al domain was small, and the kings of the
House of Capet exercised little control over their great feudatories
until the reign of Philip Augustus. That crafty monarch drew into his
own hands the greater part of the immense territories held by the kings
of England as French feudatories. After a brief interval the craft of
Philip Augustus was succeeded by the idealism of St. Louis, whose
admirable character enabled him to achieve an extraordinary ascendancy
over the imagination of his people. In spite of the disastrous failure
of his crusading expeditions, the aggrandisement of the crown continued,
especially under Philip the Fair; but the failure of the direct heirs
after the successive reigns of his three sons placed Philip of Valois on
the throne according to the "Salic" law of succession in 1328.

On the pretext of claiming the succession for himself, Edward III. began
the great French war which lasted, interrupted by only one regular
pacification, for a hundred and twenty years. The brilliant personal
qualities of Edward and the Black Prince, the great resources of
England, and the quality of the soldiery, account for the English
successes. After the peace of Bretigny these triumphs were reversed, and
the English lost their possessions; but when Charles VI. ascended the
throne disaster followed. France was rent by the rival factions of
Burgundy and Orleans, the latter taking its more familiar name from the
Court of Armagnac. The troubled reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV.
prevented England from taking advantage of these dissensions; but Henry
V. renewed the war, winning the battle of Agincourt in his first
campaign and securing the Treaty of Troyes on his second invasion. After
his death came that most marvellous revolution wrought by Joan of Arc,
and the expulsion of the English from the country.

In France the effect of the war was to strengthen the Crown as against
the Nobility, a process developed by the subtlety of Louis XI. Out of
the long contest in which the diplomatic skill of the king was pitted
against the fiery ambitions of Charles of Burgundy, Louis extracted for
himself sundry Burgundian provinces. The supremacy of the Crown was
secured when his son Charles VIII. acquired Brittany by marrying the
Duchess Anne.

The essential distinction of ranks in France was found in the possession
of land. Besides the National lands, there were lands reserved to the
Crown, which, under the name of benefices, were b