French East India Company

French East India Company

The French East India Company was one of several companies created to promote Western European commercial interests in Asia, particularly in India, beginning in the 17th century.

Lured by Spanish and Portuguese traders’ tales of lucrative spice exports from the European and other Asian markets.

France entered the Asia trading arena significantly later than Great Britain, which founded the British East India Company in 1600, and the Netherlands, which founded the Dutch East India Company (Indonesia/ Batavia) in 1602. While France attempted to cultivate trade connections with Asia in the early 17th century as well, initial expeditions failed to secure any trading posts or settlements.


During the reign of King Louis XIV (1643–1715), however, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of finance, reorganized earlier unsuccessful trade ventures into the French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales) in 1664.

Colbert sent an expedition that reached India in 1668 and built the first French factory (production center) in Surat on the western coast, and soon after another in Masulipatam on the eastern coast. In 1673, the company established its headquarters in Pondicherry, on the southeastern coast below Madras (now Chennai), and founded Chandannagar on the northeastern coast, north of Calcutta.

Madras and success rivaling that of Calcutta.

While France never became the dominant European authority in the region, for more than 50 years the French East India Company made great efforts to capitalize upon the expanding demand for textiles, dyes, and other goods that could be supplied by Indian merchants.

French accounts of the activities in port towns such as Surat detail the intricate steps involved in creating the fabrics, known collectively as indiennes (Indians). Particularly on the southeastern coast, Indian weaving villages generated thousands of bolts of textiles for eager European companies.

Most in demand were guinee cloths (cotton longcloth, usually 35 to 50 m in length), salempores (staple cotton cloth), and morees (cotton cloth of superior quality). Also coveted were the stunning toiles peintes (painted cloths) and toiles imprimés (printed cloths), as well as the magnificent silks and dyes.

The textiles were adored not only in Europe, but also in other parts of Asia; indeed, India had engaged in Asian textile trading centuries before Europeans arrived. In the Indonesian archipelago, China, and Japan, Indian cotton was popular for its lightweight, yet sturdy qualities.

In due course, the French, British, and Dutch acquired materials from India not only for their home countries, but for transport to Malacca or Java, for example, where they were traded for spices—cloves, nutmeg, mace, sugar, and pepper—crucial in Britain and Europe to preserve meats during harsh winters.

By the 18th century, the French had secured agreements to provide woven products tailored to Asian buyers’ interests: they had colored, patterned handkerchiefs specially woven for particular island markets, for example, which proved a successful entrepreneurial venture. Moreover, cloths of different types played a symbolic role in rites of passage and were sought after for use in birth, marriage, and death ceremonies, and bolts of cloth were commonly given as offerings or gifts.

A salient corollary to the French East India Company’s textile exchange is that its movements between Asia and Europe also supported the exchange of slaves. While the slave trade is often described as triangular, with the three corners Europe, Africa, and the Americas (the “New World”), trade between Europe and Asia also helped to sustain slavery.

French ships traded European goods in Asia, where they acquired cowry shells and Indian textiles highly valued in West Africa. Traders exchanged these goods in Africa for slaves, who were sent to France’s colonies in the Americas. “The circle was completed,” notes the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, “when sugar and other goods from the Americas were loaded on board and shipped back to France.”

In commencing trade with India, the French East India Company entered an already well established, complex economic system, an intricate network of production, negotiation, delivery, and distribution. Indian merchants operated large commercial fleets as well as prosperous shore-based businesses.

Inland weavers and merchants worked with overland freight deliverers and brokers, who worked with shipowners and exporters. All of these agents had to negotiate with local politicians and state officials for commercial privileges.

Regional and individual trading groups developed their own intra- and intercountry rules and practices as well. In order to gain access to the goods they desired, moreover, the French had to learn these rules and practices and successfully collaborate with indigenous envoys.

The French were able to develop manufacturing centers in various Indian states, but cooperating with Indian middlemen sometimes proved trying. In addition to conflicts between French traders and middlemen, clashes between traders and local authorities (and between middlemen and local authorities) often impeded successful business transactions.

The Dutch and the English had mastered the art of working with indigenous traders, shippers, and rulers much earlier than the French, and although their interactions were was not always seamless, they operated with that distinct advantage. In most of the towns and ports in which the French operated, there were also English and Dutch associates.

Where there was a French factory, there were likely to be English and Dutch factories as well. At the peak of the Indian trade, during which the demand for Indian goods exceeded the volume weavers and other artisans could produce, the presence of several East India companies, even in the same town, did not lead to serious rivalry.

As the three companies grew more competitive, however, the Dutch and particularly the English, better funded and more conversant in local business etiquette, were able to expand their factory outposts to larger industrial towns under their jurisdiction. These commercial strongholds became political enclaves, eventually enabling Great Britain to consolidate its power and control throughout India.

Despite its numerous settlements, after the death of Louis XIV, the French economy faltered and by 1719, the French East India Company was nearly bankrupt. The French East India Company resumed its independence in 1723.

While the British East India Company began as primarily a trading company, it increasingly became a governing power. As the British expanded not only economic but also political and colonial influence, tensions between Britain and France grew.

In 1742, Joseph Dupleix was appointed governor general of all French settlements in India and dedicated himself to exerting French power. He envisioned a French empire and to this end began to interfere in local Indian politics, playing local rulers against each other for his French benefit. In French port towns, officials equipped factories for defense.

The battle for supremacy led to a series of military conflicts between France and Britain, with triumph and defeat alternating between the two. In 1747, the French besieged and captured Madras. In 1751 and 1752, however, Englishman Robert Clive dislodged Dupleix’s forces in Arcot and Trichinopolgy, taking many French prisoners.

In 1754, the French government, anxious to make peace, recalled Dupleix to France. During the next half-century, British forces further colonized and forcefully subjugated much of India. While several Indian ports remained under French directive, Britain became the definitive Western authority of the Indian subcontinent.

Clive’s victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, which brought the state of Bengal under British control, is often cited as the landmark turning point of the British colonial heyday in India. Bereft of both authority and capital, Dupleix returned to the country for which he had so vigorously labored and died penniless in 1763.

Despite its earlier successes in both inter- and intra-continental trade, the French East India Company never regained its former eminence. Ultimately, King Louis XV suspended the enterprise; took over its forts, ships, and other properties; and in 1769, the French East India Company essentially dissolved.

Valois Dynasty

Valois Dynasty

The branch of the Capet family who ruled France from 1328 to 1589, the Valois, descended from 1285 when Philip III gave the county of Valois to his brother Charles. Charles’s son succeeded to the throne of France when the direct male line of the Capets failed in 1328.

The succession was challenged by the English king Edward III, who claimed a closer link to the Crown via his mother, the sister of the last king. This was one direct cause of the Hundred Years’ War.

There were three branches of Valois kings. The first was the direct line, reigning 1328–1498. The second was the Orleans branch, which reigned in the person of just one monarch, Charles V, noted poet Louis, was given the Duchy of Orleans. His descendant, Louis XII (1498–1515), succeeded in 1498.


The third branch, the House of Angoulême, which reigned from 1515 to 1589, also descended from Duke Charles of Orleans. When the male line of this family ended, it went to another branch of the royal family, the Bourbon dynasty, under Salic Law, which limited the royal succession to a paternal male relative.

The first king of the Valois family, Philip VI (1328–50), was unfortunate as he faced the great defeat of Crecy followed by the Black Death that took approximately one-third of France’s population. The second king, John the Good (1350–64), was captured at the Battle of Poitiers (1356) and spent the rest of his time as a prisoner of the English. This was a low point for France, as much of the country was occupied and facing civil unrest.

The later kings of the first branch proved more capable. Charles V (1364–80), often called the wisest of the Valois, was able to win back most of the English conquest but died young. His successor, Charles VI (1380–1422), succeeded as a child, gave promise of ability, but succumbed to insanity in 1392.

Thereafter, the French realm slid back into anarchy and eventual English invasion by Henry V, whose victory at Agincourt and intrigue by the House of Burgundy eventually led to a treaty in 1420 that made the English king, as the husband of Catherine of France, the heir. Perhaps half of France fell under English control.

The next king, Charles VII (1422–61), was not a great king but was called “the well-served” because of his advisers and aides. A series of events led to the eventual expulsion of the English from France during Charles VII’s reign. First, Joan of Arc inspired the French in her quest to rid her country of England.

Then Charles’s relatives persuaded him to establish the first standing army so as to reduce dependence on unreliable nobles. Additionally, the financier Jacques Coeur established a tax system to support the army. Together, these factors empowered the French to shake off English rule altogether.

Louis XI (1461–83), who along with Charles V, is considered the ablest of the Valois kings, faced a threat from Burgundy, which was an offshoot of the royal line of France. The duchy and county of Burgundy (Franche-Comté) together with much of the Netherlands were under the control of this family. Other nobles joined Charles to flout Louis XI’s authority.

Louis established a new civilian administration and gradually reduced the huge territories of the nobles. He was assisted by the defeat and death of his greatest rival, Charles of Burgundy, in 1477 so that with the exception of Brittany, the major fiefs of France had been annexed by his death. The marriage of his son Charles VIII (1483–98), who married the heiress of Brittany in 1498, completed the policy of consolidation.

On Charles’s death in 1498, the direct line ended, and Louis XII succeeded. He retained Brittany by marrying the widow of Charles VIII. He also continued the Italian Wars started by his predecessor. On his death in 1515, he was succeeded by his cousin and son-in-law Francis I.

A true Renaissance prince, Francis I spent the bulk of his reign struggling against the hegemony of the Habsburg dynasty as exemplified by charles v and I of Germany and Spain. His successor, Henry II, continued his policies. The French abandoned Italy at the end of his reign but gained the Lorraine territories of Metz, Toul, and Verdun.

The last kings of the Valois (Francis II, 1559–60; Charles IX, 1560–74; and Henry III, 1574–89) had their reigns overshadowed by the Wars of Religion between devout Catholics on the one hand and the Protestant Huguenots on the other. When the last of the kings was murdered by a religious fanatic motivated by revenge, the line ended after a tumultuous 261 years of rule.

Cardinal de Richelieu

Cardinal de Richelieu

Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu, was a French noble, clergyman, and statesman instrumental in laying the foundations of an absolutist state in France. Richelieu left a legacy of the use of authoritarian measures, such as censorship and the banning of political assemblies, to maintain power.

Historians have viewed Richelieu as either a patriot or a tyrant, and he was later vilified in Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel The Three Musketeers (1844). Richelieu also pioneered such ideas of modern international politics as national sovereignty and international law.

Richelieu was born in Paris in September 1585. His father, former grand provost of France, died fighting in the French Wars of Religion (1562–98). The family avoided debt through royal assistance and received the bishopric of Luçon as a reward.

Initially destined for a military career, Richelieu joined the Catholic clergy following his brother’s resignation of the bishopric of Luçon and became a bishop in 1607. He became the first French bishop to implement the institutional reforms issued by the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563.


He began his political career representing the clergy of Poitou in the States General of 1614. Richelieu demanded church exemption from taxation, the clergy’s retention of its privileges, summoning of bishops and prelates to the royal councils, and the condemnation of Protestantism. After the dissolution of the States General, Richelieu became the queen’s almoner.

His ambition drove his rapid political promotion. Richelieu became secretary of state in 1616 but left the position amid political intrigue. The advisers of Louis XIII (1601–43) continued to present Richelieu as a threat to royal authority. Consequently, Richelieu went into exile in 1618.

In 1619 Marie de Medici (1573–1642), the king’s mother, rebelled to regain the authority she held previously as regent. Richelieu was recalled to negotiate peace terms. He became a cardinal in 1622 and in 1624 reentered the king’s Council of Ministers, quickly becoming chief minister by conspiring against those who stood in his way.

As chief minister of France, Richelieu sought to consolidate royal authority while weakening that of the nobility. In 1626, he eliminated the prestigious military position of constable of France and ordered the feudal nobility to tear down most fortified castles, leaving only those necessary for defense against invaders.

These actions minimized the military threat of the nobility to the throne, thereby increasing and securing the king’s authority. While attempting to consolidate royal power, Richelieu also had to contend with the rising political ambitions of French Protestants, known as Huguenots, who countered national unity by threatening a religious schism.

The Huguenots controlled a large military and, aided by Charles I of England (1600–49), rebelled against the king. In 1627, Richelieu led a siege of the Huguenot fortress of La Rochelle and fended off an English expedition under command of the duke of Buckingham (1592–1628).

The fall of La Rochelle in 1628, and the peace of Alais in 1629, eliminated the political influence of Protestantism in France. Religious toleration, granted previously under the Edict of Nantes (1598), continued. Such a centralization of power within the person of the French king created an absolute monarchy.

Foreign Policy

Richelieu’s foreign policy focused on neutralizing the growing influence of the royal Habsburg family, which ruled both Austria and Spain. Despite being a member of the Catholic clergy, he brokered controversial alliances with foreign Protestant nations to counter the influence of Catholic Austria and Spain. Many within the Catholic clergy were opposed to Richelieu’s policies. Richelieu also supported the development of New France in North America.

While France was warring with its Huguenots, Spain attempted to spread its influence in northern Italy. Following La Rochelle’s capitulation, Richelieu led an army into northern Italy to counter Spanish ambitions.

Marie de Medici sought revenge against Richelieu and conspired with the king’s brother, Gaston, duc d’Orléans (1608–60), for his dismissal. On November 11, 1630, known as Day of the Dupes, the king agreed to the request of his mother and brother, only to be persuaded by Richelieu to alter this decision.

While Louis XIII was never fond of Richelieu, this was his only attempt to remove him. The king later created his chief minister duc de Richelieu and a peer of France. Richelieu continued to consolidate his position through a large network of spies in France and abroad.

During the 1630s, Richelieu aligned France with Protestant German princes during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) to counter the threat to France posed by Habsburg control of the Holy Roman Empire to the east and of Spain to the west. France suffered initial defeats and Richelieu was declared a traitor to the Catholic Church.

Financial costs of the war caused a strain on the king’s finances and Richelieu imposed taxes on salt and land. The clergy and nobility were exempt from such taxes, thereby placing the burden on the peasants and bourgeoisie. For more efficient tax collecting, tax officials were replaced with intendants who worked directly for the king. There were several peasant uprisings between 1636 and 1639, all of which were crushed.

Richelieu and the Arts

Richelieu was a patron of the arts and in 1636 founded the Académie française to promote French literature. Richelieu authored numerous religious and political works while funding the careers of notable literary figures, including Pierre Corneille (1606–84). In 1622, Richelieu became principal of the Sorbonne, sponsoring the college’s renovation and the construction of a chapel.

He also amassed one of the largest art collections in Europe. Richelieu continued to have uneasy relations with Pope Urban VIII (1568–1644) and the Catholic Church. The pope, to amend the situation, made Jules Mazarin (1602–61), one of Richelieu’s closest political allies, a cardinal in 1641. With his health increasingly failing, Richelieu named Mazarin his successor. Richelieu died in 1642 and was interred at the Sorbonne.

Louis XIV (1638–1715) inherited the throne in 1643 and continued Richelieu’s work of creating an absolute monarchy by further reducing the nobility’s power and the remnants of political power held by Huguenots. Following success in the Thirty Years’ War, Louis XIV positioned France as the dominant European continental power.

Peter Abelard and Heloise

Peter Abelard and Heloise

Peter Abelard (1079–1142) was an abbot in the monastery of Saint-Gildas in the province of Brittany, France. He was born in Nantes, moved to Paris at the age of 15, and attended the University of Paris. He became a prolific writer, composing philosophical essays, letters, an autobiography, hymns, and poetry. He is best known for his intellectual work in the area of nominalism, the antithesis of realism and basis of modern empiricism.

His book Sic et Non posed a number of theological and philosophical questions to its readers. In Ethics, he began two works: “Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew and a Christian” and “Know Yourself.” Neither work was completed. His rebellious nature frequently angered people, particularly those in positions of authority.

Often his independent thinking gave rise to conflicts, especially when he demonstrated mastery of a subject being taught by a mentor. On one occasion he challenged his former teacher, William of Champeaux, regarding realism and logically proved that nominalism, also known as conceptualism, explained what realism could not prove.

At a time when education was not yet public, professors had no permanent place to teach. They would post an announcement that advertised where and when they would teach a particular subject and wait for students to arrive. In this way they established a following. Abelard was quite brilliant at age 25 and set up his own school despite limited teaching experience.


He founded his school uncomfortably close to his former teachers’, provoking their anger. He lived a life of extremes, gaining the admiration, respect, and awe of those who studied under him, but often receiving the wrath of those whom he defied. He was accused of heresy on many occasions and at one point was forced to leave his monastery because he aggravated his peers so intensely. On two occasions he was excommunicated from the church.

Heloise (1101–64) was the highly intelligent, beautiful, and charming niece of Fulbert, a prominent canon of Notre-Dame. Fulbert doted on her and demanded that she have only the best education, which took her to Paris near the monastery. Abelard heard of Heloise and requested that he be allowed to tutor her in her home. Permission was granted, and he moved in.

There he found an eager pupil, 22 years his junior, and they soon became involved in a physical as well as scholarly relationship. When Heloise became pregnant, they rejoiced in their child (whom they later named Astrolabe) and made plans to marry. Heloise was fiercely independent and would not be forced into a marriage where she had no rights.

But in her collected letters she mentions that she did not want to bring shame on Abelard by being a burden to him. In order to hide their relationship, and Heloise’s imminent delivery, Abelard took her to his sister’s house, where she stayed until she gave birth to their son. They secretly married in Paris, with only Heloise’s uncle and a few of their friends in attendance. Right after the marriage, Heloise took refuge in the Argenteuil convent to allay any gossip regarding her relationship with Abelard.

Unaware that both Heloise and Abelard had planned this provisional measure, Fulbert thought that Abelard had abandoned Heloise and forced her into a nunnery. He planned to ambush and restrain him and cut off Abelard’s genitalia. In a series of maneuvers he arranged to pay one person to put a sleeping powder in Abelard’s evening meal and his servant to allow a gate to remain open.

Fulbert sent word that he was looking for a Jewish physician to perform the sordid mutilation. After he had assembled his kinsmen and associates, they sought out Abelard and performed the horrible act. After the surgical alteration, Abelard took vows to become a monk at the monastery of Saint-Denis and persuaded Heloise to take vows to become a nun in a convent in Argenteuil.

Although their physical relationship could not continue, they remained in contact throughout their lives. Ironically, Abelard, who had previously considered himself a ravening wolf to whom a tender lamb had been entrusted, wrote that the alteration had been a positive rather than a harmful event.

He wrote, “... divine grace cleansed me rather than deprived me ...” and that it circumcised him in mind as in body to make him more fit to approach the holy altar and that “no contagion of carnal pollutions might ever again call me thence.”

Abelard and Heloise have been resurrected in a variety of artistic genres since their plight was first told in the 12th century. Although never completed, in 1606 William Shakespeare wrote the play Abélard and Elois, a Tragedie. Josephine Bonaparte, upon hearing the tragic story, made arrangements for the two to be buried together in Père LaChaise Cemetery in Paris.

Their modest sepulcher can be found on the map at the entrance to the cemetery. In 1819 Jean Vignaud (1775– 1826) painted Abélard and Heloïse Surprised by the Abbot Fulbert (Les Amours d’Héloïse et d’Abeilard), which is now at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. The extent to which artists have chosen Abelard and Heloise to create operas, plays, and movies is testament to the universality and poignancy of their story.

Philip IV - King of France

Philip IV - King of France

Philip IV, also known as “Philip the Fair,” was born in 1268 to Philip III and Isabel of Aragon and succeeded his father as king of France upon the latter’s death in October 1285.

As earlier Capetian monarchs, Philip enhanced the size of royal territory, adding the lands of Champagne and Brie through his marriage to Jeanne of Navarre in 1284, and forcibly subjecting much of Flanders to French suzerainty in 1305.

In his endeavor to wrestle control of the duchy of Gascony away from the English King Edward I (1272–1307), Philip clashed with the medieval papacy over the issue of royal authority in France.


Philip provoked hostilities with Edward in 1296 when he seized much of Gascony. Preparing to repulse Edward’s invasion of France, Philip levied a tax on the French clergy in order to pay for the war.

Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303) vehemently objected to Philip’s actions, holding that by canon law kings could only tax clergy in consultation with the pope. His bull Clericis laicos (1296) asserted this position and threatened excommunication to any ruler who attempted to tax the clergy of his land without papal approval.

In retaliation Philip halted all revenues from France to Rome, forcing Boniface to relent and acknowledge that Philip had the right freely to tax the clergy of France for the defense of the realm.

The two rulers clashed again over royal authority in 1301 when Philip’s officials, ignoring the practice of clerical immunity from secular courts, arrested the French bishop Bernard Saisset on charges of treason and prepared to try him in a royal court.

Defying Boniface’s order to shift the trial to Rome and the pope’s subsequent threats, Philip convened the first meeting of the Estates General in France (1302–03), to gain the backing of the nobles, clergy, and burghers in his quarrel with the pope.

In 1302 Boniface issue the bull Unam sanctam, which asserted the most extensive claims of the papacy to intervene in secular affairs ever voiced in the Middle Ages. With Philip still in defiance, in 1303 Boniface prepared to excommunicate the king, but Philip struck first.

His agents attempted to kidnap the pontiff from his summer palace in Anagni, south of Rome, and bring him back to France to stand trial as a heretic and schismatic. While the attempt failed, the aged pontiff was so unsettled that he died shortly thereafter.

Following the brief pontificate of Benedict XI (1303–04), Philip pressured the college of cardinals to elect the bishop of Bordeaux pope, who took the name Clement V (1305–14). Clement moved the papacy to Avignon in southern France, thus beginning the kurun of the “Babylonian Captivity” of the church.

Philip’s ruthlessness and ambition, clearly evident in his handling of Boniface VIII, were fueled by lawyers and other advisers who implemented his policy. Unscrupulous and apparently unfettered by morality, men such as Guillaume de Nogaret championed a view of royal power and authority that left no room for rivals.

Philip IV (seated) and Edward I (kneeling)

We need look no further than Philip’s treatment of the Jews or of the order of the Knights Templar in France. Running short of money to finance his wars, in 1306 Philip ordered the Jews out of France, confiscated their property, and took over the collection of all the debts owed to them.

The following year he set about systematically destroying the wealthy and powerful Templars, who had become large financiers of the royal debt. By 1312 Philip, backed by Clement V in Avignon, had destroyed this once proud military order in France, executing many of its members on charges of heresy and confiscating their wealth for the royal coffers.

Both the reach and efficiency of royal government grew under Philip. He showed great acumen in developing the tools of government that enabled him to rule efficiently.

He established the Chambre des Comptes, or the royal treasury, and developed the royal court known as the Parlement, which made royal justice available to nobles and burghers alike. Collectively Philip’s rule marked the apogee of the late medieval monarchy in France.

Philip II Augustus

Philip II Augustus, king of France (r. 1180–1223), was, born in 1165, to Louis VII (1137–80) and his third wife, Adèle of Champagne, near Paris. Following the custom of the Capetian dynasty, Louis had young Philip crowned at Reims cathedral as his successor while he was still alive on November 1, 1179.

With the old king’s health quickly declining, the young crowned prince assumed much of the responsibility of running the royal government. In September of the following year when Louis died, Philip became king in his own right.

Philip faced formidable obstacles to his authority in France. His father had been dominated at court by his wife, Adèle, and her three powerful brothers, the counts of Blois and Champagne, and the archbishop of Reims.

Moreover the basis for power in 12th century feudal France was land, and the territory of the Capetian monarchy was limited to a number of modest holdings around the region of the Île-de-France, which centered on Paris.


But those of Philip’s most powerful vassal, Henry Plantagenet, included the duchies of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Brittany. Through his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry also held the duchy of Aquitaine as well as Tourraine and Gascony.

Together, they made up more than half of the territory of medieval France and far outstripped the holdings of the French king. The fact that Henry was also king of England (1154–89) further diminished the ability of either Louis or Philip to exercise meaningful control over Henry as lord of his French holdings.

Philip began to lay the groundwork for the resurgence of royal power in France through his marriage to Isabelle d’Hainault in April 1180, through which he acquired the wealthy county of Artois, near Flanders.

Through Isabelle he was able to lay further claims to lands and towns in northeastern France. By 1186 Philip had rid himself of his troublesome uncles and secured control over a widening area of royal lands.

However his most obstreperous vassal remained Henry II of England with his vast territorial holdings in western France. From 1186 to 1188 Philip achieved little success on the battlefi eld against Henry but was more successful when allied with Henry’s two sons, Richard and John, in their revolt against the king in 1189.

Defeated shortly before his death in July 1189, Henry made several minor territorial concessions to Philip. Inheriting his father’s lands in France upon becoming king of England Richard I (r. 1189–99) proved as intractable a foe as had Henry II.

The lengths to which Philip would go to defeat his antagonist are revealed by his behavior during and after the Third Crusade, in which both he and Richard participated.

Leaving France together in 1190, the two quarreled along the way and proved uneasy allies during the siege of Acre. After the city fell in July 1191, Philip quickly abandoned Richard and headed home.

Returning to France, he intrigued against the English king and was instrumental in having Richard held captive by the German Emperor Henry IV when he fell into the emperor’s hands while returning from the crusade. Outright hostilities between the two recommenced upon Richard’s release in 1194.

With the ascension of John I to the English throne (1189–1216) Philip’s fortune improved dramatically. By 1206 he had succeeded in wrestling control of Normandy, Maine, Tourraine, Anjou, Poitou, and Brittany from John, leaving him only in possession of Aquitaine.

Acre fell to Philip II and Richard I

A major attempt by John to recapture his lost territories with the German Emperor Otto IV as ally was repulsed in 1214, ensuring Philip’s position as the dominant feudal lord and most powerful landholder in France.

Philip showed a keen disposition for administrative affairs. He created a new class of royal officials, the baillis, who collected taxes and administered royal justice in his newly acquired lands.

To ensure loyalty these officials were recruited from the townsmen and lower nobles of the realm and were paid a salary. In the south these officials were called seneschals, and because they wielded military powers, they came from the nobility.

Philip further developed the royal administration by giving it a permanent home in Paris and having his treasury perform an annual audit on the baillis. Crucial in Philip’s ability to control his vassals was his growing alliance with the burghers, whose talent and taxes he exploited.

The growth in royal revenues enabled the king to employ mercenaries in place of the feudal levy, further diminishing his reliance upon the nobles. Taken together Philip’s actions turned the Capetian ruler into the most powerful feudal monarch of his day and laid the framework for the future growth of royal power.

Louis IX

Louis IX

Zealous and dashing, chauvinistic and impulsive are all terms that describe the reign of Louis IX, king of France. He showed heroic virtues of character, but he also seemed blind to the contributions of people who did not share his own values. He took action against corruption, but he also had complicated relations with Jews and Muslims.

He wanted to imitate the poverty of Jesus by living as a monk but contented himself with making penitence and humility his aim in life. He engaged in self-flagellation to curb his desires for food and sex and even gossip, and he wore a hair shirt under his royal robes.

He was famous for showing mercy to his foes and generosity to the poor. He was the patron of French universities and several times invited Thomas Aquinas to dinner. When deathly ill in 1244, he promised God that he would fight a crusade if healed, and so he did in 1248.

Captured in 1250 he was freed when he pledged to give up his conquest in Egypt and pay a huge ransom. He remained in Syria, attempted to draw the Mongols into the conflict on the side of the Europeans, and tried to stir up divisions among Muslims in the Middle East.


His conduct in battle reflected his piety. He opened up investigations against the crimes of the resident crusaders and paid restitutions. He ordered that Muslims should be captured alive. He worked hard to convert Muslims and brought many of them back with him to France, where he supported them.

He told his fighters that they would go to paradise if they died in battle because they were martyrs. When he was not piously fighting on the battlefield, he was piously applying his morality to domestic affairs.

He limited his own officials from encroaching unduly on the jurisdiction of the aristocracy. He set up a system of ombudsmen (enquêteurs) to hold nobles accountable for their conduct in local settings. In this way he tried to standardize government administration. He reformed the national currency and asserted the right of the state to regulate money. He allowed the judiciary a degree of independence, and the Parliament was formed.

Louis IX statue

In France he was intolerant of Jews and heretics, especially those called the Cathars. He forbade usury, permitted no obscenity at court, ordered all blasphemers to be branded, and discouraged trial by combat. Against the Jews he was particularly prejudiced, allowing the public burning of the Talmud and ultimately requiring that Jews wear a red badge on their chest, eerily prescient of the Nazi practice of identifying French Jews by a yellow star.

He embarked on another crusade in the late 1260s but was diverted to Tunis (North Africa), where he died in 1270. He was worn out by his self-imposed religious exercises, as well as by illness and dysentery.

As he lay dying he summoned the Greek ambassadors and urged them to reconcile with the Church of Rome. His body was sent back to France. Wherever his body went, miracles were reported among the Christian faithful. He was promoted for canonization and named a saint in 1297.

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc), the national heroine of France, was born at Domrémy village on January 6, 1412, to Jacques Darc and Isabelle. Joan exhibited a pious character and was often absorbed in her prayers. At 13 years old, she started hearing inner voices calling upon her to drive the English out of France. A civil war was going on in France and the English were supporting the Burgundians.

The assassination of Louis of Orléans by the agents of Burgundy had escalated the conflict. Domrémy was with the Orléanist (or Armagnacs), the party of Charles of Ponthieu (later known as King Charles VII, r. 1422–61). Joan supposedly received heavenly commands from St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and the Archangel Michael to rescue Orléans.

The English ruler Henry VII (r. 1422–61), claimant to the French throne, occupied Paris in 1418. The major cities of northern France ceased to be under Charles VII’s control. The situation was becoming critical after the English lay siege to Orléans, the last Armagnac stronghold, on October 12.


Joan, with her mandate from God, saved the situation for the French king. Dressed in male attire, she rode for 11 days with her escorts to meet Charles. Joan called herself as La Pucelle (the Maiden or Virgin) as she had promised the saints to keep her virginity. She believed that Charles was the true heir to the French throne.

An ecclesiastical commission headed by the archbishop of Rheims, Reginald of Chartres, supported her cause after thorough interrogation. Joan had shown remarkable calmness before the theologians and her reputation as another saint was spreading. Charles was convinced of her simplicity, honesty, and intuition.

Joan dressed as a knight, commanding a large force against the English and Burgundians. With her piety and simplicity, Joan restored the confidence of the French. She advised the English to leave France per the desire of the son of Saint Mary. Joan entered into Orléans in May 1429 and defeated the English. Some of the English soldiers deserted, thinking that they were being opposed by the supernatural prowess of Joan.

She portrayed the Orléanists as patriots, the Burgundians as traitors, and the English as the enemy of France. In June the towns of Jargeau and Beaugency fell. Joan defeated the troop led by Sir John Fastolf of Meung in the battle of Patay. The archbishop of Embrun declared in June that she was divinely inspired and requested Charles to seek her advice pertaining to war.

Battle of Patay

Joan urged Charles to declare himself as the legitimate ruler of France. Reginald of Chartres performed the coronation ceremony on July 17, 1429, at Rheims, place of traditional crowning of the French kings. She began her second mission as inner voices urged her to take back Paris from Burgundians.

Charles and his adviser the archbishop did not support her. The king was more interested in a political rapprochement with the Burgundians. Joan and the duke of Alençon, along with new recruits, marched toward Paris on August 23. The vacillating policy of the king and advisers had given enough time for the English and Burgundians to regroup.

Meanwhile Joan was trying to persuade the inhabitants of many towns to rally behind the king. The stories of her miracles came in March and April 1430 amid war. At Lagny-sur-Marne, she and the virgins of the town revived the dead body of a baby temporarily to be baptized.

On Easter Day of April 22 she had visions from the saints that the enemy would capture her before Saint John’s Day, on June 24. She also had the premonition of her inevitable demise on the day of her capture on May 23 at Compiègne. She was imprisoned and sold to the English for a sum of 10,000 livres by the Burgundians.

A sham trial began at the headquarters of the English at Rouen. Pierre Cauchon was in charge of the trial, and the bishop of Beauvais was the presiding officer. The former had the reputation of bribing officials, and the latter had lost his bishopric because of Joan. Anybody speaking in favor of the defendant was imprisoned. The trial by inquisitorial tribunal increased the reputation of Joan because of her brilliant answers to the accusation that her voices were inspired by the devil.


She was pronounced a relapsed heretic and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. In her last breath Joan forgave the accusers and uttered the name of Jesus. Jean Tressard, secretary to the king of England, commented that they had burned a holy person. The executioner, Geoffroy Theragew, was apprehensive that he was damned because he had burned a saint.

The unification of France came after her death. Charles restored her name and declared the trial illegal. Even dispensing with the supernatural factors associated with her, the fact remains that she became a living symbol of French nationalism. Her role was a major contributing factor for separating the English from Burgundians, reviving confidence among the French, and driving out the English from France. The papacy declared in 1456 that Joan was wrongly convicted.

It pronounced her as martyr and the trial judges as heretics. She was beatified on April 11, 1909, and canonized as a saint 11 years afterward on May 16. The feast day of St. Joan falls on the second Sunday in May. The spirit of St. Joan lived on. During World War I, the Allied soldiers paid tribute to her. Both the World War II.