The Capétiens (called officially House of France) are a family originating in the edges of the the Rhine, in the south of Mainz. Their genealogy goes back to Robert († before 764), count of Oberrheingau and Wormsgau, quadrisaïeul of the king of the Francs Eudes I {{er}} († 898). Capétiens form the third French dynasty, after the Mérovingiens and the Carolingiens.

The name (nonofficial but of everyday usage) Capétiens comes from the nickname of the king of the Francs Hugues I {{er}}, known as Hugues “Capet”. The ancestors of this king are called the Robertiens, according to the first name of the great-grandfather of Hugues Capet, Robert the Fort († 866), marquis of Neustrie.

Before Hugues Capet, two members of his family (Eudes I {{er}} and Robert I {{er}}) were kings of the Francs, with reigns intercalated between those of the Carolingiens. Starting from the election and sacring of Hugues, in July 987, the family directed the France without interruption during eight centuries, until the August 10th 1792.

This article is devoted to Capétiens direct which reigned of 987 with 1328 and to the branch collatétale of the Valois (1328-1589). The branch of the Bourbons, more distant is the subject of another article.

The first capétiens

In 987, Hugues Capet, duke of the francs is elected king of the francs. 1190 will have to be waited until so that the term rex francorum is replaced by the term rex Francie , king of France. Hugues Capet is preferred with the Carolingian applicant, Charles of Low-Lorraine, uncle of the late king, thanks to the active support of the clerks of the kingdom. Its reign is marked by the weakness of the royal capacity vis-a-vis the large lords. Hugues never intervenes in the south of the kingdom. Its authority is limited to the royal field, the tangible properties and the vassal direct ones on which he exerts a direct power. To impose itself vis-a-vis the large feudal ones, Hugues Capet and his successors have several assets. First of all, they are not the vassal ones of anybody. A proverb says that the king is emperor in his kingdom. All the large ones must lend homage for their possessions to him, including the duke of Normandy become king of England after 1066. Capétiens use of the feudal right by calling the large vassal ones to the Ost, the military service due to the lord, like Louis VI in 1124 to fight against the Germanic emperor who threatens to destroy Rheims. They take again the strongholds without heir, buy others, confiscate those of the lords of them félons. They receive before their court the complaint of vassal against their lord. Capétiens also manage to establish a hereditary dynasty. First Capétiens take care to make elect and crown their oldest son of their alive. Their last king to be elected and crowned the alive one of his father is Philippe II Auguste. After him dynastic legitimacy is definitively installed. It should be stressed that Capétiens have the chance, in these times of strong infant mortality, to have an oldest son who succeeds to them from 987 to 1314. Lastly, by affirming the crowned character of monarchy, the capétiens strengthen their capacity. It is in support of the clerks that Hugues Capet owes his election into 987 mainly. First Capétiens find in those of the effective and faithful advisers. The best example is Suger, abbot of Saint-Denis which advises successively Louis VI and his/her son Louis VII. But, it is especially with the Sacre in Rheims that Capétiens acquire a crowned character. Oiling with the oil of the Holy bulb, gift of the Holy Spirit at the time of the baptism of Clovis according to the legend, makes of the king a king by divine right which holds its capacity only of God. Since Robert the Piles, wire of Hugues Capet, one allots to Capétiens capacities of miraculous cure by simple touch of the scrofula and the scrofules.

Large Capétiens and the territorial unit

Louis VII, died in 1180 contributed to the prestige of the dynasty capétienne while taking part in the second crusade. He married at 16 years the young heiress of the duchy of Aquitaine, Aliénor. But he divorces in 1152 because of the inaccuracy of the latter. She marries at once Henri Plantagenêt, count d' Anjou who becomes soon king of England. With the advent of Philippe II Auguste in 1180, Henri II Plantagenêt dominates a third of the kingdom of France.

Philippe Auguste

See also: Philippe II of France

Philippe-Auguste has like main aim the lowering of Plantagenêt. Between 1202 and 1205, it makes the conquest of the Normandy, of the Maine, the Anjou, the Touraine, the North of the Poitou and the Saintonge on Jean without Ground. In 1214, the victory of Bouvines over the emperor of the Saint Worsens and the count of Flanders combined to the English sovereign makes of Philippe-Auguste the most powerful lord of all the kingdom and perhaps even of Europe.Sur the road of Bouvines in Paris, the population greeted the victorious king highly and Paris made him a reception worthy of the triumphs of the Rome Antique. It is the first expression of “national feeling” in France. Following his triumphs and with his profits of territories, Philippe II inherits the Roman nickname Auguste , it is from now on Philippe Auguste. His/her son Louis VIII continues to increase the royal field by subjecting the whole of Poitou of Saintonge and part of the Languedoc taken to Cathares. Under Louis IX, Languedoc is definitively annexed.

On the internal plan, Philippe-Auguste collection more carefully incomes of the royal field. It charges with the royal civils servant, the baillifs to manage the royal field in districts called baillage. It sells privileges with the communes and the trades like the guild of the merchants of water in Paris. These resources enable him to remunerate mercenaries and to build fortresses like that of Gisors. It makes build new ramparts around Paris, makes pave the city and builds the fortress of the Palais of Louvre outside the city where the royal archives are preserved.

Louis IX

See also: Louis IX of France

Its grandson, Louis IX, sign finally peace with the Plantagenêt. There remains the model of the large administrators. It multiplies the investigations to know the requests of its subjects and to limit the abuses. Royal justice develops so much so that an specialized institution from the curia governed , the Parliament, a Royale court is detached, specialized in the field of justice. New fact, the king affirms the right of the king to legislate in all the kingdom, including in the great strongholds when the shared interest requires it. It puts in circulation a stable and reliable royal currency, the large one of money and decides that this currency will be valid in all the kingdom, even in the principalities beating currency. It takes again also the striking of gold currency. It is the first king with being able, he is true with the approval of the Pape, rising of time to other a tax on all the commoners, the size. Louis IX has the concern of reigning above noble. It supports all the groups which can make counterweight with powerful which compete with it. He plays of the bishops against the feudal ones, while letting the episcopal elections be held freely. He supports the orders beggars against Clunisiens and the cistercians, the communes against the lords… Finally it definitively places monarchy above the community property. Its legists affirm that nothing can justify the rebellion of a Vassal and that no bishop can excommunicate the king. Louis IX was canonized. For this reason it is more known under the name of Louis saint. In the popular imagery, it keeps the image of a king wise and holy (partly also because it repurchased with the Byzantine emperor the relics of the passion of Christ, which made of him the most prestigious king of Christendom). Its actions in the external field contribute to it. It intervenes on several occasions to alleviate the quarrels between the German emperor and the pope, the king of England and its barons. It crosses by twice. It leaves the kingdom for six long years, of 1248 to 1254, to fight the Moslems in Egypt where it is made prisoner then undertake to improve defense of the Latin States of the East. The second time, armature in error by his/her brother Charles of Anjou, it makes the seat of Tunis where it dies of the plague in 1270.

Philippe IV the Beautiful one

See also: Philippe IV of France

Philippe IV Beautiful the is the last of large the capétiens direct. It reigns of 1285, with l" 17 years age until 1314. Philippe the Beautiful one increased only little the royal field. He is known for the part which he played in the administrative centralization of the kingdom. He organizes definitively the Parliament S. He creates the Room of the accounts to manage royal finances. But the royal finances almost entirely limited to the incomes of the royal field are not enough with the ambitions of the sovereign of a large kingdom. As it fails to found a regular tax, the budget of the State functions by means of expédients: confiscation of the goods of the Jews, the Italian merchants, reduction in the noble metal weight compared to their face value of the parts struck by the king. This last measurement causes an inflation which cancels the effects discounted by monetary handling. The financial problems are also at the origin of the first meeting of representatives of the three orders or states of the Clergé, the Noblesse and the Third-state, i.e. of the middle-class with an aim of granting additional subsidies to monarchy. This type of meeting will be called later general states. The royal advisers are more and more of the laic selected ones as well in France of North, like Etienne de Mornay, as in that of the South like Guillaume de Nogaret. The weakness of the army explains partly why Philippe the Beautiful one prefers to buy alliances that the military confrontation. But Philippe the Beautiful one is especially known for his confrontation with papacy. The pope Boniface VIII and the king request always more money from the French clergy, which creates an inevitable conflict of interest. The quarrel rebounds on questions of sovereignty of the kings about their States and of supreme capacity of the popes about the clergy nationals and the princes. The pope is made prisoner on September 7th, 1303. Delivered by its partisans, he dies a few weeks later. Its successors settle in Avignon to escape the Roman disorders, putting for three quarter centuries, papacy under direct influence of France. Finally in 1307, Philippe the Beautiful one makes stop and condemn Templiers for reasons still not very clear. When he dies in 1314, monarchy capétienne seems consolidated and strong.

The line of Capétiens direct however ends quickly in the successive reign of three wire of Philippe IV. The groin, Louis X prematurely dead Hutin, has a posthumous son, Jean I {{er}} which lived only a few days. his/her four year old daughter is isolated throne and the regent, his brother, becomes then king under the name of Philippe V Length. Itself dies by leaving a girl, isolated succession and the crown passes to the third brother, Charles IV Beautiful the. When he dies in 1328, it is the first time since the election of Hugues Capet which the late king does not have of male heir. It seems that what was determining in the setting with the variation of the heiresses, it is that the sacring is regarded almost as the equivalent of ordination and that none can be ordered a priest. Only two male applicants are in string, Edouard III, king d' Angleterre and small son of Philippe the Beautiful one by his mother Isabelle and Philippe de Valois, nephew of Philippe the Beautiful one and small son of Philippe III Bold the by his/her father Charles de Valois. The assembly of large of the kingdom prefers Philippe because it is of France and riper than its young English rival. The salic law is not called upon at all at this time. The new king is crowned under the name of Philippe VI on May 29th, 1328. This event marks the beginning of the dynasty of Capétiens-Valois, connects collateral of Capétiens direct. .

The installation of a modern State

With died of Philippe Beautiful the, the kings of France are confronted with the difficulties of the adaptation of the institutions to the management of a modern State. Capétiens and Capétiens- Valois seek to organize an effective State, which supposes the increase in the tax resources and the maintenance with a regular army. The famines, the Great Plague and the Guerre One hundred Year old are as many obstacles which delay the conditions of formation of this State. The famines which appear with regular intervals as of 1315 cause a drop in the seigneuriaux incomes and slow down the big business. The Grande Plague of 1348 causes the death of a third of the French population.

The One hundred Year old War

The Guerre One hundred Year old can be divided into four phases:

  • Of 1337 with 1364, under the reigns of Philippe VI and Jean II, the English connect the victories over the French knighthood. In 1356, the general states convened in Paris after the disaster of Poitiers and the captivity of Jean II the Good impose on the Charles dolphin, become regent, a strict control of monarchy under the direction of the bishop of Laon, Robert the Cock and of the Prévôt of the merchants, a kind of mayor of Paris, Etienne Marcel. During two years, they control France of North. In February 1358, of the rioters enter even the Palais of the City and massacre the close relations advisers of the dolphin under its eyes. This last manages to flee of Paris in April and manages to find its capacity after the assassination of Etienne Marcel, given up by the Parisian middle-class. Following the Treated of Brétigny of 1360, a third of France is controlled by the English.

  • Of 1364 to 1380, Charles V starts a patient reconquest of the territory by taking care to avoid the pitched battles which were disastrous lasting the first phase of the conflict. In 1375, Edouard III controls nothing any more on the continent but Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and some fortresses in the Massif Central.

  • Of 1380 with 1429, the minority then the madness of Charles VI have as a consequence a civil war. The Parisian people revolt in 1382 against the royal tax officials (revolt of Maillotins), then in 1413 to impose a control of the royal administration (revolt cabochienne). Repression is very hard. Blow after 1413, the Parisian people opens his doors with the duke of Burgundy, the ally of the English. Henri V inflicts a severe defeat with the French at the time of the battles of Azincourt in 1415. The Traité of Troyes of 1420 disinherits the Dauphin Charles. His/her mother, Isabeau of Bavaria, declares it bastard. With the untimely death of Henri V in 1422, his son Henri VI, old of a few months, takes the title of king de France and England. The Dolphin guard the control of the provinces in the South of the Loire. The English give him the nickname of " king de Bourges".

  • Of 1429 with 1453, the English are gradually driven out of France. Jeanne d' Arc and of the energetic captains as Dunois prevents the English taking Orleans and from invading the areas controlled by the Charles dolphin. At the end of a victorious ride where appears the national feeling and fidelity towards the Capétien-Valois heir, Charles VII is crowned with Rheims on July 17th, 1429, thus acquiring a divine legitimacy. The reconquest, started at the time of Jeanne d' Arc, is facilitated by the reconciliation between the king and the duke of Burgundy concretized by the treaty of Arras of 1435. In 1453, the English control nothing any more but Calais. The French victory over the English makes it possible the royal field to increase, more especially as the Dauphiné and Montpellier had already integrated the royal field into XIVe century. Peace is signed only in 1475 with the Traité of Picquigny, under the reigns of Louis XI and Edouard IV.

A more effective royal capacity

In first half of 14th century, Capétiens fail to set up permanent taxes. The vicissitudes of the one hundred year old war provide the decisive occasion to institute them. The size and the Fouage (direct taxes), the assistances and the Gabelle (indirect taxes) are gradually instituted between 1356 and 1370 using Jacques Cœur, Minister of Finance of the king. The lifting of these taxes involves the creation of new institutions. The Parliament is definitively organized by the ordinance of March 11th, 1345 in three rooms distinct involving the development from powerful families of members of Parliament. The Châtelet becomes a prison and a criminal court of justice directed by a provost and from which competences extend well beyond Paris. Charles VII is the first sovereign to have the means of maintaining a standing army.

Monarchy moves away to it feudal character more and more to affirm the crowned and higher character of the royal capacity, in spite of the disputes of the general states regularly convened to face the financial problems of the kingdom. The kings develop the ritual monarchical ones like the solemn entries in the cities, the baptisms, and other public ceremonies. The goal is to strike the spirits and to give on monarchy an extraordinary character.

The idea of a State whose king is not the owner is reaffirmed by the French legists during the signature of the Traité of Troyes in 1420. Charles VI disinherits the dolphin but the theorists of the royal capacity support that the dynastic succession cannot be the subject of a will because she does not obey the same rules as the private successions. It is the principle of the unavailability of the crown. Even during the darkest time, Capétiens-Valois manage to put forward the superior interest of the State of which they are the agents. Finally the long fight against the English crystallized the birth of the national feeling around the person of the king. Louis XI continues the policy of his/her father. He cuts down the power of the duke of Burgundy, Charles Bold the. He annexes Burgundy and Picardy and receives in heritage the Anjou and the Provence. The French population increases again. The country knows an economic strong growth encouraged by wise the Louis XI. It restores the royal authority on the Church. The marriage of his/her son, Charles VIII, with Anne of Brittany, heiress of this duchy seems to seal the achievement of the territorial unit. But Charles VIII undertakes the first forwarding in Italy. To devote itself to it, it concedes Roussillon and the Cerdagne with the king of Aragon, the Franche-Comté, the Artois and the Charolais with Maximilien de Habsbourg in 1493, reducing thus considerably the royal field. The forwarding of 1494 is a succession of easy victories to Naples. But the exactions of the French involve the formation of a coalition of Italian cities against them. They are finally driven out in 1495, bringing back in their luggage of marvellous works of art which make it possible France to know Antiquity and the Italian Rebirth.

When Charles VIII dies without heir in 1498, the crown passes to another branch capétienne Valois-Orleans. At this time, the difficulty of controlling a vast space is the greatest limitation with the royal capacity.

Magnificence and disorders of the 16th century

The royal field and wars

Anne of Brittany had been committed marrying the successor of Charles VIII if this one died without child. She thus marries the new king Louis XII, who succeeded in obtaining the cancellation of his preceding marriage with the sister of the late king by the pope. Their only daughter, Claude of France will marry the heir to the François throne of Angouleme, which will become the first king of the dynasty of Valois-Angouleme under the name of François {{Ier}}, and which will definitively integrate the duchy into the kingdom by maintaining the privileges and freedoms of the province. The states grant the taxes. The Brittany guard its Parliament in Rennes. When Henri II becomes king in 1547, it gives up the title of duke of Brittany, making the union final. During the 16th century, all the great strongholds integrate little by little the royal field: the duchies of Auvergne and Bourbon, the Drill and the Beaujolais is recovered by François {{Ier}}. It is as at the 16th century, as the theory of the inalienability of royal field is forged. The king cannot give any more in Apanage strongholds to his sons juniors. The many wars in which France is committed between 1494 and 1559 allow only the occupation of the three évêchés, Toul, Metz and Verdun.

Louis XII, king starting from 1498 fact in two years the conquest of almost all the Italy. Thanks to the fabulous richnesses of the peninsula, it can decrease the size. Like the army rabble fights out of France, it is avoided image of a king attentive with misfortunes of the people and benevolent. However between 1508 and 1513, the French are again driven out of Italy.

François {{Ier}}, king in 1515, begins its reign with bright the victory of Marignan which makes it possible to take again to third once the Milanese. He is opposed to Charles Quint. In 1519, it presents its candidature for the election of emperor of the Saint Germanic Roman Empire vis-a-vis the sovereign Habsbourg. As from 1521, France starts a long and difficult war against Charles Quint at the same time king of Spain, and consequently having the inexhaustible reserves of gold and money of the Spanish colonies of America, and emperor of Austria. This one starts with the disaster of Pavia in February 1525. François 1st, impregnated of the chivalrous values refuses to move back and is made prisoner. He is constrained to sign the treaty of Madrid in 1526, which cuts down France by a third of its territory but takes again the war at once released. August 3rd, 1529, by the Cambric treaty, called " peace of the Ladies " , signed by Louise of Savoy, Marguerite of Austria, and Eléonore de Habsbourg, it gives up suzerainty on the Flanders and Artois, and of the possessions habsbourgeoises. In exchange Charles Quint gives up asserting Burgundy. Although combatant the Reform in the kingdom, François {{Ier}} is combined to the German Protestant princes and even to the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Soliman the Magnificent the to loosen the vice habsbourgeois. In 1536, the war begins again. Italy and France are the theater of the operations. Henri II continues the fight. He takes again the Boulonnais and the Calaisis with the English. In exchange of its support for the German princes reformed in war against the emperor Charles Quint, it obtains the right to occupy Calais, Metz, Toul and Verdun. In 1559, the Traité of Cateau-Cambrésis sign finally peace enters France and Spain. France loses the Italy definitively but manages to preserve its territorial integrity.

Powerful kings

The reigns of François 1st (1515-1547) and his son Henri II (1547-1559) correspond to one period when the royal authority is not disputed. The kings do not convene any more the general states and the remonstrances of the Parliament S. They do not accept make their decisions in the council of king, a reduced committee become the engine of the government action. The Concordat of Bologna of 1516 makes it possible to the king to name the bishops, archbishops and abbots, the pope giving them the ecclesiastical nomination then. The king is thus ensured of the whole tender of the clergy. François 1st reinforces the unit of the kingdom and control on his subjects by publishing the Ordonnance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539. This one regulates justice in the whole the kingdom and laicizes it leaving with the ecclesiastical courts only the strictly religious cases. It also stipulates that French must replace Latin in the notarial and legal acts. It obliges the priests of the parishes to hold a register where the baptisms and the deaths are consigned. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts watch the progress of the linguistic unification of the kingdom and progress of the language of oil language of the instruments and the large poets like Ronsard or Of Bellay. Henri II sets up the first four Secretaries of State, ancestor of the ministers. It is in Valois that one owes the creation of the Court, at the same time center of the capacity and the fashionable life. One finds there the princes of blood, the nobility, the members of the government and the artists called by the king. The king does not have a fixed residence. He moves with pieces of furniture, tapestries and crockery of castle in castle. From Italy, Valois brought back the taste of the luxury and the beautiful residences. They make build or transform vast palates which they mark of their symbol. Thus one finds the salamander of François 1st to Chambord and Fontainebleau, the H of Henri II intertwined by C reversed of Catherine de Médicis, evoking D of Diane of Poitiers, the official mistress of Henri II still in Fontainebleau and the Louvre. The sculpture, painting and architecture Frenchwomen change under the influence of the Italian model giving rise to the French Renaissance of which the most succeeded form and the school of Fontainebleau. François 1st is first king de France to have understood that the artistic radiation of a country is an element of glory and power.

The time of the disorders

When Henri II dies accidentally during a tournament sealing peace with Habsbourg in 1559, the country is at the edge of the civil war. Indeed, since 1520, of the subjects adhered to the ideas Martin Luther, ideas immediately condemned by the Faculty of Théologie of the Sorbonne. Those progresses in the kingdom in spite of the short persecution of the Protestants in 1534 following the Affaire of the wall cupboards. Protestants had posted on the door of the royal room of the posters insulting for the pope, the mass and the bishops. As from 1541, the theses of French Jean Calvin, taken refuge with Geneva are spread in France. At the end of its reign François {{Ier}} starts to persecute the Protestants. It orders the massacre of the Vaudois of Provence which had adopted the Réforme. Henri II accentuates persecutions. This does not prevent their number from increasing including in the nobility and the entourage of the king. The death of Henri II is followed thirty-five years of civil wars called Wars of religion because their main cause were hatred between the Catholics and the Protestants. Catherine de Médicis, regent of the young person Charles IX, as from 1560, tries to follow a policy of tolerance with the support of its chancellor Michel of Hospital. It authorizes the worship protesting in the suburbs by the edict of January 1562. But the massacre of Protestants with Wassy, on March 1st, 1562 by the Duke of Own way and its men start the civil war. In 1563, the duke of Own way is assassinated, in his turn by the Protestants. In all 8 wars of religion follow one another, punctuated of vain attempts to reconcile the two parties, of massacres of which most famous is that of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre on August 24th, 1572. To died of Charles IX in May 1574, his brother Henri III, returns precipitately of Poland, of which he had been elected king. He finds a political situation and economic degraded. The Protestants form true a " State Huguenot " in the kingdom since the Synode of La Rochelle of 1571. Henri III seeks to restore peace and prosperity. On the economic plan, it supports the introduction of silkworm and the mulberry tree in France. on the political plan, it grants to the Protestants the edict of Beaulieu in 1576. The latter can celebrate their worship publicly everywhere safe in Paris. They can occupy eight fortified towns and profit from rooms semi-part in the Parliament S. the following year, the king signs peace with Henri de Navarre with an aim of gathering the kingdom under his authority and of raising it of the ruins generated by the civil war. In reaction to the edict of Beaulieu of 1576, the most fanatic catholics create the Ligue directed by the organizer of the Massacre of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the duke Henri de Guise. In 1584, the youngest brother of the king, François de France opposed to his policy dies. The legitimate successor, according to the salic law, is Henri de Navarre, chief of the Protestant party. The prospect to have a king calvinist revives the war between the Ligue and the king, supported by his future heir. The duke Henri de Guise who asserts the crown for him, with the support of the Ligue and the general states joined together for Blois, is assassinated with his brother in 1588. Paris, city ligueuse revolts then against the king. Whereas it tries to take again the city with the assistance of the Protestant troops Henri III is assassinated on August 1st, 1589 by a fanatic monk, Jacques Clément. It is the end of the house of Valois which, of 1328 to 1589, contributed to the size of the kingdom in times difficult. It remains with Henri IV, first king of the dynasty Bourbon to conquer its legitimate power by the weapons.

See too

References

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