FRANCE, HISTORY OF

history of the area from the time of ancient Gaul and the period of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties of the Early Middle Ages to the subsequent emergence of the modern nation and developments to the present. Additional reading Gaul Stimulating overviews of Gaul in the context of French prehistory and early history are found in appropriate chapters of J.M. Wallace-Hadrill and John McManners (eds.), France: Government and Society, 2nd ed. (1970); and Stuart Piggott, Glyn Daniel, and Charles McBurney (eds.), France Before the Romans (1974). More detailed surveys are presented in Olwen Brogan, Roman Gaul (1953); J.J. Hatt, Histoire de la Gaule romaine, 120 avant J.-C.451 aprs J.-C., 3rd ed. (1970); Paul MacKendrick, Roman France (1971); and J.F. Drinkwater, Roman Gaul: The Three Provinces, 58 BCAD 260 (1983). Outstanding modern investigations of particular sites and areas of relevance to the study of Gaul as a whole are Paul-Marie Duval, Paris antique: des origines au troisime sicle (1961); Robert tienne, Bordeaux antique (1962); Edith Mary Wightman, Roman Trier and the Treveri (1970), and Gallia Belgica (1985); Patrick Galliou, L'Armorique romaine (1983); Heinz Heinen, Trier und das Treverland in rmischer Zeit (1985); and A.L.F. Rivet, Gallia Narbonensis: With a Chapter on Alpes Maritimae: Southern France in Roman Times (1988). Provoking syntheses of the contacts of Greeks, Celts, and Romans, based on the archaeological evidence, are offered in John Collis, The European Iron Age (1984); and Barry Cunliffe, Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians: Spheres of Interaction (1988). Life in later Roman Gaul is studied in C.E. Stevens, Sidonius Apollinaris and His Age (1933, reprinted 1979); John Matthews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court, A.D. 364425 (1975); and Raymond Van Dam, Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul (1985). Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths (1988; originally published in German, 1979); and Edward James, The Franks (1988), discuss the barbarian invasions. Camille Jullian, Histoire de la Gaule, 8 vol. (192026, reprinted 1964); Albert Grenier, Manuel d'archologie gallo-romaine, 4 vol. in 7 (193160); and Paul-Marie Duval, La Gaule jusqu'au milieu de Ve sicle, 2 vol. (1971), are still important fundamental works on Gallic history and archaeology. John Frederick Drinkwater Merovingian and Carolingian age Comprehensive introductions to the period are found in Margaret Deanesly, A History of Early Medieval Europe, from 476 to 911, 2nd ed. (1960, reissued 1974); Jean Favier (ed.), Histoire de France, 6 vol. (198488), vol. 1; and Karl Ferdinand Werner, Les Origines (avant l'an mil) (1984). The history of invasions, with the archaeological background, is presented in Lucien Musset, The Germanic Invasions: The Making of Europe, AD 400600 (1975; originally published in French, 1965), and Les Invasions: le second assaut contre l'Europe chrtienne, VIIeXIe sicles, 2nd ed. (1971); and Patrick Prin and Laure-Charlotte Feffer, Les Francs, 2 vol. (1987). On the Merovingians, see Eugen Ewig, Die Merowinger und das Frankenreich (1988); Bernard S. Bachrach, Merovingian Military Organization, 481751 (1972); and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Long-Haired Kings and Other Studies in Frankish History (1962, reprinted 1982). For the Carolingians, Louis Halphen, Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire (1977; originally published in French, 1947), remains the classic work. Later scholarship is reflected in Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751987 (1983); and F.L. Ganshof, The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy, trans. from French (1971). Special studies of the civilization of the period include J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (1983); Pierre Rich, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, Sixth Through Eighth Centuries (1976; originally published in French, 3rd ed., 1973); Suzanne Fonay Wemple, Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500 to 900 (1981); and Rene Doehaerd, The Early Middle Ages in the West: Economy and Society (1978; originally published in French, 1971). Gabriel Fournier Bernard S. Bachrach The emergence of France Early Middle Ages, c. 8501180 This period as a whole is well treated in Jean Dunbabin, France in the Making, 8431180 (1985). Jan Dhondt, tudes sur la naissance des principauts territoriales en France, IXeXe sicle (1948), remains a seminal work on the principalities. Social change and feudalization are studied in Marc Bloch, Feudal Society (1961, reissued in 2 vol., 1974; originally published in French, 193940); and Georges Duby, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (1980; originally published in French, 1978). See also the same author's The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century (1974; originally published in French, 1973). The early Capetian monarchy is dealt with classically in Robert Fawtier, The Capetian Kings in France: Monarchy & Nation, 9871328 (1960, reprinted 1982; originally published in French, 1942). The subject has been powerfully reinterpreted in Jean Franois Lemarignier, Le Gouvernement royal aux premiers temps captiens, 9871108 (1965); and Andrew W. Lewis, Royal Succession in Capetian France: Studies on Familial Order and the State (1981). Ferdinand Lot and Robert Fawtier (eds.), Histoire des institutions franaises au Moyen Age, 3 vol. (195762), contains solid but conceptually dated discussions of provincial and royal institutions and a fine treatment of the church. Among penetrating studies of the provinces are Georges Duby, La Socit aux XIe et XIIe sicles dans la rgion mconnaise (1953, reissued 1982); Robert Fossier, La Terre et les hommes en Picardie jusqu' la fin du XIIIe sicle, 2 vol. (1968); and Pierre Bonnassie, La Catalogne du milieu du Xe la fin du XIe sicle: croissance et mutations d'une socit, 2 vol. (197576). Changing conceptions of peace, knighthood, and the noble family are studied in Georges Duby, The Chivalrous Society (1977; originally published in French, 1973). France in the later Middle Ages, 11801490 Georges Duby and Robert Mandrou, A History of French Civilization (1964; originally published in French, 1958), provides a good survey, stressing social history. Appropriate volumes from the older source, Ernest Lavisse (ed.), Histoire de France depuis les origines jusqu' la rvolution, 9 vol. (190011), remain useful for this period. Territorial evolution is explored in Lon Mirot, Manuel de gographie historique de la France, 2nd ed., rev. by Albert Mirot, 2 vol. (194750, reprinted in 1 vol., 1979). Lopold Genicot, Le XIIIe Sicle europen, 2nd rev. ed. (1984), is a scholarly general review. Accounts of the 14th century are offered in douard Perroy, The Hundred Years War (1951, reissued 1965; originally published in French, 1945); and Peter S. Lewis, Later Medieval France (1968). Jacques Heers, L'Occident aux XIVe et XVe sicles: aspects conomiques et sociaux, 4th ed. (1973), offers a broader chronological perspective. Individual reigns are studied in John W. Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages (1986); William Chester Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership (1979); and Joseph Reese Strayer, The Administration of Normandy Under Saint Louis (1932, reprinted 1971). Andr Artonne, Le Mouvement de 1314 et les chartes provinciales de 1315 (1912), deals with an important constitutional crisis. Joseph R. Strayer and Charles H. Taylor, Studies in Early French Taxation (1939, reprinted 1972), examines taxation and consultation under the later Capetians; later royal finance is studied in Maurice Rey, Le Domaine du roi et les finances extraordinaires sous Charles VI, 13881413 (1965), and Les Finances royales sous Charles VI: les causes du dficit, 13881413 (1965). For economy and society, see Georges Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West (1968, reprinted 1976; originally published in French, 1962); and Guy Fourquin, Les Campagnes de la rgion parisienne la fin du Moyen ge: du milieu du XIIIe au dbut du XVIe sicle (1964). Social unrest is discussed in Michel Mollat and Philippe Wolff, The Popular Revolutions of the Late Middle Ages (1973; originally published in French, 1970). Charles Petit-Dutaillis, The French Communes in the Middle Ages (1978; originally published in French, 1947), remains the standard account on the cities and towns. The legal system is explored in Bernard Guene, Tribunaux et gens de justice dans le bailliage de Senlis la fin du Moyen ge (1963). T.N. Bisson France from 1490 to 1715 David Buisseret and Bernard Barbiche (eds.), Les conomies Royales de Sully (1970), offers an excellent analysis of Sully's political history of the reign of Henry IV; Roger Douet, Les Institutions de la France au XVIe sicle, 2 vol. (1948), examines central, local, and religious bodies; and A.D. Lublinskaya, French Absolutism: The Crucial Phase, 16201629 (1968; originally published in Russian, 1965), discusses the economic crisis of the 17th century. Political corruption is studied in Roland Mousnier, La Vnalit des offices sous Henri IV et Louis XIII, 2nd rev. ed. (1971); and Roland Mousnier (ed.), Lettres et mmoires adresss au Chancelier Sguier, 16331649, 2 vol. (1964), the introduction to which also contains Mousnier's conclusions on the controversial subject of popular uprisings during this period. For more on this subject, see Boris Porchnev, Les Soulvements populaires en France de 1623 1648 (1963, reissued 1972). Orest Ranum, Richelieu and the Councillors of Louis XIII (1963, reprinted 1976), is important for an understanding of Richelieu's real position; see also Joseph Bergin, Cardinal Richelieu: Power and the Pursuit of Wealth (1985). Detailed analyses of political forces include J.H. Shennan, The Parlement of Paris (1968); A. Lloyd Moote, The Revolt of the Judges: The Parlement of Paris and the Fronde, 16431652 (1972); N.M. Sutherland, The French Secretaries of State in the Age of Catherine de Medici (1962, reprinted 1976); Richard Bonney, The King's Debts: Finance and Politics in France, 15891661 (1981), and Society and Government in France Under Richelieu and Mazarin, 162461 (1988); and Mark Greengrass, France in the Age of Henri IV: The Struggle for Stability (1984). A survey of constitutional history is offered in Sarah Hanley, The Lit de Justice of the Kings of France: Constitutional Ideology in Legend, Ritual, and Discourse (1983). Robert R. Harding, Anatomy of a Power Elite: The Provincial Governors of Early Modern France (1978), examines local governments. Decentralization in government is discussed in Sharon Kettering, Patrons, Brokers, and Clients in Seventeenth-Century France (1986); and political representation in J. Russell Major, Representative Government in Early Modern France (1980). See also R.J. Knecht, Francis I (1982); and David Parker, The Making of French Absolutism (1983). Donald R. Kelley, The Beginning of Ideology: Consciousness and Society in the French Reformation (1981), is a study of political thought; see also Jean Orcibal, Saint-Cyran et le jansnisme (1961). On social conditions, see Robert Mandrou, Classes et luttes de classes en France au dbut du XVIIe sicle (1965); James R. Farr, Hands of Honor: Artisans and Their World in Dijon, 15501650 (1988); and Georges Vigarello, Concepts of Cleanliness: Changing Attitudes in France Since the Middle Ages (1988; originally published in French, 1985). The Age of Louis XIV Albert N. Hamscher, The Parlement of Paris After the Fronde, 16531673 (1976), and The Conseil Priv and the Parlements in the Age of Louis XIV: A Study in French Absolutism (1987), provide good introductions to the period. Roger Mettam, Power and Faction in Louis XIV's France (1988); and Roger Mettam (ed.), Government and Society in Louis XIV's France (1977), analyze the political structure. Eugene L. Asher, The Resistance to the Maritime Classes: The Survival of Feudalism in the France of Colbert (1960, reprinted 1980); Charles Woosley Cole, Colbert and a Century of French Mercantilism, 2 vol. (1939, reissued 1964); Thomas J. Schaeper, The French Council of Commerce, 17001715: A Study of Mercantilism After Colbert (1983); and Herbert Lthy, La Banque protestante en France: de la rvocation de l'Edit de Nantes la Rvolution, 2 vol. (195961, reprinted 1970), discuss the developing economic system. See also Warren C. Scoville, The Persecution of Huguenots and French Economic Development, 16801720 (1960), important in assessing the effects of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen (1970, originally published in French, 1966), provides a synthesis of Louis's reign; it is supplemented in such special accounts as Lionel Rothkrug, Opposition to Louis XIV: The Political and Social Origins of the French Enlightenment (1965); John C. Rule (ed.), Louis XIV and the Craft of Kingship (1969); Louis Andr, Louis XIV et l'Europe (1950), on foreign policy; and John B. Wolf, Louis XIV (1968). J.H. Shennan France from 1715 to 1789 Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Rgime and the French Revolution (1955, reprinted 1978; originally published in French, 1856), is still a basic source for the study of the period. Comprehensive histories include C.B.A. Behrens, The Ancien Rgime (1967, reprinted 1976); Pierre Goubert and Daniel Roche, Les Franais et l'Ancien Rgime, 2 vol. (1984); Albert Soboul, La France la veille de la Rvolution, 2nd rev. ed. (1974), a Marxist interpretation; Alfred Cobban, Old Rgime and Revolution, 17151790 (1957, reprinted 1969), vol. 1 in his A History of Modern France; Hubert Mthivier, LAncien Rgime en France: XVIeXVIIeXVIIIe sicles (1981); and Norman Hampson, The Enlightenment (1968, reprinted 1982). For discussions of social classes and economic issues, see Robert Forster, The Nobility of Toulouse in the Eighteenth Century (1960, reprinted 1971); Elinor G. Barber, The Bourgeoisie in 18th Century France (1955, reprinted 1970); Franklin L. Ford, Robe and Sword: The Regrouping of the French Aristocracy After Louis XIV (1953, reprinted 1965); Henri Se, Economic and Social Conditions in France During the Eighteenth Century (1927, reissued 1968; originally published in French, 1925); and Steven Laurence Kaplan, Provisioning Paris: Merchants and Millers in the Grain and Flour Trade During the Eighteenth Century (1984). Economic histories make much use of the 18th-century travelogue of Arthur Young, Travels During the Years 1787, 1788, & 1789: Undertaken More Particularly with a View of Ascertaining the Cultivation, Wealth, Resources, and National Prosperity of the Kingdom of France, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1794), available in many later editions. The culture and ideology of the period are explored in Harvey Chisick, The Limits of Reform in the Enlightenment: Attitudes toward the Education of the Lower Classes in Eighteenth-Century France (1981); Thomas E. Crow, Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris (1985); Joan B. Landes, Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution (1988); Jeremy D. Popkin, News and Politics in the Age of Revolution: Jean Luzac's Gazette de Leyde (1989); and Jean Starobinski, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Transparency and Obstruction (1988; originally published in French, 1957). Patrice Louis-Ren Higonnet France from 1789 to 1815 The best overview of the period is D.M.G. Sutherland, France 17891815: Revolution and Counter-Revolution (1985). General surveys of the French Revolution include William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution (1989); and Norman Hampson, A Social History of the French Revolution (1963, reprinted 1982). The origins and the first phase of the Revolution are treated in Michel Vovelle, The Fall of the French Monarchy, 17871792 (1984; originally published in French, 1972). The best book on the Terror is still R.R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution (1941, reissued 1989). Martyn Lyons, France Under the Directory (1975), surveys the Revolution's later phase. Franois Furet and Mona Ozouf (eds.), A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution (1989; originally published in French, 1988), is an important and original collection of short essays on selected events, actors, institutions, ideas, and historians of the French Revolution. Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (1984), analyzes the imagery and sociology of revolutionary politics. Notable thematic studies include Georges Lefebvre, The Great Fear of 1789: Rural Panic in Revolutionary France (1973, reissued 1989; originally published in French, 1932); P.M. Jones, The Peasantry in the French Revolution (1988); Albert Soboul, The Parisian Sans-culottes and the French Revolution, 17934, trans. from French (1964, reprinted 1979); George Rud, The Crowd in the French Revolution (1959, reprinted 1986); John McManners, The French Revolution and the Church (1969, reprinted 1982); Jean-Paul Bertaud, The Army of the French Revolution (1988; originally published in French, 1979); Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution (1989); and Jacques Godechot, The Counter-Revolution: Doctrine and Action, 17891804 (1971, reissued 1981; originally published in French, 1961). The international dimension of the Revolution is interpreted in R.R. Palmer, The World of the French Revolution (1971). The best biography of a revolutionary leader is Leo Gershoy, Bertrand Barre: A Reluctant Terrorist (1962). A lively introduction to the Napoleonic era is J. Christopher Herold, The Age of Napoleon (1963, reprinted 1987). Informative volumes on the life and times of Napoleon include Felix Markham, Napoleon (1963); and Jean Tulard, Napoleon: The Myth of the Saviour (1984; originally published in French, 1977). The best volume on the Napoleonic regime in France is Louis Bergeron, France Under Napoleon (1981; originally published in French, 1972). Owen Connelly, Blundering to Glory: Napoleon's Military Campaigns (1987), is a critical and incisive analysis. For the views of historians across the generations, see Pieter Geyl, Napoleon: For and Against (1949, reissued 1976; originally published in Dutch, 1946). Isser Woloch France since 1815 Volumes 2 and 3 of the already mentioned Alfred Cobban, A History of Modern France, 3 vol. (195762, reprinted 1969), present the period from the First Empire to the Republics in a sophisticated synthesis; and Gordon Wright, France in Modern Times: From the Enlightenment to the Present, 4th ed. (1987), is an interpretive general survey. Appropriate parts of the massive collective work Histoire conomique et sociale de la France, 4 vol. in 8 (197082), Fernand Braudel and Ernest Labrousse (eds.), provide coverage by some of the best French experts of economic and social developments up to the last quarter of the 20th century. Surveys of special topics on all or most of the period since 1815 include Ren Rmond, The Right Wing in France from 1815 to De Gaulle, 2nd ed. (1969; originally published in French, 3rd ed., 1968; rev. French ed., 1982), tracing change and continuity of the political right; Grard Cholvy and Yves-Marie Hilaire, Histoire religieuse de la France contemporaine, 3 vol. (198588), an analysis of the role of various religions; and Raoul Girardet, La Socit militaire dans la France contemporaine, 18151939 (1953), on the changing role and composition of the military corps. The role of France in world affairs is emphasized in Pierre Renouvin, Le XIXe, 2 vol. (195455), on the developments of the 19th century, part of the series Histoire des relations internationales. Franois Caron, An Economic History of Modern France, trans. from French (1979, reissued 1983), revises older views about France's rate of growth; Theodore Zeldin, France, 18481945, 2 vol. (197377), explores modern French society, stressing its complexity and continuity; and Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France (1976), argues that a sense of nationhood came to rural France only in the late 19th century. Period studies include Guillaume de Bertier de Sauvigny, The Bourbon Restoration (1966, originally published in French, 1955), the standard work on the period 18151830; David H. Pinkney, Decisive Years in France, 18401847 (1986), arguing that France changed fundamentally in these years; Roger Price, The French Second Republic: A Social History (1972), a thoughtful reevaluation; Ted W. Margadant, French Peasants in Revolt: The Insurrection of 1851 (1979), suggesting that leftist views remained vigorous after 1848; J.P.T. Bury, Napolon III and the Second Empire (1964), a well-informed analysis; Michael Howard, The Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France, 18701871 (1961, reissued 1981), a model study; and Stewart Edwards, The Paris Commune, 1871 (1971), a balanced reevaluation. Roger Shattuck, The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant Garde in France, 1885 to World War I, rev. ed. (1968, reissued 1984), is a brilliant survey of Parisian culture of the period; and Charles Rearick, Pleasures of the Belle Epoque: Entertainment and Festivity in Turn-of-the-Century France (1985), describes the high life in Monmartre. D.W. Brogan, France Under the Republic: The Development of Modern France, 18701939 (1940, reprinted 1974), is a classic account; Jacques Chastenet, Histoire de la Troisime Rpublique, 7 vol. (195263, reissued in 4 vol., 1974), remains the most detailed treatment of the period; David Thomson, Democracy in France Since 1870, 5th ed. (1969), offers a penetrating study of political and social aspects; and Jean-Denis Bredin, The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus (1986; originally published in French, 1983), provides a highly readable account of the great crisis. For the 20th century, see Eugen Weber, Action Franaise: Royalism and Reaction in Twentieth Century France (1962), a full analysis of this right-wing movement; Zeev Sternhell, La Droite Rvolutionnaire, 18851914: les origines franaises du fascisme (1978, reprinted 1984), a controversial argument that fascism was born in France; Marc Ferro, The Great War, 19141918 (1973, reissued 1987; originally published in French, 1969), a good synthesis; Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 19401944 (1972, reissued 1982), a critical analysis of the Ptain regime; Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, La Dcadence, 19321939, 3rd rev. ed. (1985), and L'Abme: 19391945, 2nd rev. ed. (1986), two volumes of devastating analysis of French foreign policy before and during World War II; Charles de Gaulle, War Memoirs, 5 vol. (195560; originally published in French, 195459), and Memoirs of Hope: Renewal and Endeavor (1971; originally published in French, 2 vol., 197071), indispensable for an understanding of the Gaullist era; Jean Lacouture, Charles de Gaulle, 3 vol. (198486), a full and perceptive biography; Philip M. Williams, Crisis and Compromise: Politics in the Fourth Republic, 3rd ed. (1964, reissued 1972), an excellent account of that system of government; Pierre Viansson-Pont, Histoire de la rpublique gaullienne, 2 vol. (197071, reissued in 1 vol., 1984), on the Fifth Republic's Gaullist phase; Stanley Hoffmann et al., In Search of France (1963), an analysis of postwar France; George Ross, Stanley Hoffmann, and Sylvia Malzacher (eds.), The Mitterrand Experiment: Continuity and Change in Modern France (1987), a study of the socialist years; and Alfred Grosser, Affaires extrieures: la politique de la France, 19441989 (1989), a penetrating analysis of postwar France's role in the world. Gordon Wright France, 1180 to c. 1490 The period of the Hundred Years' War The kings and the war, 13281429 At the accession of the house of Valois in 1328, France was the most powerful kingdom in Europe. Its ruler could muster larger armies than his rivals elsewhere; he could tap enormous fiscal resources, including taxes authorized by sympathetic popes of French extraction; there remained only four great fiefsthe duchies of Aquitaine, Brittany, and Burgundy, and the county of Flandersoutside the direct royal domain; and the king's courts continued to press a jurisdictional supremacy that was felt everywhere in the realm. It did not follow, however, that France's superior armies would fight better than its foes or that its resources would not sometimes be dissipated or withheld. France remained a collection of traditional provinces the peoples of which believed that a king should live off his own, while military success continued to depend on the personal leadership of dynastic rulers whose qualifications as strategists had been less refined by experience and institutional progress than their judicial or administrative competence. The history of France in the 14th century is dominated by efforts of its kings to maintain their suzerainty over the Plantagenets in Aquitaine, efforts that, despite French advantages, were long frustrated. Philip VI Philip VI of Valois (ruled 132850), grandson of Philip III, was of mature age when he became regent of France in 1328. Upon the birth of a daughter to the widow of his cousin Charles IV, the familiar issue of the succession was posed anew. It was the regent's experience, together with the circumstance that Edward III of England, grandson of Philip the Fair, was under the influence of his disreputable mother, Isabella of France, that probably disposed the council at Vincennes to recognize Philip as king (April 1328). Philip's reign began well. Within months he crushed a revolt of the Flemish cloth towns (Cassel, August 1328), thereby recovering the effective suzerainty over Flanders that had eluded his predecessors for a generation. And in 1329 he obtained Edward III's personal homage for the duchy of Aquitaine, an act that not only secured Philip's leadership but also nullified Edward's claim to the crown of France. This initial success was soon undone. Jurisdictional questions in Gascony remained unsettled. In 1336 Philip VI appeared to be preparing massive support for David Bruce, the Scottish king at war with Edward; and in 1337, alleging defaults in feudal service, Philip ordered the confiscation of Aquitaine. Edward III renounced his homage and again laid claim to the crown of France, and war again was imminent. Despite the new Plantagenet pretensions, the basic causes of conflict were feudal and jurisdictional, not dynastic. Edward proceeded deliberately and ominously. He fomented discontent among the Flemish clothworkers and then treated with the towns; in so doing he negated the count's fidelity to France; he also purchased the fidelity and service of many princes in the Rhineland and Low Countries. But, to succeed, the English needed a prompt and massive victory on French soil, something Philip VI was able to prevent. Despite Edward's naval triumph off Sluys (1340), which confirmed English control of the seas, his initial advantage was lost as his resources and allies melted away. A truce in September 1340 was extended for several years, during which time Edward intervened in a disputed succession to the duchy of Brittany, while Philip's officials increased their pressure on Gascony. In 1345 English armies counterattacked French posts on the duchy's borders; their success emboldened Edward. Landing in Normandy (July 1346) with a well-disciplined army, he captured Caen, only to be overtaken in Picardy by a much larger French army as he moved to join his Flemish allies. At Crcy (Aug. 26, 1346), despite serious disadvantages, the English forces won the first major battle of the war. Their victory, however, proved difficult to exploit; Edward moved on to capture Calais after a long siege, but he could then only return to England with more glory than accomplishment to his credit. Nevertheless, Philip's failures were proving costly in money and political support. In 134041 he had been able to raise extraordinary revenue through taxes on sales, salt, and hearths, despite regional protests. The continuance of sales and salt taxes in 1343 could be extracted from the Estates of Paris only in return for the restoration of a stable coinage; in the following years regional assemblies in the north proved even more obstinate. In the Estates of Paris in November 1347 the king heard ringing denunciations of his mismanagement and defeats and was fortunate to obtain new subsidies to support an invasion of England. But that prospect, like the war itself, evaporated when the Black Death struck Europe late in 1347, destroying life, fiscal resources, and resolve for several years thereafter. Philip VI cannot be judged by his military failures alone. The royal domain was significantly enlarged by his acquisition of Dauphin (technically an endowment for his grandson in 134349) and the city of Montpellier, the last (and wealthiest) Aragonese fief in Languedoc. As administrative expertise continued to progress, the services, such as Parlement and treasury, were regulated. Within the departments of the court and notably in the Chamber of Accounts, power came increasingly into the hands of royal favourites, whose rivalries were stimulated by the courtly predilections of the king. Their influence and peculation together with the familiar injustices of local government came under attack in the Estates of 1343 and 1347, which, in their conditional grants of subsidy, asserted a more nearly constitutional authority than French assemblies had yet enjoyed; the fiscal powers of the provincial Estates likewise originated during this reign. France, 1180 to c. 1490 France from 1180 to 1328 The kings and the royal government The French monarchy was greatly strengthened by Louis VII's successor, Philip II Augustus (ruled 11801223), who could claim descent from Charlemagne through his mother. Philip proved to be the ablest Capetian yet to reign. He was practical and clear-sighted in his political objectives; the extension of territorial power and the improvement of mechanisms with which to govern an expanded realm were his consistent policies. Perhaps it was not accidental that royal documents began to refer to the king of France (rex Franciae) instead of using the customary formula king of the Franks (rex Francorum) within a year or two of Philip's accession. Philip Augustus The growth of the French royal domain, 11801328. Philip's outstanding achievement was to wrest control from the Plantagenets of most of the domains they held in France. Intervening in struggles between Henry II of England and his sons, Philip won preliminary concessions in 1187 and 1189. He acquired strategic lands on the Norman borders following wars with Henry's sons, King Richard and King John (1196 and 1200). And when, in 1202, John failed to answer a summons to the vassalic court of his lord, Philip Augustus confiscated his fiefs. Normandy, invaded in 1204, submitted to the Capetian in 1208. Maine, Anjou, and Touraine fell rapidly (120406), leaving only Aquitaine and a few peripheral domains in the contested possession of England. By the Truce of Chinon (Sept. 18, 1214), John recognized the conquests of Philip Augustus and renounced the suzerainty of Brittany, although the complete submission of Poitou and Saintonge was to take another generation. Philip's other acquisitions of territory, if less spectacular, were no less important for consolidating the realm. In the north he pressed the royal authority to the border of Flanders. Artois, which came under his control as a dowry with his first wife, was fully secured in 1212. Vermandois and Valois (1213) and the counties of Beaumont-sur-Oise and Clermont-en-Beauvais were annexed during his last years. On the southern limits of the le-de-France Philip rounded out prior possessions in Gtinais and Berry. Much of Auvergne, whose suzerainty had been ceded by Henry II in 1189, passed to royal control in 1214, while in the more distant south Philip extended his influence by gaining lordship over Tournon, Cahors, Gourdon, and Montlaur in Vivarais. As the reign ended, only Brittany, Flanders, Champagne, Burgundy, and Toulouse, among principalities later annexed, lay outside the royal domain. Because the territorial expansion was accomplished through traditional meansdynastic, feudal, and militarythe curial administration was, outwardly, little changed. Household officers such as the butler and the constable continued to function as in the past. But Philip Augustus was even more suspicious of the seneschalship and chancellorship than his father had been; he allowed both offices to fall vacant early in his reign, entrusting their operations to lesser nobles or to clerics of the entourage. Although their activity is obscure, some of these men were beginning to specialize in justice or finance. The curia as such, however, remained undifferentiated; characteristically, the committee of regents, appointed in 1190 to hold three courts yearly while the king was absent on crusade, was expected to function in both justice and administrative review on those occasions. Prelates and nobles of the curia also served as counselors; enlarged councils convened, at the king's summons, on festivals or when major political or military issues were contemplated. Philip Augustus acted vigorously to improve the efficiency of his lordship. He was, indeed, practically the founder of royal administration in France. His chancery began to keep better records of royal activities. Documents were copied into registers before being sent out, and lists of churches, vassals, and towns were drawn up to inform the king of his military and fiscal rights. These lists replaced others lost on the battlefield of Frteval (1194), a disaster that may have hastened the adoption of a new form of fiscal accountancy. One may draw this conclusion because it is unlikely that the Capetians had previously troubled to record the balances of revenues and expenses in the form first revealed by a record of the year 1202. Its central audit was connected with other efforts to improve control of the domains dominated directly by the king. From early in his reign Philip appointed members of his court to hold periodic local sessions, to collect extraordinary revenues, to lead military contingents, and to supervise the provosts. The new officers, called bailiffs (baillis), at first had no determined districts in which to serve (they resembled the circuit commissioners of Angevin government, whose office may have been the model for the Capetian institution). From the outset the bailiffs were paid salaries; they were more reliable than the provosts, who, by the later 12th century, generally farmed the revenues. In the newly acquired lands of the west and south Philip and his successors instituted seneschalsfunctionaries similar to the bailiffs, but with recognized territorial jurisdiction from the start. Philip Augustus' policy toward his conquered domains was shrewd. He retained the deep-rooted customs and administrative institutions of such flourishing provinces as Anjou and Normandy; indeed, the superior fiscal procedures of Normandy soon exercised perceptible influence on Capetian accounting elsewhere. On the other hand, to secure the loyal operation of provincial institutions, Philip appointed men of his own court, typically natives of the le-de-France. It was a compromise that was to work well for generations to come. The character of Philip's rule may likewise be deduced from his relations with the main classes of the population. A devoted son of the church, if not unswervingly faithful, he favoured the higher clergy in many of their interests. He opposed the infidels, heretics, and blasphemers; he supported the bishops of Laon, Beauvais, Sens, and Le Puy (among others) in their disputes with townspeople; and he granted and confirmed charters to monasteries and churches. Yet he was more insistent on his rights over the clergy than his predecessors had been. He required professions of fidelity and military service from bishops and abbots, cited prelates to his court, and sought to limit the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts. He supported papal policies or submitted to papal directives only to the extent that these were consistent with his temporal interests. His reserved support of crusades and his notorious rejection of Queen Ingeborg were cases in point (see below). Toward the lay aristocracy, Philip Augustus acted energetically as suzerain and protector. Indeed, no Capetian was more fully the feudal monarch. His war with John resulted from a breach of feudal law and was fought with feudal levies. He regarded Flanders and Toulouse as well as Normandy as fiefs held of the crown. As with ecclesiastical vassals, Philip insisted upon the service due from fiefs; he exploited the feudal incidents, notably relief and wardship; and he required his vassals to reserve their fealty for himself alone. He extended his influence by entering into treaties (pariages) with minor lords, often distant ones; and, by confirming the acts of nobles in unprecedented numbers, he recovered the force of the royal guarantee. The policy toward the lesser rural and urban populations was to increase their loyalty and contribution to the crown without significantly reducing their dependence on the king and other lords. Philip offered his protection to exploited villages, and, especially during his early years, he confirmed existing new towns, extended their privileges to other villages, and otherwise favoured peasant communities. Townsmen, notably those in semiautonomous communes, gained confirmation of their charters; and the king created some new communes. Most of the latter were located in strategic proximity to the northern frontiers of the expanded royal domain; this fact, together with the obligations of service and payment specified in the charters, suggests that military motives were paramount in these foundations. More generally evident in these charters, as in others, was the desire to gain the political fidelity of a prospering class. At Paris Philip Augustus acted as did no other local lord to promote the civic interest: improving sanitation, paving streets, and building a new wall. Parisian burghers financed and administered these projects; they were associated in the fiscal supervision of the realm when the king went on crusade, but they were not favoured with a communal charter. France, 14901715 France in the early 17th century Henry IV The restoration of royal authority was not, of course, simply a matter of adjusting theories of kingship; there was a clear practical reason for Henry's success. The country had tottered on the brink of disintegration for three decades. By the time of Henry's succession, it was generally recognized that only a strong personality, independent of faction, could guarantee the unity of the state, even though unity meant religious toleration for the Protestant minority. By the Edict of Nantes (April 13, 1598) Henry guaranteed the Huguenots freedom of conscience and the right to practice their religion publicly in certain prescribed areas of the country. As a surety against attack, the Huguenots were granted a number of fortresses, some of them, such as La Rochelle and Montpellier, extremely formidable. Huguenots were made eligible to hold the same offices as Roman Catholics and to attend the same schools and universities. Finally, to ensure impartial justice for them, the Edict established in the Parlement of Paristhe supreme judicial court under the kinga new chamber, the Chambre de l'dit, containing a number of Protestant magistrates who would judge all cases involving Huguenots. Although the problem of religion was not finally settled by the Edict of Nantes, Henry did succeed in effecting an extended truce during which he could apply himself to the task of restoring the royal position. The chief need of the monarchy was to improve the financial situation, parlous since the days of Henry II's wars and aggravated by the subsequent internecine conflict. Henry was fortunate in this connection to have the services of Maximilien de Bthune, Duke de Sully, who was admitted to the king's financial council in 1596. Sully at once embarked upon a series of provincial tours, enforcing the repayment of royal debts, thereby increasing the king's revenues. He also provided the first real statements of government finances in many years; by 1598 he had become the effective head of the royal financial machine as well as a trusted member of the king's inner Cabinet. He held a variety of offices: superintendent of finances, grand master of artillery, superintendent of buildings, governor of the Bastille, and others. But it was in the field of finance that he made his greatest contribution to the welfare of the state.