Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/576

 540 FRANCE [HISTORY. 1137-54. over the cathedral at Bourges ; declared, with Suger s sup port, that he had the right to nominate to that arch bishopric; found Theobald count of Champagne for his own purposes opposed to him ; attacked him impetuously, and burnt down Vitry church, in which a crowd of poor folk had taken refuge. The village bears in consequence to this day the name of Vitry le Brule, the Burnt. Then, stung with remorse, he gave way before the pope, who en- The joined on him a crusade as a penance. In vain did the second prudent and patriotic Suger oppose the royal impulse. crusade. y ea k an( j excitable, the young king could not be held ; the passionate appeals of St Bernard were far more to his taste. It is interesting to note these two great and rival churchmen pitted against one another : St Bernard champion of the universal lordship of the papacy, Sugcr endeavouring to defend the independence of the French monarchy. St Bernard was the life of the movement ; he was, however, too prudent to undertake the leading of it ; he would provide the impulse, others must shape it to its end. In this crusade (1 147) Germany preceded France, and the expeditions were headed by Conrad the emperor, and by the French king, who entrusted the charge of his The country to his old preceptor Suger, although he would not abbot follow his advice. This great churchman, a little man, uger&amp;gt; weakly and thin, was of obscure and ignoble origin ; he was educated at St Denis, side by side with the good king Louis VI., and afterwards appointed abbot of that famous church. While St Bernard represented patristic learning, and Abelard Greek philosophy, Suger was noted as a diligent student of holy scripture. He was the trusted adviser of both Louis VI. and Louis VII., and by his conduct as regent justified their confidence, and earned the name of Pater Patriot. He has left in his writings more than one proof of his interest in the wellbeing of the French people, and of their wretchedness under their feudal masters, one village &quot;under the lord s castle trodden down and as miserable as if it were under Saracen oppression ; &quot; another, &quot;subject to three talliages, almost entirely destitute through the rapacity of its masters/ another, &quot;so ravaged by the lord that it became utterly unfruitful and useless;&quot; or again, in a fourth place, &quot; the poor folk could scarce exist under the burden of so wicked an oppression.&quot; Under Suger s eye prosperity in part came back ; but he could not hinder the failure of the crusading king, whose career in the East was a discredit and calamity. It alienated Queen Eleanor, lost him southern France, made him the contempt of his subjects. In 1149 he returned home with the merest fragment of an army, and Suger humbly withdrew from public life to St Denis, spending the remnant of his days in good works and wise reforms within that narrower sphere. At once Queen Eleanor sent to the pope for a divorce, and Louis VII. made but a half-hearted opposition, for she was in truth far too proud and vehement for him. The pope granted her wish in 1152, and immediately after Henry of Anjou wooed and won her, becoming thereby the strongest prince in France. The king tried in vain to make a league against him. Henry compelled all his foes to make peace with him, and became lord over France from the Norman frontier across to the Gulf of Lyons. In 1154 he ascended the English throne as Henry II. The Vigorous and determined, fortunate in his marriage, his own fortunes resources, his kingship in England, it seemed certain that of Henry ae W ould overthrow his feeble rival, and wear on his head the two crowns of France and England. Forthwith began the struggle which lasted all his life. He made Piouen his chief and favourite capital, for he was far less English than French, attempted Toulouse, attacked the Bretons, reduced Louis VII. to peace, getting Margaret the daughter of Louis as wife for his eldest son Henrv. She brought him some n. frontier castles, which much strengthened his hold on Normandy. By about the year 1 1 GO Henry II, had reached the highest limit of his almost imperial power. He had planted out his sons as vassal kings in Normandy, Anjou, Ireland ; he completely overshadowed all the other princes of Europe. It was not till he tried to restrain the clergy that his troubles began. The Constitutions of Clarendon were passed in 1164: the quarrel with Becket did not tarry. The French king gladly supported Henry s foe, and the struggle lasted till Becket s murder in 1172, a crime which was fatal to the fortunes of Henry II. In 1172 Eleanor, deeming herself wronged by her spouse, set her Aquitanians in revolt against him ; her sons also joined her, and Louis VII. entered once more into the strife. He was soon taught that it was folly for him to measure swords with Henry ; the great Angevin monarch held firm hold of all his Continental possessions. Then Louis in 1179, feeling himself old, caused his son Philip, then aged fifteen, to be crowned as joint-king. At the coronation of Philip Augustus at Ptheims it is said that the twelve peers of France, six laymen, six ecclesiastics, were all present. They were the dukes of Normandy, Burgundy, and Guienne, the counts of Flanders, Cham pagne, and Toulouse, the archbishop of Ptheims, and the bishops of Laon, Noyon, Chalons, Beauvais, and Langres. This was the last act of this long-reigning prince, who diedin 1180. He had been sole king since 1137, and in the main had done little harm if little good. He was kindly and pious, learned beyond the princes of his age ; and so long as he listened to the sage counsels of Suger he reigned not amiss. In his days agriculture largely improved, lands were brought under tillage, the countryman had peace and felt some sunshine of prosperity; the lesser towns also flourished, for Louis VII. was friendly on the whole to the communal advance, and issued no less than twenty- four civic charters. His greatest misfortune was his spouse, his greatest blunder his crusade ; for a weak well-meaning man, it is wonderful how little harm he did. As so often occurs in history, he is the mean prince between two great men ; we are obliged to contrast him with Louis VI., his active and able father, and with Philip Augustus, his proud, unscrupulous, and vigorous son. It is under these three princes that the French feudal monarchy takes definite shape. Philip Augustus, cold and patient, proud and firm, with-P out high impulses, lacking in enthusiasm, ungenerous, sometimes even deceitful and mean, a hard man and terrible rather than noble, a man who trusted in law and cared little for justice, was clearly a formidable person. His reign of forty-three years just the same in length with that of his father could not fail to have great influence on the fortunes of his country. History must favour him : the con trasts, &quot; Louis the Young,&quot; his father, and John Lackland of England, are all entirely in his favour ; the rivalry between the houses of Capet and Anjou turned to his ad vantage ; the sum of results in his reign leaves on us the sense of greatness and strength, supported by good fortune. Philip Augustus began his long reign with acts of vigour and severity. His gentler father could not be persuaded to touch the Jews : but Philip banished them from the realm in 1182 ; he issued edicts, which he also enforced, against vices, and against heretics ; in all he showed signs of a strong and unpleasant character. In 1185 he began with his neighbours, had a little war with the count of Flanders, which won him the county of Vermandois and the border city of Amiens, key of the line of the Somme. Next, he fell to blows with the duke of Burgundy, and reduced him to submission. In 118G we find him holding peaceful dis cussions with his most formidable neighbour, the duke of Normandy, and beginning a movement which after long