France: history to 1515

In the ancient world, the area now known as France was occupied by a number of Celtic peoples known collectively as the Gauls, and Gaul was also the name given to their territory. The Phoenicians and Greeks had left their mark in the south of Gaul by establishing the trading station that afterwards developed into the city of Marseille, but that was the extent of their influence.

Gaul during and after the Roman occupation
With the invasion of Gaul by Julius Caesar and the subsequent Gallic Wars the recorded history of France begins. The Gauls rapidly assimilated the civilization and culture of Rome, adopting a form of its language, and accepting its laws and its administration. But with the decline of the Roman Empire Gaul's prosperity rapidly disappeared.

From around 395 onwards the Goths, Vandals, and Burgundians, Germanic peoples who had long inhabited the area east of the Rhine, came under pressure from invasions of nomadic peoples from further east, and began to migrate westwards over the Rhine. The Burgundians were the first to settle, and they founded a kingdom that stretched down the Rhine valley from the Vosges to the sea (see Burgundy (ancient)). The Vandals founded a Visigothic kingdom in Spain, a kingdom that also stretched into southwest France. In 451, at the great battle of the Catalaunian Fields, Aëtius, the last of the Roman generals in Gaul, defeated the Huns of Attila.

Clovis and the Merovingians
The most important of the ‘barbarian’ invaders of Gaul was Clovis I, the king of the Franks (481–511). The Franks were a Germanic tribe who had lived in what is now Belgium (the Salian Franks) and on the banks of the rivers Sambre and the Meuse (the Ripuarian Franks). United by Clovis, the Franks invaded Gaul and quickly overran it, advancing rapidly towards Paris, which they made their capital.

Clovis's masterstroke was his adoption of the Christian faith. He was recognized by the pope in Rome, and was made a consul and patrician by the eastern Roman emperor. The Franks maintained their old system of ‘Salic law’, but at the same time they adopted the civilization of Roman Gaul. Clovis belonged to the Merovingian line of kings, named after its founder, Merovech (5th century AD), and established the Merovingian dynasty in France. In this dynasty the king held in his own hands the reins of justice, finance, and administration. But the Merovingians soon occupied their time in quarrelling amongst themselves, so allowing the mayors of the palace (administrators of the royal court) to acquire more and more power, until they gradually won for themselves a position that was greater than that of the king himself. A long line of puppet Merovingians followed, though the line was maintained nominally until 751.

Charlemagne and the rise of the Carolingian dynasty
The greatness of the Carolingian dynasty (from Carolus, Latin for Charles) begins with the mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, who defeated the Moors at Tours (732) and so halted the Islamic advance into Western Europe. In 741 he died and was succeeded by his sons, Carloman, who shortly retired to a monastery, and Pepin the Short, who in 751 took the name as well as the power of king.

Pepin made himself the protector of the church. Twice he invaded Italy and forced the king of the Lombards to cede him territory that he in turn ceded to the papacy, thus giving the papacy its claim to secular power (a claim that persisted up to 1870, when the Papal States were incorporated into the new kingdom of Italy). Pepin died in 768, and was succeeded by his son, Charlemagne.

Charlemagne continued and improved on the policy of his father. He crossed the Alps to aid the papacy, crushed the Lombards, and restored to the pope the territory ceded by Pepin the Short. Then he turned his attention to the Saxons, and after many campaigns he finally crushed their power too. He fought the Avars of Hungary, defeated the Danes, and became to all intents and purposes the overlord of Western Europe. On Christmas Day of the year 800 he was crowned as emperor by the pope. Thus was established what was later to become known as the Holy Roman Empire, intended to embody the medieval ideal of the domination of the world by pope and emperor working together for the common good. The immediate results of this coronation were that the papacy became the greatest power in Italy, and the right of Charlemagne to the Frankish kingdom (first claimed by his father Pepin) was considerably strengthened.

Charlemagne's legacy: the empire divided
Charlemagne nevertheless contributed to the breakup of his own empire by the divisions he himself made. According to the Frankish custom of ‘partible inheritance’, the empire was split up and divided between his sons Charles, Pepin, and Louis. The two former died very shortly after their father, but Louis (I) the Pious (reigned 814–840) partitioned his empire whilst his sons were still alive, and this led to constant quarrelling and revolt. Finally, after his death, the empire was definitely partitioned between his three sons by the Treaty of Verdun (843), and the three kingdoms of France, Germany, and Italy may be said to have been founded by this treaty.

The impact of the Vikings
For the next century and a half the history of France and of the Holy Roman Empire is the story of constant war and rebellion. The great enemies of order and the power of the crown during this period were the nobility and the Vikings. Rouen, Bordeaux, and Aachen all fell into the hands of the Vikings, and in 886 Paris itself underwent a terrible siege. Charles (III) the Fat (emperor from 881, and king of France as Charles II from 885) tried to buy them off, but they returned, each time with fresh demands. Charles the Fat was driven from his throne in 887, and Count Odo elected king of France, but he owed his election solely to the need to drive away the Vikings, and he was kept on the throne only by the influence of the nobles.

Odo was succeeded by Charles (III) the Simple (reigned 893–922), who made peace with the Vikings in 911, ceding to them the mouth of the River Seine and Normandy (‘the land of the Northmen’). Their leader, Rollo, became a Christian, paid homage to the king, and settled in his own territory. The Vikings – or Normans as they became known – soon assimilated the culture, language, and customs of the French, and the duchy of Normandy was to play an important role in the history of Western Europe for some centuries.

The end of the Carolingians
Charles the Simple showed himself as incapable as Charles the Fat, and the Carolingians soon became as weak as the Merovingians had been. Louis IV tried to win back prestige for the crown, and to put down the power of the nobles, but Hugh, Count of Paris, overshadowed him. Although Hugh could easily have declared himself king of France, he maintained the old Carolingian line, leaving it to his son, Hugh Capet, to found the Capetian dynasty.

The Capetian dynasty
In May 987 Louis V died, the last of the direct line of the Carolingians, and Hugh Capet was recognized king by the church and the nobility. It was the victory of feudalism over the monarchy. Under the complex series of laws that made up what has become known as the feudal system, considerable power had been devolved from the king to the nobility, and the first Capetian kings were merely great feudal nobles who were given the royal title and a nominal allegiance by the other nobles, but in effect only had power in their own feudal lands. Hugh Capet added to his real power the Ile‐de‐France and Paris, and was the first French king with larger ambitions.

But the power of the Normans rivalled his. The Normans had taken part in all the great movements of the time; they had supported the monastic reforms of the Cluniac order, they had supported the Capetian dynasty, and, although they owed allegiance to the French king, they were in reality much more powerful than he. Henry I, king from 1031 to 1060, had been defeated by Normandy. Baldwin V of Flanders, regent for Philip I (reigned 1060–1108), did not hinder his son‐in‐law William, Duke of Normandy, from invading England.

In the meantime the French kings had revived the old Carolingian claims to the middle kingdom (broadly, what is now eastern France) and to sovereignty over the church. Philip I struggled against William of Normandy toward the end of his reign, quarrelled with the papacy, and was excommunicated. The First Crusade – led by various French and Norman counts and dukes – took place during Philip's reign, although he himself played no part.

Under Louis (VI) the Fat, the Capetian monarchy began to grow stronger. Whereas his predecessors had quarrelled with the papacy, Louis VI by an alliance with the church strengthened the crown. He attacked the power of Henry I of England in Normandy, and attempted to check the power of the counts of Blois. The house of Blois, however, was strengthened by the accession of Stephen of Blois to the crown of England. This was temporarily neutralized by the marriage in 1137 of Louis VII to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the heiress to the vast dukedom of Aquitaine in southwest France.

The rise and fall of Angevin power
In 1152 Louis VII divorced Eleanor, who six weeks afterwards married Henry of Anjou, king of England (as Henry II) and ruler of the Angevin empire. Henry II's power was by far the greatest danger that the monarchy in France had yet to face. By his marriage Henry II had established an empire that extended from the Pyrenees to the Cheviots on the border with Scotland; in France he ruled in Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Gascony, Aquitaine, and Poitou.

The accession of Philip II (Philip Augustus, 1180–1223) marks the highest point to which the French monarchy had risen. By skilful attacks on the house of Blois he consolidated French power in the north, and by alliances with the rebellious sons of Henry II – the future kings Richard I and John – he prepared the way for the break‐up of Angevin power. In 1191 he took part in the Third Crusade.

In 1199 the death of Richard I of England and the accession of John cleared the way for the overthrow of Angevin power in France. The Battle of Bouvines (1214) consolidated the power of France in the north. Finally the crusade against the Albigenses gave Philip a hold on the south, a hold that was strengthened by his son and grandson. Administration, justice, and law had all been firmly established during his reign, and in 1223, when Philip died, he left a France that was strong, consolidated, and a significant power in Europe.

Towards a strong monarchy
Louis VIII (reigned 1223–26) continued the work of his father. His son, Louis IX (reigned 1226–70), usually known as Saint Louis, was only 12 years of age when his father died. His mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled for him, and during the regency there was a revolt by some of the great nobles, which she successfully suppressed. One of the most important features of Louis IX's reign was the development of the parlement de Paris (the supreme court), and the subjugation of the feudal nobles by depriving them of their rights to judicial combat and private war. During his reign the University of Paris was expanded.

Louis IX was succeeded by Philip III (the Bold) (reigned 1270–85), during whose reign the provinces of Anjou, Toulouse, and Auvergne, together with Provence and Champagne, came under royal control. In contrast, in Sicily – where Charles of Anjou, a clever and unscrupulous brother of Saint Louis, had established a kingdom – the massacre of the French in 1282 (the Sicilian Vespers) ended French rule there.

Philip IV the Fair (reigned 1285–1314) was cunning, unscrupulous, and ambitious. He desired to weld France into one compact kingdom, and to extend its power. In 1286 he had recognized the claim of Edward I of England to Gascony and Aquitaine, but taking as a pretext the quarrels between the sailors of the English Cinque Ports and Normandy, Philip declared Gascony and Aquitaine forfeit. Edward now built up an alliance against Philip, and Philip in turn allied himself with the Scots, and so began the traditional Franco‐Scottish alliance (‘the Auld Alliance’), which lasted until 1560. In 1300 Philip annexed Flanders, but the Flemish people rose in revolt and in 1302 defeated the French at the Battle of the Spurs (see Courtrai, Battle of).

The death of Philip saw the beginning of a rapid decline in the power of the monarchy in France. During the reign of Louis (X) the Stubborn (1314–16) there was discontent among the nobles, and on his death his daughter was barred from succeeding to the throne by the Salic law. His brother, Philip V, replaced him, and he in turn was succeeded by Charles (IV) the Fair, who ruled only six years (1322–28). On his death in 1328 the crown passed from the main line of the Capetians to the cadet house of Valois in the person of Charles's cousin Philip VI, who was elected king by the barons.

The beginning of the Hundred Years' War
Almost at once, Edward III of England claimed the throne of France by right of his mother Isabel, daughter of Charles IV, and so began the Hundred Years' War. The origins of the war lay with the long‐running disputes over Gascony and Aquitaine, and with trade rivalries over Flanders, and so the war itself can be seen as merely an intensification of a centuries‐old conflict.

Edward III had a number of serious reasons for wanting to crush an apparently weak France: chief among these were the constant French interference in Flanders, which threatened the English wool trade, and French aid to the Scots, whom the English were trying to subdue. But Edward's chief motive was personal ambition.

At first England scored a number of significant victories. Sluis was won in 1340, Crécy in 1346, and in the following year Calais surrendered. For three years war was stopped by the outbreak of the Black Death (1347–50), and in 1350 Philip VI died. He was succeeded by John II (reigned 1350–64), who was defeated and captured by Edward, the Black Prince at Poitiers in 1356 (see Poitiers, Battle of). The regency of the Dauphin Charles during the imprisonment of King John led to an attempt on the part of the States General (the French parliament) to control the policy of France and this, being opposed by the nobles, led to civil war and the peasant rising known as theJacquerie.

In 1360 peace was made with England (the Treaty of Brétigny). By this treaty Edward III gave up his claim to the French throne, and received large territories to the south of the Loire. In 1364 John died. Charles (V) the Wise (reigned 1364–80), who succeeded John, was fairly successful in restoring the power of the crown. Charles was also successful against both the English (from whom he reconquered most of France) and the Spanish, although he failed to annex Brittany. The regency that was necessary owing to the minority of Charles (VI) the Mad (reigned 1380–1422), and Charles's insanity from 1392, led to sometimes violent quarrels between the dukes of Orléan and Burgundy. The dukes of Burgundy had by this time become powerful princes, whose ambitions tended to make them less and less French, until Charles the Bold actually attempted to found an independent kingdom. The Burgundians allied themselves with the English, and obtained control of the mad Charles.

The renewal of the Hundred Years' War
Henry V of England, renewing the quarrel with France, won the Battle of Agincourt (1415), and later, with the help of the Burgundians, overran northern France and forced the French to sign the Treaty of Troyes. By this treaty Henry V became regent of France, married Charles VI's daughter Catherine of Valois, and was to succeed to the French throne on the death of Charles.

However, Henry died before Charles. On the death of the latter (1422), Henry V's young son Henry VI was proclaimed king of France in Paris, while Charles VI's son was simultaneously proclaimed king at Bourges as Charles VII. Although the Duke of Bedford ruled capably as regent for Henry VI, he was able only to control northern France, and the conduct of the other English regents soon drove the Burgundians into the arms of the French camp.

The encouragement given to the French by the victories of Joan of Arc also helped in bringing about the ultimate downfall of English power. In 1435 the Treaty of Arras was concluded between the Burgundians and the French. In the following year Paris was recaptured. Gradually the conquests of the English were won back until, by 1453, when the war ended, Calais alone remained in the hands of the English king.

Louis XI and the defeat of Burgundy
Louis XI, who succeeded Charles VII in 1461, ultimately did much to strengthen royal power in France, though the beginning of his reign was hardly propitious. He alienated Charles the Bold of Burgundy, his nobility, and his clergy, and drove his enemies to join together in the ‘League of Public Weal’. Later, however, he fomented rebellions against Burgundian rule in Flanders, and while Burgundy was occupied in putting them down he won back Normandy, which he had previously ceded by the Treaty of Conflans.

After 1467 Louis successfully opposed the schemes of Charles the Bold, who was finally killed at the Battle of Nancy in 1477. Louis then seized Burgundy and Artois, but was frustrated by the marriage of Charles the Bold's daughter Mary, the Burgundian heiress, to Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who thereby obtained the Burgundian possessions in the Netherlands for the Habsburgs. However, Louis legitimized his seizure of Bugundian territory by the Treaty of Arras (1482). By this treaty Louis gained sovereignty over Burgundy, and received Artois and Franch‐Comté as the dowry of Mary of Burgundy's daughter, Margaret of Austria, who was engaged to be married to Louis's infant son, the future Charles VIII.

The emergence of France as a European power
After Louis's death in 1483 France was governed for a time by the regent, Anne of Beaujeu, on behalf of the young Charles VIII. The great achievement of the regency was the marriage of Charles to Anne of Brittany in face of the opposition of the powers of Europe. The marriage involved breaking Charles's engagement with Margaret of Austria, and France had to cede Franche‐Comté to Austria in compensation. However, the marriage brought Britanny into the direct possession of the crown. Under Charles VIII, France embarked on the invasion of Italy (1494–96).

Charles was succeeded in 1498 by his cousin Louis XII, but Charles's death again raised the vexed question of the succession in Brittany. This was solved by the marriage of Louis to Charles's widow, Anne. Louis's reign was one long pattern of tortuous diplomatic intrigue, and France continued to be embroiled in wars in Italy. In the League of Cambrai (1508) he fought with the papacy against the growing power of Venice, but with the formation of the Holy League (1511) he found himself deserted by his one‐time allies. Although his general Gaston de Foix won for him some successes in Italy, he was forced to make peace. England had once more come to the fore as a European power, and by the Battle of the Spurs (1513) helped to weaken the power of France. Louis died in 1515.

For subsequent events in France, see France: history 1515–1815, and France: history 1815–1945; for history since 1945, see France.