that it squares the outward
political condition of the people with their inward desires. When once
a nation has come to feel itself such, it cannot be happy until its
polity is united in a homogeneous state, though the reverse is also
true,--that national feeling is sometimes the result as well as the
cause of political union. With the growth of a common language and of
common ideals, and with the improvement of the methods of
communication, the desire of the people for unity became stronger and
stronger, until it finally overcame the centrifugal forces of feudalism
and of particularism. These were so strong in Germany that only a very
imperfect federation could be formed by way of national government, but
in France, though they were still far from moribund, external pressure
and the growth of the royal power had forged the various provinces into
a nation such as it exists today. The most independent of the old
provinces, Brittany, was now united to the crown by the marriage of its
duchess Anne to Louis XII. [Sidenote: Louis XII, 1498-1515]

{183}

Anne ==_Louis XII_ Charles, Count==Louise
Duchess of | _1498-1515_ of Angouleme | of Savoy
Brittany | |
| |
| |
| |
+---------+-------------+ |
|2 1| |
Renee==Hercules II, Claude==(1)_Francis I_ Margaret==(1)Charles,
Duke of | _1515-47_ Duke of
Ferrara | (2)==Eleanor, Alencon
| sister of ==(2)Henry II,
| Emperor | King of
| Charles V | Navarre
| |
_Henry II_==Catharine de' |
_1547-59_ | Medici d. 1589 Joan ==Anthony
| d'Albret| of
| | Bourbon
| | Duke of
| | Vendome
+--------+------+------+----+-+------