The turning century
The thirteenth century is often described as the high point of the medieval French monarchy. In 1180 the king of France held a small domain around Paris and was overshadowed by the kings of England, who controlled more of France. By the 1280s the crown was larger, richer and far better organized, and French kings were being treated as the leading rulers of Christendom. Several things came together: conquest, new kinds of officials, the pull of the south, and a king whose reputation for piety made the monarchy itself more respected.
Philip II and the northern conquests
Philip II, who ruled from 1180 to 1223 and is called Philip II Augustus, spent the first part of his reign building a stronger royal administration and the second part using it. In 1204, taking advantage of conflicts with King John of England, he conquered Normandy and, in the following years, the neighboring counties of Anjou, Maine and Touraine. These were rich lands, and bringing them under direct royal control roughly doubled the crown’s resources. The English held on to Aquitaine in the southwest and became a lasting presence there.
In 1214 a coalition of John’s allies, including the emperor, attacked France from the north. Philip’s victory at the Battle of Bouvines ended that threat. It confirmed the loss of Normandy for the English and added to Philip’s standing as a military leader. Historians sometimes debate how decisive any single battle was, but Bouvines was widely celebrated in France and became a lasting symbol of royal success.
Philip also fortified Paris with a new wall and built the Louvre as a fortress. The city’s growth made it a more permanent center for government, and in these years the University of Paris received royal protection.
Officials: baillis and seneschals
New lands needed new management. Philip sent royal agents called baillis in the north, and seneschals in the south, to supervise the king’s interests in each district. They collected royal revenues, ran local courts, oversaw the maintenance of castles and reported to the central government. They were paid officials who could be moved or dismissed, rather than local lords with hereditary rights, which made them more dependable for the king.
Under Louis IX, whose reign ran from 1226 to 1270, the system was supervised more closely. In 1247, the king sent out inquirers to investigate complaints about abuses by his own officials, an unusual step that helped to strengthen the idea that royal government was meant to be just. The royal court also developed specialized sections, including the Parlement of Paris, which acted as the highest royal court of law. Over time, people from all over the kingdom brought appeals to it, which expanded the reach of royal law into the lands of the great lords.
The south and the Albigensian Crusade
The south of France, often called Languedoc, had its own traditions, its own dialects and a more independent nobility. In the early thirteenth century, the church became concerned about the spread of the Cathar movement in the region, which it considered a heresy. In 1209 Pope Innocent III called a crusade against the Cathars and the nobles who protected them. This is known as the Albigensian Crusade. It began as a religious campaign led largely by northern nobles, and Philip II did not take part directly, though he allowed his barons to participate.
The war was long and brutal, and it changed the politics of the region. Northern lords took over southern lands, and the crown became involved more directly. Louis VIII led a royal campaign in 1226 and died on the return. A treaty in 1229 ended the main fighting and brought a large part of the county of Toulouse eventually into royal hands through the marriage of Count Raymond’s daughter to a brother of Louis IX. When that brother died in 1271 without heirs, the lands passed to the crown. The church’s search for heresy after the war led to the church tribunals later known as the Inquisition, which had an important role in the south. By the end of the century the southern counties had become part of the royal domain, and royal seneschals governed them.
Louis IX and the prestige of the crown
Louis IX developed a reputation as an unusually pious and just king. He founded hospitals and religious houses, he is remembered for sitting to hear petitions, and he took the cross twice, leading crusades to Egypt and Tunis. He died at Tunis in 1270. After his death a movement to have him declared a saint gained strength, and he was canonized in 1297.
His building projects also supported the image of the crown. The Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, completed around the middle of the century, was built to house relics associated with the Passion of Christ, which Louis had obtained at great expense. Its glass and architecture are among the most celebrated examples of the Gothic style. French kings were increasingly seen as defenders of the faith and as figures with a special relationship to God.
Louis also dealt with the English problem diplomatically. In the Treaty of Paris of 1259, Henry III of England gave up his claims to Normandy, Anjou and several other lands, and in exchange kept Aquitaine as a vassal of the French king. Some contemporaries thought Louis was too generous. But the arrangement placed the English king formally under the French crown for his southwestern lands, which proved to be a source of tension later.
The end of the century
Louis’s son, Philip III, continued the work of integrating new lands, including the inheritance from the south. The reign of his grandson Philip IV, which began in 1285, took the crown into new conflicts over taxation and church authority, and it belongs to the next stage of French history.
It would be a mistake to see the thirteenth century as a smooth rise. The crown’s growth depended on luck, on capable kings, and on the fact that powerful rivals, including the English crown and the great counts, were distracted or in difficulty at key moments. But by 1300, France had a royal government of a kind that few other European states could match, and the foundations for later centralization were in place.