Week 9:

CAPETIAN FRANCE AND THE LOW COUNTRIES, 987-1314

Tuesday:

Music:

Colin Muset(?), “Renverdie” (13th cent.; 4:49 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YOMtZOFlHo

Adam de la Halle (born c. 1230 in Arras; active at the Angevin court of Naples beg. 1282; died c. 1288):
Excerpts from “Le Jeu de Robin et Marion” (4:17 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCIx07t14jw&feature=relate

“Si li maus c’amours envoie” (6:59 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLobQBGzQDg&feature=related

Main goals of Capetian kings of France (click here for maps of France in 1154 and in the 14th century):

• to consolidate their control over their home territory, the Ile-de-France (the region around Paris)
• to bring additional territories under their control
• to consolidate their sovereignty over the great feudal principalities of France

Royal strategies for achieving these goals included:

• useful marriages
• production of sons for 11 consecutive generations
• general cooperation and loyalty within the royal family
• mostly favorable relations with church and papacy

1137-1180 Louis VII

• married Eleanor, duchess of Aquitaine (marriage dissolved 1152; Eleanor then married Henry Plantagenet, count of Anjou, who in 1154 became King Henry II of England)
• went on 2nd Crusade (with Eleanor)
• tried to break up Henry II’s Angevin “empire” by instigating rebellion by Henry’s sons
• expanded royal justice in France

1180-1223 Philip II “Augustus”

• main goals: break-up of Angevin “empire” and extension of French royal power
• instigated rebellions by Henry II’s sons against their father
• abandoned 3rd Crusade to attack Richard I (“the Lionheart”)’s French possessions took Normandy and Anjou from John (1203-4)
• successful at Bouvines against John’s allies, Germany and Flanders (1214), making French monarchy the strongest in Europe
• employed salaried administrators (baillis) rather than local nobles for local governance
• enhanced Paris with walls, paving, and great fortress (the Louvre)

1226-1270 Louis IX (canonized as St. Louis in 1297)

• main goal: patronage of Church, Christianity, and Crusades
• exemplary private life: pious, peaceable, modest, loved and publicly honored his mother, Blanche of Castile [1188-1252], and wife, Marguerite of Provence
• patron of the University of Paris and of the Franciscans and Dominicans
• builder of the Sainte-Chapelle (click here for views of the exterior, upper chapel, and lower chapel), to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns (shown here held by Louis, in a window at Tours Cathedral)
• personally led two Crusades (both expensive failures; captured in first and died in second)
• renowned as dispenser of justice
• very anti-Jewish; tried to have Jewish children converted to Christianity
• like Henry III of England (and the pope today), on Maundy Thursday publicly washed the feet of poor men (in imitation of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper)

1285-1314 Philip IV “the Fair” (“le Bel”)

• main goals: expulsion of Edward I of England from Gascony; control of French church and papacy (vs. Pope Boniface VIII)
• achieved canonization of his grandfather, Louis IX (1297)
• taxed French clergy to pay for war with England
• attempted to gain control of Flanders, but failed at Courtrai (1302)
• called first French representative assembly, Estates-General (1302)
• accused Pope Boniface VIII of scandalous crimes and had him seized; arranged for election of French-friendly successor (Clement V), who moved seat of papacy from Rome to Avignon
• accused Knights Templars (wealthy military order) of scandalous crimes, and had them arrested, convicted, and executed; seized their French assets  arrested the Jews of France, confiscated their possesions, and expelled them from France

Online readings:

Rigord, Deeds of Philip II “Augustus,” 1190s (selections):
https://web.archive.org/web/20180614121835/http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/prh3/408/texts/Rigindex.html