Hugh Capet and his successors. tending against his revolted children, and died after having divided amongst them a crown which he was unworthy to wear. France was governed during a century by the princes of the same race, but the kingly power was weakened by the abuses of the feudal system; and when Hugh France under Capet took possession of the throne in the year 987, he was merely the first baron in the kingdom, and reigned only over Picardy, the Isle de France, and Orleanis. The policy of that prince and his successors was to increase the power of the crown by humbling and degrading the nobility. Berry was purchased in 1100 by Philip the First, from the viscount Eudes Arpin; and king John erected it into a dutchy, which became the appanage of the sons of France. Lewis the Gros made no acquisitions or conquests, but by liberating the towns, he raised a barrier against the encroachments of the feudal lords. In 1202, Philip Augustus seized Tourraine from John Sans-Terre, who had succeeded to it as the descendant of its counts; and in the following year, the same Philip made himself master of Normandy, which from the time of Charles the Simple, had been ceded in perpetuity to Rollo and his Norwegians. Amaury, of Montfort, gave up Languedoc to Lewis the Eighth, and the cession was ratified in a treaty made with St. Lewis in 1228. Jane of Navarre, at her marriage with Philip the Fair in 1284, united the county of Champagne, which she had received as her dowry, to the dominions of her husband. In 1307, the inhabitants of Lyonnais having gained their freedom, compelled their archbishop to acknowledge the authority of the same king. State of France under Philip of Valois and his successors. Dauphiny, which derived its name from Guy the Eighth, the bravest of its princes, surnamed the Dauphin, because he wore on his helmet the figure of a dolphin, was ceded to Philip of Valois in 1349, on condition that the eldest sons of the French kings should assume the title of Dauphins, and also that the country should form a separate sovereignty, and never be incorporated with the kingdom. Charles the Fifth took Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge, and Limousin from the English. Charles the Seventh, in consequence of his victories over the English, added to his dominions the greater part of Guyenne and Gascogny. Lewis the Eleventh humbled the power of the great, and had the good fortune to acquire Maine and Anjou by inheritance, conquests made by Philip Augustus, but more than once detached from the crown, and conferred on princes of the blood. The same monarch seized the dutchy of Burgundy, declaring himself the lawful heir, although there existed at the time a duke of Burgundy, Nevers, and Rethel. It was stated, however, in letters patent, that the dutchy had been united to France with the free will of the states on the following conditions, the people were not to be deprived of their natural judges, and no subsidy was to be imposed without the consent of the three orders; at the same time the taxes which the people had hitherto paid on wine and the other products of the province, were abolished. The same king took possession of Provence, having proved by several witnesses that Charles of Anjou had made him his heir. The inhabitants received the same privileges as those which had been granted to Burgundy. Since that period the French kings have on several occasions styled themselves counts of Provence. Francis the First availed himself of the rights which he had acquired by the revolt of the Constable Bourbon, and in 1527 obtained Auvergne, Bourbonnais, and La Marche, which belonged to the prince. Some years afterwards, Brittany, of which the inheritance had devolved on his son Francis, was united to the kingdom. In consequence of this junction, Brittany was exempt under his successors from most taxes, being merely subject to a voluntary impost voted by its states. The same gallant and chivalrous king was a poet, and the friend of the fine arts; flattery has designated him the protector of letters, although he established the cen sorship; he was not considered cruel, although by his presence he added the weight of his authority to the punishments of the inquisition. In the same reign the assemblies of notables, or influential men, were substituted for the states-general, but the crown derived little advantage from the change, for notions of civil and religious liberty were then gaining force; they proved the harbingers of political commotions, or served as instruments for the ambitious and discontented to excite the people. France under reign of Thirteenth. The corruption of the court and nobility under Henry the Second, Francis the Second, and Charles the Ninth, were favourable to the reformation. The principles of the new religion accorded well with the growing desire for knowledge, but the question became a political one, and princes confounded the reformers and their partisans with the opponents of kingly power. The massacre of St. Bartholomew, considered an act of political wisdom by Catharine of Medicis and her son, was devised and executed to rid royalty of its enemies. But the designs of the League assumed a very different appearance during the reign of Henry the Third, for it appeared to be the chief object of the party to put the crown of France on the head of a Spanish prince. Henry the Fourth, whom the catholic chiefs held in execration, ascended the throne, and added to the kingdom the dominions of his fathers, or the county of Foix and part of Gascogny. France, during the reign of Lewis the Thirteenth, was twice agitated by civil wars; but the policy of Richelieu saved the kingdom, and his master gained new laurels by the conquest of Artois in 1640, and of Rousillon in 1642. The reign of Lewis the Fourteenth contributed to the aggrandisement of France; that monarch obtained Nivernais by the total extinction of the feudal system; he took Flanders by conquest in 1667, and some years afterwards made himself master of Franche-Comte; lastly, by a treaty with the emperor of Germany in 1697, the cession of Alsace was ratified. Under Lewis the Fifteenth, Lewis the 1 Lorraine, formerly a portion of the states belonging to Lothaire, of whom it bears the name, was added to the kingdom; for it had been ceded to Stanislas, king of Poland, on condition that it should be restored to the crown after his death, an event which happened in 1766. The republic of Genoa gave up Corsica for a sum of money two years afterwards. Under Lewis Fifteenth. Jution. Such were the extent and importance of the French territory French revo I during the long and peaceful reign of Lewis the Fifteenth; and the king whose death was not regretted by the nation, left to his successor the difficult task of realizing the expectations which his virtues seemed to promise. The well informed classes were able to appreciate the institutions which they desired, and the king consented to adopt them. But it was necessary to introduce reforms into the finances, and the middling classes were more jealous than ever of the privileges of the nobility. The states-general were no sooner convoked than their respective interests gave rise to two parties; the deputies of the third state, full of confidence in public opinion, swore never to separate until they had framed a constitution. It was accepted by Lewis the Sixteenth, and the pope ceded Avignon and Venaissin to France. The kingdom having been divided into eighty-three departments, the assembly was dissolved. ror. It was succeeded by the legislative assembly, composed of Reign of ter I men who did not understand the advantages of a constitutional system, and who allowed themselves to be ruled by a party. The acts of the sovereign were purposely misrepresented, people dreamt of a republic. A new era soon commenced, marked by a political fanaticism, of which Grandson of Lewis the Debonnaise. The country was first called Regnum Lotharii, then Lotharingia, afterwards Loherrenne, Lorrene, and lastly Lorraine. history affords no other example, and by crimes of which the recital fills the mind with horror. Lewis the Sixteenth yielded to the storm, and died with the resignation and tranquillity of a virtuous man. France was shortly afterwards governed by a handful of persons, who, under the name of equality, divided the inhabitants into classes; under the name of liberty, established the most sanguinary despotism; under the name of fraternity, sought associates among the dregs of the people; and under the name of religion, abolished christianity, and substituted the ceremonies of pagan mythology. Anarchy reigned within, but France repelled foreign armies, while the different parties in the national convention proscribed, banished, and massacred each other. The government was overturned, and the management of affairs committed to two councils and five directors; if they possessed great influence both abroad and at home, it was owing to the victories of the French. The principality of Montbeillard was united to the republic in 1796, and the free territory of Mulhausen in 1798. But after the directory had existed five years, it was destroyed by the efforts of a few, at the head of whom was the young general who had distinguished himself in Italy, and on the plains of Egypt. Bonaparte was named first consul; he put an end to factions, acquired new glory in Italy, and dictated conditions of peace to the emperor of Germany. The treaty signed at Luneville on the ninth of February, 1801, confirmed France in the possession of additional conquests. The course of the Rhine from Wissenburgh to the place where it is called the Waal, served as a limit, and beyond the same point, but within the northern-frontiers, were included Belgium, Antwerp, and Flushing. The same rich territory formed the twelve departments of Mont-Tonnere, Sarre, Forets, the Rhine, and Mozelle, the Sambre and Meuse, the Ourthe, the Roer, the Lower Meuse, Jemmappes, Dyle, Deux-Nethes, and the Scheldt. Porentruy on the east of the ancient boundaries, was united to the department of the Upper Rhine. The country round Geneva and Chambery formed the departments of Leman and Mont-Blanc, and the county of Nice was changed into the department of the Maritime Alps. By the treaty of Amiens, peace was restored to Europe on the twenty-seventh of March in the following year, and England gave up the French colonies which she had seized during the preceding wars. pire. French em- In the year 1804, after the victories of Montenotte, Arcola, I Rivoli, and Marengo, Napoleon received in Paris, from the hand of the sovereign pontiff, the unction with which kings are consecrated; and, as if to heighten the splendour of a title, which added nothing to his glory or his power, the anniversary of his coronation in the following year, was the day in which he gained a very memorable victory,—he defeated the Austrian and Russian armies on the plains of Austrelitz; the treaty of Presburg was the result of the campaign, and Prussia ceded to Napoleon all its rights to the dutchy of Cleves, the country of Neufchatel, Valengin, and the territory of Anspach, which the victor exchanged for the dutchy of Berg, and erected Bavaria into a kingdom. The emperor of Austria gave up Dalmatia and the Venetian states, and relinquished the title of king of Italy. Piemont and Liguira were added to France, and changed into the departments of the Doria, the Sezia, Marengo, the Po, the Stura, and Montenotte. Piemont united to the empire. The extent of the empire was farther increased, and its chief became the protector of German and Swiss confederations. A new rupture, followed by new victories, changed again the state of Europe; the battles of Jena and Friedland brought about the treaty of Tilsit; if the importance of the confederation of the Rhine was more than doubled, if France It was signed on the seventh of July, 1807. Part of Italy, the banks of the Ebro, and the coasts of the Baltic obtained the Ionian islands, it may be attributed to that treaty; Kell, Cassel, and Wesel, on the right bank of the Rhine, were added to the departments on the left. Tuscany, Parma, and Placenza, Spoletto, Rome, Valais, Holland, Friesland, Hanover, added to the the bishoprick of Munster, the county of Oldenburg, and the empire. possessions attached to the free towns of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lubeck, were transformed into French departments. Napoleon ruled over the greater part of Europe; when consul, he changed kingdoms into republics, when emperor, republics were changed into kingdoms; he founded monarchies in Germany; twice he spared the crown of Prussia, but lavished the best blood and treasures of the empire to place his brother on the throne of Spain. Having lost the best army in the world on the frozen plains of Russia, abandoned by his allies on the field of battle, he made a glorious resistance in France against the combined efforts of Europe. On the 31st of March, 1814, his capital was occupied by the foreigners whom he had often vanquished. Compelled to abdicate, he retired to the island of Elba, leaving to the ancient family of the Bourbons a kingdom which had been confined by treaties within its former limits. The territories of Montbeillard and Mulhausen were all that France retained of her republican conquests. Return of The institutions for which the French are indebted to the wisdom of Lewis the Eighteenth, made them forget the disgrace of a foreign occupation; but the reports of the disaffected were believed and circulated through every part of the kingdom; Napoleon availing himself of the general discontent, landed at Frejus on the 1st of March, 1815, and entered Paris along with the troops that were sent to take him prisoner. It was necessary to levy an army to oppose the attempts of foreign princes; Napoleon raised one, gained the victory of Ligny, and was defeated the next day on the plains of Waterloo. Having abdicated in favour of his son, he entrusted himself to the generosity of the English government; and the man who at one time thought the world too small for his ambition, was banished on an arid and volcanic rock in the midst of the ocean. Loss of Sarre France lost a territory of twenty square leagues in extent, which had been fortified by Lewis the Fourteenth; it paid to the foreigners whom it maintained during five years, an indemnity of seven hundred million francs, or nearly twenty-nine million two hundred thousand pounds; yet by means of a good government and wise institutions, it recovered its calamities, and resumed the rank which it held among the kingdoms of Europe. Position of | France. According to its present limits, France extends between the seventh degree nine minutes, west of the meridian of Paris, and the fifth degree fifty-six minutes to the east of the same meridian; it occupies the space between the forty-second degree twenty minutes, and the fifty-first degree five minutes of north latitude. It is bounded on the north by a part of the Channel and the Pas de Calais, the kingdom of the Netherlands, the great dutchy of Luxemburg, the Prussian provinces on the Lower Rhine, and the Bavarian circle of the Rhine; on the east by the great dutchy of Baden, Switzerland, and the Sardinian states; on the south by the Mediterranean and Spain, on the west by the Atlantic ocean and a different part of the Channel. The greatest dimensions of its frontiers may be determined [ Dimensions. by two lines, the one drawn in the direction of north-west to south-east from the most western point on the coast of Brest to Antibes, forming an extent of two hundred and thirty-nine leagues, or five hundred and seventy-four geographical miles; the other drawn from Givet in the Twenty-five of these leagues are equal to a degree. Ardennes to Mount Huromba in the Pyrenees, on the south-east of St. John-Pied-de-Port, may be about two hundred and eight leagues, or nearly five hundred geographical miles in length. The greatest breadth of the kingdom is about two hundred and six leagues from Kersaint in the department of Finistere, to the confluence of the Lauter and the Rhine, in the department of the Lower Rhine. The extent of coasts, including their sinuations, has been calculated at four hundred and ninety leagues. The total superficies, independently of Corsica, amounts to twenty-six thousand two hundred and forty-four square leagues, or one hundred and fifty-seven thousand four hundred and sixty-four square geographical miles. The population about the beginning of the year 1827, was equal to thirty-one million eight hundred and twenty thousand souls, or on an average to twelve hundred and twelve individuals for every square league, or to two hundred and two for every square geographical mile. Although the population has considerably increased since the revolution, for in the year 1790, the same surface contained only about twenty-five millions of inhabitants, and in 1814, the period of the restoration, twenty-eight million five hundred thousand, it is not less certain that France might be much more populous. Thus if two departments be taken, forming nearly the two extremes, that of the north which contains three thousand four hundred and three inhabitants for every square league, and the department of the Lower Alps, which contains only four hundred and fifteen, the mean term would be seventeen hundred and fourteen individuals, and if such were the average number of inhabitants for every square league in the kingdom, the total population of France might amount to forty-five millions. The fruitfulness of the soil cannot be denied, but before so great a number of inhabitants can be maintained, agriculture must be much improved, the different branches of industry must be extended, and new sources of wealth created. Corsica, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, pos Corsica. sesses within itself the elements of prosperity, which may one day render it the finest of the French colonies. It may be equal in surface to four hundred and ninety-five leagues, or two thousand nine hundred and seventy square geographical miles. Ancient names. The history of the island from the remotest ages to the period when it was united to France, forms only a distressing picture of war, bloodshed, and revolt. Herodotus affirms that it was first inhabited by the Phenicians, who gave it the name of Collista, before that period it was called Therapné. It was afterwards peopled by a colony of Lacedemonians, or, according to Seneca, of Phoceans, who called it Thera, from Theras, the name of their chief. Owing, perhaps, to the frequent communications between the islanders and the Greeks, it was called Cyrnos, Cerneatis, and Corsis; but the Romans having taken it from the Carthaginians, styled it Corsica, a name of which the origin is uncertain. bitants. Ancient inha- The characters which the ancients have left us of the inhabitants, are apparently contradictory. Strabo describes them as living by plunder, and as more savage than wild beasts. "If a Roman general," he adds, "advances into the interior, takes some forts, and brings a certain number of slaves to Rome, their ferocity and stupidity * Their extent, exclusively and inclusively of their sinuations, may be seen by the following table: Coasts of the Mediterranean Atlantic Theodotus, Book IV. ch. 147. Straight line. Sinuations. |