Kings of France  447 AD - 1945    To decrease loading time, this text on French kings was extracted from: The Successors of Rome: Germania and Francia. Only the biographical links and portraits were added to the original, excellent work by Dr. Ross.  The Germanic invasions are discussed in the following:  Germania, 395-774 Visigoths Burgundians Vandals Ostrogoths Lombards Copyright (c) 1998, 1999 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved  Sources When you see a crown, click it to see a portrait of the ruler.

The original core of Francia, the Frankish Kingdom that came to dominate the West under Charlemagne, can be identified as those areas upon whose ruler the Pope at one time or another conferred a crown as the Roman Emperor. Part of the Mediaeval theory of Papal power came to include this ultimate authority to create and legitimate secular authority. Outlying areas, Spain, Britain, Scandinavia, etc., are considered separately as the Periphery of Francia. Charlemagne himself ruled modern France, northern Italy, and most of modern Germany. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, the imperial title was fitfully conferred on Kings of Italy, and then lapsed entirely in 922. The descent of King Otto I of Germany into Italy ushered in new combinations of territory and a new line of Emperors, as the Pope crowned Otto in 962. The "Empire" came to be regarded as consisting of four crowns:  (1) East Francia, or Germany, (2) Lombardy (the "Iron Crown"), or Italy, (3) Rome, and, after 1032, (4) Burgundy. Lorraine, which had been a separate kingdom in the inheritance of Charlemagne, soon become part of the system of "Stem Duchies" in Germany. Most of the Stem Duchies, like Saxony, Franconia, and Bavaria, corresponded to preexisting German tribes. The title dux ("leader"), which was the Roman title of a frontier military commander, thus achieves its elevated Mediaeval meaning in relation to these units. A duke is only inferior to a sovereign prince. The next highest title, marquis or margrave (Markgraf), signified the count (comes, Graf, or "earl" in English) of a march (Mark) territory. The marches were border territories that involved a great deal of fighting. In Charlemagne's day, that included marches in Spain contesting the Islâmic advance. Later, the German marches north and south of Bohemia extended German settlement far to the east. Brandenburg became the most famous northern march, remaining a margravate until becoming the Kingdom of Prussia. Austria (Österreich, the "eastern realm") was the most famous southern march, becoming a duchy, then the only "archduchy," and finally an empire.

As the authority of the German Emperors declined, and that of the Kings of France grew, the "Middle Kingdom" (Francia Media) of Lorraine, Burgundy, and Italy began to pass either from German to French control (Upper Lorraine, Burgundy) or from German control to separate status (Lower Lorraine, i.e. the Netherlands and Belgium, and Italy). This process continued well into the modern period, when we see a multiplication of kingdoms, reaching five in Germany (not counting Bohemia) and two in Lower Lorraine. The Dukes of Savoy, beginning with a county in Burgundy, acquired more land and a capital (Turin) in Italy, named their new Kingdom after Sardinia and ultimately succeeded as the modern Kings of Italy. After Mussolini conquered Ethiopia in 1936, one King of Italy was briefly, and fatally, associated with this as the Emperor of Ethiopia. Without otherwise going outside of Francia, we certainly see enough emperors. The Holy Roman Emperors, especially after the title became nearly hereditary with the Hapsburgs, became less and less concerned with confirming their crown with the Pope. The last time the Pope was called upon to crown an Emperor was when Napoleon decided to reclaim the title for the Western Franks, the French (and himself), in 1804. Napoleon knew better, however, than to allow that the Pope really had the kind of authority that the coronation of Charlemagne implied:  Napoleon took the crown from the Pope's hands and crowned himself. The Hapsburgs were not going to be left behind by this:  They elevated Austria to the status of Empire without any help from the Pope. Napoleon then abolished the Holy Roman Empire, leaving a French and an Austrian Emperor in Francia. After Napoleon's fall, the French title was later revived by Napoleon III, but then in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and his fall, Otto von Bismark decided to transfer the dignity to a newly reunited Germany, with the King of Prussia as a new, entirely German and not even Catholic, German Emperor, ruling over Prussia and the three other remaining kingdoms (Saxony, Bavaria, and Württemberg -- Hanover had been absorbed into Prussia). Except for the brief episode with Mussolini, emperors vanished from Francia, and from Russia, in the Götterdämmerung of World War I. This did not mean, unfortunately, the immediate triumph of democracy and liberty. Instead, the conservative oppression of regimes like Austria, which were said to be "despotism tempered by inefficiency," was followed by the far more oppressive, sinister, and murderous "evil empires" of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, both founded on 20th century totalitarian, collectivist ideology -- though Hitler did like to think of his regime as a "Third Reich" continuing the German empires of the past. Lenin and Stalin had no use for such historical romance, though their power would have been the envy of any Tsar and did continue police state devices begun by the Tsars. It is post-Communist Russia, struggling with corrupt democracy and a collapsing economy, that now may be the most susceptible to Fascist romances about the Tsars.

FRANKS,  CAROLINGIAN MAYORS, KINGS, & EMPERORS
Pepin I	Mayor, 628-639
Pepin II	Mayor, 687-714
Charles Martel	Mayor, 714-741
Carloman	Mayor, 741-747
Pepin III the Short	Mayor, 747-751;  King, 751-768
Carloman I	768-771	I of France
Charles I the Great	King, 768-;  Emperor, 800-814	I of France, Germany,  Burgundy, Italy, & Empire

The Lombards would not stay defeated, and Pepin's son Charles eventually had to conquer them and annex their kingdom (774). His conquest of the pagan Saxons (782-804) and expansion in other directions began to turn the Frankish Kingdom into a superstate. This began to give Charles and the Pope ideas, especially when the Empress Irene deposed and blinded her son, Constantine VI, in 797, assuming sole rule: the first time a woman ruled Romania in her own name. The Westerners were little disposed to regard a woman as a legitimate emperor--women could not rule in the law of the Salic Franks (hence the "Salic Law" against female succession). So, on Christmas Day in the year 800, the Pope crowned Charles Roman Emperor, taking for himself a role and an authority that he had never had anything to do with before. In taking the title from the Pope, Charles (now "the Great," "Carolus Magnus," or "Charlemagne") fatefully assumed both pretensions, to Empire, and an obligation, to Popes, that would prove a source of endless dispute, grief, and hybris in the future.

The breakup of Charlemagne's kingdom was fateful to the history of Western Europe for centuries to come. Although soon surrounded by independent Christian states, in Britain and Ireland to the northwest, Spain in the southwest, Hungary and Poland in the east, and the Sandinavian states in the north, the Frankish kingdoms remained the central tentpole of European politics. As neat halves of Charlemange's empire eventually formed, France in the West and Germany in the East, the stage for the greatest battles of modern war in the 19th and 20th centuries would be set along the seam, from Waterloo (1815) to Verdun (1916) to the Bulge (1944).
   

Carolingians
Louis I the Pious	814-840	I of France, Italy,  Germany, Burgundy,  & Empire
Pepin	781-810	of Italy
Bernard	810-818	of Italy
Lothar I	840-855	I of Italy, Burgundy,  Lorraine, & Empire
Lothar II	855-869	II of Lorraine
Charles of Burgundy	855-863	of Burgundy
Louis II	855-875	II of Italy, Burgundy,  & Empire

Carolingians,  Francia Occidentalis, France
Charles II the Bald	843-877;  Emperor, 875-877	II of France  & Empire
Louis II the Stammerer	877-879	II of France
Louis III	879-882	III of France
Carloman II	879-884	II of France
Charles III the Fat	Germany, 876-887;  France, 884-888;  Italy, 879-888;  Emperor, 881-888	III of Germany  & Empire; no  # of France
Odo (Eudes),  Count of Paris	888-898	of France
Charles III the Simple	898-922	III of France
Robert I,  Count of Paris	922-923	I of France
Rudolf/Raoul,  Duke of Burgundy	923-936	of France
Louis IV d'Outremer	936-954	IV of France
Lothair V	954-986	V of France
Louis V	986-987	V of France
Carolingians,  Francia Orientalis, Germany
Louis II the German	843-876	II of Germany
Carloman of Bavaria	Germany, 876-880;  Italy, 877-879	of Germany  & Italy
Louis III	876-882	III of Germany
Charles III the Fat	Germany, 876-887;  France, 884-888;  Italy, 879-888;  Emperor, 881-888	III of Germany  & Empire
Arnulf of Carinthia	887-899;  Emperor, 896-899	of Germany,  Italy, & Empire
Louis IV the Child	899-911	IV of Germany

Carolingians,  Francia Media, Lorraine
Zwentibold of Lorraine	895-900	King of Lorraine
Charles of Lorraine	975-991	Duke of Lower Lorraine
Otto of Lorraine	991-1005	Duke of Lower Lorraine	the Last Carolingian

CAPETIAN KINGS Odo (Eudes),   Count of Paris 888-898 Robert I,   Count of Paris 922-923 Rudolf/Raoul,  Duke of Burgundy 923-936 Hugh Capet 987-996 Robert II the Pious 996-1031 Henry I 1031-1060 Philip I 1060-1108 Louis VI 1108-1137 Louis VII 1137-1180 Philip II Augustus 1180-1223 Louis VIII 1223-1226 St. Louis IX 1226-1270 Philip III 1270-1285 Philip IV the Fair 1285-1314 Last Grand Master of the  Templars, Jacques de Molay,  tortured & burned, 1314 Louis X 1314-1316 John I 1316 Philip V 1316-1322 Charles IV 1322-1328

1000 AD        1270 AD

VALOIS KINGS
Philip VI of Valois	1328-1350
John II	1350-1364
Charles V	1364-1380
Charles VI	1380-1422
Charles VII	1422-1461
Louis XI	1461-1483
Charles VIII	1483-1498
Louis XII of Orléans	1498-1515
Francis I of Angloulême	1515-1547
Henry II	1547-1559
Francis II	1559-1560
Charles IX	1560-1574
Henry III	1574-1589

BOURBON KINGS
Henry IV of Bourbon	1589-1610
Louis XIII	1610-1643
Thirty Years War, 1618-1648
Louis XIV	1643-1715
Treaty of Westphalia, 1648;  War of Devolution, 1667-1668;  Dutch War, 1672-1678;  War of the League of Augsburg, 1688-1697;  War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1713
Louis XV	1715-1774
War of the Polish Succession, 1733-1735;  War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-1748;  Seven Years War, 1756-1763
Louis XVI	1774-1792
French Revolution, 1789;  First Republic, 1792-1804;  First Empire, 1804-1814, 1815
Louis XVIII	1814-1824
Charles X	1824-1830
Revolution of 1830,  ORLÉANist KING
Louis Philippe of Orléans	1830-1848
Second Republic, 1848-1852;  Second Empire, 1852-1870

 

The French Revolution had two unexpected results, the Reign of Terror and the dictatorship of Napoleon. Thomas Jefferson thought that the violence might actually be worth it, if only one man and woman were left, to get rid of the Old Regime. However, he then realized that the power of the Terrorists was not, after all, being used for any worthy end. Napoleon at first "saved the revolution" but then produced his own version of the Old Regime. In 1803 he began handing out new Imperial Electorships to his supporters (e.g. Baden, Württemberg) in Germany, perhaps looking forward to being elected Holy Roman Emperor. However, his patience with this didn't last more than a year. He would have had a long time to wait, since the Emperor Francis II would live until 1835. Instead, with the blessing, but not the authority, of the Pope, he crowned himself Emperor, as the new Charlemagne, in 1804. He soon abolished the old Empire (1806), gave his supporters elevated titles (Baden became a Grand Duchy, Württemberg a Kingdom, etc.), and established other monarchies, often for his relatives, in the territories brought under the control of France. The Revolution had already begun to radically transform the map of Europe, but under Napoleon especially the familiar boundaries of European states appeared to melt and run with an alarming fluidity and frequency.

BONAPARTE EMPERORS
First Empire, 1804-1814, 1815
Napoleon I	1799-1804, First Consul;  1804-1814, 1815,  last Emperor crowned  by Pope, d. 1821
Second Republic, 1848-1852;  Second Empire, 1852-1870
Napoleon III	1852-1870, last French  Emperor, d. 1873
Third Republic, 1871-1940;  Vichy State & German  Occupation, 1940-1944;  Fourth Republic, 1946-1958;  Fifth Republic, 1958-

French power had shaken Europe under Louis XIV, but Louis himself ran up against the limits to which French power could be mobilized, and his wars damaged the basis of that power. For the rest of the century, France declined in its ability to focus its resources, until the Revolution began as the King simply appealed for more taxes. The Revolution then introduced two specifically modern innovations:  (1) the destruction of all traditional limitations on power; and (2) the total subordination of all activity to politics and the state. This was the essence of modern totalitarianism, later theoretically formulated by Marx, and it enabled France to wash over her enemies -- all except England, which had had its Revolutions back in the 17th century. Napoleon, although reconciling with the Pope and supposedly reintroducing some of the limitations on government of traditional society, even marrying a Hapsburg and producing a half-Hapsburg heir (Napoleon II), nevertheless was still ruthless beyond most precedent.
Even Napoleon, however, began to run up against the limits of French power. The British "nation of shopkeepers" frustrated him at sea and poured arms, money, and men into Spain to help in the national rising against the French. Looking for new conquests, Napoleon unfortunately (for him) turned on Russia. The size of Russia and the punishing winter (or, as it happens, just the autumn) destroyed Napoleon's Grande Armée. The collapse then came rapidly enough. Abdicating, Napoleon was unhappy as the Prince of Elba, tried to return to power, and was defeated at Waterloo after only 100 days. His few remaining days were then spent on distant St. Helena.
The French Second Empire developed when Napoleon's nephew, Louis Napoleon, transformed himself from the President of the Second Republic to the Emperor of the Second Empire. Napoleon III's France was a much more conventional, politic, and durable state than Napoleon I's. Napoleon III ironically obtained territorial additions to France from his ally, Sardinia, after defeating their mutual enemy, Austria. He was even an ally of England in the Crimean War (1853-1856), though there was otherwise a great deal of friction with France's ancient enemy. In short, the Second Empire was no upheaval of Europe the way that the First Republic and the First Empire had been. The end of Napoleon III, however, was the consequence of Otto von Bismark's plan for the coming German upheaval. Defeated by Prussia, Napoleon abdicated and left France to its fate, but at least his last years of exile, in England itself, were rather more comfortable and honorable than Napoleon I's had been.

FRANCIA MEDIA, BURGUNDY

Counts of Savoy
Humbert I  White Hands	c. 1000
Amadeus I	c. 1048
Odo	c. 1057
Peter I	d. 1078
Amadeus II	1078-1080
Humbert II	1080-1103
Amadeus III	c. 1103-1149
Humbert III  the Saint	1149-1189
Thomas I	1189-1233
Amadeus IV	1233-1253
Boniface	1258-1263
Peter II, "little  Charlemagne"	1263-1268
Philip I	1268-1285
Amadeus V	1285-1323
Edward	1323-1329
Aimon	1329-1343
Amadeus VI  the Green	1343-1383
Amadeus VII  the Red	1383-1391
Dukes of Savoy
Amadeus VIII  (Anti-Pope  Felix V)	Count of Savoy,  1391-1416
	Duke of Savoy,  1416-1434
	Anti-Pope,  1439-1449
Louis	1434-1465
Amadeus IX	1465-1472
Philibert I	1472-1482
Charles I	1482-1490
Charles II	1490-1496
Philip	1496-1497
Philibert II	1497-1504
Charles III	1504-1553
Emanuel Philibert	1553-1580
Charles Emanuel I	1580-1630
Victor Amadeus I	1630-1637
Charles Emanuel II	1637-1675
Victor Amadeus II	Duke of Savoy,  1675-1730
	King of Sicily,  1713-1720
	King of Sardinia,  1720-1730

My sources for all these tables are varied and now sometimes hard to keep track of. Some of the earliest lists were from An Encyclopedia of World History; Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged, compiled and edited by William L. Langer [Houghton, Mifflin, Company; the Riverside Press, Boston, 1940, 1948, 1952, 1960]. This one volume compendium I borrowed from a high school friend in the Sixties and recently consulted it again when it turned out that a colleague at Valley College had a copy. Amazon.com has now found a used copy for me after some months of searching. The most comprehensive lists of rulers, however, I have found in print are in Kingdoms of Europe, by Gene Gurney [Crown Publishers, New York, 1982]. Gurney has some errors and obscurities, but I have not found any other work that has put so much together in one volume. Some mistakes and gaps in Gurney concerning the Counts of Flanders I was able to correct by consulting the Histoire de Flandre et des Flamands an Moyen Age by Edward Le Glay [Imprimateurs des Facultés Catholiques de Lille, 1886] and The Murder of Charles the Good -- Galbert of Bruges, translated & edited by James Bruce Ross [University of Toronto Press, 1982]. I have come across something else with a great deal of information, a chart, Kings & Queen of Europe, compiled by Anne Tauté [University of North Carolina Press, 1989]. This is not as comprehensive, but also seems to exhibit more careful scholarship. Some corrections may be made as I examine it carefully. Among prose histories, one of the most longstanding value has been a textbook I originally had for a class in Beirut, Medieval Europe, by Martin Scott [Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., London, 1967]. On the internet, Brian Tompsett's Royal and Noble genealogy is invaluable, and the lists of the Dukes of Lorraine and of several other German dynasties have been complied using little else. The only drawbacks are that (1) Thompsett's lists are, indeed, genealogical, which means it is sometimes hard to find unrelated rulers in a succession, and (2) the entries are very summary, without any explanation of may be happening as, for instance, domains are divided among multiple heirs.

The maps are those of Tony Belmonte, with some corrections and additions. I am no longer able to find Tony's historical atlas on the Web, and links that turn up have gone dead. I hope that it will soon return to the Internet. Corrections and additions are based on The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History (Colin McEvedy, 1961), The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History (Colin McEvedy, 1992), The Penguin Atlas of Modern History (to 1815) (Colin McEvedy, 1972), The Penguin Atlas of Recent History (Europe since 1815) (Colin McEvedy, 1982), The Anchor Atlas of World History, Volume I (Hermann Kinder, Werner Hilgemann, Ernest A. Menze, and Harald and Ruth Bukor, 1974), The Anchor Atlas of World History, Volume II (Hermann Kinder, Werner Hilgemann, Ernest A. Menze, and Harald and Ruth Bukor, 1978), and various prose histories. My graphics programs do not seem to be quite as sophisticated as Tony's, so maps I have modified may not look as professionally done as his originals.

The flags are also based on several sources. Flags Through the Ages and Across the World, by Whitney Smith [McGraw-Hill, 1975], is a splendid book, as is The International Flag Book in Color, by Christian Fogd Pedersen, Wilhelm Petersen, and Lieu.-Commander John Bedells, Hon. F.H.S., R.N. [William Morrow & Company, 1971]. These books were originally recommended to me by Professor Norman Martin, for whom I was a teaching assistant at the University of Texas. Besides being a professor of philosophy (logic), computer science, and electrical engineering, Professor Martin was expertly knowledgeable about flags and military uniforms. More recent developments are covered by Flags, The Illustrated Identifier to flags of the world, by Eve Devereux [Chartwell Books, 1994, 1998]. I have been unable to reproduce some flags with complete accuracy, given the limitations of my graphics programs and artistic ability.

This page continues and supplements the material in "Rome and Romania, 27 BC-1453 AD" and "The Ottoman Sultâns, 1290-1924 AD".

Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved