Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/393

 FRANCE 381 On the direct branch of the Capetians becom- ing extinct by the death of Charles IV. with- out male heirs, Philip of Valois, both by right of relationship and by choice of the peers, suc- ceeded to the throne, beginning the Valois dynasty ; but Edward III. of England, by vir- tue of hereditary right derived from his moth- er's side, claimed not only such provinces on the continent as had been taken from his ances- tors, but the whole kingdom of France. In this way began that protracted conflict which French historians call the "hundred years' war " (1337-1453), a period covering the reigns of John II. (1350-'64), Charles V. (1364-'80), Charles VI. (1380-1422), and the greater part of the reign of Charles VII. (1422-'61). Twice France was on the eve of becoming a depen- dency of the English crown. In 1340 an Eng- lish fleet destroyed the naval force of France at Sluis, on the coast of Flanders; in 1346, at Crecy, the English archers won an unexpected victory over the flower of French chivalry ; and ten years later, at Poitiers, the Black Prince not only defeated King John, but made him prisoner. The states general were also the scene of a deadly struggle between the regent and the third estate, so that royalty itself was put in jeopardy ; companies of adventurers and mercenary troops ravaged the provinces ; the peasantry of several districts, driven to despair by the oppression of their lords, broke out into a fearful insurrection, which was named the Jacquerie, and marked by all the horrors of a servile war. Charles V., by his vigorous poli- cy, succeeded in quelling internal disorders; and with the help of his great constable, Du Guesclin, he regained in a few campaigns all the English acquisitions in France, with the ex- ception of a few important seaports. When both died, in 1380, the kingdom was in a fair way to regain its former prosperity. But the minority of Charles VI., and his subsequent derangement, again plunged France into a series of calamities. The conflict between the various classes of society was renewed with increased fury ; rival factions, headed by princes of the royal family, the dukes of Orleans and Bur- gundy, waged against each other a war of treachery and assassination; while the Eng- lish, encouraged by the forlorn condition of their enemy, again invaded France. For the third time the French chivalry suffered defeat at Agincourt (1415). John the Fearless being treacherously murdered by the Orleanists or Armagnacs, in an interview which was intended to bring about peace, Burgundy, that is, the N. E. part of France, threw itself into the arms of the English. An insane king, a queen of foreign origin impelled by her unnatural hatred to her son the dauphin, and a prince carried away by his thirst for vengeance, concluded the famous treaty of Troyes, 1420, by which the royal inheritance of France was delivered up to her deadly enemy. Henry V. of Eng- land, on marrying the princess Catherine, was appointed heir to Charles VI., and meanwhile was to assume the power of regent. France seemed now to be irretrievably lost ; but the country suddenly rallied its forces, chiefly un- der the leadership of Joan of Arc, by whom the national enthusiasm was roused to the highest degree, and succeeded in defeating the English power. The disinherited son of Charles VI. was now triumphantly conducted to Rheims to receive there the royal unction (1429) ; but it required 24 years more of constant warfare to finally drive the invaders from the country. This was accomplished in 1453, with the ex- ception that the seaport of Calais remained in English hands, to be retaken 105 years later. After these long trials, France was at last enabled to exercise her recuperative powers ; her population increased at a rapid rate, in- dustry and art flourished, and the last vestiges of the past calamities disappeared. Mean- while her kings had returned to their tradi- tional policy of enlarging the royal domains and consolidating the royal power by the de- struction of the feudal aristocracy. To this task none applied himself with greater zeal than Louis XI. (1461-'83), the son and successor of Charles VII. Many nobles of every rank were delivered to the executioner. The most powerful of all, Charles the Bold, duke of Bur- gundy, against whom Louis had long carried on intrigues by every means in his power, fell in a conflict with the Swiss allies of the duke of Lorraine, before Nancy, in 1477; the king at once seized upon part of the large inheritance left by that formidable vassal, and the duchy of Burgundy and Picardy were thus annexed to the crown. The fine provinces of Anjou, Maine, and Provence, besides claims upon the kingdom of Naples, were bequeathed to Louis by the last prince of the house of An- jou; the king of Aragon resigned to him the counties of Rpussillon and Cerdagne; and France, reaching thus her natural frontiers toward the south and the southeast, became one of the great powers on the Mediterranean. On the northwest, by the marriage of Charles VIII. with Anne of Brittany, she gained pos- session of that large province, which had hitherto been nearly independent. Under Charles VIII., the son and successor of Louis, a French force invaded Italy in 1494, and con- quered the kingdom of Naples without oppo- sition ; but the conquest was lost still more quickly than it had been gained. This was the first of a long series of Italian wars in which France was almost constantly engaged for more than half a century, with varying success, and under several monarchs. With Charles VIII. , who died without male heirs in 1498, the direct line of Valois ended, and Louis, duke of Orleans, the nearest heir to the throne, and grandson to a brother of Charles VI., became king under the title of Louis XII. This monarch, who at first met with some success in his Italian cam- paigns, tried all the arts of diplomacy to secure his conquests; but he was no match for the Ital- ian politicians of the 16th century, and still less