. The clergy, gathering round the, imposing
figure of their bishop, rose in importance, until when the curials
had perished, and the cities seemed likely to perish with them,
the bishops assumed the command, and became both spiritual
and temporal lords. Thus the medieval municipal system began
to take the place of the Roman municipia; and at the same
time the Church gained solidity when she most needed it for
her struggle against her Pagan invaders. As head of a commu
nity the Bishop now constantly mediated between the old and
the new. Invested by the simple barbarians with a strange
sanctity, he was listened to with awe. His confidence in his
mission, his high bearing, his dress, his education, the spiritual
powers he asserted, — all deeply touched his conqueror. It is
said that even Attila, Avild pagan as he Avas, carried Lupus,
bishop of Troyes, with him to the Rhine, that he might get
the benefit of his sanctity, as a kind of charm : Remigius won
great influence over Hlodowig. Christianity alone seemed to
retain vigour and power over men : and even her spirit was
being modified. The belief in the supernatural sank into
credulity ; fays, spells, all kinds of intermediate powers sprang
up, and grouped a fantastic and picturesque spirit-world round
the simple forms of the Gospel. Thus Christianity was pre
pared to bridge over the gulf between Roman and German,
and to create the magnificent medieval Church of Germany, and
the somewhat less princely, though scarcely less powerful, Church
of France.
The Church also at this time developed another noble
thought : that of the Monastic community. Even before the
fifth century religious houses had become centres of light to
Gaul. From the Isle of Ldrins came forth the greatest saints
and scholars of the time. The wisest bishops fostered the
groAving institution : Martin, Ambrose, Augustine, all helped
to plant the monastic life in the West. While in Eastern
Christendom monasticism had meant solitude, contemplation,
and speculation, in the West it meant active life, physical and
VOL. 1. F

66 THE GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN GAUL. A.D. 476.
intellectual, — the life of vigorous communities, which in all
respects stood out in contrast Avith the decrepitude of the age,
a protest against ignorance, against slavery, against the prevail
ing want of a true sense of religion in Gaul.
Lastly, this period of the decline of Rome is marked by the
growth of systematic law. It is the age of the Theodosian
Code (a.d. 438), that great authority on Roman Law; which
was followed, after a time, by the promulgation of the different
German systems. The Visigoths' code Avas deeply tinged with
Roman ideas, and shews throughout the hand of the clergy.
The most distinct characteristics of Ewarik's laAvs are, perhaps,
the Trust, or grouping of Avarriors round their chief; and the
granting of lands in commendation, one of the early rudiments
of feudalism. The Burgundians also aimed at an orderly code,
though theirs fell short of the Visigothic distinctness. The chief
characteristic of their law is the anxiety shewn to place Roman
and German on the same footing. The Franks also issued their
law, the rudest of all and the simplest ; for it was a bare recital
of their customs, and foreshadowed the later distinction between
the written and the customary law.
The age was one of a certain movement of mind : there was
a considerable literature, varied, though debased in style and
language. When the German invasion flowed over this super
ficial vigour it froze it to death. A century later, there was no
literature in Gaul, and all desire for mental life was at an end.
Between the old world of Rome and the new life of Europe
there is silence : men suffered, and ceased to complain : for
' Curae leves loquuntur ; ingentes stupent.'

TABLE I. THE MERWING (OR MEROVINGIAN) KINGS.

HLODOWIG I, 481-511.

Theodorik I,
King of Mettis,
5«-534-

Theodebert,
King of Austrasia,
534"54s-

Theodebald,
King of Austrasia,
54s-554-

Hlodomir,
King of Orleans (his
dominions shared
by his brothers),
5»-524-

HILDEBERT I,
King of Paris,
511-558.

HLOTAIR I,
King of Soissons.
5H-56l;
sole K. 558-561.
 l_, 

HARIBERT, King of Paris,
561-567.

Gontran,
King of Orleans
and Burgundy,
56i-594-

Sigebert I,
K. of Austrasia,
561-575-

Hildebert II,
King of Austrasia,
575-596;
and of Burgundy, 594-^96.
r  -1"  n'
Theodebert II, Theodorik II,
K. of Austrasia, K. of Orleans and
596-612. Burgundy, 596-613
of Austrasia, 61 2.

HILPERIK I,
King of Soissons,
561-584;
K. of Neustria, 567-584.
I
HLOTAIR II,
King of Soissons,
584-62S ;
sole King. 613-628.

DAGOBERT I,
sole King (including
Aquitaine from 631),
62S-638.

Haribert,
King of Aquitaine,
628-631.

Sigebert II,
King of Austrasia,
638-656. I
Dagobert II,
K. of Austrasia,
674-679.

HLODOWIG II,
K. of Neustria and Burgundy, 638-656;
sole King, 656.

HLOTAIB III,
soleK. 656-660;
King of Neustria
and Burgundy,
660-670.

HILDEBIK II,
K. of Austrasia,
660-673 ;
sole K. 671-673. I
HILPERIK II,
King of Neustria,
715-720.

THEODORIK III,
King of Neustria
and Burgundy,
670-691.

HLODOWIG III,
King of Neustria
and Burgundy,
691-695.

To Jace p. 67]

'Between a.d. 737 and 74 2 the;
t rippm the Short deposed Hilde|rik

HILDERIK III,
King of Austrasia, Neustria,
and Burgundy,
742-752.-)-

HILDEBERT III,
King of Neustria
and Burgundy,
695-711.
DAGOBERT III,
King of Neustria
and Burgundy,
7II-7I5- I
THEODORIK IV,
King of Austrasia,
Neustria, and Burgundy
720-737.*

seems to have been no King. See Dom Bouquet, torn. iv. p. 182.
"j III, King of Austrasia, in A.D. 752, and was crowned and anointed King of Franks in that year.

A.D. 51°

5"5^453454«55555S

561567
5755»4 594
596
612
613622
628 631
63S
656656660
670
671673
674679
6S0
695 711
717
719
720742
752

TABLE II. THE MERWING KINGS.
Hlodowig sole King of the Franks. At his death (511), subdivision into: —

[To face p. 67.

K. of METZ (Austrasia)
Theodorik I.

Theodebert I.
Theodebald died, his lands seized
by Hlotair.

K. of AUSTRASIA.
Sigebert I [Brunhild].

Hildebert II (5 years
old) [Brunhild regent].

Theodebert II.
Theodorik II.
[Brunhild died.]
Dagobert I.
[Pippin of Landen.]

Sigebert II (8 yrs. old).

K. of ORLEANS.
Hlodomir,
lands seized by Hilde
bert and Hlotair.

K. of PARIS.
Hildebert I.

K. of SOISSOHS.
Hlotair I.

died, lands
seized by Hlotair I, sole King of the Franks.
At his death (561), subdivision into : —

K. of PARIS.
Haribert,
d. lands seized by Hilperik I.

K. of SOISSONS.
Hilperik I [Fredegond],
 J

K. of NEUSTRIA.

Hlotair II (4 months old)
[Gontran, protector ; Fredegond died, 597.]

Hlotair II, sole King of Franks.

Dagobert I, sole King of Franks.

K. of BURGUNDY.
[Gundobald.]

[the kingdom seized by
the Franks.]

K. of BURGUNDY. Gontran.

Hildebert II.
Theodorik II.

Hlodowig II (4 years old).
On death of Sigebert, Hlodowig II becomes sole King of Franks.
Hlotair III (4 years old), sole King of Franks [Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace. ]
Hilderik II (7 yrs. old). Theodorik III (appointed by Ebroin).
Hilderik II, sole King of Franks (elected).
Theodorik III (restored).
Dagobert II
[a monk, pretender].
[Pippin and Martin,
Mayors. No King.]
[Pippin of Heristal ' Duke of Franks ;' henceforth only nominal Kings.]
Hlodowig III.
Hildebert III.
Dagobert III. [714, Charles Martel.]
Hilperik II.
Theodorik IV [died, left no successor.]
Hilderik III. [741, Carloman and Pippin the Short.]
[747, Pippin sole Duke.]
Deposed by Pippin, who is crowned King of Franks.

Hlotair IV.

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Kit chins France I.
BOOK IT.
PART I. — The Neustrian Franks.
CHAPTER I.
Of the Franks and Hlodowig {Clovis).
a.d. 481-511.
At Ewarik's death, the Franks were the smallest branch of
the Teutonic stock. Visigoth and Burgundian had founded
compact kingdoms in Gaul, while the Franks were still wild
tribes, without unity, barbarous, fierce, and pagan. A century
earlier the career of Arbogast, Mellibald, and other Franks,
had seemed likely to bridge over the chasm between Gaul
and Germany, and to make the Franks the most influential
of Teutons. The Roman power, defending the northern frontier,
came into contact with them. But they had no taste for emigra
tion; they clung to the right bank of the Rhine, and though
single chieftains had dealings with Rome, the tribes themselves
remained uninfluenced. A mere loose confederation 1, they were
disunited down to the end of the fifth century.
Among their tribes, the Salians, who spread down into the
marshy lands near the Rhine-mouths, became known for
bravery and ceaseless raids on Northern Gaul. They became
the most considerable of the Franks; and their chiefs, Mere-
1 This confederation is known to have existed in A.D. 242, when Aurelian
defeated them near Mainz, and his soldiers made a song there, beginning —
' Mille Francos, mille Sarmatas semel Occidimus, Sec' They occupied much
of Lower Germany, between the Weser, Main, and Rhine. The district-
which bears their name, Franconia, was among their later conquests.

68 THE FRANKS AND HLODOWIG. A.D. 481.
wings or Merwings (Merovingians), the most considerable
among the noble families of the Confederation. They had
gradually learnt to consider the left bank of the Rhine their
own, as well as the right bank. ' Friends and allies of the
Roman people,' the Franks had long shed their blood on
behalf of that frontier-land. Slowly, as the Romans faded away,
they inherited the district, and settled in it. Chlodion, a Salian
chief, defeated the Romans at Cambrai, and occupied the
country as fa.r as the Somme (a.d. 428). The other main
branch of the Franks — the Ripuarians — lay on the Rhine, about
Cologne, and did not move as yet. The tribes shewed signs
of drawing nearer to one another. About the middle of the
fifth century Childeric, the Salian king, and Sigebert, the Ripua-
rian, were both Merwings. In 481 Childeric died, leaving a
boy of fifteen to succeed him — if he could. This son was
Hlodowig or Clovis. His tribe was small but renowned,
counting some four thousand fighting men, sprung from those
Germans who had made the Batavian island known for the
bravery of its inhabitants. In the fluctuating state of the tribes
any chieftain of vigour was sure of a following. We do not
know how Hlodowig won his reputation ; anyhow, by the time
he was twenty he headed a (formidable army, ready to face the
only power left in Northern Gaul. This was Syagrius, who
kept up at .Soissons the shadow of the Roman name. He
ruled as an independent prince over the district east of the
1 Armorican Republic,' between the Meuse and Loire : these
two being the only districts not occupied by barbarian settlers.
Here he administered justice, mediated between Gauls and
Germans, and had a plan for gathering all the North under
his rule, and governing as if by Roman law. On him broke in
the young Frank in 486 : his spiritless legions fled before the
lusty barbarians, and Syagrius had to escape for his life to
Toulouse. There he claimed the protection of Alaric, the
young Visigothic king ; and he, not discerning the storm-cloud,
delivered him up to Hlodowig, who slew him. Thus ended the
last shadow of Roman power in Gaul. Hlodowig now occupied

A.D. 496. DEFEAT OF THE ALLEMANS. 69
the only open space left ; and there was nothing between the
Gallo-Romans and the barbarians.
Rome having perished, to whom should the Church now turn ?
Visigoths and Burgundians, though Christians, were Arians.
The Frank was pagan ; but then the Church had hope of the
wild uncivilised tribes. Her instincts guided her rightly. The
Frank became 'the sword of the Church'; the Church made
the fortune of the Frank 1. Remigius, bishop of Rheims,
became close friend to Hlodowig long before he became Chris
tian. To his counsel,, probably, it is owing that Hlotehild
(Clotilde), daughter of a Burgundian chief, niece of the Bur
gundian king, an orthodox maiden, became the Frank's wife.
The result proved the bishop's sagacity ; it led to the conversion
of the Franks. ' Women,' says La Valine \ ' were the most
ardent missionaries of that faith to which they owed their own
new life ' ; and this the bishop knew.
Hlodowig was yet but a petty prince : the turning-point
of his fortunes was at hand. In 496 came his great trial.
The Allemans, whose home was on the Upper Rhine 3, were
in constant feud with the Ripuarian Franks. Perhaps they
made a forward movement towards Gaul at this time. They
seem at least to have conquered Alsace. The Franks called
for the help of their Salian kinsmen : and Hlodowig came.
The united Franks fell on the invaders apparently in Alsace.
The battle went at first against the Franks. Then Hlodowig,
remembering his pious queen, vowed that if the God of Hlote
hild would grant him victory, he would become a Christian.
The battle changed ; the Allemans were utterly routed, and the
greater part of the confederation submitted to the overlordship
of Hlodowig. Ripuarian settlers began to occupy the valley of
the Main, and the district became ' Franconia.' Hlodowig was
now regarded as the first of Frankish captains. After some
hesitation, he was baptized in Rheims' cathedral by Remigius,
1 ' L'eglise fit la fortune des Francs,' says Michelet, 1. 188.
" La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, Liv. i. chap. 2.
3 In modern Franconia and Baden ; and, generally, in the basin of the
Upper Rhine, from its source lo its junction with the Main.

JO THE FRANKS AND HLODOWIG. A.D. 406.
together with three thousand of his warriors. The Church
historian, who says that St. Remi was great in rhetoric, tells us
that he used a theatrical phrase : ' Sicambrian, bow the head !
burn that thou hast adored, and adore that thou hast burnt * ! '
With all possible splendour the ceremony was performed. It
seemed to the barbarians that they were entering heaven itself.
Thus did ' the Church take possession of her eldest son ' ; and
thus began that form of warlike Christianity which marks these
centuries. A vow on the battlefield; the answer, victory; the
result, the baptism of an army. Such Christianity brought no
softness or thought of peace to Hlodowig ; though it brought
him unscrupulous panegyrists and powerful friends. The clergy
grouped themselves round him ; under their influence the relics
of the old Roman legions passed over, with their standards and
their country, to the victorious and orthodox barbarian. The
peninsula of Brittany and part of Western Normandy still stood
aloof. Thus Hlodowig became lord of Northern Gaul. His Franks
ceased to cast longing looks towards the Rhine; they settled down
in the lands they had won. Historians date from this moment
the beginning of French history, although true French history
does not begin till the Capets were established on the throne :
and even then it is the history of a part rather than of the whole.
Still we must go through these times in which the foundations
of French history were laid, and shew how the dominant
Germans affected the subject Gauls ; how the Germans were
at last absorbed, and the race became French.
The Franks were ready to follow their chief whither he
would : their chief was eager to lead. First they attacked the
Burgundians, who were ruled by two kings, Gondebald and
Gondegesil, — the latter secretly allied with Hlodowig. The
1 Gregory of Tours, 2. 31. We have no contemporary life of Hlodowig.
Gregory of Tours, our best authority, dealt with it in the spirit of a zealous
churchman, and lived full half a century after the time on which we are
engaged. Gregory was bom in 544, and died 594 or 595. He calls Hlodowig
a Sicambrian, because that tribe (which lay between the Lippe and the
Weser) was thought to have become part of the Frankish confederacy.

A.D. 507. THEY CONQUER BURGUNDY. 71
clergy were more than suspected of a like treason: they
turned willingly from their Arian lords to the orthodox chieftain.
Against these influences within, and the fierce Frank without,
Gondebald could not struggle: he was defeated in a.d. 500.
Hlodowig pushed on into Provence, ravaged it, and gave it to
Theodorik the Ostrogoth, who was then his friend. He next
levied a tribute on the Burgundians, made Gondebald confess
himself his ' man,' and so withdrew to the North. Gondebald,
free from him, resumed his reign, and seems to have governed
wisely. The Gallo-Romans had seen enough of their orthodox
friend ; they returned peaceably to their old king, who treated
them well, and as equals with his Burgundians. Thirty-four
years later, after Hlodowig's death, Burgundy became subject
to the Franks.
The Visigoths dwelt in a rich land. ' It much displeases me,'
said Hlodowig, in the year 507, ' that the Goths, being Arians,
should own a part of Gaul. Let us go, and, God helping, seize
their land1.' And so the orthodox Franks, scenting the rich
booty from afar, swooped down on the Visigoths. The, two
kings met in single combat : Alaric was slain, his army routed.
This was the battle on the ' Vocladensian plain ' (Vougle" or
Voulon) 2, south of Poitiers. Then the Frank divided his army.
Part, under his son Theodorik, overran Auvergne, and went
eastward to Aries ; part under himself went southward, through
Bordeaux and Toulouse, to Carcassonne. Here, as he lay
before the town, Theodorik the Ostrogoth came down on the
Franks at Aries and routed them ; and Hlodowig broke up from
before Carcassonne, and withdrew to the north. The Ostrogoths
thus saved a little remnant of the Visigothic kingdom, a portion
of the old Narbonnaise, afterwards called Septimania, which re
mained under them for three centuries longer.
The Franks treated their new conquest with barbarity, and
retired, when weary of it, with rich spoil and countless captives.
The Gallo-Roman natives, amazed at their orthodox friends,
conceived against them a hatred stronger far than any ill-will
1 Gregory of Tours, 2. 37. 2 Gibbon, chap. 38.

72 THE FRANKS AND HLODOWIG. A.D. 508.
they had ever borne to the Goth, an ill-will which can be traced
¦throughout the Middle Ages.
Meanwhile, during the interval between his successes and his
reverses in the south, Hlodowig had received at Tours an
embassy from Anastasius, Emperor of the East, bringing him
the dress and title of Consul Romanus l. With the love of
splendour natural to the barbarian, he celebrated his investiture
with much pomp in the Church of St. Martin, his ' excellent
but expensive'2 patron ; he was invested with a purple tunic and
mantle, and wore a diadem. Thus habited he rode through the
streets to the cathedral 3. The Gallo-Romans were much
affected by the show, seeing in it an acknowledgment that the
sword of the conqueror conferred a good title ; the Teutons
regarded it as a distinction which raised their chief, by the
recognition of the Empire, above all other German chiefs :
while, on the other hand, by wearing the purple Hlodowig
bound himself to respect the Romans under his rule, and gave
a pledge that his reign should not be one of mere desolation.
He had now done with distant expeditions. It only remained
for him to secure his position as sole head of the Franks. He
took the simplest steps, — he murdered any head of a tribe who
fell into his hands. He induced the son of Sigebert, king of
the Ripuarians, by whose side he had fought at Ziilpich, to
murder his father. Soon after, he assassinated the son. Then
he came to the Ripuarians, and advised them to take him as
their chief: which they did, raising him on a shield, after their
custom. Ragnachar, the king of Cambrai, and the chiefs of
Arras and Le Mans, all Merwing princes, also perished. And
thus Hlodowig became sole head of the Franks, among whom
the Salians, whom we may now begin to call Neustrians *, were
for more than two centuries the dominant tribe.
1 Gibbon thinks it probable the real title was that of Patrician, and not
Consul, as Hlodowig's name does not appear in any Consular Fasti, not
even in those compiled by Marius, bishop of Avenches, in Switzerland. 
Gibbon, ch. 38, and note 57.
2 ' Bonus in auxilio, carus in negotio,' said Hlodowig of the Saint, when
the clergy of Tours exacted a double ransom for his war-horse.
3 Gregory of Tours, 2. 38.
4 In opposition to the name Austrasian (Oster-rik, or Eastern Kingdom),

A.D. 511. DEATH OF HLODOWIG. 73
Then, says Gregory of Tours, who relates these bloody
details without a word of blame, Hlodowig called together his
people, and said, ' Woe is me ! for I am left as a sojourner in
the midst of strangers ! I have now no kinsmen to help me, if
misfortune comes.' But this he said in guile, not in sorrow:
for he wished to see whether there were any surviving, that he
might kill them also, if there were. Then, having said this — and
finding no more to kill — he died1 (a.d. 511). Though in all
ways a barbarian, Hlodowig has won himself a place in history.
Restless, ambitious, a man of living force, he still was not a
great man ; for he shewed no constructive power : though, as
conquering head of the Franks, he is not unjustly reckoned
as the founder of a great nation. He had certain strong quali
ties : patience under provocation, which quietly waited for the
moment of revenge, as we see in the well-known tale of the
soldier and the vase of Soissons ; a sense of humour, grim and
German, as is seen in his speech to his men before the Gothic
war, and in his reflection on his patron-saint, St. Martin of
Tours ; an indifference as to what means he used to gain his
ends, — he would not pause from murder, if that were the road.
He had the savage's love of blood, of fraud and falsehood. Nor
did his becoming a Christian modify his ferocity ; he certainly
modified the character of the Christianity of his and after ages.
God became more distinctly ' the God of Battles.' As Gibbon
says, ' The Romans communicated to their conqueror the use
of the Christian religion and Latin language ; but their language
and their religion had alike degenerated from the simple purity
of the Augustan and Apostolic age V Nothing was farther from
their thoughts than that ' Peace on Earth ' which was sung by
the angels at our Saviour's birth. When they told Hlodowig
the sad story of the Crucifixion, his exclamation was, ' Had
I and my Franks been there, we would have avenged the wrong,'
— and the fierce thought, the thought of the Teuton triumphant
by which name the Ripuarians were now designated : the word Neustria is
said to be either the Neueste-rik, the latest kingdom, or Ne-oster-rik.
1 Gregory of Tours, 2. 42, 43.
2 Gibbon, chap. 38 (p. 418, Milman's edition).

74 THE CHURCH AND THE FRANKS. A.D. 511.
over the Roman, is a fair illustration of the conqueror's view of
his Christian duty. This Christianity of the sword, which now
entered in, ruled religion for centuries. It was the life-blood
of the Crusades ; it impressed its character on the wars of the
sixteenth century. Rightly had Ulfilas, the Arian bishop of
the Dacian Goths, read in his day the risk to Christianity from
his unruly proselytes. In translating the Bible into the Gothic
speech1 he entirely omitted the Books of Kings, lest his fierce
converts should draw thence lessons opposed to the gentle spirit
of the Gospel, and but too congenial to their own character.
The orthodox Gallo-Roman bishops who crowded round Hlo-
dowig's throne had no such scruples. For him, a ferocious
robber and murderer, they found sufficient precedents in the
Old Testament. God's name was used as part of the Frankish
title to their conquests : ' I hold my land of God and my good
sword,' was said often enough before Hugh Capet or William
the Bastard. In return, Hlodowig loaded the Church with gifts
of land, till it was said that the Gallo-Romans recovered through
their clergy what they had lost in war. The Church grew much
stronger and richer during this period : she gained perhaps
almost as much as Christianity lost. The Franks, bringing into
Gaul their sense of the mysterious, transplanting thither those
religious feelings which they had formerly felt for their sacred
groves and forest-priests, paid to the clergy of their new home
an almost unlimited respect. The bishops became the advisers,
and, in some sense, the educators of the chieftains. No Frank
dreamed of taking orders ; they left that to the Gallo-Romans,
unless, chance-time, they wished to disable some long-haired
prince. Then they cut off his flowing locks, and tonsured him,
and he was thrust, as into exile, into the ranks of the clergy.
Otherwise, the Franks held the sword, not the cross, of Chris
tianity ; they despised the life, while they venerated the sanctity,
of the priesthood. Moreover, as they brought into Gaul their
1 Few relics of antiquity are more interesting to the Christian, the
historian, and the philologer, than the fragments of this great work which
have come down to us ; for they are almost the sole remnants of the old
Gothic speech.

A.D. 511. THE CHURCH AND THE FRANKS. 75
old dislike of town-life, they left the bishops with sole authority
in the cities : and the clergy consequently continued to be the
special representatives of the old Roman municipal life.
The Church gained most of all by the change from a Roman
Caesar to a Frankish king. Before the emperors she had been
submissive, dependent; towards the Franks, she assumed the
air of a benefactor, of a superior : she had ' made their fortune ' ;
she guided their policy, blessed their arms, partially tempered
their fierceness, standing between them and the conquered
inhabitants of Gaul : she lived under and administered the
Roman law, not the rude Custom-law of the Franks. How
highly the clergy were valued appears from the barbarian codes.
The weregild or fine for the murder of a priest was the same
as that for an ' antrustion,' or trusty companion of the king ; that
for a bishop was far above all other sums mentioned 1. Guizot
has remarked that the clergy of this period had a share in all
the elements of power. The bishops were sole rulers, magis
trates, protectors, of the towns ; they were the counsellors of
kings ; they were also great landed proprietors, preparing to
take rank among the territorial aristocracy of the future ; the
clergy were the defenders and comforters of the vanquished,
as well as the friends of the conquerors. Thus in every way
the Church was ready to take advantage of each movement as
it came : come what might, she was sure to rise2.
Such were the relations between the Franks and the Church.
Let us also describe their relations to the land on which they
settled, as lords and oppressors of the older inhabitants.
This settlement was slow and irregular. The Franks shunned
the cities, and let much of the country fall out of cultivation. They
forgot neither their old homes nor their old habits. The northern
line of distinction between Gaul and Germany disappeared. The
Franks long deemed the Rhine their home; and hence they
affected, in the end, the development of France far more than
1 At least this was so in the Burgundian code, in which a bishop's life
was valued at 900 solidi, an antrustion's only at 600.
2 Guizot, Civilisation en France, Lecon 8.

76 THE FRANKS IN GAUL. A.D. 511.
either Burgundian or Visigoth did. For their settlement was
not once for all, as in the case of the others ; fresh Germanic
influences were ever crossing the border into Northern France.
This abolition of the northern frontier must be borne in mind in
studying French history before Capetian times : for it explains
the true position of the Austrasian princes, who were entirely
German, and stood towards France in a very different relation
from that of the Merwing kings who settled down in Neustria.
Hlodowig was far more a French king than was Charles the
Great. When the Franks did settle in Gaul, it was under conditions
which insured anarch)'. Their older system, such as it was,
perished. Neither the German village-life, as Tacitus describes
it, nor the German camp-life remained. They were broken up
into little knots, almost independent of each other. The kings,
surrounded by their courtiers, passed from house to house;
their palaces being simply large farms, or hunting-grounds with
houses on them. Here they lived, consuming the stuff, and
rejoicing in their idleness, hunting or carousing till their food
was spent: then on to another manor. His large territories
were also in another way useful to the king : he granted fiefs
or benefices out of them to his friends ; gifts which, it seems, he
intended to resume at pleasure, but which gradually became
life-holdings at first, then hereditary possessions. This was the
earliest and simplest form of feudal tenure. But the greater
chiefs, who had followed the king with independent service, who
were often more powerful than he, and eventually reduced him
to nothing, were not likely in the partition of lands to submit
themselves to the vague claims and authority of the king. As
he took his share of conquered lands, so they took theirs ; took it
as their right, with full and independent power over it. Theirs was
the ' alodial ' * tenure, tenure of ' God and their good swords,' as
1 Alodium is probably derived from the German <z//=all and od or ot =
property. It was first applied solely to inherited property, whether move
able or immoveable. Then it came to mean land free of service. Feud is
almost certainly ferum, cattle; then it comes to mean any estate; then
a particular kind of estate.

A.D. 511. THE FRANKS IN GAUL. 77
has before been said. Each of these chiefs had his followers ; to
them he granted benefices, as the king did, and on similar terms.
In all this it must be remembered that, according to the German
way of thinking, the man is everything, the land nothing. Lords
of territories, kings of countries, are things unknown in this
period, and for long after. ' King of the Franks,' not ' King of
Gaul,' was the title. Territorial designations came later; it
was long before men felt that they drew their nobility from their
lands, rather than from themselves. The commoner Franks
took what they could get : their lot in the spoil, — their captives,
share of cattle, dresses, vessels, ornaments, money. With these
they sheltered themselves under some powerful chieftain, formed
part of his followers, perhaps got a benefice from him, or perhaps
sank to a lowly condition in his household. A considerable
part of the land remained with its old possessors, and became
tributary, under very various conditions. These lands were also
granted to chieftains, who took tribute for them. The cultivators
of these lands were on the high road to serfdom.
Such was the state of the land. Part of it held as alod,
independent of all service or duty ; part as benefice, by favour of
the king or chief who had granted it; part as tributary farms,
cultivated by Gallo-Roman rustics.
The conquerors, being thus scattered over the face of the
land, soon lost their interest in the old assemblies, the ' Fields
of March,' and the 'Malls,' so characteristic of the old Frankish
life. They were no longer a compact aggressive body of
warriors, with common interests and passions. The annual
Fields of March1, at which they used to debate their affairs of
state, plan their expeditions, pass their fighting power under
review, disappeared entirely in Neustria. In Austrasia they
survived, but their character was changed. Dispersed as they
were over the whole face of Gaul, it became difficult for all the
Franks to attend. The assemblies became more and more
aristocratic, and, as the royal power grew, less and less free.
1 These great assemblies were held about the beginning of each year (as
the year was then reckoned) in the month of March.

78 THE FRANKS IN GAUL. A.D. 511.
Towards the end of the seventh century, when they began to be
held regularly, these assemblies were probably composed mainly
of the great men and their suites. Afterwards, in 755, it was ,
decided that two synods should be held each year, one in the
spring, one in the autumn. The autumn meeting was confined
to a small band of royal advisers, who decided on the measures
to be submitted to the larger meeting in the following spring. But
it must not be supposed that the assembly ever possessed a fixed
or determinate character. Now the popular element might be
large, now small, at one time a reality, at another a fiction. Nor
were the functions of it clearly defined. The Marchfield was
throughout the Merovingian period an occasion for a mixed
multitude of public acts, legislative, judicial, fiscal, military. It
was then that the people brought their contributions in money or
in kind, that the king administered justice, obtained ratification
for his edicts, or invited the meeting to decide on matters of
war or peace '*- But gradually the assembly became less and less
of a review, and more and more of a council. The Malls too
in which justice used to be done were greatly modified. In old
times no doubt they were attended by all the freemen of the
tribe, and these would act both as witnesses and judges. But
when the Franks conquered Gaul they preserved the old Roman
division into civitates or pagi. Each pagus was now presided
over by a count, who acted as supreme judge in the Mallus,
which thus ceased to be a tribal court. The attendance of free
men fell off, and came to be restricted to those who possessed
private means, or were learned in the law. The count was
appointed by the king, and the subordinate judicial officers were
appointed by the count ; even the rachimburgs, or good men,
who acted as his assessors, and were all who survived of the old
popular assembly, came to be nominated by the count, subject
to the assent of the people. Not only were the old popular courts
changing their character, but new private jurisdictions were
arising, wherever a great landlord was strong enough to make
his men bring their disputes before him. The old centre-point
1 Waitz, D.V. G. p. 229.

A.D. 511. THE FRANKS IN GAUL. 79
of Frankish life was lost. In fact, they bartered their old wild
freedom and tribal unity for a rich and broad territory, broken
up into many half-independent districts. Instead of a simple
state of society, chiefs, followers, and captives, they now had
the rudiments of monarchy and aristocracy, with a town-life and
a church-life beside them — the rudiments of modern Europe.
Still, in its first stage it was little but a dreary chaos of anarchic
vices and crimes.
The German invasion relieved all classes of society. The
Gallo-Romans, though conquered, were freed from the rapacity
of the Roman Court. The Franks in the matter of fiscal
exactions were not severe masters, for they depended upon
voluntary gifts. The clergy too, being exclusively Gallo-Romans,
doubtless protected their kinsfolk ; and we know also that in
some parts of Gaul the older inhabitants were on an equality
with the incomers. They were also, to a large extent, ruled by
the Roman law, in itself no slight boon. Again, the German
invasion helped to break down the system of domestic slavery.
In the first place, the Germans led a country life, not a town
life ; in the second place, they had no domestic slaves at home.
Now, although the invasions gave an impetus to the slave-trade,
although insecurity and poverty drove men to abandon their
personal liberty and to surrender themselves body and soul to
a powerful lord, yet the position of the slave was not what it
had been in the early years of the Roman Empire. The slave-
system had been breaking down long before the Frank invasion.
Estates were less frequently worked by gangs, for slaves were
difficult to obtain after the Roman conquests had ceased, and it
was found more profitable to give them an interest in the soil.
At the same time, estates were becoming so large, that a pro
prietor was afraid to work them any longer by gangs, for the
police arrangements of the Empire were growing weak. So he
gave each of his slaves a cottage and a plot of land, in return
for which he was bound to work certain days or till certain
acres for his lord, and to pay him dues out of the profits of his
land. Now the Franks were no townsfolk, and so when they

80 THE FRANKS IN GAUL. A.D. 511.
made slaves of their captured foes they employed them to work
their farms and not to attend their persons. These farms
were still worked on the old system. Each estate or villa was
divided into two parts. There was the ' terra indominicata/ the
' lord's land,' which surrounded his country house, and was cul
tivated by the forced labour, or corve'e of his dependents. Then
there were the 'mansi' or cottage-holdings, belonging to the
little army of dependent agriculturists. These would be either
slaves or coloni, and we cannot discover that there was neces
sarily any difference between the two classes, either in the size
of their holding, or in the amount of their services. But while
the position of the slave was gradually bettered, that of the
freemen declined. Even before the invasion freemen had been
surrendering their liberty, or ' commending themselves,' to more
powerful lords, in order to obtain the benefit of their protection.
The invasion hastened and generalized this process. The small
freeholders gradually disappeared, and merged themselves in the
great dependent agricultural class, bound to the soil, but secure
against eviction.

CHAPTER II.
The Neustrian Kings.
A.D. 511-687.
We now come to two centuries and a half of incessant and
uninteresting struggles. History there can be none : a few essays
on the time, a few biographical sketches, would give the best
conception of the dreary waste x- Even the very terms we use
require a caution : they have not their present significance. We
are easily misled, when we talk of monarchy, aristocracy, the
people; for the words do not bear their modern sense. The
same is true of bishop, monk, churchman : the Gallo-Roman
bishop, and the monk, the protestant of his age, must not be
dressed up in the clothes of modern life.
The guiding lines through this historical desert are (1) the
struggle of the Merwing kings against their chieftains; (2)
the rivalry of Neustria and Austrasia; (3) the movements of
the Church.
It must also be remembered that towards the end of the
time, the struggle between monarchy and the chieftains changed
in character, and became a trial of strength between the
Merwing kings and their Mayors of the Palace, represented by
the great house of Pippin of Landen : this absorbed into itself
the struggle of Neustria against Austrasia; for Neustria went
with the Merwings, while Austrasia supported the family of
Pippin. Early in the period there are often independent kings
1 Such essays are to be found in Guizot's Essais sur I'histoire de France,
3. 4. The biographies of Brunhild, Bishop Eligius, Dagobert I, Ebroin,
St. Leger, Pippin of Landen, would do for the other part, were there
materials enough to make them.
VOL. I. G

82 THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 511,
in both districts ' : towards the end the Austrasian king ceases
to exist, or exists only as a shadow. Early, we find the leudes
or nobles of Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy, sometimes
acting separately, sometimes combining against their kings ;
later, we hear little of any chieftains save those of Austrasia.
At the beginning, the two tribes are on one footing, the pre
ponderance of power lying with Neustria ; later, the Austrasian
remains wild and unchanged, a fierce warrior, half pagan, un
civilised, energetic ; while the Neustrian has adopted Gallo-
Roman manners, has lost his strength, and is far below his ruder
kinsman in power. The struggle could only end in the triumph
of the Austrasians, under the great ' Caroling ' family, and the
renewal of the influences of feudal Germany over France.
This period falls into four obvious subdivisions, which, for
clearness' sake, are here put down : —
I. From the partition at Hlodowig's death, to the
division of Frankish Gaul into the three kingdoms
of Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy, a.d. 511-
567-
II. The struggle between Austrasia and Neustria, under
Brunhild and Fredegond, a.d. 567-613.
III. The period of Dagobert, king of Neustria, a.d. 613-
638.
IV. The Royal Nonentities, to the battle of Testry, in
which Austrasia, under Pippin of Heristal, van
quished Neustria, a.d. 638-687.
I. a.d, 511-567. Hlodowig, before his death in 511, saw all
Northern France occupied by his Salians, and the Ripuarians
in due subjection; Aquitaine was a conquered land; Burgundy
a vassal-state. A corner of Brittany, a corner of Provence, though
unsubdued, could cause him no uneasiness. He had fulfilled
his task, had established the Frank on Gallic soil, and had
sown the seed of a feudal aristocracy. Though, in the prime of
1 See Table II.

A.D.5U. FIRST PARTITION AT HLODOWIG \S DEATH. 83
life, he may have had ambitious thoughts as to a strong united
kingdom, he must have known that his free Franks would
accept the division of his power among his sons as natural,
and would not regard it as a disruption of the Frankish power.
It would be an anachronism to think of the division as a dis
memberment of a proud kingdom. Yet it was a great misfortune ;
for it roused endless jealousies, caused much bloodshed, weakened
the one strong thing of the day, the royal authority, and led on
to the rise of the Mayors of the Palace and the fall of the
Merwings. Theodorik, Hlodowig's eldest son, born before his marriage
with Hlotehild, took the north-eastern part, and became king of
what soon after this time began to be called Austrasia, a district
lying on both banks of the Rhine \ He had also possessions
in Aquitaine and Auvergne. He made Mettis (Metz) his capital,
and is usually styled king of that city. Of Hlotehild's three sons,
Hildebert the eldest had the central district (central, that is,
with reference to Frankish Gaul), the country round Paris,
together with Armorica and a little patch of country round
Bordeaux2 and Saintes : he is styled king of Paris. Hlodomir
fixed himself at Orleans, and possessed lands north and south of
the Loire, throughout its course ; Sens, Auxerre, Tours, Poitiers,
Chartres, Anjou were all his. Hlotair went to Soissons, and was
king over the old Salian territory, in the north-west corner of
Gaul ; he also had estates in Aquitaine. Thus we may see that
the partition was a simple division of estates, not of govern
ments ; and that the kings all clung to the parts north of the
Loire, regarding their possessions south of that river as outlying
properties ; lands suitable as fighting-grounds, for plunder, for
all the wretched quarrelling, murders, and misery of the time.
This is also true of the next partition, between the four sons
of Hlotair. After that time the kingdoms became somewhat
more territorial. As yet a king was but a leader in war. The
leudes looked to him for expeditions, even compelling him
1 See below, pp. 86, 87.
2 Lorgnon, 'La geographie de la Gaule au VIrae Siecle,' pp. 90-152.
G 2

84 THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 524.
at times to make war against his will. At home the leudes
deemed themselves independent. Surrounded by a court of
idle warriors, they lived on their uncultivated lands, finding in
war the excitement for which they craved, or, if war was un
fortunately slack, following the mimic warfare of the chase ;
caring for no man, recognising no social ties or moral obliga
tions, laying the foundations of that feudal lordship which was
afterwards so splendidly bad in France, so brutally bad (though
perhaps not so cruel) in Germany.
The partition did not lessen the vigour of the Franks,: they
attacked their neighbours right and left. The Austrasians de
feated the Thuringians1 and some Saxon tribes2, wild pagans
all ; then the Allemans 3 and Bavarians. The other kings
attacked Burgundy in 524, and subdued it in 534. The Aus
trasians also went as freebooters into Italy, but their expeditions
thither have no special interest for us.
In the first war against Burgundy (a.d. 524) Hlodomir, king
of Orleans, was slain. He left three boys under the care of
their grandmother Hlotehild, who had incited her sons to make
this raid on her Burgundian kinsfolk. The kings of Paris and
Soissons, Hildebert and Hlotair, seized the three children,
and sent a messenger to Hlotehild, offering her a pair of
scissors and a sword, with these words : ' Thy sons await
thy wishes as to the three children : shall they be shorn
or slain * ? ' In her anguish she cried . out, ' Slain rather than
shorn ! ' — for, like a true Frank, though she reverenced the
clergy, she would rather see her descendants dead than disgraced
by the tonsure. So the messenger returned. and told the kings
that the queen approved, and they might finish their work.
Whereon Hlotair seized the eldest boy by the arm, dashed him
to the ground, and killed him. The second, hearing the cry of
1 Who lay in what is now the Thiiringer Wald, between the Main and
Elbe, eastward of the Austrasian lands.
2 The Saxons lay north of the Austrasians, nearly from the Rhine to the
Baltic, across Hanover, Brunswick, &c. They were not really conquered
till Charles the Great's days.
3 The Allemans inhabited Rhaetia and part of modern Swabia.
4 Gregory of Tours, 3. 18.

A.D. 524. REIGN OF HLOTAIR. 85
his brother, fled to Hildebert's knees, who, moved with pity,
begged for the child's life. But Hlotair replied, 'Give him
up, or die for him ' ; and the boy was given up, and also
murdered. But among the crowd was one that had a heart :
he snatched up the youngest child, fled out, and escaped.
The child's life was saved ; and it was thought well that he
should — as the chronicler 1 has it — ' despise a worldly throne.'
So 'he passed to the Lord and died a priest2,' shorn, not slain.
His name was Hlodoald, and he afterwards became a saint, and
gave his name to St. Cloud, a pretty village on the Seine, hard
by Paris. Then Hildebert and Hlotair divided the lands of
their brother Hlodomir ; and after Hildebert's death, Hlotair
succeeded to the whole.
This tale of Hlotair contains many characteristics of the race
and time. We see the children with their long hair, denoting
Merwing blood 3 ; the Frankish dread of Orders, as closing the
career of war and enjoyment so dear to them ; the ferocity of
the chiefs ; the stuff of which the saints of the age were made.
In Austrasia Theodorik had died in 534, and was succeeded
by his son Theodebert, who in happier times would have left
his mark : he tried to govern wisely, with the help of Gallo-
Roman ideas. He also kept alive the Frankish war-spirit by
constant expeditions. This the Franks liked, but Gallo-Roman
ideas and taxes they could not abide. -So when Theodebert
died, the Franks pursued his Gallo-Roman adviser, Parthenius,
into the cathedral church of Treves, bound him to a pillar, and
then and there stoned him to death. Thus the Austrasian in
dependence avenged itself on Gallo-Roman civilisation. On the
other hand no one in Neustria murmured against taxation, save
the clergy, who resisted, warning Hlotair against 'spoiling the
goods of the Lord, who might possibly spoil him of his king
dom '; and he, joining prudence to penitence, desisted.
Neustria was settling down into a monarchy. Round Hlotair
1 Gregory of Tours, 3. 18. 2 Ibid.
3 QefUTOv yelp Tofr 0aot\evoi rav Qpayicav oi iramore xeipeaOat. — Agathias,
p. 14, A. 524.

86 THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 555.
were reeves {grafen) or counts, royal officers ; the clergy made
court to him, as usual; the name of 'leudes,' which had
originally belonged to all Frankish freemen, was given to the
' fideles ' or ' antrustions,' the king's trusty men, who filled
various offices and functions in the state. The Gallo-Romans
also struggled for position as the ' king's men.' Out of the
huge royal domain benefices were granted to these court-
followers. The Gallo-Romans, who knew of old the arts of
courts, the uses of flattery, sapped the foundations of the old
Frankish spirit, and taught kings and subjects their respective
places. Still, even in Neustria there were remains of the old
spirit. Thus, at one time there was trouble with the Saxons, and
when Hlotair, weary of the difficulty of dealing with them, was
for making terms of peace, his chiefs arose and said, ' No : they
would again go into the Saxon land.' Hlotair declared he would
not go. They burst out into the old lawless Frankish fury, and
went nigh to kill him. Whereon he gave way, marched at their
head, and got for himself and them a bloody defeat ; after which
the chiefs were glad to make peace as best they might, and went
home again. In 555 Hlotair seized the kingdom of Austrasia;
and in 558, on the death of Hildebert, Orleans fell to him, and
he became sole king of Franks. The career of war and murder
answered so well for him that he continued it to the end. Then,
says Gregory of Tours, he fell ill of a fever, and in his torment
he cried out, ' Oh 1 how great must be the King of Heaven,
if he can thus kill a king so mighty as I am ! ' and so he died
(a.d. 561) \ In his death, we see once more the Frankish con
ception of God : a half-pagan half- Jewish belief in a Deity,
strong and terrible, who can and will torment even the great
ones of the earth.
II. a.d. 567-613. At Hlotair's death the Frankish kingdom
was again divided into four parts. Sigebert took Austrasia,
Haribert had Paris, Hilperik Soissons, and Gontran Burgundy.
When Haribert died in 567, Hilperik seized his domains, and
made himself king of Neustria. This year 567 is the date of the
' Gregory of Tours, 4. 2 1 .

A.D. 567. AUSTRASIA AND NEUSTRIA. 87
definite division of Northern Gaul into the three real Frankish
kingdoms of Austrasia, Neustria1, and Burgundy. Of these,
Austrasia and Neustria were ever at variance, usually at war :
while Burgundy, quietest and weakest of the three, sided now
with the one, now with the other. The kingdoms became more
territorial, less personal : everything points to a more fixed
royalty in the Frankish world.
This is also the period of the struggle between Brunhild,
daughter of Athanagild, king of the Visigoths, who married Sige
bert, king of Austrasia, and Fredegond, the low-born mistress, and
afterwards queen, of Hilperik, king of Neustria. The plots, rival
ries, crimes, wars, murders, of these two queens fill up the latter
part of this century. About the same time we hear of the Mayor
of the Palace. This officer was elected by the chiefs, acting
independently, and was a check on the royal power, under the
form of a kind of regency. The first Austrasian Mayor of the
Palace was appointed at the time when Sigebert was but a boy.
The administration of justice was placed in his hands. The
office is found established, before long, in Neustria also and
in Burgundy. In Neustria the Mayor of the Palace usually
sided with the King ; in Burgundy he was insignificant, being
overshadowed by an officer styled the Patrician, a relic of the
Roman tendencies of that kingdom. On the other hand, in
Austrasia the power of the Mayors soon began to overshadow
that of the Kings.
From this time we may date the beginning of a double rivalry
— that of Austrasia and Neustria, and that of royalty and aristo
cracy. The clergy, to come to the other notable class, were
already paying the penalty for their subservience to the Frankish
chiefs. The kings soon learnt how to use the wealth of the
Church ; and the clergy sank to the position of worldly courtiers.
They flocked round the throne, and kissed the hand stained
1 The boundaries of these divisions are always uncertain. Neustria,
roughly speaking, lay between the Loire and the Meuse ; Austrasia between
the MeuSe and the Rhine. But Austrasia went beyond the Upper Meuse,
so as to include part of modern Champagne, and beyond the Upper Rhine,
including the Palatinate and even part of Switzerland.

88 THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 567.
with fraternal blood. The upper clergy became landed lords,
rivalling the Frankish chiefs. They meddled in politics, and
in the next period take their share in all the bloodshed and
intrigue of the age. On the other hand, rude Franks, seeing
the wealth of certain bishoprics, got themselves ordained for
the sake of the domains : — sometimes they even got the sub
stance without the shadow, the domains without the tonsure.
The kings interfered in episcopal elections, thrusting in whom
they would, and violating the old right of popular, or at least
clerical, election. At the end of this period we shall find the
monks, the new religious element, chastising this worldliness,
allying themselves with the new dynasty (while the bishops
clung to the Merwings), and sharing in its good fortune. Still,
the clergy were not all like this : even in the king's chambers
they helped to tone down the roughness of Frankish habits,
and in an age of universal turbulence the greater churches
became refuges for the oppressed. The bishops grew into great
alodial lords, under whose protection the weak sheltered them
selves. With their spiritual powers they defended, on the whole
successfully, those who sat as suppliants at their altars. Yet, in
the main, the spiritual life had lost much of its true character ;
and it was time that Christianity should once more assert her
living power. This she did when Benedict of Nursia founded
his monasteries on the Italian hills, and set before the world
a new view of man's destiny. The Benedictine Rule spread
swiftly over France ; and for six centuries it was the only Rule
in the land. The convents of the Order rose up to rebuke the
worldliness of the Church. They preached simplicity and the
dignity of labour ; they restored the respect due to toil. No
longer should it be servile to work with one's hands : ' laborare
est orare ' was one of the axioms of their rule ; and society
needed to be reminded of this truth. For a harsh line had
been drawn between the idle Frank who hunted and drank, and
the wretched Gallo-Roman peasant who tilled the soil. The
Frank in fact held that God had cursed the ground : the Bene
dictine arose to teach man once more how to win a blessing

A.D. 575. BRUNHILD AND FREDEGOND. 89
from it. Throughout Gaul the monastic lands became examples
of happy industry, telling their own tale by force of contrast.
The inequalities of race grew less before these missionaries and
pioneers of modern industry ; liberty seemed to raise her faint
ing head within their walls : to labour, to sing, to build, to write
— these were their four great tasks. The world has few such
worthy histories as that of the Benedictine Order : few societies
have left behind such monuments of ennobled toil.
The feud between Brunhild and Fredegond sprang out of
a foul murder, done at Fredegond's bidding on Galswith, Hil-
perik's queen, Brunhild's sister. When she was dead, Frede
gond was promoted, and became Hilperik's wife. Brunhild
then induced the Austrasian leudes to force Sigebert, their
peace-loving king, into the fray. They did not know that
they were taking up the quarrel of a woman, beautiful and
ambitious, full of Roman ideas, who would one day be their
bitterest foe. The onslaught on Hilperik was sudden and
irresistible : the unwilling Sigebert saw his victory with tears,
and begged the chiefs to use their triumph modestly; they
replied with reproaches, and went on to destroy all they found
in Neustria. Hilperik was so thoroughly defeated that, next
year, he yielded his crown to Sigebert, whom the Neustrian
chiefs hoisted on a shield, and proclaimed King of Franks.
At that moment two of Fredegond's pages drew near, and
smote him on either side with poisoned daggers. He cried out,
fell down, and died. Brunhild came into the hands of her
triumphant rival, who sent her a prisoner to Rouen ; and
Hildebert, a child of five years, was made king of Austrasia
under tutelage of a Mayor. The Austrasian chiefs now con
solidated their power, allied themselves with Gontran of Bur
gundy, and persuaded him to adopt Hildebert as his heir.
Meanwhile, true to the strange mixture of romance and tragedy
in her history, Brunhild was seen by Merow, a son of Hilperik,
who fell deeply in love with her, rescued her from prison, and
married her. Fredegond, furious at her escape, pursued the
fugitives; but Brunhild escaped into Austrasia, while Merow,

go THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 584.
less fortunate, took refuge in the church at Tours. It is a
pleasure in these gloomy times to come across a worthy deed ;
still more so when we know the actor well. Gregory the
historian was at that time bishop of Tours ; and he boldly
refused to give the refugee up to Hilperik's men ; and, fearing
violence, which he could not have resisted, found means to
convey him away. Merow made for Austrasia : but Fredegond
the implacable was on his track ; near the border her emissaries
overtook and slew him.
The whole life of Fredegond is a calendar of crimes, ending,
as was believed, in the assassination of her husband in 584.
She murdered Praetextatus, archbishop of Rouen, at the altar ;
unfaithful to her husband, she murdered him and his children ;
she oppressed the Parisians ; she moved through devious blood
stained tracks to an unworthy end. Between 584 and 587 she
struggled against Austrasia, for a time detaching Gontran from
the northern alliance. But the treaty of Andelot in 587 drew
Gontran and Hilperik together again : by it they guaranteed
the integrity of each other's territories ; exchanged those leudes
who had passed from one kingdom to the other ; secured the
gifts made to the Church, and set the benefices granted to their
chiefs on a better footing. This treaty is appealed to as show
ing the existence at this early time of the so-called Salic law
of inheritance ; that is, succession by the male line only. The
good Gontran died in 593, and then Hildebert ruled over
Austrasia and Burgundy. He too died in 596, leaving his two
boys, Theodebert II, king of Austrasia, and Theodorik II,
king of Burgundy, under their grandmother's tutelage. Thus
the whole Frankish Empire was under the kingship of three
children (for Hlotair II, king of Neustria, was but eleven years
old), governed by two old queens. Each child had also his Mayor
of the Palace, — a dark shadow dogging his tottering footsteps.
The two queens met for yet one more struggle, in which Frede
gond held her own : and at last we have the spectacle of these
two fierce and wicked women ruling peaceaby, even gloriously,
over their children's shares of Gaul. In 597 Fredegond died in

A.D. 612. GREATNESS OF BRUNHILD. gi
peace : her crimes met with no punishment, no reprobation
here : she left her son established firmly on the throne ; she
had fulfilled all her ambition. Brunhild, after Fredegond's death,
roused her Austrasians and Burgundians, and wrested almost all
Neustria from the weak hands of Hlotair II \ For the remainder
of .her life she struggled vainly against the growing strength and
spirit of the Austrasian leudes, and perished at last by a revolting
death. It is at this period of her career that the admirers of Brun
hild, who, says Hallam, 'has had partisans almost as enthu
siastic as those of Mary, Queen of Scots2,' ought to draw
her picture. Victorious over the Neustrians, she held her own
chiefs at bay with a stout heart and clear eye. She became the
patroness of art, the builder of churches, the maker of roads ;
her greatness was felt by kings, by emperors ; she helped
Augustine in his mission to the English ; she reformed her
clergy ; she received a letter of praise from Gregory the Great
himself. Meanwhile she smote and murdered the great leudes,
till they rose against her and drove her into Burgundy. There
she continued the struggle. The Church, hitherto her friend,
now abandoned her side and made cause with St. Columbanus,
whom she had insulted for daring to tell her the truth.
She still triumphed over and slew her grandson Theodebert,
with his children. Theodorik II died, leaving her regent to
four babes, her great-grandchildren. She still strove to carry
out the design of her life, the erection of a firm monarchy in
Austrasia. But now the leudes placed at their head two men,
of a race destined to impress the world's history with a lasting
mark; Pippin of Landen3, and Arnulf, bishop of Metz. Here
in the dreary waste we meet with the beginning of a line
which will lead us out of disorder into the ordered tracts of
real history. So wandering across a pathless moorland, we
1 All, in fact, except some twelve districts between the Seine and the sea.
2 Hallam, Middle Ages, I. I. I.
3 Landen is not far from Liege. Pippin was grandfather of Pippin of
Heristal, who was grandfather of Pippin the Short, who was Charles the
Great's father.

92 THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 613.
light at last on a little stream; we trace it downwards till
it becomes a great river, a power and blessing to the culti
vated world. And thus Pippin of Landen carries us on in
thought to Charles the Great, and the days in which modern
society was founded, when order once more began to reign on
earth. In Pippin and Arnulf the lay and spiritual aristocracies
were united against the aged queen. They roused the leudes of
Burgundy and Neustria to make common cause, and agreed
that they would slay Brunhild with all Theodorik's children,
and make Hlotair II sole king of Franks, overshadowed by
three Mayors of the Palace, one for each of the three divisions
of the kingdom. It is from this time that the real importance of
the office begins. Originally the Mayor of the Palace seems
to have been a somewhat unimportant person in the king's
household. Petitions and requests had to pass through his
hands ; and he superintended the internal affairs of the court,
as a kind of chamberlain. The office was Teutonic in origin,
and can be traced back, in its earlier form, a long way : thus
Badegisil was Mayor to Hlotair I, fourth son of Hlodowig.
Nothing can be learnt as to the office from the name of it '.
The Mayor was at first named by the king ; then elected by
the chiefs — a change more marked in Austrasia than in Neustria,
where the Mayors sided with the kings against the chiefs.
Presently, in Austrasia, the office became fixed in one family,
that of Pippin of Landen : it was held for life ; it carried with
it the chief command in war, and involved certain duties of
1 Here are some of the derivations suggested, (i) The obvious ' Major
domus ' seems to have been a real title ; but not among the Franks.
(2) ' Magister (O. Fr. mestre) domus ' ; answering to one title found in the
Latin historians, ' Magister palatii.' (3) The Scandinavian Mestr = maxi
mus ; but this does not suit an office which was at first not ' maximus,' but
of low repute. (4) Celtic maer, mer, a magistrate. But a Celtic origin to
the name is most unlikely. (5) Mord-dom, 'judge of murder,' which is
Sismondi's suggestion ; but this was not the original part of the office, and
is like an anachronism. (6) Meier, meyer, O. Germ., as in Hausmeier,
a bailiff ( = villicus), a derivation which has much in its favour. The Latin
chroniclers render the office by the names ' Major in aula,' 'Major domus,'
' Palatii custos, dux, gubernator, magister,' ' Praefectus aulae,' ' Praepositus
palatii,' &c. Nothing can be concluded from these names. See Du
Meril, Sur la langue francaise, pp. 6, 7, 8, notes.

A.D. 613. DEATH OF BRUNHILD. 93
rude justice. From Chamberlain to Regent, from Regent to
Duke, from Duke to King, from King to Emperor of the West ;
so rose the fortunes of the office with the great aristocratic
family which held it, until it reached its highest in the person
of the great Charles, inheritor of the imperial name and of
almost more than imperial power.
The undaunted Brunhild gathered an army and met the con
federate chiefs on the Aisne. There her army melted away;
she fled with her children, but was captured near Neuchatel
by Hlotair's men and brought to him. The four children were
murdered at- once ; the aged queen was tortured for three
days ; and at' last they tied her to the heels of a wild horse,
which, more merciful than men, soon put an end to her misery.
Thus shamefully perished (a.d. 613) one who for more than fifty
years: had been the greatest personage in the Frankish realm.
The horrors .of i her death add one more touch to the picture
of this wretched and terrible age, of which Gibbon has truly
said that ' it would be difficult to find anywhere more vice or
less virtue V Brunhild was caught in two struggles, in both of
which she was at a great disadvantage. Had she been Queen
of Neustria she might easily have subdued her leudes — for in
that part of the Frankish Empire they were already failing ;
and with her great abilities, she might have made such use of
the still preponderant strength of Neustria, as would have put
the Austrasians beneath her feet. For Austrasia, though its
leudes were the better fighting-men, was still the weaker state.
In Neustria she would have met with less opposition to her
favourite scheme of a monarchy, based on the recollection of
the Roman Empire. But as Queen of Austrasia she had
throughout to fight against unequal chances. This she did
with wonderful skill and success till her grandson's death in 613.
Then the whole fabric of her building suddenly crumbled away
and buried her in its ruins. The time would come when
monarchy would successfully resist aristocracy, and when
Austrasia would subdue Neustria: but not by her hands, or
1 Gibbon, chap. 38; and see Hallam, Middle Ages, I. 1. I.

94 THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 613.
as she would have wished. For the successful royalty would
be the Neustrian ; and the Austrasian conqueror would be the
head of the aristocracy. Dagobert, at the Neustrian court,
would show how high royalty could rise under a Merwing prince ;
and then, after half a century, Austrasia, led by the house of
Pippin, was destined to reduce all the Frankish power under it.
Could the aged queen have foreseen either result, she might
have understood the helplessness of her struggle, the baseless
nature of her policy.
III. a.d. 613-638. As agreed, the leudes made Hlotair II
sole king of Franks, and exacted from him in return (in
614 or 615) the confirmation of an ordinance called 'The
Perpetual Constitution ' — an agreement drawn up by leudes and
bishops in concert, the first definite proof of the growing
superiority of the aristocratic party. It involved (1) the aboli
tion of taxes ; (2) the restitution of lands taken from leudes or
churches; (3) the irrevocable confirmation of all grants; (4) the
restoration to clergy and people of episcopal elections, the king
retaining only the right of confirmation ; (5) the freedom of
clergy from the jurisdiction of the royal tribunals, and corre
sponding enlargements of the authority of ecclesiastical tri
bunals ; (6) the independence of judges, and the extension even
to slaves of the right to be heard before judgment. In every
line we can trace the hand of the clergy : it was an attempt
to introduce conceptions of justice instead of the law of force,
while it strengthened the party of the chiefs and clergy united.
The main part of this ordinance was never acted on. The
great alodial chiefs grew stronger, and were less likely to bow to
law; the amount of tributary land constantly increased, the
small proprietors finding it well to shelter themselves under
some powerful chief. There was no central government : each
chief, each bishop, was almost independent; bishops becoming
daily more like mere territorial chiefs, with all the authority and
all the vices of their rank. This is more particularly true
of Austrasia; in Neustria the royal power was still strong,
and Hlotair II, knowing that the Rhine provinces were his

A.D. 628. REIGN OF DAGOBERT. 95
chief difficulty, placed his son Dagobert over them as king in
622, under the supervision of Pippin of Landen and Arnulf.
Six years later Hlotair died, leaving two sons, Dagobert and
Haribert. Half a century earlier these princes would have
divided the kingdom, as a matter of course ; now Dagobert
gathered a force in Austrasia, and seized on the whole power.
And to rid himself of his brother (and he deserves credit for
self-denial in not applying the compendious remedy of murder)
he granted him a great part of Aquitaine. The down-trodden
South accepted a new chief with joy : Haribert fixed his court
at Toulouse, allied himself with the Gascons, and, in spite of
defeat, — for Dagobert became jealous and sought to crush him,
— succeeded in founding a half-independent kingdom, which
lasted for the rest of the century, and helped to lessen the
wretchedness of the land.
Meanwhile Dagobert, seeing that if he would be a real king,
he must be so in Neustria, after taking as hostages the persons
of the greatest Austrasians he could seize, fixed his throne at
Paris. There he made himself a splendid court ; purchased
friends with gifts of land and goods ; made progresses through
the country; redressed wrong; curbed the great; 'his coming
struck terror into bishops and chiefs, while it filled the poor with
joy.' Under him the Merwing monarchy reached its highest;
the Emperor of the East sought his alliance : there ivas no other
western king of note. He re-issued the Frankish laws, under
advice of Bishop Audoen (St. Ouen) and Eligius ; he advanced
architecture, influencing the growth of the ' Lombard ' style, the
first Teutonic modification of the Roman manner of building ";
gave a splendid example of this style in the Abbey of St. Denis,
founded and built by him under the guidance of Eligius, who
was a cunning workman in metal, and probably designed as well
as superintended the building of the great church. Withal, his
court was as dissolute as splendid ; for art and refinement soon
pass into licentiousness, especially in the hands of a half-
barbarous race ; he was surrounded by ministers of excess ; the
clergy, as in the time of Louis XIV, crowded round the court,

96 THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 638.
and either winked at, or muttered an unheard protest against,
the evils which flaunted in open day around them. Dagobert
was the Louis XIV of the Merwing time.
The years of his glory were not many. In a.d. 633 the
Austrasians compelled him to make a complete division between
them and the rest of the kingdom. He gave them his son
Sigebert, who was but three years old, to be their king ; and
five years later he died. The splendour of his royal estate
had been far more apparent than real : he had no hold over
Austrasia ; and though the rest of Frankish Gaul lay at his feet,
there was no stability in his position. On his death in 638 his
Merwing monarchy fell of itself to dust.
IV. a.d. 638-687. Sigebert is king of Austrasia: Hlodowig
II, Dagobert's second son, a child of four years, is king of
Neustria. These two infants are the first of the so-called ' Rois
faineants ' — do-naught kings, royal nonentities. The two
Frankish kingdoms diverged more and more; royalty in Austrasia
became a mere shadow, though the time for the change of
dynasty was not come. Shadows and names of things long
haunt the world after their substance is gone ; and when Gri-
moald, the Austrasian Mayor, Pippin of Landen's son, banished
the son of Sigebert to an Irish monastery, and proclaimed his
own son as king, the leudes all rose against him, took him and
his son, and sent them to Hlodowig II, who, naturally enough,
put them both to death.
On Hlodowig's death in 656, Hlotair III succeeded; he was
ruled by Ebroin, a man of some mark. His policy was to restore
the Merwing monarchy, and to curb the Austrasian chiefs. But
he could only delay for a while the inevitable result. The rivalry
and friendship of Ebroin and Leger, bishop of Autun, leaders
of two opposite factions, form a curious episode. St. Leger, at
the head of the aristocratic party, overthrew Ebroin, tonsured
him, and banished him to the monastery of Luxeuil ; soon, by
the turn of fortune's wheel, St. Leger also followed to the same
place : there the two statesmen became friends, and on Hil-
derick's death, they once more plunged into the waves of the

A.D.687. THE BATTLE OF TESTRY. Q-f
world's strife. Their friendship ended with their retirement :
they resumed their old places as heads of rival parties. Now,
however, Ebroin was too strong for St. Leger, besieged him in
his episcopal city of Autun, and took him ; put out his eyes,
imprisoned him, tried him before a council, condemned him as
an accomplice in Hilderik's murder, and had him beheaded*
After his death he became a saint; and the name of St. Leger
is not unknown, even in northern England. Ebroin next
recognised Theodorik III as king, and ruled over the Neustrians
and Burgundians with absolute power. Lastly, in 678, the
Austrasians chose Martin and Pippin, grandsons of Pippin of
Landen, as Mayors, and resolved to pull down the champion
of royalty. Ebroin succeeded in having Martin murdered, while
he failed to slay the stronger man. He was himself soon after
slain by a Neustrian, and with him perished the last hope of
the Merwings. ' Teutonic France,' as Austrasia is sometimes
called, prepared to occupy ' Roman France,' — the German-
speaking tribe to rule the Latin-speaking tribe. The last of
these invasions of Gaul by German was about to take place —
an invasion the consequences of which were different from all
before, for it led to that new form of the imperial conception of
rule and order which produced the Holy Roman Empire, the
grandest institution of the Middle Ages. We are now at the be
ginning of the power destined to cope with the growing strength
of the Papacy, and to beat back the onslaughts of Heathenism
and Mahometanism on Western Europe. The battle of Testry,
fought in 687, between Pippin of Heristal and the Neustrians,
closes the old chaotic period, and begins the new order of
things. The Neustrians were headed by Berthar, Mayor of the
Palace to Theodorik III ; the Austrasians by Pippin. Testry
is in the Vermandois, near St. Quentin : there the long struggle
of Frank with Frank came to an end. From that day Merwing
royalty faded away, and Pippin's house became almost absolute.
Under that house the wild anarchy of the chiefs will be stayed ;
the elements of order will have time to gain strength; the
aristocratic German Empire of Charles the Great will spread
vol. 1. H

98 THE NEUSTRIAN KINGS. A.D. 687.
across Western Europe; law and justice will emerge; feudalism
take shape for good and evil; the Church begin to shake herself
from the dust ; the see of Rome assert her proud position side
by side with the Empire. All this begins with the battle of
Testry : we hail it as the first sign of our release from the
shadow of death, in which we have been wandering.

TABLE III. PEDIGREE OF THE CAROLING PRINCES.

[To/ace p. 99.

Pippin of Heristal,
Austrasian Mayor of the Palace,
687; Duke of Franks
+ 714-

Grimoald,
Neustrian Mayor of
the Palace + 714.

Charles Martel,
Duke of Austrasia, Mayor
the Palace, 715-741.

Carloman,
Duke and Prince of Franks,
74W47 (resigned).

PIPPIN THE SHORT,
Duke of the Franks ;
Neustria, 741 ; sole Prince, 747 ;
King, 752-768.

CHARLES THE GREAT Carloman,
(Charlemagne), King of Austrasia,
King of Neustria, 768 ; of aU Franks, 771 ; 768-771.
King of Franks and Lombardy, 774 ;
Emperor, 800-814.
+

Charles, King of
Neustria + Si I

Pippin,
King of Italy,
781-810.

HLUDWIG I
(' Debonarius '),
King of Aquiiania,
781-814;
Emperor, 814-S40.

Bernard,
King of Italy,
SlO-818.

Pippin,
Count of
Verrnandois.

Hlothar,
Kingofltaly,82o;
Emperor, 840-855.

Pippin, King of
Aquitania +s38.

Hludwig
(the German),
King of
Germany. 1

Karloman, King of
Bavaria.

Hludwig, King of
Saxony

Heribert
of Verrnandois.

Pippin
of Valois.

CHARLES (the Fat),
K. of Italy and Emperor,
881-888;
K. of France, 884-888.
On his death, Odo, Ct. of Paris
elected K. by the Leudes.

CHARLES II
(the Bald),
son of Judith,
King of Neustria
and Burgundy,
840-877;
Emperor and
King of Italy,
S75-S77. I
HLUDWIG II (I)
(the Stammerer),
King of France, 8 7 7-8 79.

HLUDWIG III (II),
Northern France,
879-882.

CARLOMAN, CHARLES III (the Simple), 893-929;
King of opposed by Odo till 896 ;
Aquitania and by Robert, 922 ; by Rodolph
Burgundy, of Burgundy, 923-936 ;
879-884. all Kings of the Leudes.
I
HLUDWIG IV (III)
(Outremar), 936-954.

HLOTHAR, 954-986. 1
HLUDWIG V (IV)*
(Faineant), 986-987.

 1
Charles, Duke of
Lorraine.

As Ludwig V died childless the crown was claimed by his uncle, Charles of Lorraine; but the Barons chose Hu^h Capet, crowned in 987.

PART II.
CHAPTER I.
The Family of Pippin, or the Carolings.
A.D. 68j-J$2.
We have now reached 'the bridge between barbarism and
feudal life V The foundations of it were very slowly laid : one
cannot build easily on chaos. The first and second Caroling
chiefs prepared the ground; the third and fourth built thereon.
This chapter will be intermediate between the Merwing and the
Caroling dynasties. For though the real power lay with the
Austrasian chiefs, they did not as yet feel strong enough
to sweep away the shadow-kings who still seemed to reign.
' Though the line of Merwing kings,' says Eginhard, ' may
seem to have ended with Hilderik (a.d. 752), still it had long
been powerless, with nothing great about it, save the empty
name of king. With long floating hair and low-falling beard,
the king sat on his throne, pretending to rule : he gave audience
to ambassadors, made them such replies as he was prompted,
indeed even ordered, to make, yet feigned that they were his own.
All the while he had, beside the name of king and an uncertain
allowance (secured only on the will and pleasure of the Mayor
of the Palace), nothing of his own save one poor little poverty-
stricken country house, where he held court, surrounded by
a very scanty retinue of servants. If he must go abroad, he
was carried in a cart, drawn, peasant-fashion, by a yoke of
1 Guizot, Civilisation en France, Lecon 9.
H 2

100 THE CAROLING PRINCES. A.D. 687.
oxen, guided by a cowherd: thus went he to the palace or
assembly ; thus returned he home again. And the whole ad
ministration of the realm, all things to be done at home or
abroad, fell to the care' of the Prefect of the Court1.' Thus the
period between the battle of Testry and the crowning of Pippin
the Short belongs in substance to the Carolings, in name to
the older dynasty. Still, though only the name of King was left,
it must have had some weight : for it carried a certain power
over men's minds. Otherwise, how could nearly a century
have passed with the inconvenient and contemptible series of
Merwing kings still dragging its miserable line — a very chain —
across the age !
What then is the guiding track through this chapter ? It is
the establishment of a new Roman Empire, a German Empire
in fact, of which one limb was Romanised Neustria, another
Southern Gaul or Aquitaine, while the actual seat of power lay
on or near the Rhine. It is Gaul ruled from and by Germany.
The Austrasian princes became more and more German : the
Roman influences, which had so changed the Neustrians,
hardly touched them ; they held court at Heristal on the Meuse,
or at Cologne, or at Worms, or at Aix-la-Chapelle, — never in
Gaul. The Hhine is the main artery of their national life :
they spoke German, not Latin, nor did they use the 'lingua
Romana ' or earliest French, which now first comes into being ;
their Empire spreads eastward 2 as well as over Italy and Gaul.
The Austrasian princes were never French kings. The phrase
'Teutonic France' means Western Germany. Charles the
Great was no French sovereign : he ruled over France as
Augustus ruled over Gaul; it was a conquered district under
the general imperial government. The Empire which looms
so large under Charles the Great is what it was under Pippin of
Heristal ; it is German, not French.
From the beginning of this period the German elements
1 One of the many names of the Mayor of the Palace. — Eginhard, Vita
Karoli Magni, i.
2 From this time the very name Austrasia seems to move eastwards, until
at last it settles down on the Danube.

A.D.687. THE RISE OF THE CAROLINGS. IOI
revive ; the ' Field of March ' reappears ; the annual council of
the warriors again is held ; German conceptions of law and
justice come clearly to light. Even the clergy grow less dis
tinctly and exclusively Gallo-Roman ; many German names
appear among the greater bishops : they become more terri
torial, more like lay-chiefs. We do not hear so much of men
like Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, who could pen a neat copy
of verses at table, describing his happiness as a bon-vivant in
elegiac verses addressed to St. Radegund, once Hlodher's queen,
now abbess of a nunnery at Poitiers. Rather, we find them
donning arms, coming to the Fields of March as lords of broad
acres, taking up the ground they were to occupy throughout
the feudal period. Above all, the army once more became
the dominant feature of society. We shall see how Charles
Martel created this strong power and bound it to himself. Its
war-spirit becomes all powerful, and was far more organised and
orderly than in the Neustrian days. No longer will it dictate
its own movements, and rush where the plunder is richest, the
excitement most keen. It becomes an Imperial army, doing
the bidding of one man. It raises its chief Captain to supreme
power, secures the Empire's limits, consolidates for a time the
floating atoms of society.
One more question: Why did Pippin's family rise to this
height ? We have already noticed the general causes which led
to this result, — the decay of Neustrian vigour, when kings, leudes,
bishops, sank alike into sloth, unable to rule or to resist. There
was no justice nor judgment : the popular assemblies had
perished : the Church held no councils. Against the ruder and
stronger Austrasians they were powerless. And Pippin's house
led the Austrasians for the following reasons. The struggle
lay between the landed chieftains and the kings with their
courts. He who had great territories would be sure to stand
high among the chiefs : if also he had ability, vigour, keenness
in war, then he might easily be their head. Now Pippin of
Landen had these gifts; and, what is more, bequeathed them
to his descendants. They steadily gathered lands, chiefly on

102 THE CAROLING PRINCES. A.D. 687.
the Rhine, till by the time of Pippin of Heristal they were the
wealthiest house in Austrasia. Theirs was also a remarkable
succession of great men. Four generations, from Pippin of
Heristal to Charles the Great, pass without a sign of weakness.
They understood the materials with which to work, the needs of
the age. In war they smote back all races which threatened to
overwhelm and destroy the Frankish power : at home they used
every instrument they found ready to their hand. The monks,
that new force in Europe, became their most valued helpers, so
long as the earlier construction of the Empire was going on :
when the Empire had to be organised and settled, then the
bishops were used. Pippin of Heristal and Charles Martel
made much use of the monks; but Pippin the Short and Charles
the Great gathered the bishops round them, and found their help
invaluable in bringing order to the Empire. They especially
showed sagacity in their alliance with the Papacy. From the
time of Brunhild to the death of Pippin of Heristal there was
little communication between the Pope and the Franks. But
the monks were then, as ever, the Pope's militia, and con
nected the two powers. There were no other real powers in
Western Europe ; and these were not yet far enough advanced
to stand in each other's way. Each therefore helped to secure
the ground for the other ; each drew on the other towards his
goal : — the Papacy to a spiritual Empire and headship over
souls, the Frankish chiefs towards the revival, in part at least,
of the fallen Empire of the West.
From the battle of Testry in 687 to the year 714, Pippin of
Heristal ruled unquestioned over the whole Frankish race.
His chief troubles lay on the German border, whither he
often betook himself to wage desultory and defensive warfare
against the wild pagans. He had two weapons ; the sword, and
then the monkish missionaries. It may be remembered that
Gregory the Great, when sending monks to convert pagan
England, had bidden them pass through Austrasia, and that-
Brunhild gave them welcome and God speed. This act of
friendship was repaid a hundredfold when English and Scottish

A.D. 714. WHY DID THEY BECOME GREAT r 103
monks came as missionaries to Austrasia, and went out thence
to convert the German savages. They were the first of a long
series of English heroes of the faith, chief among whom was
Winfrith, better known as St. Boniface, the ' Apostle of the
Germans.' Their labours began under Pippin, and went on in
successive reigns. Pippin died in 714, leaving his authority
as Duke of the Franks so well established that he thought to
bequeath it to his grandson, a child of six years, under the
tutelage of his widow Plectrude. This was a blunder; things
at once threatened to fall back into chaos. Neustria rose and
defeated the German Franks, and seemed likely to become again
the leading power.
Pippin however had left behind him a natural son, Charles
(Martel), a man already known for bravery and vigour. At this
time however, thanks to Plectrude's foresight, he was in prison.
Thence he escaped, rallied the Austrasian chiefs, and attacked
the Neustrians on one side and Plectrude on the other. Though
at first unsuccessful, he chanced to fall in with the Neustrians
returning from the North, laden with the ransom they had
extorted from Plectrude under Cologne walls : in the neighbour
hood of Cambrai he utterly brpke their power (717). Thence
to the Rhine, where he repelled the Saxons ; he then sent
forth a strong force of monks to convert them ; and returned
to Cologne, took it, seized Plectrude, whose little grandson was
just dead, and became supreme head of all Franks. The
Neustrians made one more attempt to shake off the Germans,
appealing for aid to Odo (Eudes), king of Aquitaine. Charles
met them near Soissons, and down they also went. So were
the Neustrians finally quieted : while, on the other hand, the
Aquitanians were left alone, ruled by Odo as independent king.
He was a man of ability and vigour, and bore the first brunt
of Saracenic invasion. Septimania1 went with the Spanish
1 Septimania, a district of Southern France, received this name either
from its seven chief cities, or from the Septimani, soldiers of the Seventh
Legion, supposed to have been quartered there. The district lay along the
Mediterranean, from the Pyrenees to the Rhone, bounded northwards by
the Cevennes.

104 THE CAROLING PRINCES. A.D. 717.
Visigoths; the Rhone valley was under the leudes who had
domains on its banks, and owed allegiance to no man.
Brittany was still independent. The rest was under the
Teutonic Frank.
Charles was soon to be called on to face the external foes of
the Frankish power ; he must first secure for himself a devoted
army. He must do for his chiefs what the earlier Merwings
had done for theirs — attach them by land-gifts. But how
could this be ? He was not like Hlodowig, who had entered
on an almost unoccupied land, to settle in it as a conqueror.
He found the Frankish leudes in possession ; he could not
dispossess them : nor could he touch the tributary lands, which
were also in the hands of the great chiefs. For on those chiefs
his power rested; he dared not offend them. There remained
only the vast Church-lands, to a great extent held by Gallo-
Romans. Now the bishops had sunk low in men's esteem, and
could not appeal to such public opinion as then was. Charles
contrasted their ease with the self-denial displayed by the
monks, who went forth as missionaries without lands or purse
into the wild haunts of the heathen. So he took the Church-
lands, and distributed them among his warriors. The cry of the
dispossessed Churchmen rings through the old annals : Charles
Martel, a saint at Rome, is a demon in the eyes of the Gallic
bishops. Their impotent wrath could only vent itself in words ;
for Charles was dear to his lay-lords, and they, with the monks
and Rome, were more than a match for the wordly bishops of
the age, who had to solace themselves, as best they could, with
a legend. When in after days men opened the tomb of Charles,
out flew a horrid grifiSn; and the grave was empty, its sides
blackened. And the bishops said their order was avenged1.
This was an early instance of Church property used to consoli
date the civil power *. This division of lands showed advance ;
for it was not a partition by lot or claim of right; for all
flowed from the duke's will : and this indicated an important
1 See below, p. 116, note 2.
2 It is quite analogous to the grants of Church-lands at the Reformation
to the aristocracy in England and Germany.

A.D. 731. CHARLES MARTEL. 105
change, showing the advance made towards a stronger form of
government, and a new sense of allegiance and duty on the
part of the Germans. These grants were not unlike the lands
afterwards held by military tenure, so common in feudal times.
The policy of Charles was completely successful ; it enabled
him to create a strong army. The Church-lands saved Europe.
For twenty years the warriors bought by the lands kept up an
unwearied contest with the pagan Saxons, who had now risen
to be the representatives of Teutonic barbarism l. With these
warriors Charles also met and thrust back the new power,
Mahometanism. * In less than a century after the Hegira 2, the Arab Empire
had spread across all the southern portion of the civilised world.
From India to Spain the simple doctrines of Islam were enforced
by the simple argument of the sword. They shamed Christendom,
by displaying a rigid monotheism in strong contrast with the
half-concealed polytheism which had corrupted the purity of the
Gospel. It was the high fortune of Charles to be called to meet
the career of Mahometanism at its highest point of vigour and
success, and to arrest it. Fighting against the followers of the
Prophet he won for himself a place as one of the foremost
champions of Christendom.
In 718 the Arabs, holding already almost all Spain, poured
over the Pyrenees into the Narbonnese district; in 721 they
attacked Toulouse; whence Odo drove them back again into
Spain. Again he smote them in Provence in 725 ; but he was
not strong enough ; and in spite of their defeat they held their
own in Southern Gaul. That year the Arabs reached Autun
in the heart of Burgundy, and sacked it. Odo then allied him
self with one branch of the Arabs : whereon Charles marched
into Aquitaine and punished him, in 731. Next year, Abd-el-
Rahman, commander of the Khalif's army in Spain, crushed
1 They became the champions of the lesser German tribes, the Allemans,
Thuringians, &c, and were filled with a deadly hatred for the Franks.
They lay between the Rhine and the Elbe, and had formed a vast con
federacy of the still pagan Teutons.
2 The Hegira, or flight of Mahomet with his disciples from Mecca to
Medina, took place a.d. 622.

106 THE CAROLING PRINCES. A.D. 732.
Munuz, Odo's ally, crossed the Pyrenees, and fell on Bordeaux.
Odo was powerless to resist, and fled to Charles for help. The
Arabs sacked Bordeaux, crossed the Garonne, ravaged Aquitaine ;
and, learning how wealthy was the Church of St. Martin at
Tours, pushed northwards for so goodly a prize. Then Charles
gathered up all his strength and met them ' in the neighbourhood
of Poitiers V There ' the young civilisations of Europe and
Asia' 2 stood face to face. There the horsemen of the East met
the footmen of the West ; the Semitic race made trial of strength
with the Germanic. The battle was worthy of the cause ; it was
long and bloody. The chroniclers are not sparing of their num
bers. Three hundred thousand Arab corpses, say they, marked
the point at which the flood-tide turned. Of the battle itself we
have no details. The scimitar proved vain against the 'Fran-
ciska'3 in the muscular grasp of the sturdy German. Abd-el-
Rahman perished ; and his Arabs fell back slowly, relinquishing
all they held in Aquitaine, though not in Provence and Septimania.
From this day Charles became known by his name of Martel,
' the Hammer,' so mightily had he smitten and pounded the
unbeliever 4. The battle of Poitiers or Tours (for it is called
by either name) has ever been counted as one of the world's
decisive battles. Charles did not rest on it : in a few years he
had driven the Saracens from their last strongholds in the South
of France.
The rest of his life is a dreary record of ceaseless activity,
and of as ceaseless resistance. Southern France and the Saxons
alternately occupied him. No sooner had he passed the Rhine,
than Aquitaine or Provence was in flame : when he was well
1 ' In suburbio Pictavensi.'
2 La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, 2. r, § 7.
3 The ' Franciska ' was the Frankish battle-axe, with a handle some
three feet long, and a. small head, with a spur behind, like a Lochaber
axe. 4 Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. r, ch. 1, p. 5 (note), though he allows that
' a contrary event would have essentially varied the drama of the world in
all its subsequent scenes,' yet, with his usual judicial spirit, points out how
rash it was to risk all on a battle ; for, while defeat would have ruined the
Franks, a policy of delay might far more safely have checked and foiled
the invaders.

A.D. 741. THE BATTLE OF POITIERS. 107
over the Loire, the Saxons sprang again to arms. These two
rivers limited his real power. Worn out with such endless, toil,
he divided his dukedom between his two sons, and died in 741,
leaving the final settlement and consolidation of the Austrasian
Empire to his son Pippin, and his yet more illustrious grandson
Charles. Carloman and Pippin the Short, his sons, divided the Frankish
power. To Carloman, as the elder, fell the German part —
Austrasia, Thuringia, Swabia ; to Pippin, the Gallic share —
Neustria, Burgundy, Provence : to Carloman the wars of the
Saxon Mark ; to Pippin the ill-will of Southern Gaul and the
threatening Saracen. The dangers of such a partition were
averted by the character of Carloman. Pupil of the monks,
he was worthy of their best teachings. During the six years
that he ruled over the Eastern Franks, he showed the virtues
of a good man, with none of the proverbial weakness. No
jealousies or differences came between him and his brother. The
two seemed lo have one aim, that of repelling all invaders, and
securing the Frankish power. For a time Carloman's vigour
and success in war were as marked as Pippin's. He dealt
firmly and well with the Church; reforming abuses with help of
St. Boniface, the English monk and missionary, whom he had
made archbishop of Mainz. Boniface was the link between
monks and bishops, and his career indicated the beginning
of a change in Frankish policy towards the Church. The
monk was still strong in him ; a few years later he threw up
his archbishopric, and, dressed as a simple missionary, ' once
more went forth to the wild pagans, at whose hands he courted
and won the crown of martyrdom : he was the most illustrious
of all the Englishmen who devoted themselves for Germany.
By his help, Carloman reformed the bishops ; forbade them the
use of arms, restored them part of their goods. But in the
midst of all this good work his heart yearned for rest. The
monkish spirit, then so strong, had entered into him also, and in
747 he laid down the sword ; his ducal rights and duties he
placed in his brother's hands. ' He went to Rome ; there

108 THE CAROLING PRINCES. A.D. 747.
changed garb and became a monk. Then, with brethren who
had .followed him to this intent, he built a cloister on Soracte,
hard by St. Silvester's Church, and dwelt there for some years
in the peace for which he had longed. Afterwards, when it
became the fashion for Frankish chiefs to make pilgrimage to
Rome, it seemed to them their duty, as they passed by, to visit
their former lord and prince. But by thus paying him their
respects in great numbers they destroyed the leisure and the
contemplative life he so loved, and forced him to change his
dwelling-place.' Doubtless the rough talk of the Austrasians
jarred on his pious ears ; and possibly some stirring of his
Frankish blood, more martial than saintly, came as he heard tell
of Pippin and his goodly deeds of war. So 'he left his mountain
and withdrew to the monastery of St. Benedict, on the Monte
Casino' (which lies far beyond the goal of the Frankish pil
grims), ' and there spent in a holy life the years that still
remained to him V
Thus Pippin the Short became sole duke of Franks, anon
to be not only duke but king. We must not forget that all
this while a poor creature has been existing, the Merwing king
for the time being. Between Pippin and royalty lay but two
obstacles — the last of these phantom-kings, Hilderik III, whom
not long before he had placed on the throne ; and the old
feeling in favour of the Merwing name and family. Hilderik
was no real difficulty ; that he knew ; but the feelings of the
leudes must be considered. So he looked round for help, and
found it in the Church. Not long before this the papacy had
greeted the rising greatness of these new leaders of the orthodox
and powerful Franks. In 741, Gregory III, being sore bested
by the Lombards, had written to Charles Martel seeking help,
offering in return the old title of ' Patrician of the Romans,' and
hinting at a revived Western Empire. But as Charles and
Gregory died that same year2, the matter had to stand over.
1 Eginhard, Vita Karoli Magni, § 2 .
2 As did also Leo the Isaurian, the Greek emperor, the final promoter of
the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.

A.D. 747. THE GROWTH OF THE PAPACY. 109
But the thought had sprung into life ; and the Church was pre
paring to cast in her lot with the new power.
Let us look for a moment at the progress of this power to
which Charles appealed. The primitive Church in Rome was
Greek, not Latin ; a foreign ' religion,' strange to the Romans,
and chiefly embraced by strangers. The life of it was in every
sense underground ; it was a struggle for existence. It was far
less notable and flourishing than many other churches at the same
time. Then, as time passed it gained strength and power ; the
bishop of Imperial Rome was naturally looked on as the chief
bishop of the Western Churches. He was listened to with respect
by the African Church ; and ere long the see of Rome rose to
the level of the great patriarchal sees of the East. As their
importance decreased, it was clear that that of the Roman
bishops would advance. Presently, when the Church became
strong in Rome, it began to identify itself with the Eternal City,
and to assume some of the imperial attributes. And so we
see that when Christianity was recognised by the State, and
the chief seat of the Empire transferred to the new capital on
the Bosphorus, the Roman bishop was able at once to take
up a very commanding position in the West, though the
Eastern Churches regarded him with disfavour, and certainly
did not acknowledge his supremacy.
When the imperial authority in Italy was established at
Ravenna, and the Western Empire fell away from Rome, the
same result followed in the capital as in all the large municipia :
— where the central authorities failed, the bishops stepped into
their place ; and m,en regarded them as their true heads, the
fountains of justice and truth, each ruling over his city wisely
and benignly. So they combined with their work as pastors
of men's souls the protection of their earthly life. As best
they could they upheld what was good in an evil world. In the
forefront of these was the Roman bishop, who played his part
bravely ; men saw that he was worthy to be their chief. To
him they looked for defence against the barbarian and for the
protection of their rights, as well as for the comforts of religion,

IIO THE CAROLING PRINCES. A.D. 747.
and the solace of looking to another life, in which the miseries
they knew so well here would cease to be. So the bishop
presently was regarded as the sole head of the Eternal City. He
became in some way the object of that belief in Rome herself,
a half-pagan worship, which is a curious characteristic of the
half-barbarous subjects of the later Empire. The quasi-divinity
of the city was visibly expressed in the person of the holy
bishop. There grew up in ambitious and vigorous minds a great
dream of domination- ; of a Spiritual Empire answering to that
Temporal Empire, of which the memory never died out of
Western Europe. The dream of one age became the claim
of the next, the fact of the third ; a historical sequence which
the Roman bishops knew well and have often skilfully used.
At the beginning of the eighth century the Papacy had before
it either a great future or a great fall. Many things contributed
to make it a very critical time : the old bonds were loosened, and
society might either fall to pieces, or become newly knit by
fresh bonds : — if the former, then Rome, her bishopric, her
name, might sink to nothing, as that of Antioch and others
had done ; if the latter, then the bishop of Rome might grow
to be the central figure of a new Empire.
The Mahometan conquests, which hindered the Byzantine
emperors, and made it impossible for them to watch over their
interests in Rome, helped to free the Roman bishop from their
control. Meanwhile the great Iconoclastic controversy1, rising
to large proportions, widened still more the breach between
East and West. The influence of Mahometanism may be seen
reflected in the endeavour made by the Eastern emperors to
remove a marked phase of the Christianity of the age, the
worship of images : this threw Western Christendom into direct
antagonism with the dominant ideas of the East. The more the
Emperor insisted, the more the West clung to its images ; the
more the Pope stood out as their champion, and rose in public
1 Of which Gibbon says well that it ' produced the revolt of Italy, the
temporal power of the Pope, and the restoration of the Roman Empire in
the West.' — Gibbon, chap. 49.

A.D. 747. THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY. Ill
esteem. The ability and courage of the Lombards, who had now
abandoned Arianism, were thrown into the same scale. As a
sequel to the image-controversy, Liutprand, the Lombard king,
took Ravenna in 727, thereby breaking the slender thread which
connected East and West. In 729 he went further, and did some
kind of homage to the Pope, who now seemed to have found a
lay arm on which to rest. This however was not to be. Though
the Lombard was useful as an instrument to sunder East and
West, the Papacy remembered that he had been an heretic for
generations, that he was too near a neighbour, and might, if he
grew strong, be formidable to the Roman see. So, though the
popes were sometimes uncertain in policy, on the whole they
drew away from the Lombards. They also came to see that
the Franks alone could really free them from the remnants of
their subjection to the Empire L. The Franks were already firm
friends ; they helped and honoured the monks ; they had given
the Papacy a footing in Germany ; they were the strongest
power in Europe, or at least gave promise of becoming so;
they were far enough from Rome to be clear of clashing inter
ests2- We have seen that the first overtures, made in 741, had
failed through the death of pope and duke 3- Now the moment
was more favourable ; for each needed the other. The Papacy
saw that the Church needed for independence a basis of tem
poral possessions ; she was suspicious of the Lombards, and
was pressed by the Saracens in South Italy : on the other hand
the Frankish duke wanted a sanction for the usurpation of that
kingly title which had for three centuries belonged unchallenged
to the Merwings. He also had heard the whisper in which Pope
Gregory III had suggested a future Empire of the West, as the
* The popes were still obliged to pay a sum down for the imperial con
firmation of their election. Early in the eighth century, the emperor, without
ostensible reason, had summoned Pope Constantine to his court.
2 The Papacy at this time needed, to secure itself, (1) a territorial status ;
(2) strong lay friends ; (3) those friends not too near; (4) nor representa
tives of too high pretensions (like the emperors) ; (5) nor too friendly to the
claims of independence raised by the bishops. It is clear that the Franks
alone fulfilled these conditions.
3 See above, p. 108.

112 THE CAROLING PRINCES. A.D. 752.
blessing reserved for the most faithful defenders of the faith.
Again, Pippin saw before him a congenial work : the conquest
of North Italy would extend his name and power, would reward
his followers and satisfy their craving for adventure : while on
the other side the Pope knew that if the Frank assumed the name
of King at his bidding, the world would see that the Scriptural
phrase ' by me kings reign and princes decree justice ' was
receiving a solemn fulfilment.
Lastly, there was not wanting, as the connecting link, the
zeal of monks, eager to go between and to unite their spiritual
chief, the Pope, with their temporal defender, the Austrasian
duke. How could such a negociation fail? In 752 Pippin's
envoys, Burkhard bishop of Wtirzburg, and Fulrad abbot of
St. Denis, his chaplain (an Austrasian and a Neustrian, a bishop
and a monk), returning from Rome, brought Pope Zachary's
reply to his question as to that embarrassing shadow, the long
haired king. That reply was, ' He who has the power, ought
also to have the name, of king.' And then another clause, not
so clearly expressed, but in substance this : — ' If you will smite
the Lombard, we will transfer to you the signorial rights once
belonging to the emperors, now in abeyance.' Thereon Pippin,
with consent and counsel of all Franks, laymen and churchmen,
with the papal sanction, with all possible concord of ' de facto '
reasons, took Hilderik III and deposed him. No bloodshed
followed : the knife that might have slain a more formidable
rival did but shear the flowing locks of the phantom-king. As
those long tresses fell, the royal name fell with it from the
Merwing race. They disappear from history, uncared for,
unwept. Hilderik was put into the convent of St. Omer ; there
he languished for two years, and then died.
And Pippin the Short, — we fancy him a stiff, sturdy little
man, well-knit, and direct of purpose,— was at last made
king of Franks, being crowned with high pomp in Soissons
cathedral by the great Boniface, the English monk, evangelist
and archbishop. It was the last act of Zachary's pontificate,
the final seal put to the supremacy of the German Franks. We

A.D. 752. THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY. 1 13
shall presently see how completely the centre of power has
changed, and how ' France,' as the name was at first used, was
a very much larger territory than that ' Roman France ' which
answers in its turn to a part of our modern France. The
Frankish land of Pippin's day, composed of Francia Orientalis
and Francia Occidentalis, on the one hand stretched far beyond
the Rhine to the eastward, and on the other, did not occupy
nearly the whole of modern France ; for some of the southern
provinces were quite independent of it.
There now stand up two powers in the western world. The
light of modern days begins to break ; and on the horizon
are dimly seen two huge figures, side by side, on which the
first rays fall. The Empire and the Papacy begin their great
work of moulding the world ; they are the founders of Modern
Europe.

vol. 1.

CHAPTER II.
Pippin the Short, the first Caroling King.
A.D. 752-768.
It looks as though there may have been an uneasiness in
Pippin's mind, even after he had thus, with every sanction,
taken to himself the name of King. The Franks still seemed
to feel that none but the Merwings had a right to that name.
There was an indefinite awe about the title, which lingered long
after every shadow of power had passed from the long-haired
kings. On the other hand, the kings had played so mean
a part, that Pippin's warriors probably thought that their master
had lowered himself by taking the royal name. This accounts
for two things : one, the obvious eagerness of Pippin to give
dignity to the title by the new and striking circumstances of his
coronations ; the other, the tendency of the Carolings to aim at
an imperial rather than a royal name. Though Pippin and
Charles were kings for half a century, they were always looking
upwards. Their kingship itself was half-imperial; that is, it
had qualities which foreshadowed an imperial future. It spread
over far wider ground than the original Frankish kingdom ; it
held a different position towards the popes: 'Patrician of Rome'
was the connecting title, the link between them and the Empire.
We find that both the kings valued this title highly. They felt
that the name ' King of Franks ' was, strictly speaking, not

A.D. 753. PIPPIN THE SHORT. 115
territorial, and yet they had, to some extent, won for themselves
a territorial and imperial position 1-
In 753 Pope Stephen, second or third of that name2, finding
that Haistulf, or Ataulf (Adolphus), king of the Lombards, after
seizing Ravenna had marched on Rome, fled to Gaul for help.
He was there received with the utmost fervour and reverence.
Pippin caught the fortunate moment ; and though already
crowned, he prevailed on the Pope to recrown him with
additional solemnity in Rheims Cathedral in 754. The religious
element thus introduced into the coronation ceremony was in
time transferred to the Holy Roman Empire. The thought
remained in germ throughout the feudal times, and grew and
took new shape as royalty became stronger. The Pope at
the same time conferred on Pippin the name of Patrician of
Rome ; an office which made him the representative of the
imperial power in the West. It was the first step towards
concentrating the attention of Europe on the Carolings as
inheritors of the imperial idea ; for the idea had never died out,
though the emperors themselves were gone.
In 755 died Boniface. His martyrdom marks the highest
point of monkish ascendency over the Carolings. He had
converted the wild Germans in the interest of the Pope and
the Franks. From this time Pippin began to hold out a more
friendly hand to the bishops. They were needed to organise
his kingdom ; they formed a counterpoise to the great leudes ;
they held in their hands such elements of civilisation as still
existed. Literature, schools, mental activity, were kept alive by
1 Sir H. Maine, speaking of the late growth of the conception of terri
torial kingship, points out that the Carolings were inevitably thrust into
the imperial position. There were but two conceptions of sovereignly :
that of Kings of men, and that of Emperors. The former, he holds, was
set apart for the Merwings, the latter was vacant. Therefore the Caroling
princes became emperors. Though this remark is acute and suggestive, it
leaves unnoticed the fact, that for forty-eight years Pippin and Charles were,
both in name and power, Kings of the Franks.
2 On Zachary's death in 752, a Stephen was elected Pope. He wore the
triple crown three days, and died. Another Stephen followed, that is to
say, the one mentioned above. Historians are equally divided, some calling
them Stephen II and Stephen III; others altogether omitting the short-lived
Pontiff. I 2

Il6 PIPPIN THE SHORT. A.D. 755.
the bishops only. They alone had some knowledge of law and
tried to enforce it. The monks had brought Pope and King
together ; the bishops were needed to give a practical form to
that alliance. Pippin sought to rouse the clergy to a purer and
nobler life. He gave them high place in the young state ; he
revived councils, improved the Church laws, brought the wilder
clergy within bounds, restored part of the old endowments to
the Church l. Next, the king ordered the bishops to take their
place in the Field of March, which once more sprang into life.
They turned these manial meetings into orderly assemblies, in
which the Latin tongue supplanted the German, Roman ideas
prevailed again, and the clergy once more took the lead.
Meanwhile, Pippin was not forgetful of his pledge to the
Roman see. He crossed the Alps, fell on the Lombards, and
shut up Ataulf in Pavia. There he dictated peace : the Lombard
paid a heavy ransom and abandoned all his conquests ; and
thus the Exarchate of Ravenna fell into Pippin's hands. The
Eastern Emperor made his claim heard : the Exarchate, he
said, had been wrongfully wrested from him by the Lombard,
and ought to be restored to him. The Frank advised him to
settle that with the Lombard ; knowing that the imperial arm
1 Part was restored, part retained by the leudes to whom it had been
granted, under the title of ' Precaria ' ; i.e. the ownership of the Church was
recognised by the payment of one golden 'solidus' annually for each farm.
The lay-holders took care that ' possession should be nine points of the law,'
and these lands never returned to the Church. Still the boon granted was
very great, and restored goodwill between the king and the bishops. This
act of Pippin, reversing the policy of Charles Martel, has received the
following mythical explanation, propounded when the bishops were in the
ascendent : — ' St. Eucherius being at prayer was rapt up into heaven. There
he was shown the prince Charles suffering torments in hell's lowest depth.
The saint asked the angel why this was so ? He learnt that he had been
condemned to this by the judgment of the saints whose goods he had taken.
Eucherius, on his return to this life, sent for Boniface and Fulrad, told his
vision, and begged them to visit the duke's tomb, that if his body were not
found there, they might believe that he spoke the truth. Thereon they went
to St. Denis, opened the tomb, and lo ! there issued forth a dragon, and the
tomb was found blackened within, as with fire. Whereon Pippin called
a Synod, and at once restored to the Church all he could : where he could not,
he begged the bishops to grant the lands to him, under title of " Precaria,"
ordering that rent should be paid for them to the churches, until such time
as the lands themselves could be restored.' Ex epistola Patrum Synodi
Caiisiacensis, A. 858. In Dom. Bouquet, Tom. 3. p. 659.

A.D. 768. PIPPIN AND THE CHURCH. 117
was not long enough to seize the distant province. Pippin then
gave the Exarchate ' to the Pope and the Republic of Rome '
(a.d. 755). This is the world-famous 'Donation of Pippin,' on
which rests the fabric of the temporal power of the popes.
Hitherto they had had a vague claim on the Roman territory,
but no more ; henceforth the Pope became a territorial prince ;
and his whole future career was modified by the fact.
Next year (a.d. 756) Ataulf took heart, and again attacked
Rome. Then the Pope called loudly for his Frankish champion,
and Pippin once more descended on Italy, defeated the Lom
bard, and gave into the Pope's hands the Pentapolis1 and the
Exarchate. Thus began the interference of Germany in the affairs of
North Italy ; she henceforth became mixed up with every
European struggle.
The rest of his days Pippin spent in the task of consolidating
his Frankish Empire. Against the Saxon he made small pro
gress ; in southern Gaul he did some good work. He recovered,
after a seven years' siege, Narbonne, the Arab capital, and freed
Gaul from the Mahometan (a.d. 759). He then warred against
the Aquitanians, who, under their Duke Waiffer, and with help
of the Gascons, held out against him eight years. In 768
Waiffer was betrayed to the Franks and slain ; and Pippin at
last triumphed over southern Gaul. He did not occupy it, for
he always withdrew with his army to the Rhine ; and Aquitaine,
full of hatred towards those who had worked her so much woe,
never became a true part of his Empire.
1 A district on the Adriatic comprising the five cities of Rimini, Pesaro,
Fano, Sinigaglia, and Ancona: it nearly answered to the sea-coast of
ancient Umbria. The sea-coast of the Exarchate nearly coincided with that
of Gallia Cisalpina.

CHAPTER III.
Charles the Great, otherwise called Charlemagne.
I. The Life of Charles.
That same year (a.d. 768) Pippin fell ill, divided the Empire
between his two sons Charles and Carloman, and died at Paris.
He was buried at St. Denis, hard by his father's bones. For
more than three years the two brothers divided the kingship
over the Franks, and showed no very friendly disposition for
one another. Their mother, Bertrada (or Bertha), a woman
of capacity and sense, stood as mediator between them, and
kept their jealousies from bursting into flame. Feeling that she
needed external help in her anxious task, she made alliance
with the Lombards. She negociated marriages between her
two sons and the two daughters of Desiderius \ the Lombard
king, and also between her daughter Gisla and the Lombard's
son. Charles married Desiderata, repented, and divorced her ;
— the first of a long series of wives ; some reckon nine. The
other marriages were frustrated, chiefly by the Pope, who looked
with alarm at so threatening a combination.
In 771 Carloman died, and Charles was elected sole king of
all the Franks. In 800 he was proclaimed Emperor at Rome :
in 814 he died. The long reign of this great German lord of
Gaul has always been regarded as the most important epoch
of early European history.
This however is of European more than of French history :
1 The French call him Didier.

A.D. 768-814. PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 119
for he was in all respects Teutonic, not French. In birth,.
bringing-up, dress, speech, dwelling-places, habits, tone of mind,
he was entirely German : the Rhine was his home ; France was
but one part of his Empire, however important it might be.
Every touch , given to his portrait by Eginhard 1 shows this.
1 In person he was large and stout ; of commanding stature, yet
not too tall 2 ; his forehead and the upper part of his head were
round ; eyes very large and bright ; nose rather above the usual
size s; and he had beautiful hair ; his was a bright and cheerful
expression of countenance. Though his neck was thick and
short, and his person rather too fat *, still, whether he stood
or sat, his appearance was dignified and princely. His step
was firm, his whole bearing manly, his voice clear, but rather
shrill — too shrill for so noble a body s : his health excellent, till
the last four years of his life ; and even then he paid but small
heed to his doctors, whom he almost hated, because they pre
scribed boiled meat instead of his favourite roasts.' After the
manner of his race, he loved horseback and hunting 6 He (like
the German to this day) delighted in spas and natural hot springs.
In them he often swam; for he was an unrivalled swimmer.
This is why he built a palace at Aquae Grani (Aachen or Aix-
la-Chapelle), and lived there during the latter years of his life.
' He would invite not only his sons to bathe with him, but his
nobles and friends, nay, even his satellites and body-guards, so
that sometimes a hundred or more were in the water at once.
1 Eginhard was Charles's friend and secretary.
2 Eginhard (Vita Karoli M. c. 22) says he was ' seven times as tall as his
own foot ' — but as we do not know how long his foot was, we can only
guess that he was probably rather over six feet of our measure. The
Pseudo-Turpin says * he was eight times the length of his foot,' and that
' his foot was a very long one,' showing the tendency of the legends towards
the marvellous. The priests at Aachen still show a thigh bone among his
relics : it is that of a tall man.
3 ' Naso panllulum mediocritatem excedenti.' Students in physiognomy
will look at it with satisfaction. It is what is called the ' conqueror's
nose ' when seen in profile, and is certainly the prominent feature of the face.
4 'Venterque projectior videretur.' Eginhard is describing him when
from forty-five to fifty years of age, not when he first became king of the
Franks. 5 ' Voce clara quidem, sed quae minus corporis formae couveniret.'
6 True of all Franks and Normans too.

120 CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
' He wore the dress of his country, that is, the Frankish dress
— a linen shirt and drawers next his skin1; above these a tunic
with a silken hem, and breeches of the same ; then he wrapped
his knees and legs down to the ankles with strips of linen ; he
wore boots on his feet ; his shoulders and breast he guarded in
winter with an overcoat of fur (of ermine or otter) ; over that
a Frankish cloak, and, slung across him by a gold or silver
belt, a scabbarded sword. . . . Foreign dress, how rich soever it
might be, he hated. He never wore it, save twice at Rome ;
once at the suit of Adrian, and once at the request of Leo,
when he condescended to put on the Roman tunic, chlamys,
and sandals. At ordinary times he dressed almost like any of
the common folk around him '2.
' He was moderate in eating and drinking, especially in the
latter ; for he detested drunkenness in any man. He could not
well endure abstinence, and often complained that fasting was
bad for his health. He very rarely gave a banquet ; if he did,
it was on some high feast day, and to a very large company.
His usual dinner was of four dishes, besides his favourite roast
meat, which his huntsmen served up on spits, hot from the
fire.' Conversation not having yet been invented among the
Franks, ' he listened during his meal to some reading or lecture,
histories and ancient deeds of war. He also took delight in
St. Augustine's books, especially in the De Civitate Dei.'
After his mid-day meal he ate some fruit, took one draught
of wine, and then lay down to sleep for two or three hours.
He was easy of access to all friends, delighted in receiving
strangers, would often call in suitors and hear their case, and
give judgment, if the Count of the Palace asked him so to do.
In his time, among the Franks and elsewhere, the marriage-tie
was very weak, and men broke it or set it aside much as they
liked. Charles was far from blameless in this respect ; and, as
we, have already said, he appears to have had in succession no
less than nine wives. One of them, Fastrada, was probably the
1 ' Ad corpus camisam lineam et feminalibus lineis induebatur.'
2 ' Habitus ejus parum a communi et plebeio abhorrebat.'

A.D. 768-814. HIS CHARACTER AND ACQUIREMENTS. 121
chief cause of the few acts of cruelty which disfigure his reign.
Still his domestic life was cheerful. He lived ever surrounded
by his children. From whatever cause, from policy or affection,
he never let his handsome daughters marry neighbouring princes,
and, as far as he could, retained his whole family around him
throughout his life. He brought them up in Frankish fashion :
the sons learnt to hunt and ride and use their weapons manfully;
the daughters spun, and were brought up in all honourable
knowledge. He lived chiefly at Engelenheim (Ingelheim, on
the Rhine, not far from Mainz), or at Nimwegen (on the Waal),
or, later in life, at Aix-la-Chapelle.
In all these details his Teutonic character appears. We see
it too in the colouring of his court. Of all the learned men he
gathered round him, Churchmen though they were, only six of
note came from Gallic districts (even counting Septimania as
part of Gaul), while more than double that number were drawn
from other parts of the Empire 1. Again, looking at the places
at which he held councils, we find among them only one Gallic
city, Boulogne, in an enumeration of thirty- five Malls2. It is
true that he draws nearer to the Gallic mind in the intellectual
bent of his character : but that was partly caused by the Church
men whom he encouraged, and partly by his marked ambition
to be the head of the Roman world. To this is probably due
his admiration for the De Civitate Dei, with its grand conception
of the Church rising above the pagan and the barbarian worlds.
He deemed himself fit chief for such a society.
Like all really great men, he is distinguished for the untiring-
vigour of his mind. It grasps at everything. From high
dreams of universal empire, of civilisation centering in himself,
and effected by means of the Church, down to the regulation of
the details of his crops and lands, he wearied of nothing, feared
nothing as too great, despised nothing as too small. He was,
as Hallam says, ' born for universal innovation.' His Capitularies
are of a most varied kind. Innovation with him was not
1 I follow the table given in Guizot's Civilisation en France, Lecon 20.
2 The nature of his Malls is explained on p. 77.

122 CHARLES THE GREA T. A.D. 768-814.
destruction ; patiently it built up society. His strong and manly
sympathy with intellectual greatness led him to surround himself
with the learned of every country. Alcuin was an English
man, Leutrad a Norman, Peter a Pisan, Agobard a Spaniard,
Theodulph an Italian Goth. He was warm in his friendships,
always choosing capable men, and clinging to them, sometimes
(as in Alcuin's case) longer than they liked. He had the
cheerfulness and sociability of a man of robust and even health.
Nor was he a mere patron of learning. He was reckoned to
be, after Alcuin, the most learned man in his Empire. He
found leisure to become master of Latin, which he spoke as
fluently as his own German tongue : he knew enough Greek
to understand it well, though he could not speak it with
ease. Like many great kings he took a minute interest in
theological questions. He studied grammar under Peter of
Pisa, and is said to have composed a treatise on the subject;
he worked at rhetoric and logic ; was a good speaker ; and, for
the age, a passable poet. He reformed the Calendar, and took
much delight in astronomy, following with the utmost curiosity
the course of the stars. He collected all the ballads current in
his time, and did what in him lay for art and music : he recast
the services of the Church ; the Roman Missal was, in large
part, substituted for the previous Gallican use ; the Gregorian
chant for the Ambrosian : ' only,' says one of the chroniclers,
' the Franks with their naturally harsh voices could not render
the trills, the cadences, the varied movements of the Romans.
They broke rather than expressed them in their rough throats1.'
He was attentive to questions of law, and made some attempts
to reconcile the different codes in use — the Roman, the Salic,
the Ripuarian. He also tried to learn to write, and to this end
had tablets and writing materials under his pillow, so that in
spare moments he might practise himself in forming the letters.
But this alone seems to have been too hard for him, and he
gave it up2.
1 Vita S. Gregorii Magni, auct. Johanne Diacono, 2. 9. 10 ; and the Monk
of.St. Gall, 1. 10.
2 ' Parum successit labor praeposterus et sero inchoatus.' Eginhard,

A.D. 768-814. HIS CHARACTERISTICS. 123
The encouragement he gave to the learned; the care he
took in importing men from the more fortunate British Isles ;
the eagerness with which he tried to push on his Franks in the
ways of learning ; his own studies ; — all bear the impress of
the same greatness of character. He gave to literature a real
impulse : it is one of the definite results of his reign over the
western world ; and this ma)' always be fairly cited against
those who declare that nothing followed from his life, and that
his Empire crumbled to pieces. Though his son Louis was, in
respect of study, worthy of his father, he was quite an excep7
tion : the Frankish nobles had no heart for learning. The
Franks had many practical gifts, but no love of books. We
read in the Chronicle of the Monk of St. Gall 1 that one day
two Irishmen or Scots came to court, and gave out, to those
who asked their business, that they were come to offer wisdom
for sale. For they saw that folk think nothing of what they
can have for nothing, but prize what they must buy. When
this was reported to the king, he, ever eager to welcome
foreigners, and attracted by their reply, had them into his pre
sence, and asked them if what he had heard of them was true.
They made reply that it was true, and that they had brought
wisdom for sale. He then asked them their price. They said
they asked but a suitable school, and souls well disposed, and
food and raiment. The king, well pleased, kept them at his
court. Then, after a while, having to go forth to war, he bade
one of them remain behind, and placed under his charge
a number of youths, some of noble race, some of the middle
rank of life, others sons of the poor, and provided for them,
according to their needs, a home and sustenance. On his return
from war, Charles bade the Scot bring before him all his pupils,
with their work. The sons of the two lower classes of men laid
before him work filled with all that was beautiful and learned ;
Vita Karoli M. c. 25. We must remember that 'writing' meant the
large and bold style belonging to the ninth century, and was far more
of an art than it was in later days. We know that Charles could sign
his name.
1 Monachi S. Gall. Chron. de Gestis Karoli M. 1. 1-3.

124 - CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
but the young nobles had nothing to show but incomplete work,
sure witness of their idleness. Then the wise king, imitating
the justice of the King of kings, placed those who had been
industrious on his right hand, and said to them, ' I thank you,
my children, for you have done my bidding and your duty, so
far as in you lay ; I now bid you go on unto perfection. I will
give you bishoprics and rich monasteries, and you shall ever be
honoured in my eyes.' Then, turning to those on his left
hand, he startled them with his look of fire, and spoke to them
bitterly, as with a voice of thunder : ' You, young noblemen,
you, sons of the great, you, so trim and nice, have trusted in
your birth and wealth, have neglected my orders and your own
sanctification ; you have given yourselves to riotous living, to
gambling, to idleness, or to vain exercise.' Then, with his usual
oath, lifting his noble head and hand heavenwards, he added,
' By the King of Heaven, I think small things of your nobility
and your trimness, though others may admire you : and know
of a surety that, if you do not make up for your idleness by
hard work, you will never get any good out of Charles.' A tale
which shows the king's zeal for learning, and the idle resistance
of his Franks ; it incidentally illustrates his love for the inhabit
ants of the British Isles, and also his undoubted power over
Church appointments. The tale is not without significance
even now, though a thousand years have passed since the monk
made or transcribed it '.
Another sign of his greatness was his love of building, and
that on a grand scale. All great men have something of the
engineer in them, and are aroused by the resistance of nature ;
the difficulties of construction are a pleasure to them. We find
him constantly engaged on great works ; he gave a strong
impulse to architecture. The churches throughout the Empire
were his especial care. The men he placed in important
bishoprics reported to him what they had done in rebuilding
or restoring God's houses in their dioceses. He himself super
intended the building of the great Church at Aix-la-Chapelle,
1 The Monk of St. Gall wrote towards the end of the ninth century.

A.D. 768-814. HIS CHIEF ACTS. 125
destined to be the shrine wherein his body should be laid to
rest. He also built palaces there, at Engelenheim, and at
Nimwegen. But perhaps the most remarkable of his works,
as combining the greatest engineering difficulties with the
highest practical usefulness, was his great bridge over the Rhine
near Mainz. All the Empire seems to have contributed towards
it. Ten years it was in building ; and, when finished, was
a huge mass of woodwork, half a mile in length, founded upon
wooden piles driven into the river-bed. It was intended to
connect more closely the two halves of his Empire, the Rhine
being the central stream and artery of the whole. But it was
burnt to the water's edge a short time before the emperor's
death, a mishap which Eginhard places among the portents
preceding his decease1. The emperor, undismayed by this
great misfortune, was planning the substitution of a stone
bridge in the place of it when death overtook him. His
design remained unfulfilled to our own times : not till a few
years ago was another solid bridge thrown across the Rhine
near the same place.
Now that we have touched on the personal qualities of this
greatest of Teutons, we may, having caught a glimpse at his
bearing and look, go on to a brief account of his doings in war
and peace. Fortunately, most of his wars lie away from our
borders, and will give us no trouble. As to his heroic attempts
to organise the nascent Empire, we shall find it less easy to
distinguish what part of his instructions and legislation is
Teutonic, and what part belongs to Gaul. Still, even here,
we will endeavour to confine ourselves, as far as may be, to
the Gallic side of his labours.
All his wars were offensive and defensive at once. His task
as a warrior was to thrust all threatening neighbours back
from the frontiers, and to secure independence and a time of
quiet growth for the field that he had sown with the new seed
of modern life. His long reign, his many campaigns, fulfilled
this end. The end did not answer to his expectations ; nor
1 Eginhard, Vita Karoli M. § 32.

126 CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
could his genius secure his Empire from falling asunder. But
the great characteristic result of his time was a distinct con
solidation of western society. His Empire perishes, but the
kingdoms in a way remain ; his imperial policy gives way to
the growth of a strong feudalism, in which independent chief
tains subdivide each kingdom into smaller states, ruled from
the lord's castle, and subject to such central government as was
then possible ; — a number of small political bodies, each with
its own laws and interests, and with some amount of organised
life. These have replaced the shapeless chaos of previous times,
and are the elements of the future in Europe.
During his reign of forty-six years, Charles went out with, or
sent out, no less than fifty-three notable expeditions, and doubt
less many more of less importance. This unwearied industry
of war was directed against twelve different nations, and smote
every race which seemed to threaten the borders of the Empire.
These expeditions have little or no history. In all the eighteen
campaigns against the Saxons, only two great battles seem to
have been fought. The rest were ' military promenades,' —
forts built, wild natives captured and Christianised at the sword's
point, forests traversed, rivers crossed, submission exacted, and
then back to the West, till another uneasy movement showed the
need of another expedition. Rough measures were occasionally
resorted to : for Charles could be impatient with the stiff-
necked race of heathens. Once be transplanted ten thousand
Saxons from the Elbe to the thinly peopled parts of his Gallic
and German dominions; once he gave the order, and 4500
Saxons were slain in cold blood in a single day. His legislation
breathed the same spirit of savagery towards them. Death
was the penalty for the least infringement of Church order.
The open profession of Christianity was bound up with their
allegiance ; if they failed in the one, they were failing in the
other. But Charles's wars were not all of them so ferocious.
In the case of the Saxons, their stubborn resistance, which lasted
three-and-thirty years (a.d. 772-804), tried his patience, impeded
his power, and hindered the organisation of his Empire ; and at

A.D. 768-814. HIS GREATNESS AND WARS. 127
last betrayed him into the only acts of cruelty and barbarism
which stain his history.
We have mentioned the Saxon wars out of course, both
because they run through the chief part of his reign, and because,
as they lie away from our subject, it was well to dispose of them
at once.
Of the other wars, which we will take in their order as they
come on, those against the Aquitanians, the Lombards, the
Bretons, and the Spanish Arabs, alone call for a detailed notice.
The rest we need only mention.
i. While Carloman was still lord of half the Frankish Empire,
in 769, the Aquitanian war broke out. The south of Gaul had
been subdued, and Waiffer slain, at the end of Pippin's reign;
subdued it was, not satisfied, and the southerners thought they
saw their opportunity in the death of their conqueror. Two
youths divided the Empire, the elder some seven-and-twenty years
old, the younger still a boy. They could not resist the temptation,
and war began again. The old Duke Hunold, Waiffer's father,
after having worn the monkish frock for five-and-twenty years,
took sword to deliver his country. Then the Aquitanians learnt
that they were no gainers by the change of Frankish king.
Charles beat the old man in the field, and built himself a strong
hold, ' Castellum Francicum1,' on the Dordogne, as a centre-
point for his soldiers. Hunold fled to the Wascons, but they
did not dare to harbour him : they gave him up to the Franks.
He escaped out of their hands, took refuge with Desiderius the
Lombard, where he had rest, till he again saw the Frankish king
from the walls of Verona, and fell defending the last stronghold
of the Lombards, against his and their hereditary foe. The
Aquitanians then made his grandson Lupus their duke, and
continued the struggle as best they might. Some years later
(a.d. 778) Charles took Lupus and put him to death, divided
Gascony among his sons and certain powerful lords, and in like
manner partitioned Aquitania into fifteen counties, over which
he set officers who were either Germans or Gallo-Romans whom
1 Perhaps Chatillon on the Dordogne.

128 CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
he could trust, and granted much of the territory in the form of
benefices to his soldiers. Thus, as the imperial system unfolded
itself before his eyes, and he felt himself strong enough to be
head over vassal kingdoms, he resolved to yield to the strong
wish of the southerners, and established a state under the name
of the Kingdom of Aquitania, which by the end of the century
stretched from the Ebro to the Loire. Over it he set his third
son, Hludwig (or Louis), who was then but three years old,
under the tutelage of Wilhelm ' Courtnez,' ' the SnubnosedV
The baby-king was established at Toulouse, and educated after
the manner of the Aquitanians. From that moment both
Charles, sure of the honest allegiance of his son, and the
Aquitanians, delivered from immediate Frankish rule, went on
their way rejoicing ; Charles returning to his other labours, the
Aquitanians setting themselves to keep up their ancient and
wealthy cities. Thus they retained their distinctive character
through another period. They were still, in the cities at least,
thoroughly Roman, and in arts of life and general well-being
far advanced above the northern parts of Gaul. This pre
eminence they kept up till it was destroyed by the religious
wars of the thirteenth century.
2. Five years before this work was accomplished (a.d. 773),
Charles had been called to interfere in the affairs of Lombardy
by Pope Adrian, who desired his aid against Desiderius the
Lombard king. They were already foes ; for Charles had igno-
miniously divorced his second queen, the daughter of Desiderius.
The war was short and simple. Charles crossed the Alps, beat
the Lombards in open field, shut them up in Pavia and Verona,
and then, traversing North Italy as a conqueror, entered Rome,
and confirmed to Adrian the donation of his father Pippin.
In 774 Pavia and Verona were forced to capitulate ; the Lom
bard king was thrust into a monastery ; his son took refuge
at Constantinople, and doubtless fanned the growing jealousy
1 ' Dont les romanciers ont fait un chevalier errant, et les hagiographes
un saint, tandis que I'histoire n'en a conserve que le nom.' — Sismondi, Hist.
des Francais, 2. 4.

A.D. 768-814. HIS WARS. 129
with which the Eastern Emperors regarded the ambitious and
powerful Frank, who was beginning to overshadow all the West.
All Italy, excepting the Duchy of Beneventum and Calabria,
became part of the Frankish Empire.
At first Charles left Italy much as he found her, and con
tented himself with the additional title of King of Lombardy.
Presently, the Lombards leagued themselves with the Southern
Italians, and revolted. Adrian again appealed to Charles, who
came (in 776), removed the Lombard chiefs, placed Franks in
all high places, and created Italy into a separate kingdom, the
crown of which he conferred on his second son Pippin. Thus
he destroyed the only power which lay between him and
supremacy in the West — the only nation which could possibly
stand between him and the popes. Here, and soon afterwards
(as we have seen) in Aquitaine, he began the imperial policy of
creating dependent kingdoms, closely subordinated to himself
— a federal union of states bound not to make peace or war,
or even to give reply to ambassadors, without his consent.
3. The Saxon wars began in 773 and lasted till 804, ending
with the deportation of whole tribes into Gaul and Italy.
4. The Saracens of Spain were suffering from those schisms
and internal troubles which first checked the onward movement
of Islam, and gave Christendom much-needed time to rally and
face the danger. Charles, mindful of the task of securing his
frontiers, readily listened to the call of certain Emirs on the
Pyrenees, who, remaining faithful to Bagdad, were pressed by
Abd-el-Rahman, lieutenant of the Khalif of Cordova. Charles
raised two armies ; the one, composed of Aquitanians and
Italians, entered Spain near the Mediterranean and marched
straight towards Saragossa ; the other, composed of Franks and
other Germans, commanded by himself, entered by the passes
near the western end of the Pyrenees, took Pampeluna, and
joined the rest of his forces at Saragossa. But beyond this
nothing seems to have been done. For some reason — either
the ill-will of the Saracens and natives, or a consciousness that
his base of operations were insecure, or tidings of a Saxon
vol. 1. K

130 CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
rising — Charles thought it well to retreat, and made his way
back to the pass of Roncesvalles. He himself, with the main
part of his army, came through in safety ; but his rearguard and
baggage were attacked by the wild Asturians and the men of
Navarre, guided by Lupus, who hoped to catch his great enemy
like a lion in toils. The surprise was complete. Of the rear
guard not a man escaped, and all the baggage fell to the
mountaineers. In this sore disaster fell Eggihard, steward of
the royal table, Anselm, Count of the Palace, who probably
were in charge of the baggage, and ' Hruodland, Prefect of the
Breton Mark1.' This short notice is all that history has to say
of Roland, or Orlando, the famous paladin of romance.
Charles was unable to avenge this disaster : ' For,' says Egin
hard, ' the enemy, when they had done the deed, dispersed so
completely that there was no possibility of telling where to fall in
with them.' Probably, also, the prudent king did not care again
to entangle himself in Pyrenean defiles. The war in Northern
Spain went on independently, under Hludwig and his tutor
Wilhelm, until, by the end of the century, the kingdom of
Aquitania had secured to itself the frontier of the Ebro.
The sixteen years from 785 to the end of the century were
spent in incessant wars on every frontier. Thuringians, Bretons,
Lombards of Beneventum, Bavarians, Huns or Alans, Sclavonian
Weltzes or Welatabes, Saxons, and Arabs, all felt the power of
the Franks. And the campaigns are all of the same colourless
character, resulting in a slow but steady beating down of all
opposition, and a growing sense of security throughout the
Empire. We need only notice the Breton war, which broke out
in 786 or 787, when the Armoricans refused to pay their tribute
to the Frankish king, and were attacked by one of his lieutenants.
There was the stubborn resistance characteristic of the district.
The war began in 786 or 787, and did not end till 811. At its
close, Brittany became for the first time a part of the Frankish
Empire. The effects of this subjugation were probably very
1 Eginhard, Vita K. M. 9.

A.D. 799. HIS WARS. 131
slight, and the Bretons were but little touched by Frankish
manners or ideas : they have never ceased to be a race distinct
and characteristic.
On the death of Adrian I, Leo III was raised to the Papal
throne. He made oath of fidelity to Charles, as Patrician of
Rome, and showed himself submissive to the Frankish king.
He probably knew that his position was insecure. In 799 the
Romans rose against him, accused him of many crimes, and
would have thrust out his eyes, but for the fears or it may be the
soft hearts of those entrusted with the task '. He fled to Charles,
who was at Paderborn. The king received him with gladness,
and had long consultations with him, in which, probably, they
agreed to confer each a boon on the other. Charles should
restore the Pope to Rome ; the Pope should crown Charles
Emperor of the West. Then was the Pontiff escorted back
to Italy by a strong band of Frankish lords, charged to see that
all due respect was shown to him, and that his enemies remained
silent till Charles himself could come and judge of their com
plaints. Meanwhile the king for about a year pursued his own
course ; watched over his frontiers ; visited Northern Gaul,
already suffering from Danish piracies ; stationed men and ships
at the mouths of the greater rivers ; visited the chief cities,
Rouen, Orleans, Tours, Paris ; held the national assembly at
1 Eginhard, Vita K. M. 28, says distinctly, ' Leonem pontificem, multis
affectum injuriis, erutis scilicet oculis linguaque amputata,' &c. Now as
Eginhard was at the court of Charles when Leo came thither, and was not
only a contemporary but an eye-witness, one might have believed that the
Pope really lost both eyes and tongue. Yet it seems clear that he lost neither.
Eginhard himself, in his Annals, while telling the same story with more
detail, adds the significant words ' ut aliquibus visum est.' (Annales sub
anno 799.) Theophanes, the Greek historian, a contemporary, says that
they wished to blind him, but that his executioners' hearts failed, and they
did it not. Even the Monk of St. Gall says they only cut his eyes with
a razor, but did not blind him. (Mon. S. Gall. 1. 26.) I believe that the
solution of the matter lies in the desire of both Charles and the Pope to raise
the affair to its highest point of marvel ; and that they favoured the tales of
miraculous restoration to sight which sprang up instantly. Eginhard's Life
of Charles was written for the court. Angibert, the court poet, who wrote
an epic for the emperor, first gives us this version of the tale, and Eginhard
has followed him. — See Paris, Histoire Poetique de Charlemagne, p. 421
(1865). K 2

132 CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 800.
Mainz ; and finally passed over the Brenner ', bringing with him
a powerful army, more for his dignity than for fear of opposition,
and so came to Rome. When the trial of the Pope began
forthwith, the assembled bishops confessed that they had no
power to try one who sat in the apostolic seat. Then Leo
declared his innocence by an oath, and Charles, satisfied, caused
the Pope's enemies to be chastised.
On Christmas Day in this last year of the eighth century,
Charles sat in the seat of state, hearing mass, which was cele
brated by the Pope himself at the Vatican. All the greatest
Franks and Romans were there. Suddenly the Pontiff stepped
forward to the King, poured on his head the holy oil, and
crowned him with a golden crown. The crowd, not untutored
to be ready for the occasion, cried, ' To Charles Augustus
crowned of God, great and peaceful Emperor of the Romans,
life and victory ! '
Thus was revived the Western Empire, in a very different
age from that which saw its death. ' Thus Christian Rome,'
says La Valine 'l, ' found once more her ancient power, and once
more created a Roman Emperor ; yet there was now nothing
Roman left in the world : a Christian priest gave to a German
soldier the title of that which had ceased to exist. It was
but a vain ceremony ; — and yet it was the base of the political
system of the Middle Ages, when Popes and Emperors disputed
as to the government of the Christian world ; and it was the
origin of that great quarrel which disturbed the West for three
centuries — the quarrel between the Empire and the Priesthood.'
Charles gathered round himself all the floating traditions of the
nations as to the lost imperial name. He ruled emperor-wise
over a broad extent of Europe. Almost all the Germans and
the Latins obeyed him. His Empire embraced most of Gaul,
from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, together with the Spanish
March, which stretched to the line of the Ebro; all Italy,
1 The low pass which connects Northern Tyrol and Innspruck with
Southern Tyrol and Italy.
2 La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, 2. 2 (p. 179, ed. 1865).

MAP 4-

For the Clarendon Press

-''•••rch.lani LondonE-C-

A.D. 800. CROWNED EMPEROR. 133
excepting the Greeks and the Duchy of Beneventum; all
Central and Western Germany, and a large part of the Saxon
territory; North Germany to the Vistula and across to the
Danube eastward. Sundry Slavonic races acknowledged him as
their head ; Pannonia, Dacia, Istria, Liburnia, Dalmatia obeyed
him, saving that he left the sea-coast towns in the hands of the
Eastern Emperors. He had, too, allies and friends far and
wide ; Alfonso, King of Galicia and the Asturias, stooped to
call himself the Emperor's ' man ' 1 ; the kings of the Scots
styled him their lord and chief; 'Aaron, King of Persia,' (that
is, the famous Haroun al Raschid,) ' lord of all the East, except
India,' was so much his friend that he sent him the keys of the
Holy Sepulchre, with splendid gifts, such as the East can give 2.
Lastly, in spite of their natural jealousy, the Byzantine
Emperors thought it prudent to be on good terms with him 3,
for, as Eginhard well remarks, there is a Greek proverb, ' Have
the Frank for your friend, but not for your neighbour V
The rest of the reign of Charles the Great was passed in
comparative tranquillity; the expeditions were fewer, and the
Emperor himself went out to war only twice during the last four
teen years: once against the Northmen or Danes, in 810, and
once against the Sclavonian Weltzes, in 812. It is said that his
stern repression of the Northmen from the German frontier, and
his line of forts on the Elbe, caused the Danes to take to their
ships, and so led to that remarkable phenomenon of the ninth
and tenth centuries, the settlements of the Northmen in England,
' ' Non aliter se apud ilium quam proprium suum appellari juberet.' —
Eginhard, Vita K. M. t. 16.
2 At one time an elephant, at another tents, precious silks, unguents and
perfumes, but ' especially a clock of gilt bronze, wherein a clepsydra marked
out the twelve hours. As each hour ended, a little golden ball was released,
and, falling on a bell, ttruck it, and made a sound. Moreover, the clock
had in it twelve horsemen, which issued forth from twelve windows, at the
end of the hours, and by ihe shock of their issuing forth, closed up twelve
other windows, which before were open. Many other marvels were there
also in the clock, too long to tell.' — Eginhard, Annales, sub a. 807.
3 Eginhard (Vita K. M. c. 16) notices, the fact that the Byzantine Emperors
were exceedingly jealous of the assumption by Charles of the imperial name.
' Erat enim semper Romanis et Graecis Francoium suspecta potentia.'
* Tin Qpayu&v <pi\ov e'x?.s, yeirova ciiic exVs- — Eginhard, Vita K. M. u. 16.

134 CHARLES THE GREAT. AD. 800.
France, Sicily, and elsewhere. There may be some truth in it ;
but the Northmen were always a sea-going folk. Did they not
call the Baltic (which the Germans hardly knew at all1) the
eastern highway, and the German Ocean, the western highway ?
Had not Danes in their ships attacked the English coasts as
early as 787 ? and did not their ravages go on, without inter
mission, long before the war of Charles with them ? Did not he
find himself obliged to defend the Gallic coasts in 799? And,
lastly, if these are not enough, the troubles of the reign of Harold
Harfagr had great influence in pushing the terrible Northmen
to take their pastime on the high seas.
During these latter years of his reign, Charles claimed im
perial honours, and endeavoured to consolidate that royalty the
foundations of which had been laid at the coronation of his
father Pippin, in 752. He exacted from his leudes a new oath ;
not now as head proprietor of Frankish lands, or as Frankish
king, the elect of his people 2, but as sovereign by a higher title,
elect of God, blessed by God's high priest. He stood as
sovereign face to face with his free men, not as a lord with his
vassals. The oath was analogous to that taken by a benefice-
holder on accepting his gift of lands, but it differed essentially
from it in being personal and not territorial. The Emperor
carried his point ; few of his men could dare to refuse, most of
them, doubtless, failed to grasp the significance of the act. But
his success was hollow, and rested on his own character. No
sooner was the firm hand gone than it became plain that the
imperial theory, as he had designed it, would not stand. The
tendency of the age was towards territorial sovereignty, that
' tardy offshoot of feudalism ' s, as it has been called, which,
though late in taking the form of royalty, or rather in altering
1 ' Sinus ab occidentali oceauo orientem versus porrigitur, longitudinis
quidem incompertae, latitudinis vero quae nusquam c. millia passuum
excedat, cum in mnltis locis contractior inveniatur.' — Eginhard, Vita K. M.
c. 12.
2 Some lingering feeling about the right of the Merwings may possibly
have survived the half century of Caroling kingship.
s Maine's Ancient Law, p. 107. It must be remembered that Sir H. Maine
is speaking of the conception of royal power and authority.

A.D. 806. HIS LATER YEARS AND DEATH. 135
the conditions of royalty, was quick in asserting itself as the
foundation of the power of the greater nobles. Charles, setting
himself against this tendency, and lifting his own personal
authority so high, was fighting in vain against the inevitable
course of things.
In 806, at the assembly held at Thionville, Charles carefully-
settled the succession to the Empire. His eldest son Charles
was to have the imperial crown, and to hold the position he
himself had held as supreme lord of all Franks, ruling more
immediately over Austrasia and Neustria. Pippin1 and Hludwig
were to retain the kingdoms of Italy and Aquitania. Death,
however, bereft him of both Pippin 2 and Charles 3. Then
feeling that his life was drawing to a close, he held a diet at
Aix-la-Chapelle in 813. There he presented to the Franks
Louis, only surviving son of his second wife Hildegard ; made
him his colleague, crowned him, and bade them salute him
Emperor and Augustus. Then, sending him back to his king
dom, the aged Emperor, in spile of his infirmities (he suffered
much from fever, and was lame of one leg), spent the rest
of the autumn hunting in the forests round Aix-la-Chapelle,
returning thither as to winter-quarters. In January 814 a fresh
attack of fever seized him, followed by pleurisy, which he
SQon felt to be fatal. He then devoutly received the Holy
Communion, and died in peace, at the age of seventy-one.
There was a question whether his body should be laid at
St. Denis where his parents lay, or at Aix-la-Chapelle. The
Germans prevailed. The greatest of Germans lies in the
great church that he himself had reared in the city he loved,
among those who still speak his own tongue, and belong to
his own race 4.
1 Charles had an illegitimate son, handsome but humpbacked, whom he
also called Pippin. He, for whatever cause, conspired with some Frankish
chiefs against his father, was detected, and banished to a convent.
2 In 810. 3 In 811.
4 Eginhard gives the inscription which was engraved upon his tomb :
' Sub hoc conditorio situm est corpus Karoli Magni atque orthodoxi
lmperatoris, qui regnum Francorum nobiliter ampliavit, et per annos xlvii
feliciter rexit. Decessit septnagenarius A.D. DCCCXIIII indictione vii. v. Kai.

136 GAUL UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 814.
' In a life restlessly active, we see him reforming the coinage,
and establishing the legal divisions of money; gathering about
him the learned of every country; founding schools and collecting
libraries; interfering, but with the tone of a king, in religious
controversies ; aiming, though prematurely, at the formation of
a naval force ; attempting, for the sake of commerce, the
magnificent enterprise of uniting the Rhine and the Danube;
and meditating to mould the discordant codes of Roman and
barbarian laws into an uniform system1.' Thus has Hallam
summed up an account of his labours. The summary, though
brief and imperfect, gives us some conception of the many-sided
activity of his long life. Guizot has also well stated the general
results of the reign. ' The huge Empire could not survive the
poweiful hand that had fashioned it, yet none the less had a
great work been accomplished : the invasion of the barbarians
in the West was arrested ; Germany herself ceased to be the
theatre of incessant fluctuations of wandering tribes; the states
there, formed by the dismemberment of the great Emperor's
inheritance, grew solid by degrees, and became the dyke which
stopped the human inundation that had desolated Europe for
four centuries. Peoples and governments were more settled,
and modern social order began to develop itself. This is the
vast result of the reign of Charles, the dominant fact of the
epoch V
II. The Administration of Gaul under Charles
the Great.
It must first be noted that Charles the Great divided what we
now call France into two districts: (1) Francia Occidentalis,
reaching to the Loire; and (2) Aquitania, from the Loire to
Febr.' But his reign can only be made to have lasted forty-seven years by
reckoning the years 768 and 814 as whole years, though he was crowned
9th Oct. 768, and died 28th Jan. 814. Consequently his reign really lasted
forty-five years arid (nearly) four months. Eginhard himself says he was
in his seventy-second year when he died, so that the ' septuagenarius ' must
be taken to refer to the decade.
1 Hallam, Middle Ages, 1. r (p. 11, ed. 1846).
2 Guizot, Essais sur l'Histoire de France, 3 (p. 76, ed. 1836).

MAP 5

Kitchins France I.

A.D. 768-814. HIS AIMS. 137
the southward. Of these, the former was again divided into
Neustria and Burgundy ; the latter, into Aquitania proper,
Gascony, Septimania, and the Spanish March. The northern
part of Gaul was under the same general conditions as the rest
of the Frankish part of the Empire, that is, it was immediately
under the Emperor ; while the kingdom of Aquitania, under
Louis and Count William his tutor, was governed in accordance
with Roman laws and usages.
The sketch of the political and social state of Gaul here
attempted will refer only to that part of the country which was
under the Emperor's own immediate government.
We have seen that the land was divided into Alodial,
Beneficiary and Tributary territories ; and that the inhabitants
were either Frankish nobles, clergy, free Franks, citizens, or
slaves. It is also clear that the Frankish chieftains, who settled
down in districts far from the centre of government, paid but
small heed to the wishes of their nominal head. He was at
Engelenheim or Aix, and they, out of reach, in Burgundy or on
the Seine. The aim of the Emperor was to bring them under
his direct supervision ; their aim to be as unmolested and as
independent as possible. He had a partial and transient success;
afterwards they became the lords of France, the great feudal
seigneurs. It must also be borne in mind that even the clergy
and monks had sunk to a very low moral and intellectual level.
Charles had to preach the rudiments of morality to them, to
keep the bishops and abbots from becoming mere lay lords,
who followed the army a-field, or hunted or idled at home.
He had also to watch over the ever-increasing number of slaves ;
while often he was powerless to save them from the horrors of
famine, or the brutality of barbarous masters. The wonder is,
not that his success was so partial and transient, but that he
had any success at all.
So far as Charles did succeed, it was by personal character
and posiuon. He was supreme head of the Frankish Empire,
and held all the threads of government in his own hands; —
a system which worked somehow while he lived, but was

138 GAUL UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
a poor guarantee for the future, and failed utterly in weaker
hands. While his position remained personal, that of his chief
lords was becoming more and more distinctly territorial. They
began to base themselves upon the land. The owner of land
had to find his war-contingent according to the size of his
estates. This is one of the first signs of the change from
Frankish chieftain to French noble. Charles saw the danger,
and tried to establish grades among the Franks. He decreed
that the King's leudes should rank before all others — in other
words, that personal service should stand above all .territorial
greatness, however great. The struggle between the King and
his Court, on the one hand, and the great landed noblesse on
the other, was here dimly foreshadowed. It is worthy of notice,
in passing, that some of the King's leudes were Gallo-Romans,
and not Franks.
Thus, as the personal sovereign of all Franks, Charles re
tained in his own hands all final appeals, the initiative in the
assemblies, the appointment and removal of his officers, and,
through certain of them, the right and power of inspection of
his whole realm. He taught the clergy to regard him as their
head also, as the fountain of their wealth and privileges; at
home he sought to be the intellectual guide and chief of his
people ; he won their full confidence in war.
His chief instruments for welding together his vast Empire
were four — War, the national Assemblies, the Missi Dominici
or inspectors of provinces, and the Church.
i. He had, as his inheritance, a compact race of warriors,
a ready-made army at his back, trained by the great capacities
and needs of his father Pippin and his grandfather Charles
Martel. Much as his success in collecting army after army for
the numberless campaigns of his reign may astonish us ], we
1 Perhaps nothing so clearly shows the great influence of his name, as
the ease with which he collected sufficient forces for his many wars. He
began life, it is true, with a nation behind him quite accustomed to war,
and fond of it. His father and grandfather had left him the inheritance of
warlike success. He was himself at least their equal as a leader (though
his wars have little of interest or generalship), and from the beginning he

A.D. 768-814. HIS ASSEMBLIES. I39
cannot fail to see that these expeditions attached the Franks
personally to him, and were of great importance to him as
tending to wean his greater chiefs from their territorial leanings.
Internal policy as well as external need may have contributed to
the warlike activity of the reign.
Still, without depreciating the importance — how great it was
history shows on every page — of the position of Charles the
Great as ' Head of the Arm)',' it is fair to say that he showed
far more anxiety for the peaceful organisation cf his realm, the
administration of justice, the spread of learning and morality,
than for the development of the warlike vigour and more
barbarous qualities of his people.
2. Twice a year the Emperor called together a general
assembly, composed nominally of all Franks, really only of their
chiefs. They met in May and in autumn. To the May meeting
came all the grandees, lay or clerical, followed by their men-at-
arms ; the higher chiefs to deliberate, the lower to receive and
confirm the conclusions come to by adherence and expression
of opinion ; but no more. To Charles alone belonged the
initiative. He laid matters before them, received their opinion,
and gained an insight into the views, the wishes, the grievances
of the different parts of his Empire. At the autumnal assembly
were present only the greater grandees and the royal coun
sellors ; they received the gifts of the kingdom, and discussed
and prepared whatever was to be laid before the larger assembly
of the following spring; pressing questions they settled off-hand,
but did not usually bring more difficult points to a conclusion.
The lay and clerical bodies debated sometimes separately, some
times together, according as the subjects under discussion
required it.
commanded the complete respect of his soldiers. His own lands probably
provided the nucleus of every army (they were about a quarter of all
Northern Gaul). The Frankish taste for adventure and fighting was
unquenched : the wars brought sometimes an amazing share of booty to each
chieftain — they were not all waged against wild Saxons. The plunder, for
instance, of the Avar ring must have made the Franks keen for any number
of expeditions. A large part of his armies was composed of subjected
tribes ; yet, allowing for all this, the supply of warriors was astonishing.

140 GAUL UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
There are signs in the Capitularies of Charles the Great that
his leudes were often unwilling to appear, just as the burden
of , parliamentary attendance was regarded with ill-will by
Englishmen at a later period. But his strong hand kept
these assemblies from becoming slack, or from being converted
into clerical synods. There seems sometimes to have been
a difficulty in finding work for them : and they probably often
discussed questions of a local character, by way of something to
do. Their conclusions were sent abroad throughout the Empire,
and formed that strangely mixed and multifarious collection
which, under the title of Capitularies1, is the best source of
information we possess as to the real condition of mankind at
this period. No contemporary historian throws so much light
on the social questions of the 'age. By these assemblies, far
as they are from what we now understand by a legislative or
deliberative body, the object Charles had in view was, partially
at least, fulfilled. He brought his greater subjects into im
mediate contact with himself; they felt the weight of his personal
character, and carried back into distant provinces those fresher
and clearer conceptions as to justice and government, which
were ever receiving practical illustration in the palace. Thus
their isolation was partly counteracted, their territorial tendencies
arrested : they remembered that they were Franks, under the
chief whom they had, in name at least, elected to rule over
them ; and that this chief was, in reality as well as by position,
the greatest man among them. To honour a man for his
position, raiher than for himself, is the common error of both
ancient and modern society. Charles was the last man for
centuries who held his own against the growing strength of
localised powers. We may go farther, and say that he was
the only prince between Hludwig and Philip Augustus, that is,
1 Capitularies, or Collections of little Headings, is the name given to the
decrees issued by the Emperors, after consultation with their assemblies.
They were of the most varied description ; not codes of law at all, but
decrees, advices, opinions, upon particular questions as they arose. Those
of his reign have been classified and briefly described by Guizot, Civilisation
en France, Lecon 21.

A.D. 768-814. HIS OFFICIALS. 141
for nearly seven centuries, who could make the great vassals
feel the royal power, and bend before it. This, far more than
his wars, or his dubious saintship ', shows the true greatness of
his character.
3. Setting aside the dukes and margraves, whose position
depended on war rather than on peace, — the dukes as heads of
great provinces, the margraves2 as guardians of the wild frontier
districts. — we find Gaul governed by an apparently complete
system of officers, counts and their vicars, centeniers, and others,
whose duties and position in the general system of administration
we must now consider. But it must be remembered that this
apparent completeness of order and administrative rule is only
skin-deep. It was far better than what had gone before ; still,
it was usually quite inefficient, often very corrupt.
In every town of note there were two prominent officials, the
count and the bishop. The former represented the Frankish
element in the cities, the latter the Roman. The bishops had
taken the place of the extinct ' Defensores.' They had a juris
diction of their own ; they administered the Roman law ; they
were supposed at least to exert in the cities an influence of
a peaceful and civilising kind. The count administered the
Frankish law, as well as the confusion of it admitted. He
represented his master as Frankish king, while perhaps the
bishop shadowed forth his imperial and ecclesiastical character.
It is needless to add that these authorities, side by side, often
clashed, and not unfrequently were but two different forms
of oppression.
Besides administering justice, the counts were expected to
help in levying troops for war, and in collecting such taxes as
might be imposed. They were, in fact, prefects settled in the
chief towns of each district. In some sense the system was
a shadow of the offices and arrangements of the later period
of the Roman Empire. We may note in passing that these
1 He was canonised, in spite of his personal irregularities, by Pascal III,
an Anti-pope, in 1165 or 1166, under pressure from Frederick Barbarossa.
2 The title of Margrave, or Mark-graf Reeve of the March, properly
belonged to those chiefs who guarded the frontiers.

T42 GAUL UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
Gallic cities, seats of count and bishop, had not as yet fallen
under the influence of the great lords, and were still able to
maintain some slight vestiges of their old municipal character.
They presently are overwhelmed by the high tide of feudalism ;
but they are never absolutely drowned, and emerge early into
some part of independent life, and begin their important part
as the buttresses of royalty against the great nobles. The
counts had their 'vigueurs' or vicars1
Meanwhile the older judicial circumscriptions had not dis
appeared 2 The Centenier, or hundred-man, administered justice
in his village, but now he was appointed by the count, and his
jurisdiction was strictly curtailed 3. Here and there traces of
a still lower organisation may be found in the decuries or
tithings, presided over by a decanus or tything-man. But the
count's court was the really strong judicial institution of those
times. The rachimburgs or good men, the men of substance
or knowledge, who acted as judicial assessors to the count
under the Merovingian kings, were now called scabini (schoffen
in German, e"chevins in later French). They were appointed
by the Missi Ddminici, or by the counts, out of the free men
of the district, and on taking office had to swear that they would
never knowingly pervert justice or take bribes. But although
the local courts were thus strengthened by the enforced presence
in each of them of a body of local magnates, chosen for their
integrity and legal knowledge, the obligation of attendance
which lay theoretically on every freeman was not relaxed.
Charles the Great commanded that all free men should attend
three placita or courts every year. On all other occasions
he was excused, unless indeed he were specially commanded
to attend 4.
The administration of justice (or what bore its name) was
not confined to these imperial officers and their courts. Each
alodial chief, each great beneficiary, each great abbot, had his
1 ' Vice-comites,' viscounts afterwards.
2 Waitz, D. V. G. iv. 368, 369.
' The centenier's court could not condemn to death or slavery.
4 Waitz, D. V. G. iv. 388-404.

A.D. 768-814. ADMINISTRATION OF GAUL. T43
own powers over his own people ; with what effects on wretched
slaves and powerless free Franks, now just dropping into slavery,
can easily be imagined.
To retain his hold over all these self-independent elements
Charles the Great appointed certain high officers, the ' Missi
Dominici,' ' Lords Commissioners,' whose duty it was to travel
through the provinces, and to see, as with their master's eyes,
the real state of things in the different districts over which the
counts of the Empire usually presided.
The Missi Dominici are among the most characteristic figures
of the period. They were the Emperor's threads, by which he
hoped to draw together isolated and half-independent officers,
to reform abuses, to encourage just judgment and fair dealing.
He has left us, among his Capitularies, a tolerably clear account
of three districts in Francia Occidentalis, assigned to three
different pairs of Missi1. A layman and an ecclesiastic were
usually sent forth together. Four times a year they traversed
their districts, they held ' placita,' or courts, whither the neigh
bouring counts were bound to come ; they looked into the
state of the administration, reformed what they could, reported
to Charles upon all ; they appointed ' scabini,' advocates, no
taries, and sent the Emperor lists of their appointments: they
had authority to remove at once all bad functionaries, beneath
the rank of count. The counts they could not remove; they
might report on an unfaithful one ; and if any count were in
subordinate and unjust, they might settle in his house, living at
his charge, keeping daily watch over him, till, in hopes of losing
such unwelcome guests, he repented and did justice. Above
all they were instructed to watch over and to protect the poor,
to assuage their wants, to shield them from oppression. The
Emperor's instructions to these commissioners figure largely in
1 (1) Starting from Orleans to Sens, then to Trecae (Troyes), Lingones
(Langres), Besancon, and so back to the Loire and Orleans (this circuit
went over the borders into Burgundy). (2) From Paris to Melcae (Meaux),
Melun, Provins, Etampes, Poissy (a much narrower district than the first).
(3) From Le Mans to ' Hoxonum,' Lisieux, Bayeux, Coutances, Avranches,
Evreux, thence to the Seine, ending at Rouen.

144 GAUL UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
the Capitularies. If any one wishes to get a notion of the
work of a commissioner, let him turn to Guizot's ' History of
Civilisation in France V in which is described the mission of
Leitrad and Theodulf in Southern Gaul. He will find, in
the report of the two Missi, a graphic account of their work,
their difficulties, and the state of society with which they had
to deal.
4. Lastly, we may reckon the Church among the means of
consolidation within the Emperor's reach. She alone had a
sense of unity running throughout. While lay-folk were under
many different national laws, each law being to some extent an
element of disunion, which even Charles could not succeed in
overcoming, the Church had but one code, applicable to all
men everywhere. It was the ' omen of her future greatness.'
The clergy were a centralised, organised body, in spite of much
corruption and unfaithfulness festering within. They had united
interests throughout Gaul. They rose into the new aristocracy
by position, learning, wealth 2, and yet they did not cease to be
attached to, and to protect the old inhabitants. Their higher
level of intelligence provided Charles with instruments for his
reforms. They defended and cherished the few civic rights
that still remained. Whatever had been the earlier use, by his
time the nomination to high places, rich abbeys, powerful
bishoprics, lay entirely in the Emperor's hand. The clergy
therefore looked up to him as their powerful friend and patron.
He was to them ' power at the beck of religion,' the secular
sword wielded in their behalf; and what can be dearer to the
heart of proselytisers than a strong arm ready to carry their
desires into effect? No wonder then that they drew close to
him. Nor indeed is it strange that he should have allowed
1 Lecon 23.
2 When the Franks settled in Gaul, the clergy were all Gallo-Romans,
and sympathised only with the oppressed. In course of time, as the
Franks became Christians, endowed churches, and looked up to the bishops,
the clergy naturally drew more and more to the upper class, and identified
themselves with lords, not with slaves. Still, some even of the higher
clergy were Gallo-Romans, and their general influence was as is described
above.

A.D. 768-814. HIS POWER AND POLICY. 145
and encouraged the growth of their power : on the one hand,
conceding to them large jurisdiction in civil causes, and, on
the other hand, making them independent of the secular courts.
This part of his policy Hallam regards as ' his greatest political
error.' The clergy doubtless seemed to him a counterpoise to
the wild turbulence of the lay chieftains; he did not foresee
that ere long they would so far secularise themselves as to join
those chieftains in building up a strong aristocracy on the ruins
of the royal power.
These, then, are the elements by means of which Charles the
Great sought to consolidate his huge Empire. We see him
leading his Frankish warriors, himself tall of stature, unerring in
war 1 ; we see him presiding over, originating, regulating, ratify
ing, the deliberations of his assemblies, himself the source of law
and order : his royal commissioners, his local officers present him
to us as the fountain-head of justice, the preacher of righteous
ness, the redresser of wrong ; and, lastly, his relations with the
clergy show us this ' new Constantine ' understanding, as no
other Frankish prince did, his position as ' head of Church
and State.' From the beginning of the ninth century he
stands before us as the apex, the great crowned head, of the
Western world. If we search history for parallels, we feel in
stinctively that we must look only in the highest rank. There
alone shall we find a like restlessness of energy, a like vigour
and tenacity of mental grasp, a like administrative skill and
force, a like nobleness and breadth of character. Napoleon,
in the days of his exile, was wont to compare himself with the
great creators of society. ' Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, I
myself, have founded great Empires,' said he on one occasion ;
and his classification was obvious and just. We may perhaps
think well to add two or three more names : on this high level
stand Solomon, the great ruler of the Jewish Empire, and
Akbar, the contemporary of our Queen Elizabeth, the true
founder of the Mogul Empire. In some respects we may also
compare with Charles two very different persons; — the Czar
1 If we except, perhaps, the surprise and tragedy of Roncesvalles.
VOL. I. L

146 GAUL UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
Peter, who recast the Muscovite Empire, and gave it a place
in the European system; and our own King Alfred, who in
times and position, as well as in his anxiety for the bettering
of his people, was nearer to Charles than was any of the other
great men mentioned ; Alfred, whose mental and kingly qualities
do not lose by comparison with the gigantic Frank, and whose
nobler moral nature raises him, from the best point of view,
far above all the rest.

III. The State of Society in Gaul under Charles
the Great.
If we pass from the review of the high kingly qualities of the
Emperor to his personal and moral life, we feel that we almost
sink down into barbarism. In spite of the complaisance of
Churchmen, we discern gross outrages on propriety and morality,
which, though they may be called only a reflexion of the age,
are none the less drawbacks to our estimate of his greatness.
A similar feeling passes over us, if we turn from viewing his
administration and his attempts to organise the Empire to the
consideration of the social state of men in Gaul during this
period. Indistinct and dark it must ever appear as we look
down into it. No historian deigns to touch on the subject a ;
not till our own age did the passionate love of humanity lead
writers to try and piece together the fragmentary indications to
be met with in the Capitularies of the time, and in the chance
and unintentional touches of the chroniclers. And, all done,
we know scarcely anything.
We have no need to treat further of the Emperor and his
Court; for both were thoroughly German ; nor, indeed, would
it help us in our inquiry, which is now confined to the condition
of Gaul under the imperial system. Nor need we delay long in
considering the Frankish chiefs. They lived coarse and brutal
lives ; hunting, warring, feasting and drinking, and all upon the
1 See the opening remarks in Sismondi's Histoire des Francais, part 2 . c. 3.

A.D. 768-814. STATE OF SOCIETY IN GAUL. 147
produce of the soil, tilled by thousands of serfs. We note that
the number Qf chieftains grew smaller, through war and other
causes ; also, that at this period holders of benefices were still
striving to convert their tenure into alodial possession. A cen
tury later the tide ran the other way. We may note too, that
benefices, at first granted with no very distinct understanding as
to their continuance, were now showing a tendency to become
hereditary and permanent1, save when forfeited by treason.
The Emperor's share of the soil of Gaul is said to have been
about one quarter. Over this vast area he spread his bene
ficiaries, rewarding not only war-service, but any kind of work
done faithfully for him, by grants of land ' with all their
inhabitants, houses, serfs, meadows, fields, fixtures, and furni
ture.' Of the remaining three-fourths of the soil a large part
belonged to the Church, which had probably by this time
recovered all it had lost through the policy of Charles Martel ;
the rest of the land was divided among the great proprietors.
In the castles of these chieftains there had been large num
bers of free Franks, ' boni homines ' ; also throughout Gaul
there were many free Franks cultivating the soil. But at this
time they were being steadily driven downwards. The incessant
wars lessened their numbers. Those who had attached them
selves to the great houses sank into vassalage, being neither free
nor serfs ; those on the soil were despoiled of their little holdings
by their stronger neighbours. Abbots and bishops, counts and
centeniers, as well as the great proprietors, are accused of this
injustice in the Capitularies 2. At the same time many of these
small Franks, aware of their weakness, gave themselves up
voluntarily, sometimes to the King, often to privileged Churches.
This marks the beginning of that tendency to convert alodial
into beneficiary tenure which afterwards became so strong ;
though, probably, this surrender by free Franks of their small
1 The contrast between benefices and precaria, as seen in the attempt of
Pippin the Short to restore Church-lands to the clergy, is enough to show
this. See above, p. 116.
2 See Cap. Kar. Mag. a.d. 811, §§2, 3; Baluze, 1, p. 485; cp. also
Baluze, 1, p. 427. L 2

148 SOCIETY UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
alodial possessions reduced their holdings rather to the state
of tributary lands than to that of benefices. Tributary lands
were under the protection of some powerful lord, who stood to
them in something like the modern relation of landlord to his
tenants. These lands, as a rule, though not always, were held
by serfs ; and the tendency was clearly downwards. The
old free Franks, so prominent before, independent, claiming
equality with their chieftains, had long- ago disappeared ; their
Austrasian successors were now likewise perishing through the
operation of analogous causes.
The free Gallo-Romans were in nearly the same plight.
A few of them, the wealthy ones, might be found at court ;
these were ambitious of ranking as equals with the Frankish
chiefs ; some of them were doubtless beneficiaries. We see
from the first attempt made by Charles the Great to govern
Aquitania after its subjection, that they had not altogether lost
position and influence. He appointed fifteen counts, many of
whom were Romans, not Franks, the Roman element being
naturally stronger in the south. In the towns also they perhaps
retained some security and independence, though not enough
to leave any mark on the page of history ; elsewhere they were
fast disappearing, as they sank into slavery.
If we look for anything brighter or more hopeful in the
character and position of the higher clergy, very little light is
visible. The bishops, who are little but Frankish lords, mere
secular dignitaries, take full share in the oppression and extor
tion of the age ; they lead their men and go to war, not
disdaining the spoil ; they take bribes, they drink freely, their
morals are loose and reckless. The Capitularies are full of
instructions and exhortations to the upper clergy, proving their
tendency, if nothing more, to be luxurious, idle, sensual, drunken,
greedy of gain, or turbulent, wrathful, rude warriors and men
of blood. When the Emperor forbade them to take the field in
person, he felt bound to declare that he did not intend to slight
their authority or position. The bishops were ever engaged
in a threefold struggle — against the patriarchal position of the

A.D. 768-814. THE GALLO-ROMANS AND CLERGY. 149
archbishops, against the lower clergy, and against the monks.
They triumphed in all; and the ninth century is, as Hallam
calls it, the Age of the Bishops, just as the twelfth is that of the
Popes. In the struggle and in the victory we have but little
to satisfy us. It was a struggle for temporal power, for wealth,
for immunities ; not a struggle against evil, not even an attempt
to introduce a higher civilisation ; far less a struggle for truth.
There was a constant scramble for 'good things.' He who
had the power ejected his weaker brother from his rich cure,
and sat in it himself; when a bishop went on progress, his
track was marked by exactions and greed.
The lower clergy during this time were tied down for life to
the diocese in which they were ordained, never might rise to
a higher position, nor even change their home. Their one
privilege was that they were not slaves ; otherwise, their condi
tion seems to have been utterly mean. The monasteries were
sunk in apathy and wealth, except a very few in which the vigour
of Charles the Great and Alcuin had succeeded in establishing
schools. These were the free elements of the population of Gaul.
Frankish lords, growing fewer in number and more powerful
in territories every year ; free Franks, who were scarcely able
to hold up their heads above the level of the slaves ; then
the Gallo-Romans, far too weak to leave much mark on the
times, and evidently, with a few exceptions, also dropping into
slavery ; and lastly, the clergy in their various ranks, not rising
to the level of their vocation, the higher ecclesiastics assimilating
themselves to the Frankish lords, the lower scarcely raised above
the servile level.
Nine-tenths of the population of Gaul at this time were serfs1.
Many were doubtless downright slaves, creatures without hope
or ambition, living only as the instruments and chattels of their
1 Charles made Alcuin a present of an estate, on which we learn that
there were 20,000 head of serf's ; though this was as nothing in comparison
with the numbers on the lands of the greater lords. It is probable that in
many parts, especially in Frankish Gaul, the proportion of serfs to freemen
was far greater.

150 SOCIETY UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
lords, defenceless against violence, against the risks of bad
seasons, against the desolations of war, with a horizon bounded
by the neighbouring fields, and those not pastoral or beautiful,
with no love of country or sense of personal responsibility, mere
numbers, without even the poor comfort of feeling that the work
of their hands was their own. The rest, by far the larger pro
portion of the servile class, were settled on the soil. The serf,
with his cottage and few acres of land, was as well off as the free
husbandman or half-free villain. It is true that in theory he
was his lord's chattel, but in practice he was secure in his little
homestead, and not liable to eviction. He worked so many
days or tilled so many acres on his lord's land, and besides this
had to pay him dues either in money or in kind from the
produce of his own plot. In time these dues came to be fixed
by custom, so that he was not liable to be racked for rent. On
the ecclesiastical estates his condition was not to be pitied.
A servus on the land of the Abbey of St. Germain des Pre"s in
the ninth century possesses l\ hectares of land together with
a cottage ; his dues are not heavy, and his family has been on
the land for several generations. A serf may hold a freeman's
land, and vice versa, so that we see that all the dependent classes
were losing themselves in the great class of villains1. Many
causes were at work which tended to bring this about. The
small freemen surrendered their liberty to gain the protection of
some powerful lord or abbey. The serfs planted out in rural
cottages improved their position by force of industry, so that by
this time they and freemen were not easily distinguishable. For
some serfs a more brilliant lot was reserved. They received
benefices and rode out to war with spear and shield. But this
must have been a rare occurrence. Still the lot of a poor man,
whether free or unfree, must have been a hard one in these
times. Agriculture was still so ill-developed that they perished
by thousands in time of famine. The years of scarcity, 805
and 806, were terrible to them. Even the Emperor himself
1 Cf. F. de Coulanges, L'Alleu et le Domaine Rural. Guerard, Prol.
Polyptique dTrminon.

A.D. 768-814. THE SLAVES. I51
expresses a fear lest his serfs should perish of hunger; and
if his were in this danger, what hope was there for the rest ?
In their darkness they appear to have turned instinctively
towards the religious houses, under whose more conscientious
care they would perhaps be safer. One of the Capitularies,
touching on this point with a delicate hand, enjoins that ' not
too many slaves are to be allowed to flee to the monasteries, lest
the country estates be left desolate.' Charles, as a wise and just-
dealing monarch, could not fail to see that they were justified in
seeking such asylum, though the effects might be disastrous to"
the lands of the lay lords.
I do not know that there is much more to be gathered out of
the materials we possess concerning the state of the ancestor
of the present Frenchman. He was a spiritless slave. He seems
to have been thought unworthy even to go to war together with
his German masters. We read of no levies of Gallo-Roman
armies, nor were the few men of note among them employed
in warlike commands. Contemporary history does not deign
to notice, even in the gross, the destinies of those who could
take no part in the active life of the age ; and opinion doubtless
agreed with history, and despised and neglected the wretched
creature. Charles the Great stands out honourably as an
exception. The sense of justice, so strong in him, and the
unflagging activity of his character, would not let him shut
his eyes to any of those who, however lowly, were still under
his imperial care. We therefore find traces here and there
of beneficent instructions and legislation for the Gallo-Romans.
The clergy had not utterly forgotten the traditions and principles
of their faith and their order. They too did something for
their poor fellow-Christians — something, if not much. Still, the
Frankish spirit had entered into them also, and they, to a very
large extent, looked on their slaves with the same eyes as their
brethren the lay lords.
Among these poor creatures many strange superstitions
flourished. Charlatans and vagabonds abounded: the Capi
tularies ordered them to be arrested and punished. They

152 SOCIETY UNDER CHARLES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814.
wandered about naked, dragging a chain, pretending they
were doing penance, and levying alms. Akin to these ugly
symptoms was the rage for pilgrimages, to which all flocked : —
priests," because they believed that a pilgrimage atoned for their
scandalous lives ; lords, because they raised money from their
wretched subjects on the pretext that they needed it for the
journey: the poor folk went, because they liked the beggar-
life and because no doubt it was more pleasant to be a tramp
than a slave. Magical usages were rife among all classes.
The chrism was used as a charm, as medicine; even the
criminal who was happy enough to get a drop of it down his
throat believed that it gave inward rights of sanctuary, and that
he would escape punishment. And as (in common with the
rest of his class) he probably did escape, his faith in the remedy
was never shaken. Woods and trees were still regarded with
superstitious reverence. All things combined to show that
though many arts existed, practised even by the lowest, and
many forms of cultivation were known, still men's minds were
in the rudest state ; great crimes were rife, and every class of
men corrupt.
These then were the elements of society ; and this the time
in which, thanks to war, to differences of race, to the new
position of the sovereign, the transition was slowly going on
from the older system of chief and slaves with a considerable
free population beside them, to the newer phase of lord and
vassal and serf, with the free population extinguished. It was
feudalism in all but the development of that independence in
the greater lords, which was delayed by the strength of Charles
the Great, though fostered, at the same time, by his wars and
his policy towards the higher clergy. The chaos into which
society presently fell gave these lords time and space to secure
their position, and feudalism then sprang into full life.

CHAPTER IV.
Hludwig {Louis) the 'Pious" and his Sons, A.D. 814-843.
The latter days of Charles the Great had been sad enough.
The peace of the Empire was preserved; but there were
ominous mutterings on many frontiers. The Saracens were
busy on the Italian coast; the Northmen uneasy and eager
for booty; the Spanish Moors had held Hludwig in check;
the Greeks insulted the Frankish name in Venetia. Death
came, and rent asunder the well-planned imperial scheme by
which Charles had hoped that the Frankish power might con--
tinue after his death. Charles, his eldest son, died in 811.
Pippin, his second son, also died before him, leaving a son,
Bernard, who became king of Italy. There remained only
Hludwig. Charles, as we have seen, summoned him to Aachen,
and made him Emperor; then dismissed him to his kingdom,
caring little to have a joint-emperor at his side; perhaps not
liking too well his clerkly son.
When he died, Hludwig succeeded him with the goodwill of
all. Had only a good prince been wanted, the Frankish Empire
would have been happy in its new lord. But the days needed
brute strength and sagacity combined, not monastic virtues,
gentleness, forgiveness, learning. And so it fell out that the
days of Hludwig were evil and turbulent, and his life a trouble
to him. From his father's death to his own in 840, things
followed one course, which ended in the disruption of the
Empire in 843, by the treaty of Verdun.
'Louis the First/ as French histories call him — that is,

154 HLUDWIG THE PIOUS. A.D. 814.
Hludwig the ' Pious,' or Debonair ' — was thirty-five years old
when he succeeded his father. His life, almost from the cradle,
had been spent in war and government, first under wise and
prudent guardians, then under a wise and prudent wife. As
a child he was sent to Aquitaine, when it was thoroughly hostile
to the Northern Franks, and menaced with Saracen inroads
along the Pyrenean frontier. He, — or rather William Courtnez
first, and he afterwards, — turned disaffection into content, dislike
into love, thrust back the Moor, and added a fine territory to
the kingdom, advancing the frontier-line from the Pyrenees to
the Ebro. He grew up surrounded by churchmen : his quick
and sound intelligence drank in the principles of Roman Law,
which still formed the basis of Aquitanian justice. The church
men, the representatives of all that was Roman, filled his mind
with wholesome conceptions of rule and order ; they made him
half a monk, as men said ; and there were times when he
looked towards the quiet cloister with eager, weary eyes. He
ever leant on others : in the world this had proved to be his
snare ; but in the cloister, as one of God's servants, he might
rest on Him alone and be at peace. This however was not the
thought with which he began his reign. High and conscien
tious aims guided him. His father had been a conqueror,
a queller of pagans, fierce of temper, a man of blood, a King
David : he would be a Solomon, a man of peace, building up
instead of pulling down, and ruling over all men equally. His
father's court had been learned, but full of rudeness and iniquity;
his court should be learned also, but refined and pure. His
father had crushed the great lords; he would raise them, and
govern by them. The clergy should have high authority. The
free Franks had sunk to serfdom ; he would lift them out of
the mire, and re-create a strong and faithful people, as a counter
poise to the lords. In this way he hoped to lift all classes of
1 Ludovicus Pius, in German der Fromme, in French le Debonair, got his
sobriquet from his character. Pius in Late Latin means both religious and
kindly or gentle. Debonair is by no means * de bon air,' ' genteel ' ; but
is a Low Latin form of ' bonus,' signifying one who is pious, gentle, kindly
in disposition.

A.D. 814. HIS CHARACTER. 155
men higher. Thus did he begin his reign; with these noble
aims he hoped to rule. We shall see with what results.
We may read in Thegan what manner of man he was ; for
these old writers had a gift of minute drawing which we are apt
to think peculiar to our day. ' He was of middle stature, with
eyes large and clear, face bright and intelligent, his nose long
and straight, his lips fairly thick, perhaps not firm enough in
their setting. He was strong-chested, broad-shouldered, very
powerful of arm ; no man could better handle bow or lance : he
was large-handed, straight-fingered ; his legs long and shapely,
his feet long, his voice manly1'; and in this respect, had the
substance been equal to the volume of his words, he would have
surpassed his father. He was right learned in Latin and Greek,
skilled in the Scriptures, expounding the same like a churchman,
after their ' moral, spiritual, and anagogical ' sense. As to the
Frankish ballad-poetry which he had learnt in youth, he cast it
from him, and would neither read it, hear it, nor have it taught.
He was strong of limb, quick, unwearied, slow to anger, swift
to pity ; very exact in religious exercises, and strict in his life ;
very liberal in both giving and forgiving, sober in meat and
drink, moderate in dress, like his fathers. He was never known
to laugh heartily, ' never showed his teeth 2,' he would smile a
grave smile, sometimes. He had no liking for jesters, or fools, or
court-shows. He hunted from August till ' bear-time,' but not
with much heart. He trusted his counsellors too much, though
he was otherwise prudent ; was too fond of psalmody ; he also
' took of the lowest' of the people ' and made of them priests
and bishops ; and Thegan bewails, as one that had felt it, their
upstart pride, and the vices into which their elevation led them3.
Here, then, we have the whole man. Not at all like his
fathers, rude Frankish Christians of the sword, with fits of piety
and fits of brutality, and an under-current of sensual vices ; but
a clerkly southerner of the gentler type, a pure unselfish devotee,
1 Thegan, Opus de Gestis Ludovici Pii Imp. c. 19.
2 'Ille nunquam vel dentes candidos suos in risu ostendit.'
3 Thegan says they were 'iracundi,rixosi, maliloqui, obstinati, injuriosi ; '
c. 20.

156 HLUDWIG THE PIOUS. A.D. 819.
a grave man, with large thoughtful eyes, which descried truth
and the lie. These his virtues were his dangers. Amiable and
pliable, he forgave what a more prudent man would have
crushed. In his times forgiveness was a perilous weakness.
He was too refined for his Frankish life. That dislike of the
stirring rough ballads marks the man. He was not hearty,
liked neither broad fun, nor the broad laugh, nor the rude verse
in the mother tongue. Above all, he was weak of will, and did
not know how to make even those of his own household obey
him. A great part of his life was passed in a wretched struggle
with his children.
He married twice ; first Hermingard and then Judith : while
the first lived, all went well with him ; she bare him sons,
Hlothar (Lothaire), Pippin, and Hludwig.
In 817 he called an assembly of all Franks, and created two
kingdoms under the Empire — Aquitaine, over which he set
Pippin his second son ; and Bavaria, given to Hludwig his third
son : Hlothar he seated by himself on the imperial throne.
These lesser kings should not make either war or peace, or cede
town or territory, without his leave. Like conditions were also
to be imposed on his nephew Bernard in Italy ; but Bernard
would none of them, and set out to fight the Emperor. His
men deserted him, and he was fain to surrender at Chalons-sur-
Saone. The Emperor made him some assurances of safety ;
but these were passed by. The Frankish assembly condemned
him to death ; he was slain, and his kingdom passed to Hlothar.
In 819 Hermingard died, and it is said that the sorrowing
Emperor much desired to lay down the sceptre and become a
monk. Happy would it have been for him if he had ! But his
court overruled the wish, and he set himself, instead, to choose
another wife. The fairest ladies of his realm were sought out ;
from among them he chose- Judith, daughter of Welf, said to
have been a Frank settled in Bavaria ; a lady of exceeding
beauty, clever and ambitious. In 823 she bore him a son,
Charles, called afterwards the Bald, fruitful source of many
troubles to his father.

A.D. 829. HIS SECOND MARRIAGE. 157
Jealousies sprang up ; ill-will against Judith and against the
king's favourite and minister, Bernard, duke of Gothia, who
was said to have as much power as one of the older Mayors of
the Palace. Under their influence Hludwig, in 829, called an
assembly of Franks at Worms ; and, with the consent of
Hlothar, formed an arbitrary kingdom out of the country
between the Jura, the Alps, the Rhine, and the Main : he called
it Alemannia, after the name of its old inhabitants, and gave it
to his little son Charles. What more was needed to kindle into
flame all the latent jealousies ? The princes saw in it a proof
that Judith's interests clashed with theirs ; the nobles seized it
as a means of raising themselves; the clergy, for their own
reasons, were ready enough to spurn their friend and benefactor:
all who loved war, that is, the whole Frankish race, saw with
grim joy the coming troubles. The outbreak of a Breton rising
in 830 gave the opportunity. The army revolted ; and the
heads of the conspiracy, which had been brewing for some time,
called Pippin to be their leader. The other sons speedily
joined: Hludwig bent before the storm; Bernard, duke of
Gothia, fled to Barcelona, Judith to Poitiers. It was agreed
that the name of Emperor should be left to Hludwig, and that
he should be shut up in a convent, Hlothar reigning in his
name. The kingdom of Alemannia was taken from Charles ;
the arrangement of 817 restored. Here sprang up again the
old ill-will between German and Gallic Frank; the Teutonic
branch returned to the Emperor's side. He called an assembly
at Nimwegen, refusing to hold it in France. The Germans
crowded thither ; Pippin and the younger Hludwig also came,
and the Emperor was restored to power.
The rest of the reign of Hludwig the Pious is monotonous
and sad. Constant troubles from ambitious and jealous princes,
from clashing interests of nobles and churchmen, based on the
stem-differences of race and tongue, fill up the remainder of his
life. Bernard, the Emperor's favourite, gives place to Gundo-
bald, the lay lord to a monk, and joins the insurgent sons. The
Pope, Gregory IV, blesses their unnatural warfare ; — this often

158 DEATH OF HLUDWIG THE PIOUS. A.D. 841.
came to be part of the Papal duties. In 833 the Emperor met
his sons at Rothfeld, not far from Basel. There his whole
army slipped away from him ; every promise, oath, protestation,
was broken, and men for ages called the spot Lugenfeld, the
' Field of Lies.'
The bishops of Roman France, under Hlothar's influence,
had forced the deposed Emperor to submit to a humiliating
penance at Compiegne. But though his meek spirit bore the
churchman's foot on his neck, Teutonic France did not. There
was a violent reaction; and in a few months Hludwig found
himself the head of an apparently unanimous people. He was
once more supported by his younger sons, Pippin (who died in
838) and Hludwig. One partition followed another ; till at last,
under Judith's influence, the old Emperor in 839 made a treaty
at Worms, dividing the Empire between Hlothar and the young
Charles. This left Bavaria only for his son Hludwig, who
flamed out into open revolt. The Emperor drove him back into
Bavaria: but returning from this dreary war against his own
son, the old man, whose health was broken, rested on one of the
Rhine islands, over against Engelenheim; and there, doing
humble devotion, he passed the last few weeks of his life. Early
in the summer of 840 he sent his rebel son Hludwig the
assurance of his forgiveness, with a sad and dying remonstrance
against his undutiful conduct ; and so closed his eyes 1-
Then broke asunder the whole fabric of the Empire of Charles
the Great. Hlothar took the imperial name, calling himself
sole head of the Frankish race ; Hludwig and Charles treated
his pretensions with contempt. Hludwig (the Bavarian, or
German, as he is called) was backed by the whole Frankish
power beyond the Rhine ; Charles by all Northern Gaul ; Italy
went with Hlothar. Pippin II of Aquitaine, eager to get clear
of Roman France, allied himself with Hlothar, as did also
Bernard, duke of Gothia; and war at once began (a.d. 841).
* ' He turned his face away, and with a kind of wrath, cried twice, as
loud as he could, Huz ! Huz ! — that is, Out 1 Out ! and so died.' — Vita Lud.
.Pii anonymo auct., Dom Bouquet, torn. 6, p. 125.

A D. 841. THE SUCCESSION. 159
Hlothar was not wanting in vigour, and made ready to attack
his brothers Charles and Hludwig. At first he amused them
with offers of peace, till he had given the Aquitanians time to
join him. He then thought himself strong enough to declare
himself; and challenged them to battle. On the very next day
was fought, on the banks of the Cure, near Auxerre, the pitched
battle of Fontanet (25 June, 841), which decided the question
whether there should be one Empire or separate nations : in it
the griefs of a century were brought to an issue. This great
battle marks the division of the three medieval nations of the
Continent, France, Germany, Italy.
The whole Frankish Empire was represented there. Hlothar
had Italy, Austrasia, and Aquitaine at his back ; his brothers
had the Germans, the Neustrians, and the Burgundians. The
numbers were nearly equal, perhaps 150,000 on each side.
The battle was fought out on an open plain, by sheer ' tug of
war,' to see who could push the other off the field. The blood
shed was terrible. Forty thousand are said to have fallen on
either side ; and in the end the Northern French and Germans
drove the Emperor's army off the field, and won the victory.
The carnage fell most heavily on the Franks : it is hardly too
much to say that Fontanet is the burial-ground of the Frankish
name. ' The freemen and leudes almost entirely perished ; and
as they were the men-at-arms of the age, nothing was left to
arrest the Normans. Such nobles as survived reformed them
selves, and, joining with the remaining free Franks, began the
second age of aristocracy, which continued till the fourteenth
century. Henceforth the Franks, as a class, disappear ; there
remain in Gaul none but lords and serfs : the field is ready for
feudalism V
Hlothar fled to Aix-la-Chapelle. Bernard of Gothia deserted
him, and took oath of allegiance to Charles. Though beaten,
Hlothar was not inclined to give in. He gathered fresh troops,
and with help of Pippin of Aquitaine once more showed a
menacing front. So Charles and Hludwig again joined forces,
1 La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, torn. 1, livre 2, chap. 3, § 7.

l6b THE SONS OF HLUDWIG. A.D. 843.
and made ready to defend their ground. Then took place
a memorable scene. The two brothers, who had throughout
acted as champions of national feeling, agreed that, to strengthen
their confidence in one another, and that of their men, they
would take each to other a solemn oath of fidelity before their
two armies. Hludwig first spoke to his men in the German
speech ; Charles addressed the Neustrians and Burgundians in
the ' lingua Romana rustica,' the Roman tongue, now spoken in
various dialects throughout all Gaul. They told them why they
were going to take the oath ; they explained the justice of their
cause, once already decided by the God of battles. Then
Charles, standing before the Germans, took oath in the Frankish
tongue, and Hludwig, standing before the Roman-Franks, or,
as we may now venture to call them, the Frenchmen, took the
same oath in the Romance tongue. The Oaths still remain 1,
and that taken by Hludwig is the oldest monument of the French
language2, a.d. 842.
Thus the national life of German and Frenchman appeared,
distinctly marked. Though we relapse again into shapeless
chaos, still here is a marked advance, an epoch in history.
The brothers immediately drove Hlothar before them to Aix ;
thence he fled to Lyons. Then, finally, seeing that his battle-cry,
imperial unity, roused no enthusiasm, and that no one would
fight for it, he sent a message to his brothers, that he would be
content with one-third of the Empire, if they would grant him
a somewhat larger share than their own, by reason of the name
of Emperor, which he held from his father : the three brothers
should then govern each his own states, and eternal peace be
established. The brothers agreed to this; and Hlothar's pro
posals formed the base of the famous treaty of Verdun, in 843.
By that treaty the three kingdoms were clearly marked off.
Speaking roughly, Charles had France, Hludwig the Bavarian
had Germany, Hlothar Italy and a long narrow strip lying
between the other two, together with the name of Emperor.
1 In Nithard, Hist. lib. 3.
2 See Brachet, Historical Grammar of the French Tongue, pp. 14, 15.

A.D. 843. THE TREATY OF VERDUN. l6l
The kingdom of Charles included all Gaul west of the Scheldt,
Meuse, Saone, and Rhone, running down to the Mediterranean,
and bounded by it, by the Pyrenees, and by the Atlantic. This
was the kingdom of the French.
Hludwig had all the land from the Rhine northwards to the
mouth of the Elbe, and southwards as far as the Alps. It was
still called Eastern or Teutonic France. The old name lingered
on, and can yet be seen in the name Franconia, now dying out :
the kingdom came to be called Teutschland, the ' land of the
Dutch,' or Germans as we call them.
Hlothar had Italy, and a long strip of country crossing Europe
from south-west to north-west, hemmed in on one side by the
kingdom of Charles the Bald, on the other by that of Hludwig.
It lay between the Rhine and the Western Alps on the one side,
and the four rivers, the Rhone, Sa6ne, Meuse, and Scheldt,
on the other side. This strange ribbon of land was parti
coloured ; four races dwelt on it, speaking four tongues : these
were the Germans, the Flemish, the Italians, the Provencals ; it
was called Hlothar's share. It is a proof of its want of real
unity that the district had no proper name of its own, but that
the northern and central part of it was presently called Lothar-
ingia, after its lord the second Hlothar; a name which, in its
more modern form, Lorraine, was retained in Europe till the
end of last century, and indeed is still in common use, though
it denotes but a small part of the original Lotharingia. The
struggle between Germany and France for this border-land has
lasted to our days ; as is shown by the changes of the frontier-
line after the war of 1870-71.
Thus perished the grand imperial conception of Charles the
Great ; and thus in its stead began the nations of Europe.

VOL. I.

CHAPTER V.
From the Peace of Verdun to Hugh Capet.
A.D. 843-987.
I. The Origin of the French Language.
Table V. THE PEDIGREE OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE.
The Latin Language

Literary Vulgar I

Classical Clerical Lingua Romana Rustica
1  1  1 (with a few Celtic traces)
Church Law (Low Latin) 1  '  1
Langue d'Oil Langue d'Oc
r  r  -L-r  .— 1
Norman Picard Burgundian lie de France
I
French
The Oath which Hludwig the German took before the Franks
of France was spoken in a tongue which, though far from
Modern French, was still in substance French. How did this
new speech come into being ? It is clear that it has the Latin
language for its foundation, and little else ; spelling has changed,
inflexions are degraded, and the whole language is more ana
lytical1 than Latin ; still it has come from the Latin. The Oath
gives us an illustration of the way in which the Romance
1 Languages are said to be ' synthetical ' when they use many inflexions
and few auxiliaries ; ' analytical ' when they use few inflexions and many
auxiliaries — i. e. habui is synthetical, but fai eu is analytical.

87988 1

8S7890891894895S96

899

900901

911916 91S922

923
933 936

937
954
961962
97S
9S3
986
987
993
996
10021024

TABLE IV.
ITALY.

THE FRAGMENTS OF THE EMPIRE OF CHARLES THE GREAT. {To face p. 163.

Charles the Fat, King
of Italy.

Wido, Emperor.
Lambert, son of
Wido, Emperor.
Arnulf, King of
Germany, Emperor.

Hludwig of Pro
vence, Emperor.

Berengar,D.ofFriuli, last Caroling Emp.
[Anarchy for 50 years.]

Italy falls to Otto I.

GERMANY.

Charles the Fat, Em
peror.
Arnulf, King by
election.

Hludwig III (IV), of
Lotharingia, last Ca
roling in Germany.

Conrad, D. of Fran
conia, elected King.
Henry I, D. of Saxony,
King of Germany.

Otto I, the Great.

LOTHABIJVGIA.

Zwentibold, son of
Arnulf.

Hludwig IV, son of
Arnulf.
[Contested between
France and Germany :
then

falls to Germany un
der Otto the Great ;
though many feudal
vassals are indepen
dent.]

PBOVEH"CE or
CISJUBAWB
BTJBGTXNDY.
Boso.

Ludwig, son of
Boso, King of
Aries.

TBAJYSJTJBAJME BTJBGTJNDY.

Bodolf I.

Otto I, Emperor.
Otto II, Emperor.
Otto III, Emperor.

Henry II, Emperor.
Conrad II, Emperor.

Hugh of Aries, who
cedes his kingdom to
Rodolf II in 933.

Bodolf II.

Y
Conrad the Peaceful.

Bodolf III, whose kingdom passes to

Conrad II in 1033.

jMOBTHEEN l-BAWCE.

[Odo(Eudes),Dukeof France, son of Robert
the Strong, elected, not
a Caroling.]

Charles the Simple.

i°33-'°39-

The Holy Roman Empire, under Conrad II.

[Eobert, Duke of
France, not a Carol-
[Baoul(Rodolf),Duke of Burgundy.]
Ludwig (Louis) IV
(D'Outremar), son of
Charles the Simple.

Lothar (Lothaire),
son of Louis IV.

Louis (Ludwig) V,
son of Lothaire, last
of the Caroling kings.
Hugh Capet, Duke
of France (elected
King by the great
Lords).
Eobert II, King of
France, 996.

A.D. 843. ORIGIN OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 163
languages1 sprang out of Latin; for it stands midway between
the two.
In the best days of Rome there were two kinds of Latin
in use; that of the study and that of the market-place; the
learned and the vulgar. We may catch a glimpse of these
by comparing Cicero with Terence. And even in Cicero's
days the distinction was clear between the patrician and the
plebeian speech, the ' sermo nobilis ' and the ' sermo plebeius '
or ' rusticus2.' They differed in vocabulary, and above all in
accent. Speaking generally, every Latin word has one syllable
on which the voice lingers ; the tendency of the vulgar (as in all
lands) was to exaggerate this tonic syllable at the cost of the
rest of the word ; and so we find that such words as ' p6nere,'
'stabulum,' 'oraculum,' soon became 'pon're,' ' stab'lum,'
' orac'lum,' in common Latin. When Gaul fell into Latin hands,
both dialects entered in with the new masters. In the cities the
rhetoricians, poets, men of letters, and at a later time the upper
clergy, cultivated the refined upper-class dialect ; while the
common soldier, the merchant, and presently the slave, spread
the common Latin far and wide. The whole of Gaul seems to
have accepted the new speech without protest s ; we have else
where tried to explain the remarkable fact that while the bulk of
the people continued to be Celtic, their mother-tongue perished,
leaving in vocabulary and inflexions no trace, or only the very
slightest, of the popular language*. The Merwing invasion
crushed the literary Latin; for the Gallo-Roman gentlefolk
could not stand up against their German lords: it survived in
a low form among the clergy, as the language of religion, based
more on St. Augustine than on Cicero. This was the Low
Latin of the Law Courts, a dialect which the Merwing Franks
1 The chief Romance languages are French, Provencal, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, Wallachian, as well as the ' Romansch ' of Eastern Switzerland.
2 Cassiodorus gives .us an instance of words in the two dialects. The
common folk said ' batalia ' where the upper classes said ' pugna.'
3 Strabo says there was so much Latin (especially of the high-class kind)
in Gaul, that he could scarcely count it a land of ' barbarians.'
4 See above, p. 54. This is the more remarkable when we see the
opposite results in Brittany and Wales. M 2

164 PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUGH CAPET. A.D. 843.
used when they amalgamated the new Roman law with their
own institutions and customs. It is a barbarous Latin, full of
German words. But they could not destroy the common Latin,
the speech of the people.
By the end of the eighth century the ' Lingua Romana
Rustica,' now no longer called Latin, was established. Even as
early as the seventh century the life of St. Faro was sung in the
rustic speech — 'juxta rusticitatem.' About a.d. 800 Adalhard,
a noble German, spoke it eloquently and elegantly l. By the
time of Charles the Great the Austrasians despised in their
hearts the new fine Latin brought in by the Church, though still,
in their intercourse with the clergy,'they tried to use it. The
Merwings had destroyed the ' classical-fine ' Latin ; this may
be called the ' Church-fine ' Latin. Charles himself could speak
it. But it was a mere court delicacy ; the great lords in their
Neustrian settlements soon dropped it— who was there to under
stand it, if they did use it ? They also dropped their German
speech. Even the clergy in country places knew nothing but
the common Latin : the nobles followed ; and soon men all
had one speech, the 'Romana Rustica.' As early as 813, at the
Council of Tours, this speech was enjoined on the clergy ;
homilies were to be read in either Romance or 'Teutsch'2.
And finally the Oaths of 842 shew that this Romance is the
acknowledged speech of the whole French army, chiefs and men
alike. It afterwards divided itself into dialects s, each with its
own peculiarities and literature ; and as Paris became more and
more the heart of France, the dialect of the district round the
capital, the lie de France, became the standard of speech and
writing, and the other dialects fell before it. The southern
dialect, the Langue d'Oc4, which reached a high state of literary
1 So says Paschatius Radbert in his life of him : ' Quern si vulgo audisses,
dulcifluus emanabat ; si vero idem barbara, quam Teutiscam dicunt . . .
praeeminebat ; quod si latine, jam ulterius prae aviditate dulcoris non erat
spiritus.' — Pertz, torn. 2. p. 532.
' ' In lingua romana rustica aut Teotisca.'
' Such were the Norman, the Picard, the Burgundian, that of the lie de
France. 4 Langue d'Oc and Langue d'Oil are the names given to the southern and

A.D. 843. THE LATER CAROLINGS. 1 65
excellence at a very early time, stands aloof from these northern
varieties of the Langue d'Oil ; it is long before it bows the head
before the dominant dialect of the tie de France.

II. The later Carolings.
In thirty years there had been five partitions of the Frankish
Empire, ending with that well-marked division which was carried
out by the treaty of Verdun in 843. We have seen how Italy
fell to Hlothar, with the imperial name and the strip of land
afterwards called Lotharingia ; Germany to Hludwig ; France
to Charles the Bald.
Charles and his successors have some claim to be accounted
French. They ruled over a large part of France, and were cut
away from their older connexion with Germany. Still, in reality
they are Germans and Franks. They speak German, they
yearn after the old imperial name, they have no national feeling
at all. On the other hand, the great lords of Neustria, as it used
to be called, are ready to move in that direction, and to take the
first steps towards a new national life. They cease to look
back to the Rhine, and carry on a continual struggle with
their kings. Feudal power is founded, and with it the claims of
the bishops rise to their highest point. But we have not yet
come to a kingdom of France: for (1) the kings were not
French ; (2) their kingdom was narrow; at times it was little
beyond the frontier-fortress of Laon with its dependencies ; at
best it had no hold on Brittany, Aquitaine, or Septimania ;
(3) the Norman ravages reached its very heart; (4) the feudal
lords were in fact independent of the king. It was no proper
French kingdom ; but a dying branch of the Empire of Charles
the Great.
There was a twofold movement throughout the period ; first,
against Germany and the imperial idea ; secondly, towards the
dismemberment of France herself. Charles the Great had
northern dialects of the Gallo-Romance speech. The names are taken from
the word signifying yes in south and north. The Latin ' hoc ' was used alone
in the south ; in the north they said ' hoc-illud ', whence oil, oil.

166 PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUCH CAPET. A.D.. 843-888.
founded an Empire with vassal-kingdoms under it; the ten
dencies of the age were opposed to it : and even the Church,
to a great extent, shook off the Papal Empire, became feudal,
anti- central. No oecumenical Councils were held, there was no
united action, each bishop tried to win an independent juris
diction ; the high pretensions of Hincmar of Rheims will be
noticed presently.
All tended to produce a local, territorial independence. The
Empire and the Papacy will strive in vain against this tendency ;
feudal nations headed by feudal kings will consolidate their
power; Pope and Emperor will also turn their arms against
each other, in a feud of centuries. Meanwhile, France, lying
off the line of this struggle, will have time to grow into a great
monarchy. This dreary period may be divided into three paTts :
i. From a.d. 843-888, to the deposition and death of
Charles the Fat.
2. From a.d. 888-911, to the settlement of the North
men in Western France.
3. From a.d. 911-987, to the accession of Hugh Capet.
1. To the Deposition of Charles the Fat, 843-888.
Charles the Bald, entering on his part of the Caroling Empire,
found three large districts which refused to recognise him. These
were Aquitaine, over which Pippin II was king; Septimania,
in the hands of Bernard ; and Brittany under Nomenoe. When
he attempted to reduce them, Brittany and Septimania defied
him, while over Aquitaine he was little more than a nominal
suzerain. His home-territories were also in an evil case.
Northern vikings1 ravaged his coasts, and had to be bought
off from Paris itself; on the Seine they were beginning to
secure their footing, and to settle. Ceaseless squabbles went
on between King and nobles ; he had granted them all he had,
to buy their help against his brothers ; and now he tried to
1 A Viking is ' a man of a vik, or bay ' ; he was a Scandinavian warrior-
pirate. — See Vigfiisson's Icel. Diet. s. v. Vikingr.

A.D. 843-888. CHARLES THE BALD. 167
repossess himself of his domains by force. The nobles rose
against him, and, calling in Hludwig the German, compelled'
him to fly. But when the Germans came the old local jealousies
revived; the French-Franks once more rallied to their King,
the German-Franks had to retire ; and the party of the chiefs,
who had been headed by Wenillon, archbishop of Sens, came
to terms with Charles. He acknowledged himself to be King
by episcopal consecration, and therefore liable to deposition by
the same judgment. The Church accepted this position ; and
Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, the King's chief minister, laid
down the principle that kings are subject to no man's govern
ment while they rule by God's law and will ; but that if they
transgress that law and will, then they must be judged by the
bishops without any reference to Papal authority 1. A high-tide
mark in the pretensions of the Episcopate, which, however,
soon ebbed again.
The reign of Charles the Bald is also notable for the dawn of
a greater power, destined to have its centre at Paris, though the
chief men of it are not French. This is Scholasticism.
The Philosophy of the Schools is the first European mental
effort. Though perhaps not marked by great originality, it fills
the whole intellectual life of five centuries, and its influences
were felt for centuries after its fall. Its first task may be said
to have been the application of Aristotle's principles to the study
of Theology. It had other and more fruitful results in the hands
of those who inquired into Nature's doings, and were the fore
fathers of modern experimental philosophy. At the King's
court was an Irishman, last representative, as he is called, of
Greek philosophy. He was also the first representative of the
philosophy of the Middle Ages. Joannes Scotus Erigena (i. e.
John Scot, Erin-born) was at the head of the palace school.
He set himself to introduce Platonism into Western Christianity;
his appeals to human reason against authority, his tendencies
towards materialism and pantheism, indicate more than one of
the lines on which the modern mind was destined to travel.
1 Hincmar's Works, 1. 693-5.

168 PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUGH CAPET. A.D. 877.
Hincmar resisted him, and had him condemned. At a later
period, though some followed Erigena, the main body of
schoolmen turned to deductive logic, authority, and the words
of Scripture, and saved themselves from the dangerous paths
of inquiry which he had so hardily pursued.
Hlothar, Emperor, King of Italy, brother of Charles the Bald,
died in 835. Of his three sons, who divided his domains, the
last survivor, Hludwig II, Emperor and King of Italy, died in
875, leaving two princes, Hludwig the German and Charles
the Bald, in possession of all the old Empire of Charles the
Great. The latter, restless and ambitious, thought to restore
the Empire ; and got himself crowned King of Italy by the
Pope. Hludwig died next year, and his three sons, as usual,
divided his kingdom. But Charles the Bald intrigued with
the German nobles, and compelled the three brothers to take
up arms. He invaded Austrasia with a large army, but was
completely defeated by young Hludwig at Andernach. Charles
fled home, and at the request of the Pope, who was hard pressed
by Saracens and other foes, prepared an expedition into Italy.
At the same time Gaul was being ravaged by the Northmen,
and the nobles were naturally discontented at the departure of
their king. Charles summoned a diet at Kiersy in 877, and
provided that if a count should die in Italy his son should succeed
to his benefices *. This has been held to be a landmark in the
history of feudalism. As a matter of fact some benefices had
become hereditary long before this time, and some were not
hereditary until long after. Still, we may say that during this
century dukes and counts, hitherto (in name at least) the king's
officers, became independent princes ; the greatest allodial lords
can be no more than this.
With his nobles thus gratified, he set forth for Italy. Here
all his concessions availed him nothing ; Carloman, son of
Hludwig of Germany, defeated him and drove him homewards.
On Mont Cenis death overtook him, as he rested in a poor
1 It will be seen that in form this was merely intended to be a temporary
provision.

A.D. 879. CHARLES THE FAT. 169
hut, and cut the thread of his somewhat tattered web of life.
Hludwig his son1 succeeded (a.d. 877). His father had been
a man of some gifts, but this man, ' the Stammerer,' was feeble
altogether. The nobles forced him at the outset to ratify their
old privileges, and to grant them new fiefs. He yielded, and
was crowned. We draw towards a new series of puppet-kings.
This stammering Hludwig soon passed away, dying in 879 ;
and the nobles thought good to divide the kingship between
his two sons ; Hludwig III in the North, and Carloman in the
South. Their kingship shrank to very narrow limits ; Boso in
Provence founded the kingdom of Aries in spite of their efforts ;
the Northmen ravaged the Atlantic coasts with impunity. In
882 Hludwig died, Carloman two years later. There now
remained but two to represent the Caroling family; Charles,
a child of five, a posthumous son of Hludwig the Stammerer,
and the Emperor Charles the Fat2. To the latter fell the
nominal lordship over almost all the Empire.
The incessant partitions, squabbles, deaths, of the kings,
their sons, their cousins, had sapped the strength of the race ;
each noble sold his services to one or another, buying therewith
also his independence ; and the wretched Charles, in his bulky
incapacity, was a type of the huge and ill-knit Empire over
which he was the head. No sooner was he on the throne than
he was met by a strong league, whose head-quarters were to the
west, on the coast and rivers. The fierce Northmen under
their great chief Hrolf (RoUo) joined Hugh of Lorraine, and
beleaguered Paris in 885. Paris had shrunk back into the
'CiteY which was built on an island in the Seine; so terrible was
the neighbourhood of the Northmen. But in that little island
were three captains of good heart : Gozlin their bishop, Hugh
' first of abbots,' and Eudes or Odo, count of Paris. Gozlin
and Hugh perished in the siege ; Odo held out. Meanwhile
the unwieldy king was far off in Germany, and heeded not the
cries of Paris. For eighteen months the citizens resisted : the
1 Sometimes called ' Louis II, King of France.'
2 Charles III in French histories.

170 PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUGH CAPET. A.D. 888-
rude warfare of the Northmen, unskilled in sieges, made no
impression on the fortified bridges. At last Charles came with
a host of men, the forces of the Empire ; and from Montmartre
looked down on the heroic defenders and their foes. The
hollow-eyed citizens rejoiced to think that their pagan enemies
would be scattered to the winds; nothing of the kind happened;
the feeble king had no energy, and did but beg the Normans
to name their price ; they were willing to retire for seven hundred
pounds of silver. The fierce citizens, with a cry of disgust,
refused to be parties to such shame ; they rushed forth and
drove the Northmen from the Seine, compelling them to drag
their boats across a neck of land before they could embark.
The fat king had no wish to dwell in that land ; he withdrew
to Germany. There he was abandoned by all, deposed,
degraded. He sought shelter at Reichenau, on the Lake
of Constance, where under the roof of the monks he lingered
a while, a mere wreck, and died in 888. In him the French
Carolings seemed to reach their lowest point; cowardly, lazy,
incapable, sickly, the degenerate great-grandson and namesake
of Charles the Great was a lamentable contrast to his vigorous
ancestor and to his great contemporary, Alfred of England.
Few sovereigns have attained to so great contempt as he ; and
the kindest view to take of him is that he was insane.
2. To the Settlement of the Northmen in Western France.
A.D. 888-9II.
The great lords now set up six several states; Italy, Germany,
Lorraine, Provence, Transjurane Burgundy, and France. In
the last there was a strong feeling against the Carolings ; and
the nobles chose Odo, the stout defender of Paris, the count of
Paris and duke of France, to be their king. It is too much
to say that he was the first real French king ; yet he was more
like one than the Carolings had been ; and he foreshadowed
the race that was to come. His authority extended over the
lands between the Meuse and the Loire, and was not very well
defined within those limits. All France was a loose bundle of

-A.D. 911. ADVANCE OF FEUDALISM. 171
petty states, which multiplied through this period: a century
later, when Hugh Capet was made king, there were as many as
eighty of these small princes between the Meuse and the Loire.
These were the feudal elements or units of a later time ; castles
were built and garrisoned with tried men-at-arms; a rough
justice was dispensed, towns began to grow round the strong
holds; the feudal lord found it well to have peace within his
own borders ; he defended his villains, so that agriculture began
to lift up her head, thrift and handicrafts gained time and
security, and the arts of life sprang into being1.
Let us sum up the causes which led to this victory of
feudalism over the Caroling family ; it answers to that struggle
which raised the Austrasians above the Merwing princes, with the
difference that society had made some slight advance since then.
These causes are: (1) the severance of Germany from
France ; (2) the independence of Burgundy, Brittany, and
Aquitaine,. and the weakness of the kings in their strife with
these districts ; (3) the personal feebleness of the kings ; (4) the
Norman incursions, which led to the fashion of castle-building,
which in its turn led to the independence of the builders ;
(5) the influence of the great Churchmen, who used their
power over weak princes in favour of the nobles ; (6) the
battles of the century, and notably that of Fontanet, which
destroyed the free Franks; (7) the custom of Recommenda
tion or Commendation, which led the smaller landowners to
range themselves under the nearest lord, to the neglect and
permanent weakening of the nominal head of government;
and (8) lastly, the gradual growth of privilege, consolidation
of the greater lordships, and the change of the old court offices
(duke and count) into territorial and hereditary dignities. In
all these ways feudal independence gained and royalty lost,-.
until it fell.
Though the lords were strong enough to dethrone the
Carolings, they did not care to abandon all the traditions of
the past. Consequently they met, and chose Count Odo (or
1 Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, torn. 3. p. 283.

172 PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUGH CAPET. A.D. 888-
Eudes) as their king. It may be well to sketch briefly the
origin of this Count Eudes : for we draw towards the important
dynasty of the Capets. A quarter of a century before this
time an adventurer of low birth, a Saxon 1, it was said, whose
name was Robert the Strong, had been useful to different petty
kings ; eventually he attached himself to Charles the Bald, who
set him in the front to defend the country between the Seine
and the Loire: so doing he perished fighting against the
Normans. By his side fought Tertullus the Rustic, a Breton
peasant's son, whom the king made seneschal of Anjou. From
Robert spring the Capets ; from Tertullus, the ' Plantagenets.'
The two families of the Christian world, who have worn the
greatest number of crowns a, stood side by side at their begin
nings, conscious only of vigour and courage, ignorant of their
high destiny. Robert was the father of Eudes, whom the nobles
now elected king. Eudes struggled vainly for six years ; then
the Caroling party recovered heart, and in 893, at an assembly
at Rheims, they called in Charles the Simple s, and chose him
king. Arnulf, king of Germany and head of the Caroling
family, now interfered; but Fulk, archbishop of Rheims,
eventually persuaded him to take up a position as protector
of the new king. What could so weak a prince do against
the vigour and ability of Eudes? He was compelled to take
refuge in Burgundy. Again he tried his fortune in war, and
failing threw himself on his rival's generosity. Eudes, knowing
that the Carolings, with their strong friends in Germany, and
their plentiful means of stirring up strife in Southern France,
might be held in check, but could not be crushed, behaved
wisely, after the manner of his family. For he conceded to
Charles certain domains between the Meuse and Seine ;
acknowledged him as his lord, and agreed that, if he died
first, Charles should succeed him. In 898 he did die, and
1 Afterwards men succeeded in tracing his descent from Childebrand,
brother of Charles Martel.
2 La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, 1. p. 209.
3 This is Charles IV of the ordinary histories. The sobriquet ' le Sot'
is, in fact, ' the Fool.'

-A.D. 911. THE AGE OF THE NORTHMEN. I73
the nobles met, and elected Charles sole king of France, while
Robert, brother of Eudes, became Duke of France ; and things
seemed to fall back into their old form ; a Caroling king, and
a feudal Duke, of France 1.
The simple king, little more than a puppet, reigned long in
peace. There are times in history when shades seem to have
more solidity than realities ; it seemed as though a puppet-king
was what France at the moment needed. A stronger man
would have aroused passions, and led to war. His weakness
was no offence to, was even a cloak for, the strength and
ambition of the chiefs. The one fact of this feeble reign of
four-and-twenty years is the disgraceful yet fortunate cession of
the Lower Seine and Brittany to the Northmen in 911.
The Northmen had gradually closed in upon France. All
conquest of a somewhat settled country by a wilder race follows
one law. We saw it with the Franks, we may see it in the
Northmen. First came plundering raids, out and home again,
with cattle-lifting, savage work and bloodshed, everything carried
off that could be, and the bleeding land left to recover as it
might. Then gradually the land itself attracts. The invaders
are not so keen to get home with their booty ; or they think it
well to have a secure place or two on the coast ; and so they
begin to settle. They winter in the land; the new climate
becomes familiar, they end by sitting down firmly as owners of
the soil, a fresh element of life in the land they adopt. The
Northmen came and went by sea ; their home was bleak in
winter-time ; they made their new homes wherever their keels.
came to shore : all the world was theirs, so long as it could be
reached by water. Hoisting sail, or plying their strong oars,
they went hither and thither; it mattered not which way.
England was perhaps their favourite hunting-ground, though
their long ships struck terror on every coast. Sailing the
' Easternway,' they founded the Russian Empire; the Russian
1 It must never be forgotten that these titles, king and duke of France,
are of a very narrow significance— not reaching very far from Paris, nor
going beyond the Meuse or the Loire.

174 PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUGH CAPET. A.D. 888-
was for a long time a Northman 1. The same Northmen who
ruled in Little Russia are found in the tenth century (strange
prophecy!) attacking Constantinople2. Sailing the ' Westernway.'
they discovered Iceland and Greenland ; there are traces of still
more distant expeditions and lodgments on the American coast.
In France, the rivers were so many pathways leading to the rich
booty of the inland. In Spain, in Italy, these ' Majougs,' sons
of Magog, as the Arabian historians style them, clashed with the
Moslem power. The Mediterranean learned to know the heathen
vikings; and the days were evil for all dwellers by the main.
The more civilised world had little dealings with the sea ; but
it was. the home of the Northmen, and helped them, in their
conflict with the rest of Europe, just as armour served the
Romans against half-naked tribes, or as, in later times, the gun
overcame the arrow. The Norse ship with its fierce crew
seemed to form one creature; the viking almost thought his
ship had life. The sea-dragons, gliding silently over the main,
struck terror into all who sighted them from the shore.
They began their ravages near the end of the eighth century.
The English coasts felt them first in 787 ; the French coasts in
799. There is an old poem which relates how Charles Martel3,
in his old age, wept when he saw their long ships at Aigues
Mortes. Charles the Great knew what the danger was. He
had built a fortress against them at Hamburg ; one of his last
important acts was an agreement by which the Dannewerk on
the Eider became the border-line between Scandinavian and
Teuton4. Harold the Dane took refuge with Hludwig the
Pious, and after his baptism at Engelenheim, in 826, settled in
Friesland. About the same time efforts were made, with some
success, to convert the Northmen to Christianity. Ansgar took
1 See Vigfusson's Icelandic Diet. v. Fors. He quotes Constantine Por-
phyrogenitus, shewing that some Scandinavian words were in his day
current in Russia. Constantine distinguishes between words used, poio-iori
and aK\a0u>iOTi, Russ and Sclavonian ; and his ' Russ ' words are clearly
Scandinavian. 2 A.D. 904.
3 But it must have been Charles the Great.
4 The Dannewerk was built in 808 by Godfrid, and accepted as the
Danish frontier in 811.

-A.D. 911. THE AGE OF THE NORTHMEN. 175
his life in his hands and preached Christ in Sweden; he was
driven out, was made archbishop of the Christian outpost at
Hamburg; then returned again, and in 853 baptized Olaf the
converted Swedish king. . At this time (a.d. 838) the Danes
penetrated up the Loire as far as to Tours : and soon after
(a.d. 841) under Hasting laid siege to and took Rouen.
Their first actual settlement in France seems to have been
in 846 : returning from Gallicia they occupied the island of
Noirmoutiers off the coast of La Vendue, and this and their
quarters on the Seine were their earliest starting-points for wider
depredations. The same process went on at the same time in
England. In 853 they settled in Thanet; in 855 they wintered
in the isle of Sheppey, points as handy for them as Noirmoutiers
on the opposite coast.
These were days of horrible anarchy in France; the Norsemen
took advantage of the feebleness of Charles the Bald ; there was
no one to grapple with them as did Alfred the Great, who soon
after this time began his long and glorious resistance in England.
They pillaged Nantes and Bordeaux ; their boats, wattled osiers
covered with skins, reached Paris, Orleans, even Toulouse. On
the river-banks they chose suitable spots, built rude huts, and
kept their flocks of captives. Everything within reach of the
great rivers was liable to attack ; the castles could do no more
than defend themselves. The priests, the cattle, the poor pos
sessions of the tillers of the soil, the Gallo-Franks themselves,
all fell into their hands. Churches and abbeys were favourite
victims with them; there they could both avenge their gods
and win a wealthy spoil. ' The race of warriors and free Franks
was gone ; towns were worn out and disarmed ; they had neither
walls nor defenders, government nor wealth ; the country folk,
like mere cattle, had neither power nor courage to defend
themselves ; the peasantry fled to the woods, or huddled miser
ably in the churches, or cast off the faith which seemed
powerless, and joined the pirates. The nobles cared only to
pluck their own gain from this public misery. Their cowardice,
says Ermentarius, ruined the Christian realm, and they were

176 PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUGH CAPET. A.D. 888-
d riven to buy with gold the security they ought to have won
with steel V
A few years later Hrolf, a man of note for us, settled on the
Seine (a.d. 876). He divided his attention for a time between
England and France ; then finding King Alfred too strong for
him, he returned to the Seine, and fell on the degenerate
Franks and their helpless dependents.
In 882 Hludwig III tried to make head against the North
men, and even defeated Hasting on the Loire. He built wooden
castles, block-houses, to keep them in check; 'but,' says the
Chronicle of St. Bertin, ' no man could be found who dared
to garrison them.' His short-lived vigour availed nothing;
still less the reign of Charles the Fat. We have already
mentioned the siege of Paris in his time (a. d. 885) and his
wretched incapacity. It was a time of desolation and decay,
in which the Church alone showed some life : for ' France was
like a great desert, above whose vast level a few tall church-
towers rose2.'
Now came the permanent settlements. One band esta
blished itself between Chartres and Blois, on the Loire ;
another, the chief body, made Rouen its head-quarters, and
dominated Evreux and Bayeux, holding both banks of the
Seine, and forming a definite and organised state under Hrolf.
The wretched Christians looked with wonder at the sight.
Those heathen pirates, whom they had regarded as so many
devils, shewed them the way towards peace and prosperity.
Hrolf's lordship was seen to be a boon to all who came under
it. The Celtic element of the population, the largest part by
far, openly preferred the strong heathen to the powerless Chris
tian. It seemed possible that these vigorous strangers might
with a puff blow away the fragil monarchy, and rule instead.
Charles the Fat yielded to necessity; and the Church under
took the task of mediation. She foresaw her advantage in it ;
she had already made some trial of the new comers. Their
1 Chiefly from La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, 1. p. 202.
2 La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, 1. p. 214.

A.D. 911. THE AGE OF THE NORTHMEN. 177
hatred for Christianity was dying out ; it might presently
be turned into ' love. Ever ready to grapple with the new
elements of power, the Church instinctively turned towards the
Normans ; as she had conquered Hlodowig, so might she con
quer Hrolf. The archbishop of Rouen was sent to him from
the king with the offer of his daughter in marriage, and the
hereditary lordship of the district between the Epte and the
borders of Brittany. In return Hrolf should acknowledge Charles
as his lord, live in peace with the kingdom, and above all,
become a Christian. Hrolf, who had learnt to admire the
grandeur of Alfred, and had a noble ambition to found a well-
ordered state, and could recognise something of the dignity of
Christianity even in its ruins, accepted these terms, with one
stipulation : — that he should be at liberty to conquer Brittany,
if he could, make it his own, and do homage for it to the
French king. Charles the Fat made no difficulty in giving
what was not his own ; and so the bargain was closed. At
St. Claire-sur-Epte, near Gisors, Hrolf swore fealty to Charles.
It is said that when he was told to kneel and kiss the royal
foot, he bade one of his men do it, who obeyed so roughly,
that he upset the monarch amidst the uproarious laughter of
the bystanders. The tale is due to the pride of the Norman
chroniclers, who sought by it to gloze over the disgrace of such
an act of submission. Hrolf forthwith became a Christian, and
was baptized by the name of Robert, after the duke of France ;
a little later Gisela, the French king's daughter, became his wife.
His men loyally followed his lead, and became Christians.
Normandy soon settled down into a compact well-ordered
state, and noble towns and buildings arose. The Normans,
already quite familiar with the French, after a century of inter
course, soon adopted the manners and speech of their subjects ;
in twenty years' time Normandy was far in advance of the rest of
France. So well did they handle the new tongue that Norman
poets wrote stirring ballads in it ; their laws are also in the new,
not in the old, language. Norman-French became for a time the
leading idiom of the language. Thus did the stronger race
vol. 1. n

178 PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUGH CAPET. A.D. 911.
adopt what was best in the possessions of the older inhabitants ;
they no longer pillaged and destroyed ; they took and ennobled.
The last settlement of the Northern nations in Gaul is now
accomplished. Gaul receives from the Normans her last ex
ternal influences. Energy and enterprise, bravery and the love
of liberty, again blossom on the shores of France.
3. To the Accession of Hugh Capet, a.d. 911-987.
The expiring family of the Carolings will occupy us but
a short time. After a long course of strength and dignity, they
now pass down the age, sluggish and divided ; like their own
Rhine, above so noble, swift, and full, below broken into many
channels, flowing slow through fen and bog, where the wayfarer
is bewildered by the low monotony and the faint distinction
between land and river. The Carolings of this last period have
little to distinguish or ennoble them; they are slowly drifting
towards extinction.
The French lords had seen in the rough laughter of the
Norman chiefs how low the kingship had fallen. It was not
enough for Charles to be despised, he must also merit their
anger. To this end he fell into the hands of Haganon, a man
of low birth and clear, supple ability, who tried to play the part
of the old Mayors of the Palace. But the Mayors had been
vigorous representatives of the feudal nobles ; while Haganon
had no connection with them. Headed by Robert, son of
Robert the Strong, they rose against him and his master in
920, and shut up the king in the stronghold of Laon. This
castle, the final refuge of the Caroling kings, lay in the
northernmost part of the kingdom, the last stronghold to which
they could retire before taking refuge in Germany or Lorraine.
It is north even of Rheims, the religious centre of the royal
power ; far north, of course, of Paris, its political centre.
Thrust back on his last defences, the king was rudely taught
how low he had fallen. All had become territorial ; he too was
measured by his domains, and they were narrow enough. Law
also had ceased to be personal, as in the older codes. It had

A.D. 911. THE DYING CAROLINGS. 179
attached itself to the land ; and the land carried with it its own
customs, privileges, and rights of sovereignty. It was from
this time that the North of France became the ' land of custom-
right V The Normans, who had most originality and character,
who also felt most the worth of their territorial position, did
much to render law the mere creature of custom.
What chance had the king among these chiefs, or barons 2,
as they were called ? He fled into Lorraine. Then the barons
chose Duke Robert as their king, and crowned him at Rheims
in 922. The next year Charles, by help of the crafty Haganon,
persuaded the Normans to take up his quarrel. A battle was
fought at Soissons, in which Robert the barons' king was
killed. But his son, Hugh le Blanc, who now first appears,
the greatest name of the period, and Herbert, count of Ver
rnandois, rallied their men, and drove Charles off the field.
They then took Rodolf of Burgundy, and made him their king.
Herbert of Verrnandois was, or pretended to be, piqued at this
step, and sent to Charles to say he would help him ; on which
the poor king came to visit this new and powerful friend, who
seized him, and held him prisoner, using him as a threat aijd
a hostage, till he died in 929. The barons had no liking for
Count Herbert ; they drove him out of France, and he took
refuge with Henry King of the Germans. Rodolf of Burgundy
now remained unmolested as king till his death in 936. Then
the barons, — Hugh le Blanc, who might have been king him
self, had he not preferred the substantial advantages of the
duchy of Burgundy, Herbert of Verrnandois, and William
Longsword of Normandy. — sent to England for Hludwig or
Louis, the young son of Charles, who had been carried thither
as a child by his mother, Queen Eadgyfu, when his father was
seized by Herbert. Hludwig 'Outremar'3 was about sixteen
1 The ' Pays du droit coutumier ' was the North of France ; south of it
lay the ' Pays du droit ecrit.' — See also Sir H. Maine, Ancient Law, p. 83. '
2 Baro is the Low Latin form of the Old German ber (A.-S. wer,
as in aw-gild], which is akin to the Latin vir, and bears the same high
sense. 3 Outremar is ultra-mare, beyond the sea, a name given him by reason
of his bringing-up in England. N 2

l8o PEACE OF VERDUN TO HUGH CAPET. A.D. 940.
years old when this sudden change came to him; he had been
accustomed to a very different atmosphere at Athelstan's court,
and was no sooner crowned than he shewed such signs of
independence, and such determination to rule, that Hugh, who
had received the title of 'Duke of the Franks,' was offended,
withdrew his support from him, and made friends with Otto
the Great of Germany. Doubtless an error; yet one that
clearly illustrates the feeling of the upper classes in Northern
France. Even the nobles there looked to the Emperor as
their ultimate chief. Only lately Herbert, of Verrnandois had
fled to Henry ; now Hugh the Great, drawing with him the
chief of the barons, becomes ' man ' to Otto. That great
prince had noble ideas : in him the imperial power, long in the
dust, had risen again ; and he was the true founder of the
German Empire. He was eager to assert his lordship over
France, invaded the country, proclaimed himself King at Attigny,
and shut up young Hludwig at Laon. Here the gallant lad
defended himself stoutly, with the help of the Lorrainers, until
he could hold out no longer, and then fled into Aquitaine, where
he gathered help. The Pope, Stephen III, interposed, and
Otto, having other things on hand, desisted. Hludwig was
recognised by all as King in 940 or 941.
Herbert of Verrnandois died in 943, and Hludwig naturally
tried to weaken this formidable territory on his flank ; for the
Verrnandois lay close up to Laon, and overshadowed the royal
power. Hugh the Great, still jealous of him, interfered; and
as William of Normandy also died, the hope of the greater prize
put the lesser matter out of mind : all, King and barons alike,
joined to rob Richard the new Norman duke. Then Harold of
Denmark interfered, and captured Hludwig, killing many of his
men. Hugh the Great rescued him from the Northmen, only to
keep him as a prisoner. He forced him to surrender Laon, and,
having him as his prisoner, became the most powerful man in
Northern France. In this strait Hludwig appealed to Otto, who
came into France to his help : the Emperor's attempt failed,
and when he retired beyond the Rhine, Hludwig, who had got

A.D. 986. HUGH THE GREA T. l'8l
himself free, followed him into Germany. Later on, Hludwig
recovered Laon, and a gleam of success was shed on the close
of his reign. In 954 he died, from the effects of a fall out
hunting. He was the greatest and most unfortunate of these
later Carolings.
He left two sons, Hlothar and Charles. Hugh saw the
former made King, and soon after died and was buried at St.
Denis, there to await the long line of his crowned descendants.
Hugh, his son, afterwards known so well as Capet, succeeded
him as duke of France and arbiter of the northern kingdom.
When Otto the Great died in 973, Hlothar the King and
Hugh tried to wrest Lorraine from the Germans. Otto the
Second was too strong for them. They marched to Aix-la-
Chapelle ; whence he drove them back to the very walls of Paris.
This however was all he could achieve ; he even suffered some
reverses on his retreat : Hlothar relinquished his claim on
Lorraine, Hugh protesting, with an eye to the future. This was
the whole history of a reign long and very inglorious : Hlothar
reigned thirty-two years, and died in 986. When he died,
though men were weary of so worn-out a race, his son Hludwig
was quietly allowed to reign in his stead. He ruled for one
year, and died childless. The Caroling heir to the throne, if
such there was indeed, was Charles, his uncle, duke of Lorraine.
But who of the barons would care to take him, the German
Emperor's man ? So he was set aside, and as the Church, and
indeed all Northern France, was on the side of Hugh the Duke,
he was elected king. His brother was duke of Burgundy ; the
duke of Normandy was his brother-in-law. In all ways he was
the most central of the great nobles of Northern France. In
987 he was solemnly crowned at Noyon by Adalberon, arch-.
bishop of Rheims.
The age of the Carolings is ended. France has at least a
French king, though he rules over but a little fraction of the
land. Hugh Capet is the ancestor of all the kings who since
have sat on the throne of France.

BOOK III.
The Growth of the French Monarchy.
Its rise, a.d. 987-1328.
The accompanying Tables are taken in large part from La Vallee' s
Histoire des Francais (torn, r, pp. 216-218). From them the student may
get a clear conception of the smallness of the French kingship at the outset,
and of the steps by which it gradually absorbed its neighbours, and grew
strong with their help ; not on their ruins.
On referring to p. 162, he will find Table IV, which shows the cor
responding movement beyond the borders of France, and is useful for
comparison. Table VI gives the fortunes of the chief feudal states of Southern France ;
Table VII those of Northern France ; Table VIII sums up the results.
Table IX also shows the absorption of the states into France with more
historical detail and another arrangement. It is so important for the student
to see clearly how the Monarchy grew, that I am willing to run the risk of
becoming tedious with these Tables.

184

Table VI. FEUDAL STATES OF SOUTHERN FRANCE.

768S19«39 872 s78SSo
10361052 j.
12711422

TOULOUSE (Count).

Baymond I,

who has

twelve

GOTHIA or
HAEBOITNE
(Duke or Marquis).

Bernard I dies,
five beneficiary dukes to
Bernard III.
William the Pious
dies childless, 918 ;
the duchy falls to
Toulouse.

successors

to

Baymond VII, who cedes half to
Louis IX, and half to his daughter,
who marries the brother of St. Louis,
and he, dying childless, leaves the rest
to Philip III (1 271).

AQUITAINE
or GUYEETNE (Duke).

Bainulf (son of
Bernard II, of
Gothia),
eleven hereditary
dukes to

GASCONY (Duke).
Lupus I,
four Dukes to
Waiffer,
five beneficiary dukes to
Sancho
Milarra,
seven hereditary
dukes to
Berenger
(who dies child
less, and Gas
cony falls to
Aquitaine).

William X
(whose daughter
Alienor m. Henry,
Ct. of Anjou, and
K. of England).
The duchy finally ceded to France
under Charles VII, 1453.

TABLE VII. THE FEUDAL STATES OF NORTHERN FRANCE.

1422 1

PLAWDEBS (Count).
Baldwin I,

who has ten

successors

Charles the Good
(the female line
succeeds).
(1) House of Al
sace (by fern, line),

VEEMANDOIS (Count).
Heribert I.

Heribert II.

Divided into

Champagne (Count). Passes

the House

of Blois,

twelve

(2) House of
Dauphine,

four counts

(3) House of Bur
gundy- Valois.

thelast heir
ess, whom.
Philip IV.

Verrnandois (Count). Nine

Eleanor,
who cedes it
toPhiliplI.

EEANCE (Duke).
Bobert the Strong.

Elides (Odo) (dis
puted K. of France).
Bobert (disputed
King of France).
Hugh the Great.

Hugh Capet
(Duke).
Hugh Capet, K.
of France.
Eobert. Henry I.

Philip I.
LouisVI(theFat).

Louis VII (the
Young).
Philip II (Au
gustus).

Louis VIII.
Louis IX (Saint).
Philip III.

UOBMANDY (Duke).

Hrolf,
who has
six successors

¦William the Bas
tard (King of Eng
land, 1066). His
granddaughter m.
Geoffrey Plantage-

and has

three successors

John Lackland,
(irom whom
Philip Augustus
takes it).

ANJOU (Count).

Ingelger,

who

has

Philip IV (the Fair).
Louis X (the Brawler).
John I (reigns five days). Philip V (the Tall).
Charles IV (the Fair).
Philip VI, House of Valois.
John II (the Good).
Charles V (the Wise).
Charles VI.

Charles VII.

Henry
Plantagenet (Henry II
of England).

Bichard John
(from whom
Philip Augustus
takes it) :
but
St. Louis gives
it to one of his
brothers.

BUBGUND-Y (Duke).

Eichard the Justi
ciary (whose son
Bodolf became K.
of France in 923).

Seized by Hugh,
Duke of France ;
held by Henry,
his son ; inherited
after him by Eo
bert, Barons' K. of
France.
Hobeit (son of Ro
bert the King),

who has

twelve

successors

Philip de
Bouvre,
dies 1361 : it passes
to John II of France ;
who grants it to Phi
lip (le Hardi).

\Tofacep. 184.
BBITTANY |
(Duke).
NomenoS,

who has

Conan IV, whose
daughtermarriesGuy de Thouars.
(Forseveralyearsheld feudally
of Normandy.)
Their daughter
m. Pierre de
Dreux (1213) :

in whose family
it remains till
1453-

Table VIII. ABSORPTION OF THE CHIEF FEUDAL STATES INTO THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE Brittan-

Flanders.

Cham
pagne.

Verrnan dois.

Prance.
Hugh Capet.

Ceded by
Eleanor (1183) to Philip II
(Augustus).

Philip III.

Normandy.

Conquered by
Philip
Augustus (1204).

Gothia and
Toulouse.

Falls by marriage (1 285) to Philip IV.
Charles VII.
Louis XI.

Francis I.
S. Flanders claimed and taken by Louis XIV.

Falls to
Philip III
by lack of
issue (1270).

Gascony,

Aquitaine.

Berenger dies
childless ;
falls to
Aquitaine.

Conquered and annexed
by Charles VII (1453)

Anjou

Annexed
by Louis
XI (1474).

Burgundy.

Annexed by
Louis XI
(H79)-

The daughter
of Anne
brings it
with her to
Francis I
(IS32).

i86

Table IX.
SUCCESSIVE ADDITIONS TO THE FRENCH
MONARCHY.

Date.

District.

King.

Circumstances.

1068

Gatinais

Philip I

Acquired from Fulk of Anjou.

1082

French Vexin

JJ

Acquired from Simon of Valois.

iroo

Bourges

JJ

Bought of Herpin its Count
going on Crusade.

1183

Verrnandois, Amiens

Philip Augustus

Taken from Philip of Flanders,
on his wife's death.

1185

Valois

j? 5;

Ditto.

1203

Touraine, Anjou,

ii '¦>

Confiscated from King John of

Maine, Poitou

England. [Permanently ac
quired by St. Louis, 1258.]

?t

Saintonge

>5 j:

Confiscated from King John of
England. [Ceded at Bretigny,
1 360, to England ; reconquered
by Charles V and Charles VII.]

1205

Normandy

„

Taken by conquest from King
John of England.

1209

Auvergne

7J 27

Confiscated from Guy its Count.
[Finally secured to the Crown
by Louis XIII.]

1229

Beziers, Narbonne,
Nimes, Velay, Al
bigeois

St. Louis (IX)

After Albigensian war.

1233

Blois, Chartres

5) 7;

Bought from Thibault of Cham
pagne.

I255

Gevaudan

)) JJ

Bought from Count of Barcelona.
[Confirmed to Philip IV, 1 306.]

I257

Perche

JJ J?

Fell in on extinction of thePerche
family.

1270

Languedoc, Vivarais,

PhilipIII

On extinction of the House of

Rouergue

St. Gilles.
1285
Champagne and Brie
Philip IV
By marriage with the heiress.
,,
Lyonnais
,,
By agreement with the Arch
bishop and Burghers.
187

Date.

District.

King.

Circumstances.

!349

Dauphine

Philip VI

Bought from the last Dauphin
of Vienne.

'37°

Limousin

Charles V

Conquered from the English.
[Vise, of Limoges secured
finally under Henry IV.]

1453

Guienne and Gas
cony

Charles VII

Conquered from the English.

H79

Burgundy

Louis XI

Annexed on death of Charles the
Rash, Duke of Burgundy.

JJ

Marche

"

Confiscated from the House of
Armagnac.

I487

Provence

,,

On death of the last Count.

I523

Angoumais, Forez,
Beaujolais

Pranois I

Patrimony.

I53I

Bourbon and Dau

,,

Confiscated from the Constable

phine d'Auvergne
de Bourbon.
'547
Brittany
Charles VIII and
By marriage with Anne of Brit
Louis XII
tany.
and Pranois I
By marriage with the daughter
of Anne of Brittany.
1548
Comminges
,,
On extinction of the Comminges
family.
r552
Trois-Eveches [Metz,
Henry II
Secured to France by the Treaty
Verdun, Toul]
of Westphalia, 1648.
i5«9
Beam, Navarre, Bi-
gorre, Foix, Ar
magnac
Bresse and Bugey
Henry IV
Patrimony.
1 601
?>
Exchanged against Saluces with
the Duke of Savoy.
1648
Alsace
Louis XIII and
By conquest from Germany.
Louis XIV
Secured to France by the
Treaty of Westphalia, 1648.
i659
Roussillon and Artois
77 JJ
By conquest. Secured by the
Treaty of the Pyrenees, 1659.
1665
Nivernois
Louis XIV
On extinction of the Nivemois
family.
1668
Flanders and Hain
JJ
Secured by the Treaty of Aix-
ault.
la-Chapelle.
1678
Franche-Comte
JJ
Secured by the Treaty of Nim-
wegen.
1681
Strasburg
?J
Secured by Treaty of Ryswick,
1697.
1684
Charolais
j;
Confiscated from Spain.
1766
Lorraine
Louis XV
Secured by Treaty of Vienna,! 81 5.
BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory.
I. The Aim of this Book.
The year 987 is the true starting-point for the History of
France. Hitherto the Caroling kings had in some respects
been more German than French ; they fled into Lorraine, and
took shelter under the Emperor, if their barons were too hard
on them ; they did not care to speak French, or to identify
themselves with the bulk of the people of the land. Now, from
the days of Hugh Capet, all is changed. Hugh was a Neu
strian baron ; Count of Paris and Duke of the Franks. This
latter title was not connected with a definite duchy, but appears
to have given its possessor a vague military authority over the
provinces surrounding his own county of Paris. Still before his
accession Hugh was the peer of those princes who made him
King. We must always remember that the names France and
Paris had not their modern significance : Paris was but the chief
town of a petty dukedom, France the name of a narrow district,
overshadowed by greater lordships, and almost unknown across
the Loire.
The petty sovereign who reigned at Paris was in fact little
more than a simple member of the feudal hierarchy of great
lords. He had indeed a different title; he inherited certain
traditions ; but, as a king, he was a shadow. The custom of
dividing history by arbitrary lines at the accessions of sovereigns
has lifted these early Capetian kings into a false position : we
must free ourselves from this delusion of monarchy. At a later

190 GAUL AT ACCESSION OF HUGH CAPET. A.D. 987.
time the greater kings often represent the age, and our chapters
will follow their reigns. In these earlier days this ought not to
be the case. Thus, the epochs of the conquest of England, and
of the first Crusade, leave the feeble kings quite on one side.
The power and independence of the feudal barons reduced the
kingship almost to nothing : by a rude kind of ' balance of
power,' or rather of jealousy, the king managed to exist ; and
that was all. As however time went on, he neutralised much
of the hostility of the barons : used first the Church, then the
Communes, in his struggle with the landed interest : by war, by
marriage, by management, he gradually absorbed the sovereign
states, and rose to the full possession of the powers of that
feudal monarchy, of which we propose to trace the growth in
the following pages. The period is one of over three hundred
years, from the election of Hugh Capet in 987, to the reign of
Philip IV, the Fair, in whom feudal monarchy reached its
highest point.
After him the kingly power recedes, and the period of the
great English wars comes on, in which monarchy and feudalism
seem to suffer equally. This period sees the beginning of the
House of Valois ; it sees the rise of the absolute (as distinguished
from the feudal) monarchy, in the person of Charles V, the
Wise ; it attains its full height in Francis I at the Reformation
time. Absolute monarchy continues till the end of the Valois,
and through the reign of Henry IV; then it changes step by step,
chiefly through Richelieu's influence, into a despotic monarchy,
which towers up into the splendours of the reign of the ' grand
monarque,' Louis XIV. After him an irresponsible monarchy,
surrounded by an effete vassal noblesse, sinks rapidly in power
and esteem, until the Revolution of 1789 sweeps both away, and
creates a new epoch in the history of France.
II. The Condition of the Country at Hugh Capet's
Accession.
Gaul was still, in reality, divided into three well-marked
countries. (1) The remains of the old Lotharingia ; that is, the
two Lorraines, Aries, and Burgundy, German-speaking, holding

A.D. 987. THE GROWTH OF FEUDAL MONARCHY. 191
chiefly of the Empire, and contemptuous towards the French —
the ' Walli ' or ' Galli ' (as the Loherains or Lorrainers called
them), whom they despised ,for having abandoned the old
Frankish tongue, and for having become somewhat more
polished. (2) The old 'Neustria,' French-speaking, made up
of three races, the Norman, the old Gallo-Romans, and the
Franks ; but both Gallo-Romans and Franks called themselves
' French ' (Francigenae), and the Normans were soon assimilated.
This old Neustria included the kingdom of France, Champagne,
Anjou, Normandy. (3) Aquitaine, south of the Loire, speaking
a distinct dialect, inheritor of the Roman law and civilisation,
centuries in advance of its neighbours, regarded with horror by
the bishops at the Capetian Court as effeminate and corrupt,
too delicate of dress and manners, and in all respects a foreign
nation. This district embraced Aquitaine from the Loire,
Gascony, and Septimania. Brittany is still a land apart.
The relations of men in these districts were all based on
feudal obligations and ideas. The free aristocracy, lay and
clerical, were the nation : the mass of the people, chiefly Gallo-
Romans by origin, still wore the bonds of a conquered race.
The serfs, the lowest portion of the population, who tilled the
soil without any hold on it, were nearly what in former days
the Roman slaves had been : — above them were the villains, or
small tenant-farmers, who held their lands on condition of cer
tain services to their lords ; above these again came the free and
noble population, which has been reckoned, at the time of
which we speak, at about a million of souls, living on and taking
their names from about seventy thousand separate fiefs or
properties : of these fiefs about three thousand carried titles with
them. Of these again, no less than a hundred — some reckon as
many as a hundred and fifty — were sovereign states, greater or
smaller, whose lords could coin money, levy taxes, make laws,
administer their own justice. Long before this time the instinct
of castle-building had turned every noble's home into a strong
hold. The Gallo-Roman gentleman had lived in an open house,
spread out over some level and pleasant spot, quite undefended ;

192 GAUL AT ACCESSION OF HUGH CAPET. A.D. 987.
the Frankish chieftains, whose views were those not of civilised,
but of warlike life, and who dwelt in the land as strong-handed
and hated conquerors, naturally looked out for safe and strong
positions. They fortified the Gallo-Roman villa, or chose for
themselves strong places, hill tops, river-bends, spurs of high
land jutting out into the plain ; or availed themselves of existing
buildings, as at Nfmes and Aries, where they fortified the Roman
arenas: ancient gates, even churches, they used in the same
way. To be strong and isolated, this was their desire and their
necessity. Gloomy, massive, and safe, these keeps must be.
Little or no light could enter, save from the inner court ; the
entrance was dark and low, and carefully defended : there were
unglazed holes for windows : unclean, dark, unwholesome dens,
they were well enough while the feudal lord saw from his walls
the smoke of the burning huts below, for he knew that his foe
would break his rude strength in vain against the rock on
which the castle stood. Such dens were intolerable as dwelling-
places, and as such were not only the natural results of a violent
age, but also a direct incitement to their lords to find their
amusements abroad, either on the highways as robbers, or in
pilgrimage to far shrines, or in private war with some neighbour,
or in following their liege-lord to war against some unruly-
vassal or neighbouring prince.
The state of the serfs, and often that of the villains, was
inexpressibly wretched. For centuries they had been sinking,
and it seemed as if the year 1000 would find mankind, at least
in Gaul, sunk to the lowest depth. Agriculture was rude and
uncertain : there was no skill to fight against adverse seasons,
or to resist the ravages of man. Consequently, famine and
pestilence, not rare before, became horribly frequent, with
accessories of cannibalism and brutality which reveal the utter
wretchedness of the age. Forty-eight famines, between a. d. 987
and 1059, are on record.
This was the state of society in the earlier stages of feudalism,
and small hope there seemed to be : royalty was a mere name,
the people were utterly depressed. Yet feudalism seemed

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A.D. 087. STATE OF SOCIETY. 193
needful to restore life and social energy to Euro* e : — slowly
and fitfully the noble classes rose to a certain sense of duty and
honour ; the condition of woman improved ; art and refinement
found some room for growth; the feudal castle became the
home of some ideas of justice, such as they were ; the royalty
of the Capets, carrying on the Carolingian traditions, but
depending for support more on the services of the king's
vassals than on the obedience of his subjects, gradually attracted
more power ; feudalism organised the Crusades, and led to that
expansion of ideas and that consciousness of shortcoming which
sprang out of intercourse with the more refined East. Thus,
in spite of the many miseries arising from this unbridled form
of aristocracy, we may hail it as the first condition of society
which made a national life possible. It neither corresponds to
the brilliant dream of the romancer, nor, on the other hand,,
is it the utterly wicked and desolate wilderness it seems to be
when one first gets a real view of it.
III. The Limits of Hugh Capet's Kingship.
Among the many sovereign states of Gaul, or France as we
may now begin to call it, eight were pre-eminent in power and
extent, and their lords, the great peers, thought little of the
supremacy given to that one of their number who held the name
of king. The counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Verrnandois,
and the dukes of Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, and Aquitaine,
regarded themselves almost as the new king's peers or equals.
He had just now been but count of Paris, and duke of France,
and though they were willing to give him the formal sovereignty
possessed by the later Caroling kings, we have seen how little
this amounted to in practice. Some even resisted him, setting up
the claim of Charles, duke of Lower Lorraine, uncle of the
late king. Among the states which lie within modern France,
Lorraine, Aries and Franche-Comte" held of the Emperor, and
were in fact German. The actual domain of the duke of
France, had been a long and narrow strip running southwards
from near the mouth of the Somme. with Normandy on one
vol. 1. 0

194 GAUL AT ACCESSION OF HUGH CAPET. A.D. 987.
side, and Flanders, Champagne, and Burgundy on the other;
it reached down to the Loire ; so that the Seine, with Paris on it,
crossed the domain, nearly cutting it in half. Hugh Capet,
the lord of it, was also lay abbot of St. Denis, then the
most important church in France.
In addition to these narrow domains, the king was also the
inheritor of the older Caroling sovereignty. This however was
very little, and had but a slight hold on men's minds. In fact,
the Carolings had fallen so low that people were apt to
think that the duke of France lost position by becoming their
successor. These then are the weak beginnings of the Capetian line,
— the line which gradually welded France into a kingdom, and
paved the way for that compact and vigorous unity which did
so much to make her national life glorious.

Table X.
The Pedigree of HUGH CAPET (Huon Chapette).
Bobert the Strong + 867

1  ~\
Eudes (Odo) Eobert Duke of France + 923
King of the Barons King of the Barons for a
888-898) few months

I  ' — ~ I
Hugh the Great Emma m. Kodolf
D. of Prance + 956 King of the Barons (923-936)

r"  1
Hugh Capet Eudes-Henry
Duke of France (956-987) D. of Burgundy.
King 987

TABLE XI. THE KINGS OF FRANCE.

HUGH OAPET (9S7-996)
BOBEKT II (996-1031) I
HEETRY I (1031-1060) I
PHILIP I (1060-1108) I
LOUIS VI (the Fat) (1100-1137)
LOUIS VII (the Young) (1137-11S0)
PHILIP II, AUGUSTUS (11S0-1223)
LOUIS VIII (1 223-1 226)
I
[ST.] LOUIS IS (1226-1270)

PHILIP III (the Bold) (1270-1285)

PHILIP IV (the Fair) (1285-^14)

LOUIS X
(the Brawler)
(1314-1316) I
[JOHN I
(the posthumous)(1316)]

PHILIP V
(the Tall)
(1316-1322)

CHARLES IV
(the Fair)
(1322-1328)
last of the Capets

Isabelle = Edward II
of England (1308)
I
Edward III

Charles
Count of Valois
1
PHILIP VI (1328-1350)
House of Valois

JOHET [II] (Ike Good) (1350-1364)
CHARLES V (the Wise) (1364-1380)

CHARLES VI (the Well-loved)
(13S0-1422)
CHARLES VII
(1422-1461)

Louis
D. of Orleans + T407

I
LOUIS XI
(1461-14S3)
CHARLES VIII
(1483-1498)

Charles
D. of Orleans I
LOUIS XII
(1498-1515)

Robert married the heiress
0/ Bourbon, whence the
Bourbon Kings in the ninth
generation in Henry IV,
15S9-1610.

John
C. of Angouleme I
Charles
C. of Angouleme I
FRANCIS I
(I5I5-I547) I
HENRY II
<-'547-'559)

To pace p. 195.]

FRANCIS II
(i559-I56o)

CHARLES IX
(1560-1574)

HENRY III
(1574-1589)
last of the Valois.

CHAPTER II.
From the Accession of Hugh Capet to the age of the
First Crusade, A.D. 987-1066.
Under the influence of Gerbert, afterwards so famous as
Pope Sylvester II, the French-speaking Franks met at Noyon,
and proclaimed Hugh Capet their king : the election was
confirmed and sanctioned at Rheims by Adalberon1, the
archbishop, who solemnly crowned him King of Franks. This
act, for which the whole life of Hugh the Great had been
a preparation, was the natural end of the long struggle between
the feudal nobles and the Caroling kings. As the barons, with
their French language and interests, grew stronger, the kings,
who spoke German and had German interests, had been losing
their hold on them. And when things were ripe for the change,
whom could they have chosen better than the duke of France ?
Verrnandois had ceased to be great, since the death of Herbert ;
Normandy was but half French, and not central ; Burgundy was
too far to the east. The lords of the lie de France were French
in speech and interests ; had shown great vigour of character ;
and Hugh the Great, had he wished it, might have deposed
the Carolings of his day. Hugh was also, on the whole, the
strongest of the barons ; he was feudal lord of all Picardy, and
' had vast domains in Champagne ; the city and county of Paris,
Orleans, Chartres, the counties of Blois, Perche, Touraine, and
Main, all held of him. On the other hand, as his was but
a short pedigree *, he aroused no jealousy in the minds of
1 There were at this time two Adalberons, one the archbishop of Rheims,
the other the bishop of Laon, who was also called Ascelin.
3 The earliest pedigree is given by Richer (Bk. I. ch. 5), who says of
Odo, ' patrem habuit ex equestri ordine Rotbertum, avum vero paternum
Witichinam, advenam Germanum.'

196 REIGN OF HUGH CAPET. A.D. 087.
those who regarded him as but their equal. His connexions
secured him the goodwill of the most powerful of his peers,
the dukes of Normandy and Burgundy. He had the support of
the archbishop of Rheims, the highest Churchman in Neustrian
France ; Gerbert, rightly counted the wisest and most learned
man in Christendom, was also on his side. The Church was
generally favourable to the duke of France, as such : for he held
in hand many rich abbeys and benefices, and was regarded,
being abbot of St. Martin at Tours 1 and of St. Denis near
Paris, as a kind of lay head of the Church : lastly, the Normans
were eager to avenge themselves on the Carolings, who had
offended them deeply by oppressing their favourite duke, Richard
the Fearless.
And thus, as says the old French Chronicle2, 'in this time failed
the lineage of " Challemaine '' in France, and then by common
assent was the kingship granted to " Huon Chapette," who was
right prudent and valiant, bold and brave, so long as he lived.'
All these things could not secure Hugh in peaceful pos
session of the throne. Charles, Hludwig's uncle, resisted him
as being rightful heir to the Caroling throne ; his pretensions
were upheld by formidable chiefs, the count of Flanders, the
archbishop of Sens, the count of Verrnandois, and others, and
even by William Fier-a-Bras, the Aquitanian duke. Had Charles
been as vigorous as Hugh, they had not been unequally matched.
He took possession of Laon, and on the vacancy of the archi-
episcopal see of Rheims, got it for his nephew, Arnulf the Clerk.
The duke of Normandy undertook to hold in check the
northern partisans of the Carolings, while Hugh attacked the
Aquitanians; here William, whom he had shut up in Poitiers,
turned fiercely on him, made him raise the siege, and draw
back to the northern bank of the Loire. Then Hugh, feeling
the need of help, called his friends together at Orleans, and
1 The name Capet is thought to come from the ' cape,' ' chape,' or ' cap,'
the hood of St. Martin, which Hugh always wore, declining to wear
a crown. ' Capetus, i.q. cappotus.' Others say he was so named from the
size of his head.
2 Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 10, p. 278.

A.D. 087. ACCESSION OF HUGH CAPET. 197
had his son Robert crowned as joint-king by the archbishop
of Rheims, on Christmas Day, 987. Thus he seemed to give
a hereditary character to his kingship ; he also showed that the
centre of his kingdom was not yet firmly fixed on the Seine.
And indeed the Loire, which ran through the southernmost
part of his domains, might well have seemed to be chiefest river
of France. The king, who was abbot of both St. Denis and
St. Martin, must have doubted whether Paris or Tours was
the true centre ; and had his Aquitanian expedition succeeded,
it is possible he might have been tempted to leave the Seine
to the Normans, who held the mouths of it and most of the
navigable course, and to plant the capital of France on the
banks of the Loire.
Hugh got no respite ; for the Caroling party was not idle.
He hastened to attack them in Laon, and came face to face
with his rival: the 'king of Laon,' and the 'king of St. Denis,'
as they are sometimes called, came to close quarters. Charles
sallied out with his Lorrainers, routed the besiegers, destroyed
their engines, pillaged their camp, burnt the villages in the
plain, and drove Hugh away in disorder. Troubles thickened :
his barons were shaken, his neighbours were cold. But he
showed all the vigour and good sense of his race ; by activity
and reckless grants from the royal domain he steadied his
supporters. Another heavy blow came : Rheims fell vacant, and
thinking to make friends with a dangerous man, Hugh gave it
to Arnulf, ' the clerk of Laon.' He even seems to have adopted
him as a relation '. The man was a traitor then as before ;
and soon opened the city to Charles, giving the place over to
pillage ; the Brabant soldiery unwittingly punished his treachery
by sacking the cathedral and his house. He also swore
allegiance to Charles, who in turn also became the victim of
treachery. Adalberon of Laon, pretending to join the Caroling
party, was reconciled with Charles and Arnulf, and restored
1 So says Hugh's letter to Pope John XV : ' Arnulphus, regis Lotharii,
ut dicunt, filius, post graves inimicitias ac scelera quae in nos regnumque
nostrum exercuit, loco parentis adoptatus est a nobis, ac Metropoli Remorum
donatus.' — Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 10, p. 521.

198 REIGN OF HUGH CAPET. A.D. 087.
to his bishopric. Once there, he let Hugh's troops into the
place ; the ' king of Laon,' his wife and nephew, fell with the
town into Hugh's hands, who thus, without a blow, crushed this
dangerous enemy. Charles was removed to Orleans, far from
his sources of strength, and there died in prison. When Herbert,
count of Meaux, died, and his son did homage to Hugh for his
domains, there was no longer any prince north of the Loire who
stood out against the new dynasty. Laon ceased to be a capital,
and became a quiet country town ; the castle, relic of those
days, stood till 1832, when it was rased to the ground.
Hugh next (a.d. 99 r) persuaded the French prelates to depose
archbishop Arnulf, and to set in his place the famous Gerbert ;
this brought on him the wrath of Pope John XV, and troubled
the remainder of his life. It is noteworthy as an early example
of strenuous resistance to the Papacy by the Gallican clergy
and king.
Had Gerbert lived a century later, he would have led the
crusading spirit ; two centuries later he would have left a
splendid name among the great Schoolmen : as it is, we know
him chiefly as the Pope who had dealings with the devil, the
magician who knew more than is good for man to know. He
was brought up in Auvergne, where perhaps some savour of the
old Roman learning lingered. There he learnt grammar under
the abbot of the monastery of St. Geraud. Grammar was not
enough for him ; it happened that the Count of Barcelona was
travelling through the country, and the abbot, learning that the
sciences were taught in Spain, prayed him to take Gerbert back
to his court. So Gerbert went to Spain, where, owing to the
Arabs, mathematics were taught in greater perfection than in any
other country in Europe. Thence he carried home a knowledge
of astronomy, mathematics, music, and introduced the abacus,
or calculating table, at which he could puzzle even the most
skilful. As yet he knew no philosophy ; and meeting at Rome,
whither he had gone after his stay in Spain, a famous teacher
of philosophy, he begged leave to accompany him to France.
He settled with his master at Rheims, and soon became ' Scho-

A.D. 001. ARCHBISHOP GERBERT. 199
lasticus,' or master of the Cathedral school. There he left
many specimens of his skill ; among them a clock and an organ
worked, it is said, by steam. Summoned by Otto II to preside
over the abbey of Bobbio in Italy, he returned at the death
of his patron to teach again in his favourite school. There the
young Robert, future king of France, was his pupil. Otto III
also claimed him as his tutor, and in his letters styles him
' most learned of philosophers,' ' laureate in the branches of
philosophy.' Being much under the influence of archbishop
Adalberon, he attached himself to Hugh Capet (not without
also keeping up friendly relations with the German Emperor),
and in course of time became archbishop of Rheims. When
Hugh died he lost his best patron ; Robert his old pupil
wished to gain favour with the Pope ; and so Gerbert fearing
dismissal, fled to the Emperor, who gave him the archbishopric
of Ravenna, and on the next vacancy raised him to the Papal
throne (a.d. 999) as Pope Sylvester II. He was mainly known
to the middle ages as a wizard, who knew how ' to call
shadowy forms from hell.' It was said that he called up the
devil and pledged himself to be his man; thereon the fiend
granted him all his will, even to the Papacy. He is naturally
enough one of the favourite figures of early romance.
Hugh Capet's reign was a constant struggle against his lay
and clerical neighbours : he purchased his kingly name by a life
of toil, and by the loss of much of his domain, given to his
barons as pay for their services. And at his death he was far
from being the strongest man in the land. William of Aqui
taine had consolidated the southern power, and ruled over
almost the whole of the two ancient Aquitanias : the Norman
duke was lord over a people of warriors, far stronger and fresher
than the French. In Burgundy Hugh's brother, Eudes-Henry,
was a weak creature, and his barons were almost independent.
The same is true of the kingdoms of Aries and Burgundy.
The long reign of Conrad the Peaceful paved the way for the
fall of Rudolf III, his son, who fell through sheer weakness, and
retired into Switzerland, leaving the rest of his territories to be

!200 REIGN OF HUGH CAPET. A.D. 006.
parcelled out as independent lordships : Savoy, Franche-Comte-,
Dauphin^, Provence (as they were afterwards called) became
independent ' counties.' Everything seemed to point to a feudal
subdivision of the country, with one strong state in Normandy,
and another in Aquitaine.
The great historical distinctions marked by the dialects of the
French tongue now began to appear. The South despised the
rude speech of the North; yet even in the North the dialects
were beginning to take a literary character : one for Normandy,
that most independent and characteristic district ; another for
the Picards, the French of the Northern March towards
Flanders ; another for the Burgundians, whose separate exis
tence lasted so long and was so distinct ; and a fourth for the
lie de France, the French of Paris, which finally absorbed the
rest, just as the duchy became the kingdom of France.
Nor was the character of Robert, who succeeded to the sole
kingship in 996, an omen of promise for the future. If Hugh
had been the friend of the clergy, Robert, the devout king,
was likely to be their slave and tool. His name, ' Pius ' or
' Debonair,' tells the tale of his life. A kindly man, good-
natured to folly, religious, easy-going, he had neither the power
nor the chance of raising the monarchy. He was 'a man of
distinguished uprightness and great piety, the ornament of
clerks, the supporter of monks, the father of the poor, constant
in reverencing God and God's word, humble as David, king
not only of his people but of himself1.' He was 'tall, with
gentle eyes, and smooth well-dressed hair, broad open nostrils,
a pleasant mouth, well-formed to give the kiss of peace V He
had a beard of comely length, and high shoulders : oft prayed
he to God : in the judgment-hall he was modest, helpful to the
accused. He read his Psalter daily ; gentle, gracious, polished,
he sincerely loved to do a kindness. He was right learned in
letters; he took delight in music, and would even join in at
1 Chronicon Ademari Cabarrensis, in Dom Bouquet's Recueil, torn. 10,
p. 146.
2 From his life by Helgald, in Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 10, p. 99.

A.D. 006. ROBERT, KING OF FRANCE. 201
the singing of the mass. One day at Rome they saw him
draw nigh the high altar at St. Peter's and place something on
it very devoutly. The moment his back was turned, the priests,
eager for the prize, hurried up ; there was a rich silk purse ;
they opened it, and out fell a parchment scroll. Was it a gift
of land? They looked, and saw that it was 'the Response
called Cornelius the Centurion, written out and noted, the which
he had newly made and invented V
His whole character, the delight of monkish chroniclers, in its
piety and weakness, is displayed in a series of anecdotes by his
biographer Helgald, who cannot enough praise his good nature,
his questionable almsgiving, his forgiving spirit. One day he
saw a priest steal a silver candlestick from the altar : ' friend
Ogier,' said he, ' run for your life to your home in Lorraine,'
and, lest the candlestick might be hard to turn into ready money,
he gave him something for his journey. Another day, out hunt
ing with his bosom friend, Hugh of Beauvais, the Mayor of the
Palace, he was attacked by twelve men-at-arms, set on by his
queen and Fulk Nerra of Anjou. They killed his favourite
before his eyes. ' But the king, though saddened for a time,
presently, as was right, was reconciled to the queen V and took
no farther notice of the murder and insult. He usually had
with him twelve poor men, who formed a sort of squalid pro
cession before him on his journeys. One of these cut off and
stole a rich gold pendant from his robe ; and though the king
saw it, he only laughed and passed it by. He hated lying ;
and therefore, lest his vassals should swear falsely to him, he
had made a splendid reliquary, crystal in a setting of pure
gold, — with nothing inside. On this his nobles took oath,
thinking it a right holy relic : and then, if they broke faith,
he thought it was no perjury3- His charity provided another
1 Chronique de S. Denis, in Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 10, p. 305.
2 Radulphus Glaber, 3. 2.
3 Helgald, Ep. Vitae Rotberti R. 2. This was the opposite to the act of
William the Bastard, who is said to have cheated Harold into swearing on
the bones of saints, which were hidden away in » covered box (see below,
p. 213), and so entangled him unawares in danger of sacrilege.

202 REIGN OF ROBERT I. A.D. 006.
reliquary for his lesser vassals and the rustics, — a silver case
with a griffin's egg in it, and nothing else. Thus he arranged
matters so that lying and perjury might be harmless; thus,
as they said of him, ' he showed his love of truth, and merited
heaven.' In truth the monkish chroniclers may have done Robert
unintentional injury by their praises. There must have been
a stronger side in the character of a man who conquered
Burgundy, added to his domain Sens, Autun, Dijon, and Dreux,
and had the refusal of the iron crown of Lombardy. His reign
began with trouble. The Church punished the weak and
friendly, while she let the strong and hostile escape. In Robert
she had a devout friend : his father with the bishops had resisted
Rome ; — he, to appease the Pope, alienated the national Church
party, and lost the wife he loved,
Robert had married his fourth cousin, Bertha, widow of Count
Odo I of Blois, to whose child he had also been godfather.
Thus she was in two ways within the forbidden degrees.
Fondly attached to her, the king had vainly sought to appease
the Pope by sacrificing archbishop Gerbert; whereby he estranged
his old friend and helper, the acknowledged head of the Church
in France, without gaining his point with the Pope. For in
998 Gregory V laid the country under ban, and the bishops
in council excommunicated the king and queen. After feebly
struggling a while, the king yielded, and set aside his wife.
Perhaps the belief in the approaching end of ihe world affected
him, and made him willing to bear his cross for so short a
time1. Anyhow he soon consoled himself, and took to wife
Constance of Aries, beautiful and masterful, who made his life
burdensome to him, not undeservedly2. In her train came
1 There is some doubt as to this. Some think he clung to Bertha over the
year 1000, whereas Labbe and Page say he married again before that date.
Mabillon says his second marriage took place in 1004; Vaisset, in 998.
Gregory V seems to have written a letter to Constance, as Queen, in 998,
which is in favour of the earlier date.
2 The Monkish chroniclers are never weary of their poor puns on her
name. She is ' inconstans Constantia ' throughout. The king, when she bade
him write her a love-song, indited a sacred poem beginning ' O Constantia

A.D. 1000. INCREASING RELIGIOUS FERVOUR. 203
a crowd of Aquitanians to the Court at Paris, where Robert had
built a new palace, and had consecrated it with a miracle. The
ruder Northerners, and especially the clergy, were scandalised at
the manners, appearance, dress, and speech of the strangers.
' Their arms and dress were disordered, their hair cut short,
and even shaven in front' (a relic of Roman custom), 'their
beards clipped like mountebanks, their high boots most dis
creditable to them V Though the bishops interfered, the
courtiers admired and imitated, and there seemed some fear
lest they should become refined, and exchange their rude vices
for the polished sins of the South. The bishops denounced
these new ways of dress and conduct as snares from below.
The soul of the man who had been dressed by an Aquitanian
tailor was in danger. It illustrates the complete and national
difference between Northern and Southern France.
It used to be said that men thought the world would come
to an end in the year rooo2, but it is now generally admitted
that no particular crisis was expected at that precise moment.
There is practically no evidence that the millennium was looked
for on the first of January; still, it was a time of religious revival
and increased fervour and, as at other epochs of religious
enthusiasm in the Middle Ages, this was often expressed by an
expectation of the end of the world. Many went on pilgrimage ;
sinners gave or bequeathed their lands to the Church 3 ; monas
teries were reformed, the monks grew more influential than the
bishops 4 ; men fled to monasteries, as Duke William withdrew ,
to Jumieges; countless prodigies were seen, relics discovered.
and displayed ; a new and more mysterious meaning was given
martyrum,' and she, when she heard her name at the opening, was perfectly
satisfied. 1 Radulphns Glaber, 3. 9 : ' Caligis et ocreis turpissimi.'
" It was thought that the Millennium would begin, and our Lord return to
judgment, in the thousandth year from His birth on earth.
3 ' Appropinquante mundi termino ' often occurs in the heading of these
deeds of gift.
1 Of this the very curious poem by Bishop Adalberon of Laon, in which
he and King Robert are the talkers, is a singular proof. It is a fierce
attack on monasticism, and a protest of the bishops against the new order
of things.

204

REIGN OF ROBERT I. A.D. 1000.

to the Eucharist, and generally accepted. It was the first wave
of that national movement which a century later led to the
Crusades. Robert's reign was a ceaseless struggle with the barons ; the
influence of Fulk Nerra of Anjou overshadowed the royal power;
Count Odo II of Blois and Chartres made head against the
king. For ten years he struggled to obtain possession of the
Duchy of Burgundy. In this effort he was assisted by Nor
mandy, and by the great religious houses of Burgundy, which
always remained faithful to the Capetian monarch. It was not
however until the death of his ardent opponent, the Bishop of
Langres, that Robert succeeded in gaining his object (1015).
Then he made his second son Henry duke, retaining a close
hold upon the duchy until he died. With William V of Aquitaine
he was always friendly, corresponding with him frequently,
although wresting from him the right to present to the sees of
Bourges and Limoges. Two movements took place, which,
however wretched, were still indicative of the energies newly
called into action. One was a rising of the servile population,
which ended in a sad slaughter of peasants, with circumstances
of extreme ferocity. Normandy, vigorous and oppressed, was
the scene of this attempt, which embraced all the Gallo-Roman
race, villains 'or serfs (a.d. 997). The mail-clad Normans
swooped down on their secret central assembly, seized the
leaders, punished them horribly; and the people bowed their
heads in terror, and submitted. They did but utter the first
murmuring sounds of that voice so often heard throughout
the Middle Ages ; the voice of the many against the few, of the
oppressed against the oppressor. The other movement was that
of the Manichean heretics at Orleans ; this also was quenched
in blood. It marks the beginning of the religious persecutions
of medieval and modern Europe.
Robert, following his father's example, had in 1017 crowned
Hugh, his eldest son by Queen Constance, a youth of high
promise, who combined what was good in both parents. Un
fortunately, he died before his father; who then, against the

A.D. 1000. THE TROUBLES OF HIS REIGN. 205
will of Constance, raised his youngest son Henry 1 to the joint-
kingship. Henceforward, the latter years of the king's life were
troubled by civil war, forced on him by his queen, and Henry
and Robert, his sons. Burgundy and the Duchy of France
suffered under the ills which then formed the sum of war. In
Normandy, the strong duke Richard II, the king's faithful friend,
died in 1027, leaving his sons Richard and Robert at war.
They made peace : after which Richard died suddenly, as did
some of his barons, after a banquet given by Robert to celebrate
their reconciliation : thereon Robert became Duke, and won the
title of ' the Devil.'
The other great prince of the time, William of Aquitaine, died
just before King Robert, who fell ill and breathed his last in
1 03 1, much wept by his poor, and through all his domain, though
almost unnoticed in the rest of Gaul. The Anjou chronicler,
giving tongue to the hatred raging between Anjou and France,
both sums up the reign and indicates the character of the new
king in a few words : ' Robert, whom we have ourselves seen
reigning most slothfully ; and in sloth his son, the present
kinglet Henry, falls not at all behind him V
King Henry, whom his mother Constance hated, was at once
attacked by her and by his brother Robert, who now became duke
of Burgundy. Normandy took up the quarrel, vigorously
supporting the young king, and crushing Odo of Chartres and
the revolted barons, until the name of Robert le Diable became
terrible to the North of France. Fulk Nerra intervened, and
brought about some sort of reconciliation 3 : Robert was con
firmed in his dukedom of Burgundy; and Constance, a few
months later, died and left the king in peace. Henceforward,
the real power over ihe kingdom passed from Fulk of Anjou
into the hands of the Normans. Robert le Diable delivered the
1 Odo (Eudes) his eldest surviving son was an idiot.
2 ' Cum Rotberto . . . quem vidimus ipsi ignavissime regnantem, a cujus
ignavia neque praesens Henricus regulus nlius ejus degenerat.' — Chron.
Andeg. in Dom Bouquet, torn. 10, p. 176.
3 ' Matrem redarguens cur hostilem insaniam erga filios exerceret.' — ,
Radulphus Glaber, c. 8.

206 REIGN OF HENRY I. A.D. 1031.
weak king from his troubles, and took the French Vexin, on the
Seine above Rouen1, as his recompense, bringing his frontiers
within five and twenty miles of Paris.
The fear of the end of the world perhaps grew more definite
as the thousandth year from our Lord's crucifixion drew near.
The miseries of mankind in Gaul were incredible : the seasons
seemed to have wandered from their courses; there was such cold,
such wind and rain, as had never been known. For three years
(a.d. 1030-1032) there was neither seed-time nor harvest, and
famine ruled from Greece to England. Thousands died, and
there was scarcely strength in the living to bury the dead.
Horrible accounts of cannibalism were current. A peasant
exposed human flesh for sale in Tournus market ; he was
detected, seized, and burnt. Men dug up the dead, and gnawed
their bones. Near Macon, in the wood of Chatenay, stood
a solitary church ; hard by it a hut, wherein a man dwelt alone.
One day a traveller and his wife came, and deeming it the
lowly cell of some holy man, turned in and begged leave to rest
awhile. As they were sitting, the wayfarer caught sight of
a heap of skulls and bones in the dark corners of the hut. He
leapt up, and ran to the door, followed by his wife. The solitary
tried to stop them, but fear gave speed, and the travellers
escaped. They fled to Macon, told the Count Otho, who went
back with them to the hut, seized the monster, and reckoned up
the skulls of forty-eight human beings, men, women, and
children, whom he had devoured. He was led to the town and
burnt 2.
The poor folk, in their despair, ate roots and grass ; they dug
up white clay and devoured it. Paleness and dreadful leanness
was on all faces ; their stomachs were distended, their bones
could be counted, their voices grew thin and piping, like the
voices of birds ; wolves came out in troops, and fed on human
1 The Vexin, 'pagusVaucassinus,' was in two parts, the French, reaching
down the Seine from the Oise to below La Roche Guyon, and the Norman,
from above Vernon to below Jumieges.
2 Rad. Glaber, 4. 4. Radulf says that he was present at the man's
execution.

A.D. 1030-32. THE MISERY IN FRANCE. 207
carcases. Then, after three years of this suffering came a sudden
plenty, and mankind revived. Pilgrimages to Jerusalem grew
more frequent : in 1036 the famous ' Peace of God' was pro
claimed, and accepted in Southern and Eastern France, though
Normans and Neustrians paid little heed to it. Synods of the
clergy decreed an inviolable peace. The bishops of Burgundy,
' being now subject to no man,' had already bound themselves
by oath to keep peace and do justice, and also had made their
vassals swear the same. The bishops of France, seeing that by
the weakness of the king and the sins of the people the kingdom
was falling into ruin, soon followed their example. All old
quarrels were to be forgotten ; no violence might take place on
the highways against such as travelled with a priest or a monk,
a clerk or a woman. The effect of this was but transitory ; the
voice of peace soon lost its power ; the barons returned to their
fierce ways and private wars. Then the bishops met, five years
later (a.d. 1041), and proclaimed the 'Truce of God,' whereby
fighting was forbidden from Thursday evening to Monday
morning in every week; on all feast days; in Advent; in Lent;
so that the shield of religion sheltered all the year except about
eighty days. Peace associations were formed in every diocese,
in which serf and villain, no less than feudal lord, were enrolled.
A militia was thus created under the leading of the Church,' by
means of which all those who broke the peace might be punished.
This check on feudal passions was wonderfully successful : for
two centuries it influenced social life, more however in the
South than in the North, and did much to destroy the tyranny
of private war and to develop the better qualities of feudal
society. Family life grew more sacred ; the baron in his castle
was surrounded by a little court, which had other interests and
pleasures besides those of fighting; courtesy grew into a
system of honour ; literature lifted up her head, and religion
strengthened her hold on the growing life of the age.
About this time (a.d. 1035) Robert of Normandy, le Diable,
summoned his vassals, told them he was going to the sacred
places of Jerusalem, and presented to them William,) his only

208 REIGN OF HENRY I. A.D. 10351.
son. He prayed them to choose the child, son of a tanner's
daughter of Falaise, as their lord, that they might not bechiefless,
were he to die over-sea. The barons approved, took the base-
born child, and swore fealty to him as their lord. Robert went,
as he said ; and returning from Jerusalem fell ill, or was
poisoned, at Nicaea : there he died, leaving to the rough mercies
of the Norman lords the little son who was afterwards King of
England, William the Conqueror. The childhood of William
offered an opportunity to the King of France which was not to
be neglected. Ever since the days of Hugh Capet the Norman
alliance had been the great bulwark of the kings who ruled at
Paris. Now Henry broke the spell, and tried to raise rebellion
against the guardians of the young duke. He was, however,
unable to do much, because of the growth of the House of Blois,
which had now taken to itself Champagne. Thither, therefore,
he turned his attention, and succeeded in weakening Blois by
annexing the Senonais and investing Geoffrey of Anjou with
Touraine. Soon, however, Norman affairs became prominent
again. The Normans and their neighbours thought to win
advantage from the lad. Guy of Burgundy, who had been
brought up with him, and ought to have known of what stuff he
was made, hoped to wrest Normandy out of his hands; but
William borrowed three thousand men from King Henry, and
beat Guy thoroughly at Val-es-Dunes ; the Normans all sub
mitted. Henry then, finding William too powerful, turned round
again, and from 1048 to 1058, when he was finally beaten,
intrigued and fought persistently against him. First he allied
himself with Anjou, then he marched to help the insurrection of
William of Aigues, then he stirred up a great alliance with
Aquitaine, Burgundy, Champagne, Auvergne, and marched two
armies into Normandy from east and south. But at the little
town of Mortemer, the eastern host under the king's brother was
surprised and cut to pieces ; and when the news came to the
king and his army as they lay opposite the camp of William,
they turned in despair and fled. Once again, four years after
wards, Henry led an army into Normandy ; this time he marched

A.D. 1048. WILLIAM THE BASTARD'S BOYHOOD. 209
right up to the sea, and it seemed as though he would sweep
the land, till, as he was crossing the Dive, William darted down
upon his men, and completely routed them.
For some time Henry had been unhelped by Geoffrey of
Anjou. In 1048 Geoffrey had seized and garrisoned Domfront
and Alencon. William blockaded Domfront ; and leaving men
enough before it, rode all night with the rest, and stormed the
suburbs of Alencon at the dawn ; whereon the garrison, making
no more resistance, surrendered. Then William came swiftly
back to Domfront; and the Anjou men, hearing how sharply he
had smitten Alencon, yielded at once. He garrisoned the place,
built a fort on the river at Ambrieres to keep Geoffrey in check,
and came home in triumph to Rouen.
In logijKing Henry, having lost his wife Matilda, daughter
of Conrad the Salic, and fearing lest, in choosing another, he
might be entangled in some hidden snare of forbidden degrees,
sent an embassage to the most distant prince of whom he could
hear, Jaroslaf 1, duke of Russia, whose capital was Kiev. His
messengers came back, bringing Anne, the duke's daughter,
who bore the king three sons, the eldest of whom, Philip, was
so named because of a fancied genealogical relationship between
his mother and Philip of Macedon. This child was consecrated
king — in his father's lifetime, according to the precedent of his
father and grandfather — in 1059, in the presence of the duke of
Aquitaine, and the counts of Flanders and Anjou. A full account
of his coronation, worthy of notice as showing what form and
consistency the hereditary kingship had gained, is still extant,
written probably by Gervais of Rheims, who performed the
chief part of the ceremony.
Mass was sung : before the reading of the Epistle, the arch
bishop, turning to the child, expounded to him the Catholic Faith,
and asked him if he believed and would defend it. The boy
assented ; and a written declaration was placed in his hands, and
read by him, ' though he was but seven years old,' whereby he
promised to respect the privileges of the Church. Then the
1 The chroniclers write it Juriscloht, Georgius Sclavus, Gerisclus.
VOL. I. P

2IO REIGN OF HENRY I. A.D. 1050.
archbishop took the staff of St. Remigius in his hands, and
discoursed quietly as to how the election and consecration of
a king pertained specially to his sacred office, from the days
when St. Remigius baptized and consecrated Hlodowig: he
showed, too, how Hormisdas the Pope had given, through the
staff, the power of consecration and the primacy over all Gaul
to St. Remigius, and how Pope Victor had confirmed the same to
the Church of Rheims. Then, with approval of King Henry,
he declared the child to be king. After him came the Papal
Legates, who allowed that all this might be done lawfully
without the Pope's sanction, but that of their goodwill they had
thought well to be present. Then came the archbishops,
bishops, clergy ; then spoke Wido (Guido) duke of Aquitaine ;
then the duke of Burgundy's son, acting for his father ; then
twelve ' peers ' : lastly, the soldiers and people, great and small,
all applauded, crying ' Laudamus, volumus, fiat ! ' — ' We approve,
we wish it, so be it done ! ' Philip then confirmed the privileges
of the see of Rheims ; and lastly, the archbishop, seated on his
throne, read the privileges granted him by Pope Victor, in the
ears of all the bishops. All which was done with the utmost
devotion and readiness ; without any disturbance, or opposition,
or damage to the state. And all these barons and high lords
did archbishop Gervais entertain of his own free will, keeping
them at his own charge; to the honour of his Church and of his
own hospitality : for none but the king could claim it as his
' right V
¦ Thus was King Philip crowned : a child of seven years,
with a long inglorious reign before him, and a life dark and
dissolute. In these days lived one of the world's giants, Hildebrand, the
monk of Cluny, son of a Tuscan carpenter, the great founder of
the Papal Empire, who made Popes, and became Pope ; and
who, as Gregory VII, began the reform of the Roman Church
and the struggles of the Middle Ages. In 1048 Henry III
1 From the 'Coronatio Philippi, seu Ordo qualiter is in regem coronatus
est.' — Dom Bouquet, torn. 11, p. 32.

A.D. 1050. POPE GREGORY VII. 2ll
of Germany had named Bruno, bishop of Toul, Pope. On
his way to Rome he lay at Cluny, and there this monk, the
unconscious expounder of the antagonism between monasticism
and episcopacy, showed the feudal bishop that his appointment
was really void; that none but the faithful could confer the
Papal chair ; that the Church might not abandon her powers, Or
delegate them to princes; that the Papacy must be above
even the Emperor ; that in order to be so she must renounce
the world, must sit in the dust, must throw in her lot with the
faithful, even though they be slaves. Bruno was amazed and
convinced ; he set off barefooted, with staff in hand, and with
Hildebrand, his true staff, by his side; and reaching Rome,
offered himself to the people for election. They chose him
Pope ; he took the name of Leo IX, and the great reform
began. They attacked simony and the marriage of priests :
though the world might resist, the monks heard the call, and
recognised their true head in Hildebrand. The common people
felt that a new life was dawning on them : their new apostles
preached purity, and denounced the fierceness and brutality of
the clergy, smote with their thunderbolts turbulent bishops and
barons ; and the people everywhere carried out their preachings,
not without violence. Hildebrand meanwhile sat at the helm,
guiding and advancing the Papacy under four Popes for twenty
years, until at last, in 1073, he deemed it time that he himself
should succeed to the perilous seat.
Meanwhile, on another field, the Normans were also rising
into strength, and preparing to be his best helpers. With their
old traditions of conquest and adventure, their vigorous northern
blood, not tamed but trained and disciplined by the influences
of feudalism, still in the earlier stage, they were the first to set
the example of enterprise to Europe. With them begins that
series of expeditions, which afterwards became Crusades. The
link between East and West was Sicily ' : thither the Saracen had
already come ; his ships were known and dreaded along the
1 As is remarkably seen in the time of the Emperor Frederic II, whose
sojourn in Sicily seemed to be the meeting-point of both worlds.

212 REIGN OF HENRY I. A.D. 1057.
shores of Italy, where the Greek with his Eastern manners and
civilisation still clung to the cities of his ancestors. It so fell
out that forty Norman adventurers, on their way back from
the Holy Land, reached Salerno, just as the trembling citizens
were buying off a band of Saracen pirates. They fell at once
on the unbelievers, and drove them panic-stricken to their ships.
That was in 1016. The petty lords of Southern Italy, who
were at that time trying to solve in small wars and intrigues
the problems of their feudal anarchy, heard of these brave
strangers, and sent eagerly for other such from the banks of the
Seine. A steady stream of Normans flowed towards Italy. The
sons of Tancred of Hauteville led many into that land of pro
mise ; they defeated the Apulian Greeks and founded for them
selves a feudal principality. The Greeks appealed to Henry III
of Germany, who bade the Pope chase these barbarians from
Italy. When he tried to obey, the Normans, instead, took him
prisoner. They treated him with respect, but it was not till
five years later that the Papacy entered into an alliance with the
new-comers. At the synod of Melfi in 1059, Nicholas II
invested Robert Guiscard1 with Apulia and Calabria, while the
conquest of Sicily from the Saracens was entrusted to Roger,
one of Robert's younger brothers. Thus the Normans were
planted on another soil ; they were prepared to thrust back
the Saracen, and, as the Pope's feudatories, to defend him
against all comers. The influence of the Normans, who were
not always the Pope's friends, on the later development of the
Papacy, and on its attempt to rule the world, in the struggle
against the Holy Roman Empire, is a chapter of European
history which does not fall to us.
During these same years the relations between Normandy
and England had been growing critical. Edward, a descendant
of Alfred, who, while Danish kings sat on the English throne,
had been brought up in Normandy, was called back to England
by the advice of the great Earl Godwin, in 1042. He brought
1 Guiscard or Wisard, the names are the same. The name means prudent
and crafty, ' wise ' in its lower sense.

A.D. 1050. THE NORMANS AND ENGLAND. 213
over a crowd of foreigners ; banished Godwin, who represented
the English party, and fell completely under Norman influences.
It was said that when Duke William came to see him, Edward
promised that, being childless, he would make him his heir.
A little later, Harold, Earl Godwin's son, crossed into Nor
mandy, and was seized by the crafty duke, who refused to let
him go free unless he would swear to aid him in his pretensions
on England. Harold, under this compulsion, swore it, with his
hand on a covered box : William lifted the lid, and there lay the
bones of saints ; holy relics, by which, and to which, Harold
had unwittingly pledged himself. When in 1066 Edward died,
William at once summoned Harold to fulfil his oath. He
refused, holding that it had been an oath under compulsion and
with deceit : the English chose him king. But the religious
feeling of the age was against him. William appealed to Pope
Alexander II, who naturally turned towards the Norman.
Gladly the Pope sent to William a ring and a flag, with his
blessing and a command to reduce England into due obedience
to the Papacy. The ring and flag were regarded as signs of
investiture, expressing the claim of the Papacy to dispose of
far-off islands of the sea : Harold was excommunicated.
Duke William made peace with Brittany, Anjou, and Flanders,
his neighbours, and therefore his natural enemies ; unfolded his
intentions to his unwilling barons, whose help he won by lavish
promises ; went to King Philip, offering to do him homage for
all his conquests, if he would give him aid. Now the young
king was in the hands of his guardian, Baldwin of Flanders, and
asked his advice. Baldwin put this dilemma to his ward, 'If
the Normans win with your help, they will be stronger and more
dangerous to you than ever ; if they are beaten, you will share
the loss and disgrace : on the other hand, if you do not help
them, and they win, you will be where you are ; if they lose, you
will gain.' It was hardly to be expected that Philip would reject
such specious advice. As this fell in with the poor creature's
tastes, he approved, and refused his help. Then William, far
from being discouraged, sent forth an appeal to all men to join

214 REIGN OF HENRY I. A.D. 1066.
in this holy war: and the Pope blew the spiritual trumpet.
From all sides adventurers streamed in. So with a goodly
army he set sail from St. Valery, and landed in Pevensey Bay.
The rest we know. William the Bastard became William the
Conqueror ; the English fell into political nothingness ; the
Normans became feudal lords of the land ; and England began
a new period in her career as a nation.
Of the effects of the conquest on France we must take more
note. i. It was fortunate for the Capets that the Norman centre of
power passed over to England : otherwise how could the feeble
king have stood, had the ambition of the stronger race, guided
by the stoutest prince of the age, turned eastward instead of to
the west ? The Duke of Normandy had become so powerful
that he could easily have overthrown the Capets : the Norman
Conquest gave them a breathing space.
2. The Papacy gained greatly in the world's eyes. New
claims had been made ; the Pope appeared as arbiter in the
quarrels and changes of princes and realms ; men learnt to look -
once more to Rome ; her angry voice had smitten down the
rebellious English prince.
3. A real King arose. Not a shadowy Emperor, nor a feeble
indistinct prince like the earlier Capets ; but a strong King,
ruling over a compact kingdom. It was shown to society that
in France feudalism contained the germs of monarchy.
4. The removal of the Norman power to England lightened
the weight pressing on the common people, and led, as will be
seen in the case of the commune of Le Mans, to an attempt at
town life — an attempt which failed for the time, but was, like
many failures, the forerunner of success.
5. And lastly, Europe saw in England the development of
a well-amalgamated nation, such as had not yet arisen elsewhere.
The necessities of conquest, the desire of the Norman barons
to get the whole power into their own hands, and the resistance
of the kings and of the English, all tended to bring about this
result.

A.D. 1066. THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 215
And while all these things were growing clear before men's
eyes, what was French royalty doing ? The two kings, Henry
and Philip, reigned nearly eighty years, and had not yet been
able to rise above the level of their feudatories. They had made
efforts, but those efforts had not fully succeeded. Henry had
indeed weakened the power of the House of Blois ; Philip had
secured Verrnandois, the Vexin, and the Lower Gatinais, for the
royal domain. But this was all ; the Empire had been offered
to the weak and pious Robert, near the end of his reign, and
he had thought it unwise to accept it. His son and grandson
followed in his steps. They had no ambition to rival the
Emperor, whose large claims to parts of Gaul were in fact con
ceded almost without a struggle ; they left their Flemish border
undefended ; they neither resisted the rapidly-rising Papacy, nor
sided with it in its long contest against the Empire ; they suffered
Norman William to win a new kingdom, unhelped, unhindered ;
they had no heart to lead the great movement now beginning to
stir all Europe ; the first Crusade swept by French royalty as it
lay slumbering in the bower of its base pleasures : it never woke
to claim its place, and to lead, as it might have done, the moving
heart and soul of France.

CHAPTER III.
The Age of the First Crusade, A.D. 1066-1100.
The annals of France again are silent for half a century;
and again the people were not happy. For it was no true
silence ; but a din of jarring elements, in which the nobles had
their rude way; whatever their madness might be, the common
folk bore all the blows. The dreary time drags on, full of
petty private wars ; royalty slumbers, the people perish in
crowds. Sword, famine, and pestilence, God's three sore
plagues, His warnings against misconduct, afflict them without
mercy and without pause. Meanwhile the elements of a national
life begin to stir; there is promise in the premature movement
of the communes, in the revival of religion, in the building of
noble churches, still more in the rise of great monasteries, in
which the more popular form of Christianity begins to show
no little independence and vigour \ All men are restless, ready
to be guided into any general movement : the guide comes
and the object, at the end of the century ; the century is spent
in preparing for it.
Meanwhile the Normans reduced Calabria, Campania, Sicily,
and made them their own. One of their ,-hereditary foes 2,
regarding their character and works, says of them : ' God chose
these Normans to exterminate the English, as he saw that they
surpassed all men in singular energy. When they have no foe
to oppress, they oppress one another, and reduce their own
lands to want and desolation; as is ever more and more clearly
seen in the rich lands of Normandy, England, Apulia, Calabria,
Sicily, which God has put under their feet,' — a sufficient testi-
1 A like monastic revival took place at the same time in Germany.
2 Henry of Huntingdon, Bk. 6.

A.D.1004. THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 217
mony to their vigour and success ; and Henry of Huntingdon
is forced to allow that their strong rule brought not desolation
but security and plenty, for he adds that ' a maiden laden with
gold might cross the whole breadth of England unmolested.'
In 1071 we find a rare thing — the French king in action.
Robert the Frisian had wrested Flanders from his brother's
widow Richildis : Philip set forth, attacked him boldly, was
overthrown, and retired to Paris in disgrace. Later on, the
German Emperor and Godfrey of Lorraine espoused the widow's
cause, and did what the French king had failed to do. Philip
had to look on and see his influence on his northern border
destroyed, and the German power, already supreme in Lorraine,
spreading to the ocean.
In 1073 another danger threatened him. William the Con
queror attacked and reduced Maine, being thus the first to
move along the path so often trodden by the kings of England.
Norman ambition looked towards the South; the Normans
hoped, by means of the Aquitanian hatred of the Northern
French, to form a strong power which should stretch from the
Seine to the Pyrenees. This went on, till, in 1076, Philip once
more roused himself, drove back the Normans, and made a fair
peace with William.
When the Conqueror died, Norman and English interests
were somewhat sundered. Rufus had England, Robert Nor
mandy ; and the Norman ascendency, which was overshadowing
France, was averted, though the dragon's teeth of future wars
had been sown.
About this time the feeble king was occupied in a strange
series of dealings with the Pope. He sent submissive letters,
repenting, relapsing, professing much that was good, and per
forming all that was evil. His vices demanded money : monkey
could be best got by sale of Church preferments; against
which shameful blot on Christianity Rome had made a wise
and a vigorous stand not long before. And not content with
this, Philip also divorced his wife, on some convenient plea of
infringed degrees of relationship, and carried off by force

218 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1005.
Bertrade, wife of Fulk of Anjou. He was called to amend his
ways, was excommunicated in 1094, and summoned to appear
at the Council of Piacenza. He temporised, made excuses, did
not appear ; promised to send Bertrade away, kept her all the
same ; — a man whose immorality ' leavened the whole lump,'
and made him false and dishonourable as well as feeble and
self-indulgent. And yet, though the case against him was
so clear, the Papacy had no strength to take advantage of it.
The reaction since Hildebrand's death in 1085 had helped to
restore the power to the Emperor's hands. Germany opposed
the Papal claims — there was an Antipope always floating about
— what if the French king were to become contumacious and
recognise that Antipope ? The Papacy felt that the Normans
were terribly independent in England afar, and dangerous in
Calabria at hand ; the Church's claims on England had been
slighted, the Paynim were threatening all Christendom, menacing
not only the Greek Empire, but the Latin shores of the Medi
terranean ; the Greek Church was still a powerful rival. In this
alarming state of things the Papacy was driven to look around
for some new force by which to recover her strength. It had
long cherished a dream of heading Christian Europe against the
Saracen. Sylvester, the Pope-Magician, had seen the advantage
of this, even at the very opening of the century; Hildebrand
had declared himself ready to head a crusade : negotiations
on the subject had passed between East and West. Again, the
Church had been much involved in the turbulent beginnings
of feudalism ; the Truce and the Peace of God showed that she
desired to lessen the evils of private warfare. Lastly, the sword
of the strongest had an irresistible attraction for the Papacy.
Thus both her necessities and her instincts led her into the
path which saved her. If she could enlist the great fighting
nation of the French, as well as the younger valour of the
Normans, in a common enterprise, which Rome should bless
and forward and seem to direct, then the Papacy might rise
above her difficulties, and win the favour of all Christendom
by driving back the Paynim, and making peace within her

A.D. 1005. THE PAPACY DESIRES A CRUSADE. 219
own borders. Again, the Papacy felt that feudalism was
very willing to assert itself. William the Conqueror had shown
his independence; even Philip of France had played with
the Papacy, careless of its thunders : the centrifugal forces of
feudalism tempted each chieftain to make himself independent,
and even the higher ecclesiastics tried to do the same. Every
year the barons grew worse to deal with ; the barbarities of
private war, the contempt for human life, the slackening of
moral bonds, seemed to add daily to the perils of the august
central power which sat at Rome. ' Christianity,' says Fulcher
of Chartres1, ' was growing fearfully worse in both clergy and
people ; war was preferred before peace by the princes of the
earth, who quarrelled ceaselessly.' At last the Pope determined
to cross the Alps, and plunge into the very heart of this
wild world, to see whether he could not turn into another and
a safer channel these forces which were at once self-destructive
and perilous to him. Other reasons as well doubtless influenced
Pope Urban. He was himself a Frenchman, born in the
diocese of Soissons ''. Peter the Hermit, whose enthusiasm or
frenzy he was accepting and using, was also French, a native
of the district round Amiens. Both of them knew the French
temper : the chivalrous Frank who thirsted for adventure ; the
hardy Norman great in conquest ; the eager mobile Celt, loving
all things new.
Therefore the Pope did wisely when he descended into
France; and Clermont in Auvergne was well chosen for his
appeal. It was central enough, yet not too far from the Alps,
and easily reached from Lyons. The Pontiff's voice would
resound thence through Frankish and Aquitanian France,
would reach Provence and Normandy, while at the same time
the Pope would not commit himself by coming too near the
excommunicated king at Paris.
1 Fulcher of Chartres, in the Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 381. He was
an eye-witness of these things, as we leam from the author of the Gesta
Francorum Expugnantium Hierusalem, in the Gesta Dei, p. 562.
2 Not far from Chatillon-sur-Marne. He had been archdeacon of Rheims
before he was called, first to Cluny, next to Ostia, lastly to the Vatican.

220 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1005.
And yet at first the success of the appeal seemed very
doubtful. The Pope reached Clermont in November 1095,
and was met by a goodly number of Churchmen. Over three
hundred of them were there ', and their proceedings were
harmonious. The earlier business being done, the Pope de
scended from the cathedral into a large open space or street,
and delivered his famous harangue on the duty of taking the
Cross. Two of the Churchmen then at Clermont, who doubtless
heard it, have left us their impressions of this great sermon2.
Their reports vary much, and we can only say that the Pope
depicted in lively colours the hard case of pilgrims, dwelt on the
fierceness of the Turk, and the danger to Europe from him,
spoke of the hereditary valour of the Franks, their love of glory,
their taste for booty; drew a bright and very false picture of the
wealth and fertility of Palestine ; quoted those words in which
our Lord bids men leave all and follow him; and, finally,
promised all the blessings of the Church, here and hereafter,
to such as gave themselves to this sacred cause. Then, after
one account3, arose the famous cry of 'Deus le volt!4' 'God
wills it!' and the Pope, skilfully seizing the moment, accepted
the words as the motto and war-cry of the Cross.
Yet, through all the accounts of this great movement, we
can see signs of coldness and doubt. When the Pope turned
to the bishops, begging them to preach the ' way to Jerusalem,'
they were sore disturbed. ' Some wept, some were agitated,
some argued5.' There seems to have been no lay-lord of
great name there"; no lay-captain could be had; and the
1 Fulcher says (Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 382) that there were 310
bishops and abbots in all. Others reckon up 14 archbishops, 225 bishops,
90 abbots of high rank, or 329 in all.
2 These are Robert the Monk and Archbishop Balderik.
3 Robert the Monk says so ; Archbishop Balderik does not.
4 Or ' Deu le Volt 1 ' which is the form given by Ducange in his second
Dissertation on Joinville, p. 206.
5 So says Archbishop Balderik, an eye-witness (Gesta Dei per Francos,
p. 88) : ' Alii suffundebantur ora iacrimis, alii trepidabant, alii super hac re
disceptabant.' 6 Robert the Monk says (Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 32) : ' Nondum erat
inter eos aliquis nominatorum principum.' On the other hand, Balderik

A.D. 1005. THE ENTHUSIASM SPREADS. 221
charge of this great enterprise fell to Adhemar, bishop of Puy,
who undertook it reluctantly1, as one who felt the peril more
than the excitement. Still, his appointment probably saved the
movement from failure, thanks to his influence with Raymond
of St. Gilles, Count of Toulouse, the greatest prince of the
South. His adhesion to the cause was made known before
the council broke up, and ' animated those who had before been
downhearted.' As the prelates and others returned home, and began to
preach the Cross in their dioceses, they found the minds of men
prepared ; the latent enthusiasm then sprang into life ; chiefly
however at first among the lower classes, except perhaps in
the South, where the brilliant example of Raymond of Toulouse
led many of the nobles to join the crowd. Still, the first-fruits of
the movement were poor serfs and monks ; the first army, led
by Peter the Hermit, was a rabble, not an army ; he preached
chiefly to the common folk. In the crowd that gathered round
him the foremost figure was a poor knight, Walter the Penniless;
no man of higher rank was there. As Peter moved from place
to place, he spoke straight home to the hearts of the people.
He was short and mean of figure, bare-footed, riding on a sorry
ass, dressed in a rough robe, with a crucifix in hand ; so he
went through all the land. When men looked at him, they saw
a pinched and starved face, like a death's-head, in which rolled
two wild gleaming eyes, full of enthusiasm and that half-madness
which has so much power over excitable natures 2. His appeals
were fervid and turbulent in their eloquence ; they carried men
along with him. The patriarch of Jerusalem had been deeply
impressed by him ; Pope Urban fully believed in his sincerity
and power. As he passed on, men rose up and followed him 3.
affirms that there were many men of note : ' confluxerant etiam ad consilium
e multis regionibus viri potentes et honorati innumeri, quamvis cingulo
laicalis militiae superbi.' (Gesta Dei per F. p. 86.) But it is significant
that he mentions no names.
1 ' Licet in vitus,' says Robert the Monk of him.
2 He is thus described by Gregory of Terracina (given in Mabillon), who
had actually seen him.
3 Abbot Guibert says (2. 6) of the way in which the enthusiasm spread :

222 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1006.
Some sewed the red cross on their shoulders, others took a hot
iron and branded themselves — even women did so — and loudly
declared that they had received the sign on their persons from
Heaven. Monks fled their cloisters, some with leave, many
without, and swelled the rabble. The poor farmer sold his land
or his produce for such few pence as he could get, yoked to his
oxen and set forth, driving wife and children eastward. When
they came in sight of the tall pinnacles and towers of any city,
the children would cry aloud and eagerly ask the bystanders
if this was Jerusalem '. All manner of portents, as is usual
in times of excitement, were visible ; notably a wonderful
star-shower, which portended the movement of Christendom 2-
Wives urged their husbands to go, and shed tears of joy at
their departing ; some even had the boldness to set forth with
them. Gradually the stir and excitement took form ; the pre
parations went on throughout the whole of the year 1096 3.
While the forces are mustering, let us review the many and
various causes which had been preparing men for this first great
movement of modern Europe ; as France led the way, our in
vestigation will be chiefly confined to her shores.
At the opening of the century the belief in the near end of
the world produced a kind of religious revival. The natural
form it took was that of expectant gaze fixed on the Holy Land,
whence Christ, men thought, would speedily come again to
judgment. Pilgrimages multiplied : the more men went, the
' Nee illud minus ridiculum, quod hi plerumque quos nulla adhuc eundi
voluntas attigerat, dum hodie super omnimoda aliorum venditione cachin-
nant, dum eos misere ituros miseriusque redituros affirmant, in crastinum
repentino instinctu pro paucis nummulis sua tota tradentes, cum eis proficis-
cebantur quos riserant.'
1 Abbot Guibert says (2. 6) of the poor folk : ' Videres mirum quiddam
et plane joco aptissimum ' (though in truth it was no matter for a church
man's laughter, seeing that scarcely one of these poor babes came home
again), ' pauperes videlicet quosdam bobus biroto applicitis, eisdemque in
modum equorum ferratis, substantiolas cum parvulis in carruca convehere;
et ipsos infantulos, dum obviam haberent quaelibet castella vel urbes, si
haec essent Jherusalem ad quam tenderent, rogitare.'
2 So says Archbishop Balderik (Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 88).
3 The bright picture which historians make of the scene at Clermont
seems to rest on a scanty foundation ; there is no doubt as to the enthusiasm
which sprang up in 1096.

A.D. 1006. THE PREDISPOSING CAUSES. 223
more they had a mind to go ; the more pilgrims were ill-used,
the more their sufferings were the common grievance of all
men. The pilgrimage brought together all classes ; all suffered
and worshipped side by side. The growth of monasticism and
feudalism gave it an impulse. The monk was free to move,
and glad to move ; and he won merit by the long journey :
the feudal lord had done wild work at home ; there were dark
spots on his conscience which Jerusalem would wipe away.
When he reached the Holy City, he became aware that the
Paynim despised him ; he returned to France, easy in con
science, but hot to avenge the slights put on him, and to free
the sacred places from Pagan hands. Even the very misery of
the age drove men to wander — it was better than the mono
tonous penury of life at home. We see in Pope Urban's sermon,
false as it was, a telling allusion to the misery of daily life in
France, when he contrasted it with life in the ' land flowing
with milk and honey.'
Nothing had so much turned men's eyes towards the Holy
Land, as the news of the destruction of the church of the
Sepulchre in roro. It was felt to be a wrong done to all
Christendom : it is, at the same time, a curious instance of the
popular feeling against the Jews. A tale was invented to the
effect that some wealthy Jews of Orleans, vexed at the respect
paid to our Saviour's tomb, bribed a pilgrim to carry in a hollow
staff a letter to Al Hakim, Khalif of Egypt. In the letter they
told him that unless he destroyed the church at Jerusalem, the
Christians of France would never acknowledge that he was
a great prince. The Khalif was convinced, did what they asked,
and destroyed the church. The real reason for the act may
have been a suspicion felt by the Saracens as to his ortho
doxy1; for he was related to Christians, his mother's uncle being
Orestes, patriarch of Jerusalem. To prove his faithfulness to
Islam, he struck this great blow at Christian feeling, through
1 The deed was done before Al Hakim proclaimed himself ' the visible
image of God most high,' while he was still a fanatical Moslem. — See
Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 57, and Dean Milman's note.

224 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1006.
the church which was that patriarch's especial care. The Jews
in France suffered horribly for Al Hakim's act. Some were
slain with the sword, some were drowned, some perished by fire,
some hanged themselves, 'to escape'; many were 'converted
and despised.' Thus did the excitement take natural refuge in
cruelty. It was a savage time : the murder of the Jews, the cruel
persecutions of the Orleans heretics, the fierce repression of the
Norman peasantry, all fall within this quarter of a century.
The voice of the Greek Emperor was also heard. Islam had
taken up its position face to face with Constantinople. At the
beginning of the tenth century the Moslem were already divided
into two sects : of which one was that of the Sonnites, whose
Khalif or spiritual head was at Bagdad, and who included the
'orthodox' Mahometans of Arabia and part of Persia; while
the other, that of the Shiites or followers of Ali, Mahomet's son-
in-law, had their head-quarters at Cairo, and commanded the
obedience of Africa, Egypt, and Syria'. And it is said that,
before the end of the tenth century, a horde of Tartars poured
' in on the Abbasides, seized Bagdad, became fanatically Moslem,
and gave to the faith of Mahomet a fresh impulse. Not long
after this, a wave of Tartar or Turkish invasions under To-
grulbeg, one of the Seljuk family, came westward, sweeping all
before it. These were the beginnings of the Seljukian Turks.
Their Sultan reduced the Khalif of Bagdad to nothingness, and
passing on, conquered Cairo also. Alp Arslan, Togrulbeg's
nephew, seized Iconium, and made it the seat of his power.
He even captured Romanus Diogenes, the Greek Emperor, and
threatened Constantinople. In 1073 Suleiman took the title
of ' Prince (or Sultan) of Roum,' and made Nicaea his capital,
over against Constantinople herself. Then it was that Pope
Gregory VII wrote his famous letter 2 to Henry IV of Germany,
declaring that he would himself lead Christendom to the rescue.
1 The Sonnites hold that the succession of the Prophet was through his
immediate successors, while the Shiites declare that all between Mahomet
and Ali, his son-in-law, are false prophets. There are also other points of
difference, but this is the original one.
2 In Labbe, torn. 10.

A.D. 1006. THE PREDISPOSING CAUSES. 225
The Turks thus already showed a tendency to split into three
main branches, whose headquarters would be Iran, Kirman (in
the south of Persia), and Nicaea. Of these the last, before cru
sading times, had been already broken up into the independent
principalities of Aleppo, Damascus, Antioch, and Mosul. In
1086 Jerusalem was given to Orthok, chief of a horde of wild
Turcomans. To sum up these motives for the Crusade ; — the Pope's
necessities, the turbulence of Western Europe, the ignorance
and misery of daily life, the desire to expiate a bad life by a
new and holy adventure, the cry of distress from pilgrims, from
the Christians of Jerusalem, and from the Eastern Emperor,
— here were the chief causes which set all Europe aflame,
and brought on what Gibbon calls ' the world's debate,' the
Crusades. In dealing with the history of France, we must not give
too much space to these Eastern expeditions. We will note
their effects on the growth of France herself, on the strength
of the monarchy, the Church, the feudal chivalry, the cities,
rather than chronicle events on the more distant scene.
The Council of Clermont had fixed the fifteenth of August,
1096, for the setting forth of the armies of the Cross. The
eager crowd could not wait so long; and Peter the Hermit, their
Moses, their Saint, whose very ass they revered 1, was obliged
to set out with them. So great was the throng, that they had
to move in three separate armies, for fear of exhausting all the
food on the way. The one soldier of name in the host, Walter
the Penniless, led the vanguard, which was almost entirely made
up of footmen, some fifteen thousand strong. Then came
Peter with the main body of French pilgrims : monks frocked
or unfrocked, debtors who had escaped from their creditors,
robbers and rascals, mixed up with harmless serfs and villains,
their wives and babes. Behind these came Godescalc, a monk,
leading a rabble of German peasants ; and lastly, moving in-
1 They treasured up as relics the hairs that fell from his tail.
VOL. I. Q

226 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1007.
dependently, a considerable body of horsemen, who hung upon
their skirts. It is said that the movements of this great host
were directed by a goose and a goat, which strayed whither they
would, and were patiently followed by the senseless crowd.
We need not recount their doings. They crossed Germany
and Hungary, rested a while under the walls of Constantinople,
became unendurable to the Greek Emperor, were put across
the Bosphorus, and fell an easy prey to the Turks, who were
directed by the fanatic ability of Kilidj Arslan, Sultan of Nicaea.
A pyramid of whitened bones showed to the next host that
passed that way, where their misguided brethren had found
their rest l. The bravery of a small body of Norman knights
alone showed the Turks that there was a something formidable
behind all this froth and scum of the ferment in the West.
One thing they did ; they aroused the Greek Emperor,
Alexius, to a sense of the risk he was running from his new
allies. He had asked for a few thousand warriors from the
West, and here was the whole population, without order or
discipline, pouring in upon him. He saw his danger, and met
it, Greek fashion, with subtilty and weakness. A century later,
the patriarch Alexius, disputing with the Emperor, Manuel
Comnenus, as to the alternative of Saracenic conquest or
alliance with the West, deliberately declared that, of these
two evils, subjection to the Moslem would be better than a
humiliating alliance with Rome; so bitterly did the Greek
Church resent the treatment she had met with from the Latin
Christians '.
While the hasty crowd was thus rushing to destruction, the
more solid elements of the movement gathered in France into
three great armies, separated partly by anxiety about supplies,
but still more by the existing divisions of the country. The
Northern army was not French at all : it was made up of
1 The next army of Crusaders used these bones to build themselves a wall
with for defence.
2 This fact comes out in a MS. dialogue between the Emperor and the
Patriarch, preserved in the Library of Christ Church, Oxford.

A.D. 1007. THE CRUSADING HOSTS. 227
Lorrainers, men of Flanders and of the Rhineland, led by
Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, a descendant of
Charles the Great. This army was entirely composed of feudal
subjects of the German Emperor, and had no true French
elements in it. It followed the Danube, appeased the just anger
of the King of Hungary, who had suffered grievously from the
lawless hordes which had already passed through his land, and
reached the Bosphorus in safety. There the Greek Emperor
first tried guile with Godfrey, then force, then sent his son into
the Crusaders' camp, inviting Godfrey to make peace, and
lastly, adopted him as his son, and lavished gifts on him. He
aimed at passing his visitors forward in such a way that no two
armies of the Crusaders should be under his walls at the same
time. And so, as soon as he heard that Bohemond was drawing
near with the second host, he persuaded Godfrey to cross the
' Arm of St. George ' into Asia. He crossed, and encamped at
Chalcedon. This second army was composed of French, rightly so called,
as well as of Normans and Burgundians ; it was headed by
Hugh ' the Great,' Count of Verrnandois, King Philip's brother;
by Robert, Duke of Normandy, who was followed by English
men as well as Normans; by Alan, Duke of Brittany; and
by Stephen of Blois, who was said to be lord over as many
castles as there were days in the year. This central host, with
a countless swarm of hangers-on, crossed the Alps into Italy.
They drove out the army of Henry IV of Germany (the tedious
War of Investitures was going on there), and entered Lucca ;
there they found the Pope, who blessed them. Thence on to
Rome, where many pilgrims, weary already of the way, turned
back and went home. Thence through South Italy to Bari ;
but, the season being far advanced, the shipmen would not
take them across, and they must needs winter in Calabria.
Here, too, a great number 'of the poor and cowardly' sold their
bows, took up their staves, and turned their faces homewards.
The rest, next April, took ship at Brindisi, crossed to Durazzo,
and thence at last to Constantinople by land. Bohemond, son
Q 2

228 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1008.
of Robert Guiscard, and with him Tancred, famed in song, had
preceded them with the Italian Normans.
The third army, composed of Gascons, Aquitanians, men of
Provence and Toulouse, was led by Raymond, Count of Toulouse,
who has left a splendid name in the literature of the Crusades.
His was the best-appointed of all the armies : the wealth and
civilised manners of the south enabled him to face all the diffi
culties of the expedition ; so that this force never suffered as the
others did. Raymond was helped by the counsel of the Pope's
legate, Adhemar of Puy, who did not live to see his cause
triumphant : for he died soon after the taking of Antioch. This
army set forth last. They crossed the Alps, as the French had
done, and then kept straight on through Lombardy, passed the
Julian Alps, and made for Constantinople across the wild
regions of Sclavonia and Servia. After a harassed and exhaust
ing march they eventually reached Constantinople before the
French host.
Alexius succeeded in persuading most of the leaders to swear
homage to him, and to promise to give up to him such cities
as they might capture, if they had been formerly under the
Greek Empire. To this promise they paid small heed. He
got them over the Strait, and breathed freely again. Cleverly
as he had managed, there remained in the minds of the Crusaders
an unpleasant sense of riumiliation. They felt they had been
outwitted by one far weaker than themselves.
And now the whole forces of Western Christendom were
for the first time gathered together ; and William of Tyre says
that, at the great review of their troops, there were numbered
six hundred thousand footmen and a hundred thousand horse ;
figures which, though they must be doubtful, may be taken as
indicating the greatness of the force. They besieged and took
Nicaea : Kilidj Arslan, who fought them bravely, found them
much tougher stuff than Peter's rabble had been. The Cru
saders then marched southward. Again Kilidj attacked them
at Dorylaeum, and was repulsed with great loss ; after this he
could only annoy their march. With loss and suffering, with

A.D. 1000. SIEGE AND BATTLE OF ANTIOCH. 229
adventure and triumph, the host dragged its huge body through
Asia Minor till it reached Antioch. After a long siege the
city was taken, not before famine and disease had smitten the
victors. The sufferings were so great, that William of Melun,
' the Carpenter,' and even Peter the Hermit, who had joined
the main army, fled away, and were with difficulty brought back
by Tancred. The common folk plunged into debauch ; they
drank and quarrelled. It was said that they ate the corpses of
the Saracens. Though they took the city of Antioch, the
citadel still held out ; and, three days after the town had fallen,
Kerboga, Sultan of Mosul, appeared under the walls with
a great army of Turks. Then began the true struggle : on
it depended the possession of the coast-line, the key of the
situation. The Christians again fell into fearful want, except,
perhaps, the Provencals, whose stores seemed never entirely to
fail. Robert, Count of Flanders, begged his bread in the
streets. At last the princes determined to risk all on one great
stroke. Raymond of Toulouse caused the head of the spear
of Calvary to be discovered, buried before the high altar of one
of the churches \ The crowd, full of excitable feelings, was
roused to the highest fervour; and the whole army, in twelve
columns, after the twelve apostles, sallied forth and fell on the
Turks. With the spear in their midst, and their minds aglow,
they were irresistible : they saw a troop of heavenly warriors
descending to their help. The vast host of Turks at last fled,
leaving their camps, which contained the whole wealth of the
Khalifate, in the hands of the Christians 2. This battle broke
the power of the Seljukian Turks in Syria; they offered no
farther resistance to the Crusaders. The Egyptian Fatimites 3
now held undivided sway over Jerusalem and Syria.
After six months of rest — if that was rest which was spent
1 This relic was long a point of faith with all the Langue d'Oc, but of
doubt and unbelief with the Langue d'Oil.
2 Wilken, Bk. 1. c. 8, shows that there was also much dissension and
insubordination in the Turkish camp.
3 The followers of Ali, or the Shiites ; but soon to fall under the orthodox
Sonnites.

230 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1100.
in the death-grip of pestilence and famine — the Crusaders
marched out of Antioch, leaving Bohemond the Norman as its
prince. Baldwin, Godfrey's brother, had previously been called
in to help the tyrant of Edessa, who adopted him as his son ;
Baldwin soon wrested the throne from his new father, and
established the Frankish county of Edessa, which subsisted for
forty-nine years (a.d. 1097-1146).
At last from the heights of Emmaus (Nicopolis) the Crusaders
saw with transport the Holy City. There were scarcely forty
thousand of them left, survivors of so many myriads ; and Jeru
salem was held by a large Turkish army. The prize was too
near and too dear to be lost ; and so after five weeks, in which
Gaston of Beam with his engines of attack made the assault
possible, the Christian army at last stormed the city, and in their
triumph broke out into the wildest excesses of bloodshed and
devotion (July 15, 1099). Eight days later the Latin princes
elected Godfrey of Bouillon King of Jerusalem ; his pious heart
refused that title 'in the city in which the Christ had been crowned
with thorns'; and he called himself 'Defender and Baron of
the Holy Sepulchre.' Well he did his work, for the short time
that was left him. Soon after his election he was called on
to face the Vizir of the Fatimite Khalif, who had hastened up
from the South to support his deputy at Jerusalem. Here, as
before, differences among the Moslem greatly helped the
Christians, as did also the long distance from the centres
of the Turkish power at which Syria lay. Godfrey met the
Vizir at Ascalon, and won an easy victory over the effeminate
Egyptians. As the battle of Antioch had crushed the Selju-
kians, so the victory of Ascalon overthrew the Fatimite power
in Syria, and left Godfrey safe at Jerusalem : a few Moslem
strongholds had to be reduced, and then the Latin kingdom
became coextensive with the ancient kingdoms of Israel and
Judah. Godfrey died within the year ; first his brother Baldwin
of Edessa, then his cousin Baldwin, succeeded him. They
reduced the seaport cities, and ruled over the whole coast from
beyond Tyre to Ascalon. Raymond of Toulouse established

A.D. 1100. RESULTS OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 231
himself at Tripolis ; and thus sprang up the four Latin princi
palities of Jerusalem, Tripolis, Antioch, Edessa, the results of
the first Crusade.
The great conquest had now to be organised ; and this was
done on the strictest feudal principles. Nowhere can we trace
the mechanism of feudalism so clearly as here ; for here it is
not the slow growth of centuries, crossed by all the accidents
of history, but a deliberate setting out of a feudal kingdom,
after the principles of political life then received, with no prior
rights or claims to interfere with the symmetry of the institu
tion ; no kings to resist from above, no cities to rise up at its
side, no private feuds to disturb the ground-plan of the
scheme '.
Meanwhile the stillness which had settled down on France,
and was one of the best results of the Crusades, was rudely
broken by the harsh war-cry of Red William of England. His
brother Robert Courthose had pledged his duchy of Normandy
to him when he went on Crusade : and it seemed likely to
William either that his brother would not come back, or, if he
did, that he might be satisfied with some lesser dignity than that
of his own duchy. So William revived the old Norman claims
on the French Vexin — the territory which lay on the Seine,
between Paris and Rouen2; and at the same time made war
on Helias, Count of Maine, after whose lands his father had
ever hankered. From 1097 to 1099 war went on between
William and the indolent Philip, who left the defence of his
borders to Louis, his gallant son. At last, Walter Tyrrell's 3
arrow in the New Forest delivered France from this danger.
The careless Bobert of Normandy, who had idled a year among
1 This feudal constitution is described in Chapter IV.
2 See above, p. 206, note 1.
"" If indeed he had anything to do with it. Suger's testimony is very
interesting, and almost convincing : ' Imponebatur a quibusdam cuidam
nobilissimo viro Galterio Tirello quod eum sagitta perfoderat. Quern,
quum nee timeret nee speraret, jurejurando saepius audivimus et quasi
sacrosanctum asserere quod ea die nee in earn partem silvae in qua rex
venabatur, veherit, nee eum in silva omnino viderit.' — Suger, Vita Lud.
Grossi, chap. 1.

232 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1100.
his kinsfolk of Italy and Sicily, came too late to claim the crown
of England. He did not reach Normandy til! the latter part of
1101, by which time Henry Beauclerc, his younger brother, was
secure on the English throne. Bobert was strangely unlike his
kin ; he was indolent and not ambitious ; he scarcely cared to
bestir himself against the Count of Maine or the King of England.
Henry was a very different character ; he crossed over into
Normandy, and defeated his brother ; seized on the dukedom,
and sent the rightful owner, Robert, a half-prisoner to England,
where he lived ' in all sorts of enjoyment and content ' for seven-
and-twenty years, in no way dissatisfied with his lot. Under
Henry's wise rule, Normandy tasted something of that peace
and comfort to which she had long been a stranger.
After the fall of Ascalon many of the Crusaders took ship
for Europe, leaving Godfrey and Tancred with three hundred
knights at Jerusalem : others followed the fortunes of Bohe
mond and Baldwin ; and Raymond, who had sworn never to
return, ruled over his little principality of Tripolis. Peter the
Hermit went home, and passed the rest of his days in the
uneventful quiet of a monastery in the Liege country. Those
who brought back tidings of these great triumphs, found that the
Pope who had set Europe in motion was gone to his rest, and
that another sat in the Pontiff's seat. Still, the Papacy reaped
the fruits : all Europe saw that the Pope had moved the world
successfully. The new feudal kingdom of Jerusalem ' held of
him'; he seemed to be lord of both Rome and the Holy City,
two centres of the faith. The moral result was great, the
actual increase of power great : henceforth for two centuries
the crusading power was to be the weapon by which the Papacy
should hold its own against the Empire ', and rule the minds
of men.
When it was known that Godfrey was dead, that the Saracens
pressed on the Christians, and that Jerusalem was scarcely safe,
a new movement at once began. William IX of Aquitaine, the
1 The way in which the Emperor Frederick II was hampered by his vow
to take the Cross is a well-known proof of its power.

A.D. 1100. THE END OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 233
foremost prince of the time, a libertine and a troubadour1, who
had resumed the lead in Southern France on the departure of
Raymond, headed the new levies. But he went with regrets
and doubts, as his poemz shows, — regrets quite justified by the
event. With him went Herpin, Count of Bourges, who sold his
lordship to King Philip to raise funds for the war. Thus the
French King benefited by the reckless enthusiasm of his neigh
bours, and for the first time got some hold on the south bank
of the Loire. Stephen of Blois and Hugh of Verrnandois
also joined Duke William IX ; they had before deserted the
Crusade, and were now forced by public opinion to wash away
the stain of that disgrace : they went, and expiated it with their
life-blood. This army also passed through Constantinople :
the Sultan of Iconium (Konieh) harassed their passage through
Asia Minor, and only a remnant of their host reached Jeru
salem. William with much difficulty got back to Aquitaine,
with hardly a follower. The Aquitanians called on him for
their kinsfolk whom he had led forth ; and there was no reply.
Some years later, Bohemond of Antioch came back to
Europe to revive the enthusiasm of the West, and led a strong
force of Frenchmen and Italians with him, — not to Palestine but
to the Bosphorus. He attacked Alexius, the Greek Emperor ;
the Latins however were not yet ready to make war on the
Empire ; and the expedition came to nothing. And thus ended
the first Crusade.
We may pause here to consider the general effects of the
crusading movement ; though, properly speaking, we ought to
wait till after the days of St. Louis, when the enthusiasm had
died out. There is some advantage in noting these results at
once, so that they may be before our eyes as we move on :
and besides, at no later time can we expect to have such leisure
as here : never again will the life of France at home be so
uneventful. 1 He was the first of the Southern Trouveres whose poems have remained
to our day.
2 See Mary Lafon, Histoire du Midi de la France, 2, p. 207.

234 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1100.,
It is impossible to lay out a complete table of good and bad
results, and to strike a cold unimpassioned balance between
them. We can only state the chief consequences, and their
import, one way or other. Men must ever differ as to the
relative weight to be given to this or that element in the problem.
To some the Crusades are the means of a natural development
of the world from worse to better ; to others, they are but the
results of a low and hateful state of society ' Let us try simply
to set out what came of them, and that briefly ; remembering
that we are considering not merely the first Crusade, at the
close of which we stand, but the whole movement and period.
To begin with the bad results :
i . Set in the scale the appalling waste of human life on an
object which from afar may seem noble, but which was to
the actors in it little more than a fanatical instinct. It is idle
to say that life at home was worth nothing, and that the soldier
of the cross bartered a long dreary life for a short and brilliant
one. The myriads whose bones marked Eastern highways, or
were bleached in the sun of Asia, or who perished in that
Charnel-house of Christians, Antioch, neither attained their end,
nor were happy in the pursuit of it. The aggregate of human
suffering and the waste of human power were horrible.
2. Next we may put the degradation of man's moral state.
The Crusades made men worse than before ; more bloodthirsty,
cruel, and depraved. The cross had long been fastened to the
sword ; now the sword and cross together became shameless in
their lust for blood. The sack of Jerusalem in the first Crusade
was a deep stain on the moral character of Christendom ;
and morality suffered even more from contact with the East.
Manners, without becoming refined, became far more dissolute ;
the canker of immorality, ever the sore evil of France, spread
1 Thus, to one the growth of the Papacy (to take an indisputable result)
must seem an unmixed good ; to another, an intolerable evil : or, one may
think that literature was awakened by the Crusades ; another, that it was
quite independent of them : one, that the Crusades thrust back the Turk ;
another, that they really paved the way for the fall of Constantinople : and

A.D. 1100. EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADE. 235
swiftly under Eastern influences 1 ; men learnt cunning and lies
from the subtle Greek. The Pullani, the half-breed offspring
of the Crusaders, were a degraded and despised race. These
things cannot be passed over, when we place the glories of
chivalry in the other balance.
3. Connected with this is the often-forgotten fact that these
wars made the sword the arbiter in all the religious disputes of
men. For centuries all wars of intolerance were Crusades.
How could Christianity but suffer from this destruction of her
loving spirit ? Hence sprang the wild wars of the Teutonic
knights in the North; the cruel ruin of the fair cities of Provence
and Aquitaine in the South. The Frank had long deemed him
self the sword-arm of the Church : the Crusades taught him that
his tradition was right, and that Christianity rested on that arm.
Heroism and chivalry were linked with war against the ' mis
creant,' the unbeliever : the comforts of religion here, and the
blessings of eternal life hereafter, were believed by the Crusader
to be secured by the sword ; and that whoever was banned by
the Pope became a wretch in whose heart's blood it was the
Christian's duty to imbrue his pitiless hands. ' I came not to
bring peace on earth, but a sword,' seemed to these ages a
prophecy worthy of a literal fulfilment. So they turned the
sword against Paynim or heretic alike : the Crusade in Provence
was a legitimate sequel to the new principle ; each war the
Pope meddled in was styled a Crusade. Paschal II egged on
Robert of Flanders (on his return from the first Crusade) to
make a holy war against Henry IV of Germany, whom the
Pope styles ' the head of all heretics ' ; and a free promise of the
' New Jerusalem ' was made to the warrior if he would undertake
this godly enterprise. The Pope let France loose on Frederick II,
and called it a Crusade; the Netherlands war was a Spanish
Crusade; so too was the Armada. This heritage of violence is
the worst evil which sprang from the Crusades : there is no
good side to this.
1 In the Roman de Renard, p. 59, we have it briefly, ' Qui bon i vont,
mal en reviennent.'

236 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1100.
4. What permanent results followed in the East ? The
Mahometans were thrown back awhile ; but the spirit of resis
tance to them was also weakened. The Crusades never reached
the heart of the Moslem power. As a great political movement
they failed : they neither crushed the Saracens, nor made
permanent colonies on the sea-board, nor strengthened the
natural outpost of Europe, Constantinople. The Mahometans
were in a divided condition when Europe fell on them : the
common danger roused their heroism, and taught them fresh
lessons in the art of war. Meanwhile, the Latins sapped the
foundations of the Greek Empire; and when the Eastward
fervour cooled down, and Mahomet recovered his lost ground
in Asia, he found his old foe across the Bosphorus weaker than
before. The marvel is that Constantinople survived so long :
there is no greater wonder in history than the long vitality of
that dying Empire.
5. Connected with the last remark, we may also note that the
estrangement between Greek and Latin widened the breach
between the two branches of Christendom. The Crusades de
stroyed the last forlorn hope of unity ; as the Pope grew
stronger, the Greek grew more stubborn ; the West trampled with
mailed foot on the East ; the subtle Greek felt that between his
own taste for religious subtilties and the hard warriors, who
cared nothing for his theology and speculations and despised his
feebleness, there never could be union. The Greek had looked
towards Rome with willing eyes before; now he averted his
face with pious horror.
6. We may perhaps add to the account the great growth of
the Pope's power. I put this, which is one of the best marked
consequences of the Crusades, here among the evil results,
though many naturally count it as good, and deem it the most
potent instrument in the growth of the modern world. No such
power can be all good or all bad, at any time ; and the Papacy
was clearly necessary as a counterpoise to the tyranny of the
temporal power : it kept alive some sense of right in the world.
Yet we cannot look historically at this august institution with

A.D. 1100. EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADE. 237
unmixed feelings. There is in it too much selfishness and self-
assertion ; it crushes all movement of society in which it has
not the first place ; it resists the most vigorous Emperors ;
enslaves national Churches ; makes reform impossible ; detests
civil rights and freedom. One day it may be possible coolly
and fairly to trace its whole influences on the world for good
and evil ; meanwhile, let us salute with respect the grandest
figure of the Middle Ages, as it towers in its strength above the
princes and peoples of the earth.
7. Lastly, and connected with the foregoing, are the evils
which resulted from the great increase of the wealth of the
clergy, more especially of the monastic orders ; and (in part at
least) the establishment of the religious orders of knighthood,
the standing army of the Papacy.
These are the chief counts of the indictment against the
Crusades : we will now look, in the same way, at the other
side. 1. Though the waste of life was horrible, we may set against
it the desolate character of men's life at home, and the fact that
the wider horizon there opened out, and the theatre of action
provided, were blessings of no small magnitude. The growth of
Europe might be stunted for a time ; but the blanks were soon
filled up ; the comparative stillness and peace at home favoured
the progress of population.
2. Though man's moral nature suffered sorely, yet there was
a compensating result in the great spread of commerce and of
the activity of the human mind. Commerce strengthened the
cities, tended in the end to humanise life, and developed fresh
wants and new enterprises. As has been often noticed, the
Crusaders saw two civilisations, the Greek and the Mahometan,
each in some respects higher than their own ; and though, as
happens when the lower meets the higher, they were very apt
to choose the evil and leave the good, still they gained some
thing, and brought back new ideas and feelings, beneficial to
Europe in themselves and in their effects. Life became some
what less harsh ; the interests of man spread more widely. Men

238 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1100.
learnt something from Eastern diet and dress, usages, arts of
war, literature, produce ; the pulses of life were quickened, the
sense of enjoyment in life put forth some sweet blossoms. And
the moral nature of man got some good from the display of
the nobler side of chivalry, and from the sight of endurance and
heroism. We need not enlarge on this point: we have gone
through a reaction against Don Quixote and the distaste for the
' barbarous Gothic,' and in our days chivalric qualities are put
above rather than below their due place, while we shut our eyes
to the coarse vices and faults which went with them : forgetting
that chivalry was often brutal in its strength, coarse in its
manners. A few brilliant exceptions have cast eternal glory on
chivalry, in whose dazzling light we fail to see of what poor stuff
the most are made.
3. While the Crusades provided this splendid stage for the
display of feudal virtues, they also silently undermined the whole
caste system of Europe. If feudalism shone bright, it was with
a consuming fire. For the Crusades were fatal to many of the
great lords. They went and perished, by mischance of war, by
famine, by pestilence, or on the journey. These not coming
back, their lands often fell to churches or kings. And those
who did return were the poorer : some had sold lands ; others
had taken everything of value they possessed, and had spent it.
Many became the paid men of the richer lords ; others took
vows and ended their stormy lives in the still cloister. And,
besides, other influences were at work on them : the Crusades
had freed multitudes of their human cattle; the serf who went
on pilgrimage learnt to be free. The isolation too of the feudal
lord ceased. He had to jostle with others ; had not to lord it
over burghers and men-at-arms, but to find himself among men
as great as or greater than himself. Good knights won at least
as much renown as he, and the rise of the military orders
indicated the existence of fresh forces in the world, before which
the proud nobles stood abashed. Service, as connected with and
flowing from tenure of land, the essential quality of feudalism,
was rudely shaken : for knights and even barons were glad to

A.D. 1100. EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADE. 239
enrol themselves for pay, and not as a matter of feudal service,
under the great chiefs. Joinville's ' Life of St. Louis ' illustrates
in every page this weakening of feudal power. The general
result was this : it helped royalty to make head against the
anarchy into which feudalism had thrust society, and European
national life began to shape itself into form.
4. And while feudalism lost, the cities gained. They could not
go on pilgrimage, or squander their wealth, as private persons
did. They had lords eager to sell them their freedom : the
money paid enabled the lords to take themselves out of the
way, to the Holy Land, whence, may be, they never came back
to harass the burghers and renew their claims of lordship.
Kings too, not feeling that they had anything to fear from the
cities, granted them many privileges, often for ready money :
the quickened pulse of commerce aided them ; they grew in
size and importance, and were the market-places of the world.
5. And serfdom was lightened. In many cases the serf and
the villain bought their freedom of their lord. He, setting forth
eastwards, cared little for the persons of his dependents, much
for a purse of gold. Thus many emerged into liberty. Others
took the cross ; and who could hold him less than a brother in
arms who was sanctified by the same sacrament of devotion ?
Instead of slaves and mere beasts of burden they became com
rades in days of risk and difficulty : they even made the great
discovery that their strength and spirit had a marketable value ;
for they became paid soldiers, — a great step upwards. They
took something from the weight of feudal power, and transferred
it on the whole to royalty.
6. And royalty was above all the gainer. The kings at first
stayed at home, while they were weak, and so gained by not
exhausting what little power they had, or by coming into
dangerous competition with vassals and others stronger than
themselves : when they were stronger, they also went crusading,
and then they gained again by placing themselves before the
world as the great heads and leaders of the movement ; they
taught mankind to regard them with new respect as the true

240 THE AGE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1100.
lords and rulers of mankind. We have already shown that they
gained largely by the weakening of the feudal barons.
7. Finally, though the First Crusade alone succeeded in its
immediate object, it cannot be said that the movement as a
whole was a complete failure. The East was not reconquered,
but the further advance of the Turks was stopped. In 1095 the
promontory opposite Constantinople was all that was left of
Christian Asia. The Seljuk sultan reigned at Nicaea. A few
years later all the coasts of the Mediterranean as far as Egypt
were in Christian hands, the Seljuk Turks had been cut off from
the sea, and a wedge had been driven in between Syria and
Egypt. And thus the Crusades staved off the attack of Islam
in Europe until the rise of the House of Othman in the four
teenth century.

CHAPTER IV.
Of Feudalism and Chivalry.
Hitherto we have been content with passing notices as to
the earlier state of the feudal hierarchy ; the time has now come
when we may look more closely into it. For on two different
theatres, England and the Holy Land, feudalism had lately been
called on to display characteristic qualities. Whereas in France
and Germany it gradually grew up one knows not how, in
England and Jerusalem feudal principles may be seen in their
later development, consciously applied to the founding of new
societies. Both these new kingdoms were more or less French ;
that of Jerusalem almost entirely ; that of England such in the
character and views of the Norman conquerors. By studying
these we avoid the confusions and anomalies which sprang up in
wild times ; we discern the plan of feudalism, as understood by
its chief actors; its clean-cut theory, side by side with the
imperfections which inevitably resulted from application to the
rough material of mankind.
If we look at France in the thirteenth century x we find that
every one but the King has a lord of whom he holds his
land on condition of rendering some service, to whom on re
ceiving that land he does homage, thus pledging himself to fulfil
faithfully his duty as vassal. Every vassal may have vassals
under him, who hold their land of him by a like tenure, and
these again may well have their vassals, so that the whole society
is arranged in a hierarchy of which each member is bound to
1 Viollet (Hist, des Institutions Politiques de France) gives a compendious
summary of recent research. — See also Bnvnner's recent Articles.
VOL. I. R

242 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY.
the other by the possession of a piece of land and by the obliga
tion of performing stated services — generally military — in return
for that land. Further, although the land descends from father
to son, the heir on stepping into his inheritance has to do
homage to his lord and to pay a duty, termed ' relevium ' or
' relief.' If there is no male heir, or if the heir is a minor,
the lord administers the estate until he has provided for the
marriage of the daughter, or until the son is of age. How
did so curious a system arise ? We may roughly answer that
it has been constructed out of three elements, each of which
has a different history — Commendation, the Benefice, Cavalry
warfare. Some time before the Germanic conquest we find poor men
' commending' themselves to a lord or senior, who then undertook
to defend them against the hazards of those dangerous times.
The poor man became his lord's ' man,' though as yet the tie was
merely personal. He did not necessarily live on his lord's land ;
he might break off, and choose a new lord when he pleased.
The Germans brought with them a custom closely resembling that
which was already springing up on Gallic soil. Each chief was
followed by his ' comitatus ' or ' trust,' his band of companions,
whom 'he armed and protected, and led to war ; but here again
the link was purely personal. The Visigothic ' baccellarius '
could leave his lord, if he returned the arms which he had
lent him ; the lord could renounce his dependent, if the de
pendent failed to serve him duly. The custom of commenda
tion soon became general, and at last Charles the Bald, seeing
in it a guarantee against violence and anarchy, commanded all
his subjects to choose a senior (847).
We have now to examine the history of the benefice. When
the gift from the lord to the dependent was not in cattle or
in arms, but in land, the gift was called in Latin ' beneficium,'
in German ' fevum ' or ' feodum.' Long before the Germanic
conquests we find Roman soldiers settled along the frontier of
Gaul, on lands which they held by a precarious tenure in return
for some stipulated services, and these lands were called

GROWTH OF FEUDALISM. 243
' beneficia.' Again, when the Germans invaded Gaul, the King
would allot estates to his followers, but these estates were always
revocable at his will, and always fell into his hands on the death
of the possessor, so that we find the benefice growing up
under both Roman and Teutonic influences. Gradually the
benefice became hereditary, gradually the services became fixed.
We have now to see how it came to pass that those services
were almost always military services, how the fief became
a military tenure. We shall find that this arises directly out
of the growth of a cavalry army in Gaul.
The Visigoths, the Burgundians and the Franks were footmen
in the days when they conquered Gaul. The chief had but to give
his dependent an axe and targe, and he had secured a fighting
man ; but when a need for a cavalry army arose, the fighting
man wanted horse and armour, lance and shield. The chief
could no longer keep his ' comitatus ' in his own hall, he must
give each one of them a piece of land, on the condition of
sending an armed horseman to the host. So too if any de
pendent had already received a benefice, he would now be
expected to conform to the new rule, and if not to turn warrior
himself, at least to furnish a warrior for his lord. Thus the rise
of a cavalry army tended to turn the personal relation formed
by commendation into the territorial relation formed by the
benefice, and to give besides to the benefice a military
character. Now it is during the Saracen wars of the eighth
century that we first hear of a cavalry army in France. The
Saracens forced the Visigoths to fight them on horseback, and
from the Visigoths the institution of cavalry warfare spread
eastwards and northwards over the whole of France. From
this moment Feudalism acquired that military character, which
so profoundly influenced the social and political life of the
Middle Ages. From this moment tenure became in the main
military tenure, and the recipient of a benefice the mailed and
mounted warrior of medieval warfare.
At the time of the First Crusade the land we now call France
was under a comparatively small number of independent lords,

244 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY.
of whom the chief were the French king, the Duke of Nor
mandy, and the Duke of Aquitaine, besides several of lesser
name. Under these were counts and noble vassals, who held
their lands on divers tenures ; under them again their vassals, in
the state of sub-infeudation, till the land could bear no more
sub-division. Though most of these held their fiefs on a con
dition of military service, others held by other tenures, such as
the fulfilment of duties attached to offices at the lord's court l,
payments in money or kind, sometimes of a trivial and gro
tesque nature, as, for example, tenure by the reek of a roast
capon. All territories held by feudal tenure in the North of France
were also under the uncodified system of rights ; governed in
fact by custom, not by law ; by custom sadly apt to vary with
the varying strength and weakness of the parties. In the South
the imprint of Roman law was never lost; it deeply modified
feudalism. That part of France which was under the rule of
German custom was called the ' Pays du droit coutumier,' the
land of custom-right, extending from its northernmost borders
to the right bank of the Loire ; where Roman law prevailed, it
was called the ' Pays du droit e"crit,' the land of the written law,
extending from the Pyrenees northwards till it met the other
district. Let us see how this institution was transplanted in its full
growth to Jerusalem, and there reorganised, clear of the tram
mels of European life and custom. It developed itself with
surprising rapidity and clearness 2- ' The ancient Assises of
Jerusalem provide us with the clearest and brightest reflection
of the manners and laws of feudal Europe 3.' It will show itself
very distinctly on the background of the dark and unknown
East : the feudal towers stand up in strong relief, bright under
1 Of v.hich the most splendid example is that of the Seven Electors of
Germany, who were, strictly speaking, the seneschal, cup-bearer, sword-
bearer, &c. to the Emperor.
2 Whoever will compare English feudalism with this kingdom of Jeru
salem should study it in Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. 4. chap. 17.
3 So says Beugnot on the Assises, vol. 1. p. 19.

GROWTH OF FEUDALISM. 245
the Western sun, against the thunder-cloud of the Moslem
power, ever threatening to overwhelm them in an angry
storm 1.
Jerusalem was taken by the Crusaders on July 23, 1099 ; and
after a few days given up to the wildest excesses, the chiefs of
the army reasserted the feudal principle of elective monarchy by
choosing Godfrey, their worthiest prince, as king. He however
refused that name, and became Defender of the Holy City.
After the battle of Ascalon, which secured and extended the
Latin conquests, Syria was called the ' Principality of Jeru
salem ' ; and, that the Latins might hold together, and com
munications by land be kept up with Constantinople, the really
independent territories of Edessa and Antioch became great
fiefs under Godfrey. After a time the Principality of Tripoli was
separated from that of Jerusalem, and put on the same footing :
and Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, and Edessa became the four
elements, the four high princedoms of this Eastern feudalism.
The homage done and allegiance promised to the Byzantine
Emperor were forgotten ; the new kingdom was declared to be
held straight from the Pope ; and a Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
was established to complete the insult to the Empire2- Round
the King's 3 person was grouped a court of officials, modelled on
the Capetian court at Paris : the whole of Syria was parcelled
out ; Joppa became the seat of a marquis, there were counts of
Bethlehem and Nazareth : in every town a viscount watched
over feudal interests. Much of the open country was still in
the hands of the Syrians, and they swarmed in the towns :
their relations to the invaders became afterwards a source of
trouble ; but at the outset the Crusaders paid no heed to them,
and divided the land at will.
These territorial arrangements made, and made so wisely
that none murmured, the wisdom of Godfrey and the Patriarch
1 The best account of the kingdom of Jerusalem is to be found in the two
folio volumes of Count Beugnot on the Assises of Jerusalem, whence
much of the text is drawn.
2 The Archbishop of Pisa first filled this new office.
3 Godfrey's successors did not imitate his modesty, or his virtues.

246 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY.
and the Court was exercised on a new task L — that of the
construction of a code of laws and customs, civil and criminal,
memorable as the first attempt of the kind in the history of
feudalism ; for even Charles the Great had not attempted
a code of laws.
First, they made a code dealing with the rights and privileges
of the noble-born, and called it ' the Assise 2 of the High Court
of Jerusalem,' and followed it up with a like work on the duties
and rights of burghers, both among themselves and in their
relation to the barons, and this was ' the Assise of the Burgher
Court.' These two codes were written out fair, in a manu
script with richly-painted capitals, each law being set forth in
uncial characters, and were deposited in a coffer, securely
locked, and laid up among the treasures of the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre 3; doubtless not without reference to the Ark of
the Covenant, and the Tables of the Law laid up therein in the
Temple. Here they were jealously guarded : the box could not
be opened and the Law displayed to the light except in the
presence of nine persons ; the King and two of his men
representing the High Court : the Viscount of Jerusalem and
two Burghers representing the Burgher Court ; and the Patriarch
with two canons the Church of the Sepulchre, as guardians of
this precious deposit.
Thus they made and hid away their great work, unique and
far before the age. They hid it, for though they had made
a code of ' written law,' the Northern French barons could not
reconcile themselves to the Southern system, or abandon their
dear familiar ' Custom law.' Any attempt to compel them to
1 ' Par le conseill des princes et des barons et des plus sages homes que il
lors pot aveir,' says Ibelin,c. 1 (Beugnot, 1, p. 22).
2 An Assise is defined in the ' Clef des Assises ' as ' toute chose que Ton
a vue user et accoustumer et deliverer en cour du roiaume.'
3 Whence they came to be called ' the Letters of the Sepulchre.' P. Paris
(Journal des Savans, A.D. 1831) holds that these ' Lettres du Sepulcre '
were a simple Doomsday Eook, a register of fiefs and duties. But such
a book did exist independently under the title of ' Secreta Regis,' ' the
King's Secrets ' ; and Count Beugnot (Introduction to vol. 2. p. 14) shows
conclusively that the Letters must have been more than a register of feudal
estates.

THE ASSISE OF fERUSALEM. 247
live under such a system must have failed. It was as natural
to the barons to hide away their Code, as for the College of
Pontiffs end the patricians of Rome to keep the Twelve Tables
out of sight of the people, though the reason of the act was
not quite the same in the two cases. No copies were made of
the Assises, nor were they often appealed to : they lay in the
treasury of the Church, jealously guarded from sight, till one day
Saladin's men burst in, at the taking of Jerusalem (a.d. 1187), to
plunder the sacred place of its pious wealth. Then the chest with
the manuscripts, valueless in their eyes, disappeared for ever \
Under these laws the feudal kingdom was governed ; and
pilgrims, returning to Europe, carried glowing accounts of them
to their ill-regulated homes. The Kings of Jerusalem were
men of prudence, who did their best to rule their turbulent
brethren after the law, and from time to time made such amend
ments and additions to the Code as were needed. Thus Bald
win I, a prince of learning, made considerable changes : to him
the Code owed an ' Assise du coup apparent,' or justice when
a baron smote his man ; a first law of assault, made necessary by
the outrageous tempers of the crusading lords. And Amaury 2,
another wise prince, modified the conditions of tenure so far,
that all arriere-vassals (like those of William the Conqueror in
England) had to take oath of allegiance to the King, and to be
under his protection ; thus at once defending them from their
immediate lords, and also showing that the tendency towards an
increase of the royal power was spreading from France and
England to Jerusalem.
The High Court had the King as President, and all the King's
men sat in it. If we may accept the account given in the written
Assise, it regulated the position and succession of the royal
power, the rights and duties of the King's men ; the functions of
the great officers of the kingdom, the Marshal, Constable, &c. ;
1 The Collection of the Laws and Customs of Jerusalem, made by Jean
d'Ibelin in the thirteenth century, seems to be a faithful exposition of the
customs of Jerusalem as then in use, and to be based on the original written
code. 2 A.D. 1162.

248 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY.
it settled points as to donations, service, sales, succession
to fiefs, and the like ; and, finally, all questions between lords
and burghers. The influence of this Court was thoroughly
aristocratic and feudal. It became a kind of Privy Council,
settling all important questions as to peace and war, the royal
succession, and the like. In character it answered nearly to
the Court of France, from which the Parliament of Paris was
an offshoot.
The Burgher Court,' or Law Court, was under the presidency
of the Viscount of Jerusalem ; and the ' sworn men 1 ' of the city
sat in it. It is notable as an early draft of a municipal constitu
tion, though in political interest it falls far below the French
Communes of a later date. As in the introduction of a code of
feudal laws, so in this foreshadowing of civic rights, the King
dom of Jerusalem is the eastern harbinger of modern Europe.
Two things helped to give these Courts their marked character :
first, the risks to which the Latins were exposed, from Saracens
without and Syrians within their walls, and from their own
turbulent unbridled vices ; and secondly, the position of the
colonists who streamed over from Europe2. These were often
rich and free merchants, to whom rights could not be refused.
Yet, in a Syrian town the commercial usages of France would
have been fatal ; consequently the Court of each city had well-
marked relations and rights, and was closely bound up with the
feudal aristocracy of the kingdom ; the town was made as like
as possible in its government to the feudal castle *.
These City Courts were ruled by laws, which formed the
' Assise de Basse Cour'; a collection made with no great system,
regulating all sales, loans, sea-faring, pledges, contracts for hire
of servants or land, and agreements. It also ruled the civil
1 These were twelve men chosen by the King, or the Lord of the fief
in which the Court was sitting. They took oath to him, not to one
another. 2 In some cases the Latins expelled all natives, to make room for these
colonists. 3 A little later the merchant cities, Genoa first, then Venice and Pisa,
established colonies for trade purposes ; these towns soon became communes,
with their own special courts, ' Cours de la Fonde,' or Bazar-courts.

IHE BURGHER COURTS. 249
procedure, and asserted emphatically the authority of the civil
power over clergy, and even over the military orders. Marriage,
testaments, slave-holding (even burghers had slaves), were all
regulated there ; every question in social life was dealt with.
Penal laws were laid down with the usual severity ; torture,
ordeal, mutilation follow one another in grim procession, and
death, by comparison the merciful, closes up the rear 1.
And lastly, the Syrians were permitted to live under their own
laws and uses, with their own courts, presided over by their reis ;
an arrangement which, though often dangerous, and sometimes
accused of rashness, was probably more prudent than could
have been any attempt to compel the disaffected natives to
live under French customs.
These three Courts sat at Jerusalem, and speedily became the
patterns for others of like kind throughout the kingdom ; they
were the basis of all feudal justice ; over these local courts the
King presided, if present at their sitting : all the political power
seems to have been established at Jerusalem.
Such was the constitution of the feudal Kingdom of Jeru
salem ; a system which in many ways reflected ' French ideas ' ;
and was also, by force of circumstances, in some respects far
in advance of anything yet seen in Europe. The Assises, and
they alone, gave Frank feudalism sure footing in the East. The
Crusaders had been gathered from many lands ; it was no easy
task to hold them together. For, in fact, their life in Palestine
was very turbulent and vicious 2, and indeed defiant of the first
principles of the feudal polity. The kingdom was an attempt
to establish a great colony on French principles, and with
French colonists; and, as such, it was a failure. The brightness,
gallantry, enthusiasm of the French character had won brilliant
laurels in the war; but the national weaknesses soon came
1 John of Ibelin says he compiled the Assises, ' selonc ce que j'ay oy et
apris et retenu de ciaus qui ont este les plus sages homes dou dit roiaume
et des plais de la dite Court.'
2 That the corruption of morals was fearful is shown by the Assise of
Nablous, which is dated A.D. n 20, and unfolds to sight a dark picture
of moral degradation.

250 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY.
forward when the enemy was no longer at the gates, and
patience and prudence were the qualities needed. Then
society fell a victim to the corruption of Eastern climate and
example. Together with this great development of feudalism came
the outburst of the brilliant qualities of chivalry, which have
dazzled the world, making it almost impossible for us to
discern the real value of the life of these ages. ' There are,'
says Hallam1, 'three powerful spirits, which have from time
to time moved on the face of the waters, and given a pre
dominant impulse to the moral sentiments and energies of
mankind. These are the spirits of liberty, of religion, and
of honour. It was the principal business of chivalry to animate
and cherish the last of these three.' And thus far it is true,
that the belief that a man must be ruled by what is due to
himself, and must do nothing below himself, and must hold
his own place, and keep others in theirs, — the special charac
teristic of the aristocratic principle in the world, — obtained
great prominence in connection with chivalry, and grew stronger
through the high dignity conceded to it by the public opinion
of the crusading ages. At its highest and in theory, chivalry
sets before us the perfect gentleman, — gently-born, gentle-
mannered, truthful, faithful, courteous to women, pure, brave
and fearless, unsparing of self, filled with deep religious feeling,
bowing before God and womankind, haughty in the presence
of all others. This is the true knight of romance. That such
an ideal could even be set before man for imitation, and
that in the chaos of feudal turbulence such flowers could be
thought to grow, was in itself a great step towards better
things. Yet it must be allowed that the actual knight was
usually far below so noble an ideal, and that, in the earlier
times at least, coarseness was far more common than courtesy.
As page in my lady's bower *, while yet a tender boy, he
1 Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. 2. p. 450 (ed. 1S46).
2 He was also called ' Varlet,' i.e. probably = ' Vassalet,' or little-
vassal, alluding to his father's relation to the superior lord at whose
court he was.

THE INSTITUTION OF A KNIGHT. 25 1
learnt obedience and courtesy, and, perhaps, respect for woman ;
and, when he betook himself to the courtyard of the castle,
he picked up from the old retainers a certain knowledge
of the use of arms, and handled sword and spear; or, best
of all, was set on a horse, tasting the first delights of that
great power, — hereafter to be bound up with his name and
life as a chevalier; — the power of ruling the steed, and over
looking the common crowd. When however the varlet grew
too strong for such child's play, he passed in among the squires,
and took place as one of the devotees of war. He was
led to the church, and there received from the priest a sword
and belt. Henceforth he was on the road to the high estate
of knighthood. Religion blessed the sword as heretofore ;
and the youth, in the warm zeal of his years, set himself to
win a name, and to defend the faith which had given him this
baptism of nobility. He was now no longer in lady's bower,
but at his lord's heels. He held his horse, or carried his lance
and helm, or watched his banner, or guarded his prisoners;
he saw that his lord was worshipfully served at meals, he carved
the meat at board 1. Then, at twenty-one, if he had borne him
well and loyally in the trials of his younger life, he prepared
himself for the greater consecration, after the humble diaconate,
of arms. We all know the common forms of the reception
of knighthood ; the white robe, the nightly vigil in the chapel,
the oath at daybreak, the bed gaily decked, the priest's address
expounding these moralities, the Eucharist, and a sort of
catechism of knightly faith; then the oath to keep the good
laws of chivalry ; then the new armour brought out and
donned ; lastly, the novice bidden to kneel down, and dubbed
a knight by his lord. His horse was led to the church-door ;
he mounted and rode forth, the crowd shouting, the heralds
blowing trumpet-peals : and so he entered the second order
with every possible religious sanction. He now had only to
' win his spurs ' at the next feat of arms, to cut down some
1 So Joinville tells us that he, as squire, carved at the King of Navarre's
table.

252 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY.
dozen unarmed rustics, or to put to flight a few men-at-arms,
or lo unhorse a hostile knight ; then he became a full member
of the hierarchy of chivalry.
There runs throughout a parallel between knighthood and
priesthood. They were the two sanctified classes, living under
a lifelong vow, given up to God's service in field and Church.
St. Paul's language seemed to be applicable to both ; the
' Christian Warfare ' was localised and made human by the
taking of the cross. The knight's oath bound him to defend the
faith, protect the weak, honour womankind ; in course of time
the worship of the Virgin blended still more closely the relations
of chivalry and religion, a union which can be traced through
many ages, till we see its last development in the dreams of
Loyola, the knight of the Mother of Jesus.
Picturesque and noble though the conception of knighthood
is, it would have been an indistinct branch of feudal customs
and conditions but for the Crusades. Then the order stood out
clearly, when knight and baron were far from home. Then the
greater lords took knights into their paid service — kings gladly
attached them to themselves. The feudal lord mortgaged his
lands ; the knight, who had no lands to sell, sold his sword-arm
to defend the Church, and grew in men's esteem. He stood
upright on his personal service, while the territorial basis of
the baron's power was slipping from under his feet. In him
we see the rudiment of a standing army. The knight demurred
at no length of service, that great difficulty of a feudal army ;
and the kings must have felt that they had in the loyalty
of the knightly estate a counterpoise to the utter anarchy and
turbulence of the greater vassals. Moreover, both King and
knight had one grand task in common — the repression of law
lessness, the redress of wrong, the doing justice and judgment,
and the punishment of the evil-doer. The belief that he was the
fountain of justice was an element in the character of the King,
which secured the eventual triumph of royalty : and the good
King was also a good knight. Even Saladin is said to have been
glad to receive the honour of knighthood : and it is probable

THE DARKER SIDE OF CHIVALRY. 253
that chivalry gained much in courtesy and a high sense of
honour by its contact with the nobler natures among the Eastern
princes L.
Still more did the military orders indicate what a new force
was growing up. They showed the world a new form of com
bination. They began in the noblest strain — carrying out the
belief that their knighthood was a brotherhood like that of the
religious orders. Their early history is full of rare self-devotion
and charity : they took vows of celibacy, their whole life was
bound to be religious. With one hand they held the sword, with
the other they tended the sick and poor. With great irony
they called these humble friends their ' lords ' (nos seigneurs) ;
as though they would tell the feudal barons that they owed
less allegiance and honour to them than they did to the poor
sufferers whom they helped. This however did not last : the
glories of chivalry, and the picture of the faithful knight, with
its bright foreground of rich colour, high adventure, and fair
ladies' smiles, with the picturesque towers of a castle rising
from the neighbouring hill, must not blind our eyes to the
truth. The knightly life, good though it was, and school of
men in its day, had in it from the outset seeds of decay. Its
basis was war ; and the love of war, and the valuing of men by
a warlike standard, form a bad foundation for any institution.
Knighthood was completely aristocratic in character : it widened
the gulf between classes. The ' raskall rout ' were of no account
with the knight ; he held no faith with such, nor had any
sympathy with them. The knight and the priest here stood on
very different footings. Religion, low as she fell, never quite
lost the sense of her duty towards the down-trodden : knight
hood came to despise and illtreat all below it. Knightly privi
leges sapped the strength of the order. The knight abused his
advantages, was cruel in war, riding down the half-armed and
feeble ; was licentious in peace. Even so early as the middle
of the twelfth century, St. Bernard, who had no bias against war,
1 See Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. 2. p. 463 (ed. 1846).

254 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY.
attacks chivalry with an unsparing pen'. The military orders
also early fell into great looseness of manners ; and it became
clear that in spite of its gallantry, chivalry must fall. Yet it
held its place till the growth of regular armies in the English
and French wars ¦ elbowed it out of the way, and the kingly
power grew so strong that it could hold in check both feudal
turbulence and knightly prowess, and make them fight under
the royal flag. Above all, gunpowder was fatal to chivalry.
What could gallantry under the coat of mail do against cannon
and the new tactics of war ? Gunpowder blew down the
robber-nests of feudalism and the pride of chivalry. The
low-bred man-at-arms with the new engine in his hands came
to be on a level with the noblest knight in the battlefield.
Hotspur's fop in Shakespere 2 was not so far from the point,
when he cried — ' It was great pity, so it was,
This villanous saltpetre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly ; and but for these vile guns
He would himself have been a soldier.'
1 ' Non militia sed malitia' he says of them in his De laude novae militiae,
quoted in Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. n. p. 231.
2 Henry IV. Part 1. 1. 3.

CHAPTER V
Louis VI, sumamed le Gros, A.D. 1 100-1137.
In the year 1100, Philip, the idle king, desiring to shift from
his shoulders the burden of his duty, and following the example
of his predecessors, made his son Louis l joint-king, and dis
appeared into obscurity. He lived yet eight years, was recon
ciled to Rome, broke his promise of amendment, and to the
end clung to the vicious woman he had long before stolen
away from Fulk of Anjou. In 1108 he died in the dress of
a Benedictine Monk, giving orders that he should be buried in
the Church of Fleury S. Benof t on the Loire ; ' for greatly he
feared lest for his sins, were he buried at St. Denis, he should
be carried off by the devil, as was Charles Martel of old 2 ; '
under St. Benedict's protection he hoped that his bones might
rest in peace. There let us leave the weakest of the Capets,
and turn our eyes towards a worthier prince. These early
kings were feeble, but it was the feebleness of childhood, not
of old age, as with the previous races. There does not seem,
except in Philip, to have been that extinction of all energy and
power of will, which marked the faineant princes of the Mer
wing and Caroling dynasties. These men did little, and were
little, because they had small opportunities for more. When
Louis was adopted by his father in noo, the crown had as
its domain only the county of Paris, Hurepoix, the GStinais,
the Orle'anais, half the county of Sens, the French Vexin, and
Bourges, together with some ill-defined rights over the episcopal
1 The Life of King Louis by his school-fellow, friend and adviser, Suger,
abbot of St. Denis, is our chief authority.
2 Ordericus Vitalis, 2.

256 LOUIS VI, SURNAMED LE GROS. A.D. 1100.
cities of Rheims, Beauvais, Laon, Noyon, Soissons, Amiens.
And even within these narrow limits the royal power was but
thinly spread over the surface. The barons in their castles
were in fact independent, oppressing the merchants and poor
folks as they would. The King had also acknowledged rights
of suzerainty over Champagne, Burgundy, Normandy, Brittany,
Flanders, and Boulogne ; but, in most cases, the only obe
dience the feudal lords stooped to was that of duly performing
the act of homage to the King on first succession to a fief.
He also claimed suzerainty, which was not conceded, over the
South of France; over Provence and Lorraine he did not even
put forth a claim of lordship 1. The very first acts of Louis
show how feeble he was in resources, and how close to his
gates were his antagonists. From the high ground near Paris
their castles could be discerned ; the din of arms might almost
be heard. Northwards, the lord of Montmorenci disputed with
him the plain of St. Denis ; the new fort called the Chatelet
was built to protect Paris from this powerful neighbour. South
wards, Montleheri barred the way to Orleans and the Loire,
and cut the royal domain in two.
What forces had the young King with which to awe his tur
bulent barons, and to protect or enlarge his borders ? He had
his own force of character, indicated by his two names of ' the
Wide-awake' and 'the Fighter2'; he had the prime of youth
and good looks s, and lively pleasant ways 4 ; a real genius for
war, and prompt energy to use such tools as he had, in the
' damsels ' who were sent to Paris by the greater vassals and
others, numbering full three hundred gallant youths, eager to win
glory under the young King 6. In addition to these household
troops he got some help from his feudal vassals, and specially
from Robert of Flanders, his maternal uncle. The Crusades
1 See Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, torn. 5. p. 8.
2 L'Eveille, le Batailleur.
3 ' Elegans et formosus,' says Suger, Vita Ludovici Grossi, 1.
4 ' Jocundus, gratus et benevolus ; quo eliam a quibusdam simplex repu-
tabatur.' — Suger, Vita Ludovici Grossi, t.
5 These 'Damsels,' Damoiseaux, were the Maison du Roi, even at that
early time. Louis himself was styled ' the Royal Damsel.'

A.D. 1100. THE VIGOUR OF THE YOUNG KING. 257
also helped him, by carrying off the most vigorous of his neigh
bours, and by turning men's eyes elsewhere ; and lastly, he had
an unfailing source of strength in the goodwill of the clergy and
people. He was regarded as their champion ; he was penetrated
with the royal belief — the very salt of kingship — that he was
the pure fount of justice, the defender of the weak '- In the
struggle which will hereafter come up between Pope and King,
this royal quality will be seen to have great weight. As
the King gained ground, the Pope lost it, for Papal justice
was not based on a sense of right between man and man, but
on the ancient laws and distinctions of the Church, which drew
a marked line between the clerical and the lay. So long as the
Church could show herself as Justice walking serenely on earth,
in the midst of a turbulent world, her authority remained un
assailable ; when she strove to withdraw her clerical militia
from the hand of law, she ceased to be a judge and became
a partisan. Then the kingly power resisted her with success ;
for law and right ranged themselves under the banner of secular
authority. We shall see how the lawyers of France became the
most powerful opponents of papal claims.
With such strength as he could muster King Louis reduced
Bouchard of Montmorenci and his petty allies, and freed the,
northern walls of Paris from insult. Then, with seven hundred
' men of choice,' he fell on Ebles, count of Rouci, and de
feated him, so succouring the oppressed Church of Rheims ;
and this too, though Ebles had Burgundy at his back. Soon
after he did a like good turn for the Church of Orleans.
Next, when Guy Troussell, son of Miles, lord of Montleheri,
came back from Crusade (he had let himself over the walls of
Antioch by a rope, leaving behind his luckless men-at-arms to
shift as they might), the two kings, Philip and Louis, per
suaded him in his shame and dejection to give his only daughter
to a son of King Philip by Bertrade : with her he handed over
Montleheri, thus removing a formidable obstacle from the royal
1 ' Ecclesiarum utilitatibus providebat, aratorum laboratorum et pau-
perum, quod diu insolitum fuerat, quieti studebat.' — Suger, Vita L. G. 2.
VOL. I. S

258 LOUIS VI, SURNAMED LE GROS. A.D.1108.
highway southwards, — ' whereof the two kings were as glad, as
if they had taken a mote out of their eye V Montleheri was
entrusted to Guy of Rochfort, uncle of Guy Troussell, who had
gone over to King Philip on his return from Jerusalem. The
young King was forthwith affianced to Guy of Rochfort's
daughter, and the father was made seneschal. But, for some
reason, we know not what, — it is one of the puzzles of this
reign, — Louis threw away his chance of securing Montleheri,
the key of the position. He broke with Guy, declined his
daughter, and plunged at once into the delights of war. In
1 107 Pope Paschal came to France, to confer at Chalons-sur-
Marne with the Archbishop of Treves on the Investitures'
quarrel, and Louis persuaded the Pope to release him from
the child-marriage 2 : Guy was deposed from his seneschalship,
and dismissed the court. He fell to war, backed by the
troubled spirit of Bertrade, who hoped to place her son Philip
on the throne, and by the discontented barons, who feared the
vigorous young King. Louis was too quick for them. The
inhabitants of Montleheri ejected Philip, Bertrade's son, and
opened their gates to the King. Bertrade, seeing that her
plans had failed, took the veil in the convent of Haute-Bruyere,
a dependency of Fontevrault, that strange double foundation, in
which the nuns in their cloister sang and prayed, while the
monks in the field tilled the land and supported the community;
a lady abbess being set over both nuns and monks, the nuns
also taking precedence. No institution so favourable to woman
had ever been established in Christendom : it is among the
proofs of the new powers of chivalry. There Bertrade did not
continue long before she died.
In the midst of this struggle died King Philip in 1108; and
on the very next Sunday Louis was crowned at Orleans by the
archbishop of Sens3- No sooner was he crowned than he hastened
1 Suger, Vita L. G. 8.
2 ' Filiam ejusdem Guidonis necdum nubilem.' Suger, Vita L. G. 8.
3 Rheims was at this time excommunicated, and the Archbishop was
hostile to Louis, which explains why the King was not crowned there.

A.D. 1111. THE ABBOT SUGER. 259
away to renew his struggle with his neighbours ; and slowly he
gained strength and firm footing, till in 1 1 1 1 we note the rise into
prominence of a new and significant ally. He was besieging
Le Puiset, a castle belonging to Hugh the Fair; and in his
army were the peasants of the Church-lands, who smarted under
Hugh's depredations, armed and led by the curates of their
parishes. Suger tells us how one village priest at the head of
his rustic troop first broke into the robber's den. He made his
way unharmed and alone to the palisade, and began to pull the
stakes away : finding himself unmolested, he beckoned to his
men below, who hastened up, and broke their way in. The
King's troops were at the same time attacking the place on
another side. Thus the serfs appear as a faithful militia. There
was no doubt as to their loyalty or readiness. It was a peasant
rising, under guidance of authority and right, against the
shameless oppression of the barons. This opportune help was
probably gained for the King in great part by Suger, to
whom Louis had entrusted the priory of Toury, near Le Puiset,
the priory being a kind of fortress of observation for the King.
In this, and in many other acts, Suger showed himself one
of the chief founders of the French nation. He supported
the King in his desire to do justice ; he brought great adminis
trative gifts to bear on the social state of the country ; his advice
was ever sage, and generally successful ; he was the ruling spirit
of the reign of two kings, the first of those great churchmen who
presided over the growth and fortunes of the French Monarchy.
In this series of petty wars King Louis showed much energy
and bravery, sometimes fighting in the forefront, like a common
soldier; always first to begin and last to leave off; until he
brought his own vassals into tolerable order. Throughout all
he gave to his wars the stamp of right and justice. The ill-doer
was called to appear before the King's court, for the judgment
of his peers : if he came and was condemned, the King executed
judgment on him ; if he refused to appear, he was attacked and
brought under for his contumacy. The conceptions of justice
and loyalty became daily more and more closely connected.
s 2

260 LOUIS VI, SURNAMED LE GROS. A.D. 1111.
It is usual to say that the King was wisely inclined to defend
the poor, to side with the Church, to encourage the Communes
in cities. The first and second of these statements are quite
true ; of the third there are no substantial proofs. Indeed, it
assumes a state of things which had as yet scarcely begun to
exist. The King was active and intelligent; but it was too
much to expect him to foresee the future importance of cities.
Even Suger himself shows no sign of such discernment. In
fact, Louis, in the case of Laon, did not hesitate to sell his help
to the bishop, when he had outbidden the citizens ; they offered
him 400 livres, the bishop 700, and the King at once accepted
the higher bid. He had before granted the citizens a charter, he
now revoked it at once ; and when they resisted, he crushed
them without mercy. He gave privileges, it is true, but not
free constitutions, to the five chief cities of the royal domain
— Paris, Orleans, Melun, Etampes, Compiegne. Otherwise, he
hardly seems to have done more than let the movement take
its course : nor is his name so closely connected with the cities
as are the names of some other great lords of the same period.
The feudal lords of towns were glad to sell their claims for
ready money : even the King did it. In Burgundy, Normandy,
Guienne, this first stir of civic life took place : in the South
of France the cities, inheriting the traditions of old municipal
rights from Rome, were already well advanced in the path of
independence. Meanwhile, as King Louis grew stronger, the hold of Germany
on Provence and Lorraine relaxed : the long war of investitures,
fully engaging the Emperor, left him no leisure to look after
these outlying portions of the Empire : and the feudal lords in
these districts became almost independent sovereigns. This
rendered the King's eastern frontier safe from danger ; these
princes were so new and so isolated that there was nothing
to fear from them. The Norman border was very different.
There, a united and warlike race was ruled by a King who had
all the resources of England at his back, and was infinitely
stronger for war than his restless brother of France. But Louis

A.D. 1110. THE DANGER FROM GERMANY. 261
recked nothing of all this. He espoused the cause of William
Clito, son of Robert, grandson of the Conqueror, and plunged
into war. In early life he had resisted William Rufus with
great credit ; he won no credit now. Normandy was laid
low, the Norman churches, so solid and warlike in structure
that they might easily be turned into fortresses — became the
barns and refuges of the country folk — and the usual misery
was inflicted on the defenceless. Louis was well beaten at
Brenneville * in n 19, and though the clergy responded to his
cry for help, he felt that he was in the grasp of the stronger
man, and sought how to escape from the difficulty into which
he had thrust himself. Pope Calixtus II was holding a council
at Rheims ; he laid before him his complaints against Henry of
England. The Pope brought about a reconciliation, the terms
of which were honourable for Louis, though he failed in his
nominal object, the establishment of William Clito, who had to
fall back into obscurity and abandon his claim to the duchy.
Louis was not likely to rest; and in n 24 there was again
a threat of war. Henry of England made alliance — prophetic
of many later combinations — with his son-in-law, Henry V
of Germany, who undertook to invade Eastern France and to
threaten Rheims. Then the King summoned his vassals to
his help. The men of his own domain, now quite broken in,
came readily. Rheims and Chalons sent six thousand men ;
Laon and Soissons the like ; Orleans, Etampes, and Paris with
the King's own body-guard, his ' damsels,' formed the centre
of his army. In their midst waved the Oriflamme 2, the sacred
banner, which King Louis had with great solemnity taken from
the altar of St. Denis. The Count of Champagne was there
with a strong force ; the Duke of Burgundy did not fail ; and
1 Described in Ordericus Vitalis, bk. 12. But Suger has very little to
say about this disaster to his royal friend (ch. 25). The name of the place
at that time was Brenmula.
2 The Oriflamme was a flame-red banner of silk: three-pointed on its lower
side, and tipped with green. It was fastened to a gilt spear. It was in fact
the banner of the Counts of the Vexin, who held under the Abbey of St. Denis,
and laid their flag on its altar. When the Vexin fell to the King (in the days
of Philip I, circ. 1087) the Oriflamme was adopted as the royal standard.

262 LOUIS VI, SURNAMED LE GROS. A.D. 1124.
Verrnandois brought his horsemen and the footmen of St.
Quentin ; Pontoise, Amiens, and Beauvais completed the army.
The greater lords, who lay without the circle of the King's im
mediate influence, did not dare to refuse ; so they managed to
arrive too late. ' The most noble Count of Flanders would have
tripled the host, had he been summoned earlier'; William of
Aquitaine, Conan of Brittany, the warlike Fulk of Anjou were
also hindered by the distance and the suddenness of the appeal \
The King prudently showed no dissatisfaction: and the French
chroniclers tell us that the fame of his energy and preparations
deterred the Emperor, who halted, abandoned his enterprise,
and fell back on Germany : a rumour of troubles at Worms
was probably the true reason of his retreat. Still in France
herself the knightly King won no small credit 2 ; men began to
regard him as the central figure of all France : though the
great feudal princes had not joined him, they had recognised
the validity of his summons as against the foreigner. Peace
was made with Henry of England ; and the sacred Indict3, which
contained a nail from the Cross, the crown of thorns, and the
bones of saints, which had all been brought forth to fight for
King Louis, were restored with much reverence by his own
hand to their shrine at St. Denis. The death of Henry V
within a year confirmed the truth of men's belief that heaven
fought for their King. The royal power thus slowly rose clear
of all feudal rivals : the King was no longer one among his
peers ; but had superior rights and powers of his own. Nothing
shows this so clearly as his intervention between the Bishop
of Clermont and the Count of Auvergne, backed by William of
Aquitaine. The King, in spite of his unwieldly bulk and the
summer heats, marched southwards, with the lords of Flanders,
Anjou, and Brittany in his train, 'army enough to have conquered
Spain,' says Suger : these great lords were in good time now.
1 Suger, Vita L. G. c. 27 (Dom Bouquet, torn. 12. 51).
2 ' Idem aut superum fuit, quam si campo triumphasset.' — Suger, Vita
L. G. cap. 27.
3 The ' Indict ' was said to have been deposited at St. Denis by Charles the
Bald ; it had belonged to Charles the Great, and was laid up by him at Aix.

A.D. 1120. TROUBLES IN NORMANDY. 263
William, great prince as he was, humbled himself, came into the
King's camp, begged ' his Majesty ' to accept his homage, and
offered to submit the dispute to the judgment of the barons.
It was easily adjusted; and men discerned that King Louis
was a real power even beyond the Loire. Thence to the
Northern border; to Bruges, where the Provost Bertulf had
set on his nephew Buchard to slay Charles the Good at his
prayers in church. The King avenged him brutally, with
fiendish malignity of punishment; and then, as Suger says,
' having washed and rebaptized Flanders with much blood,'
he made William Clito the Norman, his prot^gd, their Count.
Thence he returned home ; and as soon as he was gone the
Flemings cast William out; and presently he perished at the
siege of Alost. Then Louis and Henry of England agreed to
appoint Thierry of Alsace Count of Flanders. Thus was the
King's activity felt from North to South.
He was much oppressed by his infirmities and needed help ;
so, like his fathers, he had his eldest son Philip crowned King
in 1 129. But in 1131, when the lad was sixteen, as he was
riding out of Paris with his men, in the suburb a ' diabolical pig ' 1
ran between his horse's legs, and down came steed and rider.
The boy was picked up senseless, and died that night, to the
infinite grief of his parents, and of all the great men of the land.
They buried the ' hope of the realm,' this boy of high promise,
at St. Denis, and within a fortnight crowned in his stead his
brother Louis, ' the Young,' a little lad, in the presence of a
vast crowd from every part ; Aquitanians, Germans, English,
Spaniards, being there z ; and from their presence the happiest
auguries were drawn ; — auguries not destined to be verified by
time. During these same years troubles fell on Normandy. In n 29
the Empress Matilda, widow of Henry V, heiress of Normandy
and England, married Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou,
Maine, and Touraine. On the death of Henry I, the Norman
1 Suger, Vita L. G. in Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 12. p. 59.
2 Ibid.

264 LOUIS VI, SURNAMED LE GROS. A.D. 1135.
barons and the citizens of London passed them both over, and
in 1 135 chose as King of England Stephen of Blois, a grand
son of William the Conqueror. Hence sprang a wild and
desolating war in Normandy, as well as in England.
While Louis, worn out by illness and his bulk, against which
he chafed and fought in vain, was devoutly preparing for death,
there came messengers to him from William of Aquitaine with
a proposal of great moment. William had a daughter, Eleanor;
her he offered in marriage to the boy-King, Louis the Young.
The old King, rejoicing greatly, and hoping that the rich and
civilised South would hereby become a part of the kingdom,
spent all his remaining energies in hastening his son's departure,
entrusting him to the care of his most valued friend, the Abbot
Suger. The child-bride and bridegroom met at Bordeaux ; in the
presence of the chief men of the South the marriage took place,
and Eleanor was crowned Queen of France. The two dying
princes, the fathers of the pair, did not live to hear the end :
William never returned from his pilgrimage to Compostella,
whither he went to make but a poor and tardy acknowledgment
for a life of crime; Louis, on his way to die at St. Denis,
yearning once more to see the home of his pious boyhood,
was seized with the pains of death at Paris, and expired, lying
on a cloth strewn with ashes. They buried him in a worthy
place among his fathers at St. Denis (a.d. 1137).
Thus ended the formal independence of Aquitaine, and at
the same moment the great founder of the royal power of
France breathed his last, without seeing the fulfilment of his
life's labours. He was a noble king, a noble man. His loving
biographer, Suger, has left us a full account of his energy,
ability, merriment in health, and cheerfulness in sickness, — ' he
was so mirthful that some even reckoned him a simpleton,' — his
piety and humbleness of heart, his untiring activity of life, his
holy end. He tells us, too, of the love his friends bore him,
and of the gratitude of the common folk towards him. ' As he
seemed to recover health, shortly before his death, and rode
a horse, or was carried in his litter, he came to Meudon on the

A.D. 1137. REVIVAL OF THE CHURCH. 265
Seine : as he went all men ran together from castle and town,
or from the plough-tail in the field, to meet him and show
their devotion to the King, who had protected them and given
them peace V
Had his work been less thoroughly done, it could not have
survived the folly of his successor. As it was, Louis the Young
and his queen, instead of uniting all France in one great king
dom, retarded for half a century, though they could not stop,
the building up of the French monarchy.
While France was waking to a sense of national unity, she
was also rising in moral dignity, through the influence of the
reviving Church. Her noblest architecture dates from this
time ; and a nation's life may be said to be marked by its
buildings as much as by its speech. In these days ' Gothic '
architecture was born. The massive Romance churches gave
place to the more cheerful French style. The huge column
was enriched with light and graceful shafts ; the circular arch,
unbroken, unyielding, was replaced by a sharp-pointed one.
The conventional and heavy ornament of the older period gave
way before more graceful and natural forms. The chief
practical agent in this change seems to have been the discovery
of the groined vault. The difficulty of supporting a heavy
stone-vaulting had hitherto checked the ambition of architects,
for the long barrel vault required a continuous support. How
ever in the earlier part of the twelfth century the system of
placing the vault on a frame-work of stone ribs was gradually
elaborated. In the latter part of the century it began to be
employed in the great cathedrals. Its effects reached very far.
The difficult barrel vault was abandoned ; by the new system the
weight of the roof could be distributed on a number of distinct
points. These were supported from outside by flying buttresses,
and the rest of the wall could be turned into window tracery
and painted glass 2.
1 Suger, Vita Lud. Grossi, Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 12. p. 62.
2 This is the change in architecture from what is called in England the
' Norman ' to the ' Early English ' ; from St. Cross to Romsey Abbey, from
Romsey Abbey to Salisbury Cathedral.

266 LOUIS VI, SURNAMED LE GROS. A.D. 1137.
The Church, in fact, rose as a mistress and a mother. The
King was devoted to her service ; the feudal world pledged its
homage to her; the chief minds of the age were reckoned
among her children. Bernard, ' last of the Fathers,' Abelard,
the subtle Rationalist, Suger, the prudent politician, were the
three greatest names of the time. St. Bernard, the great Abbot
of Clairvaux, the Pope's champion and adviser, moved alike in
the Church and the world as the guiding spirit of the religious
revival. He made peace or war, taking part in all the affairs
of Europe, and carrying into all an intrepid and clear faith,
a warmth of devotion, and a noble purity of conduct. Over
against him we may set Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, the poli
tician, the King's champion, a man far in advance of his times,
sound and practical ; capable of feeling all the movements of
the day : at one time a courtly abbot with princely train, at
another moment a humble ascetic, influenced by the revival of
the age, and winning a reputation for piety, even for sanctity ;
a scholar, and for the age a writer of taste, a consummate man
of business, who could build a noble church, and recover the
lapsed possessions^of his abbey, or sit in the councils of his
prince as chief, governing the kingdom with singular sagacity
and success. And Abelard, who had been an unwilling sojourner
at St. Denis when Suger was first made abbot, a name of
romance, the most learned scholar and most luckless lover of
his time ; who brought back to the world the supremacy
of Aristotle ; who roused the desire to inquire into the causes
of things ; who founded all knowledge on the human reason
and on the investigation of facts ; who wrote bold treatises on
things the most mysterious, even on the nature of the Holy
Trinity : — he it is who established the intellectual reputation of
Paris, and, though he bowed his head before the clergy, and
did not dare to measure swords with St. Bernard, began a new
and all-important epoch in the history of Philosophy.

CHAPTER VI.
Louis VII, ' the Young I and the Growth of
Civic Liberties, A.D. 1137-1180.
Louis VI had been a firm friend to and defender of the
Church ; Louis VII, the Young, was its slave. The strong
man drew strength from the connection ; the weak man only
displayed his weakness. Brought up by the piety of his father
under Suger's eye among the monks of St. Denis, he sucked in
prejudice and feebleness from the cloister, while he learnt nothing
of real wisdom from the sagacious abbot. Yet, though Suger
could not give him wisdom, he impressed him with respect for
it ; and the weak King, deferring often to his tutor's judgment,
was saved from utterly marring his father's work. He listened
to Suger because he honoured him as a Churchman, not be
cause he recognised in him the shrewd, long-headed man of the
world. The monkish historians cannot enough praise the monkish
King. Stephen of Paris begins with high hopes of him, ' so
pious, so clement, so catholic and kindly, that were you to see
his bearing and simplicity of dress you might think he was not
a king, but some good monk '.' His queen afterwards said
something like this, not meaning it as a compliment. ' He loved
justice,' adds Robert, ' and defended it with zeal ; he was in life
and conversation a thorough Churchman.' And Stephen, eye
witness of his hero's doings in this earlier time, adds two tales,
as to his humility before the Church : how he made even the
lowest sexton and bedell go before him into the church; and
how he humbled himself at St. Denis one day for having, without
1 Robert of Paris, in Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 12. p. 89.

268 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1137.
leave of the community, supped at their charges, at Creteil one
night, when overtaken by the darkness before he could ride
on to Paris. No wonder that the monk was delighted with his
piety. This pliant weakness and soft conscience towards the
Church bore its natural fruits, as we shall see. He was called
' the Young' when he came to the throne, being but a lad when
first crowned, and a youth of about eighteen when he became
sole King : he retained the name, and deserved it, as long as
he lived.
For a short time all went tolerably straight. He was crowned
with Eleanor of Aquitaine by his side ; and in that public act
men saw the sign of the alliance of North and South. Yet
ere long he was unable to secure his superiority over the great
house of Toulouse ; and was quickly taught what was the real
extent of his authority over the South.
In this same year of his accession, Stephen of Blois and
England took Lillebonne near the Seine, and passed thence with
his Normans and Flemings into Anjou ; but there a quarrel
arose between the two nations over a ' hose of wine ' 1, and the
invaders had to withdraw into Normandy.
Next, the King plunged into a quarrel with Innocent II,
touching the Church of Bourges. Supported by Suger, he very
properly asserted his right to name the archbishop ; the Pope
replied that he was but a child, and at once consecrated a
nominee of his own. To this quarrel, in which the King was
in the right, are due all his mishaps : — hence sprang the second
Crusade ; hence the divorce ; hence the claims of Henry of
England. For as this dispute went on, Theobald of Cham
pagne thought well to fish in troubled waters, and sided with
the Pope : the angry King attacked his lands, took Vitry by
storm, and burnt down the parish church, with some hundreds
of poor folk in it. The King's conscience smote him after this
horrid act, and he made peace with the Pope, — on condition
that he should do penance by a Crusade. St. Bernard had
throughout supported the Pope against the King; he now
1 ' Una hosa vini, sc. ocrea vino plena,' in England called a ' jack.'

A.D. 1137. THE SECOND CRUSADE. 269
threw himself hotly into the scheme for a second Crusade. He
passed from city to city, preaching, like a second Peter, with
all Peter's enthusiasm and his own power and learning. The
Latins had been losing ground in the East, and now came news
that Edessa, the outpost of Christendom, had fallen to the
Turks with a horrible slaughter of Christians. All Europe was
moved : at Ve'zelay Louis and his young wife took the cross ;
and men hastened to follow their example. The King did
it as a penance for his crime; penance was throughout the
leading thought ; the Crusade was a crusade of criminals.
Suger tried in vain to stem the tide. His clear sight dis
cerned the risk the young French monarchy was running, and
the thankless task which awaited his own old age. But nothing
could turn aside the excitable King ; and Bernard's enthusiasm
easily overbore Suger's prudence : thus these two great church
men, with ever diverging sympathies, took part, even at that
early day, in the constantly recurring struggle between Papal
Empire and French Monarchy.
The fire was kindled through all France. Once more
monasteries grew, churches sprang up. At Chartres, for ex
ample, there was a complete 'revival' : men yoked themselves.
to carts and dragged stones, timber, provisions, for the builders
of the cathedral towers: the enthusiasm spread across Normandy
and France ; everywhere with the same penitential symptoms.
' Humility and affliction on every side ; penitence and confession
of sins; grief and contrition in every heart. You might see
men and women drag themselves on their knees through deep
swamps; scourge themselves ; raise songs and praises to God;
take part in the working of plentiful miracles1.' On such
sensitive ears as these fell that ' heavenly organ,' St. Bernard's
voice, ' after its sort pouring forth the dew of the divine word2';
and France sprang to her feet. It was the same with Germany;
1 So says Robert de Monte (a. D. 114O, in Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 13. 290.
He ends his account of the carts dragged by the devout peasants to Chartres
with the curious reflection that ' you might say it was the fulfilment of the
prophetic words " Spiritus Dei erat in rotis." '
2 Odo of Deuil, in Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 12. p. 92.

270 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1147.
though the Germans did not understand a word, the great
preacher's voice and manner were enough : they took the cross
by thousands. Even Conrad III, the Emperor, with several
princes of the Empire, was carried away by the enthusiasm.
To Bernard, mainspring of the movement, was offered the chief
command ; but he, wiser than Peter, perhaps warned by his
fate, refused to accept it : he set himself, instead, to save the
wretched Jews. For, just as before, the Christian enthusiasm
broke out in cruel persecution of these inoffensive people. It
is to the infinite credit of the Saint, that he threw the mantle
of his protection over them, and saved them from the horrors
of a fanatical and selfish persecution.
In 1 147 the French army was ready: Conrad with the Ger
mans was a little before them. France was entrusted to the
care of Suger, as Regent, together with the Count of Nevers.
Nevers fled from his responsibilities by taking refuge in a
convent ; Suger then in reality administered the realm alone,
with the Archbishop of Rheims and the Count of Verrnandois
as his nominal assessors.
Nothing could be more wretched than the result of this grand
Crusade, headed by the two greatest princes of Christendom.
Conrad pushed on across Asia Minor without provisions or
trustworthy guides. He fell into the hands of the Turks, who
routed him utterly. The poor remnant of his host, some five
to six thousand, fell back on the French, who had also suffered
much from the Byzantine Emperor ', and were painfully moving
along the coast of Asia Minor. At every step they felt Greek
treason and Turkish enmity ; until at last, on their reaching
Attalia, it was agreed that the King with his knights should take
ship, and the rest push on by land to Antioch. Thus the
unstable King left his flock to its fate ; to a fate of death or
slavery. It is said that he did it reluctantly ; anyhow it is one
of those things which no true King of men could have done at
all. Very different was the conduct of St. Louis in a somewhat
1 The bishop of Langres actually advised Louis to storm Constantinople,
and make it a true bulwark for Europe against the Infidels. But the King,
loyal to his vow, refused to do it, and went on.

A.D. 1148. RESULT OF THE CRUSADE. 271
similar case. Of all that mighty host of pilgrims, reckoned at
nearly half a million, scarcely ten thousand reached the Holy
Land. From Antioch the King pushed on, caring only to fulfil
his vow, and do penance for the scene at Vitry ; and so made
his way to Jerusalem. There, on the altar of the church
of the Sepulchre, he offered up the lives of that great host
which he had misled and abandoned : with half a million souls
he bought his absolution ; while with it he also won the aliena
tion and hatred of his queen, and consequent loss of all Southern
France, and the utter disgrace and discredit of his reign. He
turned his face homewards, after a miserable attempt to take
Damascus, which only showed the discord of the Christians,
and added somewhat to the great and useless sacrifice of life
that had been made. Nor was he allowed to reach France
without further disgrace. The Greeks captured him on the
high seas ; he was rescued by the Sicilian Normans, who put
him ashore safely on the French coast, in 1149. So he re
turned home, a miserable degraded being; he had abandoned
his army, his queen Eleanor had abandoned him, with expres
sions of uttermost contempt: unstable as water, he could not
excel. One thing alone came out of this Crusade1 The German and
French armies having joined, and the remnant of the Germans
having ranged themselves under the French King's banner, the
French learnt to look on Louis as at least the equal of Conrad
the Emperor : they felt they were a nation of one speech, while
the Germans were a nation of another ; that is, they felt them
selves marked off from other people by distinct national char
acteristics : a clear step forward in the growth of the French
Monarchy. Louis found France stronger and more compact than when
he set out. Suger as Regent had repressed turbulence and
crime, had administered the King's estates prudently, had done
justice, had helped the poor and oppressed, until his name
spread to distant lands, and men came from far to see the
1 La Vallee, Histoire des Francais, torn. 1. p. 327.

272 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1149.
wisdom of this new Solomon. With joy and thankfulness, as
a good steward, he rendered up his charge into the King's hands ;
and went humbly home to St. Denis, whence he seldom after
wards came forth, living only to protect the poor, the v/idow
and the fatherless, and to administer the affairs of the Abbey
with the same wisdom and success which had attended his
management of the greater business of the kingdom 1. So he
spent the rest of his days in peace: — Suger, the poor monk,
one of the true founders of the French kingdom.
Louis, left to himself, soon went wrong. On his return to
France, Suger had prudently advised him to dissemble his
grievance against Eleanor his wife, seeing that an open breach
would rend France asunder. But the foolish King consented to
a divorce, after a slight and heartless opposition ; and Eleanor
left the court, bearing with her Poitou and Aquitaine as dower
for the next husband she might choose. St. Bernard, at the
time of the quarrel between Louis and the Pope, had accused
the King of marrying his cousin 2 : and doubtless the accusation
stuck in the King's tender conscience, making him all the more
ready to acquiesce in the divorce. After a romantic journey, in
which she narrowly escaped more than one turbulent suitor,
eager to carry off the heiress, Eleanor reached Poitiers in safety;
and before long found in Henry of Anjou a worthy mate. In
1 152 he had succeeded to his father's lordships. He was
Count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine ; he had strong hold on
Normandy, indefinite but not despicable claims on England ;
a brave soul of his own, and a strong hand to take and
keep. Wherewith he wedded the great heiress, in spite
of the King, who, as his suzerain, forbade the banns. He
wedded her and went at once to do homage to the King,
his liege, for the very lands he had in fact wrenched out of
his hand.

1 See the Encyclical Letter of the Chapter of St. Denis on his death ;
CEuvres Completes de Suger, p. 404.
2 Hugh Capet's wife was sister to William Fier-a-Bras, Eleanor's grand
father, so that Eleanor was the king's cousin seven times removed.

A.D. 1153. HENRY PLANTAGENET. 273
In vain did Louis make league in 1152 with Stephen of
England, Geoffrey of Anjou, Henry's younger brother, and
Henry of Champagne, to check the growing power of the great
Count of Anjou. Henry was far stronger than the three ; he
forced Louis to make peace, securing his position in Frances
as lord from sea to sea, from the Norman coast to the Gulf
of Lyons. Then he crossed over into England, a new Con
queror, at the head of a strong army, and the English barons,
all discontented, fell to him. Stephen made what peace he
could, recognising him as his heir. And thus Henry overcame
the coalition in the usual way ; dividing its members, and con
quering them in detail. Next year Stephen died, and Henry
ascended the English throne without a murmur '. The great
controversy between England and France takes definite shape
from this time, in the form of a life-and-death struggle for the
French monarchy and nation. At first the contest lay between
two Frenchmen, and between lord and vassal (for Henry had
done homage to Louis for his possessions on the mainland), not
yet between two equal sovereigns, and two proud and hostile
nations. Still the general issue was the same in the earlier age,
though the high interest of the later periods was wanting. The
present struggle lay half-way between the old squabbles and
half-private wars arising out of feudal relationships, and the
new and grander wars which were soon to spring up between
monarch and monarch, nation and nation. A day would come
when the very throne of France would be claimed by an English
king; and the claim all but established by the sword. This
later quarrel lay involved in the earlier one ; and Henry of
Anjou, with his determined character and splendid resources,
might well, even without hereditary claims, have joined the
French crown to that of England. From the weakness of Louis
the Young no obstacles could arise : the growing sense of
national life in Northern France alone resisted and staved off
the evil day, till the vigorous son of this poor creature became
King, and then the peril passed away for a time.
1 William of Newbridge, Bk. 13. p. 102.
VOL. I. T

274 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1153.
No men could be more utterly unlike than Henry and
Louis ; and it was no small part of the invariable ill-fortune of
the French King that he was forced to stand, in all his littleness,
side by side with the bold form of the successful Count of Anjou,
who is one of the grandest figures in the history of royalty. In
the words of the Anjou chronicler he was ' vigorous in war,
marvellous in prudence of reply, frugal in habits, munificent
to others, sober, kindly, peaceable1.' He secured his broad
territories and held them wisely and firmly. He reformed
England, driving out the locust-cloud of Flemings who had
come over in his predecessor's train, abolished ' certain
imaginary earls ; bore himself so wisely, defended himself so
manfully, that all men, even his foes, praised him.' And if in
later life he gave way to his passions, and his strong nature
grew more vehement, we must remember that never was prince
so sorely tried 2-
Against so great a rival what chance had the French King ?
— a man whom his wife despised and escaped from — carrying
her knowledge of his weakness straight into the enemy's camp ;
a man who was the humble servant of the clergy, and yet
too impetuous and unstable to follow their advice ; who threw
away half his strength, and did not know how to husband
the remainder : who had been foiled in the south, and had
deserted his soldiers in the East : — how could men trust in
him, and rally round him in his struggle against the King of
England ?
In 1 1 56 Henry gathered a great army to subdue Ireland,
but diverted it from its purpose, and landed on the French
coast, to support his claims to the remains of his father's pro
perty in Anjou and the Breton country. He and his allies
disturbed the whole land, from the Pyrenees to the borders of
Flanders ; but we have no record of noteworthy deeds. Two
years later (a.d. 1159) Henry marched on Toulouse, and might
1 In Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 12. p. 482.
2 It must be remembered also that the monkish historians are certain to
have exaggerated his faults. They had a natural antipathy to a strong
man ; especially if he opposed all they counted most sacred.

A.D.1156. HENRY AND LOUIS. 275
have taken it ; his dominions would then have reached the Medi
terranean. Louis however threw himself into the city and Henry
retired. He was not accustomed to surrender for a scruple obvious
material advantages, and there is something strangely impressive
in the respect paid by such a man to his feudal obligations '.
In the next year the King made peace. Henry, the English
King's son, did homage for Normandy to Louis, and soon after
espoused Margaret, the French King's daughter, who brought
him Gisors and two other castles on the Norman border as her
dower, places which were said to pertain of right to the duchy.
Next year King Henry made vigorous use of this peace.
He prevented others from building offensive strongholds on
his frontiers ; he strengthened all his border-fastnesses, espe
cially Gisors ; made a park and a palace hard by Rouen ;
restored the hall and chambers by the tower of that city ; for
Rouen, rather than London, seemed to him the centre and
capital of that Anglo-French monarchy which all his life he
struggled to found and consolidate ; he built a fine lazar-house ;
and in many ways showed activity and discretion. The same
he did in Aquitaine, in England, in Anjou, and elsewhere.
A little before this time he had begun to lay hands on Brittany ;
and, after a resistance which lasted for ten years (a.d. 1156-
1166), he compelled the sturdy duchy to do him homage.
Henceforward Brittany, hitherto so isolated and independent,
enters into our history, and takes her share in the struggles
¦between France and England, though in language, manners,
and feeling, she was still — nay, has continued to be up to our
own day — distinct from the rest of France.
Thus, by about the year 1 160, Henry had secured Normandy,
Poitou, and Aquitaine ; had feudal suzerainty over Auvergne ;
was lord of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine ; had firm hold on
Nantes, with good hopes of the rest of Brittany ; had wrested
1 Robert de Monte, App. ad Sigebertum, in Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 12.
p. 303 : ' Urbem totam Tolosanam noluit obsidere, deferens Ludovico Regi
Francorum, qui eamdem urbem contra regem Henricum Anglia muniverat.'
Henry afterwards showed a like respect for his feudal obligations, to his
own loss, in the boyish years of Philip Augustus.
T 2

276 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1160.
Quercy from Toulouse ; had subjected Gascony ; was ally to
Champagne, and protector of Flanders. And yet, with all
this overwhelming power, he had now reached the highest
limit of his success, and could do no more, even against the
feebleness of Louis VII.
For, as he grew older, the worse side of his character became
stronger. He made the clergy his bitter foes. He tried to
curb that dangerous power by the Constitutions of Clarendon,
which were passed in n 64, and were designed to bring the
clergy under secular restraints : the quarrel soon broke out into
open war. On the one side was the king, with his barons
and some bishops ; on the other side, Becket, Archbishop of
Canterbury, once the King's favourite and chancellor, now his
deadly opponent. Behind Thomas were the Pope and the French
King, as well as the general favour of the English clergy, and
the national dislike and resistance of the English, who had no
sympathy with the foreign king, who was not even like the
Normans who had conquered them and settled down among
them. Thus, at the end of Louis' reign, the two Kings were
nearly evenly balanced. This period may be divided into two
parts ; — the struggle between Henry and the Archbishop
(a.d. 1164-1170), and that between the King and his undutiful
wife and children (a.d. ii 73-1 180). In spite of all, Henry
persisted, strengthened himself in Brittany, lost no ground in
Aquitaine, and conquered Ireland. His plan was to yield
nothing of worth, but to show himself ever ready to be.
reconciled to Becket, who with his many reservations and
his obstinacy sorely tried the irritable monarch's temper ; to
enlist the good will of the easy-going Pope, Alexander III,
as we see in his appeal to him to sanction the conquest of
Ireland ; and to pay the utmost respects to his suzerain, so
far as homage and declarations went, as we see at the opening
of the contest between the kings for the possession of Auvergne.
Auvergne was on the skirts of either power : the French
King's influence had spread beyond the Loire, and the English
King's claim on Aquitaine included those of suzerainty over

A.D. 1160. HENRY AND BECKET. 277
it. So, when Louis redressed the wrongs done by William,
Count of Auvergne, to the Bishops of Clermont and Puy,
though Henry wrote to beg he would hand over to him the
illdoers, being his vassals, still he fully recognised the French
King's rights as superior lord, and declared that he would
' do whatever he ought, as to his lord V Thus, as he often
did almost ostentatiously, he proclaimed himself the French
King's vassal.
Moreover, while Henry's power was thus suffering from his
contest with the Church, a mishap befell him, the whole import
ance of which did not appear until after his death. In 1 1 60
Constance, King Louis's second queen, died in giving birth to
a daughter. ' The King and the whole realm were exceedingly
sad thereat ; but, afterwards comforted by his barons, he some
what forgot his deep sorrow,' — and (fifteen days after the poor
lady's death !) wedded Ala or Alice, daughter of Theobald of
Blois, a noted beauty of the court. She, in n 65, bore him
a son (as yet he had none but daughters), to the great joy
of all France. Well-omened names were bestowed on him :
he was the ' God-given,' the ' Magnanimous,' the 'August ' ; —
Philip Augustus, who was destined to raise the contest between
England and France to really national proportions, and to
teach the English King to regard England, and not Normandy,
as the true centre of his dominions ; who was destined also both
to expand and consolidate the French Monarchy.
It is not ours to relate the painful contest between angry
King and stubborn Prelate, in which it is impossible to feel
full sympathy with either. The French King supported Becket ;
the English King was not, as one might have expected, opposed
by the Pope. Alexander III was a man of a determined char
acter, but at this time he was engaged in a prolonged struggle
with one of the greatest of the Emperors, Frederick Barbarossa.
Ceaseless negotiation, more or less sincere, went on. At one
moment Becket, at Ve'ze'lay, is thundering excommunications
1 Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 12. p. 130: ' Faciam quicquid debuero,
sicut domino.'

278 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1170.
against the followers of 'the old customs of England,' and
heralding the dawn of the new glories of the Papacy; at another
time, the King interposes to reconcile the foes ; again, the Pope
himself sends his messengers, whose names and fruitless mission
the chronicler turns into a pretty pun1. At last, in n 70, the
great crime and greater blunder was committed ; Becket fell,
a martyr in the eyes of the Church, victim of a courageous and
inflexible adherence to his principles. When Henry heard of
his death he was struck with horror — at least he seemed to be
so. For days he shut himself up in his chamber, refusing
sustenance. He saw at once that his foe would be more
formidable dead than alive, and hastened to disavow the act of
the four knights. He offered to take the cross ; he was com
pelled to repeal the Constitutions of Clarendon ; he spent large
sums of money at Rome — and money he always had at com
mand, like a prudent prince ; — he swore that he would support
Alexander and his successors, so long as they recognised him
as 'a catholic king'; swore that he would not hinder appeals
to Rome ; that he would take the cross for three years, and go
in person to Jerusalem ; and he would give the Templars money
to pay two hundred soldiers for a year z ; he allowed the Bull
of the yearly celebration of the Martyr's memory to be published
in England. In a word, he took in much sail, and so weathered
the storm.
As yet the French King could reap no advantage from all
this humiliation. It was from another, and that a very un
expected side, that his revenge was to come ; namely, from
Eleanor, the wife of his own youth, the wife of Henry's manhood.
Whether or no the romance and tragedy of fair Rosamond
be true, it is certain that, in 1172, Eleanor declared herself
deeply wronged by her husband, and set herself to rouse her
Aquitanians to revolt. Louis played a mean part in this sad
drama, by poisoning the mind of Henry Courtmantel against
1 ' Sicut penes Regem Gratianus gratiam non invenit, sic nee penes Archi-
episcopum aliqua vivat Vivianus in memoria ! ' — Dom Bouquet, Recueil,
torn. 13. p. 118.
2 Benedict of Peterborough (ed. Stubbs), 2. p. 32.

A.D. 1172. DEFEATED BY HENRY. 279
his father; under his influence the young man summoned
King Henry to give up to him either England, or Normandy
and Anjou. In order to enforce this demand Louis, at the
head of a great league of Frenchmen, Flemings, men of
Chartres, Champagne, Poitou, Brittany, attacked Normandy
and Anjou, which defended themselves in a very half-hearted
way. Then Henry II fell back on his last reserve, his treasures,
and with them called out of the earth an army of defenders
of a kind hitherto but little known in European warfare.
The lawless times, and especially the Crusades, had created
a large floating population of unsettled adventurers, who were
usually called Brabancons (as many came from Brabant), or
Cottereaux, from their long knives. These wild fighting men
crowded gladly round a King who offered war and pay ; he
enrolled, some say ten, some twenty, thousand of them. They
formed a rude standing army, a new power, which was
not hampered by feudal customs : the King could keep them
afield as long as he would, and, while he had them out, could
handle them far more certainly than he could the half-inde
pendent barons, who answered his summons, and did him
feudal service. With this new army he faced Louis VII, who
had seized and burnt Vemeuil by an act of low treason '
Henry routed him, then quelled the Bretons; then, in the
following year, mastered Anjou and the south-west ; then came
swiftly back to England, where he recovered his influence by
doing ostentatious penance at Becket's shrine ; — with what
strange feelings and thoughts, as the monks laid the scourge
across his bare shoulders, who shall say ! Tidings reached
him at the same moment of the taking of William of Scot
land; and he felt he might safely return to France. There
he relieved Rouen ; and, in the same autumn, received the
submission of his three rebel sons, Henry, Richard, and
Geoffrey. Geoffrey retained Brittany, Richard became Duke
of Aquitaine ; where, in spite of the patriotic songs of Bertram
1 See Benedict of Peterborough, Gesta Regis Henrici II, vol. 1. p. 54
(ed. Stubbs).

280 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1180.
de Born, who roused all the fire of the South by his stirring
' Sirventes ' or war-songs, his vigour, courage, and military
genius entirely crushed the spirit of resistance in Poitou and
Guienne. A new element of discord arose in these warm southern
climes ; their quicker intellect, their higher though perhaps
more corrupt civilisation, led the Southerners into strange forms
of belief, and the authority of the Church was shaken. Louis
was called in to stop the tide ; but he was very reluctant to
interfere in the way of persecution.
His days were now drawing to an end. In 1179, being
hard on sixty years of age, and already touched with paralysis,
he called a great assembly at Paris, and told them his wish that
his boy, Philip, should forthwith be crowned at Rheims. All
princes and prelates applauded ; and, after a short delay, caused
by the King's illness, Philip was crowned at the age of fifteen.
There are two circumstances to be noted at this coronation :
one, that the Cathedral of Rheims was thereby marked out as
the future coronation-place of all French kings ; the other, that
the ' Twelve Peers of France ' are said to have been present
at the ceremony. These were the nobles who held the great
fiefs immediately from the Crown. It was a common rule of
feudal law that a noble could only be tried by his equal or
peer, but history does not tell us when the great feudatories
of the Crown claimed the exclusive title of peer. Probably
Philip Augustus, hearing himself frequently compared to Charle
magne, restricted the peers to the number twelve, in imitation
of the twelve legendary peers who surrounded that monarch.
At any rate we find after this time twelve peers, six lay, and six
ecclesiastical. They were the Dukes of Normandy, Burgundy,
Guienne, the Counts of Champagne, Flanders, Toulouse ; the
Archbishop of Rheims, and the Bishops of Laon, Noyon,
Chalons, Beauvais, and Langres \
1 It is worth noting that the immediate vassals of the Duchy of France,
who held of the King as Duke, not as King, were not Peers of France.
— Duruy, Hist, de France, 1. 298.

A.D.1180. HIS DEATH. 281
Thus, for five generations without a break, the custom of
crowning the son during his father's lifetime had been recom
mended by the King, and accepted readily by the nobles and
people. The ' King never died ' ; and the result was, that the
thought of changing the hereditary succession seems never to
have entered the French mind. Of all the hereditary crowns
in Europe, the French became the most firmly established.
The father lingered on a few months at Paris, passing away
in September, n 80: he was buried in the Abbey-church of
Barbeaux, near Me'lun, which he himself had built. Thus
ended, in peace and silence, the long, stormy, inglorious reign
of Louis VII, ' the Young.' A prince pious, learned, gentle,
he wins all praise from his monkish biographer, save that
he could not be roused to persecute the Jews. He brought
much land into cultivation ; built many churches and abbeys ;
set the example of enfranchising serfs; founded many of the
' new towns,' the Villeneuves of France ; advanced to some
extent, where it did not clash with other interests, the Com
munal movement ; he issued four-and-twenty charters for cities.
and confirmed the ancient privileges of the Paris merchants.
With the great Abbot Suger at his side, he was saved, doubt
less, from many blunders : if he leaves behind him no great
name, he still has the honour of having done less than many
French kings to hinder the welfare of the people ; while, in
glorious as his reign was in many ways, it formed a useful
complement to his father's. Louis VI was the practical man,
the hard fighter, determined at all cost to be undisputed master
of the country round Paris from the Oise to the Loire, and to
free himself from the grasp of the house of Blois. He cared
little, apparently, about the rest of France. He was never seen
in Aquitaine or Languedoc, hardly ever in the western provinces
of the kingdom. His indefatigable activity was spent in securing
once for all the home of the French monarchy. With Louis VII,
on the other hand, began the expansion of that monarchy. At
first the growth of the royal dominions was too rapid, and it is
probable that even Louis VI could not have kept a firm hold on

282 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1180.
Aquitaine. But the younger Louis was brought into close and
constant connection with his most distant vassals. The King
of France appeared once more at the head of his troops in
Languedoc and the Rhone valley, and not to' have succumbed
before the power and activity of Henry Plantagenet might well
be accounted a notable victory.
From Hugh Capet to Louis VII the monarchy grew, though
slowly, in power. The revenue in the last year of Louis VII is
computed at about £220,000, orfrom £1,500,000 to £2,000,000
of our money. Under Louis's successor the revenue doubled
itself. The King's resources were almost solely derived from
the royal domain, and as the domain was small, so were
the resources. These Kings governed by means of a Court or
Council, in which all matters, judicial, legislative, and executive,
were discussed. At first the great lords attended these Councils,
but gradually the feudal element diminishes, and we find a dis
tinction between the ' curiales,' or regular ministers of the King,
and the ' fideles,' or ordinary subjects, convoked sometimes in
large, sometimes in small numbers to give greater solemnity to
the proceedings. These curiales were often small men, skilled
in affairs, rather than illustrious by birth or inheritance. They
filled the five great offices of the Court, namely those of cham
berlain, seneschal, chancellor, butler and constable, and thus an
official class was created, trained in the methods and spirit of
absolute monarchy. As in former days, many of the royal
officials were clerics, for the obligatory training of the clergy
gave them the kind of knowledge necessary for the conduct
of secretarial and legal affairs.
Perhaps the most striking fact in the history of France during
the eleventh and twelfth centuries is the great popular movement,
which issued in the Associations of Peace, the free towns (villes
affranchies), and the Communes. Everywhere there were signs
that the lower classes were growing restless under the feudal yoke.
The inroads of the Northmen in the ninth century had driven
men to seek the shelter of town-walls, and as the prosperity of
the towns grew their independence increased. In some towns

A.D. 1180. THE COMMUNES. 283
(for instance St. Quentin, Cambrai, PeVonne, Laon) a governing
nucleus already existed in the mayor and ^chevins, who are
descendants of the ' vicarius ' and ' scabini ' of Carolingian times.
In others the townsmen knit themselves together in associations
for the purpose of trade, and the merchant societies of Picardy,
Artois, and the north-eastern regions soon grew into republican
communities. Elsewhere, at Poitiers, Mantes, and Chateauneuf
for instance, the Commune grew out of a religious society, but
in all cases the rule was the same; smaller unions within the
town led at last to the emancipation of the town itself. This
emancipation was often only partial. In the ' villes affranchies,'
for instance, the lord retained the right to try, fine, and hang the
inhabitants, but instead of levying dues and corvees from the
individuals of the community, he received a fixed sum from the
corporation. The Communes however went a step further, and
wrested judicial 1 as well as financial independence from their
lords. They remained, indeed, liable as a whole to those feudal
obligations, which had formerly bound each individual in their
community. Thus the Commune pays homage and aids to
its lords, and sends men to fight under his banner; although.
the Commune did not stand outside the feudal hierarchy, the
Communal charter was a great boon to its recipients. The
serfs were no more liable to ' taille ' or ' mainmorte '; the lords
and clergy were generally excluded. Even in the country
districts villages began to band themselves together into
Communes, and petition for a charter.
The Communal movement was favoured by the violent
antagonisms between the nobles and the clergy. Thus in
Burgundy the Dukes sought to balance the power of the great
abbeys by founding Communes. Thus too the Communes of
Ponthieu are due to the Counts' jealousy of the local clergy.
The fact was that the nobles were more needy and less jealous
of their rights than the clergy, and so were very willing to sell a
charter, if thereby they could diminish the influence of a bishop,
1 This, however, was not always the case. Thus, at Rouen, the Duke
of Normandy reserved the ' haute justice.'

284 LOUIS VII, THE YOUNG. A.D. 1180.
an abbot, or a cathedral chapter. The attitude of the Kings
towards the Communes varied with their interests. Louis VI and
Louis VII were half friendly, half hostile. They took care not
to grant communal liberties in their own domain, but were glad
to do so, where the effect of their action would be to lessen the
power of some great noble or cleric. Under Philip Augustus and
Louis VIII the Crown adopted a less equivocal attitude. Philip
Augustus saw the full military and financial value of these
young republics. He was careful therefore to grant communal
liberties along the lines of his frontier, so that in the Communes
he might possess a ring of strong and self-supporting fortresses.
Then with the successors of Louis VIII the attitude of the Crown
changed once more. In the thirteenth century the Communes
generally became bankrupt. Their affairs had got into the
hands of municipal oligarchies, who were either corrupt or
ignorant of finance. The town budgets were burdened by
heavy taxes or seigneurial dues. The lower classes became
restive and turbulent. The interference of the Crown was
often solicited, and the Kings eagerly seized the opportunity
of liquidating the finances and annulling the liberties of the
Communes '.
1 A very small proportion of towns ever gained absolute independence.
The Charter of Beaumont was adopted by more than 500 places, and was
readily granted by lord or bishop because it only gave a semi-independence.
Almost all the Norman towns, together with Poitiers, Niort, Saintes,
Rochelle, Angouleme, Bayonne, were governed by the ' EtabHssements de
Rouen.' This constitution, granted by Henry II of England, and confirmed
by Philip Augustus, left the choice of the Mayor to the Crown. So too the
Vexin Charters only gave a semi-independence.

CHAPTER VII.
Philip II, sumamed Augustus, A.D. 1 180-1223.
Philip Augustus was fifteen years old, when he began to
reign alone : yet, boy though he was, he never for a moment
swerved from his course, or made a false step in it. Coming so
young to his crown, he grasped with all a boy's eagerness at the
dignity of the royal name ; and being proud of disposition and not
without a tendency to romance, he at once set his kingship in
his own mind far above all, even the greatest of his neighbours ;
while at the same time he pleased his imagination with dreams
of the restoration of a Caroling realm, to which his attention
was specially called by his first marriage ; he deemed himself
destined to recover the whole breadth of the Empire of Charles
the Great. There is a story, which may well be true, to the
effect that when he was scarcely twenty years old, his courtiers
saw him gnawing a green bough, and glaring about him
wildly. One of them asked him boldly what he was thinking
of; and he replied, ' I am wondering whether God will grant
me or my heirs grace to raise France once more to the height
she reached in the days of Charlemagne ! ' For forty-three
years he pursued this end, and brought to bear on it a cold
pertinacity, a freedom from uneasy scruples, a clear sagacity
in conceiving crafty plans, and constancy in carrying them
out. No wonder that his reign is an epoch in the history of
French monarchy, and that he succeeded in raising the royal
power far above the highest level it had hitherto reached.

286 . PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1180.
I. First Period, a.d. 1180-1^99.
When Louis 'the Fat' died in 1137, he had taken good care
not to allow the unity of the kingdom to be weakened by
those grants to younger sons, which so often had undone the
work of a lifetime : he left, in substance, all the royal domain
to his successor, Louis the Young. Fortunately for the mon
archy, this weak prince left only one son, and had therefore
no temptation to divide his territories ; and Philip Augustus
succeeded to all the power, which had been painfully gathered
together by his grandfather. The kingly office at this moment
was regarded by men as a power distinct from feudalism, and
as only partly territorial. The King was not merely the head-
baron of the system ; he was possessor of a real, if indefinite,
claim on the respect of mankind, as one solemnly consecrated
to his office, and inheritor in a dim way of the ancient con
ception of kingship ; he was felt to be the brother of the
kings of England and Normandy, and of those of Spain ; as
something between Pope and Emperor on the one side, and the
independent and powerful Dukes (as of Burgundy or Flanders)
on the other. His was an independent and general power,
with claims on the allegiance of all France, the centre round
which the unity of the nation was already beginning to form.
The first act of the young King's reign was a sad one. Glad
to taste the pleasures of power, and urged to it by his clergy,
Philip marked the opening of his career by a violent attack on
the Jews, whom his weaker and more humane father had spared.
They were all banished the realm in 1182. Other like acts
followed. An edict was issued which punished profane swearing
with death; the Paterins also, an obscure sect, who 'ventured
to attempt a reform of morals as well as of dogma1,' were
hunted down and burnt, ' passing ' — so ran the formula- —
'from the short temporal flames to the eternal flames that
awaited them 2.'
1 Sismondi, Hist, des Francais, torn. 6. p. 12.
2 Chron. de S. Denis, p. 350.

A. D. 1184. THE OPENING OF HIS REIGN. 287
Even in his father's life-time, Philip had shown his kinsfolk
that he could and would act for himself. Alice the Queen
and her four brothers had formed a sort of council, in whose
hands the old King left the care of all things. But Philip had
gone to Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, and, without
asking leave of any one, had married Isabella of Hainault, his
niece, by which 'step he allied himself with the older dynasty.
No sooner was the old king gone than almost all the great
vassals, including the Count of Flanders himself, attacked the
youthful king. But he was helped by Henry Courtmantel, son
of Henry of England, and held his own, till winter brought
rest. Henry of England then interfered in hopes of peace.
Philip, in right of his wife, claimed the succession of her
mother Elizabeth of Verrnandois, who had just died; he was
persuaded to content himself with Amiens and some lesser con
cessions. Amiens had been held as fief under its bishop; and
when that churchman claimed homage from Philip Augustus,
the proud boy answered haughtily that he, as King, ' neither
could nor ought to pay homage to any man ' : — and claimed
for monarchy a lofty superiority over feudalism.
Yet did he not disdain the aid that feudalism brought him :
he accepted the homage of Henry of England, and such help
as that great vassal, well-nigh worn out with war and the turbu
lence of his sons, could give. These four sons of his, Henry
Courtmantel, Richard Cceur de Lion, Geoffrey, and John, had
done all they could to destroy their father's power and happi
ness ; and in the end they succeeded in ruining their own
fortunes. They kept up great state and court, with many
followers ; but having neither money nor estates with which to
reward these hangers-on, they were tempted, even against their
own true interests, to struggle for whatever they could get.
Thanks to this, the French monarchy was enabled to rise above
all its dangers. Henry Courtmantel died ; so also Geoffrey,
leaving a posthumous son, Arthur, whose name recalled to the
Bretons their great hero, and towards whom they seemed to be
drawn by all the force of their romantic and imaginative nature.

288 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1185.
Philip now embarked in a series of wars. First, in 1185, he
waged successful warfare against his old friend the Count of
Flanders; successful so far that the Count, although he had
on the whole the best of the fighting, ceded to the King the
county of Vermandois, and confirmed him in possession of
Amiens. Success tempted the young King to go on ; he was
no sooner clear of the Flemish count than he fell on Hugh III,
Duke of Burgundy (a.d. 1185-1186). Hugh appealed to Fre
derick Barbarossa, whose vassal he was for part of his lands ; but
as the Duchy of Burgundy was no part of the ancient Kingdom
of Burgundy1, nor was held under the Empire, Frederick refused
to interfere on another man's ground. Philip relieved Vergy,
besieged by the duke, and encouraged the Burgundian bishops
to carry their grievances before him, raising the remarkable
plea that all churches held direct from the Crown, even though
they were within the borders of the greatest fiefs. He then
took Chatillon-on-Seine, and was moving forwards when Hugh
met him with submission. The young king exacted severe
conditions, to which the great vassal submitted : then, with
a prudence remarkable for his years, and possibly with some
of the generosity of youth, he remitted them all. He was
content to have shown his power, and not less content to
secure the friendship of so strong a neighbour : he also foresaw
a still harder task before him, and desired to make his eastern
frontier quiet and secure.
And now began the many restless years which lay between
the French King and the attainment of his great desire,
the subjection of Normandy. In n 86 we have the first of
a long series of discussions under the ' Elm of Conferences '
between Trie and Gisors : all went peacefully awhile ; but
1 Burgundy was in three parts, lying side by side : (1) the Duchy of
Burgundy which was nearest to France, on the upper Seine and Saone,
south of Champagne, north of the Lyonnais, and was a fief under the
French Crown : (2) then (going eastward) the county of Burgundy or
Franche-Comte, from the east bank of the Saone to the Jura (a fief under
the Empire) : and (3) the lesser Duchy, which occupied a considerable part
of modern Switzerland, and formed the northernmost portion of the ancient
kingdom of Aries (also under the Empire).

A. D. 1185. HIS EARLIER WARS. 289
things were in such a state that pretexts for war were never
wanting. Richard Cceur de Lion had attacked Raymond V of
Toulouse, who called for help on the French King as his lord —
a great change from the older attitude of the southern states.
Next Philip claimed the restitution of Gisors and the Vexin,
which had passed to the other side when Margaret married
Henry Courtmantel. When he died and she married again, the
French King, with no small show of justice, claimed them as
having lapsed to him by her second marriage. There was
a third dispute as to the lordship over Brittany, where the
duke, Geoffrey Plantagenet, was dead ; as his widow gave
birth to a boy, Arthur, this point was thereby settled for a
while. Lastly, Philip pushed on the marriage of his sister
Alix to Richard, who was still at variance with Henry : he
seemed eager for open war with the veteran of England. But
conference followed conference under the ancient elm, truce
followed truce : for the old King could not trust his sons or
his followers, nor did Philip feel quite sure as to the fidelity of
his comrades. War however at last began. Philip attacked
Aquitaine, which was under Richard's care ; the impetuous
prince was false to his father, and seemed likely to go over to
his enemy. Then Henry made peace for two years, on terms
favourable to Philip ; and Richard hastened into the French
King's camp, where he became so friendly with him that they
drank of the same cup, lodged in the same tent, even slept in
the same bed 1.
And now came terrible news from the East. The Christians
had grown even weaker ; till at last, in n 87, Saladin met them
in the Tiberiad, and defeated them utterly after a two days'
battle. The true cross, Guy of Lusignan, the titular Prince
of Antioch, The Grand Masters of the Temple and of St. John,
all fell into the victor's hands. He swept on over the powerless
land, and Jerusalem lay prostrate before him : nothing was left
to the Christians save Tyre, Antioch, and Tripoli. When these
sore tidings reached the West, all men stood still and held their
1 Chron. de S. Denis, p. 365.
VOL. I. U

290 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A. D. 1188.
breath. The Pope, Urban III, died of grief: war, pillage,
debauchery, crime, suddenly ceased : ' Verily we are guilty by
reason of our brother,' was the thought in every heart ; and
the danger was brought home to all minds by the descent of
a vast host of Arabs on the Spanish coast. The voices of the
new Pope, Clement III, and of William, Archbishop of Tyre,
broke the silence ; the Kings of France and England once more
met at Gisors ; they embraced and took the cross. Richard
joined them ; as did a crowd of great princes and barons. The
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa did the same.
Yet even then Philip and Henry could not be still. War
began again in n 88; but now Henry's strength was gone.
His barons deserted him, his sons betrayed him ; he was com
pelled to make a shameful peace, to declare himself Philip's
liegeman in full, to yield Berri, a Duchy lying south of the
, Loire below Orleans, and to promise pardon to all who had
betrayed him. We are told that he asked to see the list of those
whom he was thus compelled to pardon ; and that when he saw
the first name, the name of his favourite son John, for whom
he had done and suffered so much, his heart broke ; and with
a bitter curse on all his childen, he lay down and died.
Henceforth the power of the House of Anjou receded, and the
lordship over France was assured to the house of Capet.
And now the great princes of Europe began to think
seriously of their vow. The brave old Emperor, Frederick
Barbarossa, took the land route ; passed safely through the
snares of Constantinople, and led his army unscathed over
the worst part of the march ; took Iconium, and was pushing
on, when, in crossing some' little river, he was by a trivial
accident swept away and drowned. His Germans fell into
despair ; the Duke of Swabia, who took the command, brought
only about five thousand men through to the camp under the
walls of Ptolemais (Acre).
Richard, impetuous, eager to be gone to fresh fields of
fighting, sold his lands by auction, not content with the large
sums which his father had left behind him. Philip, whose

A.D.1189. DEATH OF HENRY II OF ENGLAND. 291
heart never went with the Crusade, bade his faithful Parisians
fortify their city ; he saw that Paris was to be the heart of
France. They set off, Richard for Marseilles, Philip, who had
no port on the Mediterranean, for Genoa ; and both were con
strained by contrary winds to winter in Sicily. Here jealousies
which might have been avoided in more stirring times, broke
out between the two kings. But Philip patiently endured
the turbulence of his rival, and presently set forth for Ptolemais.
Richard, following later, and being driven by storm to Cyprus,
seized that island and kept it. At last he reached Ptolemais,
and after innumerable skirmishes and feats of arms, the place
capitulated. But the French King liked neither the holy war
nor the wild heroism of the English King, and knew well that
his right place was at home. He was in no sense a knight-
errant ; on the contrary, his cold calculating nature made him
dislike the bootless war, which wasted his resources and did
not even give him barren glory in return. He swore to respect
his rival's territories, handed over his army to Hugh of Bur
gundy, and set sail for home.
As he passed through Rome, he shamelessly tried to persuade
Pope Celeslin III to release him from his oath to respect King
Richard's lands. The Pope however refused to be a party to such
a scandal ; and Philip was compelled to content himself with
doing Richard what harm he could by means of his brother John.
The English King had declared Arthur his heir ; and John in
revenge threw himself into the arms of Philip, whose ungenerous
nature gladly took advantage of his rival's absence.
Richard,' after feats of heroism and gleams of warlike genius,
gave way before the impossibility of his task, made a treaty with
Saladin, securing to the Christians the seaport towns, and a
safe roadway for purposes of pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; and,
having thus done what he could for his cause, set out by sea
for home. Shipwrecked in Dalmatia, he tried to cross Germany
in disguise ; he was detected and taken by his mortal foe,
Leopold of Austria, whose banner he had outraged at Ptolemais.
Leopold handed him over to Henry VI, the Emperor.
v 2

292 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A. D. 1196.
No sooner had tidings of his captivity reached France, than
Philip attacked Normandy, taking Evreux, and besieging
Rouen. John joined him with such help as he could bring.
They did all in their power to persuade the Emperor to hold
the English King prisoner : but the whole of Christendom was
moved at the sight of its hero in chains, and, on hard terms,
Richard was let go free. John at once gave way, and made
his peace with his brother. The war was languid, partial,
indecisive— for both Kings were exhausted by the efforts they
had made in the Holy Land. The upshot was a truce,
under the terms of which Philip became master of Auvergne
in 1 196.
In the next year, however, we find Richard everywhere more
than a match for his rival. The great vassals turned towards
him, jealous of the power of their suzerain. Chateau Gaillard
rose to bar the French King's progress towards Rouen ; for
Richard was aware of the great blunder committed when part
of the Vexin and Gisors were ceded to France, and the road
to Rouen laid bare. He had a true genius for fortification ;
and was not only his own engineer, but his own master of
the works.
In the midst of his successes, the new Pope, Innocent III,
interfered in the interests of peace, and made the two Kings
conclude a truce for five years. But Richard could not rest.
Some one told him that a great treasure had been found in
the Castle of Chalus, near Limoges. After the feudal custom
it pertained to the suzerain, and Richard claimed it. The
Viscount of Limoges either had nothing to give up) or had it
and refused ; whereon Richard attacked the castle. One on the
walls drew a bow on him: as he was looking at the defences;
the arrow wounded him, and after ten days he died. His
men had taken the castle meanwhile, and had hung all the
garrison, except the soldier who had wounded the King. It is
said that Richard, with a gleam of his nobler nature, pardoned
him, and ordered him to be set free ; whether this be so or not,
they kept him till their master was dead, and then put him to

A.D. 1197. RICHARD A CAPTIVE IN GERMANY. 293
a brutal death. Thus the chivalrous King passed away in the
midst of wild scenes of war and murder.
So died the chiefest fighting man of that royal race. Richard
had all the worst qualities of chivalry in an exaggerated form.
He was proud, cruel, turbulent, furious in anger, licentious,
rapacious; but withal heroic in combat, almost to madness;
far in advance of his time in military skill ; splendid in court,
worshipped by his knights. There was a belief at the time
that the house of Anjou were sprung in part from demons ;
and the character and conduct of Henry's four sons gave point
to the popular fable. Richard especially seemed to be given
over to a wild spirit of reckless bravery and as reckless crime.
He was the last King of England who ruled from Rouen :
during all his reign he hardly spent six months in England,
so little did he regard it as his home. When he and Philip
swore faith to each other, before setting forth for Ptolemais,
their oath was that they would defend one another's rights :
Philip, as he would defend his city of Paris ; Richard, as he
would his city of Rouen 1- In this respect a change was now
coming; for the misfortunes of King John's reign drove him
perforce to England, and the loss of Normandy, which we have
next to relate, made London for the future the sole capital of
the kingdom.
II. Philip Augustus adds Normandy to his dominions.
a.d. 1199-1206.
When tidings of Richard's death came to Philip, he must
have felt that the moment for which he had waited so long
was come at last. Against the experience and sagacity of
Henry II he had been able to do but little ; though even from
him he wrested something : and Richard's heroism and warlike
ability had been at least a match for h's cold and cautious
antagonist. Now there remained of all the Plantagenets only
young Arthur of Brittany, who might be more useful than
1 Roger of Hoveden, p. 664.

294 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1199-
dangerous, and John, the great King's last and feeblest son.
According to the popular belief, the evil spirit that possessed
him was the demon of cowardice and sloth, of luxury and self-
indulgence : weakest and worst of all the race, he was destined
to degrade himself before the French King, before his barons,
before the Pope. Whatever he touched, he spoilt.
While England and Normandy at once declared for John,
despising the Breton Arthur, Anjou, Maine, Poitou, Touraine,
raised Arthur's banner, and, feeling themselves unable to stand
alone, put themselves under Philip's protection. The wily King
suggested that a fair division would be, the French provinces for
Arthur, and England for John. But John was not prepared to
accept England as his home; he was as little English as his
brother. War broke out at once, Philip desiring nothing so much.
In the name of Arthur he swept across Brittany, and every
town he took he at once dismantled, to the dismay of Arthur's
party. He soon felt that he could not secure his gains so long
as he remained at variance with the Church ; consequently,
he made peace with John, retaining Evreux and some strong
places in Berri, agreeing to marry his son, Louis, to John's
niece, Blanche, and abandoning altogether the defenceless
Arthur to his fate. Philip's quarrel with the Church was on the
old lines, the old struggle as to matters of divorce and marriage.
He had taken a great dislike to his bride, Ingeborg of Den
mark, and had made obsequious bishops dissolve his marriage
with her soon after the wedding-day. The poor young Dane,
who knew no word of French, was told by signs that Philip
had divorced her ; and in her grief and anger she appealed
to Rome. In the chair of the Pontiffs sat Innocent III,
ever ready to interfere, only too glad when the passions of
kings gave him so good a reason for interference. For Philip
had not only sent Ingeborg away, but had taken to wife the
beautiful Agnes of Meran, whose misfortunes form one of the
romances of the age. The Pope at once threatened Philip
with excommunication, and the kingdom with an Interdict;
and, in 1200, this curse was laid on the unoffending people.

A.D. 1199- HE ABANDONS ARTHUR OF BRITTANY. 295
It is, true that it did not directly punish th : offender; still, it
reached him by oppressing his subjects ; their discontent would
be certain after a while to compel him to yield. Philip fought
vigorously against this foreign interference : his pride and
passion were alike engaged in the struggle. Still, he was too
clear-sighted not to see that he must be the loser ; and there
fore, even after a council had been called at Soissons to
judge the case, he did not stay for the sentence, but took
again his Danish wife, and left the town. He treated her with
no affection, and with the scantiest courtesy : still the Pope
had won ; Philip was restored to clerical favour, and the cloud
gathering over his fortunes melted away. The time had not
yet quite come when he could brave the imperious Pope ; nor
was his cause in itself sufficiently strong and good to enlist
the hearts of his great vassals, the goodwill of his clergy,
and to neutralise the distress arising to the people from the
Interdict1. Meanwhile, changes were passing over the face of the age.
The fourth Crusade, from which the king stood coldly aloof,
never went near Palestine ; the Crusaders took Constantinople
(a. d. 1 204), and sacked it ; then spread across Macedonia,
Greece, Roumania, extending the power of Venice over the
Peloponnesus and the Isles of Greece. The old thought, that
a Crusade must strike straight at the holy places, had now
almost died out. The Moslem was attacked on his flanks, in
Asia Minor, or in Egypt; the Christians, on the whole, had
made little impression on the unbelievers.
Royalty at Paris gained greatly in strength : the King's hand
was felt everywhere ; everywhere men had a fresh sense of
security ; royalty and the law sprang into full life together.
The University of Paris became the centre of European
learning. The twelfth century had witnessed an immense
revival of educational and intellectual activity. At Bologna,
1 An Interdict suspended all offices of religion. No man could be
christened or shriven, could be married or buried, while it hung like a
black pall over city and field.

296 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1200.
under the inspiration of Irnerius, there had been a great revival
of Jurisprudence, based upon the study of the long-neglected
Pandects of Justinian ; and the study of Civil Law had brought
with it the development of a vast and intricate system of Canon
Law embodied in the Decretum compiled by the monk Gratian
about the year 1 142, and the Decretals issued by Pope Gregory IX
in 1234, and supplemented by his successors. The revived
study of the Greek medical classics had its seat in Salerno, and
later at Montpellier. From an early period of the century,
Paris became the centre of philosophical and theological activity,
and the teaching of Abelard made her the intellectual capital of
Europe. By the end of the century the students who flocked
to Paris from all parts of Christendom must have numbered
several thousands. Abelard is indeed usually considered the
father of the scholastic theology, which arose from the applica
tion of logical methods and logical distinctions to the traditional
teaching of the patristic theologians. The great medieval
text-book of theology, known as ' The Sentences,' was written
by Abelard's more timid disciple Peter the Lombard, who died
bishop of Paris in 1160. Throughout the Middle Ages Paris
was recognised as the ' first school of the Church.' It had held
this posiuon for something like half a century before the first
germs of the university organisation can be discovered. It is
not till almost 1170 that we hear of Peter de la Celle, afterwards
Abbot of St. Albans, being elected to the ' company of elect
masters,' and this is the first token we have of the existence of
the University. The University was originally simply a guild
formed by the growing body of Masters who, licensed by the
Chancellor of Notre Dame, taught men in classes beneath the
shadow of the Cathedra], or on the bridges which connect
the Island Cite- with the southern bank of the Seine. In 1200
the Society of Masters received their first chaiter of privileges
from Philip Augustus, who confirmed the traditional right of the
scholar to be treated as a clerk and tried by the ecclesiastical
judges. It is not till twenty years later, when the schools had
begun to extend on to the Mount of Sts. Genevieve — the

A. D. 1200. THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. 297
centre of what is still known as the ' Quartier Latin ' — that we
trace the first germs of the elaborate organisation which was
nearly complete by almost the middle of the century.
The University consisted of four Faculties — Theology, Canon
Law, Medicine, and Arts. The first three were called the
Superior Faculties : men proceeded to them usually after a
more or less liberal education in the inferior Faculty of Arts —
an education which from about the year 1230 was based chiefly
upon the works of Aristotle ; all of which, with the exception of
his Logic, had begun to be known in Northern Europe and
translated into Latin at the beginning of the century. The
Faculty of Arts was divided into the four 'Nations' — France,
Normandy, Picardy, England. Each nation was presided over
by a Proctor, the whole Faculty of Arts by the Rector, who?
gradually acquired the position of Head of the whole University.
Every Doctor and Master had a vote in the University Con
gregations. At Bologna the University had been formed by
the students ; Paris, on the other hand, was a University of
Masters. In the Faculty of Arts the voting was by nations, in
the whole University by Faculties.
Gradually this great scholastic corporation gained a very
considerable influence not only in ecclesiastical but even in
general politics. For a moment indeed the University suffered
a rude rebuff when it entered upon a conflict with the still more
favoured orders of Mendicant Friars. About the year 1252 the
University attempted to exclude from its body the Friar Doctors,
who wanted to enjoy its privileges without being bound by its
regulations. The conflict produced in 1255 a total dispersion
of the University, and when the Masters gradually returned to
Paris they were compelled to grant to the Friars most of what
they wanted. But from this time the influence of the University,
' the eldest daughter of the King,' as it proudly styled itself,
gradually increased, reaching the height of its political power
under the weak Kingship of Charles VI, and the height of its
ecclesiastical importance when it succeeded in bringing about
the deposition of a Pope by the Council of Constance. After

298 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D.1200.
this time the University began to lose its cosmopolitan import
ance as a great European power which could negotiate on
almost equal terms with the Pope and the Emperor, but it
retained its national importance as the headquarters of the
Gallicanism which in the French Church long resisted the growth
of the Roman autocracy.
Even the scantiest account of the University would be incom
plete without reference to the Colleges which were, originally
founded simply to provide board and lodging for poor students,
but which gradually began to take in other students as com
moners or paying boarders, and to provide Lecturers. These
first supplemented, and eventually supplanted, the unendowed
teachers of the University schools. About sixty of these
Colleges were founded before 1500; the most important of
them was the Sorbonne, founded by Louis IX's chaplain,
Robert de Sorbonne, in 1257, and the College de Navarre,
founded by Joanna, Queen of Navarre and wife of Philip IX, in
1304. From the fact of its meeting in the former College, the
decisions of the Faculty of Theology came, from the sixteenth
century onwards, to be commonly called the judgments of ' the
Sorbonne.' The study of Roman Law had at first occupied a prominent
place at Paris, till in 12 19 it was forbidden by the Pope inthe
University, apparently from jealousy for the interests of Theology
proper. It continued, however, to flourish at Orleans, Angers,
Toulouse, and elsewhere.
Philip Augustus was endowed with a cold clear mind and
a keen sense of his royal dignity, which easily discerned the
great value of the law to him as an instrument for advancing
his high pretensions. If it is true that the greatest men have
a passion for justice, it is equally true that great kings are
irresistibly attracted towards the law ; and Philip with his delight
in the newly revived Roman Law may be well compared to
Edward I, ' the Justinian of England.' In the Roman Law
the royal claims found a sanction before which all society
was willing to bow. Law and the lawyers became the strongest

A. D. 1200. THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. 299
supporters of the monarchy, and stood it in good stead when
it resisted the claims of Papal power ; for the law was a double-
edged sword, with which the King could smite both Pope and
Feudalism. By the side of this great engine of government,
the Civil Law, grew up an analogous ecclesiastical code, the
Canon Law, which regulated the relations of churchmen among
themselves, and ruled their dealings with the laity. As the Civil
Law strengthened the claims of Kings, so did the Canon Law
those of Popes. The struggle between them was sharp and
lasted long.
At this same time Northern and Southern France alike, as
well as Germany, teemed with noble growths of poetry. On the
Frankish hills grew the epic : on the sunny slopes of the south
flowered the lyrical poems of the troubadours. The Northern
poets told of Arthur and Charlemagne : the old half-mystical
tales grew into chivalric epics ; and men, consciously or not,
took them as motives and guides. It was not difficult in that
young age of chivalry and of crusading adventure for men to
feel that life was an acted epic. Philip Augustus himself yearned
to raise his kingly state to the level of the Empire of Charles
the Great.
And indeed we are coming to the heroic period of his reign,
when the Norman campaigns brought out all the king's higher
qualities, and gave him a high place in history.
In 1202 the luckless Arthur, who had placed his hands
between those of Philip, swearing fealty for all his lands, and
all his claims, fell after a disastrous battle into the hands
of his uncle, King John, and was carried captive to Rouen
tower. And there he disappeared. How, no man knows to this day:
but all men at that time agreed in suspecting that John, who was
fully capable of such things, took the boy in a boat, stabbed him,
and threw his dead body into the Seine. Murderer or not, John,
like his father Henry in the case of Becket, had a far worse
foe in the dead than the living prince had been. All Europe
was aroused. The Bretons rose at once ; the boy was their

300 PHILIP If SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1202.
Arthur, faint shadow of their ancient hero, and they had hoped
to become a great people under him. Philip arose as the
avenger, with justice and interest alike calling him on, and
helping his step.-. Anjou and Brittany attacked the Norman
frontier from the south : Philip entered Poitou, where all men
rallied to his banner. John still lay at Rouen, and made no
sign, spending his days either at table or in bed.
Philip soon saw that he could do better farther north, and
made ready to reach the heart of John's power in Normandy.
The great fortress of Chateau Gaillard lay across his path;
it must first fall before Rouen could be reached.
The Normans were ever great castle-builders, whether in
England or in Normandy. At first they were content with a
great donjon or hall, in and about which they lived when at
home, and which they fortified as strongly as they might.
Gradually, as their needs grew and still increased, they added
outworks, took advantage of strong positions, and developed
complete fortifications. Of these the Chateau Gaillard is a
splendid specimen : the greatest monument — greater even than
his eastern exploits — of the genius of Richard. He intended it to
be the defence of Normandy, and a standing menace to France.
From it Normans should ever go forth ; past it no French
man might dare to push : and had not John been a shiftless
coward, no Frenchman could then have entered into it. About
eight leagues above Rouen, as the crow flies, the Seine makes
a great sweep to the north-east like a horseshoe, enclosing the
peninsula of Bernieres. At the head of the curve, on the right
bank, the river has washed the chalk hills into cliffs of a good
height, broken by a level valley about a mile across, through
which a little river, after losing its way in a long swamp, at last
falls into the Seine. Here on the right bank a spur of chalk
descends from the high downs, scarped on one side by the Seine,
and very steep and rough on the other side, where it descends
towards the swamp : steep also and difficult is its lower end or
point. Beneath it, between the marsh and the Seine, lies the
village of Little Andelys : some two miles up the valley stands

THE ENV/ROA/S

CtfyytfSGfiU. - &H n/IrflRD

From Viollet le Due.

i, A small island, on which King Richard placed an octagonal work, with a bridge.
2. TGte-du-Pont, soon filled with houses, and called Petit Andelys.
3. Marsh or lake, formed by obstruction at 2. 4. A triple stockade.
5. The plateau on which Philip Augustus entrenched himself.

i.D.1203. CHATEAU GAILLARD. 303
the small town of Great Andelys. Through this town the
road from France into Normandy dropped down upon the
Seine. From the hill-side the eye wanders over the broad flat
peninsula of Bernieres on the left bank of the river: at your
foot lies a little island, very handy for a bridge. On the chalk
spur, overhanging the Seine, where there is scarcely room for a
road to pass between cliff and river, stands the famous fortress,
the ' gay castle.' At the very point of the tongue of land rises
the donjon \ built with marvellous art : it is defended impreg-
nably on three sides by natural rock, while a narrow footway
from Little Andelys winds up to a postern in the donjon's
walls. The spur broadens as it passes towards the main high
land ; broadens and rises gradually, so that half a mile back
from the point one quite looks down on the fortress. This,
then, was clearly the dangerous side ; and here defences were
multiplied-^too much so, as the event proved. For from the
nature of the ground, each outer work when taken commanded
the next, which lay somewhat lower. The whole fortress may
be described as something like a ship in form, as it lies
on the spur : the lowest and narrowest end was nearly filled
by the donjon, while at the upper end, where it looked towards
the higher level land, was built a triangular fort. Down on
the river level, Little Andelys was built and slightly fortified :
so also was the island on the Seine ; so also the roadway
under the castle. The Seine was blocked by a stockade,
intended to keep French boats from dropping down on
Andelys. This was the elaborate system of defences which protected
the heart of King Richard's possession, the city of Rouen, from
attack by way of the river.
When Philip Augustus, in the autumn of 1203, came down
on the Norman frontier, having full command of the Upper
Seine, he had no difficulty in crossing over to the peninsula of
1 See the article Chdteau, in M. Viollet le Due's splendid Dictionnaire
de l'Architecture (Paris, Bance), to which I am much indebted. I take this
opportunity of thanking him warmly for his kindness in allowing me to
reproduce his two admirable plans of Chateau Gaillard.

304 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1203.
Bernieres. This he found entirely undefended : — King John's
first great blunder. Here, unmolested, he drew his lines across
from river to river, thus beginning the investment of the place.
In the castle lay Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester, with the
flower of King John's troops : not many, but right gallant men.
Next, the river stockade was broken through ; and the King's
ships came down and were formed into a bridge just below
the island : a bridge with towers high enough to command the
chatelet or fortress on the island. John sent a force to relieve
the place; as he did not venture out in person, the weak at
tempt failed. After this single effort he left Philip to take the
castle at his leisure. The palisade of the chatelet was burnt,
and Philip occupied the island. Now came the horrid spec
tacle of twelve hundred poor creatures, non-combatants, men,
women, children, thrust out from Little Andelys and the island,
and left to perish of hunger between the chalk rocks and the
river. If they turned towards Andelys, the English refused them
entrance ; if towards the river, the French forbade them to pass.
When half had perished, Philip Augustus riding by, cast an eye
of pity on the remnant ; he bade his men give them bread,
and let them pass through his lines in peace. Soon after
the fall of the chatelet Little Andelys was forced to yield ; for
the English were too few to defend the town. And now Philip
had firm hold of everything below the castle. But he saw clearly
that, to succeed, he must also attack the castle from above ;
he therefore moved the bulk of his force to the neck of the
slope just over Chateau Gaillard, where the spur of land joins
on to the mainland. Here he drew two lines, one on either side
of his camp, across the shoulder of the hill ; and made a wooden
tower, and other needful buildings. He also set a force to
guard the entry to the castle from the side of Little Andelys;
and the blockade was complete. But now came against him
a new and dangerous foe. Two churchmen rode into his
camp, with a summons from the Pope. The Kings were
ordered to suspend their struggle, and submit the points at
issue to the judgment of the Church, under pain of Interdict.

CHpKZG/m - G/TILLpRD.

». Neck of Plateau, held by
Philip Augustus.
2. Foreworks of Castle.
3. Well.
4 Buildings.
5. Main Entrance.
6. Counterscarp.
7. Moat.
8. Keep.
9. Escarpment.
10. Postern.
11. Flanking Towers.
12. Outer Tower and Wall.
13. Stockade.

*&£

1

From VioUet le Due.

VOL. I.

A.D.1204. SIEGE OF CHATEAU GAILLARD. 307
But Philip was already x prepared for this papal assumption.
Eleven great nobles, under their seals, had given him written
promise to defend him against Pope or Cardinal; and these
documents were shown to Innocent. The Pope saw he had
gone too far; and his second letter is in humorous contrast
with his first : the first so haughty, the second so affectionate,
almost cringing — in the holy interests of peace.
This storm outridden, the siege went on as before. About
this time, Philip's skirmishers and foraging parties prowling
about knocked at the gates of Rouen ; the wretched King
within woke from his slumbers and luxury — but not to fight.
He fled into England, leaving Normandy to its fate. As he
passed out of Rouen gates, that city ceased to be the centre of
the Anglo-Norman power. John's follies and reverses and the
loss of Normandy at last restored to England her proper national
position. In February, 1204, the triangular fortress at the eastern end
of the castle was assaulted and taken ; next the outworks of the
castle itself fell ; each point yielding good shelter as the French
pushed on; until at last, on March 6, 1204, after a five months'.
siege, the great tower, the last defence, was given up into
Philip's hands. It is said, and it illustrates the character of
feudal warfare, that before the actual assault of the place only
four English knights had been slain. There were but one
hundred and eighty fighting men left in Chateau Gaillard when
Philip entered in.
This one success decided all. The Norman towns knew that
there was no help from John; and that if Chateau Gaillard
could not withstand Philip, no other stronghold could do so.
The rest of his march was a continual triumph. Falaise
resisted, strong as it was, only seven days. Caen, Bayeux,
Lisieux, threw open their gates. Guy de Thouars, Governor
of Brittany, took Mont St. Michel and Avranches, and then
joined Philip at Caen. Thence the French King moved on to
Rouen. Even there, with a braver prince, resistance had been
1 The engagement made by Eudes of Burgundy is dated July 1 203.

308 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1204.
possible ; for Rouen was strong, and hated the French. But
what could be done for such a creature as King John ? The
city capitulated on honourable terms ; and Normandy at last
became a part of the kingdom of France. Brittany had already
given herself up to the avenger of Arthur. For a while the
Normans were restless under the stranger, as they deemed the
French King. As however Philip was as wise in peace as he
was skilful in war, Normandy before long became thoroughly
reconciled to her new lord.
Poitou, Touraine, and Anjou fell at the conqueror's feet.
Thouars and Niort held out for John ; Rochelle on the coast
alone gave him entry into France.
The campaign of 1203, 1204, was of vast use to the royal
power. The King with one hand held the Normans down,
while with the other he pushed back the haughty and menacing
Pope. All the country folk, wherever he passed, declared for
him ; he rose far above all rivalry, and made the kingdom of
France real in the eyes of men. Not content with these material
gains, he summoned King John to undergo the judgment of
his peers, on the charge of carrying off Isabella, the betrothed
of Hugh de la Marche. But the 'King of England' could
not permit the 'Duke of Normandy' to appear: John was
willing to retain his substantial advantages where he was
King, and to let judgment go by default where he was
vassal. So his continental possessions were confiscated for
his disobedience to his suzerain's summons, and King Philip
was able to give his conquests the appearance of legal right.
Though it is not known what peers met to give this judgment,
from this time the 'twelve Peers of France' seem to emerge
more clearly out of the mists of time. Probably those sturdy
chieftains, who, like Eudes of Burgundy, promised under their
hand and seal to stand by the King against the terrors of
a Papal war, formed the Court of Peers. They were certain,
when they had given such a proof of confidence and devotion,
to take care that Philip's interests suffered no harm. Faithful
to the strong feeling, which has been already noticed, that the

A.D. 1207. THE PROVENCAL CRUSADE. 309
French Court was the rightful successor of that of Charles the
Great, the number twelve had been chosen; six laymen, six
ecclesiastics : the great vassals of the realm were thus grouped
round the royal power, and lent it fresh dignity, while it also
gave a sanction of right and justice to its acts.
III. The Provencal Crusade.
We must now turn aside, and trace the course of events in
Provence, where a horrible war, waged under pretext of religion,
prepared the way for the absorption of the hitherto independent
Southerners in the kingdom of France. Philip Augustus stood
aloof from this struggle ; yet he and his reaped the fruits of it,
although the end did not come in his day.
As far back as the year 1181, Henry of Clairvaux, a cardinal
and bishop of Albano, had been sent by Pope Alexander III
into Languedoc to convert the Albigensians, and entered the
territories of the Viscount of Beziers at the head of a body
of fanatics. The Church was on the dark path along which
the Crusades had begun to force her : she called for the strong
arm of violence and oppression, with which to crush the errors
which had taken hold on the Southern mind. In that warm
land, where poetry and love, art and architecture, had their
home, freedom of opinion and speculation were natural.
Above all, the intellectual movement of the time was hostile
to the claims of the priesthood. All the heretics of Provence,
whatever their views, agreed in this : and this, above all,
alarmed Rome.
It is unfortunate that our knowledge of the religious and
intellectual life of the Provencals is derived from the writings
of their bitterest enemies, the monks. Their prejudices on
the one hand, and the equal prejudices of writers eager to
do honour to the forerunners of Protestantism on the other,
have made it hard to get at the truth. Still, in the account of
Peter, the Monk of Vaux Cernay, a bitter foe to the sectaries,
we may discern some of the lines of truth. It appears that we

310 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1207.
must draw a clear distinction between the Albigenses and the
Waldenses. The former, whose headquarters were at Toulouse,
were rather a philosophical than a religious sect. In the year
1 1 67 they had held a sort of council at Toulouse, to which,
as if to shew how wide-spread was their organisation, deputies
came even from Asia. They had their own bishops. They were
in fact the descendants of the Manicheans L, some of whom had
been burnt nearly a century before at Orleans. Their opinions
are to us exceedingly dim and uncertain; but sure it is that
they rejected the religion of the rest of Latin Christianity, its
sacraments, images, purgatory, priests. They divided their
followers into the 'perfect' and the 'believers': the 'perfect
man' had passed through a spiritual baptism, and was then
devoted to a life of the utmost severity. This world to him
was the work of an evil spirit, was hell itself; and he would do
nothing which might enlarge hell's borders : therefore death
was his greatest blessing, and marriage a cursed indulgence
absolutely forbidden him. The old doctrine of a dualism,
a good and a bad magical power, took practical form in the
lives of these stoical philosophers. The 'believers' were not
tied to so ascetic a life : they might live in the world, yet doing
so as those who hoped some day to be permitted to enter into
the ranks of the ' perfect.' The practical effect of these Mani-
chean doctrines seems to have been in this, as in other cases,
a combination of asceticism and license.
The Waldenses, on the other hand, had their headquarters at
Lyons, and belonged to the mountains, not to the warm plains.
Theirs was essentially a religious not a philosophical move
ment ; though the political consequences of their belief, if
carried out, would have been serious enough.
These ' poor men of Lyons ' were of an apostolical spirit.
They even thought that they were bound to wear wooden
shoes, sabots, ' after the manner of the Apostles V They for-
1 For the Manichean tenets, see Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. Cent. Ill, part 2,
ch. 5.
2 Hence their name of Insabattati.

A.D.1207. ALBIGENSES AND WALDENSES. 311
bade all swearing, all slaying of man ; and they held that any
' insabbattatus ' might break the bread of Communion, thereby
denying the whole priestly power. They were eager to teach
and to spread the Bible, whereas the Albigenses were rather
desirous of lessening the influence of the Scriptures ; they
translated it into the vulgar tongue, and preached from it, and
read it zealously. Their fundamental doctrine was that of the
immediate influence of the Holy Spirit. Whoso had that was
favoured of God ; no other orders or divisions of society were
of any importance. And thus their tenets led directly to
socialism, and struck hard at the position of priest and baron.
Their life was one of the utmost purity and simplicity ; even
their opponents allow so much.
The Crusade, which smote them in passing, was really
directed against the greater and Manichean movement of
Toulouse and Beziers.
The South of France stood absolutely apart, not only
from the North, but also from the tendencies of medieval
Christendom. It was remarked with horror that the Albigen-
sians did not persecute ; and that even the Jews in Southern
Gaul had every civil right ; — could hold lands ; could take
office ; had their synagogues and their schools ; took the lead
in the study of medicine ; were bold and bright guides on the
difficult paths of philosophy. To the South also Western Europe
owed both Medicine and Aristotle — two powers often opposed
to Rome. Moreover, the South had never really accepted
feudalism; and now it seemed not impossible that she would
begin a municipal and democratic movement, which might
altogether imperil the dominion of the Church. Was it not
time to move ? Was not a Crusade needed ? Was it not well
that the Church, hand in hand with feudal France, should pour
down on and crush a land so full of strange opinions ? Once
more Rome allied herself with barbarism against civilisation ;
and the mailed form of the northern knight, side by side with
the pitiless priest, entered in to destroy in the name of Christ.
Innocent III at last was roused to action. He sent into

312 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D.1207.
Languedoc his legates, two Cistercian monks ; and over them
he placed Arnold of Amaury, abbot of Citeaux, the most capable
instrument in the world for his purposes. He was ambitious,
sincere, fanatical ; he had the virtues of a monk, and more than
his vices. The zeal of Jehu filled his heart ; and took, like
Jehu's, the form of pitiless bloodshed. Yet at the outset his
mission failed. The lay-powers of the South offered no help :
monks preached, and men laughed. The Bishop of Tou
louse was lukewarm : he was deposed, and Fulk of Folquet,
once a brilliant troubadour and gallant, now a fanatical and
false monk, was established in his room. His part in the
coming struggle is a well-marked and a shameful one.
The legates, disgusted with their work, were sadly returning
towards Italy, when, by chance, near Montpellier they fell in
with the Bishop of Osma and one of his Canons, who were
making their way home to Spain from Rome. These succoured
the fainting Cistercians, turning aside from their journey to help
them. The mission began anew, with fresh vigour and more
success. That Canon of Osma was Domenico : the founder
of the order which bears his name L.
Things went on swiftly towards bloodshed. In 1 207 Raymond
of Toulouse was excommunicated by the Pope ; for though he
professed submission, he showed no love for persecution ; there
arose a quarrel between him and the legate ; and in the course
of it one of the count's retainers stabbed the churchman, and
fled. The murder of the legate, known in Roman hagiology as
St. Peter Martyr, became one of the favourite subjects for the
skill of the painter. Raymond seems to have been responsible
for the murder in about the same degree as Henry II was for
that of Becket. Still, the Church gladly seized the opportunity.
Innocent, who had before appealed to the sword, redoubled his
efforts ; Raymond, already excommunicated, was cursed anew ;
pardons and indulgences, and all the apparatus of an Eastern
1 Dominique, saisi de pitie a la vue des progres qu'avait fait 1'heresie,
resolut de joindre ses efforts a ceux des legats, et pendant dix ans precha
avec plus de perseverance que de succes, sans prendre d'ailleurs aucune part
a la croisade qui sevissait. (Lavisse and Rambaud.)

A.D.1207. THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE. 313
Crusade, were brought out ; the dangerous and disastrous
journey to Palestine, of which men were now weary, gave
place to an attack on the pleasant fields and cities of the
South : — no sea to cross, no deserts, no treacherous Greeks to
face, no myriads of Saracens ; but a land to be conquered, far
richer in spoil than the Holy Land, with spiritual advantages
just as great, and opportunities for prowess, rapine, cruelty,
bloodshed, enough to please the most pious.
Raymond was completely cowed. He made submission;
refused to listen to the voice of his gallant nephew Roger,
Viscount of Beziers, and went home. Weak and undecided,
he tried to ward off destruction by half-measures, and by
missions of prelates to Rome, while he allowed the outpost of
his situation, Beziers, to perish unsuccoured.
Frenchmen, Normans, Burgundians, and others, men of
Poitou and Auvergne, Aquitanians and Gascons, were gathered
together to destroy the South. Raymond himself was con
strained to join the invading army, and to act as its leader.
Beziers was taken by assault ; every soul in it was murdered ;
the city burnt. There it was that the Abbot of Citeaux is said
by one of his brethren, a contemporary, to have made that
monstrous answer to one who asked him how to distinguish
heretic from orthodox, 'Kill them all; God will know His
own.' And they did so.
After giving this example of the work before them, they
passed on to Carcassonne, where Roger the Viscount lay.
Peter of Aragon, the viscount's feudal superior, came to make
terms for his vassal : it was all in vain. The stern implacable
churchmen offered such terms as Roger could not accept ;
and the siege went on. With incredible falseness — ' no faith
with heretics ' — the besiegers swore that if he would enter the
camp to treat for a capitulation he should be let go safe and
sound. He went, was seized and made prisoner, and died
soon after ; men said of poison. So ended the first period of
the war, and with it the noblest character it produced. The
territory and title were given to Simon of Montfort, who

314 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1211.
became thenceforth the secular arm of the Crusade. The great
lords of the South all gave in; the forty days' service of the
barons was over ; and the crusading army melted away.
It is said that Innocent III was touched by the horrors
of the sack of Beziers, and was not desirous of pushing
Raymond of Toulouse too far. But matters had passed
out of his hands : the legate Theodicus (who had succeeded
Milo), the Abbot of Citeaux, Arnold of Amaury, and Simon
of Montfort, were all eager to push on their advantages :
Bishop Folquet, with the zeal of an evil spirit, ever stirred them
up to act: and Raymond did but humiliate himself in vain.
The terms offered him by the Church were so monstrous, that
they roused even him to vigour. The Count of Foix, and the
chief lords of the northern slopes of the Pyrenees rose in arms ;
and the war began again. But the gallant young Viscount of
Beziers was dead ; and the chivalric Peter of Aragon, who
would gladly have defended the independence of his vassals,
was called away to resist a grand invasion of African Moors,
who threatened to avenge on Christian Spain the attacks that
Christendom had long ago made on Palestine.
Early in 1 2 1 1 Simon was ready to attack the princes of the
South. In 1 2 10 he had reduced sundry outlying castles in the
Beziers district : he now moved onwards towards Toulouse.
In that city Folquet raised a Catholic party, and the nobles
enrolled themselves in a league against him. Like the towns of
Italy, the city was torn between a ' white ' and a ' black ' faction.
At last the bishop's followers were driven out of the city, and
joined the invaders. These were not only Frenchmen, but Ger
mans and Belgians, under the Duke of Austria, and the Counts
of Mons and Juliers. But the brave Count of Foix routed them,
and the peasantry destroyed their scattered fragments. Still the
main body advanced, and appeared before Toulouse. Then
the brethren of the white faction awoke to the thought that
their city was dearer to them than the dominations of strangers
could be ; and they broke away from Bishop Folquet and made
peace with their fellow-citizens. For that year the invaders

A.D. 1212. THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE. 315
did nothing. Their forty days' service elapsed, the place
showed no signs of feebleness, and in the autumn all was once
more quiet.
In 1 2 12 Montfort defeated his foes, and busied himself in
reducing all the outlying territories which might possibly bring
help to Toulouse ; even the Agenois, a district not troubled
with Albigenses, was ravaged, and its fortresses rased. Raymond
saw that nothing remained but Montauban and Toulouse, and
fled for safety to Peter of Aragon.
Then the invaders fell on the spoil. To every man a por
tion : — the Southern sees were filled by shameless Northern
bishops; the furious Arnold made himself Archbishop of
Narbonne; the Abbot of Vaux Cernay became Bishop of
Carcassonne ; and so forth ; the fiefs of the South were dis
tributed among the barons and knights of the North. The
South received now what it had never before had — a completely
feudal form : the whole of its special characteristics were trampled
down ; its influence on the growth of the human mind and of
social life was extinguished. When the great invasion of the
Moors was crushed (a.d. 12 12) in a tremendous battle,
Peter of Aragon was free to come to the help of his ruined
vassals. He sent to Rome a full account of the doings of the
Crusaders : Innocent III was startled, and expressed regret for
the evils he had caused. None the less did the persecutors
push on their advantages : they succeeded in representing their
case to the Pope in such a light that he changed his tone, and
bade them finish as they had begun. Then Peter crossed the
Pyrenees with a large army ; and all the oppressed South rose
with joy. They attacked Muret, the garrison of which place
threatened Toulouse. Hither Montfort hastened ; and France
measured strength with Spain. The Spaniards, the more
numerous but the less disciplined, were defeated, and Peter
perished with the flower of his troops. Thus ended in failure
the attempt to drive the strong man out. Montfort pushed the
advantage he had thus gained, till nearly all the South was
under his feet. The cities that still stood submitted humbly

316 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1215.
to the Legate, promising to abide by the decision of Rome.
Raymond took up his abode in a private house till the coming
Council of Lateran should decide his fate. By 12 15 Simon
held almost all the South as ' prince and monarch of the land.'
And thus ended the second period of the war.
In November 1 2 1 5 met the great Lateran Council, at which
both Domenico and Francis of Assisi appeared — a fact which by
itself marks it as an epoch in the history of the Christian re
ligion. To us the interest of it centres in the cry of the oppressed
South. There was no reticence ; one plain-spoken knight of
Beziers challenged the Pope to meet him at God's judgment
seat, unless he gave back to the son of Raymond of Toulouse
his father's lands. Nevertheless the voice of the oppressed
and the soft cry of human feeling could not prevail. Though
the Pope, it is said, was touched by the appeal of the younger
Raymond, the Crusaders still held their own. Simon won for
himself all the heritage of the house of Toulouse.
Next spring Simon made splendid progress through admiring
France, where he was regarded as God's hero, the new David,
the Judas Maccabaeus of the Church ; at Paris he did homage
to wary Philip for his conquests. Then he returned, acknow
ledged lord of all the South, to the desolated land whose beauty
he had destroyed, whose cities were in ruins, whose chivalry was
scattered, whose arts and wealth had been pillaged ; the miser
able wreck of a noble people.
Meanwhile the two Raymonds, father and son, trusting to
the encouragement given them by the Pope, made ready to
recover their inheritance. The tide turned. Discord had arisen
between Simon and Amaury. The younger count attacked
Beaucaire : the older entered Aragon, and thence returned
with an army. Simon hastened to relieve Beaucaire; but the
younger Raymond, who held the town and was attacking the
castle, defended himself with success, and De Montfort for
the first time saw his fortunes ebb. The place fell ; and Simon
hastened back to Toulouse, where matters were already critical.
The citizens, learning that in his great anger he was determined

A.D.1217. END OF SIMON OF MONTFORT. 317
to destroy them, barricaded their streets, and stood on the
defensive. As, however, many of their citizens were in his
hands, and he threatened to kill them all, the city yielded. He
destroyed the better houses, the towers, the gates ; then, having
as he thought made the place harmless, set out to attack the
Count of Foix. But, directly he was gone, the heroic city rose
from the dust, and called back her old prince : in 1 2 1 7 he forced
his way into the place. The towers and walls rose speedily, all
the South hastening to help ; nothing could exceed the joy of
the people, unless it was their hatred of the French oppressor.
In vain did De Montfort attack the city with all his skill and
force : after a siege of nine months he was killed by a stone
from a machine on the walls ; that lucky blow restored the
South to liberty. In vain did Philip of France throw his weight
into the Northern scale, by sending his son Louis with the Duke
of Brittany and a strong army to reinforce Amaury, Simon's son.
The oppressors were everywhere foiled ; in vain did the new
Pope Honorious III hound men on to another Crusade : in vain
did Amaury offer his estates to King Philip.
The Northern invasion failed : the South however was
weakened, the house of Toulouse much reduced ; things grew
ready for that absorption into France which would one day
.take place. For the time the hand of the persecutor was
stayed ; not till twelve years later was the quarrel finally fought
out (a.d. 1229); then the house of Toulouse fell for ever.
IV. The Day of Bouvines. (Aug. 29, 12 14.)
Philip Augustus, meanwhile, looked on in quiet, well pleased
at the troubles of the South, which weakened those great and
independent houses which stood between him and the advance
ment of his kingdom beyond the Loire. But now fresh risks
began. The feudal lords grew uneasy at the steady growth
of royal power ; the Count of Flanders, the Count of Boulogne,
and others, felt themselves in danger. King John, though the
barons hated him heartily, was also Philip's foe ; and when

318 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1213.
Otho King of Germany, in the low ebb of his fortunes, crossed
over to England and joined his uncle the King, the hopes of
the feudal party began to rise. Still more did they rise when
Philip of Swabia, Otho's rival, was killed, and Otho came to be
recognised on all hands as Emperor. Now, however, the dark
shadow of a Papal intervention came on. In 1208 England
was put under Interdict, and in the next year John was excom
municated. Otho also, by the very fact of being Emperor,
after having been the Pope's prote'ge' became his bitter foe,
and was in his turn excommunicated in 12 10, while Frederick II
was set up against him.
Philip, wary and clear-sighted, now came forward as the
Pope's champion ; hoping thereby to crush King John, and
perhaps to possess himself of England. He took the trouble
once more to bring forward poor Ingeborg, his Danish wife, and
to display her with all outward honour as his wife ; thus hoping
to show the Church how ready he was to do her bidding. In
1 2 13, he called an assembly of his barons at Soissons, to
which Ferrand of Flanders refused to come ; a defiance which
the King for the moment overlooked. For he was eager to
attack England : he gathered an army near Boulogne ; and all
was ready, when he learnt with amazement and anger that
Pandulf the Legate had induced King John to submit to the
Roman See, to make ample reparation to the bishops of his
realm, to place his kingdom in the Pope's hands, and to receive
it back from him as a fief of the Papal Empire, with the
guarantee of that security which such vassaldom was supposed
to give. After this great success, Pandulf returned to Boulogne,
and set himself to appease and amuse the French King. It was
clear he could not allow him now to cross into England ; he
therefore pointed out to him the advantages of an attack on
Flanders, in order to avenge the slight which Ferrand had put
on him. His barons, remembering what riches lay stored in
Flemish cities, were content to change their course. The fleet,
which had been intended to carry them over to the English
coast, was sent round to the Scheldt ; and Philip entered

A.D. 1214. WAR IN FLANDERS. 319
Flanders. The fleet took first Gravelines, then Damme, at
that time the port of Bruges.
While this rich city was occupying their attention, the ships
were attacked by the Earl of Salisbury and Renaud of Boulogne;
half were taken or destroyed, the remainder blockaded in port.
In vain did Philip hasten up ; he could do no more than burn
the blockaded vessels to save them from the hands of his
enemies. He consoled himself by pillaging and burning the
rich Flemish towns, and towards winter he retired to Paris.
Next spring (a.d. r 2 1 4) the war took larger form. Throughout
the winter Ferrand of Flanders and Renaud of Boulogne had
busied themselves in Lorraine, stirring up war. Otho and John
were names which gave a national appearance to the coalition ;
still, it was really the war of aristocracy against the royal
power : and Philip was justly uneasy as to the fidelity even of
the barons round his person; though in proof they showed
themselves trusty and true. Though the underlying contest
was between feudalism and royalty, on the surface the com
binations wear a curious resemblance to those of later times
and of very different conditions : we have the Kings of
England and France and the Emperor of Germany contending
in Flanders : the externals of the struggle might have suited
a much later age. Philip Augustus had to defend himself on
two sides. He had to resist King John, who threatened Poitou,
and Otho, who was preparing to enter Flanders. To watch the
former he sent his son Louis ; to face the latter he marched in
person with all the strength he could muster. King John, who
landed at La Rochelle and took Angers, retreated before the
French, and left no mark on the campaign. But affairs in the
North were very different. Otho, with such Saxons and Bruns-
wickers as would follow him — for he had but a poor following
of Germans — entered Flanders, and encamped at Valenciennes.
There rallied to him the barons of Flanders, and the communes
of the cities, the warlike nobles of Holland, the gallant Lor-
rainers, and a good show of mercenaries under Hugh of Boves ;
and lastly, a body of English knights and bowmen under the

320 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D.1214.
Earl of Salisbury. On the other hand, King Philip had with
him the Duke of Burgundy, the Count of Saint Pol, and the
Viscount of Melun, with their men ; representatives of high
feudalism. Then there was the most notable knight of the
time, William des Barres ; and great store of other good knights
round the King. Then we must count up the churchmen, who
mustered in some force ; two of whom, Guerin, Bishop of
Senlis, and the Bishop of Beauvais with his mace L, did doughty
deeds of war ; and lastly came the Communes of many northern
towns and abbeys, which sent their militia, and contributed not
a little to support the fortunes of the King.
Philip did not await them within his borders, but pressed
forwards, ' ravaging royally ' as he went, attended by the prayers
and blessings of the Church. His chaplain, William the Breton,
has left us a full account of the campaign, in which he was
present throughout. When the two armies drew near to one
another, not far from Tournay, the French barons would not
let Philip advance farther, and the King, against his will, began
to retire. The same day Otho moved forward, the French not
knowing it; and, before the day was far spent, there was but
a hill between the two armies. The King's men, in the heat
of the day, came down to Bouvines on the river Marque, not
far south of Tournay; and, while his forces slowly defiled
across the bridge, Philip lay down to rest awhile under an ash-
tree, beside a little chapel. Here tidings came that his rear
was hard pressed by Otho, who thought to fall on the French
army while cut in two by the river, and to crush the rear before
, the van could come back to help. Philip at once sent men to
hasten back the foremost in the retreat, and with them the
sacred Oriflamme, which had early crossed the bridge. He
himself entered the chapel and uttered a brief prayer ; then
spoke cheerily to his knights, as a King who had faith in God
and in himself; lastly, with a glad countenance, 'as one who
went to wedding or to feast,' rode forward to meet his foe.
1 With his mace, because he held that a churchman should never shed
blood. So he killed his antagonist, if he could, by breaking his head.

A.D. 1214. THE BATTLE OF BOUVINES. 321
The English held the right wing of the allied army; the
Emperor the centre, having with him a kind of Italian car1, on
which was raised his standard of war, a golden eagle on a
dragon's back ; the Count of Flanders the left ; while the brave
Bishop of Senlis acted as marshal to the French host, and
spread their scanty line out thinly, so as to make fair front to
their enemy, till those who had crossed the bridge could return.
Over against the Flemings were the Duke of Burgundy, the
Count of Saint Pol, the militia of St. Medard's Abbey in
Soissons. The King held the middle battle, as was fitting ; on
his left were the Counts of Dreux and Ponthieu; behind the
King himself stood his good chaplain, William the Breton, with
another clerk, chanting psalms the battle through.
The vassals of St. Medard of Soissons opened fight, charging
down on the Flemish chivalry gallantly, but in vain. What
could these ill-armed citizens do ? The knights, however, deigned
to support them, and the battle soon became general. Then
the battle of the chivalry on either side raged greatly, though
without decisive results. The young knights, as at a tourney,
cried to each other to ' remember their ladies.' The Count of
Saint Pol did wonders : he had sworn that he would show the
King whether he were a traitor or no. After three hours of
confusion, Ferrand, Count of Flanders, was beaten down and
taken prisoner, and the left wing of the confederates was
crushed. Meanwhile the communal militia came hastily back
over the bridge in good spirits — their will was hearty, though
their strength was small ; and every hour the French battle
gained in weight. The German knights pierced through to
the French King ; unhorsed him, and went nigh to kill him.
Then arose a cry of need; and William des Barres, hearing
it afar, left hold of Otho — for he had in his turn penetrated
to the heart of the German army, and had seized the Emperor,
— and returned to rescue the king. Up came the communal
troops at the same time, and Philip was saved. From this
moment the battle went for the French. Otho's horse, wounded,
1 Like the Carroccio of the Italian armies.

322 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1214.
and mad with pain, galloped with his rider off the field ; nor
did Otho care to return. Philip pressed on, showing himself
a good knight and noble king, and the resistance began to
melt away. Before long the Dukes of Brabant and Limburg
and all the centre took to flight. There remained only the
right wing, where were Renaud of Boulogne and the English.
These finally gave way. The English were routed chiefly by
the fierce Bishop of Beauvais, who laid about him mightily
with his mace, and felled the Earl of Shrewsbury like an ox.
Renaud, who had been the first to stir up strife the winter
before, was the last to lay down arms : the field was won ere
night. In the hands of the victors were Ferrand, Renaud,
the Earl of Salisbury, and many other men of name. The
King distributed these among his chief supporters, that they
might enrich themselves with good ransom ; some he handed
over to the cities; Ferrand, who had defied and insulted him,
he took with him as a prisoner to Paris.
So ended the battle of Bouvines, the first real French victory.
It roused the national spirit as nothing else could have roused
it ; it was the nation's first taste of glory, dear above all things
to the French heart. The clergy and common folk welcomed
the King with transports of joy ; the march back to Paris was
a triumph ; the citizens poured out, the University came forth
to do him honour. The Communes had right good reason
to be proud of their share of the war. They had only broken
themselves against the iron-mailed chivalry of Flanders and
Germany, yet they had done it gallantly ; had helped to rescue
their King ; had fought side by side with knights ; above all,
had been permitted to measure arms on equal terms with feudal
lords : and now the King had thanked them, and given them
presents of noble prisoners, that they might have feudalism in
their hands, and bring it down, and win good ransom from
it. The battle somewhat broke the high spirit of .the barons :
the lesser barons and churches grouped themselves round the
King ; the greater lords came to feel their weakness in the
presence of royalty. Among the incidental consequences of

AD. 1214. SUCCESS OF FRENCH ROYALTY. 323
the day of Bouvines was the ruin of Otho's ambition. He fled
from the field into utter obscurity. He retired to the Hartz
mountains, and there spent the remaining years of his life in
quiet. King John, too, was utterly discredited by his share in
the year's campaign. To it ma)' partly be traced his humiliation
before his barons, and the signing of the Great Charter in the
following year at Runnymede.
Thus one great siege and one great battle, Chateau Gaillard
in 1204, and Bouvines in 12 14, raised the French monarchy
far above its former self. The siege gave it a great pre
ponderance in territorial weight, by securing Normandy and
the west of France ; while Bouvines crushed the coalition of the
barons and princes against Philip, and left him by far the most
renowned and powerful prince of Christendom. He had now
little to do except to consolidate and hand down his high
authority. The fortunes of royalty in France were made.
V. To the Death of King Philip, a.d. 1214-1223.
For a brief time King Philip's mind was turned towards
England. Soon after John's return from his disgraceful cam
paign in France, the barons compelled him to sign the Great
Charter of English liberties (a.d. 12 15). But John was not the
man to stand loyally by any act : he signed and broke faith.
Innocent III, to whom he appealed, identified himself with
the evildoer. He declared the Charter unlawful and evil, and
as supreme lord of England annulled it. The sympathies of
the Church had passed from the oppressed to the oppressor —
the Papacy was become a political rather than a religious
institution. In this act Innocent may be said to have begun
that great struggle between Rome and the proud Island, which
has had so great an influence on the healthy growth of the
political liberties of England.
The English barons would not yield to the Pope's dictation ;
and, finding themselves 'hard pressed, offered the crown of
England to Louis of France, Philip's eldest son, whose wife,
Blanche of Castille, was grand-daughter to Henry II, and gave
y 2

324 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1216.
to Louis a kind of excuse for claiming the English throne.
Under her ambitious influence, the prince accepted the tempting
offer, and betook himself to England in 12 16. The Legate
brought to Philip letters from the Pope begging the King to
forbid his son to invade England and vex his vassal John.
Philip replied that the English kingdom was not, nor ever
would be, vassal to St. Peter ; for that no King can give his
kingdom to another without consent of his barons J- A notable
declaration of Philip's high views as to the royal power, and
also as to the importance of the independence of the barons.
He delighted to call his own lords round him for counsel,
and to listen to their advice, as he did before Bouvines, even
when it differed from his own opinion. Still, though he pro
tested against the Papal assumption, he did not care to make
trouble with the Church ; and he therefore acted prudently in
the matter, interfering as little as possible, and that only under
pressure from his vigorous daughter-in-law, Blanche of Castille.
When Louis reached England he was joined by nearly all
the barons, and, for a little while, seemed to have good hopes
of becoming King of England. But John died, and then the
barons, having got rid of the tyrant they hated, deserted the
banner of Louis, and rallied round King John's young son,
Henry ; for they naturally hoped that his minority would give
them time and opportunity to strengthen themselves. Then
they defeated the army of Louis at Lincoln, and shut him up
in London, where the citizens had not abandoned his cause.
The French relieving fleet, under Eustace the Monk, was met
in the Channel by the hardy sailors of the Cinque Port towns,
and utterly defeated : Eustace was taken and beheaded. Then
Louis made the best terms he could, and returned to France :
and Henry III reigned undisputed King.
This episode did not at all shake King Philip's ascendency
in France. He ruled peaceably and sagaciously over his people,
avoiding all risks and quarrels now that he had all to lose,
and cared not to win more. He lived much with the clergy,
* Matthew Paris.

A.D. 1223. DEATH OF KING PHILIP. 325
returning to the pious tendencies of his early life, and showed
himself ready to support them in their attempts against heresy.
Even in persecution he was reluctant to take part, when it
meant active warfare. The Roman Court tried hard and long
to engage him in the new Albigensian crusade ; he held aloof,
and sent his son, and did but little in it. At last (in a. d. 1222)
his health began to give way, just as he seemed likely to
yield to the Pope's wishes. Fever set in, against which his
vigorous constitution struggled for ten months. In 1223 he
could battle with it no longer, and died. The will he left
shows us how huge a fortune he had gathered, and how de
termined he was to buy for himself the goodwill of the Church
and the blessings supposed to follow with it. He left large
sums for religious purposes, specially with a view to the better
furtherance of persecution ; thereby showing himself in full
harmony with his spiritual friends. The bulk of his wealth
he left to his son, Louis; and took care not to weaken the
royal power by any dismemberment of the domains or any
great apanages 1.
So passed away this great King, who did more than any
one had yet done for royalty in France. A great King, but
not at all a great man. Had he shown more generous breadth
of spirit, he might have taken rank among the greatest.
As we have drawn out the story of his reign we have noted
the chief characteristics of his mind : his coolness and patience ;
no eager ambition or restlessness, but an aim taken with a
steady hand and a farseeing eye. His ruling quality was pride,
a noble pride in being King ; and a firmness and dignity in
asserting and fulfilling his ideal of the kingly place. With
him coolness was also coldness ; he was at no time a genial or
friendly man. And with coldness went not unnaturally a want
of generosity of character, which sometimes descended into
trickiness, cunning, or deceit, as when he tried to get Pope
1 Apanage is the Low Lat. apanagium (ad panem), a provision for
sustenance given to younger sons and charged on the estate. Cp. the
German word '¦' Panisbrief'

326 PHILIP II, SURNAMED AUGUSTUS. A.D. 1223.
Celestin to release him from his promise to King Richard,
or when he tempted away from the old King Henry II his
undudful sons. Such a man could well conceal his feelings,
nurture secret anger, wait, dissembling fairly, for occasions of
requital, if not of revenge. He was a great captain rather than
a gallant soldier. His nature was far from being cowardly, and
he knew that a King's armour was good and sound ; but he
had none of that heat of courage which in those days made
heroes, and which burnt so high in King Richard. He was
eminent as an engineer in war : his skill conduced greatly to
the capture of Chateau Gaillard; he laboured strenuously to
strengthen the fortifications of his chief cities. In general he
was fair-minded, and kinglike in his respect for justice. It was
noticed of him that he gave full compensation to those whose
houses he destroyed when he fortified Paris ; a stretch of just
dealing hardly credible in those days. His political sagacity
was perhaps the most remarkable quality in his character.
He succeeded, even in very critical times, in keeping the
greater lords faithful to his crown. He divided the Royal
Domain into bailliages and prevote's, and on leaving France
for the Crusade, commanded the Regents to hold four assizes
of the Royal Court every year. He is thus the founder of the
administrative system, whereby the French kings collected their
taxes, mustered their armies, and administered justice in the
provinces ; for the baillies and provosts were tax collectors,
army officials, and judges in one. He is thus too the first to
provide for regular sessions of the Royal Court. He took
pleasure in and presided over their assemblies ; he began the
shadowy greatness of the Court of Peers ; he passed success
fully through the great peril of several trials of strength with
the Pope, yielding where no political question was involved, as
in the case of Ingeborg, but standing firm, defiantly firm, when
the royal prerogative was attacked. The greatest Pope of the
century gave way before him. He checked the pretensions of
the spiritual tribunals, marking out clearly the relations of the
barons and the Church ; and he braved the threat of an inter-

A.D.1223. CHARACTER OF PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 327
diet firmly and successfully, when he felt it his duty to coerce
the Bishops of Orleans and Auxerre, who were minded to be
contumacious before the royal power ; he succeeded in making
feudal privilege and power spring largely from himself. He
saw the importance of his cities, and encouraged their growth
and independence, as we have seen at the battle of Bouvines.
Paris, his capital, he especially cherished ; paved her chief
streets, which up to that time had been common sewers,
muddy, ill-smelling, and pestilential ; he new-walled the town,
giving it more room to grow, had good houses built, and
set up excellent markets.
Whether himself learned or not, he was fully aware of the
uses of learning ; he encouraged and expanded the University
of Paris; he loved the literature of his day; its romances of
Alexander, and Arthur, and ' Kallemain.'
Religion of a kind was an element in his character : a religion
that had no weakness in it. His cold nature allowed him to
favour persecutions : they were not distasteful to him, and they
kept Rome in good humour. Innocent was not likely to push
a strong man hard, when that strong man was also vigorous
in repressing Jew and heretic. On the other hand, Philip's
religion, mixed up throughout with his own interests, never
overbore his cool judgment, or led him to pay deference to the
Church, if she encroached on his prerogative.
In sum, the King's character, though it falls far short of
greatness, and though very deficient in those qualities which
ensure our goodwill and affection, was in a remarkable degree
fitted for the work he set before him, — the work of building up,
stone by stone, the great edifice of Monarchy.
VI. Louis VIII. a.d. 1223-1226.
Louis the Eighth, Philip's son and successor, was the husband
of Blanche of Castile. His reign was short, and marked by con
siderable vigour.
At his accession there was much joy; and his barons signified
the same by voting that they would prefer not to pay the interest

328 LOUIS VIII. A.D.1226.
of their debts, which were heavy, and due to Jews; and, that,
as to the capital, they would defer its repayment to a distant
date. There came, however, a grave constitutional change,
which much affected the nobles : for the high officers of the
King now began to sit with them in their court, counting as
their equals in rank.
Louis VIII had two wars in his short reign : one in the
south-west, the other in the south-east. The former was small
and successful : he conquered Lower Poitou, and even reduced
Rochelle, the English King's doorway into France1. In 1226
Louis undertook the second of his wars, the Crusade, to which
the Church incited him. With a great and well-appointed
army he swept all before him down the Rhone till he reached
Avignon. Here, as the proud city refused to let him pass
through it in pomp of arms, he sat down for a long siege ;
although the city held not of him but of the Empire. The
brave men of Avignon, ever turbulent and hot, made vigorous
resistance ; and fever spread through the King's camp. Still
he went on ; till at last the place treated for capitulation, and
got terms which were not very severe. The campaign was for
a time carried on with vigour ; most of Languedoc submitted,
and Louis all but reached Toulouse. He turned back with the
greater part of his forces in October, and was struck down by
an attack of dysentery and fever at Montpensier invAuvergne,
leaving behind him a boy, Louis, aged only twelve years, and
his noble widow, Blanche.
His will proved that he had not the political instinct of his
father and of his son ; for he divided the domain, reconstructing
great princedoms for his children, whose interests must infallibly
before long be hostile to those of the crown. Thus he played
into the hands of the barons, who were alarmed at the royal
power, and eagerly looking for an opportunity to reduce it to
its older form.
1 In the Huguenots' time we find this important town again made the
point at which the English entered into ¥ ranee. It was destined to be the
last stronghold of the French aristocracy and of the Huguenots.

CHAPTER VIII.
Louis IX, called Saint Louis. A.D. 1226-1270.
I. The King's Youth, a.d. 12 26-1 244.
The accession of Louis IX to the throne in 1226 was a
critical moment for the French monarchy. Feudalism was
thoroughly alarmed, and on the watch for an occasion to
recover lost ground ; a child on the throne, ruled by a foreign
mother, seemed to be their opportunity. The year before
Count Peter of Dreux, the vigorous regent of Brittany, had
made a treaty with England against the King; and, among
other great barons on the move, those of Aquitaine joined
the Regent, taking as their head Richard of Cornwall, the
younger brother of Henry III of England. The young King
and his mother had to struggle with one or another confedera
tion of barons for sixteen years, from his accession down to the
year 1242, when the feudal party finally gave up the contest,
and recognised the complete superiority of the royal power.
The Queen made all haste to have her son crowned at
Rheims. The summons to attend the coronation, issued by the
barons who had surrounded the death-bed of Louis VIII, was
disregarded by almost all the great lords of France. Philip
' Hurepel,' the rough uncle of the boy, was there ; some church
men also ; Enguerrand, lord of Coucy, and the young Duke of
Burgundy; John of Brienne, the soldier of fortune, the titular
King of Jerusalem, who would one day become Emperor of
Constantinople, was present: — he was usually to be found at
great ceremonies, wherever in fact he was likely to be treated

330 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1226.
with respect and kept at the cost of others ; no one else of
name appeared. Theobald of Champagne made as though he
would have come ; but Philip declared that he would openly
charge him with being the poisoner of the late King ; — and the
Count of Champagne stood aloof. All the great barons of the
West and South w ere absent : Henry III of England, the chief
of them, hoped to wrest away all that Philip Augustus had con
quered ; the feudal barons thought to recover their independ
ence. Blanche had nothing with which to oppose these for
midable foes, save the innocence of her boy, the half-hearted
support of a few barons, the good-will of the Papal Legate,
and her own genius and gifts. With these she broke asunder
every combination, secured Louis on the throne, imprinted on
his mind that sense of religion and delicacy of conscience, that
honesty of purpose and self-denial, that consciousness of what
was due from him and to him, which made St. Louis first
among Kings. He alone combines the virtues of a churchman
with those of a layman ; in him alone the qualities which are
usually fatal to kings turned to advantage. Royalty, which
under the cold shrewd sway of Philip Augustus had made such
great strides towards power, was warmed into higher life by the
nobleness of St. Louis. It captivated the heart and imagination
of men, and grew strong by the display of softer qualities.
The French nation, full of feeling at all times, was at this time
deeply penetrated with religious sentiment. St. Louis, like
other great men, in other times, was the living expression of
the aims of his age : in him chivalry received its crown ; in
him the fresh humanity of the time found its expression, and
religion was illustrated and ennobled.
No sooner was he crowned than the barons, who had de
manded the release of all noble prisoners as the price of their
attendance at the coronation, and who, on being refused, had
absented themselves, drew together, and made league against
the queen-mother. Theobald of Champagne, Peter Mauclerc \
1 So called from the ill he wrought to clerks. He was noted for his
hatred of ecclesiastics.

A.D.1228. QUEEN BLANCHE AS REGENT. 331
regent of Brittany, Hugh of Lusignan, Count of La Marche,
Richard of Cornwall, and, in a secret manner, Raymond VII
of Toulouse, took Enguerrand, lord of Coucy, a baron of high
nobility and small lands, to be their head. They reckoned on
being supported, if not led, by Henry III of England ; but
then, as after, that feeble prince failed them utterly. For he had
no force of character, was governed by favourites ; and was
engaged in a constant and unsuccessful struggle against his own
barons and people ; so that he must have felt that in joining the
French barons he would be fighting against his own side. Queen
Blanche found means (it is said by plentiful gifts of money) to
interest in her behalf Henry's great minister, Hubert de Burgh.
The true head of the league was Theobald of Champagne ; but
the Queen, by her powers of fascination, succeeded in detaching
him from the barons' party ; and both then and later he gave
up his own interests for her sake. Although he had deserted
them, the barons met in force at Corbeil ; Queen Blanche, who
was at Orleans with her son, hastened towards Paris. When
they reached Montleheri with a very scanty escort, they learnt
that the barons were at Corbeil in great force, threatening the
road to the capital. Thence the Queen sent messengers to
Paris, begging help. The citizens with great willingness came
forth in arms to bring them on their way. From Montleheri
to Paris the road was filled with folk, armed or unarmed, who
cried to our Lord to give the King long life, and to defend him
from his foes : and so did He '. And thus the King came
safely to Paris, none daring to withstand him, and was wel
comed heartily by his devoted burghers, who, from the time
of their great benefactor Philip Augustus, had been warmly
attached to the King's party. In this same year, 1228, the
magistrates of all communes took oath to defend the King and
his friends against all comers.
A languid war went on till 1231, when the treaty of St. Aubin
du Cormier gave the victory to Blanche. In that treaty we find
the famous Hugh of Lusignan, Count of La Marche, reckoned
1 Joinville, Vie de St. Louis, chap. 2.

332 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1234.
among the King's men ; and, consequently, Anjou and Saintonge
regarded as his fiefs. The island of Oleron, on that coast, was
ceded to him by Henry III. This treaty may be said to close
the worst troubles of the King's minority. In 1234 Peter
Mauclerc became his vassal, and was ever afterwards one
of his most devoted followers. The war with the barons was
now over, the young King having held his own with them :
but there followed immediately (from 1231 to 1236) a similar
struggle with some of the great feudal bishops, in which the
firmness, skill, and prudence of Queen Blanche triumphed
again, and the King learnt the more difficult lesson of standing
up boldly against spiritual opposition, and of discerning between
right and wrong, even when priestly vestments cloaked the
evildoer. Even the Popes had, to a certain extent, interfered
in favour of the feudal party. Honorius III had not been
friendly to Blanche, nor was Gregory IX, who, in 1234, actually
threatened the King with excommunication if he did not desist
from his attempt to restrict clerical jurisdiction. The Queen
through her influence over the Legate disarmed the papal
illwill, and pursued her course unimpeded : another lesson,
doubtless, for the young Prince. During this period Theobald
of Champagne became King of Navarre ; he had sold to
the crown Chartres, Blois, Sancerre, and Chateaudun : Philip
Hurepel died : Peter Mauclerc ceased to be regent of Brittany.
Time, the friend of the 3'oung, had worked silently in the
King's favour.
Meanwhile, the course of affairs in the South was equally
fortunate. In 1229 the treaty of Meaux, ratified at Paris,
brought to an end the long quarrel between France and Tou
louse. Raymond VII, worn out with war, agreed to terms,
which meant the gradual absorption of the South, and the
King's rule over states, which then and for long after were
regarded as completely foreign. The name of France was not
applied to the South for three centuries to come. In this treaty
Raymond bound himself to search out and punish heretics with
fresh vigour ; to take the cross in person, and to go over sea to

A.D. 1234 QUEEN BLANCHE AS REGENT. 333
fight the Saracen for four years. The King left him Toulouse,
which, it was agreed, was to fall after his death to the King's
brother, Alphonse, who should marry the Count's daughter ; if
they died childless, then it should lapse to the King himself.
He also ceded to the King all his other lands and domains
on the French side of the Rhone (the right bank), while the
possessions he held across the Rhone, ' in the Empire,' were
destined to pass, in 1274, into the hands of the Church; by
which means the Papacy obtained the Venaissin ; a possession
which it held till the French Revolution. In addition to these
hard terms, the poor count had to fill the ditches and throw
down the walls of thirty of his strong places, and of Toulouse
herself; to give up sundry towns as hostages, and to pay a
heavy fine, half to the King, half to the Church. For all that
remained to him he did homage to the crown. Thus the
whole Duchy of Narbonne came at once into the King's
hands ; the house of Beziers was disinherited ; the county
of Toulouse was secured to the royal house, with a prospect
also of the eastern part of Guienne. Then at last the luck7
less duke was reconciled to the Church ; and France entered
into possession of a land ruined and in tears ; a land con
quered, if not convinced. The South of France long suffered
from these terrible wars ; long it deemed itself a captive, and
struggled at times for freedom ; for centuries it retained its
old nomenclature ; not till the fourteenth century did the name
of Languedoc appear, nor was it spoken of as a part of
France till near the period of the Reformation. It was, and is,
a land apart ; its customs, dialect, the figures and faces of its
inhabitants, all still show signs of the old independence ; though
of its wealth, luxury, and learning, few traces now remain.
The Inquisition, under the direction of the Dominican Friars,
was established over the prostrate body of the exhausted South
in the year 1233, in the joint interests of the French King and
the Pope. The great monarchies, even in their rise, began to
lapse into tyranny. We find even Frederick II, the head of
the Holy Roman Empire, making this horrible engine of

334 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1234.
intolerance useful to hunt down his enemies ; which was
perhaps scarcely the end for which the Popes had intended
this cherished institution.
During these years Blanche ruled wisely, and watched over
the growth of her affectionate and sickly son. He proved to
be an apt scholar ; the agitated politics of the time taught him
whom to trust, whom to fear and shun ; he learnt, with singular
clearness and straightness of mind, to distinguish the limits of
spiritual and temporal powers ; to feel the value of right ; to
recognise his own duty as the supreme administrator of justice ;
while at the same time his tender conscience and delicate frame
made him the most pious and devout man of his age. Though,
with the narrowness which in those days inevitably accompanied
a strong faith, he persecuted without remorse ; and with a devo
tion akin to superstition, he accepted all the wonders which then
formed a large part of religion : still his true nobility of soul
brought him into communion with all that was highest in
Christianity, so that he did not fear to withstand bishop and
Pope, when he felt that they were not walking right with God.
These qualities were quite compatible with a gentle submission
to his mother's will, long after the days of his boyhood; and
until the time of his first Crusade, men had but little notion
what strength there was under that modest and kindly exterior.
Blanche in 1234 had found him a little wife, Margaret, daughter
of Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence, a child of twelve
years, a maiden sweet and gentle, pure-minded and devoted,
brave and loving, whose character answered closely to that
of the King. Even when they were married, the mother's
imperious disposition could not bear a rival in her son's affec
tions ; she watched over the young pair with a care which was
grievous to them both, keeping them much apart ; so that they
were obliged to meet by stealth, and to have signals to guard
against her coming. Much did the young Queen suffer from
her jealous watchfulness ; ' she was,' says Joinville, ' the woman
she hated above all others,' so harshly had she treated the little
lady, even after she was grown up.

A.D.1238. HIS EARLY YEARS. 335
These years passed in tolerable quietude, the King being
busy regulating affairs, and keeping in order the churchmen
of his realm. In 1238 he was appealed to for help by
Baldwin II of Constantinople, and gave him much gold ; in
return for which he received the Crown of Thorns (there was
one already at St. Denis), which he accepted with marvellous
devotion, and placed with great honour in his new Chapel1 at
Paris, a building which seems to express in its beauty of pro
portion, construction, and ornament, something of the exquisite
harmony of the King's character.
While peace reigned in his land, terrible war was raging
abroad. The great struggle between Gregory IX, the aged
Pontiff, and Frederick II of Germany, the most brilliant of
Emperors, splendid in his very vices, was at its height. Though
the Tartars, a hideous race, who struck terror into every heart,
were knocking at the Eastern gates of Europe, the Pope would
not relax his efforts to destroy the man who ought to be the
bulwark of Christendom. Even the Moslem, who, much divided
among themselves, had suffered greatly from hordes of Mongols,
sent ambassadors crying for help to France and England. But
St. Louis did not stir ; ' either we will send these Tartars to
Tartarus,' said he to his weeping mother, ' or they shall send
us to heaven ; ' with which pleasant dilemma he turned aside to
other business. In England the Bishop of Winchester said in
council : ' Let them and the Saracens fight it out, till both are
destroyed ; then will the Church fill all the earth ; ' and so
England let them be : the Pope smiled at the danger — ' at any
rate they will first destroy Frederick.' The Emperor himself
lingered in Italy, while the Germans, under orders sent by him,
met and repulsed the Tartars on the Danube ; and this great
peril was averted.
The head of Christendom gave no credit to Frederick for
this great service done by his Germans : his energies, mar
vellous in an old man now drawing near to his hundredth year,
were strained to the utmost to destroy his foe. The Emperor
1 This is the Sainte Chapelle, built to receive this dubious relic.

336 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1241.
was excommunicated, and therefore, according to Papal theory,
deposed. The Pope cast about for a successor, and offered the
imperial crown to Louis for his brother Robert of Artois. But
the wise King was steadily neutral in this unholy strife, and at
once refused the tempting bribe in terms which, if Matthew
Paris 1 may be trusted, must have sounded strange and bitter to
the Pontiff. He denied the Pope's right to depose a sovereign
prince, who had no peer in Christendom, without proof of the
accusations brought against him ; if Frederick was to be judged
and deposed, it must be by a General Council ; he had ever
regarded Frederick as innocent, and as his very good neighbour.
Not content with this, the French King and his barons sent
a friendly embassy to the Emperor, and continued to be on
good terms with him. When Frederick in 1241 captured a ship
load of French prelates and others, on their way to Rome to
a General Council, which had been convened for the purpose
of sanctioning his deposition, Louis wrote the Emperor a firm
letter threatening to declare war against him ; and Frederick
at once gave them their liberty. At a later period we find
the King respecting Frederick's rights in the East, although
by that time he had been excommunicated again after the
Council of Lyons. So raged the war between the two heads
of Christendom, to the detriment of all that was good. Gregory
died in 1241. After nearly two years2 Innocent IV succeeded
him, and followed in his footsteps. The Papacy gave the house
of Hohenstaufen neither peace nor respite, till it had soiled its
hands in the blood of the last of the race (a.d. 1268).
In that same year of Gregory's death, 1241, Louis tried to
make his brother Alphonse Lord of Poitou and Auvergne;
the barons resisted, called in Henry III from England, and so
roused the embers of old discontents. Hugh of Lusignan,
1 Matthew Paris, the chief historian of this period, wrote with a very
strong bias against the Papacy, and in favour of the Kings of Europe. His
speeches are therefore not to be trusted ; although his narratives are worthy
of credit.
2 This interregnum alarmed the King ; Matthew Paris tells us he threat
ened the Cardinals that he would establish a French Pope, according to the
powers granted by St. Clement to St< Denis. — Matthew Paris, p. 532.

A.D. 1241. LOUIS IX AND HENRY III. 337
Count of La Marche, defied Alphonse at Poitiers, renounced
his homage, and rode off on his war-horse after setting fire to
the house in which he had lodged. Henry III came, not indeed
with a great army, for the English barons refused to go, but
with three hundred knights and thirty barrels of money, to pay
for troops. But Louis showed unexpected vigour. He gathered
all the force he could and entered Poitou, occupying the strong
places one after another. He was before Fontenay, when
Henry sent knights to defy him : he took the place, and then,
having reduced everything north of the Charente, came down
to Taillebourg on that deep river, purposing to cross by
a narrow stone bridge there. He found the English King and
the Count of La Marche on the other bank: they had not
secured the bridge or the castle which commanded it ; and the
French began at once to cross with all haste and to fall on the
English. At first, however, they were like to have been driven
back; then Louis himself, seeing their need, passed over
and came to the forefront of the battle : and when the English
saw that, they gave ground and retreated to Saintes, closely
followed by the King's men. A second battle was hotly fought
in the neighbourhood of that town ; the English were over
borne, and King Henry fled into Gascony. Then the Count
of La Marche yielded himself to the King, and was pardoned,
with the loss of all the lands that King Louis had conquered.
Henry III fell back on Bordeaux and spent in idleness the
remainder of the money he had brought with him, and in 1243
made peace with Louis, who did not care to press the English
King hard ; for he was his brother-in-law 1 ; and both Louis
and a multitude of his fighting men were suffering grievously
from camp-fever. Then Henry went back to England and
landed at Portsmouth, ' with as much bravery as if he had con
quered France ; ' while Louis returned sick to Paris.
At the same time Raymond VII made a last attempt to
reassert the independence of the South. It was all in vain.
1 Henry III had married in 1235 Eleanor the second daughter of Raymond
Berenger, and younger sister of Margaret, Queen of France.
VOL. I. Z

338 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1244.
Though the country rose willingly, no help from Spain or the
Pyrenean barons came to him ; Henry III was unfit and unable
to help him. He saw his error, and hastened to make submis
sion to the King ; who, ever prudent and moderate, consented
to receive him on the old terms of the treaty of Paris. Thus
ended the last coalition of the barons against the King. And at
the same time (a.d. 1244) the long and mournful persecution of
the Albigensians closed with their final extinction. In the high
gorges of the Pyrenees, on an almost impregnable rock, stood
the Castle of Mont Segur (Mons Securus), last refuge of the
persecuted. There a few proscribed nobles and knights, with
about two hundred Albigensians ar.d their Bishop, kept up a
petty warfare with the plains below. They were attacked by
the Bishop of Albi and the French Seneschal of Carcassonne ;
and after a long and heroic resistance were surprised by a
body of mountaineers, who succeeded in climbing the rock
by night. They then surrendered, on condition that any who
retracted their opinions should be spared. But not one man
or woman among them cared so to save life; they were all
shut up in a building made of palings and stakes, and burnt
to death. Thus perished the last of the Albigensians, after
thirty-five years of unpitying warfare, of nameless horrors.
Manichean opinions thenceforth faded away, though they might
still be traced in some parts of the South ; . and, later, in North
Italy and on the Danube. Their day was past ; and in the
fifteenth century the last sparks of this fire, which once had
threatened to kindle half Europe, were stamped out by the heel
of the Ottoman invader.
Louis now proclaimed that as 'no man can serve two masters,'
all barons holding fiefs under him and also under Henry of
England, must choose one lord or other ; and almost all chose
to abandon their holdings under the King of England. Hereby
the separation between France and England was made far more
marked ; and the wars that from this time raged between them
became thoroughly national, although ancient claims and names
were still used. Finally, in 1246, Charles of Anjou, the King's

A.D.1245. HIS FIRST CRUSADE. 339
brother, rode with five hundred knights into Provence and
claimed his bride, the Countess Beatrix. Raymond Berenger,
who would fain have married her to Raymond VII, was lately
dead, and the moment seemed fortunate to the harsh and cruel
Frenchman, whose character formed so strange a contrast to
that of his brother. He carried off the heiress unopposed : this
was the true end of the separate political existence of Provence.
II. The King's First Crusade, a.d. i 245-1 254.
Meanwhile, the King had been slowly preparing for the great
act of his life, the Crusade. In r2 44, not long after his return
from the south-west, he was taken with so sharp an illness, that
he was brought to utter weakness, and his attendants disputed
whether he were dead or no : but he rallied, and called for the
cross ; ' and when the queen his mother heard that he had re
covered speech, she showed as much joy as could be ; but when
he told her he had taken the cross, she lamented as much as
if she had seen him dead1.' After him, his three brothers,
Robert of Artois, Alphonse of Poitiers, Charles of Anjou, who
was afterwards King of Sicily, also took the cross, together with
a goodly company of barons and knights. Not content with
these volunteers, the King by a pious fraud caught many more.
For it was the custom to give to each courtier a new robe at
Christmas-tide2 ; and on Christmas-eve 1245 the King bade all
his court be present at early morning mass. At the chapel
door each man received his new cloak, put it on, and went in.
At first all was dark ; but when day broke, each man saw on his
neighbour's shoulder the cross which betokened the Crusading
vow. Then they jested and laughed, ' seeing that their lord
King had taken them piously, preaching by deeds not by words.'
Afterwards, as they reflected that they could not decently throw
down the sacred sign, their laughter became mixed with tears3;
for men were not then very eager to undertake the holy war.
1 Joinville, chap. 3.
2 Whence Christmas Day came to be called ' the day of new clothes.'
3 Matthew Paris, p. 604. Z 2

340 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1245.
In the year before, about the time of the King's illness, the
Pope, escaping like a fugitive from the risks around him, had
taken ship for Genoa, whence he proposed to go to Citeaux in
Burgundy. He knew that the King had agreed to visit the
great abbey at the time of the monks' chapter in 1244, and hoped,
by his own influence and that of his faithful allies the monks,
to entrap him into an unwary promise of support against the
Emperor. So when King Louis came in state to the abbey
gates he saw a long line of monks, some five hundred of them,
filing forth from the porch of the abbey church; these all knelt
before the King, beseeching him with pious tears and sobs to
help the ' father of the faithful persecuted by a son of Satan ' (so
they described the Pope's attack on Frederick), and to receive
the Pope into his kingdom. The King, greatly affected,
also knelt before the monks : yet, for all that, his prudence
overcame his feelings, and he answered cautiously that he
would defend the Church, as far as was just and proper, against
any ill-doing of the Emperor ; and would receive the Pope, if his
nobles assented thereto. The barons however did not assent ;
and the Pope had to abandon his intention of holding a Council
at Rheims, and to fix on Lyons as the most convenient spot, it
being on the edge of the French kingdom. Lyons, which in
Roman times had been, as we have seen, the heart and centre
of the imperial system in Gaul, now lay on the border-line of
two states ; part in France, part in the Empire, divided by the
Saone. The city was governed partly by the archbishop and
canons, who warmly supported the Papal cause ; and partly by
a civic government, which, sympathising with and following the
Lombard cities, also sided with the Church against the Empire.
Thus the place was well suited for a council : and here the
Pope condemned and, with the sanction of the assembled pre
lates, again excommunicated the Emperor : the strife between
them grew darker and more unyielding. Years before, Pope
Gregory IX had preached a crusade against Frederick, bidding
those who undertook it wear the cross-keys on their shoulder
instead of the simple red cross : gladly would Innocent IV

A.D. 1246. THE KING AND INNOCENT IV. 341
now have turned aside the single-minded King from his Crusade
in the East to one nearer home. But Louis was firm : he was
clear as to his duty in the East ; he was by no means clear as
to the justice or wisdom of crushing the Emperor : and so,
after warmly but vainly essaying to make peace between the
combatants, he left them to fight out their differences, and went
on quietly making ready for his departure.
One of his last acts, before going, was to approve and
give powers to a remarkable league of his barons. The lay
aristocracy was jealous of the encroachments of the clergy ;
they bound themselves to resist them in matters of jurisdiction,
and to oppose the consequent levying by them of large sums of
money from the people. They agreed that if any noble were
unjustly excommunicated, they would all in common neutralise
the curse, so far as in them lay. The Pope answered the
barons' manifesto by a vigorous letter ; and there the matter
stood. He was not strong enough to push matters to extremes
while he had other and heavier work on hand. It was a
remarkable quarrel, showing how thoroughly the King and his
barons had come to see that their interests were the same ;
and how clearly the King was determined not to let fall from
his hands into those of the clergy the administration of justice
in his realm.
By the late acquisitions of the crown in Provence, France had
become at last possessed of a seaboard on the Mediterranean,
and the King had dug at Aigues Mortes x a canal and a harbour,
to serve him as a southern port. Hither he came in the summer
of 1248, and hence he set sail, with much religious solemnity,
for Cyprus, the rendezvous of the expedition.
It was agreed that the Crusade should not be directed to the
Holy Land in the first instance, but to Egypt. Partly, it would
seem, because the King was unwilling to interfere in the struggles
of Pope and Emperor, in which he must have been involved
had he gone to Jerusalem. For Frederick was King of Sicily
and Jerusalem, and the Pope had already declared that he had
1 Aquae Mortuae, ' the stagnant waters.'

342 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1248.
forfeited his crown, and had named Henry of Lusignan as his
successor. Frederick's officers and the Knights of the Temple
were at open feud ; and Louis would surely have been mixed up
in their quarrels. And besides, Jerusalem was a heap of ruins,
an open defenceless town, almost without an inhabitant, and
the Christian cities on the coast seemed for the moment safe.
For the Tartars had destroyed the power of the Sultan of Iconium,
and Palestine lay untouched. Egypt, on the other hand, was the
very heart of the Moslem power. The Sultan of Cairo was
nominal lord of Palestine, and the road to Jerusalem certainly
lay through 'Babylon,' as Cairo was then called. Therefore the
King did wisely to strike at Egypt first : but the way to conquer
Egypt is to strike straight at Cairo, advancing along either the
western or the eastern edge of the Delta. A march across its
innumerable canals and watercourses is almost impossible, even
if carried on with vigour and promptitude.
After eight months at Cyprus, the good King set sail for the
Egyptian coast. A storm dispersed the fleet, and delayed it
a few days: at last, in June 1249, the King's ship sighted the
low line of the coast and the town of Damietta, and saw the
Sultan's cavalry, the Mamelukes, drawn up along the beach.
With a vigour which brought its reward, the King, with all
his army at his back, dashed ashore, drove back the enemy,
and won firm footing on the land. The Egyptian Sultan was
sick to death ; discord reigned and distrust ; it was a for
tunate moment for the attack. The unbelievers were seized
with panic, and without an effort abandoned Damietta — a city
very strong and well-provisioned, and one which had already
shown what it could do when besieged, having once stood
out for fifteen months. Thus far all was well : the Crusaders
had landed well, and had taken a most important city, which
gave them harbourage and a starting-point. But now mistakes
began, and the weak side of the King's character showed itself.
He was no general ; and underrated the value of time in war.
Napoleon, criticising his action on a scene he knew well, said of
him that if on the 8th of June 1249, Louis had pushed on, as

A.D. 1240. BATTLE OF MANSOURAH. 343
the French did in the Revolution days, he would have been
at Mansourah by the 12th : the Aschmun Channel would then
have been dry, the waters being at their lowest ; he might have
crossed at once, and so have reached Cairo before the end of
June. In less than a month he could have conquered Egypt.
But the King feared the rise of the Nile, and determined to
defer his crossing till the river abated. Thus he wasted the
first-fruits of his campaign. Idleness, debauch, disease, the
fiends which overtake those who delay in war, revelled in his
camp ; and, at the end of five months and a half, when the
King set forth, the traditions of success were broken, what
little discipline there had been was gone, the actual force was
weakened. The army took a month to advance sixty miles,
and then sat down to build a causeway over the Aschmun
branch, which runs out of the Damietta arm of the Nile 1. Here
they wasted men, patience, and time in a mad attempt ; and,
at last, after suffering from the Greek fire which the enemy
discharged at their works, and from disease and want, they
discovered a ford, by which they crossed over near the town
of Mansourah. The Count of Artois, the King's brother, the
Templars, and the Earl of Salisbury, were over first, and refusing
to wait for orders, with true feudal contempt for any combined
plan of action, pushed on, driving back the Saracens through
Mansourah. Beyond that town the Paynim rallied, thanks to
the bravery of the Baharites or Mamelukes, who that day saved
the Egyptians from complete defeat. They shut up the Chris
tians in the town, and there the King's brother, with a multi
tude of knights, was slain. The battle was a confused struggle,
with no man as chief or head. The King behaved like a
gallant knight, not as a commander. He exposed himself to
the thick of the fight, and was all but taken by the Turks.
' Never,' says Joinville of him that day, ' have I seen a knight
of so great worth ; he towered above all his battle by the head
1 Joinville, chap. 5, gives an unintelligible account of the Nile Delta and
the arms of the river. He places the French army in an impossible situation,
between the Damietta and the ' Rexi ' (or Rosetta) branches.

344 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1240.
and shoulders V All that hot day the struggle went on ; but,
towards evening, the crossbowmen came up, and, when the
Saracens saw that, they took to flight, and left the King in
possession of the field and of their camp. Nothing followed :
the French began to retreat. The King was slowly retiring
from the field, when a Templar, who had been in Mansourah
with the vanguard, came up. The King asked him if he had
tidings of his brother, the Count of Artois ; and he replied, ' he
had right good tidings of him, for that he was surely in Para
dise : but, Sire, be of good cheer, for such great honour came
never to King of France as has come to you, who have crossed
a river swimming, and have discomfited the foe and driven
them from the field, and have taken their engines and tents.'
To which the King replied, that God should be adored for
whatever gifts He gave ; and thereon began great tears to roll
from his eyes I And so in sorrow, not exultation, closed this
hard-contested day 3. Three days later, the Egyptians in turn
became the assailants, and attacked the King's camp. They
were repulsed after a hard fight, with terrible loss to the Chris
tians ; — scarcely a knight was left unhurt. This second battle
settled the question as to the farther advance of the army.
Even then the same fatal delays took place. For eight days
the army was busy burying their dead : it seemed sacrilege to
let these martyr-bones bleach in the sun. The stench and the
bad food — it was Lent, and rigorously kept by the King — soon
bred the army-fever. Six weeks they wasted thus : the enemy's
fleet above and below blockaded the river, so that they were
almost without food. At length it was decided that they must
retire to Damietta. The King, always absolutely unselfish,
though attacked by the fever, refused to go on shipboard with
the wounded, the sick, and the priests, and placed himself
with the rearguard, saying ' he would rather die than leave his
1 Joinville, chap. 5.
2 Ibid.
3 The Arab historians claim the victory ; and in truth they mav be
right.

A.D. 1249. THE BATTLE OF MANSOURAH. 345
people.' They set out. After many deeds of heroism, the
King's illness overpowered him; he halted, rested, was taken
prisoner. The whole army was butchered or made captive.
The Saracens spent several days massacring in cold blood the
common soldiers, The barons and all who could pay ransom
were retained. They were carried to Mansourah, and there,
after much negotiation, the King agreed to purchase his free
dom and that of his barons, by the cession of Damietta, the
payment of a million bezants l, and a truce for ten years.
Damietta had been held bravely by the Queen, whose firmness,
together with the pity caused by her helplessness, had hindered
the garrison from taking flight when they heard of the King's
captivity: in the midst of her anxiety and trouble, she had
given birth to a son, whom she named John Tristan, in remem
brance of her sorrows.
At the same time the Mamelukes, long restive under the
Sultan, revolted and slew the last of the Ayoubites, the family of
Saladin (a.d. 1250). Thus, with the defeat of the French, began
the long dominion of the Mamelukes, who formed the military
strength of Egypt for centuries, till another army of Frenchmen
led by Napoleon landed in Egypt, and broke their power.
These troubles among the Moslem nearly brought the prisoners
to their deaths — nothing but the prospect of the ransom saved
them. Throughout all, the wonder and veneration of all men
was fixed on the King, whose simplicity, firmness, piety, and
gentleness, extorted the high praises even of his enemies. At
last they were allowed to go on board some Genoese ships.
Damietta was given up ; the ransom paid ; and some set sail
for home, while the King steered for the shores of Palestine.
Twelve thousand Christians were left behind as prisoners.
Of two thousand eight hundred knights, who were in the
King's battle at first, scarcely a hundred followed him to the
Holy Land2; and these were but the wreck of themselves.
1 This bezant (so named from Byzantium), was a gold coin, worth a
little less than ten shillings.
2 So says Joinville. ' De tous voz chevaliers,' says Guion Malvoisin,

346 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1250.
The fever clung about them ; the King was very ill. Still he
refused to abandon his task so long as he had life ; and with
tottering steps landed at Ptolemais, which was the only Chris
tian city, excepting Tyre, that had not fallen into Saracen
hands. Here they again suffered much from sickness; and
the barons round the King pressed him to return home. But
he still refused, though he allowed his two brothers to go. They
had grieved him sorely by wasting their time at the dice.
The King's brothers returned safely to France, where
Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, took possession of the states of
the south, which had fallen to him through the death in 1249
of his father-in-law, Raymond VII ; and Charles, Count of
Anjou, the other brother, found that the great cities of Provence
had recovered their independence, and were modelling them
selves on the plan of the Lombard Republics. He attacked
Aries and Avignon, and destroyed their new-formed govern
ments. Marseilles held out for six years ; she too at last had
to succumb, and with her perished the civic independence of
the South.
When Europe learnt the perils of Louis, all men groaned
and accused heaven. ' How could the holiest of kings have
been so treated ? ' asked Pope Innocent, who nevertheless
took no steps to succour him ; — he could not turn aside from
his great work of crushing the Hohenstaufen. Frederick II
had been poisoned just as he was preparing to bring help
to Louis ; but Conrad still remained, and the efforts of the
Papacy were redoubled. France was filled with indignation
when she heard the Papal emissaries preaching a crusade, not
to deliver their King and hero, but to destroy the unfortunate
sons of Frederick II; the barons refused the Pope all help.
Blanche, now in full accord with them, took strong measures,
declaring that she would confiscate the goods of any who
took that cross ; she stopped the mouths of the Papal militia,
the Dominican preachers. A great popular agitation began,
' que amenastes en Chippre, de deux mil huit cens, il ne vous en est pas
demoure ung cent.'

A.D. 1253. CLOSE OF THE CRUSADE. 347
a Crusade of the poor, the serfs, the shepherds J The leader of
the movement was a mysterious man who was known as the
' Master of Hungary.' The Queen at first favoured them, as
their professed object was to succour the King. But when
from invective they passed to action, and killed twenty priests
at Orleans, she was obliged to repress them with the strong
hand. Four years the King spent in Palestine. The Saracens
had no strength there, or they could easily have crushed him.
He negotiated and fought for the release of captives, and, in
•fact, freed all prisoners in Egypt, a matter which he had very
much at heart; he strengthened such places as remained to the
Christians, Caesarea, Sidon, Jaffa, Ptolemais ; he did all that
was possible to hold together and secure the slight footing the
West still had in the East. His army however dropped gra
dually away from him : one baron after another had pressing
private business at home, and sailed off. At last, in the end
of 1252 or in 1253 2, the noble Queen Blanche died, and the
King, feeling that he had done well nigh all he could in the
East, and that France without Blanche was in peril, with such
a Pope as Innocent on one hand, and such a neighbour as
Henry III on the other, determined to return home ; at this
all were glad, save the Legate, who begged Joinville to go
home to his lodgings, and, when he was shut in, he took his
hands, and began to weep and to say, ' Seneschal, I am right
joyous, and thank God that you have escaped from so great
perils wherein you have been in this land; but, on the other
hand, I am very sad and dolorous of heart, since I must leave
your very good and holy company, to return to Rome among
the disloyal folk there V Strange confession for a Papal legate
to make ; but a proof, if it were needed, that Louis was already
regarded as the most saintly man on earth.
1 Hence called the Crusade of the Pastoureaux.
2 All the chroniclers, who give the date, make it Dec. 1252, except
William of Nangis, who says 1253. The later date seems to fit best with
Joinville's narrative. .
3 Joinville, chap. 14.

348 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1258.
The King reached Hyeres in safety, and in September,
1254. was once more in Paris, showing, as he entered the city,
the marks of profound sorrow in his countenance ; for he
thought that Christendom had been covered with confusion
through his own shortcomings.

III. The King's later Life. a.d. 1254-1270.
Now begins the best part of the holy King's reign. He never
wearied at his task of making peace in all his borders. Such
was his reputation for firmness, justice, and sanctity, that he
was able to exert a wonderful influence for good. He made
a treaty with King James of Aragon in 1258, by which the
Spaniard gave up his fiefs in the South of France (some ran
even into Auvergne), while Louis gave him secure ownership
of Montpellier, and abandoned his old claims on the Spanish
March and on Roussillon. In the next year, in his love of
peace he handed over to Henry of England Perigord, the
Limousin, the south part of Saintonge, and his suzerainty over
some smaller districts, while Henry in return gave up all his
claims on Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Poitou, and
Northern Saintonge. The inhabitants of the ceded districts
were little pleased ; and, in after days, refused to celebrate the
saint's-day of the King who had thus handed them over against
their will to the English. His Council also remonstrated with
him for it ; saying that if his conscience bade him give up
these districts, still more ought it to lead him to give up the
rest of King Philip's conquests. But the King held that he
did it, not as a matter of conscience or justice, but solely ' to
create love between his children and mine, who are cousins-
germain V And many times he acted as peacemaker between
1 Louis and Henry had married two sisters. The cession of these pro
vinces may have been connected with a promise said to have been made
respecting them by Louis VIII, at the end of his feeble kingship in
England. And, besides, we learn from Matthew Paris (p. 642), that, in

A.D. 1267. THE KING'S fUST-DEALlNG. 349
quarrelling barons: avoiding strife, and doing justice, he set
to all the realm the noblest example of the life of a Christian
prince. He taught and watched over his children ; he gave
plentiful alms ; built lazar-houses, hospitals, houses for the
blind, penitentiaries : many times did he with his own hand
cut bread and pour out drink for the poor. He built churches,
nunneries, abbeys, without stint : ' even as a scribe illuminates
the book he has writ, that it may be fairer and held in more
honour, so did the holy King illustrate and beautify his king
dom with monasteries and churches, which he built and en
dowed during his lifetime V He dispensed his large patronage
with great conscientiousness ; corrected and regulated the doings
of his bailiffs, judges, and other officers ; forbade private war
and judgment by duel ; was ever ready to hear the appeals of
his people; ofttimes did justice, after mass, seated under an
oak at Vincennes ; kept open court, and gathered his barons
round him by his cheerfulness and generous ways : in a word,
he ruled the land as it had never before been ruled, until
security brought plenty, the returns of the royal domains were
doubled, arts flourished, learning was held in honour, and men
enjoyed, throughout the length and breadth of France, a nobler
and better life.
Still, through all these years of well-doing, one master-
passion still held the King's mind ; a passion which, when
he was on Crusade before, had made so good a husband and
father forget the noble wife who was so worthy of him '' ; which
made him think nothing of the solid good he was doing at
1247, the Bishops of Normandy had pronounced the King's claims to
that duchy to be valid and just.
1 Joinville, chap. 15.
2 As we may learn from Joinville's account of her arrival at Sayette
(Sidon), after she had given birth to a daughter. ' When I heard tell that
she was come, I rose up from before the King, and went to meet her. And
when I next saw the King, who was in his chapel, he asked me if the
Queen and the children were well ; and I said, yes. Then he said, I knew
when you rose that you were going to meet the Queen, and therefore I sat
still for the sermon. These things I have related, because I had been five
years about him, and never before had I heard him mention the Queen or
the children ; and it is not a good way, methinks, to be a stranger to one's
wife and little ones.' — Joinville, chap. 13.

350 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1270.
home, or of the grievous misfortunes he had before brought
on his followers. For thirteen years he cherished this desire ;
and at last, in Lent, 1267, he summoned all his barons to
Paris, and again took the Cross, together with his three sons,
to the consternation of all prudent people. He was so weak
that Joinville had to carry him in his arms from house to house ;
he was not fit to sit a horse, or even to be carried in aiitter.
The stout old seneschal, who had stood by his King in Egypt
and the Holy Land, and had ever told him the blunt truth without
fear, refused to take the Cross again, and told the King why.
' While I was serving God and the King over sea, the men
and officers of the King had greatly oppressed and trodden
down my subjects, so that they were thereby so impoverished
that never will they and I recover from it. And I see clearly
that, were I to betake myself again to the pilgrimage of the Cross,
it would be the utter ruin of these my poor subjects.' And he
goes on to say, that 'those who counselled the King in this enter
prise did great evil, and sinned moi tally. For, while he was in
France, all his realm was in peace, and justice reigned. But
the moment he was out of it, everything began to grow worse.'
And so the greyhaired seneschal stayed at home, and tended
his own people in peace and justice. Louis, after three years'
preparation, set forth in 1270. This time he steered wide of
Palestine, and made for Tunis, for what reason we know not.
Some say he had heard that the prince of that place was minded
to become a Christian ; others, that his ambitious brother,
Charles of Anjou, who had so lately subdued the two Sicilies,
urged the King to break the power which lay over against
him, and made the high sea dangerous for his fleets ; others,
that the King believed that the Mussulmans of Tunis were the
chief supports of those of Cairo, and that he must begin with
them. Sure it is that the aim which so often guided a Cru
sader's movements, the desire to win merit in God's sight by
slaying Paynim, could be as easily attained by a battle at Tunis
as at Ptolemais or Cairo ; and the barons were naturally reluctant
to take the longer voyage to a shore on which the memories

A.D. 1270. HIS SECOND CRUSADE, AND DEATH. 351
of past failures sat awaiting them like ghosts foreboding doom.
However it was, the fleet sailed for Tunis. They landed with
out difficulty ; and, while they waited for Charles of Anjou on
the burning shore of Africa, pestilence at once smote down
the host. The King's utter weakness laid him open to an
attack. He was seized with dysentery, and soon felt that his
end was at hand. He called to his bedside his son Philip, and
gave into his hands a written paper of advice, which he charged
him to heed as though it were his will ; soon after he yielded
up his soul to God. He passed away on the day after St.
Bartholomew's Day, 1270; and with him died out the last
spark of the crusading spirit. He had reigned for forty-four
years, and was fifty-six years of age.
When, after his canonisation, the friar who preached the
sermon at the translation of his body from St. Denis to the
Sainte Chapelle called him ' the most loyal man of his age,'
he summed up in these words his whole character. There
have been men of wiser judgment and of warmer affection,
but a more loyal spirit never breathed. Truthfulness and
honour were natural to him ; loyalty to his Master in heaven,
to his servants on earth, shine in his every act. No more
unselfish man lives in the pages of history. His sensitive and
pure conscience sometimes led him into excess of zeal or of
self-negation ; his devotion and depth of religious feeling made
him a persecutor on one side and a dupe to superstition on the
other ; — still, we never feel that his character suffers deeply
from these blots. He was genial, fond of society and good
talk; he said that 'there is no book so pleasant as quolibets,
that is, as that every one should talk at will'; — if great folk
dined with him, he was right good company to them, and
amiable1. In his habits no man could be more temperate or
pure ; in person delicate and fine, having a grave sweet face, al
most womanly in expression, with great noble eyes, which looked
straight forward, hiding nothing, permitting no concealment.
Even the Arabian historians felt the fascination of his .tall and
1 Joinville, chap. 15.

352 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1270.
handsome presence and elevated character : ' This prince was
of a fine countenance ; he had intelligence, firmness, piety ; his
noble qualities won him the veneration of the Christians, who
trusted him implicitly V He was wise and honest, doing jus
tice and honouring the truth ; he could even bear to have the
truth told him. He was firm, perhaps obstinate, where he felt
sure of his ground. Not a good general ; he loved peace
more than war. He was careless of his own life : nor was it
ever in his thoughts : this never tempted him to feats of
prowess, or what men called heroism ; his delicate frame and
temperament were not suited to that. Still, he would face
death rather than desert his people ; — his life for theirs at any
time. He was fond of learned men, though perhaps his own
learning was scanty ; he was sufficiently noble not to chafe at
their superiority. He was the first to endow a College on the
left bank of the Seine, which afterwards became famous as the
Sorbonne, named after Robert of Sorbon the King's chaplain
and friend, who was a serf's son and the first principal ; under
his patronage the University drew to itself all the learned of
Europe : the German Albertus Magnus, the Italian St. Thomas
Aquinas, the English Roger Bacon, studied there. The French
language sprang into .a new and brilliant life. Poetry and
history, with wonderful freshness and truth, gave grace and
power to the tongue. Joinville, whose Chronicle we have
followed, wrote a little later with a simplicity and vividness
which render his book one of the noblest monuments of
French literature. To read him is like studying one of the
fine manuscripts of the same age; each page is adorned
with paintings which, in their quaintness and purity of feeling,
their clearness of conception and happy grouping, and brilliant
freshness of colour, display before our eyes the real life of the
times. St. Louis did most for France, strange as it may seem, as
a lawyer. It was by the law that he met the chief difficulties of
1 Aboul-Mouassen, quoted in the Collection Universelle des Memoires,
&c, torn. 3. p. 59.

A.D. 1270. HIS LAW REFORMS. 353
his government : though, great as his reforms undoubtedly were,
they were only immediately applicable to the royal domain.
Eventually, however, they influenced the estates of the great
feudatories, for the social instinct of mankind will always declare
for security and peace. Thus judicial combat and private war
fare were forbidden on the royal domain1, and although both
forms of barbarism lingered on for centuries, a great blow was
struck for the principles of even-handed justice : the prohibition
of judicial combat led to farsweeping judicial reforms. It led
in the first place to a procedure by inquest or witnesses, and
in the second place to the growth of appeals 2. Formerly if a
litigant were dissatisfied with a judicial decision, he had to
challenge his judge to fight, and if there were a great many
judges on the bench, he would have either to fight them all, or
to share the work with such friends as he could muster. In any
case the reversal of a judicial decision was a very sanguinary
procedure. Now, however, that judicial fighting was forbidden,
appeals became an easy matter, and in proportion as the King's
Court administered better justice than the courts of the feudal
lords, so it attracted business to itself. Thus the King's Court
became the Court of Appeal for the whole realm. It heard
appeals from the royal officers, baillies, seneschals, provosts,
who acted in their several departments as fiscal, military, and
judicial agents. It heard appeals too from the Courts of the
Great Lords, as well as from those of the Communes. At the
same time feudal jurisdictions were limited in another way, for
all cases which were held to affect the King's interest were
declared to be 'royal cases,' and accordingly transferred to
the courts of the royal officers.
This great increase of royal judicial business tended to
augment and define the powers of the King's Court. It is now
that this Court branches off into three divisions, the Conseil du
1 It was not observed by hauts-justiciers within the royal domain. — Viollet,
' Etablissements de St. Louis,' I. p. 267.
2 ' The notion of appeal from lord to overlord was entirely foreign to
Clan justice, and probably borrowed from ecclesiastical sources.' — Jenks,
' Law and Politics in the Middle Ages.'
VOL. 1. a a

354 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1270.
Roi or King's Council, the Chambre des Comptes or King's
Exchequer, and the Parliament or Law Court. It is now that the
Parliament sits regularly1 in the Palais opposite the Cathedral of
Notre Dame in Paris, that its clerks compose the first registers of
its proceedings 2, that the barristers (' comparliers ') and solicitors
('procureurs') come to be an important profession. At the
same time the study of Roman law was spreading, and a great
school of Romanists flourished at Orleans. It is to the pen of
one of these jurists that we owe an anomalous compilation of
customs, which goes by the name of the ' Etablissements de St.
Louis V This collection is important, because the compiler
introduces the habit of commenting on French custom by the
light of Roman law, and because the customs so interpreted and
systematized were read and partially adopted in almost the
whole ' pays du droit coutumier.' It thus tended to unify the
legal conditions which regulated the lives of Frenchmen, and
to break down the barriers which had been raised in times of
feudal isolation and barbarism.
At the same time it must be remembered that, although the
Conseil du Roi deliberated on State affairs, and the Chambre
des Comptes on finance, the Parliament was not wholly divested
of those administrative functions which belonged to it as a part
of the King's Court. It surveyed the royal officials, and exercised
a general police jurisdiction ; at Paris it supervised the water-
supply, the hospitals, the Colleges, the University. It was consulted
by the King on all legislation which touched judicial affairs, and
in time claimed the right to register all legislative acts. The
members of it were often members of the King's Council and of
1 From 1254 to 1302 out of 69 Parliaments 67 sit in Paris.
2 The methods of registration are probably borrowed from the Exchequer
Court at Rouen, and came in after the conquest of Normandy. These
registers of, the Parliament of Paris are called ' the Olim.'
3 The ' Etablissements de St. Louis ' contain —
a. A royal ordonnance on duels.
B. An ordonnance regulating the procedure of the Chatelet or Paris
Police Court.
y. An ancient custom of Touraine and Anjou (which should be com
pared with the English ' Assises ' of Henry II).
S. A treatise based upon a Custumal of Orleans.

A.D. 1270. HIS REFORMS. 355
the Chambre des Comptes : it will be seen that it was more than
a mere Law Court, and less than an English Parliament.
St. Louis limited the power of the feudal Lords in yet another
way, by reviving the Carolingian ' Missi Dominici V Now the
' Enquesteurs Royaux ' were to be found in every province,
searching out and punishing abuses, much as the special
commissioners of Edward I and II acted in England.
With the Church also the same centralisation of the powers
of government went on. The King appointed his own bishops ;
he did not recognise their excommunications, unless they had
been judged lawful and just in his own courts; he held that
even the Pope himself must keep to his own sphere as lord
over consciences, and as ultimate ruler in matters of eccle
siastical discipline. Though it is now generally admitted that the
famous Pragmatic Sanction z of St. Louis is a forgery of about
the 15th century, still it had some foundation in the policy of
the Court of the lawyers. This document, as we have it, contains
six articles levelled against the assumptions of Papal power. It
forbade simony, restored free election to the chapters of
cathedrals, regulated matters connected with the rights of prelates,
benefices, and the like ; and above all forbade all exactions or
levies of money imposed by the Court of Rome, unless the
grounds for such were recognised as ' reasonable, pious, very
urgent, and indispensable, by the King and Church of France.'
There can be no doubt that the King and his lawyers were quite
prepared to show that they would not let the spiritual power
encroach on the lay-government of the kingdom.
St. Louis reformed, among many other things, the coin of
the realm. There was so much corruption and irregularity
through the barons' private mints, that the King's money soon
came to pass current everywhere, to the direct advantage of
the royal authority, to which the ' image and superscription ' on
his coins bore perpetual though silent witness. And lastly,
1 See above, p. 143.
2 This technical name is Byzantine in origin. The edicts of the Eastern
Emperors were called Pragmatics. The term was used by Charles the
Great. a a 2

356 LOUIS IX, CALLED SAINT LOUIS. A.D. 1270.
by help of Stephen Boileau, Provost of Paris, he compiled a
book of trades, which formed for centuries the code of industrial
laws and customs, and fostered the growth of civic liberties and
corporations. The crafty skill of Philip Augustus had made all ready for
the growth of a great monarchy; but it needed the genial rays
of an heroic character to warm the soil and quicken the seed to
life. St. Louis roused his nation to enthusiasm ; reverence was
paid him while he yet lived : his very errors and misfortunes
strengthened him in popular esteem, and made his task the
easier. In addition to his great work of quieting feudal hostility,
while he destroyed the strongholds of feudal independence, he
added largely to the actual domain of the crown.
In 1229 that part of the territories of the Count of Toulouse
which lay between the right bank of the Rhone, the sea, and
the Pyrenees, was made over to the crown by Raymond VII,
at the close of his disastrous struggle against the royal power.
In 1234, Chartres, Blois, and Sancerre were given up to him
by Theobald of Champagne and Navarre.
In 1239 he purchased Macon; in 1257 Perche was joined
to the realm; in 1262, he obtained Aries, Forcalquier, Foix,
and Cahors. The rest of the South, west of the Rhone, was
certain to fall to the crown in time ; Normandy was definitely
ceded by the English King.
In many ways he must be regarded as the true founder of
French absolute monarchy; and, so far, the parent of many
woes to his country. Still, this was the only way in which
France could emerge from chaos, and become a nation. French
ideas as to authority, as to law, as to the relations of the Church
to the State, are found in germ in this great patriarchal
monarch. It is largely due to him that popular liberties found
no place in the growth of the French constitution.
St. Louis was regarded in his own day as the greatest King
in Christendom. The Hohenstaufen had fallen : the English
King was a feeble creature, effectually checked by his barons ;
there was no prince to compare with the French monarch.

A.D. 1270. FOUNDER OF THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY. 357
Matthew Paris, regarding him from afar with friendly eyes, as
the bulwark against Papal ambition, says he is ' the most illus
trious and wealthy of the kings of the earth,' and styles him
' King of Kings.'
In later times, just as the English nation looked back to the
days and laws of King Edward the Confessor, so did the
French Kings look back to the justice and character of St.
Louis: we find a letter by Charles VIII (a.d. 1497), who was
desirous of reforming his kingdom, in which he seeks to know
the ancient form in which his predecessors, and specially
Monseigneur St. Louis, were wont to proceed in hearing and
giving audience to the poor folk1. For long ages he was
the patron saint of the French people ; and his day, the anni
versary of his death, was kept with great solemnity.
These things did the King who could arouse the enthusiasm
of Gibbon ; whose virtues won a hearty word of goodwill even
from Voltaire.
1 Quoted in Ducange's Second Dissertation on Joinville, at the end.

CHAPTER IX.
Philip III. A.D. 1 270-1 285.
War went on before Tunis for two months after the death of
St. Louis; then, after two battles, the Crusaders made terms,
very favourable for Charles of Anjou, and at once set sail for
Europe. The ships were to meet at Trapani, where there should
be a consultation about the future : for Charles had his own
designs, not on the Holy Land, but on Constantinople. It
came to nothing ; for a great storm destroyed most of the
ships ; the remainder made their way home.
Philip III, le Hardi, ' the Rash,' who was eldest son of St.
Louis, and succeeded him on the throne, made a melancholy
journey back to France, bearing with him the bones of five of
his kinsfolk — his saintly father; his wife, who had died of an
accident on horseback ; her babe, still-born ; his uncle, Alphonse
of Toulouse, and his uncle's wife, the last of the great house of
St. Gilles : these five victims of the Crusade formed a gloomy
procession before the new King as he returned to take posses
sion of his kingdom. He was but a poor successor to his
father : physically brave, he was totally destitute of intellectual
or moral courage. An excellent education had left him un
learned. Although his form was strong and manly, although
he delighted in the chase and the tournament, yet he led the
life of a monk rather than of a Prince. He was his father
without ideas and without moral fibre. His policy may be
summed up in one word, Crusade. If he could not recapture
Jerusalem, he would at least serve the Pope against his enemies

A.D. 1270. PHILIP III. 359
in Spain. Under such a man the monarchy might well have
lost ground : except that this is the first of a series of reigns in
which the administrative system of lawyer ministers seems to
have effaced the personal importance of the King. These
officials had been trained under St. Louis, but he had kept them
under control ; during the reigns of his son and grandson it is
they who determine the policy of the government, and the
characters of the Kings are thrown into a dim shadow. On
the deaths of his uncle Alphonse of Toulouse and his wife, the
whole of their domains fell in to the crown, and were secured by
Philip, with the exception of the Agenois, claimed by Henry III
of England under the treaty of 1259, and the Venaissin, near
Avignon, claimed by the Pope. The diocese of Toulouse,
Querci, Rouergue, Poitou, Auvergne, and parts of Anjou and
Saintonge, as well as the marquisate of Provence, came thus
into the King's hands. This last-mentioned territory was in
' Imperial France ' ; that is, on that border of ancient Gaul
which held under the Empire : thus begins the absorption of
that district into France. This was, too, the last interference
of Henry of England; for he died in 1272, and left his crown
to Edward I, then gone on Crusade. As Edward returned he
did homage to Philip ' for the lands which he was bound to hold
of him,' reserving his own opinion as to debated points. As
however he was much occupied with his wars in Wales and
Scotland, he never took great part in continental questions.
We have reached the end of the Crusades. When the
Christians dispersed, on their way home from Tunis, they
agreed that they would meet again at the end of three years,
to ease their consciences, burdened with the thought that they
had ill fulfilled their crusading vow by deeds of war at Tunis
instead of Jerusalem. That promise was not kept. Never again
did Europe go forth in arms to wrest the holy places from the
unbeliever. The federation of barons, who went together from
every part of Europe, had given place to distinct and separate
nations, whose clashing interests forbade them to join in any
such common enterprise.

360 PHILIP III. A.D. 1273.
Instead of another Crusade, the chivalry of France rallied
round Charles of Anjou, who threw his quiet nephew the King
entirely into the shade. Charles, restless and ambitious, aimed
at a kind of universal sovereignty. With one hand he would
rule the Papacy, with the other would seize the diadem of
Constantinople. Brave and treacherous, cold, cruel, blood
thirsty, he was well fitted to be a scourge of men, and inspired
all around him with terror. Gregory X resisted him as
anxiously as his forerunners had resisted the Hohenstaufen.
The Popes were always engaged in a struggle with one or other
of the lay powers which overshadowed them. Sometimes it
was Germany, then France, then Spain : theirs was no solid
elevation, no enthronement over the heads and in the hearts
of mankind ; but a position of unstable balance, bending now
this way, now that, and sometimes falling, as we shall see, with
a tremendous crash. In order to resist Charles of Anjou the
Pope must have a lay champion : and the Empire being vacant,
he cast about for an Emperor. He found one in a simple
Helvetian baron, a lord of small lands and little influence, but
of tried courage, warlike skill, probity and sagacity, — Rudolf of
Habsburg. Him the electors chose as Emperor in 1273. With
him the new order of the Empire begins. With the last race
it had been the 'Holy Roman Empire'; henceforth it becomes
rather the 'German Empire': tending after a time largely to
increase the influence of Austria, until at last it crumbles away,
under Napoleon's touch. At the very time when the Electors
were offering the crown to Rudolf, the Pope was on his way to
Lyons to hold another Council in that frontier city. Thither
came the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Greek Bishop
of Nicaea, as well as representatives of all the great powers of
Europe. The Greek churchmen chanted the Nicene Creed
without omitting the Western interpolation ¦ ; and unity seemed
to be restored to Christendom amidst the enthusiastic plaudits
1 That is, the word ' Filioque ' in the clause ' proceeding from the Father
[and the Son],' the point on which the East and West finally broke
asunder.

A.D. 1274. COUNCIL OF LYONS. 361
of the assembled prelates (a.d. 1274). They did not see that
Michael Palaeologus the Emperor had stooped so low, not
because he was convinced, but because he trembled for a throne
now visibly threatened by Charles. The union of Christendom
lasted but a brief space, and was both interested and hollow.
There were also present Turkish envoys, asking for an
alliance against the Mamelukes, who were growing formidable
to all the East. The Princes of Europe took the cross, but
never went. Gregory died, and his great schemes perished
with him.
That same year Henry of Navarre, Count of Champagne
and Brie, died, leaving one daughter three years old. Her
mother, a French princess, carried the child to Philip's Court,
where she was brought up till of age to marry one of the King's
sons. The Pope, who was applied to for a dispensation for
this union, being unwilling to see France and Navarre in the
same hands, yet fearing to refuse the King, granted the boon,
naming in it not the King's eldest son Louis, but his second,
Philip, who afterwards, by what is called the irony of history,
was Philip IV, the tyrant over the Papal see. Meanwhile, as
guardian of the mother and child, Philip III took possession of
the domains of the little heiress. Navarre resisted, supported
by the King of Castille ; and Philip marched with such blind
haste across the frontier that he acquired for himself the name
of ' the Rash,' which otherwise scarcely suits his quiet character.
He was saved from ruin by the previous successes of his
lieutenant, Robert of Artois, which enabled him to make a truce
with the Castilian King. The end of it was that Navarre was
added to the French kingdom for a time.
France herself was fairly tranquil during this reign, which
witnessed a further augmentation of royal power. The royal
domain was increased by judicious purchases, while the King's
rights as feudal suzerain were everywhere zealously enforced.
Fresh restrictions were placed on the right of private warfare,
which was too deeply engrained in the nobility to be wholly
prohibited. During this reign too many of the Communes

362 PHILIP III. A.D. 1275.
were distracted by riots and bloodshed. The government of
most of the towns had got into the hands of an oligarchy,
which oppressed the lower classes and squandered the finances.
Royal interference was often invited, and often imposed.
Charters were surrendered to the King, municipal constitutions
reformed from Paris, and municipal debts extinguished by
means of taxes levied by royal officers. At the same time an
Ordonnance of 1275 had the effect of removing all restrictions
which forbad villains from acquiring noble fiefs. It is said, too,
that patents of nobility were first made out in this reign, and
that Raoul, the King's goldsmith, was ennobled1. However
this may be, there can be no doubt that the old feudal society
was becoming decomposed, that non-nobles were acquiring
noble lands, and that many a man of mean birth could pass
himself off as a ' gentleman.' At the same time the Parliament
was acquiring strength and definiteness. It became more and
more a High Court of Appeal, and less and less a Court of
First Instance. There are hundreds of Appeals even from
distant Aquitaine during this reign. The procedure of the
Court was fixed in 1278, and the barristers were compelled to
be laymen, so that in case they did ill they might be liable
to the secular jurisdiction. At the same time the Court was
split up into several divisions. There was the Great Court, the
Court of Inquests, the Court of Requests which examined
petitions to the King, and a Court which decided on cases
which came up from the ' pays de droit e"crit.' The members
of Parliament, now styled ' Chevaliers es lois,' ' Knights of the
Law,' were becoming formidable rivals to the old nobility.
The history of the King's favourite, Peter de la Brosse, gives
us an insight into the jealousy which had sprung up between
the barons and the Court. Peter was a man of gentle birth,
son of a small gentleman of Touraine, who had filled some
humble offices at Court under St. Louis, and had at last been
made his chamberlain. Under Philip he became omnipotent,
wealthy, and odious to the greater barons. He was present at
1 The story is doubtful.

A.D. 1276. CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS REIGN. 363
all the King's counsels, his cousin was made Bishop of Bayonne,
he dispensed the patronage of the Court. Then the King's
first wife died, and he married Mary of Brabant. The new
Queen hated the all-powerful Peter, and he hated the new Queen.
Suddenly (1276) Louis, Philip's eldest son by his first wife, died.
The populace of Paris suspected that he was poisoned, and the
favourite and his cousin busily spread rumours that Mary and
her suite had done the deed. Then a rumour grew that two
prophetesses at Neville had foretold the death and inculpated
the Queen. The King was just starting off for Spain, but in
his alarm sent the Bishop of Bayeux to interview the women.
It may well be imagined that the Bishop stimulated and shaped
the utterances of the women to suit his own purposes. Then
the vile conspiracy was met by one only a shade less odious.
There was a French count, Robert of Artois, at the Court of
Castile, when Philip was obliged to retreat from Sauveterre
in Gascony. He was just going to propose peace to the King,
when Alfonso told him that Philip had retreated. How could
Alfonso have known ? So a story was patched up accusing
Peter of having advised the retreat and of having sent news of
it to the Spanish Court. The Queen now sent a commission to
the prophetesses, and they confessed that they had been forced
to accuse her by Peter's cousin. So the favourite was arrested,
imprisoned, and promptly hanged. With him fell all his friends
and kin. The King himself seems to have yielded with regret ;
but kings can sacrifice their favourites to their fears : the
common people murmured at the judicial murder of the King's
friend : and Philip le Bel afterwards restored to his heirs part of
their forfeited goods.
Yet one more trait, and we have done with the internal affairs
of this reign. When Robert, Count of Clermont, the King's
youngest brother, was knighted, Philip held a great tournament
to celebrate the day. This was a direct violation of the usual
rule of royal policy : for hitherto the kings had looked coldly
on tournaments as fuel for feudal turbulence and pride. In the
me1e"e, the poor young prince in whose honour it was held was

364 PHILIP III. A.D. 1282.
so stifled by his hot and heavy armour and the clouds of
dust, and so shaken by the knocks he got, that 'his brain was
muddled and he fell into idiocy for the rest of his days.' Never
theless he married the heiress of the Bourbon barony : and from
one of his sons sprang the royal house of Bourbon. We may
notice in passing that hereafter, in war or mimicry of war, the
Kings became so strong that they are not afraid to call together
the chivalry of their day. Their objection to tournaments passes
away, because these no longer represent feudal independence ;
the kings are henceforward glad to give splendour to their
courts by brilliant displays which had no political meaning.
Philip was little but the lieutenant of his uncle, Charles of
Anjou; and to this he owes the chief mishaps of his reign.
For the Pope and the Eastern Emperor, Peter King of Aragon,
and the Sicilian subjects of Charles, formed a secret league to
destroy that hated prince. The league was kept together by
John of Procida, a Calabrian refugee, an old friend of Frederick II,
and Manfred, an ingenious physician and able politician, who
passed through Europe in disguise, and brought the French
prince's foes together. When Nicolas III, the centre of this
great conspiracy, died (a.d. 1279), Charles compelled the
cardinals to elect as his successor Simon de Brie, a Frenchman,
his creature, who took the name of Martin IV1. Relying on
his help, and on that of Venice, Charles now thought the time
come for his attack on Constantinople. His grand schemes
embraced also the recovery of the Holy Land — he would be
the one successful Crusader — and perhaps the subjugation of
Egypt. But on the 30th of March, 1282, just as in the stillness
of evening the vesper bells were calling men to prayer and rest,
an accident, a French soldier's insolence, lit the train, and the
whole discontent of Sicily exploded with terrific force. In these
' Sicilian Vespers ' every Frenchman, man, woman, or child, was
massacred; not one escaped. The crime of oppression bore
its natural fruit in a terrible reaction of crime. Charles, arrested
in his progress towards the East, turned his arms against his
1 He had been a canon of St. Martin of Tours.

A.D. 1282. THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 365
Sicilian subjects : a crowd of French chivalry, burning to avenge
their kinsfolk, joined him, and laid siege to Messina. But John
of Procida, ever prompt and ready in war as in intrigue, entered
the city; and Charles withdrew across the Strait to Calabria.
Roger of Loria, another Ghibeline refugee from Italy, who
commanded the Spanish fleet, destroyed a large part of the
French ships, under the very eyes of Charles himself. And
thus the French lost Sicily. In vain did Martin IV excom
municate Michael Palaeologus, and preach a crusade against
Sicily and the. King of Aragon. In vain did he offer the crown
of Aragon to Philip of France. Roger de Loria swept from
the sea the Provencal and Neapolitan fleet ; on board the latter
he captured the son of Charles, who was in command, and had
rashly made trial of strength with the Calabrian veteran. When
Charles, next day, one day too late, sailing into the Bay of
Naples with five-and-fifty galleys, learnt the folly and fate of his
son, he fell into a fury, hung a hundred and fifty citizens of
Naples, and was scarcely dissuaded from burning the city and
ravaging the kingdom : then through fatigue, disappointment,
despair, his constitution gave way, and early in 1285 he died at
Foggia : a bad but a notable man ; of monstrous and cruel
vices ; of an ambition almost heroic in its grasp.
His weaker kinsman, King Philip, burnt to take his revenge
on Peter of Aragon; he took the Oriflamme from St. Denis, and
marched southward with a mighty host. He deemed that he
was on Crusade ; and therefore when he had taken the town of
Elna (or Helena), which barred the entry into the Pyrenees, he
massacred all the inhabitants, hundreds of them even in the
great church of the city. Then he crossed the mountains into
Spain, and sat down before Gerona. The brave Aragonese
rose against him ; their fleet destroyed his ships ; Gerona
defended itself, as Spanish cities can do; and it was not till
autumn that the King took the place. By that time he was in
fact defeated. His fleet was half ruined; his army worn out;
he could only turn his face homewards again. With difficulty
he extricated himself from the Pyrenean defiles ; the remnant of

366 PHILIP III. A.D. 1285.
his fleet was destroyed as it set sail out of the port of Rosas.
In great sorrow did the King return. From sorrow he fell into
fever, was carried in a litter as far as Perpignan, and there
died, being the third King of France to whom a siege had
proved fatal. Eight days later, the city of Gerona, the one fruit
of such sacrifices and losses, was recovered by Peter King of
Aragon : who also fell ill from exposure and died about a month
after his antagonist.
Three sons survived King Philip. Of these the younger had
scanty apanages ; for France could no longer be broken up jnto
portions for younger sons : the eldest became King, and is well-
known to history as Philip le Bel, or the Fair, as he is commonly
called, the conqueror in a field on which so many had failed,
the tamer of the Papacy.

CHAPTER X.
Philip IV, le Bel. A.D. 1285.
Philip IV was seventeen years old when he came to the
throne. It is not easy to draw the likeness of the youthful
King; for there was then no man who had the heart to write
the history of his times ; and the records are singularly dim
and dull. We know from his name that he was handsome;
and it is unfortunate that his French title of ' le Bel ' was not
rendered into English by ' the Handsome ' ; for ' the Fair ' does
not fully represent the sense. It seems likely that he was tall,
though this is uncertain ¦ ; the regularity of his features somehow
gives us a sense of coldness : his enemy, Bishop Saisset, said
that he was ' no true King, but a handsome image ' : alluding
probably to his cold looks. He is figured full-face on one of
his coins, but so rudely that scarcely anything can be gathered
from it, except that his face was regular, his nose long and
straight, his mouth smiling. From his seal2, which was pro:
bably engraven soon after his accession, we can also gather
that his features were good, his face oval, expression mild, his
hair long and waving ; his attitude is easy and dignified. The
pleasant mouth is not against his character ; when it suited him
he could be fascinating and bright, as we read in the account of
his dealings with the people of Aquitaine, whom he wished to
win from their English sympathies3- One thing seems clear;
he was taciturn, and wore a look of pride, which made men
1 In the Supplication du peuble de France au Roy, Dupuy, Preuves des
Libertez de l'Eglise Gallicane (vol. 2. of Pithou's Libertez del'Eglise Galli-
cane), pp. 133, 1 34, Philip seems to be alluded to under the name of Saul —
' head and shoulders taller than the rest of the people.'
2 As figured in the Tresor de Numismalique. Delaroche, Paris, 1835.
3 Chron. de S. Denis (a. d. 1303), Dom Bouquet, Recueil, torn. 20, p. 675.

368 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1285.
shrink before him. 'This King was simple and sage, and
spake but little : proud was he as a lion when he looked on
men ' ; ' and again, his enemies said ' he was the fairest man in
the world, and knows not how to do anything else but look at
men 2.' In all this we get but little hold of him ; he is a kind
of abstraction, cold and impersonal ; a hard expression of the
new forces which are beginning to bear sway in the world.
For Philip IV is the Prince of the Roman Law, the head of that
cold system of which the letter crushes out the spirit. Lawyers
surround his throne ; many of them from the South, and there
fore bred up in reverence for the Roman, as distinct from either
Customary or Canon Law 3. These cold and rigid men, who
wielded this new force in Europe, have been called, not amiss,
' the destroyers of the Middle Ages.' At least, their spirit, and
the King whom they served and defended, were destructive of
the older order of things. Before them the towers of feudalism
went crumbling down ; the proud Church bowed her head ; for
the Law was a two-edged sword, which smote down baron and
Pope. Aristotle in the schools, and the Digest at court ; — these
were the newly-aroused spirits of Greece and Rome which began
to awaken the sleepers of Christendom.
From his lawyers Philip, a willing pupil, learnt lessons of
absolutism and statecraft; they drew for him a clear line
between things temporal and things spiritual. As the Pope
tried to bring all under him by his authority over the sins of
men ; so did the King determine to draw the clergy under his
power through their temporal relations. It is round this point,
the relations between the temporal and the spiritual, that the
great struggle of this reign really turns.
This we see in Peter du Bois, a great royalist pampleteer
and lawyer. In 1308 he actually proposed to Philip that he
1 ' Icest roy fu simple e sage e pou parlour, fier estoit, comme i lyon en
regardeure.' — Chron. abregee de Guil. de Nangis.
2 ' Rex Franciae, quod erat pulchrior homo mundi, et nihil aliud scit
facere quam respicere homines.' — Histoire du Differend d'entre le Pape
Boniface VIII et Philippe le Bel (Paris, 1655), p. 644.
3 Thus the King's great lawyers, Nogaret and Plaisian, were both
Albigenses.

A.D. 1285. CHARACTER OF PHILIP IV. 369
should stand for election as Emperor on the death of Albert of
Austria. He uses language respecting his King which bears
1 a singular likeness to that used in the days of Henry VIII of
England, so strongly is he in favour of the independence of the
civil power. He appears to have much assisted the King in
framing his curious appeals to public opinion.
This is the fitting moment also for the appearance of satire,
that special gift of the Gallic nature. At the King's court is
seen Jean de Meung, ' the poet of scepticism 1,' who had been
taught at Rome by Giles Colonna, and who was therefore a
natural foe to the Guelfic Papacy. Satire is the usual comrade
of despotism. The phrase ' a despotism tempered by epigrams '
is true of other times as well as of monarchical France in the
eighteenth century. The age which welcomed Jean de Meung
at Court, saw also the vigorous satire of Jacopone da Todi ;
those too were the days of Dante.
The history of this reign may be loosely divided into three
periods : —
I. The unimportant and feeble time between the King's
accession in 1285 and the year 1296.
II. The quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII, and the war with
Flanders, a.d. 1 296-1 304.
III. The epoch of the Templars, a.d. 1304-13 14.
I. From a.d. 1285-1296.
At the outset we find King Philip bargaining with his neigh
bour of Guienne and England, Edward I. He granted the English
King the privilege of permanent security in his fiefs under the
French crown ; and paid him ten thousand livres for his old claim
on Normandy, which in return Edward henceforth renounced.
War was kept up, in a languid way, in Aragon and Sicily ;
it gives us little or no insight into Philip's character or capacity,
except that we may perhaps discern some tenacity and stubborn
ness in him. The operations of the wars were insignificant, and
1 Martin, Histoire des Francais, 4, 369.
VOL. I. B b

37°

PHILIP IV. LE BEL. A.D. 1285.

the King preferred his lawyers at Paris to the field. Philip
never shone in war : there was no heat and enthusiasm in him
for such sport.
The reign of Philip le Bel has generally been held to mark an
epoch in the history of the Parliament of Paris. As a matter of
fact Philip merely defined and stereotyped changes which had
already taken place. We have seen how from the earliest time
the King held a Court of his great vassals and counsellors for
judicial, legislative, and financial affairs ; how gradually the part
played by the great vassals diminished, and that played by men
of special knowledge and abilities increased ; how under Philip
Augustus the sessions of the Court became regular ; how under
St. Louis it split up into three parts, the Conseil du 'Roi, the
Chambre des Comptes, and the Parliament, for legislative,
financial, and judicial affairs respectively ; how, notwithstanding,
administrative functions still clung to the Parliament, and the
members of the three bodies were often the same ; how it
was fixed in Paris, and became the Supreme Court of Appeal
for all the realm ; and how it was divided into four branches
under Philip le Hardi : the Great Chamber, which dealt with
peers and appeals from the baillis ; the Chamber of Inquests,
which sent out commissions to examine and report upon
evidence preparatory to a hearing of the case by the Great
Chamber ; the Chamber of Requests, which examined petitions ;
and the Auditory of 'Written Law,' which dealt with Languedoc.
In Philip le Bel's time we see this machinery working in the
light of day. Although it is not true that he excluded clerks
and feudal lords from Parliament in favour of the lawyers, yet
it is true that clerks, lords, and lawyers were all his nominees.
All were in a sense royal officials, even the great ecclesiastics,
who had an ex officio right 'Of sitting in the Great Chamber.
But as an ecclesiastic would not consent to be judged except
by an ecclesiastic, nor a peer except by a peer, the King was
careful to retain ecclesiastics and peers in the Court. His
object was to make the Court strong and satisfactory to all
parties, and although he would doubtless have liked to dispense

A.D. 1287. THE INFLUENCE OF THE LAWYERS. 371
with the great lords, it would have set the most powerful class in
the realm against him. Still the Court was to all intents and pur
poses a lawyer's Court 1. If a peer came up for trial it would
be sufficient if one peer sat upon the bench. The competence
of the Court too had been increasing ever since the con
quests of Philip Augustus. In the vacations, Commissions of
the Parliament would hold the Exchequer of Rouen, the Great
Days of Troyes (the feudal court of Champagne), and the Par
liament of Toulouse. The executive officers of the Crown in
the provinces (baillis, seneschals, provosts) were all members of
the Parliament, although it was from their decision that the
majority of cases came up to Paris to be reheard. Each bail-
liage was allotted certain days during the session of Parliament,
in which its litigants were to be heard, and as most of the pre
liminary investigation had been done on the spot by roving
commissions from the Court of Inquest, the procedure was
prompt, thorough, and satisfactory to all parties. It was be
cause the King's justice was the best justice to be had in the
land, that the King's Court became the High Court of the
realm, and that the King became King in deed as well as in
name. Philip le Bel was fully conscious of the value of this great
institution. He rebuilt the Palais de Justice, established a fixed
discipline for the Bar, purified the Courts ; and by the great
Ordonnance of 1303 confirmed and stereotyped the changes
which had taken place in the character and working of Parlia
ment during the reigns of his predecessors.
And while these things were passing in France, tidings came
1 Composition of Court in 1306 : —
/ 2 prelates. / x preia(-e an(j l count must always be present.
Grande J 2 counts. ) r J r
Chambre. 1 II clerks.
(11 laymen.

^-sts-jicl^bishops).Reouests \ * {°T Languedoc (z clerk)"
Kequests. j g for Langne Francoise.

B b 2

372 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1287.
from Palestine that the last stronghold of the Christians had
fallen. 'Acre, the asylum of Christianity in those parts, by
reason of her sins was destroyed by the foes of the faith, nor
was there one among all the Christian powers that would help
her in her distress V Th's, which a few years earlier would have
roused Europe to a paroxysm of sorrow and zeal, now fell on
careless ears. The age of the Crusades was over. The Pope
was no longer the grand central figure of a combined and
warlike Christendom ; the nations were fast growing into well-
knit and independent societies ; as they grew, the influence of
the Papacy must decline. The days of unreasoning piety and
reckless waste were slowly passing away.
This national growth engendered, as it went on, a new want
— the want of money. Kings, while they were little more than
great feudal lords, depended for sustenance on their domains,
for armies on their vassals. But as the machinery of a less
simple form of civil life was created, the older sources dried up.
The produce of the royal domain became utterly unequal to
the calls on it : the service of the feudal lords and their retainers
grew continually less satisfactory. We approach the days of a
great civil service, and a standing army. The King's ordi
nances now passing current throughout the land, there go with
them a host of officials to execute them, and these men must be
paid. Farmers of taxes also appear, Italians, who have the
Lombard readiness with money. The evil of this method of
levying taxation clings to France throughout her history, and is
hardly eradicated by the Revolution.
Philip was overwhelmed with this want of money, and became
a monster of rapacity. He levied a tax, so odious in its in
cidence that it won the old name of ' maltote,' the ' ill-levied-2.'
He defended the Jews and the Italians, using them as sponges
to suck the wealth from the people, and squeezing them, when
full, into his treasure-house. The Jews were banished (not
1 Chron. of William or Nangis, sub ann. 1290.
2 This Maltote, ' exactio quam nominant malam toltam * (William of
Nangis), was levied in 1296. (Toltus is a Low Latin participle of tollo.)

A.D.1287. THE INFLUENCE OF MONEY. 373
carrying away their wealth), then allowed to purchase permission
to return, then banished again. The thirteenth century had
wrested away the power of arbitrary taxation from the barons ;
the fourteenth century concentrated that power, with grinding
severity, in the hands of an absolute King. The King seized
all he could ; Jews or Templars, Guienne or Flanders ; what
ever could be turned into money was good : serfs were
allowed to buy their freedom ; privileges of towns were given
for cash ; the current coin was debased, then restored to its
old value ; then again debased, and again raised. The King's
sumptuary laws, by which he early showed the tendency of
government in France to administer men paternally, were not
merely a vexation ; they tended, in some of their provisions, to
bring grist to the royal mill. The King had strength enough
even to plunder the noblesse itself under these hateful laws.
In a word, it was a government without mercy, inhuman in
its cold cruelty and rapacity.
This need and greed of money brought about that struggle
between the King of France and the Pope, which forms the
central and most important portion of this reign. Philip,
looking everywhere for supplies, at last laid his hand on the
property of the clergy, and included it in his scheme of taxation.
Hence began a great struggle with the Papacy, which proved
in the end a scandal to Christendom, and brought the supreme
Pontiff down to the feet of the despotic King, living as his
servant, no longer at Rome but in Avignon, where it seemed
as though the proudest institution upon earth had become the
humble minister to the monarch's pride.
II. The Quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII.
a.d. 1296-1304.
The Papacy had fallen much in men's regard, both positively
and relatively. Positively, through a succession of weak pontiffs,
and through the interested squabbles of the Conclave : men had
seen the Papal Chair vacant for years at a time, because the

374 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1206.
cardinals could not agree as to their choice ; and their minds
were no longer awe-stricken at the name and voice of the
Pope, as of old, when he roused all Europe to a Crusade. And
relatively also it had fallen ; for while the Pope in the midst
of all the jarring elements of Italian life was only one weak
force among many, the neighbouring temporal powers had
been gradually arid steadily growing solid and strong; and
there was no longer any question of such a contest as that
between the Papacy and the Hohenstaufen.
This weakness was much increased by the elevation of the
simple hermit Peter Morrone to the papal throne. There had
been a vacancy for more than two years ; suddenly the cardinals,
moved by one of those impulses which, through very weariness,
sometimes affected them, cut the knot of their intrigues, and
hailed the saintly hermit as their head. Unwillingly he left his
retreat, and took the name of Celestin V. He soon proved
himself incapable of dealing with his new duties ; and after a
few months, chiefly influenced (it is said) by the counsels and
the pious frauds of Benedetto Gaetani, the ablest of the cardi
nals, he took Christendom by surprise, and abdicated in Advent
1294, resuming his plain hermit's dress, in hopes of being able
to retire again to his mountain solitude. It was a new and
strange thing ; nor did it appear clear how a Pope could cease
to be Pope. The opponents of his successor ever found this
doubt a convenient weapon in the strife. The cardinals, anxious
not again to commit such a mistake, before the year was out
elected Benedetto Gaetani, who ascended the pontifical throne
with a firm and resolute step, and took the name of Boniface
VIII (16 Jan. 1295). His unlucky predecessor was kept in
honourable though galling confinement, whence death released
him, to the great relief of Boniface, in 1296.
Benedetto Gaetani was by interest, by party, and by bringing
up, inclined towards the French alliance : and, in some sense,
was influenced by the lawyer-spirit of the age. It is his mis
fortune that he both failed in all his aims, and was at the same
time the object of malignant and unscrupulous attack. We

A.D. 1295. THE QUARREL WITH BONIFACE VIII. 375
know little of his character but from his enemies. That he
was ambitious seems clear enough : he was not scrupulous in
the means or the language he employed a : he was incapable of
generosity towards a foe ; he hated well, and was well hated in
return. That his energy and ability extorted the admiration
of his foes is also plain ; he was subject to no low vices.
He had no lack of grand conceptions of his high position
and duties as head of Christendom : on the other hand he was
altogether a priest in the narrowness with which he regarded the
world around him. Although before his elevation he had been
in kings' courts, and had mixed in the political movements of
the time, he could not discern the tendencies of society, or make
any allowance for the forces by which he was surrounded. He
fought new foes with the old weapons, blunted by use and rusted
by lapse of years. There was as great a difference herein, as
there soon would be in the struggle of the old feudal world
against the new engines of war, gunpowder and cannon, the
voice of which would ere long be heard on the battlefield.
Boniface was unfortunate in his character, his surroundings,
and his times. He could not bend and yield, and spring up
again ; but stood, like some great oak of a past age, rigid and
venerable, till the storm uprooted him. From the moment of
his accession the clouds began to gather. The popular feeling
throughout Italy was against him ; the preaching orders, who
swayed the opinion of the crowd, regarded him as their foe, and
as the supplanter of their favourite saint, Pope Celestin. The
nobles of Rome knew that he was their enemy; the great
Colonna faction at the head of the anti-papal party was com
mitted to a deadly struggle with him. He had the misfortune
to be regarded as the friend of Charles of Valois, that hated
usurper, whose vices were to a certain extent reflected on him,
and in whose unpopularity he shared. And lastly, it was his
doom to be pitted against his natural friend, the French King ;
and that King the tenacious, unscrupulous, proud Philip the
1 As when he alluded to the bodily infirmities of Peter Flotte, as 'Belial
semividens corpore, menteque totaliter excaecatus.' See below, p. 384.

376 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1295.
Fair. He secured the hearty hatred of the rising and ambitious
order of lawyers ; in defeating him the Civil Law triumphed
over the champion of the Canon Law; while some of his
bitterest foes have seemed to after-times to be the avenging
spirits of that independence of thought which had perished in
the baleful fires kindled by the Papal Inquisition in Southern
France \
The King and the Pope thus being fundamentally at variance,
little was needed to begin the quarrel between them. And yet
on the surface their interests were at one. The Pope was
Guelfic in bringing-up and sympathies, and by the traditions of
the Holy See. He had persuaded King James of Aragon
to give up Sicily to Charles the Lame ; he held before the
half-dazzled eyes of Charles of Valois the splendid prize
of which the Latin princes often dreamed, the imperial crown
of Constantinople ; he forwarded in every way the interests of
France and Italy.
Yet from the moment that he interfered with the King things
began to go wrong. He tried in 1295 to mediate between
Philip and Edward I of England ; they were both however very
unwilling to receive him as arbitrator, and guarded themselves by
declaring that they were in no way subject to the Papal see as
to their temporal affairs. Still more was Philip offended when
the Pope ordered him to do justice to Guy of Flanders, and to
release his daughter, whom he held in prison as a hostage. In
the beginning of the year 1296 Boniface had issued a Bull2,
entitled ' Clericis laicos,' in which ecclesiastics were forbidden
to pay taxes of any kind to the civil power, except by permis
sion of the apostolical see ; and all princes and potentates were
warned that if they exacted such contributions from the clergy
they became liable to excommunication. Though Philip was not
named, it was partly, if not chiefly, directed against him : and he
did not hesitate to reply. In August of the same year appeared
1 The grandfather of Nogaret is said to have perished in the Albigensian
persecutions. 2 Preuves de l'Histoire du Differend, etc., p. 14. (Dated Romae ap. S.
Petrum Pontif. nostri anno 2.)

A.D. 1295. BONIFACE VIII AND PHILIP. 377
a royal Ordinance L, forbidding all persons of whatever condition
or nation to export from the kingdom anything of value, gold
and silver, coined or not, jewels and precious stones, armour,
horses, and munitions of war, except with the royal permission
in writing. This document in its turn made no mention of the
Pope, or of any difference of opinion ; none the less, all men knew
to whom it referred. The Pope quickly rejoined ; in the very
next month he issued a Bull 2, entitled ' Ineffabilis amoris,' in
which he declares that the prohibition of exports cannot possibly
refer to clerical persons, and that it would be madness to lay
hands on them. He warned the King to put away his coun
sellors : for he had become aware of the forces, hostile to
himself, which were impelling Philip : he displays emphatically
his own kindness and good offices towards the King, and the
dangers to France from the hostility of his neighbours the
' Kings of Rome, Spain, and England.' He then goes on to
enforce the ' Clericis laicos ' Bull with fresh threats of penal
ties, while he also opens the door to a compromise ; he does
not object to the taxation of clergy for the defence and support
of the realm, provided the Pope's consent be first had ; and
also explains that he does not forbid the King to exercise his
rights over ecclesiastics in regard of the fiefs held by them
under the crown ; also he claims to judge between Kings ' in
matter of sin.' And he closes with a vague threat, that if the
King will not amend these matters of his own good will, he
must put out his hand ' to other and less usual remedies, how
ever unwilling he may be to do so.' Intentionally or not, the
Pope sent this document to Philip by one who did nothing to
soften the bad effect it produced. The haughtiness, the appeals
to the King's fears, even the friendly but patronising tone
which runs through most of it, were bitterness to the proud
prince. His advisers at once drew up a reply, a bold and
vigorous assertion of the royal supremacy in things temporal.
It opens with a phrase which would scarcely have been capable
' Preuves de l'Histoire du Diff. p. 13. (Dated August 16, 1296.)
2 Ibid. p. 15. (Dated September 21, 1296.)

378 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1296.
of proof: 'Ere ever ecclesiastics existed, the King of France
had the custody of his realm, and could make laws for its
defence V After this bold beginning, he sets forth the im
portance of the laity as well as of the clergy, the duty of the
latter to contribute to the defence of the realm, the treasonable
conduct of such as forbade them to do so ; he then touches on
his disagreement with his liegeman the King of England, and
his neighbour the ' King of Germany';, and ends by declaring
that as an ' immense benefactor ' to the Church he has a right
to claim the Church's help against these his enemies.
As a next step the Pope sent his Nuncios, the Bishops of
Albano and Palestrina, into France; they were instructed to
inform the King that the Pope had made and prolonged a truce
between the conflicting princes, and had pronounced an ex
communication against any one who broke it. Before the King
read this letter, he solemnly protested as follows : ' That the
temporal government of his kingdom depended on himself
alone, nor had he any superior therein, and that he would not
submit himself therein to any living person ; that he was de
termined to defend his rights and his realm with help of his
friends ; that this truce should be no hindrance thereto ; while,
at the same time, in things spiritual he was ready to obey the
orders of the Holy See, as a devout son of the Church.' The
legates were then permitted to read the Papal brief2, and to
withdraw. Two months before this, the Pope had bidden his
Nuncios excommunicate any one who might stop them from
exporting the money they had raised in France 3.
The struggle of the Pope with the Colonna cardinals was
at this time waxing hot ; and he found that even the Gallican
clergy 4 were inclined to side with their King : consequently,
feeling that he was not strong enough, for the moment, to
persevere in his high tone to the end, he now issued a fresh
1 Preuves de l'Histoire du Diff. p. 21. (No date.)
2 Ibid. p. 27. (Dated April 20, 1297.)
3 Ibid. p. 25. (Dated February 7, 1297.)
1 Ibid. p. 26 ; the Letter of the Archbishop of Rheims and his Suffragans.

A.D. 1296. HIS STRUGGLE WITH BONIFACE VIII. 379
Bull 1, in which he declared, — and it is an amazing statement —
that the Bull ' Clericis laicos ' was not meant to affect the king
dom of France. The King in his turn hastened to assure the
Pontiff that he had never meant absolutely to forbid the export
of the precious metals from the realm, and that he had made
his proclamation only in the public interest. This seeming
reconciliation was followed by an act which flattered the public
feeling and pride of France. On the anniversary of his death
Louis IX was solemnly canonised, and his remains were re
moved from St. Denis to the new church of Poissy, built in
his honour, and dedicated to him as a new-made Saint. More
over, the French and English King being yet at variance,
Boniface obtained their consent to his arbitration, on the
understanding that he was to act as Benedetto Gaetani, that
is, as a private person, not as Pope. And thus the Kings
sought to save their rights, and the Pope trusted that it would
in reality be impossible to separate the man from the Pontiff,
and also that he might win the gratitude and goodwill of Philip.
Through his arbitration, clearly favouring the French King,
two-thirds of Aquitaine passed from Edward to France, and
the sovereigns concluded a marriage-treaty ; Edward promising
to espouse Margaret, the King's sister ; and his son Edward,
afterwards Edward II of England, being betrothed in 1303 to
Isabelle, Philip's daughter ; whereby the seeds of the hundred
years' war were sown.
This friendship between Boniface and Philip was hollow.
They occupied themselves in gathering strength for the coming
struggle, in which each vowed to himself that he would crush
the other or perish. A little before this time Philip had de
tached the Duke of Brittany from the English side, and had
created him, as well as his cousin Robert of Artois, and Charles
of Valois his brother, Peers of Fiance. Thus he violated the
old feudal principles, and showed himself no longer the ' first
among his equals,' but a monarch bestowing on his subjects
1 Preuves de l'Histoire du Diff. p. 39, ' Noveritis nos.' (Dated July 31,
1297.)

380 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1297.
the high honour of being grouped in dignity around the throne.
On the conclusion of the peace arranged by the Pope in his
private character, the two Kings abandoned their allies each to
the other. Edward wreaked his will on Wallace ; Philip occu
pied Flanders. Guy of Dampierre was not strong enough to
resist when his powerful supporters had left him ; and, for a
time, the kingdom of France touched the line of the Rhine '.
And in 1299 Guy threw himself on Philip's mercy (as if there
had ever been such a thing !), and was imprisoned in the
Louvre, while the King caused the Parliament to declare that
Flanders was formally joined to the crown, and rejoiced
exceedingly at the thought that he had found a mine of wealth,
from which he might draw inexhaustible supplies for his empty
treasury. Around the throne were grouped the great lawyers,
whose chief representatives were Peter Flotte and William of
Nogaret, men who were now called ' Knights of the Laws,'
a grotesque but significant title : the Colonnas were exiles in
France, longing for the moment when the word should be given
which would launch them against their mortal foe. All things
were prepared for the strife ; and thus the King stood firmly
when the year 1300 came, and all seemed well with him.
Treachery and rapacity had done their work, and he was now
ready for the task he had set himself.
And how fared it with Boniface ? He, too, seemed to have
gathered strength. He had crushed the Colonnas ; they had
perished, or had fled to foreign lands; he had interfered with
authority in the affairs of Scotland and Hungary ; he had put
Albert of Austria, King of the Romans, under ban2. And,
lastly, the year 1300 seemed to open with a revival of faith in
Christendom, of faith centred on Rome and his own person.
Never had crowds so devout flocked to the Eternal City ; men
ceased to count them; but for a very abundant harvest that
1 William of Nangis, in Dom Bouquet, torn. 20. p. 581, says, 'concession
fuisse dicitur quod regnum Franciae . . usque ad Rhenum potestatis suae
terminos dilataret.'
2 The position of Boniface is well summed up in Milman's Latin Chris
tianity, bk. n. chap. 9.

A.D. 1297. ANNEXATION OF FLANDERS. 381
year there would have been a famine. Never were such count
less gifts laid on the altars ; never were the blessings of the
Church received in return with such devout joy, as in this year
of Jubilee. It is said,— but one knows not with what truth, so
false are all the writers who deal with his memory, —that when
messengers from Albert of Austria came to the Pope, Boniface
met them with the crown on his head and a bare sword in his
right hand, and saluted them with the words, ' I, I am Caesar,
I am the true Emperor 1 ; and therefore supreme over all princes
of the earth.* Certain it is that from this time his claims grew
more extreme, his language more violent ; he seems to have
been dazzled by the scene, and to have thought that what he
saw proved that the Papacy still had its roots deep in the heart
of the people.
Soon after the close of the year of Jubilee the Pope named
Bernard Saisset, Bishop of Pamiers, a city which he had but
lately erected into an episcopal see, as his legate to the King's
Court. It was an unlucky choice. Saisset was a rash and
violent man, instinct with the hereditary hatred of Languedoc
for the French masters of the South. He did not hide his
mind, and at the same time tried to rouse the Count of Foix
and other Southerners to revolt against the King. Wherefore
the King set his lawyers on him, and had him arrested at
Pamiers. Philip must have felt very sure of his ground ;
for he employed an ecclesiastic to take him prisoner. His
trial was pressed on, under the guidance of Peter Flotte 2-
In January 1301 came out a Bull in which the Pope spared no
hard words towards the King, and endeavoured to stir up the
slumbering enmity which existed between the North and South
of France, by affirming ' that the Gallic people had ever been
1 He is even said to have used the words, ' all power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth.'
2 Preuves de l'Histoire du Diff. pp. 621-662. It is said that Flotte Was
sent to Rome to insist on Saisset's condemnation, and had a stormy inter
view with the Pope. The Pope is reported to have said, ' My power, the
spiritual power, embraces and limits the temporal.' To which Flotte made
reply — ' It may be so ; but your power is verbal, while that of my King is
real.' The whole is probably a fiction.

382 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1300.
hostile to the Tolosan language, nor had done good to the men
of Toulouse, but ever evil, and had bereft them of their pro
perty, and that the King himself did so.' And this was pre
sently followed by three several documents 1, all of one date
(December 5, 1301), the first of which summoned all eccle
siastics to Rome, and used unmeasured language as to the
King's conduct; the second also summoned all Doctors of
Theology and Masters of Canon Law to Rome, as though he
would marshal the Church lawyers against those of the State ;
and the third was the famous Bull, entitled ' Ausculta fili.'
This Bull, which censured the King in no measured terms,
and took up the position that the Pope was far above all
kings, was read in all its harshness to Philip ; the King, filled
with scorn and anger at its audacity, had it solemnly burnt :
he banished from the kingdom the Nuncio who had brought
it as well as the Bishop of Pamiers; thus putting an end
to the lesser quarrel which had small importance by the side of
the greater struggle now coming to its crisis.
It was probably at this moment (though the date is uncer
tain), that those two extraordinary documents, the Little Bull
and its Answer, were drawn up at Paris and circulated through
France. No one will now defend the genuineness of the Little
Bull ; though there seems to be no doubt that it appeared about
this time. The sharp brevity of the document is itself strong
presumption against its genuineness ; as is also the fact that it
is not among those Bulls which were afterwards annulled by
Clement V. The two documents, each a few lines long, were
simply an appeal 'to public opinion in France — a strange appeal,
indicating, whatever their influence might be, that all the old
reverence for the Papal name was dying out. The Little Bull
itself bears .the same date as the great 'Ausculta fili' Bull; and
may have been intended as a resume' of the claims set forth in
it ; it certainly gave emphatic expression to the Papal doctrine
that the King was subject to the Pope in temporals as much as
in spirituals. The mock reply was so coarse and brutal, that,
1 Preuves de 1'Histoire du Diff. pp. 48-54.

A.D. 1302. THE STRUGGLE RENEWED. 383
had the tone of feeling not changed immensely in France, it
would have been regarded as a blasphemy : — -as it was, it passed
without a protest. It opens thus : ' Philip ... to Boniface, who
makes himself out to be Sovereign Pontiff, little or no greeting.
Be it known to thy supreme idiocy that we are subject to no
man in things temporal : ' and then echoing the close of the
Little Bull, it ends with the words, ' Such as think otherwise we
count to be fools and madmen.'
Men's minds being thus prepared, the King took the bold
step of throwing himself on the patriotism of the country, and,
in the April of 1302, called a great assembly of his subjects,
that they might take cognisance of the quarrel. On the day for
which they were summoned, ' the birthday of the nation,' as it
has been pretentiously called, the bodies that were afterwards
formally styled the Three Estates of France, the nobility, the
clergy, and the burghers, met at Paris, and, sitting separately,
considered the King's griefs. Thither came ' prelates, barons,
chapters, conventual bodies, colleges, communities, and univer
sities1 of the cities of the realm, with masters in theology, and
professors of either law, and other learned and grave persons of
divers parts and realms 2.' Each body drew up an address to
be forwarded to Rome. That of the towns was sure to be
favourable enough to the royal side; the actual document is lost.
The letters of the nobles and clergy are extant. That of the
barons is addressed to the cardinals, and is couched in sharp
rough terms, hinting that Boniface is an usurper seated on the
Papal throne, and declaring that they do not seek redress of
their griefs from the Pope but from their Lord the King. Very
different in style and terms was the letter of the clergy, though
in the main it was of like significance. Ecclesiastics were
naturally much embarrassed by their position between the
spiritual and the temporal powers. They applied for permission
to obey the Papal summons to a council at Rome. The King
1 These ' Universities ' are the Communes of Southern cities, not the
learned bodies.
a The Continuator of William of Nangis, sub ann. 1302.

384 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1302.
and the barons refused their request ; and they were made to
know that if they went their goods would be liable to seizure —
and seizure in Philip's time meant irreparable loss.
The Pope's reply, which was sent without delay (June 28,
1302), was gentle in tone, and again drew the old distinction,
as to the subjection of the King to the Church, ' in matters of
sin.' In a consistory held a little later he broke forth into
violent language against Peter Flotte — ' a man of Belial, a man
half blind in body, and quite blind in soul ; ' and ended by a
threat that he would, unless the King repented of his ways,
' chastise him like a boy V The Pope knew not at that moment
that he was already partly avenged of his enemies. The French
had made themselves as hateful in Flanders as they had been
in Sicily : and a new ' Sicilian Vespers ' had befallen them at
Bruges 2. Then Flanders burst into open revolt. The news of
this mishap must have reached Paris a few days before the
meeting of the States General : and directly their work was
done, the barons set forth, eager to punish the Flemish, and to
sack their brimming cities. Peter Flotte went with them. Near
Courtrai they came up with the Flemish footmen, a force of
about twenty thousand, led by William of Juliers. This army
of burghers and artisans knew that retreat was impossible ; the
French cavalry would have instantly cut them in pieces. So
they boldly determined to face their oppressors, and took up
a position behind a narrow canal, deep, with level banks, not
seen at a little distance. Guy of Namur3 and his nephew
William of Juliers, while they waited, conferred knighthood on
Peter Koning and forty leading citizens ; and then with their
Belgian and German followers the two leaders sent their horses
to the rear, and made ready to fight afoot, on equal terms with
the Flemish. Meanwhile the French knights, full of their accus
tomed vanity, recklessness, and insubordination, put spurs to
1 Or, depose him like a groom, ' deponeremus Regem sicut unum gar-
cionem.' Regaaldus, sub ann. 1302.
2 March 24, 1302.
3 Guy of Namur was nephew of the imprisoned Count, Guy of Dampierre,
and was fighting on his behalf.

A.D. 1302. THE BATTLE OF COURTRAI. 385
horse, making much dust, and coming on apace to crush the
burgher-folk they so despised. For haste and dust they saw
nothing of the canal till it was too late to pull up, and in they
went ; then those behind pushed those before, and followed
them, till the flower of French chivalry lay a helpless heap,
crushed and drowning in the mud. The Flemish men-at-arms
crossed the water on either flank, and fell on the disordered
army. The rear fled in uttermost panic. Robert of Artois
with his men alone tried to stay the fortunes of the day ; it was
all in vain. He fell, pierced with many wounds.
The citizens, who, for lack of arms and horses, could scarcely
have stood against the barded chivalry, were brave enough on
an equal field, and merciless. They spared no man, and knocked
the barons and knights of France on the head like bullocks :
the carnage was terrible; four thousand gilt spurs — some say
even seven thousand — were hung up in Courtrai Cathedral1.
Thus perished the foremost men of France in a ditch. Terrible
as this mishap seemed at the moment, it was not the King of
France who was the loser. On the contrary, the death of so
many lords of fiefs left him at leisure to pursue his plans for
lifting the kingly power far above feudalism. The turbulent
noblesse, which had thus ruined itself by careless insubordi
nation *, was now no match for the cold King with his men
of law. Boniface, however, hearing this, rejoiced. He did not
discern the ultimate meaning of it, and thought that he might
now take his enemy in his weakness. The bishops thought the
same. Forty-five of them, on the news of the disaster, set forth
for Rome. The King, who marched into Flanders with a strong
army, found himself unable to make head against the insurgents,
and ' returned to France without any glory V From the other
end of the realm came tidings of the revolt of Bordeaux, and
the English King seemed likely to interfere.
1 Eighty years later Charles VI saw these trophies, and massacred the
grandchildren of the victors of the Day of the Spurs.
2 We have seen before, at the battle of Mansourah, how undisciplined
were these gallant lords of France.
3 Continuator of William of Nangis, sub ann. 1302.
VOL. I. C C

386 V PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1302.
And now at Rome the famous Bull, ' Unam Sanctam V was
proclaimed before the assembled bishops (18th Nov. 1302); in
it the claims of the Papacy were asserted in unmeasured terms.
It forms the high-water mark of Papal pretensions; declares
that the spiritual power ought to judge the temporal, while God
alone can judge the spiritual. It was followed by a general
excommunication of all who should lay hands on or despoil
those who might go to Rome ; a threat evidently intended for
the protection of the forty- five French bishops. For a moment
Philip seemed to lose confidence : his reply was timid, apolo
getic, weak. The Pope saw it, and hastened to strike his last
blow. He summoned the King to speak out more clearly and
amend the, past; he threatened him with excommunication
and the deposition that was understood to follow in its train
(13th April, 1303). But, before this terrible Bull had left Rome,
the King had recovered heart. He had (12th March, 1303)
again called together his Parliament, from which a great
ordinance was issued, ' for the reformation of the realm.' The
proclamation was well received everywhere ; liberty was sold to
serfs, nobility to citizens : Nogaret also appeared with a series
of charges against the Pope, in which he lays down four great
points : (1) that Boniface was no Pope, but one who 'came in
by another way ' (alluding to the abdication of Pope Celestin) ;
(2) that he was a heretic; (3) a simoniacal person; (4) a man
of horrible crimes and vices. These are the usual charges, the
commonplaces of a faithless and unscrupulous age ; and they
seem to have rested on no foundation. Yet they doubtless had
some weight.
When the Bull of Excommunication reached France it was
seized, the bearer of it imprisoned, the goods of the forty-five
prelates confiscated, themselves cited to appear for judgment ;
the Inquisition was also forbidden to act. The neutrality
of Edward I was bought by the cession of Guienne. The
Parliament was again called on in June to hear an entirely new
and still more violent series of charges, drawn up by Plaisian,
1 Preuves du Diff. p. 54.

A.D. 1303. THE DEATH OF POPE BONIFACE. 387
knight and lord of Vezenoble, who was backed by all the power
of the nobles. And next, the King declared that he appealed
from all the bulls of Boniface to a General Council, and to the
Pope who should be elected in his stead : even the high clergy
of France supported this appeal. Nogaret was at this time in
Italy : he was instructed to lodge the appeal with Boniface, and
to make it public in Rome. The Pope, who was at Anagni,
his native place, for the summer heats, rejoined by fixing the
8th of September as the day on which France would be laid
under Interdict and her King declared to be excommunicated.
Nogaret now laid his plans with Sciarra Colonna, the most
turbulent of Italians, the family foe of Boniface, who burned to
avenge his fathers on the aged Pontiff. Several hundred soldiers
were hired, led by Rinaldi da Supino, the captain of Ferentino,
the neighbour-town and, after Italian fashion, the rival to
Anagni. Early on the 7th of September the conspirators
entered Anagni; the captain of the place, Arnulfi, had been
bought by French gold. Instead of resisting, Arnulfi allowed
the people to sack the cardinals' houses and the Papal treasure.
Boniface, undefended, fell into the hands of his foes. He showed
a firmness and dignity worthy of his position and character.
Colonna would fain have slain him at once, had not Nogaret
interposed : he is said, but this was a mere report, to have struck
the old man in the face with his mailed hand till the blood
came1- Nogaret also heaped abuse on him. They allowed
none of his attendants to be with him, and kept him a prisoner
in his palace. For two days he neither ate nor drank, for fear of
poison. Then the people of Anagni could bear it no longer ;
they rose and drove out the soldiers, and delivered the aged
Pontiff. The Romans too had tidings of the outrage, and sent
out their militia to bring him safely back. His return was a
triumphal march. Even then he found the French party in the
ascendant in Rome, and was again almost a prisoner. This
was more than he could bear. Worn out with weight of years,
with the terrible trials of the last few days, and the privations
1 Chron. de S. Denis.
C C 2

388 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1303.
he had suffered, on this last mortification he gave way, and
died at the age of eighty-six. Strange and malignant tales were
told of his last moments : the horrors, formerly thought fit for
monkish brains, seemed now to find place in the minds of hard
lawyers. They grouped portents round his deathbed; they
declared that he died furious, without the last consolations of
the faith. Nor did the hatred of his foes leave him even there ;
for years his memory was pursued with bitter zeal by the King
and his lawyers — it was part of their ghastly triumph that they
should even seek to destroy the character of the dead. Ambitious,
unforgiving, untrue, the great Pope had been withal a noble
figure; he was the last champion of the ages of chivalry,
fighting to the death against the new life of a new age. And
from his fall dates the true beginning of the medieval monarchy,
that absolute Kingship of which France has given to Europe
the first and the grandest specimen, and from which France
has also freed herself, with the convulsions of a revolution, and
the risks of an imperial despotism. The Papal dream of
universal monarchy crumbled to the ground, and left the nations
to work out their destinies after their kind.
The cardinals elected an able and good man, Benedict XI,
as Pope. He began his reign prudently and firmly; and it
seemed as if he might be destined to repair the breaches made
by the terrible contest we have just depicted. But, even as he
was preparing his measures to defend the memory of Boniface,
when he had reigned but nine months, he suddenly sickened
and died. All men deemed that he had perished by poison.
Meanwhile King Philip had won in Flanders the sterile
victory of Mons-en-Puelle (a.d. 1304): finding then that the
Flemings were raising another army with all the obstinacy of
the race, he gave up the struggle and made peace, recognising
the independence of Flanders, and retaining only his feudal
lordship. The eldest son of Count Guy did him homage ; and
Flanders, with the exception of two or three frontier towns,
passed away from France.
In truth, the interests of the King lay in another direction.

A.D. 1303. ELECTION OF POPE CLEMENT V. 389
He had discovered that he must keep a steady hand on the
Papacy, or it might yet work him woe ; and he laid his plans
to that end. The unexpected death of Benedict XI now gave
him his opportunity. The Conclave was evenly balanced, and
nine months slipped by without an election. The Guelfic
Gaetani, the friends and relations of Boniface, neutralised the
Ghibeline Colonnas, who were the friends of France. At last
the Colonnas proposed that the Gaetani party should nominate
three, not of their own number, as candidates, one of whom
they promised to elect within forty days. The Guelfs con
sented, and named three prelates, known friends of their party
and foes to Philip. The Colonnas then sent the three names
to the King, advising him to make terms with Bertrand de Goth,
Archbishop of Bordeaux, a subject of the English King and foe
to the French, and to choose him as Pope. The King sought
an interview with the Archbishop, and hung before the Gascon's
dazzled eyes the grand prize, promising it to him on certain
conditions. Let us name them as they are handed down to us,
without saying whether they are matters of fact, or were invented
after the career of the Pontiff had shown that he was somehow
tied down to the King. They say he agreed (1) to reconcile the
King with the Church; (2) to absolve the King's agents; (3)
to grant him a tenth on the property of the clergy of France
for five years ; (4) to reinstate the Colonnas, and to make some
French cardinals, to be named by the King ; (5) to censure the
conduct of Boniface : it is said that he also agreed to a sixth
condition, the terms of which have never been revealed ; some
have thought it referred to his residence in Avignon, others
to the destruction of the Templars, others to a promise of the
imperial crown for Charles of Valois. To all these things is
Bertram said to have bound himself by solemn oath and host
ages given : and thereupon, within the forty days, he was duly
elected Pope, and took the name of Clement V. The cardinals
were summoned to Lyons for the consecration ; they came
unwillingly, knowing that the wily King had duped them. The
new Pope was consecrated in the Church of St. Just, in the

39-0 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1307.
Castle at Lyons, which part of the city then belonged to
France ; and, after the ceremony, he mounted on horseback,
with the King at his bridle. Outside the castle gate Philip gave
up the rein to the Counts of Valois and Evreux, and to the
Duke of Brittany — fortunately for him, for a high wall, brought
down by the weight of the crowd that thronged it, fell on the
procession. The new-made Pope was thrown from his horse,
his tiara broken ; the Duke of Brittany and one of the Pope's
brothers were killed on the spot, the Count of Valois severely
wounded ; many others suffered. Thus gloomily opened the new
era of the Papacy, in which, as Walsingham says, the Church
was judged by Pope and King, like the Lord between Herod
and Pilate. The King held the Pontiff captive in France ; the
Pope revenged himself by passing from city to city with a
following of courtiers, who ate up the land, and caused grievous
scandal by their shameless lives, the Pope not less shameless
than the rest. The Church was even more degraded and
humiliated by this spectacle of luxury and sin, than by the
manifest subjection of the Pontiff. Even Philip himself had to
interfere ; it seemed as though his prisoner was like to consume
all the wealth in the land.
And now Clement began to pay the price of his elevation
He cancelled the obnoxious Bulls ; the King's instruments were
pardoned ; after a time, even Nogaret, though reluctantly.
Nine French cardinals were made, so as to secure the King's
influence in the Conclave; some of them men who had been
professors of civil law, in order to make weight against the
Canonists. In the spring-time of 1307 the King met the Pope
at Poitiers, on pretence of arranging for a crusade to place
Charles of Valois on the throne of Constantinople, and to
recover the Holy City : the true object of the meeting was
to press on the Pope the condemnation of the memory of
Boniface, and the overthrow of the Templars. As to the former.
Clement escaped by referring the matter to a council to be held
at Vienne on the Rhone ; as to the Templars, proof was de
manded of their crimes ; and thus the Pontiff hoped to win

A.D. 1307. THE TEMPLARS. 391
a little time. In the former case he escaped from being com
pelled to act. To have condemned Boniface as a false Pope
would have been to render null all his acts, to make his cardinals
no cardinals, their election of himself no election, himself no
Pope. The whole fabric of the Church seemed to be shaken ;
and men remembered the broken wall of Lyons, and the Pontiff
fallen in the dust.

III. The Epoch of the Templars, a.d. 1304-13 14.
The Templars he could not save from the fearful doom which
awaited the order.
In 1 1 18 nine knights had taken possession of a house near
the Temple at Jerusalem, and called themselves its Knights
Defenders. They lived on alms in simple poverty, following
the usual vows of chastity, purity, humility. They wore a white
cloak with a red cross on it : their dress and rules were fixed
at the Synod of Troyes. Gifts soon rolled in upon them, land
and goods. Ere long their numbers began to increase swiftly,
their wealth more swiftly still, till their income rivalled that of
kings. With wealth came luxury and pride. When the Holy
Land fell completely into Mahomedan hands on the loss of
Acre in 1291, they abandoned the hopeless task, and settled in
Cyprus. By the end of the thirteenth century they had almost
all returned to Europe. They were peculiarly strong and wealthy
in France — the strength and the wealth were alike dangerous
to them. In Paris they built their fortress, the Temple, over
against the King's palace of the Louvre ; and in that stronghold
the King himself had once to take refuge from the angry Parisian
mob, exasperated by his heavy extortions. During the life and
death struggle with the Papacy, the order had not taken the
side of the Church against the sovereign ; for their wealth had
held them down. Philip, however, knew no gratitude, and they
were doomed. A powerful and secret society endangered the
safety of the state ; their wealth was a sore temptation : there
was no lack of rumours. Dark tales came out respecting the

392 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1307.
habits of the order; tales exaggerated and blackened by
the diseased imagination of the age. Popular proverbs, those
ominous straws of public opinion, were heard in different lands,
hinting at dark vices and crimes. Doubtless the vows of the
order, imposed on unruly natures, led to grievous sins against
the first laws of moral life. And there was more than this :
there were strange rumours of horrible infidelity and blasphemy;
and men were prepared to believe everything.
So no one seemed to be amazed when, in October 1307, the
King made a sudden coup d'e'lat, arrested all the Templars in
France on the same day, and seized their goods. The Temple
at Paris with the Grand Master fell into his hands. Their
property was presently placed in the custody of the Pope's
nuncios in France ; the knights were kept in dark and dismal
prisons. Their trial was long and tedious. Two hundred and
thirty-one knights were examined, with all the brutality that
examination then meant ; the Pope also took the depositions of
more than seventy. From these examinations what can we
learn ?
All means were used : some were tortured, others threatened,
others tempted with promises of immunity '. They made con
fession accordingly; and the ghastly catalogue of their professed
ill-doings may be read in the history of the trial. Who shall
say what truth there was in it all? Probably little or none.
Many confessed and then recanted their confession. The golden
image with eyes of glowing carbuncle which they worshiped;
the trampling and spitting on the crucifix ; the names of Galla
and Baphomet ; the hideous practices of the initiation ; — all these
things pass before us, in the dim uncertainty, like some horrible
procession of the vices in hell. What the truth was will never
be known ; the order may have contracted some eastern habits
and introduced some eastern ceremonies ; probably also the
moral condition of the knights was low. At any rate, enough
was said, true or false, for the King's purposes ; and he urged
the Pope definitely to condemn the order. Clement hesitated,
1 See Dupuy, Proces des Templiers, p. 161.

A.D. 1310. THE FALL OF THE TEMPLARS. 393
temporised, even fled more than once disguised from Poitiers
towards Bordeaux. But the wily King was prepared even for
this ; the Pope was discovered and brought back. He had
weighted himself with several mule-loads of treasure, which he
could not bring himself to leave in the King's clutches, and
these impeded his flight ; otherwise he might have escaped. In
1309 the King at last allowed him to leave Poitiers: he turned
his face southwards, and travelled slowly as far as Avignon.
There, in a city which had belonged to the Holy See since
1274, the wretched Pope, to whom the King absolutely refused
permission to return to Rome, deemed that he had won a little
independence, and established his court. Here the Papacy
abode, in the grasp of France, for seventy years. Who could
resist the name, which seemed so well to suit it, ' the Babylonish
Captivity ' ?
The trial of Boniface went on at Avignon, Nogaret and other
lawyers insisting on his condemnation; they urged that his
body should be exhumed and burnt as that of a heretic. This
affair, however, was again suffered to stand over while the trial
of the Templars was pressed on.
The knights made a dignified defence in these last moments
of their history; they did not flinch either at the terrible prospect
before them, or through memory of the tortures which they had
undergone. Public opinion, in and out of France, began to stir
against the barbarous treatment they had received ; they were
no longer proud and wealthy princes, but suffering martyrs,
showing bravery and a firm front against the cruelties of the
King and his lawyers. Marigni, Philip's minister and friend,
and the King himself, were embarrassed by the number and
firmness of their victims, by the sight of Europe looking on
aghast, by the murmurs of the people. Marigni suggested that
men who had confessed and recanted might be treated as
relapsed heretics, such being the law of the Inquisition,
(what irony was here I), and accordingly in 13 10 an enclosure
was made at Paris, within which fifty-nine Templars perished
miserably by fire. Others were burnt later at Senlis.

394 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1312.
The King, not being sure of the Council summoned to meet
at. Vienne, at last consented to abandon his vindictive attack
on the memory of Boniface ; and Clement, in return, declared
that the King and his counsellors had been actuated by ex
cellent motives in all their conduct towards the late Pope :
finally he promised that the Order of the Templars should be
definitely dissolved. The King and Pope worked on the feeble
Council, until in March 13 12, the abolition of the order was
formally decreed ; and its chief property, in lands and build
ings, was given over to the Knights of St. John, to be used
for the recovery of the Holy Land ; ' which thing,' says the
Supplementor to William of Nangis, ' came not to pass, but
rather the endowment did but make them worse than before.'
The chief part of the spoil, as might be well believed, never
left the King's hands. One more tragedy, and then all was
over. The four heads of the order were still at Paris,
prisoners — Jacques de Molai, Grand Master ; Guy of Auvergne,
the Master of Normandy, and two more. The Pope had
reserved their fate in his own hands, and sent a commission
to Paris, with an instruction once more to hear the confession
of these dignitaries, and then to condemn them to perpetual
captivity. Now, at the last moment the Grand Master and Guy
publicly retracted their forced confessions, and declared them
selves and the order guiltless of all the abominable charges
laid against them. Philip was filled with devouring rage.
Without further trial or judgment he ordered them to be led
that night to the island in the Seine l ; there they were fastened
to the stake and burnt.
Philip's dark reign was now drawing to a close ; and the last
year was the darkest of all. The wives of his three sons were
accused of loose lives. Jeanne of Burgundy, with whom Philip
of Poitiers expected to receive the heritage of Franche-Comte",
was spared ; doubtless the prospect of losing this fair province
weighed with the King: the two others, Margaret, Queen of
1 Where now the statue of Henri IV stands. Martin, Histoire des
Francais, 4. 505, note.

A. D. 1314. THE DEATH OF PHILIP. 395
Navarre, and Blanche, wife of Charles, were condemned to
languish out the miserable term of their lives in close prison.
Their lovers were put to death, with every conceivable detail
of cruelty.
The nation could abide it no longer. Nobles and burghers
made league together ; the King's oppressions touched them all,
his cold cruelty was a disgrace to them all. We see in this last
year of Philip's reign a first confederation in France against
the crushing weight of royal tyranny, and at the head of the
document drawn up by the two orders, we read the venerable
name of the Seneschal of Champagne, the aged Sire of
Joinville, now hard on a hundred years old. It was as if
the shade of St. Louis came forth to rebuke his unworthy
grandson. Philip was amazed and overwhelmed; an accident while
hunting shook his health ; anxiety forbade his recovery, and in
November 13 14 he expired at Fontainebleau, at the early age
of forty-six years. Yet he had seemed to have reigned an
age. It was like the red setting of a hot and angry sun amidst
banks of tempestuous cloud.
His reign saw some additions to the French territory. In
1286 Edward I of England ceded Le Quercy; in 1292 Bigorre
fell in by a legal decision; in 1295 Valenciennes at one edge
of the realm, and Montpellier at the other, were incorporated in
France J : the greatest accession of all was that of the ' second
city of France,' Lyons, which was absorbed into the kingdom
in 13 1 2. That city had had many wooers: the Emperor, the
Archbishop, the Chapter, and the King of France (to say
nothing of the Count of Forez and the civic authorities), all had
rights over her ; and in the midst of their rival suzerainties she
had maintained a kind of independence. But in this year
(a.d. 1312) a quarrel broke out between the two banks of the
Rhone ; between the archbishop and the citizens ; the French
garrison of St. Just fomenting their quarrels. At last archbishop
and burghers made peace, and together attacked the King's
1 Some put these additions in the year 1349.

396 PHILIP IV, LE BEL. A.D. 1314.
folk. Whereon Louis le Hutin, the King's eldest son, was
sent against them with a strong array ; and the place gave way.
The archbishop was sent to Paris, and made submission : and
thus Lyons once more became a Gallic city.
It is needless to draw the odious character of the King. It can
be seen in his every act, in the whole chronicle of his reign.

CHAPTER XI.
The Three Sons of Philip le Bel, A.D. 1314-1328.
I. Louis X, 'the Quarrelsome,' a.d. 1314-1316.
Philip died in the beginning of a strong reaction against
absolutism ; and his eldest son, Louis le Hutin, the Quarrel
some, the Wrangler, twenty-five years old, was a mere child in
sense, unfit to cope with this new difficulty. A thriftless and
frivolous person, he was little fit to rule over France, his father's
kingdom, and over Navarre, which he held through his mother;
he thought only of amusement in tournament and court, and
left the business of the realm to his uncle Charles of Valois.
Now Charles of Valois, ambitious, turbulent, and empty, was
only too ready to be the instrument of the reaction. Did this
not mean vengeance on the man who had stood in his way?
Enguerrand of Marigni, ' the other King,' by birth only a poor
Norman gentleman, who had wielded the power of the realm
while Charles was chasing bubbles over Europe, and on whom
therefore the ill-will roused by the past reign had fallen, was
seized and tried at the Temple by the young King himself,
Charles acting the part of the accuser with urgent malignity '.
The fallen minister was not allowed to defend himself: even
the wish of Louis that he should be banished was set aside ; he
1 Johannes a S. Victore, in Dom Bouquet, torn. 21. p. 660, where there is
a hostile account or the last days of the minister. The anonymous continuator
of this chronicle tells us that when Charles was on his death-bed 'he had
great repentance for the death of Enguerrand de Marigni ' ; and at a dole
given after his death this was said to the poor : ' Pray for Monseigneur
Enguerrand and for M. Charles,' thus putting Marigni's name before that
of the prince. — Continuation de ia Chronique de Jean de S. Victoire, Dom
Bouquet, torn. 21. p. 686.

398 THE THREE SONS OF PHILIP LE BEL. A.D. 1314.
was hung, like a thief, with great indignity. His death was the
signal that the feudal interests had recovered the ascendency.
The noblesse, following their fatal instincts, forthwith broke
ranks; each strove for the old lawless independence, with no
care of public liberties, nor of anything save the seignorial
courts and private wars, and trial by battle. And thus the
aristocracy of France missed its opportunity. It might have
moved side by side with the nobles of England. Directly
the pressure of Philip's strong hand was off them they aban
doned their league with the burghers, and sought only to return
to their congenial state of chaos. The appeal to the ' con
stitutions of St. Louis' were in many mouths: it was a good
cry, though the meaning now attached to the phrase would
never have been allowed by the good King ; for those who used
it wanted nothing but the dissolution of the kingdom. No
wonder if even the folly of Louis X grew alarmed. Monarchy
was reduced to great weakness, concession followed concession ;
the nobles seemed likely to leave him nothing but the shadow of
power. Then appeared one of those documents which seem like
lightning-flashes in the darkness. The King was forced to
seek support ; and the lawyer-spirit, though for the moment
checked, was far from vanquished. The legists clearly
modelled this ordinance on the Roman Law ; and it is notable
as containing a first distinct declaration of that principle which
afterwards became the guiding line of the constitutional changes
in France ; the principle that ' every man according to the law
of nature ought to be born free V It was but a step to add
the words ' and equal.' Still it would seem that the King's
aim was little beyond the desire to open a new vein of con
tribution. For this act, after its grand opening, sinks down
into a mere permission to serfs to purchase their freedom for
good and solid considerations.
He wanted cash to fight the Flemings with ; he did all in his
1 Ord. des Rois, I. p. 583, July 1315 : ' Comme selon le droit de nature
chacun doit naistre franc'

A.D. 1316. DEATH OF LOUIS X. 399
power to destroy commerce, by those foolish regulations which
we so often meet with ; by taxing the merchants, forbidding all
dealings with the Flemish, and so forth. He marched as far as to
the Lys ; there the heavy rains conquered him, and he withdrew
again to France, ' not without much inconvenience and some
disgrace1.' In this year, too, and the next (a.d. 1315, 1316),
great distress and famine fell on France. And in the midst of
all this weakness and misery, the King at Vincennes, ' as if he
had been a boy, played at ball and got very hot, then indis
creetly went down into a cold cellar and drank wine without
stint ; whereof the coldness penetrated to his vitals, and he took
to his bed and died in June 13162,' leaving one daughter,
Jeanne, and his Queen with child.
And now arose a great question ; who should succeed to the
throne ? If the Queen bore a son, the matter would settle itself;
if a daughter, would Jeanne become Queen, or would the crown
pass to Philip of Poitiers, the late King's brother. The barons
of France at once seized on the reins of government, and the
royal power seemed for the moment suspended. But Philip
returned from Lyons, where he had been making a Pope,
John XXII, a worldly, immoral creature of the French crown.
The barons named him Regent of France and Navarre till
the Queen should have a child ; if that child was a boy, that
then Philip should still be regent for eighteen years ; if the
babe was a girl, then the two princesses should take Navarre,
Champagne and Brie, abandoning all claim to France ; and
Philip should be proclaimed King. This was not to be
carried out till they were of age to act ; when, if they refused
to give up their claim on the French throne, right should
be done them therein; in that case, Navarre and Cham
pagne would not longer be secured to them. Philip, in the
interval, was to act as governor of all, France, Navarre, and
Champagne *.
1 Chronicon Bernardi Guidonis, Dom Bouquet, torn. 21. p. 725.
! Johannes a S. Victore, Dom Bouquet, torn. 21. p. 663.
3 Hallam, Middle Ages, chap. 1. p. 1 (vol. 1. pp. 41, 42 ; ed. 1846).

400 THE THREE SONS OF PHILIP LE BEL. A.D. 1316.
The question could not thus be settled without some debate.
If women could everywhere succeed to fiefs, and if the crowns
of Europe were, in theory, fiefs of the Empire, then surely a
queen might sit on the French throne. On the other hand, it
was felt that this powerful monarchy, the lord even of the Papacy,
could not really be under feudal subjection to the Empire ; and
that the question must be settled by other considerations. One
would have thought that the barons would take care that the
regency should continue, and the power of the crown be weakened
by being placed on a woman's brow.
II. Philip V, ' le Long,' or ' the Tall.' a.d. 1316-1322.
The Queen bore a son, who was named John ; in seven
days he died. Then Philip, holding that this boy's birth
had freed him from the barons' engagement, and by dying
had found him his opportunity, broke faith at once with his
defenceless niece, hastened to Rheims, filled the Cathedral with
his own followers, and compelled the archbishop to consecrate
him King. Thence he returned to Paris, assembled the citizens,
and, in the presence of a great concourse of barons and notables
of the realm, declared that no female could succeed to the crown
of France L.
Thus began the so-called Salic Law of France, through the
determined violence of an unscrupulous man. The lawyers
round the throne, seeking to give to the act of might the
sanction of right, bethought them of that passage in the law of
the Salian Franks which declares 'That no part or heritage
of Salic land can fall to a woman 2 ; ' and it is from this that the
ordinance obtained the name of ' the Salic Law.'
Great and obvious as were the advantages of a male succes
sion in earlier times, it may be a question whether France was
1 The continuator to Nangis, p. 222. Hallam doubts this statement.
2 The text of this law (tit. 42. 6) runs thus : ' De terra vero Salica nulla
portio haereditatis mulieri veniat, sed ad virilem sexumdota terrae haeredi-
tas perveniat.' Or in the Pactum Legis Salicae, tit. 6. 2. § 6, 'De terra vero
Salica in mulierem nulla portio haereditatis transit, sed hoc virilis sexus
adquirat : h. e. filii in ipsa haereditate succedunt.'

A.D. 1322. PHILIP V, THE TALL. 40I
the happier for the series of Queen-Regents which it entailed,
or for the exclusion of that sex which in certain conditions of
society seems to be especially fitted for the throne. England,
at least, will never regret her freedom from this law. The
Queens of England take rank among the noblest and wisest of
her sovereigns : and in our days the long and prosperous reign
of Queen Victoria has proved this beyond all challenge. What
man could have ruled so long, with so unbroken adherence
to constitutional usages, with so high a sense of regal duty,
and with a nation at her feet so unanimous in loyalty and
affection ?
Thus Philip V, sumamed 'le Long,' the Tall, seized the
throne. His short reign was dark and evil. It is remarkable
for the extraordinary activity of the assemblies, and for legislative
vigour, but society was plunged too deep in evils of old growth
to be cured. The Franciscans, who had already shown signs
of passing away from the orthodox creed, now attacked the
flagrant vices of the Pope and his court, and preached ' a
Gospel of the Holy Ghost,' and a return to the primitive sim
plicity of the early Church. Persecution at once set in ; and
though the people took their side, the order had at last to place
itself under the shield of Louis of Bavaria, whom the Pope
refused to recognise.
The angry and down-trodden people, excited by the friars,
rose with great violence, demanding to be led to the Holy Land.
They committed the usual excesses ; pillaged churches and
castles, and fell on the Jews ; they were suppressed without
difficulty. Horrid rumours of magic now filled the air; the
lepers, a race by themselves, were accused of sorcery and of
poisoning wells in order that all men might become lepers
like themselves. They were seized, and slain, or burnt, or
shut up for life in lazar-houses. Then came the Jews' turn :
they were attacked by every one as confederates of the lepers ;
many of them too were burnt, and their wealth taken for a
prey \ 1 Johannes a S. Victore, Dom Bouquet, torn 21. p. 673.
VOL. I. D d

402 THE THREE SONS OF PHILIP LE BEL. A.D. 1322.
And then the King, having worked this woe, was smitten with
death in the year 1322, at the early age of thirty.

III. Charles IV, 'the Fair.' a.d. 1322-1328.
Philip V had made a law against his brother's daughters;
now his brothers used that law against his daughters ; his
four girls were set aside, and the Count of La Marche, the
youngest of the three sons of Philip le Bel, was crowned as
Charles IV, ' the Fair.'
His reign was brief and unimportant : the direct line of the
Capetian Kings was dying out in obscurity. There were a few
ordinances ; one or two illustrate the still growing power of the
lawyers ; some slight hostilities take place in the South against
the English in Guienne ; there is an ambitious but unimportant
demonstration against Louis of Bavaria, who despised the Papal
excommunication, and set up as Antipope a Franciscan friar,
who, following the tradition of his order, called himself the
' Pope of the Poor.' And now the strange feebleness which
had brought the others to their graves, smote Charles the Fair
in 1328. He called Philip of Valois to his bedside, appointed
him guardian to his Queen, and, if she bore a son, then also
of the boy: if it were a girl, then 'the twelve peers of France
and the high barons should consult as to the succession, and
give the crown to him who had the right thereto V The child
was a girl. ' And thus, in less than thirteen years, perished all
the noble and fair lineage of the Fair King, whereat all marvelled
much : but God knoweth the cause thereof, not we V
So ended the last son of Philip the Fair : smitten, so public
rumour held, even as his father and his brothers had been
smitten, by the curse of the dying Templars.
1 Froissart, chap. 49 (ed. Lettenhove, 1. c. 3. p. 10).
2 ' Et ainssinc toute la noble lignie et belle du Biau roy trespassa en moins
de xiii ans, dont tuit orent grant merveille; mes Diex scet la cause, laquelle
nous ne savons.' — Continuation de la Chron. de Jean de S. Victoire, Dom
Bouquet, torn. 21. p. 688.

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A.D. 1328.
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A.D.1328. CHARLES IV, THE FAIR. 403
Then the barons, joining with ' the notables of Paris and the
good towns,' considered who should be made King. It lay
between Philip, Count of Valois, first cousin of the three last
Kings, son of Charles, younger brother of Philip le Bel, on one
side, and on the other side, Edward III of England, who was
the son of Isabelle of France, Philip le Bel's daughter \
They decided against Edward of England on these grounds ;
to which there seems no reply.
By the ' Salic Law ' Isabelle and her heirs were excluded
from the succession ; and even supposing the Salic Law not to
exist, then there stood before him Jeanne, Queen of Navarre,
daughter of Louis X, three daughters of Philip IV, and one of
Charles the Fair. If however he urged his distinction, that,
' though females could not succeed, their male issue could,'
this would also be of no avail to him : for, in that case, Charles
'the Bad,' Count of Evreux, son of Jeanne, the daughter of
Louis X, had a claim to the throne at least as good as that
of Edward of England. Therefore they gave the crown to
Philip of Valois : and a new line of sovereigns dates from this
moment 2.
We bid farewell with regret to the direct line which produced
princes so great as Hugh Capet, Louis VI, St. Louis, and
Philip IV. They had reigned in and illustrated the ages of
chivalry, now gone by. They had given form and consistency
to the kingdom, and had laid the foundations of that great
monarchy, of which France is justly proud; for the monarchy
at last was identified with France herself, and, with France, did
much to shape the destinies of modern Europe.
1 It is not quite clear whether Edward made any formal claim to either the
regency or the throne. Froissart (ed. Lettenhove i.e. 41. pp. 127, 128) says,
' Fu bien nouvelle de Edouwart le jone roi d'Engleterre, fil de sa serour,
mais la querelle fut debatue et point longuement soustenue, car li douse
per de France dissent et encore dient que la couronne de France est de si
noble condition qu'elle ne puet venir par nulle succession a femelle, ne a
fil de femelle.'
2 See Genealogical Chart on next page.

d d 2

TABLE XIL— THE SUCCESSION TO THE FRENCH THRONE.

(Saint) LOUTS IX,
1226-1270.

PHILIP III (le Hardi),
1270-1285.

PHILIP IV (le Bel),
12S5-1314.

LOUIS X PHILIP V
(le Hutin), (le Long),
1314-1316. 1316-1322;
left daughters only.

CHARLES IV
(le Bel),
1322-1328;
left a daughter only.

Jeanne, Queen
of Navarre.

JOHN I,
1316;
lived seven days.

Isabelle, m.
Edward II
of England.

Edward III
of England.

Charles,
Count of Valois.
I
PHILIP VI,
1328-135°.
(House of Valois).

1
Bobert,
ancestor of the
Bourbons.

Louis,
Count of Evreux.
I
Philip, =
Count of
Evreux, 13 1 5;
and King of
Navarre, 1328.

Jeanne,
daughter of
Louis X.

JOHN II
(le Bon),
1350-1364-

CHAELES V
(le Sage),
1364-1380.

Charles
(le Mauvais),
King of
Navarre, '343-

Philip. Louis.

 1
Blanche, second
wife of
Philip VI.

BOOK IV.
Monarchy and Feudalism.
Period of the ' Hundred Years' War.'
a.d. 1328-1453.
CHAPTER I.
The Forebodings of the ' Hundred Years' War'
Philip or Valois, newly chosen King of France, was at this
time thirty-five years of age. He was a great feudal lord, and
the barons doubtless deemed that they had raised one of their
peers to the throne, and that he would not fail them. They
mistook their man : for Philip had neither generosity nor
justice in him. Cruel and violent, he turned his hand against
those who had supported him, as soon as he could stand alone.
In his youth he had been rash and hot in tourney and adven
ture : when he came to man's estate he was still hasty and
headstrong : and, worse still, he listened greedily to evil counsel,
and preferred it to good1. The three lords, the Counts of
Hainault, Guy of Blois, and Robert of Artois, who had married
Philip's three sisters, had taken great pains to win the consent
1 ' Chils rois Phelippes, en son jone temps, avoit este uns rustes et pour-
sievoit joustes et tournois, . . . mais il creoit legierement foi consel, et, en
son air, il fu crueuls et hausters, . . . Chil rois fist en son temps mainte
hastieve justice.' — Froissart (Lettenhove), 1. c. 43. p. 135.

406 THE WAR IMPENDS. A.D. 1328.
of the barons ; and so he was chosen King, and crowned at
Rheims with due solemnity. At the same time he promised his
cousin, Louis of Flanders, that he would never enter Paris till
he had beaten down the pride of the Flemings, who were now
in full revolt against their senseless count. So he sent forth his
summons at once, gathered a great host of feudal lords, who
rejoiced in the thought of Flemish spoil, and marched to Arras,
and thence onwards into Flanders. He pitched his tent under
the hill of Cassel ' with the fairest and greatest host in the
world' around him. The Flemish, under Claus Dennequin, lay
on the hilltop : thence they came down all unawares in three
columns on the French camp in the evening, and surprised the
King at supper, and all but took him. The French soon re
covered from the surprise ; ' for God would not consent that lords
should be discomfited by such riffraff1:' they slew the Flemish
Captain Dennequin, and of the rest but few escaped 2 ; 'for
they deigned not to flee,' so stubborn were those despised
weavers of Flanders. This little battle, with its great carnage
of Flemish, sufficed to lay all Flanders at the feet of its count.
They all swore homage anew to him : and the King, having
fulfilled his promise, thanked and dismissed his host, and,
accompanied by the King of Bohemia and the King of Navarre,
entered Paris with great pomp, and there held high state and
show with his Queen : who, it may be added, was a woman
not likely to lead the King into good ways 3.
Thus the opening of the reign was successful and splendid.
The feudal lords were full of goodwill for one who had shown
himself ready to wipe out the old stain of their disgrace at
Courtrai, and in whom they innocently thought they saw the
triumph of their interests : his cousins reigned in Naples and
Hungary : a group of lesser kings, Bohemia, Navarre, Majorca,
Scotland, gave lustre to his throne : even the youthful King of
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), i. c. 42. p. 133.
2 They went down 16,000 strong, and left 13,000 on the field.
3 ' Trop male et perilleuse fu celle roine de France, . . . et aussi ellemorut
de male mort.' — Froissart (Lettenhove), 1. c. 43. p. 135.

A.D. 1331. PHILIP'S EARLIER ACTS. 4°7
England did not venture to refuse his homage for Guienne and
Ponthieu. With ordinary good faith and ability, Philip might
have strengthened and bettered his kingdom, and have averted
the evils impending over it. Unfortunately, he had no wisdom ;
and his reign was the beginning of woes for his people.
When the French King and the twelve peers, in the fair
church of Amiens, met the English King with his barons and
prelates, it is said that Edward refused to put his hands into
Philip's hands, and did homage only with mouth and word1:
and that he declared that he was willing to swear it ' so far forth
as he was holden ;' that he must refer matters in dispute to his
Parliament at Westminster ; and that he could not do anything
if it forbade2. The French King did not press the boy: either,
as Froissart says, because he was keen to go to the Crusade 3,
and to take Edward with him in his train; or because he
thought that any act of homage whatever was clear gain, so far
as it might seem finally to close the question as to Edward's
right to the succession. A Parliament was then duly held in
England on the homage question, which was discussed till 1331;
at the end of that time the King was advised to write a letter
under his great seal, acknowledging his duty to do homage
' such as he ought to do 4.' Edward followed it up by a hasty
visit to Paris, during which all the difficulties between the two
sovereigns, uncle and nephew, seemed to be smoothed away.
Not long after this Robert of Artois, grandson of that Count
of Artois who had perished 'at Courtrai, the King's brother-in-
law, and ' the man of all the world who had most helped the
King to attain to the crown and heritage,' thought that his time
for repayment was come ; and submitted to Philip his old claim
to his grandsire's inheritance. This domain had been left by
the old count to his daughter; and the claims of Robert, as
1 ' De bouce et de parole tant seullement.' — Froissart (Lettenhove), 1.
c. 45. p. 142.
2 Ibid.
s Philip took the Cross in 1337, but did not go ; partly, because of the
imminent war with England ; partly, because the Pope would not promise
him the imperial crown and certain other demands he made.
4 Froissart (Lettenhove), 1. u. 46. pp. 144, 145.

408 THE WAR IMPENDS. A.D. 1334.
nearest heir male, had been defeated by the interested views of
the sons of Philip le Bel. Philip of Valois was as little willing
to listen to him as his predecessors had been : and the lawyers
declared the documents he produced to be false. He was also
accused of using poison to rid himself of his aunt Mahaut and
her daughters, who were in possession of the fiefs. Things
went so ill with him that he fled to Brussels : there he was
accused of having used magical arts to procure the King's
death : — the great fear of the age was magic, as we shall see
a little later, in the days of Jeanne Dare. He was banished, his
goods confiscated ; his accomplices were caught and executed.
He did not deem himself safe till he had placed the Channel
between himself and Philip. As a refugee he was well received
by Edward, and fanned the young King's ambition and dis
content (a.d. 1334). We shall often see, during this period,
how easy it was to pass from one court to the other: the
language spoken in both was nearly the same ; and there was
little or no sense of dishonour connected with a change of
allegiance. Thus did royalty, backed by the lawyers, follow its old course,
smiting down the opposition of the feudal nobles : thus did
the King lay the foundations of that illwill which hindered him
in his struggles against England. And not content with this,
he devised measures which tampered with the coin of the realm,
and by vexatious restrictions interfered with (and in fact almost
stopped) the course of trade throughout France. Thus he
alienated the merchants and burghers, and at the same time
dried up the sources of his revenue 1. Nothing tended so much
to equalise the two competitors for the French throne as the
harmony between all classes which had grown up in England,
and the discord which prevailed in France.
In this way Philip of Valois made ready to meet the dangers
of the ' Hundred Years' War,' which was so soon to break out
on his shores.
1 See the note to Lettenhove's Froissart, 1. p. 177, in which the popular
discontent is described.

A.D. 1334. EDWARD III OF ENGLAND. 4°9
It is time we sketched the rise of the great rival of Philip,
Edward III of England.
At almost the same moment England and France became
alike the scenes of a feudal reaction. To England, in 1326,
Isabelle of France had come back with her young son ; had
been welcomed by the barons and bishops, the feudal nobility
in Church and State ; had overthrown and slain, by their help,
the unhappy Edward II and his minion De Spenser ; and the
kingdom, as we have seen in the young King's appeal to
parliament, had fallen almost entirely under the guidance of
the feudal lords and the good cities. In France, in 1328,
from different causes, the succession to the French throne had
been placed in the hands of the great French nobles, who
elected the nearest heir, certainly, but still one of their own
number. Here however the parallel ends : the two princes followed
very different lines ; Philip, a despot, in the midst of a turbulent
and ill-affected feudalism ; Edward, a popular sovereign, arousing
his people to a fresh sense of their national existence, adopting
the national language at court, attaching to himself all classes,
finding a sphere for the bravery of his nobles, for the constancy
and quickness of his yeomen, even for the wildness of his Welsh
and Irish followers. In developing the resources of their two
countries the two princes again followed opposite lines. Edward
threw open his ports to all comers, welcomed them, gave them
a home ; while Philip continued the old vexatious and ruinous
policy of Philip le Bel. Commerce ceased to pass through
France : new routes, by Flanders and Germany, or by the
Straits of Gibraltar, brought the wealth of the East to the shores
of England. The incessant fluctuation of the value of coin
in France; the uncertainty as to weights and measures; the
known rapacity of the Court; all these things strangled trade'.
In every way, as the wealth and strength of England grew,
that of France waned. There is some truth in the saying, that
' the secret of the battles of Creey and Poitiers lies in the
1 Michelet, Histoire de France, livre 6. chap. 1.

410 THE WAR IMPENDS. A.D. 1336.
counting-houses of London, Bordeaux1, Bruges.' Soon after
his accession, Edward III married Philippa of Hainault, ' a lady
tall and straight, wise and gleesome, humble and pious, liberal,
courteous, and all her days adorned and decked with every
noble virtue, beloved of God and man:' and 'while she lived
the realm of England had favour, prosperity, honour, and all
good adventures, nor did ever famine or hard times come there
all the days of her reign2.' Through her influence, and the
natural tendencies of the times, there was close relation between
England and the Low Countries.
Flanders, in one sense, lies between England and France,
and has ever been a battlefield between the two nations. At
this time she was commercially dependent on the former : for
England supplied her swarming cities with their wool; and
these cities, which were her strength, ever gravitated, when
rightly advised, towards an English alliance. On the other
hand she was attached by feudal relations to France, and her
noblesse therefore chose, on the whole, the French side: she
was destined naturally enough to be the scene on which the
great struggle should begin. Louis, Count of Flanders, in
constant feud with the stiff-backed burghers, lived mostly at
Paris, in a state of half-expulsion. In 1336, Philip, pursuing
his usual policy, persuaded him to arrest the English merchants
in Flanders. Edward retaliated by stopping the whole export
of wool. And as the wool was all-important to the Flemish,
the measure, while it roused them to wish for a French war *,
threw the Flemish cities into Edward's hands. Jaquemart van
Arteveld of Ghent, then rising to the perilous height of his
popularity, persuaded the men of Bruges and Ypres, in spite
of the civic jealousy between Bruges and Ghent, to join with
1 Bordeaux at this time was an English entrepot.
2 Froissart (Lettenhove), I. c. 35. p. 112, and c. 36. p. 113. He can
never mention her without using terms of affection and admiration.
3 The Woolsack in the House of Lords bears witness to the early im
portance of the wool-growing trade of England. This ' wool famine ' of
1337 drove many skilled artizans to seek refuge in England, where they
could get at the wool. These Flemings did much to advance England's
manufacturing greatness.

A.D. 1336. THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 411
him in banishing their hated Count, and took steps to make
an English alliance. Edward, prudent beyond his years, seemed
to fear a war, and appealed to the Pope for his mediation :
Philip was bent on fighting ; demanded that Robert of Artois,
then a refugee in England, should be given up, and got ready
for the struggle. He entered into communications with the
Scots ; beginning that chain of alliances which long connected
France with Scotland in a common hostility to England. It is
curious to note that Edward found in Brittany a faint counterpart
to Scotland ; a disaffected neighbour-land, which he could use
to harass his antagonist.
At the moment when Edward is wavering between peace
and war we may well try to measure the strength of the two
parties in this great struggle of one hundred and sixteen years,
in which the brilliant prize was twice won and twice lost by
the English ; and in which throughout its earlier scenes the
splendour of decaying feudalism casts a glamour over our eyes,
till we can scarcely see the truth. The age was fortunate also
in Froissart as a chronicler, the unrivalled painter of his stirring
days. No more vivid writer, no truer poet, has ever lived than
the Treasurer of Chimay. To him chivalry owes very much
of its popularity with later times. He draws with a graphic pen
the picturesque bravery and blazonry, the fluttering pennons
and trappings, the grand figures and daring feats of arms, till
we are only too glad to forget how hollow all is, and how
England won, her victories by means of her sturdy commonplace
yeomen, while chivalrous and brilliant France was in a state of
barbarism, with her people sunk in misery. We scarcely hear the
sound of those new engines of war, which with terrible voice
were now beginning to proclaim the downfall of the Middle Ages ;
cannon, the great leveller, smote mail-clad baron and trembling
serf with an equal fate. Armour and castle-walls were soon to
be proved no longer impregnable.
And what had Edward to encourage him in his great enter
prise ? He set himself to the task of conquering and holding a
great and solid kingdom, on the border of which indeed were

412 THE WAR IMPENDS. A.D. 1336.
independent princedoms, as Brittany, Burgundy, Guienne ; but
which was recognised as the home of a most warlike and
spirited nobility; a country full of great and fenced cities; a
kingdom which gave laws to the fallen Papacy, its humble
henchman ; which had no small influence on the German
Empire; and had grouped round its throne a circle of minor
princes and kings. What was it that brought the enterprise so
near success, and redeemed King Edward from the charge of
presumptuous folly, though it could not prove him wise ?
The answer is to be found in the contrast between the two
countries. England, though far weaker in men-at-arms, was
still at ease and compact. Wales and Ireland were at rest;
Scotland was not hard to curb. The King was popular, and
had something of that genius which grasps at new methods and
wins the first advantage from them. There is no doubt that,
whether he used cannon at Ciicy or not, Edward made early
and important use of the new discovery of gunpowder 1. The
barons were closely united to the nation by interest and feeling,
and among them were great and brilliant soldiers; above all,
the independent yeomen, skilled to draw the bow in daily
pastime, resolute, sturdy, strong-limbed, sure of eye and hand,
a free and gallant race, were found to be the best soldiers of
the age, and proved their prowess in many bloody fields. It
was a race, as Froissart tells us, ' exceeding fierce in war, and
hot of temper and spirit ; ' a race, whose heat never brought
confusion, nor was their spirit rashness. Behind them stood
the burghers of the great merchant-cities whose wealth the
King could employ on a war, which in its outset seemed to
them destined to draw closer their relations with their chief
customers the Flemings. In a word, national life had made
1 In a splendid though unfinished MS. (now in the Library of Christ Church,
Oxford), written and illuminated by Walter de Millemete, a royal chaplain,
bearing date of the year 1326, and presented to Edward III at his accession,
there is a picture of a man in armour firing cannon on a stand, the field-
piece being apparently about four feet long, bottle-shaped (like a Dahlgren
gun), and being employed, significantly enough, to batter in the gate of a
fortress.

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¦4-D. 1336. PERIODS OF THE WAR. 413
great progress in England, and was the strength of the war-
movement. In France, on the other hand, though some steps
had been taken towards unity, the classes of society were still
far apart. The barons were turbulent and undisciplined, vain
and brave to rashness : there was no middle class, except in
Paris and a few large cities — nothing at all answering to the
English yeomen ; the bulk of the people were serfs. The King
and his advisers were unwise, rash, ignorant ; his army a horde of
independent chiefs, each with his own following, each doing his
own will. Thus were the two parties somewhat evenly balanced :
we shall also see that fortune as well as valour gave the English
the advantages they won, and all but enforced that claim which
might have made the English Kings the lords of France, and
indeed might have reduced England to the position of a
dependency of the mainland kingdom.
This great war may well be divided into five periods. The
first ends with the peace of Bretigny in 1360 (a.d. 1337-1360),
and includes the great days of Cre"cy and Poitiers, as well as
the taking of Calais : the second runs to the death of Charles
the Wise in 1380 ; these are the days of Du Guesclin, and the
English reverses : the third begins with the renewal of the war
under Henry V of England, and ends with the Regency of the
Duke of Bedford at Paris, including the field of Azincourt and
the Treaty of Troyes (a.d. 14 15-142 2) : the fourth is the epoch
of Jeanne Dare, and ends with the second establishment of the
English at Paris (a.d. 1428-1431) : and the fifth and last runs
on to the final expulsion of the English after the Battle of
Castillon in 1453. Thus, though it is not uncommonly called
' the Hundred Years' War,' the struggle really extended over a
period of a hundred and sixteen years.

CHAPTER II.
The 'Hundred Years' War'; Period I. A.D. 1337-1360.
I. A.D. I337-I347-
Neither the busy tongue of Robert of Artois, nor Edward's
dissatisfaction as to his exclusion from the French throne,
would have pushed the English King into war, had Philip
of France not shown a clear determination to drive his rival
to this last step. He interfered with the English trade with
Flanders ; he abetted Robert Bruce in Scotland ; he raised
claims on Guienne ; he seems to have had a strong personal
hatred for the English and their King. The Count of Flanders
had directed from Paris the blockade of the Flemish ports;
a force full 5000 strong lay in the Isle of Cadsand, and let
no ship pass by. At last Edward, on the appeal of Jaquemart
van Arteveld and the men of Ghent and Bruges, sent in
November 1337 a strong fleet, under the Earl of Derby, who
easily drove the Flemish knights out of the island. There, for
the first time, the superiority of the English longbow was felt.
' There arose strong battle and fierce, and the crossbowmen
drew their best, but the English made nothing of it, for the
archers are far swifter to draw than are the crossbowmen V
So the blockade was swept away, and the war began. Yet
the King's defiance, or declaration of war, was delayed till the
year 1339.
The opening of the Flemish markets brought on at once
a more friendly feeling between the cities and England ; and
Van Arteveld did all he could to strengthen this alliance of
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), 1, c. 72, p. 220.

A.D. 1338. EDWARD III IN NORTH FRANCE. 415
policy and interest. Yet when in July 1338 Edward crossed
the sea and landed at Antwerp, he found little heartiness among
the Flemish lords. They all held back till the Duke of Brabant
should declare himself: that worthy sedulously trimmed be
tween English and French, and hindered Edward in every way
he could. They also had scruples, and would not move till
Edward had been recognised by the Emperor Ludwig (or
Louis) IV. The English King was present at a diet held at
Coblentz, at which high talk was held, and the weak Emperor
declared himself head of the Christian world, independent
of the Avignon Pope. It was a feeble echo of the old war
between Empire and Papacy. The diet decreed that Philip of
Valois was under ban, and had forfeited the imperial protection.
Edward was named Imperial Vicar — with which high title he
must fain content himself; for no more solid help came from
decrepit Germany. In his Avignon obscurity the Pope awoke
a moment, and protested, murmuring the old phrases ; and so
roused the echoes of old discords in Germany, that Ludwig was
frightened, and left the English King, his brother-in-law, to
sustain his own cause. With his empty title he returned into
Hainault, and at last in 1339 set out for France, with a few
trustworthy troops, and an unwilling following of Flemish
nobles. The men of Hainault alone seem to have been of any
service to him in the war. He besieged Cambrai, an important
and ancient frontier-town ; finding it not easy to take, he left it
behind, and pushed on into Northern France. At this same
time a Norman and Genoese fleet crossed the Channel, sailed
up Southampton water, and, on Sunday morning, when all folk
were at church, sacked and burnt the rich town of Southampton;
' the news spread throughout all England, how that the Normans
had been at Hampton, and had taken and pillaged it, whereby
the English knew well that open war was begun between the
countries V
Meanwhile King Philip led a great host northward, as far
as St. Quentin and Peronne in Vermandois, while the King of
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), 1, p. 251.

416 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1339.
England came on as far as to the Oise, burning and harrying
the land ; and so they drew together till they were but two
leagues apart. Then all thought that there would be a battle ;
and in either army men were knighted, notably Sir John
Chandos by the English King. The two armies were drawn
out in fighting array : the English, though far weaker in num
bers, were admirably posted. The French therefore prudently
forbore to assault them ; for success must have cost much, and
defeat would have been wellnigh ruin. They saw also that the
English King was not likely to begin the fight ; and that they
had all to lose by action and all to gain by waiting ; as indeed
fell out. For Edward, seeing himself over-matched, and trusting
little to his half-hearted Flemish friends, fell back into Hainault,
disbanded his host, and retired to Brussels. Here a Parliament
of all the cities and lords of Flanders was held ; they called on
the King, ' seeing they were under obligation of faith and oath,
and liability to fine, and to the Pope's sentence, if they made war
on the King of France,' to take on himself the name of King of
France, and to quarter the arms of France with those of England.
Then they could obey him as their true King, and would gladly
make war on Philip of Valois as a pretender. The King con
sented; and the style and title of King of France, with the
lilies on the royal shield, remained to the Kings of England for
centuries, the empty memorials of an ill-founded claim, the useless
token of a ruinous strife.
This done, Edward returned to England, landing at the
mouth of the Orwell, and riding through Essex to town. He
was received with gladness, though the Londoners were very
jealous of the commercial privileges he had found himself
obliged to grant the Flemish merchants. In fact, the King
bought his Flemish alliances at a high rate; and they were
worth little or nothing to him. Jaquemart van Arteveld only
was staunch ; he lost his life through his English tendencies ; the
barons of Flanders leant on France ; the cities were thoroughly
selfish and untrustworthy.
The French King also dismissed his whole army, and set

A.D. 1339. WARFARE IN THE NORTH OF FRANCE. 417
himself to strengthen his navy in the Channel. He gathered
a large fleet of Normans, Picards, and Genoese, under the
Genoese Barbanera, the treasurer Bahucet, and Sir Hugh
Quieres, and sent them to cruise along the English coast, where
they made descents on the Isle of Wight, and threatened the
seaport towns from Dover to Dartmouth 1.
So ended the campaign of 1339 : and yet the winter brought
no rest ; for the French harassed the northern frontier ceaselessly,
and even took and burnt Chimay, which belonged to John of
Hainault, and Aspre, which was in the land of William of
Hainault, his nephew. These insults, which were as impolitic as
they were useless, threw these princes into the arms of Edward.
When the abbot of Crespy carried to Philip letters of defiance
from the Hainault princes, who were backed by the goodwill
of all the Low Country provinces, the hasty King took no heed,
but called his cousin an outrageous fool, who was planning how
to have all his country burnt 2. And thus he alienated one of
.his best supporters. The Hainaulters made reprisals on Au-
benton and the villages around ; and then the Count dismissed
his men, passed into England, and concluded a close alliance
with Edward. Meanwhile John of France, King Philip's son,
Duke of Normandy, carried on the war, and from his head
quarters at Tournay spoiled and burnt the land. The Earls of
Salisbury and Suffolk, whom Edward had left in Ghent, fell
into an ambush near Lille and were taken ; on the other hand,
the Duke of Normandy was repulsed from Le Quesnoy, where
cannon on the walls taught him a new lesson in warfare. The
French King used yet one more weapon : he brought his
Avignon Pope to bear on the Flemings, and laid the country
under interdict. The Flemings wrote to England, begging
Edward to send them priests in plenty, lo carry on the services
of the Church : and in June, 1340, Edward set sail from London
with a fine fleet, well manned, and filled with his best soldiers,
carrying also no less than three hundred priests, who despised
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), 1, c. 91, p. 284.
2 Froissart, c. 101, p. 281, (Lettenhove, c. 95, p. 294).

41 8 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1340.
the Papal interdict, and were crossing the sea in answer to the
prayer of the Flemings.
The French fleet took up its station between Blankenberg
and Sluys ; well knowing that the English- King would desire to
land there. Froissart gives the number of ships at full two
hundred, with forty thousand men ; among them conspicuous
for size was the Christopher, a big merchantman they had cap
tured in the winter from the English. Edward came sailing
over sea with about a hundred and twenty ships, and had on
board four thousand men-at-arms and twelve thousand archers.
They knew not that the French were awaiting them, till, as
they drew near to Blankenberg, they discerned the masts of
ships thick as a forest before them '. They cast anchor, and
waited for the tide ; then, with one ship full of men-at-arms
between every two ships manned with archers, they bore down
on the foe. ' Beauty was it and great pleasure to behold these
banners and strange blazonry of arms, and the Normans
showed themselves right willing to fight, for they raised anchor,
hoisted sail, and came forth to meet the English, with the great
Christopher in the van V When they met, loud was the
clamour, down came all sails ; the English recognised their old
friend the Christopher, and greatly desired to recover her. So
they hemmed her in, and the bowmen shooting after their wont,
strongly and swiftly, soon overbore the Genoese archers s who
manned her ; they boarded and took her with great triumph.
The battle was hot and sharp, and lasted from eight to five ;
and great feats of arms were done on either hand ; for good as
were Normans and Genoese, the English were still more at
home on the sea: 'for they were good seamen,' says Froissart,
' they are made for it, and nourished up thereon, and take
great pains therewith.' And their King, in the flower of his
youth, spared not himself, but adventured himself in the battle,
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), I, c. in, p. 338, — ' Des mas qui drecoient contre
mont, ce sambloit un grans bois.'
2 Ibid., p. 339.
3 The Genoese archers, and their Captain Barbanera, were political
refugees, to whom Philip of France had granted asylum.

A.D. 1340. THE SEA-FIGHT AT SLUYS. 419
as much as the boldest of his knights : he sailed in a ship that
was ' strong and fair, built, wrought, and timbered at Sandwich ';
armed and adorned with banners and pennons rich and bright,
with the arms of France and England quartered, and on her
mast-head a great silver-gilt crown, which shone and flamed in
the sun — a royal sight. Moreover the Christopher, now manned
with English archers, did great execution. The ships were all
cramped together, and knights fought as if they had been
ashore. At last the English won the day, and few of their foes
escaped ; the French were driven back on Sluys, and could get
neither away nor in. For the Flemings came on them, and slew
as many on land as had fallen at sea ; they also had taken part
in the battle from the shore from the beginning to the end with
much bravery. It is said that thirty thousand in all perished,
most of them Frenchmen. Barbanera was among the slain in
the battle ; Hugh Quieres was beheaded on his ship's bulwark,
so that his head fell into the sea ; Bahucet, ' for that he was a
thief and robber on the seas,' was run up to a mast and hanged.
Thus ended the great sea-fight at Sluys. It is said that when
tidings came to Paris, none dared to tell the hasty King the bad
news, till a court-fool bethought him to cry out that the English
were cowards : and when the King asked why ? he replied,
' because they did not dare to jump boldly into the sea, as our
brave French and Normans did,' — and so the King learnt what
a mishap had befallen him ].
For centuries after this day the English remained undisputed
masters of the Channel. One blow sufficed to sweep away
the naval force of France2.
When tidings of this great disaster reached the French army,
' Walsingham, p. 134.
2 I have followed F'roissart's account (ed. Lettenhove), which differs in
many respects from that of other historians. They all make Barbanera
escape, following the chronicle of S. Denis and Villani, 1 1. c. 120. All agree
that one chief cause of the disaster was the blunder of lying close in shore
at Sluys, so as to be hemmed in, and unable to use their superior numbers.
The French historians excuse the defeat by saying that the ships were com
manded by men who had never been at sea. As a fact, they had been
cruising all the winter. E e 2

420 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1340.
then lying before Thuin l'Evgque, the King and the nobles
seemed to think little of it. They reflected ' that these Nor
mans were but pirates, who allowed no fish to be sent up
to the inland; and besides, the French King has gained two
hundred thousand florins by their death — for he owed them
four months' pay 1 ' — and they would never come back to claim
it. And so they comforted themselves. Edward came ashore
at Sluys with all his men, his archers, and his three hundred
priests, and was received with joy by the Flemings; thence
to Ghent, where lay Queen Philippa, who had just borne him
a son, John 2 : they met with great gladness, ' like folk who
loved each other hugely.'
In spite of this fair outset, the campaign came to very little.
Edward laid siege to Tournay, and could not take it ; Robert
of Artois made a diversion against St. Omer, and failed with
heavy loss; the French again were stronger in the field, and
the King of England found no firm support in his allies. A
truce, first for one year, then lengthened to two, was agreed
on; and he returned to England, without doing any feat of
arms. So ended his second campaign.
Up to this point the war had gone in the main against Edward.
It is true he had crushed the French naval power ; the sea was
completely open to him ; but this was all. He had shown him
self unequal to Philip in the open field ; had failed in the siege
of Tournay : the French, treating him, by a fair inference, as
a vassal revolting from his lord, had declared him to have
forfeited his fiefs in Guienne, which they seized ; lastly, from the
other side, Douglas, disguised as a charcoal-burner, had captured
Edinburgh Castle, the King's strongest place in Scotland.
Now however there came a turn in affairs. Hitherto the
English had had two points of entrance into France ; by way
of Flanders, and of Guienne. Flanders they had tried : it was
near, and convenient for landing and harbourage : but expe
rience had shown the King that not much, beyond a heavy
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), I, c. 113, p. 344.
2 John of Ghent (or Gaunt), afterwards Duke of Lancaster.

M.\f> 9

F.ir th& Cst&reudo-n Pres

A.D.1341. THE BRETON SUCCESSION. 421
drain of money, wa likely to follow from his German and
Flemish alliances. It seems however to have been preferred
to Ponthieu, which was in Edward's hands, because of the
connexion it permitted with the allies. To Guienne, on the
other hand, it was a long and dangerous voyage ; and though
Bordeaux provided excellent harbourage, a force landing there
would be very far away from the centre of the French king
dom. Now however a third, and in all ways most desirable
door was opened to the very heart of France.
In 1 34 1 John of Brittany died childless'. His brother Guy
had died before him, leaving one daughter, Jeanne, who had
married Charles, Count of Blois : his half-brother, John of
Montfort, was still living. To whom should the great fief
fall ? By the older custom the elder brother's daughter should
have succeeded ; but the Salic Law had shaken all these rules
of inheritance, and John of Montfort claimed the duchy to the
exclusion of the female line. There was first an appeal to the
lawyers, who failed to settle it, because political questions entered
in. Charles of Blois was King Philip's nephew ; and the Par
liament of Paris naturally decreed that the inheritance was his.
Then John of Montfort crossed the Channel, and came to
Edward, promising to recognize him as King of France and
suzerain of Brittany, if he would help him ; and the King
willingly agreed.
Then began a picturesque and oppressive war between the
two claimants. Charles of Blois, with John of Normandy2,
besieged Nantes, where John of Montfort lay. Charles, 'the
terrible saint, who had pity neither on himself nor on any
1 Table XIII. THE BRETON PEDIGREE.
m. (ist) Marie of = Arthur = (2ndly) Yolande of Dreux,
Limoges Duke of Brittany Countess of Montfort

— 1

John III, Duke of Guy John, Count of Montfort.
Brittany, f I341 I
Jeanne
m. Charles of Blois.
2 King Philip's son, afterwards King John ' the Good.'

422 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1343.
other V and John ' the Good ' were inhuman enough to be
head thirty Breton knights, who had fallen into their hands,
and to sling their heads into the beleaguered town. The place
took the hint, and opened its gates. John of Montfort was
taken, and sent to Paris ; Philip cast him into prison. This
was far from ending the struggle : for the Countess of
Montfort put on her husband's armour, and became the head
and soul of the war. Yet she lost Rennes, her chief city,
and was shut up in Hennebon, whither she had retreated, in
order to be within reach of her English allies. Here she bore
herself stoutly, and held her own till help came across the sea,
and the siege was raised. She has won a fair place among
the illustrious women of France ; as though she would prove
the folly of the Salic Law. About this time perished Robert of
Artois, a stormy petrel of the hundred years' war, in a skirmish
near Vannes. The English King, late in autumn, came over
into Brittany ; and John of Normandy gathered a great host to
meet him. Though Edward's force was small (being only one-
fourth of the French), he always knew how to post himself on
ground which made up for his weakness, and so the Duke
hesitated to attack him ; the Papal Legate interfered, and early
in 1343 a truce was agreed to, which should last till the
Michaelmas of 1346.
Thus Edward's first attempt on the side of Brittany ended
in nothing : nor did he seem more likely to make good his
claim here, than when he had leant on the support of the
half-hearted Flemish lords and uncertain Flemish cities : these
cities ere long showed signally how little they could be trusted ;
for Ghent, resenting Van Arteveld's plan that the young Prince
of Wales should become their Duke, hastily rose up against
their chief and murdered him (a.d. 1345).
Meanwhile, the rash folly of King Philip of France gave
Edward an advantage he could hardly have foreseen. Not
only did he grievously burden the country by a ruinous fiscal
policy, and bring it to revolt and famine, but he determined
1 Michelet, 3, p. 309 (ed. 1852).

A.D. 1346. EDWARD III LANDS IN FRANCE. 423
to rid himself of the independent Breton lords by foul means.
High festival was held at Paris; sundry Breton lords of the
French party, with Oliver Clisson at their head, were invited
and came ; there they were seized and beheaded, to the number
of fifteen, without shadow of trial ; three Norman barons shared
their fate. All Brittany flew to arms. Oliver Clisson's widow
raised her men, seized castles, made peace with the English
party and the Countess of Montfort; the two high-spirited
ladies meeting as friends. Oliver's brother Amaury was a
prisoner in England, on easy terms, and the Lord of Harcourt,
a powerful Norman baron, whom Philip had failed to snare,
went over and attached himself to Edward. The English King
gladly took up their quarrel, and broke the truce (a.d. 1344).
He divided his forces into three armies. One under the
Earl of Derby landed in Guienne and kept John of Normandy
occupied there, advancing as far as to Angouleme ; a second,
under John of Montfort, entered Brittany ; the third under the
King with the Prince of Wales sailed for Flanders, where Van
Arteveld was trying to persuade the cities to receive the young
Prince as their Count ; an attempt which ended, as we have
said, in his death. When the King heard of his murder, he
returned to England, and thence sailed for Normandy, landing
in July 1346 at La Hogue in the Cotentin, with a force of
over thirty thousand men, English, Welsh, and Irish. Nor
mandy lay before him, rich and unspoiled, with no man to
withstand him. He took Barfleur, Cherbourg, Saint-Lo, and
Caen, where the burghers came out to fight ; but ' so soon
as they saw these English coming on in three battles, well
ordered and close, and noticed the banners and pennons waving
in the wind, and heard the sound of archers, which they were
not wont to see or hear ',' they lost heart, and turned to
flee. The English, following fast, got in with them : and so
Caen, ' a city greater than any in England save London,'
was taken, though not without heavy slaughter in the streets 2.
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), 2, c. 210, p. 213.
2 Here Edward is said to have found a document in which the Normans

424 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR A.D. 1346.
Thence he threatened Rouen, but the place was too strong ;
and he marched on up the left bank of the Seine to Poissy,
for all the bridges had been broken down by the French King,
while the English foraging parties burnt even Saint Cloud and
Boulogne, and came up almost to Paris gates. Philip was in
some peril, his main army being in the South ; still, he had
with him a strong force of Genoese archers ; soldiers also from
Germany, with the refugee ' priests'-King' Charles of Luxem
burg, and his father the blind old King of Bohemia, and the
Duke of Lorraine, poured in to his aid, and he found himself at
the head of a large army, although it was loose of texture, and
under no control. With this force he left Paris, where he was
certainly not too safe, and took up his quarters at St. Denis,
ready to observe the movements of the English King.
To the French, King Edward's movements must have seemed
very uncertain. He might be intending merely to do mischief,
and to fall back on Normandy. Or he might aim at the
sudden capture of Paris, which the Parisians expected : : or
he might be meditating some bolder step. He had friends
in plenty in Burgundy ; was he going thither to strengthen
their friendship2? or lastly, he might aim at a junction with
the Flemish, who were besieging Be"thune. Edward kept
up this uncertainty. He lay at Poissy, restoring the bridge
over the Seine, the piers of which had not been destroyed ;
meanwhile, as we have said, his scouts were pushed up close
to Paris, burning as they went ; and, according to one account,
the French King rode southwards through Paris, down the
Orleans road, where he learnt at last that Edward had blinded
his eyes with the smoke of those burning villages, and had
quietly crossed the Seine at Poissy. Thence the English boldly
offered to reconquer England, as their ancestors had done, on condition that
they should divide it among themselves. This paper he sent to England,
where it was read in the churches, and helped to fan the national feeling in
favour of the war. The document was doubtless a forgery.
1 They murmured much when their king went out to St. Denis.
2 Froissart (Lettenhove), 2, c. 214, p. 222; ' Disoient li aultre qui
respondoient a ce pourpos : II iront passer en Bourgongne, qui ne lor ira
aultrement au-devant.'

A.D. 1346. EDWARD III MARCHES NORTHWARDS. 425
struck northward, King Edward here showing great lack of
sagacity in war: for he could keep up no communications,
and had foes before and behind. By chance he fell in with
and scattered the burghers of Amiens, who were hastening to
defend their King1; then he passed through the Beauvoisin,
followed by Philip with all his forces 2, a day's journey behind,
while the difficult river Somme, with all its bridges either
broken down or strongly fortified, lay right before him. King
Edward's marshals, whom he had sent out to look at the
river, returned and told him there was no point at which he
could get across : ' whereat the King began to muse and to
be sad.' ' And his people rode on pensive and melancholy,
talking to one another, how and where they might get over
the Somme, for right well they knew that the French King
and his people were following them hot foot in great force3.'
And the French King, in close pursuit, thought he h,ad the
English in a corner, and hoped to starve them between the
Somme and the sea, in a country where if they fought it must
have been at great disadvantage. And in truth the fortunes
of the English army were trembling in the balance, when
there came a squire and told the King that a little lower down
the river, he might get across with safety when the tide was
out. Where the Somme comes near the sea, it widens out,
growing at the same time shallower, so that at low water it could
be crossed with ease at a ford then called Blanche-Taque *.
The need was so great that the King caught at the chance.
He broke up from his quarters early in the morning, and
before dinner-time the King of France entered the place where
Edward had spent the night, and found great store of English
bread, and 'meat on the spit/ whereof the French ate. There
Philip, who thought he had caught the English and had them
safely, seems to have halted for the night. Soon after midnight
1 This shows that they did not much expect to see Edward on that side,
or they would not have bared Amiens of her defenders.
2 Some said 200,000 strong.
3 From the Anon. Chronicler of Valenciennes (MS. de 1' Arsenal, foi. 194).
* White gravel, ' Blanche marne.'

426 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1346.
Edward roused his army, and by the first dawn they were on
their way for Blanche-Taque, and came there when the tide
was falling. Ranged on the other side, by King Philip's
foresight, was Godemars de Foy with a great levy of men-at-
arms, Genoese archers, and burghers, some twelve thousand
men, to bar the passage. In spite of them, the English
plunged in and waded over : for sore dread was on them,
lest the French King, so close on their heels, should catch
them before they crossed. Godemar's men also waded in ;
and they fought in mid-channel. But the English archers
from the southern bank shot so sharply that the French
burghers began to give way ; and the English men-at-arms
charging fiercely up the other bank, drove off their enemies,
and made good their footing. It was not an hour too soon ;
for the French came into sight in time to kill some of the
last of the rear-guard, and the rising tide caught and drowned
the stragglers. The river now formed an impassable barrier
between the two armies ; and Philip, finding that his prey had
escaped, turned on his heel back to Abbeville, where he
might cross the Somme at his ease, and again pursue the foe.
Had he not been so certain that they could not escape him,
he might have caught Edward in the act of fording the river,
which would have been the ruin of the whole English army.
They, now feeling more at their ease, moved northwards through
a friendlier country, till they came to Cr^cy l in Ponthieu,
where they halted, and drew their forces well together. There
on a gently rising ground the King resolved to await the
French. Froissart tells us that the English numbered only
four thousand men-at-arms and twelve thousand archers 2.
Behind the whole force Edward made a ' park ' of carriages
and baggage, with the horses in the midst ; for all men were
1 The most trustworthy account of the position taken up by the English
and of the tactics of the battle, is to be lound in Mr. Oman's ' Art of War
in the Middle Ages,' pp. 603-616.
2 The French historians think that Froissart here underrates the English
force, which they put at about 25,000 men. He gives 63,000 as the strength
of the French. But the numbers had really nothing to do with the fortunes
of the day.

A.D. 1346. THE BATTLE OF CRECY. 427
to fight afoot. The army was drawn out in three ' battles."
The first and second, the one under the Prince of Wales, the other
under the Earls of Arundel and Northampton, were the first line;
the third ' battle,' commanded by the King, acted as a reserve.
In each of these divisions the dismounted men-at-arms were
flanked by archers, and thus the centre of the front line seems
to have been composed of a projecting wedge of bowmen.
These thus placed, the King rode among them and bade all do
their duty; and they made cheerful reply that they would.
And so they sat awaiting there the French.
That morning betimes (August 26, 1346) Philip had ridden
out of Abbeville, with all his force. ' They came forth without
order, no man waiting for his neighbour1,' pushing on as best
they might. Four knights were sent on to reconnoitre, and
came back to tell that they had seen the English on Creey
hillside, sitting quietly in their battles, waiting. As they rode
back they met the French, on horse or afoot, with no one to
control them. Seeing the goodly array of the English and the
utter confusion of their own men, they counselled the King to
halt that day, and wait till he could get the army together
in some order. The King consented, and the word went out.
But, while those in front halted, the mass of men behind still
pressed on, each wanting to get to the foremost place, as at
some show. Then when those who were in front saw that,
they moved on again, each saying, ' I was first, and first I will
remain.' ' Such was their pride and vanity,' says old Froissart,
' that there was no mastery over them.' And when they came
in sight of the English lines, those in front cried halt, and
stood, and those behind pushed past them into the open space
between. Edward with his men-at-arms had posted himself
at the foot of a windmill on a little hill, overlooking both the
English lines and the French advance. With no small joy they
saw the confused advance, the rocking and swaying of the
enemy, their cries, and the inextricable disorder of their masses
of men ; and they said, ' These people are ours,' even before
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), 2, c. 223, p. 243.

428 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1346.
the fight began. Then as they drew nearer, the English rose
to their feet, quietly and orderly ; and the Prince's battle made
a gallant show, for they knew that they would bear the brunt
of the day. The French King, when he saw this, was stirred
in his hasty blood l ; 'for much he hated those English ' ; he
forgot all good advice, and bade put the Genoese to the fore
and begin the fight. The crossbowmen demurred. ' Their
bows were slack ; they had had orders to rest the night, they
were weary ' ; and when the Count of Alencon heard their
murmuring, he cried out, ' consider what rascals these are to be
burdened with I They are useless but to eat at table ; they
will be more hindrance than help to us.' Then came on
a summer storm, as they were thus debating, sudden and
sharp, with thunder and lightning and drenching rain, which
made their bowstrings give ; while the English, accustomed to
a far wetter climate than these Italians, hid their strings under
their coats, and kept them dry. The storm passed over as
quickly as it came, and the slanting evening sun shone clear
and bright, full in the faces of the French, who were attacking
from the east. At last the Genoese advanced ; crying and
singing loud — ' to frighten the English, but the English took no
heed to it 2,' — and shooting with their crossbows. Then the
English archers took one step forwards, and drew on them ;
and the Genoese, who had never met with archers like these,
were soon utterly discomfited ; for the arrows flew like snow.
They turned to flee. The French King and Alencon, seeing
how ill they fought, bade their men cut them down. So they
were slain by the English archers before and by the French
behind, till they fell in a great heap midway between the hosts.
And thus the confusion grew worse and worse. The Prince's
battle seems to have been a little in front of the left wing and
bore the chief brunt of the attack ; men thought he was like to
be overwhelmed, and begged Edward to send him help. But
1 ' Le roy Phelippe estoit bien hastif horns.' — Chron. published by
M. Luce, p. 16.
2 Froissart (Lettenhove), 2, c. 224, p. 250, 'Pour les Englois esbahir,
mais les Englois n'en firent compte.'

English Army.
EH Men-at-.Anus.:-X.Ardiers
A . Bailee Edward.
B. EiU'l.-t INWtlMlJllplOlS
, .C . TTue Kinn
\\O.The King's Windmill

CJJEECTg-. Aug. 26. 1346. French Armv
" % T ' " ~ '

Meit-arAnns 6*6*6 u«n«j"aii
Infantry
EE Genoese, FF Cmuito£Altiitanj

From ' ZXe Art of War in the Middle Ages?
by C. Oman {Methuen $ Co.),

A.D. 1346. THE BATTLE OF CRECY. 431
the King, who saw all from his hillside, had no fear for the
boy, and left him to fight it out, thus keeping his strong
reserve, the 'third battle,' altogether untouched. The whole
of the fighting fell on the first two battles. The blind King of
Bohemia begged his knights to lead him into the heart of the
fray : they tied themselves together by their horses' reins, and
rode in, like madmen, upon sudden death; which met them
forthwith. Thus they struggled and were entangled, and fell
down in heaps. The Gaelic kerns from Ireland and Wales,
with their long knives, knowing nothing of the speech in which
the fallen gentlemen cried for mercy, gave no quarter, and slew
all they seized. At last the French King drew away reluctantly,
almost forced to it by John of Hainault, and the summer night
fell, ending the carnage. The English lighted torches, and
searched the field, while King Edward came down from his
windmill and embraced his fair son J. Philip, accompanied by
only four of his Barons 2, and the tattered remnant of his army,
recoiled as far as Amiens, so heavy had been the blow ; and
the English, after piously burying the French chivalry, moved
leisurely back to Calais. Such was the famous battle of Crdcy ;
a battle which has no proper history, being only a confused
attack on a fixed position 5. It was the pendant to Mansourah
and Courtrai ; another instance of the overweening pride and
1 It is commonly said that Edward knighted the Prince after Crecy ; as
a fact, he knighted him on landing at La Hogue. The error has perhaps
come from Froissart's use of the phrase '. . . . le prince son fils ; si l'accolla
et baisa.' — (Ed. Buchon), t, c. 294, p. 374.
2 Froissart (Buchon), 2, c. 292, p. 369 : '. . . se partit le roi Phelippe tout
deconforte, il y avoit bien raison, lui cinquieme de barons tant seulement.'
3 It is usual to attribute much of the French disaster at Crecy to the use
of cannon by the English. But this is extremely doubtful. Only one
authority mentions it, Villani (torn. 12, cc. 65, 66, who died two years
after this date. Froissart is quite silent about it, and so are the other
chroniclers of the time. Villani was far off, and probably got his account
from the Genoese archers, while Froissart heard both sides, especially the
English. Against the cannon are (1) the balance of authority ; (2) the
improbability of King Edward's having been able to carry such weapons of
war (though they were doubtless small and light at first) in his hasty retreat,
and across the Somme, in the face of the enemy ; (3) the possibility that
Villani misunderstood some account of the thunderstorm for the use of
these new weapons.

432 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1346.
vanity of the French feudal lords, and of the ill-feeling which
existed between classes 1. But most of all it shows the difference
in structure between the two nations : France still so incoherent
and turbulently feudal ; England already compact, with a stout
middle class of freemen, the famous bow-drawing yeomen. In
the French army were the unlucky Genoese mercenaries, who
had no interest in this quarrel, and who were despised, dis
trusted, and ill used by the overbearing noblesse ; there were
the undisciplined levies of the cities, who increased the con
fusion, adding nothing to the strength of the attack"; there
were the serfs from every part, mere slaves, worth nothing
in war ; lastly, there were the barons, great and small, brave,
impetuous, ungovernable, who rushed heedlessly on their ruin,
and perished fighting like blind heroes. On the other hand,
one feels that the English army represented a formed nation,
centred round its head. The King, in the prime of his years,
riding round on his hackney, encouraging his men and getting
back their cheery replies ; the quiet self-reliance of the little
army ; the skill and prudence of the yeomen, with their long
bows, used on many a village green and in the woodland
glades of England ; the hearty helpfulness of the barons and
doughty knights, clustered round the boy-prince at the post
of danger in the van ; — these are the sufficient reasons why
the French army was swiftly ruined in those evening hours on
the 26th of August, 1346.
Philip fell back, first to Amiens, then to Paris, having dis-
1 Froissart (Lettenhove), 2, c. 185, p. 159, gives us a gloomy account of
the state of feeling in France in 1343, only three years before Crecy : ' Li
orgoels et la negligense estoient si grandes in l'ostel dou roi Phelippe, pour
ce temps, que on ne faisoit compte de tels coses, ne del aler, ne del envoyer,
et pour le temps d'adont li saudoyer estoient si mal payet en France que
nuls estrangiers ne s'i traioit volontiers pour demander saudees, ne ossi par-
ellement chil dou roiaulme.'
2 Froissart (Lettenhove), 2, c. 223, p. 249: 'La ot sus les camps si
grant peuple de communaute des chites et bonnes villes de France que tout
estoit la reverse' et les cemins tous couvers entre Abeville et Crechi, et plus
de euls vint mille de ces bons hommes, quant ils se veirent sus les camps,
tralssent lors espees et escryerent: A la mort, ces traitours Englois ! Ja
mais pies n'en retournera en Engleterre.'

A.D.1346. EDWARD BEFORE CALAIS. 433
banded his army. He had before called home his son John 1;
so leaving the English masters of the South ; and the Earl
of Derby, having heard tidings of Crdcy, rode northwards as
far as to Poitiers, which city he took without difficulty, and
stayed there several days ; ' and longer he might have held it,
had he wished ; for no man came to challenge his right, but all
the land as far as the Loire trembled before the English 2.' The
diversion also on the side of Scotland failed signally. Queen
Philippa advanced to Newcastle-on-Tyne, and her army met
David the Scottish King at Neville's-Cross, near Durham, where
he was defeated and taken prisoner.
Meanwhile Edward settled himself down before Calais ; for
that city was the best landing-place the English could have;
moreover, during these last years, in which the French ships
had been so active and so vexatious along the English coasts,
Calais had been a very scourge of English commerce, and the
home of a harassing privateer warfare, which had led to angry
and cruel reprisals. The siege was therefore popular in
England. The King built for his army a complete wooden
town — the ' Villeneuve la Hardie ' 3 — and spared no pains to
make the position as strong as possible, holding Calais in his
firm grasp, first by land, then by the harbour-entrances, until
famine reigned within. All through the winter of 1346 went on
the unflinching blockade; all through the spring, till mid
summer was past, and yet no help came from Paris. At last,
in July, King Philip with a strong relieving army appeared on
the Sangate Hill, between Calais and Wissant. But what could
he do ? There were four ways of getting into Calais, or of
getting at King Edward. The sea-passage was completely
blocked ; the approach by the downs from the South was com
manded by the English ships and the army, so that no man
could pass by ; to the North lay a great host of Flemish, who
stood firm to the English, and barred that way ; and lastly, the
1 The siege of Aiguillon was raised about a week before the day of Crecy.
* Froissart (Buchon), 2, t. 303, p. 403.
8 We have returns from which it appears that there were about 30,000
men in Edward's camp.
VOL. I. F f

434 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1347.
one approach from the inland was by a causeway through the
marshes, and over the bridge of Nieulay, and this causeway was
held by the Earl of Derby, who had left Guienne to join his
King. Philip looked and looked, and the more he saw the less
he liked the prospect of an assault. He tried other steps. He
sent the two legates of his pope, who found they could make no
impression on Edward. Philip then proposed that the English
King should meet him in open field : the offer was absurd, and
Edward told him that he would not give up his certainty for
the chances of a fight. At last Philip withdrew to Amiens ;
and the, citizens knew that their fate was sealed. We all know
the fair tale of the devotion of Eustache de S. Pierre and his
brother burghers ; how they came into Edward's camp with bare
heads and feet, in their shirts, with halters round their necks ;
and how the King was unmoved by the petitions of his courtiers,
till Queen Philippa, strongest and gentlest of women, came and
won their lives from the angry victor1. Eustace afterwards
received conspicuous marks of favour from the English King.
The French inhabitants were all sent out, and made their
way to Amiens and elsewhere, though many of them before
long found their way back again to their old homes ; and the
city was repeopled with English traders, who made it the mart
of their wool, tin, lead, and other goods. Thus Calais became
English, and continued to be English for full two hundred
years.II. From the Truce of 1347 to the Battle'of Poitiers,
a.d. 1356.
The fall of Calais closed the first period of the war. As
yet all had gone amiss with Philip. He had suffered a great
defeat in the field ; had lost Calais taken before his eyes ; had
withdrawn from the struggle in Guienne, leaving all Southern
France at the mercy of his rivals. Flanders became more
1 This beautiful tale is found in Froissart's pages (c. 321), and has been
strongly suspected of being a poetic rendering of some very simple trans
actions.

A.D. 1347. THE BLACK DEATH. 435
decidedly English ; in Brittany the French party was ruined, the
Scottish King was a prisoner. It was time to stand still and get
breath. England also was exhausted by the cost and drain of
the siege ; and a ten months' truce was readily agreed to.
While the two nations were thus recovering breath, an
enemy worse than war was slowly drawing near. From Egypt,
perhaps from still farther East, perhaps from the centres of
Mahometan faith and pilgrimage, then doubtless as now centres
of infection, came rolling over Europe the dark cloud of
pestilence — the Black Death. First it smote Italy, where
Boccaccio has immortalised it in the ghastly selfishness of his
' Decamerone,' and where three-fifths of the people of Florence
perished, among whom was John Villani the historian ; thence
it passed into Provence, in 1347, where Narbonne was ruined
for ever, where Avignon lost three-fourths of her population,
and where Petrarch's Laura was snatched away from her happy
home; then northward to Paris, in 1348, where no man's life
was safe, and many were smitten even in the King's court.
The tale of dead amounted sometimes to more than eight
hundred in a day ; the charities of life disappeared ; the priests
fled ; monks and friars and some heroic sisterhoods alone
defied the last enemy, and threw in their lot with the stricken.
The usual accompaniments of pestilence appeared : men were
hardened and grew careless ; or became mystics, as in Ger
many 1 ; or they wreaked their panic on the unlucky Jews, who
were accused of witchcraft, and who perished wretchedly by thou
sands "- The scourge reached England also, though not quite
so severely ; and, by the end of 1349, it had worn itself out.
This plague lit up the darkness of the Church, and men saw
how corrupt it had become. Clement VI, the Avignon Pope,
was sunk deep in debauchery *, the clergy were little better ;
1 These were the days of Tauler and of the Flagellants.
2 The Continuator of William of Nangis is our authority here (p. no).
Froissart had no care to describe the 'grands apertises d'armes' of the
Black Death, and dismisses it in three lines. He had no eyes for mankind
in general ; only for kings and knights.
3 ' Molto cavallefesco, poco religiose' — M. Villani, 3. c. 43.
F f 2

436 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1349.
only among the friars and monks did any religion and humanity
survive. France, vexed with heavy imposts and foolish restric
tions on trade, suffering also from the effects of war, and devoid
of true national feeling or aims, had sunk very low ; even
chivalry, the natural growth of France, was perishing by its
own weight1. In one respect only did the kingdom seem to
gain : two valuable districts were added to the crown in Philip's
reign. In 1349 Humbert, 'Dauphin' of Vienne, resigned his
domains, in order to become a Carmelite, and the district was
bought by Philip. He ceded it to Charles, eldest son of John of
Normandy, his grandson, who took the name of The Dauphin,
which afterwards became the established title of the eldest son
of the King of France. About the same time Philip bought
from James of Aragon, last King of Majorca, the district and
city of Montpellier. To pay for these acquisitions the value of
the coin was changed again and again ; and offices, titles,
pardons, nobility, began to be put up for sale : this miserable
source of income cursed France as long as the monarchy
lasted. Philip, now about fifty-eight years old, married as his second
wife a lovely maiden of eighteen, Blanche of Navarre. But his
health was gone, and in 1350 he died, leaving the crown to
his son John of Normandy, ' John le Bon.'
Thus ended a dark and melancholy reign. All things seemed
to be evil in France. These were days of oppression, war,
pestilence, faithlessness in King and people, days of shame
and distress.
Nor was the new King likely to be helpful. ' Le Bon ' does
not mean ' the Good.' It is the epithet of one prodigal, ex
travagant, foolish, the ' good fellow ' of those who were debased
enough to take his gifts. To be gay, courteous, and liberal ;
1 At this very time, 1349 (though Froissart says 1344), Edward III
instituted ihe Order of the Garter at Windsor, so grouping around himself
the chief men in England. Chivalry was surely passing away when it
began to need the help of such institutions ; it was becoming a piece of
royal furniture, and began to have least of life when it had most apparent
bravery.

A.D. 1350. CHARACTER OF KING fOHN ' LE BON.' 437
to imitate, in fact, John of Bohemia, his kinsman, who had
perished so madly at Crecy, far from his own country, which
he had abandoned that he might amuse himself at the Court
of Paris ' : — this seems to have been the ideal of King John.
A man Very like his father, King Philip, and like him on his
worse side : he was passionate in every sense, violent and
cruel, self-indulgent, ignorant, rash, proud : you have in King
John ' le Bon ' the most unhappy character that could have
come to the throne at such a moment. A cool wise head
might perhaps have drawn France out of her difficulties ; King
John only thrust her deeper down. To him she owes the day
of Poitiers, and the humiliating peace of Bretigny.
Between King John ' the Good ' of France, and King Charles
' the Bad ' of Navarre, the country had evil days. Still Charles
' the Bad,' the French King's kinsman2, was by far the better
man of the two ; nobler in thought and acts, and of a higher
type. He had eloquence and winning manners ; he was am
bitious, intriguing, often false ; restless for action, and not too
particular as to whether the end was evil or good. When
Charles the Dauphin (afterwards Charles V, ' the Wise ') be
came Duke of Normandy, he entered into friendly relations
with Charles of Navarre, who, with many friends and followers,
ventured to come to a banquet at Rouen, and was then and
there surprised and taken by King John (a.d. 1356): he did
not hesitate to treat Charles shamefully, casting him into prison
in the Louvre ; the Count of Harcourt and some others, who
were taken with him, were at once beheaded behind Rouen
castle walls. It is not known whether or not father and son
had concerted this surprise beforehand. Philip of Navarre and
Godfrey of Harcourt escaped, crossed over to England, and
were welcomed by Edward, who was only too glad to promise
them speedy and effectual help.
The truce between the Kings had had but little reality. King
John did nothing to allay the growing ill-feeling : his warlike
1 Martin, Histoire de France, torn. 5, p. 120.
2 See the Genealogical Table on the next page.

Table XIV.-THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE VALOIS PRINCES.

PHILIP III (1270—1285)
 J 

PHILIP IV
(A.D. 1283— 1314)

Charles
Count of Valois

1
Louis
Count of Evreux

LOUIS X PHILIP V CHABLES IV PHILIP VI T>h»L rw
(13I4-I3I6) (1316-1322) (1322-1328) (IW8-HC0I Philip of Navarre, Jeanne of Evreux
v ° i ' ('A20 LASO) married to second

Jeanne, JOHIT I
m. to Philip (13 16)
of Navarre

» second
cousin,
Jeanne, d. of
Louis X

JOHN II
' the Good '
(1350-1364)
CHABLES V
' the Wise '
('364-1380)

Charles
' the Bad '
King of Navarre

Philip Louis
of Navarre of Navarre

Blanche
of Navarre
m. (2nd wife)
to Philip of
Valois, her
2nd cousin.

A.D. 1356. THE BLACK PRINCE IN FRANCE. 439
measures were weak and unsuccessful ; he attempted Calais, and
was foiled; Guisnes threw itself into the arms of England;
slight hostilities were kept up in Guienne ; war never ceased
between the two parties in Brittany, the school which bred
the great captain of the next period, Du Guesclin. France was
restless and miserable; the English King, who had felt little
of the woes, and had enjoyed much of the excitement, of
war, was eager to begin again : each successive act of King
John laid him more open to the English attack. Edward had
already sent out three expeditions to the three vulnerable points
of France on the western side. In 1355 he had himself landed
at Calais, but was recalled to quiet Scotland ; he sent Charles
of Navarre to Cherbourg, and the Duke of Lancaster lay on
the frontiers of Brittany ; and lastly, the Prince of Wales sailed
down to Bordeaux, and thence harried all the south unhindered,
even as far as Narbonne, returning back to Guienne for the
winter months. In the next year, the English made ready for
something more than a mere war of excursions.
In the early summer of 1356 the Black Prince took the
field with a small army, with not more than from eight to ten
thousand men1, the most part not English, and rode into the
Rouergue, Auvergne, and the Limousin, meeting no resistance,
sacking and taking all they found, and so upwards to the Loire.
Doubtless the opposition which the Estates of the ' Langue
d'Oil' had lately shown towards King John, made it very
hard for him to set an army afoot. The Estates, weary of long
exactions, refused to vote him supplies without concessions;
by the mouth of Etienne Marcel, Provost of the Merchants
of Paris, the head of the bourgeoisie of the capital, they de
manded rights of session, of control, of levy, and of taxation.
They seemed likely to take up the same ground which had
already been successfully occupied by the English Parliament-
But it was only for a moment : the parallel cannot be carried
1 Froissart (Buchon), vol. iii. p. 155, xxiim0 addition : ' Avec deux mille
hommes d'armes et six mille archers, parmi les brigands ' (i. e. besides the
light -armed mercenaries).

440 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1356.
on seriously between the progress of the English Constitution
and the fitful efforts of the French Estates.
The French King was lying before Breteuil, with a strong
force, when news of the Prince's northward ride came to him.
He hastily granted the garrison of the town easy terms, and
they withdrew to Cherbourg; then he marched to Paris, and
summoned all his nobles and fief-holders to a rendezvous on
the borders of Blois and Touraine. He himself moved south
wards as far as Chartres. The Black Prince threatened Bourges
and Issoudun, failing to take either city ; then he marched
to Vierzon, a large town of no strength, and took it; here
he found, what he sorely needed, wine and food in plenty.
While he lay here he heard that King John was at Chartres
with all France at his back, and that the passages of the
Loire were occupied. So he broke up, and turned his face
towards Bordeaux, at once abandoning any plan he may have
had of joining the Earl of Lancaster in Normandy. King John,
hastening to overtake him, actually overshot the English army,
and placed himself across the Prince's line of retreat. So little,
however, did the two armies know of each other's movements
that on September 17 the Prince again found his way to
Bordeaux open; but his troops were fatigued, and instead of
taking advantage of King John's mistake he placed himself in
a strong position at Maupertuis, near Poitiers, and waited for the
French to attack him.
The English and Gascon troops occupied a low but rough
hill-side, covered with vineyards. The country was cut up by
hedges and sprinkled with low scrub. Nothing could be better
for defence : the chivalry of France, whose overwhelming weight
would have been irresistible on the plain, were of no avail on
such a hill-side ; and there was plenty of cover to delight sharp
shooters who knew their work. The English front was protected
by a thick hedge, broken only at one spot where a country lane
led through it. The defence of the flanks was furnished by
thickets and waggons. On the level ground atop lay the main
English force : every available point was crowded with archers ;

From * The Art of War in the Middle AgesJ
by C. Oman {Methuen and Co.).

A.D. 1356. THE BATTLE OF POITIERS. 443
the lane had high hedge-crowned banks. Underneath lay the
50,000 Frenchmen, ' the flower of their chivalry,' all feudal, no
city-levies this time. The King was there, with his four sons,
his brother, and a crowd of great princes and barons. Had
they been content to wait, and watch vigilantly, the Black Prince
would have been starved, and must have laid down his arms.
This, however, was not their idea, nor the idea of that age. So
they got them ready to assault the Prince's formidable position ;
thus giving themselves the utmost disadvantage arising from use
less numbers : and offering him the means of taking the greatest
possible advantage of his ground, where every man of his little
force was available. Before the assault took place the Papal
Legate interposed, and obtained a truce for twenty-four hours.
The Black Prince, knowing well his peril, was willing to treat
on terms honourable to France : unconditional surrender was
the only thing King John would listen to. This would have
been as bad as a lost battle ; what could they do but refuse ?
better die in arms than suffer imprisonment, starvation, and
perhaps a shameful death. So they set themselves to use the
remainder of the day's truce in strengthening their position;
an ambuscade was quietly posted on the left flank of the one
possible line of attack. Next morning, the 19th of September,
1356, the French army was moved forward: in the van came
two marshals, Audenham and Clermont, with three hundred
men-at-arms, on swift warhorses ; behind them were the Ger
mans of Saarbriick and Nassau ; then the Duke of Orleans in
command of the first line of battle; Charles, Duke of Normandy,
the King's eldest son, was with the second ; and lastly the
King, surrounded by nineteen knights all wearing his dress,
that he might be th: safer in the fight1: before him fluttered the
Oriflamme. With heedless courage the vanguard dashed at the
centre of the English position; for such were the King's orders.
They rode full speed right at the hedge, but the archers shot
well and the cavalry could make no impression on the English
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 351, p. 186, ' arme lui vingtieme de ses
parements.'

444 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1356.
line. Many of the French were slain, many taken prisoners,
the rest were rolled back on the main body behind them. The
second attack was a more serious one. Behind the cavalry
were the three great bodies of dismounted men-at-arms, com
manded by the Dauphin, the Duke of Orleans, and the King.
The Dauphin's attack was pushed well home, and the Prince
had to bring nearly all his reserve into action before it was
repulsed. At the sight of this defeat nearly the whole of the
next division took to flight. The first and second lines of
battle were thus utterly scattered, almost in a moment : some
riding hither and thither off the field, in panic; others driven
back under the walls of Poitiers, where the English garrison
took great store of negotiable prisoners; for at that time prison
ers meant ransom. There remained the third division under
the King. The French were still equal, perhaps even superior
to the English in numbers. At the beginning they had been
seven to one, if we are to believe the probably exaggerated
statement of Froissart 1, and the Prince's men were now
thoroughly exhausted. However he put the remainder of his
reserve in the front of his battle, and taking the offensive rode
down upon the French. He pressed ever forwards, with
Sir John Chandos at his side, who bore himself so loyally that
he never thought that day of prisoners, but kept on saying to
the Prince 'Sire, ride onwards; God is with you, the day is
yours ! ' ' And the Prince, who aimed at all perfectness of
honour, rode onwards, with his banner before him, succouring
his people whenever he saw them scattering or unsteady, and
proving himself a right good knight V The two forces met at
the foot of the slope which the English had been defending.
This was the crisis of the battle, and for some time the issue
was doubtful ; it was decided by a charge delivered by the
Captal de Buch. With a small body of men-at-arms he had
ridden round a hill that lay on the English right and struck at
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 360, p. 210, 'Les Francois etoient bien de
gens d'armes sept contre un.'
2 Ibid. 1,. 361, p. 216.

A.D. 1356. THE BATTLE OF POITIERS. 445
the left rear of King John's division. The timeliness of the
attack must have blinded the French to the fewness of their
assailants, for the last division now began to break up and
follow the others in the direction of Poitiers. But King John
and the men around him refused to move. He was now in the
very thick of it : and with his own hands did many feats of
arms, defending himself manfully with a battle-axe x- By his
side was Philip, his youngest son, afterwards Duke of Burgundy,
founder of the second line of that house, who here earned for
himself the name of ' le Hardi,' the Bold : for though but a
child, he stood gallantly by his father, warding off the blows
that rained thickly on him. The rout was too complete to be
stayed by their gallantry. The gates of Poitiers were firmly
shut ; there was a great slaughter under the walls. Round the
King himself the fight was stubborn; many of his bodyguard
were taken or slain. Geoffrey de Chargny, who bore the
Oriflamme, went down : and the King was hemmed in, all
men being eager to take so great a prize. Through the crowd
came shouldering a man of huge stature, Denis of Mortbeque,
a knight of St. Omer ; when he got up to the King he prayed
him in good French to surrender. The King then asked for
'his cousin, the Prince of Wales': and Denis promised that if
he would yield he would see him safely to the Prince : the
King agreed. Thus he was taken, and with him Philip his
little son. Then arose around him a great debate between
English and Gascons, all claiming to have taken him : they
tore him away from Denis, and for a moment he was in great
peril. At last two barons, seeing the turmoil, rode up ; and
hearing that it was the French King, they spurred their horses,
forcing their way into the angry crowd, and rescued him from
their clutches. Then he was treated with high respect, and led
to the Prince of Wales, who bowed low to the ground before
one who in the hierarchy of princes was his superior : he paid
him all honour ; sent for wine and spices, and served them
to him with his own hands. And thus King John, who one
' Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 364, p. 223.

446 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1356.
day before had held the English, as he thought, securely in his
grasp, now found himself, broken and wounded, a prisoner in
their hands.
Thus went the great day of Maupertuis, or, as it is more
commonly called by us, of Poitiers '.
Great was the carnage among the French : they left eleven
thousand on the field, of whom nearly two thousand five
hundred 2 were men of noble birth ; while nearly a hundred
barons, and full two thousand men-at-arms, to say nothing of
lesser folk, were prisoners. They were so many that the victors
scarcely knew what to do with them : they fixed their ransom
as quickly as they could, and then let them go free on their
word. The Prince with the huge booty gathered in his expe
dition, and with the richest prize of all, King John and his little
son, at once fell back to Bordeaux. The French army melted
away like snow in spring, such feudal nobles as had escaped
wandering home crestfallen ; the lawless and now lordless men-
at-arms spreading over the land like a pestilence. A two-years'
truce was struck between England and France ; and Edward
at once carried his captives over to London. There King John
found a fellow-King in durance, David Bruce, King of Scots,
who had now for eleven years been in King Edward's hands.
The years between Poitiers and the peace of Bretigny were
indeed dark and evil for France. The nobles were utterly
shattered ; from Mansourah to Courtrai, from Courtrai to Cre"cy,
from Crecy to Poitiers, they had, within a century, proved by
their turbulent vanity that they were unable to stand against the
times. Their power was much weakened ; and, far worse, all
France could see that weakness : ' the nobles who returned from
the battle were so hated and abused by the Communes, that they~
scarcely could venture to set foot in any of the good towns3.'
1 The story of the battle is most accurately told in Mr. Oman's Art of
War in the Middle Ages, pp. 618-634. The present narrative has been
brought, at least roughly, into harmony with his account.
2 In exact numbers, 2426. See the careful list given in Buchon's note to
Froissart, 3, c. 364, p. 224.
3 Ibid. c. 372, p. 253.

A.D. 1356. THE STATE OF THE NOBLESSE. 447
III. Etienne Marcel and the Bourgeoisie of Paris.
a.d. 1356-1360.
The four years from Poitiers (a.d. 1356) to the peace of Bre
tigny (A-D- r-S00), years of disaster, are relieved by the greatness
of one man, litienne Marcel, Provost of the Traders of Paris.
No man has been more unfortunate: while he lived circum
stances were against him, for he struggled in vain for his
country, became entangled in intrigues, committed crimes which
were also blunders, and perished by the hand of the city he
loved and served. After his death, too, history was against
him ; the chroniclers, with Froissart at their head, wrote of
him in ignorant and violent prejudice. One contemporary
writer only, the second continuer of William of Nangis, a poor
friar of Paris, eye-witness of many scenes of that time 1, writes
of Marcel in a friendly spirit. He had no prejudice against
the burghers ; was no hanger-on at court, like Froissart ; and
he had with his own eyes seen Marcel, and knew what strength
and worth were in him.
Even before Poitiers the chivalry of France had lost their
credit in men's eyes. ' Pride and dissoluteness flourished among
many nobles and men-at-arms': their dress was sumptuous and
scandalous, with gilt and silvered belts and precious stones,
and all manner of luxury. ' At this time they wore brave
birds' plumes in their hats, giving themselves up without stint to
fleshly lusts and sports and games by night and day, so that the
people grieved greatly when they saw the money levied from
them for war wasted so uselessly V And again, after Poitiers,
this feeling grew stronger still : royalty and chivalry seemed to
have fallen at once and together from their high estate. In the
attempt to make a firm government by the Three Estates3 at
1 The second Continuator Willelmi de Nangis (in D'Acheiy, Spicil.
torn. 11. pp. 785-920) speaks of himself: ' Ego frater quidam . . . prout
in parte vidi et audivi,' and again, where Edward III, before Crecy,
threatened Paris, he says, ' Omnes hos eventus, ut in pluribus, vidi ego qui
haec scripsi.' His part of the chronicle begins with A. D. 1340.
2 Continuator secundus W. de Nangis, sub ann. 1356.
2 Ordonnances des Rois, 3. 47.

448 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1356.
Paris very few nobles joined, ' and those who came were either
very young or were dishonoured.' Everything went amiss in
the realm : bands of lawless soldiery ranged the land ; no man
cared for his brother : the nobles repaid contempt with con
tempt ; they neglected their King, a prisoner, and their people
in their defeat : they oppressed and robbed their rustics ; took
no thought for the defence of their country ; trod underfoot or
carried off the chattels of men. Above all, it was clear that the
Lord Regent took no heed at all1. Then began the whole
land of France to fall into grief and confusion of spirit, for it
had neither defender nor guardian.
A few ' good towns,' that is, towns girt with wall and ditch,
were saved from the terrors which befell the defenceless country
men. Paris, safest of all, was crowded by countryfolk, driven
in by stress, and wellnigh starved ; even monks and nuns came
in ; for not even were the houses of God safe, unless they were
within the walls of some good town.
Thus, with the annihilation of the kingly authority, the down
fall of the nobles, and the misery of the country districts, the
cities, and specially Paris, became more and more important. In
them alone survived security and some shadow of good govern
ment. Directly the Dauphin returned to Paris he convoked
the States-General : the nobles, as we have seen, were few ; the
clergy numerous ; the commons strong and resolute. The
nobles, not yet weaned from the dark traditions of their order,
still eager to fight and pillage, and to be paid for it by the
industry of the land, clamoured for war and subsidies ; the
clergy and commons made common cause, and, under the leader
ship of the Archbishop of Rheims and of fitienne Marcel the
Provost, demanded delay. No conclusion was come to ; the
release of Charles of Navarre, now a prisoner at Arleux, in
the Courtrai country, was insisted on : and the Estates broke up
after sitting less than three weeks. Meanwhile, the fortifica
tions of Paris were pushed on ; chains stretched, ditches dug,
many fair houses outside the walls demolished ; steps taken, in
1 Continuator secundus, p. 828.

A.D.1356. ETIENNE MARCEL AND CHARLES 'THE WISE.' 449
a word, to make the capital a bulwark and a rallying-point for
the nation.
Etienne Marcel was not likely to leave things in chaos without
an effort. His name may possibly have been a corruption of
the name of that great Roman family, the Marcelli, whose
representatives had not then died out of Italy. If so, he retained
in Paris some of the old Italian spirit of civic life; for he dreamed
of making Paris the Rome of France, though his plans did not
involve the abolition of the royal authority. He laboured hard
and long to reconcile Charles the Dauphin and Charles of
Navarre. It was not till he had made the former his irrecon
cilable enemy, that he threw himself into the hands of the
'bad King.'
Charles ' le Sage,' ' the Wise,' called by the misfortunes of his
country to act as Regent of France, was very foolish in his
young days, very cowardly and self-indulgent. His health was
wretched ; he had suffered from some mysterious malady in
which he had lost hair and nails ; he ' became as dry as a stick.'
Though but nineteen years old, he was weak, pale, mean-
looking, lantern-jawed1, wanting in courage, and, instead, full of
cunning, clear of aim, tenacious, cold, unfaltering in carrying
out his ends. He was surrounded by a knot of nobles, and
was in fact in their hands. There is no truth for France in the
saying that royalty allied itself to the burghers to counterpoise
the noblesse ; the Kings used either, and distrusted both : if they
had to choose between the two forces, their tendency would
certainly be to incline towards the barons.
There was old dislike and distrust between the royal party
and the cities ; and from the beginning Charles of Navarre had
supported the good towns in resisting the King's demands.
He also, thanks to his charming manners, which go so far in a
prince, and almost do instead of virtues, had won Bishop Lecocq
of Laon to his side. The Bishop of Laon was a leading man
among the clergy ; he was a great friend of Etienne' s, perhaps
his evil genius ; no wonder therefore that the second and third
1 Michelet, 6, c. 3, p. 366.
VOL. I. G g

450 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1356.
Estates joined in the demand that Charles should be let out
of prison at Arleux ; no wonder that when they found the
Dauphin unmanageable, they turned to Navarre as their last
hope. When Charles the Dauphin had dismissed the Estates of
1356, he set off on a bootless mission to Metz : it was, in fact,
simply his pretext for getting rid of counsellors who were too
independent. To Metz came envoys from the Emperor, from the
Pope, and from the English King. Nothing followed from the
meeting except rumours which reached Paris as to the Dauphin's
brave doings, his feastings and shows. When he came back,
bringing no treaty of peace, the city rose in anger against him.
During his untimely absence things had gone worse, and the
debasement of the coin was renewed, in spite of the burghers'
protest. No sooner did they hear that the Dauphin insisted on
the depreciated money than they flew to arms, by their corpora
tions. The Dauphin's counsellors fled for their lives, and he
gave way. He agreed that the debased coin should not be
forced on the people, that the Three Estates should meet where
they would, and that he would dismiss, and, if possible, bring to
justice, the seven high officers denounced by the Estates. Thus
Paris, with Marcel, a man of 'a severe and noble countenance1,'
at her head, gave to the state some semblance of constitutional
life. Happy for her could she have maintained it ! The Estates
met at once : under Marcel and Bishop Lecocq they set them
selves to carry out the resolutions come to at the session of the
previous autumn. They had then agreed —
1. To assert the equality of all under taxation, from the King
to the peasant.
2. To name collectors of revenue to check and control, if
possible, the extravagance of the Court.
3. To make these collectors independent even of the King.
They also forbade the depreciation of the coin of the realm ;
1 This ' severe et belle figure ' is to be seen in an illumination of the
assassination of the Dauphin's favourites, in a copy of the Grandes Chro-
niques which belonged to Charles V himself.

A.D. 1356. THE STATES-GENERAL OF I356. 451
and decreed that all men of whatever rank might arm as a kind
of national guard.
Charles the Dauphin was forced, unwillingly, and meditating
ill-faith, to ratify these decrees. Some hope of good govern*
ment sprang up. The Committee of Thirty-six, appointed out
of the Estates to help in governing the land bereft of its King,
were vigorous and vigilant ; they made a truce for two years
with the English ; King John was carried over from Bordeaux
to London ; and just before his departure he sent envoys to
Paris to forbid the execution of the agreement between his son
and the Estates. Henceforth the King and his son are on one
side, and Marcel with Paris at his back, with some uncertain
countenance from the clergy, on the other side. The noble
example set by the capital was not followed or understood
elsewhere : she stood almost alone. All the nobles, and the
bulk of the clergy, vexed to see the chief power in the hands
of the Third Estate, withdrew from the city : they mostly
betook themselves to the Dauphin, and helped him against the
citizens. The authority of the Thirty-six was first weakened,
then brought to an end ; the Dauphin declared that he would
rule alone : even Bishop Lecocq withdrew to Laon.
The times were critical for Marcel ; everything pointed to
a restoration of the old corrupt government, a renewal of
extravagance, the neglect of national defences, a royal anarchy.
Then the Provost, in a secret meeting with his few trusty friends,
the officers of the city, Bishop Lecocq, the Baron of Picquigni,
and a few deputies of good towns (for all had not fallen away
from Paris), decided on compassing the release of Charles of
Navarre, in hopes that his influence might be a counterpoise to
that of the Dauphin. They seem to have thought that he might
some day found a new dynasty in France, connected with the
old noblesse and the King's family, and at the same time resting
on, and grateful to the Third Estate and to Paris, willing there
fore to grant to France some constitutional government, the
blessings of a firm rule, and the assuagement of the worst ills
under which the land was groaning. Picquigni undertook
Gg 2

452 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1357.
the task of freeing the King of Navarre ; and did it so well
that he was got out of prison without difficulty or bloodshed \
Charles went first to Amiens, thence to Paris, with a safe-
conduct granted most reluctantly by the Dauphin. The bishop
of Paris met him on the road, and brought him in with triumph;
he and Lecocq of Laon were almost the only prelates who
stood by the civic party. All Paris rejoiced ; but the deputies
of the good towns of Champagne and Burgundy, fearful of
committing themselves, withdrew hastily from the city. Distrust
and coolness existed already between the towns, which ought
to have had one common interest. Paris at the first was not
cast down by their desertion ; for she thought she had in Charles
of Navarre, fascinating, clever, and wronged, a prince who would
free her from the incompetence and ill-faith of the Kings,
and would foster her growing liberties. And so, next day, all
the city was astir, ' above ten thousand burghers', scholars, pre
lates, clerks,' in the Pre"-aux-Clercs, the Clerk's Park, just outside
the walls of the Abbey of St. Germain des Pres ; there the King
of Navarre climbed up on a kind of hustings against the abbey-
walls, and, after the manner of the age * preached ' 2 to the
crowd. He took for his text the words : ' The righteous Lord
loveth righteousness ; his countenance doth behold the upright s.'
That all might be in keeping, he began in Latin; but soon,
that he might creep into his hearers' hearts, he changed speech,
and ended in French. He laid before them his wrongs, spoke
of his desire to live and die for the defence of France, referred
to his royal lineage and relation to the crown, which was
nearer than that of King Edward III of England 4. He spake
right courteously and wisely, says Froissart ; and his words
were gladly heard and much approved : men shed tears as they
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, p. 289.
2 'Incipit praedicare,' or, as Eroissart (Buchon), 3, c. 384, p. 291, says,
* et la precha et remontra.'
3 Ps. 11. 7 (Vulgate 10. 8). This ' preaching' of leading men, as of the
Dauphin at the Halles, or Marcel at St. Jacques, is curious in the hands of
laymen. It was the common way of opening Parliament, and was also the
best way of appealing to public opinion.
* See Genealogical Table, p. 438.

in. tJte drops cf
JLtienne J-Iarcel,

Taken chiefly from Vtollet le Due.

i. S. Lazare. 2. Palace of King Robert. 3 The Temple. 4. The Halles. 5. The Louvre.
6. The Tour de Bois, 7. The Law Courts. 8. The Grand Chatelet. 9. Notre Dame.
10. The Palais des Tournelles. 11. Bastille S. Antoine. 12. The Petit Chltelet. 13. S. Genevieve.
14. The Tour de Nes!e. 15. The Clos du Cliardonnet. 16. Hotel d'Armagnac.
17. Hotel de Ville. 18. H5tel de Bourgogne. 19. Cimetiere des Innocents.

A.D. 1357. CHARLES OF NAVARRE AT PARIS. 455
listened ; the impression made was deep and fruitful. Next
day Marcel waited on the Dauphin Charles, and urged him to
be reconciled with Navarre, and to give him his rights. This
was promised, in form at least ; his castles and towns were to
be restored, and burial granted to his luckless adherents of
Rouen, whose bones still hung bleaching on the gibbet : the
question of an indemnity in money or lands was deferred for
the present. Had Marcel been a mere intriguer, we can hardly
imagine that he would have tried honestly to bring the Dauphin
and the King of Navarre to terms; yet he certainly seems to
have done this in good faith. His plan probably was to make
the two princes balance one another, hoping that Paris might
so be left free to expand : or at this time he may have
thought that Charles of Navarre was honestly minded to be
friend the city, and to help in bringing in good government;
and that his influence would be greater as a friend than as
a foe to the Dauphin. Whatever was his thought, there can
be no doubt he acted in thorough good faith at this time, filled
with a patriotic desire to relieve the sufferings of France, and
seeking not his own advancement, but her welfare. But he
was foredoomed to failure. His instruments were princes, and
there was no trust to be put in them. Charles of Navarre,
' the Bad,' found that Charles the Dauphin, ' the Wise,' took no
active steps to carry out the understanding come to by Marcel's
intervention : the strong places were not given up ; their cap
tains declared that they held them for King John, and would
yield them up only on his order. And so war began again.
Philip of Navarre, Charles's brother, had never made peace,
but had kept up a kind of brigand-war, with such bands of
men as he could gather together. Even when Navarre was
under the walls of Paris he had refused to lay down arms,
saying, in the true spirit of a French noble of that age, that
he would not enter the town ; for ' in a Commune there was
nothing certain and determined on, save the determination to
disgrace everything1.' The Dauphin also threw off disguise;
1 Froissart (Buchon), c. 384, p. 292 : ' Disoit que en communaute' n'avoit

456 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1358.
he rode with five or six of his favourites to the Halles, and
there ' preached ' to the Parisians in his turn ; assured them of
his goodwill, told them he was gathering troops to fight their
foes, accused Marcel and the popular party of keeping the
supplies for their own use. He went on in the old way;
gathered troops, and issued fresh orders for the debasement of
coin. Paris under the Provost's orders rose again to resist
him : they took arms, and wore a ' revolutionary cap,' parti
coloured, blue and red. The towns round Paris, which were
almost alone in recognising the importance of the work the
capital was trying to do, also rose and donned the Provost's
cap and colours.
Now came a shameful act ; and it is almost impossible to
make out what was the cloud on Marcel's judgment which led
to it. He perhaps thought that, the Dauphin being a timid
man, a scene of violence in his presence would at once free
him from his evil counsellors, and throw him, under the in
fluence of terror, into the Provost's arms. He may also have
calculated on committing the city to acts from which it could
not recede. His own account of it afterwards (' as the Provost
himself, in my hearing,' says the continuer of Nangis, ' and that
of many others confessed ') was that the Dauphin had often
promised redress, and had done nothing ; and that the citizens
held that he was hindered therein by the corrupt nobles around
him : — which, though true enough, was but a poor justification
for so great a crime. Whatever his idea, the Provost did not
understand the tenacious duplicity of the young Prince's cha
racter. It was agreed that Marcel, with some armed citizens,
should enter the Dauphin's quarters, while the city militia stood
under arms, ready to support him. Charles the Dauphin had
with him the Marshals of Champagne and Normandy, and a
great company of knights, nobles, and prelates. No sooner had
Marcel entered his chamber than he sharply addressed him l,
mil arret certain, fors pour tout honnir ' — a sentiment which the courtly
Canon clearly approves.
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 382, p. 287. 'Moult aigrement.'

A.D. 1358. THE MARSHALS MURDERED. 457
and bade him take heed to the business of the country, so that
it might no longer be spoilt and harried by free companies.
The Dauphin replied he would gladly do it, but that he was
kept penniless, and could not ; that they who took the money
ought to defend the land ; meaning by this the Provost and
the citizens. Words began to run high ; Marcel made a sign,
and the men at his back drew and fell on the marshals, slaying
them then and there : so close were they to the Prince that his
robe was all bedabbled with their blood. He thought his hour
too was come, and fell abjectly at Marcel's feet, praying for
life : the Provost placed the civic cap on his head, and bade
him be without fear : the corpses of the marshals were thrown
out to the people. Thus the revolution seemed to be accom
plished ; and for a time the Provost became the actual head
of government. He sat as President of the Thirty-six, and
organized similar bodies to govern the provinces ; be bought
a house on the ' Place de Greve,' called ' the House on Pillars,'
and there established the headquarters of the municipal govern
ment. Thus he is the true founder of the Parisian H6tel de
Ville, the ' Palace of the Parisian People ',' destined to be the
scene of many stirring and tragical acts in the later history of
the French nation.
For a time all seemed to work well : the Dauphin was
cowed, Navarre returned to Paris, and was reconciled to him.
But the revolution of Paris could not command sympathy and
sequence in France; not even did the other great cities, in
any number, come to the Provost's help2: on the contrary,
ill-will broke out ; the towns were jealous of the capital ; the
Estates, when they met, were jealous of Marcel ; even in Paris
herself factions sprang up.
In order to counterbalance the Provost's power, the Dauphin
was named Regent of the realm (March 1358); and seizing
his opportunity escaped from his half-captivity at Paris, and
1 Martin, Histoire des Francais, torn. 5, p. 187 (note).
2 Amiens, Rouen, Beauvais Laon, Senlis, and a few more, took the blue
and red. — Martin, Histoire des Francais, torn. 5, p. 189.

458 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1358.
fled to Meaux. When the Provincial Estates met, as usual, to
hear the Report of the States-General, they were found to be
divided in opinion : those of Vermandois, Champagne, Auvergne,
Dauphine", Languedoc, declared for the Regent, promising him
help. Thus the murder of the marshals only made the breach
the wider. The Regent summoned the States-General to remove
to Compiegne : some obeyed, some did not : there were two
bodies in session, each claiming to represent France.
There was nothing left for Marcel but to consolidate such
power as he had. He stormed the Louvre, fortified Paris,
hired mercenaries. The Dauphin's army cut off the city's sup
plies : he sent an offer to pardon all with the exception of ten
or twelve, nay even of five or six, ' and these he did not intend
to put to death.' Marcel's influence was still strong enough to
persuade the Parisians to reject this proposal. But though
they stood by him, yet a growing ill-will appeared, so that he
saw he must get help from without : he therefore sent mes
sengers to Charles of Navarre, who came at once. It was a
fruitless attempt ; for he was as little at heart a friend to Paris
as the Regent was ; indeed, we find him almost immediately
treating with him ; evidently prepared, if he got such terms as he
cared for, to betray the city into the hands of the royal party.
A diversion from another side now came to the Provost's
aid. The miseries of France weighed more and more heavily
on the peasantry ; and none regarded them. They stood
apart from the cities, knowing little of them, and having but
small sympathy with them; the nobles despised them and
robbed them of their substance or their labour. And now
another evil fell on them ; the country was overrun with free
lances, and no man's wealth, honour, or life, was his own.
The ' Archpriest 1,' a knight of Vergnes, ravaged Provence,
and put the Pope at Avignon in deadly fear ; so much so
that ' he was as respectfully received as if he had been the
King's son,' and had banquets with the Pope, and pardon for
his sins. Another great troop lay between Paris and Orleans,
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, cc. 380, 381.

A.D. 1358. THE JACQUERIE. 459
so that no one could pass through that district or dwell there :
these were headed by one Griffith, a Welshman. In Normandy
a third group, under Robert Knolles, worked their will on town
and castle, none withstanding them. At last the peasantry of
Northern France (May 1358), weary of their woes1, rose up to
work their own revenge and ruin. They began in the Beauvais
country, and there fell on the nobles, attacking and destroying
castles, and slaying their inmates : it was the old unvarying story.
They made themselves a kind of king, a man of Clermont in the
Beauvoisin, named William Callet or Karle. Froissart imagines
that the name ' Jacques Bonhomme ' meant a particular person,
a leader in these risings. Froissart however had no accurate
knowledge of the peasant and his ways. Jacques Bonhomme
was the common nickname, the ' Giles ' or ' Hodge ' of France,
the name of the peasant generally ; and from it such risings
as this of 1358 came to be called the 'Jacquerie,' or the
disturbances of the 'Jacques2.' The nobles were soon out
against them, and the whole land was full of anarchy. Princes
and nobles, angry peasants with their ' iron-shod sticks and
knives,' free-lances, English bands of pillagers, all made up a
scene of utter confusion : ' cultivation ceased, commerce ceased,
security was at an end3.' The burghers of Paris and Meaux
sent a force to help the peasants, who were besieging the for
tress at Meaux, held by the nobles ; these were suddenly attacked
and routed by the Captal de Buch and the Count de Foix,
'then on their return from Prussia4.' The King of Navarre
also fell on them, took by stratagem their leader Callet, tortured
and hanged him. In six weeks the fire was quenched in blood.
20,000 peasants are said to have been slain between the Seine
and the Marne.
Then the Dauphin was strong enough to draw his lines
1 Continuator secundus Willelmi de Nangis in D'Achery, Spicil. 3, p. 119.
2 The true origin of the name was well known to the honest second con-
tinuer of William of Nangis, 3, p. 114; he wrote without prejudice, and
with his eyes open.
5 La Vallee, 2. 45.
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 387, p. 299.

460 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1358.
round Paris : the nobles having put down the peasants now
turned against the cities. The people of Senlis won a surprise
from them, which had no influence on the general fortunes of
the struggle. The Regent lay before the gate of St. Antoine,
holding the two rivers, Seine and Marne, and thus strangling
and starving Paris. The King of Navarre, not satisfied with
Marcel's offers of the treasures of the city, and the title of
Captain of the kingdom, deeming also that he was now within
reach of the actual crown of France, began to treat with the
Regent. The Parisians and he, not trusting one another
much, were glad to part company : ' the king of Navarre,
sage and subtle, saw that things could not long go on as they
were between those of Paris and the Regent, and not much
trusting to the commons of Paris, left the city with great
courtesy, and came to St. Denis V There he stayed expecting
the end. The two princes lay over against Paris for some
weeks, meantime drawing somewhat together : at last, by means
of the Queen Jeanne, the Archbishop of Sens and others, they
came to terms of peace. At this moment came secret messages
from the Provost of the Traders to the King of Navarre.
Marcel was in the utmost straits ; Paris was penniless, famine-
stricken ; the burghers were suspicious, almost hostile ; he had
no soldiers, and little hold on the citizens. They had com
pelled him to invite the Regent to return to Paris, and to
join them in ejecting the English and the King of Navarre's
men. The Regent, had he been generous, might then perhaps
have healed the wounds of France. Instead, he replied that he
would never re-enter Paris while the murderer of the marshals
lived. Then, as a last step, — he must have felt it to be almost
a hopeless one, — Marcel called on Charles of Navarre to come
back, offered to give him entry into the city by night, to crush
with his aid all opposition, and to proclaim him King of France
at the Hotel de Ville. Charles listened gladly ; he seemed to
touch the goal of his ambition : he took his measures well, and
came quietly down to the St. Antoine gate, where Marcel was
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 389, p. 30^.

A.D. 1358. THE DEATH OF ETIENNE MARCEL. 461
to open to him. The Provost however was watched, and his
plans known. When with fifty or sixty of his followers he
went down at midnight to seize the gates, one of the sheriffs
of the city, by name Maillart, with some partisans of the royal
side, fell on him, and killed him on the spot. They then rode
through the town, shouting the royalist war-cry: the city was
paralysed. The Dauphin, three days later, entered Paris, and
took grim vengeance on his enemies. Thus perished this ill-
starred attempt to build up France on civic liberties ; and thus
fell Etienne Marcel, the one man who with happier fortunes
might have rescued France from the miseries before her.
This attempt to govern France from Paris, in many of its
features so like the modern revolutions of that city, failed
because there was no civic strength in France, nor any
yeoman-class in country places, nor any great patriotic church
men to keep alive the belief in the nation's life, nor any popular
party among the nobles, nor any true germs of parliamentary
government. Experience had shown at Ghent, when Jacque-
mart van Arteveld perished, that the burgher-nature was not
broad or strong enough to rule over a nation, or indeed to rule
itself; and if it failed there, far less hope for it in Paris. All
this while the country was racked with the agony of private war
and hostile interests : all industry, confidence, and unity were at
an end. Marcel's attempt, fore-doomed to fail, was, in spite of
errors and its great crime, the murder of the marshals, a brave
and a loyal effort to stem anarchy and to restore good govern
ment. It did but teach the Dauphin greater circumspection,
a more wary cruelty, and more cunning skill in carrying out
his plans for reducing France still further under the royal power.
The King of Navarre, baffled even as he sprang to seize
his prey, fell back to Normandy : thence he made war on
the Regent, returned in force, and ravaged the banks of the
Seine, occupying Meudon, and doing the Parisians no small
mischief; for no supplies could reach them from above or
below. He took into his pay most of the three companies of
the time.

462 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1359.
Meanwhile, the Dauphin fell on his foes in Paris : these were
the Days of Terror of that revolution — terror from the royal,
not from the republican, side. When he felt that he had
destroyed all opposition there, he moved on one step farther;
he made peace with Charles of Navarre, buying him off on easy
terms, and, after his wont, cherishing vengeance against him in
his heart. No man ever knew so well how to dissemble.
IV. The Treaty of Bretigny, a.d. 1360.
News came that King John in England had agreed to terms
of peace, ceding to Edward all the conquests his father had
made, also Calais and Boulogne, with a large sum of money.
But the Regent, who had used his father's name to evade
his promises to Charles of Navarre, found it quite easy to
refuse such terms as these. He was now friendly with
Navarre, and asked his advice : he suggested that the States-
General should be consulted ; and the Regent, in spite of his
dislike for that body, called them together, in order that he
might have the support of the nation in refusing to be bound
by his father's word. Few came in answer to his summons :
the times were so bad and the ways so unsettled. Those
who appeared deemed the treaty ' too hard,' and ' replied with
one voice that they would rather go on enduring their great
evil and misery, than see the noble kingdom of France thus
diminished and wronged and that King John must abide yet
awhile in England.' When this message of the Estates reached
London, King John was much enraged, and said, ' Ha, Charles,
fair son, you have been listening to the King of Navarre, who
deceives you, and would deceive sixty such as you V
Edward thereon declared the truce broken. The free com
panies, hitherto ravaging France in the name of the King of
Navarre, now ranged themselves under the King of England's
banner. Truce or no truce, the woes of France never
ceased ; it was the ceaseless scourging of medieval demons. The
Regent prudently garrisoned the strong places in his power, and
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 419, p. 404.

A.D. 1359. KING EDWARD IN FRANCE. 463
determined to risk nothing in the open field ; he knew that no
hostile army could find sustenance in the open country, or
indeed could much increase the sufferings of the land. The
policy which ruled the whole course of his life is here dis
played : by opposing a tenacious passive resistance, by offering
no field in which his foes might win glory, by shutting his ears
and eyes to the miseries of his ravaged country, — he wore out
army after army of his enemies, and saved France.
On the other hand, King Edward made great preparations,
' the greatest one had ever seen in England V All knights
and squires gathered horse and harness, the best they could,
and made for Calais, awaiting the King: they came to win his
favour, with booty from defenceless France ; ' and especially was
it so with the Germans, who are more greedy than other folk,'
says Froissart2. They were so many that they embarrassed
King Edward. He sent the Duke of Lancaster to amuse them,
which he did by leading them into the country round St. Omer,
to ravage and spoil. In 1360 the King himself came over;
he also passed through, spoiling the land till he came to
Rheims, one of the Regent's strong places. There Edward
would fain have been crowned King of France ; but the city
held out stoutly, and he had to raise the siege, and wander on
into ducal Burgundy. Here the Queen of France governed
in name of her son, Philip de Rouvre ; she too would not
fight, and bought the English out of the province. In this
she acted entirely for herself; there was, apparently, no
central power at all. All this time the Regent stayed quietly
at Paris, watching and thwarting his domestic enemies, the
citizens and the partisans of Navarre : vigorous war raged also
out at sea. Edward came down from Burgundy to the suburbs
of Paris : not even did this provocation move the Regent,
nor was the English army strong enough to attack the city.
After a while Edward marched on towards the Loire ; thence
towards Brittany, giving out that he would return in autumn.
And now it became clear to him that of such warfare there
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 420, p. 406. 2 Ibid.

464 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. A.D. 1360.
was no end : his army could do no more than was being
done daily by the free companies, while it shrank away in
sensibly but surely. With this conviction forced on him
he reluctantly agreed to treat for peace. French and English
met at the village of Bretigny-lez-Chartres, about two leagues
from Chartres. On the 8th of May, 1360, the treaty was
signed, and peace declared. King John, or those who spoke
for him, said truly that it was done, ' not only for our de
liverance, but also to escape the perdition and ruin of our
realm and good people ' of France 1.
The terms of peace were these :—
1. King Edward III renounced his claim to the French
throne.
2. He gave up the old possessions of the House of Anjou
north of the Loire.
3. On the other hand, he was secured in the sovereignty of
Guienne and Gascony, including the Age'nois, PeVigord,
Rouergue, Querci, and Bigorre.
4. Poitou, Saintonge, La Rochelle, the AngoulSme country,
the Limousin, Montreuil-sur-Mer, Calais, Guisnes, with
their dependencies, and Ponthieu, were secured in full
to Edward.
5. The Counts of Foix, Armagnac, Comminges, Pe'rigord,
Isle-Jourdain, the Viscount of Limoges, and all lords
of the Pyrenees, and barons of Aquitaine, were to re
nounce the French, and accept the English suzerainty.
6. The inheritance of Eleanor was to come intact to her
descendants, free from all feudal duties towards France.
7. King John's ransom was fixed at three million crowns, or
francs of gold, payable in six yearly instalments. The
King to be free after the first payment, due guarantee
for the rest having been provided.
8. King Edward promised to give up all the fortresses
which his subjects, adherents, or allies held in those
districts which were left to the French throne.
1 Ordonnances des Rois, p. 3, 434.

A.D. 1360. THE TREATY OF BRETIGNY. 465
9. France gave up the Scottish alliance, and England the
Flemish.
The Pope, Innocent VI, was invited to confirm the oaths of
the high contracting parties with the utmost solemnity
and sanction.
This treaty, which indicates the weakness of France, and
left her in fact smaller than she had been in the days of
Philip Augustus, was received in Paris and elsewhere with
transports of joy : — such was the misery and dejection into which
the proud nation had fallen. We may close the record of this
period with the words in which King John, after his return, in
an Ordinance relating to sundry fiscal matters, alluded to the
sorrows cf his land. ' By the space of four years and over
have we and this our people ever sustained and suffered many
ills, discomfitures, and griefs; for as these grew daily worse
and worse, tidings came to us how that the people of our
realm were divided, and were slaying and destroying each
other, and giving themselves up to rebellion and disobedience,
and were committing divers horrible and enormous crimes,
such as made it plain that had such things gone on, our
realm and people would have been utterly destroyed, with
perdition of all they had.' Wherefore, all this considered, he
had made the aforesaid peace; 'for we have found that in
our realm there have been many divisions and rebellions,
robbery, pillage, arson, larcenies, seizures, violence, oppression,
exactions, extortions, and many other cruel misdeeds and
excesses, justice ill administered, many new taxes levied, and
much seizing, carrying off, and putting to ransom of personages,
stores, horses, beasts, and other goods, whereby all industry is
at end V What further picture of the state of France is needed
after this proclamation of her King ?
1 Ordonnances des Rois, 3, p. 434.

Hh

CHAPTER III.
The Deeds of Charles V," the Wise! A.D. 1 360-1380.
I. As Regent, a.d. 1360-1364.
King Edward soon carried his army back to England.
John was sent, under charge Of (he Prince of Wales, from
Dover to Calais, there to remain in English keeping, till the
first part of his ransom should be paid. Small hope was there
of gathering in four months, the time named, so large a sum
from wretched France. But fortune came to the rescue. Gale-
azzo Visconti, Lord of Milan, chief of the Italian civic tyrants,
wishing to secure his lordship as a hereditary princedom, be
thought himself of an alliance with the royal family of France,
and offered to purchase for six hundred thousand florins of
gold the hand of Isabelle, daughter of King John, for his son,
John Galeazzo. The bargain was struck, the money paid,
and the foundation laid for future interference and troubles
between France and Northern Italy. The immediate result was
the release of King John. He returned to Paris, and, under
the prudent guidance of his long-headed son, seemed likely
to govern well. Reforms in tfmance, a fixed money-standard,
a decree against private wars, apparently promised well for the
desolate land. Unfortunately, the evils of the time were ag
gravated by pestilence, of which the Queen of France and the
two children by her first marriage perished ; and thus the
younger branch of the earlier Capets became extinct. The
King of France, thrusting aside the King of Navarre, whose
hereditary claim to the province was better than his own, went

A.D. 1360. KING JOHN'S LAST ACTS. 467
down to Djjon, and took possession of the titles and lands of
the Duke of Burgundy '. And then, directly he had won
this fine territory for France, he threw it away again. He
bestowed the duchy and peerage of Burgundy on his fourth
son, Philip, so delaying for a long time the union of that fair
province with the kingdom, and laying the foundation of the
Burgundian power.
Of all the curses of France, that of the free companies, the
very worst, remained unabated. They ranged unchecked ; one
of them, the ' Great Company,' swollen to the size of an army,
ravaged Burgundy. King John called together the feudal lords
of that district, and gave battle to the freebooters at Brignais,
where he was routed with great loss. It was another heavy
blow to feudalism, proving its impotence against the more
regular forces of warfare. The Great Company, unopposed,
now streamed over all the rich lands of the Saone and Rhone.
King John, still guided by the old spirit of feudalism, which
had worked him so much woe, wished to drain the country
of these roving bands by leading them in crusade to the East.
But the time for this was past ; and, indeed, his attention was
soon called elsewhere. One of the royal princes, the Duke of
Anjou, escaped from Calais, where he was a hostage for the
King ; and, careless of all claims of honour, refused to return
into captivity. Then John, partly moved by his sense of what
was due from him as King, partly, perhaps, seeing that his son
was a better ruler than he, partly, no doubi, contrasting the
desolation of France with the gay court of Edward of Eng
land 2, asked for a safe-conduct, placed the regency again in
the hand of Charles, and turned his back on Paris for ever.
He was splendidly received by Edward ; and feasts and shows,
while the crowned heads round the board chatted lightly and
1 Franche-Comte and Artoise went to the Dowager Countess of Flanders,
daughter of Philip the Long and of Jeanne of Burgundy, who was daughter
of the great Countess Mahaut. The counties of Boulogne and Auvergne
passed to John of Boulogne.
2 The honest second Continuator of Nangis says so expressly ; declaring
that he returned to England ' causa joci.'
H h 2

468 CHARLES V, ' THE WISE.' A.D. 1364.
gaily of crusades 1, rewarded him for his return to a nominal
captivity. But, in the midst of this festival, these pleasant talks
about future travel and excitement, the grim hand which spoils
so many plans beckoned to the King of France, and he died,
three months after his return to England 2.

II. Charles V as King, a.d. 1364-1369.
France, to whom King John was little more than a name,
and to whom the Regent Charles was a sickly youth but rarely
seen, took no interest in the death of the one or the accession
of the other. It was some time before she became aware that
she had come into the hand of a master. Everything had
long tended to depress the feudal noblesse. King Charles ' the
Wise ' was the instrument exactly suited to raise the tottering
monarchy on the ruins of the feudal power. His reign is of
the highest importance to those who endeavour to trace out
the growth of the absolute monarchy in France.
Of his wretched health and looks we have spoken. It
should be added here that his necessarily sedentary and quiet
life cut him off from all the sports and jousts of the barons:
he saw little of them, and what little he saw he disliked. His
infirmities proved to be his strength; they kept him from all
those feudal sympathies which would have hindered him in doing
his life's work. They also turned his mind towards learning.
He passed through the courses of study then known, an apt
and eager scholar. Religious he was and learned, yet not
a monk on the throne. To read in Latin and French; to
know something of mathematics as then studied, of astrology,
alchemy, theology; to gather round him well-known learned
clerks and philosophers seeking science ; to collect books and
1 The Kings of Denmark and Scotland were there, in order to discuss
the subject.
2 His funeral rites were done in St. Paul's ; his body was afterwards
transferred to Paris, and buried with much solemnity at St. Denis. :

A.D. 1364. HIS CHARACTER. 469
lay the foundations of the great library of Paris ' ; to listen
to grave moralities, or noble deeds of olden history, or ' divers
fair tales from Holy Writ,' — these were the occupations of the
sickly King. Rumour, half-malevolent, half-marvelling, gave
him credit for dark doings in the secret chambers of his
palace ; his silent, unscrupulous course, his life unlike the
then known royal-life, the singular success of his reign; — all
these things gathered round the character of the sage King,
and, striking men's imaginations with a sense of contrast
between his quiet life and his fortunes, gave a special meaning
to his name ' the Wise,' and endowed him with gifts which
seemed in no sense human. In much of his character he
seems nearly to resemble Philip II of Spain, that closet-
King, so ceaselessly industrious, so silent and active, so deter
mined, so mysterious.
Morally cold, prudent, long-waiting, he lost nothing by
passion or by haste ; his shrewdness divined the future,- — this
was his astrology ; his patience, and freedom from the trammels
of the ' point of honour,' enabled him to prepare for that future,
and reap his harvest in it. His famous saying, quoted by
Christine de Pisan 2, expresses the main principle of his reign,
' Lordship is more than glory s ' ; the substance of power, not the
show of it, was what he sought and won.
He reformed the coin of the realm, so taking away the chief
grievance of the burghers ; he found in one man, Du Guesclin,
the instrument with which to recast and reform the war-
power of his age. Hitherto, war had been one of the sports
of the noble, the ruin of the land, the penury of the peasant ;
Du Guesclin made it a serious affair, and taught the French
that hard-hitting and determined style which more than a
1 He placed nine hundred MSS. in three fair chambers of the Louvre .
2 Christine de Pisan, who was daughter of the King's astrologer, wrote
a panegyric on Charles. It is of but small historical value. In 2, c. 26,
she gives us insight into his unscrupulousness. ' Circumstances,' he said,
'make things good or bad ; this way cloaked, 'tis virtue, that way, 'tis vice.
To know how to dissemble with the perverse is right good sense.'
3 Martin, Histoire de France, 5, p. 242.

470 CHARLES V, ¦ THE WISE.' A.D. 1364.
century later amazed and shocked the Italians when they came
into collision with the fighting men of Charles the Eighth.
And so this is the period of two great reforms, in finance and
in war. Du Guesclin in the battlefield, in the secret chamber
Charles, — these were the two powers with which France won
back all she had lost ; no wonder that she has transformed the
soldier into a hero of chivalry and romance, the King into a
miracle of magical and hidden wisdom.
And yet she misjudged both these great men. Charles was
only cold, prudent, patient, with one fixed idea — namely,
that it was bad to fight pitched battles (like that ill-starred field
of Poitiers, whence he had fled so early and so ill), when, at
the small cost of ruin to wretched country-folk, an invading
army might be made to wear and waste itself away. Little
magic, and little heart — that is what was wanted in him who
should plan and coldly carry out such a war-policy as this.
This policy baffled Edward III, and led to Bretigny; it led too
to all the revival of the French power. And Du Guesclin,
a hard, angry fighting-man, was in all things unchivalrous. He
cared for and treated tenderly the poor folk, never doing them
intentional wrong ; he was a captain not of feudal knights but
of free companies, himself a free lance. He was the man who
overthrew the old feudal service, and heralded the age of mer
cenaries, which in its turn led the way to the ages of standing
armies. No man had less of chivalry and romance, as those
things were then understood : fighting was his life and delight ;
fighting in earnest, with his short powerful frame, all knit up
for the combat, his heavy features bright-kindled with the joy
of battle. The English armies had done much to ruin feudal
chivalry : Du Guesclin wellnigh destroyed it, while at the same
time he also wellnigh destroyed the English hosts.
Son of a Breton gentleman, poor and of small estate, Du
Guesclin was short and ugly, a marvel of strength, and utterly
fearless ; rude also of bearing, ignorant, of small capacity,
and that not developed : he had great natural cunning, that
half-savage quality ; was full of ruse and trick in war : he was

A.D. 1364. CHARACTER OF DU GUESCLIN. 47 1
contemptuous towards the high noblesse, but gentle to the poor
and generous to his friends.
It is said that on the day of King John's death, Charles be
headed eight-and-twenty burghers of Paris, the last victims of
their ill-starred attempt at civic liberty. They were said to
have been in communication with Charles of Navarre. That
shifty prince was at open war with the Regent, and had raised
large forces, composed of free-lances under the Captal de
Buch. Against these the King sent other such, a like force of mer
cenaries, led by Du Guesclin, already the most renowned of all
the captains of freebooters. The two armies, from five to six
thousand on either side, met at Cocherel, and the Captal after a
hard fight was utterly beaten, and taken. The war lasted yet a
year; then the King of Navarre made peace, gave up Mantes,
Meulan, and Longueville, and received in exchange the far-off
border town of Montpellier1 The King gave Du Guesclin
the county of Longueville, on condition that he should rid the
kingdom of these free-lance companies ; but the warrior was
a free-lance himself, and only aggravated the evil with his
Breton followers. In self-defence cities, villages, houses, girt
themselves with bulwarks, churches became fortresses : we may
see still in the baltlemented towers of fourteenth-century churches
evidences of this evil time.
Meanwhile, the old Breton feud between the Montforts and
their English friends on the one side, and Charles of Blois
with his French supporters on the other, went dimly on, till
Du Guesclin thought well to mix himself up in the fray.
Charles V gave him pay for men ; he collected a force and
set out, marching westward, till at Auray near the Morbihan
coast he fell in with Sir John Chandos, leading an English
force and some armed adventurers. Du Guesclin had far
1 There is a characteristic account of the way in which Charles V tried
to evade his part of the treaty ; first the King of Navarre had sealed it with
a small private seal ; this he objected to : he then sealed it with a big
official seal, and the King professed that he thought it not valid because it
got broken in the transit.

472 CHARLES V, -THE WISE. A.D. 1365.
the larger body of men ; the English were well-posted on a hill,
whence the French tried in vain to dislodge them. Sir Hugh
Calverley, with a reserve force, came up so swiftly that he secured
the victory to the English. This battle ended the war. Charles
of Blois fell, Du Guesclin was made prisoner, the army was
destroyed. All the Breton towns opened their gates to the
triumphant Montforts ; the treaty of Guerande was signed and
gave them the duchy of Brittany.
Charles V was powerless; he recognised the treaty, and re
ceived the homage of John of Montfort for the duchy. The
French people worshipped Charles of Blois as a saint ; miracles
at his tomb were reported and believed 1 ; the Holy See was
asked to canonise him. Though the French King supported
the petition, the Montforts had interest enough at Avignon
to neutralise the attempt ; and Charles remained, like Simon
of Montfort, a popular not a Papal or official saint.
Though the free companies were still the scourge of France,
their day was coming to an end. An attempt to send them
by Metz into Germany, in order that they might follow the
Emperor on crusade to Egypt, failed ; they came back from the
German frontier all the greedier for pillage. Then Charles V,
who watched the English power with unflagging jealousy, espied
a weak place in the armour of his rivals. Castille was in the
hands of Pedro the Cruel, a monster in human form, who was
on friendly terms with the Black Prince in Aquitaine. Henry
of Trastamare, Pedro's bastard brother, was eager to avenge
himself and wrest the crown from the ruffian's hands ; all Castille
looked kindly on the claimant. Charles got Du Guesclin free
by paying his ransom to Chandos, and gave him funds to raise
another host of adventurers. The brigands flocked like vultures
to his standard. Many who had served under the English now
joined the French ; it was all one to them ; even Sir Hugh
Calverley himself came into the French camp. The army, led
by Du Guesclin, took the road to Avignon, where it extorted
from Pope Urban V a large sum in money, and absolution from
1 Froissart (Buchon), 3, c. 511, p. 268.

A.D. 1367. DU GUESCLIN IN SPAIN. 473
the excommunication he had published against the companies.
When the Pope heard the warrior's demand, he said that other
sinners coming for absolution brought money to pay for it;
these demanded both forgiveness and gold. It was irregular;
still, it was ill arguing with free-lances, who might sack the Papal
city and take its treasures, if they would. So Du Guesclin got
his will : finding afterwards that the Pope had made the citizens
of Avignon provide the money, he returned it all to them, and
compelled Urban to pay it out of the Papal treasury. This
time the Pope recovered it by a tax on the clergy.
Du Guesclin, thus reinforced, marched into Aragon, and was
helped by Pedro the Ceremonious, King of that land, a prince
nearly, if not quite, as great a ruffian as Pedro of Castille. No
effectual resistance could be made to the French. Pedro the
Cruel fled at last into Aquitaine and took refuge with the Black
Prince ; Henry of Trastamare was crowned King at Burgos ;
Du Guesclin was made Constable of Spain ; his adventurers
streamed back into France, richer, not less rapacious.
As yet all was under cover ; there was no open war between
Don Pedro and Charles, though all knew that Charles had
pushed him from his throne ; there was no sign that the treaty
of Bretigny was in danger, no hint that the English rule in
France was drawing to an end : yet it was for this that the
'pedant in his closet' at Paris was steadily and silently working.
Meanwhile English Edward gathered up his force ; the brigands,
of late the soldiers of Henry, now crowded round Pedro the
Cruel ; there was to be more fighting, more booty. Embarrassed
by their numbers the Black Prince dismissed the Gascons in his
pay, saying he had no need of them ; a step which angered his
subjects, and seems to have been the beginning of the ill-feel
ing which sprang up between the English and the southerners.
For a time it was unnoticed. The Black Prince crossed into
Spain ; fought and won a great battle at Najara (a.d. 1367) on
a tributary of the Ebro, where Du Guesclin was again taken
prisoner : again his stubborn and ignorant courage left him to
fight and rage and be taken, when he ought to have covered

474 CHARLES V, •THE WISE.' A.D. 1367.
the retreat of his men. And thus Henry lost for a time the
throne of Castille. Pedro, now again proclaimed King, neglected
the Gascons and English, who had won the prize for him ;
fever and other maladies set in ; half the host perished ; the
Black Prince himself, when he withdrew into Aquitaine to
defend it against Henry of Trastamare, carried with him the
seeds of the disorder which saddened his last years. He came
back to discontented subjects, with the stain on his escutcheon
of having lent himself to replace on the throne of Castille one of
the vilest of mankind. From that time the fate of the English
possessions in France was sealed.
The Black Prince saw what was beneath the turmoil, the
secret energy and influence of the sorcerer, the friend of Jews,
the odiously learned King of France ; and he warned his
father. Edward III, weary of war, and old before his time,
was unwilling to believe it ; he treated his hostages well, was
contented that the instalments of the ransom continued to be
paid, and shut his eyes to the signs of the coming storm.
The Black Prince found himself surrounded by new dangers —
by the ill-will of his Gascon and Aquitanian subjects — and was
very unwise in dealing with them. He claimed a heavy aid
from them, and treated them imperiously ; doubtless made
irritable by sickness.
France at last found herself delivered from the grievous
burden of the free companies. Many had perished in Spain ;
the rest passed into Italy, where they found a rich land and
a ready market for their arms. They took sides, as they were
paid, for or against the Visconti at Milan ; they enrolled
themselves as a 'foreign legion' under the cross-keys, and
restored to the Pope the States of the Church which had
wellnigh slipped out of his grasp. Even Urban V thought
he might put a stop to the scandal of the Avignon captivity
under their protection ; and, in spite of the opposition of
Charles V, went down to Marseilles with his court, whence he
sailed for Italy, and, after some days, entered Rome \
1 Continuator secundus W. de Nangis, p. 139, col. 2.

A.D.1368. LATTER DAYS OF THE BLACK PRINCE. 475
Thus France was solaced, and the long-broken industries
of life revived. The King busied himself with internal reforms ;
for he had the true French spirit, the desire to administer his
kingdom, to be the fountain of law and justice, to centralise
everything round himself. At last the time came that he could
safely throw off the disguise of years. With characteristic
subtilty of mind, he set his lawyers and the University to pick
holes in the Treaty of Bretigny, and to find frivolous pretexts
for a war, the true justification of which lay solely in its
patriotism. In July, 1368, he offered Henry of Trastamare
terms of open alliance ; he no longer veiled his help, unavowed
indeed but open to all eyes, against the English. He listened
to the complaints of the Aquitanians, and found with them that
the acts of the Black Prince were unbearable ; he sent defiance
to King Edward, summoning him to Paris to defend himself
against the complaints of the prelates, barons, knights and com
munes of the Marches of Gascony and others who had taken
refuge at his court. Edward scornfully replied he would appear,
but with helm on head, and sixty thousand men at his foot :
though his words were brave, his strength was gone from him,
and he was destined to do no more feats of arms. The French
King silently prepared for war, favoured by the Black Prince's
illness, and the reluctance of Edward III to believe in the evil.
The spring of 1369 saw the end of Pedro the Cruel. De
feated by Henry at Montiel, he was taken prisoner, and brought
into the camp of Du Guesclin. There he met his brother, and
all the hatred of years burst forth. From hard words they
came to blows; they closed, and fell struggling on the ground.
Pedro was uppermost, and got his dagger out to stab his
brother; then Du Guesclin caught him by the leg, and turned
him over, so that Henry lay above ; and he, seizing the oppor
tunity, smote Pedro to the heart. So in a disgraceful brawl,
Du Guesclin looking on and helping, perished this monster of
cruelty. With him perished also the hopes of the English
party. Tidings of it reached Paris, and doubtless encouraged
Charles to take the final step. And thus the mistake made by

476 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD II. A.D. 1369.
the Black Prince, when he supported Pedro, though he must
have known of the enormities of his character and reign, now
recoiled on the English with fearful violence.

III. The Hundred Years' War; Period II.
Charles V makes war on England, a.d. 1 369-1380.
In April, 1369, Charles, the story runs, in order to pour con
tempt on both his English foes and the French chivalry, sent
a varlet of the scullery to England with a declaration of war.
A senseless insult, unless he meant to show the King that his
policy was to fight him without the help of the feudal lords,
whom he had so firmly and successfully depressed.
On the very day on which he declared war, he began war ;
surprised the English at Abbeville, and took that city and
St. Valery that very day : within a week all Ponthieu was
recovered. The States-General were convoked, to sanction
the step already taken ; the French clergy, nothing loth, were
bidden to preach the war ; Querci, led by the Bishop of
Cahors, revolted at once. The Aquitanians felt that they
were suspected by the Black Prince, and soon deserved that
suspicion. Fortune seemed to have deserted King Edward.
An army was gathered in Normandy, under Philip Duke of
Burgundy, who, thanks to the able intrigues of Charles, and
the complaisance of the Pope1, had just secured as his bride
Margaret, heiress of Flanders, in spite of the opposition of
Edward, who desired her hand for his son, Edmund Earl of
Cambridge. Philip was stationed at Rouen, with strict orders
not to risk a battle. His army came face to face with a small
Anglo-Flemish force, under the Duke of Lancaster ; though he
was seven times as strong, the King's orders were peremptory,
and he was obliged to fall back. The Duke of Lancaster,
1 Edward of England and Philip of Burgundy were of the same degree
of relationship with Margaret. The Papal scruples, which were fatal
to the suit of the Englishman, were forgotten when the Frenchman came
forward.

A.D. 1369. CHARLES V DECLARES WAR. 477
untouched, retired on Calais ; did some small ravages on his
way, and returned to England.
It would be useless to trace out the obscure wars of this
period : it is enough to state the results. The English hold
on France was so slight and so precarious that it was shaken
off almost without an effort. The Duke of Burgundy in
Northern France, the dukes of Anjou and Berri in the South, gave
way at once before the Black Prince with his English. There
was no attempt at fighting. The well-known captain, Robert
Knolles, pushed on from Calais, and set fire to the villages
round Paris. These things were as nothing to the impassive
King ; he let the English weary themselves as before ; they
raged without resistance and without results.
The Black Prince, worn out with suffering, closed his bril
liant career amid the smoking ruins of burnt and ravaged
Limoges. From his litter he saw the massacre he had
commanded, passing slowly down the streets ghastly with
corpses of warriors and women. From this last act of war —
the summary of war's evils, and a blot on his glory for
ever — he returned to Bordeaux, gloomy and sick ; from
Bordeaux he crossed to England, where he languished out the
sad remainder of his days.
At last, when the long-expected moment came, Charles
called Du Guesclin to him, and created him Constable of
France; and thus the poor gentleman of Brittany took rank
above the highest in the realm — another of the King's con
quests won for monarchy over the feudal forces around him.
The Constable went forth at once; caught the English at
Pont-Vallain, and drove them before him into Brittany; and
thus they were cleared away.
In Aquitaine the new governor, the Earl of Pembroke, could
not even land. He was attacked by Henry of Castille off
Rochelle with a far superior force of ships and boats, and
a two-days' battle took place. Rochelle refused to succour the
English, who in the end were overwhelmed. Pembroke was
made prisoner, the whole fleet sunk or taken ; the treasure-ship,

478 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR . PERIOD II. A.D. 1372.
carrying pay for the Gascon army, went to the bottom (June
1372). This was the death-blow to the English ascendency
in the South.
Poitou threw herself into Du Guesclin's arms ; Poitiers itself
was taken ; the Captal de Buch and Percy were surprised and
made prisoners : La Rochelle drove out the English garrison,
first making good terms for herself with the French King '.
The Constable swept, almost without loss, across Poitou, the
Angoumois, and Saintonge.
In Thouars lay almost all the Poitevin nobles of the English
side : there Du Guesclin laid siege to them. They agreed to
an armistice ; if not helped from England before the end of
November, they would capitulate : Du Guesclin fortified his
position round the town, and waited so long. The English
King and even the Black Prince, with the army intended to land
at Calais, took ship at Southampton. But the autumn gales
were on them ; for nine weeks they struggled in vain against
this new foe. The day for the capitulation of Thouars came
while they were still at sea ; and the old King at last gave
orders to steer back to the English shore. He landed again
at Southampton'-', and the effort had failed. 'Never was there
King of France,' said he, ' who wore so little armour, yet never
was there one who has given me so much to do 3.'
Thus he summed up the character of the French King's
warfare ; and it was by these means that Poitou was entirely
lost to the English.
Next, Charles set himself to punish Montfort the Duke of
Brittany for his English sympathies. In a very short time
nothing was left to the English party there except Brest, Auray,
and Derval. The first of these was besieged ; it was, how
ever, succoured by the Earl of Salisbury, who offered battle to
1 These were that (1) They should rase the castle, which had often been
a grievance to them; (2) They should never be separated by marriage,
treaty, or otherwise, from France ; (3) They should regulate their own
coinage ; (4) They should never be subjected to any taxation except of their
free-will. 2 Oct. 1372. 3 Froissart (Buchon), 6, c. 672, p. 22.

A.D. 1375. THE ENGLISH MARCH THROUGH FRANCE. 479
Du Guesclin ; and he, faithful to the King's system of warfare,
avoided the open field, and raised the siege. He joined the
Duke of Anjou before Derval, where he received orders from
the King to hasten back to France, to watch a fresh invasion.
The Dukes of Lancaster and Brittany, landing at Calais, had
broken in on France. The King followed his old tactics : — open
country and villages abandoned to their fate; fortified towns
held in silence ; no army in the field. So the Dukes passed
unresisted through Eastern France; crossed the Marne and
Seine into Burgundy ; thence through the hill-land of Auvergne
to the Limousin ; and so on to Bordeaux. When at last they
reached that city they were utterly undone. Without a battle,
almost without a skirmish, they had passed through France,
leaving behind them a black and desolate trail; leaving also
the bones of two-thirds of their force : horses, arms, everything
gone, they reached Bordeaux a beaten and disorganised rabble.
Nothing remained for them but to cross over again, with such
poor shattered force as there was, into England. Thus ended
King Edward's last attempt to hold his ground in France ; his
last attempt to attain what was impossible. The French fol
lowed in their track; the Duke of Anjou entered Guienne: the
lords of Gascony submitted ; and of all France proper the
English now held nothing save Calais, Cherbourg, Bayonne,
and Bordeaux J Thus was the sage policy of Charles thoroughly
successful. The English were utterly overthrown, without blood
shed or glory ; and, worn out with this strange struggle, both
parties welcomed the intervention of the Pope ; a truce for two
years was signed (a.d. 1375— 1377).
During this time Charles busied himself with reforms ; France
recovered something of her internal prosperity; the taxation
was, no doubt, heavy, and enforced on clergy and lay-folk
alike ; in return for it, there was peace and security, during
which men could work.
In 1376 Edward the Black Prince closed his years of suffering
1 They had still possession of Brest ; but we must not include Brittany
in France proper.

480 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD II. A.D. 1377.
in silent death. Though a great soldier, for those days, and in
some respects a noble character, he lacked opportunity for real
greatness ; he was brilliant with the brilliancy of fireworks,
transitory like them, and wasteful. A year later the old King
Edward also passed away : days of change are coming ; a new
era in English history begins.
The English would gladly have renewed the truce, had not
Charles been too wary for that. He at once sent the Castilian
fleet, which had done him such good service at La Rochelle, to
ravage the English coasts. It was unopposed. By sea and
land the quiet King was alike supreme. His armies entered
Picardy and Guienne : there was no one to withstand them.
The English efforts to relieve the King of Navarre, who, for all
his ruses, was hard pressed by the Castilians, were but partly
successful. Charles the Bad was between the upper and nether
millstones of Charles the Wise, who ground down his French
possessions, and Don Juan, son of Henry of Castille, who
attacked his Spanish territories. Though succoured by the
English, he had to make a lame peace with the Castilian
King. The English also attacked St. Malo; fruitlessly, except in
so far as they drew Du Guesclin and the Duke of Berri away
from their close siege of Bordeaux. No battle was fought,
Charles being still faithful to his policy ; the English could
make no impression on St. Malo, and were forced to reimbark.
On the whole, by sea and land, the English were completely
overmatched; and the year 1378 saw Charles V successful on
every side : he seemed likely to be able to rescue all France
from foreign interference, and to administer a newborn king
dom with Ordinances, arbitrary no doubt, but in the actual
condition of the age and country clearly sagacious and
suitable. He pushed his concentrating tendencies too far. The out-
l)ing districts, Flanders, Brittany, Languedoc, never French,
but called on to choose between Paris and London, might, with
prudent and gentle handling, have become firmly united to

A.D. 1378. BRITTANY RESISTS CHARLES V. 481
France, and would then have gradually been assimilated with
the kingdom. On the contrary, Charles paid little attention
to local prejudice, and, with that cold unimaginative nature of
his, trampled underfoot the local liberties; consequently, the
last years of his reign saw his great work in France not con
solidated but imperilled.
He set himself to confiscate Brittany. That Duchy, so free
and high-spirited, was now without a head : John of Montfort
had been expelled by the wave of opposition to the English ;
and no one was put in his place. Charles was not content to do
what was prudent, by reinstating the Blois family in the Duchy,
a step which would have bound Brittany, retaining its feudal
relations to its own chief, by strong ties of gratitude and need
to the' French throne. He wished rather to absorb the Duchy,
and abolish its ancient liberties. In vain did Jeanne, the widow
of Charles of Blois, protest and remonstrate ; Charles secured
the neutrality of Du Guesclin and Clisson, who let their alle
giance to him outweigh their patriotism, and then, in December
1378, declared the Duchy united to the crown.
These great Breton soldiers, Du Guesclin, Clisson, Rohan,
were true freebooting captains : they had driven out the English
faction, had re-established serfage and heavy taxation : they
now sold themselves and their country to the cautious King.
Yet, though her natural leaders thus deserted her, Brittany did
not hesitate : her anger broke forth at once ; in the early sum
mer of 1379 the whole Breton people were in full revolt. John
of Montfort reappeared, welcomed by an united and enthusi
astic people. The royal forces made no progress, for the royal
war-formula, ' no battles,' did not suit this case. When English
men were dragging their weary course across France, they
were wisely left 'to perish by their own weight,' suffering the
doom of ' violence bereft of prudence ' ; against a vigorous
national uprising this ' little warfare ' was of no avail. The
King became angry, distrustful ; remembering that Du Guesclin
was a Breton, he suspected him : and he in turn, not easy in
his mind, — how should he be so ? — and feeling himself ill-placed
vol. 1. 1 i

482 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD II. A.D. 1379.
between Brittany on one side and his master on the other,
begged leave to be gone, and, getting leave, sent to the King
an angry message with his Constable's sword, and set forth for
Castille. A reconciliation, of a kind, took place ; and he con
sented on his way to reduce some English-holding fortresses in
the South. Accordingly he sat down before a little place,
Chateau- Randon, on the frontiers of Languedoc; and there fell
ill and died (July, 1380). So passed away the free-lance hero
of a dark age ; in half-discredit with his King, at a time when
a greater man would have risked still more discredit for his
native land. But these were evil days for soldiers ; and the
spirit of patriotism was distracted by cross-interests. Du
Guesclin worthily receives honour from France ; for he was
a notable instrument in her building-up : this is the only praise
we can give him ; no other true glory or greatness belongs to
the fierce-tempered Breton. They brought his body back to the
North, and laid it among the tombs of the Kings in St. Denis,
hard by the resting-place which Charles, with the sickly imagi
nation of an invalid, had built for himself while he yet lived;
and a never-dying lamp burned for ages over his grave.
Meanwhile troubles brake out in North and South. Flanders
was torn with civil war of the burghers against the nobles, headed
by their Count Louis. Charles V, when Louis in his trouble
applied to him, refused him help. He would not now move
a finger in the cause of the nobles, though with them he had
triumphed over Paris ; and this too even though he knew well
that the burghers were attached to England, and that the cause
of the nobles was, so far, his own. He seems to have based his
refusal on personal grounds : ' Louis,' he said, ' is the proudest
prince alive ; I would gladly bring him to reason.' This was
only the pretext ; the principle on which he acted was his old
and fixed rule of lowering the power of the great nobles.
And lastly, in these same years, 1378-1380, the Duke of Anjou,
being sent by the King into Languedoc, had found there, as he
thought, a fine field for his dangerous ambition, and had treated
that fair province as his own private domain. He crushed the

A.D. 1380. DEATH OF CHARLES V. 483
inhabitants under his feet; his subsidies were huge, he violated
the privileges of the cities, treated all except the noblesse with
contempt. At last their cry reached the King's ears, and he,
finding them pushed to the end of their forbearance, recalled
the Duke of Anjou, who was at that moment intriguing with
his friend Pope Clement VII at Avignon, and sent down com
missioners to enquire into abuses and to reform them. He
eventually gave the charge of Languedoc to the Count of Foix,
a most popular Southern lord; and this danger to the crown
was averted.
Nor was France herself altogether at rest : the royal exactions
rendered the population uneasy: in 1379 the King was obliged
to suspend all his fiscal officers, and to give the cities some
control over their taxation '. In all things Charles showed him
self rather a great proprietor than a great prince : the sufferings
of his country never seemed to affect him till they expressed
themselves in a falling-off of the royal revenues. Then he
bestirred himself; — as a landlord, not as a King2.
In the midst of these dark signs of a task half done, came
to the King, his summons to lay down the sceptre. His
physician had told him, early in life, that when the abscess
under his arm closed he must prepare to die ; death would be
upon him within a fortnight : and now, early in September,
1380, the sign came. Charles arranged his affairs calmly, as
befitted the ' sage ' King ; sent for his two brothers, the Dukes
of Berri and Burgundy, with the Duke of Bourbon, his Queen's
brother; leaving unsummoned the ambitious and unscrupulous
Anjou. To them he commended his little son Charles, now
only twelve years old, light of character, and one who needed
prudent governors : he bade them make Clisson Constable in
the room of Du Guesclin ; he lamented greatly the heavy aids
with which he had grieved and crushed the poor folk of France.
1 Ordonnances des Rois, torn. 6, p. 440.
2 Martin, Histoire des Francais, torn. 5, p. 327: 'Le roi n'etait, dans
sa maniere habituelle de penser et de vivre, que le plus grand proprietaire
de son royaume ; S. Louis est peut-etre le senl de nos vieux r'ois qui ait vu
les choses de plus haut.' — Cp. Ordonnances des Rois, torn. 6, pp. 464, 467.

484 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD II. A.D. 1380.
And having made them this too late confession of the harsh
ness of his rule, he devoutly resigned the weary burden of
his life and crown into the hands of Him who had laid them
on him.
So died King Charles the Fifth, the Sage.
There is something fascinating about this sickly King, so
unlike all before him, at once weaker and stronger than they.
We see him in his youth flying like a craven from the field of
Poitiers, with a following of horsemen who, led by a brave man,
might have stemmed the ' onward ride ' of the Black Prince.
Then we see him grovelling at the feet of Marcel, abjectly
begging his life ; we note his companions, noble and frivolous ;
— and what a prospect for France when this poor creature
becomes King ! Add to this his terrible illness, soon after his
coronation ' ; and then compare his accession with that of his
lively, handsome son Charles the Sixth: — who would have said
that the one would leave his kingdom enlarged, at peace; the
other drag it down to the lowest depths of humiliation ?
The truth is that . when Charles V became King, unknown
qualities emerged. He is silent, hidden from sight. From secret
places he rules, an occult power. The feudal world loses sight
of him, has no influence with him. He studiously depresses the
great nobles, does all by means of new men, the ' Marmousets,'
as the feudal lords contemptuously call them ; or he employs
his brothers, the Princes of the Lilies, whose ambition and rude
health he satisfies and employs now here now there. His
cold temperament cares for no man's sufferings ; he has little
love for any one except Du Guesclin. His tenacity outwears
his enemies, reduces his domestic burdens, enables him to
smother any latent desire for liberty in France, brings his
finances into good order, avoiding the disastrous ignorance of
his forerunner's fiscal policy ; he restores confidence and in-
1 ' Depuis le temps de son couronnement, luy estant en fleur de juenece,
ot une tres grieve et longue maladie, a quel cause luy vint se ne scay, mais
tout en fu affoiblis et debilitez, que toute sa vie demoura tres pale et tres
maigre, et sa complexion moult dangereuse de fievres et froidures d'esto-
mac' — Christine de Pisan, 2, c. 10.

A.D.1380. CHARACTER AND HABITS OF CHARLES V. 485
dustry, he enlarges the borders of his kingdom. Yet so secretly
and silently, so unlike the clatter of that false chivalry with
which men's ears were still filled, that the world was fain to
account for his power by occult causes : he was over-learned, a
magician, a practiser of forbidden arts. The truth was, he was
a shrewd lawyer1, patient, unscrupulous, sagacious ; and he knew
his times. He saw that the day of chivalry was past, that the
old forces of the world were wearing themselves out ; he knew
that by waiting he could outstay them. Their life was all action
and glory; he denied them the stirring excitement of battle,
and quietly wearied them out. This is the secret of his success.
We have a minute account of his daily life from Christine * :
it was thus. After dressing, he received his chaplain, with
whom he recited Breviary and Hours. Then at 8 a.m. he heard
Mass in his chapel, after which he gave audience to rich and
poor alike. Then, on Council days, to the Council ; then talk,
after the business done, with the lords of the blood or the
bishops. By 10 a.m. breakfast was ready; simple food, washed
down with good wine much diluted ; music playing the while.
Then conference with any prince or ambassador who might be at
Court ; questions propounded, discussed, solved ; letters signed ;
gifts and offices granted. This all done, he withdrew and
rested, taking sleep for about an hour. Refreshed, he amused
himself with his private friends, using simple relaxations for
the sake of his health : and this till vespers. Then, in summer,
he would stroll in his garden, and, if at St. Pol, the Queen,
and children would sometimes come too, and he would speak
to the women, and ask after the well-being of the children.
In the winter he sat and heard one read, now Holy Writ,
now the ' Gesta Romanorum,' or Moralities, or Philosophy, till
supper, which was early and light. After the meal, he fenced
a little with his comrades, and so betimes to bed. It is a
quiet feeble life, strictly by rule, without energy or enterprise
or much of interest, except when he pleased himself with his fine
1 As the Duke of Lancaster called him.
2 Christine de Pisan, 1, c. 16.

486 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD II. A.D. 1380.
collections of jewels, for which he had a great love. He wearily
did his work as a ruler; saying with a sigh, that government
was ' more burden than glory,' — ' plus charge que gloire.'
He was also a great lover of architecture and engineering,
and built not a few noble castles and churches, such as the
chapel at Vincennes, and the great abbey of St. Ouen at Rouen.
The Bastille dates from his day; he projected the canal, be
tween the Seine and Loire. He loved learning and the learned ;
his reign saw translations of the Bible, — then of Aristotle, next
in authority, — then of St. Augustine and of Livy ; and he
gathered together the germs of the great Library at Paris.
His public and striking acts are few. He did much for
good government in detail ; his administrative and civil or
dinances bear the. mark of a mind steeped in law, especially in
Roman Law. He made the Parliament of Paris permanent,
treating it as a high Law Court, and placed it significantly in
the old palace of St. Louis. He ordained that the majority of
the Kings of France should be fixed at the age of thirteen l ;
and very wisely separated the regency from the tutorship of a
minor King ; so that the Regent should never have the personal
charge of the King as well as that of the kingdom. His
Ordinances show no small favour to the higher bourgeoisie ; it
is not uncommon to find him granting nobility to the Provost and
Sheriffs of a city, as in 1372 to those of Poitiers, and in 1377 to
those of Paris. His Ordinances for the cities obviously aimed
first at detaching them (as in the cases of La Rochelle and
Poitiers) from the English cause, and secondly, at raising them
up against the feudal noblesse. He prepared the way for the
new system of taxation, by levying constant aids from the lands
of his vassals; he gave feudal lords money to restore their forti
fications, sent commissions to visit and repair castles, and to
demolish those which were no longer tenable. Finding the feudal
host cumbrous and unworkable, he supplemented it by paid
forces, and thus paved the way towards a regular army. The Great
War was in many ways increasing the power of the King. He
1 This law held good till the Revolution.

A.D. 1380. CHARACTERISTICS OF CHARLES V. 487
began to treat the noble's castle as a national fortress, and the
noble's wealth as a part of the national resources 1. In fact he
succeeded in bereaving the nobles of many of their sovereign
prerogatives, and in concentrating on himself the whole legisla
tive power. They still retained their powers of administration
and war ; the time would come when the Monarchy would
absorb these also.
One more trait. Though it is true that Charles confirmed his
brother in the Duchy of Burgundy, — finding the thing in fact
done when he came to the throne, — he took good care that no
more limbs should be torn away from France as provisions for
younger sons. There exists an Ordinance from his hand which
forbids all such concessions of sovereign fiefs in the future, and
fixes the provision for princes of the blood in the form of
revenues and titles. Thus while with one hand he helped to
found the great ducal house of Burgundy, with the other he
secured the unity of the French kingdom. Henceforth France
has but three great fiefs on her flanks : Guienne, the chief
scene of these Anglo-French wars ; Burgundy, destined to rise
almost to the rank of a kingdom in the coming time ; and
Brittany, whose stubborn Armoricans would be the last to bow
the head before the crown of France.
1 See Lavisse, Rev. Hist. xxvi.

CHAPTER IV.
Charles VI. A.D. 1380-1432.
I. The Great Schism.
One of the last public acts of Charles V was the creation of
the ' Great Schism of the West,' which divided Europe into two
new camps : that of the Clementines, that is, of those who recog
nised Pope Clement VII, and that of the Urbanists, who paid
allegiance to Urban VI. Though the latter claimant had
apparently the stronger and better cause, the French King did
not hesitate to throw his weight into the opposite scale. And
from that moment (a.d. 1378) for many years this great struggle
between Pope and Pope raged, to the scandal of Christendom.
The policy of France respecting the Popes, which was charac
terised by their ' captivity ' at Avignon, the want of moral
character and of a true sense of responsibility, and the persistent
resistance of all reform shown by the Popes, led naturally to
this deplorable sight, this duel in which the greatest names
and the greatest ideas in Christendom were pitilessly dragged
through the dust.
The last quarter of the fourteenth century was a very bad
time throughout Europe. Everywhere there was ferment and
restlessness, with sudden uprisings from below, ill-managed
and abortive, yet capable of shaking still more the tottering
feudal fabric. Everywhere the feeling was the same ; in Italy
the Fraticelli ; the Vaudois, the Turlupins ; ' the Society of the
Poor,' the ' Beggars,' in Germany ; in France the Jacquerie,

A.D.1378. THE GREAT SCHISM. 489
the followers of Wicliffe and John Ball in England : — all ex
pressed the same discontent. Froissart, who watched it from
the feudal castle-wall, opines that it sprang ' from the great
ease and abundance of goods in which the common folk then
lived.' He also finds it quite natural that the ' common folk
should till the lands of the gentleman, gather in his harvest,
lead it to his grange, store it, thrash and winnow it, and, as
his servile duty, cut the hay, make it, stack it, and do all such
like corvees.' But the unreasonable people 1 appealed to things
unheard of, to God's order in the world, to Adam and Eve,
complained that they were kept like beasts, not like men, and
even went so far as to demand wages for their work.
At the same time the faithless Papacy at Avignon was the
mother of all horrid crimes and vices, slave to its own passions
and to France. The conclave was entirely under French
influences; one Pope after another bowed before the French
King. This however could not always continue ; and at last
Urban V, in spite of all the efforts of Charles V and the French
party at Avignon, broke loose in 1367, and returned to Rome.
The Emperor Charles IV held his stirrup at his entry, rejoicing
to think that his turn of influence might be coming. Cardinal
Albornoz had subdued the Romagna, Umbria, and the March
of Ancona : it looked as if the Papacy might come back and
reseat itself in its temporal princedom. Yet Urban soon slipped
back again to Avignon, where he died in 1370. His successor,
Gregory XI, moved chiefly by St. Catherine of Siena, whose
influence over him was unbounded, risked his personal safety,
and also escaped to Rome. Italy was now fast turning against
France; and when in 1378 Gregory XI died, the Roman
populace, dreading above all things another Avignon Pope,
showed so ominous a temper, that the sixteen cardinals, of
whom eleven were French, were compelled, much against their
will, to elect an Italian, the Bishop of Bari, as Pope. He took
the name of Urban VI. The conclave, even while it elected
him, made protest that it was acting under compulsion; but
1 'Les mechants gens.' — Froissart (Buchon), 8, u. 106, p. 14.

490 THE GREAT SCHISM. A.D. 1378.
the cardinals afterwards recognised him by assisting at his
coronation, and it was only four months later, when the stern
severity of the new Pope had become plain to them, that the
French cardinals withdrew to Anagni in order to be near
Naples. They called to their aid the Gascon and Breton
brigands who were still roving about Italy ; they wrote to
Charles V, and made terms with him ; they declared the Papal
See vacant, and proceeded to a new election. This time their
choice fell on Robert of Geneva, a man who did not belong to
one of the powerful nations : he had led freebooters into Italy,
and was now but thirty-six years old. He took the name of
Clement VII. Charles V of France, the kingdoms of Scotland,
Naples, and Castille, recognised him at once. On the other
hand Urban was acknowledged by Northern Italy, by Germany,
England, Holland, Navarre, and most of the northern states
of Europe. Thus was all Christendom split asunder by the
' Great Schism,' between the aged Urban VI, the stern, disin
terested, and violent Italian Pope, and the youthful Clement VII,
the supple and dissolute French Pope.
The duration of the schism is reckoned by some at forty,
by others at seventy-eight years. The Church herself was
never quite clear as to the rights of the question ; it got itself
mixed up with many cross issues. It destroyed the idea of
the theocratic monarchy ; it struck a heavy blow at the old
faith, and prepared men for the Reformation. It was a great
scandal in Christendom, this house divided against itself. The
Popes fired bulls point-blank at one another, they distracted
Europe with the sight of their selfishness, and seemed bent
on proving the impotence of their most tremendous ecclesias
tical weapons.
At first the vigour of Urban carried all before him. He drove
Clement out of Naples and compelled him to take refuge at
Avignon ; then, with help of Charles of Durazzo, one of the
Angevin claimants to the throne of Naples, he took that city,
and put its unhappy Queen Joanna to death.

A.D. 1380. EARLY YEARS OF CHARLES VI. 491
II. The Early Years of the King. a.d. 1380-1392.
So things stood, when Charles V died, leaving his throne to
the handsome boy ', now nearly twelve years old, whose reign
was so disastrous to the state, so sad for himself. Just before
the sage King died, he had commended his little son to the
dukes his brothers, Berri and Burgundy, and to Bourbon, the
Queen's brother. ' All my trust,' said he, ' is in you ; the child
is young and fickle-minded, and great need there is he should
be guided and governed by good teaching.' Ill did they fulfil
the trust ! Berri w as occupied with his pleasures and his
extortions in the South ; Burgundy was busy securing the great
fief of Flanders, and founding a powerful dominion to the north
and east of France ; Bourbon was an amiable and worthy man,
gentle and of small influence ; and lastly, the Duke of Anjou,
whom Charles had not called to his bedside, was rapacious and
selfish, vehemently ambitious, and full of schemes for winning
the throne of Naples.
The times looked dark in Church and State. On the thrones
of France and England sat children, each surrounded by a group
of dishonest and selfish princes of the blood : drunken Wences-
laus abased the Empire: the state of the Papacy we have seen.
There was neither dignity in high places nor contentment among
the people. The English troubles were social 2, and more agri
cultural than civic : the French movements were political,
springing from the ideas of the burghers of a few great cities, in
sympathy with the Flemish towns. There was but little har
mony between them and the peasantry.
Never was there greater need of a wise prince than when
light-headed Charles VI was called on to take his father's place.
Unfortunately, he had not a single quality likely to be useful to
his people, unless it were his good-nature. He does not seem
to have been cruel of disposition. Juvenal des Ursins says that
1 Christine, 2, c. 15, says he was tall, handsome, and well-built, 'souve-
rainment bel de corps et de viaire (visage), grant de corps, plus que Us
communs hommes, bien forme, et de beauls membres.'
2 Wat Tyler's insurrection took place in 1381.

492 CHARLES VI. A.D. 1380.
at Courtrai he tried to prevent the murder, fire, and pillage.
He also calls him ' benign and gentle V Fickle-minded, fond
of pomp and pleasure, he disliked the duties of a ruler, and craved
for fresh excitements. When his father, shortly before his
death, had given him leave to choose among his exquisite jewels,
the lad passed them all by and took instead a little helmet ; he
hung a little suit of armour, like a child's toy, at his bed-head :
all tended to show that expeditions or court-games, movement,
excitement, self-indulgence, were the needs of the boy-king ;
and in these his uncles, the Princes of the Lilies, gladly indulged
him ; for thus he would most surely become unfit to exert his
own authority against theirs.
By an Ordinance of 1374''' Charles V had fixed the age of
his successor's majority at thirteen, hoping thereby to free his
son from the uncles : he died unfortunately two years before the
boy reached even that early age. In 1375 he had given the
regency to his eldest brother, the Duke of Anjou ; afterwards
(probably discerning his character better), he tried to keep him
out of it altogether. The tutelage he entrusted to the Queen
his wife, to his third brother the Duke of Burgundy, and his
brother-in-law the Duke of Bourbon. The regency was to
have no authority over Paris, Senlis, Melun, or the Duchy of
Normandy, which were to be governed by a council of prelates,
barons, members of the Parliament, and six burghers of the city
of Paris.
Of these Princes of the Lilies, the Duke of Burgundy, Philip
le Hardi, had married Margaret, heiress to the Count of Flan
ders ; whence he had the immediate expectation of Flanders,
' the wealthiest district in Christendom 3,' together with Brabant,
Artois, and other places of note.
1 J. Juvenal des Ursins, ann. 1388 : ' avoit grand sens et entendement, et
estoit ties belle personne et benigne et douce.' The great Chronique de
France describes the King as seeking to save the citizens, ' combien que le
roy eust fait cryer quon ny tuast personne et que on ne fit desplaisir anulluy,
toute voies, en despit de la bataille de Courtray ... les gens de guerre
tuerent presque tous ceulx de la ville.' — Chron. de France, torn. 3, p. 45.
2 Ordonnances des Rois, torn. 6, p. 26.
3 'La plus noble, riche et grant qui soit en Crestiente.' — Christine, 2. 13.

A.D. 1380. THE PRINCES OF THE LILIES. 493
Anjou, the worst of the brothers, was greedy and ambitious ;
he it was who stole the jewels Charles V had collected : he
scented out and seized the bars of treasure hidden in the
walls of Melun Castle, and intended as a reserve for the use of
the young King. Having got this wealth, he determined to win
with it Naples and Sicily, the glittering prize which dazzled him
and lured him to destruction. That he was thus attracted out
of France, and furnished with the means of making his way in
Italy, was perhaps the best thing that could have happened.
The money was not altogether ill laid out.
Berri, who presently took the command of the South of
France, was incapable as a ruler, extortionate, unjust; he
oppressed his people scandalously.
These selfish Princes of the Lilies quarrelled at once. Anjou,
through the great lawyer Jean des Marests, claimed both regency
and tutelage : the Chancellor, Peter d'Ogemont, for the Dukes of
Burgundy and Bourbon, claimed that the King should be at once
consecrated, and that there should be no regency, alleging the
express wishes of the late King. The dispute came to arbitration.
It was agreed that Anjou should be President of the Council of
Regency, but only till the King's consecration, and that he should
have as his own all the treasure, plate, jewelry, and furniture of
Charles V. His hopes of Naples made him acquiesce in this
award. There was established a great council, in which sat the
four Dukes, and with them twelve councillors, whom they chose.
The King's consecration at Rheims followed at once ; Oliver
Clisson was made Constable of France ; the dukes divided the
charge of the kingdom as they thought best. Burgundy had
Normandy and Picardy ; Berri went south to Languedoc, ruling
there and in part of Aquitaine, having full regalian rights over
nearly one-third of the kingdom. Anjou, as President of the
Council, had control of finance; Burgundy and Bourbon set
themselves over the King's education.
Just at this moment Ghent sounded her war-note. Philip van
Arteveld headed the revolt of the burghers against feudalism,
in his struggle with Louis de Male, Count of Bruges, and feudal

494 CHARLES VI. A.D. 1382.
lord of Ghent : in the battle of Bruges (a.d. 1382) Philip won the
independence of his city. At the same time Paris had revolted,
and had compelled the King's advisers to lighten the burden of
taxation ; for thirty thousand armed citizens were not to be
trifled with. Rouen also revolted, and set up a draper as their
civic king : him the Dukes presently overthrew. The States-
General were refractory ; the provincial States disaffected. The
feudal party, the nobles of France, saw clearly that the triumph
of the cities would be their loss ; and they urged the boy-King
to make war on the citizens of Flanders. Nor was he loth to
take the field. Philip van Arteveld appealed to England ; but
though the Urbanist churchmen of England wished to aid
their friends the Flemings against the Clementine French, and
though the English cities were not altogether unwilling to stand
by Ghent, succour came reluctantly, and too late. The English
nobility, like the French, saw that their interests were not on the
side of the towns. Consequently, the campaign of the French
chivalry against Ghent was little more than a military excursion.
A great part of the civic forces were engaged in the siege of
Oudenarde ; with the remainder, men of plentiful goodwill but
small knowledge of war, Philip van Arteveld marched out against
the French. Froissart tells us that he was no skilful general,
' being more fit to fish with a worm,' as he used to do on the
bridges of Ghent, than to command armies : and probably the
contemplative citizen was better in the council-chamber than
in the field. Certainly, at Roosebek there was little strategy.
The citizens tied themselves together, we are told, and advanced
in a solid body on the French. But though they made some
impression on the centre, the two wings of the French army
lapped round their flanks, where they were defenceless. They
stood and were massacred : ' soon there was a long and high
heap of slaughtered Flemings ; and, for so great a battle and so
many dead, never flowed so little blood ' — some were knocked
down with clubs and maces; numbers were stifled in the crush,
and lay dead without a wound. It is said that 26,000 perished:
the whole of the Ghent battalion, with Van Arteveld at its head,

A.D.1382. THE BATTLE OF ROOSEBEK. 495
was destroyed ; and the war was in fact ended with one blow.
Had King Charles pushed on, he might have brought all to a
very speedy close. Flanders was crushed ; the siege of Oude
narde raised; Bruges threw open her gates; Ghent left her walls
undefended for three days. The King wished to see the body
of the great burgher whom he had so signally overthrown : and
they sought it among the dead. There he lay, under a heap
of his faithful Flemings, crushed and stifled to death. The
prisoner, who found and pointed out the body, was so over
whelmed with grief, that he tore open his wounds, refusing' to
live now that his chief was dead. The body was displayed
before the King, and then, it is said, was hanged on a gallows-
tree '. ' And this,' says Froissart, ' was the last end of Philip
d'Arteveld2.' Thence they turned to Courtrai, took it, sacked'
it, and burnt it down. The townsfolk were slaughtered in
crowds, the wretched remainder dragged into servitude. The
Duke of Burgundy carried away the fine town-clock, and set
it up in his good city of Dijon. Thus was 'the Day of the
Spurs ' avenged.
And it was, in truth, a great triumph of thet noblesse over the
cities. Paris was the first to feel it. The King came back with
great pomp of arms ; the burghers' offer of honours at his
entry was contemptuously refused: the gates were torn down,
the barriers broken ; the Bastille at the Porte St. Antoine
strengthened. The city was treated as a fallen foe, and heavily
taxed s. The same was also done at Rheims, Chalons, Troyes,
Sens, Orleans. There was also a strong reaction against the
lawyers and the ' new men,' the 'Marmousets'; Des Marests, the
aged and faithful servant of so many Kings, now fell, nor did he
escape the scaffold *. There was no little judicial niurder, no
1 It is also said that the King kicked the body as it lay. But this rests
on the very slightest authority, that of a MS. chronicle at Oudenarde, cited
by M. de Reiffenberg.
2 Froissart (Buchon), 8, c. 198, p. 354.
3 Ibid. 8, c. 204, p. 387.
* Possibly his having supported the Duke of Anjou was partly the cause
of his fall.

496 CHARLES VI. A.D. 1384.
small squeezing of the rich. Terror and oppressive taxation fell
on the intelligent and industrious classes. In all ways the
triumph of the nobles seemed to be complete.
It was in vain that a strong force of English under the warlike
Bishop of Norwich was sent to Calais to support the Urbanist
cause, to give the English nobles a chance of emulating the
feudal glory won by the French at Roosebek, and to express,
at the same time, the popular sympathy with the burghers of
Ghent. None of their leaders showed strategy or wisdom, if
we except Sir Hugh Calverley, a true warrior of the sterner type,
to whose voice they never listened. They took Dunkirk, over
ran West Flanders as far as Sluys, laid siege to Ypres. Then
Charles VI rode northward again with a great host; and the
English, overmatched, gave way point by point, until they were
forced back into Calais.
Then came negotiations ; and a truce, in which the men of
Ghent were included, was signed in January 1384. At the
same time the burghers' old foe, Louis de Male, Count of
Flanders, perished by an obscure death, probably in a brawl
with the Duke of Berri. Flanders then fell into the hands
of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, who had it in right
of Margaret his wife. He was wise and conciliatory, restored
the Flemish liberties, and ' was himself more a Fleming than a
Lily-prince.' And thus the foundations of the great Burgun
dian dukedom, stretching in a curve from the sea round all
the northern and much of the eastern frontier of France, were
securely laid.
While Burgundy was thus fruitfully busied in the North,
Louis of Anjou pursued his own plans in the South, and brought
them to a very different issue. He crossed the Alps in 1385,
styling himself King of Sicily, and passed, with no small loss of
men, through Italy. Charles of Naples, his rival for the king
dom, withdrew all provisions, so that men and beasts were
starved. In vain did Anjou assert his claim as adopted son of
Queen Joanna ; in vain did he challenge Charles to come out
and fight. Like his namesake, Charles V of France, the King

A.D. 1385. THE END OF LOUIS OF ANJOU. 497
of Naples was sufficiently cool to watch quietly the daily
weakening of his antagonist. Thus, for example, Anjou, being
before Barletta, where Charles was lying, drew out his forces and
offered battle. 'The French were well enough armed, but
very scantily dressed ; the King himself wore a linen coat,
painted to represent armour.' Then Charles of Naples, who
had promised ' to see him in the field,' marched out of one of
the city-gates ; and, having thus raised the hopes of the French,
who languished for want of a battle, and having fulfilled his
promise to the letter, marched back into the city by another
gate. ' King Louis seeing himself thus mocked, and in such
straits, with his men all dying fast, determined to be gone and
to return home. But of his wrath and displeasure he died.
. . They put him in a coffin of lead, with such obsequies
as they could muster ... and then, noble or not noble, they
made for home afoot with great difficulty, each staff in hand;
and sore pity it was to see them. And thus all the chivalry and
help King Louis had had from France was lost. A fair example
for princes not to undertake such enterprises, if they do not well
know how to carry them out V And thus disappeared the most
covetous, unscrupulous, and ambitious of the brothers.
In this same year the King was married to Isabelle of
Bavaria; a lad of sixteen years to a pretty child of fourteen.
She was destined, for all her fair innocence, to be the scourge
of France.
Next year (a.d. 1386) the King and his uncles declared war
on Richard II, proposing to cross the Channel and invade
England 2. The preparations were enormous ; the rendezvous
at Sluys. There were collected nine hundred ships3; and a
wooden town was constructed, which was to be carried over and
built up as a fortress on the English shore. There were knights
and squires in crowds, archers and lesser folk without count.
The burden fell on the people ; great taxes were levied, and with
strictness. So severe was it, that a great part of the people fled
1 J. Juvenal des Ursins, A. 1385. 2 Froissart (Buchon), 8, c. 206.
3 Froissart says fourteen hundred.

VOL. I.

Kk

498 CHARLES VI. A.D.1388.
the land : ' the exaction was so sharp, that it took all one was
worth V Meanwhile all waited for the Duke of Berri ; but he
' made good cheer,' as he wrote to the King, 'and lived joyously,'
without moving. The autumn came, rough equinoctial weather
set in, the Channel was not safe, and the whole thing failed. All
the ships either perished at sea, or were taken by the English ;
the wooden town was given to the Duke of Burgundy; the
King went back to Paris. So ended this great effort, 'which
did more harm to France than ten years of actual war would
have done V
And yet Clisson was eager, in the spring of next year, to
collect his forces again. But he was hindered by the Duke of
Brittany (who was suspected of English leanings ), and an ex
pedition into the Ardennes and to Luxemburg, in the direction
of Germany, was planned and undertaken. This too was a
wretched failure. The army was starved ; the wreck of it slunk
home in disgrace.
These things all tended to make the Regency of the Dukes
very unpopular. Men, as usual, cherished the fond thought
that the young King was good and kindly, and not responsible
for these mishaps. And, consequently, there was great joy in
France when, at Rheims, in 1388, the King, acting under
advice of the prelates, but chiefly of the Cardinal of Laon,
took on himself the charges of the government, and dismissed
his uncles ' right well and graciously, with many thanks for the
trouble and toil they had had with him and the realm3.' And
they went, Berri into Languedoc, Burgundy to his lands and
lordships, both ill content, with anger at heart. Before long,
the Cardinal died suddenly, and they were suspected of having
poisoned him 4. The King at once chose his counsellors from
the ' Marmousets,' who had been the advisers of his father — such
as Oliver Clisson, Constable of France, the Lord de la Riviere,
and Nougant. The burdens of Paris were lightened, and Juvenal
1 J. Juvenal des Ursins, A. 1386.
2 Martin, Histoire de France, 5, p. 459. 3 Juvenal des Ursins, A. 1388.
4 Juvenal : * II fut ouvert, et trouva-on les poisons.'

A.D. 1390. THE RULE OF THE • MARMOUSETS.' 499
des Ursins, father of the chronicler, was made Provost ; Clisson
the Constable was in high honour with the King.
At first there was an attempt to govern well : the new
ministers were active, intelligent, prudent. The King made
circuit of Languedoc in 1390, and deposed the shameless Duke
of Berri. But it was only a gleam of light, soon to be clouded
over by the thick darkness of his madness. Though not with
out kindly impulses, Charles had no self-control ; he plunged
into all kinds of excess, and undermined a feeble constitution
and intellect. So he drifted on for a while, ever counselled by
the ' Marmousets,' allowing them to govern, and never halting
in his own round of wasteful and dissolute pleasures.
III. The King's Madness, a.d. 1392-1415.
In the summer of 1392 came a great change. One Peter
Craon, servant to the Duke of Orleans, the King's brother, was
dismissed from court. He imagined that Oliver Clisson, with
whom he had had high words, was the cause of his disgrace;
watching for an opportunity, he attacked the Constable by night
with twenty armed men, and left him for dead. The King, who
was passionately fond of his great soldier, heard the news as
he was going to rest. He hastened out, and found the Con
stable recovering his senses, though sorely wounded. Clisson
told him who had done the cowardly deed, and then and there
the King vowed vengeance on the assassin. The Constable
recovered ; but Charles was none the less determined to punish
Craon, who had fled for protection to the Duke of Brittany.
Then the King, on advice of his friends, and against the will
of his uncles, gathered an army, and, as soon as the Constable
could sit on a horse again, set out for the West. It was in
August. Charles was not in good health ; his debaucheries had
shaken him, he was feverish, light-headed; men noticed a
change in his manner and speech ; and his physicians advised
him not to go out in such hot weather. He would not listen.
The royal Dukes, though much opposed to the expedition,
k k 2

500 CHARLES VI. A.D. 1392.
followed in his train. One hot afternoon, as he was riding in
his armour westward in the burning sun, he was startled by a
wild-looking man, who seized his bridle and forbade him to go
on, ' for he was betrayed to his enemies.' For the moment he
seemed to pay no heed, and rode on. But in the heat of the
day, one of the two pages who rode behind him dozed, and
dozing, let the spear he carried clatter down on the steel cap of
his brother-page. The sound roused the King ; he yelled out
' Treason,' and, drawing his sword, fell on his escort, and, chas
ing them to and fro, killed four ere he could be stayed. When
they got him down, he lay on the ground as one dead. They
carried him back to his quarters. The physicians came, and
they too judged he was gone. The common people came also,
and wept, and lamented. ' Sore was it to see their tears and
mourning1.' After a while he recovered his health, though not
his senses. He knew no one but the Duchess of Orleans, whom
he called ' his fair sister ' : he even denied his own identity 2.
The people thought him bewitched.
Burgundy and Berri at once seized the government ; the
Duke of Orleans, the King's brother, was put aside. This was
the first sign of the coming civil discord between the parties
of the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, which forms the
chief part of the history of France during this desolate time.
The King's friends escaped as best they could: Clisson made
for his castle in Brittany, John of Montagu fled to Avignon,
Nougant and others were imprisoned in the Bastille. The
luckless King was left in charge of his wife, who, from being
idle and pleasure-loving, sank into scandalous debauchery, and
tore France in pieces by her vices. Unfortunately for France
and for himself the King's malady was found to be intermittent ;
lasting usually from June to January, and leaving him more or
less sane during the spring months. Consequently the Dukes
were regarded as only the King's agents. They sheltered
1 J Juvenal des Ursins, A. 1392.
2 ' Ne cognoissoit personne quelconque, tant qui luy mesmes se des-
coignoissoit, et disoit que ce n'estoit il pas.' — Chron. de France, 3, p. 68.

A.D. 1392. THE KING'S MADNESS. 501
themselves behind his name, his personal popularity, and the
pity felt for him ; they got his assent to their baleful measures ;
they left the state in unrest. The people trusted that the King
would again awake to sanity, and hailed his half-lucid intervals
with joy and hope. It was sad to see his feeble endeavours
to govern when he was better ; still more sad to watch him
sinking back into madness. He was always aware that the
fit was coming on again ; and then ' it was most piteous to
hear his regrets, as he invoked and called on God's favour,
and our Lady and divers saints.' Once he begged the Duke of
Burgundy to take away his knife ; for he said, with tears, that
he would rather die than be so tormented1. 'If any of this
company,' said he, ' are causes of my sufferings, I conjure
them, in the name of Christ, to torment me no more, but
kill me outright' (July, 1397).
In his lucid times the King seems to have tried honestly
to put an end to the scandals of the Great Schism2. There
were two plans suggested: (1) the 'way of cession,' that
both Popes should abdicate, and a third be elected in their
place ; (2) ' the way of compromise,' that there should be a
General Council called, at which both parties should be present
(or at least should be summoned), and that the judgment
of the Council should be held to be binding on all. The
University of Paris, which had declared against the King's former
counsellors, was now rising to the position of the recognised
organ of opinion in the realm ; joining with the civic authorities,
she had made her mind known in remonstrance or advice ;
had appealed with the voice of a lawyer, not of a churchman,
to the high principles of justice, humanity, and duty ; had
striven to keep alive some sense of right and wrong in days in
which religion had fallen so low as to become the unscrupulous
partisan of this or that unworthy Pope. To the University the
King appealed for her opinion on the Schism. Each Master sent
1 Histoire de Charles VI, by the anonymous Monk of St. Denis.
2 ' Infinita scandala procedebant ex radice nephandissimi scismatis in
Ecclesia vigentis.' — Chron. Kar. VI. lib. 1, c. 3.

502 CHARLES VI. A.D.1396.
in his own reply : there were, it is said, ' ten thousand opinions ' ;
and the University also sent her Orator, Nicolas de Clemangis,
a man of much eloquence, many ideas, and no principles, to
court. He addressed the King at length. He threw doubts
on the infallibility of Councils; he proposed that the University
should temper the one-sidedness of the bishops in Council by
a due admixture of doctors in theology and law. He also
wrote a book on the corrupt state of the Church. He seemed
likely to be a Church-reformer, a forerunner of Luther; this,
however, was not to be ; for he had no true depth, and was
content to become the secretary of one of the rival Popes.
Little help then did the King really get from him. Still there
seemed some chance of a solution from another quarter. The
Avignon Pope died. • King Richard of England, now friendly
with the French court, was also eager to bring the quarrel to
an end ; so that two at least of the old opponents were at one.
Still nothing was effected; another Avignon Pope, Benedict
XIII, was elected : the evil was unabated.
When, in 1396, King Richard of England met the French
King between Ardres and Calais, one of the important mat
ters discussed was this of the Schism. The two princes deter
mined to act in concert, both supporting the ' way of cession,'
and agreeing to compel the Avignon Pope to abdicate. The
Germans also accepted the same solution, and the chief lay-
powers seemed to be quite agreed. But there was no chance
with Benedict XIII ; he stood out firmly for himself. Why
should he abolish himself for the good of Christendom ? Why
should men now expect self-denial from a Vicar of Christ ?
The Gallican Church withdrew (a.d. 1398) from her allegiance
to him, and had a dream of asser-ting her ancient liberties.
Avignon was besieged : — what form of pressure was omitted ?
Still, Benedict held grimly to his ' Apostolic seat/ and beat off
the assailants. The siege was raised. He doubtless received
covert help, at least encouragement, from Spain, and also from
the Duke of Orleans' party. For Orleans, with South-French
instincts and interests, supported Benedict; while the Burgun-

A.D.1396. BURGUNDIANS AND ORLEANISTS. 503
dians, with their North-French and Germanic sympathies, were
for ' the way of cession.'
Richard II of England, in 1396, made a truce for twenty-
eight years with France ; ceded Cherbourg to the King of
Navarre, and Brest to the Duke of Brittany, to the great disgust
of the English people, and was affianced to Isabelle, the little
daughter of the French King. For a brief space a little light
falls on the picture. Then the King sank back into dissolute
courses, and thence into madness ; and though he had lucid
times in the summer, and a still clearer period about Christmas,
he never again was fit to take charge of affairs. Meanwhile the
court amused itself: the Queen and the Dukes spent all they
could extort from the wretched people on their scandalous
pleasures : ' though there was no war, aids and money were
ever levied from the people.' There was no proper Regency ;
the court was torn asunder by the two great factions. At the
head of the one was the Duke of Burgundy, who drew most
of his strength from the North and East of France, partly also
even from Germany and England ; for after the revolution of
1399, when Richard of England was deposed by his cousin
of Lancaster, the Duke was friendly towards Henry IV. In
the matter of the Schism the Burgundians urged .the ' way
of cession'; in politics they affected at least some popular
sympathies. At the head of the other party was the Duke
of Orleans, supported by the wretched Queen. The Orleanists
had their strength in the South of France; they upheld the
Avignon Pope, and represented the aristocratic elements of
French society ; they were at this time very unpopular and
extravagant. They nursed the opposition to Henry IV in
England. The Burgundians were probably the stronger; they had a
more distinct policy, more powerful friends, a more compact
territory to fall back on; that territory was also strong in
position, lying, as it did, between France and Germany, and
having ties to both ; it seemed not unlikely to be the arbiter
between them. The Burgundians, however, suffered a terrible

504 CHARLES VI. A.D.1396.
blow in 1396, when John, the Duke's son (who afterwards suc
ceeded him as John the Fearless), led a harebrained crusade
against Bajazet the Ottoman Sultan, who was pressing Hungary,
and threatened to stable his horse in St. Peter's at Rome. The
Christians, with true feudal impetuosity, ignorance, and thought
lessness, refused the counsels of the Hungarian King Sigismund,
and fell victims to their enemies at Nicopolis. It was the old
tale : the feudal chivalry wasted its strength and breath on the
first foe who appeared ; with great heat they beat back the
Ottoman scouts, and then, disordered and spent, found them
selves opposed to Bajazet's real army, the splendid janizaries,
fresh, cool, disciplined. They all fell on the field, or were made
prisoners. Bajazet had all his captives put to death excepting
John of Nevers, the future duke, and eighty nobles, whom he
saved that they might be ransomed. It is said that ten thousand
of them so perished. The battle of Nicopolis was a fearful blow
to the Burgundians. They were weakened by their losses, and
crushed with debt for the recovery of the captives. On the other
hand, the Duke of Burgundy gained by supporting Henry of
Lancaster in the revolution which overthrew King Richard of
England in 1399, and laid the foundation of that friendship
with the Lancastrian house which was so formidable to France
during the next century. Thus for the moment, in England and
France alike, the aristocracy seemed to triumph over royalty.
Paris was garrisoned with the troops of the two Dukes in 1401,
1402. England had also just seen the overthrow of royalty by
aristocracy. Yet, whether triumphant or defeated, the forces
of the aristocratic parties were ever eating themselves away,
preparing the way for that ascendency of monarchy which the
next age was destined to see.
Meanwhile the wretched King, to whom the French people
clung with a touching and simple hopefulness, calling him the
' well-beloved,' and waiting for his recovery and the golden days
it should bring, lingered on in a miserable condition, amused,
as it could best be compassed, with shows and entertainments.
This is said to have been the time at which the game of cards

A.D. 1401. THE PARTIES IN FRANCE. 505
was first brought into vogue in France, though it had been
known in the days of Philip of Valois ; and, in connection with
it, came the first hint of printing, block-printing of the rude
figures with which the cards were adorned. It was at this time
also that the Mysteries, the origin of the French drama, were
first acted in Paris by citizens, who formed themselves into a
guild for that purpose.
The people, in spite of all, seem to have somewhat bettered
their condition during these years ; agriculture advanced : the
true wealth of France has ever lain in her fields, and in the
patient, thrifty cultivation of them by her peasantry 1-
It will not repay us to enter in detail into any account of
the years during which France was a prey to rival princes and
factions. These were miserable years, when the leaders of parties
were selfish and depraved, without principles or patriotism. On
one side were the Burgundians, on the other the Orleans party,
afterwards nicknamed the Armagnacs 2. Every party had a nick
name, sign of a degraded political and moral life. Cabochians 3,
Armagnacs, Urbanists, Clementines, the names indicated persons
more or less badly prominent, round whom raged the waters of
intestine strife. While the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans head
the parties, those of Berri and Bourbon try to trim the balance
between them, or to bring them from time to time to a hollow
peace. Thus, in 1402, we find such an accord, made but to be
broken; then the poor King, awaking somewhat from his loath
some madness, and doubtless influenced by his Queen, named
the Duke of Orleans regent of the realm. Forthwith Burgundy,
Berri, and Bourbon resisted. Orleans, whose one idea of govern
ment was the extortion of money by foolish and oppressive taxa
tion, had to yield before the popularity of Burgundy, who stood
forth, once and again, as champion of the oppressed taxpayer.
In this same year Henry of England married the Duchess of
Brittany, thus alarming the French ; and Orleans, glad of a
pretext for standing out as the exponent of French national
1 Martin, Histoire de France, 5, p. 469.
2 See below, p. 509. 3 Ibid.

506 CHARLES VI. A.D. 1404.
feelings, defied England, and declared that he would avenge
poor King Richard. Orleans, however, was a man of low
moral life, great words, small action ; and nothing came of it
till 1406, when there was a feeble and abortive attempt at war.
In 1404, Philip Duke of Burgundy died, leaving his great
territories and the inheritance of his quarrel to John the Fearless
(Jean sans Peur), his eldest son. John was a young man
without any of the refinement of Orleans, but full of political
insight and ready to use any means to gain his ends. He
hated Louis, Duke of Orleans, who on his side despised and
had wronged him ; he took up the popular resistance to
wasteful expenditure and shameless taxation ; he kept up good
relations with England.
At first, however, Orleans seemed likely to prevail. Bur
gundy thought it wise to retire to his own states for, a time.
Soon he came back with an army (a.d. 1405); and Berri and
Bourbon rallied to him, so as to balance the great influence
of Orleans. Each party had an army in the district round
Paris, and a collision seemed imminent. The Duke of Berri,
however, acted as peace-maker, and an open explosion was
averted. In this same year the Queen and her brother, Louis
Duke of Bavaria, tried to carry off the Dauphin and the children
of the Duke of Burgundy as hostages to Pouilly. They were
detained by a heavy storm ; and tidings of the attempt came to
Burgundy, who was lodged at the Louvre. He at once took
horse, and rode after them full speed ; and so well he rode
that he caught them up, took the lads out of their hands, and
brought them back to Paris, to the great joy of all the people '.
The Duke now thought it time to make his manifesto to the
Parisians : in it he said that he had interfered for four reasons ;
' 1. For the sake of the King's government, and to bring about
the recovery of his health: 2. To do justice in the realm,
wherein were committed infinite ill-doings : 3. To improve the
Royal Domain by good administration, for its revenues were
naught, and it was in a ruined state : 4. In order to assemble
1 J- Juvenal des Ursins, A. 1405.

AD. 1405. THE BURGUNDIAN MANIFESTO. 507
the Three Estates, and to advise with them touching the govern
ment.' And he went on to show that those' who had the
government before had spoiled and wasted everything. No
small vexation and disgust was felt by the Queen and the Duke
of Orleans at this, and at the fact that Burgundy had with him
in Paris eight hundred men-at-arms, and that the burghers also
surrounded him with weapons in their hands. They came as
far as to the wood of Vincennes, and there lay watching for an
opportunity. Burgundy called up his German allies, the Duke
of Austria, the Count of Wiirtemberg, the Duke of Savoy and
the Prince of Orange; there came also men of Holland and
Zealand, of Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault. He appointed
the Duke of Berri Captain of Paris, restored the street-chains
and the defences at the gates. In the face of this vigour the
other side gave way. The Queen and the Duke of Orleans
came into Paris : and the Duke of Burgundy was acknowledged
to be at the head of affairs ; ' many fair ordinances were issued,
but they lasted not.' '
In this year (a.d. 1405) Margaret of Burgundy died. She was
the founder of a kingdom in all but name. Through her was
built up the great Burgundian dukedom, which comprised
Flanders, Artois, Franche-Comte, and Ducal Burgundy.
There was a kind of suspicious peace between the parties for
a few months ; as however they kept up, out of sight, a great
deal of gnarring and grudging, it was agreed that the two dukes
should each take force, and march against the English; Orleans
to the South, Burgundy to the North. The former only played
at war; he had neither civic nor military virtue; he did but
waste money and men in scandalous pomps to the neglect of
his duty, after a while making his way back to the pleasant
vices of Paris. Burgundy, marching against Calais, acted
more respectably, and fared no better ; he was ill-supplied with
stores and money, and, winter coming on, he recognised that
Calais was too strong for him, raised the siege, disbanded his
force, and also made for Paris. The Duke of Berri, as usual,
stood between the irritated princes, and flattered himself that

508 CHARLES VI. A.D. 1407.
he had at last brought them to terms of friendship. They
swore peace and amity, and even heard mass and received the
communion together (Nov. 26, 1407); and then on the Wed
nesday next following, one Raoul d'Octonville, a Burgundian
partisan, fell on Orleans, as he returned from visiting the Queen,
and murdered him. The Duke did not shrink from taking the
crime on himself; avowed it to Louis of Anjou and the Duke
of Berri ; and (on the advice of the latter) took horse and rode
off to his own dominions.
And how was this foul deed received f Paris was in ecstasies
of joy ; Flanders also and Burgundy approved ; the Duke saw
that he might safely return to Paris : he came and was received
with transports of enthusiasm. The Church, in the person of
Jean Petit, accepted the act and apologised for it : for the Duke
was dear to the clergy of Paris as being against the Schism, and
against Pope Benedict. Even the thin voice of poor King
Charles, as of a shadow from the other world, was heard ab
solving him from any evil consequences. ' He felt,' he declared,
' no wrath against the Duke for the murder of his brother.' The
widowed Duchess of Orleans alone, — who had little cause to
think well of her husband, — made her voice heard against the
murderer, and for the rights of her young sons. So low had
morality fallen in this bad age.
It would be vain to trace the minute and inglorious features
of the struggle which then ensued. At first the parly of the
young Duke of Orleans had the upper hand, and Burgundy
was called away to quell revolt at Liege : when he came back
victorious, the Queen, who was now Regent, fled with the
King, the Dauphin and her party, first to Gien, thence to Tours.
In the spring the quarrel was patched up, and the King came
back to Paris. About the same time another element of Euro
pean confusion seemed likely to be brought to an end. The
Council of Pisa met (a.d. 1409), and the Cardinals of both
parties agreed to abandon their masters ; the Council declared
both Popes to be heretics, excommunicated and deposed them,
and forthwith elected another, Alexander V, to fill the vacant

A.D. 1411. THE CABOCHIANS. 5o9
throne. As their authority was set at naught by the two pre
vious Popes, this ' way of cession ' also failed, not securing the
consent of those who had to cede ; so that forthwith there were
three Popes instead of two : the Avignon Pope Benedict being
recognised by Spain ; the Roman Pope Gregory by Italy ; and
the new or Pisan Pope Alexander by the rest of Europe.
The next year saw a new league of princes against the arbi
trary rule of Burgundy. These were Berri, the Orleans princes,
Bourbon, the Duke of Brittany, and Bernard, Count of Arma
gnac, father-in-law of the Duke of Orleans, a southern prince of
great vigour, who brought the Gascon free-lances to the help
of the princes, and became the real head of the party. They
have taken their historic name of ' Armagnacs ' from him.
These princes now issued a long manifesto to France, claiming
to have reason and justice on their side. The Duke of Bur
gundy had to bow before this new coalition; and though he
gathered together his forces from Brabant, Picardy, and Lorraine,
he thought it prudent to come to terms with his opponents in
a convention called the Treaty of Bicltre. It was no true peace
— only such a breathing-time as the irreconcilable parties thought
needful now and then.
In 141 1 war broke out again. Burgundy, it was believed,
made terms with the King of England * : at any rate negotia
tions with him soon became part of the recognised politics of
the time. But for the moment Burgundy received much more
effectual help from Paris herself. While it was felt that the Ar
magnacs were completely the noblesse-party, which also showed
a tendency to become more and more the national party, it was
seen that the Burgundians were allied to the burgher-party in
Flanders and Paris. And though opinion was much divided at
Paris, still for a time it was very loudly pronounced in favour of,
the northern Duke. Now however rose up a new domination
in the city, that of the Butchers, the Cabochians, as they were
called, from the name of one Caboche, a flayer of cattle, and
1 ' Et estoit commune renommee que des lors eurent alliance le roy
d'Angleterre et le due de Bourgongne.' — J. Juvenal des Ursins, A. 1411.

510 CHARLES VI. A.D. 1412.
chief butcher-leader. Under this rough and vigorous party,
entirely devoted to the Burgundians, but rapidly getting beyond
the control even of the Duke of Burgundy, Paris showed a reso
lute front against the nobles. The King and Dauphin were
constrained to side with them, adopting ' the cross in the form in
which St. Andrew, not our Lord, was crucified,' and the ' cha
peron blanc,' the symbols of the Burgundians. Much violence
was done to the partisans of the other side, and (as is usual at
such times) to harmless rich folk ; ' it was only needful to call
such an one an Armagnac, then all fell on him, killed him, and
took his goods.' Though the Armagnacs came up to Paris
and besieged it from South and North, they made no farther
progress. They fortified the villages round, notably St. Cloud ;
where they were attacked and worsted by the Burgundians,
who took the place and slew many of them. They then
abandoned St. Denis, which they had also occupied, and fell
back to the South. Early in 14 12 the King decided to take
the field in person against the princes, being specially enraged
against the Duke of Berri, whom he besieged in Bourges.
The English, to trim the parties, and keep up this wretched
civil war, now sent help to the Armagnacs. It was all in vain:
after terrible privations, famine, camp-fever, and all the rest
of the usual story, Berri, much battered, made his submission,
and a peace was patched up at Auxerre, which the Dukes of
Orleans and Burgundy signified to their soldiers by the strange
feat of both riding on one horse. The treaty made Burgundy
for the moment lord of France, while it threw the Dauphin,
a dissolute vicious lad, into the hands of the Armagnacs. The
Cabochians ruled supreme in Paris, led by their captain Helion
de Jacqueville, a knight of Beauce, who ' in fact governed all
things i ' : Paris and Ghent made common cause again ; it was
a pale reflexion of the better days of £tienne Marcel.
1 J. Juvenal des Ursins, politically opposed to them, says, ' A la fin
d'avril . . se mirent sus plus fort que devant meschantes gens, trippiers,
bouchiers, et escorcheurs, pelletiers, cousturiers, et antres pauvres gens de
has estat, qui faisoient de tres inhumanes, detestables et deshonnestes
besongnes' (A 141 3).

A.D. 1413. THE CABOCHIAN ORDINANCE. 51 1
This period was made illustrious by a certain famous state-
paper, usually called the ' Cabochian Ordinance,' which appeared
in 1413. The States-General had been ' convoked, Church,
Noblesse, and Good Towns; and those who came busied
themselves over the griefs and troubles of the land. Then
came forth this Ordinance ', a singular monument, and one
not to be forgotten, when we are told, as ever in the chronicles,
of the brutality of the butchers. It proves conclusively that
theirs was no mere 'marrow-bone and cleaver' rule: it shows
that their ideas of good government were infinitely higher than
those of the princes who were regarded as the natural rulers
of France. We must not forget, however, that the Ordinance
was the work not of the brute force of Paris, but of her brain,
the doctors and jurists, who were always far in advance of all
others, even of the clergy. We read that in this year a notable
doctor in theology of great repute, John Jarson (Gerson), spake
evil of the dominant party, so that they greatly desired to take
him ; he escaped into the high vaults of Notre Dame, and
there lay hid, while his house was pillaged. This Gerson is
one of the reputed authors of the famous treatise De Imitatione
Christi. After all, the Cabochian Ordinance bore no fruits of its
wisdom ; for in the autumn it was abrogated. The city was
weary of the domination of the butchers, with its mixture, which
seems almost inevitable in France, of just ideas and lawless
action, of noble sentiments and wise utterances joined to pillage
and judicial murder. The citizens, headed by John Juvenal des
Ursins, father of the historian, called in the Armagnacs, who
gladly came and easily overthrew the Cabochians. John the
Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, who seems to have lost all his
nerve and decision, fled headlong into Flanders, and for a time
1 See Michelet, 4, p. 248. This Ordinance was in reality a great code in
ten chapters, which were intended to regulate all the government of France.
The subjects are: (1) The Royal Domain; (2) Coin of the Realm; (3) Taxa
tion ; (4) War-chest ; (5) The ' Chambre des Comptes,' or Exchequer ; (6)
The Parliaments ; (7) Justice; (8) The ' Chancellerie,' or Foreign Office;
(9) Water-rights and Forestry ; (10) Gendarmerie.

512 CHARLES VI. A.D. 1414.
his greatness waned ; his good fortune seeming to have deserted
him. The Armagnacs made the Duke of Berri Captain of Paris ;
' and,' says Juvenal, ' he rode through the city, and men saw
him very gladly; people said it was a very different chivalry
from that of Jacqueville and the Cabochians.' Thus said Juvenal,
whose father had headed the civic party against the butchers ;
and doubtless the riding of the Duke with his noble company
was far more gallant and showy than that of the Cabochian
leaders. It may be doubted whether, after all, the change was
much of a gain.
The Duke of Burgundy made some considerable effort to
recover himself, but without success. He got into St. Denis, and
the King, now entirely in the hands of the Armagnacs, declared
him his mortal enemy. His party felt strong enough to attack
Duke John on the north and east. They drove his party out of
Compiegne, Soissons, Noyon, Laon ; they drove the Duke him
self as far as to Liege. There he had to make such terms as he
best might with the Armagnacs and the King ; and the treaty of
Arras was signed in September 1414.
In 1 4 10 Pope Alexander V had died, leaving the Church
in uttermost confusion. He was succeeded by John XXIII.
Benedict XIII still ruled at Perpignan, Gregory XII at Rome,
and the triple schism became yearly more and more scandalous.
In 14 1 4, in concert with Sigismund, King of Romans and
Emperor-elect, John XXIII was induced to convoke a General
Council at Constance. Thither came he, the Emperor-elect, the
envoys of both the other popes, a crowd of dignified clergy, the
ambassadors of all Christian States of the West, the Electors,
many German barons. It was said that a hundred thousand
strangers were there. Significant symptoms of the growth of
national life in Europe appeared. Sigismund proclaimed him
self ' above grammar ',' that is, contemptuous towards the old
universal tongue of Latin Christendom, the outward symbol of
1 He is said to have replied to one who desired to correct a grammatical
error in his utterances at Constance, ' Ego sum Rex Romanus et super
Grammaticam.*

A.D. 1414. THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 513
the imperial unity of the Church : the Council was divided into
nations, the German, Italian, French, English, and (after a time)
the Spanish. John XXIII, odious to all for his vices and crimes,
fled to Schaffhausen, where he was under the protection of
Frederick of Austria. Thither Sigismund pursued him ; con
quered Frederick, and had John seized at Freibourg in Breisgau.
The head and moving intellect of the Council was Gerson, whom
we have seen hidden in the upper vaults of Notre Dame. He
it was who led the Council to make the significant declaration
that it was superior to the Papacy, and authoritative over all
Christendom. We need not enter into details of the trial and
deposition of John, an act which seemed to justify in the eyes
of the world the high pretensions of the Council. The Pope
accepted the sentence, and solemnly descended from his lofty
throne. Gregory XII abdicated voluntarily; Benedict XIII
resisted, and was deposed : and to signalise the reunion of
Christendom, John Huss, the Bohemian reformer, the eloquent
foe of the corrupt priesthood, the man whose opinions were
so clearly opposed to that outburst of clerical and conciliar
power which had but just asserted its supremacy even over the
Papacy, was arraigned, condemned and burnt. Then the Council
elected a new Pope, Martin V, who undertook to work with
it for the reform of the Church. No sooner was he Pope
than he concluded a Concordat with each of the nations, and
forthwith broke up the Council. The time for reform was mot
yet come.
It is in the reign of Charles VI that the Parliament first
becomes prominent as a political body 1- All through the four
teenth century we find the Parliament registering royal acts ; this
however seems to have been a mere formality, until the madness
of Charles VI encouraged independent discussion. In 1392 we
have the first instance of parliamentary opposition to a royal
act, and although the Parliament did not get its way, yet it had
begun to assert its right to discuss measures, before it consented
to register them. During this reign the Parliament is consulted
1 See Aubert, Le Parlement de Paris de 1314-1422.
t VOL. 1. L 1

514 ' CHARLES VI. A.D. 1414.
on many important matters of state. Its support is invoked by
University and Clergy against Benedict XIII. By prohibition
of Annates and Appeals to Rome, and by steady encroachments
on ecclesiastical jurisdictions, it had made itself the most powerful
bulwark of the royal power, and of the liberties of the Gallican
Church. Meanwhile, at Paris, the Dauphin ruled supreme, and gave
himself up to debauchery. He little recked what a cloud was
gathering in the West, to shake him from his scandalous life ;
he cared little for the growing force, which was so soon to
drag him out to see with his own eyes the downfall of his
country.

CHAPTER V.
The Third Period of the Hundred Years' War!
A.D. 1415-1422.
When in 14 13 the young Henry V succeeded to his father's
throne, the Red Rose had already taken firm root in the soil.
All things pointed him out as likely to play an important part
in history ; his vigour and severity of character, his industry in
study1, his kindliness, even the lively faults of his youth, denoted
a prince who would seek for stirring deeds when he came to be
King. What troubles met him, what conspiracies beset him, on
the threshold of his reign, and how he overcame them ; how his
attention was called at the Parliament of Leicester to the pos
sessions of the clergy ; how Archbishop Chichele, to distract his
mind from the confiscation of the goods of the Church, pointed
out the advantages of a war with France, and gained his point
with ease ; all this is often told to the student of English history.
The high-spirited young King did not forget the insulting
message and present sent him by the foolish Dauphin soon after
his accession 2, nor could he fail to see the tempting opportunity
1 He was a student at Queen's College in Oxford, where a very interesting
portrait of him is preserved.
2 Redman's History of Henry V, A.D. T414. ' Visum est Carolo Galliae
Dolphino . . . legatos ad nobilibsimum principem mittere ; quorum inepta
ac plane ludicra nee inter sanos unquam nominanda legatio non injuria
Anglorum regis . . . animum ira inflammavit.' He had sent the young
King a present of pretty balls from Paris, as a plaything for a child : and
this Henry much resented. Ll 2

516 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD III. A.D. 1415.
offered by the intestine troubles of France, the madness of her
sovereign and the hare-brained debauchery of the Dauphin ; and
he sent over an offer to conclude peace with France on the
basis of the treaty of Bretigny, with the startling addition that
he himself should marry Catherine, daughter of Charles VI1,
and that she should bring with her, as dowry, Normandy, Maine,
Anjou, and a large sum of money. These terms were too hard
even for dejected France ; in reply Charles offered Henry the
hand of Catherine, with Aquitaine and a considerable dowry.
This again was refused, and war came on. In August 141 5
Henry set sail from Southampton, after having crushed the
great conspiracy of Lord Scroop, and safely entered the Seine ;
there he landed on the right bank of the river, near Harfleur,
a town which stands as the doorway into Normandy. The
town was invested at once ; Henry had with him six thousand
men-at-arms, and twenty thousand archers.
And how did the French Court receive the news of this
formidable invasion ? The English lay five weeks besieging
Harfleur : they suffered fearfully from dysentery and camp-fever ;
a large part of the King's forces returned to England, weary or
sick. A very little energy would have wrecked the whole expe
dition ; a few hundred men pushed boldly forward would have
relieved the Sire d'Estoutville, who held Harfleur ; and then there
would have been nothing for the English but to set sail again
for Southampton. But nothing was done at Paris. The King,
who had at the time a lucid interval, took indeed the Oriflamme
at St. Denis, and came out as far as to Vernon. But instead of
acting, the two parties in France only negotiated with each
other, and squabbled over old feuds. Thus we find in Juvenal
des Ursins a long account of the contention between the Duke
of Burgundy's ambassadors at Paris, and the famous theologian
Gerson, who had persuaded the Council of Constance to
1 Henry was at the same time cleverly amusing the Duke of Burgundy,
and sowing distrust (if that were needed) between him and the Armagnac
Princes, by another proposal : namely that he should take to wife
another Catherine, daughter of John the Fearless. Rymer's Foedera,
torn. 9, p. 136.

A.D.1415. HENRY V INVADES FRANCE. 517
condemn John Petit, a member of the University of Paris, for
having maintained that Burgundy was justified in causing the
death of the Duke of Orleans. The paper drawn up by Gerson is
dated August 1415, the very moment at which Henry was sitting
down before Harfleur. And though the Marshal of France,
Boucicault, pushed down to Lillebonne and even came in
sight of the English near Harfleur, he was not in sufficient
force, and fell back without accomplishing anything : the next
week he had to receive the remnants of the French garrison,
who, worn out with siege and waiting, had capitulated to the
English. King Henry's force was now much reduced ] : he had
probably not more than two thousand men-at-arms, and about
thirteen thousand archers, — some say more, some less. With
this force any prudent general would either have secured
himself in Harfleur, and awaited the spring, or would have left
a strong force there, returning straight to England. But the
inexperienced young King wished to ' ride through France,'
like his fathers ; and therefore broke up from Harfleur, and
made northwards for Calais. At first he kept near the sea,
hoping to pass the Somme, as King Edward had done, near
its mouth. And the French leaving Rouen marched parallel
with him, due north to Abbeville. They had broken down
the bridges, and destroyed all the provender and victual they
could. The French were a great host of nobles, and very pre
sumptuous ; as indeed they had some ground for being, seeing
that King Henry seemed to be caught in a snare. They
1 Elmham, in his Metrical Chronicle, 1. 384-386, says : —
' Hinc vix nongenta pila fuere sibi.
Millia vix quinque remanent simul arcitenentes :
Quotidie numerus fit minor inde sibi.'
But J. Juvenal des Ursins says the King left a good garrison in Harfleur,
and then ' se partit, accompagne de quelque quatre mille hommes d'armes,
et bien de seize k dix-huit mille archers, a pied, et autres combatans.' —
J. Juvenal des Ursins, A. 141 5, edited by Michaud, 2, p. 518. Sismondi
says 2,000 men-at-arms, and 13,000 archers. These figures may be near
the truth.

518 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD III. A.D. 1415.
refused to allow the Burgundians (with the exception of two
of the Duke's brothers) to be with them : great numbers of
burghers from Paris and other cities wished to join them ; but
they 'vilipended and despised them1/ as they had before done
at Courtrai and elsewhere. At the time the report ran that
the English were so straitened that they offered to give up
Harfleur for a free passage through to Calais ; and that the
nobles refused it. It is said that the Marshal Boucicault and
the Constable d'Albret, the men who best understood the
matter, were for accepting the terms ; but that the Princes
would not hear of it. So King Henry went on first through the
Pays de Caux to Fe'camp, thence to Arques, where long after
Henry of Navarre did great deeds of arms, thence to Eu, and so
to the mouth of the Somme. Could he have crossed at Blanche-
Taque, like King Edward, there might have been a second
Cre"cy ; — but Blanche-Taque was too well guarded that day, and
he had to strike inland. So doing he somewhere crossed the
path of the French host. He found the bridges at Abbeville
broken, and had to push farther up the Somme even than
Amiens. ' Bridges and causeways are broken everywhere ; the
pomp of the French grows and swells. The King has scarce
eight days' food ; the French destroy farms, wine, and food.
They sought to weary the people out with hunger and thirst 2.'
The French nobles did not expend much energy vin vexing the
struggling army, which laboured on, hungry and weary, under
the autumnal rains. The English passed Corbie, burnt Nesle ;
and then, the Somme having become shallower, they found
two narrow causeways leading to a ford. Here they got over
unmolested, and turned their faces once more towards Calais.
The Dukes of Bourbon and Orleans now lay between the
English and that city. The King passed Peronne, pushed
steadily on,crossed a small stream then called the ' Swerdys*,'
now the Ternoise ; and then beheld in front of him the broad
1 J. Juvenal des Ursins, A. 141 5.
2 bo says Elmham's doggrel Chronicle, Cap. 26.
3 'Fluvius Gladiorum' is Elmham's rendering. Cap. 35.

A.D. 1415. BATTLE OF AZINCOURT. 519
hosts of his enemies. They were in great force, and posted
at a well- chosen point, barring his further progress towards
Calais. There King Henry halted. He had a wood on either
hand, and on his right flank a rising ground, covered with trees,
in which he placed archers. The French were also between
the woods, across the line of the valley, which was ploughed
land, and soft. There the armies lay that night ; and it rained
hard. Next day early (October 25, 1415) they drew out their
lines. The game of war was entirely in the hands of the
French ; they had only to wait and let the handful of English
attack, and beat them back, or hang on their flanks, sur
rounding, watching, alarming, cutting off; and the fall of
Harfleur would have been avenged without a battle. But they
could not resist the excitement of an assault ; the Duke of
Berri alone seems to have been anxious as to the result. He
would not allow either the King or the Dauphin to be there.
' Better,' said he, ' to lose a battle only, than to lose a battle
and a King.' Nor indeed were the Dukes of Berri, Brittany,
or Burgundy present. Still, though Charles and the Princes
were absent, almost all the nobles and great men of France
were there. It was a great host, cramped in a narrow
space, where their numbers were of small avail. It is said
there were sixty thousand of them; perhaps there were
some ten to twelve thousand English. The French were in
three lines, in the first the battles of Bourbon and Orleans,
behind them the Dukes of Bar and Alencon, and in the rear
Dammartin, and others. Their van lay at the little village of
Azincourt. On the other side King Henry set his compact
body of footmen in the centre, with his few men in armour
and the bowmen flanking them to right and left, and feeling
the two woods. As the French had not enterprise enough
to turn their flank, a piece of simple generalship which with
their large force would have been easy, the position, as
a defensive one, was strong and good, and the English had
strengthened their front with a rough palisade. Between
them and the French host was the soft ploughed land, deep

520 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD III. A.D. 1415.
from the heavy rains : the day was warm and fine. The
battle was begun by the French, whose cavalry was told off to
ride forward and attack the English archers. This they did,
and behind them followed heavy-armed soldiers. The mud
was deep, and clung to them : their weight made them sink in
' up to the thick part of their legs V So the advance was slow
and disorderly, men and horses slipping and sticking. When
they got near the palisade behind which the archers lay, the
English began that sharp swift shooting the French knew of
old. The horses offered a broad aim, and were at once stung
into confusion; the wounded animals turned and carried their
riders into the ranks of the infantry behind, throwing them
into panic ; those who got up to the paling were hot and spent,
begrimed and breathless, dazzled by the sun. Then the light-
armed English stepped gaily down, and fell on the French
host, entangled in the mud : small resistance was made, ex
cept by the Duke of Alencon, who perished in the battle, and
who won the praises of both sides for his gallantry. ' The
noise,' says Juvenal, ' was as if men were hammering on many
anvils'; — so thick and fast fell the English blows on the helms
and corslets of the French. They fell in heaps; the nobles
lay one on another ; many were stifled, the rest slain or taken.
There was not much quarter given ; and yet the number of
prisoners was great. Towards the latter part of the day,
a report spread that the Duke of Brittany had come in with
a great force ; and the French rallied. Even this turned to
their misfortune ; for the English, who were much encumbered
with prisoners, now killed many of them. Of the English the
Duke of York and the young Duke of Suffolk perished ; beside
them ' scarce thirty more V On the other side there fell the
Archbishop of Sens, ' who was little lamented, for that he was
out of his place V as was true enough. Three dukes perished,
Brabant, Alencon, Bar; six counts, the Constable of France,
1 ' Estoient en terre molle jusques au gros des jambes,' says Juvenal.
'' Elmham (cap. 38). But Sismondi says the English lost 1,600.
3 J. Juvenal des Ursins (A. 1415), p. 251.

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From Spruner's Atlas.

1. Henry V. a. English men-at-arms. 3. English archers.
Dukes of Bourbon and Orleans. 5. Dukes of Bar and Alencon.
6 Daituaartin, Marie, and Falkenberg.

A.D. 1415. EFFECTS ON FRANCE. 523
d'Albret ; ninety-two barons ; a thousand men-at-arms ; five
hundred nobles, and seven thousand1 of lesser note2. Nor
were the prisoners less notable : the Dukes of Orleans and
Bourbon, three counts, Boucicault, the Marshal of France,
together with many hundreds more. Thus King Henry found
his passage free to the North; and as his force was scarcely
large enough to guard his prisoners, he burnt much of the
booty, and marched direct to Guines, and thence to Calais.
He crossed the Channel, and made a splendid entry into his
good city of London in November.
Meanwhile, in France this great and crowning misfortune of
the nobles was a heavy blow to the Armagnac party. At Paris
many rejoiced ; ' the Armagnacs being discomfited, now Bur
gundy would come to the top 3 .' Still they struggled for the
possession of the King and the government. The Duke of
Berri brought the King into Paris, and hastily threw up de
fences ; the Count of Armagnac with a good force of Gascons
came up with speed from the South, and was named Constable
of France and Captain-general of the kingdom, with control over
the finance. Burgundy judged it wiser not to attack the city,
and drew back into Flanders. And now the Dauphin, a worn-
out libertine, died, having killed himself by debauch. The
King's next son, John, was a firm friend to Burgundy, and
showed signs of determination which frightened the Armagnacs.
He died suddenly, opportunely : men said, with show of reason,
that he was poisoned. The next son, Charles, a lad of fourteen,
was altogether Armagnac in feeling: he attacked the Queen
for her scandalous life, and had her exiled to Tours. The Duke
of Berri died ; the Count of Armagnac was now sole head of
1 Sismondi says 10,000, of whom nearly 8,000 were of gentle birth.
2 These figures, &c, are from Elmham's Metrical History of Henry V :
'Praesul, tresque Duces, Comites sex et — minus octo —
Centum Barones, mille ruunt equites ;
Necnon quingenti procerum,* que* millia septem.
Tres capti Comites sunt, duo jure Duces,
Atque Marescallus Francorum, nobilis ille
Sunt capti plures in centenis generosi.' — Cap. 39.
3 Juvenal des Ursins (A. 1415), p. 519.

524 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD III. A.D. 1417.
his party, ruling vigorously and ill. Paris was held in a
firm grasp, heavily taxed, suspiciously watched, rigorously
punished. The Duke of Burgundy once more declared himself head
of the popular party ; entered Picardy, threatened Paris, though
in vain : he then went southwards, taking or receiving into
his allegiance many cities ; he found the Queen at Troyes,
whither she had fled from Tours, and made alliance with her,
proclaiming her Regent. She declared the acts of the Ar
magnacs to be illegal ; declared the Parliament at Paris to be
dissolved, and established another at Poitiers ; there were now
two distinct governments in France. Paris was uneasy under
the severe handling of her masters; and in 141 8 a conspiracy
against them was successful. One of the gates was opened to
the Burgundians ; the town was taken, the Armagnacs massacred.
The Constable was captured; so too was the poor King,
whom they led through the streets that he might seem to
sanction the insurrection. The Cabochians reappeared, — those
terrible butchers. Charles the Dauphin, whom the Armagnac
captain of Paris had carried into the Bastille for safety, hardly
got away with his friends, and carried on a feeble war from
Poitiers. The Burgundians, having no chief, — for the Duke
was in the North, — worked their savage will on their opponents.
There were three massacres during the summer months, and the
number of the victims has been estimated at 10,500 ; among
them the Count of Armagnac, the head of the Orleanist party, and
their one man of ability. The Duke of Burgundy hastened up,
and did his best to moderate the fury of his followers. But
that indecision and want of energy which had marked his
career of late, made his interference of little avail. Nor did
he do anything to heal the sore wounds of France, or to defend
her against her foreign foe. For while the parties were locked
in this deadly embrace, Henry of England (after long delay)
had again descended (a.d. 1417) on the coast of Normandy.
He marched inland. The Dukes of Anjou, Brittany, and Bur
gundy, signed treaties of neutrality with him, for their respective

A.D.1418. HENRY AGAIN IN FRANCE. 525
states, leaving France to perish as she might : the Armagnacs
could not leave Paris for fear of that outbreak which so soon
took place. When Paris had given herself over to the Burgun
dians, her chance of resistance to the English was still less :
and Henry quietly sat down before Rouen. The strange
feebleness, which turned the name of John the ' Fearless ' into
sarcasm, now showed itself again. The Duke dared nothing
to relieve the town ; and after near three months of siege and
starving, Rouen fell into the hands of the English. The news
of this great blow seemed to scare the French factions to their
senses. Burgundy was willing to give up his ambition to wear
the crown of France ; the Dauphin was desirous of coming to
terms with his father the King, in order to secure his own
succession to the throne. Negotiations followed : even then
the old jealousies made them very slow. Meanwhile the danger
pressed; Henry had reached and taken Pontoise, and was
threatening Paris. The Dauphin, too lightly listening to his
depraved and stupid courtiers (we must remember that he was
still a boy), invited the Duke of Burgundy to an interview on
the bridge of Montereau. There the Duke was foully massacred
by Tanneguy-Duchatel, one of the chiefs of the Orleanist party,
as he knelt at the Dauphin's feet (a.d. 1419). This was for
the time a death-blow to France. The Duke had certainly
been anxious to make peace, to resist the pretensions of Henry ;
but this scandalous and foolish crime made all reconciliation
impossible; for it substituted a young and ambitious man for
an old and wearied one. Paris was deeply moved ; the young
Duke Philip, then aged twenty-three, at once began a fierce
and vigorous war against the Armagnacs. People began to
say in Paris that Henry of England was far better than the
Dauphin and his hated crew. They declared that if Henry sat
on the French throne, England would naturally soon become
an outlying province of France, and that their country would
be more glorious than ever; and, also, it was thought that
as Henry was about to marry Catherine of France, he would
be almost as near in relation to the throne as any of the

526 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD III. A.D. 1420.
reigning family ; while, if the Valois remained thereon, any
peace with the English King must be bought by the dismem
berment of France. Moreover, the folly of the Dauphin's
friends at this critical moment, by betraying the Duke of Brit
tany into captivity, and treating him basely when in their power,
also roused against him all the hot storm of which the Breton
nature is capable. Everything seemed to show that the Dauphin
was utterly incapable of reigning ; and taught men to think
that when the poor mad King was gone, even worse things
were in store for them. Negotiations were now opened. The
Queen, whose breach with the Armagnacs was irreparable,
joined the young Duke of Burgundy ; they made a truce with
Henry, as did also the city of Paris, carefully excluding the
Dauphin ; Henry found things very easily arranged for him
by them; and the Treaty of Troyes was signed on the 21st
of May, 1420.
Therein it was agreed —
1. That the King of England should cease, for the while, to
bear the title of King of France.
2. That the King of England should have, in lieu, the name
of Regent and heir of France.
3. Also he promised to maintain the French Parliament
in its privileges ; the privileges of the peers, nobles,
cities, communes, and individuals ; and all the laws and
customs of the realm of France.
4. Also he promised to do his best to restore to the French
King all cities, castles, &c. that had revolted from him,
' being on the side called that of the Dauphin and of
Armagnac'
5. Also that Normandy and all parts and cities conquered
by King Henry should be restored to France so soon as
Henry succeeded to the throne of France.
6. That on the next vacancy to the throne of France, Henry
of England should succeed ; that the two crowns should
be for ever united ; and that each realm should be under

A.D. 1420. THE TREATY OF TROYES. 527
its own laws and government ; and that neither should
be in any way subject to the other.
7. That Henry of England should forthwith espouse Cathe
rine, daughter of the King of France.
The treaty was signed May 21, and Catherine was wedded
to the King on June 2, at Troyes; the next day the Kings of
France, England, Scotland \ and the Duke of Burgundy, with
many other men of note, rode forth to subdue such cities in the
North as were still in the obedience of the Dauphin. And first
they came to Sens, which at once opened its gates; then to
Montereau, then to Melun, where stout resistance was made ;
for it held out four months, and then was only won by famine.
The King of England got back early in Advent to Paris, and
there kept Christmas, to the great joy of the citizens.
Thus was Northern France, for the while, subdued under the
hand of the English and Burgundians; their power reached,
however, no further than the Loire. All to the southward of
that line, so often the limit of invasion, remained faithful to the
Dauphin and the real French party : the Armagnacs won from
their misfortunes the great advantage of being recognised as
the true representatives of the national feeling. And now there
were ' two Kings of France, the King of Paris, and the King
of Bourges.' On the one side was the Northern half of France,
headquarters of the old Burgundian party, and so far dissevered
from the South that it seemed likely to become a separate
kingdom ; a success too dearly bought by the overshadowing
help of the English : on the other side was the South of France,
with the Dauphin at its head, supported by Scottish help, and
by the Lombards. The Southerners, who hitherto had felt no
love for the house of Valois, now became aware that that house
was destined to lead them in their new part of national cham
pions. Thus the very misfortunes of France helped to weld
the two halves of the kingdom into one.
1 The Scottish King, James I, had been taken prisoner in 1406 by the
English.

528 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD III. A.D. 1422.
King Henry ruled in Paris with stern equity and justice ;
more order was kept than had been known for years.
He returned to England at the end of the year, taking
with him his bride, and laid the Treaty of Troyes, which had
already been accepted by the Three Estates of France — or
such shadow of them as could be got together — before the
English Parliament. Great was the splendour and joy of
his return ; ' he rode from city to city throughout the land,
expounding his great and gallant deeds, and adding that, to
bring matters to an end, he needed two things, money and
men V Which was true ; for while he was absent from
France, things made little progress : the Duke of Clarence,
his brother, whom he had left in command, was killed in
the battle of Baug£, a serious check to the English : there
they encountered the impetuous haste of the French steadied
by the coolness of a body of Scots, who had come over to
help their old allies the French against their old foes the
English. They then took the offensive, and laid siege to
Chartres. There King Henry, who had crossed with all
speed from England, came on them, and forced them
to raise the siege. He drove the French before him, and
pushed on as far as to the Loire, so as to threaten Orleans ;
there he was stayed by the camp-fever, inevitable scourge of
medieval armies.
In the midst of all Henry V fell ill at Vincennes, and there
died on the last day of August, 1422, at the age of thirty-
four : he left behind him one little son, born the November
before, and christened Henry. ' He had been of high and great
courage, valiant in arms, prudent, sage, great in justice, who
without respect of persons did right as readily for small as
for great: he was feared and revered of all his relations, sub
jects, and neighbours ' ; so says Juvenal des Ursins 2, who felt
no good will towards the English. His obsequies were per
formed in St. Denis ; and afterwards his body was carried
1 Monstrelet.
2 Juvenal des Ursins, Histoire de Charles VI (A. 1422), p. 567.

A.D.1422. DEATH OF HENRY V. 529
home, and buried in Westminster Abbey. The Duke of Bed
ford, his brother, escorted the coffin to England, then returned
quickly to France, and took the title of ' Regent of the kingdom
of France for his nephew Henry.' Some weeks later died the
saddest of French Kings, the much afflicted Charles VI. He
had reigned for forty-two years : long he had been but a name,
a shadow. His voice, heard at rare intervals on some piteous
occasion, was as if it came from the tomb : it usually had a
plaintive gentleness, a touch of sad forgiveness in it. ' In his
days,' says Juvenal des Ursins, ' he was pitiful, gentle, and
benign to his people, serving and loving God, a great giver
of alms.' The people called him ' Charles the Well-beloved V
clinging to him with a touching helplessness. Their attach
ment to the crazy King shows how oppressive the princes
were: — he at least did them no harm. The manner of his bury
ing was forlorn : no Prince of the blood walked behind ; even
the Duke of Burgundy, who could have come, took no trouble
to be there. Only the Parisians seem to have lamented
him. That same Duke of Bedford, who but seven weeks
before had closed the eyes of his brother, King Henry V,
attended his funeral in the great church of St. Denis. There,
after due service sung, ' the Anglo-French cried out, Long
live King Henry of France and England! and shouted
Noel, as though God Himself had come down from heaven2.'
And the Dauphin, far away when he heard of his father's
death, made such lamentation as he could; and when he
reached Mehun in Berri, was proclaimed King in the chapel
there. There was a grand work before him: he was no longer a
partisan chief, no longer a secondary character, in the midst of
a knot of turbulent nobles, any one of whom, like the Count
of Armagnac, could overshadow him : he was no longer in the
1 Memoires de Pierre de Fenin (A. 1422): 'Mout fut le roy Charles
ame de son peuple toute sa vie, et pour ce on le nommoit Charles-le-
Bien-AmeV 2 Juvenal des Ursins, Histoire de Charles VI (A. 1422), p. 569.
VOL. 1. m m

530 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD III. A.D. 1422.
uncertain position of a son opposed to his mother, and, in
appearance at least, to the throne : he had suddenly been raised
to be the head of the national cause, and was the legitimate and
true King of France. He had a fair prospect of being able to
rally all Frenchmen round him : even in the North there were
crowds who would welcome him ; the South was all at his feet.
But there was on him some of the gloom of his father's life : he
was listless, quiet, fond of hunting; he let others fight for him,
little caring how they fared : pushed on by them with no effort
of his own he triumphed and secured his throne. In this he was
perhaps fortunate : others could do for him what he could scarcely
have done for himself. A lazy, kindly, good-looking prince, ' he
never took up arms with heart, and had no fancy for war, if he
could do without it V The reaction round him ; the freedom
of action which he allowed to all ; the uprising of popular sen
timent; the play of superstition round the strange and noble
figure of Jeanne Dare ; — these things, and the feebleness of
the English in France, all worked in his favour, and brought
the long English wars into a new and more hopeful phase.
The English hold on France was feeble indeed; it really de
pended entirely on the Burgundian alliance. No sooner was
that withdrawn than their power melted away. Not the
triumphs of Jeanne Dare, but the alienation of Burgundy
brought to a close the unnatural domination of the English.
They had altogether lost the South : their power to the east
and north of Paris was very limited. Make a triangle of
which the apex shall be Paris, one side the river Seine,
another side a line from Paris to the coast at Calais, and its
base the sea; — and you have the whole of the district which
was really under the English. For a strong power doubtless
it would have been a formidable wedge, driven into the very
1 Pierre de Fenin (A. 1422) : ' Estoit de sa personne mout bel prince et
biau parleur a toutes personnes, et estoit piteux envers povres gens, mais
il ne s'armoit mie vollentiers et n'avoit point chier la guerre, s'il s'en eust
peu_ passer.' For he was ill-shapen in body, being very short in the legs ;
and is said to have resumed the long robe worn by Philip VI, in order to
conceal this deformity.

A.D.1422. CHARLES VII BECOMES KING. 531
heart of the kingdom ; but England at this time was not a
strong power, and was in reality standing on the defensive
in France. That Paris should have been the point of the
English wedge was a proof, if any were needed, how badly
that city is placed, as regards safety and central position, as the
capital of France.

m m 2

CHAPTER VI.
The Hundred Years War'. Period IV. A.D. 1422-1431.
THE AGE OF JEANNE DARC.
I. To the Siege of Orleans, a.d. 1422-1429.
The reign of Charles VII had opened gloomily for the national
party ; their fortunes were low, their hopes almost extinct. The
help of the Scots, such as the Douglas, or Buchan Constable
of France, with their wild gillies, was but a small set-off
against the close alliance between Bedford and the Duke of
Burgundy; and the young King himself had none of that
heroism which creates success out of failure, and is greatest in
evil days. That quality was to be found for France in a dreamy
country girl of Champagne. She alone had the genius of per
fect simplicity ; for hers was perfect unity of aim united with
high courage and self-sacrifice. There are moments in history
when unreasoning courage, moving straight forward, is irresist
ible : it pierces through the show and array of strength opposed
to it, and proves, as is so often true, that there is no real force
behind: the walls and towers may look strong and imposing,
but there is no stout heart within ; the breach once made, the
conquest is assured. Such was the condition of the English
power in Northern France. And yet at the outset Charles made
no effort, and went aimlessly on, as though doomed to ruin.
Two defeats, one at Crevant, near Auxerre, in 1423, the other
at Verneuil, not far from Evreux, in 1424, seemed to seal the
fate of Northern France. At Verneuil the slaughter of the
King's nobles was very great: the Scots perished almost to a

A.D.1424. THE MISERY" IN FRANCE. 533
man ; Douglas and Buchan fell, the Duke of Alencon was taken.
Charles seemed utterly careless; with their characteristic love
of nicknames the French called him ' the King of Bourges.'
Still, even now, things were beginning to mend : the King, by
marrying Mary of Anjou, won over that great house, and with
it also Lorraine ; the Count of Foix recognised him as his
sovereign. Brittany was gained by the gift of the Constable's
sword to Arthur de Richemont, who ' made himself French a ' :
moreover, Richemont's wife was sister to the Duke of Bur
gundy, and her influence went in the direction of a recon
ciliation between the Orleanists and the Burgundians: lastly,
Charles, by banishing the Armagnac party from Court, made
that reconciliation possible.
And on the other side there were signs that the northern
league with England was giving way. While Bedford, Regent
of France, was very careful to satisfy the Burgundians, and to
avoid every risk of arousing their jealousies, Gloucester, Regent
of England, whose position as leader of the noblesse party
made him indifferent as to what became of Bedford, the repre
sentative of royalty, showed no such desire for conciliation.
He had unlawfully married the Countess of Hainault, who
brought him the lands on the low seaboard, Holland, Zealand,
Friesland, together with some claims on Brabant. So formidable
a neighbour at once roused the ill-will of the Lord of Burgundy
and Flanders. He entered into a private war with Gloucester,
and in 1425 made a truce with the 'King of Bourges.' This
augured ill for the harmony between English and Burgundians.
Yet the state of France was fearful. From King to peasant
all alike were miserable. The open land from the Loire to
the Somme was a desert overgrown with wood and thickets;
wolves fought over the corpses in the burial-grounds of Paris ;
towns were distracted by parties, villages destroyed ; the high
ways ceased; churches were polluted and sacked; castles burnt ;
commerce at a stand; tillage unknown. In the midst of all
this ruin and despair — as a strange commentary on the age —
1 ' Se fist Francois,' that is, he paid homage to the King.

534 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD IV. A.D. 1428.
sprang up the wildest superstitions, the most incongruous prac
tices. Then was seen the Danse Macabre1 in the Cemetery
of the Innocents at Paris, which was crammed with pestilen
tial dead: the citizen of Paris, to whom we owe our vivid
insight into the state of France, writing of 1421, and probably
glancing at this ghastly entertainment, says that for fourteen
or fifteen years had the ' dolorous dance ' of history gone on.
Then too sprang up wild rumours, portents, prodigies : the
'prosaic fifteenth century' was profoundly moved by strange
and deep imaginings; it was willing to believe all miracles;
it seemed to yearn after a deliverer ; for misery as well as joy
has its poetry.
And now the English deemed that the time was come for a
forward movement ; after some hesitation, Bedford bade the
Earl of Salisbury lay siege to Orleans (a.d. 1428). The earl
undertook the task gladly and thoroughly. He first reduced
all the strongholds on the right bank of the Loire, crushing
the French party to the north of the river: he also crossed
over, and took the towns which lay on the left bank within
that curve of the stream on which Orleans stands. And by
October 1428 he actually sat down before the city with a mixed
force, English and Burgundians, about ten thousand men.
The Loire first runs towards the north and north-east, till it
reaches a point not more than sixty miles from Paris, almost
due south of the capital. There it turns and tends south-west
and west, till it comes down to the sea. At its northernmost
point, on the right bank of the river, with a t£te-du-pont and
suburb across the water, lies Orleans, natural centre of the mid
land district of France, the key to the South, the last bulwark
of the national party. If Orleans fell, the fortunes of Charles VII
could scarcely recover the blow. Salisbury having secured
his ground to the south, first attacked the city from that,
the weaker side; fortifying himself in the smoking ruins of
the church of the Augustinians and in the southern suburb,
1 The Danse Macabre is, in fact, the Todtentanz of German cemeteries,
of which the grim humour strangely reflected the miseries of the age.

From fiat-ante's Histoire des Dues de Bottrgogve.

A.D.1428. THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. 537
which had been burnt by the citizens as being too wide and too
much exposed for defence. Thence he attacked the boulevard,
and took it; the French retiring to the Tournelles, a work
defending the bridge, of which they broke down some arches,
and lifted the drawbridge. The English next assaulted the
Tournelles, taking them in flank from the river-bed, the water
being unusually low; and on a Sunday they captured that fortress.
There they established Sir William Glansdale, who repaired its
breaches, and for safety broke down the southernmost arch of
the bridge ; so that no assault could come from the other side.
Also he planted his artillery so as to command the city and the
bridge. The time was come for a regular siege of the city
itself: the English held the river above and below; the country
to the north was all theirs. Glansdale was strongly entrenched
to the south, the main army lay in the forts to the north of
the town. Salisbury, in order to get a view of the place and
neighbourhood, climbed with Glansdale to the top of the
Tournelles ; — while there he was mortally wounded by a shot
from the city. They carried him to Meung, on the Loire, as
secretly as they could, and there he died : he had been a brave
soldier and valiant ; no better in all England, said his sorrowing
friends. This great mishap changed the siege from a series
of assaults to a blockade. The Tournelles were the key
to the English position : the outer bulwark at St. Augustine's
commanded the water-way ; and thirteen ' bastides,' or forts,
built by the besiegers, encircled the city. In February 1429
an attempt to stop the English supplies was defeated at
Bouvray, on the famous ' Day of the Herrings.' The English at
first had stood on the defensive, inside a park of wagons,
laden with herrings and other provender. Though much galled
by the fire of the French culverins, they were not tempted to
venture out. But the Scots in the French army were too
eager to fight, and attacked the encampment : in the confusion
the English sallied forth and routed them : the French fled back
to Orleans ; Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans, was badly wounded ;
the Constable of Scotland was killed, as were also some two

538 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD IV. A.D. 1429.
or three hundred men-at-arms. So ended this great effort.
Next, the citizens, being hard pressed and deserted by the lead
ing nobles, the Count of Clermont, the Archbishop of Rheims,
and others, turned towards the Duke of Burgundy. They
offered to yield to him. The temptation was too strong for the
Duke, who was already not hearty in the cause : he went to
Bedford, and begged him to raise the siege. But Bedford
would not ' beat the bush that others might catch the birds,'
and refused. Thereon the Duke of Burgundy withdrew all his
forces, Burgundians, Picards, and men of Champagne, ' whereby
the English power was much weakened.' It was at this moment
of discouragement that there came rumours of a virgin, a pro
phetess, who had promised the French King to raise the siege :
and the besiegers' courage, already tried by a winter in camp,
and by the defection of the Burgundians, gave place to gloomy
forebodings. They knew too that they had not men enough
to take the city, though they might have enough to hold the
garrison in check, and to keep up the blockade.
The peril to France, the danger to her last bulwark, was
nearly past. For now appeared Jeanne Dare, one of the noblest
figures of history ; who had no private ambitions or aims, knew
nothing of courts, and desired only to save her country.
II. Jeanne Darc. a.d. 142 9-1 431.
Domremy, birthplace of Jeanne Darc 1, is a village lying in
a tongue of land which, belonging to Champagne, runs between
Bar, Toul, and Lorraine. It had always been ' French,' and
opposed to the Burgundians, always ' Armagnac ' ; it had all
the warm feelings of a frontier place ; it had lately been sacked
by the Burgundians (a.d. 1428); and Jeanne herself no doubt
had seen with the acute feelings of a sensitive girl her ravaged
home, and the desecration of the village church she so much
1 This, on the whole, appears to be the right spelling. There is no sense
in Jeanne ' of Arc,' there being no such village near her birth-place, and
Joan's family being peasants. On her trial, being asked her name, she
replied, ' de mon surnom je ne sais rien.'

A.D.1429. JEANNE DARC APPEARS. 539
loved. Here she had grown up, actively engaged in tending
her father's cattle, able to ride and use a weapon at need.
Left much alone, she brooded with an imaginative temper and
religious warmth over the sorrows of her country, the wrongs of
her King. These things, under the peculiar conditions of her
young life, projected themselves into actual visions, voices, por
tents x. She became a dreamer, an enthusiast. The St. Michael
she had seen painted on the church wall showed himself to her
enraptured gaze. St. Catherine and St. Marguerite, objects of
her simple devotion, appeared and spoke with her: she em
braced them, she wept when they receded from her gaze. And
all pointed the same way : she must go forth and deliver Charles,
and lead him to be crowned and recognised as undoubted
King of France. At last she could bear it no longer, and,
though but seventeen years old 2, persuaded her uncle to go to
Vaucouleurs, the neighbouring town, which held for the King,
and to ask Robert of Baudricourt, who commanded there, to
help her to get to Court. The uncle's mission failed. The
rough soldier told him to slap3 the silly girl, and send her
back to her rustic duties. But Jeanne, undaunted, set out to
plead her own cause ; she was of a rather short figure, strongly-
built, dressed in rough red stuff, peasant-fashion. The Lord
of Baudricourt at first treated her with scorn : but so gentle
was she, so simple of manners, so decorous, so full of noble
unworldly ideas ; and her replies were so quick and yet so
modest, so graphic, so persuasive ; that the belief of all the
country side was fixed on her, till Baudricourt was fain at last
to give way, and to forward her to the Dauphin at Chinon.
1 There can be no doubt that Jeanne Darc was under the influence of one
of the forms of hysteria, which has so often produced strange theological
results in young French girls. But the speciality of her case is that this.
hysterical condition, which so commonly leads to torpor, to long trances
and fasts, in her case was combined with an amazing power of vigorous
exertion, — results of a strong constitution, and of her active life as a
shepherdess at Domremy.
* Before her judges, in the spring of 1431, she said she was nearly nine
teen, so that she must now have been under eighteen.
3 ' Da illi colaphos,' he said.

540 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD IV. A.D. 1429.
One person found her a horse, another a suit of man's clothes :
she cut short her long black hair, and so set forth. The road
was perilous ; bands of robbers and free-lances infested it :
but Jeanne's exalted spirit feared no hindrance by the way;
' my brothers of paradise,' she said, ' tell me to go.'
And so she arrived unscathed at Chinon. There, in that
corrupt Court, two opposite powers were struggling for the
mastery. On the one side were the King's unworthy favourites,
La Tremouille and the rest, who were jealous of the Princes of
the blood, despised the French people, and kept up relations
with the Duke of Burgundy; they represented, in fact, the
anti-national party. On the other hand was Yolande of
Aragon, the King's mother-in-law, whose one thought was
how to gather together the fragments of French power around
the King, and to resist the English. She represented the old
Armagnac, now the national, party. Yolande, politic and
sagacious, seems at once to have divined the importance of
this strange appearance — of this enthusiast of the people,
behind whom lay all the forces of devotion and superstition,
and who was already arousing the popular hopes. She thought
it well to miss no chance of awakening this feeling, and of
using it, if possible, as a help in this time of need. For need
there was, with Orleans almost strangled and fainting; with
the young monarch steeped in careless ease; with Northern
France entirely in the grip of the English.
Jeanne met with nothing but ill-will and incredulity from the
favourites, who are said even to have tried to carry her off by
ambush ; and when she had reached Chinon, still they kept her
from the young King's presence, accusing her of madness or of
sorcery. But Yolande supported her : envoys too from Orleans,
calling for help, came opportunely to the Court. After long
delays, Jeanne's simple persistence prevailed : she was admitted
to the King's presence. It is said that he disguised himself,
and stood among the courtiers ; and that she went straight to
him, and, in spite of his denials, saluted him, ' In God's name,
it is you and none other ! ' There she stood, as the chronicler

A.D.1429. JEANNE DARC AT COURT. 541
tells us, ' a poor little shepherdess,' ' the most simple shepherd-
lass one ever could see1,' who could neither read nor write.
We have two descriptions of her from eye-witnesses ; one as
she appeared at this moment ; the other a little later. She was
' of moderate stature, of a rustic countenance ' ; not beautiful at
all, but honest-faced, as one accustomed to simple living in the
open air : she was very strongly built ; her hair was black, now
cut short ; her voice had the great charm of soft low music ; her
manners were pleasant 2- Above all, she carried conviction with
her. So firmly she believed, so nearly she trod on the verge of
the prophetic and miraculous, that in that uncritical age she was
irresistible : friend and foe alike bowed before her. Her noble
sentiments, pure and exalted, were like a revelation to distracted
France, and even awed the corrupt and hostile Court into
respect. The popular feeling rose very fast. In every trial her re
plies were triumphant. Having singled out the ' gentle Dauphin,'
she whispered that in his ear which at once brought conviction to
his heart : before hostile churchmen her replies were so simple,
so direct, so overwhelming, that they were glad to abandon all
resistance : with the matrons, who were sent to enquire into her
character, she won her way by gentle simplicity and unity of
purpose. AU, ere long, were of one mind, or seemed so : her
good sense, her fearlessness before prince and priest, her instinct
of truth, her forward-moving energy, overbore all opposition.
' There is no need of more words,' she said to the wearisome
theologians of Poitiers, ' this is not the hour to talk but to act.'
And so at last she was commissioned to relieve Orleans.
One might have thought the King would have hastened
thither himself: that seems never to have occurred to him. He
1 'Une pauvre petite bergerette,' and 'la plus simple bergere qu'on veit
onques.' 2 So says Philip de Bergamo, who lived in the latter half of the century,
in his book De Claris mulieribus. He got his information from an Italian
who had been eye-witness of this scene. The phrase ' facie rusticana,'
coupled with the absolute silence of the chronicles on the point, disposes
at once of the French descriptions of her beauty : the French historians
could not refrain from such heightening of the picture, as might be got from
painting their heroine with all the conventional charms.

542 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD IV. A.D. 1429.
remained at Chinon, amusing himself, after his idle luxurious
sort, and left Jeanne Darc and Orleans to settle the affair with
the English as they could.
Forth she rode, ' as a warrior on a great black horse, dressed
all in white armour save her head, which was bare, and with an
axe in hand.' Prophecy, second-sight, marvels, attended her.
She sent messengers to the church at Fierbois for a sword which
lay behind the altar, on the blade of which were five crosses.
The messengers looked, found it, and brought it with them.
The relieving force was headed by the Duke of Alencon, one
of the ' nationalist ' party, as became a Prince of the blood : he
was one of her firmest friends. Her march was like a triumph :
wherever she came she was saluted as a deliverer. In the van
went a company of priests, who chanted the Veni Creator : the
soldiers marched behind, re-echoing the strain. On their wild
natures the religious fervour acted vehemently. They drove
out all unclean persons; they confessed themselves; they set
themselves right with God : they did no violence by the way.
It was an army of enthusiasts, with that strange irresistible
power such movements have at the outset. Cromwell's men
were never more godfearing.
From near Orleans she dictated a letter to the English,
strange, imperious, full of a singular confidence and simplicity.
She bids them begone : or she will come and make them go.
And when they did not obey, she came. As her little army
drew near, the English, already panic-stricken, abandoned one
of their forts ; and, withdrawing to right and left, let her pass
through quite unmolested. They probably knew they were
not strong enough to resist her. Thus, as she said, 'God, at
the request of St. Louis and St. Charles the Great,' the two
popular royal saints, ' had pity on the city of Orleans.' All the
citizens came forth to meet her : great was their joy, great the
revival of their courage. She rode straight to the cathedral,
and there returned thanks to God. (April 29, 1429.)
And the English were as much disheartened. They oscillated
between coarse abuse and cowardly flight : the worst qualities of

A.D.1429. JEANNE DARC AT . ORLEANS. 543
the race came out. The Duke of Bedford himself, writing to
England, acknowledged the discouragement. ' Alle thing there
prospered for you til the tyme of the siege of Orleans, taken in
hand, God knoweth by what advis. At the which tyme after
the adventure fallen to the person of my Cousin of Salysbury,
whom God assoille, there felle, by the Hand of God, as it
seemeth, a greet strook upon your Peuple that was assembled
there in grete nombre, caused in grete partie, as I trowe, of
lakke of sad beleve [want of firm faith] and of an unlevefulle
[unbelieving] doubte that thei hadde of a Disciple and lyme
[limb] of the Feende called the Pucelle, that used fals enchaunt-
ments and sorcerie V And this feeling spread even into Eng
land. We find two Royal Proclamations on the occasion of the
young King's starting for Paris from London to be crowned.
From both these documents we learn that men-at-arms and
even captains had hid themselves and remained in London, for
fear of her, * terrified at the incantations of the Pucelle 2.'
Here then lay the secret of her success. It was no magic,
no special intervention, no prophetic foresight; but the irre
sistible forward movement of a perfectly fearless spirit, which
calculated no chances, felt no doubts, knew what it desired, and
firmly believing in a divine mission moved on serenely towards
its aim. He who has unwavering belief will never lack followers :
and Jeanne Darc was fortunate not only in inspiring confidence,
but also in striking terror. This sudden accession of energy
to the one side, and diminution of the power of resistance on
the other, came at a time when the forces of attack had spent
themselves, when assault had given place to blockade, when
the besiegers were growing weary of the tedious winter, and
when they had just seen the Burgundians march away in anger.
The outer ring of blockade was weakened, just at the time when
1 Rymer, Foedera, torn. 10, p. 408 ; ed. 1727.
2 May 3, 1431, and Dec. 12, 1431. Singularly enough, the latter ofthese
documents 'was issued some months after the death of the Maid of Orleans.
Dunois in his deposition says that ' before the Pucelle arrived two hundred
English would put to flight eight hundred or a thousand of the King's men ;
but after her coming four or five hundred Frenchmen drove back the whole
power of the English and shut them up in their own works.'

544 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD IV. A.D. 1429.
the inner circle, the besieged city, received a new impulse, and
began to act on the offensive. Add to this the superstitious
confidence in the one army, and the superstitious terrors in the
other; and we have an easy solution of the wonderful way in
which the English power crumbled to dust before the sacred
banner of the Maid of Orleans.
Yet all was not easy for her. Those who had so long and so
bravely defended the city were not willing to yield the command
at once to a maiden of eighteen years. Something of the same
dislike to her which showed itself at Court, showed itself in the
council of the chiefs within the beleaguered city. They hid
their plans from her ; or they refused to listen to her advice
and her prayers. The first thing we read of her at Orleans
is that on the night after her entry shouts and sounds of war
roused her from sleep, and told her that a sortie was going on ;
she hastily called for her horse ; dressed, armed, mounted, and
then 'galloped down the paved way so fiercely that the sparks
sprang from her charger's hoofs ; and she went as straight for
the fighting-ground as if she had known the way before.' From
that moment to the raising of the siege she was always in the
van : many might follow her or few ; wounded, once and again,
her high heart carried her back into the battle ; she never looked
behind, always forwards ; and her spirit entered into her men-
at-arms. At first she shuddered at the sight of blood ; at least
of French blood : and at a later time she told her judges that
she loved her banner forty times more than her sword ; for
the banner bore on it the forms of the two saints whom she
had talked with, and the sacred words ' Jhesus Maria,' and was
to her the symbol of her divine mission and power ; whereas
her sword was nothing but a bloodthirsty weapon. ' I ever
carried that standard myself,' she says, ' when attacking the
enemy, for fear lest I should slay any man.' And yet she had
some goodwill towards the blade : ' it was a good sword,' she
said, ' fit to give good blows and good clouts Y It is a touching
1 Trial of Jeanne Darc, 27 Feb. 1430 : ' Etoit une bonne £pee de guerre
propre a donner de bonnes buffes et de bons torchons'

A.D.1429. JEANNE DARC IN ORLEANS. 545
element in her character, this contrast of her purity in the
midst of the gross soldiery; of her straightforward simplicity
among insincere courtiers and churchmen; of her tenderness
and reluctance to shed blood, among the cruel deeds of war.
The enthusiasm of soldiers and citizens soon proved too
strong for the unwilling chiefs. On the 2nd of May she
rode out to see the English fortifications; on the 4th she
brought in plentiful supplies sent by Bourges, Angers, Tours,
and other cities, while the English looked sullenly on from their
forts ; the same day she assaulted and took, after a stout
resistance, the Bastille of St. Loup, burnt and rased it, and
carried the spoils of it into the city. Next day was Ascension
Day, and the chief captains, the Bastard of Orleans, the Marshal
de Rays, the rough knight La Hire, a Scot named Kennedy, and
others, took counsel with Jeanne ; she was for instant action,
exhorting them to strike while the panic lasted, and to assault
the Bastille St. Laurence ' at once. It was agreed, however, to
attack the lines to the south of the river, where the English
were weakest, and where, if the blockade were raised, com
munication could at once be opened with those districts which
were most favourable to the French side.
The whole of Ascension Day was given up to busy pre
parations. Next morning betimes they crossed the river near
* St. Loup (the taking of which had cleared their way), being
about four thousand strong : they took by assault St. Jean le
Blanc, the garrison of which retired to a little island in the
Loire. Before the main body of French had got over the river,
Jeanne pushed on up to the Augustinians' works ; the scanty
troop with her, finding itself unsupported, was seized with
panic and fled; even she slowly withdrew. Out came the
English soldiers to press their advantage, mocking her and
using scurrilous and filthy speech after their low way. Hearing
1 The Bastille St. Laurence answered to that of St. Loup, being at the
other end of the chain of northern forts : it was close to the river below
the city, and defended a bridge which the English had thrown across the
Loire, as a link between their northern and southern positions. • See map
on P- 535-
vol. 1. N n

546 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD IV. A.D. 1429.
this, she grew angry and turned about, and with La Hire,
her best and roughest captain1, fell on them. Panic-stricken,
they fled headlong to their works ; the sight of her noble
rage was enough. Seizing the happy moment, she stormed
the Augustinians' fort, delivered a number of prisoners she
found there, and burnt it to the ground. In the assault she
had been wounded by a caltrop; but she gave no heed to
her pain.
The English were fain to evacuate the bastide St. Prive-,
which still remained to them, and to carry all their force, except
the garrison in the Tournelles, across to the north bank of
the Loire. They broke their bridge behind them, concentrated
themselves on the strong position of the Tournelles, which lay
in the river, forming the tete-du-pont to Orleans on the south :
it had been enlarged and fortified by Glansdale with a bulwark
and other works. Here they stood on the defensive, presenting
still a formidable front.
On the Saturday at dawn the whole force of the French
crossed the river above the city, and vigorously attacked the
bulwark before the bridge. Here was a fierce struggle, and
Jeanne was sorely wounded in the neck and shoulder by an
arrow. The captain and chief men drew her away, and advised
that the assault should be stayed till next day. But Jeanne
' encouraged them with many and fair words,' and after no little
difficulty, they were persuaded to renew the attack. Then she
turned aside, and prayed ; and after that she bade him who
carried her banner move forward till it touched the English works.
After a little while he turned and said to her, ' Jeanne, it touches
now,' to which she replied, ' All is yours, now enter in,' and
they pushed forward bravely to the assault. Meanwhile those
within the city, seeing that the attack was renewed, laid planks
unobserved from pier to pier of the broken bridge, and so came
over and joined in the assault. So fierce it was that the English
1 He had great trouble with his tongue, for Jeanne would allow no oaths,
and he could hardly speak without one. He got over the difficulty by in
venting a new oath, and swearing innocently by his staff ; this satisfied both
him and her.

A.D. 1429. THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS RAISED. 547
were forced to yield. Then there was a great carnage ; they
tried to escape from the bulwark into the Tournelles, but few
succeeded, the rest perished : for the bridge suddenly broke, as
Glansdale and several of the chief men were passing over it ; and
all were thrown into the stream and swept away '. As many as
five hundred men-at-arms were killed or drowned. Next, the
Tournelles were hotly assaulted and taken after a sharp struggle ;
many English captains and knights of name were slain there.
The utter ruin of their blockade was now apparent to the
besiegers : and on the Sunday morning they abandoned their
bastilles on the north side, and drew out all their force in order
of battle. The French did the same ; and so they stood over
against one another a full hour. Each army hesitated to strike
the first blow ; and so in the end the English quietly defiled off
the ground and marched in good order with banners flying up
stream to Meung-sur-Loire, and thence to Jargeau.
The French chiefs very properly wished to press and harass
the retreating force ; but Jeanne, who saw her great object, the
relief of Orleans, accomplished, and who had little of the instinct
of generalship, did not care to push on, telling them they would
catch the English another time ; and therewith she led the French
back to rest in Orleans, leaving her dispirited and broken foe to
retire at leisure.
And thus the siege, which had lasted since the October before
(Oct. 12, 1428), was raised only eight days after Jeanne had
made her entry into the place. She came in by night on Friday
the 29th of April : on the 8th of May, the Sunday week after,
she saw the English turn their backs for ever on the rescued
city. Though she would not pursue the English, still she did not
linger over her triumph ; next day she rode away from the city,
amid the tears of joy and humble gratitude of the devoted citi
zens, and set herself to the other half of her destined task, the
coronation of the King at Rheims.
1 An eye-witness says it was a great discouragement to the English, and
equal loss to the valiant French, who might have had large profit by their
ransom. N n 2

548 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD IV. A.D. 1429.
The King sent the Duke of Alencon with a strong force to
meet and join her : numbers of men-at-arms flocked to his
banner, eager to see the said Pucelle, who, they held, was come
from God, and to fight with her against the enemy 1. The com
bined forces laid siege to Jargeau, whither the English had
retired, and within eight days took it, and with it the Earl of
Suffolk and others, many English being slain. Then came
news that Talbot was marching speedily to succour his country
men ; and Jeanne, who now was eagerly consulted, advised that
he should be attacked at once. This was done at Patay, where
the English were utterly overthrown, and Talbot himself taken.
The country all round at once declared for the French side.
Jeanne hastened on to Sulli on the Loire, La Tremouille's
castle, where the idle King was dreaming away these critical
and stirring days. Perhaps of all men in France he was the
least eager for the coronation. The favourite, hating Jeanne,
and desiring only his own indolent amusement with the King,
succeeded in defeating one of the objects Jeanne had greatly
at heart, the reconciliation between the King and the Con
stable de Richemont, who had won for him the battle of
Patay : Richemont withdrew to the west of France, and there
loyally served his country by making independent war on the
national foe.
The Court also wished to stay quietly where they were till
the men-at-arms had cleared the valley of the Loire of the
English, holding it not prudent to leave so many enemies
behind them, especially as their way through Champagne was
also likely to be beset. But Jeanne, supported by the whole
people and the army, prevailed. So the King had to set forth,
first to Gien, where he gathered force ; thence east and north
by Auxerre and St. Florentin to Troyes, which was held by the
English. Here he lay six days besieging the place ; and lacking
food the princes held a council of war, without summoning
Jeanne, and all but agreed to retire : she however, being called
in at the last, induced them to wait two days. Then she got
1 Histoire abregee, Buchon, torn. 34.

A.D.1429. CHARLES VII IS CROWNED AT RHEIMS. 549
on horseback, and called together men-at-arms, with fagots,
ladders, and all things for an assault. And the citizens, seeing
this, before the attack began, came out in terror and opened
their gates. Thus the last difficulty was over; and the King
came safe to Rheims, where he was crowned with great pomp
by the Archbishop; Jeanne standing by, holding the royal
standard; — 'and she, right joyous that at her exhortation, by
her counsel and diligence, she had led her lord to be anointed
and consecrated, now admonished him to render thanks to God
for the blessing of his coronation and for the fair victories He
had granted him Y
So far then her mission was fulfilled. It is said 2 that a little
later she told the Count of Dunois that she would be glad were
they to send her back to her father and mother, that she might
tend their sheep and oxen, and do as she had been wont to do.
Weary of the false world of courts, the fierce life of camps, she
may have felt that yearning for peace and peaceful works which
comes at times to every noble character. Now that she had
established Charles as King, now that she had checked the
advance of the English, she may not improbably have longed
to lay down arms and turn her back on greatness and glory.
But it was not so to be. Her name was now all-powerful, her
influence at its highest. The English still were masters of
Northern France almost up to the gates of Rheims. And,
indeed, it is doubtful whether she ever seriously desired to be
dismissed. Her constant prophecy had been that the English
would be driven utterly out of the land; she thought herself
destined to cast them forth; she must have become aware of
her great importance for France. She may have had mis
givings, and may have felt that her strength, as she said, ' was
not given her for long'; she may have dimly foreseen the
end; yet she never flinched from her task or dreamed of
saving herself, but went serenely on in her mission, till it was cut
1 Histoire abregee, Buchon, torn. 34.
2 Chronique de la Pucelle, c. 59. Deposition of the Count de Dunois.
Proces, 3, p. 101.

550 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD IV. A.D. 1429.
short by treachery and the unforgiving foe. For the present
all was bright before her. The fear of her had fallen on all ;
great English captains and their men hid themselves in London
rather than accompany the little King to his crowning over
sea; we learn from every side how she had attracted all
men's eyes. The ' Sibyl of France ' was a miracle to them.
They sent to France to inquire; one of the Visconti begged
her to restore him to his lordship in Milan ; she was appealed to
to say ' which was the true Pope ' ; it was believed that she
would first eject the English, then restore the faith; that she
would reunite the Hussites to the Church; crush the Saracen,
and save the menaced capital of Eastern Christendom. Some
thought of this great enterprise gleams through her strange
letters to the Dukes of Bedford and Burgundy. Her influence
grew day by day : noble knights laid down their own devices
and adopted hers ; medals were struck bearing her effigy, and
were worn round every neck ; portraits and roughly-made statues
of her were solemnly placed in churches : she was the Judith of
the time ; God had saved his people by the hand of a woman \
In her lifetime, a simple maiden of eighteen, she became a
popular saint of the Church, second to none, ranking below
the Holy Virgin alone.
And why then did she not at once move on to finish her
great work ?
The sad answer is that the Court which she had saved
already hated her, and was in conspiracy against her. Without
this, even the high ability, firmness and sagacity of Bedford
would scarcely have availed. Bedford had urged the Cardinal
of Winchester, his uncle, to bring over a body of troops, des
tined nominally for the Crusade, and with them Henry VI, in
order that Paris might be secured, and the little English King
be shown, a child of nine, as the rival of the careless Charles.
He had also again drawn closer to the Burgundians, and already
meditated placing Paris in their hands. The Court gave him
time enough to recover the blows dealt him at Orleans and
1 See the Collect introduced in her honour into the offices. Proces, 5, p. 104.

A.D. 1429. JEANNE DARC THWARTED BY THE COURT. 551
Rheims. La Tremouille, the King's evil spirit, and others his
familiars, especially Regnauld, the scandalous Archbishop of
Chartres, entered into a conspiracy, in which the King himself
joined, to neutralise, if possible, all the force of the national
movement. It is a strange sight, this King conspiring against
himself! The unworthy trio interfered with the forward move
ment of the army ; above all things, they dreaded the ,prospect
of any success against Paris ; the favourable moments were
lost ; the English soldiery were allowed to recover courage ;
a short truce was agreed on. Bedford next sent a defiance to
Charles, and came out to meet him. The French were eager
to fight ; but the wary Regent would not risk all on a battle.
He withdrew, after having encouraged his men to look on the
Maid of Orleans face to face ; and Charles, instead of following
him up, also drew back to Compiegne. Many cities declared
for the King ; among them Beauvais, which ejected its unworthy
bishop, Peter Cauchon, who was destined soon to make for
himself a name of eternal infamy.
Jeanne, after five days wasted at Compiegne, could bear it no
longer. She mounted horse, and, followed by all who would,
disregarding the King and his crew of minions, rode through
Senlis to St. Denis, which at once threw open its gates. Life
came back to the army, now that the King was left behind.
Partisans sprang up on every side. Four chief fortresses of
Normandy were surprised, among them Chateau Gaillard.
Richemont, whom the King had scorned, loyally seconded the
forward movement, threatening Evreux ; the English communi
cations were in the greatest danger. The Normans welcomed
the French : Bedford was compelled to fall back to Rouen,
leaving in Paris only a weak garrison. The King, instead of
striking, busied himself with treaties with Philip of Burgundy.
The Duke was to get Compiegne ; a truce for the cities north of
the Seine was to be signed ; the Duke in return vaguely pro
mising to open the gates of Paris to the King. Thus Charles
and La Tremouille hoped to recover the capital, without having
to thank the heroine of France for it. Alencon, who was still

552 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD IV. A.D. 1430.
friendly to Jeanne, urged the King to come on. He came as
far as Senlis, and there stayed ; at last he very reluctantly
entered St. Denis. The assault of Paris was fixed for the very
next day; but in spite of the Pucelle's utmost endeavour the
attack failed and that not without suspicion of treachery. She
was but ill-supported throughout by the chiefs ; the King never
left St. Denis. Checked by the second ditch, which was deep
with water, she held firmly to such advantage as she had
gained, and, in spite of a ceaseless shower of missiles, was not
dislodged till night : at last, not long before midnight, she was
led away by her friends. For the first time she had failed.
' That night,' says Martin *, ' there was as much joy in the
Council of the King of France at St. Denis, as in that of the
English Regent in Paris.' The next day she would have re
newed the assault, not without good hopes of success. But
her King forbade it, and actually broke down the bridge of
St. Denis, lest she could cross the Seine and attack from the
other side.
Thus the King's treason against himself succeeded. The
army withdrew ; Alencon was sent into Normandy to be away
from the Pucelle's influence. Do what she would, her power
was neutralised; every opportunity lost, every success aban
doned. At last, wearied out, she left the camp, and returned
to Compiegne. There, in a great sortie, she was cut off by the
Burgundians. Her flag was taken, she was dragged from her
horse, and captured by an archer and the Bastard of Wan-
domme, an Artesian. There is no ground for supposing that
she was betrayed by the commandant of the city, or that the
gates were closed against her. Her fearless confidence alone
was fatal to her.
But now that she is in the hands of the Burgundians — will
she be delivered over to the English ?
No man had pity on her. The King and his crew of
favourites made no sign ; the Archbishop of Rheims denounced
her ; the clergy of the English party followed his leading ; the
1 Histoire des Francais, torn. 6. 214.

A.D. 1430. JEANNE DARC A PRISONER. 553
University of Paris, utterly incapable of discerning her heroism,
clamoured that she should be handed over to the Holy Office ;
the Inquisition claimed her as a victim. Political needs were
seconded by theological hatred. If they had murdered her as
a political captive, the act would have been so gross and
abhorrent to all men, that it would have aroused against them
the indignation of Europe. They decided therefore to raise
the cry of heresy and sorcery. Beaufort, Cardinal of Winchester,
employed the ejected Bishop of Beauvais, Cauchon, as his in
strument. He had had much practice in Canon Law ; had sup
ported the Burgundian interests at Constance against Gerson1;
had sat in judgment on Armagnac priests ; was known to
be an ambitious, unscrupulous partisan. The congenial task,
the hope of revenge on those who had caused his ejection from
Beauvais, and the promise of the Archbishopric of Rouen then
vacant, were quite enough to make him a safe and eager tool of
English vengeance.
It was chiefly through Cauchon's activity that the Duke of
Burgundy was induced to deliver Jeanne to her English foes.
He sold her to them, in fact, for ten thousand francs of gold.
Hitherto she had been in honourable captivity at a castle near
Cambrai, in the hands of the wife and aunt of John of Luxem
burg. They yielded her up with tears and vain protests. She
was sent first to Arras in Burgundian territory ; thence to Cro-
toi, where the English received her. Meanwhile the national
party had relieved Compiegne, and had all but driven the Bur
gundians out of Champagne. The English, hearing this, con
ceived that so long as Jeanne lived, her influence, her will, would
thwart and defeat them. Her death was more and more de
sired. In December 1430 she was taken to Rouen, where
she was imprisoned in irons, with grievous indignities. She
was kept there as a prisoner of war, guarded by rough soldiers
throughout her trial, although she was accused of ecclesiastical
crimes, and ought to have been placed in the hands of the
1 It is worthy of notice that this great doctor of the Orleanist or national
party was devoted to Jeanne.

554 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD IV. A.D. 1431.
Church. As it was, she underwent the torments of both
Church and State.
It would be vain to give the details of the trial. The proper
forms were carefully attended to 1 ; no haste appeared. The
President Cauchon might show heat at times ; but generally
he let the trial follow its course. The conclusion was foregone.
Among the judges there was but one Englishman. Though
Bedford and Beaufort might pull the strings, Englishmen were
not the instruments of the great crime. The trial lingered on
three months, — months of exquisite torture 2. At last she was
handed over to the secular arm for punishment. No actual
sentence was passed on her : all knew what the end must
be. At first she lamented, ' Rouen, Rouen, shall I then die
here ? ' In the heart of the young maid — she was scarcely
nineteen — life was so strong, and yet to be so soon and so
painfully stifled on the pile. There, in the street of Rouen,
she made her martyr-end ; piously, simply, and right bravely
to the very last. Her persecutors were brutal also to the end.
Her ashes were scattered in the Seine, lest her body should
work miracles in behalf of France, and rouse the dejected
energies of the people.
How shall we divide the shame of this worst act of a dark
age? The chief blame shall fall on Charles VII, King of
France, who made all her efforts vain, and who, in fact, be
trayed her : while she was so long a prisoner he never lifted
a finger to save her. Next come the fanatical churchmen, the
Frenchmen of the English side, the willing instruments; then
the Burgundians, who had not chivalry enough to refuse to
sell her for a paltry sum, though they knew she was passing
from their hands to all indignity and to a fearful death ; then
the English leaders, who, out of sight, directed all, because
their hard-hearted policy seemed to them to demand her
as a victim. Nor can we altogether acquit from blame the
1 A Dominican friar, who stood stoutly by the victim to the end, declares
' satis observabant judices ordinem juris.'
2 February 21 to May 28, 1431.

A.D.1431. THE END OF JEANNE DARC. 555
French people, who looked on without a voice. Nothing is
so striking as the utter silence with which all France watched
the long dreary trial, the cruel examinations, the shameful im
prisonment, the bitter death. In front of all this darkness the
noble figure of the heroine of France stands out in amazing
beauty against the background of treachery, meanness, cruelty,
and smoke of devouring fire. In all she is lifted far above her
countrymen and her age ; in all she is perfect in her simplicity,
piety, self-devotion. She stands alone on the page of history.

CHAPTER VII.
The Fifth Period of the 'Hundred Years' War!
Expulsion of the English. a,d. 1431-1453.
England showed herself determined to accept the shame of
this outrage on mankind. Two letters were written, one (8th
June) to the Pope and Princes of Christendom ; the other
(28th June) to the Bishops, Dukes, Counts, Barons, and Com
munes of France. They both declare the death of the Pucelle
to have been intended as a blow to Charles VII, the capital foe
of the King of England ; and that her heroism had been flat
rebellion against Holy Church, and had been punished accord
ingly. France would not listen to such pale justification. The
popular feeling soon expressed itself clearly. Shadowy persons
arose, declaring themselves to be the Maid of Orleans, mira
culously saved from the burning pile ; and they won no little
credit with the people. The reaction against the English
calumnies was universal and strong. If to them Jeanne was an
impostor, a ' limb of Satan,' a witch, a sorceress ; to the French
people she was a true prophetess, a ' daughter of God,' a
heroine, a saint, a martyr. Her judges were pointed out in
the streets with the finger of scorn, and cursed by the passers-
by : the popular hatred supplied what the Bishop of Beauvais
had long lost, or never had, the stings of conscience. He
prospered, and got the wages of his crime, the Archbishopric of
Rouen. And then, as the people expected, his end came soon.
He died suddenly under the hands — if not by the hands — of his.

A.D.1431. THE KING'S FAVOURITE DISGRACED. 557
barber. The people welcomed with joy his speedy death, and
that of several other chief agents in the trial, as the vengeance
of God. They saw God's hand, too, in the death of the Regent
Bedford, four years later (a.d. 1435). Whatever might have
been the value of such indications in troublous times, when
sudden and violent deaths were rife, certainly nothing ever
prospered afterwards with the English in France.
And yet the Regent did what he could to get advantage out
of the death of Jeanne Darc. He had the little King of England
crowned and consecrated in Notre Dame (December 17, 1431)
as King of France. Already it was too late. Philip of Bur
gundy became weary of an alliance to which he had agreed only
for his own ends. He came to think he could secure his aims
better by coming to terms with the young French King : active
negotiations went on between them. Bedford felt that if he
left him, all was lost. Even at the crowning of Henry VI in
Paris the citizens looked on gloomily : the English occupation
had lost the goodwill even of its own partisans. The death of
the sister of the Duke of Burgundy, Bedford's wife, in 1432,
still farther severed the English and Burgundians.
The war dragged on its weary indecisive course ; but one
good omen for the French cause occurred. The greater noblesse
had perished in the war : there remained only three parties, the
lesser and newer nobles, captains, knights; the royal princes ; and
the King and his favourites. The struggle lay between this newer
noblesse and the Court ; and we have seen how obstinately
Charles VII refused to be reconciled with its representative the
Constable Richemont, in the days when that brave and loyal
soldier would have been of the utmost value to him. Now
Richemont avenged himself. With the help of the Count of
Clermont (soon after Duke of Bourbon J), and some other war
like chiefs, he surprised and carried off La Tremouille. The
King, with characteristic indolence, made no effort to save his
favourite ; perhaps he was even rather weary of his supremacy.
Richemont now took the chief command, and swept the English
1 Grandfather of Francis I.

558 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD V. A.D. 1434.
out of Maine. An obscure party-war went on between the
Dukes of Burgundy and Bourbon, ending in a conference, to
which Richemont was admitted. Burgundy agreed (a. d. i 434)
that if Henry VI refused the offers of Charles VII, he would
abandon him entirely ; his price was to be the cession of
Amiens, Ponthieu, and some other small places in the North.
Next year (5th August, 1435) a Congress met at Arras. Not
for many years had so great an assembly been gathered to
gether. The Church presided, in the persons of two cardinals.
The Cardinal Bishop of Winchester headed the representatives
of England ; the Duke of Bourbon those of France. Burgundy
was there, Richemont, and other men of name. The Emperor
sent ambassadors, as also did many European states. The
Council of Basel, then sitting, sent the Cardinal of Santa Croce,
who had with him in his train Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope
Pius II. Crowds of lesser personages thronged the city. All
Europe took profound interest in a Congress which, men hoped,
would end the great scandals of Christendom.
The discussions were long and intricate. The French at last
offered to cede Normandy and Aquitaine as fiefs of the English
crown, if the English sovereign in his turn would cease to claim
the crown of France. The English refused; the Congress
was broken up. Then Burgundy remembered his promise
to Charles; and, after some hesitation — for he was bound by
solemn oaths to England — he signed the treaty of Arras
(21st Sept. 1435), and came over to the French side. On
condition that Auxerre, Macon, Peronne, Montdidier, and the
towns on the Somme (the last might be bought back by France)
should be ceded to him, and that he should be released from
all feudal homage (in his own person, not in his successors),
he recognised Charles VII as King of France. Philip sold his
alliance dearly ; at such a moment it was worth any price.
Yet more disastrous to the English than this defection of
their ally, this healing of the great breach between Burgundian
and Armagnac, was the death of the great Duke of Bedford,
the Regent of France. He expired at Rouen a few days after

A.D.1435. DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. 559
receiving tidings of the treaty of Arras (14th Sept, 1435)- He
was the only man capable of stemming the rising tide of the
fortunes of France ; a man of many high virtues and great
sagacity ; the one man who could rise above the petty party
strife of England. At a most critical moment the English in
France found themselves without a chief.
Paris, seeing the Burgundian standards side by side with the
royal, and having no love for the English occupation,— except
so far as it meant for her the supremacy of the Burgundian
party, — opened her gates to the Constable. In April 1436 the
royal army marched into the city. A full amnesty was granted ;
a wise clemency ruled in the King's counsels. The English,
who had retired to the Bastille, capitulated, on condition that
they and their partisans might go away free. They turned
their backs on Paris, leaving the two parties in the city united
in transports of joy. Charles VII after a while made his entry
into the capital ; he did but look coldly on the miseries of the
city ; no ordinance, no measure of relief signalised his visit ; he
went as he had come.
The indolence of the French monarch, and his deep repug
nance for war and men of war, was seconded by an equal
want of ability in the English King. Henry VI as he grew up
showed no capacity : an easy temper and simple manners made
him a quiet tool in the hands of whatever party might obtain
possession of him ; he was utterly unfit to prosecute a war in
France : the English people too were heartily weary of it.
Consequently, for some years (from 1436 to 1449) the long war
languished. During this period the Council of Basle was sitting (a.d. 1431-
1449), in which the claim that Councils should be supreme was
asserted. The bishops of the national side in France flocked
thither in great numbers ; the Council took a warm interest in
the Treaty of Arras. The fathers won the uncertain allegiance
of Philip the Good, by ruling that the Burgundian ambassadors
should take precedence of those of the electors of Germany,
and of all princes who were not of royal dignity. Thus the

560 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR : PERIOD V. A.D. 1438.
Duke of Burgundy was formally declared to be greater than
any feudal lord : not a king, but more powerful than many a
crowned head.
In 1438 Charles VII summoned a national Council at
Bourges. There they drew up what is called ' The Pragmatic
Sanction,' a, document composed of a number of the decrees
of the Council, re-echoing its views as to the quarrel with the
Papacy, and asserting the liberties of the Gallican clergy, and
their close alliance with the crown. It limited the power of the
Papacy over Church preferments ; forbade appeals to Rome ;
stopped the annates. The significance of the document was
increased by the promulgation of it under royal authority as an
Ordinance : it seemed as if the Gallican Church would regard
the King as her head to the detriment of the Pope.
And now the lazy King seemed to shake off his indolence :
he appeared at last to take some interest in his own kingdom.
There was an obscure struggle at Court between the favourites
and the great lords on one side, and the noble Constable of
France and the men of burgher origin in the Council on the
other side. At the head of their war power was Richemont;
at the head of their domestic power was that upright and
wealthy merchant Jacques Cceur. No worthier representative
of the merchant class has ever lived. To him is due whatever
of financial prosperity now began to dawn on France. He
found means to hire troops of adventurers, still far too nu
merous and handy for war or pillage, and forwarded them to
the Constable. The King no longer resisted ; and, after the
taking of Meaux by the war-party, Richemont was well received
at Paris by the Court, and took a great share in arranging a
most important movement. This was nothing less than the con
vocation of the States-General of the Langue d'Oil at Orleans.
The place of meeting was significant and the time. The
assembly was one of high dignity and worth : great numbers of
the best men of the realm were there.
Then was fully discussed the great plague of the realm —
'the petty war' of adventurers, ' e"corcheurs,' or brigands, who

A.D. 1439. THE STATES-GENERAL AT ORLEANS. 561
preyed on France ; and all agreed that this must be suppressed.
Nothing had inflicted so much misery on France, so long, so
wearing, and so persistent. It was agreed also that finance
should be remodelled ; and a permanent tax was established,
to be employed in the payment of a standing army. The King
was allowed to levy this tax by his own authority. The year
1439 gives us, in fact, the beginning of the great system of
regular armies which have gone on growing in size from that
day to this, till at last they are devouring the vitals of society.
These two things, the standing army and the fixed taxation,
form an epoch in French history.
A royal edict (2nd Nov.), levelled against the ruffians who
disgraced and ruined France, followed at once. The Ordinance,
which decreed a levee en masse and struck at once at the noble
and lawless adventurer, - is worthy of note as a step towards
that consolidation of the royal power on the ruins of all liberty
which marked the next reign, the reign of Louis XL The
appointment of officers was centred in the King ; he alone
could fix the number of soldiers to be on foot ; he took to
himself the right of levying taxes without the consent of the
Estates. Here were the chief ingredients of French absolutism.
The revolution promised to be complete.
And the great noblesse saw it so : they at once began to
move ; they now discovered that the King was corrupt, de
bauched, careless, incompetent; they declared that the young
Dauphin, Louis, now nearly seventeen years old, ought to be
invested with the government. The great lords and the leaders
of the independent soldiery, threatened alike, formed a general
conspiracy: they left the Court, and retired into Poitou. The
young Dauphin, who already showed some signs of capacity
and vigour, was carried off by them, and willingly became
their tool and head. He was supported by Dunois, the Dukes
of Bourbon and Alencon, and many others of note. But
now Charles VII showed himself a new man. Against this
' Praguerie J ' he displayed courage, resources, coolness. He
1 So called by allusion to the Hussite struggles in Prague.
VOL. I. 0 0

562 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD V. A.D. 1440.
gathered together what force he could. Richemont and the
Count of Maine stood firmly by him ; many bands of free-lances
took regular service and pay under him. With a few hundred
men he at once marched against the insurgents : as he went,
the cities and country declared in his favour : the Praguerie
found itself powerless. The nobles appealed for asylum to the
Duke of Burgundy ; and he, though head of the feudal nobles
of the age, refused to shelter them. They were fain to make
their peace with the King. The Dauphin submitted; he was
graciously received, pardoned, and sent, that he might be far off
and occupied, to govern Dauphiny.
The Duke of Orleans, prisoner in England since Azincourt,
was now set free, and roused for a moment the flagging hopes
of the nobles ; for he allied himself closely with Burgundy,
and retired gloomily to his territories. A meeting of the princes
and high nobles under his presidency at Nevers issued a mani
festo attacking the King's government, his heavy taxes, his con
tinued war. King Charles replied with so sound a state-paper,
that all France was satisfied that the nobles were in the wrong,
and declared in favour of the royal power. The nobles yielded,
and submitted to the King ; the Praguerie was at an end.
Charles now displayed a similar activity in war. He crushed
the lawless adventurers in Champagne, not without some side-
blows at the noblesse, many of whom, in fact, were nothing but
noble free-lances. Then he pushed westward from Paris and
attacked Pontoise. Here the English were in force, and it was
not till after a most critical struggle that the King carried that
important place (a.d. 1441). All through the next year he
waged pitiless war against the freebooters : he was in Gascony,
down to the feet of the Pyrenees; then back to Northern
France, where the English were attempting Dieppe. The
Dauphin now did good service to France; first at Dieppe,
where he forced the English to raise their siege; next in the
Rouergue, where the Count of Armagnac, reversing the policy
of his name, had allied himself with Henry VI of England, and
was troubling all the South. He was captured by a character-

A.D. 1444. LOUIS THE DAUPHIN. 563
istic piece of treachery — the Dauphin was already showing signs
of his future craft — and Armagnac was occupied by French
troops. A truce with England for two years followed (a.d.
1444-1446). In England the war-party, headed by Gloucester,
had been losing ground. The Cardinal of Winchester, who
led the peace-party, won the confidence of the feeble King,
and succeeded in arranging a marriage for him with Margaret
of Anjou, daughter of the famed Ren£, the witty, artistic prince,
the adventurer in many lands, lively, liberal, dear to all who fell
under his influence. His daughter was in some respects like him,
though of a far stronger build of character; she was lovely and
learned; and, in 1445, she became Queen of England.
The King and the Dauphin employed these two years in
drawing off the free-lances, the wandering marauders. The King
led an army into Lorraine, to conquer the ' three Bishoprics,'
as they were afterwards called, Metz, Toul, and Verdun;
the Dauphin set out for Switzerland. It was a great thing to
relieve the country of these unruly adventurers ; for while they
remained no prosperity could return. The Dauphin was de
lighted to command them : he was as restless, and as fond of
war and adventure as his father was of peace. In all, they led
out of the land some fifty thousand men.
The Dauphin directed his steps to Basel, where the relics
of the great Council were still sitting. They dispersed at his
approach. Not so the Swiss. A body of about sixteen hun
dred men came out to meet him. At first they drove back the
French horse in confusion ; but afterwards, in rashly attempting
to cross the river Birse in face of the enemy, they were over
whelmed and crushed. Five hundred of them, who had made
good their retreat as far as to the cemetery just outside the
walls of Basel, were there besieged, and, resisting with terrible
bravery, perished to a man.
So great was the astonishment and even the terror that his
victory roused in the Dauphin's breast, that he thought well to
treat at once with the men of Basel: he was too sagacious to
commit himself to the wild and difficult land beyond : if the
002

564 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD V. A.D. 1445.
Swiss could do such things in the low country near Basel, what
would they not achieve among their mountains and passes?
And so he made peace with them, and turned aside into Alsatia,
where there was much more booty, and far less resistance. War
was threatened by the Emperor Frederick III. Charles, who
had taken Verdun, and was besieging Metz with the other army,
thought it not advisable to press matters to a rupture : Metz
retained its independence, as did also Verdun and Toul, on
payment of considerable fines ; the French adventurers withdrew
into France. Their numbers, it was noted with satisfaction, had
been reduced by half.
The great Ordinance of Orleans was now carried out; the
army was placed on a permanent footing, though in reduced
numbers ; fifteen hundred lances in fifteen companies formed
the nucleus of the French army of the future. Each ' lance '
signified six men : the man-at-arms himself, three bowmen,
a page, and a light-armed soldier, all mounted. So that each of
these fifteen companies formed a cavalry regiment of six hundred
men. The King carefully appointed fifteen captains, ' men not
too young, nor of the great noblesse ' ; their districts were
appointed them ; they chose the best equipped and properest
men out of the free companies, — and there was great ambition
to be chosen ; and when this was done the remainder, the
non-elect, were bidden to go to their own homes, and return
to honest work, to abstain from pillage and oppression, or it
would be the worse for them. And we find that within a fort
night the whole of these turbulent members of society had been
absorbed and were gone. Thus ended the old lawless warfare
of baronial days ; thus began the new and organised warfare of
the great monarchies of Europe. These companies mark also
the beginning of those periods of history, rightly called modern,
in which the idea of a balance of power has been central. The
power of each state was naturally much dependent on, and
calculated by, the drilled and armed force it could bring into
the field.
The companies, thus spread over all the face of France,

A.D.1445. THE STANDING ARMY OF CHARLES VII. 565
proved of great service in the restoration of prosperity. Their
discipline was severe, their conduct admirable. They formed a
powerful police, themselves withdrawn from the side of disorder,
and transferred to that of good government ; they protected the
people, made agriculture possible, encouraged the revival of
commerce. France was amazed and grateful : it seemed a time
of enchantment and blessing.
Nor did the King rest here: other Ordinances, bearing on
the military organisation of France, followed. Each of the
sixteen thousand parishes of France was ordered to keep, for
every fifty hearths, a ' free archer,' one of its inhabitants, who
should be ready to join the King's army, as a paid soldier, at
need. Another Ordinance settled the manner of the military
service of the noblesse, and provided for their regular payment
by the State. Round his own person Charles grouped those
trusty Scottish fighting-men who, under John Stewart d'Aubigne",
had served the crown so well, and who now formed the nucleus
of this new standing army 1. It was reckoned that these men,
the free archers, and the fifteen companies, would form an army
of at least eighty thousand men. No complaint or resistance
arose. Here was the framework of absolute monarchy ; but
the actual King was too fond of ease and luxury to be an
oppressor : he lived quietly among his favourites, and let the
land recover as it would. Perhaps the most fortunate part of
the character of Charles, as far as France was concerned, was
his acquiescence (not always a willing one) in the victories won
for him by others. Never was monarch 'better served': never
did any less deserve his proud title of ' the Victorious.'
The Dauphin's discontent had not been satisfied by his
little inroad into Switzerland; he again intrigued against his
father, and tried to revive the extinct embers of the Praguerie.
Above all, he hated the King's mistress, the well-known Agnes
Sorel, to whom has been attributed the change in Charles from
indolent neglect of his country to vigorous action and beneficent
legislation. Though her influence probably was good, so far as
1 See vol. ii. p. 9.

566 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD V. A.D. 1449.
it went, what really worked the change was the overthrow of
the old favourites and the substitution in their room of upright
soldiers like Richemont, and prudent statesmen like Jacques
Cceur. It is their hand that we see in field and council. The
King detected the dealings of the Dauphin with the noblesse,
and the young Prince withdrew to his government in Dauphiny,
where he ruled with intelligence and success. All the elements
of the character which afterwards had so great influence on
France were already showing themselves, on a smaller scale
indeed, but with unmistakeable clearness and capacity for good
and evil. He took part in the affairs of Italy and of the ,
Church. Partly through his influence, more through the ability
of the new Pope, Nicholas V, the Council of Basel was at last
finally dissolved. The antipope Felix withdrew and the great
Schism was at an end (a.d. 1449). The Church seemed to
have recovered her unity ; the cry for reform which had
echoed through the halls of Basel died away without effect:
yet two generations must come and go ere the need of that
reform becomes clear to the manful monk of Wittenberg, and
through him to all the world.
And now the last scene of the long war begins. The old
forces are worn out, the old quarrels come to an end ; a great
change impends over Europe. In 1449 some English adven
turers had descended on the Breton coasts. The Duke of
Brittany appealed to the French King for help, and many
barons went in answer to the call. Henry VI, alarmed, called
on the French to observe the truce, to prolong it ; Charles, on
the other hand, saw that his time was come ; he refused, and
ordered Dunois to march into Normandy.
Talbot and the Duke of Somerset who commanded there had
been left almost without men or supplies or money. The French
carried all before them. In Brittany and Normandy alike city
after city opened its gates, and welcomed the French as de
liverers. Even in Rouen, whither Talbot and Somerset had
gathered in all their forces, the citizens were not to be denied.
They lef in the French, and the English were powerless to

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A.D. 1451. LAST SCENES OF THE WAR. 567
resist. They yielded, and were allowed to retreat to England
on payment of a fine. Charles made triumphal entry into the
town. Thence onwards to the seaboard. Harfleur and Hon-
fleur were taken ; Somerset fell back to Caen. A strong rein
forcement from Cherbourg, which marched to join him, was
out-manceuvred and brought to bay at Formigny. There the
Count of Clermont attacked them : though he was beaten off,
he had given Richemont time to come up ; and a second battle
took place, ending in the absolute defeat of the English forces.
They had been about six thousand strong, and are said to
have lost more than half their men.
Now Normandy was altogether lost. The united French
army besieged and took Caen : Falaise and Cherbourg were the
last English strongholds ; they too fell. And thus the thirty-one
years of occupation ended.
Borne on the rising tide of power and popularity Charles
wisely determined to finish the work. The English government
had been as remiss as the French had been active. Margaret
of Anjou, unpopular in England, and opposed by the Duke
of York, was powerless to help the garrisons of Normandy and
Guienne. The French army was organised, and, flushed with success,
marched under Dunois into Guienne from the North, while
the Counts of Armagnac and Albret entered it from the South.
No serious resistance was possible : place after place threw open
its gates ; and after a march, which was little but a military parade,
Dunois entered Bordeaux in triumph. Bayonne resisted and
was besieged ; after a couple of months the last stronghold of
the English power in the South fell (August, 1451)-
The end, however, had not yet quite come. Two strong
interests bound Guienne to England : first, the feudal nobles
dreaded the centralising influences of France, and were con
nected by old ties to the Court and noblesse of England;
and secondly, the commercial relations between the two
countries were close and profitable. England was a great
consumer of the 'Bordeaux' wines: that city owed all its

568 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD V. A.D. 1453.
prosperity to England : the taxation was less severe, the inter
ference of government less serious, than it would be under
the French kingdom. And to all this may be added the old
blood-jealousy between Southern and Northern France, between
the Euskarian and the Gallic tribes. So when the aged Talbot
was sent over with five thousand men to recover Guienne, his
success, for the moment, was complete. He was welcomed at
Bordeaux as a saviour : the whole territory declared at once and
sincerely for England.
Charles VII was alarmed ; after making terms with his trouble
some son (who had offered to reconquer Guienne for him), and
with the Duke of Savoy, that son's father-in-law, he marched
with all his force towards Guienne ; wintering in the country
just to the north of it. The river Dordogne, an affluent of the
Garonne, for a short distance separates Guienne from Pe'rigord ;
and just at that point stands the town and stronghold of
Castillon, commanding the river's course. The army sat down
in form before the place in July, 1453, throwing up entrench
ments to defend the artillery. Thither came Talbot with a strong
force, to dislodge them. He stormed an old abbey in which a
body of eight hundred free-archers lay ; and soon after, hearing
a rumour that the French were abandoning their fortified camp,
he hastened up ; only to find his enemy tranquilly awaiting him.
The old soldier's blood was up ; he would listen to no prudent
counsel ; he did not remember the French blunder on the ' Day
of the Herrings,' but pushed his men straight at the works.
They came on with the coolest bravery, even planting Talbot's
banner at the foot of the palisades : after an hour's struggle,
they found their efforts vain, and fell into disorder ; the French
sallied out at the right moment ; a ball struck Talbot's horse,
and brought him and his rider down ; his trusted friends, his
two sons, some sturdy barons and knights, made stand over his
prostrate body, till all perished together. So ended the long
and stormy career of the man who had lived through three
quarters of the ' Hundred Years' War,' and had taken part in it
since first he bore arms. He was eighty years old. His death

AD. 1453. CLOSE OF THE WAR. 569
was in truth the very end of the war. Castillon fell at once ;
the South returned to the French side; Bordeaux speedily
capitulated ; for it was not only blockaded by land, but cut off
from all hope of help at sea by a strong fleet from La Rochelle.
The city lost its privileges, and had to pay a heavy fine : the
South passed for ever into the hands of the King of France
(October 17, 1453). Normandy and Guienne were assimilated
to France in the matter of taxes and army organisation ; other
wise they retained their local government for centuries. The
Parliament of Bordeaux was established in 1462 ; the old
and famous Exchequer Court of Rouen was made a sovereign
Court under Louis XII. And now there remained to England
nothing across the Channel except the town and district of
Calais, together with Ham, and the castle of Guines. These
Charles VII left unmolested ; partly because he had other work
on hand; still more because to have wrested them from Eng
land might have added to his complications with Philip the
Good of Burgundy. They lay on the skirt of that ambitious
Prince's domains ; and in fact the Duke at this moment held
the town of Guines underneath the castle. Had the French
reduced these places, they would either have come into col
lision with the Burgundians, or must have allowed them to
pass into their hands. And therefore Charles, who displayed
remarkable prudence throughout this period, left them un
touched. Nor did he think it well, as tome did, to press the
English home; though it was a tempting opportunity. Under
the unhappy and afflicted Henry VI they were weak at sea,
weaker still at home, torn by faction, full of discontent and dis
trust ; with their military glory tarnished by the late war, their
military spirit low, the old feudal war-organisation still struggling
feebly against the standing-army organisation of the coming age.
Charles however withstood the temptation, and, fortunately for
France, left England alone. England now consumed herself in
those terrible wars of the Roses, which were in large part the
direct consequences and results of the great Hundred Years'
War ; at least of the events of the later years of that struggle.

570 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD V. A.D. 1453.
And who was the better for that war ? Not France, which was
reduced to misery and starvation, while feudal anarchy was being
commuted for the beginnings of a monarchical absolutism, the
curse of France for centuries ; not England, for while she won
much barren glory on the fields of Crecy, Poitiers, Azincourt,
she learnt no ennobling lesson from the struggle, nor added to
her material prosperity. On the other hand, the consequent
civil war, though terrible in immediate character and effects,
enabled the commonalty of England to grow into its more
modern form. The best thing for England was the fact that the
war ended as it did : for it compelled the English to regard their
home-affairs as all-important, and enabled them to compete on
favourable terms with their own nobles, who no longer enjoyed
the double support of foreign war and half-foreign baronial
friends. On the other side, France likewise owes the war some
gratitude ; for it enabled her to become one nation, to have
common interests from North to South, to grow compact, to
take her place as a strong instead of a weak power at the
council-board of Europe. We must not forget that this was
purchased at the price of centralised government, absence of
public opinion, uniformity of absolutism.
Two state trials form a fitting close to this period. The first
was that of the King's faithful servant Jacques Cceur, the mer
chant prince, whose wise counsels, ready expedients, and well-
filled purse had largely helped to bring things to a successful
issue : he was too rich and too powerful. In him the nobles saw
the burgher-prince of the days to come. They hated his wealth,
his artistic splendour, his enlightened ideas, even his readiness to
help, his generous spirit. They felt that shame which springs
up in aristocratic souls, when they receive favours from one who is
really their superior, whom they still insist on regarding as below
them. And therefore, after a scandalous trial, he was abandoned
to their vengeance by the heartless king, whose indifference did
not here coincide with his own interests. After many and
romantic adventures Cceur succeeded in escaping from their hands.
His friends were many, and they rescued him. He reached

A.D. 1453. THE TALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 571
Rome, where all his foreign wealth, which faithful agents had pro
tected, still remained to him : soon after, commanding a papal
expedition by sea against the Turks, he fell ill and died at Chio.
The other trial was that of the rehabilitation of the Maid of
Orleans. The King, who had treated her so ill while she lived,
now made her tardy amends. Her devotion for France was
recognised, her martyrdom acknowledged, and she took worthy
place among those who had contributed most towards the glory
and building-up of the French nation.
Two things outside France require notice.
First, the final subjection of the powerful and turbulent cities
of Flanders to the authority of the Duke of Burgundy, a marked
stage in the onward march of that ambitious house ; and, in
the more peaceful development of wealth and intelligence, a
preparation for the part these cities would have to play in
European history a century later. This subjection took place
when in 1452 Philip the Good beat down the whole forces of
their representative city Ghent on the bloody field of Gavre.
And secondly, this was the time of the ever-famous conquest
of Constantinople by the Turks ; an event which by itself alone
marks the middle of the fifteenth century as a great era in
European history. In 1453 Mahomet II, after a siege of forty-
nine days, planted the Crescent over the Cross on the pinnacles
of the ancient city, which had for years almost alone represented
the last relics of the Eastern Empire. Then fell, with a crash,
the last successor of the Eastern Caesars. Then broke asunder
that hollow union of Churches with which the East had vainly
tried to buy the succour of the West. Then came westwards
in crowds the learned men, the priceless manuscripts, the taste
for classical lore, which had so long been protected and neglected
in the Eastern capital. Borne like ripe seeds on the winds
of heaven, they fell into a soil prepared by years of silent and
unconscious culture; and there they took root, and shot up,
and bore fruit, in the learning, the speculation, the artistic glories
of the Renaissance.
In the period we have just passed through, there is nothing

572 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD V. A.D.1453.
on which the eye can rest with pleasure. Europe is restless ; the
old forms of thought are fading away, old institutions crumbling ;
we are already in transition between the middle ages and modern
times. History is a record of monstrous horrors; the feudal
man-at-arms has become a robber, a common highwayman, on
his way into his later condition, the modern soldier. The peasant,
never of much account in France, is mentioned only when famine,
pestilence, or disturbance child of despair, arrests the con
temptuous and unwilling regard of the chronicler. Agriculture
goes backwards ; commerce fails ; for cities and country are alike
too weary either to produce or to consume much. Cities stagnant,
fields matted with brambles, attest the material exhaustion of the
age. It is a time too of moral decadence : no good example
in the King's Court ; a subservient and worldly clergy in high
places ; feudal lords without honour or chivalry. Learning
cannot lift her head ; the literary annals of the time are almost
a blank, so far as France is concerned. We find translations of
earlier romances and tales, the dregs of feudalism ; part also
of the interminable Roman de la Rose belongs to this period,
together with the still more wearisome imitations of it. A few
poems there are of a higher cast : two prince-poets have left us
their thoughts in verse ; the Duke of Orleans, whose long cap
tivity in England gives to his poems a very pleasant tinge of
real character, while at the same time they are remarkable for
finish of style ; and the other, far below his cousin in power
and poetical genius, Rene the adventurer, the King of Sicily.
Among the arts, architecture alone shows some life ; some of
those lofty choirs the fragile beauty of which still astonishes us,
while their flamboyant decorations fret rather than satisfy the
eye, date from this period. The windows are still being filled
with the wonderful combinations of colour which are the envy
of those who in our day try to lival them. Domestic architecture
rises with the beautiful home which the great citizen Jacques
Cceur built in the largeness of his heart at Bourges;, where it still
stands complete : in painting, France has no artist in this period
to compete with the great Flemish painters, the Van Eycks,

A.D.1453. THE NEW AGE COMING. 573
who did so much to improve oil-painting, or with Hemling and
others, whose works illustrate the splendour of the Burgundian
Court. The roll of great names in France is brief and meagre.
When there is a noble character, a Jeanne Darc, a Jacques
Cceur, a Constable of Richemont, France shows herself un
worthy to possess so great a treasure : in all we discern the
feeble endings of an age. And not in France only. All
Europe stands still expecting change, desiring the new order,
vaguely looking forwards towards the great discoveries and
the great men destined to make the next century so dif
ferent from this, and to impel society far on in the path of
change, by the growth of new ideas, the progress of material
comfort, the security of domestic life, the outburst of power in
many directions. Thus we stand at the end of many things.
This half-century saw the power of the Teutonic knights de
stroyed (1410) on the field of Tannenberg. It saw the end of
the older feudal-royalty in England, and of the older nobility
with it; it saw in the person of the Duke of Burgundy the last
struggle of feudalism begun, though not ended. It saw the
dark sea of Islam closing over the last ruins of the Greek
Empire. It saw the failure of great councils ; the discredit of a
schism-vexed Papacy, the vain attempts at reform. All these
things crowd our pages during this period ; and under the
surface we are aware of strong currents flowing in new direc
tions ; of changes, religious and political, rapidly approaching.
France begins to concentrate power in the hands of a dissolute
and heartless King, a process which she continues for many a
day; she builds up an army, she catches and crystallises the
native Gallic love of war and glory. At the moment of which
we are speaking, she waits for a sovereign of whom she has
already caught a glimpse ; he will be a hard master over her, as
cold as Charles VII, more false, if possible, to friend and foe ;
of restless untiring energy and subtle skill, who will crush down
the independence of her great nobles, and at last form her into
a compact and coherent monarchy.

INDEX

A.
Aachen, see Aix-la-Chapelle.
' Aaron, King of Persia,' p. 133.
Abbeville, the French cross the
Somme at, 426.
Abd-el-Rahman defeated at Poitiers,
106.
Abelard, his philosophy, 266.
Absolutism, French, its foundation
laid, 561, 565, 570.
Acre, taken from the Christians, 372.
Adalberon of Laon crowns Hugh
Capet, 18 r ; betrays Charles of
Lorraine to Hugh, 197.
Adalhard spoke the ' Lingua Romana
Rustica,' T64.
Adhemar, Bp. of Puy, organises the
First Crusade, 221 : does not live
to see its success, 228.
Adrian, Emperor, 44.
Adrian I, Pope, calls in Charles the
Great, 128.
Aduatici, enslaved by Caesar, 30.
Aeduans, Gallic tribe, 23; attacked
by Germans and Sequanians, 25 ;
resist Helvetians, 28 ; recover
supremacy, 29 ; attack Belgae, ib. ;
revolt from Rome, 30; revolt
under Sacrovir, 40.
Aegidius, defends the Empire in
Gaul, 62 ; assassinated, ib.
Aetius, a Scythian, 60; resists Etzel,
61 ; at battle of ChSlons, ib. ; as
sassinated, 62.
Agriculture, very rude, 191.
Aigues Mortes, St. Louis sails from,
341-
Aix-la-Chapelle, seat of Austrasian
Court, 100 ; Charles the Great's

palace at, 1 2 1 ; Charles hunts near,
135; is buried there, ib.
Akbar compared with Charles the
Great, 145.
Alan of Brittany, a leader in the
First Crusade, 227.
Alaric II, the Goth, 64, 68.
' Alauda,' the Gallic legion, why so
called, 34.
Albert of Austria, under Papal ban,
380.
Albertus Magnus, at Paris, 352.
Albigenses, the, 309 ; their tenets,
310 ; a new Crusade against them,
325 ; headed by Louis VIII, 328;
their end, 338.
Albret, D', Constable of France,
518 ; perished at Azincourt, 520.
Alcuin, friend of Charles the Great,
122.
Alencon, Count of, at Crecy, 428.
Alencon, Duke of, falls at Azincourt,
520.
Alencon, Duke of, taken at Verneuil,
533 ; one ofthe ' nationalist' party,
542 ; escorts Jeanne Darc to Or
leans, ib. ; sent to help her after
the siege, 548 ; her firm friend,
551, 552 ; sent away by the Court,
ib. ; supports the Praguerie, j6i.
Alencon, William the Bastard at,
209.
Alesia, early centre of Gallic wor
ship, 14 ; described, 33 ; last
standpoint of Vercingetorix, ib.
Alexander V, Pope, 508; dies, 512.
Alexius, the Emperor, alarmed at
the Crusades, 226 ; gets the Cru
saders over the Bosphorus, 228 ;
attacked by Bohemond, 233.

576

INDEX.

Alfonso, King of Galicia, does
homage to Charles the Great,
133-
Alfred, King, compared with Chailes
the Great, 146 ; his resistance to
the Norsemen, 175, 176.
Al Hakim, Khalif of Egypt, 223.
Alice, Queen of Louis VII, 277, 287.
Alix, daughter of Louis VII, 2S9.
Allemannia, a new kingdom for
Charles the Bald, 157.
Allemans, 46, 50 ; driven back by
Julian, 54; attack Gaul, 69;
defeated at Ziilpich, ib. ; attacked
by Austrasian Franks, 84.
Allobroges, their district, 23.
Alodial lands, 76, 137 ; origin of
term, 76, note ; tendency to con
vert them into benefices, 147 ;
their importance ceases, 168.
Alphonse, brother of St. Louis, 336.
Alphonse of Toulouse, last of the
house of Saint Gilles, his territory
falls to France, 356.
Amaury of Jerusalem, 247.
Amaury of Montfort, 317.
Ambiorix, chief of Eburones, 31.
Ambrose, St., a Gaul, 53 ; protests
against persecution, 56 ; fosters
monasticism, 65.
Ambrosian chant supplanted by
Gregorian, 122.
Amiens falls to Philip Augustus,
287.
Ammianus Marcellinus serves under
Julian, 54; quoted, 55.
Anagni, Boniface VIII taken at,
3»7-
Anastasius, Byzantine Emperor,
makes Hlodowig Consul, 72.
Andelot, treaty of (A.D. 587), 90.
Anjou, house of, declines, 290.
Anjou, Louis, Duke of, enters
Guienne, 479 ; mismanages Lan
guedoc, 482, 483; not summoned
to Charles' death-bed, ib. ; claims
the Regency, 492 ; steals the
money, 493 ; is bribed out of the
Regency, ib. ; styles himself King
of Sicily, 496 ; his wretched failure
and end, 497.
Anne of Russia, 209.
Ansgar, first missionary to Sweden,
Abp. of Hamburg, 174, 175.

Antioch, taken by the Crusaders,
229 ; battle of, ib.
Antonines, the, 44.
Antrustions, 49, 86.
Aquae Sextiae (Aix in Provence),
founded, 23.
Aquileia, battle of, 56.
Aquinas, St. Thomas, at Paris, 352.
Aquitaine, Theodorik has posses
sions in, 83 ; Hlotair also, ib. ;
hates the Franks, 117; kingdom
of, 1 28 ; its higher civilisation, ib. j
under Hludwig 'the Pious,' ib.,
1 37, 154, 156 ; its limits, to the
Ebro, 130; under Charles the
Great, 137; Gallo-Romans in,
148 ; formed into a separate king
dom, t56 ; under Pippin II, 166;
in Hugh Capet's days, 191 ;
loses its formal independence,
264.
Aquitania, province of, 38 ; the
Second, ceded to Visigoths, 60.
Aquitanians, the, 9, 10, 26 ; war of
Charles the Great with, T27; at
the Court of Paris in Robert's
days, 203 ; regarded as effeminate,
ib. ; suspected by the Black Prince,
476.
Arabs, their Empire, 105 : fill
Southern France, ib. ; sack Bor
deaux, 106; crushed at Poitiers, ib.
Arar (Saone), Caesar defeats Hel
vetians on the, 28.
Arbogast, Frankish Prince, is vir
tual Emperor, 55 ; assassinates
Valentinian, ib.
Arch-Druid, the, 16.
Architecture, advances under Dago
bert, 95 ; loved by- Charles the
Great, 124; is developed from
Norman to French style, 26s ;
advanced by Charles V, 486 ;
flourishes under Charles VII,
572-
' Archpriest,' the, a leader of free
lances, 458.
Ardennes, the, 30.
Arianism, the day of, 52 ; thrust
back by Gallican Church, ib. ;
held by Goths, 64.
Ariovistus, brings Germans over the
Rhine, 25 ; attacked by Caesar,
28.

INDEX.

577

Aristocracy, struggles with Mon
archy, 87 ; in France, discredited,
446. 447-
Aristotle, comes into Europe through
Provence, 311 ; his writings trans
lated under Charles V, 486.
Aries recolonised, 37 ; southern
capital, 62; kingdom of, founded,
169.
Armagnac, the Count of, a great
leader, 509 ; is made Constable
of France, 523; sole head of his
party, ib. ; killed by the Burgun
dians, 524.
Armagnac, Count of, reverses his
familypolicy, 562 ; joins Henry VI,
ib.
Armagnacs and Burgundians, first
symptom of, 500 ; the parties con
trasted, 503 ; Armagnacs grow
into a national party, 509 ; make
no impression on Paris, 510; much
weakened by Azincourt, 523; the
national or southern party, 527 ;
their breach with the Burgundians
healed, 558.
Armorica, 9 ; overrun by Romans,
30 ; recolonised with Britons, 55 ;
is called Brittany, ib. ; a land
apart, 62 ; under Hildebert, 83.
Armorican Republic, the, 59.
Army, the, under the Austrasian
Princes, becomes all-important,
101 ; how kept up by Charles
Martel, 104, 105 ; under Charles
the Great, 138, 139 ; a rude form
of standing army, 279; standing,
established by Charles VII, 561,
565-
Arnold of Amaury, abbot of Citeaux,
head of the Albigensian Crusade,
312; his reply at Beziers, 'Kill
them all,' &c, 313; is Abp. of
Narbonne, 315.
Arnulf, Bp. of Metz, 91.
Arnulf, King of Germany, 172;
supports Charles the Simple, ib.
Arnulf, nephew of Karl of Lorraine,
Abp. of Rheims, 196 ; betrays
Hugh, 197 ; deposed, 198.
Arques, Henry V at, 518.
Arras, Congress of, 558 ; comes to
nothing, ib. ; Treaty of, ib. ; dis
cussed at the Council of Basel, 559.
VOL. I. P P

Arras, Treaty of, 512.
Arteveld, Jacquemart van, 410 ; ap
peals to Edward III, 414 ; loses
his life by his English sympathies,
416 ; murdered by the men of
Ghent, 422.
Arteveld, Philip van, raises Ghent
against Louis de Male, 493 ; slain
at Roosebek, 494, 495.
Arthur of Brittany, 287 ; his birth,
289 ; declared Geoffrey's heir by
Richard of England, 291 ; taken
up by Philip, 294; deserted by
him, ib. ; taken by John, and dis
appears, 299.
Arvernians, Gallic tribe, 23 ; revolt
from Rome under Vercingetorix,
32-
Ascalon, battle of, 230.
Assassination, rife in the Empire, 62.
Assemblies, National, under Charles
the Great, 139.
Assises of Jerusalem, 244 ; of the
High Court, 246 ; of the Burgher
Court, ib. ; du coup apparent,
247 ; de Basse Cour, 248.
Astronomy studied by Charles the
Great, 122.
Ataulf, King of Lombards, attacks
Rome, 115 ; a second time, 117.
Ataulf the Visigoth, 59 ; his high
dreams, ib.
Athelstan, King of England, 180.
Attila, (Etzel), enters Gaul, 60;
spreads ruin, ib. ; his host, ib. ;
raises siege of Orleans, 61 ; falls
back to Chalons, ib. ; defeated, ib. ;
takes Bp. Lupus with him to the
Rhine, 65.
Aubin, St., de Cormier, treaty of,
331-
Audenham, Marshal of King John
II. 443-
Audoen, St., (St. Ouen), 95.
Augustine, St., of Canterbury, helped
by Brunhild, 91.
Augustine, St., of Hippo, fosters
monasticism, 65 ; read by Charles
the Great, 120.
Augustodunum, (Autun), 38; school
of Latin learning, 39.
Augustonemetum, 38.
Augustoritum, (Limoges), a centre of
Christianity, 46.

578

¦INDEX.

Augustus, organises Gaul, 38 ; his
cities, ib. ; founds Lyons, ib. ; his
four provinces, 38 ; his roads,
39-
Auray, battle of, 471, 472 ; Du
Guesclin a prisoner at, ib.
Aurelian reunites Gaul to Rome, 46.
Ausculta fili, the Bull, 382.
Austrasia, 72 ; its princes, 76 ; strug
gles with Neustria, 81 ; wild and
pagan, 82 ; its triumph, ib. ; separ
ated from Gaul, 83 ; its conquests,
84 ; a distinct kingdom, 86, 87 ;
has a Mayor, 87 ; prepares to
conquer Neustria, 97 ; its princes
become more German, 100 ; never
French, ib. ; clergy become lay-
lords, ior ; remains of it in Hugh
Capet's days, 190.
Autricum, (Chartres), later centre of
Druid worship, 13.
Autun, 38.
Auvergne, Theodorik has possessions
in, 83.
Auxerre, peace of, 510.
Avaricum, (Bourges), taken by Cae
sar, 32 ; changes its name, 38.
Avignon, the new seat of the Papacy,
393 ; visited by Du Guesclin, 472,
473 ; home of crime and im
morality, 489.
Ayoubites, the, in Egypt, 345.
Azincourt, battle of, 519-523.
B.
Bacon, Roger, at Paris, 352.
Bagaudes, peasant insurgents, 58.
Bahucet, the Treasurer, hung after
Sluys, 419.
Bajazet, Ottoman Sultan, defeats the
Burgundians at Nicopolis, 504.
Baldwin, Count of Edessa, 230.
Baldwin I of Jerusalem, altered the
Codes, 247.
Barbanera, Genoese sea-captain in
French service, 4T7 ; slain at Sluys,
419.
Barbarian incursions, the, 48 sqq.
Bards, the second order of Druids,
1 5 ; are parasites to Chiefs, ib. ;
their degradation, T9, 20.
Basel, the Council of, 559; disperses
at the approach qf Louis the

Dauphin, 563 ; finally dissolved,
566.
Basilicas are turned into Churches,
52-
Batavian island, the; 30 ; population,
42 ; rises against Roman legions,
ib.
Baudricourt, Robert of, captain of
Vaucouleurs, 539 ; treats Jeanne
Darc with scorn, ib. ; afterwards
helps her, ib.
Bauge, battle of, 528.
Bavarians, attacked by Austrasians,
84 ; a separate kingdom under
Hludwig, son of Hludwig the
Pious, 156.
Bayonne, last English city in Gui
enne, 567.
Beaumont, Charter of, 284, note.
Beauvais, Bp. of, with his mace,
320.
Becket, his fortunes and fate, 276,
277, 278 ; Henry II at his shrine,
279.
Bedford, the Duke of, Regent of
France, 529 ; attends funeral of
Charles VI, ib. ; prudent in deal
ing with the Burgundians, 533 ;
orders the Earl of Salisbury to
besiege Orleans, 534; refuses to
raise the siege for Philip of Bur
gundy, 538 ; his account of Jeanne
Darc, 545 ; his steps to counter
act her influence, 550 ; forced to
leave Paris, 55 1 ; pulled the strings
of the trial of Jeanne, 554 ; got
what advantage he could from
her death, 557 ; his death, 558 ;
character, 559.
Belen, spoils of Delphi in his temple,
24.
Belfort, the key to Burgundy, 2, 26.
Belg, the name, 9.
Belgae, the, 9, to; resist Caesar,
29.
Belgica, Augustus' Province, 38.
Benedetto Gaetani, or Boniface VIII,
374-
Benedict of Nursia, 88 ; his order,
ib. ; its beneficent action, ib.
Benedict XIII, elected Avignon
Pope, 502 ; clings to his seat, ib. ;
deposed by Council of Constance,
5?3-

¦INDEX.

579

Beneficia, 46, 77, 137 ; alodial lands
converted into, 147.
Bernard, Duke of Gothia, 157; 159 ;
and Septimania, 1661 ¦
Bernard, King of Italy, 153, T56.
Bernard, St., last of the Fathers,
266 ; preaches the Second Cru
sade, 268, 269 ; refuses to lead it,
270.
Berri, ceded to Philip Augustus,
290.
Berri, Duke of, brother to Charles
V, 483 ; at his death-bed, 491 ;
takes South France, 41)3 ; is de
posed by Charles VI, 499 ; seizes
the government with Burgundy,
500; is appointed Captain of Paris,
507 ; tries to mediate between the
parties, ib. ; joins league against
Burgundy, 509 ; attacked by
Charles VI, 510; gives in, ib. ;
again Captain of Paris, 512 ;
anxious about the battle of Azin
court, 519; brings the King into
Paris, 523 ; dies, ib.
Bertha, mother of Charles the Great,
118.
Bertha, Queen of Robert of France,
202.
Berthar, Neustrian Mayor, 97.
Bertrade, wife of Fulk of Anjou,
218; a troubled spirit, 258; her
plans fail, she takes the veil, and
dies, ib.
Bertram de Born, his Sirventes, 279,
280.
Bertrand de Goth, nominee of Philip
IV for the Papacy, 389 ; becomes
Clement V, ib. ; his consecration,
ib. ; a ' prisoner at large ' in
France, 390 ; does Philip le Bel's
bidding, ib. ; flees from Poitiers, to
avoid condemning the Templars,
393 ; declares Philip to have had
excellent motives, 394.
Bertulf of Bruges, 263.
Beziers, inhabitants of, massacred in
the name of God, 313.
Beziers, the Viscount of, resists the
Crusaders, 3T3 ; dies, ib.
Bicetre, treaty of, 509.
Birse, battle of the, 563.
' Bishoprics, the three,' 563.
Bishops in Gaul become chief magis

trates, 51, 52 ; in room of Defen-
sores, 53 ; mediate with the Franks,
64, 65 ; sole rulers in towns, 75 ;
counsellors of kings, ib. ; subser
vient to kings, 88 ; great alodial
lords, ib., 94 ; despoiled by Charles
Martel, 104 ; befriended by Pippin
the Short, 115; needed to or
ganise his kingdom, ib. ; under
Charles the Great, 141 ; in a low
moral slate, 148 ; the Age of the,
149.
Bituit the Arvernian, 23.
Biturigan cities burnt by the Gauls,
32.
Black Death, the, 435.
Black Prince, the, see Edward.
Blanche of Castille, wife of Louis
VIII, 323 ; her vigour, 327 ; rules
for her husband, ib. ; defends her
son Louis IX, 330 ; moulds his
character, ib. ; detaches Theobald
of Champagne from the League,
331 ; calls on Paris for help, ib. ;
is victorious, ib. ; teaches her son,
334 ; finds him a wife, ib. ; her
rule in France, 346 ; her death,
347-
Blanche of Navarre, second wife of
Philip VI, 436.
Blanche-Taque, Edward III fords
the Somme at, 425 ; Henry V
tries in vain to cross at, 518.
Blandina, a martyr, 45.
Blankenberg, battle near, 418.
Boccaccio ' celebrates the Black
Death in the Decamerone, 435.
Bohemia, John, the blind King of,
at Crecy, 431.
Bohemond the Norman, on Crusade,
227 ; becomes Prince of Antioch,
230; returns to Europe for help,
233-
Boii settle in Gaul, 28.
Boileau, Stephen, compiles a Book
of Trades, 356.
Boniface, St., ' Apostle of Germany,'
103 ; helps Carloman to reform
abuses, 107 ; is Abp. of Mainz,
ib. ; crowns Pippin, 112; dies
A.D. 755, 115.
Boniface VIII, how elected Pope,
374; his character, ib., 375; un
fortunately pitted against Philip le

P p 2

58o

INDEX.

Bel, ib. ; tries to mediate between
him and Edward I, 376 ; his strug
gle with Philip, ib., 377, 381-386;
issues the Decretal ' Unam Sanc-
tam,' 386 ; Nogaret's charges
against him, ib. ; seized at Anagni,
387 ; rescued, ib. ; dies, 388 ; his
character, ib. ; Philip tries to
make Clement V condemn his
memory, 390, 391 ; Philip aban
dons the attempt, 394.
Book of Trades, of Stephen Boileau,
356-
Bordeaux, sacked by the Arabs, 106 ;
by the Norsemen, 175 ; capitulates
to the French, 569.
Border-line of France, 1.
Boso, founds the kingdom of Aries,
169.
Boucicault, Marshal of France, 518 ;
taken at Azincourt, 523.
Boulogne, seat of one of the Malls of
Charles the Great, 121 ; a French
army under Philip Augustus
gathered there, 318.
Bourbon, Duke of, brother-in-law of
Charles V, 4S3 ; at his death-bed,
491 ; his character, ib. ; at Azin
court, 5191a prisoner, 523.
Bourbon, Duke of, helps Richemont
to carry off La Tremouille, 557 ;
at the" Congress of Arras, 558 ;
supports the Praguerie, 361.
Bourges, 38 ; the archbishopric of,
a source of quarrel between Louis
VII and Innocent II, 268; Council
of, 560.
Bouvines, battle of, 320-322 ; its
influence on French national
feeling, 322 ; and on royalty, ib.
' Brabancons,' the, 279.
Brenneville, battle of, 261.
Brenos, (Brennus), sacks Rome, 22.
Bretigny, treaty of, 464, 465.
Breton war of Charles the Great,
13°, J-31-
Brignais, battle of, 467.
Brittany, under Nomenoe, 166;
ceases to be isolated, 275 ; succes
sion to its Duchy, 421 ; pedigree
of Ducal family, ib. ; war in, ib.,
422 ; lords of, beheaded by Philip
VI, ib. ; flies to arms, ib. ; John
of Montfort enters, ib. ; war con

tinues in, 439 ; Charles V pro
poses to confiscate it, 481 ; revolt
in, ib. ; one ofthe three great fiefs
left, 487 ; attacked by the Eng
lish, 566 ; who are driven out,
567-
Brittany, Duke of, killed by the
falling of a wall at Lyons, 390.
Brittany, Duke of, lands at Calais,
and passes through France, 479.
Brittany, Duke of, refuses to give up
Peter Craon, 499.
Brittany, John of, dies childless,
421.
Bruges, Louis VI at, 263; the French
massacred at, 384.
Brunhild, daughter of Athanagild,
wife of Sigebert, 87; her feud with
Fredegond, 89 ; a prisoner at
Rouen, ib. ; escapes, ib. ; . her
greatness, 90-93 ; her miserable
end, 93 ; her aims, and failure in
them, ib.
Bruno, as Pope Leo IX, 211.
Buchan, Constable of France, 532 ;
perishes at Verneuil, 533.
Buchard, at Bruges, 263.
Bull, the, ' Clericis laicos,' 376 ; ' In-
effabilis amoris,' 377 : ' Ausculta,
fili,' 382 ; the Little Bull and its
Answer, ib., 383 ; of Excommuni
cation of Philip le Bel, 386.
Burgher Court of Jerusalem, the,
246, 248.
Burgher life, not strong enough to
govern, 461.
Burgundians, 49 ; in Saone valley,
59 ; Arians, 60 ; a friendly race,
ib. ; their peaceable settlement in
Gaul, ib. ; their law system, 66 ;
defeated by Hlodowig, 71.
Burgundians and Armagnacs, first
symptoms of, 503 ; Burgundians
have North-French sympathies,
ib. ; are for the ' way of cession,'
ib. ; contrasted with Armagnacs,
ib. ; suffer a terrible blow at
Nicopolis, 504 ; not allowed to
be present at Azincourt, 518 ;
in the ascendent after that battle,
524, 525 ; their breach with the
national party healed, 558.
Burgundy, attacked by the sons of
Hlodowig, 84; a separate king-

INDEX.

58l

dom, 87 ; has a Mayor, ib. ; at
tacked by Philip Augustus, 288 ;
Duchy and Kingdom of, ib. note ;
falls to Philip, brother of Charles
the Wise, 467, 4S7 ; foundations
of the Dukedom laid, 496.
Burgundy, Duchy of, makes separate
terms with Edward III, 463 ;
given to King John's fourth son,
Philip 'le Hardi,' 467, 487.
Burgundy, House of, overcomes the
Flemish cities, 571.
Burgundy, John of, 'the Fearless,'
routed and taken at Nicopolis,
504 ; succeeds his father, 506 ;
rescues his children from the
Orleanists, ib. ; issues a mani
festo to the Parisians, ib. ; in
favour with the Burghers, 507 ;
calls up his German allies, ib. ;
makes peace with the Orleanists,
ib. ; takes on himself the murder
of the Duke of Orleans, 508 : re
turns in triumph to Paris, ib. ;
called to quell revolt at Liege,
ib. ; is met by a league of Princes,
509 ; bows before them, treaty of
Bicetre, ib. ; is much helped by
Paris, ib. ; the King and Dauphin
side with him, ib. ; a patched-up
peace at Auxerre, 510; seems to
lose nerve, 511; loses ground,
and agrees to the treaty of Arras,
512; his ambassadors at Paris,
516; threatens Paris, 524; de
clares himself head of the popular
party, ib. ; allies himself with
Queen Isabelle, ib. ; proclaims her
Regent, ib. ; tries to moderate
the fury of his men, ib. ; his ' fear
lessness ' gone, ib. ; assassinated,
525-
Burgundy, Philip of, wages fierce
war on the Armagnacs, 525 ;
joined by the Queen of France,
526 ; makes the Treaty of Troyes,
ib. ; the English really depend on
him, 530 ; offended by Gloucester,
533 j draws towards the French,
538 ; receives embassy from Or
leans, ib. ; withdraws from the
siege, ib. ; is in connexion with the
King's favourites, 540 ; receives
letteis from Jeanne Darc, 550 ;

negotiates with Charles VII, 551 ;
has Jeanne Darc in his hands,
552; sells her to the English,
553 ; makes party-war with the
Duke of Bourbon, 558 ; declared
head of feudalism, 559, 560 ; has
Guines in his hands, 569 ; beats
down the Flemish cities, 571.
Burkhard of Wiirzburg, Pippin's
envoy to Rome, 112.
Byzantium, Emperors of, friendly
with Charles the Great, 133.
C.
Cabochians, the, 509, 510; their
Ordinance, 51 r ; their overthrow,
ib. ; reappear in Paris, 524.
Caecina wore the Gallic dress, 42.
Caen, Edward III takes, 423.
Caepio takes Toulouse, 24.
Caesar born, 25 ; Proconsul of Gaul,
26; succeeds Marius, 27; his
provinces, ib. ; at Geneva, 28 ; his
measures, ib. ; defeats Helvetians,
ib. ; defeats Ariovistus, 29 ;
marches north, ib. ; takes Novio-
dunum, 30 ; hard pressed by
Nervii, ib. ; attacks Aduatici, ib. ;
destroys fleet of Veneti, ib. ; in
England, ib. ; ravages Nervian
country, 31; his assembly at
Samarobriva, ib. ; at Lutetia, ib. :
quiets Gaul, 32 ; is resisted by
Arvernians and Vercingetorix, ib. ;
beats them at Divio, 33 ; besieges
them in Alesia, ib. ; defeats reliev
ing army, ib. ; receives submission
of Vercingetorix, 34; pacifies
Gaul, ib. ; treats it kindly, ib. ;
founds Frejus, 37 ; takes Mar
seilles, ib. ; is murdered, 38.
Caesarodunum, (Tours), a centre of
Christianity, 46.
Calais, besieged by Edward III,
433 ; taken, 434 ; the tale of
Eustache de S. Pierre, ib. ; a great
English mart, ib. ; its fall closes
the first period of the war, ib. ;
English land at, in 1360, 463 ;
Henry V makes for it, 518;
reaches it after Azincourt, 523 ;
left to the English, 569 ; why not
attacked by Charles VIII, ib.

582

INDEX.

Calendar, the, reformed by Charles
the Great, 122.
Caligula, governs Gaul mildly, 40;
his half- crazy actions, ib. ; his
competitive examinations, ib.
Calixtus II, Pope, at Rheims, 261.
Calverley, Sir Hugh, a good soldier,
496.
Cannibalism in France, 206.
Cannon on the walls of Le Quesnoy,
417 ; not used at Crecy, 431, note.
Capetian line, its early Kings feeble,
189, 190; the end of it, 403.
Capitularies of Charles the Great,
140, 146, 148 ; show the degrada
tion of the Clergy, ib. ; on slavery,
151.
Captal de Buch, the, commands
free lances, 471 ; is defeated at
Cocherel, ib.
Cards, game of, brought into vogue,
5°4> 505.
Carloman, elder son of Charles
Martel, has the German part,
107 ; resigns it to Pippin, ib. ;
becomes a monk, at Soracte, and
at Monte Casino, 108.
Carloman, younger son of Pippin
the Short, 118; dies, ib.
Carloman, son of Hludwig the Ger
man, defeats Charles the Bald, 168.
Carloman, son of Hludwig II, King
in South France, 169.
Carnutes, territory of, centre of
Druid worship, 13, 31.
Caroling Princes, rise of, 99 ; beaten
by the feudal lords, 170-172 ; end
of their line, 181.
' Carroccio,' the, of Otho at Bou
vines, 321.
Cassel, battle of, 406.
Cassivelaunus submits, 30.
Castellum Francicum, 127.
Castillon, battle of, 568.
Catalaunici Campi, battle of the, 61.
Catherine, daughter of Charles VI,
516.
Catherine of France is to marry
Henry V, 527.
Catherine, St., of Siena, 489.
Catti, German tribe, 42 ; formed
imperial body-guard, ib. ; decided
the ba Itle of Pharsalia, ib.
Cauchon, Peter, of Beauvais, ejected,

551 ; chief instrument in the trial
of Jeanne Darc, 553; his conduct,
554 ; his reward and end, 556,
557-
Cavares, a Rhone tribe, 23.
Celestin III, Pope, refuses to abet
Philip Augustus, 291.
Celestin V, Pope, 374, 375.
Celts, the, 8.
Centeniers, under Charles the Great,
142.
Cerealis defeats Civilis, 43.
Chalons, battle of, 61.
Chalus, siege of, causes Richard
Cceur de Lion's death, 292.
Chandos, Sir John7 knighted, 416 ;
at Poitiers, 444 ; defeats Du Gues
clin at Auray, 47r, 472.
Charles the bald, born, 156; is lord of
North Gaul, 158 ; has all France
after Verdun, 160, 161 ; enters on
his share, 166 ; his difficulties, ib. ;
scholasticism rises under him,
167 ; desires to restore the Em
pire, 168 ; holds a diet at Kiersy,
ib. ; defeated in Italy, ib. ; dies
on Mont Cenis, ib.
Charles (eldest son of Charles the
Great), destined for the Imperial
crown, 135 ; dies, ib.
Charles, youngest son of Hludwig
II, 169.
Charles the Fat, Emperor, 169 ; fails
to relieve Paris, ib. ; buys off the
Northmen, 1 70 ; returns to Ger
many, ib. ; humiliated by Nor
mans, 176, 177.
Charles the Great, not a French King,
100; sole King of Franks, 118;
his reign an epoch in European
history, ib. ; a thorough German,
119; his personal appearance,
habits, dress, 119-121 ; is care
less of the marriage-tie, 120; his
mental gifts, acquirements, love of
building, 121-125 ; his many wars,
125—127; against Saxons, ib. ;
Aquitanians, 127; Lombards,
12S ; confirms Donation of Pippin,
129 ; at war with Spanish Sara
cens, #. ; Leo III flies to him, 131 ;
at Rome, 132 ; anointed Emperor
and proclaimed, ib. ; greatness of
his Empire, ib., 133; his later

INDEX.

583

wars, 133, 134; is a great
sovereign, 134; exacts a new
oath from his leudes, ib. ; resists
the territorial tendencies, ib. ;
settles the succession, T35 ; causes
the Franks to salute Hlodowig as
Emperor, ib. ; dies a.d. 814, ib. ;
Hallam and Guizot on him, 136;
his administration of Gaul, 137 ;
tenure of land, 137, 147; 'his
authority personal, 138; his war-
power, ib., 139; his assemblies,
139; his officers, 141 ; his Missi
Dominici, 142-144 ; the Church
under him, 144; compared with
other great princes, 145, 146;
state of society under him, 146 ;
his chieftains, 147 ; free Franks,
ib. ; Gallo-Romans, 148 ; clergy,
ib., 149 ; slaves, ib., 1 50 ; tries to do
justice, 151 ; superstitions flourish
in his day, 152 ; his Empire breaks
asunder, T58 ; France a dying
branch of his Empire, 165 ; re
sisted the Northmen, 174.
Charles IV, ' the Fair,' 402 ; his
death, ib.
Charles V, the Dauphin, won away
from his father, 437 ; at Poitiers,
443 ; flees headlong, 444 ; returns
to Paris, 448 ; convokes the States-
General, ib ; his character, health,
449 ! goes to Metz after dismiss
ing the States-General, 450; Paris
rises against him, ib. ; ratifies the
decrees of the Estates, 451 ; is
waited on by Marcel, 455 ; who
tries to reconcile him with Charles
of Navarre, ib. ; the murder of his
Marshals, 456, 457 ; wears the
civic cap, ib. ; is reconciled with
Navarre, ib. ; is named Regent, ib. ;
convokes the Stales-General at
Compiegne, 458 ; cuts off the
supplies from Paris, ib. ; besieges
that city, 459, 460 ; negotiates with
Charles of Navarre, ib. ; enters
Paris after death of Marcel, 461 ;
learnsmorecunning,462 ; hisDays
of Terror, ib. ; atpeacewith Charles
of Navarre, ib. ; calls in the States-
General, ib. ; refuses terms with
England, ib. ; at war with Edward
111, ib., 463 ; his policy of waiting,

ib. ; the Treaty of Bretigny, 464 ;
Regent again on King John's
return to England, 467 ; his quiet
character, its effects, 468, 469 ;
his favourite is Du Guesclin, ib. ;
thought to be a magician, 470 ;
severity at Paris, 471 ; pays Du
Guesclin's ransom, 472; sees
where he may weaken the English,
ib. ; works steadily to overthrow
the Treaty of Bretigny, 473 ; pre
pares for war, 475 ; declares war
with England, 476 ; makes war,
ib. ; makes Du Guesclin Constable
of France, 477 ; sends him to
Brittany and Poitou, ib., 478 ;
Edward Ill's opinion of him, ib. ;
punishes Montfort in Brittany, ib. ;
refuses to fight, and wears out his
foes, 479 ; his success, ib. ; his
reforms, ib. ; ravages English
coasts, 480 ; overbears the Eng
lish, ib. ; too eager to concentrate
power, ib. ; causes revolt of Brit
tany, 481 ; suspects Du Guesclin,
ib. ; buries him worthily in his
own tomb, 482 ; refuses to help
Louis, Count of Flanders, ib. ;
appeases the discontent in Lan
guedoc, 483; his heavy taxes, ib. ;
his last illness, ib. ; death, 484 ;
character and habits, 484-487 ;
creates the Great Schism just
before his death, 488 ; loses his
hold over Urban V, 489 ; supports
the Urbanist party, 490 ; his last
injunction to the royal uncles,
491 ; his secreted wealth, 493.
Charles VI, comes to the throne,
484, 491 ; his character, ib., 492 ;
at Roosebek, 494, 495 ; enters
Paris, ib. ; rides to the North
against the English, 496 ; marries
Isabelle of Bavaria, 497 ; declares
war on England, ib. ; the prepara
tions miscarry, 498 ; dismisses
his uncles, and takes up with the
' Marmousets,' ib. ; an attempt at
good government, 499 ; visits
Clisson after the attempt on his
life, ib. ; sets out to punish Craon,
ib. ; his madness comes on, 500 ;
the uncles seize the govern
ment, ib. ; his popularity, 5or,

584

I N D EX.

504 ; tries in lucid periods to
heal the Great Schism, 501 ; fails,
502 ; dissolute and mad again,
5°3 , games invented for him,
504 ; the Duke of Burgundy
issues a manifesto, in his name,
506; declares himself content
with the murder of the Duke of
Orleans, 508 ; is obliged to side
with the Cabochians, 510; takes
the field against the Princes, ib. ;
falls to the Armagnacs, 512 ; ne
gotiates with Henry V, 516, 517 ;
takes the Oriflamme against
Henry V, ib. ¦ is brought to
Paris by the Duke of Berri, 523 ;
led through the streets by the
Burgundians, 524; goes out, after
treaty of Troyes, with Henry V,
527; his death, and character,
529 ; is buried at St. Denis, ib.
Charles VII, Dauphin, 523; alto
gether Armagnac, ib. ; escapes
hardly from Paris, 524 ; allows
his followers to murder John of
Burgundy, 525 ; is excluded from
the treaty of Troyes, 526 ; falls to
the South of France, 527 ; heads
the national party, ib. • is pro
claimed King at Mehun in Berri,
529 ; his character, ib., 530 ; his
reign opens gloomily, 532 ; utterly
careless for France, 533 ; partly
reconciled with the Burgundians,
ib. ; the crisis of his fortunes, 534 ;
lies idly at Chinon, 540 ; admits
Jeanne Darc to his presence, ib. ;
who convinces him, 541 ; sends
her to Orleans, ib. ; sends Alencon
to meet her after the siege is
raised, 548 ; lies at Sulli, is urged
to move by Jeanne, ib. ; sets forth,
ib. ; reaches Rheims, and is
crowned, 549 ; under influence of
La Tremouille, 551 ; conspires
against his own interests, ib. ;
tries to get Paris without help of
Jeanne, ib. ; comes on to Senlis,
then to St. Denis, 552 ; rejoices
at the failure of Jeanne, ib. ;
makes no effort to save her, ib. ;
the heavy blame on him, 554;
negotiates with Burgundy, 557 ;
acquiesces in fall of La Tre

mouille, ib. ; makes terms with
Burgundy, 558 ; signs treaty of
Arras with him, ib. ; hates war,
559 ; summons a Council at
Bourges, 560 ; issues the Prag
matic Sanction, ib. ; shakes off, his
indolence, ib. ; joins the war party,
ib. ; convokes the States-General,
ib. ; issues an edict against the
free companies, 56T ; Ordinance
decreeing a levee en masse, ib. ;
the noblesse alarmed, ib. ; they
put forward the Dauphin Louis,
ib. ; the King's energy, ib. ; sends
the Dauphin to Dauphiny, 562 ;
overcomes the nobles, ib. ; shows
activity in war, thrusting back the
English, ib. ; makes truce with
England, 563 ; leads an army into
Lorraine, ib. ; returns, 564; the
Ordinances as to a standing army,
ib-i 5^5 ; his success, and names,
ib. ; his mistress, Agnes Sore], ib. ;
refuses to prolong his truce with
England, 566 ; takes Rouen, ib. ;
recovers Normandy and Guienne,
567 ; marches against Talbot, and
kills him at Castillon, 568 ; finally
incorporates Normandy and Gui
enne, 569 ; does not think well
to attack Calais and Guines, ib. ;
suffers Jacques Cceur to perish,
570 ; makes tardy amends to the
memory of Jeanne Darc, 571.
Charles VIII, on St. Louis, 357.
Charles of Anjou, brother of St.
Louis, 338 ; marries Beatrix,
heiress of Provence, 339 ; takes
the cross, ib. ; returns to Europe,
346 ; seizes Provence, ib. ; thought
to have persuaded St. Louis to
attack Tunis, 350; makes terms
with the Paynim, 358 ; has de
signs on Constantinople, ib. ; his
restlessness, 359 ; his character,
360 ; threatens Constantinople,
ib. ; the Sicilian Vespers, 364 ;
loses Sicily, 365 ; dies, ib.
Charles of Blois claims Breton
Duchy, 421;' the terrible saint,'
ib. ; falls at Auray, 47 2 ; sainted
by popular esteem, ib.
CharlesofDurazzo, Angevin claimant
of Naples, 490.

INDEX.

S85

Charles IV, the Emperor, holds
stirrup of Urban V, 489.
Charles, Duke of Lorraine, not
suffered to succeed to the throne,
181 ; asserts the Caroling claim
to the throne against Hugh Capet,
196-198; is called 'KingofLaon,'
197 ; his death, 198.
Charles of Luxemburg, the priests'
King, 424.
Charles Martel, friend of the monks,
102; natural son of Pippin of
Heristal, 103 ; defeats Neustrians,
ib. ; rewards his soldiers with
Church-lands, 104 ; is thereby able
to beat back the Saxons, 105 ;
and the Arabs at Poitiers, roo ;
his title ' the Hammer,' ib. ; dies
A.D. 741, 107; had been offered
title of ' Patrician ' by Gregory
III, 108; legend as to, 116,
note.
Charles of Naples outgenerals Louis
of Anjou, 496, 497.
Charles of Navarre, ' the Bad,' 437 ;
at Cherbourg, 439 ; a prisoner at
Arleux, 448 ; supports the cities
against the royal party, 449 ; the
Estates demand his release, 450 ;
is delivered by the Baron of Pic
quigni, 451, 452; goes to Paris,
ib. ; preaches in the Pre-aux-
Clercs, ib. ; nominally reconciled
with Charles the Dauphin, 455 ;
returns to Paris after the murder
of the Marshals, 457 ; appealed to
for help by Marcel, 458 ; attacks
the Jacquerie, 459 ; aims at the
Crown, 460 ; lies waiting at St.
Denis, ib. ; overtures from Marcel,
ib. ; disappointed by Marcel's
death, falls back into Normandy,
461 ; makes peace with Charles
the Regent, 462 ; gives his advice
to Charles as to the States General,
ib. • fails to get Burgundy, 466,
467 ; makes peace with Charles
the Wise, 471.
Charles the Simple, King, 172 ;
elected sole King on the death of
Eudes, T73 ; reigns long, a puppet
king, ib.
Charles of Valois, friend of Boniface
VIII, 375 ; is dazzled by hopes of

Constantinople, 376; brother of
Philip le Bel, 379.
Chartres, building of Cathedral
towers, 269 ; the Armagnacs be-"
siege it, 528.
Chateau Gaillard built, 292 ; de
scribed, 300-303 ; siege of, 304-
307 ; capture, 307.
Chateau Randon, Du Guesclin dies
at siege of, 482.
Cherbourg, last English stronghold
in Normandy, 567.
Chevaliers es lois, 362.
Chichele, Abp., renews the war with
France, 515.
Childeric, Salian King, 68.
Chinon, Jeanne Darc comes to the
Court at, 539, 540.
Chivalry, Hallam on, 2 50 ; its theory
and practice, ib. ; its origins, ib. ;
its true knights,*. ; the chivalrous
training, 251 ; the ceremonies of
insti'.ution, ib. ; parallel of priest
hood, 252 ; flourished under the
Crusades, ib. ; raised in dignity,
by the Crusades, ib. ; the Military
Orders, 253; its bad side, ib. ;
its decay, 254 ; passes away, 436.
Chlodion, a Salian, settles near
Cambrai, 6S.
Chrism, the, used as a charm, 152.
Christendom, sundered by the Cru
sades, 236.
Christianity, prepared for by Roman
Law, 44 ; introduced into Gaul,
45 ; its spirit modified, 65 ; bridges
gulf between Roman and German,
ib.
Christine of Pisan, wrote on Charles
V, 469.
Christopher, the, a great ship, 418,
419.
Church of Rome, her growth, 109 ;
dream of a spiritual empire, no.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre de
stroyed, 223.
Church, the, in Gaul, 45, 46 ; or
ganised under Constantine, 5 1 ;
growth in influence in Gaul, 64,
65 ; turns to the Franks, 69 ; its
war tendencies, 70 ; recovers terri
tory under Hlodowig, 74 ; loses
spiritually, ib. ; gains by transfer
to Frank King, 75 ; advises kings,

586

INDEX.

ib. ; administers Roman Law, ib. ;
subservient, 87 ; lands confis
cated by Charles Martel, 104 ;
restored in great part by Pippin
the Short, 116; the Precaria, ib. ;
under Charles the Great, 144 ; her
law, ib. ; her influences for good,
ib. ; mediates between French and
Northmen, 1 76 ; revives and rises,
265 ; under St. Louis, 355.
Cicero, Quintus, T„ attacked by
Gauls, 31.
Cimbri from Jutland, 24.
Citeaux, Innocent IV and St. Louis
at, 340.
Cities, names of, changed by Au
gustus, 38 ; the Gallic, under
Charles the Great, 142 ; gained
by the Crusades, 239.
Civilis leads the Batavians, 42.
Civilisation, advanced by the Cru
sades, 237.
Claire-sur-Epte, St., Hrolf swears
allegiance to Charles at, 177.
Clarence, Duke of, defeated and
killed at Bauge, 528.
Claudius, born at Lyons, 4T ; speech
on Gallic claims, ib. ; governs
Gaul well, ib.
Clans Dennequin leads the Flemish
at Cassel, 406.
Clemangis, Nicolas de, Orator of the
University of Paris, 502.
Clement V, nominee of Philip le Bel,
389 ; see Bertrand de Goth.
Clement VI, Avignon Pope, his
degradation, 435.
Clement VII, Avignon Pope, 483 ;
first Pope of the Great Schism,
488 ; gives his name to one party,
ib. ; elected Pope, 490 ; his cha
racter, ib. ; takes refuge at Avig
non, ib.
Clementines, the, 488.
Clergy, in Gaul, 53 ; honoured by
Franks, 75 ; weregild for, ib. ;
Guizot on, ib. ; protected Gallo-
Romans, 79 ; subservient to
Franks, 87 ; become less Gallo-
Roman, 101 ; become territorial
chiefs, ib. j wear armour, ib. ; at a
low level under Charles the Great,
137 ; he raises them much, 144;
their influence for good, ib. ; not

in 'a satisfactory state, 148, 149-
geat influence of, 171; wealth
of, increased by the Crusades,
237 ; resisted by league of Barons
under Louis IX, 341 ; low con
dition under Philip VI, 435.
' Clericis laicos,' the Bull, 377.
Clermont, defended by Sidonius, 62 ;
Council of, 219, 220.
Clermont, Marshal of John II, 443.
Climate of France, 3.
Clisson, Oliver, murdered by Philip
VI, 423-
Clisson, Oliver, a true freebooting
captain, 481; made Constable of
France, 483 ; in high honour with
Charles Vl, 498, 499 ; Craon tries
to murder him, ib. ; Charles VI
determines to avenge him, ib.
Clotilde, see Hlotohild.
Clovis, see Hlodowig.
Cocherel, battle of, 471.
Codes of Law, in use in the Empire
of Charles the Great, 122.
Cceur, Jacques, the wealthy mer
chant, 560 ; his trial and fall,
570; his character, ib.
Coin of the realm, reformed by St.
Louis, 355 ; debased by Philip VI,
408 ; reformed by Charles V,
469.
Columbanus, St., rebukes Brunhild,
91.
Commendation, the custom of, 171.
Commerce, stimulated by the Cru
sades, 239.
Committee of Thirty-six, at Paris,
451-
Communes, growth of, 282, 283 ;
help to win battle of Bouvines,
322 ; state of, 361, 362.
Compiegne, Jeanne Darc captured
at, 552.
Conrad III, the Emperor, goes on
Crusade, 270; worsted by the
Turks, ib.
Conrad the Peaceful, 199.
Constance of Aquitaine, Queen of
Robert, 202 ; dies, 205.
Constance, Queen of Louis VII,
dies, 277.
Constance, Council of, 512, 513.
Constantine. in Gaul, 51; his con
version rallies Gaul to him, ib.

INDEX.

587

Constantinople, imperial emblems
sent to, 63 ; the Crusaders at,
226, 228; attacked by Bohe
mond, 233 ; taken by the Turks,
571-
Constitutions of Clarendon, 276.
' Cottereaux,' the, 279.
Council of Basel, 559; breaks up at
approach of Louis the Dauphin,
563 ; its close, 566.
Council of Bourges, 560 ; draws up
the Pragmatic Sanction, ib.
Council of Lateran, 316.
Council of Pisa, to heal the Great
Schism, 508.
Council of Tours enjoins the
' Romana Rustica ' on the Clergy,
164.
Council of Vienne, condemns the
Templars, 394.
Counts, or Reeves, under Charles the
Great, 141, 142.
Courtrai, battle of, 384, 385 ; sacked
after battle of Roosebek, 495.
Craon, Peter, tries to murder Clis
son, 499.
Crassus conquers Aquitaine, 30.
Crau, district ofthe, 25.
Crecy, battle of, 426-432.
Crevant, battle of, 532.
Crown of Thorns, sent to St. Louis,
335-
Crusade, age of the first, 216-240 ;
how the idea began, 218; led
by the Papacy, 219; the First
organised by Adhemar of Puy,
221 ; joined by Raymond of
Toulouse, ib. ¦ the crowd under
Peter, 225 ; the second army,
of F'rench and Normans, 227 ;
the third, of Southerners, 228 ;
Antioch taken, 229; battle of
Antioch, ib. ; Jerusalem taken,
230; four Latin Principalities, 231 ;
the conquest organised, ib. ; many
Crusaders return home, 232 ;
others headed by William of
Aquitaine, ib. ; general effects of
the movement, 233-240 ; the name
used for any persecution, 235 ;
the soil of Chivalry, 250; the
Second, its origin, 268, 269 ;
marked by a religious revival,
269; its miserable results, 270J

still it shows the French that they
are a nation, 271 ; ruined utterly
in A.D. 1187, 289 ; anew Crusade
under Frederick Barbarossa, 290;
Richard and Philip join, 290, 291 ;
first of St. Louis, 339; ofthe Pas-
toureaux, 346 ; second, of St.
Louis, 349, 350 ; end of them,
359 ; again attempted in vain,
3S5-
Curia, in Gallic cities, 47.
Curials, their office and deca)', 52,
53-
Custom Law, of Franks, 75 ; much
curtailed by St. Louis, 354.
Cyprus, seized by Richard Lionheart,
291 ; rendezvous of St. Louis'
Crusade, 341. D.
Dagobert, King of Neustria, 94 ;
and of Austrasia, ib. ; a great King,
95 ; dies, A. D. 638, 96 ; with him
the Merwing monarchy falls, ib.
Damietta, battle of, 342 ; is taken
by St. Louis, ib.
Damme, taken by French fleet,
3!9-
Danawerk, or Dannewerk, the, 174.
Danes, their early incursions, 134,
1 74 ; reach Tours, take Rouen,
175-
Danse Macabre at Paris, 534.
Darc, see Jeanne.
Dauphin, the title sold with the dis
trict, to Philip VI, who grants it
to his grandson Charles, 436.
Dauphin, eldest son of Charles VI,
insults Henry V, 515; dies of
debauchery, 523.
David, King of Scots, taken prisoner
at Neville's Cross, 433 ; a prisoner
in England, 446.
' Day ot the Herrings, the,' 537.
' Day of the Spurs, the,' 385.
Debonair, (Louis the), signification »
of title, 154, note ; title also of
King Robert, 200.
Deceates, Ligurian tribe, 23.
De Civitate Dei, by St. Augustine,
120.
Defensores, the Gallic, in cities, 53 ;
supplanted by the Bishops, 141.

588

INDEX.

Denis, St., 46 ; Suger, Abbot of,
266 ; his care of it, 272 ; Charles
VI buried at, 529.
Denis of Mortbeque, captures John
II at Poitiers, 445.
Derby, the Earl of, drives the
Flemish knights out of Cadsand,
414; holds John of Normandy
in check, 423; rides north to
Poitiers, 433 ; joins Edward III
at Calais, 434.
Desiderata, daughter of Desiderius,
married to Charles the Great, riS.
Desiderius, Lombard King, 118;
resists Charles the Great, 128.
Des Marests, the great lawyer, 493 ;
his fall, and execution, 495.
Dieppe, siege of, raised by the Dau
phin, 562.
Diet at Coblentz, names Edward III
Imperial Vicar, 415.
Dioceses in Gaul, civii and religious,
51-
Diocletian, Gaul under, 50.
Dionysius, settles at Lutetia, founder
of the Church in North France,
46.
Divio, (Dijon), Caesar defeats Ver
cingetorix at, 33.
Divitiacus the Druid, calls in Ro
mans, 25.
D'Orgemont, Chancellor of France,
493-.
Domains of the Crown, under Louis
VI, 255, 256.
Domenico, Canon of Osma, founder
ofthe Dominican order, 312.
Domfront, William the Bastard at,
209.
Domitius defeats Bituit, 23 ; makes
the Via Domitia, 24.
Domremy, birthplace of Jeanne
Darc, 538.
' Donation of Pippin,' the, 117.
Dorylaeum, battle of, 228.
Douglas, the, captures Edinburgh
Castle, 420.
Douglas, A., killed at Verneuil,
533-
Druid, the, 13 ; his faith and philo
sophy, 14 ; highest class in the
hierarchy, 15; his teaching, 16;
his sacrifices, 17.
Druidism, 1 1 ; an element in Gallic

unity, 12; last risings of, 40, 41,
42.
Du Guesclin, Charles V's instru
ment, 470 ; war in his hands, ib. ;
his unchivalrous character, ib. ;
appearance, and ways, ib. ; a free
booter, 47 1 ; a prisoner in English
hands, 472 ; freed by Charles the
Wise, who pays his ransom, ib. ;
marches to Avignon, ib., 473;
compels Urban V to give him in
dulgence and money, ib. ; passes
into Aragon, i'i. ; overthrows Peter
the Cruel, ib. ; is Constable of
Spain, ib. ; assists at the murder
of Peter, 475 ; is Constable of
France, 477 ; recovers Poitou,
478 ; presses Bordeaux hard, 480 ;
suspected as a Breton by Charles,
481 ; resigns his sword as Con-
stab' e, 482 ; jjerishes at Chateau
Randon, ib. ; buried in Charles'
own tomb at St. Denis, ib. ; the
King's love for him, 484.
Dukes, under Charles the Great, 141.
Dunois, Bastard of Orleans, wounded,
537; describes the influence of
Jeanne Darc, 543, note 2 ; takes
counsel with her, 545 ; she tells
him she would gladly go home
after the coronation, 549 ; sup
ports the Dauphin against Charles
VII, 561 ; ordered to march into
Normandy, 566 ; commands the
French army in Guienne, 567 ;
enters Bordeaux, ib.
Durocortorum, (Rheims), accepts
the Romans, 29.

Eagle, the German bird, 58.
Ebroin, Neustrian Mayor, a man of
mark, 96 ; rival to St. Leger, ib. ;
rules absolutely, 97.
Edessa, made a 'County,' 230.
Edward, (the Confessor), King of
England, 212; rules by foreigners,
213 ; dies a.d. 1066, ib.
Edward I, of England, comes to
terms with Philip le Bel, 369 ;
mediation of Boniface VIII with,
376 ; accepts Boniface's arbitra
tion, 379; promises to marry

INDEX.

589

Margaret of France, ib. ; wreaks
his vengeance on Wallace, 380.
Edward II, of England, betrothed
to Isabelle of France, 379.
Edward III, of England, his claim
to ihe French throne, 403 ; his
relationship to the Capets, 404 ;
pays homage ' such as he ought
to do ' to Philip VI, 407 ; con
trasted with Philip, 409 ; marries
Philippa of Hainault, 410 ; stops
export of wool, ib. ; is supported
by the Flemings, ib. ; forced to
war by Philip VI, 411, 414;
his forces for war, ib._ • the
reasons for his success, 412 ;
goes to Flanders, ib. ; to
Germany, 415 ; enters North
France, achieves nothing, ib. ;
takes style and title of King of
France, 416 ; returns to England,
ib. ; sets sail for Flanders, 417;
wins sea-fight of Sluys, 418, 419 ;
lands, and enters North France,
420 ; the opening in Brittany, 42 1 ;
abortive at first, 422 ; goes back
to England, but soon returns, 423 ;
lands at La Hogue in Normandy,
ib. ; takes Caen, ib. ; threatens
Rouen and Paris, 424 ; marches
north, ib., 425 ; in great danger,
ib. ; crosses the Somme at Blanche-
Taque, ib., 426; fights battle of
Crecy, 427-432 ; besieges Calais,
433 ; takes it, 434 ; returns in
1355 to it, 439: is recalled to
resist the Scots, ib. ; makes terms
of peace with King John, his
prisoner, 462 ; the terms refused
by the Regent Charles, ib. ; at
war again with France, 463 ;
comes over himself, ib. ; his dreary
march round France, ib. ; makes
the Peace of Bretigny, 464, 465 ;
returns to England, 466 ; is re
luctant to believe in fresh war,
474; receives the defiance of
Charles V, 475 ; who declares
war, 476 ; loses all his northern
territories, 476-478; hindered
from crossing by gales, 478 ; his
last attempt to hold his ground
fails, 479 ; dies, 480.
Edward the Black Prince, at Crecy,

427 ; his valour, 431 ; not knighted
after Crecy, ib. note 1 ; take's the
field in Central France, 439 ; takes
Vierzon, 440 ; finds his retreat
cut off by King John, ib. ; fights
the battle of Poitiers, 440-446 ;
withdraws to Bordeaux, 446 ; re
turns to England, ib ; in Aqui
taine, 472 ; espouses the cause of
Pedro the Cruel, ib. ; wins the
battle of Najara, 473 ; dismisses
and alienates his Gascon subjects,
474 ; warns his father against
Charles V, ib. ; sees the coming
storm, ib. ; falls ill, 47p ; his mis
take in supporting Pedro recoils
on himself, ib., 476 ; war begins
again, ib. ; the ghastly scene at
Limoges, 477 : returns to England,
ib. ; sails for France, but driven
back by weather, 478 ; dies, 479 ;
his character, 480.
Eginhard, quoted, 99, 1 19, 120, 131,
133- 134-
Egypt, why did St. Louis go to ? 341 ,
342-
Elbe, forts built by Charles the Great
on the, 133.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, 264, 267, 268;
abandons Louis VII, 272 ; di
vorced, ib. ; marries Henry of
Anjou, ib. ; and carries to him
Poitou and Aquitaine, ib. ; goes
over from Henry II, 278, 279;
her inheritance to descend intact
to her descendants, 464.
Eligius, Bp., builds St. Denis, 95.
' Elm of Conferences,' the, 288.
Emmaus, the Crusaders see Jeru
salem from, 230.
Emperors of Byzantium, on friendly
terms with Charles the Great;
133 ; call for help from the West,
224, 225.
Emperors of Germany, the supreme'
heads ofthe Caroling nobles, 181.
Empire, from Roman to German,
59 ; the woes of the Roman cul
minate in assassination, 61 ; dying,
62 ; dead, 63 ; lay-empire, whose
seat is on the Rhine, ib. ; the
western, revived in Charles the
Great, 132 ; the extent of his,
133 ; its landed possessions, 147 ;

59°

INDEX.

strives against decentralising and
territorial influences, 166; parti
tion of, after Charles the Fat, 1 70 ;
the ' Holy Roman,' then the
' German,' 360.
Engelenheim, Charles the Great at,
121.
England, under Interdict, 318;
threatened by Philip Augustus,
ib. ; crown of, offered to Louis of
France, 323 ; invaded by Louis,
324; contrasted with France in
14th century, 409 ; her nobles,
burghers, and yeomen, 412 ; ac
cepts the shame of Jeanne Dare's
death, 556 ; weakness of, under
Henry VI, 569.
English, fight well at Bouvines, 322 ;
their doorways into France, 420 ;
yeomen, at Crecy, 432 ; their
national life, ib. ; lose almost all
France, 479 ; come tardily to
help Ghent, 494 ; limits of their
hold on France, 530, 531.
Enguerrand, lord of Coucy, 329 ;
head ofthe league against Louis
IX, 33>-
Episcopacy, high-water mark of, 167.
Establishments, the, of St. Louis,
354-
Estates of France, summoned by
Philip le Bel, 383 ; after Poitiers,
448.
Estates of the Langue d'Oil, resist
King John II, 439.
Estates, Provincial, meet to hear
the report of the States-General,
45S.
Estoutville, the Baron of, holds
Harfleur against Henry V, 516,
517-
Etzel, see Attila.
Eudes, see Odo.
Eugenius, named Emperor by Arbo
gast, 55, 57.
Europe, general ferment in, in 14th
century, 488, 489 ; dark state of,
491.
Enskarians, the, 6.
Eustache de St. Pierre, and the
burghers of Calais, 434.
Ewarik, Visigothic King, attacks
Arvernians, 62 ; has a grant of
South Gaul, 63 ; seat of govern

ment at Toulouse, 64 ; his Code of
laws, 66.
Exarchate of Ravenna, taken by
Pippin, ir6; granted to the Pa
pacy, 117.
Exchequer Court of Rouen, 371 ;
made sovereign, 569.
F.
Fabian, Bp. of Rome, sends seven
Bishops to Gaul, 45.
Famine destroys many slaves, 150,
151 ; rife in France, 192 ; de
scribed, 206.
Faro, St., Life of, 164.
Fastrada, one of the wives of
Charles the Great, 1 20.
Fatimites, the Egyptian, 229; de
feated at Ascalon, 230.
Felix, last Antipope, withdraws,
566.
Ferrand of Flanders, summoned to
Soissons, 318 ; stirs up war, 31c) ;
prisoner at Bouvines, 321 ; sent
to Paris, 322.
Feudalism, its bases laid, 84 ; under
Charles the Great, T36-142 ; its
advance under Charles the Bald,
168 ; the units of, 171 ; the feudal
lords, ib. ; cause of its victory
over the Carolings, ib. ; oversha
dows the early Capets, 190 ; state
of society under, 191-193 ; its
uses, 193 ; organised by the Cru
saders, 23t ; undermined by the
Crusades, 238 ; as displayed in
Palestine and England, 241 ; com
mendation. 242 ; benefices, ib.,
243 ; subinfeudation, 244; military
service, ib. ; at time of Crusades
few independent lords in France,
243; grotesque tenures, 244;
Custom Law, ib. ; Pays du droit
ecrit, ib. ; Assises of Jerusalem,
ib. ¦ Kingdom of Jerusalem, 245 ;
. holds of the Pope, ib. ; the feudal
Court, ib. ; Assise of the High
Court, 246 ; Assise ofthe Burgher
Court, ib. ; why concealed, ib. ;
how lost, 247; 'Assise du coup
apparent, ib. ; High Court, ib. ;
establishment in the South of
France, 311, 315; discredited at
Courtrai, Crecy, and Poitiers, 446.

INDEX.

591

' Fideles,' or Antrustions, Frankish
titles, 86.
Fields of March, 77 ; revived under
the Austrasian Princes, 101 ; re
stored, under leadership of the
Bishops, 116.
Finance, reformed by Charles V,
469.
Flanders, war in, 217; under
Philip Augustus, 288 ; united to
the Crown of France by Philip le
Bel, 380 ; attacked by Philip VI,
406 ; and subdued, ib. ; the battle
field between England and France,
410 ; cities and lords of, persuade
Edward III to take titles of King
of France, 416 ; is laid under
Interdict by Benedict XII, 417 ;
Edward brings them 300 priests,
ib. ; a doorway into France, 420 ;
half-hearted in support of Edward
III, 423 ; falls to Philip of Bur-
¦ gundy, 496.
Flanders, Philip, Count of, loses
Vermandois and Amiens, 288.
Flanders, Count of, blockades the
Flemish ports, 4T4; blockade
raised by the Earl of Derby, ib.
Flemings, take part in battle of
Sluys, 419; besiege Bethune, 424 ;
help at the siege of Calais, 433 ;
more decidedly English, 434, 435 ;
English renounce their alliance at
treaty of Bretigny, 465 ; their
cities subjected to the House of
Burgundy, 571.
Floras leads Trevirans againstRome,
40.
Foix, the Count of, 314; resists the
Crusaders, ib. ; attacked by De
Montfort, 317.
Folquet, (Fulk), Bp. of Toulouse,
312 ; stirs up strife, 314.
Fontanet, the battle of, 159.
Fontevrault, the Convent of, 258.
Formigny, battle of, 567.
Fortunatus, Bp. of Poitiers, ior.
Forum Julii founded, 37.
Fossae Marianae, (Foz), 25.
France, extent of term, 113 ; divided
by Charles the Great, 136, 137 ;
Northmen settle in, 176 ; anarchy
in, ib. ; at accession of Hugh
Capet, 189, 190 ; divisions, ib. ;

sovereign states in it, 193 ; capital
not yet fixed on the Seine, 197 ;
miserable state of, 206, 216 ;
oppressed by taxation, plague,
and war, 435, 436 ; miseries after
Poitiers, 446 ; described by John
le Bon, 465 ; suffers from the free
companies, 467 ; freed from them,
and revives, 474, 475 ; has only
three great fiefs on her flanks,
487 ; fearful slate of, 533, 534 ;
prospers under Charles VII, 56c.
Francia Occidentalis, 136.
Francis of Assisi, St., at the Lateran
Council, 316.
Franciscans, preach a Gospel of the
Holy Ghost, 401.
Frankish dress, as worn by Charles
the Great, 120.
Frankish Princes still Germans, 165.
Franks, the, 46, 49, 50 ; driven back
by Julian, 54 ; irrepressible, ib. ;
sack Treves, 60 ; their laws, 66 ;
smallest branch of Teutons, 67 ;
last to settle in Gaul, ib. ; their
confederations, ib. ; Salian, ib. ;
Ripuarian, 68 ; settle on left
Rhine-bank, ib. ; under Hlodowig,
68, sqq. ; attack the Burgundians,
70 ; refuse to take Orders, 74 ;
use Ordination as a penal settle
ment, ib. ; dislike town-life, 75 ; '
honour the Church, ib. ; territorial
settlement in Gaul, ib. ; long re
tain German character, 76 ; spe
cially so the Austrasians, ib. ; their
old life perishes, ib., 77, 78; be
come Clergy for the sake of rich
bishoprics, &c, 88 ; impose on
Hlotair II the ' Perpetual Consti
tution,' 94 ; their harsh voices,
122; under Charles the Great, 137;
the free, driven downwards, 147 ;
have disappeared, 148 ; their chiefs
fortified strong places throughout
France, 192; their castles, 193;
are the sword-arm of the Church,
235-
Fredegond, Queen of Neustria, 87 ;
assassinates Sigebert, 89 ; impri
sons Brunhild, ib. ; her life a cata
logue of crimes, 90 ; dies in peace
(A.D. 597), ib., 91.
Frederick Barbarossa perishes, 290.

592

INDEX.

Frederick II employs the Inquisition
for his own purposes, 333, 334;
his struggle with the Papacy, 335 ;
treated by the Pope as deposed,
34°-
Free-lances, the, ravage France, 458,
459 ; -companies, the curse of
France, 467 ; their day coming to
an end, 472, 474 ; still scourge
France, 5(10 ; successful measures
against them, 561 ; are crushed,
562 ; directed against Metz and
Basel, 563 ; absorbed into the
army, 564.
Free population of France, in days
of Hugh Capet, 191, 192.
French character, the, 4 ; history,
when it really begins, 70 ; lan
guage, its pedigree, 162 ; kingship
begins with Hugh Capet, 189,
190; architecture, 265 ; language
and literature advance under St.
Louis, 352.
Froissart, his writings, 411 ; on the
English Forces at Crecy, 427 ;
violently prejudiced, 447 ; on the
causes of discontent, 489; sneers
at Philip van Arteveld, 495.
Fulcher of Chartres quoted, 219.
Fulk, Abp. of Rheims, 172.
F"ulk Nerra of Anjou, 205
Fulrad of St. Denis, Pippin's envoy
to the Pope, 112. G.
Gaelic Kerns, from Ireland and
Wales, at Crecy, 431.
Galeazzo Visconti pays King John's
ransom, 466 ; gets Isabelle of
France for his son John, ib.
Gallia Braccata, 24 ; Togata, ib.
Gallic character, the, n, 12 ; form
of government changes, 20 ; state
of society, 21 ; society under Con
stantine, 53.
Gallican Church, its orthodoxy, 45.
Gallo-Roman Empire, 46 ; state of,
64 ; Bishops flatter the vices of
Hlodowig, 74 ; fill all clerical
posts under the Germans, ib.;
their condition, 78, 79 ; courtiers
at the Neustrian Court, S6 ; their

sorry plight, 148 ; a few rich
ones at Court, ib. ; in cities, ib ;
their houses originally undefended,
191.
Galswith, Queen of Hilperik, 89.
Gascony, Charles VII in, 562.
Gaul, the, 8, 10; his home, 17;
family usages, 18 ; learns trade,
20 ; deals with Rome, ib. ; his
inventions, 21; sacks Rome, 22;
threatens the Republic, ib. ; helps
Hannibal, ib. ; takes Roman dress,
24 ; revolts against Caesar, 31 ;
reduced by him, 33, 34 ; treated
kindly, ib. ; under Roman influ
ences, 35, sqq.; one-third ofthe race
perishes fighting against Caesar,
36 ; prolific, ib. ; under Augustus,
38, 39 ; rhetoricians, 40 ; receive
citizenship, ib. ; wear Roman
dress, ib. ; Claudius on their citi
zenship, 41 ; the last Gallic war,
ib. ; last uprising under Civilis,
42 ; under the Empire, 44 ; their
misery, ib. ; Emperors friendly to,
ib. ; Christianity in, 45 ; under
Diocletian, 50; in two vicariates,
51 ; early Jacquerie in, ib. ; under
Constantine, ib. ; field in which
Christianity vanquished Paganism,
ib. ; Southern, happy under Visi
goths, 60 ; desolated, 62 ; state on
fall of Empire, 64 ; Frankish set
tlement in, 75, 76; inhabitants and
divisions of, under Charles the
Great, 136, 137; elements of
population in, 149.
Geneva, Caesar at, 28.
Genoese sailors in French service,
415 ; overborne at battle of Sluys,
418 ; archers at Blanche-Taque,
426 ; at Crecy, 428.
Geoffrey Plantagenet, marries the
Empress Maud, 263.
Geoffrey, son of Henry II, made
Duke of Brittany, 279 ; dies, leav
ing a posthumous son, Arthur,
287.
Geoffrey Martel of Anjou, 209.
Geography of France, the, 1, sqq.
Gerbert (Pope Sylvester II) helps
to make Hugh Capet King, 195 ;
wisest man in Christendom, 196 ;
his history, character, acquire-

INDEX.

593

ments, 198, 199; is Abp. of
Rheims, ib. ; of Ravenna, ib. ;
Pope, ib.
Gergovia, 17, 33.
German colonists in North France,
46 ; dress, 48 ; character, ib. ;
had no slaves, 49 ; chief tribes
of, in Gaul, ib. ; will take up Im
perial traditions, 63 ; their Law-
codes, 66 ; their invasion destroys
Gallo-Roman literature, ib.
German Empire, establishment of a,
100 ; Neustria a limb of it, ib. ;
its seat of power on the Rhine,
ib. ; under Rudolf of Habsburg,
360.
German language, spoken by the
Austrasians, 100.
Germanies, the Upper and Lower,
41 ; cities garrisoned by frontier-
legions, 42 ; recolonised with
Franks, 46.
Germans support the Emperor
Hludwig, 157, 158 ; are carried
away by the Second Crusade, 269,
270 ; those of Saarbiiick and
Nassau at the battle of Poitiers,
443 ; in Edward Hi's army, are
greedy of spoil, 463.
Gerona taken by Philip III, 365.
Gerson at Paris, 51 r ; leads at Con
stance, 513; his controversy with
the Burgundians, 517; always
Armagnac, 553.
Gervais, Archbishop, consecrates
Philip I at Rheims, 209, 210.
Gesellen, the, 49.
Ghent, men of, murder Jacquemart
van Arteveld, 422 ; revolts under
Philip van Arteveld against feudal
ism, 493 ; beaten down by Philip
the Good, a.d. 1452, 571.
Gisela, daughter of Charles the
Simple, married to Hrolf, 177.
Gisla, daughter of Pippin the Short,
118.
Glansdale, Sir Wm., commands at
the Tournelles, 537; fortifies them,
546 ; drowned in escaping from
them, 547.
Gloucester, Duke of, Regent in
England, 533 ; offends the Bur
gundians, ib. ; head of the war-
party in England, 563.
VOL. I. Q

Godemars de Foy defends the ford
of Blanche-Taque against the
English, 426.
Godescalc leads a rabble of German
Crusaders, 225.
Godfrey of Bouillon, a German,
leads the first Crusading army,
227; elected King of Jerusalem,
230 ; refuses the title, ib.
Gondebald and Gondegesil, Burgun
dian Kings, 70.
Gontran, King of Burgundy, 86, 89 ;
dies A. D. 543, 90.
Goths, the, 49 ; in Aquitania, 58 ;
under Ataulf, 59 ; seem likely to
divide the Western Empire, 64 ;
why they failed, ib.
Gozlin, Bp. of Paris, 169.
Gratian, Emperor, 55.
Gravelines, taken by the French
fleet, 319.
Great Company, the, of free-lances,
467.
Great Days, the, at Troyes, 371.
Greek Church, ill-treated by the
Latins, 226 ; breach with, widened
by Crusades, 236 ; makes an in
terested and hollow peace with
the Latins, 360, 361.
Gregorian chant introduced by
Charles the Great, 122.
Gregory of Tours quoted, 84, 85 ;
resists Fredegond, 90.
Gregory the Great sends a letter to
Brunhild, 91.
Gregory III negotiates with the
Carolings, 108, in.
Gregory IV blesses the sons of
Hludwig the Pious, 157.
Gregory V puts France under ban,
202.
Gregory VII, see Hildebrand.
Gregory IX threatens St. Louis with
excommunication, 332 ; his strug
gle with Frederick II of Germany,
335- 336 ; dies, ib.
Gregory X resists Charles of Anjou,
360, 361 ; his great schemes and
death, ib.
Gregory XI, Pope, 489.
Gregory XII, Antipope, resigns, 513.
Griffith, a Welsh free-lance, 459.
Grimoald, son of Pippin, Austrasian
Mayor, 96.

594

INDEX.

Guerin, Bp. of Senlis, at B-auvais,
320.
Guienne, English doorway into
France, 421 ; submit to the
French, 479 ; one of the three
great fiefs left, 487 ; English
driven out of it, 567 ; its ties to
England, noblesse and commerce,
ib. ; Talbot raises it against
Charles VII, 568 ; is quickly re
duced, ib. ; assimilated to France,
569.
Guizot on Charles the Great, 136,
144.
Gunpowder overthrows baronial
castles and chivalry, 254; used
by Edward III, 412; early in
stance of, ib. note 1.
Guy of Burgundy attacks William
the Bastard, 208.
Guy of Dampierre abandoned by
Edward I to Philip le Bel, 380.
Guy of Namur at Courtrai, 384..
H.
Habsburg, origin of Bouse ofr 360.
Haganon rules Charles the Simple,
178.
Hainault, Edward III in, 41 5 ; takes
Edward's side, 417; ravaged by
French, ib.
Hallam on Charles the Great, 121,
136, 145 ; on feudalism and chi
valry, 250.
Hannibal helped by the Gauls, 22.
Harfleur, siege of, 516 ; is taken by
Henry V, 517; recovered by
Charles VII, 567.
Haribert, King of Paris, 86 ; dies in
A.D. 567, ib.
Haribert II, King of Aquitania, 95.
Harold, son of Earl Godwin, 213;
his oath, ib.
Harold the Dane, 174, 180.
Harold Harfagr, 134.
Haroun-al-Raschid, 133.
Hasting the Dane takes Rouen, 175.
Helgald, biographer of Robert ' le
Debonair,' 201.
Helvetians, migration of, 26 ; cross
Sequania, 28 ; defeated by Caesar,
ib.
Henry I, youngest son of. King

Robert and Constance, crowned,
205 ; sole King, ib. ; attacked
by his brother and mother, ib. ;
defended by Robert ' the Devil,'
ib. ; loses his wife, 209 ; marries
Anne, a Russian, ib. ; crowns her
son Philip joint-king, ib., 210.
Henry Beauclerc seizes the English
throne, 232; also Normandy, ib.
Henry V of Germany threatens
France, 261 ; but withdraws, 262;
dies soon after, ib.
Henry of Anjou (II of England)
marries Eleanor, 272 ; his rights
and claims, ib. ; his strength, 273 ;
ascends the English throne, ib. ;
does homage to Louis VII, ib. ;
contrasted with Louis, 274;
attacks France, 275 ; strengthens
himself in Normandy, ib. ; con
quers Brittany, ib. ; his wide terri
tories, ib., 276 ; his strife with
Becket, ib. ; Becket's death, 278;
the King's humiliation, ib. ; calls
up the Cottereaux, 279 ; gets over
his difficulties, ib. ; turbulence of
his sons, 287; his sad death, 290.
Henry Courtmantel, son of Henry
II, marries Margaret, daughter of
Louis VII, 275 ; submits to his
father, 279; opposes Philip Au
gustus, 287 ; dies, ib.
Henry III of England, feeble, 331 ;
comes to Poitou to help Hugh of
Lusignan, 336, 337 ; defeated at
Taillebourg, ib. ; returns home,
ib. ; receives back Perigord, &c,
from St. Louis, 348 ; his relation
ship to St. Louis, ib. note; his
death, 359.
Henry V of England, succeeds in
A. D. 1413, 515; the Red Rose
triumphs, ib. ; his overtures to
France, 516; war, ib.; besieges
Harfleur, ib. ; takes it, 517;
marches northwards, ib. ; difficul
ties with the Somme, ib., 518 ; his
route, ib. ; at Azincourt, 519-523 ;
returns to London, 523; returns
into Normandy, 524 ; takes Rouen,
525 ; takes Pontoise and threatens
Paris, ib. ; signs the Treaty of
Troyes, 526; is 'to be Regent of
France, ib. ; is to marry Catherine

INDEX.

595

of France, 527; takes sundry towns
which held for the Dauphin, ib. ;
at Paris, ib. ; is 'King of Paris'
against the ' King of Bourges,' ib. ;
returns to England, 528; back in
France, ib. ; falls ill and dies, ib. ;
his character and burial, ib.,
529-
Henry VI of England, brought over
to Paris, 550; crowned at Notre
Dame, 557 ; his incapacity, 559 ;
allies himself with the Count of
Armagnac, 562 ; loses all France,
566, 567.
Henry of Lancaster, helped by Philip
of Burgundy, 504 ; marries the
Duchess of Brittany, 505.
Henry of Navarre dies, 361 ; his
daughter marries Philip le Bel, ib .
Henry of Trastamare, bastard
brother of Pedro the Cruel, 472 ;
crowned King at Burgos, 473 ;
loses his crown, 474; Charles V
offers him open help, 475 ; mur
ders Pedro the Cruel, ib.
Herbert of Vermandois, 1 79 ; flies
to Germany, ib , 180.
Hereditary succession, why firm in
France, 281.
Heristal, seat of Austrasian Court,
100.
Hermingard, first wife of Hludwig
the Pious, 156.
. Herpin of Bourges, sells his lord
ships to King Philip, 233.
Herulians, the, 49.
Hesus, Druid divinity, 13.
High Court of Jerusalem, the, 246,
247.
Hildebert, son of Hlodowig, King
of Paris, 83 ; seizes Hlodomir's
lands, 84.
Hildebrand of Cluny, Pope Gregory
VII, 210, 211; goes with the
Normans, 212; his letter to Henry
IV of Germany, 224.
Hilderik III, last Merwing King,
108 ; deposed by Pippin, 112.
Hilperik, King of Soissons, then of
Neustria, 86.
Hincmar of Rheims, his high pre-
ten^ons, 166, 167.
History of France, true starting-
point of, 189.

Hlodoald (St. Cloud), 85.
Hlodomir, King of Orleans, 83 ;
killed in Burgundy, 84.
Hlodowig, head of a petty Frankish
tribe, 64 ; orthography of name,
ib. note ; influenced by S. Remi
gius, 65 ; his career, 68 ; defeats
Syagrius, ib. ; occupies North
Gaul, ib. ; marries Hlotehild, 69 ;
wins battle of Zulpich, ib. ; is con
verted, ib. ; baptized at Rheims,
ib. ; defeats Burgundians, 71 ; Vi
sigoths, ib. ; is Consul Romanus,
72 ; gets his rivals assassinated,
ib. ; dies, 73 ; his character, ib. ;
he modified Christianity, ib., 74 ;
had seen his task achieved, 82.
Hlodowig II, King of Neustria, 96;
a roi faineant, ib.
Hlotair, King of Soissons, 83 ; joins
Hildebert in seizing Hlodomir's
lands, 84, 85 ; is first King of
Neustria, ib., 86 ; has trouble with
his leaders, 86 ; is sole King, ib. ;
dies, ib.
Hlotair II, 90, 91 ; sole King, 92 ;
murders Brunhild, 93.
Hlotair HI, King of Neustria, 96.
Hlotehild, wife of Hlodowig, 69 ;
her reply as to her grandchildren's
fate, 84.
Hlothar, King of Italy, 156; is
Emperor, 158 ; is defeated at
Fontanet, 159 ; has Italy and
Lotharingia, 160 ; dies, 168.
Hlothar, Caroling King, 181.
Hludwig the Pious, learned like his
father, 123 ; is King of Aquitaine,
12S, 135; saluted Emperor, ib. ;
his reign, 153; his earlier life,
154; character, ib.; appearance,
155 ; wives, 156 ; troubles with
his sons, 157; is deposed, 158;
restored, ib. ; dies, ib.
Hludwig the German, 158 ; is lord
of Germany after Verdun, 160.
Hludwig II, the Stammerer, King,
169.
Hludwig III, King in North France,
169 ; defeats Hasting, 176.
Hludwig IV, ' Outremar,' King,
179, 180 ; bravely resists Otto the
Great, ib. ; has a hard struggle
for existence, ib.

59^

INDEX.

Hludwig V, last Caroling King, 1 8 1 .
Holy Roman Empire, its germs in
Church and State, 63, 97 ; is
merged into a German Empire,
360.
Honorius, Emperor, gives his
daughter to Ataulf, 59 ; cedes
South France to Visigoths, 60.
Hotel de Ville of Paris, founded by
Marcel, 457.
Hrolf the Northman besieges Paris,
169; settles on the Seine, 176;
becomes a Christian and marries
the daughter of Charles the
Simple, 177.
Hubert de Burgh, 331.
Hugh of Lorraine, joins Hrolf the
Northman, 169.
Hugh, ' first of Abbots,' 169.
Hugh le Blanc, son of Robert the
barons' King, 179; 'the Great,'
becomes man to Otto, 180.
Hugh of Beauvais, friend of Robert,
King of France, 201.
Hugh, son of Robert, crowned, 204 ;
dies, ib.
Hugh, Duke of Burgundy, submits
to Philip Augustus, 288.
Hugh Capet, son of Hugh the
Great, is Duke of France, 181 ;
is elected and crowned King of
France, ib. ; limits of his King
dom, 193, 194 ; is Abbot of St.
Denis, ib. ; his pedigree, 194;
elected by influence of Gerbert,
195 ; had been strongest of the
barons, ib. ; lay head of the
Church, 196; opposed by Charles
of Lorraine, ib. ; origin of his
name Capet, ib. note ; attacks
William of Aquitaine, to. ; has
his son Robert crowned, 197 ; is
called the ' King of St. Denis,' ib. ;
takes Charles by treachery, 19S;
makes Gerbert Abp. of Rheims,
ib. ; dies, 199.
Hugh 'the Great,' of Vermandois,
heads the second Crusading army,
227.
Hugh of Lusignan, becomes one of
Louis IX's vassals, 331 ; opposes
Alphonse at Poitiers, 336, 337 ;
is defeated by St. Louis, and yields,
ib.

' Hundred Years' War,' periods of
the, 413; end ofthe, 569, 570.
Hunold of Aquitaine, resists Karl
the Great, 127.
Huns, enter Gaul, 58 ; cross Loire,
ib. ; in army of Aetius, 60 ; make
incursions under Attila, ib. ; de
feated at Chalons, 61.
Huss, John, burnt at Constance,
5!3-

Iconoclastic controversy, the, no.
Idacius, Spanish Bishop, 56.
lie de France, dialect ofthe, 164.
Imperial dignity, the idea of, grows,
II3-II5-
Indutiomar, Treviran chief, 31.
' Ineffabilis amoris,' the Bull, 377.
Ingeborg, Danish Princess, wife of
Philip Augustus, 294; ill-used by
him, ib. ; restored, 295.
Innocent II, quarrels with Louis
VII over the Archbishopric of
Bourges, 268.
Innocent III, compels Philip and
Richard to peace, 292 ; tries to
stop siege of Chateau Gaillard,
304 ; preaches Albigensian Cru
sade, 311, 312; excommunicates
Raymond of Toulouse, ib. ; accepts
his submission, 314 ; regrets the
evils done, 315 ; holds the Lateran
Council, 316 ; declares the Great
Charter null, 323 ; resisted by
English barons, ib.
Innocent IV, resists the Hohenstau
fen, 336 ; his interview with St.
Louis, 340, 341 ; opposes the
French barons, ib.
Innocent VI, is invited to ratify
Treaty of Bretigny, 465.
Inquisition, established in south of
France, 333 ; used even by Fre
deric II, ib.. 334; claims Jeanne
Darc as its victim, 553.
Irenaeus, second Bishop of Lyons, 45.
Isabelle of France, affianced to
Richard II, 503.
Isabelle, daughter of John II, marries
John Galeazzo of Milan, 466.
Isabelle of Bavaria, married to
Charles VI, 497 ; the scourge of

INDEX.

597

France, ib. ; goes with the Duke
of Orleans, 503, 505 ; tries to
carry off the Burgundian children,
506 ; comes to Paris, 507 ; is
Regent, 508 ; is at Troyes, 524-,
comes to terms with John of Bur
gundy, who proclaims her Regent,
ib. ; establishes a Parliament at
Poitiers, ib. ; joins the new Duke
of Burgundy, 526.
Italian taxgatherers, 372.
Italy under Charles the Great, 128,
129.
Ithacius, Spanish Bishop, 56.
J-
Jacquemart van Arteveld, see Arte
veld.
Jacquerie, an early, under Diocletian,
51 ; the Great, under Charles the
Dauphin, 459 ; suppressed , ib.
Jacques Cceur, 560, 566 ; his fall, 570.
James, King of Aragon, 348 ; last
King of Majorca, sells Mont-
pellier to Philip VI, 436.
Jargeau besieged and taken by
Jeanne Darc, 548.
Jean de Meung, the satirist, 369.
Jeanne of Burgundy, wife of Philip
of Poitiers, proves faithless, 394.
Jeanne Darc, 530; her origin, 538 ;
spelling of name, ib. note; her
mission, 539 ; is forwarded to the
Dauphin, ib. ; opposition to her,
540 ; has a friend in Yolande of
Aragon, ib. ; admitted to the
King's presence, ib. ; her appear
ance, 541 ; rides forward towards
Orleans, 542 ; enters it, ib. ; the
fear of her, ib., 543 ; opposition in
the city, 544 ; attacks the English
lines, takes St. Loup Bastille, 545 ;
the Augustinians, ib. ; the Tour
nelles, 546; the English with
draw, 547 ; she sets out to find
the King, ib. ; takes Jargeau, 548 ;
wins battle of Patay, ib. ; finds
the King at Sulli, ib.; besieges
Troyes and takes it, ib. ; escorts
the King to Rheims, 549 ; at the
coronation, ib. ; her mission ful
filled, ib. ; her height of power,
550 ; the Court thwarts her, ib. ;

goes to St. Denis, 551 ; fails in
the assault of Paris, 552 ; taken
at Compiegne, ib. ; sold to the
English by the Burgundians, 553 ;
her trial, 554 ; her death, ib. ;
who is most to blame ? ib. ; Eng
land accepts the shame, 556 ; the
reaction in her favour, ib., 557 ;
the rehabilitation-trial, 571.
Jerusalem, Crusaders reach, 230 ;
is stormed, ib. ; Godfrey of Bou
illon ' King of Jerusalem,' ib. ;
Kingdom of, feudal, 245-249.
Jews in France, persecuted, 223, 224;
attacked in the religious revival
of the second Crusade, 270; pro
tected by St. Bernard, ib. ; and by
Louis VII, 281 ; persecuted by
Philip Augustus, 286; used and
squeezed by Philip the Fair, 372 ;
persecuted under Philip V, 401.
Joanna, Queen of Naples, put to
death, 490.
Joannes Scotus Erigena, 167.
John of Brienne, titular King of
Jerusalem, 329.
John, the blind King of Bohemia,
at Crecy, 431.
John of Hainault, forces Philip VI
to retire at Crecy, 431.
John, second son of Charles VI, his
end, 523.
John ' Lackland 'joins Philip Augus
tus, 291, 292 ; deserts him when
Richard is free, ib. ; feeblest of
Henry's sons, 294 ; seizes Arthur,
299 ; indolent and cowardly at
Rouen, 300 ; does not relieve Cha
teau Gaillard, 304 ; flies to Eng
land, 307 ; summoned by Philip to
answer for Arthur's death, 308 ;
excommunicated, 318 ; cedes his
crown to the Pope, ib. ; receives
it from him again, ib. ; humiliated
in his French campaign of A. D.
1214, 319-323; signs the Great
Charter, 323 ; breaks faith, ib. ;
is supported by Innocent III, ib.;
attacked by Louis of France, 324;
dies, ib.
John of Procida, opposes Charles of
Anjou, 365.
John II, Duke of Normandy, carries
on war in North France, 417 ;

598

INDEX.

supports claims of Charles of
Blois to the Duchy of Brittany,
421 ; hesitates to attack Edward
III, 422 ; held in check by the
Earl of Derby, 423; called in by
Philip VI, 433 ; succeeds to the
throne, 436 ; named ' le Bon,' ib. ;
his character, ib., 437 ; compared
with Charles ' the Bad,' ib. ; ill-
uses Charles of Navarre, ib. ; op
posed by the Estates ofthe Langue
d'Oil, 439 ; starts from Paris for
the south, 440 ; passes the Black
Prince, and awaits him at Poitiers,
ib. ; loses the battle of Poitiers,
440-446 ; is taken prisoner, 446 ;
carried to Bordeaux, to London,
ib. ; tries to make terms of peace,
462 ; which are refused by Charles
the Dauphin, ib. ; accedes to the
treaty of Bretigny, 464 ; his
ransom, ib. ; his description of
the woes of France, 465 ; is
sent over to Calais, and released,
466 ; tries to get rid of the free
companies, defeated by them at
Brignais, 467 ; returns a voluntary
captive to England, ib. ; there
dies, 468.
John XXII I, Tope, 512; at Con
stance, ib. ; deposed, 513.
Joinville, at Mansourah, 343 ; has
to carry St. Louis in his arms,
350 ; refuses to go on the King's
second Crusade, ib. ; his book,
352.
Jubilee of A.D. 1300, 380, 381.
Judith, daughter of Welf, second
wife of Hludwig the Pious, 156.
Julian, Emperor, 54; resists Franks,
ib. ; makes Paris his capital in
Gaul, ib.
Julius Nepos, Emperor, 62.
Jumieges, Abbey of, 203.
Justice done by Charles the Great,
120; how administered, 143, 144.
Juvenal des Ursins, Provost of Paris,
499. 5"- K.
Karle, W., leader of the Jacquerie,
459-
Kerboga, Sultan of Mosul, defeated
at Antioch, 229.

Kiersy, Diet of, 168.
Kilidj Arslan, Sultan of Nicaea, 226 ;
resists Crusaders, 228, 229.
' King of Bourges,' the, 533.
' King of Franks," the title not terri
torial, 114.
Kings, Frankish, their way of life,
76 ; grant alodial possession to
nobles, ib. ; are personal, not ter
ritorial, sovereigns, 77 ; simple
leaders in war, 83 ; the Carolings
rise, 100.
Knight, the Gallic, 1 2 ; he and the
Druid the only free Gauls left, 21.
Knighthood, its qualities, institution,
&c, see Chivalry.
Knolles, » free-lance in Normandy,
459 ; pushes up to Paris, 477.

Labarum, the, 51.
Labienus in Gaul, 33.
Laeti or Leudes, 46.
La Hire, Jeanne Dare's captain, 545,
546.
La Hogue, Edward III lands at,
423-
Lancaster, the Duke of, in France,
463 ; opposed to Philip of Bur
gundy in Normandy, 476 ; lands
at Calais, and marches to Bor
deaux, 479.
Land in Gaul, how divided, 136, 137.
Landen, Pippin of, and his family,
81,91, 92.
Langobards, the, 49.
Langue d'Oc, 164.
Langue d'Oil, 165.
Laon, 256 ; a Frankish centre, 165 ;
the last stronghold of the Caroling
Kings, 178; Charles the Simple
there, ib. ; it falls to Charles of
Lorraine, 196 ; ceases to be im
portant, 198 ; deals with Louis VI
for a Commune, 260.
Laon, Cardinal of, advises Charles
VI to dismiss his uncles, 498 ; is
poisoned accordingly, ib.
' Lark,' Legion of the, 34 ; receives
Roman citizenship, 37.
Lateran Council, the, 316.
Latin influences begin in Gaul, 20,
21 ; language in Gaul, 54 ; how

INDEX:

599

it passed into French, 163, 164;
Church-Latin, ib. ; classical, ib.
Latin Church and Greek Church,
much sundered by the Crusades,
236.
La Tremouille, King Charles's fa
vourite, 540; hostile to Jeanne
Darc, ib. ; his castle at Sulli, 540 ;
his. conspiracy against his country,
551 ; his fall, 557.
Law, age of development of, 66 ;
Burgundian, ib. ; Visigothic, ib. ;
Roman, 75, 122; Custom, 75;
Salic, 90, 122; Ripuarian, ib. ;
is attached to the land, 179;
Custom-, in Northern France, ib. ;
French, as administered by St.
Louis, 349, 353, 354 ; Roman,
extended in France, ib. ; influence
of it under Philip III, 359, 362;
is ennobled, 362 ; under Philip
IV, 370, 371-
Lawyers, the great, under Philip
le Bel, 380; under Louis X,
398-
Learning, fostered by Charles the
Great, 122 ; tale of the Scottish
teachers, 123.
Lecocq, Bp. of Laon, 449 ; supports
Marcel, 450-452.
Leger, St., opposed to Ebroin, 96,
97 ; sainted, ib.
Legions on the Rhine-frontier, 42.
Leitrad, one of the Missi of Charles
the Great, 144.
Leo III, Pope, 131; visits Charles
the Great, ib. ; his ill-treatment,
ib. note ; undertakes to crown
Charles, ib. ; declajed innocent,
132.
Leopold of Austria, holds Richard
prisoner, 291.
Lerins, Isle of, 65.
Leudes of the Germanic tribes, 49 ;
their independence, 83,84 ; lay the
bases of feudalism, ib. ; are the
King's ' fideles,' 86 ; under Charles
the Great, 1 38 ; the King's, rank
before all others, ib.
Lewis, see Louis.
Library, the, at Paris, founded by
Charles V, 469.
Limoges, the Black Prince at, 477.
Lingua Romana Rustica, 164.

Literature in the 5th century, 66 ;
checked by German invasion, ib.
Liutprand, the Lombard, takes Ra
venna, m.
Lombards, in Italy, 11 1 ; support
the Papacy, ib. ; not trusted by it,
ib. ; kingdom of, held by Pipjiin,
129.
Long-haired Kings, the, 85, 99.
Loss of life in the Crusades, 234.
Lotharingia or Lorraine, 161; Charles
the Simple flees thither, 179.
Louis I, see Hludwig the Pious.
Louis VI, le Gros, joint - King
with his father, 255 ; the crown-
domain under him, ib. ; his rights
of suzerainty, 256; his vigour
and character, ib. ; royalty gains
under him, 257 ; his wars with his
neighbours, ib. ; gets Montleheri,
ib. ; his father dies, 258 ; crowned
at Orleans, ib. ; peasants in his
armies, 259 ; is fountain of jus
tice, ib. ; encourages the poor,
and the Church, 260 ; does very
little for the Communes, ib. ;
at war with the Normans, 261 ;
beaten at Brenneville, ib. ; pre
pares to resist Henry of England,
ib. ; takes the Oriflamme, ib. ;
Henry V of Germany threatens
him, ib. ; interferes in the South,
262 ; and in Flanders, 263; crowns
Philip his son, ib. ; who dies, ib. ;
then crowns Louis ' the Young,'
ib. ; marries Louis to Eleanor
of Aquitaine, 264 ; dies, ib. ; his
character and work, ib., 265.
Louis VII, ' the Young,' is crowned
as joint-King by Louis VI, 263 ;
marries Eleanor of Aquitaine,
264 ; retards the growth of French
monarchy, 265 ; slave of the
Church, 267 ; brought up by
Suger at St. Denis, ib. ; favourite
with the chroniclers, ib.; crowned,
268 ; repulsed in the South, ib, ;
fails in Normandy, ib. ; quarrels
with Tope Innocent II, ib. ; burns
Vitry parish church, ib. ; takes
the cross at Vezelay, 269 ; goes
on crusade, 270 ; leaves his army
and pushes on by sea, ib. ; does
penance for Vitry at Jerusalem.

6oo

INDEX,

271; is captured at sea,and rescued,
returns home, ib. ; Eleanor aban
dons him, ib. ; consents to a
divorce, 272 ; tries to check
growth of Henry II of England,
273 ; receives his homage, ib. ;
contrasted with him, 274 ; sup
ports Becket against him, 276 ;
his influence south of the Loire,
ib. ; Constance his second Queen
dies, 277 ; marries Alice of Blois,
ib. ; tempts Henry's sons from
him, 278, 279; defeated by Henry,
ib. ; has his son Philip crowned,
,280 ; dies, 281 ; his acts, ib.
Louis VIII, sent by his father into
the South, 317 ; has English
crown offered him, 323 ; accepts,
and goes across, 324; his failure,
ib. ; his short reign, 337, 328;
besieges Avignon, catches camp
fever, dies, ib.
Louis IX (Saint), comes to the
throne in a.d. 1226, 328, 329;
critical time for monarchy, ib. ;
is crowned, ib. ; defended by
Queen Blanche, 330 ; his noble
ness greatly due to her, ib. ; resists
the league of barons, 331 ; wears
them out, ib. ; makes peace with
Raymond VII, 332, 333 ; gets Nar
bonne, and prospect of the rest
of the South, ib. ; marries Mar
garet, daughter of Raymond Be-
renger, 334 ; behaves well to
Frederick II, 336 ; tries to make
his brother Alphonse Lord of
Poitou and Auvergne, ib. ; de
feats Henry III of England at
Taillebourg, 337 ; reduces Ray
mond VII of Toulouse, 338 ; bids
the nobles choose between him
and Henry III, ib. ; his first
Crusade, 339; interview with
Pope Innocent IV at Citeaux,
340 ; sanctions the league of the
Barons against the Papal ban,
341 ; sails from Aigues Mortes,
ib. ; at Cyprus, ib., 342 ; at Dami
etta, ib. ; delays too long, ib. ;
343 ; battle of Mansourah, ib. ;
second battle, 344; retires towards
Damietta, is taken prisoner, ib.,
345 ! purchases his freedom, ib. ;

lands at Ptolemai3, 346 ; sends
his brothers home, ib. ; the fer
ment in France at news of his
mishaps, ib. ; is four years in
Palestine, 347 ; Queen Blanche
dies, ib. ; he returns to France,
ib. ; his good rale, 348 ; cedes
much land to England, ib. ; his
ways and acts, ib., 349 ; again
takes the cross, 350 ; lands near
Tunis, ib. ; falls ill and dies,
351 ; his character, person, love
of learning, ib., 352 ; his great
work as a lawyer, ib., 353 ; ruled
over the Church, 355 ; reformed
the coin, ib. ; his additions to the
monarchy, 356 ; how regarded in
his own day and afterwards, ib.,
357 ; long the patron Saint of
France, ib. ; canonised by Boniface
VIII, 379.
Louis X, le Hutin, succeeds, 397 ;
condemns Enguerrand de Marigni,
ib. ; his Ordinance ' that every man
ought to be born free,' 398 ; his
foolish regulations, 399 ; cam
paign in Flanders, ib. ; dies, ib.
Louis XI as Dauphin, 561 ; shows
signs of capacity, ib. ; head of the
discontented nobles, ib. ; submits
to the King, 562 ; does good ser
vice for France, ib. ; draws the
free-lances to Switzerland, 563 ;
wins the battle of the Birse, ib. ;
makes terms with Basel and ravages
Alsace, 564 ; intrigues against the
King, 565 ; opposes Agnes Sorel,
ib. ; withdraws to Dauphiny, 566;
France prepares herself for him,
573-
Louis of Anjou, see Anjou.
Louis, Duke of Bavaria, tries to
carry off the Burgundian children,
506.
Louis de Male, Count of Bruges,
493 ; his death, 496.
Louis I of Flanders, cousin of Philip
VI, 406.
Louis II of Flanders, Charles V
refuses to help, 482.
Louis, Duke of Orleans, see Orleans.
Ludwig (Louis) IV, Emperor, meets
Edward III at Coblentz, 415.
Luern, his splendour, 12, 20.

INDEX.

60 1

Lugdunensis Gallia, the Province,
38.
Liigenfeld, 158.
Lupus, Duke of Aquitaine, 127.
Luxemburg, John of, has charge of
Jeanne Darc, 553.
Luxeuil, Monastery of, 96.
Lyons, founded by Augustus, 38 ;
centre of his system, ib. ; its situa
tion, 39 ; had an altar to Rome,
40; its population, 45 ; Church
of, is Greek in origin, ib. ; Gospel
spreads from, ib. ; the ' Poor men
of,' 310, 311; Council of, 340;
character and government of the
city, ib. ; second Council of, 360 ;
scene of the consecration of Ber-
trand de Goth as Clement V, 389 ;
absorbed into the kingdom of
France, a.d. 131 2, 395.

M.
Magic, fear of, in the 14th and 15th
centuries, 408.
Magna Charta signed, 323.
Magnentius, the Emperor, a Frank,
54-
Mahaut, said to have been poisoned
by Robert of Artois, 408.
Mahometanism spreads over South
France, 105 ; arrested by Charles
Martel, ib., 106 ; effects on the
Papacy, no; its divisions and
movements, 224 ; checked awhile
by the Crusades, 236 ; but not
permanently, ib.
Maillart slays Etienne Marcel, 461.
Mainz, Huns cross the Rhine at,
58 ; bridge over the Rhine at,
125; Charles the Great holds a
national assembly at, 131, 132.
Malls, Frankish, 77 ; under Charles
the Great, 121.
Mamelukes, the, revolt against the
Ayoubites, 345 ; formidable to
Europe, 361.
Manfred, a physician, raises Europe
against Charles of Anjou, 364.
Manicheans of Orleans, persecuted,
204; their tenets tinge theAlbi-
genses, 310 ; Crusade against
them, 311.

Manuel Comnenus, does the Cru
saders harm, 270.
Marcel, Etienne, Provost of the
merchants of Paris, 439 ; the one
great man of his age in France,
447 ; historians prejudiced against
him, ib. ; his efforts for Paris,
449 ; his constitutional aims, 450 ;
leans on Charles of Navarre, 451 ;
tries to reconcile the two Charles',
455; the ' revolutionary cap,' 456 ;
murder of the marshals, 457; he-
comes head of government, ib. ;
reconciles the two Charles', ib. ;
his troubles begin, ib. ; he fortifies
Paris, 458 ; calls in Charles of
Navarre, 460 ; is killed at the
St. Antoine gate, 461 ; his work
a failure, ib.
Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry
VI, 563 ; unpopular in England,
567-
Margaret of France marries Henry
Courtmantel, 275.
Margaret, daughter of Raymond
Berenger, marries St. Louis, 334 ;
at Damietta, 345 ; gives biith to
a son, ib.
Margaret, heiress of Flanders, mar
ried to Philip of Burgundy, 476 ;
492 ; dies, 507 ; is founder of a
great state, ib.
Margraves, under Charles the Great,
141.
Marie, Druid leader, 41.
Marigni, Enguerrand de, minister of
Philip le Bel, 393 ; perishes, 397,
398-
Marius resists barbarians, 24 ; de
feats them near Aix, 25 ; defeats
Cimbri in North Italy, ib.
' Marmousets,' the, 495, 498..
Marriage-tie, weak among Franks,
120.
Martin, Bishop of Tours, 54 ; op
poses persecution, 56 ; fosters
monasticism, 65.
Martin, St., church of, 72.
Martin, Austrasian Mayor, 97 ; mur
dered, ib.
Martin IV, Pope, supports Charles
of Anjou, 364.
Martin V, Pope, elected at the
Council of Constance, 513.

602

INDEX.

Mary of AnjoU, married to Charles
VII, 533-
Massilia, entrepot between Gaul
and Rome, 20 ; when founded,
22 ; its importance, 23 ; falls be
fore Caesar, 37 ; school of Greek
learning, 39; a 'zealous wor
shipper of Roman devils,' 45.
Matilda, the Empress, marries Geof
frey Plantagenet, 263
Matthew Paris on St. Louis, 357.
Maupertuis, near Poitiers, 440.
Maximus recolonises Armorica with
Britons, 55 ; condemns Priscillian
for heresy, ib., 56.
Mayors of the Palace, 87 ; in all
Frankish kingdoms, ib. ; over
shadow the royal power, 92 ;
nature and origin of, ib. ; deriva
tion of name, ib. note ; the office
fixed in family of Pippin, ib. ;
lords over the Merwing Kings,
97-
Meaux, treaty of, 332.
Medard, St., of Soissons, vassals of,
at Bouvines, 321.
Medicine comes to Europe through
Provence, 311.
Medio-lann, 14.
Mediterranean, highway of civilisa
tion, 37.
Menapii, 30.
Merewings or Merwings, 68 ; their
faineant Kings, 96, 97 ; they dis
appear from history, 112.
Merow marries Brunhild, 89.
Merowig, Frankish chief, at Cha
lons, 61.
Metz, fruitlessly besieged by Charles
VII, 564.
Michael Palaeologus, alarmed by
Charles of Anjou, 361.
Military orders, the, 253.
Millennial year, the, 203 ; its influ
ence, ib. ; shifted to the 1000th
year from the crucifixion, 206.
Milo, Legate of Innocent III,
3H-
Missi Dominici, the, of Charles the
Great, 143, 144 ; re-established by
St. Louis, 355.
Molai, Jacques de, Grand Master of
the Templars, 394.
Monarchy, its phases in France, 189,

190; strengthened by theCrusades,
239; growth of, 282.
Monasticism, developed in 5th cen
tury, 65 ; its western character
istics, ib. ; a new religious element,
88 ; allied to Austrasians, ib. ;
restored honour to toil, ib. ;
friendly to the earlier Austrasians,
102 ; is sunk in apathy, 149.
Monk of St. Gall, the, quoted, 123.
Monks, the, 102 ; help Pippin of
Heristal, ib., 103 ; from England
and Scotland, ib. ; go between the
Pope and Pippin, 112.
Montanist opinions at Lyons, 45.
Montfort, John of, claims Duchy of
Brittany, 42 1 ; crosses to England
for help, ib. ; is taken and cast
into prison by Philip VI, 422 ;
enters Brittany, 423; overthrows
the French party and Charles of
Blois, 472 ; expelled by weakness
of the English party, 481 ; heads
Breton revolt, ib.
Montforts, the, at feud with Charles
of Blois, 471 ; punished by
Charles V, 478.
Mcntleheri bars King Louis from
the South, 256 ; falls to Louis VI,
257.
Montmorenci resists King Louis VI
to the North, 256.
Moors, the, attack Aragon, 314;
defeated by King Peter, 315.
Morality suffers from the Crusades,
237-
Morini, overcome by Caesar, 30.
Mountains of France, 5.
Municipal institutions in Gaul, 47.
Mysteries, the, first acted in Paris,
5°5- N.
Najara, battle of, 473.
Nantes, pillaged by Norsemen, 175.
Naples, the aim of the Duke of
Anjou, 493.
Napoleon's criticism on St. Louis
in Egypt, 342.
Narbo Martius, founded, 24; Latin
missionaries land at, 46.
Narbonensis, Augustus' Province,
38 ; the Second, ceded to Visi
goths, 60.

INDEX.

603

Narbonne, Arab capital, recovered
by Pippin, 117'.
National life, growth of, 372.
Neim-heidh, 8.
Nero, fond of Province, 41 ; rebuilt
Lyons, ib.
Nerobaldus, a Frankish ' King,' is
Consul, 55.
Nervians affected a Germanic origin,
26 ; a warlike tribe, attack Caesar,
3°-
Neustria, 72 ; opposed to Austrasia,
81 ; chief Frankish power first
therein, 82 ; settles down into a
kingdom, 85, 86; has a Mayor,
87 ; in Hugh Capet's days, 191.
Neustrian Kings, the, 81 sqq.
Nicaea, taken by Crusaders, 228.
Nicknames, rife in France, 505.
Nicolas III, Pope, 364.
Nicolas V, Pope, closes Council of
Basel, 566.
Nicolas de Clemangis, 502.
Nicopolis, battle of, 504.
Nimwegen, Charles the Great at, 1 2 1 .
Ninth century, the age of the
Bishops, 149.
Nobility, Patents of, granted by
Philip III, 362.
Noblesse of France, dissolute, 446 ;
Patents of, to civic persons, 486.
Nogaret, William of, 380 ; appears
in the Parliament of Paris, and
attacks Boniface VIII, 386 ; in
Italy, 387 ; captures Boniface,
ib. ; conducts the posthumous
trial of the Pope, 390, 393.
Nomenoe, lord of Brittany, 166.
Norman Gonquest, the, 216.
Normandy, peasant-rising in, 204 ;
Robert ' the Devil ' becomes Duke
of, 205 ; pledged to William II
of England, 231 ; restless against
Louis VI, 260, 261 ; in troubles,
263, 264; strengthened by Henry
II, 275; invaded by Philip
Augustus, 292 ; finally conquered
by him, 300-308 ; cleared of the
English, 564, 565.
Northmen, attacked by Charles the
Great, 133 ; their early landings
on other shores, ib., 134; attack
even Paris, 169; ravage the At
lantic coasts, ib. ; again besiege

Paris, ib. ; their influence on
feudalism, 171 ; their age, 173 ;
manner of settling, ib. ; on every
shore, ib., 174; many converted,
ib. ; under Hasting they take
Rouen, 175 ; first settlement in
France, ib. ; pillage and spoil, ib. ;
settle permanently on the Seine
and Loire, 176; become Chris
tians, 177 ; make a compact state
out of Normandy, ib. ; learn the
French tongue, ib. ; their litera
ture in it, ib. ; influence Custom-
law, 179 ; their influence in Italy,
211, 212 ; their conquest of Eng
land, 216, 217 ; and South Italy,
ib. ; vigour, 218; independence,
219; go on Crusade, 227; their
architecture, 265 ; great castle-
builders, 300.
Novempopulania, the Huns in, 58 ;
ceded partly to Visigoths, 60.
Noviodunum (Nevers), taken by
Caesar, 32.
Noviodunum (Soissons), taken by
Caesar, 30.
Nuncios, the, of Boniface VIII, 378.
O.
Oath, exacted by Charles the Great,
134 ; the Strasburg, 160, 162,
164.
Odo, the vigorous King of Aqui
taine, 103.
Odo (Eudes), Count of Paris, defends
Paris against Northmen, 169 ;
elected King, 170; opposed by
Carolings, 172; comes to terms
with them, ib. ; dies, ib.
Odo of Chartres resists King Ro
bert, 205.
Odoacer the Herulean deposes Ro
mulus, 63 ; is Patrician, King,
ib. ; gives Empire beyond the
Alps to Ewarik, ib. ; is defeated
by Theoderic, 64.
Olaf the Swede converted by Ans-
gar, 175-
Oleron, Isle of, ceded to Louis IX,
332-
Opimius subdues the Ligurians, 23.
Oratory, natural to the Gaul, 12.
Ordinances, royal, of Philip le Bel,

604

INDEX.

377 ; of John le Bon after Bre
tigny, 465 ; of Charles V, 480,
486 ; fixing royal majority, 492 ;
the Cabochian, 511 ; for a stand
ing army, 564, 565.
Orgetorix, Helvetian leader, 26.
Oriflamme, the, 51 ; described, 261,
note; at Bouvines, 320; in hands
of Philip III, 365 ; at Poitiers,
443 ; taken by Charles VI against
Henry V, 516.
Orleans, persecution of Manicheans
at, 204 ; Louis VI crowned at,
258; besieged, 534; its position,
ib. ; plan of, 535 ; deserted by
her chief men, 538 ; offers to
yield to the Duke of Burgundy,
ib. ; relieved by Jeanne Darc,
542-547; her entry, 547; the
States-General of the Langue
d'Oil meet there, 560; great
Ordinance of, 564.
Orleans, Charles, Duke of, prisoner at
Azincourt, 523 ; returns to France,
562 ; yields to the King, ib. ; a
poet, 572.
Orleans, Louis, Duke of, excluded
from regency, 500 ; this be
gins the Armagnac-Burgundian
troubles, ib. ; his interests South
ern and Clementine, 502 ; heads
the aristocratic party, 503 ; acts
very foolishly, 505 ; tries to carry
off the children of John the Fear
less, 506 ; murdered by Raoul
d'Octonville, 508.
Orosius, quoted, 59.
Ossian's poems, Gallic in spirit, 1 1 .
Ostrogoths, the, 49 ; in Etzel's army,
61.
Otho, King of Germany, in Eng
land, 318; is Emperor, ib. ; ex
communicated by the Pope, ib. ;
joins the attack on Philip Augus
tus, 319; his host, ib. ; loses the
battle of Bouvines, 320-322 ;
ruined thereby, 323.
Otto the Great, 1S0.
Ouadd, the, lowest order of Druids,
15; their degradation, 19.
Oudenarde, besieged by the men of
Ghent, 494 ; siege raised after
Roosebek, 495.
Oxybii, a Ligurian tribe, 23.

Paganism falls before Christianity,
5i,.52-
Painting, not of much account in
France, 572.
Pandulf the Legate, 318 ; sets Philip
Augustus on Flanders, ib.
Papacy, friendly to the Austrasians,
102 ; discerns the value of the
Franks, m, 112; strives against
decentralisation, 166; resists si
mony, 217; its risks after Hilde-
brand's death, 218 ; reaps the
fruits of the Crusades, 232 ; its
power largely increased by them,
236; receives allegiance of the
Crusading Principalities, 245 ; no
longer the central figure of Chris
tendom, 373, 374; its struggle
with Philip le Bel, 376-391.
Paris, school of the Schoolmen, 4 ;
Caesar holds a conference at
Lutetia, 31 ; becomes capital under
German influences, 37 ; Julian's
capital in Gaul, 54 ; its dialect
the standard of speech, 164; is
much befriended by Philip Augus
tus, 327 ; rises to defend Louis IX,
331; Parliament of, 354, 386;
States-General ot, 448, 450, 451 ;
fortified, 448 ; under Etienne
Marcel, 449 ; Charles of Navarre
preaches at, 452 ; plan of, 453 ;
Charles the Dauphin preaches at
the Halles, 456; supported by a
few towns only, 45 7 ; strengthened
by Marcel, 458 ; threatened by
the Dauphin, ib. ; besieged by
him, 460; the Royal Terror at,
462 ; the great library founded by
Gharles V, 469, 486 ; receives
patent of nobility for Provost and
Sheriffs, 486 ; punished by Charles
VI, 495 ; the Mysteries acted at,
505 ; sides with John the Fearless
506 ; his manifesto, ib. ; defences
restored, 507; the Cabochians
in, 509, 510; besieged by Ar
magnacs, ib. ; threatened by John
of Burgundy, 524; opens its gates
to the Burgundians, ib. ; begins
to wish for the English, 525 ;
Henry V enters it, 527 ; its bad

INDEX.

605

position as heart of France, 531 ;
wolves in the cemeteries, 533 ;
' Danse Macabre ' in the cemetery
of the Innocents, 534; assaulted
by Jeanne Darc, 552 ; goes over
to the royal side, 559 ; the Eng
lish evacuate it, ib.
Parliament at Poitiers, 524.
Parliament of Bordeaux established,
569-
Parliament of Paris becomes a law-
court under St. Louis, 354 ; its
growth, 362 ; divisions of, 370 ;
functions of, 371 ; its composition,
ib. note ; made permanent, 486.
Parliament, the English, consulted
as to homage of Edward III to
Philip of Valois, 407 ; held at
Leicester, 515.
Parthenius, a Gallo-Roman, stoned
in Treves Cathedral, 85.
Parties in France and their nick
names, 505.
Partitions of Frankish kingdom, 82,
83 ; second, 86, 87 ; five in thirty
years, 165.
Paschal, Pope, comes to France,
258.
Pastoureaux, Crusade of the, 346.
Patay, battle of, 548.
Paterins, a harmless sect, persecuted
by Philip Augustus, 286.
Patrician, a Burgundian officer, 87.
'Patrician of Rome,' 114; a title
offered to Pippin the Short, 108.
'Peace of God,' the, 207.
Peasant-rising in Normandy, 204.
Pedro the Ceremonious of Aragon,
473-
Pedro the Cruel of Castille, 472 ;
his wretched end, 475.
Peers, the Twelve, of France, 280.
Pembroke, Earl of, cannot iand in
Aquitaine, 477 ; made prisoner
in sea-fight off La Rochelle, ib.
Pentapolis, the, granted by Pippin
to the Papacy, 117.
Perigueux, ceded to the Visigoths,
60.
'Perpetual Constitution,' the (a.d.
614, 6l5), 94-
Persecution begins within the
Church, 55, 56; of the Mani
cheans of Orleans, 204.

Peter II, King of Aragon, 314; re
sists the Moors, ib. ; defeats them,
315 ; perishes fighting against
Simon of Montfort, ib.
Peter III of Aragon opposes Charles
of Anjou, 364; defeats Philip Ill's
expedition, 365 ; dies, 366.
Peter de la Brosse, his history and
fate, 362, 363.
Peter du Bois, a royalist pamph
leteer, 368.
Peter, Gzar, compared with Karl
the Great, 145, 146.
Peter of Dreux, Regent of Brittany,
329; named Mauclerc, 330;
afterwards devoted to Louis IX,
332-
Peter Flotte, a great lawyer, 380;
conducts trial of Saisset, 381 ;
attacked by Boniface VII, 384.
Peter the Hermit, 221; described,
ib. ; revered, 225; at Antioch,
229 ; his quiet end, 232.
Peter Morrone, elected Pope, as
Celestin V, 374 ; abdicates, ib.
Peter of Pisa, instructed Karl the
Great, 122.
Peter of Vaux-Cemay on the Pro
vencal heretics, 309.
Petit, John, defends the Duke of
Burgundy's murder of Orleans,
517.
Philip, the Emperor, 45.
Philip I of France, born, and
crowned, 209 ; his reign long and
inglorious, 215; fails in Flanders,
217; shows some vigour in Nor
mandy, ib.; submits to the Papacy,
ib.; marries Bertrade, 218; gains
by the Crusades, 233 ; crowns his
son Louis as joint-King, 255 ;
dies, ib.
Philip, son of Louis VI, joint-King,
263 ; killed by an accident, ib.
Philip (Augustus) bom, 277 ; his
destiny, ib. ; crowned by his father,
280 ; favours the cities, 284 ;
his pride and ambition, 285 ; suc
ceeds to all his father's territories,
286 ; his authority, ib. ; perse
cutes Jews, ib. ; had married
Isabelle of Hainault, 287 ; gets
Amiens, ib. ; accepts homage of
Henry II, ib. ; his earlier wars,

666

INDEX.

in' Flanders and Burgundy, 288 ;
his conferences with the English
in Normandy, ib. ; encourages
Henry's undntiful sons, 289 ;
grounds of dispute with Henry,
ib. ; takes the cross, 290 ; wins
Berri from Henry, ib. ; goes on
Crusade with Richard of England,
291 ; winters in Sicily, ib. ; reaches
Ptolemais, ib. ; soon back in
France, ib. ; his faithlessness
and meanness, ib. ; attacks Nor
mandy, 292 ; is overmatched by
Richard , ib. ; makes peace with
him, ib. ; attacks Normandy
again, 294 ; and Brittany, ib. ; his
ill-treatment of his Danish wife,
ib. ; takes Agnes of Meran, ib. ;
France therefore under Interdict,
ib. ; is reconciled with the Pope,
295 ; establishes the University of
Paris, ib. ; allies himself with the
Law, 298 ; takes up the cause of
murdered Arthur, 300; attacks
and takes Chateau Gaillard, 300-
307 ; overruns Normandy, and
takes Rouen, 307, 308 ; augments
royal power, ib. ; calls out the
Twelve Peers, 308, 309 ; receives
homage of Simon of Montford for
the South, 316 ; is in Flanders,
318 ; loses his fleet at Damme,
319; his campaign of A.D. 12 14 in
Flanders. 320 ; battle of Bouvines,
320-322 ; its results, 322 ; allows
his son Louis to go to England,
324; resists dictation of Innocent
III, ib.; his sagacious rule, ib.;
death, 325 ; his qualities and acts,
325-327-
Philip III, at his father's deathbed,
351; 'le Hardi,' succeeds to the
throne, 358 ; returns to France,
ib. ; character, ib. ; gets, through
his wife, u large part of Southern
France, 359 ; marries the heiress
of Navarre and Champagne to
Philip his son, 361 ; why called
' the Rash,' ib. ; encroaches on
the barons, 362 ; his favourite
De la Brosse, ib. ; his great
tournament, 363 ; is lieutenant
of his uncle Charles, 364 ; his
attack on Peter of Aragon, 365 ;

dies at Perpignan, 366; his sons,
ib.
Philip IV, le Bel, marries the heiress
of Navarre, 361 ; succeeds his
father, 366 ; his j>erson, looks,
character, 367, 368 ; pupil of the
lawyers, ib. ; bargains with Ed
ward I, 369 ; not fond of war,
370; his greed of money, 372;
quarrels with Pope Boniface VIII
over clerical taxation, 373-376 ;
Boniface tries to mediate be
tween him and Edward I, 376;
issues an Ordinance in reply to
the Bull ' Clericis laicos,' 377 ;
partial reconciliation with Boni
face, 378, 379 ; makes a mar
riage-treaty with Edward I, ib. ;
crushes Guy of Dampierre, 380 ;
has lawyers round his throne,
ib. ; arrests Saisset, 381 ; second
struggle with Boniface, ib. ; the
' Little Bull,' 382 ; Flanders revolts
from him, 384 ; gains by the defeat
of Courtrai, 385 ; is threatened
with excommunication, 386 ; ap
peals to a general Council, 387 ;
wins battleofMons-en-Puelle,388 ;
chooses a Pope, 389 ; attends his
consecration at Lyons, 390 ; holds
him captive in France, ib. ; wishes
him to reverse the acts of Boniface,
ib. ; attacks the Templars, 391 ;
persecutes and burns them, 392-
394 ; gets the Order finally abol
ished, 394 ; seizes most of their
property, ib. ; the protest of nobles
and burghers against him, 395 ;
dies, ib. ; added somewhat to the
French territory, specially Lyons,
ib. ; strong reaction against abso
lutism at his death, 397.
Philip V, of Poitiers, the Tall, 400 ;
comes to the throne, ib. ; esta
blishes the ' Salic Law,' ib. ; his
wretched reign, 401 ; his death,
402.
Philip VI, of Valois, guardian to
the Queen of Charles IV, 402 ;
his claim to the throne, 403;
is elected King, ib. ; his lineage,
404 ; position and character, 405 ;
crowned at Rheims, 406 ; his
Flemish campaign, ib. ; battle of

INDEX.

607

Cassel, ib. ; receives homage of
Edward III, 407 ; fair beginnings
of his reign, ib. ; smites down the
old noblesse, 408 ; his foolish
financial measures, ib. ; compared
with Edward III, 409 ; bent on
war with England, 411 ; drives
lidward to it, 414 ; his fleet takes
Southampton, 415; marches to
Peronne in Vermandois, ib. ; dis
misses his army, 416 ; receives the
defiance of the Hainaulters, 417 ;
makes his Avignon Pope lay Flan
ders under Interdict,, ib. ; loses
battle of Sluys, 418; how he
received news of it, 419, 420 ;
supports claim of Charles of
Blois to Brittany, 421; his folly
in alienating the Bretons, 422,
423 ; war breaks out again with
Edward III, ib. ; is menaced at
Paris by Edward, 424 ; pursues
him northward, 425 ; nearly
catches him at Blanche-Taque, ib.;
loses the battle of Crecy, 426-431 ;
retreats by Amiens to Paris, 432 ;
tries to relieve Calais, 433; re
treats to Amiens, 434 ; adds Dau-
phiny to the crown, 436 ; marries
again, and dies, ib.
Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders,
287.
Philip, afterwards Duke of Bur
gundy, 'le Hardi.' at Poitiers,
445 ; becomes Duke, 467 ; com
mands in Normandy against Ed
ward III, 476 ; at deathbed of
Charles V, 483; busy in North
Fiance, 491 ; married to Mar
garet of Flanders, 492 ; gets
Flanders, 496; receives the
wooden town built for England,
498 ; seizes the government of
France, 500; supports Henry of
England in A.D. 1399, 504; his
death, 506.
Philip Hurepel, uncle of Louis IX,
329-
Philipof Navarre; brother of Charles,
Philip de Rouvre, Duke of Bur
gundy, 463.
Philip of Swabia, rival of Otto,
' 318.

Philippa of Hainault, her character,
410 ; bears the King a son, John
of Ghent, 420 ; defeats the Scots,
433 ; the tale of her interces
sion for the burghers of Calais,
434- r . ,
Picquigni, the Baron of, friend to
Marcel, 451 ; rescues Charles of
Navarre, 452.
Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, a
cause ofthe Crusades, 223.
Pippin, son of Charles the Great, to
have Italy, 135; but dies, ib.
Pippin of Landen, House of, 81, 91,
92 ; heads the aristocracy against
Brunhild, ib. ; why did it become
so famous? 101.
Pippin of Heristal, 97 ; wins battle
of Testry, ib. ; uses the monks,
102.
Pippin the Short, friend of the
Bishops, 102, 115 ; son of Charles
Martel, 107 ; has the Gallic part,
ib. ; has all, on Carloman's abdi
cation, 108 ; deposes the last
Merwing King, 112; described,
ib. ; King of Franks, ib. ; is not
easy as to his title, 114 ; attacks
Lombards, 116; a second time,
117; his donations to the Papacy,
ib. ; his remaining deeds, ib.
Pisa, Council of, tries to heal the
Great Schism, 508, 509.
'Placita majora,' the Frankish, 78.
Plaisian, lord of Vezenoble, attacks
Boniface, 386.
Plectrude, widow of Pippin of Heris
tal, 103.
Plutarch quoted, 36.
Poissy, Edward III crosses the Seine
at, 424.
Poitiers, ceded to Visigoths, 60 ;
battle of, 106 ; battle of (or Mau-
pertuis), 440-446 ; taken by Du
Guesclin, 478 ; patent of nobility
for, 486 ; Parliament of, 524.
Poitou declares for France and Du
Guesclin, 478.
Pontoise, taken by Charles VII, 562.
Popes take titles of Empire, 52.
Pothinus, an Asiatic Priest, at
Lyons, 45.
Praetextatus, Abp. of Rouen, mur
dered by Fredegond, 90.

6o8

INDEX.

' Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis,'
the, 355 ; of Charles VII, 560.
Praguerie, the, 561 ; at an end,
562.
Pre-aux-Clercs, at Pans, 452.
Preaching of Charles of Navarre at
Paris, 452 ; of Charles the Dau
phin at the Halles, 456.
Precaria, title of some Church lands,
116, note.
Priesthood, the, attacked by Pro
vencal heretics, 310, 311.
Princes of the Lilies, the, quarrel,
493.
Principality of Jerusalem, the, 245-
249.
Printing, first hint of, 505.
Priscillian, a Spanish heretic, 55 ;
martyred, 56.
Probus, drives barbarians over the
Rhine, 46.
Proprietors in Gaul, the small, 53.
Provencals in the first Crusade, suf
fered less than others, 229.
Provence, Crusade in, 309-317; its
high civilisation, 311.
Province, the, 25 ; its early civilisa
tion, 36, 37 ; more Italian than
Italy, 39 ; its learning, 40.
Provost of the Traders, the, at Paris,
447-
Puiset, Le, besieged by Louis VI,
259-
Pullani, the, 235. Q.
Queen-Regents, the, of France, 401.
Querci, revolts from Edward III,
476.
Quesnoy, Le, cannon on the walls
of, 417.
Quieres, Sir Hugh, French sea-
captain, 417 ; beheaded at Sluys,
419. R.
Ragnachar, King at Cambrai, 72.
Raoul, goldsmith to Philip III,
ennobled, 362.
Raoul d'Octonville, murders the
Duke of Orleans, 508.
Ravenna falls into Pippin's hands,
115.

Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse,
takes up the Crusading cause, 221;
sets out, 228 ; wins battle of An
tioch, 229 ; establishes himself at
Tripolis, 230, 231 ; swears never
to return to Europe, 232.
Raymond V, of Touiouse, calls on
Philip Augustus for help, 289.
Raymond VI, of Toulouse, excom
municated by Innocent III, 312;
submits, 313; rises again, 314;
flies to Aragon, 315 ; at Lateran
Council, 316; returns successful,
ib.
Raymond VII, of Toulouse, makes
peace with St. Louis, 332, 333 ;
the hard terms of it, ib. ; makes a
last attempt at independence, 337 ,
fails, 338.
Raymond Berenger, of Provence,
marries his daughter to St. Louis,
334-
Regency of France under Charles
VI, 492.
Religious Orders strengthened by the
Crusades, 237.
Remi, friends of Rome, 29.
Remigius, Bp., influences Hlodowig,
65, 69 ; baptizes him, ib.
Renaissance, the, forwarded by fall
of Constantinople, 571.
Renaud of Boulogne attacks French
fleet, 319 ; stirs up war, ib. ; a
prisoner, 322.
Rene of Anjou, 563 ; a poet, 572.
Rheims Cathedral, place of corona
tion of Pippin the Short, 115;
is the coronation place, 280 ;
stands out against Edward III,
463 ; Charles VI takes the go
vernment in his own hands at,
498 ; Charles VII crowned at, 549.
Rhetoric, the Celtic gift, 40.
Rhine, why the chief cities are on its
left bank, 41 ; Roman settlements
on, ib. ; long regarded as home of
the Franks, 75 ; seat of the Au
strasian power, 100 ; bridged at
Mainz by Charles the Great, 125.
Richard, Duke of Normandy, 180.
Richard ' Lionheart,' 279 ; made
Duke of Aquitaine, ib. ; marries
Alix, daughter of Louis VII, 289 ;
sleeps in Philip's bed, ib. ; goes

INDEX.

609

on Crusade, 290 ; in Sicily, 291 ;
in Palestine, ib.; wrecked, prisoner
of Leopold of Austria, ib. ; freed,
292 ; builds Chateau Gaillard, ib. ;
dies, 293.
Richard of Cornwall leads opposi-
. tion to Louis IX, 329.
Richard II of England desires to
end the Schism, 502 ; meets
Charles VI near Calais, ib. ;
makes a 28 years' true with
France, 503 ; is affianced to Isa
belle, daughter of Charles VI, ib.
Richemont, Arthur of, made Con
stable, 533 ; Charles VII refuses
to be reconciled with him, 548 ;
retires to Brittany, and there re
sists the English, ib. ; loyally
seconds the national movement,
551 ; captures La Tremouille,
557 ; head of the war-party, ib.,
558 ; received by the King, 560 ;
stands by him in the Praguerie,
562 ; one of the few great men of
his age, 573.
Rinaldi da Supino, 387.
Ripuarian Franks, 46, note; 68;
Law, 122.
Rivers of France, 5.
Roads, the Domitian, 24 ; the Au
gustan, 39.
Robert of Artois; brother of St.
Louis, 336; is offered the Imperial
Crown, ib. ; takes the cross, 339 ;
killed at battle of Mansourah, 343.
Robert of Artois, cousin of Philip
' le Bel, 379; perishes at Courtrai,
385.
Robert of Artois, brother-in-law to
Philip VI, 407 ; claims Artois,
&c, i'y. ; is banished, and flees to
Edward's Court, 408 ; perishes in
a skirmish near Vannes, 422.
Robert of Clermont, brother of
Philip III, his idiocy, 363, 364
Robert 'the Devil,' Duke of Nor
mandy, 205 ; defends and over
shadows King Henry, ib. ; goes on
pilgrimage and dies, 207, 208.
Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia,
212.
Robert, King of France, crowned,
197 ; pupil of Gerbert, 199 ; sole
King, 200 ; his character, ' De

bonair,' ib. ; anecdotes of, 201 ;
in trouble with the Papacy, 202 ;
gives up his wife Bertha, ib. ;
marries Constance, ib. ; her Aqui
tanians at Paris, 203 ; his strug
gles with the Barons, 204; his
son Hugh crowned, but dies, ib. ;
Henry, his youngest son by Con
stance, is crowned, 205 ; he dies,
208.
Robert, son of King Robert, made
Duke of Burgundy, 205.
Robert the Strong, his origin, 172 ;
ancestor of the Capets, ib.
Robert, brother of Odo, Duke of
France, 173.
Robert, son of Robert the Strong,
defeats Karl the Simple, 178 ; is
made King, 179 ; dies, ib.
Robert, son of William the Con
queror, Duke of Normandy, 217 ;
goes on Crusade, 227 ; careless of
the Crown of England, 231, 232 ;
is defeated by Henry Beauclerc,
ib.
Rochelle, La, English Kings' door
way into France, 328 ; sea-fight
off, 477 ; patent of nobility for its
officers, 486.
Rodolf of Burgundy, the Barons'
King, 179.
Roger de Lacy defends Chateau
Gaillard, 304.
Roger, Viscount of Bezier, 313 ;
cheated and murdered by the
Churchmen, ib.
Roger of Loria, a Ghibeline refugee,
destroys fleet of Charles of Anjou,
365-
Rohan, a true freebooting captain,
481.
Roland, perishes at Roncesvalles,
130.
Rollo, see Hrolf.
Roman army, full of Gauls, 42, 31 ;
Law,the,44, 75, 122 ; tongue, the,
53, 63, 163, 164; change in Em-,
pire under Diocletian, 50 ; Law,
adopted by Philip le Bel, 368.
Rome deals with Gaul, 20; sacked,
2 2 ; confiscates Allobrogian lands,
23; offended with Caesar, 34;
gives citizenship to the ' Alauda,'
37 ; to Gallic chiefs, 40 ; her altar.

VOL. I.

r r

6io

INDEX.

at Lyons, ib. ; her Christian mis
sionaries in Gaul, 45, 46 ; Charles
the Great anointed Emperor, 132.
Romulus, last Emperor, 63.
Roncesvalles, disaster of, 130.
Roosebek, battle of, 494.
Rothfeld, 'the field of lies,' 158.
Rouen taken by the Danes, 175 ;
seems to be the capital of Henry
II, 275 ; improved by him, ib. ;
ceases to be centre of English
King's domains, 293 ; taken by
Philip Augustus, 308 ; threatened
by Edward 111,424; Jeanne Darc
imprisoned at, 553; tried and
burnt there, 554; revolts from
the English, 566 ; its Exchequer
Court made sovereign, 569.
Round Table, the Celtic, 11.
Royal power, the, much weakened,
94 ; strengthened by the Crusades,
239 ; its growth under Philip Au
gustus, 287, 288.
Rudolf III of Aries, 199.
Rudolf of Habsburg, 360.
S.
Sabinus defeats Veneti, 30.
Sacrovir leads Aeduans against
Rome, 40.
St. Malo attacked in vain by the
English, 480.
St. Pol, Count of, at Bouvines, 321.
Sainte Chapelle, the, built, 335.
Saintes ceded to Visigoths, 60.
Saintonge, Helvetians propose to
settle at, 26.
Saisset, Bp. of Pamiers, describes
Philip le Bel, 367 ; legate at
Philip's Court, 381; his character,
ib.
Saladin defeats the Christians, 289 ;
makes treaty with Richard, 291.
Salian Franks, the, 67; the dominant
tribe, 72 ; called Neustrians, ib. ;
occupy North France, 82.
Salic Law, supposed to date from
Treaty of Andelot, 90 ; origin of,
400.
Salisbury, Earl of, attacks the
French fleet, 319; at Bouvines,
320 ; a prisoner, 322.
Salisbury, Earl of, in Brittany, 478 ;

ordered to besiege Orleans, 534;
takes the southern suburb, ib. ;
and the Tournelles, 537 ; is killed
there, ib.
Salyes, a Ligurian tribe, 23.
Samarobriva, Caesar at, 31.
Saracen wars of Charles the Great,
129.
Satire appears in France, 369.
Saxons enter France, 55 ; attacked
by Austrasians, 84 ; their wars
with Charles the Great, 129.
Scabini under Charles the Great; 143.
Schism of the West, the Great, 488 ;
its origin, and parties, ib., 490 ;
Charles Vl strives to heal it,
501 ; suggestions for its abolition,
ib. ; Council of Pisa on it, 508,
509 ; makes it worse, there being
now three Popes, ib. ; partly
closed by Council of Constance,
513; its final healing after the
Council of Basel, 566.
Scholasticism, its use, 167.
Schools in Monasteries, 149.
Sciarra Colonna captures Boniface
VIII, 387.
Scipio lands at Massilia, 22.
Scotland is to England what Brit
tany is to France, 411 ; French
renounce her alliance, 465 ; she
helps Charles VII, 532.
Scots in France, 532 ; many perish
at Verneuil, ib. ; cause loss of
the ' Day of Herrings,' 537.
Scroop, Lord, conspiracy of, 516.
Seljukian Turks, their origin, 224;
their power broken at Antioch,
229.
Senatorial families in Gaul, 53.
Senones, the, threatens Rome, 22.
Septimania, 71 ; why so called, 103,
note ; under Duke Bernard, 166.
Sequanians, their hams, 20 ; they call
in the Germans, 25.
Serfs in France, 192 ; their condi
tion lightened by the Crusades,
239 ; help Louis VI at siege of
Le Puiset, 259.
Sicilian Vespers, the, 364.
Sidonius, Bp. of Clermont, 62.
Sigebert, Ripuarian King, assassi
nated, 72.
Sigebert, son of Hlotair, King of

INDEX.

611

Austrasia, 86 ; defeats Neustrians,
and is assassinated, 89.
Sigebert, son of Dagobert, is King
of Austrasia, 96 ; a ' roi faineant,'
ib.
Sigismund, Emperor elect, 512.
Simon of Montfort, 314 ; attacks
Toulouse, ib. ; defeats Peter of
Aragon, 315 ; lord of almost all
the South, ib. ; does homage to
Philip, 316 ; killed at siege of
Toulouse, 317.
Slavery, Frankish influence on, 57,
79 ; under Charles the Great, 137.
Slaves in Gaul, 53, 149 ; their con
dition, 150, 151.
Sluys, battle of, 418, 419 ; rendez
vous for army and navy against
England, 497.
Somerset, Duke of, defeated at For-
migny, 567.
Somme, the river, difficult to cross,
425 ; Edward III gets over at
Blanche-Taque, ib. ; stops Henry
V, 518; he crosses it near Nesle,
ib.
Soracte, place of Carloman's retire
ment, 108.
Sorbonne, the, created by St. Louis,
352.
Sorel, Agnes, 565.
South of France, its intellectual
precocity, 311 ; has inflicted on it
a feudal form, 315 ; falls at last to
the French Crown, 332, 333 ; was
and is a land apart, ib. ; suffers
from the Inquisition, ib. ; at the
mercy of the English, 434.
Southampton, sacked by the French,
415.
Southern Gauls hate the Franks,
71-
Spain begins persecution within the
Church, 56 ; Charles the Great in,
129, 130.
' Spurs, Day ofthe,' 385 ; Spurs hung
up in Courtrai Cathedral, ib. ;
avenged after Roosebek, 494, 495.
Standing Army in France, its origin,
561 ; construction of, 564, 565 ;
success of, 567, 573.
States-General, meet A. D. 1302, 383 ;
address letters to Boniface VIII,
ib. ; are summoned after Poitiers, R

448 ; their regulations, 450 ; ap
point a Committee of thirty-six,
451 ; Third Estate all powerful,
ib. ; convoked by Charles the
Regent at Compiegne, 458 ; again,
to sanction war with Edward III,
476 ; are refractory, 494 ; con
voked by the Cabochians, 511;
issue the Cabochian Ordinance,
ib. ; accept the Treaty of Troyes,
528.
States of the Langue d'Oil meet at
Orleans, 560.
Stephen of Blois goes on Crusade,
227; is chosen King of England,
264 ; attacks Anjou, 268 ; recog
nises Henry of Anjou as his heir,
273; dies, ib.
Stephen III, Pope, flees into Gaul
for help, 115; recrowns Pippin
the Short, ib.
Stewart d'Aubigne serves Charles
VII, 565.
Stilicho, 62.
Succession to the French throne on
death of Louis X, 399, 400 ; on
the extinction of the House of
Valois, 402, 403.
Suffolk, Duke of, fell at Azincourt,
520.
Suger quoted, 262 ; his estimate of
Louis le Gros, ib., 264 ; his own
character and career, 266; sup
ports Louis VII against Innocent
II, 268 ; dislikes Crusades, 269 ;
is Regent of France, 270 ; his
wisdom and success, 271 ; he re
tires to the quiet of St. Denis, ib.
Sumptuary Laws of Philip IV, 372.
Superstitions in Gaul, 151, 152.
Supreme Pontiff, title of Emperor,
transferred to Pope, 52.
Suabians, 50.
Sword, the arbiter of religious dis
putes, 235.
Syagrius, ' King of the Romans,' 62 ,
68 ; defeated by Hlodowig, ib. ;
flees to Alaric at Toulouse, ib.
Syrians, the, in Jerusalem, 248, 249.

Tacitus quoted, 41.
Taillebourg, battle of, 337.

r 2

6l2

INDEX.

Talbot marchesto meet Jeanne Darc,
548 ; defeated at Patay, ib. ; in
Normandy, in evil plight, 566 ; has
to evacuate Rouen, ib, ; perishes
at Castillon, 568.
Tancred the Norman goes on Cru
sade, 228.
Tanneguy-Ducbatel murders John
the Fearless, 525.
Tartars (or Turks) attack Eastern
Europe, 335.
Taxation under Philip le Bel, 372;
under Charles V, 479, 486.
Templars, at feud with Frederick II,
342 ; at the battle of Mansourah,
343 ; their origin, 391 ; their home
at Paris, ib. ; wealth, and charac
ter, ib., 392 ; arrested by Philip le
Bei, ib. ; tortured, &c, ib. ; their
dignified defence, 393 ; the execu
tion of them, ib. ; Clement V
promises their dissolution, decreed
at the Council of Vienne, 394 ; the
heads of the Order condemned,
ib. ; their curse believed to rest
on the lineage of Philip the Fair,
402.
Tenures of feudalism, 244.
Tertullus the Rustic, ancestor of the
Plantagenets, 172.
Testry, battle of, 97.
' Teutonic France,' of Austrasia, 97,
100.
Teutonic knights, crushed at Tan
nenberg, 573.
Teutons, driven South by an earth
quake, 24.
Thegan describes Hludwig the Pious,
!55-
Theobald of Champagne attacks
Louis VII, 268.
Theobald VI of Champagne stands
aloof from Louis IX, 330, 331 ;
joins the Baron's league, ib. ; is
detached by Blanche, ib. ; becomes
King of Navarre, 332.
Theodebert, King of Austrasia, 85.
Theoderic the Goth resists Attila,
61 ; defeats him, but perishes at
Chalons, ib.
Theoderic the Ostrogoth, in Italy,
64; in South Gaul, 71.
Theodicus, Innocent's legate, 314.
Theodorik,, son of Hlodowig, 71 ;

King of Metz, 83 ; dies A. D. 534,
85-
Theodorik II, dies^i.
Theodorik III, Neustrian King, 97.
Theodosian Code, the, 66.
Theodosius, Emperor, 55 ; defeats
Arbogast, 56, 57.
Theodulf, one of the Missi Domi
nici, 144.
Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flan
ders, 263.
Thionville, assembly at, for settle
ment of succession to Empire,
r35-
Thorismond, son of Theoderic, made
King in the battle of Chalons, 61 ;
assassinated, 62.
Thouars, capitulation of, 478.
Thuin l'Eveque, 420.
Tolbiac (Ziilpich), battle of, 69.
Tolosa, seized by Volcae-Tectosages,
24 ; retaken by Caepio, ib. ; seat
of Ewarik's power, 64 ; head
quarters of the Albigenses, 310 ;
besieged by Simon of Montfort,
314 ; falls to him by conquest,
315; it revolts, 316; besieged
again, 317 ; the death of Simon
lelieves it for a time, ib. ; makes
peace with France, 332.
Toulouse, see Tolosa.
Tournaments, how regarded by
Philip III, 363, 364.
Tournay, besieged in vain by Ed
ward HI, 420.
Tournelles, the, at Orleans, 537 ;
taken by the English, ib. ; retaken
by Jeanne Darc, 546, 547.
Toxandria, Germans settle in, 46.
Trajan, 44.
Treves Cathedral, 85.
Treviri, affected a German origin,
26 ; friendly to Rome, 29 ; revolt
against Rome, 31 ; seat of Roman
government, 54.
Tributary lands in Gaul, 77, 137.
Troussell, Guy, Lord of Montleheri,
257-
Troyes, Treaty of, its terms, 526;
besieged by Charles VII, 548 ;
taken by Jeanne Darc, 549.
' Truce of God,' the, 207.
Tunis, St. Louis at, 350 ; why he
went there, ib.

INDEX.

613

Turks (or Tartars), attack . Eastern
..Europe, 335 ; at the second Coun
cil of Lyons, 361.
Tutelage of Charles VI, 492.
Twelve Peers, the, of France, 280 ;
under Philip Augustus, 308.
Tyrants, the, in Gaul, 46.
U.
Ulfilas, 74.
' Unam Sanctam,' the Decretal, 386.
University of Paris created, 295 ; its
studies, 296 ; its four Faculties,
297 ; its influence, ib. ; its Col
leges, 29S ; encouraged by Philip
Augustus, 327 ; flourishes under
St. Louis, 352 ; gives its opinion
on the Great Schism, 501 ;
clamours for the condemnation of
Jeanne Darc, 553.
Urban II, Pope, decides to lead the
Crusade movement, 218; enters
France, 219; holds Council of
Clermont, 220; believes in Peter
the Hermit, 221 ; his sermon, 223.
Urban III dies of grief, 290.
Urban V grants indulgence to Du
Guesclin, 473 ; escapes from Avig
non, 474; at Rome, 489.
Urban VI gives name to one
party in Great Schism, 488;
elected Pope, 489 ; his severity,
490.
Urbanist cause supported by Eng
land, 496. V.
Valentinian, Emperor, tries to de
pose Arbogast, 55 ; assassinates
Aetius, 62.
Val-es-Dunes, battle of, 208.
Valois, House of, begins to reign,
405, 408.
Vancouleurs, Jeanne Darc at, 539.
Vandals, the, 49.
Veneti, their fleet destroyed by
Caesar, 30.
Vercingetorix, his name, 32, note;
revolts against Caesar, 32, 33 ;
his end, 34.
Verdun, treaty of, 160.
Vergy, relieved by Philip Augustus,

Vermandois, the, ceded to France,
288.
Verneuil, taken and burnt by Louis
VII, 279; battle of, 532.
Vesontio (Besancon), seized by
Caesar, 29 ; receives Christianity,
45-
Vexin, the French, given to Robert
le Diable, 206; the Norman, ib.
note.
Vezelay, Louis VII takes the cross
at, 269.
Vicariates, the two in Gaul under
Diocletian, ;i.
Vicars (Viguers), under Charles the
Great, 142.
Victoria, Queen, her long and pros-
pei ous reign, an argument against
' the Salic Law,' 401.
Vierzon, taken by the Black Prince,
440.
Vikings, Norman, 166 ; origin of
term, ib. note.
' Villains' in France, 191.
' Villes affranchies,' 282.
Viscount of Jerusalem, the, presided
over the Burgher Court, 246.
Visigoths, 49 ; reach the Rhone, 59 ;
make themselves a kingdom in
South Gaul, ib. ; nominally under
the Empire, 60; have all Gaul west
of Rhone granted them by Julius
Nepos, 62 ; Code of Laws, 66 ;
defeated by Hlodowig, 71.
Vitellius wore Gallic dress, 42.
Vitry church, burnt, with hundreds
of persons in it, 268.
' Vocladensian Plain ' (Vougle), bat
tle of, 71.
Vocontii, a Rhone tribe, 23.
Volcae Arecomici, 9 ; Tectosagcs,
ib. W.
Waiffer, Duke of Aquitaine, resists
Pippin, 117 ; slain, 127.
Waldenses, the, 310.
Wallia, King of Visigoths, 60.
Walter the Penniless, 225.
Walter Tyrrell, did he shoot Wil
liam Rufus? 231.
Wandomme, the Bastard of, cap
tures Jeanne Darc, 552.

614

INDEX.

War, art of, modified by gunpowder,
254; reformed by Charles V, 469,
470.
War of Investitures, crossed by the
Crusades, 227.
Wars of Charles the Great, 126-
130.
Weltzes, the Sclavonian, attacked by
Charles the Great. 133.
Wenillon, Abp. of Sens, 167.
Weregild for Bishops and Clergy, 75.
Wilhelm Courtnez, 128; his wise
rule in Aquitaine, 154.
William Fier-a-Bras, Duke of Aqui
taine, 196, 199 ; dies, 205.
William the Bastard, 207, 208 ; his
early vigour, ib., 209; makes Harold
swear to him, 213 ; proposes to
attack England, ib. ; Henry I of
France refuses to help him, ib. ;
effects of his conquest, 214; attacks
Maine, and makes peace with
Philip I, 217; dies, ib.
William the Breton, Chaplain of
Philip Augustus, at Bouvines,
321.
William Clito, the Norman, 261 ;
made Count of Flanders, 263 ;
ejected, ib. ; killed, ib.
William Rufus, King of England,
217; attacks Normandy, 231;
claims the French Vexin, ib. ;
killed, ib.
William of Tyre reckons the num
bers of Crusaders, 228.

William ' the Carpenter,' 229.
William IX of Aquitaine goes on
Crusade, 233 ; stirs up strife in
Auvergne, 262 ; offers his daughter
Eleanor for Louis ' the Young,'
264 ; dies on pilgrimage, ib.
William, Abp. of Tyre, 290.
William of Juliers leads the Flemish
against the French at Courtrai,
3»4-
Winchester, the Cardinal of, comes
over to Paris with help and Henry
VI, 550; arranges the trial of
Jeanne Darc, 553 ; pulls the
strings, 554 ; at the Congress of
Arras, 558.
Winfrilh (or St. Boniface), 103.
Wool, medieval importance of its
trade, 410.
Worms, one seat of the Austrasian
Monarchy, 100. Y.
Yeomen, the English, 41 2 ; at Crecy,
432-
Yolande of Aragon, supports Jeanne
Darc, 540.
York, Duke of, fell at Azincourt,
520. Z.
Zachary, Pope, his reply to Pippin,
112.
Ziilpich (Tolbiac), battle of, 69.

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