this time six principal fiefs--four in the north and
two in the south--each nearly or fully as powerful as the hereditary
dominions of Hugh, while probably more than one excelled them in extent.
These limited dominions, on the resources of which the new dynasty was
wholly dependent in the struggle for supremacy, embraced the important
cities of Paris and Orleans, but barely stretched from the Somme to the
Loire, and were excluded from the ocean by the broad possessions of the
dukes of Normandy on both sides of the lower Seine. The great fiefs had
each in turn yielded to the same irresistible tendency to subdivision.
The great feudatory was himself the superior of the tenants of several
subordinate, yet considerable, fiefs. The possessors of these again
ranked above the viscounts of cities and the provincial barons. A long
series of gradations in dignity ended at the simple owners of castles,
with their subject peasants or serfs. In no country of Europe had the
feudal system borne a more abundant harvest of disintegration and
consequent loss of power.[3]

[Sidenote: Decline of the feudal system.]

The reduction of the insubordinate nobles on the patrimonial estates of
the crown was the first problem engaging the attention of the early
Capetian kings. When this had at length been solved, with the assistance
of the scanty forces lent by the cities--never amounting, it is said, to
more than five hundred men-at-arms[4]--Louis the Fat, a prince of
resplendent ability, early in the twelfth century addressed himself to
the task of making good the royal title to supremacy over the
neighboring provinces. Before death compelled him to forego the
prosecution of his ambitious designs, the influence of the monarchy had
been extended over eastern and central France--from Flanders, on the
north, to the volcanic mountains of Auvergne, on the south. Meanwhile
the oppressed subjects of the petty tyrants, whether within or around
his domains, had learned to look for redress to the sovereign lord who
prided himself upon his ability and readiness to succor the defenceless.
His grandson, the more illustrious Philip Augustus (1180-1223), by
marriage, inheritance, and conquest added to previous acquisitions
several extensive provinces, of which Normandy, Maine, and Poitou had
been subject to English rule, while Vermandois and Yalois had enjoyed a
form of approximate independence under collateral branches of the
Capetian family.

The conquest