Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/554

 '»22 FRENCH ARCHITECTUllE. Part II. CHAPTER VIII. FRANKISH ARCHITECTURE. CONTENTS. Historical notice — The pointed arch — Freemasonry — Mediseval architects. rpiIE architectural history of the Central or Frankish province is X widely different from that of any of those we have yet examined. At the end of the 5th century the whole of the North of Fi-ance was overrun by Clovis and his Franks, and on his death, in 511, his domin- ions were divided into four kingdoms, of which Metz, Paris, Soissons, and Orleans were the capitals. If we take these cities as centres, and add their districts together, they correctly represent the limits of the architectural province we are now entering upon. With various fluctuations, sometimes one kingdom, sometimes two or even three being absorbed in one, they were at last united under Pei)iii in 748, only to make way for the accession of Charlemagne and liis universal emjure over the whole Gothic districts of Europe, with the exception of England and Spain. With the Merovingian kings we have nothing to do ; they have not left one single building from which to judge of the state of the art during their ascendency — (they must have been Aryans pur sang) — nor can our history with ])ropriety be said even to begin in France with Charlemagne. His accession marks the ejiocli towards which an archaeologist may ho])e to trace l)ack the incunaliula of the style, but as yet no single building has been found in France which can with certainty be ascribed to his reign. The nave at Mortier en Der, the Basse CEuvre at Beanvais and other buildings may approach his age in antiquity, but we must travel down to the time of Capet (987) ere we find anything that can be considered as the germ of what followed. This may in a great measure be owing to the confusion and anarchy that followed on the death of Charlemagne; and to the weakness of the kings, the disorganization of the people, and the ravages of the North- men and other barbarians, from which it resulted that no partof France was in a less satisfactory position for the cultivation of the arts of peace than that which might have been expected to take the lead in all. Thus, while the very plunder of the Central ])rovince enabled the Normans to erect and sustain a powerful state on the one side, and to