For thirty-four years the republic has existed. Communistic fires, always smouldering, have again and again burst forth—demagogues, fanatics, and those creatures for whom there is no place in organized society, whose element is chaos, standing ready to fan the flames of revolt: with Orleanist, Bonapartist, Bourbon, ever on the alert, watching for opportunity to slip in through the open door of revolution.
Phlegmatic Teutons and slow-moving Anglo-Saxons look in bewilderment at a nation which has had seven political revolutions in a hundred years!
But France, complex, mobile, changeful as the sea, in riotous enjoyment of her new-found liberties, casts off a form of government as she would an ill-fitting garment. She knows the value of tranquillity—she had it for one thousand years! The people, who have only breathed the upper air for a century—the people, who were stifled under feudalism, stamped upon by Valois kings, riveted down by Richelieu, then prodded, outraged, and starved by Bourbons, have become a great nation. Many-sided, resourceful, gifted, it matters not whether they have called the head of their government consul, emperor, king, or president. They are a race of freemen, who can never again be enslaved by tyrannous system.
There may be in store for France new revolutions and fresh overturnings. Not anchored, as is England, in an historic past which she reveres, and with a singularly gifted and emotional people who are the sport of the current of the hour, who can predict her future! But whatever that future may be, no American can be indifferent to the fate of a nation to whom we owe so much. Nor can we ever forget that in the hour of our direst extremity, and regardless of cost to herself, she helped us to establish our liberties, and to take our place among the great nations of the earth.
SOVEREIGNS AND RULERS OF FRANCE.
| KINGS OF THE FRANKS MEROVINGIAN LINE | |
|---|---|
| A.D. | |
| Clovis | 496 |
| Thierry, Clodomir, Clothaire, Childebert | 511 |
| Clothaire | 559 |
| Charibert, Gontran, Chilperic, Sigheben | 561 |
| Childebert | 584 |
| Theodebert, Thierry II., Clothaire III. | 596 |
| Dagobert | 628 |
| Clovis II., Sigheben II. | 638 |
| Clothaire III., Chilperic II. | 656 |
| Thierry III., Dagobert II. | 673 |
| Clovis III. | 690 |
| Childebert III. | 695 |
| Dagobert III. | 711 |
| Chilperic III. | 716 |
| Thierry IV. | 720 |
| Chilperic IV. | 741 |
CARLOVINGIAN LINE | |
| Pepin | 752 |
| Charlemagne | 768 |
| Louis (The Débonnaire) | 814 |
KINGS OF FRANCE AFTER DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE | |
| Charles (The Bald) | 843 |
| Louis (The Stammerer) | 877 |
| Louis III. and Carloman | 879 |
| Charles (The Fat) | 884 |
| Hugh | 887 |
| Charles (The Simple) | 898 |
| Raoul | 923 |
| Louis IV. | 936 |
| Lothaire | 954 |
| Louis V. | 986 |
CAPETIAN LINE | |
| Hugh Capet | 987 |
| Robert | 996 |
| Henry I. | 1031 |
| Louis VI. (The Fat) | 1108 |
| Louis VII. (The Young) | 1137 |
| Philip II. (Philip Augustus) | 1180 |
| Louis VIII. | 1223 |
| Louis IX. (The Saint) | 1226 |
| Philip III. (The Hardy) | 1270 |
| Philip IV. (The Handsome) | 1285 |
| Louis X. | 1314 |
| Philip V. | 1316 |
| Charles IV. (The Handsome) | 1322 |
VALOIS BRANCH OF CAPETIAN LINE | |
| Philip VI. (de Valois) | 1328 |
| John (The Pious) | 1350 |
| Charles V. | 1364 |
| Charles VI. | 1380 |
| Charles VII. | 1422 |
| Louis XI. | 1461 |
| Charles VIII. | 1483 |
VALOIS—ORLEANS BRANCH | |
| Louis XII. | 1498 |
VALOIS—ANGOULÊME | |
| Francis I. | 1515 |
| Henry II. | 1547 |
| Francis II. | 1559 |
| Charles IX. | 1560 |
| Henry III. | 1574 |
BOURBON BRANCH | |
| Henry IV. | 1589 |
| Louis XIII. | 1610 |
| Louis XIV. | 1643 |
| Louis XV. | 1715 |
| Louis XVI. | 1774 |
FIRST REPUBLIC, 1792 FIRST EMPIRE | |
| Napoleon Bonaparte | 1804 |
RESTORATION OF MONARCHY—BOURBON BRANCH | |
| Louis XVIII. | 1814 |
| Charles X. | 1824 |
KING OF THE FRENCH | |
| Louis Philippe | 1830 |
SECOND REPUBLIC, 1848 SECOND EMPIRE | |
| Louis Napoleon | 1852 |
THIRD REPUBLIC, 1871 PRESIDENTS OF THIRD REPUBLIC | |
| Adolphe Thiers | 1871 |
| Marshal MacMahon | 1873 |
| Jules Grévy | 1879 |
| Sadi-Carnot | 1887 |
| François Felix Faure | 1894 |
| Emile Loubet | 1899 |
| Armand Fallières | 1906 |
INDEX.
Abelard, 68, 69
Academy, The French, 138
African, 261
Agincourt, Battle of, 89
Albigensian War, 66
Alexander, Emperor of Russia, 213, 215
Algeria, 246
Algeciras, 260
Alsace, 144, 240
America, 158, 164-167, 175, 176, 183, 196, 197, 209, 236
Anglo-Saxons, 263
Angoulême, Duchesse d', 216
Anne of Austria, 142, 143
Assembly, National, 181-185, 187-190, 230, 240, 242, 244
Associations, Law of, 258
Attila, 22
Augsburg, League of, 154
Aumale, Duke of, 249
Aurelius, Marcus, 14, 18, 20
Austrasia, 31
Austria, 142, 162, 198, 199, 202, 203, 204, 206, 211, 230, 233, 234, 237, 238