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| | | | | | |
_Francis II_, | _Henry III_ | Elizabeth (1)Margaret==_Henry IV_,
_1559-60_ | _1574-89_ | ==(3)Philip II (2)Mary de' 1589-1610
==Mary, Queen | | King of Spain Medici
of Scots | |
| |
_Charles IX_ Francis, Duke
_1560-74_ of Alencon and
Anjou, d. 1584

[Transcriber's note: "d." has been used here as a substitute
for the "dagger" symbol (Unicode U+2020) that signifies the
person's year of death.]

Geographically, France was nearly the same four hundred years ago as it
is today, save that the eastern {184} frontier was somewhat farther
west. The line then ran west of the three Bishoprics, Verdun, Metz and
Toul, west of Franche Comte, just east of Lyons and again west of Savoy
and Nice.

Politically, France was then one of a group of semi-popular,
semi-autocratic monarchies. The rights of the people were asserted by
the States General which met from time to time, usually at much longer
intervals than the German Diets or the English Parliaments, and by the
Parlements of the various provinces. These latter were rather high
courts of justice than legislative assemblies, but their right to
register new laws gave them a considerable amount of authority. The
Parlement of Paris was the most conspicuous and perhaps the most
powerful.

[Sidenote: Concordat, 1516]

The power of the monarch, resting primarily on the support of the
bourgeois class, was greatly augmented by the Concordat of 1516, which
made the monarch almost the supreme head of the Gallican church. For
two centuries the crown had been struggling to attain this position.
It was because so large a degree of autonomy was granted to the
national church that the French felt satisfied not to go to the extreme
of secession from the Roman communion. It was because the king had
already achieved a large control over his own clergy that he felt it
unnecessary or inadvisable to go to the lengths of the Lutheran princes
and of Henry VIII. In that one important respect the Concordat of
Bologna took the place of the Reformation.

[Sidenote: Francis I, 1515-47]

Francis I was popular and at first not unattractive. Robust, fond of
display, ambitious, intelligent enough to dabble in letters and art, he
piqued himself on being chivalrous and