A Short History of France

275 Pages·1966·12.005 MB·English

by  D. J. Peters (Auth.)

A SHORT
HISTORY OF FRANCE
by
D. J. PETERS, M.A.
Chief History Master, Nottingham High School
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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
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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
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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
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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