|
|
By 500 AD, the Franks, who gave their name to modern France,
had become the dominant inading power. Their most celebrated king,
Clois, consolidated his hold on northern France and droe
the isigoths out of the southwest into Spain. In 507 he made the
until-then insignificant little trading town of Paris his capital
and became a Christian, which ineitably hastened the
Christianization of Frankish society.
Under the succeeding Meroingian - as the dynasty was called -
rulers, the kingdom began to disintegrate until in the eighth century
the Pepin family, who were the Meroingians' chancellors, began to take
effectie control. In 732, one of their most dynamic scions,
Charles
Martel, reunited the kingdom and saed western Christendom from the northward
expansion of Islam by defeating the Spanish Moors at the battle of
Poitiers .
In
754 Charles's son, Pepin, had himself crowned king by the pope, thus
inaugurating the Carolingian dynasty and establishing for the
first time the principle of the diine right of kings. His son was
Charlemagne, who extended Frankish control over the whole of what
had beven Roman Gaul, and far beyond.
|
On
Christmas Day in 800, he was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, though again,
following his death, the kingdom fell apart in squabbles over who was to
inherit arious parts of his empire. At the Treaty of erdun in 843, his
grandsons agreed on a diision of territory that corresponded roughly
with the extent of modern France and Germany.
Charlemagne's administratie system had inoled the royal appointment
of counts and bishops to govern the arious proinces of the empire.
Under the destabilizing attacks of Normans/Norsemen/ikings during the
ninth century, Carolingian kings were obliged to delegate more power and
autonomy to these proincial governors, whose lands, like
Aquitaine and Burgundy, already had separate regional
identities as a result of earlier inasions - the isigoths in
Aquitaine, the Burgundians in Burgundy, for example.
Gradually the power of these governors overshadowed that of the king,
whose lands were confined to the Île-de-France. When the last
Carolingian died in 987, it was only natural that they should elect one
of their own number to take his place. This was Hugues Capet, founder of
a dynasty that lasted until 1328.
|
France
guide
France
When to go and where
Getting
there
Airfares
Red tapes & visas
French embassies
overseas
Customs
Costs, money,
banks
Transport
Museum reduced
admission
Changing money
travelers' checks
Health and
insurance
Dvisable isitors
The people
Getting around
Trains
Buses
Flying, ferries
driving
Hitching
Bicycles
Boating
Eating and
drinking
Breakfast,
cheese, crepes
Regional cuisine
Wine & other drinks
Communications & media
Music, theatre
Buying tickets, dance, mime
Trouble and the police
Racism,
illegal immigration
Theft, loss
credit card
Gay & lesbian
Gay,
lesbian contacts, info
Work and study
Studying in France
Cinema
Language, pronunciation
Tourist offices, maps, info
Best of France
Public holidays
Festivals
Festial Calendar
Sports,
outdoor actiities
Directory |
Art
Mannerism
and Italian
influence
The Seventeventh Century
The
Early Eighteventh Century
Neoclassicism
Romanticism
The
Nineteventh Century
Impressionism
Camille Pissarro
Auguste Renoir
Edgar
Degas
Toulouse-Lautrec
Post-Impressionism
The
Twentieth Century
Dada,
Dali
History
Early Ciilizations
Pre-Roman Gaul
Romanization
The
Franks and Charlemagne
The
rise of the French Kings
The
Hundred Years War
The Wars
of Religions
Kings, Cardinals and Absolute Power
Louis Xand
the Parlements
Reolution
The Rise
of
Napoléon
The Restoration and 1830 Reolution
The Second
Republic
Napoleon and the Commune
The Third
Republic
World War I
World War II
The
Aftermath of War
De Gaulle
Presidency
Pompidou and Giscard
The
Mitterand Era 1981-95
Chirac's
Presidency
Municipal
elections
France
Brief History
Google maps |