Pre-Revolutionary France was a lawyers paradise: written Roman law prevailed in the south, customary feudal law in the north, with frequent local overlap in codes and practice. Intendents were the regional representatives of royal authority, controlling the policing, finances and justiciary of the provinces they administered. The Prévots Maréchaux handled... More
Hugh Capet established the Capetian line in 987 when he was elected king of the Franks. His direct line of hereditary rule which would last 13 generations. Hugh made his son Robert co-ruler shortly after his own coronation, claiming that another king was needed in case he died during an... More
Upon the death of Chilperic I in 584, Chlothar II (584–628) became king of Neustria and, later, of all Francia. As an infant he was under the regency of his mother Fredegund, taking power upon her death in 597. In 599 Clothar declared war on his Burgundian nephews, but was... More
The Frankish Kingdom founded by Clovis I was divided at his death in c. 513 between his four surviving sons, a partition which inevitably generated rivalry and conflict, but also, sometimes, cooperation. Theuderic I (485–534) ruled from Rheims and Metz, coming into conflict with the Thuringians to the northwest, conquering... More
Pepin II of Heristal (635–714) of the rich and powerful Pippinid family, was appointed ‘Mayor of the Palace’ in 680, and at once found himself in conflict Martin of Laon and Ebroin of Neustria. In 687, at Tertry on the River Somme, the Austrasian army under Pepin overwhelmingly defeated the... More
The trigger for war was a diplomatic row over the Spanish succession. Provoked by Bismarck, the Prussian chancellor, France declared war, which Bismarck countered with an alliance of the German states. Mobilizing at a speed that confounded the French, the German alliance achieved a string of victories in the Rhineland,... More
New Union Commander Ambrose E. Burnside saw the capture of Fredericksburg as the gateway to moving on Richmond, the Confederate capital, but his bold plan was betrayed by poor logistics. Delays in the shipment of pontoons to bridge the Rappahannock River allowed Robert E. Lee to assemble his defending forces... More
Pre-Independence, the term ‘free black’ meant black people who were not slaves. This term continued until the abolition of slavery in 1865. In 1800 and 1830, the northern states’ free black populations were higher than in the south, which depended on slave labour. Vermont was the first to ban slavery... More
By 1860, the American black population was nearing 4 million of which c. 12 per cent were free. The proportion varied widely in those states where slavery was permitted. Delaware, largely through the activities of Quaker and Moravian preachers, had freed 92 per cent of its black population, while the... More
On 17 May 1940, the French 4th Division, under de Gaulle, attempted two attacks on German-held Montcornet. The first attack, in the early hours, took the Germans by surprise but they easily overcame the French. That afternoon, de Gaulle tried again, but the Division was overcome by gunfire and German... More
By feats of arms, Napoleon Bonaparte had forged a prototype European Union by 1810. His coronation as French Emperor (1804) portrayed him as heir of Charlemagne, but Napoleon’s imperial model was Roman not Holy Roman. As decisive a reformer as he was a general, he liberalized the legal code, respected... More
In a postscript to the Hundred Years’ War, Edward IV of England, in alliance with Burgundy, invaded France in 1475. The French king, Louis XI, ‘the Prudent’, bought him off with 75,000 gold crowns. Prudence worked for Louis; instead of confronting the treacherous Burgundians he sat out their war with... More