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Kingdom of France
Reaume de France Royaulme de France
987–c. 15th century
(France of the Middle Ages)
Top: Royal banner of the Capetian dynasty Bottom: Royal banner of the Valois dynasty
Coat of arms of the King of France (from 1376)
Two variants of the Oriflamme, the battle standard of the king
Motto:
"Montjoie Saint Denis!"(French)
"Mountjoy Saint Denis!"
The Kingdom of France in 1000
The Kingdom of France in 1190. The bright green area was controlled by the so-called Angevin Empire.
Capital
Paris
Common languages
Latin, French (official),
Occitan, Franco-Provençal, Breton, Basque
Religion
Roman Catholicism
Government
Feudal monarchy
King of France
Legislature
Estates General (since 1302)
Historical era
Middle Ages
• Beginning of Capetian dynasty
987
• Hundred Years' War – Capetians deposed (disputed)
1337–1453 1422
• Ancien Régime
c. 15th century
Currency
Livre
Franc
Écu
ISO 3166 code
FR
Preceded by
Succeeded by
West Francia
Kingdom of France
Part of a series on the
History of France
Ancient
Prehistory
Greek colonies
600 BC – 49 BC
Celtic Gaul
until 50 BC
Roman Gaul
50 BC – 486 AD
Middle Ages
Francia and the Frankish settlement
Merovingians
481–751
Carolingians
751–987
West Francia
843–987
Kingdom of France
987–1792
Direct Capetians
987–1328
Valois
1328–1498
Early modern
Ancien Régime
Valois-Orléans kings
1498–1515
Valois-Angoulême kings
1515–1589
Bourbon kings
1589–1792
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1789–1799
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1791–1792
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1792–1804
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1804–1814
Restoration
1814–1830
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1830–1848
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1848–1852
Second Empire
1852–1870
Third Republic
1870–1940
Belle Époque
1871–1914
20th century
Third Republic
1870–1940
Interwar period
1919–1939
Années folles
1920–1929
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Vichy France
1940–1944
Provisional Republic
1944–1946
Fourth Republic
1946–1958
Fifth Republic
1958–present
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The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages (roughly, from the 10th century to the middle of the 15th century) was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of Capet (987–1328), including their struggles with the virtually independent principalities (duchies and counties, such as the Norman and Angevin regions), and the creation and extension of administrative/state control (notably under Philip II Augustus and Louis IX) in the 13th century; and the rise of the House of Valois (1328–1589), including the protracted dynastic crisis against the House of Plantagenet and their Angevin Empire, culminating in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) (compounded by the catastrophic Black Death in 1348), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity.
Up to the 12th century, the period saw the elaboration and extension of the seigneurial economic system (including the attachment of peasants to the land through serfdom); the extension of the Feudal system of political rights and obligations between lords and vassals; the so-called "feudal revolution" of the 11th century during which ever smaller lords took control of local lands in many regions; and the appropriation by regional/local seigneurs of various administrative, fiscal and judicial rights for themselves. From the 13th century on, the state slowly regained control of a number of these lost powers. The crises of the 13th and 14th centuries led to the convening of an advisory assembly, the Estates General, and also to an effective end to serfdom.
From the 12th and 13th centuries on, France was at the center of a vibrant cultural production that extended across much of western Europe, including the transition from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture and Gothic art; the foundation of medieval universities (such as the universities of Paris (recognized in 1150), Montpellier (1220), Toulouse (1229), and Orleans (1235)) and the so-called "Renaissance of the 12th century"; a growing body of secular vernacular literature (including the chanson de geste, chivalric romance, troubadour and trouvère poetry, etc.) and medieval music (such as the flowering of the Notre Dame school of polyphony).
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