Contents
Ancient history
Prehistoric France
Celtic Gaul
Roman Gaul (50 BC–486)
The Franks
Merovingians (481–751)
Middle Ages
Carolingians (751–987)
Direct Capetians (987–1328)
Valois (1328–1498)
Early Modern France
Valois-Orléans (1498–1515)
Valois-Angoulême (1515–1589)
House of Bourbon (1589–1792)
French Revolution (1789)
19th century
First Republic (1792–1804)
National Convention (1792–1795)
Directory (1795–1799)
Consulate (1799–1804)
First Empire (1804–1814)
Restoration (1814–1830)
July Revolution (1830)
July Monarchy (1830–1848)
1848 Revolution
Second Republic (1848–1852)
Second Empire (1852–1870)
Third Republic (1870–1940)
Paris Commune (1871)
20th century
Vichy France (1940–1944)
Provisional Government (1944–1946)
Fourth Republic (1946–1958)
Fifth Republic (1958–present)
The House of Capet, or The Direct Capetian Dynasty, (French: Les Capétiens, la Maison capétienne), also called The House of France (la maison de France), or simply the Capets, which ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328, was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty - itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians. As rulers of France, the dynasty succeeded the Carolingian dynasty. The name derives from the nickname of Hugh, the first Capetian King, who was known as Hugh Capet.
The direct House of Capet came to an end in 1328, when the three sons of Philip IV all failed to produce surviving male heirs to the French throne. With the death of Charles IV, the throne passed to the House of Valois, the direct descendants of Charles of Valois, a younger son of Philip III. It would later pass again, to the House of Bourbon and the House of Orléans (both descended from Louis IX), while always remaining in the hands of agnatic descendants of Hugh Capet.
History
Early Capetian kings
The first Capetian monarch was Hugh Capet (c.940–996), a French nobleman from the Île-de-France, who, following the death of Louis V of France (c.967–987) – the last Carolingian King – secured the throne of France by election. He then proceeded to make it hereditary in his family, by securing the election and coronation of his son, Robert II (972–1031), as co-King. The throne thus passed securely to Robert on his father's death, who followed the same custom – as did many of his early successors.
The Capetian Kings were initially weak rulers of the Kingdom – they directly ruled only small holdings in the Île-de-France and the Orléanais, all of which were plagued with disorder; the rest of France was controlled by potentates such as the Duke of Normandy, the Count of Blois, the Duke of Burgundy (himself a member of the Capetian Dynasty after 1032) and the Duke of Aquitaine (all of whom facing to a greater or lesser extent the same problems of controlling their subordinates). The House of Capet was, however, fortunate enough to have the support of the Church, and – with the exception of Philip I (1052–1108), Louis IX (1215–1270) and the shortlived John the Posthumous (1316) – were able to avoid the problems of underaged Kingship.
Capetian and Plantagenet
Briefly, under Louis VII 'the Young' (1120–1180), the House of Capet rose in their power in France – Louis married Aliénor (1122–1204), the heiress of the Duchy of Aquitaine, and so became Duke – an advantage which had been eagerly grasped by Louis VI 'the Fat' (1081–1137), Louis the Young's father, when Aliénor's father had asked of the King in his Will to secure a good marriage for the young Duchess. However, the marriage – and thus one avenue of Capetian aggrandisement – failed: the couple produced only two daughters, and suffered marital discord; driven to secure the future of the House, Louis thus divorced Aliénor (who went on to marry Henry II of England (1133–1189), and be known to English history as Eleanor of Aquitaine), and married twice more before finally securing a son, Philippe Dieu-donné ("The God-Given"), who would continue the House as Philip II Augustus (1165–1223), and break the power of the Angevins – the family of Aliénor and Henry II – in France.
Louis VIII (1187–1226) – the eldest son and heir of Philip Augustus – married Blanche of Castile (1188–1252), a granddaughter of Aliénor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England. In her name, he claimed the crown of England, invading at the invitation of the English Barons, and briefly being acclaimed – though, it would later be stressed, not crowned – as King of England. However, the Capetians failed to establish themselves in England – Louis was forced to sign the Treaty of Lambeth, which legally decreed that he had never been King of England, and the Prince reluctantly returned to his wife and father in France. More importantly for his dynasty, he would during his brief reign (1223-1226) conquer Poitou, and some of the lands of the Pays d'Oc, declared forfeit from their former owners by the Pope as part of the Albigensian Crusade. These lands were added to the French crown, further empowering the Capetian family.
Louis IX (1215–1270) – Saint Louis – succeeded Louis VIII as a child; unable to rule for several years, the government of the realm was undertaken by his mother, the formidable Queen Blanche. She had originally been chosen by her grandmother, Aliénor, to marry the French heir, considered more suitable a Queen of France than her sister Urracca; as regent, she proved this to be so, being associated in the Kingship not only during her son's minority, but even after he came into his own. Louis, too, proved a largely acclaimed King – though he expended much money and effort on the Crusades, only for it to go to waste, as a King of France he was admired for his austerity, strength, bravery, justice, and his devotion to France. Dynastically, he established two notable Capetian Houses:the House of Anjou (which he created by bestowing the County of Anjou upon his brother, Charles (1227–1285)), and the House of Bourbon (which he established by bestowing Clermont on his son Robert (1256–1317) in 1268, before marrying the young man to the heiress of Bourbon, Beatrix (1257–1310)); the first House would go on to rule Sicily, Naples, and Hungary, suffering many tragedies and disasters on the way; the second would eventually succeed to the French thone, collecting Navarre along the way.
French MonarchyDirect Capetians
Hugh Capet
Robert II
Robert II
Henry I
Robert I, Duke of Burgundy
Henry I
Philip I
Hugh, Count of Vermandois
Philip I
Louis VI
Louis VI
Louis VII
Robert I of Dreux
Louis VII
Mary, Countess of Champagne
Alix, Countess of Blois
Marguerite, Queen of Hungary
Alys, Countess of the Vexin
Philip II
Agnes, Empress of Constantinople
Philip II
Louis VIII
Louis VIII
Louis IX
Robert I, Count of Artois
Alphonse, Count of Poitou and Toulouse
Saint Isabel of France
Charles I of Anjou and Sicily
Louis IX
Philip III
Robert, Count of Clermont
Agnes, Duchess of Burgundy
Philip III
Philip IV
Charles III, Count of Valois
Louis d'Evreux
Margaret, Queen of England
Philip IV
Louis X
Philip V
Isabella, Queen of England
Charles IV
Grandchildren
Joan II of Navarre
John I
Joan III, Countess and Duchess of Burgundy
Margaret I, Countess of Burgundy
Edward III of England
Mary of France
Blanche of France, Duchess of Orléans
Louis X
Joan II of Navarre
John I
John I
Philip V
Charles IV
Apogee of royal power
At the death of Louis IX (who shortly after was set upon the road to beatification), France under the Capetians stood as the pre-eminent power in Western Europe. This stance was largely continued, if not furthered, by his son Philip III (1245–1285), and his son Philip IV (1268–1314), both of whom ruled with the aid of advisors committed to the future of the House of Capet and of France, and both of whom made notable – for different reasons – dynastic marriages. Philip III married as his first wife Isabel (1247–1271), a daughter of King James I of Aragon (1208–1276); long after her death, he claimed the throne of Aragon for his second son, Charles (1270–1325), by virtue of Charles' descent via Isabel from the Kings of Aragon. Unfortunately for the Capetians, the endeavour proved a failure, and the King himself died of dysentery at Perpignan, succeeded by his son, Philip IV.
Philip IV had married Jeanne (1271–1305), the heiress of Navarre and Champagne. By this marriage, he added these domains to the French crown. He engaged in conflicts with the Papacy, eventually kidnapping Pope Boniface VIII (c.1235–1303), and securing the appointment of the more sympathetic Frenchman, Bertrand de Goth (1264–1314), as Pope Clement V; and he boosted the power and wealth of the crown by abolishing the Order of the Temple, seizing its assets in 1307. More importantly to French history, he summoned the first Estates General – in 1302 – and in 1295 established the so-called "Auld Alliance" with the Scots, at the time resisting English domination. He died in 1314, less than a year after the execution of the Templar leaders – it was said that he had been summoned to appear before God by Jacques de Molay (d.1314), the Grand Master of the Templars, as the latter was burnt at the stake as a heretic; it was also said that de Molay had cursed the King and his family.