ne now associated with himself in the government his three sons by that princess, Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis, assigning to each of them a different portion of his dominions. This step laid the foundation of numerous troubles, in the midst of which Ermengarde died, and the emperor espoused Judith, a princess of Bavaria. The birth of a fourth son, Charles, by his new empress, augmented the father's misfortunes; Judith was ambitious and designing, and prevailed upon the emperor, who greatly loved her, to bestow on her son a considerable share of his dominions. This proceeding united the elder brothers against their father, and rendered his whole reign a continued train of civil wars. Louis died in 840; and at last, after many bloody struggles between his sons, the treaty of Verdun was signed in 843, by which the German and Lombardian crowns were for ever separated from that of France, which fell to the share of Charles the Bald. From this epoch the history of France as a separate kingdom may be considered to begin.

Charles the Bald.] The Normans, who had begun their depradations in the reign of Charlemagne, continued them with renewed vigour during the troubles which succeeded his death; and Charles found them such formidable foes, that he was willing to purchase peace from them at a vast sum, which, however, acted merely as a bribe to induce them to renew their attacks with greater violence. The people of Bretagne-who had always reluctantly submitted to the French yoke-seized the opportunity of the consternation caused by the Normans, to revolt, and defeated Charles's troops; while to increase the misfortunes of France, the Danes appeared on the north-western shores. The invasions of the Normans at length became so formidable, that the people of Bretagne themselves joined their forces with those of Charles against whom they had so long carried on hostilities. Charles now attacked his northern foes, and completely defeated them. Elated by this victory, he claimed the imperial crown, which had become vacant by the death of Louis, but which certainly belonged to his son; but his attention was called from the prosecution of this claim by the intelligence that the Normans had again successfully invaded his frontiers. Scarcely had he repelled these invaders, when he was called by the Pope to oppose the Saracens in Italy, but was prevented by his nobles, who refused to enter Italy with him. This affront made so strong an impression on Charles's mind, that he was attacked by sickness, and, in consequence of the unskilfulness, or, as has been affirmed, the treachery of his physician, a Jew named Sedecias, he sunk under the disease in 877.

Louis II. to Louis V.] Louis, from a defect in his speech surnamed le Bègue, or 'the Stammerer,' succeeded his father. He was deficient in that prudence and vigour which were necessary to govern a rude people, and in that bravery which was requisite to defend his kingdom. After a short and feeble reign, during which he divided a great part of his domains into Seigneuries, Fiefs, Duchies, and Counties, which he weakly bestowed upon his greedy courtiers, he died in 879. After his death, Louis III. and Carloman divided the kingdom. The former dying in 882, Carloman reigned alone till 884, when he was killed while hunting in the forest of Yvelines, and a scene of faction and confusion followed, which was terminated by placing the emperor of Germany, known by the name of Charles the Gross, on the throne of France. Charles seems to have owed his election more to faction than to personal merit; so feeble was his administration, that he was altogether incapable of defending the kingdom which had been bestowed upon him. The

Normans had obtained leave to settle in Friesland, and had now become so daring, that, with a fleet of 1,200 vessels, they sailed up the Seine, and laid siege to Paris, which they blockaded for 3 years. The count Eudes and the bishop Goslin bravely repelled all the attacks of these invaders, while Charles remained inactive at the head of a large army near Montmartre, and finally purchased an inglorious peace from the assailants. Disgusted at such weakness, his army deserted him, and he retired to Germany, where he died in obscurity. Eudes, count of Paris, was proclaimed king in a great national assembly held at Compiégne in 889. He died in 898, and was succeeded by Charles, son of Louis le Begue, whose weakness obtained for him the appellation of the Simple.' He suffered his nobles to increase their power, already too extensive; and found no better method of appeasing his enemies than by yielding them part of his territories. In the treaty of St-Claire-sur-Epte, along with the hand of his daughter Giselle, he delivered to Rollo, a Norman chief, that part of the province of Neustria, then known by the name of Normandy, with a great part of the seigneury of Brittany, under the single stipulation that he should become a Christian, and do homage for his duchy. Charles died in 929. The Carlovingian race of monarchs had now degenerated much from the character borne by their ancestors, who, from being mayors of the palace, had stept into the throne of their masters. Each succeeding monarch surpassed in timidity and irresolution his predecessor, while the nobles were daily accumulating new influence, and arrogating to themselves a greater share of authority. Such continued to be the characters of several successive monarchs. At length, Hugh Capet, duke of France, supplanted the descendants of Pepin, in a manner somewhat similar to that by which Pepin himself had supplanted the kings of the Merovingian line. This revolution, which happened in 987, was effected without disturbance. The monarch then on the throne, Louis V., had not abilities sufficient to vindicate his own cause; and his people thought him too insignificant to make any exertion in his favour. The French kingdom was at this period a limited monarchy, in which no fewer than 40 powerful vassals exercised such privileges as rendered the king little more than primus inter pares.

Hugh Capet.] The founder of the Capetien, or third dynasty of France, displayed the talents necessary in the management of a rude and warlike people; he preserved his kingdom at once from external insults and internal commotions; and the same firm and undaunted character which gave him the ascendency over his own subjects, rendered him terrible to his enemies. After a short, but prosperous reign, he died in 996, leaving his dominions to his son, Robert, whom he had already associated with himself in the government.

Robert.] Robert, who succeeded to his father's kingdom, seemed to inherit some of his father's virtues, but too little, unfortunately, of his firmness. Pope Gregory lorded it over his conscience, and his extreme moderation led him to refuse not only the kingdom of Italy, but the imperial crown of Germany, to obtain which some of his predecessors had vainly struggled. He died in 1031.

Henry I.] When Henry, Robert's eldest son, mounted the throne, he found himself opposed by his mother, Constance, who wished to procure the crown for his younger brother, Robert. She excited the count of Flanders to raise the standard of rebellion; but by the aid of Robert, duke of Normandy, Henry succeeded in establishing himself in security. Gratitude induced him to support William, Robert's natural son, in the pos

session of his duchy; but the latter soon became so powerful that Henry thought it advisable by every method, to curtail his dominions. At first he secretly supported William's opponents in Normandy; afterwards he invaded in person that part of his territories, but being defeated, was compelled to submit to whatever terms the Norman prince chose to offer. This laid the foundation of that rancour which afterwards subsisted between the monarchs of France and of England. Henry died in 1060, and was succeeded by his son Philip. The Comes Stabuli, Constableship, or 'Countship of the Stable,' first became a State-office in the person of Alberic, during Henry's reign.

Philip I.] The same animosity which Henry had entertained against William of Normandy, was inherited by his son, when William, by the conquest of England, had so greatly augmented his importance. Philip, indeed, in every part of his conduct, evinced a disposition treacherous and mean. He divorced his first wife, under pretence of consanguinity. He then concluded a treaty of marriage with Emma, a Calabrian princess; but when she arrived in France, he retained the treasure which she had brought along with her, but sent her back to her father. Finally he took the countess of Anjou from her husband, and compelling him to divorce her, made her his queen. Such conduct disgusted many of his subjects, and afforded a pretext to the more licentious part of them for enormities of every description. A general laxity of government took place, and a revolt might have been the consequence, had not his son Louis, by his prudent and decisive conduct, retained the factious barons in subjection. Louis, however, incurred the displeasure of the queen, who compelled him to take shelter for a time in England.

Louis VI.] Louis le Gros, or the Fat,' a prince remarkable for his many virtues, succeeded his father in 1108. Louis supported Robert when the English monarch had deprived him of the duchy of Normandy. Henry defeated the forces of Louis at Brenneville, and compelled him to agree to a peace very advantageous to the former. The French king, however, renewed his intrigues in favour of Robert; and Henry had again recourse to war, and in 1124 prepared to invade France on one hand, while the emperor of Germany was to invade it on the other. The danger of the moment united the refractory nobles, and Louis appeared at the head of an army of 200,000 men, which deterred either of his enemies from executing their threat. Louis would gladly have retaliated by the invasion of Normandy; but the unanimity of his nobles vanished with the present danger, and the king found it convenient to desist. The death of Louis happened in 1137.

Louis VII.] The reign of Louis VII., surnamed le Jeune, son of the preceding monarch, was undistinguished, either by the happy cultivation of the arts of peace, or the splendour of martial achievements. Louis was more than commonly superstitious, even in a superstitious age. Having caused 1,300 persons to be burned to the death in the church of Vitry-enPerthois, in the course of a war with Fribault, count of Champagne, at the instigation of St Bernard, he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, attended by a guard of 60,000 gendarmes, or gentlemen-at-arms, every one of whom was accompanied by five or six retainers, in the quality of squires and valets. His queen, Eleonore, heiress of Guyenne and Poitou, went along with him, but more intent on the cultivation of pleasure than of piety, her freedoms so offended her husband, that at his return, he divorced her. Henry, duke of Normandy, count of Anjou and Maine,

who thought that no scrupulous delicacy ought to intervene in the pursuit of power, married the repudiated queen, and received with her, as her dowry, those two valuable provinces, which, with such dependencies as Aunis, Saintonge, Angoumois, Périgord, Quercy, Limousin, and Rouergue, rendered the vassal three times more powerful than his sovereign, and precipitated France into a scene of disastrous conflicts which lasted upwards of 300 years. It was during the reign of this prince that the council of Rheims was held in 1148 by Eugene III., and the university of Paris founded. He died in 1180.

Philip II. and Louis VIII.] Philip, the son and successor of Louis, governed his kingdom with such uniform good fortune, that historians have honoured him with the sirname of Augustus. Philip's greatness consisted not in generosity, bravery, or inflexible adherence to justice; he owed his success and his reputation to his unremitting attention to what are called the arts of policy, and the situation of England at the time. The reign of John the Landless was tumultuous and distracted, and gave France a superiority which Philip carefully improved to his own advantage. He drove the English from Normandy, Perche, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, and Limousin; and annexed Auvergne, Artois, and Picardy to the crown of France. His reign was marked by the first creation of Mareshalls of France; by the council of Paris held in 1210; by the council-general of the Lateran held by Innocent III.; and the crusade against the Albigenses. He died at Mantes in 1223, after a reign of 43 years, leaving his crown to Louis VIII., who has rendered his brief reign for ever infamous by the massacre of Béziers, in which 60,000 Albigenses perished.

Saint Louis.] Louis IX. was a prince so deeply tinctured with the prevalent religious opinions of his time, and so anxious to practise whatever that religion recommended, that he obtained from the grateful ecclesiastics of his age the title of Saint. The rage of crusading was then in its vigour; and so religious a prince could not avoid taking part in so pious a duty. His success, however, was not equal to his intentions; for landing in Egypt, he found in the Saracens a dreadful enemy, by whom he was made prisoner in the battle of Pharanié, and, it is said, treated with cruelty. Having obtained his ransom by the surrender of Damietta, he remained four years longer in Palestine, seeking to wipe away the stain of his disgrace by the performance of some valorous action. His ordonnance of 1254 declaring, that in all matters touching the interests of the people, the three Estates of the kingdom should be consulted, is the most honourable monument to his memory. He founded the Sorbonne, abolished wager of battle, and headed a new crusade to Tunis in which he died of the plague in 1270. The errors of Saint Louis seem to have been those of his age; he had all the valour of a brave man, and many of the virtues of a good king.

Philip III. to Charles IV.] Philip, surnamed the Hardy, succeeded his father, and, like him, prosecuted the war against the infidels, but with greater success, obliging the Saracens to submit to terms honourable if not advantageous to the Christians. He ceded the county of Venaisson to Pope Gregory. During his reign, the dreadful massacre known by the appellation of that of the Sicilian Vespers, was committed upon the French inhabitants of Sicily, on the 29th of March, 1282, at the instigation of Peter III., king of Arragon. Philip the Hardy was succeeded in 1285 by his son, likewise called Philip, and distinguished by the appel lation of the Fair. He continued the war begun with Spain by his father

with various success, until, by the intervention of Edward I. of England, peace was concluded. His reign was distinguished by his quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII.,-a brief war with England,—the admission of a Tiers-etat or national representative into the States-general,-and the cruel persecution of the Knights-Templars and Jews, begun apparently with the view of enriching the royal coffers by the confiscation of the large estates held by these orders of men in the kingdom. Louis X., sometimes called Le Hutin or the Boisterous, succeeded his father in 1315; his talents for government appear to have been of a very inferior order, and he committed the cares of administration almost entirely to his uncle, Charles of Valois. He died suddenly in 1316; and Charles, unwilling to relinquish that power which for some time he had enjoyed, prepared to dispute the succession with the brothers of the late king; but his cruelty had disgusted all ranks, and he found few to favour his pretensions. Philip of Poitou, the elder of the remaining sons of Philip the Fair, was unanimously placed upon the throne; but the late king's widow was delivered of a son, who, had he lived, as he was the rightful heir of the crown, might have proved to Philip a more dangerous rival than his uncle Charles. The infant, however, survived only eight days; yet, notwithstanding his ephemeral existence, prince John is usually enrolled among the kings of France. Philip, who, from his stature, was distinguished by the name of the Long, was now securely fixed upon the throne. He commenced his career by a successful war against the Flemings, who for some time had been victorious over the armies of France; but his reign was short, and was occupied chiefly in several ineffectual attempts to regulate the internal police of his kingdom. Charles IV., likewise called Charles the Fair, the brother of the two former sovereigns, succeeded to the crown in 1322; but distinguished his reign only by a visionary scheme for obtaining the empire of Germany. He died in 1328, and with him expired the dynasty of the Capetiens.

Philip VI.] At the death of Charles, his queen was pregnant, so that a regent became necessary. Philip of Valois, and Edward III. of England, the grandson of Philip the Fair by the mother's side, appeared as candidates, each of them affirming, that not only the regency, but the crown itself, rightfully belonged to them. Philip, however, was elected to the important office; and, when the queen was delivered of a daughter, Philip was declared king upon the Salic law. Edward's disappointment laid the foundation of an animosity which terminated in a war more inveterate than any which had yet taken place between the two countries. The jealousy of the rival monarchs showed itself on several occasions before it broke out into open hostilities. Philip summoned the English king to do homage for his territories in France; but Edward neglected to obey the summons, therefore Philip declared his territories to be forfeited. Edward, for some time, was engaged in his favourite scheme of the conquest of Scotland; but finding this to be a tedious, if not an impracticable undertaking, he resolved to renew his pretensions to the crown of France, and in 1338, landed at Sluys, where, by the influence of Arteville, a brewer, he gained the Flemings to his cause, and marched into France with an army of 50,000 men, but terminated his first expedition in a manner somewhat abrupt. The English parliament however favoured the project, and having furnished Edward with abundant supplies, he fitted out a large fleet, with which he met the French fleet in June, 1340, and gained a complete victory over it. Edward immediately landed his troops, and laid siege to Tournay. Philip came to its relief, and acted with such skill that he almost blockaded