HISTORY OF FRANCE

The earliest period of which anything is known is that it was inhabited by independent tribes, who appear to have been mainly Celtic in race. In the latter half of the 2nd century B.C. the Romans conquered a portion of the south-east, and under Julius Cæsar the conquest of all Gaul was completed between 58 and 51 B.C. Subsequently the country became completely Romanized in language, civilization, and religion, and many flourishing towns sprang up. In the decline of the Roman empire German tribes began to make settlements in Gaul, and it was from a body of these known as Franks, that the name France arose. Towards the end of the fifth century Clovis, chief of the Salian Franks, made himself master not only of almost all France (or Gaul), but also of a considerable territory east of the Rhine. The dynasty which he founded was called the Merovingian from his grandfather Merovæus. Clovis died in 511, leaving his kingdom to be divided amongst his four sons as subsequent rulers often did, The Frankish dominions were thus differently divided at different times; but two divisions, a western and an eastern, or Neustria and Austrasia, became the most important. A large part of the history of the Franks under the Merovingian kings is the history of the contests between these two states. Latterly Pippin or Pépin d'Héristal, mayor of the palace of the Austrasian king, conquered Neustria and made his sway supreme throughout the kingdom of the Franks. This date may be regarded as that of the real termination of the Merovingian line, for although kings belonging to this family continued to be crowned till 752, they were mere puppets, 'rois fainéants' as they are generally called: the real power was in the hands of the mayors of the palace. Pepin Héristal died in 714. He had governed as mayor of the palace under the weak Frankish kings with so much justice that he was enabled to make his office hereditary in his family.

Charles his son succeeded, after a brief period of anarchy as ruler, Chilperic II., king of the Franks, refusing to acknowledge Charles as mayor of the palace, the latter deposed him, and set Clothaire IV. in his place. After the death of Clothaire he restored Chilperic, and subsequently placed Thierri on the throne.

During his tenure of power all Europe was threatened by the Saracens, who, after occupying Spain, had penetrated into France, and were met by Charles on a plain between Tours and Poitiers, and a famous victory was gained in October, 732, over the Saracens, from which he acquired the name of Martel, signifying hammer. He died 741, leaving Austrasia and the countries beyond the Rhine to his son Carloman, and Neustria and Burgundy to his son Pépin the Short. On his brother's death Pépin seized his heritage, and in 752, thinking it time to have done with the system of rois fainéants, had himself crowned King of the Franks. In 768 he died.

He was succeeded by his Sons Charles, afterwards known as Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and Carloman. The latter dying in 771, Charlemagne then became sole ruler, and conquered and organized an empire which extended from the Atlantic on the west to the Elbe, the Saale, and the Bohemian mountains on the east, and embraced also three-fourths of Italy, and Spain as far as the Ebro. By Pope Leo III. on Christmas-day in the year 800 he was crowned in the name of the Roman people as Emperor of the West. There was as yet, strictly speaking, no kingdom of France, and Charlemagne was a German, and his empire a German one.

To Charlemagne succeeded in 814 his youngest son Louis the Pious. At the death of the latter the empire, after many disputes, was eventually divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 amongst his Sons, the portion nearly corresponding to modern France falling to Charles the Bald. From this time the separate history of France properly begins, the history of the French language being also traced to the same period, while the eastern portion of the old Frankish territory remained German.
After Charles the Bald, the first of the Carolingian kings, had been succeeded in 877 by Louis II., and Louis II. by Louis III. (879-882) and Carloman (879-884), Charles the Fat, king of the eastern Frankish territory, became ruler of the western also till 887, when he was deposed. After a brief usurpation by Eudes, Count of Paris, Charles III., the brother of Louis III., was recognized as king. But his kingship was little more than nominal, France being divided into a number of great fiefs, the possessors of which though acknowledging the feudal supremacy of Charles were practically independent. In these circumstances Charles, unable to offer any adequate resistance to the Norman pirates who were devastating the coast and making incursions into French territory, surrendered to them, in 912, the province which took from them the name of Normandy. Towards the end of his reign Hugh of Paris, as he is generally called, duke of France, was really the most powerful person in the kingdom, and throughout the reigns of Louis IV., Lothaire and Louis V., he and his son Hugh Capet held the real power. On the death of Louis V. without children in 987 Hugh Capet mounted the throne himself, and thus became the founder of the Capetian dynasty. The great fiefs of Paris and Orleans were thus added to the crown, and Paris became the centre of the new monarchy.

The first task of the Capetian line was to re-conquer the royal prerogatives from the great vassals, but for two centuries without much success. Hugh Capet died in 996, and his first three successors, Robert (died 1031), Henry I. (died 1060), and Philip I. (died 1106), effected nothing whatever towards the establishment of the royal authority. Louis VI. was more successful, being greatly helped by the fact that the nobility had been much weakened by the Crusades. The growth of the towns also, which ultimately became the allies of the kings, was a powerful check on the nobles.

Louis VI. died in 1137, and was succeeded by his son Louis VII., who reigned till 1180.

During his reign the stability of the French throne was endangered by the influence acquired in France by Henry II. of England, who possessed, either by inheritance or by his marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine, the whole of the west of France except Brittany. Louis was succeeded by his son Philip Augustus (Philip II.), who did much to strengthen the throne, depriving John, king of England, of Normandy, Maine, and Anjou. His son Louis VIII., who succeeded in 1223, carried on the work by the conquest of Poitou, and a religious war being proclaimed against the counts of Toulouse, who protected the Albigenses, that house was extinguished, and their domains passed to the royal family. Louis VIII. died in 1226, and under the wise rule of Louis IX. (St. Louis) the influence of the crown went on increasing, as it did also under Philip (III.) the Bold (died 1285), Philip (IV.) the Fair (died 1314), Louis X. (died 1316), John I. (died 1316, after a reign of five days), Philip V. (died 1322), and Charles IV. (died 1328), by the acquisition of fresh domains and other means until the outbreak of the wars with England.

The first branch of the Capetian line of kings became extinct on the death of Charles IV., the last of the sons of Philip the Fair, the Salic law excluding the female succession. The crown thus fell to Philip of Valois, a cousin, who became king as Philip VI. His claim was disputed by Edward III. of England, and the dispute led to a series of wars which were not terminated for more than 120 years. During this period France was reduced to a state of great misery. While Edward, victorious over Philip VI., and after his death over John (II.) the Good, who was taken prisoner at Poitiers in 1356, compelled the surrender to England of some of the finest provinces of France by the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, the country was plundered by banditti, and the Jacquerie, a mass of furious peasants (about 1358), satiated their spirit of vengeance in the blood of the nobility. Charles (V.) the Wise, who succeeded John the Good in 1364, and his constable, Du Guesclin, were able to restore order only for a short time, although during this reign the English were driven out of most of their possessions in France. Then came the long and unhappy reign of the imbecile Charles VI. (1380-1422), during which Henry V. of England, reviving the claim of Edward III. to the French crown, invaded France, won the field of Agincourt, and obtained a treaty (Treaty of Troyes), acknowledged the right of succession to the French crown in himself and his descendants. Charles VI. died in 1422, a few weeks after Henry V., whose son, Henry VI., a minor, was acknowledge as king by the greater part of France. But between 1429 and 1431 the peasant girl Joan Of Arc animated the French in the cause of the dauphin, who was crowned a Charles VII. at Rheims in 1429, and in 1451 the English had lost all their possessions in France, except Calais. The shrewdness and perfidy of Louis XI. (1461-83) completed the subjugation of the great barons and laid the foundation of absolute monarchy Maine, Anjou, and Provence were left to him by the will of the last count, and large part of the possessions of the Duke of Burgundy, including Picardy, Artois, the duchy of Burgundy proper, and Franche Comté, all came into his hands not long after the death of Charles the Bold, in 1477. His son and successor, Charles VIII. (1483-98), united also Brittany to the crown by his marriage with Anne, the heiress of the fief, and effected a conquest of Naples, which lasted but a short time.

Charles was the last king of the direct line of Valois, which was succeeded by the collateral branch of Valois-Orleans (1498), in the person of Louis XII., who was descended from Louis of Valois, duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VI. In order to keep Brittany attached to the crown he married the widow of his predecessor. On his death the crown reverted to another branch of the house of Valois, that of Angoulême, Francis I. (1515-47) being the grandson of John, count of Angoulême, uncle of Louis XII. Francis I. still continuing the attempts at conquest in Italy, was brought into conflict with Charles V. of Germany, who also claimed Milan as an imperial fief. The result was five wars between France and Germany, in the first of which Francis had to retreat across the Alps; in the second he was taken prisoner at Pavia; in the third he seized Savoy and Piedmont, which the Peace of Crespy (1544), made at the conclusion of the fourth war, allowed him to keep.

Francis I. died in 1547, and his son, Henry II. (1547-59), pursuing the same policy, renewed the war for the fifth time with the house of Hapsburg. In the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), with which it ended, Henry had to surrender Savoy and Piedmont, but remained in possession of the German bishoprics of Mets, Toul, and Verdun. The year before, Calais, the last English possession in France, had been captured by Francis, duke of Guise. Francis II., the husband of Mary Queen of Scots, succeeded his father Henry, but reigned little more than a year (1559-60). The foundation of the national debt, the weight of which broke down the throne 250 years later, was laid in this period. Intrigue and corruption gave to women a dangerous influence at court and in public affairs.

Under the administration of Charles IX. (conducted during his minority by the queen-mother, Catharine de' Medici) France was inundated with the blood of Frenchmen, shed in the religious wars from 1562. These continued throughout the reign of Charles IX.

The slaughter of the French Protestants, began on 24th August, 1572, by secret orders from Charles IX., at the instigation of his mother, Catharine de Medici, and in which, according to Sully, 70,000 Huguenots, including women and children, were murdered throughout the country. During the minority of Charles and the regency of his mother a long war raged in France between the Catholics and Huguenots, the leaders of the latter being the Prince of Condé and Admiral Coligny. In 1570 overtures were made by the court to the Huguenots, which resulted in a treaty of peace. This treaty blinded the chiefs of the Huguenots, particularly the Admiral Coligny, who was wearied with civil war. The king appeared to have entirely disengaged himself from the influence of the Guises and his mother; he invited Coligny to his court, and honoured him as a father. The most artful means were employed to increase this delusion. The sister of the king was married to the Prince de Béarn (Aug. 18, 1572) in order to allure the most distinguished Huguenots to Paris. On Aug. 22 a shot from a window wounded the admiral The king hastened to visit him, and swore to punish the author of the villainy; but on the same day he was induced by his mother to believe that the admiral had designs on his life. 'God's death' he exclaimed; 'kill the admiral; and not only him, but all the Huguenots; let none remain to disturb us.' The following night Catharine held the bloody council, which fixed the execution for the night of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 1572. After the assassination of Coligny a bell from the tower of the royal palace at midnight gave to the assembled companies of burghers the signal for the general massacre of the Huguenots.The Prince of Condé and the King of Navarre saved their lives by going to mass and pretending to embrace the Catholic religion. By the king's orders the massacre was extended throughout the whole kingdom; and the horrible slaughter continued for thirty days in almost all the provinces.

This persecution continued with his successor, Henry III. (1574-89), and was only terminated when Henry IV. originally king of Navarre, and since the death of Henry III. king of France, went over to the Catholic Church (1593), having hitherto been the leader of the Huguenots.

Henry IV. was the first French sovereign of the house of Bourbon, which inherited its right to the throne from a son of Louis IX. He united to the crown of France the Kingdom of Navarre, which he had inherited from his mother, Jeanne d'Albret. In his government of France Henry showed all the qualities of a great prince and a great statesman, establishing religions toleration (Edict of Nantes, 1598), and labouring diligently for the welfare of the state. He was cut off prematurely by the dagger of the fanatic Ravaillac (1610). During the minority of Henry's son Louis XIII. the French policy was at first wavering, until the prime-minister, Cardinal Richelieu, gave it a steady direction. He restored the French influence in Italy and the Netherlands, humbled Austria and Spain, and created that domestic government which rendered the government completely absolute.
Louis XIII. died in 1643, the year after his great minister, and was succeeded by Louis XIV, 'le Grand Monarque' The policy of Riehelieu was carried on by Mazarin during the regency of Anne of Austria, while Louis was still a minor, and also for some years after Louis was declared of age. During his ministry France obtained by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) the German province of Alsace, and by the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) parts of Flanders, Hainault, Luxembourg, &c.

After the death of Mazarin, in 1661, Louis XIV. took the government into his own hands, and ruled with an absolute sway. The period which immediately followed was the most brilliant in French history. His ministers, especially Colbert, and his generals, Turenne, Condé, Luxembourg, and the military engineer Vauban, were alike the greatest of their time; the writers of the period were also among the greatest in French literature. An unsuccessful attempt was made on the Spanish Netherlands; a war was undertaken against Holland, Spain, and Germany, which ended in France receiving Franche Comté and other places from Spain, and Freiburg from Germany. In 1681 Strasbourg was seized from the empire in a time of peace.

The last war of Louis was the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), which resulted unfortunately for France. During this reign great injury was done to French industry by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Louis XIV. died in 1715, leaving the finances in disorder, and, a national debt amounting to no less than 4,500,000,000 livres. Louis XV., the grandson of Louis XIV., succeeded at the age of five years. During his minority the regent, the Duke, squandered the revenues in the most reckless manner, and matters went from bad to worse. In 1723 Louis was declared of age, but he sank under the pernicious influences of mistresses like Pompadour and Du Barry into extravagance and license, entering into useless and costly wars (war of Austrian Succession, 1740-48; Seven Years' War, 1756-63), and contracting enormous debts. During this reign two important acquisitions were made by France, namely, Lorraine and Corsica

With the reign of Louis XVI. began the period of expiation for the misdeeds of the French monarchy and aristocracy, which had culminated in the preceding reign. The king himself was amiable, but the whole administration was rotten, and the court, the nobility, and the clergy formed only one privileged class united to oppress the people. The good intentions of Louis were neutralized by a total lack of energy and firmness. The first difficulty of his government, and the rock on which it split, was the hopeless condition of the public finances, with which Turgot, Necker, Calonne, Brienne, and again Necker tried in vain successively to grapple.

Finding all ordinary measures unavailing, Necker demanded the convocation of the States General, which had not met since 1614. They met on 5th May, 1789, but as the nobles and clergy refused to conduct business so as to give the Third Estate its due weight, the deputies of this body assumed the title of the National Constituent Assembly, and resolved not to separate till they had given a constitution to France. The clergy and nobles then yielded, and the fusion of the three orders was effected on 27th June. Foreign troops, however, were brought to Paris to overawe the assembly. The people now demanded arms, which the municipality of Paris supplied; and on 14th July the Bastille was captured and destroyed. Lafayette was made commander of the newly-established national guard. On the 4th August a decisive step was taken by the abolition of all feudal rights and privileges. On 5th October Versailles was attacked by the mob, and the royal family, virtually prisoners, were taken to Paris by Lafayette. The king tried to obtain the aid of some of the foreign powers against his subjects, and made his escape from Paris (20th June, 1791); but he was recognized, arrested at Varennes, and brought back to Paris.

On 30th September, 1791, the assembly brought its work to a finish by producing a new constitution, which was sworn to by the king on 14th September, and he was then reinstated in his functions. This constitution deprived the king of arbitrary powers, provided liberty of worship and freedom of the press, of commerce, of industry; abolished the laws of primogeniture and entail as well as titles; all France was re-divided into eighty-three departments, nearly equal in extent.

The Constituent Assembly was, according to the constitution, immediately followed by the Legislative Assembly, which met Oct. 1, 1791, and in which there were two parties of political importance, the Girondists, moderate republicans, so named because their leaders came from the department of the Gironde, who led it, and the Montagnards, extreme radicals known collectively as the Mountain, because their seats were the highest on the left side of the hall, who subsequently became all-powerful in the convention. The constitutionalists and monarchists were already powerless.

The declaration of Pilnitz by the Emperor of Germany and the King of Prussia, threatening an armed intervention on behalf of the king, compelled the assembly to take a decisive course, and on 20th April, 1792, war was declared against Austria and Prussia. Reverses to the French troops caused a popular rising, and the Tuileries, after a sanguinary combat, were taken and sacked. The king took refuge with his family in the Assembly, which was invaded and compelled to submit to the dictation of the victors by assenting to the suspension of the king and the convocation of a National Convention in place of the Assembly. The first act of the Convention was to proclaim a republic. On 3rd December the king was cited to appear before it. On 20th January, 1793, he was sentenced to death within twenty-four hours, and on the 21st the sentence was executed. This violent inauguration of the republic shocked public opinion throughout Europe, and armed the neutral states against France. England, Holland, and Spain joined the coalition. The extremists in France only grew more violent, a committee of public safety, with sovereign authority, was appointed 6th April, and the Reign of Terror begun. The struggle between the Girondists and the Montagnards or Jacobins terminated in favour of the latter. A new constitution was adopted by the Convention on 23d June, called the Constitution of the Year 1, the Republican Calendar being adopted on 5th October, 1793, the year 1 beginning on Sept. 22, 1792. Christianity was formally abolished. Risings against the government were put down with frightful bloodshed. Both in Paris and the provinces executions and massacres of persons alleged to be disaffected to the party in power followed each other daily. The queen was executed on 16th October, 1793, the Girondists on 31st October, and others followed, Robespierre being foremost in the bloody work. At length the reign of terror came to an end by the execution of Robespierre and his associates on 27th and 28th July, 1794. Danton and Hébert, his old allies, he had already brought to the scaffold. Marat, another man of blood, had perished by assassination. The campaigns of 1793 and 1794 resulted favourably to the French arms, which were carried beyond the French frontier, Belgium and Holland being occupied, Spain being invaded, and the allies being driven across the Rhine. These successes induced Prussia and Spain to sign the treaties of Basel (1795), recognizing the French republic. In 1795 the Convention gave the republic a new constitution, a chamber of Five Hundred to propose the laws, a chamber of Ancients to approve them, an executive of five members, one elected annually, called the Directory. The Convention was dissolved on 26th October.

Napoleon Bonaparte now began to be the most prominent figure in French affairs; and after his brilliant successes against the Austrians both north and south of the Alps, and his empty conquest of Egypt, it was not difficult for him to overthrow the government of the Directory. This was accomplished in the revolution of 18th and 19th Brumaire (9th 10th Nov. 1799), the Directory being succeeded by the Consulate, Bonaparte himself being appointed First Consul for ten years. The other two consuls, Cambacérés and Lebrun, were to have consultative voices only. The new constitution (constitution of the year VIII. originally devised by Siéyès) was proclaimed on 15th December. Under the appearance of a republic it really established a military monarchy. The history of France for the next sixteen years is virtually the history of Napoleon. In 1802 the constitution was amended, Napoleon being made consul for life, with the right of appointing his successor. In 1804 he was proclaimed emperor, this being confirmed by a popular vote of 3,572,329 against 2569. The emperor was consecrated at Paris by PiusVII., and in 1805 he was also crowned King of Italy. For years the continental powers, whether singly or in coalitions, were unable to stand against him, though at sea France was powerless after the great victory by Nelson over the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar(1805). The Austrians and Russians were decisively defeated at the great battle of Austerlitz (1805); the King of Naples was dethroned and Napoleon's brother Joseph put in his place; another brother, Louis, was made king of Holland; while for a third, Jerome, the Kingdom of Westphalia was erected (1807). Prussia was conquered and compelled to accede to humiliating terms. Napoleon was at the height of his power in 1810 and 1811, his empire then extending from Denmark to Naples, with capitals at Paris, Rome, and Amsterdam. By this time, however, the Peninsular War had broken out, which was one immediate cause of his downfall, the disastrous Russian campaign of 1812 being another. The latter cost the French the loss of at least 300,000 men. A new coalition was now formed against Napoleon, and in 1813 he was disastrously defeated by the allies at the great battle of Leipzig. By this time the Peninsular War was drawing to a close and Southern France was actually invaded by Wellington. The allies entered Paris on 31st March, 1814. Napoleon abdicated and received the island of Elba as a sovereign principality. Louis XVIII. was proclaimed king of France. and concluded the Peace of Paris (May 30, 1814). A congress of the great powers had assembled at Vienna to adjust European affairs, when it was announced that Napoleon had left Elba, returned to Paris 20th March, 1815, and been reinstated without resistance in his former authority. The allied sovereigns proclaimed him an outlaw and renewed their alliance against him. Napoleon, anticipating the attack, crossed the Sambre with 130,000 men, defeated Blucher in the battle of Ligny, and marched against the British, who had taken position at Waterloo. Here on the 18th was fought the decisive battle which resulted in his final overthrow. On the 7th July the allies entered Paris for the second time. Napoleon surrendered to the British and was sent to St. Helena as a prisoner.

Louis XVIII. at first governed with the support of a moderate Liberal party, but the reactionary spirit of the aristocrats and returned émigrés soon got the upper hand; the country, however, was prosperous. Louis having died 16th Sept., 1824, his brother, Charles X., succeeded. On 26th July, 1830, the Polignac ministry, strongly reactionary in its tendencies, published ordinances suppressing the liberty of the press and creating a new system of elections. The result was an insurrection during the three days 27th - 29th July by which Charles X. was overthrown and Louis Philippe of Orleans proclaimed king 9th August, 1830. During the last days of Charles X.'s reign a French expedition had captured the city of Algiers and laid the foundation of the French colony there. During the eighteen years of Louis Philippe's reign the chief events were the taking of the Citadel of Antwerp, the temporary occupation of Ancona, both in 1832, and in 1835 the completion of the conquest of Algeria. But, under the ministry of Guizot, a policy of resistance to all constitutional changes was adopted, and a strong opposition having been formed, on 24th February, 1848, another revolution drove Louis Philippe into exile.

A republic was proclaimed, on the 10th December, 1848, Louis Napoleon, nephew of the great Napoleon, was elected president for four years. The president, having gained the favour of the army, dissolved the legislative assembly on 2nd December, 1851, put down all resistance in blood, and by this coup d'etat established himself as president for the further term of ten years. A plébiscite of 7,839,216 votes confirmed the appointment. On 2nd December the president was declared emperor under the title of Napoleon III. (a son of the great Napoleon being counted as Napoleon II.); and a plébiscite of 7,824,129 votes was again got to confirm the appointment. The Crimean war (1854-55) and the war against Austria on behalf of Italy (1859) distinguished the early part of his reign. The latter greatly aided in the foundation of a United Italy, and gave France the territories of Savoie and Nice (1860).

In 1870 the uneasiness of Napoleon and the French at the steady aggrandizement of Prussia broke out into flame at the offer of the Spanish crown to a prince of the house of Hohenzollern. France, not satisfied with the renunciation of the German prince, demanded a guarantee from the King of Prussia that the candidature should never be resumed. This being refused France declared war. One French army was driven back by the Germans and cooped up in Metz, another was pushed northwards to Sedan, and so hemmed in that it had to surrender with the emperor at its head. On the news of this disaster reaching Paris the republic was proclaimed. After an almost uninterrupted series of victories the Germans became masters of the French capital (28th January, 1871), and the war ended in France giving up to Germany Alsace and a part of Lorraine, and paying a war indemnity of five milliards of francs(£200,000,000). Meanwhile civil war had broken out in Paris, which was suppressed with great difficulty. The assembly elected in 1871 for the ratification of peace with Germany found it expedient to continue their functions, Thiers being the head of the administration. In 1873 the Thiers administration was overthrown and replaced by one under Marshal MacMahon. In 1875 a republican constitution was drawn up. In 1879 MacMahon resigned his presidentship before its legal expiry, being succeeded by Jules Grévy, who has been followed by Carnot (assassinated), Casimir-Perier, Faure, and Loubet.

In 1881 France occupied Tunis as a protectorate. The same year primary education was made compulsory and free. In 1883-84 France took possession of Tonquin and established a protectorate over Anam, proceedings which led to hostilities with China. France had also reduced Madagascar to submission, having sent a military expedition there in 1895.