This category encompasses all activities involving the application of aesthetic designs to everyday functional objects. While fine art provides intellectual stimulation to the viewer, applied art creates utilitarian items (a cup, a couch or sofa, a clock, a chair or table) using aesthetic principles in their design. Folk art is predominantly involved with this type of creative activity. Applied art includes architecture, computer art, photography, industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, as well as all decorative arts. Noted styles include, Bauhaus Design School, as well as Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. One of the most important forms of 20th applied art is architecture, notably supertall skyscraper architecture, which dominates the urban environment in New York, Chicago, Hong Kong and many other cities around the world. For a review of this type of public art, see: American Architecture (1600-present).
After the destruction of the church Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie, stood at the foot of the old steeple market Saint-Jacques. The tower was accessible from the market and from the rue du Petit-Crucifix, which ran along it to the west.
Created in 1856 after the acquisition of the land by the city of Paris in 1836, it is the first Parisian square landscaped and built by Jean-Charles Alphand, as part of the major Haussmanian development improvements being hygiene and traffic in the center of Paris. The creation of the square required the disappearance of the rue du Petit-Crucifix.
The square is designed around the tower of Saint-Jacques built in the sixteenth century in the flamboyant Gothic style, remodeled for the occasion in the factory by Theodore Ballu. Among the elements of interest, the square houses since 1857 the statue of Blaise Pascal (because of the experiments on the atmospheric pressure that it made in the tower) carried out by Jules Cavelier and since 1955 the Monument to Gérard de Nerval (in memory his suicide by hanging on the Place du Châtelet) composed of a medallion and a stone in which are engraved verses of the poet.
General view with the tower, the statue of Pascal and the monument to Nerval
On June 7, 1990, one of the trails in the square was renamed to the Waslaw-Nijinski alley in memory of the Russian ballet dancer, who performed at the nearby Châtelet theater in the years 1910-1920.
The Square is restructured in 1997 and then from 2006 to 2009 the square as well as the tower Saint-Jacques are restored. New plantations were made including the white mulberry “Let’s grow here” planted in April 2008 by the municipal authorities in the presence of the first assistant to the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, to support the action of the Association of Education Network without borders. There is another variety of mulberry in the square, the paper mulberry.
It is the second-largest park in Paris, slightly smaller than the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern side of the city. It covers an area of 845 hectares (2088 acres), which is about two and a half times the area of Central Park in New York and slightly less (88%) than that of Richmond Park in London.
A hunting preserve, royal châteaux, and a historic balloon flight
The Bois de Boulogne is a remnant of the ancient oak forest of Rouvray, which included the present-day forests of Montmorency, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Chaville, and Meudon. Dagobert, the King of the Franks (629-639), hunted bears, deer, and other game in the forest. His grandson, Childeric II, gave the forest to the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, who founded several monastic communities there. Philip Augustus (1180–1223) bought back the main part of the forest from the monks to create a royal hunting reserve. In 1256, Isabelle de France, sister of Saint-Louis, founded the Abbey of Longchamp at the site of the present hippodrome.
The Bois received its present name from a chapel, Notre Dame de Boulogne la Petite, which was built in the forest at the command of Philip IV of France (1268–1314). In 1308, Philip made a pilgrimage to Boulogne-sur-Mer, on the French coast, to see a statue of the Virgin Mary which was reputed to inspire miracles. He decided to build a church with a copy of the statue in a village in the forest not far from Paris, in order to attract pilgrims. The chapel was built after Philip’s death between 1319 and 1330, in what is now Boulogne-Billancourt.
During the Hundred Years’ War, the forest became a sanctuary for robbers and sometimes a battleground. In 1416-17, the soldiers of John the Fearless, the Duke of Burgundy, burned part of the forest in their successful campaign to capture Paris. Under Louis XI, the trees were replanted, and two roads were opened through the forest.
In 1526, King Francis I of France began a royal residence, the Château de Madrid, in the forest in what is now Neuilly and used it for hunting and festivities. It took its name from a similar palace in Madrid, where Francis had been held prisoner for several months. The Chateau was rarely used by later monarchs, fell into ruins in the 18th century, and was demolished after the French Revolution.
The Chateau de Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne, built in 1526 by Francis I of France.
Despite its royal status, the forest remained dangerous for travelers; the scientist and traveler Pierre Belon was murdered by thieves in the Bois de Boulogne in 1564.[6]
During the reigns of Henry II and Henry III, the forest was enclosed within a wall with eight gates. Henry IV planted 15,000 mulberry trees, with the hope of beginning a local silk industry. When Henry annulled his marriage to Marguerite de Valois, she went to live in the Château de la Muette, on the edge of the forest.
In the early 18th century, wealthy and important women often retired to the convent of the Abbey of Longchamp, located where the hippodrome now stands. A famous opera singer of the period, Madmoiselle Le Maure, retired there in 1727 but continued to give recitals inside the Abbey, even during Holy Week. These concerts drew large crowds and irritated the Archibishop of Paris, who closed the Abbey to the public.[7]
Louis XVI and his family used the forest as a hunting ground and pleasure garden. In 1777, the Comte d’Artois, Louis XVI‘s brother, built a charming miniature palace, the Château de Bagatelle, in the Bois in just 64 days, on a wager from his sister-in-law, Marie Antoinette. Louis XVI also opened the walled park to the public for the first time.
On 21 November 1783, Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes took off from the Chateau de la Muette in a hot air balloon made by the Montgolfier brothers. Previous flights had carried animals or had been tethered to the ground; this was the first manned free flight in history. The balloon rose to a height of 910 meters (3000 feet), was in the air for 25 minutes, and covered nine kilometers.[8]
Following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, 40,000 soldiers of the British and Russian armies camped in the forest. Thousands of trees were cut down to build shelters and for firewood.
From 1815 until the French Second Republic, the Bois was largely empty, an assortment of bleak ruined meadows and tree stumps where the British and Russians had camped and dismal stagnant ponds.[9]
The design of the park
The Bois de Boulogne was the idea of Napoleon III, shortly after he staged a coup d’état and elevated himself from the President of the French Republic to Emperor of the French in 1852. When Napoleon III became Emperor, Paris had only four public parks – the Tuileries Gardens, the Luxembourg Garden, the Palais Royale, and the Jardin des Plantes – all in the center of the city. There were no public parks in the rapidly growing east and west of the city. During his exile in London, he had been particularly impressed by Hyde Park, by its lakes and streams and its popularity with Londoners of all social classes. Therefore, he decided to build two large public parks on the eastern and western edges of the city where both the rich and ordinary people could enjoy themselves.[10]
These parks became an important part of the plan for the reconstruction of Paris drawn up by Napoleon III and his new Prefect of the Seine, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The Haussmann plan called for improving the city’s traffic circulation by building new boulevards; improving the city’s health by building a new water distribution system and sewers; and creating green spaces and recreation for Paris’ rapidly growing population. In 1852, Napoleon donated the land for the Bois de Boulogne and for the Bois de Vincennes, which both belonged officially to him. Additional land in the plain of Longchamp, the site of the Chateau de Madrid, the Chateau de Bagatelle, and its gardens were purchased and attached to the proposed park, so it could extend all the way to the Seine. Construction was funded out of the state budget, supplemented by selling building lots along the north end of the Bois, in Neuilly,[11]
Napoleon III was personally involved in planning the new parks. He insisted that the Bois de Boulogne should have a stream and lakes, like Hyde Park in London. “We must have a stream here, as in Hyde Park,” he observed while driving through the Bois, “to give life to this arid promenade”.[12]
The first plan for the Bois de Boulogne was drawn up by the architect Jacques Hittorff, who, under King Louis Philippe, had designed the Place de la Concorde, and the landscape architect Louis-Sulpice Varé, who had designed French landscape gardens at several famous châteaux. Their plan called for long straight alleys in patterns crisscrossing the park, and, as the Emperor had asked, lakes and a long stream similar to the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
Unfortunately, Varé failed to take into account the difference in elevation between the beginning of the stream and the end; if his plan had been followed, the upper part of the stream would have been empty, and the lower portion flooded. When Haussmann saw the partially finished stream, he saw the problem immediately and had the elevations measured. He dismissed the unfortunate Varé and Hittorff, and designed the solution himself; an upper lake and a lower lake, divided by an elevated road, which serves as a dam, and a cascade which allows the water to flow between the lakes. This is the design still seen today.[13]
In 1853, Haussmann hired an experienced engineer from the corps of Bridges and Highways, Jean-Charles Alphand, whom he had worked with in his previous assignment in Bordeaux, and made him the head of a new Service of Promenades and Plantations, in charge of all the parks in Paris. Alphand was charged to make a new plan for the Bois de Boulogne. Alphand’s plan was radically different from the Hittorff-Varé plan. While it still had two long straight boulevards, the Allée Reine Marguerite and the Avenue Longchamp, all the other paths and alleys curved and meandered. The flat Bois de Boulogne was to be turned into an undulating landscape of lakes, hills, islands, groves, lawns, and grassy slopes, not a reproduction of but an idealization of nature. It became the prototype for the other city parks of Paris and then for city parks around the world.[14]
Jardin d’Acclimatation en 1868, Henri Corbel
The plan of the park from 1879 shows the two straight alleys of the old Bois, and the lakes, winding lanes and paths built by Alphand.
L’aquarium; vue intérieure, 1860.
The Jardin zoologique at the Bois de Boulogne included an aquarium that housed both fresh and salt water sea animals. The interior is depicted here.
The Construction of the Park
The building of the park was an enormous engineering project which lasted for five years. The upper and lower lakes were dug, and the earth piled into islands and hills. Rocks were brought from Fontainbleau and combined with cement to make the cascade and an artificial grotto.
The pumps from the Seine could not provide enough water to fill the lakes and irrigate the park, so a new channel was created to bring the water of the Ourcq River, from Monceau to the upper lake in the Blois, but this was not enough. An artesian well 586 meters deep was eventually dug in the plain of Passy which could produce 20,000 cubic meters of water a day. This well went into service in 1861.[15]
The water then had to be distributed around the park to water the lawns and gardens; the traditional system of horse-drawn wagons with large barrels of water would not be enough. A system of 66 kilometers of pipes was laid, with a faucet every 30 or 40 meters, a total of 1600 faucets.
Alphand also had to build a network of roads, paths, and trails to connect the sights of the park. The two long straight alleys from the old park were retained, and his workers built an additional 58 kilometers of roads paved with stones for carriages, 12 kilometers of sandy paths for horses, and 25 kilometers of dirt trails for walkers. As a result of Louis Napoléon’s exile in London and his memories of Hyde Park, all the new roads and paths were curved and meandering.[16]
The planting of the park was the task of the new chief gardener and landscape architect of the Service of Promenades and Plantations, Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps, who had also worked with Haussmann and Alphand in Bordeaux. His gardeners planted 420,000 trees, including hornbeam, beech, linden, cedar, chestnut, and elm, and hardy exotic species, like redwoods. They planted 270 hectares of lawns, with 150 kilograms of seed per hectare, and thousands of flowers. To make the forest more natural, they brought 50 deer to live in and around the Pré-Catelan.
The park was designed to be more than a collection of pictureque landscapes; it was meant as a place for amusement and recreation, with sports fields, bandstands, cafes, shooting galleries, riding stables, boating on the lakes, and other attractions. In 1855, Gabriel Davioud, a graduate of Ecole des Beaux-Arts, was named the chief architect of the new Service of Promenades and Plantations. He was commissioned to design 24 pavilions and chalets, plus cafes, gatehouses, boating docks, and kiosks. He designed the gatehouses where the guardians of the park lived to look like rustic cottages. He had a real Swiss chalet built out of wood in Switzerland and transported to Paris, where it was reassembled on an island in the lake and became a restaurant. He built another restaurant next to the park’s most picturesque feature, the Grand Cascade. He designed artificial grottoes made of rocks and cement, and bridges and balustrades made of cement painted to look like wood. He also designed all the architectural details of the park, from cone-shaped shelters designed to protect horseback riders from the rain to the park benches and direction signs.[17]
At the south end of the park, in the Plain of Longchamp, Davioud restored the ruined windmill which was the surviving vestige of the Abbey of Longchamp, and, working with the Jockey Club of Paris, constructed the grandstands of the Hippodrome of Longchamp, which opened in 1857.
At the northern end of the park, between the Sablons gate and Neuilly, a 20-hectare section of the park was given to the Societé Imperiale zoologique d’Acclimatation, to create a small zoo and botanical garden, with an aviary of rare birds and exotic plants and animals from around the world.
In March 1855, an area in the center of the park, called the Pré-Catelan, was leased to a concessionaire for a garden and amusement park. It was built on the site of a quarry where the gravel and sand for the park’s roads and paths had been dug out. It included a large circular lawn surrounded by trees, grottos, rocks, paths, and flower beds. Davioud designed a buffet, a marionette theater, a photography pavilion, stables, a dairy, and other structures. The most original feature was the Théâtre des fleurs, an open-air theater in a setting of trees and flowers. Later, an ice skating rink and shooting gallery were added. The Pré-Catelan was popular for concerts and dances, but it had continual financial difficulties and eventually went bankrupt. The floral theater remained in business until the beginning of the First World War, in 1914.[18]
The park in the 19th and 20th century
The garden-building team brought together by Haussmann were Alphand, Barrillet-Deschamps and Davioud and went on to build The Bois de Vincennes, Parc MonceauParc Montsouris, and the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, using the experience and aesthetics they had developed in the Bois de Boulogne. They also rebuilt the Luxembourg gardens and the gardens of the Champs- Elysees, created smaller squares and parks throughout the center of Paris, and planted thousands of trees along the new boulevards that Haussmann had created. In the 17 years of Napoleon III’s reign, they planted no less than 600,000 trees and created a total 1,835 hectares of green space in Paris, more than any other ruler of France before or since.[19]
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), which led to the downfall of Napoleon III and the long siege of Paris, the park suffered some damage from German artillery bombardment, the restaurant of the Grand Cascade was turned into a field hospital, and many of the park’s animals and wild fowl were eaten by the hungry population. In the years following, however, the park quickly recovered.
The Bois de Boulogne became a popular meeting place and promenade route for Parisians of all classes. The alleys were filled with carriages, coaches, and horseback riders, and later with men and women on bicycles, and then with automobiles. Families having picnics filled the woods and lawns, and Parisians rowed boats on the lake, while the upper classes were entertained in the cafes. The restaurant of the Pavillon de la Grand Cascade became a popular spot for Parisian weddings. During the winter, when the lakes were frozen, they were crowded with ice skaters.[20]
The activities of Parisians in the Bois, particularly the long promenades in carriages around the lakes, were often portrayed in French literature and art in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Scenes set in the park appeared in Nana by Émile Zola and in Education Sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert.[21] In the last pages of Du côté de chez Swann in À la recherche du temps perdu (1914), Marcel Proust minutely described a walk around the lakes taken as a child.[22] The life in the park was also the subject of the paintings of many artists, including Eduard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh.
In 1860, Napoleon opened the Jardin d’Acclimatation, a separate concession of 20 hectares at the north end of the park; it included a zoo and a botanical garden, as well as an amusement park. Between 1877 and 1912, it also served as the home of what was called an ethnological garden, a place where groups of the inhabitants of faraway countries were put on display for weeks at a time in reconstructed villages from their homelands. They were mostly Sub-Saharan Africans, North Africans, or South American Indians, and came mostly from the French colonies in Africa and South America, but also included natives of Lapland and Cossacks from Russia. These exhibitions were extremely popular and took place not only in Paris, but also in Germany, England, and at the Chicago Exposition in the United States; but they were also criticized at the time and later as being a kind of “human zoo“. Twenty-two of these exhibits were held in the park in the last quarter of the 19th century. About ten more were held in the 20th century, with the last one taking place in 1931.
Le jardin d’acclimatation en 1860, gravure d’A. Provost.
In 1905, a grand new restaurant in the classical style was built in the Pré-Catelan by architect Guillaume Tronchet. Like the cafe at the Grand Cascade, it became a popular promenade destination for the French upper classes.[23]
The Bois de Boulogne was officially annexed by the city of Paris in 1929 and incorporated into the 16th arrondissement.
Soon after World War II, the park began to come back to life. In 1945, it held its first motor race after the war: the Paris Cup. In 1953, a British group, Les Amis de la France, created the Shakespeare Garden on the site of the old floral theater in the Pré-Catelan.[26]
From 1952 until 1986, the Duke of Windsor, the title granted to King Edward VIII after his abdication, and his wife, Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, lived in the Villa Windsor, a house in the Bois de Boulogne behind the garden of the Bagatelle. The house was (and still is) owned by the City of Paris and was leased to the couple. The Duke died in this house in 1972, and the Duchess died there in 1986. The lease was purchased by Mohamed al-Fayed, the owner of the Ritz Hotel in Paris. The house was visited briefly by Diana, Princess of Wales and her companion, Dodi Fayed, on 31 August 1997, the day they died in a traffic accident in the Alma tunnel.
The Villa Windsor (originally named Chateau Le Bois) is a graceful 19th-century building of 14 rooms surrounded by a large tree-filled garden. It was built around 1860 and once owned by the Renault family but the French government sequestered the property after World War II and Charles de Gaulle occupied the house in the late 1940’s.
References
Dominique Jarrassé, Grammaire des jardins Parisiens, p. 94.
Jarrassé, Dominique, Grammaire des jardins Parisiens, p. 94.
The current Church of Notre Dame des Menus in Boulogne-Billancourt is built on the foundation of Philip’s chapel.
Serge Sauneron, ed. Belon, Le Voyage en Égypte de Pierre Belon du Mans 1547, (Cairo 1970) Introduction.
| “Archived copy”. Archived from the original on 7 March 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-07. The history of the Bois de Boulogne on the site of the City of Paris (in French).
Patrice de Moncan, Les jardins du Baron Haussmann, pp. 57-58.
Patrice de Moncan, Les Jardins du Baron Haussmann, p. 9.
J. M. Chapman and Brian Chapman, The Life and Times of Baron Haussmann: Paris in the Second Empire (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 1957:89.
Charles Merruau, Souvenirs de l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris, 1848-1852 (Paris 1875:37), quoted in David H. Pinkiney, “Napoleon III’s Transformation of Paris: The Origins and Development of the Idea” The Journal of Modern History27.2 (June 1955:125-134), p. 126.
George-Eugène Haussmann, Les Mémoires, Paris (1891), cited in Patrice de Moncan, p. 24.
Jarrassé, p. 97.
Patrice de Moncan, p. 60.
Patrice de Moncan, p. 60.
Patrice de Moncan, pp. 29-32.
Jarrassé, p. 107 and Patrice de Moncan, pp. 64-65.
Clovis I , in LatinChlodovechus , the only documented contemporary form attested, perhaps in reconstituted Francs * Hlodowig 5 , Note 1 (pronounced probably [xlod (o) wɪk] or [xlod (o) wɪç]), born around 466 and died in Paris on , is king of the Salian Franks , then king of all the Franks from 481 to 511 .
Coming from the Merovingian dynasty, he is the son of Childeric I , king of the Salian Francs of Tournai (Belgium), and Queen Basine of Thuringia . Brilliant military leader, he greatly increases the territory of the small kingdom of the Salian Franks which he inherited on the death of his father to unify a large part of the Frankish kingdoms, repel Alamans and Burgundians and annex the territories of the Visigoths in southern Gaul.
The reign of Clovis is best known from the description made by Gregory of Tours , a Gallo-Romanbishop whose history of the Franks is rich in teachings but whose aim is essentially edifying is accompanied by a lack of precision and historical coherence. The elements of Clovis’ life are not known with certainty and their “dressing” is most often suspect 6 .
The chronology of the reign of Clovis is very poorly known. Most of what we know comes from the story written at the end of the sixth century by BishopGregory of Tours , born nearly thirty years after the death of Clovis. This story is in fifteen short chapters Note 3 of Book II of his History of the Franks .
It has long been thought that this text was more about hagiography than about history . Thus, his narrative of the events follows a division into five-year slices, perhaps a reminiscence of quinquennalia or Roman lustra : war against Syagrius after five years of rule, fifteen for the war against the Alamans , war against the Visigoths five years before his death ; in all, a reign of thirty years after an advent at the age of fifteen. This information could be dismissed as legendary, but no study has ever fundamentally questioned these indications, which, in all likelihood, are slightly simplified, but remain valid “almost”.
The only date fixed by other sources than Gregory is that of his death, in 511 , which would date its advent of about 481 , perhaps 482 .
According to the historian Bruno Dumézil , some clarifications have recently been made thanks to the crossing of other documentary sources, without however contradicting the main elements of the history transmitted by Gregory 7 .
Dome of the baptistery of the Arians of Ravenna . In the center of the dome, Christ is baptized by John in the Jordan . He is represented next to a water engineer to show that he is not totally human 11 .
If the Christians of the first centuries venture to the evangelization of the empire, Christianity officially imposes itself only progressively from the IVE century, of the reign of Constantine I which converts to Christianity 12 , until to the reign of Emperor Theodosius I , who established Christianity as a state religion in 381 with the Thessalonian edict . Until then, and despite various edicts of religious tolerance, persecutions have prevented Christians from clearly defining a coherent doctrine; It is thus that the Emperor Constantine I organizes a council at Nicaea in 325 , to allow a theological and dogmatic harmonization. The result is dissension linked to the Trinitarian debate that favors two different concepts: the conciliar church preaches equality between the Father , the Son and the Holy Spirit ;Arianism , considered heretical by the conciliar, advocates the inferiority of the Son, considered a creature of God, 13 in relation to the Father 14 . By denying the divine nature of Christ and reducing him to a creature state, the Arians make the Messiah a being endowed with extraordinary powers but who is neither a man nor God.
Religions in Gaul in the fifth century
The great invasions and the fall of the Roman Empire allowed the durable installation of barbarian kingdoms in the empire and especially in Gaul . The barbarians , generally of Germanic origin, remained pagan because of their weak romanization. Apart from the short side of the Roman occupation of Germany under Augustus9 BC.BC at 12 , the empire has only two provinces in Germany : Upper Germany and Lower Germany 15 . To contain the barbarians, the Romans try to federate them to the empire by establishing peace treaties ( fœdus ) where the barbarians are granted territories, develop trade with Rome , pay taxes and provide soldiers, advancing the Roman influence 16 . The most Romanized peoples adopt Christianity as the Burgundians , Ostrogoths , Vandals and especially the Visigoths 11 but in its Arian version 12 . The influx of “barbarian” peoples more or less Romanized shakes the unity that Christianity had in the empire, and in Gaul, the establishment of barbarian kingdoms, either pagan or Arian, declines the conciliar obedience faithful to the dogmas from Chalcedon, Constantinople, and Nicea.
Paganism, Arianism and the Conciliar Church
Spiritual power and temporal power.Decree of Gratien , 13th century.
The Franks constituted a league of Germanic people who, although having established a fœdus with the empire, 17 remained pagan. They share with the other tribes of Germania the Ases worship of which the royal families are supposed to descend 18 . As a result, barbarian kings have a sacred origin making them both warlords but also holders of spiritual power. Also, when a “barbarian” leader turns to Christianity to try to get closer to the Romanized indigenous populations 12 , he opts instead for Arianism 19 , which allows the king to identify with Christ Superman 11 and to become the head of the Church, and thus to preserve his religious power 20 . The barbarian king thus concentrates the powers of warlord (or army king: heerkönig 21 ), head of state and head of the Church in his hands 11 , causing a Caesaro-papism 20 . On the contrary, the conciliar church preaches the division of powers between the king, laic , holder of temporal power , and the pope , superior pontiff , holder of spiritual power for the West.
The Germanic kingdoms at the end of the fifth century
Gaul at the advent of Clovis in 481.
At the end of the fifth century, Gaul was divided into several barbarian kingdoms, constantly at war, seeking to expand their influences and possessions. Three main sets stand out:
the Franks, established in the north-east, having long served the Roman Empire as auxiliary troops on the Rhine frontier, still pagan at the advent of Clovis, themselves scattered in many different kingdoms;
the Visigoths , a powerful people established south of the Loire , in Languedoc , especially in the valley of the Garonne , and in Spain, also Arians, but less tolerant towards the conciliar Christians whom they dominate;
the Ostrogoths are only present in Provence (as far as Arles), but their king Theodoric the Great , from Italy, tries to maintain the equilibrium between the different kingdoms;
Moreover, in the distance, the Eastern Roman Empire exerts a largely theoretical authority, but which retains an important symbolic value of which the Germanic sovereigns are eagerly seeking recognition. The Empire strives to contain the Germanic rulers.
Finally, a multitude of local or regional “powers” of military origin (“kingdoms” or regna ) thus occupy the void left by the deposition of the last Roman emperor of the West in 476 . Among these is the kingdom of a Roman general established in the region of Soissons , Syagrius . The “power” in question here has nothing to do with modern notions of legislative, executive or judicial power, but covers a dominant-dominated relationship closer to that of a tribal leader.
Gregory of Tours makes Childeric I appear in his story in 457 23 , when Childeric, who dishonored the women of his subjects, provoked the anger of his people who drove him away. He then fled to Thuringia for eight years, probably from 451 24 . Living with King Basin , he seduces the wife of his host, Basine , whom he brings back with him when the Franks Saliens claim on the throne. King marries Basine. From this marriage Clovis is born.
Three other children are born from this union:
Alboflede or Albofledis, baptized at the same time as his brother, who becomes a religious but dies soon after Note 4 ;
Lantilde or Landechildis, mentioned briefly by Gregory of Tours when she too is baptized at the same time as her brother Note 5 ;
Childeric, exercising administrative functions, must reside in one or more cities of Belgium second and occupy the palace assigned to the attention of the Roman governors . His son must have been born in Tournai and received, according to Germanic customs, a pagan baptism. His godfather named him Chlodweg and plunged him into the water eight days after his birth. His education had to be in the part of the residence reserved for women, the gynaeceum . Around six or seven years old, his father had to take charge of his education 26 by offering him an iron helmet, a shield and a scramasaxe used for the parade. Even if his majority is fixed at twelve 27 , it is not possible for him to fight before the age of fifteen 28 . He receives instruction based on the war: sports activities, horse riding and hunting. He speaks French , and having to succeed his father at the head of a Roman province , he learns Latin . Nevertheless, it is not possible to prove that he was able to read and write. He must also have been taught the history of his people.
The name of Clovis: etymology
Like all Franks from the beginning of the Christian era, Clovis spoke one or several Germanic languages of the so-called Low Franc linguistic subgroup.
The name of Clovis comes from Chlodowig , composed of the roots hlod (“fame”, “illustrious”, “glory”) and wig (“battle”, “fight”), that is “illustrious in the battle” or “fight of glory” 30 .
The name of the Frankish king derives then from “Hlodovic” then “Clodovic” who, Latinized in Chlodovechus , gives Chlodweg, Hlodovicus , Lodoys, Ludovic , “Clovis” 31 and “Clouis”, which was born in modern French the first name Louis , carried by eighteen kings of France. He also gives Ludwig in German.
The Latin “Claudius” leads both to the French “Louis” and to the German “Ludwig” (Clodweg, Cludwig) 32 .
Clovis takes the lead of the Frankish-French kingdom. The title of “king” (in Latin rex ) is not new: it is particularly devolved to the warlords of the barbarian nations in the service of Rome. Thus, the Franks, former faithful servants of Rome, remain no less Germans , paganbarbarians , far removed by their way of life Gauls Romanized by nearly five centuries of domination and Roman influence.
Clovis is then only fifteen years old and nothing predisposes this little barbarian leader among many others to supplant his rivals, more powerful. Historians have long debated the nature of Clovis’ seizure of power. In the eighteenth century , they clash on the interpretation of a letter from Bishop Remi de Reims .Montesquieu , in the Spirit of Laws , leans towards a conquest of the kingdom by arms, while the abbot Dubos Note 6 advocates the devolution, by the Roman Empire ending, of Belgium second to the Merovingian family 33]. . Today, this last thesis prevails.
In the light of subsequent events, his undeniable military success obviously owes to his personal qualities as a very cunning leader (” astutissimus ” 34 ), but at least as much to his long- standing acquaintance with the Roman experience of the war – the discipline required of his soldiers during the episode of Soissons testifies, as the grave of his father Childeric – that his conversion to Christianity and, through it, his alliance with the Gallo-Roman elites .
Thus, the reign of Clovis is rather in the continuity of late antiquity in the High Middle Ages for many historians. It contributes, however, to forge the original character of this last period by giving birth to a first dynasty of Christian kings and, because of its acceptance by the Gallo-Roman elites, creating an original power in Gaul.
The extension of the kingdom of Clovis to the east and the center
All his life, Clovis strives to enlarge the territory of his kingdom, before, according to the Germanic tradition, that his children do not share it between them. Little by little, Clovis thus conquers all the northern half of present-day France: he combines himself first with the Rhenish Franks, then with the Franks of Cambrai whose King Ragnacaire is probably one of his parents 35 .
Territorial expansion policy
To ensure the expansion of his domain, Clovis does not hesitate to eliminate all obstacles: he thus assassinates all the neighboring Salian and Rhenish leaders, and also to ensure that only his sons will inherit his kingdom, some of his old companions and even some members of his family, including distant ones. In 490, he began a series of offensives against the Rhineland and Trans-Rhine Germania .
He thus launches into a great series of alliances and military conquests, at the head of only a few thousand men at the start. But more than the weapons, certainly effective, Franks, it seems that the know-how acquired in the service of the Roman Empire and against other barbarians that makes possible the military successes of the warriors of Clovis.
Through him, however, it is not a Germanic people who imposes itself on the Gallo-Romans: it is the fusion of German and Latin elements that continues. Thus, while Chlodowig (Clovis) has a barbaric name and Syagrius is nevertheless described as “Roman” by the sources, it does not clearly benefit from the support of his people. The “barbarian” Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great , in his prestigious court of Ravenna , also perpetuates all the characters of late Roman civilization, while remaining an Arian Ostrogoth, a heretical barbarian in the eyes of the Church.
In spite of hard fights, however, Clovis knows how to impose himself fairly quickly because he already seems rather Romanized and, finally, a less bad master than most pretenders: “at least he is a Christian,” the Gallo Roman. He also had a Gallo-Roman adviser, Aurelianus 36 . Conversely, the Visigoths, Christians but Arians, hold Aquitaine with an iron fist and make no effort to attempt a rapprochement with the Gallo-Roman Christians they dominate.
The conquest of the kingdom of Syagrius
From 486 , Clovis leads the offensive to the south. He took the towns of Senlis , Beauvais , Soissons and Paris and looted them. He delivers the battle of Soissons against Syagrius . The latter, son of the magister militum for GalliaÆgidius , is entitled “King of the Romans” and controls a Gallo-Roman enclave located between Meuse and Loire, the last fragment of the Western Roman Empire. The victory of Soissons allows the kingdom of Clovis to control all the north of Gaul. Syagrius took refuge with the Visigoths, who delivered him to Clovis the following year. The Gallo-Roman chief is discreetly slaughtered.
The legend of the vase of Soissons
It was after this battle that, according to Gregory of Tours, the episode of the vase of Soissons took place , where, against the military law of partition, the king asked to remove from the booty a precious liturgical vessel to make it, at the request of Remi , bishop of Reims, to the church of his city. After collecting the loot, Clovis asks his warriors to be able to add the vase to his share of the spoils. But a warrior opposes it by striking the vase with his ax. Clovis does not show any emotion and still succeeds in returning the ballot box to Remi’s envoy, but in resentment.
The epilogue occurs on . Clovis ordered his army to meet at the Champ-de-Mars , according to a Roman practice, an inspection of the troops and examine whether the arms are clean and in good condition. Inspecting his soldiers, he approaches the warrior who, the year before, had struck the vase intended for Remi and, under the pretext that his arms are poorly maintained, then throws the soldier’s ax to the ground. As he bends down to pick it up, Clovis kills his own ax on the unfortunate man’s head, killing him dead. On the orders of Clovis, the army must withdraw in silence, leaving the body exposed to the public 35 .
The testament of Saint Remi mentions a silver vase that Clovis would have given him, but that he would have melted to make a censer and a chalice.
The alliance with the Rhine Francs
Before 486 , Clovis chose to strengthen his positions by contracting a marriage 38 with a princess of the Frankish Frankish monarchy 39 , from which a son was born, Thierry 38 .
This union has often been interpreted as the episode of a tactical alliance with its eastern neighbors, allowing it to turn its ambitions south. This union with a wife called “second rank”, seen as a “pledge of peace” ( Friedelehe ), ensures peace between Rhenish Francs and Salians. It has often been misinterpreted as a concubinage by Roman Christian historians who did not know the mores of Germanic polygamous family structures without public marriage. Official (first rank) marriages allowed the wife to enjoy the “morning gift” ( Morgengabe Note 7 ), which consisted of movable property donated by the husband, as well as to command her legitimate descendants.
The kingdom of the Rhine Franks extends dangerously over the second Belgium but the alliance with Clovis assures them the possession of the cities of Metz , Toul , Trier and Verdun that the Alamans threaten 40 . Refusing to be attacked on two fronts, the strategy requires Clovis to attack the Rhineland Thuringians, who the expansion of their kingdom based on the Elbe and the Saale is overflowing on the right bank of the Lower Rhine, absorbing Regensburg by the same occasion and advancing the Alamans towards the Franks 41 .
The alliance with the Romans
In 508 , after his victory over the Visigoths, Clovis received from the Eastern Emperor Anastasius I “consular tablets” 42 , which is interpreted as an honorary consul title with consular ornaments 43 , 44 , and he is hailed as ” Augustus ” during a ceremony in Tours. This marks the continuation of good relations with the Roman Empire of which Constantinople is the only capital, Rome defeated in 476 having returned the imperial insignia and retaining only a spiritual authority strongly subject to imperial authority. The bishop-patriarch of Rome has not yet resumed (officially) the imperial title of Pope ( pontifex maximus ) or leader of the Roman religion in force since 712 BC. J.-C., titulature resumed by Theodore I only in 642.
Solidus to Victory. Coinage in the name and type of Anastase under Clovis I
In 491 , Clovis declares war on the Thuringians , whose hypothesis is that the kingdom is in fact similar to that of the King of the Salarian FranksCararic , whose capital was the city of Tongeren 45 and whose outline is poorly defined. but probably extends to the region of Trier or the mouths of the Rhine .Cararic joined Clovis in the war against Syagrius, so he is his ally. But he would have waited for the battle to intervene with the victor, something that Clovis does not appreciate, which ends up submitting him 35 and shearing him with his son to get them into the orders, respectively as a priest. and deacon . After being aware of death threats against him, Clovis finally makes them murder and seizes the kingdom 47 .
A second hypothesis is that this war is simply the answer to the Thuringians’ threat to the Frankish kingdoms. Before 475 , the king of the Visigoths Euric allied with this people, just after defeating the Salian Franks, whose pirates attack the west coast of Gaul.
Basine, Clovis’ mother, being a Thuringian, an explanation for this war expedition gives credence to the idea that Clovis is trying to recover the territory from which his mother was born. 23 This expedition does not, however, undermine the sovereignty of Thuringia since it is necessary to await the reign of his sons, Thierry I and Clotaire I , so that it is fully subject, partly attached to the kingdom of the Franks 49]. and partly to the Saxon territories 50 .
The bishop of Rheims , the future saint Remi , then probably seeks the protection of a strong authority for his people, and writes to Clovis from the time of his accession. There are many contacts between the king and the bishop, the latter first encouraging Clovis to protect the Christians present on its territory. Thanks to his charisma and perhaps because of the authority he enjoys, Remi knows how to make Clovis respected and even serves as an advisor.
Following repeated embassies with King Gondebaud , Clovis chose to marry Clotilde , a Christian princess of high lineage, daughter of the king of the Burgundians Chilperic II 38 and Queen Caretene 51 (this people neighboring the Frank was established in the current Dauphine and Savoy ).
The marriage which takes place in Soissons Note 8 in 492 52 or in 493 53 concretizes the pact of non-aggression with the Burgundiankings . By choosing a descendant of King Athanaric of the Balthes dynasty, Clovis married a first-rate wife who assured him of a hypergamous marriage, allowing him to hoist the Franks to the rank of great power.
Therefore, according to Gregory of Tours , Clotilde does everything to convince her husband to convert to Christianity . But Clovis is reluctant: he doubts the existence of a single God; the infant death of his first baptized son, Ingomer , only exacerbates this mistrust. On the other hand, in accepting to convert, he fears losing the support of his people, still pagan: like most Germans, they consider that the king, warlord, is only worth the favor that the gods grant him in battle. If they convert, the Germans become rather Arian , the rejection of the dogma of the Trinity favoring somehow the maintenance of the elected king of God and head of the Church.
Nevertheless, Clovis more than anything needs the support of the Gallo-Roman clergy, because the latter represents the Gallic population. The bishops , who play the leading role in the cities since the civil authorities erased, remain the real masters of the cadres of the ancient power in Gaul. That is also areas where wealth was still concentrated. However, even the Church struggles to maintain its coherence: bishops exiled or not replaced in Visigoth territories, difficult pontifical successions in Rome , disagreement between pro-Visigoths Arians and pro-Franks (Remi de Reims, Genevieve of Paris …), etc.
The conversion and the battle of Tolbiac
Battle of Tolbiac in 496 painted by Ary Scheffer (1795 – 1858).Versailles , National Museum of the Castle and Trianons.
It was in “the fifteenth year of his reign”, that is to say in 496 , that the Battle of Tolbiac ( Zülpich near Cologne ) took place against the Alamans , Clovis helping the Rhine Franks, including the King Sigebert had a knee injury 56 . According to Gregory of Tours, not knowing which pagan god to vow and his army being about to be defeated, Clovis then prays to Christ and promises to convert if “Jesus that his wife Clotilde proclaims son of God alive “gave him the victory Note 9 . This is the same promise made by the Roman emperor Constantine in 312 during the Battle of Milvian Bridge . Gregory of Tours takes up the Constantinian model (conversion after a battle, important role of a woman, Helen and Clotilde) to repeat what was most glorious and legitimize the Frankish kingship.
At the heart of the battle, while Clovis is surrounded and will be captured, the Alaman leader is killed by an arrow or an ax, which puts his army in rout. Victory is in Clovis and the god of Christians. One hypothesis is that the battle took place in 506 because of a letter from Theodoric sent in late 506 or early 507 to Clovis where mention is made of Clovis’ victory over the Alamans whom Theodoric took under his protection, the death of their king, and their escape into Rhaetia . It is also possible that there were two battles against the Alamans, one in 496 and the other in 506, where each time, their king perished in battle 59 . This victory allows the kingdom of Clovis to extend to the Upper Rhineland .
According to other sources 60 , Tolbiac was only one stage and the final illumination of Clovis would have taken place during the visit to the tomb of Martin de Tours .
According to Patrick Périn, medievalist, early medieval specialist and director of the National Archeology Museum, Clovis would not have made the vow to convert to Christianity during the famous Battle of Tolbiac but in an unknown battle.Indeed, the Battle of Tolbiac would be mentioned by mistake in the writings of Gregory of Tours .If the latter evokes Tolbiac well, it would be about the battle of Vouillé where was present Clodoric, son of Sigebert the lame of Cologne, so named because he had been wounded in a battle against the Alamans, Tolbiac.It would be historians of the nineteenth century who would have associated Tolbiac with the conversion of the King of the Franks[ref.insufficient] .
Anachronistic representation of the baptism of Clovis, depicting the rite by sprinkling in a baptismal basin . Baptism by immersion in a baptistery pool remains in use until the Carolingian period . Canvas of the 15th century of the master of Saint Gilles .
Bishop Remi taught Clovis catechesis during the auditors’ phase ( audientes ) according to the precepts of the Councils of Nicaea (325), Constantinople ( 381 ) and Chalcedon ( ). He sees himself at length teaching morality and ritual, as well as the history of salvation 61 , then Trinitarian dogma and Credos such as “I believe in God Almighty Father and Jesus Christ his only begotten son, and not created “that the Council of Nicaea promulgated 14 . However, the doubt hangs over the Passion : Clovis does not believe that a true God can let himself be crucified Note 10 and thinks helpless 62 . Moreover, his sister Lantechilde pushes him to embrace Arianism rather than conciliar orthodoxy 13 .
Still is that during Christmas of a year Note 11 between 496 and 511 , perhaps in 499 63 or in 508 64 according to the authors, Clovis goes to the phase of the applicants ( competent ) 61 and then receives baptism with 3,000 warriors 65 , Note 12 – collective baptisms then being a common practice – from the hands of Saint Remi , the bishop of Reims, on December 25th . This figure is however questionable and the post-baptismal anointing is certainly excluded: it would have been difficult for the bishop to spread chrism, a mixture of olive oil and aromatic resin, on the front of 3,000 persons 66 . This baptism remained a significant event in the history of France: from Henry Iall the kings of France , except Louis VI , Henry IV and Louis XVIII , are later crowned in the cathedral of Reims until King Charles X , in 1825 .
The baptism of Clovis undoubtedly increases its legitimacy among the Gallo-Roman population, but represents a dangerous bet: the Franks, like the Germans, consider that a chief is worth by the protection inspired by the gods; conversion goes against that; the Christianized Germans (Goths …) are often Arians , because the king remains there head of the Church. According to the historian Leon Fleuriot 67 , Clovis made a pact with the Britons and Armoricans of the west that he could not beat, while threatened the Visigoths. Baptism was a condition of this treaty because the Bretons were already Christianized. This treaty was concluded through Saint Melaine of Rennes and Saint Paterne de Vannes. The Bretons recognized the authority of Clovis but did not pay tribute.
Thus, the baptism of Clovis marks the beginning of the link between the clergy and the Frankish monarchy. For French monarchists, this continuity is French and lasts until the early nineteenth century . Henceforth, the sovereign must reign in the name of God. This baptism also allows Clovis to establish his authority over the populations, mainly Gallo-Roman and Christian, which he dominates: with this baptism, he can count on the support of the clergy , and vice versa. Finally, since this baptism, the French nationalist historiography of the nineteenth century attributed to the kings of France the title, erroneously historically speaking, ” eldest son of the Church ” 68 .
The baptism of Clovis according to Gregory of Tours
“The queen then secretly calls Remi, bishop of the city of Rheims, begging him to insinuate the word of salvation to the king. The bishop who had secretly summoned him began to insinuate that he must believe in the true God, creator of heaven and earth , and abandon idols which can not be useful to him or to others. But the latter replied: “I have listened very willingly to you, Most Holy Father, but there is one thing left;it is because the people who are under my orders do not want to abandon their gods;but I will maintain it according to your word.“
He went therefore to the midst of his people, and even before he had spoken, the power of God having preceded him, all the people cried at the same time: “The mortal gods, we reject them, pious king, and it is the immortal God Remi preaches that we are ready to follow . “ This news is brought to the prelate who, filled with great joy, had the pool ready. […] It was the king who first asked to be baptized by the pontiff. He steps forward, new Constantine, towards the pool to heal the disease of an old leprosy and to clear with fresh water of dirty stains made formerly.
When he entered for baptism, the saint of God spoke to him in an eloquent voice, saying, “Curl your head gently, O Sicambre; Note 13 love what you burned, burn what you loved . “ Remi was a bishop of remarkable science and first of all imbued with the study of rhetoric.There is nowadays a book of his life which tells that he was so distinguished by his holiness that he equaled Silvestre by his miracles, and that he raised a dead person. So the king, having confessed God Almighty in his Trinity, was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and anointed with the holy chrism with the sign of the cross of Christ. More than three thousand men from his army were also baptized. […] »
– Gregory of Tours , History of the Franks , book II, chapter XXXI.
The extension of the kingdom to the south
Three powers exercise their domination in the south of the kingdom of Clovis, the Visigoths in the south-west, the Burgundians in the south-east and further, in Italy, the Ostrogoths. Clovis builds successive alliances to continue the expansion of his kingdom without having to face a hostile coalition against him.
Shifting alliances between Burgundians and Visigoths
In 495, Theodoric , king of Italy, wife Audofleda , sister of Clovis I st , which he tries to contain the growing ambition. The following year, he agrees with Clovis so that it does not continue beyond the Danube Alamans . Théodoric also protects the survivors by installing them in the first Rhetia . He has the advantage of repopulating a country and acquiring brave and faithful vassals.
In 499 , Clovis allies with the Burgundian king of Geneva , Godégisile , who wants to seize the territories of his brother Gondebaud 69 . In order to secure his territories in the West, in 500 , Clovis signed a pact of alliance with the Armoricans (Gallic tribes of the Breton peninsula and the shore of the Channel) 70 and Bretons 71 .
After the battle of Dijon and his victory over the Burgundians of Gondebald Clovis forced it to give up his kingdom and take refuge in Avignon 69 . However, the Visigoth king Alaric II goes to the rescue of Gondebaud and persuades Clovis to abandon Godégisèle. Clovis and Gondebaud reconcile and sign a covenant to fight the Visigoths .
To show the balance of its alliances, in 502 , his son Thierry first married a princess Rhine, which he Thibert I first king of Reims (548) and second wife Suavegotha , daughter of Sigismund , king of Burgondes, of which he has a daughter Theodechilde.
In the spring of 507 , the Franks launch their offensive towards the south, crossing the Loire towards Tours , while the Burgundian allies attack to the east. The Franks face the army of King Alaric II in a plain near Poitiers . The so-called battle ” Vouillé ” (near Poitiers ), is terrible as historiography, and the Visigoths fell back after the death of their king, Alaric II was killed by Clovis himself in single combat 56 .
This victory allows the kingdom of Clovis to extend in Aquitaine and to annex all territories previously Visigoths between Loire, Ocean and Pyrenees . The Visigoths have no alternative but to retreat to Hispania , beyond the Pyrenees. However, the Ostrogoths of Theodoric try to intervene in favor of the Visigoths. They resumed well Provence after the lifting in the autumn 508 of the siege of Arles as well as some parts to the Burgondes, but the Empire of the East threatens their coasts, and Clovis keeps most of the former territories Visigoths. The Visigoths retain onlypart of Septimania – Languedoc – and Provence.
He decided to make Paris , the city of St. Genevieve which the royal couple did replace the wooden building dedicated to him by a church 72 his residence 73 , after Tournai and Soissons 74 . This is the first accession to the status of capital of ancient Lutetia , which now bears the name of the former Gallic people Parisii .
Clovis Tower, vestige of XIII th century Abbey of the Holy Apostles in the current Lycee Henri IV in Paris.
His reasons are probably mainly strategic, the city has been a garrison town and an imperial residence by the end of the Empire, including the emperors Julian and Valentinian I st . It also benefits from natural defenses and good location 75 , Childeric I first tried to take it in besieging twice unsuccessfully 72 . Its location corresponds to the present island of the City connected to the banks of the Seine by a bridge to the north and a second bridge to the south, and protected by a rampart 76 . In addition, a vast and richtax (land, forest or mine belonging to the crown 77 ) surrounds it. It has only a relative importance: the Frankish kingdom has no administration, nor indeed any of the characteristics which found a modern state. However, the city of Lyon , former “capital of Gaul”, permanently loses its political supremacy in the West European isthmus.
Successive enlargements of the kingdom of Clovis.
During the reign of Clovis in any case, the city knows no major changes: the ancient real estate heritage is preserved, sometimes reallocated. Only new religious buildings donated by the royal family and the aristocracy are transforming the urban landscape, such as the Basilica of the Holy Apostles . But it is especially after the death of Clovis that the first of these buildings are born.
The two years before his death 78 , Clovis seized the Frankish kingdom of Sigebert the lame after having it murdered through his own son Clodéric , who perished in turn after a maneuver by Clovis, which extends his authority beyond the Rhine 79 . Clovis executes his kings Cararic and Ragnacaire , with his brother Riquier, and Rignomer, in the city of Le Mans, another of his brothers, to seize their kingdoms and prevent his unified kingdom from being shared between them. the custom of tanistria 80 .
Clovis is now the master of a single kingdom, corresponding to a western portion of the ancient Roman Empire, ranging from the Middle Rhine Valley (the mouth of the Rhine is still in the hands of the Frisian tribes) to the Pyrenees, held by the Basques . The kingdom of Clovis does not include the island of Britain (present Britain), nor the Mediterranean regions, nor the valleys of the Rhone and Saone.
The salic law
Copy handwritten on vellum of the VIII th century of the Salic law. Paris, National Library of France.
In the Gallo-Roman subjects, Clovis enforces the Breviary of Alaric , Visigothic adaptation of the Theodosian code 81 . According to some historians, the first Salic Law was a penal code and civil , to own called Franks “Salian” ( IV th century). First memorized and transmitted orally, it was put in writing in the early years of the VI th century 82 at the request of Clovis 83 , then revised several times thereafter until Charlemagne. The pact of the Salic law is dated after 507: perhaps its promulgation coincides with the installation of the king in Paris?
The first version of the law (there were at least eight) bore the name of pactus legis salicæ (pact of the Salic law), and is composed of sixty-five articles. Seniority assumed this version drafted in Clovis, however, is disputed because if its origin dates back well in the middle of the VI th century, it is only due to a “first Frankish king” whose name is not specified 84. The prologue speaks of four rectors whose mission is to render equity and justice. A later prologue states that it was formatted by order of Clovis and his sons. The terms used in the written version and the principles applied are as much borrowed from Roman law as from the Germanic tradition. However, it is to substitute Roman law the barbaric customs to prevent private wars ( faides ) as a means of conflict resolution 85 . Unlike Roman law, the Salic law was much more lenient about the treatment meted out to criminals: various fines govern crimes, thus avoiding the death penalty 86 .
The Salic law applies to all Franks even Ripuarians whose Ripuarian law will be drafted much later, thereby assert their particularities 81 .
Participation of bishops in the Council of Orleans in 511.
In July 511 , Clovis meets a Council of Gauls in Orleans, which ends Sunday, July 10, 87 . The council brings together thirty-two bishops , and is presided over by the metropolitan bishop Cyprien of Bordeaux; half come from the “kingdom of the Franks”. The metropolitan bishops of Rouen and Tours are present but not that of Reims . The bishops of Vasconie are absent because of troubles in their region but also those of Belgium and Germany 88 because of the lack of penetration of theRoman Catholic Church in these regions. Clovis is designated ” Rex Gloriosissimus son of the Holy Catholic Church,” by all the bishops present 89 .
This council was crucial in establishing relations between the king and the Catholic Church. Clovis does not pose as a leader of the Church as an Arian king does, he cooperates with it and does not intervene in the decisions of the bishops (even if he has summoned them, asks them questions, and promulgates the canons of the council).
This council aims to restore order in the episcopate of the Frankish kingdom, to facilitate the conversion and assimilation of Francs converts and Arians, to limit incest (thus breaking the tradition of matriarchal German endogamous family clans), to share the tasks between administration and Church, to restore links with the papacy.
Of the thirty-one canons produced by the council, it appears that the king or his representative, that is to say, the count , are reserved the right to authorize or not the access of a layman to the clergy. Slaves must first refer to the master. This is to stem tax leakage that vocations, driven by immunity, cause among the richest 90 .
The king is given the right to appoint bishops, unlike the canon which wants them to be elected by an assembly of faithful, 91 thus confirming the rights of magister militum that the emperor granted to his ancestors as governors of the Province of Belgium second 92 . The Merovingian kings have this right until the promulgation of the Edict of Paris by Clotaire II , 18 October 614 93 where the episcopal elections again become the rule 94 . The chastity of the clergy and the subordination of the abbotsto the bishops are recalled. Heretical clerics who recognized the Catholic faith can regain function and religious institutions included the Arians were again established in the faith Catholic 84 .
The right of asylum is extended to all the buildings surrounding the churches, thus aligning with the Theodosian code , the Gombette law and the breviary of Alaric . The objective was to allow a fugitive to find refuge in the sacred buildings, with the assurance of being able to be properly housed without having to desecrate the buildings. The canon prohibits the prosecutor from entering the precincts of the building, without first swearing on the gospel , and inflict corporal punishment on the fugitive. Compensation was provided to compensate for the damage suffered, if it was a slave on the run, or the possibility for the master to recover it.
In case of perjury, there excommunication Note 14 . Royal lands granted to the Church are exempted from taxation in order to maintain the clergy, the poor and the prisoners. Many superstitions, such as ” spells of the saints “, the custom of opening at random the sacred books such as the Bible and interpreting as an oracle the text appearing in front of the reader’s Note 15 , are condemned 95 a second time, after the Council of Vannes of 465 96 .
The alliance of the Christian Church and power, which began with the baptism of the king and continues for nearly fourteen centuries, is a major political act that continues because the rural populations, hitherto pagan, more and more Christianized, trust him more.
The death and burial of Clovis
Effigy of Clovis I st in Saint-Denis . The features and crown comply with the representations of the XIII th century 97 .
The Basilica of the Holy Apostles
Clovis dies in Paris on 2 , aged 45 98 . It is presumed that he died of an acute condition after three weeks 99 . According to tradition, he was buried in the basilica of the Holy Apostles (St. Peter and St. Paul) 100 , future church of St. Genevieve , he had built on the tomb of the same tutelary of the city, at the same time. location of the current rue Clovis (street which separates the Saint-Etienne-du-Mont church from the Henri-IV high school ).
Clovis was buried, as Gregory of Tours writes, in the sacrarium of the Basilica of the Holy Apostles under the present-day Clovis 101 , that is to say, in a mausoleum built expressly in the manner of the burial. had welcomed the Christian Roman emperor Constantine the Great to the Holy Apostles in Constantinople 102 , annex, probably grafted onto the bedside of the monument 103 . The royal sarcophagi were probably placed on the ground and not buried according to custom that was imposed upon the generation of the son of Clovis 103. Despite the wish of Clovis, the basilica did not serve as a mausoleum for the Merovingian dynasty. We do not know what happened to the tombs of the royal couple as well as those of their daughter Clotide, and their grandsons Thibaud and Gonthier, murdered at the death of Clodomir. As the example of the princely tombs of the Cologne Cathedral illustrates, it is possible that the sarcophagi were buried in the basement if an enlargement required its leveling 103 and if these works did not take place before the second half the IX th century, it is possible that they were looted or destroyed during the Norman invasions (845, 850 and 885).
The church was not destroyed because we were satisfied each time with some repairs. The shrines of the saints were evacuated in a safe place and then replaced after the attacks. If one is informed of the fate of the relics, one does not know however what became the tomb of Clovis during the Norman attacks.
In 1177, there was a tomb in the middle of the choir on which this inscription was written : ” chlodoveo magno, hujus ecclesiae fundatori sepulcrum vulgari olim lapidum structum and longo aevo deformatum, abbas and convent. meliori opere and form renovaverunt “. A recumbent statue of XIII th century was installed at the site of the tomb.
This tomb, composed of a base and a lying, was restored in 1628 by the care of the cardinal-abbot of La Rochefoucauld who had it placed in the rectangular axial chapel, at the bottom of the church, in a monumental baroque ensemble made of marble. It is this recumbent which was transferred in 1816 to the abbey church of Saint – Denis .
The excavations of 1807
In 1807 , at the time of the demolition of the church Sainte-Geneviève, excavations were undertaken by the prefect Frochot and conducted by the administration of Domains under the direction of architects Rondelet and Bourla, assisted by Alexandre Lenoir . Despite hasty and arbitrary identifications, the search of the crypt of the XI th century resulted in no significant discovery. No vestige dates back to the Merovingian period. On the other hand, the excavation of the nave allowed the discovery of 32 trapezoidal sarcophagi all oriented. This is because of the quality of the ornamentation, and because it was the purpose of the excavations and that the location corresponded to the recumbent XIII thcentury before transferring in 1628 , the report presented to the emperor concluded the probable discovery of sarcophagi of Clovis and his family 104 .
But Alexandre Lenoir recognized that no inscription attested it. The archaeologist Michel Fleury noted that the bill of these tombs is rather to place in the last quarter of the VI th century. It must not have been the burial place of Clovis and his family. It should rather be Merovingian aristocratic tombs placed ad sanctos , not far from the most likely location of the tomb of St. Genevieve between the VI th and XII th centuries. These sarcophagi did not seem, still according to Michel Fleury, to have been displaced during the reconstruction of the 11th century. century but should instead be at their original location.
Sixteen of the thirty-two sarcophagi were sent to the Museum of French Monuments in 1808 . They were lost in 1817 during the dissolution of the museum. From these excavations we have thus reached only a few rare elements and there is nothing to say with certainty that the tombs discovered were those of Clovis and his family.
The idea of relaunching excavations with modern means is defended for example by the historian Patrick Perrin. It is not excluded that new excavations at the site of the missing basilica, along the current rue Clovis, between the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont and the Lycée Henri IV could provide more precise information on the sacrarium arranged in 511 105 .
The succession
The descendants of Clovis
His first wife, a Frankish princess Rhine, Clovis had Thierry I st (c. 485-534), king of Reims from 511 to 534 and co-king of Orleans.
Gaul in 511, after the division of the Frankish kingdom between the sons of Clovis.
On the death of Clovis, his son Thierry , Clodomir , Childebert and Clotaire share, according to Frankish tradition, the kingdom 106 he put a life together.
Most of Gaul having been submitted, except Provence , Septimania and the kingdom of the Burgundians , his kingdom can be divided into four parts, three of which are roughly equivalent. The fourth, between the Rhine and the Loire, is attributed to Thierry, the eldest son of Clovis, who had been a companion of his father’s fighting and was born of a pagan union before 493 . It is larger, since it covers about a third of Frankish Gaul.
Sharing takes place in the presence of the great of the kingdom, Thierry, who is already major, and Queen Clotilde, according to Gregory of Tours. It is established according to private law that Clovis had registered in the Salic law : in 511, it is therefore above all the sharing of a patrimony, that of the heirs of a king who owns his kingdom. In the light of this remark, we can understand that Frankish royalty ignores the notion of “public goods” (the res publica of the Romans ) and therefore of the state. The disappearance of the State , indeed, seems consumed through the division of the kingdom of Clovis.
This practice is very different from the sharing also practiced by the last Roman emperors: legally, the Empire remained one, the sharing was for practical reasons, the successors were chosen sometimes according to their merits. Even when it came to the emperor’s sons, the empire was not divided into as many parts as there were sons, and never was the empire separated from the notion of state by the Romans.
The heritage character of the division is particularly marked by the fragmentation of conquests located south of the Loire. Each one, to visit his domains of the south, is forced to cross the lands of one or more of his brothers.
However, noticeably, the four capitals of the new kingdoms are all located in the center of the complex, relatively close to each other and in the ancient kingdom of Syagrius: from then on, “there is a striking contrast between strong tendencies towards dispersal and the immanent force of a higher order unity: the idea of a united kingdom of the Franks remained anchored in the minds ” [ref.necessary] .The Frankish nation no longer returns to the state of tribes, and at least is no longer divided between salians and ripuaries .
Generosity being the first virtue of the Germanic king, it is translated by the gift to the churches of royal resources. Lands and treasures are systematically dilapidated to show his generosity to his faithful. Territorial expansion perpetuates donations 107 . The Council of Orleans is an opportunity to assure the dioceses 108 .
Several lives of saint attribute to the king the construction of various places of worship. Thus, in the life of St. Germier , bishop of Toulouse, is invited to the king’s table; Germier renowned for its virtues, attracts curiosity. The saint is the subject of admiration and granted land to Ox and treasures in gold and silver 109 .
Likewise at Auch, Metropolitan Bishop Perpet goes to meet Clovis when he is approaching the city to give him bread and wine. As a reward, the king offers the city to the saint, with its suburbs and churches, as well as his tunic and his coat of war at St. Mary’s Church. He sees also offer a treasure of gold and the royal church of Saint-Pierre-de-Vic 110 .
Clovis goes to Tournai to meet Saint Eleutherius , who guesses a king’s sin after his baptism. Clovis denies the facts and asks the bishop to pray for him. The next day, the bishop receives an illumination communicating to him the fault of Clovis, who is then forgiven. Saint Eleutherius then receives a donation for his church 111 .
Clovis is cured miraculously of a disease by St. Severin, abbot of St. Maurice in Valais . In gratitude, the king offers him money to distribute to the poor and the release of detainees 112 . From there would come the construction of the church Saint – Séverin of Paris 113 .
Hincmar wrote to 880 in his vita Remigii , Clovis granted the bishop Remi several donations territorial areas located in several provinces 114 including a field including Leuilly and Coucy, via a charter. Leuilly was awarded to Ricuin in 843 , a supporter of King Charles the Bald. In 845 , to force Ricuin Leuilly to restore the heritage of Reims, a false testament of the bishop Remi is presented to King Charles the Bald 115 .
Saint Leonard in front of Clovis I st . Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea, XIV th century .
In the XI th century, the hagiography of Leonardo Noblac claims that Leonardo Clovis sponsors at baptism, which the saint is granted the release of prisoners they visit and the gift of a bishopric. Leonard leaves the king to go to the forest of Pauvain in Limousin . Clovis then grant to Leonardo by an official act domain in the forest that the foundation of the church of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat 116 .
All his gifts bequeathed to the saints are just as hypothetical as unverifiable to the extent that at the time when life is written, no more witness can contradict the writings of the clergy who may have invented evidence by creating and attributing to King Clovis fake diplomas or false charters for religious communities 117 .
Clovis and power
If Clovis died in his bed in Paris on November 27, 511, he had, before and during his reign, killed by his hand, whether in combat, out of combat or by intrigues, several kings or sons of kings, among those Let’s quote 99 [ref.insufficient] :
The baptism of Clovis by Saint Remi with the miracle of the Holy Bulb . Ivory binding plate, Reims, last quarter of the IX th century. Amiens , museum of Picardie . This plate probably served to decorate the binding of a manuscript of the life of Saint Remi 1 . From left to right, Clotilde , Saint Vaast , Clovis, Saint Remi and three ecclesiastics 118 .
Another legend, peddled by Archbishop Hincmar de Reims ( 845 – 882 ) in his Vita Remigii , which mixes the story of Gregory of Tours and an old hagiography of Saint Remi, now extinct, ensures that at his baptism, it is the Holy Spirit who took the form of a dove, brings the chrism , a miraculous oil in a bulb Note 16 .
While presiding at the coronation ceremony and coronation of Charles II the Bald as King of Lotharingia on September 9, 869 , Hincmar invents the coronation of Clovis, declaring that Charles descends from the “glorious king of the Franks Clovis, baptized the eve of Holy Easter Note 17 in the cathedral of Reims, and anointed and consecrated as king with the help of a chrism from heaven, which we still possess ” 119 .
The thaumaturgical power attributed to the kings of France to heal the sick, especially those suffering from scrofula , from Robert the Pious , sees its origin go back to Clovis, first Christian king 120 . In 1579 , a publication by Étienne Forcadel states that a squire named Clovis Lanicet fled the court of the king to hide his illness. Clovis dreams as he touches his squire, causing his healing. The next day, Clovis found his squire and running: the healing takes place 121 .
Clovis receiving the lily . Bedford Book of Hours, XV th century.
The French armorial shows Clovis emblazoned with lilies , virginal purity symbol represented by the Virgin Mary , in the XIV th century, but whose origin may date back to the XII th century 122 . An angel would have given to a hermit in the forest of Marly living around a tower called Montjoie, a shield with three fleurs-de-lis, in reference to the Holy Trinity. The hermit would have given it to Clotilde for it to give to the king to use it during the battle instead of his arms adorned with three croissants or three toads, the angel having assured the hermit that the shield ensures victory. When Clovis fights against his enemy and kills him near the Montjoie tower, he confesses the Trinity and founds the Abbey of Joyenval, which then welcomes the shield as a relic 123 .
Legend has it that Clovis and his descendants had broken teeth in a starry shape.
The painting The legend of Saint Rieul , painted in 1645 by Fredeau, exhibited at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, reveals another legend. After Clovis built a church dedicated to Saint Rieul, Bishop Levangius would have given him a tooth taken in the mouth of Saint Rieul. The Frankish king could not have preserved it and would have been forced to put it back in the grave of the holy man.
Commemoration
In 1896, celebrations were organized by the Cardinal and Archbishop of Reims Benedict Langénieux for the 14 th centenary of the baptism of Clovis. In 1996-1997, the 15 th centenary of the baptism of Clovis (with the 16 th anniversary of the death of Martin of Tours ) was commemorated under the auspices of a committee for the commemoration of origins .
Saint Genevieve of Paris. Life, worship, art (translated by Jacques Dubois and Laure Beaumont-Maillet), Beauchesne publisher, 1982 ( ISBN 978-2-7010-1053-3 ) .
The Book of the History of the Franks: Liber Historiae Francorum ( trad. Nathalie Desgrugillers-Billiard), Paleo editions( ISBN 2-84909-240-1 ) .
Documents on the reign of Clovis , translation by Nathalie Desgrugillers-Billard, Éditions Paleo, coll. the medieval encyclopedia ( ISBN 978-2-84909-604-8 ) .
Charles De Clercq (abbot), The Frankish religious legislation of Clovis to Charlemagne: study on the acts of councils and capitulars, diocesan statutes and monastic rules (507-814) , Antwerp / Louvain / Paris, JE Buschmann / offices of the Collection, library of the University / Librairie du Recueil Sirey,, XVI -398 p. ( online presentation [ archive ] ) .
Contemporary Studies
XIX th century and first half of the XX th century
Artist ‘s impression of Clovis, on a modern medal, Paris, BnF , circa 1720 .
Leon Levillain , ” The Conversion and the Baptism of Clovis “, Revue d’histoire de l’Eglise de France , vol. 21, n o 91,, p.161-192 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
André Van de Vyver , “Clovis and Mediterranean Politics” , in History Studies dedicated to the memory of Henri Pirenne by his former students , Brussels, New Publishing Company,, X- 504 p.( online presentation [archive] ) , p.367-388 .
( In ) Yitzhak Hen , ” Clovis, Gregory of Tours, and Pro-Merovingian Propaganda “ , Belgian Journal of Philology and History , Vol. 71, Issue 2 “Medieval, modern and contemporary history – Middeleeuwse, modern hedendaagse geschiedenis “ ,, p.271-276 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
( In ) Danuta Shanzer , ” Dating the baptism of Clovis: the bishop of Vienna vs the bishop of Tours “ , Early Medieval Europe , vol. 7, n o 1,, p.29-57 ( DOI 10.1111 / 1468-0254.00017 , read online [ archive ] ) .
( In ) Ian N. Wood , ” Gregory of Tours and Clovis “ , Belgian Journal of Philology and History , Vol. LXIII , issue 2 “Medieval, modern and contemporary history – Middeleeuwse, modern in hedendaagse geschiedenis “ ,, p.249-272 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Gaston Duchet-Suchaux and Patrick Périn, Clovis and the Merovingians , Paris, Tallandier, coll. “France over its Kings”, 2002, ( ISBN 978-2-235-02321-4 ) .
Patrick J. Geary , The Merovingian World: Birth of France [“Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World”], Paris, Flammarion, coll. “Flammarion Stories”,, 293 p. ( ISBN 2-08-211193-8 , online presentation [ archive ] )
Reissue: Patrick J. Geary , The Merovingian World: Birth of France [“Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World”], Paris, Flammarion, coll. “Fields. History,, 292 p. Pocket ( ISBN 978-2-08-124547-1 ) .
Marie-Céline Isaïa , Remi of Reims: memory of a saint, history of a Church , Paris, Editions du Cerf, coll. “Religious History of France” ( n o 35), 919 p. ( ISBN 978-2-204-08745-2 , online presentation [ archive ] ) .
Edward James , ” Childeric Syagrius and the disappearance of the kingdom of Soissons ,” Archaeological Review of Picardy , n o 3-4 “Acts of the VIII th International Days of Merovingian archeology of Soissons (19-22 June 1986)”, p.9-12 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Stéphane Lebecq , New history of medieval France , vol. 1: The Frankish origins, V th – IX th century , Paris, Seuil, coll. “Points. History “( n o 201), 317 p. ( ISBN 2-02-011552-2 ) .
Patrick Périn (with the collaboration of Monique and Gaston Duchet-Suchaux), Clovis. Archeology and history , Paris, Errance, 1996, 160 p.
Patrick Périn , “The Grave of Clovis” , in Media in Francia: a collection of mixtures given to Karl Ferdinand Werner on the occasion of his 65th birthday by his French friends and colleagues , Maulévrier / Paris, Hérault / German Historical Institute,, XV- 551 p. ( ISBN 2-903851-57-3 , read online [ archive ] ) , p. 363-378 .
Michel Rouche ( eds. ), Clovis, history and memory: proceedings of the International Congress of Reims, 19-25 September 1996 , vol. 1: The baptism of Clovis, the event , Paris, Presses of the University of Paris-Sorbonne,, XIX -929 p. ( ISBN 2-84050-079-5 ) .
Michel Rouche ( eds. ), Clovis, history and memory: proceedings of the International Congress of Reims, 19-25 September 1996 , vol. 2: The baptism of Clovis, its echo throughout history , Paris, Presses of the University of Paris-Sorbonne,, XII- 915 p. ( ISBN 2-84050-079-5 ) .
Reissue: Georges Tessier , The baptism of Clovis: December 25, 496 (?) , Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Thirty days that made France “,, 2nd ed.( 1 st ed. 1964), 420 p. ( ISBN 2-07-026218-9 ) .
Karl Ferdinand Werner (under the direction of Jean Favier ), Histoire de France , t. 1: The origins: before the year 1000 , Paris, Librairie générale française, coll. “References” ( n o 2936)( 1 st ed. 1984 Fayard), 635 p. ( ISBN 2-253-06203-0 ) .
Karl Ferdinand Werner , ” From Childéric Clovis: antecedents and consequences of the Battle of Soissons in 486 ,” Archaeological Review of Picardy , n o 3-4 “Acts of the VIII th International Days of Merovingian archeology of Soissons (19-22 June 1986) “,, p.3-7 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Historiography
French medieval stained glass representing the baptism of Clovis
Christian Amalvi , ” The Baptism of Clovis: The Woes and Misfortunes of a Founding Myth of Contemporary France, 1814-1914 “, Library of the School of Charters , Paris / Geneva, Librairie Droz, t. 147,, p.583-610 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Reissue: Colette Beaune , Birth of the nation France , Paris, Gallimard, coll. “Folio. History “( n o 56), 574 p. Pocket ( ISBN 2-07-032808-2 ) .
Colette Beaune , ” Clovis in the Dominican mirrors the middle of the XIII th to the end of the XIV th century ,” Library of the School of charters , Paris / Geneva, Librairie Droz, t. 154 “Clovis among historians”, 1996, 1 st delivery, p. 113-129 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Philippe Bernard , ” ” Vestra fides nostra victoria is “Avitus of Vienne, the baptism of Clovis and the theology of the late-ancient victory ,” Library of the School of charters , Paris / Geneva, Librairie Droz, t. 154 “Clovis among historians”, 1996, 1 st delivery, p. 47-51 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Pascale Bourgain , ” Clovis and Clotilde among medieval historians, Merovingian times in the first century Capetian ” Library of the School of Charters , Paris / Geneva, Librairie Droz, t. 154 “Clovis among historians”, 1996, 1 st delivery, p. 53-85 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Carlrichard Brühl , ” Clovis among Forgers “, Library of the School of Charters , Paris / Geneva, Librairie Droz, t. 154 “Clovis among historians”, 1996, 1 st delivery, p. 219-240 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Claude Carozzi , ” The Clovis of Gregory of Tours “, The Middle Ages , t. XCVIII ( 5 e series, Volume 6), n o 2, p.169-186 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Franck Collard , ” Clovis in France a few stories from the late XV th century ,” Library of the School of charters , Paris / Geneva, Librairie Droz, t. 154 “Clovis among historians”, 1996, 1 st delivery, p. 131-152 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Chantal Grell , ” Clovis of the Great Century Enlightenment “, Library of the School of Charters , Paris / Geneva, Librairie Droz, t. 154 “Clovis among historians”, 1996, 1 st delivery, p. 173-218 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
Michel Sot , ” What is left of the commemoration of the XV th centenary of the baptism of Clovis (1996)? ” Review of History of the Church of France , Paris, Society of Religious History of France, t. 86, n o 216,, p.185-197 ( read online [ archive ] ) .
↑ This name is composed of the roots hlod ( “illustrious”) and wigs ( “struggle”). The initial [k] (c-) is linked to a scholarly Latinization intended to make the sound [x] unknown in Latin. The popular form is Louis , hence the use of the name Louis in many kings of the Franks and France later. Frequently used by the Merovingians , the root hlod is also the origin of names such as Cloderic , Clotaire , Clodomir or Clotilde .
↑ Thus the de Gaulle general , quoted by David Schoenbrun, in his biography The three lives of Charles de Gaulle (translated by Guy Le Clec’h), published by Julliard in 1965, said: “For me, the history of France begins with Clovis, chosen as king of France by the tribe of the Franks , who gave their name to France . Before Clovis, we have prehistory Gallo-Roman and Gallic. The decisive thing for me is that Clovis was the first king to be baptized a Christian. My country is a Christian country and I begin to count the history of France from the accession of a Christian king who bears the name of the Franks.“
↑ Gregory of Tours, History , Book II, 31: ” It is also named his Alboflède sister, who, shortly after, went to join the Lord. As the king was afflicted with this loss, Saint Remi sent him, to console him, a letter which began thus: I am afflicted as much as I can with the cause of your sadness, the death of your sister Alboflede, of happy memory ; but we can console ourselves because it has come out of this world more desirous than weeping . “
↑ Gregory of Tours, ibid. : ” The other sister of Clovis, named Lantéchilde, which had fallen into the Arian heresy, converts; and having confessed that the Son and the Holy Spirit were equal to the Father, it was renamed “ .
↑ In his Critical History of the establishment of the French monarchy in Gaul , published in 1734 , he attempted to demonstrate that the Franks penetrate Gaul not as conquerors, but at the prompt of the Gauls.
↑ The Morgengabe existed among the Franks, Burgundians, Alemanni, Bavarians, the Anglo-Saxons, Lombards, Frisians and Thuringians. Rouche (1996), p.237.
↑ Antoine Le Roux Lincy , Famous Women of ancient France: historical memories on public and private lives of French women, from the fifth century until the eighteenth , Leroy,( read online [archive] ) , p.78; According to other historians, the marriage took place in Chalon-sur-Saone: Bernard Durand, Leonard Bertaud and Pierre Cusset, The illustrious Orbandale or the ancient and modern history of the city and city of Chalon sur Saone, 1662.
↑ He would have said, “God of Clotilde, if you give me the victory, I will be Christian” according to the testimony of Gregory of Tours.
↑ Chronic Fredegar made him say, “If I had been there with my Franks, I would have avenged this insult.” Rouche (1996), p. 263 ; Theis 1996 , p.88
↑ The controversy took over at the official celebration of the 1500 th anniversary of the baptism of Clovis in 1996, especially on the occasion of the visit of Pope John Paul II in Reims. See Laurent Theis , “France, what did you do with your baptism? ” History , n o 331, May 2008, p.82-85.
↑ The chronicle Fredegaire , resumes 93 chapters in his book III the books I to VI of stories Gregory of Tours, double the number of baptized warriors, from the 3 000-6 000 Fredegaire (trans. By O. Devilliers and J. Meyers), Chronicle of the Merovingian Times , Brepols edition, 2001, p. 7 ; Theis, Clovis, from History to Myth , 1996, p.88.
↑ ” Mitis depone colla, Sicamber “. Theis 1996 , p. 44 proposes the following translation: “humbly deposit your necklaces, Sicambre”, that is to say, amulets referring to the gods gods related to the demons.
↑ Kurth (1896), p. 455; Gregory of Tours gives us the perfect example of circumvention of this canon through the account he gives us about the actions of Duke Rauching. op.cit., book V, 3.
↑ An example is delivered by Gregory of Tours, when it hosts the prince Merovee in the Basilica of Saint Martin of Tours. op.cit., book V, 14.
↑“While they had arrived at the baptistery, the cleric who carried the chrism was stopped by the crowd, so that he could not reach the basin.After the blessing of the basin, the chrism failed by the design of God.And since, because of the press, no one could leave the church or enter it, the holy pontiff, with his eyes and hands directed towards the sky, began to pray crying.And suddenly a dove, whiter than snow, brought into its beak a light bulb full of holy chrism, whose wonderful odor, superior to all that had been breathed before in the baptistry, filled all the assistants with a infinite pleasure.The holy pontiff having received this light bulb, the shape of the dove disappeared.Hincmar of Reims, Vita Remigii .
The chronicle of Fredegarius, book III, the baptism is the holy Saturday.It is this story that influences Hincmar’s words.( Theis 1996 , 90)
↑ a and bKurth (1896), p.505;Périn 1990 , p.117;Rouche (1996), p.345;Theis 1996 , p.80. The day is given by the missals of St. Genevieve (manuscript No. 1259, fol 8, and manuscript 90).
The origin of the French and their Empire by Pierre Audigier 1676 Read Online [archive]
Fasts of France or chronological, chronological and geographical tables of the history of France: since the establishment of the francs until our days;indicating the political events, the progress of civilization, and the celebrated men of every reign by Mullie, c.1841 Read Online [archive]
Marina R. Zheltukhina, Larisa G. Vikulova, Gennady G. Slyshkin and Ekaterina G. Vasileva, ” Naming as Instrument of Strengthening of the Dynastic Power in the early middle Ages (France, England, Vth-XIth Centuries) “ , International Journal of Environmental Science & Science , Vol.11, No. 14,, p.7202 ( read online [archive] ).
Stéphane Lebecq, The Frankish Origins – 5th – 9th century.New history of medieval France , Seuil, “Points History”, 1990, p.46 : “[…] The exposition of the reign of Clovis gives pride to the hypothesis.“
Hervé Pinoteau , The French royal symbolism, 5th – 18th century , PSR editions, 2004, p.84.
↑ a and bGregory of Tours, op.cit., book II, p.32 .
Procopius of Caesarea , De bello gottorum , I, XII;Gregory of Tours, op.cit., Book IV, 4.
There were already Bretons in Armorica, Rhiotime, aka Ambrosius Aurelianus, was a moment “King of the Franks and Bretons Armorican”.Rhiotime also reigned on both sides of the Channel, see Leon Fleuriot, The origins of Brittany.
Gabriel Fournier, professor of medieval history at the University of Letters and Human Sciences Clermont-Ferrand II , The West of the late fifth century to the end of the ninth century , A. Colin,( read online [archive] ) , p.68.
Andre Laurens , Mirabili strumas sanandi vi solis galliae Regibus Christianissimis divinitus concessa , 1609;Pierre Matthieu , History of Louis XI , 1610.
By 1845, Paris and the railway companies were already thinking about an urban railway system to link inner districts of the city. The railway companies and the French government wanted to extend main-line railroads into a new underground network, whereas the Parisians favoured a new and independent network and feared national takeover of any system it built.[9] The disagreement lasted from 1856 to 1890. Meanwhile, the population became more dense and traffic congestion grew massively. The deadlock put pressure on the authorities and gave the city the chance to enforce its vision.
Prior to 1845, the urban transport network consisted primarily of a large number of omnibus lines, consolidated by the French government into a regulated system with fixed and unconflicting routes and schedules.[10] The first concrete proposal for an urban rail system in Paris was put forward by civil engineer Florence de Kérizouet. This plan called for a surface cable car system.[11] In 1855, civil engineers Edouard Brame and Eugène Flachat proposed an underground freight urban railroad, due to the high rate of accidents on surface rail lines.[11] On 19 November 1871 the General Council of the Seine commissioned a team of 40 engineers to plan an urban rail network.[12] This team proposed a network with a pattern of routes “resembling a cross enclosed in a circle” with axial routes following large boulevards. On 11 May 1872 the Council endorsed the plan, but the French government turned down the plan.[12] After this point, a serious debate occurred over whether the new system should consist of elevated lines or of mostly underground lines; this debate involved numerous parties in France, including Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant, and the Eiffel Society of Gustave Eiffel, and continued until 1892.[13] Eventually the underground option emerged as the preferred solution because of the high cost of buying land for rights-of-way in central Paris required for elevated lines, estimated at 70,000 francs per metre of line for a 20-metre-wide railroad.[14]
The last remaining hurdle was the city’s concern about national interference in its urban rail system. The city commissioned renowned engineer Jean-Baptiste Berlier, who designed Paris’ postal network of pneumatic tubes, to design and plan its rail system in the early 1890s.[14] Berlier recommended a special track gauge of 1,300 mm (4 ft 33⁄16 in) (versus the standard gauge of 1,435 mm or 4 ft 81⁄2 in) to protect the system from national takeover, which inflamed the issue substantially.[15] The issue was finally settled when the Minister of Public Works begrudgingly recognized the city’s right to build a local system on 22 November 1895, and by the city’s secret designing of the trains and tunnels to be too narrow for main-line trains, while adopting standard gauge as a compromise with the state.[15]
On 20 April 1896, Paris adopted the Fulgence Bienvenüe project, which was to serve only the city proper of Paris. Many Parisians worried that extending lines to industrial suburbs would reduce the safety of the city. Paris forbade lines to the inner suburbs and, as a guarantee, Métro trains were to run on the right, as opposed to existing suburban lines, which ran on the left.
Unlike many other subway systems (such as that of London), this system was designed from the outset as a system of (initially) nine lines.[16] Such a large project required a private-public arrangement right from the outset – the city would build most of the permanent way, while a private concessionaire company would supply the trains and power stations, and lease the system (each line separately, for initially 39-year leases).[further explanation needed][16] In July 1897, six bidders competed, and The Compagnie Generale de Traction, owned by the Belgian Baron Édouard Empain, won the contract; this company was then immediately reorganized as the Compagnie de Chemin de Fer Metropolitan.[16]
Bienvenüe’s project consisted of 10 lines, which correspond to today’s Lines 1 to 9. Construction was so intense that by 1920, despite a few changes from schedule, most lines had been completed. The shield method of construction was rejected in favor of the cut-and-cover method in order to speed up work.[18]Bienvenüe, a highly regarded engineer, designed a special procedure of building the tunnels to allow the swift repaving of roads, and is credited with a largely swift and relatively uneventful construction through the difficult and heterogeneous soils and rocks.[19]
Lines 1 and 4 were conceived as central east-west and north-south lines. Two lines, ligne 2 Nord (line 2 North) and ligne 2 Sud (line 2 South), were also planned but line 2 South was merged with line 5 in 1906. Line 3 was an additional east-west line to the north of line 1 and line 5 an additional north-south line to the east of line 4. Line 6 would run from Nation to Place d’Italie. Lines 7, 8 and 9 would connect commercial and office districts around the Opéra to residential areas in the north-east and the south-west. Bienvenüe also planned a circular line, the ligne circulaire intérieure, to connect the six main-line stations. A section opened in 1923 between Invalides and the Boulevard Saint-Germain before the plan was abandoned.
On 31 January 1904, a second concession was granted to the Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris (Paris North-South underground electrical railway company), abbreviated to the Nord-Sud (North-South) company. It was responsible for building three proposed lines:
line A would join Montmartre to Montparnasse as an additional north-south line to the west of Line 4.
line B would serve the north-west of Paris by connecting Saint-Lazare station to Porte de Clichy and Porte de Saint-Ouen.
line C would serve the south-west by connecting Montparnasse station to Porte de Vanves. The aim was to connect B with C, but CMP bought before: B renamed 13, C 14. Both were connected by RATP as current Line 13.
Line A was inaugurated on 4 November 1910, after being postponed because of floods in January that year. Line B was inaugurated on 26 February 1911. Because of the high construction costs, the construction of line C was postponed. Nord-Sud and CMP used compatible trains that could be used on both networks, but CMP trains used 600 volts third rail, and NS −600 volts overhead wire and +600 volts third rail. This was necessary because of steep gradients on NS lines. NS distinguished itself from its competitor with the high-quality decoration of its stations, the trains’ extreme comfort and pretty lighting.
Nord-Sud did not become profitable and bankruptcy became unavoidable. By the end of 1930, the CMP bought Nord-Sud. Line A became Line 12 and line B Line 13. Line C was built and renamed line 14, that Line was reorganized in 1937 with Lines 8 and 10. This partial line is now the south part of line 13.
The last Nord-Sud train set was decommissioned on 15 May 1972.[20]
1930–1950: first inner suburbs are reached
Paris Métro network in 1939
Bienvenüe’s project was nearly completed during the 1920s. Paris planned three new lines and extensions of most lines to the inner suburbs, despite the reluctance of Parisians. Bienvenüe’s inner circular line having been abandoned, the already-built portion between Duroc and Odéon for the creation of a new east-west line that became line 10, extended west to Porte de Saint-Cloud and the inner suburbs of Boulogne.
The line C planned by Nord-Sud between Montparnasse station and Porte de Vanves was built as line 14 (different from present line 14). It extended north in encompassing the already-built portion between Invalides and Duroc, initially planned as part of the inner circular. The over-busy Belleville funicular tramway would be replaced by a new line, line 11, extended to Châtelet. Lines 10, 11 and 14 were thus the three new lines envisaged under this plan.
Most lines would be extended to the inner suburbs. The first to leave the city proper was line 9, extended in 1934 to Boulogne-Billancourt; more followed in the 1930s. World War II forced authorities to abandon projects such as the extension of Lines 4 or 12 to the northern suburbs. By 1949, eight lines had been extended: Line 1 to Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vincennes, Line 3 to Levallois-Perret, Line 5 to Pantin, Line 7 to Ivry-sur-Seine, Line 8 to Charenton, Line 9 to Boulogne-Billancourt, Line 11 to Les Lilas and Line 12 to Issy-les-Moulineaux.
World War II had a massive impact on the Métro. Services were limited and many stations closed. The risk of bombing meant the service between Place d’Italie and Étoile was transferred from Line 5 to line 6, so that most of the elevated portions of the Métro would be on Line 6. As a result, Lines 2 and 6 now form a circle. Most stations were too shallow to be used as bomb shelters. The French Resistance used the tunnels to conduct swift assaults throughout Paris.[21]
It took a long time to recover after liberation in 1944. Many stations had not reopened by the 1960s and some closed for good. On 23 March 1948, the CMP (the underground) and the STCRP (bus and tramways) merged to form the RATP, which still operates the Métro.
The network grew saturated during the 1950s. Outdated technology limited the number of trains, which led the RATP to stop extending lines and concentrate on modernisation. The MP 51 prototype was built, testing both rubber-tyred metro and basic automatic driving on the voie navette. The first replacements of the older Sprague trains began with experimental articulated trains and then with mainstream rubber-tyred metro MP 55 and MP 59, some of the latter still in service (line 11). Thanks to newer trains and better signalling, trains ran more frequently.
The population boomed from 1950 to 1980. Cars became more popular and suburbs grew further from the city. The main railway stations, termini of the suburban rail lines, were overcrowded during rush hour. The short distance between metro stations slowed the network and made it unprofitable to build extensions. The solution in the 1960s was to revive a project abandoned at the end of the 19th century: joining suburban lines to new underground portions in the city centre as the Réseau express régional (regional express network; RER).
The RER plan initially included one east-west line and two north-south lines. RATP bought two unprofitable SNCF lines—the Ligne de Saint-Germain (westbound) and the Ligne de Vincennes (eastbound) with the intention of joining them and to serve multiple districts of central Paris with new underground stations. The new line created by this merger became line A. The Ligne de Sceaux, which served the southern suburbs and was bought by the CMP in the 1930s, would be extended north to merge with a line of the SNCF and reach the new Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy. This became line B. These new lines were inaugurated in 1977 and their wild success outperformed all the most optimistic forecasts to the extent that line A is the most used urban rail line in the world with nearly 300 million journeys a year.
Because of the enormous cost of these two lines, the third planned line was abandoned and the authorities decided that later developments of the RER network would be more cheaply developed by SNCF, alongside its continued management of other suburban lines. However, the RER developed by SNCF would never match the success of the RATP’s two RER lines. In 1979, SNCF developed line C by joining the suburban lines of Gare d’Austerlitz and Gare d’Orsay, the latter being converted into a museum dedicated to impressionist paintings. During the 1980s, it developed line D, which was the second line planned by the initial RER schedule, but serving Châtelet instead of République to reduce costs. A huge Métro-RER hub was created at Châtelet-Les Halles, the world’s largest underground station.[22]
The same project of the 1960s also decided to merge lines 13 and 14 to create a quick connection between Saint-Lazare and Montparnasse as a new north-south line. Distances between stations on the lengthened line 13 differ from that on other lines in order to make it more “express” and hence to extend it farther in the suburbs. The new Line 13 was inaugurated on 9 November 1976.
In October 1998, Line 14 was inaugurated. It was the first fully new Métro line in 63 years. Known during its conception as Météor (Métro Est-Ouest Rapide), it is one of the two fully automatic lines within the network along with Line 1. It was the first with platform screen doors to prevent suicides and accidents. It was conceived with extensions to the suburbs in mind, similar to the extensions of the line 13 built during the 1970s. As a result, most of the stations are at least a kilometre apart. Like the RER lines designed by the RATP, nearly all stations offer connections with multiple Métro lines. The line runs between Saint-Lazare and Olympiades.
Lines 7 and 13 are the only two on the network to be split in branches. The RATP would like to get rid of those saturated branches in order to improve the network’s efficiency. A project existed to attribute to line 14 one branch of each line, and to extend them further into the suburbs. This project was abandoned. In 1999, the RER line E was inaugurated. Known during its conception as Eole (Est-Ouest Liaison Express), it is the fifth RER line. It terminates at Haussmann – Saint-Lazare, but a new project, financed by EPAD, the public authority managing the La Défense business district, should extend it west to La Défense – Grande Arche and the suburbs beyond.
In work started in 2007 and completed in November 2011, Line 1 was converted to driverless operation. The line was operated with a combination of driver-operated trains and driver-less trains until the delivery of the last of its driver-less MP 05 trains in February 2013. The same conversion is on-going for Line 4, with an expected completion date in 2022.
Several extensions to the suburbs opened in the last years. Line 8 was extended to Pointe du Lac in 2011, line 12 was extended to Aubervilliers in 2012 and line 4 was extended to Mairie de Montrouge in 2013.
Fares are sold at kiosks and at automated machines in the station foyer. Entrance to platforms is by automated gate, opened by smart cards and simple tickets. Gates return tickets for passengers to retain for the duration of the journey. There is normally no system to collect or check tickets at the end of the journey, and tickets can be inspected at any point. The exit from all stations is clearly marked as to the point beyond which possession of a ticket is no longer required. The standard ticket is ticket “t+”. It is valid for a multi-transfer journey within one and a half hours from the first validation. It can be used on the Métro, buses and trams, and in zone 1 of the RER. It allows unlimited transfers between the same mode of transport (i.e. Métro to Métro, bus to bus and tram to tram), between bus and tram, and between metro and RER zone 1. When transferring between the Metro and the RER, it is necessary to retain the ticket. The RER requires a valid ticket for entry and exit, even for a transfer. It costs €1.90 or ten (a carnet) for €14.50 as of June 2017.[28]
daily (Mobilis; the Ticket Jeunes, for youth under 26 years on weekends and national holidays, is half the cost of a Mobilis pass[29]).
weekly or monthly (the former Carte orange, sold as the weekly Navigo (“hebdo”) and the monthly Navigo)
yearly (Navigo intégrale, or Imagine R for students)
The (Paris Visite) travel card is available for one, two, three or five days, for zones 1–3 covering the centre of Paris, or zones 1–5 covering the whole of the network including the RER to the airports, Versailles and Disneyland Paris. It was conceived mainly for visitors and is available through RATP’s distributors in the UK, Switzerland and Belgium. It may be a better deal to buy a weekly card (up to €10 saving) but a weekly card runs from Monday to Monday (and is reset every Monday), whereas the Paris Visite card is valid for the number of days purchased.
During the 19th century, railway construction began in France with short lines for mines. The building of the main French railway system did not begin until after 1842, when a law legalised railways.
In 1814, the French engineer Pierre Michel Moisson-Desroches proposed to Emperor Napoleon to build seven national railways from Paris, in order to travel “short distances within the Empire”.
In 1823, a royal decree authorized the first railway company (Saint-Étienne to Andrézieux Railway) and the line was first operated in 1827, for goods, and for passengers in 1835. From 1830 to 1832, the line from Saint-Étienne to Lyon was opened, for goods and passengers, becoming the first passengers line of continental Europe. In that time Saint-Étienne was an important coal and iron industry center and Lyon was the main town in the south of France.
French railways started later and developed more slowly than those in certain other countries. While the first railway built in France started operation in 1827, not long after the first line had opened in Britain, French progress failed to keep pace over the next decade. Thus France quickly fell behind Germany, Belgium and Switzerland in terms of trackage per person. The rapid growth in the United States and in the United Kingdom also seriously outdistanced that in France. Circumstances did not favour a start as early and as successful as Britain’s, because Britain generally had a higher level of industrialisation. Other more comparable nations, such as Belgium, embarked on large railway-building projects soon after the technology appeared. France also suffered the handicap of the destruction and turbulence of the Napoleonic Wars and the subsequent process of rebuilding, which also hindered the development of railways. It took a full decade to begin railway construction on a national scale.
France’s history and level of development almost certainly account for this delay. France’s economy in 1832 had not developed sufficiently to support a national railway network. The limited iron industry for many years forced French railways to import many of their rails from England at great cost. French coal supplies also remained under-developed compared to those of England and Belgium. Until these complementary industries developed, French railways were at an economic disadvantage compared to those of other states.
Another obstacle to French railway development was the powerful opposition to the changes that railways would bring. For example, in 1832, the RouenChamber of Commerce opposed a rail link between Rouen and Paris, arguing it would be detrimental to agriculture, hurt the traditional way of life, and impinge upon the business of the canals and rivers. This last argument emerged commonly throughout France. Unlike Russia or Germany, which had no well-developed canal systems, France had a great deal of capital invested in water-borne transport. These interests saw the railways as dangerous competition. The origins of this opposition stem from France’s geography. France was naturally endowed with many navigable waterways, and also with much terrain suitable for the construction of canals. Much of France also lies not far from the coast, and coastal shipping successfully and cheaply carried much trade. Thus, the interests which profited from canals, river, and coastal shipping all used their sway in government to limit the construction of railways. While other countries, such as Britain, already utilised canals and coastal shipping well, these nations had no government-controlled railways, and thus the vested interests of water-borne trade were less able to oppose new competition.
Catholic priests bless a railway engine in Calais, 1848
In France, existing interests combined with popular worries about the introduction of railways, especially concerning their safety. While those in opposition to railway development certainly remained a minority, their presence was larger in France than in most other industrialising nations. Since French rail development depended on government initiatives, French opponents had a clearer target to oppose than in countries where completely private companies constructed new railways.
The central involvement of government in French railways also slowed their construction, as it took time to forge a national railway policy. Under the July Monarchy, France became a far more democratic state than most others in Europe. While most of the numerous individual German states had strong central authorities, decisions in France needed to survive lengthy debates in parliament. France also exhibited considerable internal divisions within the state. Belgium, with its extremely unified political class just after independence (1830), could quickly embark on elaborate railway projects. France, however, remained long divided among liberals, conservatives, royalists and democrats, with laissez-faire liberals consistently holding a great deal of parliamentary power. All of the parties supported some form of governmental rail initiative, but they all had differing visions of the shape of that initiative. The parliament thus rejected all major rail projects before 1842, and during this period France steadily fell behind the nations that had reached quick consensus on railway policy.
The French rail system could not develop successfully without the involvement of the state. Unlike Great Britain or the United States, France had no large substantial industrial base willing to pay for railways to bring its products to new markets. French investment capital also lagged considerably behind the amounts available in Great Britain. Early troubles, such as the failed Paris to Rouen line, only reinforced the deep conservatism of the French banks. French private industry had not the strength to construct a railway industry unassisted by government. Thus, during the period of inaction by the government before 1842, the French built only small and scattered railway lines.
The eventual relationship created between the French rail system and the government formed a compromise between two competing options:
the completely laissez-faire free-market system that had created Britain’s elaborate rail network
a government-built and government-controlled railway, such as had grown up in Belgium.
France employed a mixture of these two models to construct its railways, but eventually turned definitively to the side of government control. The relationships between the government and private rail companies became complicated, with many conflicts and disagreements between the two groups.
Government intervention
Development of the network up to 1860
The 1842 agreement proved the most important piece of railway legislation. It aided the companies by having the department of the Ponts et Chaussées do most of the planning and engineering work for new lines. The government would assist in securing the land, often by expropriation. The government also agreed to pay infrastructure costs, building bridges, tunnels and track bed. The private companies would then furnish the tracks, stations and rolling stock, as well as pay the operating costs.
This general policy, masked many exceptions and additions. The most successful companies, especially the Compagnie du Nord, would often build their own lines themselves in order to avoid the complications of going through government. For instance, during the economic boom period of the 1850s, the national government had to pay only 19 percent of the costs of railway construction. Other less successful lines, such as the Midi, would often need more assistance from the government to remain in operation. The same proved true during recessions, such as in 1859, when the railway lines gained a new agreement to save them from bankruptcy. In exchange for funding part of the construction of rail lines, the French government set maximum rates that the companies could charge. It also insisted that all government traffic must travel at a third of standard costs.
The expectation that the government would eventually nationalise the rail system formed another important element in French railway legislation. The original agreement of 1842 leased the railway lines to the companies for only 36 years. Napoleon III extended these leases to 99 years soon after he came to power. That the rail companies only operated on leases paved the way for the nationalisation of the French rail lines under the socialist government of the 1930s.
The French rail policy, once put in place, had its deficiencies, but one certainly cannot consider it a failure, and other powers attempting to encourage rail developments adopted many aspects of the French railway laws. The bureaucratisation and influence of special interests associated with all governments, even those of corporations, also negatively affected the French railways. However, the French rail system had failed to grow on its own and required government intervention to expand successfully. While the alleged intrusion of government into the railway sector caused problems, it also proved necessary and inevitable.
Unlike in countries where the construction of railways became a field for private enterprise, the state constructed the bulk of the French railway system, and magnanimously invited private companies to operate the lines under leases (of up to 99 years). France’s railways form a somewhat unusual case in that they have never been privately owned. The state guaranteed the dividends of the railway operating companies, and in exchange took two-thirds of any greater profits.
The close relationship between the rail companies and government has much to do with French history. France had long had a large and elaborate bureaucracy and governmental structure that regulated many areas of French life. This bureaucracy survived the revolutionary period intact and played an important role in every government that ruled France in the nineteenth century. Thus, when railways arose, there already existed well-established governmental structures and procedures that could easily expand to encompass railway regulations as well. This regulatory régime, through the professional and powerful department of the Ponts et Chaussées, had very close control over the construction of roads, bridges and canals in France; therefore, it was inevitable that the new railways would also fall under the government’s close scrutiny.
Other reasons also led the French government to control its railways closely. Unlike the United Kingdom or the United States, France as a European continental power had pressing military/strategic needs from its railways, needs which a private sector might not provide. The French government constructed long stretches of strategic railways in eastern France along the German border that served strategically crucial ends, but lacked economic viability. “Pure” private economic interests would not have constructed these routes on their own, so France used government rewards and pressure to encourage the rail companies to build the needed lines. (The German and Russian Empires also had widespread strategic railway systems that private companies would not have built appropriately.)
The first completed lines radiated out of Paris, connecting France’s major cities to the capital. These lines still form the backbone of the French railway system. By the 1860s, workers had completed the basic structure of the network, but they continued to build many minor lines during the late 19th century to fill in the gaps .
Government involvement in the railroads did mean that the French rail system became based on a very inefficient design. By 1855, the many original small firms had coalesced into six large companies, each having a regional monopoly in one area of France. The Nord, Est, Ouest, Paris-Orléans, Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM), and the Midi lines divided the nation into strict corridors of control. Difficulties arose in that the six large monopolies, with the exception of the Midi Company, all connected to Paris, but did not link together anywhere else in the country. The French railway map comprised a series of unconnected branches running out of Paris. While this meant that trains served Paris well, other parts of the country were not served as well. For instance, one branch of the Paris-Orléans Line ended in Clermont-Ferrand, while Lyon stood on the PLM Line. Thus any goods or passengers requiring transportation from Lyon to Clermont-Ferrand in 1860 needed to take a circuitous route via Paris of over seven hundred kilometers, even though a mere hundred and twenty kilometers separated the two cities.
This grave inefficiency lead to great problems in the Franco-Prussian War (1870 – 1871). The German railway lines, inter-connected in a grid-like fashion, proved far more efficient at advancing troops and supplies to the front than the French one. “Combien nous a été funeste l’absence de lignes transversales […] unissant nos grandes artères” reported a military officer to the parliamentary inquiry on France’s defeat.
The arrangement of the lines also hurt France’s economy. Shipping costs between regional centres became greatly inflated. Thus many cities specialised in exporting their goods to Paris, as trans-shipment to a second city would double the price.
France ended up with this regressive arrangement for a number of reasons. Paris formed the undisputed capital of France, and many viewed it as the capital of Europe. To French railway planners, it seemed only natural that all the lines should involve the metropolis. By contrast Germany ended up with a far superior system because it had little unity and many centers vying for preeminence. Thus a variety of rail centres arose. Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Hamburg, and the Rhine areas all had links to each other.
The French railway lines also exhibited a high degree of centralisation because plans dictated this. Unlike Britain and America, France had a central government which greatly influenced the layout and the planning of the railways. This Paris-centric government had minimal local representation, especially in the bureaucracy. The Ponts et Chaussées department that supervised the railways remained thoroughly Parisian. Because of strong governmental and administrative influence, all six of the French railway companies had their headquarters in Paris. This occurred not only because of the unquestioned centrality of Paris, but also because the rail companies always remained in close contact with the French government, and needed bases in Paris to ensure positive relations.
Nineteenth-century Britain largely lacked intensive government interference in the railways. Railway companies thus experienced less pressure to centre their lines on London, and also less necessity for each company to cultivate such close links to the centre of political power. In England, for instance, local businesses financed and promoted the Stockton & Darlington and Liverpool & Manchester lines. In France, cities like Lyon and Bordeaux did not have many wealthy investors – capital emanated almost exclusively from Paris. This concentration of capital in Paris also contributed to the concentration of the railway system in the metropolis.
The most important of the railway operating companies during this period included:
By 1914 the French railway system had become one of the densest and most highly developed in the world, and had reached its maximum extent of around 60,000 km (37,000 mi). About one third of this mileage comprised narrow gauge lines.
Following the First World War, France received significant additions to its locomotive and wagon fleet as part of the reparations from Germany required by the Versailles Treaty. In addition the network of the Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine was taken over by France when the Alsace-Lorraine region, which had been under German control since the Franco-Prussian War, was returned to France.
Nationalisation
By the 1930s, road competition began to take its toll on the railways, and the rail network needed pruning. The narrow gauge lines suffered most severely from road competition; many thousands of miles of narrow gauge lines closed during the 1930s. By the 1950s the once extensive narrow gauge system had practically become extinct. Many minor standard gauge lines also closed. The French railway system today has around 40,000 km (25,000 mi) of track.
Many of the private railway operating companies began to face financial difficulties. In 1938 the socialist government fully nationalised the railway system and formed the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais (SNCF). Regional authorities have begun to specify schedules since the mid of the 1970s with general conventions between the regions and the SNCF since the mid-1980s.
From 1981 onwards, a newly constructed set of high-speedTGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) lines linked France’s most populated areas with the capital, starting with Paris-Lyon. In 1994, the Channel Tunnel opened, connecting France and Great Britain by rail under the English Channel.
Caron, François. Histoire des Chemins de Fer en France. Paris: Fayard, 1997.
Clapham, J. H. The Economic Development of France and Germany, 1815-1914. Cambridge University Press, 1961.
Doukas, Kimon A. The French Railroads and the State. Columbia University Press, 1945.
Dunham, Arthur. “How the First French Railways Were Planned.” Journal of Economic History. Vol. 1, No. 1. (1941), pp. 12–25 in JSTOR
Lefranc, Georges. “The French Railroads, 1823-1842”, Journal of Business and Economic History, II, 1929–30, 299-331.
Mitchell, Allan. The Great Train Race: Railways and the Franco-German Rivalry, 1815-1914. Berghahn Books, 2000.
Sterne, Simon. “Some Curious Phases of the Railway Question in Europe.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 1, No. 4. (1887), pp. 453–468. in JSTOR
Châtelet is connected by another long underground corridor to the southern end of the RER station Châtelet – Les Halles, the northern end of which is again connected to the Métro station Les Halles. The distance from Line 7 at Châtelet to the RER lines at Châtelet – Les Halles is approximately 750 metres (2,460 ft). It is the ninth-busiest station on the Metro system.
History
The station was opened on 6 August 1900, three weeks after trains began running on the original section of line 1 between Porte de Vincennes and Porte Maillot on 19 July 1900. The line 4 platforms were opened on 21 April 1908 as part of the original section of the line from Porte de Clignancourt to Châtelet. It was the southern terminus of line 4 until the opening of the connecting section of the line under the Seine to Raspail on 9 January 1910.
The line 7 platforms were opened on 16 April 1926 as part of the line’s extension from Palais Royal to Pont Marie with the name Pont Notre-Dame-Pont au Change. It had no direct connection with Châtelet. On 15 April 1934 a connecting corridor was opened to the platforms of lines 1 and 4 and the line 7 station was renamed. The line 11 platforms were opened near the line 7 platforms on 28 April 1935 as part of the original section of the line from Châtelet to Porte des Lilas.
On 9 December 1977 the Châtelet – Les HallesRER station was opened with a connecting corridor with a moving walkway to Châtelet. The line 14 platforms were opened near the line 1 and 4 platforms on 15 October 1998 as part of the original section of the line from Madeleine to Bibliothèque François Mitterrand. On 7 and 8 March 2009 the line 1 platforms were restored during the automation of line 1, including the installation of platform screen doors.
Rue des Lombards takes its name from the Lombard money changers who settled there in the 13th century. It was completely built in 1250. In 1300, it was called “rue de la Buffeterie”.
Its current name was given to it in 1322, when the Lombards – merchants, bankers and usurers, settled in the neighborhood, including the Tolomei family.Lombards being known for their sense of commerce, this term had become synonymous with usurer :
“God keep me four houses,
From the tavern, Lombard,
From hospital and prison. “
– Gabriel Meurier, Treasure of Sentences , 16th century.
From 1612 to 1636, it is named “Rue de la Pourpointerie” and its residents included cutters who made doublets, male clothing.
A ministerial decision of 18 Vendemiaireyear VI () signed Letourneux sets the smallest width of this public road to 10 meters. This width is increased to 13 meters, by virtue of a royal ordinance of July 19,1840.
The Janitor of No. 8 is on February 13 1831 the probable first death in Paris of the second pandemic of cholera that will kill in 18 months 18 402 people.
No. 14: bore as sign The Ymage Nostre Dame, with a medieval cellar and an underground chapel, is steeped in history. It was built in the 13th century by the powerful order of the Knights Templar with the aim of making it a site of financial and commercial exchanges. It also served as a temporary hiding place for Ravaillac before he was arrested for the murder of Henri IV at 13 rue de la Ferronnerie, a street parallel to rue des Lombards. During the Revolution finally the chapel would have served as a gathering place for secret masses of the clergy.
No. 20: the ground floor was from 1970 to 1973 the Paris headquarters of the New Order movement.
At No 47, then 57 was established, under the name La Renommée, the confectionery of Nicolas Appert who invented in his workshops in 1795 the process of appertisation.
This house which was located rue des Lombards, still existed in the early eighteenth century.Stallions or models of weights and measures were deposited there. Until the reign of Louis VII, the kings of France were the only owners of this establishment and the privileges attached to it 8 . The property was then sold to various people before being definitively acquired by the chapter of Notre-Dame who kept it until the Revolution. In 1321, the provost of Paris, on the order he received from the Parliament of Paris, had the weights adjusted to the Mint, then located rue de la Vieille-Monnaie. Three stallions were made, one of which was given to the grocers, and the other two, placed at the Mint and the weight of the king. In 1484, this right was conferred on them by new ordinances. They exercised it with regard to all kinds of merchants; the goldsmiths alone came directly from the mint. The grocers were accompanied, in their visits, by a sword-juror appointed by the provost of Paris, on their presentation. Until 1434, the weights used were only masses of stone, shaped and adjusted. Philip V le Long, by his regulation of 1321, had formed the design of establishing in France one and the same measure. For the expenses of this reform, he proposed a subsidy; the tax could not rise, and the ordinance fell into oblivion.Louis XI later had the same thought; the nobility and the clergy opposed this improvement. By a decree of August 1, 1793, the Convention ordered this uniformity, and by its decree of 18 GerminalYear III (April 7,1795) fixed the time when it would become obligatory. It is to the learned Prieur of Côte-d’Or that the adoption of the unification of the metric system and the use of the decimal calculus is due.
References
Jean de La Tynna, topographical, etymological and historical dictionary of the streets of Paris , 1817.
Felix and Louis Lazare, administrative and historical dictionary of the streets of Paris and its monuments , edition of 1844, p.6 [ read online [archive] ].
Philippe Marquis, “The excavation of 12, 14, rue des Lombards in Paris ( IVth arr.)”, Cahiers de la Rotonde , Paris-Rotonde de la Villette, No. 21, 1999, p.1-119 ( ISBN2-85738-009-7).
.jpg?uselang=fr)
![Le baptême de Clovis par saint Remi avec le miracle de la Sainte Ampoule (détail). Plaque de reliure en ivoire, Reims, dernier quart du IXe siècle. Amiens, musée de Picardie. Cette plaque servit sans doute à orner la reliure d'un manuscrit de la vie de saint Remi[1].](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Remy_baptise_Clovis_d%C3%A9tail.jpg?uselang=fr)
.svg?uselang=fr)
.jpg)
