A History of France

A HISTORY OF FRANCE ‘It is in the spirit of telling a dramatic story, rather than of cautious scientific analysis, that M. Maurois has tackled his fascinating task and the result is, as it has already been hailed in France, the best modern one- volume history of France’. The Spectator UNIVERSITY PAPERBACKS UP 73 By the same author General A B I B L BYRON DISRAELI EDWARD VII AND HIS TIMES L Y A U T E Y DICKENS VOLTAIRE POETS AND PROPHETS A HISTORY OF ENGLAND CHATEAUBRIAND CALL NO MAN HAPPY THE QUEST FOR PROUST L E L I A VICTOR HUGO THE LIFE OF SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING ADRIENNE DE LA FAYETTE Fiction COLONEL BRAMBLE THE FAMILY CIRCLE THE WEIGHER OF SOULS BERNARD QUESNAY RICOCHETS THE thought-reading MACHINE ETC ANDRE MAUROIS A History of France Translated from the French by HENRY L. BINSSE Additional Chapters translated by GERARD HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PAPERBACKS METHUEN LONDON Translated from the French by Henry L. Bittsse Additional chapters translated by Gerard Hopkins First published in Great Britain 1949 by Jonathan Cape Ltd. Reprinted seven times Second (^revised and enlarged) edition 1956 Third (revised) edition i960 First published in this series 1964 Printed in Great Britain by Lowe & Brydone (Printers) Ltd., London Catalogue No. 2/6823/27 For copyright reasons this book may not be issued to the' public on loan or otherwise except in its original soft cover. A cloth-bound, library edition is available from Jonathan Cape University Paperbacks are by METHUEN & CO LTD IV.C.2 j6 Esse.x Street, Strand, OLLOHP lOBOL LIBBPRY M ^ it A CONTENTS BOOK ONE THE FIRST BEGINNINGS AND THE 1 MIDDLE AGES ^ > I HOW GAUL BECAME ROMAN n HOW THE BARBARIANS INTERMINGLED WITH THE GALLO-ROMANS 27 m HOW THE CAROLINGIANS SOUGHT TO REBUILD THE EMPIRE 3 5 CAPETIANS IV HOW THE FEUDAL SYSTEM DEVELOPED — HOW THE SUCCEEDED THE CAROLINGIANS 44 V HOW THE CAPETIANS, IN ROUNDING OUT THEIR DOMAIN, FORMED THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE 5^ VI HOW LOUIS IX MADE THE MONARCHY HOLY AND PHILIP THE FAIR MADE IT STRONG vn HOW, DURING THE MIDDLE AGES, A FRENCH CIVILIZATION TOOK SHAPE 70 vm THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR (l) 82 IX THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR (u) 9° X HOW FRANCE, AFTER THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR, RECOVERED AND BECAME GREAT 9 8 XI HOW, DURING THE FOURTEENTH AND HFTEENTH CENTURIES, THERE WAS A GRADUAL TRANSITION FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO MODERN TIMES IO 5 XU HOW, AT ThE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES, FRANCE ALREADY POSSESSED MANY OF HER PERMANENT CHARACTERISTICS II 4 BOOK TWO RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION HOW THERE TOOK PLACE IN EUROPE A REVOLUTION WHICH MEN LATER CALLED THE RENAISSANCE 121 u HOW ITALY FIRST SUMMONED AND THEN DISMISSED THE FRENCH 126 ni HOW FRANCE BEGAN HER STRIFE WITH THE GERMANIC WORLD — FRANCIS I AND CHARLES V 1 32 IV HOW THE FRENCH LIVED AND THOUGHT IN THE DAYS OF FRANCIS I AND HENRY U I 4 I V HOW THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE BECAME A POLITICAL PARTY I 47 5 CONTENTS VI HOW THE WARS OF RELIGION DIVIDED AND RUINED FRANCE 1 54 VII HOW HENRY IV REBUILT FRANCe’s UNITY I66 VIII HOW FRANCE WAS GOVERNED AT THE TIME OF HENRY iv’s DEATH 1 75 DC HOW THE RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION CHANGED FRANCE 1 82 BOOK THREE THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY I HOW LOUIS XIII AND RICHELIEU CONSOLIDATED HENRY iv’s WORK 1 87 n HOW THE FRONDE WAS A REVOLUTION, AND HOW IT MISCARRIED 197 III HOW THE GREAT KING DOMINATED THE GREAT CENTURY 205 rv HOW, DURING THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV, THE MONARCHY’S GREAT- NESS PREPARED THE WAY FOR ITS DOWNFALL 2l6 V HOW THE REGENCY WEAKENED THE MONARCHY 227 VI HOW, UNDER THE REIGN OF LOUIS XV, FRANCE LOST HER SELF- RESPECT 234 vn HOW, DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, THE Philosophes BECAME A POLITICAL FORCE 244 VIII HOW, UNDER LOUIS XVI, GOOD WILL GAVE BIRTH TO WEAKNESS 252 IX HOW, IN 1789, FRANCE WITHOUT KNOWING IT WAS ON THE VERGE OF REVOLUTION 261 BOOK FOUR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION • I HOW THE REVOLUTION BEGAN 269 II HOW THE ASSEMBLY FASHIONED A CONSTITUTION 279 in HOW THE MONARCHY PERISHED 286 IV HOW THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY AROSE FROM THE CON- VENTION 295 V HOW THE TERROR BROUGHT ON THE REACTION OF THERMIDOR 3O3 VI HOW THE DIRECTORY PREPARED THE WAY FOR THE CONSULATE AND EMPIRE 3” VII HOW THE FIRST CONSUL REBUILT FRANCES UNITY 319 VIII HOW THE EMPEROR CONQUERED EUROPE 3^9 IX HOW THE EMPEROR LOST EUROPE 337 X HOW THE EMPEROR OVERTHREW THE KING, AND THE CON- SEQUENCES THEREOF 344 TRANSFORMED XI HOW THE REVOLUTION AND THE EMPIRE HAD FRANCE 6 1 BOOK FIVE YEARS OF WAVERING LAST 357 I WHY THE RESTORATION DID NOT n WHY THE JULY MONARCHY DID NOT LAST 3^8 m HOW FRANCE THOUGHT AND FELT BETWEEN 1815 AND 1 848 38I IV WHY THE SECOND REPUBLIC DID NOT LAST 388 V WHY THE SECOND EMPIRE DID NOT LAST: THE AUTHORITARIAN EMPIRE 400 VI HOW THE EMPIRE BECAME LIBERAL AND HOW THE WAR OF 187O BROUGHT ON ITS COLLAPSE 4^0 Vn HOW ROMANTICISM WAS SUPERSEDED 420 vm CONCLUSION 425 B O O K S I X T H E THIRD REPUBLIC I • THE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE 43 n HOW FRANCE BECAME A REPUBLIC 437 in'-/ HOW THE REPUBLIC TURNED REPUBLICAN 446 rVvX HOW THREE CRISES PUT THE REPUBLIC IN JEOPARDY 453 V HOW COLONIAL RIVALRY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND ENDED BY GIVING BIRTH TO THE Entente Cordiale 463 VI^HOW HAPPILY FRANCE LIVED BEFORE THE I914 WAR 468 vn >Vhow the 1914 WAS,WON 475 VIU. how, BETWE£iSt I919 AND 1939, VICTORY CRUMBLED INTO DUST 482 IXU^ THE SECOND WORLD WAR: HRST PHASE 49I X yy THE SECOND WORLD WAR: SECOND PHASE 5OO XI .FRANCE AFTER LIBERATION 7 506 BOOK SEVEN THE FOURTH AND FIFTH REPUBLICS PREFACE I HAVE been asked to provide for this new edition a few chapters bringing the history of France up to date. This I have done, though the undertaking is not without danger. It is easy to be impartial when one is dealing with events which occurred several centuries ago. The struggles of the past have been resolved, the controversies extinguished. Those who played their parts upon the stage ofhistory are dead. Occasionally a flame which one had thought was long smothered bursts again into life for a brief moment. I have luiown aloof professors to blaze with anger because I preferred Disraeli to Gladstone. I have seen English CathoUcs wax indignant over the dissolution of the monasteries, and French Protestants at the memory of Saint Bartholomew. But the sincere historian, where such matters are concerned, can at least try to establish the facts from the study of such documentary material and evidence as are available. It is easy for him to avoid writing in a partisan spirit. When, however, he has to handle events in wliich he himself has been involved, controversies in which he has been compelled to take sides, he must exercise great care if he is to arrive at the truth without letting liim- self be led astray by passion and prejudice. It is difficult for a Frenchman of today to speak of Mendes-France or Edgar Faure with the same degree of detachment which he would bring to the study of Thiers or Guizot. But that is precisely what the historian must do. I have tried to deal with recent years, years which have been fiUed, in France, with contests and rivalries, as though I had not lived through them. I can only hope that I have succeeded. The reader will find in these additional chapters a state- ment of facts, not a formulation ofjudgments. Only future generations can have the right to judge. The other danger inherent in the study of recent history is that events, small in themselves, take on undue importance. No more than sixteen years have elapsed since the Liberation of France. For us, however, those sixteen years bulk mfinitely larger than would a similar period of time in the reigns ofLouis-Phflippe or Louis XIV. Ought we, then, to think only m terms of time, and give to our own period no more space than to a similar stretch ofyears in the nineteenth century? I do not think so. It is only natural that the reader should want more details about the occur- 9 PREFACE rences of which he has been a witness, which he has discussed, which have produced consequences which are stdl, for him, matters of daily and capital importance. Nor must we forget that the last sixteen years have witnessed in France something very closely resembhng a revolution, and have been as rich in change as have any of the most dramatic mo- ments of our history. For all these reasons, it has seemed to me a legitimate undertaking to add to this book — which my English readers are kind enough stiU to regard wdth favour — two complementary chapters. But my general conclusions remain unmodified. They are, I beheve, as true as ever they were. A. M. lO A HISTORY OF FRANCE BOOK ONE THE FIRST BEGINNINGS AND THE MIDDLE AGES CHAPTER I HOW GAUL BECAME ROMAN ew regions in the world are more rewarding to the visitor than the Valley of the Vezere, in the French province of Perigord. The river’s F murky waters flow between two walls of stone, and its high banks are pierced by black openings, the mouths of caves or shelters. In ages long past these caverns, as thick as rabbit warrens on the edge of a forest, formed a sort of prehistoric city.

Load more