AMIENS CATHEDRAL
The most perfect specimen of Gothic architecture in France, dating from the thirteenth century. This splendid structure is embellished with a wealth of magnificent mediæval sculpture. Viollet-le-Duc happily calls this cathedral “the Parthenon of Gothic architecture.”
Clovis in 493 married Clotilda, a Christian Burgundian princess, and in 496 embraced her faith.
Though nominally Christians, the Franks brought their old hereditary Teuton customs of inheritance and chieftainship, which, as they had last come from the banks of the Yssel, were known as Salic laws—i.e. of the Salian Franks. Their German dominions were called Austreich (the eastern kingdom); their Gaulish Neaustreich (not Eastern) or Neustria; and both were Frankland. Their dynasty soon exhausted itself, and latterly their kings were called Fainéants or “Do-nothing” kings while the mayors of the palace really governed.
Carlovingians.—One of the mayors, a Teuton wholly in blood, Charles Martel, in 721 checked the tide of Saracen invasion, and saved Gaul by the great battle of Soissons. His son, Pepin, in 753 was elected king, and thence descended the line known as Carlovingians. Under Pepin and Charles the Great, called by the French “Charlemagne,” the country was relatively peaceful and prosperous; but after the latter’s death things returned to their original state of confusion.
Charlemagne was one of the really great monarchs of the world. His dominions reached from the Ebro to the Channel, from the Elbe, to the Atlantic, and included North Italy, and in 800 he was crowned by the Pope Emperor of the West. His power was too vast for a single hand of less power, and fell to pieces after his son’s death. The Western Franks fell to Charles the Bald, and it was then (about 870) that France became a recognized term for the country between the Channel and the Pyrenees.
The king had, however, very little power; his lands were cut up into divisions under dukes, marquises, and counts, who simply paid him a nominal homage, and were bound to follow him in war, but who ruled quite independently. Moreover, the Northmen or Normans were horribly ravaging the whole country; Paris was fortified against them under Robert the Strong, but, in 911, Charles the Simple found himself obliged to make to Rolla, the chief of the Northmen invaders, a grant of the Neustrian lands, which took the name of Normandy. The Carlovingians finally were deposed in 987, and their last sovereign, Louis V., retired to Lotharingia or Lorraine as duke.
Capetians.—The grandson of Robert the Strong, Hugh, became king. He was called Capet, apparently from the hood which marked him as guardian of the Abbey of St. Denis; and the name is used for his dynasty, which reigned for eight hundred years.
The German influences had passed away, though the king and nobility were of Frankish blood. The whole realm was parcelled out into feudal holdings, the great chiefs of which hardly owned the royal power, and the only place where the king really ruled directly was the county of Paris. There was much confusion and private warfare, and after the conquest of England in 1066, the Dukes of Normandy overshadowed the French kings.