3rd Edition

Capetian France 987–1328

By Elizabeth M. Hallam, Charles West Copyright 2019
    508 Pages
    by Routledge

    508 Pages
    by Routledge

    Capetian France 987–1328 is an authoritative overview of the country’s development across four centuries, with a focus on changes to the political, religious, social and cultural climate during this period.

    When Hugh Capet took the throne of France in 987, his powers were weak and insignificant, but from an inauspicious beginning he founded a dynasty that was to last over 300 years and that came to dominate western Europe. This carefully updated third edition draws extensively on new scholarship that has emerged since the previous edition. It contains images, maps, family trees and a discussion of key sources, allowing the reader to develop a strong contextual knowledge as well as a greater connection with the material world of the period.

    Maintaining a balance between a compelling narrative and an in-depth examination of central themes of the age, Capetian France 987–1328 provides a comprehensive account of this significant era within France’s history and is essential reading for all students of medieval France and Europe.

    CHAPTER ONE French Society in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries

    1.1 INTRODUCTION

    1.1.1 The origins of West Francia

    1.2 THE FRENCH ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

    1.2.1 A stagnant economy?

    1.2.2 Nobles and knights

    1.2.3 Lords and peasants

    1.3 THE STRUCTURE OF POWER

    1.3.1 Principalities, counties and castellanies

    1.3.2 The bonds of society: vassalage and the fief

    1.3.3 Church and society

    1.4 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF THE TENTH CENTURY

    1.4.1 987: the beginning of a new era?

    CHAPTER TWO Politics and Society: A Regional View

    2.1 INTRODUCTION

    2.1.1 Local societies in the French kingdom

    2.1.2 The princes in eleventh- and twelfth-century France

    2.2 THE PRINCIPALITIES: NORTH

    2.2.1 The duchy of Burgundy

    2.2.2 The lands of Blois-Champagne.

    2.2.3 Flanders and Picardy

    2.2.4 The duchy of Normandy

    2.2.5 The duchy of Brittany

    2.2.6 Greater Anjou

    2.3 THE PRINCIPALITIES: SOUTH

    2.3.1 Southern Society

    2.3.2 The duchy of Aquitaine

    2.3.3 Gascony, Toulouse and Barcelona

    CHAPTER THREE The Early Capetians, 987–1108

    3.1 INTRODUCTION

    3.1.1 The early Capetians: mere territorial princes?

    3.2 THE KINGS AND THEIR REIGNS

    3.2.1 Hugh Capet, 987–996

    3.2.2 Robert II ‘the Pious’, 996–1031

    3.2.3 Henry I, 1031–60

    3.2.4 Philip I, 1060–1108

    3.3 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ROYAL POWER

    3.3.1 The royal domain

    3.3.2. The ecclesiastical domain

    3.3.3 The royal principality

    3.3.4 Royal government and the royal entourage

    3.3.5 The king and the princes

    3.3.6 Royal defence

    3.4 THE KINGS AND THE CHURCH

    3.4.1 Kings, bishops and Cluniacs, 987–1049

    3.4.2 Monarchy and papal reform, 1049–1108

     

    Chapter 4 THE REVIVAL OF ROYAL POWER, 1108–1226

    4.1. INTRODUCTION

    4.1.1 The Capetian revival: an inevitable development?

    4.2 THE KINGS AND THEIR REIGNS

    4.2.1 Louis VI, 1108–37: the king and the castellans

    4.2.2 Louis VI, 1108–37: the king in the kingdom

    4.2.3 Louis VII, 1137–80: politics of grandeur and illusion, 1137–51

    4.2.4 Louis VII, 1137–80: Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Plantagenets, 1151–80

    4.2.5 Philip II ‘Augustus,’ 1180–1223: campaigning and crusading, 1180–1200

    4.2.6 Philip II ‘Augustus,’ 1180–1223: conquests and triumphs, 1200–1214

    4.2.7 Philip II ‘Augustus,’ 1180–1223: after Bouvines, 1214–23

    4.2.8 Louis VIII, 1223–6

    4.3 FRENCH SOCIETY, 1108–1226

    4.3.1 Social and economic changes

    4.3.2 The growth of Paris

    4.3.3 Orthodox and heretical religious movements

    4.3.4 Learning, literature and the schools in France

    4.4 THE GROWTH IN ROYAL POWER, 1108–1226

    4.4.1 The status of the French monarchy

    4.4.2 The image of monarchy

    4.4.3 Queens and queenship

    4.4.4 The royal household

    4.4.5 Communal privileges and royal defence

    4.4.6 The royal principality and the domain to c.1200

    4.4.7 The principalities to c. 1200: Blois, Champagne, Burgundy, Flanders, Toulouse

    4.4.8 The principalities of the west and south: was there an ‘Angevin empire’?

    4.4.9 Royal resources: Capetians versus Plantagenets

    4.4.10 Capetian rule in Normandy

    4.4.11 The Capetians, the Languedoc and the Albigensian Crusade

    4.5 THE KINGS AND THE CHURCH

    4.5.1 Louis VI, Louis VII and the church

    4.5.2 Philip Augustus, Louis VIII and the church

    Chapter 5 LOUIS IX: THE CONSOLIDATION OF ROYAL POWER, 1226–70

    5.1 INTRODUCTION

    5.1.1 Louis IX: holy kingship and political power

    5.2 THE REIGN OF LOUIS IX

    5.2.1 Louis’s minority, 1226–34: the guardianship of Blanche of Castile

    5.2.2 Louis IX the young king, 1234–44

    5.2.3 Louis IX, the crusader king, 1244–54

    5.2.4 France without the king, 1248–54

    5.2.5 Holy kingship, 1254–67

    5.2.6 Louis’s final crusade and death, 1267–70

    5.3 FRENCH SOCIETY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

    5.3.1 Economic and social developments, 1226–70

    5.3.2 Paris in the reign of Louis IX

    5.3.3 Religion and learning: the friars, the university and the inquisition

    5.4 LOUIS IX AND THE CHURCH

    5.4.1 Royal piety, almsgiving and religious patronage

    5.4.2 Redemptive kingship: Muslims, heretics, Jews

    5.4.3 The king, the French church and the papacy

    5.5 THE CONSOLIDATION OF ROYAL POWER

    5.5.1 The image of monarchy

    5.5.2 Monarchy, kingdom and royal justice

    5.5.3 The royal household, administration and finances

    5.5.4 Warfare, chivalry and royal defence

    5.5.5 The king and the princes

    5.5.6 Royal power in Normandy

    5.5.7 Royal power in the Languedoc

    5.5.8 The king’s brothers: Robert of Artois, Alfonso of Poitiers and Charles of Anjou

    5.5.9 Louis IX, Henry III of England and the matter of Gascony

    5.5.10 Criticisms of the king

    5.5.11 The achievements of Louis IX

    Chapter 6 THE LAST CAPETIANS, 1270–1328: THE APOGEE OF ROYAL POWER

    6.1 INTRODUCTION

    6.1.1 Royal power under the last Capetians

    6.2 THE KINGS AND THEIR REIGNS

    6.2.1 Philip III, 1270–85

    6.2.2 Philip IV ‘the Fair’, 1285–1314

    6.2.3 Louis X (1314–16), Philip V (1316–22) and Charles IV (1322–8)

    6.3 THE FRENCH ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

    6.3.1 Economic and social conditions: the first signs of crisis

    6.3.2 The population of France in 1328

    6.3.3 Paris, royal capital

    6.3.4 Rural life: the Pyrenean village of Montaillou

    6.3.5 The king and the social order

    6.4 THE NATURE OF ROYAL POWER

    6.4.1 The extent of royal power

    6.4.2 The canonisation and the cult of Louis IX

    6.4.3 Court factions and politics

    6.4.4 Royal administration and justice

    6.4.5 Royal finances and warfare

    6.4.6 The royal domain and the apanages

    6.4.7 General and regional assemblies

    6.4.8 The crisis of 1314 and the charters of 1315

    6.4.9 The king and the principalities

    6.5 THE KINGS AND THE CHURCH

    6.5.1 The kings and the French church, 1270–1328

    6.5.2 Philip IV and Boniface VIII

    6.5.3 The suppression of the Templars

    6.5.4 The last Capetians and the Crusades

    6.5.5 The Avignon papacy

    CHAPTER 7: EPILOGUE

    7.1 THE SUCCESSION AND THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

    7.2 CAPETIAN KINGSHIP: SOME GENERAL PERSPECTIVES

    7.3 ART, CULTURE AND RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE FRENCH KINGDOM

    Select Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Elizabeth M. Hallam holds honorary academic appointments at the University of East Anglia, UK, and the University of York, UK. Until 2016 she held the position of Director of Information Services and Librarian at the House of Lords, and she is now a Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Research Fellow, currently working on the architectural history of the Palace of Westminster.

    Charles West has been teaching and researching at the University of Sheffield, UK, since 2008, where he is a Reader in Medieval History. He has published widely on medieval European history and sits on the editorial boards for Early Medieval History and the History Workshop Journal.