History of France | Page 2

Franks, his authority was little
heeded, save in the domain which he had possessed as Count of Paris,
including the cities of Paris, Orleans, Amiens, and Rheims (the
coronation place). He was guardian, too, of the great Abbeys of St.
Denys and St. Martin of Tours. The Duke of Normandy and the Count
of Anjou to the west, the Count of Flanders to the north, the Count of
Champagne to the east, and the Duke of Aquitaine to the south, paid
him homage, but were the only actual rulers in their own domains.
3. The Kingdom of Hugh Capet.--The language of Hugh's kingdom was
clipped Latin; the peasantry and townsmen were mostly Gaulish; the
nobles were almost entirely Frank. There was an understanding that the
king could only act by their consent, and must be chosen by them; but
matters went more by old custom and the right of the strongest than by
any law. A Salic law, so called from the place whence the Franks had
come, was supposed to exist; but this had never been used by their
subjects, whose law remained that of the old Roman Empire. Both of
these systems of law, however, fell into disuse, and were replaced by
rude bodies of "customs," which gradually grew up. The habits of the
time were exceedingly rude and ferocious. The Franks had been the
fiercest and most untamable of all the Teutonic nations, and only
submitted themselves to the influence of Christianity and civilization
from the respect which the Roman Empire inspired. Charles the Great
had tried to bring in Roman cultivation, but we find him reproaching
the young Franks in his schools with letting themselves be surpassed by
the Gauls, whom they despised; and in the disorders that followed his
death, barbarism increased again. The convents alone kept up any
remnants of culture; but as the fury of the Northmen was chiefly
directed to them, numbers had been destroyed, and there was more
ignorance and wretchedness than at any other time. In the duchy of
Aquitaine, much more of the old Roman civilization survived, both
among the cities and the nobility; and the Normans, newly settled in the
north, had brought with them the vigour of their race. They had taken
up such dead or dying culture as they found in France, and were
carrying it further, so as in some degree to awaken their neighbours.
Kings and their great vassals could generally read and write, and
understand the Latin in which all records were made, but few except

the clergy studied at all. There were schools in convents, and already at
Paris a university was growing up for the study of theology, grammar,
law, philosophy, and music, the sciences which were held to form a
course of education. The doctors of these sciences lectured; the scholars
of low degree lived, begged, and struggled as best they could; and
gentlemen were lodged with clergy, who served as a sort of private
tutors.
4. Earlier Kings of the House of Paris.--Neither Hugh nor the next three
kings (Robert, 996-1031; Henry, 1031-1060; Philip, 1060-1108) were
able men, and they were almost helpless among the fierce nobles of
their own domain, and the great counts and dukes around them. Castles
were built of huge strength, and served as nests of plunderers, who
preyed on travellers and made war on each other, grievously tormenting
one another's "villeins"--as the peasants were termed. Men could travel
nowhere in safety, and horrid ferocity and misery prevailed. The first
three kings were good and pious men, but too weak to deal with their
ruffian nobles. _Robert, called the Pious_, was extremely devout, but
weak. He became embroiled with the Pope on account of having
married Bertha--a lady pronounced to be within the degrees of affinity
prohibited by the Church. He was excommunicated, but held out till
there was a great religious reaction, produced by the belief that the
world would end in 1000. In this expectation many persons left their
land untilled, and the consequence was a terrible famine, followed by a
pestilence; and the misery of France was probably unequalled in this
reign, when it was hardly possible to pass safely from one to another of
the three royal cities, Paris, Orleans, and Tours. Beggars swarmed, and
the king gave to them everything he could lay his hands on, and even
winked at their stealing gold off his dress, to the great wrath of a
second wife, the imperious Constance of Provence, who, coming from
the more luxurious and corrupt south, hated and despised the roughness
and asceticism of her husband. She was a fierce and passionate woman,
and brought an element of cruelty into the court. In this reign the first
instance of persecution to the death for heresy took place. The victim