Strengthening of royal power in medieval France
In 987, after the death of King Louis V of Lazy, the rule of the Carolingian dynasty ceased. The rulers of the duchies and counties elected a new king. He became a representative of the genus Robertinov – Count Hugo Capet. He was nicknamed the monastic hood, which was worn as a secular abbot of the monastery of St. Martina. Hugo became the ancestor of the new royal dynasty Capetings.
However, in those days the presence of the royal title did not testify to real power and power. Hugo Capet was the master only in his hereditary domain that stretched a narrow strip from north to south and included the cities of Paris and Orleans. At the end of the X century. these lands are increasingly beginning to be called France.
In the late 40-ies XI century. a representative of the Capetian dynasty, King Henry I sent an embassy to the great Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise with a request to marry his daughter Anna. Arriving in France, Anna wrote to her father: “What a terrible
It was under Philip I that the royal power gradually began to increase. The king fought stubbornly with the feudal lords, whose castles bordered on his possessions. The son and successor of Philip I, the grandson of Anna Yaroslavna, King Louis VI Tolstoy put an end to the self-will of the feudal lords on the lands of their domain, destroying their castles.
A significant step in the unification of France was made under Louis VII. Thanks to a marriage with Eleanor, the only heiress of the duchy of Aquitaine, Louis VII annexed this large and rich
In connection with the expansion of the domain, the reform of the state administration began. The supreme governing body was the Royal Council, consisting of feudal lords and connoisseurs of laws close to the king. From it stood out the Paris Parliament and the financial department of the Accounting Chamber. Gradually, instead of a vassal service, the state service was introduced.
In the sphere of internal management, the most important reforms were carried out under Louis IX. So he was nicknamed for his deep faith in Christian ideals and the desire to implement them. First of all, the king severely banned internecine wars in his domain. The Royal Court, whose central body was the Paris Parliament, became a nationwide court. Often the king personally listened to those who sought justice.
XIV century. From the “History of Louis IX Saint” chronicler Jean de Juanville
More than once in the summer after the mass, the king, sitting at an oak in the Bois de Vincennes, ordered to sit next to him all who wanted to talk to him… And then he asked: “Is there anyone with a complaint?” And those who had it, rose. And then he called for counselors and spoke to one of them: “Tell me the essence of the matter.”
And when he saw that something could be fixed… he interfered in the matter himself. I saw one summer, as he walked to the Parisian garden, dressed in a shirt from a camlot, a sleeveless camisole, a black taffeta scarf… neatly combed, in a cap with a white peacock feather on his head, in order to complete the court.
Gradually the belief in the divine origin of royal power was affirmed. Louis IX began to issue national laws and introduced a single monetary system. Contemporaries considered the reign of Louis IX an earthly embodiment of the biblical ideals of justice and peace, the “golden age” of peace and prosperity. Therefore, during his lifetime, the king became a saint in the eyes of his subjects. Throughout its long reign, France has become a major European country.
Louis IX organized the Seventh and Eighth Crusades. During the latter, he died of the plague.
Aquitaine is a large area in the south west of France, located between the Pyrenees and the Loire River. Since the XIII century. called Guien. The southern part of Aquitaine – a separate duchy was called Vasconia, which was later transformed into the name Gascony.
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