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A Short History of France PDF

275 Pages·1966·12.005 MB·English
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A SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE by D. J. PETERS, M.A. Chief History Master, Nottingham High School PERGAMON PRESS OXFORD · LONDON · EDINBURGH · NEW YORK TORONTO · SYDNEY · PARIS · BRAUNSCHWEIG Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford 4 & 5 Fitzroy Square, London W.l Pergamon Press (Scotland) Ltd., 2 & 3 Teviot Place, Edinburgh 1 Pergamon Press Inc., 44-01 21st Street, Long Island City, New York 11101 Pergamon of Canada, Ltd., 6 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, Ontario Pergamon Press (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., 20-22 Margaret Street, Sydney, New South Wales e Pergamon Press S.A.R.L., 24 rue des Écoles, Paris 5 Vieweg & Sohn GmbH, Burgplatz 1, Braunschweig Copyright © 1966 Pergamon Press Ltd. First edition 1966 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 66-26872 Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise disposed of without the publisher's consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. (3035/66) Illustrations Map 1. Charlemagne's Empire in 814 3 2. Capetian France and the Angevin Empire 1154 11 3. France in 1429 35 4. French Wars of Religion in the Seventeenth Century 79 5. Louis XIV's France 103 6. Western Europe in 1795 illustrating the Napoleonic Wars 159 7. The Western Front, 1914-18 227 8. France Today 247 vi Preface EARLY in 1963 it was suggested to me that a short History of France would be of considerable value to students of the French language and of French literature who were not necessarily specialist historians. I have attempted, therefore, to write a brief account of the more significant events in the history of France, and to mention, in each chapter, some of the more important men of letters so that they may be seen, as it were, against the back- ground of the chief occurrences of their times. I hope that the book may be of some little value not only to those students of modern languages to whom French is so im- portant, but to those who visit France and would like to know something of the background of the country. This book is not intended to be a work of scholarship, and it owes much to writers like Professor Brogan and Professor Cobban. The lists of suggested further reading will help those who wish to discover more about specific periods from the writings of men whose knowledge of French history is greater by far than mine could ever hope to be. I owe much to them, and a list of them all in this preface would be tedious and inappropriate. However, to them and to Dr. I. G. Thimann, who first suggested the work, I wish to offer my grateful thanks. I should also like to express my gratitude to some of my friends on the Council of the Historical Association, and to Miss Barbara Powlett, whose sug- gestions have helped me to make the book more accurate and, in places, more readable. I wish to say how much I owe to the en- couragement of my parents and my wife, and last, but by no means least, I wish to say how much of my enthusiasm for France and for French history was awakened by the late Alan Richards, with whom I spent several holidays in France, and who knew vii vin PREFACE Paris especially well. His love for everything French earned him many friends across the Channel, and did much to inspire his friends in England with a love of the country of Voltaire, Victor Hugo and Maupassant. D.J. P. Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire, Easter Day, 1966 CHAPTER 1 The Origins of France ALTHOUGH comparatively little is known concerning the history and people of France before the Roman period, and although the making of France in the period before Charlemagne is a subject for the specialist in early medieval history, there are some few events in the ancient past which can provide us with a starting point for this brief survey. A knowledge of French history is essential to any understanding of the unique and vastly important contribution of France to the literature and culture, both of western Europe in general and to England, her closest neighbour, in particular. Without going into the fields of archaeology and prehistory, which can scarcely be dealt with on a national basis, a French history may be said to begin when, in about 600 B.C., Greek colonists founded what was to become the city of Marseilles. It was one of many Greek city-states founded on the coasts of the Mediterranean ; but its existence points to the possibilities of the creation in southern France of a very primitive trading or barter- ing society. Only two centuries later we find men described as Gauls living in the Alpine regions, attacking the new Italian state of Rome, and even taking the capital. However, that future world power recovered sufficiently to make nothing of this setback, and, by 123 B.C., a Roman province in Gallic territory had been founded. In the sixth decade B.C., Caesar conquered the whole of Gaul, and this area remained part of the Roman Empire until the barbarian invasions of the fifth century A.D. In fact, the period of Roman occupation, from 50 B.C. to A.D. 481, had important 1 2 A SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE consequences for the future state of France. The population, a mixture of Mediterranean, Alpine and Germanic peoples, was combined with Latin-speaking peoples from all over the Roman Empire. Previously, there had probably been a Celtic language, spoken in various forms by the tribes of Aquitaine, and by others inhabiting the lands as far north as those of the Belgae. Now, the Latin language, or simplified forms of it, gave France some unity with the other countries which came under the rule of Rome. The provinces of Gaul, Gallia Narbonensis, Aquitania, Gallia Belgica and Gallia Celtica began to be ruled in the Roman way, with magistrates, a provincial government with military officials and a slave-owning economy. The Roman domination had the consequence of bringing to Gaul not only a system of government, but also techniques of constructing houses, public buildings and roads; writing; the calendar; and even the cultivation of vines and olives, to say nothing of new religious beliefs. The ruling classes, in a way, absorbed such forms of Greek civilization which the Latin culture provided. Roman architecture—aqueducts, temples and theatres for example—was introduced; and excellent examples survive in Provence, as at Nîmes, Arles and at the Pont du Gard. Roman law was introduced, and parts of it have survived to the present day, especially in the code of French civil law. The growth of a civilized French state was only possible because Gaul was protected from the barbarians to the north and east by the Roman legions on the Rhine; but in the third century A.D., as the unity of Rome began to crumble, such barbarians as the Franks and Alemanni began to invade the settled territories, looting and destroying. Order was restored, but only temporarily, and on a military basis, with commanders {duces and comités) ruling over seventeen Gallic provinces. The Roman economy was becoming stagnant. Towns and trade dwindled, and society became a primitive yet hereditary affair, just at the time when a new religion, Christianity, was spreading through the Roman Empire. When Christianity became the official state religion under the Emperor Constantine and his successors, bishops were THE ORIGINS OF FRANCE 3 1 P A M 4 A SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE appointed as rulers and pastors over districts based upon the old territorial districts and provinces of the Roman administration. Christianity was imposed on the people of Gaul as the last obedience to the civilization of Rome. This obedience was to end soon ; for in the fourth century some Germans began to come into the Gallic provinces. Some came, as individuals, to join the Roman armies. Some came in groups for the same purpose. Others came as bands of settlers, envious of the Roman civilization which they were so soon to destroy, not deliberately but by sheer weight of numbers. These entered with or without the agreement of the Roman government, bringing with them their own laws and customs and way of life. Gradually the Roman army became barbarian and mercenary, and thus unreliable when faced by the emergency of wholesale barbarian invasion. These barbarians, who began the destruction of the Empire, were of several races. In Gaul there were the Burgundians, the Visigoths and the Franks ; of these, the Visigoths were, at first, the most important. The invaders came from eastern Europe and from Asia, and the Visigoths soon founded an independent state based on Toulouse; while the Franks took the lands east of the Somme. All the barbarians settled alongside the native Gallo-Romans, introducing their languages, laws, customs, farm- ing methods and warlike habits. Little evidence remains of the Visigothic occupation of France, but in north-eastern France more Germanic place-names and customs survive. There are various reasons for this, but the chief may be religious. The Visigoths and Burgundians were converted to the Arian version of Christianity, unacceptable to the orthodox; whereas the Franks remained pagan longer and were then converted to the official Roman version of the faith. By the beginning of the sixth century the Frankish chieftain Clovis had been baptized into the orthodox faith, and had managed to unite the Frankish territories and to defeat a second wave of invaders, the Alemanni. In his reign (482-511) he also pushed back the Visigoths and conquered the Burgundians, and THE ORIGINS OF FRANCE 5 set up a sort of primitive capital in the old Gallic town of Lutetia Parisii (Paris), which was on the island in the Seine now called the île-de-la-Cité. Clovis was the ancestor of the Merovingian kings, a dynasty which ruled in France until 751. This was a very primitive period, when the amount and strength of government depended upon the character and ability of the ruler. It was also a time when each king, in accordance with the custom of the Frankish people, divided his inheritance equally among his sons. On several occasions, the realm had three or four rulers ; generally they ruled with the aid of officials called counts, as in late Roman times. Merovingian customs and laws were very different from Roman ones ; in fact, they were often similar to those to be found in Saxon England. So far as language was concerned, the Teutonic survived in what are now the Flemish-speaking areas; but the other Franks adopted the corrupted Latin language, and so began the development of what is now French. But the other gifts of the Roman civilization, or what was left of them, decayed rapidly. Towns and trade became of negligible importance. So did education. However, a new warrior aristocracy emerged, and began to grow in importance just as the Merovingian kings declined. By the seventh century, Gaul had split into Aquitania, Austrasia (in the east), Neustria (in the west) and Burgundy. Gradually the real power of the state was taken from the kings, and these became little more than puppets, obeying a chief official called the Mayor of the Palace (Latin, Major domus). The most important Frankish state to emerge from this primitive time was Austrasia—possibly because there was a greater Frankish population in that area. From these Austrasians came the dynasty of the Carolingians, so named after Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus, Charles the Great). These Carolingians were to succeed in setting up a united Frankish state once more. This was the achievement of Charles Martel and his son Pepin. They also made war on the Moslem invaders from Spain, thus pre- venting the spread of Islam beyond the Pyrenees. The battle of Tours was the turning point. It was decisive militarily and vital

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