Louis XI

Louis XI

Louis XI, son of Charles VII, was a king of France from the Valois dynasty that had replaced the Capetian dynasty a century earlier. A schemer whose reputation in history was solidified when Sir Walter Scott condemned him a century later, Louis was nicknamed “the Spider King” for his weaving of webs of intrigue. At age 16, he tried to overthrow his father, Charles VII.

The so-called Praguerie—Prague had been the site of similar uprisings—was the second such led by the duke of Bourbon, as the nobility sought to remove Charles from power and replace him with Louis, in response to Charles’s limits on noble power and reforms increasing the power of the monarchy. When the revolt failed, the major participants, including Louis, were forgiven after their surrender and submission.

Six years later, Louis was sent to the province of Dauphine to govern and never saw his father again. They continued to plot against each other, and Charles even sent soldiers to retrieve Louis in 1456, but the prince was given shelter by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy. Charles died five years later, and Louis succeeded him at the age of 38.

Two Charleses—Louis’s brother the duke of Berry and Normandy, and Philip’s son Charles the Bold—led a revolution against Louis, each motivated by the desire to expedite his inheritances and seeking Louis’s removal in the name of breaking down the centralized authority of the French monarchy. Like Louis’s rebellion against his father, it was unsuccessful—and like the aftermath of that rebellion, the participants were forgiven after submitting to the king’s authority.


Louis was the king of France during England’s Wars of the Roses, and since the rebel Charles the Bold was an ally of the Yorkists, Louis supported the Lancastrians, even manipulating events in order to force France’s Yorkist king Edward IV into exile.

When Edward was restored to power, Louis prevented his planned retaliatory invasion of France by relinquishing any French claim to the English throne—which became another bone of contention between the king and the nobility. When Louis finally decisively defeated Charles, there were no pardons this time—the rebel was killed in battle and many of his noble supporters executed.

Louis strengthened the monarchy, further limiting the powers of the nobility even as he granted more power to common-born merchants. Though he was poorly remembered, France prospered under him—prosperity it lost under the reign of his son, Charles VIII, a pleasant-natured man called Charles the Affable whose bumbling led to mounting debts, ill-considered wars, and treaties that put the kingdom at severe disadvantage as the Middle Ages waned.

The Fronde

Battle of the Faubourg St Antoine (1652) by the walls of the Bastille, Paris

The Fronde (1648–53) was a civil war that took place in France during the abad of Louis XIV. Although not a particularly unified movement, the Fronde was nevertheless a protest against both the power of the Crown and the perceived loss of privilege.

The term fronde came from the word signifying a child’s slingshot, and a game whereby children would fling stones at the nobility. The term frondeur soon meant a person who believed in limiting monarchial power, or one who simply speaks out against the current government.

Louis XIV was barely 10 years old when the revolt erupted. The Fronde itself was not directed against the boy king; rather, it was directed mostly against the policies of Cardinal Mazarin and Louis’s mother, Anne of Austria, who were at the time ruling France until Louis would come of age to rule on his own.


By the time Louis XIV was born, France was in serious financial difficulties. The Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) placed extreme demands upon the French treasury. Mazarin resorted to several tactics to raise money, including increasing taxes, selling government offices, and forcing creditors to make government loans.

The Three Estates

Society in prerevolutionary France was divided up into the Three Estates. In the first estate was the clergy, followed by the nobility in the second. Whoever was not in the first two was clearly in the third, which was the bulk of the population. While the struggle for power and authority may have caused the first two estates to hate each other intensely, they would always band together to block any attempts by the third to assert themselves.

But the third estate was beginning to make strides toward improving their lot. With the discovery of the New World, and improved methods of sea travel, international trade improved the economy of Europe. Many people who were not part of the third estate tapped into the opportunities and often amassed personal fortunes greater than that of the nobility, and thus a new middle class was born.

Cardinal Mazarin

This new middle class often loaned money to kings and nobles alike, often to finance wars or expeditions. But with that came another demand from the middle classes—political power. Mazarin was happy to provide these offices, much to the chagrin of the nobility, who believed such power was reserved to them.

In May 1648, judicial officers of the parlement, a high court, were taxed. The officers met with Mazarin, refusing to pay. The officers presented Mazarin with a list of demands, which were constitutional reforms, including giving them the power to approve any new taxes. Not to be bullied, Mazarin had the leaders of the parlements arrested.

Open revolt broke out in Paris in August. Since the army was engaged elsewhere, there was little choice but to release those arrested, along with an empty promise to enact reforms. As soon as this was done, Mazarin and the court fled Paris in October, taking the young Louis with them.

Upon the signing of the Peace of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years’ War, the army returned to Paris and began to fight the insurgents. Both the middle and lower classes joined in the struggle, also unhappy with the rate of taxation. But the movement was anything but unified.

Throughout France, various armies were formed by local city government units, such as parlements and councils, and by social groups such as the nobility. Many of these armies fought against the Crown, while other armies fought against each other.

The army began a siege of Paris by January 1649, but the number of casualties was small. By March, the Peace of Rueil was signed, which would last only until the end of the year. The battles and intrigue, however, did not cease. Princes and nobles alike still conspired to unseat Mazarin and gain more power for themselves.

In January 1650, Mazarin arrested three such leaders and then turned to the army to suppress any remaining rebellion throughout the kingdom. In 1651, the prisoners were released, and the royal army managed to quell the rest of the minor revolts.

Eventually, the royal court returned to Paris. Frondeurs continued to fight, although against each other, and with the royal army. Some frondeurs fashioned their own government in Paris in 1652, and Mazarin, feeling pressure from outside, once again left France.

Constant infighting among the frondeurs doomed the movement, and Louis XIV was allowed to reenter Paris in October 1652. By the next year, Mazarin returned to France, and with that, the Fronde was officially over. But long term Louis XIV never trusted nobility, and upon ascending the throne, he ruled as an absolute monarch.

While he may have utilized the skills of advisers, he ruled without a minister or the Estates General. Furthermore, remembering Paris as a place of violent revolt, he built the palace of Versailles, at tremendous cost to the country, and moved the seat of government there.

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.