History of France | Page 5

as King of France. When Richard's successor, John,
murdered Arthur, the heir of the dukedom of Brittany and claimant of
both Anjou and Normandy, Philip took advantage of the general
indignation to hold a court of peers, in which John, on his
non-appearance, was adjudged to have forfeited his fiefs. In the war
which followed and ended in 1204, Philip not only gained the great
Norman dukedom, which gave him the command of Rouen and of the
mouth of the Seine, as well as Anjou, Maine, and Poitou, the countries
which held the Loire in their power, but established the precedent that a
crown vassal was amenable to justice, and might be made to forfeit his
lands. What he had won by the sword he held by wisdom and good
government. Seeing that the cities were capable of being made to
balance the power of the nobles, he granted them privileges which
caused him to be esteemed their best friend, and he promoted all
improvements. Though once laid under an interdict by Pope Innocent

III. for an unlawful marriage, Philip usually followed the policy which
gained for the Kings of France the title of "Most Christian King." The
real meaning of this was that he should always support the Pope against
the Emperor, and in return be allowed more than ordinary power over
his clergy. The great feudal vassals of eastern France, with a strong
instinct that he was their enemy, made a league with the Emperor Otto
IV. and his uncle King John, against Philip Augustus. John attacked
him in the south, and was repulsed by Philip's son, Louis, called the
"Lion;" while the king himself, backed by the burghers of his chief
cities, gained at Bouvines, over Otto, the first real French victory, in
1214, thus establishing the power of the crown. Two years later, Louis
the Lion, who had married John's niece, Blanche of Castile, was invited
by the English barons to become their king on John's refusing to be
bound by the Great Charter; and Philip saw his son actually in
possession of London at the time of the death of the last of the sons of
his enemy, Henry II. On John's death, however, the barons preferred his
child to the French prince, and fell away from Louis, who was forced to
return to France.
8. The Albigenses (1203--1240).--The next great step in the building up
of the French kingdom was made by taking advantage of a religious
strife in the south. The lands near the Mediterranean still had much of
the old Roman cultivation, and also of the old corruption, and here
arose a sect called the Albigenses, who held opinions other than those
of the Church on the origin of evil. Pope Innocent III., after sending
some of the order of friars freshly established by the Spaniard, Dominic,
to preach to them in vain, declared them as great enemies of the faith as
Mahometans, and proclaimed a crusade against them and their chief
supporter, Raymond, Count of Toulouse. Shrewd old King Philip
merely permitted this crusade; but the dislike of the north of France to
the south made hosts of adventurers flock to the banner of its leader,
Simon de Montfort, a Norman baron, devout and honourable, but harsh
and pitiless. Dreadful execution was done; the whole country was laid
waste, and Raymond reduced to such distress that Peter I., King of
Aragon, who was regarded as the natural head of the southern races,
came to his aid, but was defeated and slain at the battle of Muret. After
this Raymond was forced to submit, but such hard terms were forced

on him that his people revolted. His country was granted to De
Montfort, who laid siege to Toulouse, and was killed before he could
take the city. The war was then carried on by Louis the Lion, who had
succeeded his father as Louis VIII. in 1223, though only to reign three
years, as he died of a fever caught in a southern campaign in 1226. His
widow, Blanche, made peace in the name of her son, _Louis IX._, and
Raymond was forced to give his only daughter in marriage to one of
her younger sons. On their death, the county of Toulouse lapsed to the
crown, which thus became possessor of all southern France, save
Guienne, which still remained to the English kings. But the whole of
the district once peopled by the Albigenses had been so much wasted as
never to recover its prosperity, and any cropping up of their opinions
was guarded against by the establishment of the Inquisition, which
appointed Dominican friars to inquire into and exterminate all that
differed from the Church. At the same time the order of St. Francis did
much to instruct and quicken the consciences