History of France and Normandy, from the earliest times to the year 1884.

Preface

TO

THE AMERICAN EDITION.

The greatest nation of Europe at the present day, in point of industrial, scientific, and artistic development, is France, and her people, guided by the experience of past ages, are yet advaneifig steadily along the high road of social and moral improvement marked out for them by wise and patriotic men. From the period when Christianity first asserted its sway over the Gallic mind, France has powerfully promoted the advance of civilization, with all its attendant benefits, throughout the European continent ; and the histories of the difi"erent dynasties which have swayed the sceptre, are so many landmarks by which to trace the progress of this remarkable people from barbarism and poverty to civilization and wealth.

The study of history is ever important to the proper education of the youthful mind, which, if wanting in a thorough understanding of the events of past time, can form no adequate idea of the present position of nations, or of the privileges and benefits enjoyed by the individual members thereof, as compared with preceding generations. But, apart from this consideration, the youth of our country shoula, and must, naturally feel a strong interest in the history of a people, who so zealously and effectually aided our

(iii)

IV PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

forefathers in their struggle for national independence. The names of La Fayette, D'Estaing, De Grasse, Eochambeau, and Armand, occupy a proud position in the details of our revolutionary contest; and well may the youthful American entertain sentiments of respect and esteem for a nation which produced such noble and self-sacrificing men. No better history than that of France can be put into the hands of the rising generation; for, by the proper exercise of their own reasoning powers, they can draw therefrom profitable lessons in political science.

The accomplished Dr. Taylor has narrated all the events clearly and forcibly in their chronological order, and he has done ample justice to the great characters who have at various times played their parts on the stage of Grallic history. The task of the American editor has not been confined to mere emendations of the text; he has brought the work down to the present time by the addition of six chapters, which for interest cannot be surpassed by any others in the volume. These chapters include the Rebellions of February and June, 1848; the Else of Louis Napoleon; the Coup D'Etat; the inauguration of the Empire; the Crimean War; and the Italian War; all of which, as well as the preceding chapters, are copiously illustrated with historical pictures of battles and sieges, views of important places, portraits of distinguished soldiers and civilians, and sketches of the costumes worn in diflferent ages. Each chapter is prefaced with an appropriate motto, and closed with questions for the examination of pupils; and no pains have been spared to make the work as complete as the requirements of the present age demand in books adapted to the education of youth.

Philadelphia, October 1, 1859.

Contents

CHAP. PAOI

I. TheG^ 6 7

IL The Fn iks, from Clovis to Charlemagi e 14

CHAPTER I. An Ancient Gaul

THE GAULS.

From Ister's icy stream a barbarous crowd In horrent furs, a herd promiscuous stood, Swift as their savage game, far wide they roam; In tribes and nations ignorant of home.

EpieoxiAS.

1. The difficulties that impede our inquiries into the origin of nations are so many, and so various, that we must, in most cases, be contented with probability, since the most laborious researches fail to supply us with certain information. But as the Gauls were a conspicuous portion of that great Celtic family by which all the western continent of Europe and the British Isles were peopled, some brief sketch of their several migrations, as far as they have been ascertained, cannot fail to be interesting. The offspring of Japhet, we are told in Scripture, colonized "the isles of the Gentiles," as Europe is designated in the Old Testament ; of these the Cimmerians, or Cimbrians, who were descended from Gomer,* settled in the north and east of Europe, and gradually spread them-

A Romanized Gaul.

♦ The numerous descendants of Gomer are usually called the Celtic tribes ; but the names given to the Cushite warriors are as numerous as thejr conquests ; to them belong the Scythians, the Tar tars the Goths, the Scots, and almost all the tribes of wandering warriors who have at ditterent periods effected the greatest revolu lions in the Eastern and Western world.

THE GAULS. 9

selves westwards. 2. The descendants of Cush, known by the names of Scytliians and Tartars, have, from the earliest ages, been tlie greatest wanderers and the most warlike of nations. A horde of these barbarians attacked the Cimmerian colonies, expelled the inhabitants, and gave their own name to the country they had subdued. The Cimmerians, driven from their former settlements, fled through the extensive forests of Germany, and took up their residence in Gaul, of which they appear to have been the first inhabitants.

3. The date of this migration is probably about the ninth or tenth century before the Christian era; for Homer mentions the Cimmerians as the inhabitants of the countries bordering on the Don and Danube, but when Herodotus wrote, we find that they had been displaced by the Scythians. 4. The offspring of Cush, who delighted in a wandering life, spread themselves over ihe German forests, every where driving the Cimbri before them, until at length the Rhine formed the boundary between the two nations. In the time of Julius Caesar the distinctions between the two nations were strongly marked, and that great warrior and historian more than once declares that the Germans must have been a nation differing in origin from the Gauls. 5. The southern part of Gaul was frequently visited by the Phoenician, Carthagenian and Grecian merchants, for the purpose of commerce, but the most important event connected with this part of the country was the foundation of Marseilles by the Pho- J„f.' caeans, who introduced a spirit of commercial enterprise, and taught the inhabitants the arts of social life. 6. Although the Gauls did not make such extensive conquests as the descendants of Cush, they sent out several hordes at various timv s which spread ruin and devastation over the finest parts of Eu-ope. About the time of the first Cimbrian migration a body of these wanderers crossed the Alps and seized the Ita lian province, which, by a slight corruption of their name, was thence called Umbria. At a subsequent pe- -*„q* riod a new horde seized the north of Italy, and gave it the name of Cisalpine Gaul. The rich productions of Italy, and especially its wines, continued to attract fresh warriors across the Alps, and Rome itself nearly fell a „q^' prey to these barbarians. Another equally numerous horde penetrated into Greece and laid siege to Delphi; they were driven from this with great slaughter, but their numbers being increased bv fresh recruits, they became formidable

10 HISTGilY or FRANCE.

enemies to the successors of Alexander, they engaged in destructive civil wars. After a variety of adventures some of them settled in the north of Thrace, but the greater part, passing over the Hellespont, seized on a province of Asia Minor, which was thence called Gallatia or Gallo-Grsecia.

7. The Gauls were always jealous of the people of Marseilles, whom they looked on as intruders, and the wars between the native Celts and the Grecian colonists afforded the first pretence to the Romans for invading their country. They did not resign their liberties without a desperate resistance, and Caesar resided ten years in their country before he had completed their subjugation.

8. The Gauls possessed all the characteristics of the Celtic race : they had a fair complexion, light hair, blue eyes, and loud voices ; their temper was lively and enthusiastic, but they were deficient in steadiness and perseverance. Their first attack in battle was almost irresistible, but if that was repelled, they did not sustain the fight with equal courage. They were ardent in their likings and dislikings, but so fickle as to pass from the extreme of affection to that of hatred on the most trivial grounds. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that a similar character is usually given to the modern French.

9. The rivers of ancient Gaul frequently overflowed the country, and the marshes thus formed divided it into three great districts, Aquitain in the south, the territory of the Celts in the middle, and that of the Belgae on the north The inhabitants were divided into several tribes, each governed by their respective sovereign, and these were again subdivided into septs or clans, the head or chief of which possessed an almost absolute authority in his own domains. 10. These different communities were held together by a federal union similar to that of the Amphictyonic council in Greece, but there was no regular time appointed for holding the grand council ; it was only summoned on occasions of great emergency, and consequently frequently met too late to avert the evil against which it was summoned to provide. The government of the Celts appears to have been every where a complete aristocracy, differing from that established in the feudal limes by the absence of any gradations between absolute power and absolute slavery.

11. But the most remarkable feature in all the Celtic nations is their order of ecclesiastical nobility called Druids. This class of men enjoyed the highest honours, and the

THE GAULS.

greatest privileges; they had the supreme control overall religious ceremonies, and appeal could be made to their tribunal in civil cases ; their persons were sacred, and they were exempted from all taxes and militarj service : in a word, they enjoyed so many immunities and distinctions, that princes were ambitious of being admitted into their societies. 13. They are divided into three classes, the Druids, properly so called, to whom the care of religion was entrusted; the Bards, who were the historical poets of the nation; and the Euvates, who were a kind of religious poets, that pretended to inspiration and delivered oracles. There were also female Druids, who were held in high respect, and frequently called

Druids.

to assist at the council of the nation. The British Druids were the most celebrated, and the candidates for the priesthood were freauently sent from Gaul into Britain to complete their education. 13. The sun and fire were worshipped as the most forcible emblems of the Supreme Divinity; but they also adored the moon, and a host of inferior deities. The Druids exceeded all other heathens in the extravagant cruelty of their sacrifices; they not only offered up human victims singly, but on some occasions they formed a huge colossal figure of a man, from osier twigs, and having filled U with human beings, surrounded it with hay, and reduced it, with all the miserable creatures it contained, to ashes. Th« great object of their reverence was the deru^ or oak, from which their name is derived ; and the misletoe, a parasitical plant, sometimes found growing on the oak, was especially venerated; it w^as annually cut with great ceremony, and carefully preserved by the Arch-Druid, or chief of the priests.

14. The learning of the Druids was confined, in a great degree, to a smattering of astronomy and anatomy : the former they cultivated in consequence of their belief in the inriuence of the stars, the latter they learned from the dissection of their human victims; but they seem never to have derived any practical advantage from either study. Like the priests of Egypt and Persia, they are said to have had two systems of religious belief, one for the vulgar, and one for the initiated ; to the latter they taught the unity of the Godhead, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the worthlessness of many practices required from the vulgar. The doctrine of the Metempsychosis which Pythagoras published to the Greeks appears to have prevailed amongst the Druids from the remotest antiquity.

15. The Druids were detested by the Romans because they stimulated the inhabitants to the most vigorous efforts for their independence ; when, therefore, Gaul became a Roman province, the Druids were discouraged and their numbers diminished. Early in the second century, Christianity was introduced into the country, and spread over it with surprising rapidity. Many superstitious observances derived from the Druids prevailed, however, for several centuries afterwards. 10. It is worthy of remark, that the Celts were the most easily converted, and the most devotedly attached to the church of all the nations of antiquity. The Gothic nations, after their conversion, for the most part fell into the Arian heresy, but the Gauls were always zealously attached to the Catholic doctrines.

17. After the subjugation of Gaul by the Romans, the vanquished adopted the language and customs of the conquerors; the ferocity of the Gauls was abated, the arts of civilized life introduced, and the former national character almost effaced. But with their freedom the Gauls lost the military spirit by which their ancestors had been distinguished ; luxury destroyed their courage, and they fell an easy prey to the descendants of those barbarians, by whom their ancestors had been expelhd from the east of Europe.

THE GAULS

IS

Questions.

1. From whom were the Cimbri descended?

2. What nations sprung from Ciish ?

3. When did the Cimmerians migrate from the Danube*

4. How were the territories of the Celtic and Scythian tribes

divided?

5. What mercantile nations colonized the south of Gaul ? 6 Dill the Gauls invade any of the European states?

7. How did they regard the Phocean settlement of Marseilles 7

8. What were the national characteristics of the Gauls ?

9. How was the country divided?

10. Was there any bond of connection between the several tribes! 11 Who were the ministers of their religion?

12. What were the gradations of rank among the Druids?

13. Can you mention any particulars of their religion?

14. In what branches of learning were they distinguished?

15 Why were the Druids disliked by the Romans?

16 How did the Gothic and Celtic Christians differ ?

17 What was the eftect of the subjugation of Gaul ?

Ancient Celts or Cymri, called by Herodotus Cimmeriana.

u

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

Merovaeus.

Chapter II. The Franks— From The Reign Of Clovis To The Accession Of Charlemagne

How easy 'tis when destiny proves kind, With full-spread sails to run before the wind.

Drtdeit,

1, The Romans continued undisturbed masters of Gaul during two entire centuries ; but about the year 260, various barbarous tribes began to make incursions into it; the emperors, sunk in debauchery, neglected the care of the provinces, and this beautiful country became the prey of its ferocious invaders. In the year 414, the Biirgundians and Visi goths, two Germanic tribes, obtained from the emperor Honorius settlements in the southern provinces of Gaul, while the northern parts were seized on by the Franks, a tierce tribe, who had assumed their name from their firm determination io remain free. Tnese people invaded Belgic Gaul, and, after a struggle which continued more than a century, succeeded in making themselves masters of a considerable tract, of which they made Treves the capital.

Inauguration of a King of the Franks.

2. Before the accession of Clovis, several kings ruled over the Franks, of whom the most celebrated .0^' was Pharamond ; he, as well as king Arthur, is a favourite hero of romance; his dynasty is usually called the Merovingian, from Meroveus their supposed ancestor. 3. On the accession of Clovis, who was inaugurated in the usual manner of kings of the Franks by raising him on the shield, Gaul was divided into five states; tliat of the Burgundians and Visigoths in the south, that of the Franks in the north-east, the independent republic of Armorica, which occupied the place of the present province of Brittany, and a small part of Belgic Gaul, which still remained subject to the Romans. 4. The first enterprise of Clovis was an attack on the Roman province where Syagrius, the provincial governor, was aiming at royal power ; Clovis, at the early age of nineteen, completely defeated Syagrius near Soissons, drove out the Romans, and thus laid the foundation of the future greatness of the French monarchy. It was after this battle, and the sacking of the city of the Soissons, that an

HISTORY OF FRA.NCE.

incident occurred, showing the little authority possessed by the kings of the Franks over their subjects. Saint Reini, the Bishop of Rheiras, demanded of Clovis a sacred vase, wliich he had seen among the spoils of the city. Willing to propitiate the priests, and if possible gain them to his interests, Clovis was about to take up the vase and present it to the bishop, when a soldier, springing forward, struck it a violent blow with his battle-axe, which broke it into many pieces, declaring that he would not let the king take any thing belonging to his part. of the booty. Clovis for a time restrained his anger; but about a year afterwards, seizing the opportunity of a review of his troops, he struck the battle-axe from the hands of the soldier, and while he stooped to pick it up he killed him with a blow of his own axe, saying, Remember tlie vase of Soissons.

The Vase of Soissons.

5. The Gauls detested the Roman yoke, and were ilrongfy attached to Christianity. Clovis won their affections by treating them with mildness, respecting their religion, and favouring their bishops. His marriage with Clotilda, niece of Gondebald king of Burgundy, made his new subjects enter

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

THE FRANKS.

tain hopes that he would abjure idolatry for the Christian faith ; to which he was gradually reconciled by the exhortations of that pious princess ; but he hesitated to make an im mediate change on account of the attachment of the Franks to their ancient faith. 6. At length, having defeated the Alemanni at Tolbiac, and attributing that victory .' ' to the God of Clotilda, whom he had invoked in th-e

Clovis at the Battle of Tolbiac.

crisis of the engagement, he caused himself to be baptized by St. Remi, bishop of Rheims, and the greater part of his subjects followed ilis example. After this event, having the support of the bishop'j, Clovis greatly enlarged his dominions. He extended his conquests to the Loire ; and the battle of Voille, near Tour?- gained against the Visigoths, enabled the victorious Franks to carry their banners from Toulouse to Bonrdeaux, across the whole of Aquitania. On his return from the conquest Clovis entered in triumph the _' „' city of Tours. 7. The crimes of Gondebald afforded Clovis a pretext for attacking the Burgundians ; he was joined in this war by Theodoric the Great, king of Italy; but after having completed the conquest, Clovis found that he had more cause to dread his ally than his enemy, he therefore made peace with Gondebald and restored him to his dominions

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

8. Clovis next resolved to seize on the territoiies of Alalic, king of the Visigoths; he covered his designs under the mask of religion, continually exclaiming against the horrid impiety of suffering Arians to reign in Gaul, for the Visigoths had adopted that heresy. Though Alaric was no persecutor, the Catholic clergy in his dominions favoured the enterprise

of Clovis, and afforded one of the earliest instances ^(17* ^^ ecclesiastical interference in the affairs of nations.

At the battle of Vouille, near Poictiers, Clovis crowned the wishes of his party by a decisive victory, in which the Visigoths were totally overthrown and their sovereign Alaric slain. 9. Theodoric, alarmed at the progress of the Gauls, sent an army across the Alps, which checked the victorious career of Clovis, and inflicted on him a severe defeat near Aries. In consequence of this, Provence and part of Aquilain became subject to the Gothic monarchs of Italy.

Clovis.

10. Clovis dishonoured the latter part of his reign by Btrocious acts of treach-^ry and cruelty to his own relations, virhom he stripped of their possessions. At the same time he built churches and monasteries; doubtless from

A. D.

a persuasion that the Divine laws, like those of the barbarians, admitted a pecuniary compensation foi every crime.

THE FRANKS.

11. On the death of Clovis his dominions were shared among his four sons, Thierry, Clodomir, Childebert, and Ciotaire ; and the monarchy was unhappily dismembered into four kingdoms ; Austrasia or Metz, Orleans, Paris, and Soissons. This division of necessity produced the most bloody civil wars ; the brothers became bitter enemies, and perpetrated the most savage enormities. Ciotaire and Childebert wrested their dominions from the sons of Clodomir, two of whom Ciotaire stabbed with his own /„ .' hand. They afterwards united in an invasion of Burgundy, in which they were completely successful.

ciotaire I.

12. After a series of ruinous wars, Ciotaire I. became the sole monarch of France; but deriving no advantage from experience of the calamities that had been caused by the former dismemberment of the kingdom, he too divided the monarchy between his four sons, and thus bequeathed another halfcentury of civil war to his unfortunate country.

13. The evils of this calamitous period were greatly aggravated by the sanguinary ambition of two women, who rather deserved the epithet of furies than the title of queens These were Brunehaut and Fredegonde. The former, a princess of Spain, had married Sigebert, king of Austrasia

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

the latter, at first mistress of Chilperic, king of Soissons, had prevailed on him to espouse her after divorcing his wife. Their mutual hatred and uncontrolled influence over theii husbands, gave birth to numerous crimes equally fatal to the people and the royal family. Sigebert was murdered by Fredegonde's emissaries while he was besieging Chilperic in Tournay. She afterwards sacrificed the children of her husband by his former marriage to secure for her own son the

Brunehaut.

right of succession. Brunehaut, on her part breathing vengeance, armed the princes, and fanned the flames of civil war ; but at last, falling into the hands of Clotaire, the son of Fredegonde, she was condemned to the most horrid torments, as guilty of the murders of ten kings or children of kings.

There was an old German custom, according to which, the chief of a troop of warriors was expected to grant them, from time to time, some mark of his favour, generally an ornamented battle-axe, or a fine war-horse. When the Franks were established in Gaul, and the chief had become the king, instead of arms and horses, he preferred to distribute among them a part of his domains. Originally, these benefices were only temporary, being reunited to the royal domain after the death of the chief to whom they had been granted, or even during his life, in case of forfeiture or of treason. Trius the king's favours seldom lessened his means ; but, when he consented to alienate for ever portions more or less considerable of his domain, he soon found it impossible to repair his prodigalities. When the leudes could obtain no more from the king, they began to desert him •, an independent aristocracy was formed, which daily increased in power as the royal authority became less. It was the Austrasian leudes who first obtained this right by the treaty of Andelot : the Neustrian and Burgundian leudes were not slow in demanding and obtaining it also.

14. Clotaire II., son of Chilperic and Fredegonde, again united France under a single monarch, after massacring a multitude of princes. He restored tranquillity, and gained the confidence of his subjects, but by increasing the power of the nobility, and confiding tlie administration of government to the mayors of the palace^ he opened a way for the revolution which expelled his Simily from the throne.

A. D.

Fredegonde.

15. Clotaire II. left the kingdom between his two sons, but Dagobert, by the murder of his brother, ob- ^'J^' tained possession of the entire. He is the most celebrated of the Merovingian princes, and though he was guilty

•24

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

of many atrocious crimes, he is deservedly praised for hi* impartial administration of justice, which was publicly sold by his predecessors. On the other hand, he loaded the people with severe impositions, both to supply his debaucheries, 8nd according to the custom of the period, to expiate his •"imes by profuse donations to the church.

Throne of Dagobert, in the Museum at Paris.

16. After the death of Dagobert the monarchy fell ' „■ into the possession of a series of monarchs who followed each other in rapid succession, and whose reigns present an almost perfect blank. They are commonly called Les Rois Fain^ans, or the sluggard kings, and appear to have well merited the disgraceful appellation. 17. The entire power of the state was possessed by the mayors of the palace, who left to the monarch little more than the shadow of royalty ; of these the most illustrious was Pepin d'Heristal, who ruled the province of Austrasia for twenty-seven years with equal prudence and courage. During the greater part of this period Pepin was virtually the sovereign of France, and kept the rightful monarch a prisoner in the palace, permitting him only to show himself annually to the people at the assemblies in <he Champ de Mars.

THE FRANKS.

A. D.

18. Pepin was succeeded by his illegitimate son, Charles Martel, one of the greatest generals that 2\2 France has ever produced. 19. The Saracens, who had previously subdued the greater part of Spain, crossed the Pyrennees with an overwhelming force, and directing their course to Aquitain, defeated the governor, and subdued the

Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours.

greater part of the province. Charles Martel hasted to meet them, a battle was fought near Tours, and the '^^ Saracens were defeated with incredible slaughter. By this victory France was saved from becoming a Mohammedan country, and a check was given to the progress of a power which threatened the subjugation of Europe. 20. Thenceforward Martel employed himself in consolidating the strength of France, and introducing order into a kingdom which had been so long distracted. After having conferred these great blessings on his country he died, bequeathing the inheritance of his office to his sons Pepin and Carloman.

21. After having obtained some successes m Germany

A. D.

Ctrloman became disgusted with the world, and retired into a monastery; thus the whole authority of the state devolved

on Pepin, who resolved to add the title to the power _,' of sovereign. 22. At a time when the Pupal power

was assailed by the Greeks and Lombards, and when the support of an active partizan was likely to be well rewarded, Pepin laid before the Pope the following case of conscience, " Who ought to bear Uie title of king, a prince incapable of governing, or a minister already invested with the royal authority, which he administered with honour.?" The Pope decided as Pepin wished, the clergy of France embraced his cause with zeal, the nobility respected his abilities, and the nation in general willingly agreed to remove a race of obscure inactive kings, who were scarcely known, even by name. 23. Childeric, the nominal monarch, was degraded, and, together with his son, shut up in a monastery ; Pepin was, without resistance, raised to the throne, and solemnly anointed at Soissons by St. Boniface, Bishop of Mentz, who had been long one of his most vigorous supporters. Pepin repaid the Pope by leading an army into Italy against the opponents of the Holy See : this expedition was very successful, Pepin conquered the Lombards and the Greeks in every engagement, and wrested from them several provinces, all of which he gave to the Pope. 24. The remainder of Pepin's reign was glorious and fortunate: he subjected the Saxons and Sclavonians to tribute, obliged the duke of Bavaria to take an oath of fidelity, and reunited the province of Aqui-

tain to the French crown. He died in the seventeenth

' ' year of his reign, equally respected at home and abroad

' By consent of his nobility he divided his domin'ons

between his two sons, Charles and Carloman,the reign of tbt

former of whom forms a great epoch in history.

Questions.

1. What barbarous tribes established themselves in Gaolf

2 What was the first line of French princes ?

3 Hgw was Gaul divided at the accession of Clovia?

4. What was his first enterprise'?

5. How did Clovis conciliate the Gauls?

6. When did he turn Christian ?

7. Why did he make peace with Gondebald ?

8. On what pretence did he attack the Visigoths T

THE FRANKS.

d. By whom was Clovis defeated ?

10. What crimes stained the close of his reign?

11. How were his dominions divided ?

12. Who next became sole monarch of France?

13. Wliat females distracted tlie country by their crimes?

14. To what officers was the administration confided ?

15. What was the character of Dagobert?

16. By what name are his successors distinguished ?

17. Who was the most remarkable mayor of the palace?

18. By whom was Pepin succeeded?

19. From what enemy did Charles Martel rescue Chris'tendom 1

20. What other benefits did he confer on France ?

21. How did Pepin obtain the sole power?

22. What case of conscience did he submit to the Pope?

23. By whom was Pepin consecrated king ?

24. Was he a good sovereign ?

^t'**-!' H>;;«aet, Siiield, and Saddle.

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

Gbarlemagne, from a Mosaic, made by order of Pope Leo QL

Chapter III. The Reign Of Charlemagne

All was prepared — T;he fire, the sword, the me

To wield them in their terrible array; The army, like a lion from his den,