History of France

1. France.--The country we now know as France is the tract of land shut in by the British Channel, the Bay of Biscay, the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean, and the Alps. But this cou...

1. Richelieu's Administration.--Cardinal de Richelieu's whole idea of statesmanship consisted in making the King of France the greatest of princes at home and abroad. To make an...

1. Wars of Edward III.--By the Salic law, as the lawyers called it, the crown was given, on the death of Charles IV., to _Philip, Count of Valois_, son to a brother of Philip IV...

1. The Restoration.--The Allies left the people of France free to choose their Government, and they accepted the old royal family, who were on their borders awaiting a recall. T...

1. The Bourbons and Guises.--Henry II. had left four sons, the eldest of whom, _Francis II._, was only fifteen years old; and the country was divided by two great factions--one...

1. Attempts at Reform.--It was evident that a change must be made. _Louis XVI._ himself knew it, and slurred over the words in his coronation oath that bound him to extirpate he...

1. Campaign of Charles VIII. (1493).--From grasping at province after province on their own border, however, the French kings were now to turn to wider dreams of conquest abroad...

1. Power of Burgundy.--All the troubles of France, for the last 80 years, had gone to increase the strength of the Dukes of Burgundy. The county and duchy, of which Dijon was th...