frequently washed the feet of beggars, by whom, indeed, he was generally surrounded. He was accustomed to say, when giving away any rich ornament, "Take care that Constance does not see you with it!" Robert the Pious died in 1031, at Melun, in the 60th year of his age. By his first wife, Bertha, he had no children; by Constance, of Provence, he had four sons and two daughters: Hugh, who died before his father; Eudes, an idiot; Henry, who became king, and Robert, the chief of the first house of Burgundy, which was of royal blood; Adela, who married Richard III., of Normandy, and Adelaide married Bauldwin IV., Earl of Flanders.

HENRY I.

1031-1060.

THIS king, who was in his 20th year at the time of his accession to the throne, was pious but weak. His mother excited her younger son Robert to revolt against him; Henry claimed the protection of Robert, Duke of Normandy (successor to Richard, whom he is said to have poisoned), and defeated his brother, to whom, however, he generously gave Burgundy. In gratitude for the service the duke had rendered him, Henry annexed to Normandy, Gisors, Pontoise, and the whole of the Vexin, which extended his province to within six leagues of Paris.

Eudes, who had been put aside on account of his imbecility, was now declared chief of a conspiracy, formed by a few dissatisfied nobles to dethrone Henry. But the Counts of Blois, Valois, Champagne, and Meulan, who created troubles in order to increase their own power, were defeated, the lands of the latter forfeited to the crown, and Eudes confined in Orleans. Robert II., of Normandy, having under

taken a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, died on his homeward journey; he had left his only child, afterwards our William the Conqueror, under the protection of Alain, Duke of Bretagne. When the news of Robert's death reached France, Henry I. set aside the claims of William, and invaded Normandy, but without success, and peace was made in 1055, but a thorough reconciliation was never effected; this enmity was indeed the commencement of the disastrous quarrels which continued for so many years between the French kings and those of the Norman race in England. Until the Capetians felt themselves firmly established upon the throne of France, they had their eldest sons crowned during their lifetime, in order to secure the succession to them; thus Henry's son, Philip, was crowned at Rheims in 1057, at the age of 7 years. The royal domain was enlarged during this reign by the acquisition of Meulan and Sens (this last county through the death of Earl Rainouard without issue). The power of the nobles increased greatly, and the affairs of the Church were in much disorder, benefices and even the Papal crown were sold to the highest bidder, at one time a child of nine or ten years old was elected Pope; but in 1048, Leo, a man of known piety, was crowned; he set to work earnestly, and soon reformed all abuses.

At this time the practice of duelling became so prevalent that it was necessary to institute a new law, called the "Trève de Dieu," by which fighting was forbidden from the Wednesday evening till the following Monday morning, also on Saints days, during Lent, and in the neighbourhood of Churches.

Henry I. died in 1060; by his wife, Anne of Russia, he

had three sons: Philip, who succeeded him, Hugh, Count of Vermandois, and Robert died young.

PHILIP I.

1060-1108.

BAULDWIN, Earl of Flanders and brother-in-law to the late king, was appointed guardian to Philip; he committed a grave mistake in encouraging the expedition of William the Conqueror against England, thereby sowing the seeds of the great rivalry which afterwards existed between France and England. He died 1067, leaving two sons; Robert of Frizeland, and Bauldwin, who, although the youngest, inherited Flanders. In 1092 Philip divorced his queen, Bertha, and carried off the Countess of Anjou, her husband being alive; refusing to send her back, he was three times excommunicated, each time professing repentance, but still keeping the countess with him, for he had in the meantime persuaded some Norman priests to marry them. The nobles now revolted; Louis, the king's son, marched against them, and subdued them; Bertrade, the Countess of Anjou, it is said, attempted to poison him, and disliked him so much that he found it necessary to retire to England for a time. Philip was constantly at war with William the Conqueror, whose son Robert he excited to revolt; he also refused to put a stop to the incursions which the inhabitants of Mantes were making into Normandy. William attacked and burnt Mantes, and would have probably entirely defeated Philip, had he not died, in the year 1087. The Crusades, or wars undertaken for the purpose of wresting the Holy Sepulchre from the Saracens, began in this reign. The first Crusade was set on foot in 1096, by Peter the Hermit, who had wit

nessed the cruel treatment the Christians received from the Saracens. It was at the Council of Clermont, assembled in order to excommunicate Philip I., in 1095, that Peter gave such an account of the sufferings endured by the Christians that Pope Urban II. resolved to go into France to preach a war against the Infidels, promising absolution and indulgences to all who would take up arms; the people of Clermont were so moved by the representations made to them by the Pope, that they took up the cross, shouting, “Dieu le veut! Dieu le veut!" ("God wills it!") The first army, under Peter the Hermit and Walter the Pennyless, a Norman gentleman, left France on March 8th, 1096; but these leaders had no idea of the distance to the Holy Land, and but a very imperfect knowledge of geography; they often led the people out of the right track; they suffered much from want of food, and plundered the countries through which they passed; the inhabitants, in their turn, rose up against them, and a great number of the Crusaders were killed, and their bodies thrown into the Danube. The army was exterminated, a few men only reached the shores of the Bosphorus, and they were killed by the Turks. Peter and Walter, however, lived to return to France. The second army was commanded by Godfrey of Bouillon, and the third by Hugh of Vermandois, the king's brother, and Raymond, Earl of Toulouse. This army, composed of more than 300,000 men, which number was much increased during the journey, reached Constantinople, to the astonishment and fear of the Emperor Alexis, whom they treated with insolence, and who, perhaps, also behaved deceitfully towards them. After a

short sojourn here, they entered Asia, gained some brilliant victories, and took Jerusalem 15th July, 1099. The crown was

offered to and accepted by Godfrey, who made a code of laws for his subjects, known as "Assises of Jerusalem." Three other principalities were formed, Tripoli and Edessa, which submitted to Godfrey, and Antioch, which refused to recognise him as king. In the interval between the first and second Crusades, two religious orders were founded, the 66 Hospitallers," of which Raymond de Puy was the first Grand Master, and the "Knights Templars."

Philip I. died in 1108, having reigned nearly fifty years; he considered himself unworthy of interment at St. Denis, the usual burial-place of the French monarchs, and desired that his body should be taken to the Abbey of St. Benoit, on the Loire. During the latter years of his reign Philip gave himself up entirely to pleasure and indolence, leaving the affairs of the kingdom to the care of his son Louis; his queens were-1st, Bertha of Holland, whom he divorced, and by whom he had a son, Louis, who succeeded him, and one daughter, Constance, who married the Prince of Antioch; 2ndly, Bertrade, Countess of Anjou, by whom he had two sons, Philip and Fleury. A kind of money was circulated during this reign, but it was merely a round piece of leather, with a small silver nail put through the centre. The remarkable men of Philip's reign were Pope Urban II., Peter the Hermit, Godfrey of Bouillon, and William the Conqueror. The royal domain was slightly increased by the addition of Bourges, which was sold to the king by the Viscount of Bourges, who joined the Crusaders.

LOUIS VI., THE GROSS.

1108-1137.

LOUIS VI. found it very difficult to make the vassals submit