The Washington herald., 1915-05-02
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pests of nine centuries until 1t was swept
away by the red tide of the Great Revo-
| luton.
Robert the Strong was the first of the
ity and it was his SreatGrandson. Hugh
| Capet, who pushed aside the descend
ants of CharlemaGne and in 9S7 was ac-
claimed King of France in the cathedral
OF Rheims Whether in their own proper
name or as the house of Ealois or as
the house of Bourbon. the blood of the
Capets never ceased to course beneath
the crown Of France until 1893. when
Louis XVI. indicted as Louis Capet. was
borne from the throne to the Guillotine.
In the depth of the Dark Ages. the
lamp of learning on the island cleaned
through the darkness that preceded the
revival Of civilization. The foundation
stones of the present cdifice of Notre
Dame were laid in the twelfth century.
There on the island Abelard taught and
Heloise loved: and out at the cemetery
OF Pere in Chaise the ill-starred couple
now are united in the grave. From the
island. too. was started the University
of Paris, alma mater of Oxford and Cam
bridge and the pioneer in higher educa-
ton throughout the Western World.
There on the island st. Louis the King
who was canonized. raised his Sainte
world has admired for 7Oo years.
Already the island capital had over
flowed its narrow bounds and spread to
the mainland. In the field where the
meeting, the Louvre had been built for
royal palace. With its 1900 inha bit
ants, the city had already become prob
ably the most populous in Europe, after
Constantinople
The Birth Struggle of France.
All the while the rule of the island
throne was extending. But the union
OF France was a slow and tedious pro-
cess. II is difficult to realize that for
dom II remained little landlocked sta
ton. whose northern frontier was at
Amiens and whose southern frontier was
not far below Orleans. All the now great
ports of the country were closed against
the kingdom.
Indeed. the King OF England in those
days held more French territory than
the King of France himself. Paris her
self was under the British flag for six
teen years. from 1f2h to 1895. King Henry
VI of England was crowned at Notre
Dame, and every English sovereign until
George III called himself King of France
as well.
1t was while striving to recover the
capital of her country that the Maid Of
Orleans met her fate. First she was
wounded at a gate of Paris. and next
she fell into the hands of the English
as she was attempting at Compeigne to
intercept an army on its march to the
relief of the British, who were besteged
in the city
1t was not until the fifteenth century
that Normandy. Maine. Antou, AQuitaine
and Burgundy became firmly and finally
united to France. Brittany was not fas-
tened to the kingdom until almost the
seventeenth century, or only 100 years
before the revolution.
Paris and the Bourbons.
As the country grew by conquest. the
institutions and privileges of the vari-
Gus subjugatcd parts were mostly over
thrown and all authority was conferred
in the conqueror, the French King. The
royal will alone was law, for there was
virtually no other.
But great power must he checked some
where. There We're no local liberties
which the throne was bound to respect
and there was yet no national sentiment
to challenge the tyranny Of the monarch.
The court and the capital rushed into
that vacuum. As the despotism in
creased the mobiles and Paris became
restless and at times rebellious. Thus the
revolution already was sproutinE.
1t was an immeasurable misfortune for
France THAT the little island In the Seine
should no sooner have annexed the out
lying French principalitics than 1t sought
to annex the rest of the earth. Francis
| did much to beautify Paris, among
many other things starting the palace of
the Louvre on its present splendid lines.
hut he did quite as much to dtsfEure
French history with ignominious defeats
in wars OF foreign conquest These were
by fifty horrible years Of civil
war in the name of religion. That mad
era of devastating strife was brought to
an end by Henry Of Navarro, who. after
q SCALING in vain the walls of Paris for
years as Protestant chieftain. went to
mass at st. Denis. whereupon the gates
of the city opened to him.
Paris we see, had begun to form the
habit of debating to the King. and when
had rcfrnNd in tle Citv hf-
teen years it dared to shed the blood Of
a King. For the knife of Henry's as
sassin doubtless was inspired by the
rage of a faction.
The oldest bridge that spans the Seine
-Pont Neuf-is of the reign of Henry
", and where il leaves the mainland on
Its course to the island the King sits
his bronze horse. The revolution I'M
into bullets. But when the Bourbons |
came back they pounded up two or three |
statues of Napoleon and placed Henry in
the saddle once more.
With growing suspicion and jeal-
pussy of their capital, the Bourbon kings /
more and more to their coun- |
try palaces out in the chestnut grove Of
st. German in the more remote forest |
IF Fontaineblcau and Mt Chambord down
n Touraine. Paris saw little of Louis |
XIII, although that King enlarged the ;
Louvre. and his minister, Cardinal Rich
nlieu, built the Palais Royal for his own
occupancy.
What little royal regard the city had
retained was lost In the War of the
Fronde-the war OF the sling as 1t was
derisively called. after the sings with
which the boys OF Paris fought the idle
battles of boyhood. That conflict. which
was waged by the rival bands of mobiles.
with the enthusiastic assistance of the
street mobs of the capital. broke out in
The minority Of Louis XIV, and he had
10 fee the capital.
When that boy King waxed into the
Grand Monarch he abandoned the city
which had filled his youth with its tu-
strife and, selecting Versailles,
en miles away. as the seat of his gov
,rnment. he flattered himself that he
had placed a safe distance between his
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