A. D. 987-1313 CHAP. VIII character and became animated with the national imperialism borrowed from the Roman jurisprudence, the limits placed upon their supremacy by the claims of the Holy See grew more and more unendurable, and revolt became inevitable. It was in the dénouement of this dramatic struggle between universal potentate and local sovereignty that the Papacy followed in humiliation the Empire it had crushed, and Rome ceased to be the centre of the world. The beginnings of France II. THE EXPANSION OF THE KINGDOMS In the last days of the Carlovingian emperors, the country which we now call "France" was composed of three great regions: Francia, Burgundia, and Aquitania. After the fall of the Carlovingians, each of these regions led a practically separate existence; "Francia" being reduced to the limits of the country lying about Paris, wholly shut off from the sea, and surrounded by the powerful duchies of Flanders and Normandy on the north, Brittany on the west, Aquitaine and Burgundy on the south, and the imperial territory of Lotharingia on the east. The King of France was a titular sovereign, without extensive domains, often stricken with poverty, yet able to perpetuate a certain prestige through the memory of a glorious past. The kingdom first became a reality when, in 987, Hugh Capet was elected "King of the French." In one sense the transfer of the royal title was a triumph of feudalism, for it was the power of Hugh Capet as a feudal lord which enabled his dynasty to lift the monarchy from the low estate to which it had previously fallen and build up an important kingdom upon the interests and instincts of the French nation. But the Capetian kings, endowed with great vigor of mind and body, gradually found means to wrest from their former equals their divided power and to erect a monarchy in which the title and person of the king became pre-eminent. For the accomplishment of this purpose they employed every means. Ingeniously appropriating the rights and A. D. 987-1313 prestige of the Carlovingian royalty, closely allied with the, CHAP. VIII Church, and always blessed with a male heir for more than three hundred years, the dynasty was enabled to carry out its ambitious projects with a continuity almost unparalleled in history. Every feudal right, every new element of social progress, every opportunity of fortunate marriage and profitable alliance was keenly utilized. While the German kings. were pursuing the imperial phantom south of the Alps and in the East, the Capetian dynasty, with only slight interruptions, steadily continued its task of founding a great national kingdom. A strange circumstance gave to the kings of France a com- The Norman petitor that called forth their highest energies. For many conquest centuries it would have appeared impossible for the island of Great Britain to exert any important influence upon the destiny of continental Europe, or to play a considerable part in the civilization of the world. Invaded and conquered by successive migratory peoples, - Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, and Normans, the island became a meeting place of nations, in which the original Celtic population was to play only a secondary part. It was the Norman conquest of 1066 which first brought the island into vital relations with the continent. At one stroke, a vigorous kingdom, feudal in its organization, but dominated by William, Duke of Normandy, took its place among the states of Christendom. From every point of view the kingdom assumed high rank among the rising monarchies of Europe, but the accident of conquest had given it a king who was also a vassal of the King of France. Great Britain While the conquest of Wales, the union with Scotland, The insular and the ultimate control of Ireland were, from the first, character of almost inevitable events, further territorial expansion appeared improbable. A personal union between the Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy contained, indeed," indefinite possibilities; but it could hardly have occurred to the Englishmen of that time that an island conquered A. D. 987-1313 CHAP. VIII by a vassal lord of France was to dispute with its native kings predominance in that kingdom. Yet it was in pursuit of this unprofitable adventure that the English monarchy overlooking its natural empire on the sea - was to postpone for centuries its territorial unity and waste its energies in war with France. The possessions of Henry II on the continent The natural security of the island, protected by its isolation from the continent and its frontiers of sea and ocean, afforded it the undisputed possession of a little world apart from the intrusion and policies of other nations. Here, with the exception of the Scottish border, were no flexible frontiers to be adjusted by war and negotiation. A divided and rebellious nobility could here derive but little profit from intrigues and alliances with foreign powers, and the part which Scotland and Ireland were to play in this direction sealed the necessity of their ultimate incorporation in the British body politic. The destinies of the English monarchy and of the English people were, therefore, to be worked out with a singular freedom from foreign influences. One of the most composite of all the European peoples, and uniting in its blood a wider range of ancestral experiences than any other, the English were to assimilate all these elements in a national life of exceptional richness and enterprise, peculiarly self-confident and self-satisfied. But while England was thus to lead a life apart,European without being continental, the connection with France was, by the feudal relations of William the Conqueror, of necessity made intimate. The thirty miles of water which intervened between the coasts of Normandy and England was not a more formidable barrier to intercourse than the same distance across a country infested with robber barons, and for all purposes England was nearer to France than any of the continental kingdoms. In 1133, Normandy, Anjou, and Maine were united in the person of Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, who, upon the death of King Stephen, in 1154, became King of England. In 1152, he had married Eleanor of Aquitaine, A. D. 987-1313 whom Louis VII of France had repudiated, thereby ac- CHAP. VIII quiring a right to that great duchy. Thus, under the first of the Angevin kings of England, were united the two great powers of Northern and Southern Gaul,- Normandy and Aquitaine, surpassing in extent the dominions of the French king and all his other vassals taken together. In 1171, Henry acquired a part of Ireland and rendered Scotland a vassal. In the same year, Brittany also came under his control. Great Britain was now theoretically united, and two-thirds of France, including all the sea-coast, were possessions of the English king. of Henry II But while the House of Anjou gloried in these wide The position dominions, Henry II held those on the continent, not in his own sovereign right, but as a vassal of the King of France. He was, however, in extent of territory and in the amplitude of his alliances, more powerful than his suzerain. In relations of amity with the Lombard cities and with Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, his powerful son-in-law, he had friends also in Spain, Sicily, and even in Scandinavia. Before his death in 1189, his power over the lands encircling the King of France had grown to immense proportions. But the vast possessions of Henry II were the result of happy accidents and bold aggressions, which gave no guarantee of permanent security; and when his great personality was removed by death, the real strength of the French monarchy came plainly into view. of the French The power of the French crown had been confined to a, The progress very limited area, but it had been exercised with great monarchy sagacity. Shut in by the powerful duchies that surrounded it, no opportunity had been afforded for a wide intercourse with distant peoples. But within his little realm, Louis VII, after repudiating Eleanor and losing Aquitaine, had brought the barons about Paris under his control, had gathered under the royal tutelage the great ecclesiastical foundations, and 1 It was owing to her misconduct during a crusade that Louis VII procured a divorce from Eleanor. A. D. 987-1313 CHAP. VIII had made progress with his immediate neighbors. The powerful house of Champagne, possessing also the County of Blois, would have been able to resist him; but this great, feudatory was by a marriage alliance closely united with the' The entente crown. In the south of France, the great House of Toulouse was practically an independent power. Under the first five Capets, no service had been rendered by its counts to the King. Contiguous to Spain and long associated with the Empire, it had ceased to be in reality a part of France. By his marriage with Constance of Castile in 1154, Louis VII! was brought into contact with this great region of ancient Gaul, where he was able to counteract in some degree the influence of his rival of the House of Anjou. Thus, without brilliant feats of statesmanship, Louis VII 1 had steadily built up the kingdom which he was to transmit to his greater son. When, therefore, in 1180, Philip Augustus came to the throne of France, he inherited a kingdom compact in territory, ably organized, and fitted for permanent expansion. Henry II had no intention of claiming for himself the crown of France. On the contrary, his chief purpose was to render Louis VII inoffensive by surrounding him with a network of superior influence, and to control his conduct under the guise of vassalage. A treaty signed at Ivry, in 1177, had announced the friendship of the two sovereigns and their vow of mutual protection. In 1180, this engagement was renewed with Philip Augustus, and the differences between them were referred to an arbitral commission. seemed for a time as if the good understanding was to be perpetual. It But Philip was born to be a great king, and was not long in discerning the fact that France was encompassed by narrow limitations. Early in his reign, while he was one day lost in meditation, one of his barons remarked that he would bestow a charger on the man who could disclose the subject of the King's thoughts. A young knight sped to |