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Outline of Universal History

G >> George Park Fisher >> Outline of Universal History




2, Margaret, daughter of Philip III of France.




PERIOD IV. FROM THE END OF THE CRUSADES TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
(_A.D. 1270-1453_.)


THE DECLINE OP ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY: THE GROWTH OF THE NATIONAL
SPIRIT AND OF MONARCHY.

CHARACTER OF THE NEW ERA.--The Church was supreme in the era of the
Crusades. These had been great movements of a society of which the Pope
was the head,--movements in which the pontiffs were the natural
leaders. We come now to an era when the predominance of the Church
declines, and the Papacy loses ground. Mingled with religion, there is
diffused a more secular spirit. The nations grow to be more distinct
from one another. Political relations come to be paramount. The
national spirit grows strong,--too strong for outside ecclesiastical
control. Within each nation the laity is inclined to put limits to the
power and privileges of the clergy. In several of the countries,
monarchy in the modern European form gets a firm foothold. The
enfranchisement of the towns, the rise of commerce, the influence
gained by the legists and by the Roman law, of which they were the
expounders, had betokened the dawn of a new era. The development of the
national languages and literatures signified its coming. Germany and
the Holy Roman Empire no longer absorb attention. What is taking place
in France and England is, to say the least, of equal moment.




CHAPTER I. ENGLAND AND FRANCE: SECOND PERIOD OP RIVALSHIP: THE HUNDRED
YEARS' WAR (A.D. 1339-1453).


PHILIP III. OF FRANCE (1270-1285).--In France royalty made a steady
progress down to the long War of a Hundred Years. _Philip
III_. (1270-1285) married his son to the heiress of
_Navarre_. His sway extended to the Pyrenees. He failed in an
expedition against _Peter_, king of _Aragon_, who had
supported the Sicilians against _Charles of Anjou_; but the time
for foreign conquests had not come.

PHILIP IV. OF FRANCE (1285-1314): WAR WITH EDWARD I. OF ENGLAND.--
_Philip IV._ (the Fair) has been styled the "King of the Legists."
He surrounded himself with lawyers, who furnished him, from their
storehouse of Roman legislation, weapons with which to face baron and
pope. In 1292 conflicts broke out between English and French
sailors. _Philip_, in his character as suzerain, undertook to take
peaceful possession of _Guienne_, but was prevented by the English
garrisons. Thereupon he summoned _Edward I._ of England, as the
holder of the fiefs, before his court. _Edward_ sent his brother
as a deputy, but the French king declared that the fiefs were forfeited
in consequence of his not appearing in person.

In the war that resulted (1294-1297), each party had his natural
allies. _Philip_ had for his allies the Welsh and the Scots,
while _Edward_ was supported by the Count of Flanders and by
_Adolphus_ of Nassau, king of the Romans. In Scotland, _William
Wallace_ withstood Edward. _Philip_ was successful in
_Flanders_ and in _Guienne_. _Edward_, who was kept in
England by his war with the Scots, secured a truce through the
mediation of Pope _Boniface VIII_. Philip then took possession of
Flanders, with the exception of _Ghent_. Flanders was at that
time the richest country in Europe. Its cities were numerous, and the
whole land was populous and industrious. From England it received the
wool used in its thriving manufactures. To England its people were
attached. Philip loaded the Flemish people with imposts. They rose in
revolt, and _Robert d'Artois_, Philip's brother, met with a
disastrous defeat in a battle with the Flemish troops at
_Courtrai_, in 1302. The Flemish burghers proved themselves too
strong for the royal troops. Flanders was restored to its count, four
towns being retained by France.

CONFLICT OF PHILIP IV. AND BONIFACE VIII.--The expenses of
_Philip_, in the support of his army and for other purposes, were
enormous. The old feudal revenues were wholly insufficient for the new
methods of government. To supply himself with money, he not only
levied onerous taxes on his subjects, and practiced ingenious
extortion upon the Jews, but he resorted again and again to the device
of debasing the coin. His resolution to tax the property of the Church
brought him into a controversy, momentous in its results, with Pope
_Boniface VIII_.

_Boniface's_ idea of papal prerogative was fully as exalted as
that formerly held by _Hildebrand_ and _Innocent III_. But
he had less prudence and self-restraint, and the temper of the times
was now altered. If Philip was sustained by the Roman law and its
interpreters, whose counsels he gladly followed, _Boniface_, on
the other hand, could lean upon the system of ecclesiastical or canon
law, which had long been growing up in Europe, and of which the
_Canonists_ were the professional expounders. The vast wealth of
the clergy had led to enactments for keeping it within bounds, like
the statute of _mortmain_ in England (1279) forbidding the giving
of land to religious bodies without license from the king. The word
_mortmain_ meant _dead hand_, and was applied to possessors
of land, especially ecclesiastical corporations, that could not
alienate it. The jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts, which kings,
because they happened to have a less liking for feudal law, had often
favored, had now come to be another great matter of contention. In
1296 _Boniface VIII_., in the bull _clericis laicos_,--so
named, like other papal edicts, from the opening words,--forbade the
imposition of extraordinary taxes upon the clergy without the consent
of the Holy See. _Philip_ responded by forbidding foreigners to
sojourn in France, which was equivalent to driving out of the country
the Roman priests and those who brought in the obnoxious bull. At the
same time he forbade money to be carried out of France. This last
prohibition cut off contributions to Rome. The king asserted the
importance of the laity in the Church, as well as of the clergy, and
the right of the king of France to take charge of his own realm. There
was a seeming reconciliation for a time, through concessions on the
side of the Pope; but the strife broke out afresh in
1301. _Philip_ arrested _Bernard Saisset_, a bold legate of
the Pope. _Boniface_ poured forth a stream of complaints against
_Philip_ (1301), and went so far as to summon the French clergy
to a council at _Rome_ for the settlement of all disorders in
France. The king then appealed to the French nation. On the 10th of
April, 1302, he assembled in the Church of _Notre Dame_, at
Paris, a body which, for the first time, contained the deputies of the
universities and of the towns, and for this reason is considered to
have been the first meeting of the _States General_, The clergy,
the barons, the burghers, sided cordially with the king. The Pope then
published the famous bull, _Unam Sanctam_, in which the
subjection of the temporal power to the spiritual is proclaimed with
the strongest emphasis. Boniface then excommunicated Philip, and was
preparing to depose him, and to hand over his kingdom to the emperor,
_Albert I_.

DEATH OF BONIFACE VIII.--Meantime _Philip_ had assembled anew the
States General (1303). The legists lent their counsel and active
support. It was proposed to the king to convoke a general council of
the Church, and to summon the Pope before it. _William of
Nogaret_, a great lawyer in the service of Philip, was directed to
lodge with Boniface this appeal to a council, and to publish it at
_Rome_. With _Sciarra Colonna_, between whose family and the
Pope there was a mortal feud, _Nogaret_, attended also by several
hundred hired soldiers, entered _Anagni_, where _Boniface_
was then staying. The two messengers heaped upon him the severest
reproaches, and _Colonna_ is said to have struck the old pontiff
in the face with his mailed hand. The French were driven out of the
town by the people; but from the indignities which he had suffered,
and the anger and shame consequent upon them, _Boniface_ shortly
afterwards died.

THE "BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY" (1309-1379).--From the date of the events
just narrated, the pontifical authority sank, and the secular
authority of sovereigns and nations was in the ascendant. After the
short pontificate of _Benedict XL_, who did what he could to
reconcile the ancient but estranged allies, France and the Papacy, a
French prelate, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, was made pope under the
name of _Clement V_., he having previously engaged to comply with
the wishes of Philip. While the Papacy continued subordinate to the
French king, its moral influence in other parts of Christendom was of
necessity reduced. _Clement V_, was crowned at _Lyons_ in
1305, and in 1309 established himself at _Avignon_, a possession
of the Holy See on the borders of France. After him there followed at
_Avignon_ seven popes who were subject to French influence
(1309-1376). It is the period in the annals of the Papacy which is
called the "Babylonian captivity." _Philip_ remained
implacable. He was determined to secure the condemnation of
_Boniface VIII_., even after his death. _Clement V_. had no
alternative but to summon a council, which was held at _Vienne_
in 1311, when Boniface was declared to have been orthodox, at the same
time that Philip was shielded from ecclesiastical censure or reproach.

SUPPRESSION OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS.--One of the demands which
_Philip_ had made of _Clement V_., and a demand which the
council had to grant, was the condemnation of the order of Knights
Templars, whose vast wealth Philip coveted. On the 13th of October,
1307, the Templars were arrested overall France,--an act which evinces
both the power of Philip, and his injustice. They were charged with
secret immoralities, and with practices involving impiety. Provincial
councils were called together to decree the judgment preordained by the
king. The Templars were examined under torture, and many of them were
burned at the stake. A large number of those who were put to death
revoked the confessions which had been extorted from them by bodily
suffering. Individuals may have been guilty of some of the charges, but
there is no warrant for such a verdict against the entire order. The
order was abolished by _Clement V_.

LAW STUDIES: MERCENARY TROOPS.--During the reign of Philip the Fair, it
was ordained that Parliament should sit twice every year at Paris
(1303). A university for the study of law was founded at
_Orleans_. The king needed soldiers as well as lawyers. Mercenary
troops were beginning to take the place of feudal bands. Philip brought
the Genoese galleys against the ships of Flanders.

THE THREE SONS OF PHILIP: THE "SALIC LAW."--Three sons of Philip
reigned after him. _Louis X._ (1314-1316) was induced to take
part in an aristocratic reaction, in behalf of "the good old customs,"
against the legists; but he continued to emancipate the serfs. He was
not succeeded by his daughter, but by his brother. This precedent was
soon transformed into the "Salic law" that only heirs in the male line
could succeed to the throne. The rule was really the result of the
"genealogical accident" that for three hundred and forty-one years, or
since the election of Hugh Capet, every French king had been succeeded
by his son. In several cases the son had been crowned in the lifetime
of the father. Thus the principle of heredity, and of heredity in the
male line, had taken root.

Under _Philip V._ and his successor, _Charles IV._
(1322-1328), there was cruel persecution of the Jews, and many people
suffered death on the charge of sorcery.

EDWARD I. OF ENGLAND (1272-1307): CONQUEST OF WALES: WILLIAM
WALLACE.--_Edward_, who was in the Holy Land when his father
died, was a gallant knight and an able ruler,--"the most brilliant
monarch of the fourteenth century." _Llywelyn_, prince of Wales,
having refused to render the oath due from a vassal, was forced to
yield. When a rebellion broke out several years later, Wales was
conquered, and the leader of the rebellion was executed (1283). Thus
Wales was joined to England; and the king gave to his son the title of
"Prince of Wales," which the eldest son of the sovereign of England
has since worn. _Edward_ was for many years at war with Scotland,
which now included the Gaelic-speaking people of the Highlands, and
the English-speaking people of the Lowlands. The king of England had
some claim to be their suzerain, a claim which the Scots were slow to
acknowledge. The old line of Scottish princes of the Celtic race died
out. Alexander III. fell with his horse over a cliff on the coast of
Fife. Two competitors for the throne arose, both of them of Norman
descent,--_John Baliol_ and _Robert Bruce_. The Scots made
_Edward_ an umpire, to decide which of them should reign. He
decided for _Baliol_ (1292), stipulating that the suzerainty
should rest with himself. When he called upon _Baliol_ to aid him
against France, the latter renounced his allegiance, and declared
war. He was conquered at _Dunbar_ (1296), and made prisoner. The
strongholds in Scotland fell into the hands of the English. The
country appeared to be subjugated, but the Scots were ill-treated by
the English. _William Wallace_ put himself at the head of a band
of followers, defeated them near _Stirling_ in 1292, and kept up
the contest for several years with heroic energy. At length
_Edward_, through the skill acquired by the English in the use of
the bow, was the victor at _Falkirk_ in 1298. _Wallace_,
having been betrayed into his hands, was brutally executed in London
(1305).

Edward carried off from Scone the stone on which the Scottish kings
had always been crowned. It is now in Westminster Abbey, under the
coronation chair of the sovereign of Great Britain. There was a
legend, that on this same stone the patriarch Jacob laid his head
when he beheld angels ascending and descending at Bethel. Where that
stone was, it was believed that Scottish kings would reign. This was
held to be verified when English kings of Scottish descent inherited
the crown.

ROBERT BRUCE.--The struggle for Scottish independence was taken up by
_Robert Bruce_, grandson of the Bruce who had claimed the
crown. His plan to gain the throne was disclosed by _John Comyn_,
nephew of _Baliol_: this _Comyn_ young Bruce stabbed in a
church at Dumfries. He was then crowned king at Scone, and summoned
the Scots to his standard. The English king sent his son _Edward_
to conquer him; but the king himself, before he could reach Scotland,
died.

PARLIAMENT: THE JEWS.--Under Edward, the form of government by king,
lords, and commons was firmly established. Parliament met in two
distinct houses. Against his inclination he swore to the "Confirmation
of the Charters," by which he engaged not to impose taxes without the
consent of Parliament. The statute of _mortmain_ has been
referred to already. The clergy paid their taxes to the king when they
found, that, unless they did so, the judges would not protect
them. _Edward_ had protected the _Jews_, who, in England as
elsewhere, were often falsely accused of horrible crimes, and against
whom there existed, on account of their religion, a violent
prejudice. At length he yielded to the popular hatred, and banished
them from the kingdom, permitting them, however, to take with them
their property.

Edward II. (1307-1327).--_Edward II_., a weak and despicable
sovereign, cared for nothing but pleasure.

He was under the influence of the son of a Gascon gentleman, _Peter
of Gaveston_, whom, contrary to the injunction of his father, he
recalled from banishment. _Gaveston_ was made regent while the
king was in France, whither he went, in 1308, to marry _Isabel_,
daughter of _Philip the Fair_. After his return, the disgust of
the barons at the conduct of _Gaveston_, and at the courses into
which _Edward_ was led by him, was such, that in 1310 they forced
the king to give the government for a year to a committee of peers, by
whom Gaveston was once more banished. When he came back, he was
captured by the barons, and beheaded in 1312.

BRUCE: BANNOCKBURN: DEPOSITION OF EDWARD II.--After various successes,
_Robert Bruce_ laid siege to _Stirling_ in 1314. This led to
a temporary reconciliation between the king and the
barons. _Edward_ set out for Scotland with an army of a hundred
thousand men. A great battle took place at _Bannockburn_, where
_Bruce_, with a greatly inferior force of foot-soldiers, totally
defeated the English. He had dug pits in front of his army, which he
had covered with turf resting on sticks. The effect was to throw the
English cavalry into confusion. Against the _Despencers_, father
and son, the next favorites of Edward, the barons were not at first
successful; but in 1326 Edward's queen, _Isabel_, who had joined
his enemies, returned from France with young _Edward_, Prince of
Wales, and at the head of foreign soldiers and exiles. The barons
joined her: the _Despencers_ were taken and executed. The king
was driven to resign the crown. He was carried from one castle to
another, and finally was secretly murdered at Berkeley Castle, by
_Roger Mortimer_, in whose custody he had been placed.

On the suppression of the _Knights Templars_ by _Pope Clement
V._, their property in England was confiscated. The _Temple_,
which was their abode in London, became afterwards the possession of
two societies of lawyers, the _Inner_ and _Middle Temple_.




THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR:


PERIOD I. (TO THE PEACE OF BRÉTIGNY. 1360).


ORIGIN OF THE WAR: EDWARD III. OF ENGLAND (1327-1377).--England and
France entered on one of the longest wars of which there is any record
in history. It lasted, with only a few short periods of intermission,
for a hundred years. At the outset, there were two main causes of
strife. _First_, the king of France naturally coveted the English
territory around Bordeaux,--_Guienne_, whose people were
French. _Secondly_, the English would not allow _Flanders_
--whose manufacturing towns, as Ghent and Bruges, were the best
customers for their wool--to pass under French control. Independently
of these grounds of dispute, _Edward III_. laid claim to the
French crown, for the reason that his mother was the sister of the last
king, while _Philip VI_. (1328-1350), then reigning, was only his
cousin. The French stood by the "Salic law," but a much stronger
feeling was their determination not to be ruled by an Englishman.

_Edward III._ claimed the throne of France in right of his mother,
_Isabel_, the daughter of _Philip IV_. The peers and barons
of France, on the whole, for political reasons, decided that the crown
should be given to _Philip (VI.)_. his nephew, of the house of
_Valois_, a younger line of the _Capets_. Edward rendered to
him, in 1328, feudal homage for the duchy of _Guienne_, but took
the first favorable occasion to re-assert his claim to the
throne. _Robert II._, Count of Artois, was obliged to fly from
France on a charge of having poisoned his aunt and her daughters, as a
part of his unsuccessful attempt to get possession of the fiefs left to
them by his grandsire. He went over to England from _Brussels_,
and stirred up the young English king to attack _Philip_
(1334). _David Bruce_, whom _Edward_ sought to drive out of
Scotland, received aid from France. Philip ordered _Louis_, Count
of Flanders, between whom and the burghers there was no affection, to
expel the English from his states. _James Van Arteveld_, a brewer
of _Ghent_, convinced the people that it was better to get rid of
the count, and ally themselves with the English. _Edward_ even
then hesitated about entering into the conflict, but the demands and
measures of _Philip_ showed that he was bent on war. The princes
in the neighborhood of Flanders, and the emperor _Louis V_., to
whom the Pope at _Avignon_ was hostile, declared on the side of
_Edward_.

The following tables (in part repeated, in a modified form, from
previous tables, and here connected) will illustrate the narrative:--



THE HOUSE OF VALOIS.

CHARLES, Count of Valois (_d_. 1325),
younger son of PHILIP III, KING OF FRANCE. (See below.)
|
+--PHILIP VI, 1328-1350.
|
+--JOHN the Good, 1350-1364.
|
+--CHARLES V the Wise, 1364-1380.
| |
| +--CHARLES VI, 1380-1422.
| | |
| | +--CHARLES VII, 1422-1461.
| | |
| | +--LOUIS XI, 1461-1483.
| | |
| | +--CHARLES VIII, 1483-1498.
| | |
| | +--Jeanne,
| | _m_
| | +--Duke of Orleans, afterwards LOUIS XII, 1498-1515.
| | |
| | +--Charles, Duke of Orleans, (d. 1467)
| | |
| +--Louis, Duke of Orleans (assassinated 1407),
| founder of the House of _Valois-Orleans_.
|
+--Louis, Duke of Anjou, founder
| of the second Royal House of Naples.
|
+--John, Duke of Berry.
|
+--Philip, Duke of Burgundy
(_d_. 1404).


* * * * *


PHILIP III, 1270-1285.
|
+--PHILIP IV, 1285-1314.
| |
| +--Isabel, _m_. Edward II of England
| | |
| | +--Edward II of England.
| | |
| | +--Edward III of England.
| |
| +--PHILIP V, 1316-1322.
| |
| +--CHARLES IV, 1322-1328.
|
+--Charles, Count of Valois (_d_. 1325), _m_.
(1), Margaret of Naples.
|
+--PHILIP VI, 1328-1350.



EARLY EVENTS OF THE WAR.--Hostilities began in 1337. _Edward_
entered France, and then for the first time publicly set up his claim
to be king of France, quartering the lilies on his shield; and he was
accepted by the Flemish as their suzerain. The first battle was on the
sea near Fort _Sluys_ (1340), where _Edward_ won a victory,
and thirty thousand Frenchmen were slain or drowned. This established
the supremacy of the English on the water. The fleet of the French was
made up of hired Castilian and Genoese vessels. In 1341 the conflict
was renewed on account of a disputed succession in Brittany, in which
the "Salic law" was this time on the English side.

_Jane of Penthievre_ was supported by _Philip_; while _Jane
of Montfort_, an intrepid woman who was protected by _Edward_,
contended for the rights of her husband. This war, consisting of the
sieges of fortresses and towns, was kept up for twenty-four years.

BATTLE OF CRÉCY: CALAIS: BRITTANY.--In 1346 the _Earl of Derby_
made an attack in the south of France, while _Edward_, with his
young son _Edward_, the Prince of Wales, landed in Normandy,
which he devastated. _King Edward_ advanced to the neighborhood
of Paris; but the want of provisions caused him to change his course,
and to march in the direction of Flanders. His situation now became
perilous. He was followed by _Philip_ at the head of a powerful
army; and, had there been more energy and promptitude on the side of
the French, the English forces might have been
destroyed. _Edward_ was barely able, by taking advantage of a
ford at low tide, to cross the Somme, and to take up an advantageous
position at _Crécy_. There he was attacked with imprudent haste
by the army of the French. The chivalry of France went down before the
solid array of English archers, and _Edward_ gained an
overwhelming victory. Philip's brother _Charles_, count of
Alençon, fell, with numerous other princes and nobles, and thirty
thousand soldiers (1346). In the battle, the English king's eldest son
--_Edward_, the Black Prince as he was called from the color of
his armor--was hard pressed; but the father would send no aid, saying,
"Let the boy win his spurs." It was the custom to give the spurs to
the full-fledged knight. After a siege, _Calais_, the port so
important to the English, was captured by them. The deputies of the
citizens, almost starved, came out with cords in their hands, to
signify their willingness to be hanged. The French were driven out,
and Calais was an English town for more than two centuries. France was
defeated on all sides. The Scots, too, were vanquished; and _David
Bruce_ was made prisoner (1346). In _Brittany_ the French
party was prostrate. A truce between the kings was concluded for ten
months.

THE "BLACK DEATH."--In the midst of these calamities, the fearful
pestilence swept over France, called the "Black Death." It came from
Egypt, possibly from farther east. In Florence three-fifths of the
inhabitants perished by it. From Italy it passed over to Provence, and
thence moved northward to Paris, spreading destruction in its path. It
reached England, and there it is thought by some that one-half of the
population perished (1348-1349).

ENGLISH AND FRENCH ARMIES.--At this time, when the power of France was
so reduced, the king acquired _Montpellier_ from _James of
Aragon_, and the Dauphiné of _Vienne_ by purchase from the
last _Dauphin, Humbert II._, who entered a
monastery. _Dauphin_ became the title of the heir of the French
crown. It was constantly evident how deep a root the royal power had
struck into the soil of France. At times, when the kingdom was almost
gone, the kingship survived. But, unhappily, there was no union of
orders and classes. Chivalry looked with disdain upon the common
people. The poor Genoese archers who had fought with the French at
_Crécy_, and whose bow-strings were wet by a shower, were
despised by the gentlemen on horseback. In the French armies, there
was no effective force but the cavalry, and there was a fatal lack of
subordination and discipline. In England, on the contrary, under kings
with more control over the feudal aristocracy, and from the
combination of lords and common people in resistance to kings, the
English armies had acquired union and discipline. The bow in the hands
of the English yeoman was a most effective weapon. The English
infantry were more than a match for the brave and impetuous cavaliers
of France. At _Crécy_ the entire English force fought on
foot. Cannon were just beginning to come into use. This brought a new
advantage to the foot-soldier. But it seems probable that cannon were
employed at _Crécy_.

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