title: Neil Siegel

text: In 1993, his team fielded the US Army's first fully automated command-and-control system, the Forward-Area Air Defense C2 System. This system is still in use today.


title: Neil Siegel

text: In 1995, his team won the contract to develop the US Army's first "digital battlefield" system, called Force-XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (generally known by the acronym FBCB2). This has resulted in a highly regarded capability for the US, now used by the Marine Corps, as well as the Army.


title: Neil Siegel

text: Also in 1995, his team delivered the US Army's first automated command post, which has been followed by a long series of related capabilities to the present time.


title: Neil Siegel

text: In 1997, he was given responsibility for "fixing" the Hunter UAV program, the US Army's first unmanned air vehicle. The program had suffered a series of crashes during testing, and was nominally "cancelled". During his tenure, the program became one of the US' most reliable unmanned air vehicles. The Hunter entered operational service in 1999 in the Balkans. UAVs were unreliable novelties in 1997, but by the time he retired in 2015, UAVs were in widespread use in both military and civilian settings.


title: Neil Siegel

text: His personal science and engineering contributions have centered on techniques for ultra-low bandwidth intra-network routing and achieving acceptable dynamics through what he calls "force-structure-aware" networks. He has been a pioneer in large-scale deployments of GPS-enabled applications (like the Blue-Force Tracking system). He has also been active in the field of structuring large-scale software developments so as to match the skill distribution encountered in real-world teams.


title: Neil Siegel

text: Since mid-2001, he has been the chief technology officer of TRW's Systems (now Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, and later, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems). Prior to his tenure as VP / CTO, he served as VP / general manager of the Tactical Systems Division.


title: Neil Siegel

text: His work during this time has extended his earlier work in military networks, force-structure-aware networks, and large-scale system engineering methodologies. He retired at the end of 2015. He served as a VP and officer of the company for nearly 18 years.


title: Neil Siegel

text: As of 2016, Siegel became the IBM Professor of Engineering Management at USC. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Engineering at UCLA. Additionally, Siegel also teaches undergraduate engineering classes.


title: Neil Siegel

text: Siegel has had a major impact on the design and capabilities of many types of mobile consumer electronics, including smart phones, GPS receivers, and so forth. He is the documented earliest creator of a complete, operating adaptation of the internet to fully-routed wireless operation, and many important / related technologies that are widely used today in such wireless devices, including:


title: Neil Siegel

text: Siegel is an experienced musician who plays the flute, târ, ney, and kaval who has more than 1,500 concerts to his credit worldwide. He studied music with Iranian Sufi master Morteza Varzi for more than 20 years. He is a long-time member of Professional Musicians Local 47, American Federation of Musicians, AFL-CIO.


title: Neil Siegel

text: He is married to Robyn Friend, a writer, dancer, and singer, with whom he has performed all over the world during the last 30 years.


title: Neil Siegel

text: He is on the board of several non-profit organizations, including the Providence Trinity Health Care Hospice Foundation, the Electric Infrastructure Security Council, and The Institute of Persian Performing Arts. Since 2013, he and his wife, Robyn, have operated their own charitable organization, The Siegel and Friend Foundation.


title: Papeete

text: Papeete (Tahitian: "Papeete", pronounced ) is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the French Republic in the Pacific Ocean. The commune of Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, in the administrative subdivision of the Windward Islands, of which Papeete is the administrative capital. The French High Commissioner also resides in Papeete.


title: Papeete

text: It is the primary center of Tahitian and French Polynesian public and private governmental, commercial, industrial and financial services, the hub of French Polynesian tourism and a commonly used port of call. The Windward Islands are themselves part of the Society Islands. The name Papeete, sometimes also spelled "Papeete" in languages other than Tahitian, means "water from a basket". The urban area of Papeete had a total population of 136,771 inhabitants at the August 2017 census, 26,926 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper.


title: Papeete

text: Papeete features a tropical monsoon climate ("Am" according to the Köppen climate classification) with a wet season and dry season, bordering a tropical rainforest climate, with high temperatures and humidity year round. However, precipitation is observed even during the city's dry season. The dry season is short, covering only the months of August and September. The rest of the year is wet, with the heaviest precipitation falling in the months of December and January. Sunshine is moderately high, as most precipitation comes as thunderstorms and cyclones, and doesn't last for long.


title: Papeete

text: In 1902, it became necessary to move the post office of Papeete to another location. Instead of demolishing it and rebuilding it at the new site, it was lifted from the subsoil and moved as a whole on a Decauville railway.


title: Papeete

text: Previously, during the construction of the Faaiere water tower with a capacity of 150,000 litres for the drinking water supply of the city of Papeete, a difference in altitude of was overcome with a light railway laid on a long inclined plane. A winch driven by a 12-horsepower Fowler or Decauville locomobile carried three narrow gauge railway trucks at a time, consuming up to of coal per day for about sixty journeys. Paul Decauville mentioned in a letter to Governor Theodore Lacascade, dated 18 June 1891, an order for " of portable rail tracks and about 12,000 francs of rolling stock, payable in three years," presumably for a tramway from Papeete to Punaauia operated by hand or animals.


title: Papeete

text: At the outbreak of World War I Papeete was shelled by German vessels, causing loss of life and significant damage.


title: Papeete

text: The growth of the city was boosted by the decision to move the French nuclear weapon test range from Algeria, which had become independent, to the atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa, some to the east of Tahiti. This was motivated, in particular, by the construction of the Faaā International Airport, the only international airport in French Polynesia, near Papeete. In 1983, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the Papeete Tahiti Temple here because of its large number of members in the region. On 5 September 1995 the government of Jacques Chirac conducted the first of a series of nuclear test detonations off the shores of Moruroa. A resulting riot in Papeete lasted for two days and damaged the international airport, injured 40 people, and scared away tourism for some time. Similar rioting had occurred after another French nuclear test in the same area in 1987.


title: Papeete

text: The streets of the town center are very busy, and traffic can be a problem since they are very narrow. The Tahiti freeway starts close to the town center as Pōmare Boulevard, named after the Tahitian Royal Family of the 19th century. By air, passengers depart from the Faaā International Airport. Domestic interisland service is operated by Air Tahiti with international flights being operated by Air Tahiti Nui, Air France, LATAM Chile, United and other airlines. By sea, passengers can use a marine ferry service for travel to Moorea or a Bora Bora cruise line service for travel to Bora Bora.


title: Papeete

text: The urban area of Papeete had a total population of 136,771 inhabitants at the August 2017 census, 26,926 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper. The urban area of Papeete is made up of seven communes. They are listed from northeast to southwest:


title: Papeete

text: The places of birth of the 136,771 residents in the Papeete urban area at the 2017 census were the following (2007 census in parenthesis):


title: Papeete

text: At the 2017 census, 98.4% of the population in the urban area of Papeete whose age was 15 years and older reported that they could speak French (up from 98.2% at the 2007 census). 96.7% reported that they could also read and write it (up from 96.5% at the 2007 census). Only 0.7% of the population whose age was 15 years and older had no knowledge of French (down from 1.2% at the 2007 census).


title: Papeete

text: At the same census, 83.9% of the population in the urban area of Papeete whose age was 15 years and older reported that the language they spoke the most at home was French (up from 79.7% at the 2007 census). 13.5% reported that Tahitian was the language they spoke the most at home (down from 16.5% at the 2007 census). 1.2% reported another Polynesian language (down from 1.7% at the 2007 census), 0.9% reported a Chinese dialect (down from 1.6% at the 2007 census), half of whom speak Hakka, and 0.5% reported another language (same as in 2007).


title: Papeete

text: 19.8% of the population in the urban area of Papeete whose age was 15 years and older reported that they had no knowledge of any Polynesian language at the 2017 census (up from 19.5% at the 2007 census), whereas 80.2% reported that they had some form of knowledge of at least one Polynesian language (down from 80.5% at the 2007 census).


title: Papeete

text: Traveling tourists arrive and depart Papeete via cruise ship at Papeete Harbor or domestic airline at Faaā International Airport, which was completed and opened in 1962.


title: Jason Dohring

text: Jason William Dohring (born March 30, 1982) is an American stage, television and voice actor who is best known for his role as Logan Echolls on the television show "Veronica Mars" (2004–2007, 2019) and the 2014 film continuation as well as his roles as Josef Kostan on "Moonlight" (2007), Adam Carpenter on "Ringer" (2011), Detective Will Kinney on "The Originals" (2013) and Chase Graves on "iZombie" (2015). He is also known as the voice of Terra, one of the main protagonists of the "Kingdom Hearts" franchise (2010–2019).


title: Jason Dohring

text: Dohring appeared as main character Logan Echolls in "Veronica Mars" between 2004 and 2007. After its cancellation, Dohring found work with Warner Bros. and CBS, co-starring in the television series "Moonlight". He played the vampire Josef Kostan, a mischievous 400-year-old hedge-fund trader.


title: Jason Dohring

text: In October 2008, it was announced that Jason would return to TV as Spencer, a senior legislative assistant, on the HBO comedy series "Washingtonienne".


title: Jason Dohring

text: On February 10, 2010, in an interview he stated that he would be voicing a character in a Disney video game that was released in Japan last January; the game was revealed to be "Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep" by Square-Enix/Disney, and the character was Terra. He reprised the role in a cameo appearance in "" and for the character's full return in "Kingdom Hearts III". In May 2010, Dohring began work on the Andrew Disney feature film Searching for Sonny, produced by Red Productions. Jason will be playing the role of Elliot Knight.


title: Jason Dohring

text: In 2011, Dohring appeared on The CW's series "Ringer" co-starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. In 2012, Dohring made a guest appearance on the TV show "Supernatural" as the time god Chronos.


title: Jason Dohring

text: In April 2013, it was announced that Dohring had been cast in the "Veronica Mars" movie. He was also cast in The CW's science fiction drama "The Tomorrow People" in a guest role.


title: Jason Dohring

text: In 2014, Dohring co-narrated the audio book "The Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire" by Cassandra Clare with actress Sophie Turner.


title: Jason Dohring

text: From 2015 to 2016, Dohring had a recurring role in The CW series "The Originals" as Detective Will Kinney. In October 2016, Dohring was cast in a recurring role as Chase Graves on The CW's "iZombie".


title: Jason Dohring

text: In March 2021, Dohring was cast in the "heavily recurring" role of Lieutenant Commander Whitshaw in the CBS series "SEAL Team" starring David Boreanaz.


title: Jason Dohring

text: Dohring married Lauren Kutner in 2004. They have four children. Dohring is a Scientologist and has credited Scientology for his understanding of acting and career professionalism. His father is the millionaire Doug Dohring.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: The Lizzie McGuire Movie is a 2003 American teen comedy film directed by Jim Fall. The film serves as the finale of the Disney Channel television series of the same name, and was the first theatrical film based on a Disney Channel series. The film stars Hilary Duff, Adam Lamberg, Robert Carradine, Hallie Todd and Jake Thomas, and tells the story of Lizzie's graduation trip to Rome. It was released on May 2, 2003, by Buena Vista Pictures, peaking at number two at the domestic box office behind "X2". The events of the film take place after the second and final season of "Lizzie McGuire".


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: Lizzie McGuire prepares for her junior-high graduation with one of her two closest friends, David "Gordo" Gordon. Their other best friend, Miranda Sanchez, has chosen to skip the graduation ceremony in favor of a trip to Mexico City to visit her relatives. During the ceremony, Lizzie trips onstage and accidentally brings the curtain down on her fellow graduates; this causes her to be teased by her younger brother Matt and her former best friend Kate Sanders. After graduation, Lizzie and her classmates embark on a trip to Rome, chaperoned by their future strict high school principal, Angela Ungermeyer. The rest of the class chose a trip to a water park instead. To their dismay, Lizzie and Kate are assigned to the same hotel room.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: Their class visits the Trevi Fountain, where Lizzie is approached by an Italian pop star named Paolo Valisari, who mistakes her for his singing partner, Isabella Parigi. Paolo asks Lizzie to meet him at the fountain the next day, and she feigns illness to sneak away. He explains that he and Isabella are booked for the International Music Video Awards, but she left Italy after their partnership breakup. Paolo tells Lizzie that Isabella lip syncs, and begs her to pose as Isabella for the ceremony so that they won't be fined for canceling. Lizzie reluctantly agrees, but soon begins to enjoy the experience and falls for Paolo.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: Lizzie continues to fake being ill to prepare for the ceremony, but Kate quickly figures out her secret. To Lizzie's surprise, Kate agrees to help her and the two become friendly again. Meanwhile, Ms. Ungermeyer interrogates the students to learn who has been sneaking out. Gordo takes the blame and is sent back home as punishment. Lizzie is shocked when she learns from Kate that Gordo sacrificed himself to protect her. Back home, Matt browses the Internet and finds Italian gossip sites with pictures of Lizzie as Isabella. When he tells his parents, the family flies to Rome.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: At the airport, Gordo meets the real Isabella, who is upset that someone has been impersonating her. She and Gordo realize that Paolo is planning to have a nervous Lizzie unknowingly sing live at the ceremony, as Isabella actually does, creating the impression that Isabella is a fake, which would damage Isabella's career and embarrass Lizzie. Gordo and Isabella rush to the awards to stop him. When the McGuires arrive in Rome, Ms. Ungermeyer learns that Lizzie is missing. Gordo's roommate Ethan Craft reveals that she is performing at the International Music Video Awards, and Lizzie's family and the class also rush to the ceremony. Backstage, Gordo and Isabella find Lizzie preparing for the ceremony and warn her about Paolo's scheme. Lizzie refuses to believe them at first, but Isabella convinces her otherwise. Ms. Ungermeyer gets the class and Lizzie's family into the ceremony by pushing her way through the bouncers.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: During the performance, Isabella and Gordo expose Paolo, who is actually the one who lip syncs, by turning on his microphone, revealing his real voice. Embarrassed, Paolo runs off stage, where his manager Sergei abandons him and is ambushed outside by paparazzi. Isabella introduces Lizzie to the crowd, and the two of them sing "What Dreams Are Made Of". When Isabella leaves the stage, Lizzie finishes the song solo, displaying a newfound confidence. Later, they all celebrate at the hotel's after party, where Ms. Ungermeyer rescinds Gordo's punishment. Lizzie's parents tell her she is grounded for the summer, but they still are proud of her. Lizzie and Gordo sneak away from the party to go up to the roof, where they promise to never let things change between them. The two kiss and then rejoin the party before they get into more trouble. As the film ends with fireworks spelling "The End", the animated Lizzie does a parody of Tinker Bell, winking at the audience and closing the series.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: The film, produced by Stan Rogow, was directed by Jim Fall from a screenplay by Susan Estelle Jansen, Ed Decter and John J. Strauss. It was filmed on location in Rome, Italy in the fall of 2002. Most of the series characters reprised their roles except for Lalaine (Miranda Sanchez), who left the series late in the second season to film the Disney Channel original movie "You Wish!". Her character was said to be on vacation with her family in Mexico City. Additionally, the characters Claire Miller, Larry Tudgeman, and Lanny Onassis were absent from the film. Director Jim Fall revealed in 2021 that the final song was supposed to have Isabella and Lizzie sing together but he changed it last minute. This is why there are still left-over vocals of Isabella's singing voice, Haylie Duff.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 40% based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critics consensus calls the film: "A harmless piece of fluff that ought to satisfy fans of the TV show." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: Scott Brown of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a B+: "Let's face it: Lizzie McGuire (Hilary Duff) is just too darn polished to be a junior-high underdog, even by the standards of her 'luxe suburban environs'. But that hasn't tarnished her comeback-kid cred among the six-and-ups who faithfully follow her Disney Channel show—and it doesn't make "The Lizzie McGuire Movie", a clever, agreeably weightless theatrical outing, any less enjoyable." Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, but praised Borstein's performance, calling her work "the only really delightful element in the movie; everything else is simply slick and professional."


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: In its opening weekend the film grossed $17.3 million in 2,825 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking second behind "". "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" grossed $42.7 million domestically and $12.8 million internationally for a worldwide total of $55.5 million.


title: The Lizzie McGuire Movie

text: Following the film, there were plans to continue the "Lizzie McGuire" series, one of which included a planned sequel film. Nothing came to this due to creative differences with Duff and Disney. In August 2019, it was announced that "Lizzie McGuire" to be entering production for Disney+, with Duff reprising her role and Minsky returning as showrunner. Lamberg, Thomas, Todd and Carradine will also return to the series in their original roles. The series began production in association with Disney Channel, but entered a hiatus after Minsky's departure and did not resume, being officially canceled in December 2020.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Paula Badosa Gibert () (born 15 November 1997) is a Spanish professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which she achieved on 25 April 2022, and No. 124 in doubles, attained on the same date. She has won three career WTA Tour singles titles, and produced her best performance at a Grand Slam tournament by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2021 French Open. Later that year, she won the Indian Wells Masters, a WTA 1000 tournament and her biggest career title to date.


title: Paula Badosa

text: As a junior, Badosa was ranked as high as No. 8 in the world and was the 2015 French Open girls' singles champion. As a professional, she broke into the top 100 in 2019 after making her second consecutive career WTA Tour semifinal at the Karlsruhe Open. The next year, she reached the fourth round at the French Open, her furthest round at a major thus far, and emerged into the top 70. Badosa made new strides in 2021 after a breakthrough clay swing in which she contested her first WTA 500 semifinal in Charleston and WTA 1000 semifinal in Madrid, as well as a WTA 250 final in Belgrade, where she won her maiden WTA title. By doing so, she entered the top 40, and shortly broke into the top ten following her first WTA 1000 title at Indian Wells and WTA Finals debut later that fall. In 2022, Badosa notched her fourth career fourth-round performance at a major at the Australian Open, guaranteeing her top five debut.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Badosa is an aggressive baseliner, whose game style is centered around her big serve and groundstrokes. At , she possesses one of the fastest serves on tour, allowing her to dictate rallies, but she is also an athletic counterpuncher, whose defense has enabled her to reach drop shots and cover all angles on the court.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Paula Badosa was born in Manhattan, New York, to Spanish parents Mireia Gibert Baró and Josep Badosa Codolar. Both of her parents worked in fashion. When she was seven, Badosa and her family moved to Barcelona. She then started playing tennis, at Club Tennis d'Aro (Platja d'Aro). At the age of 14, she moved to Valencia in order to progress in tennis. At the age of 17, she returned to Barcelona.


title: Paula Badosa

text: She speaks Spanish, Catalan, English and a little French. Her favourite tournament is the US Open. Her idols growing up were Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. Badosa has also said she is a huge admirer of the tennis star Simona Halep.


title: Paula Badosa

text: When she was a child she aspired to be a model, following her parents' path. She has struggled with depression and anxiety.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Badosa is a former junior world No. 8. She made her debut at the ITF Junior Circuit in September 2012, at the age of 14. In February 2014, she won her first junior singles title at the Grade-1 Mediterranee Avenir in Casablanca. In April 2014, she won the doubles title at a Grade-1 tournament, the Trofeo Juan Carlos Ferrero in Villena. In May 2014, she reached the semifinals of the Grade-A Trofeo Bonfiglio in doubles.


title: Paula Badosa

text: In the juniors division of the 2014 French Open, she reached the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles. She then reached the quarterfinals in the juniors division at Wimbledon in singles. She finished runner-up at the European Junior Championships in singles, losing to compatriot Sara Sorribes Tormo, and finished runner–up in doubles. She completed her junior career at the 2015 French Open, where she won the girls' singles title. In juniors she won three singles and one doubles titles on the circuit.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Badosa made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit in May 2012 in Getxo. In November 2013, she won her first title in Sant Jordi.


title: Paula Badosa

text: In March 2015, she made her first breakthrough after receiving a wildcard for the main draw at the Premier Mandatory Miami Open, where she recorded her first two match wins on the WTA Tour. In the third round, she lost to 14th seed Karolína Plíšková. Later, she reached the main draw of the Madrid Open through qualifying, but retired in her first-round match against Sara Errani.


title: Paula Badosa

text: At the 2018 Morocco Open, she reached the quarterfinals and lost to Aleksandra Krunić. In September, she won the $60K Open de Valencia, defeating fellow Spaniard Aliona Bolsova in the final.


title: Paula Badosa

text: At the 2019 Australian Open, she made her Grand Slam main-draw debut, after passing qualifying; she lost to wildcard Kimberly Birrell in the first round. In July, she reached her first WTA semifinal at the Palermo Open, but then lost to world No. 5, Kiki Bertens. She followed this by reaching the semifinals of the WTA Challenger Karlsruhe Open. After that, she debuted in the top 100. At the Korea Open, she reached the quarterfinals but then lost to Wang Yafan.


title: Paula Badosa

text: In the early 2020 season, Badosa recorded her first Grand Slam match-win at the Australian Open, defeating qualifier Johanna Larsson in the first round. She then lost to world No. 7, Petra Kvitová. In September, she reached the semifinals at the İstanbul Cup, where she lost to Eugenie Bouchard. Her biggest result of the year was at the French Open, where she reached her first round of 16 at a major tournament. There, she defeated two former Grand Slam champions, Sloane Stephens and Jeļena Ostapenko.


title: Paula Badosa

text: In May, Badosa reached her first WTA 1000 semifinal at the Madrid Open, making her the first Spanish woman to reach the semifinals in the tournament history, defeating No. 8 seed Belinda Bencic. She faced top seed and world No. 1, Ashleigh Barty, in the semifinal, where Barty got her revenge. As a result, Badosa reached a new career-high of world No. 42.


title: Paula Badosa

text: At the Serbia Open, she reached a third straight clay-court semifinal, defeating seventh seed Rebecca Peterson. As a result, she entered the top 40 for the first time in her career and went on to win her maiden title after Ana Konjuh retired injured in the final.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Initially unseeded at the French Open, she was promoted to seed No. 33 after the withdrawal of Alison Riske. Badosa beat Lauren Davis and Danka Kovinic in straight sets before facing Ana Bogdan. Having saved a match point in the second set, she went on to take the match in three sets to move into the fourth round of the French for the second year in a row. She then faced former finalist and 20th seed Markéta Vondroušová, whom she defeated in three sets to move into the quarterfinals of a major for the first time in her career. Here, despite being up a break in the final set, she fell to Tamara Zidanšek.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Badosa represented Spain in the 2020 Summer Olympics women's singles and women's doubles events. Badosa and her partner Sara Sorribes Tormo beat Mexican pairing Giuliana Olmos and Renata Zarazúa in the first round, before losing in the second to Czech pairing and eventual gold medalists, Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková.


title: Paula Badosa

text: In singles, Badosa won her first three matches against French Kristina Mladenovic, Polish Iga Świątek and Argentinian Nadia Podoroska. In her quarterfinals match against the eventual silver medalist, Czech Markéta Vondroušová, Badosa lost her first set before retiring from her match due to heatstroke caused by the hot, humid conditions in Tokyo – ultimately resulting in her having a long medical timeout and needing to leave the court via wheelchair. This, along with complaints from other tennis players such as Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic, was the catalyst for Olympic officials to change the earliest start time for matches from 11am to 3pm.


title: Paula Badosa

text: On 12 August 2021, Badosa parted ways with her coach Javier Martí whom she had worked with for eleven months. This was announced a day after suffering a loss against Rebecca Marino in the round of 16 of the Canadian Open. On 23 August 2021, following her second WTA 1000 quarterfinal at the Cincinnati Open where she defeated en route Petra Martic, third seed Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, she reached a career-high in singles of world No. 26. On 17 October 2021, Badosa defeated former two-time champion Victoria Azarenka in a three-hour thriller match to win the Indian Wells tournament, for her first WTA 1000 title. Following this successful run, she made her top 10 debut on 8 November 2021. She qualified for the 2021 WTA Finals and was the first in her round robin group to reach the semifinals.


title: Paula Badosa

text: After beginning her 2022 season with a first-round loss to Victoria Azarenka at the Adelaide International, Badosa claimed her third career title in Sydney by defeating reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejčíková in three sets in the final. With the win, she rose to a new career-high ranking of No. 6.


title: Paula Badosa

text: At the Australian Open, where she was seeded sixth, Badosa reached the fourth round for the first time, where she lost to unseeded Madison Keys in straight sets.


title: Paula Badosa

text: After early exits at Dubai and Doha, Badosa reached the semifinals at Indian Wells and the quarterfinals at Miami, where she had to retire due to an illness. With those results, and Barty's retirement, she rose to a new career-high ranking of No. 3.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Following her semifinal showing at the 2022 Women’s Stuttgart Open, she rose to World No. 2 on 25 April 2022. At the French Open, Badosa retired from her third round match against Veronika Kudermetova due to a calf injury. After losing to Jodie Burrage at Eastbourne, Badosa defeated Petra Kvitová in the third round of Wimbledon. In the fourth round, she was defeated by Simona Halep in straight sets. Badosa hit 20 unforced errors and seven winners compared to nine unforced errors and 17 winners for Halep.


title: Paula Badosa

text: At Toronto, Badosa retired from her second round match against Yulia Putintseva due to cramping. At the Cincinnati Open, Badosa lost in the second round to Ajla Tomljanovic in a tough three set match lasting more than 2 hours. At the US Open, she defeated Lesia Tsurenko in the first round before falling to Petra Martic in three sets in the second round.


title: Paula Badosa

text: In receipt of first round byes in Tokyo and Ostrava, Badosa was defeated in the second round of both the tournaments by Qinwen Zheng and Petra Kvitova respectively. She continues to perform poorly in the last tournaments of the season as she lost to Danielle Collins in San Diego quarterfinals and retires against Victoria Azarenka in Guadalajara second round after losing the first set. She ended the season losing eight out of her last ten matches.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Badosa is an aggressive baseliner, whose game is centred around her powerful serve and groundstrokes. Badosa has described her serve as her favourite shot, with her serve being a major weapon. Her first serve has been recorded as high as 122 mph (196 km/h), allowing her to serve multiple aces in any given match, and to dictate play from the first stroke. Due to her effective first serve, she typically wins a high percentage of first serve points. She also possesses effective and reliable kick and slice serves that she deploys as second serves, preventing opponents from scoring free points off her second serve; she is also proficient at defending her second serve. When Badosa is nervous, however, she takes risks on her second serve, occasionally leading to a relatively high double fault count.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Badosa's strongest groundstroke is her two-handed backhand, with which she dominates opponents on the court, and she hits large numbers of winners with this shot. Badosa's forehand is also powerful, being hit with relentless depth and power; she frequently utilises the reverse forehand, also known as the 'buggy-whip' forehand, allowing her to generate extreme angles, and hit winners from defensive positions. Badosa likes to play short points, and will frequently utilise aggressive serve and groundstroke combinations to finish points quickly with outright winners.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Despite this, Badosa possesses a remarkably complete defensive game, with her superb movement, footwork, court coverage, and stamina allowing her to counterpunch, and to create opportunities to hit winners at the end of long rallies. She also possesses an effective drop shot, and will employ the sliced backhand to change the pace of rallies, and disrupt her opponent's rhythm. Badosa rarely approaches the net, except to retrieve short balls and drop shots; as she gains more doubles experience, however, she is beginning to attack the net with increasing frequency. She is also a formidable opponent on the court, known for her mental toughness, composure, and strength under pressure.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Badosa's favourite surface is clay, having grown up on the surface, and she has won 85% of her matches on clay courts throughout 2021, up to and including the French Open. Due to her aggressive playing style, clay court prowess, mental toughness, physical appearance, and the similarity in the mechanics of their serves, she has been frequently compared to her idol, Maria Sharapova.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Badosa is endorsed by Nike for clothing, shoes, and apparel, and by Wilson for racquets, specifically using the Wilson Blade 98.


title: Paula Badosa

text: Since 2021, Badosa has been in a relationship with Cuban model and actor Juan Betancourt. She is multilingual, speaking four languages fluently: Spanish, Catalan, English, and French.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages (roughly, from the 10th century to the middle of the 15th century) was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of Capet (987–1328), including their struggles with the virtually independent principalities (duchies and counties, such as the Norman and Angevin regions) that had developed following the Viking invasions and through the piecemeal dismantling of the Carolingian Empire and the creation and extension of administrative/state control (notably under Philip II Augustus and Louis IX) in the 13th century; and the rise of the House of Valois (1328–1589), including the protracted dynastic crisis against the House of Plantagenet and their Angevin Empire, dominated by the Kingdom of England, cumulating in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), compounded by the catastrophic Black Death epidemic (1348), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Up to the 12th century, the period saw the elaboration and extension of the seigneurial economic system (including the attachment of peasants to the land through serfdom); the extension of the feudal system of political rights and obligations between lords and vassals; the so-called "feudal revolution" of the 11th century during which ever smaller lords took control of local lands in many regions; and the appropriation by regional/local seigneurs of various administrative, fiscal and judicial rights for themselves. From the 13th century on, the state slowly regained control of a number of these lost powers. The crises of the 13th and 14th centuries led to the convening of an advisory assembly, the Estates General, and also to an effective end to serfdom.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: From the 12th and 13th centuries on, France was at the center (and often originator) of a vibrant cultural production that extended across much of western Europe, including the transition from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture (originating in 12th-century France) and Gothic art; the foundation of medieval universities (such as the universities of Paris (recognized in 1150), Montpellier (1220), Toulouse (1229), and Orleans (1235)) and the so-called "Renaissance of the 12th century"; a growing body of secular vernacular literature (including the "chanson de geste", chivalric romance, troubadour and trouvère poetry, etc.) and medieval music (such as the flowering of the Notre Dame school of polyphony from around 1150 to 1250 which represents the beginning of what is conventionally known as "Ars antiqua").


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: From the Middle Ages onward, French rulers believed their kingdoms had natural borders: the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Rhine. This was used as a pretext for an aggressive policy and repeated invasions. The belief, however, had little basis in reality for not all of these territories were part of the Kingdom and the authority of the King within his kingdom would be quite fluctuant. The lands that composed the Kingdom of France showed great geographical diversity; the northern and central parts enjoyed a temperate climate while the southern part was closer to the Mediterranean climate. While there were great differences between the northern and southern parts of the kingdom there were equally important differences depending on the distance of mountains: mainly the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Massif Central. France had important rivers that were used as waterways: the Loire, the Rhône, the Seine as well as the Garonne. These rivers were settled earlier than the rest and important cities were founded on their banks but they were separated by large forests, marsh, and other rough terrains.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Before the Romans conquered Gaul, the Gauls lived in villages organised in wider tribes. The Romans referred to the smallest of these groups as "pagi" and the widest ones as "civitates". These "pagi" and "civitates" were often taken as a basis for the imperial administration and would survive up to the middle-ages when their capitals became centres of bishoprics. These religious provinces would survive until the French revolution. During the Roman Empire, southern Gaul was more heavily populated and because of this more episcopal sees were present there at first while in northern France they shrank greatly in size because of the barbarian invasions and became heavily fortified to resist the invaders.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Discussion of the size of France in the Middle Ages is complicated by distinctions between lands personally held by the king (the ""domaine royal"") and lands held in homage by another lord. The notion of "res publica" inherited from the Roman province of Gaul was not fully maintained by the Frankish kingdom and the Carolingian Empire, and by the early years of the Direct Capetians, the French kingdom was more or less a fiction. The "domaine royal" of the Capetians was limited to the regions around Paris, Bourges and Sens. The great majority of French territory was part of Aquitaine, the Duchy of Normandy, the Duchy of Brittany, the Comté of Champagne, the Duchy of Burgundy, the County of Flanders and other territories (for a map, see Provinces of France). In principle, the lords of these lands owed homage to the French king for their possession, but in reality the king in Paris had little control over these lands, and this was to be confounded by the uniting of Normandy, Aquitaine and England under the Plantagenet dynasty in the 12th century.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Philip II Augustus undertook a massive French expansion in the 13th century, but most of these acquisitions were lost both by the royal system of "apanage" (the giving of regions to members of the royal family to be administered) and through losses in the Hundred Years' War. Only in the 15th century would Charles VII and Louis XI gain control of most of modern-day France (except for Brittany, Navarre, and parts of eastern and northern France).


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The weather in France and Europe in the Middle Ages was significantly milder than during the periods preceding or following it. Historians refer to this as the "Medieval Warm Period", lasting from about the 10th century to about the 14th century. Part of the French population growth in this period (see below) is directly linked to this temperate weather and its effect on crops and livestock.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: At the end of the Middle Ages, France was the most populous region in Europe—having overtaken Spain and Italy by 1340. In the 14th century, before the arrival of the Black Death, the total population of the area covered by modern-day France has been estimated at around 16 million. The population of Paris is controversial. Josiah Russell argued for about 80,000 in the early 14th century, although he noted that some other scholars suggested 200,000. The higher count would make it by far the largest city in western Europe; the lower count would put it behind Venice with 100,000 and Florence with 96,000. The Black Death killed an estimated one-third of the population from its appearance in 1348. The concurrent Hundred Years' War slowed recovery. It would be the mid-16th century before the population recovered to mid-fourteenth century levels.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In the early Middle Ages, France was a center of Jewish learning, but increasing persecution, and a series of expulsions in the 14th century, caused considerable suffering for French Jews; "see History of the Jews in France".


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In the Middle Ages in France, Medieval Latin was the primary medium of scholarly exchange and the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church; it was also the language of science, literature, law, and administration. From 1200 on, vernacular languages began to be used in administrative work and the law courts, but Latin would remain an administrative and legal language until the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) prescribed the use of French in all judicial acts, notarized contracts and official legislation.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The vast majority of the population however spoke a variety of vernacular languages derived from vulgar Latin, the common spoken language of the western Roman empire. The medieval Italian poet Dante, in his Latin "De vulgari eloquentia", classified the Romance languages into three groups by their respective words for "yes": "Nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil", "For some say "oc", others say "si", others say "oïl"". The "oïl" languagesfrom Latin " ", "that is it"occupied northern France, the "oc" languagesfrom Latin ', "that"southern France, and the "si" languagesfrom Latin ', "thus"the Italian and Iberian peninsulas. Modern linguists typically add a third group within France around Lyon, the "Arpitan" or "Franco-Provençal language", whose modern word for "yes" is "ouè".


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Gallo-Romance group in the north of France, the "langue d'oïl" like Picard, Walloon, and Francien, were influenced by the Germanic languages spoken by the Frankish invaders. From the time period of Clovis I on, the Franks extended their rule over northern Gaul. Over time, the French language developed from either the Oïl language found around Paris and Île-de-France (the Francien theory) or from a standard administrative language based on common characteristics found in all Oïl languages (the lingua franca theory).


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: "Langue d'oc", the languages which use "oc" or "òc" for "yes", is the language group in the south of France and northeastern Spain. These languages, such as Gascon and Provençal, have relatively little Frankish influence.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: From the 4th to 7th centuries, Brythonic-speaking peoples from Cornwall, Devon, and Wales travelled across the English Channel, both for reasons of trade and of flight from the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England. They established themselves in Armorica. Their language became Breton in more recent centuries.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Attested since the time of Julius Caesar, a non-Celtic people who spoke a Basque-related language inhabited the Novempopulania ("Aquitania Tertia") in southwestern France, while the language gradually lost ground to the expanding Romance during a period spanning most of the Early Middle Ages. This Proto-Basque influenced the emerging Latin-based language spoken in the area between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, eventually resulting in the dialect of Occitan called Gascon.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Scandinavian Vikings invaded France from the 9th century onwards and established themselves mostly in what would come to be called Normandy. The Normans took up the langue d'oïl spoken there, although Norman French remained heavily influenced by Old Norse and its dialects. They also contributed many words to French related to sailing and farming.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: After the conquest of England in 1066, the Normans's language developed into Anglo-Norman. Anglo-Norman served as the language of the ruling classes and commerce in England from the time of the conquest until the Hundred Years' War, by which time the use of French-influenced English had spread throughout English society.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Around this time period, many words from the Arabic language entered French, mainly indirectly through Medieval Latin, Italian and Spanish. There are words for luxury goods ("élixir, orange"), spices ("camphre, safran"), trade goods ("alcool, bougie, coton"), sciences ("alchimie, hasard"), and mathematics ("algèbre, algorithme").


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: While education and literacy had been important components of aristocratic service in the Carolingian period, by the eleventh century and continuing to the 13th century, the lay (secular) public in France—both nobles and peasants—was largely illiterate, except for (at least to the end of the 12th century) members of the great courts and, in the south, smaller noble families. This situation began to change in the 13th century (where we find highly literate members of the French nobility like Guillaume de Lorris, Geoffrey of Villehardouin (sometimes referred to as Villehardouin, and Jean de Joinville (sometimes referred to as Joinville)). Similarly, due to the outpouring of French vernacular literature from the 12th century on ("chanson de geste", chivalric romance, troubadour and trouvère poetry, etc.), French became the "international language of the aristocracy".


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In the Middle Ages in France, the vast majority of the population—between 80 and 90 percent—were peasants.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Traditional categories inherited from the Roman and Merovingian period (distinctions between free and unfree peasants, between tenants and peasants who owned their own land, etc.) underwent significant changes up to the 11th century. The traditional rights of "free" peasants—such as service in royal armies (they had been able to serve in the royal armies as late as Charlemagne's reign) and participation in public assemblies and law courts—were lost through the 9th to the 10th centuries, and they were increasingly made dependents of nobles, churches and large landholders. The mid-8th century to 1000 also saw a steady increase of aristocratic and monastic control of the land, at the expense of landowning peasants. At the same time, the traditional notion of "unfree" dependents and the distinction between "unfree" and "free" tenants was eroded as the concept of serfdom (see also History of serfdom) came to dominate.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: From the mid-8th century on, particularly in the north, the relationship between peasants and the land became increasingly characterized by the extension of the new "bipartite estate" system (manorialism), in which peasants (who were bound to the land) held tenant holdings from a lord or monastery (for which they paid rent), but were also required to work the lord's own "demesne"; in the north, some of these estates could be quite substantial. This system remained a standard part of lord-tenant relations into the 12th century.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The economic and demographic crises of the 14th–15th centuries (agricultural expansion had lost many of the gains made in the 12th and 13th centuries) reversed this trend: landlords offered serfs their freedom in exchange for working abandoned lands, ecclesiastical and royal authorities created new "free" cities ("villefranches") or granted freedom to existing cities, etc. By the end of the 15th century, serfdom was largely extinct; henceforth "free" peasants paid rents for their own lands, and the lord's demesne was worked by hired labor. This liberated the peasantry to a certain degree, but also made their lives more precarious in times of economic uncertainty. For lords who rented out more and more of their holdings for fixed rents, the initial benefits were positive, but over time they found themselves increasingly cash-strapped as inflationary pressures reduced their incomes.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Much of the Gallo-Roman urban network of cities survived (albeit much changed) into the Middle Ages as regional centers and capitals: certain cities had been chosen as centers of bishoprics by the church (for example, Paris, Reims, Aix, Tours, Carcassonne and Narbonne, Auch, Albi, Bourges, Lyon, etc.), others as seats of local (county, duchy) administrative power (such as Angers, Blois, Poitiers, Toulouse). In many cases (such as with Poitiers) cities were seats of both episcopal and administrative power.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: From the 10th to the 11th centuries, the urban development of the country expanded (particularly on the northern coasts): new ports appeared and dukes and counts encouraged and created new towns. In other areas, urban growth was slower and centered on the monastic houses. In many regions, market towns ("burgs") with limited privileges were established by local lords. In the late 11th century, "communes", governing assemblies, began to develop in towns. Starting sporadically in the late 10th, and increasingly in the 12th century, many towns and villages were able to gain economic, social or judicial privileges and franchises from their lords (exemptions from tolls and dues, rights to clear land or hold fairs, some judicial or administrative independence, etc.). The seigneurial reaction to expanding urbanism and enfranchisement was mixed; some lords fought against the changes, but some lords gained financial and political advantages from the communal movement and growing trade.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The 13th to 14th centuries were a period of significant urbanization. Paris was the largest city in the realm, and indeed one of the largest cities in Europe, with an estimated population of 200,000 or more at the end of the century. The second-largest city was Rouen; the other major cities (with populations over 10,000) were Orléans, Tours, Bordeaux, Lyon, Dijon, and Reims. In addition to these, there also existed zones with an extended urban network of medium to small cities, as in the south and the Mediterranean coast (from Toulouse to Marseille, including Narbonne and Montpellier) and in the north (Beauvais, Laon, Amiens, Arras, Bruges, etc.). Market towns increased in size and many were able to gain privileges and franchises including transformation into free cities ("villes franches"); rural populations from the countrysides moved to the cities and burgs. This was also a period of urban building: the extension of walls around the entirety of the urban space, the vast construction of Gothic cathedrals (starting in the 12th century), urban fortresses, castles (such as Philip II Augustus' Louvre around 1200) and bridges.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In the Carolingian period, the "aristocracy" ("nobilis" in the Latin documents) was by no means a legally defined category. With traditions going back to the Romans; one was "noble" if he or she possessed significant land holdings, had access to the king and royal court, could receive "honores" and benefices for service (such as being named count or duke). Their access to political power in the Carolingian period might also necessitate a need for education. Their wealth and power was also evident in their lifestyle and purchase of luxury goods, and in their maintenance of an armed entourage of "fideles" (men who had sworn oaths to serve them).


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: From the late 9th to the late 10th century, the nature of the noble class changed significantly. First off, the aristocracy increasingly focused on establishing strong regional bases of landholdings, on taking hereditary control of the counties and duchies, and eventually on erecting these into veritable independent principalities and privatizing various privileges and rights of the state. (By 1025, the area north of the Loire was dominated by six or seven of these virtually independent states.) After 1000, these counties in turn began to break down into smaller lordships, as smaller lords wrest control of local lands in the so-called "feudal revolution" and seized control over many elements of comital powers (see vassal/feudal below).


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Secondly, from the 9th century on, military ability was increasingly seen as conferring special status, and professional soldiers or "milites", generally in the entourage of sworn lords, began to establish themselves in the ranks of the aristocracy (acquiring local lands, building private castles, seizing elements of justice), thereby transforming into the military noble class historians refer to as "knights".


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Merovingians and Carolingians maintained relations of power with their aristocracy through the use of clientele systems and the granting of "honores" and benefices, including land, a practice which grew out of Late Antiquity. This practice would develop into the system of vassalage and feudalism in the Middle Ages. Originally, vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings (which were granted only as a reward for loyalty), but by the eighth century the giving of a landholding was becoming standard. The granting of a landholding to a vassal did not relinquish the lord's property rights, but only the use of the lands and their income; the granting lord retained ultimate ownership of the fee and could, technically, recover the lands in case of disloyalty or death.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In the 8th-century Frankish empire, Charles Martel was the first to make large scale and systematic use (the practice had remained until then sporadic) of the remuneration of vassals by the concession of the usufruct of lands (a "beneficatium" or "benefice" in the documents) for the lifetime of the vassal, or, sometimes extending to the second or third generation. By the middle of the 10th century, feudal land grants (fee, fiefs) had largely become hereditary. The eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord and pay a "relief" for the land (a monetary recognition of the lord's continuing proprietary rights over the property). By the 11th century, the bonds of vassalage and the granting of fiefs had spread throughout much of French society, but it was in no ways universal in France: in the south, feudal grants of land or of rights were unknown.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In its origin, the feudal grant had been seen in terms of a personal bond between lord and vassal, but with time and the transformation of fiefs into hereditary holdings, the nature of the system came to be seen as a form of "politics of land" (an expression used by the historian Marc Bloch). The 11th century in France saw what has been called by historians a "feudal revolution" or "mutation" and a "fragmentation of powers" (Bloch) that was unlike the development of feudalism in England or Italy or Germany in the same period or later: counties and duchies began to break down into smaller holdings as castellans and lesser seigneurs took control of local lands, and (as comital families had done before them) lesser lords usurped/privatized a wide range of prerogatives and rights of the state, most importantly the highly profitable rights of justice, but also travel dues, market dues, fees for using woodlands, obligations to use the lord's mill, etc. (what Georges Duby called collectively the ""seigneurie banale""). Power in this period became more personal and it would take centuries for the state to fully reimpose its control over local justice and fiscal administration (by the 15th century, much of the seigneur's legal purview had been given to the "bailliages", leaving them only affairs concerning seigneurial dues and duties, and small affairs of local justice)


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: This "fragmentation of powers" was not however systematic throughout France, and in certain counties (such as Flanders, Normandy, Anjou, Toulouse), counts were able to maintain control of their lands into the 12th century or later. Thus, in some regions (like Normandy and Flanders), the vassal/feudal system was an effective tool for ducal and comital control, linking vassals to their lords; but in other regions, the system led to significant confusion, all the more so as vassals could and frequently did pledge themselves to two or more lords. In response to this, the idea of a "liege lord" was developed (where the obligations to one lord are regarded as superior) in the 12th century.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Medieval French kings conferred the dignity of peerage upon certain of his preëminent vassals, both clerical and lay. Some historians consider Louis VII (1137–1180) to have created the French system of peers.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Peerage was attached to a specific territorial jurisdiction, either an episcopal see for episcopal peerages or a fief for secular. Peerages attached to fiefs were transmissible or inheritable with the fief, and these fiefs are often designated as "pairie-duché" (for duchies) and "pairie-comté" (for counties).


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: These twelve peerages are known as the "ancient peerage" or "pairie ancienne", and the number twelve is sometimes said to have been chosen to mirror the 12 paladins of Charlemagne in the "Chanson de geste" (see below). Parallels may also be seen with mythical Knights of the Round Table under King Arthur. So popular was this notion, that for a long time people thought peerage had originated in the reign of Charlemagne, who was considered the model king and shining example for knighthood and nobility.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The dozen "pairs" played a role in the royal "sacre" or consecration, during the liturgy of the coronation of the king, attested to as early as 1179, symbolically upholding his crown, and each original peer had a specific role, often with an attribute. Since the peers were never twelve during the coronation in early periods, due to the fact that most lay peerages were forfeited to or merged in the crown, delegates were chosen by the king, mainly from the princes of the blood. In later periods peers also held up by poles a baldaquin or cloth of honour over the king during much of the ceremony.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In 1204 the Duchy of Normandy was absorbed by the French crown, and later in the 13th century two more of the lay peerages were absorbed by the crown (Toulouse 1271, Champagne 1284), so in 1297 three new peerages were created, the County of Artois, the Duchy of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany, to compensate for the three peerages that had disappeared.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Thus, beginning in 1297 the practice started of creating new peerages by letters patent, specifying the fief to which the peerage was attached, and the conditions under which the fief could be transmitted (e.g. only male heirs) for princes of the blood who held an apanage. By 1328 all apanagists would be peers.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The number of lay peerages increased over time from 7 in 1297 to 26 in 1400, 21 in 1505, and 24 in 1588.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: France was a very decentralised state during the Middle Ages. At the time, Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not a part of France. North of the Loire, the King of France at times fought or allied with one of the great principalities of Normandy, Anjou, Blois-Champagne, Flanders and Burgundy. The duke of Normandy was overlord of the duke of Brittany. South of the Loire were the principalities of Aquitaine, Toulouse and Barcelona. Normandy became the strongest power in the north, while Barcelona became the strongest in the south. The rulers of both fiefs eventually became kings, the former by the conquest of England, and the latter by the succession to Aragon. French suzerainty over Barcelona was only formally relinquished by Saint Louis in 1258.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Initially, West Frankish kings were elected by the secular and ecclesiastic magnates, but the regular coronation of the eldest son of the reigning king during his father's lifetime established the principle of male primogeniture, later popularized as the Salic law. The authority of the king was more religious than administrative. The 11th century in France marked the apogee of princely power at the expense of the king when states like Normandy, Flanders or Languedoc enjoyed a local authority comparable to kingdoms in all but name. The Capetians, as they were descended from the Robertians, were formerly powerful princes themselves who had successfully unseated the weak and unfortunate Carolingian kings.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Carolingian kings had nothing more than a royal title when the Capetian kings added their principality to that title. The Capetians, in a way, held a dual status of King and Prince; as king they held the Crown of Charlemagne and as Count of Paris they held their personal fiefdom, best known as Île-de-France.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The fact that the Capetians both held lands as Prince as well as in the title of King gave them a complicated status. Thus they were involved in the struggle for power within France as princes but they also had a religious authority over Roman Catholicism in France as King. However, and despite the fact that the Capetian kings often treated other princes more as enemies and allies than as subordinates, their royal title was often recognised yet not often respected. The royal authority was so weak in some remote places that bandits were the effective power.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Some of the king's vassals would grow sufficiently powerful that they would become some of the strongest rulers of western Europe. The Normans, the Plantagenets, the Lusignans, the Hautevilles, the Ramnulfids, and the House of Toulouse successfully carved lands outside France for themselves. The most important of these conquests for French history was the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror, following the Battle of Hastings and immortalised in the Bayeux Tapestry, because it linked England to France through Normandy. Although the Normans were now both vassals of the French kings and their equals as kings of England, their zone of political activity remained centered in France.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: An important part of the French aristocracy also involved itself in the crusades, and French knights founded and ruled the Crusader states. An example of the legacy left in the Middle East by these nobles is the Krak des Chevaliers' enlargement by the Counts of Tripoli and Toulouse.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The history of the monarchy is how it overcame the powerful barons over ensuing centuries, and established absolute sovereignty over France in the 16th century. A number of factors contributed to the rise of the French monarchy. The dynasty established by Hugh Capet continued uninterrupted until 1328, and the laws of primogeniture ensured orderly successions of power. Secondly, the successors of Capet came to be recognised as members of an illustrious and ancient royal house and therefore socially superior to their politically and economically superior rivals. Thirdly, the Capetians had the support of the Church, which favoured a strong central government in France. This alliance with the Church was one of the great enduring legacies of the Capetians. The First Crusade was composed almost entirely of Frankish Princes. As time went on the power of the King was expanded by conquests, seizures and successful feudal political battles.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The kings of France traditionally always sought the advice of their entourage (vassals, clerics, etc.) before making important decisions. In the early Middle Ages, the entourage around the king was sometimes called the "familia"; later the expression "hôtel du roi" or the "maison du roi" (the "royal household") was used for people attached directly to the person of the king, while (in the 12th century), those who were called upon to counsel the king in his administration of the realm took the form of a specific (and separate) institution called the King's Court (Latin: the "Curia Regis", later the "Conseil du Roi")), although by the middle of the 13th century distinctions between "hôtel du roi" and "curia regis" were less clear.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In addition to the King's Council, the consultative governing of the country also depended on other intermittent and permanent institutions, such as the States General, the Parlements and the Provincial Estates. The Parliament of Paris – as indeed all of the sovereign courts of the realm – was itself born out of the King's Council: originally a consultative body of the "Curia Regis", later (in the thirteenth century) endowed with judicial functions, the Parliament was separated from the King's Council in 1254.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The King's Court functioned as an advisory body under the early Capetian kings. It was composed of a number of the king's trusted advisers but only a few traveled with the king at any time. By the later twelfth century it had become a judicial body with a few branching off to remain the king's council. By the fourteenth century the term "curia regis" was no longer used. However, it had served as a predecessor to later sovereign assemblies; the Parlement which was a judiciary body, the Chamber of Accounts which was a financial body and King's Council.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The composition of the King's Council changed constantly over the centuries and according to the needs and desires of the king. Medieval councils frequently excluded:


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The feudal aristocracy would maintain great control over the king's council up until the 14th and 15th centuries. The most important positions in the court were those of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, headed by the connétable (chief military officer of the realm; established by King Philip I in 1060) and the chancellor. Other positions included the Grand Chambrier who managed the Royal Treasury along with the Grand Bouteiller (Grand Butler), before being supplanted of these functions by the Chamber of Accounts (Chambre des comptes, created by King Philip IV) and the position of Surintendant des finances (created in 1311). Certain kings were unable to reduce the importance of the feudal aristocracy (Louis X, Philip VI, John II, Charles VI), while others were more successful (Charles V, Louis XI).


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Over the centuries, the number of jurists (or "légistes"), generally educated by the université de Paris, steadily increased as the technical aspects of the matters studied in the council mandated specialized counsellers. Coming from the lesser nobility or the bourgeoisie, these jurists (whose positions sometimes gave them or their heirs nobility, as the so-called "noblesse de robe" or chancellor nobles) helped in preparing and putting into legal form the king's decisions, and they formed the early elements of a true civil service and royal administration which would – because of their permanence – provide a sense of stability and continuity to the royal council, despite its many reorganizations. In their attempts at greater efficiency, the kings tried to reduce the number of counsellors or to convoke "reduced councils". Charles V had a council of 12 members.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Council had only a consultational role: the final decision was always the king's. Although jurists frequented praised (especially later in the 16th century) the advantages of consultative government (with the agreement of his counsellors, the king could more easily impose the most severe of his decisions, or he could have his most unpopular decisions blamed on his counsellors), mainstream legal opinion never held that the king was bound by the decisions of his council; the opposite was however put forward by the States General of 1355–1358.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Council's purview concerned all matters pertaining to government and royal administration, both in times of war and of peace. In his council, the king received ambassadors, signed treaties, appointed administrators and gave them instructions (called, from the 12th century on, "mandements"), elaborated on the laws of the realm (called "ordonnances"). The council also served as a supreme court and rendered royal justice on those matters that the king reserved for himself (so-called "justice retenue") or decided to discuss personally.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Council meetings, initially irregular, took on a regular schedule which became daily from the middle of the 15th century.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The king was expected to survive on the revenues of the "domaine royal", or lands that belonged to him directly. In times of need, the "taille", an "exceptional" tax could be imposed and collected; this resource was increasingly required during the protracted wars of the 14th–15th centuries and the taille became permanent in 1439, when the right to collect taxes in support of a standing army was granted to Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years' War.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: To oversee the Kingdom's revenues and expenditure, the French King first relied solely on the "Curia Regis". However, by the mid-12th century, the Crown entrusted its finances to the Knights Templar, who maintained a banking establishment in Paris. The royal Treasury was henceforth organized like a bank and salaries and revenues were transferred between accounts. Royal accounting officers in the field, who sent revenues to the Temple, were audited by the King's Court, which had special clerks assigned to work at the Temple. These financial specialists came to be called the "Curia in Compotis" and sat in special sessions of the King's Court for dealing with financial business. From 1297, accounts were audited twice yearly after Midsummer Day (24 June) and Christmas. In time, what was once a simple Exchequer of Receipts developed into a central auditing agency, branched off, and eventually specialized into a full-time court.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In 1256, Saint Louis issued a decree ordering all mayors, burghesses, and town councilmen to appear before the King's sovereign auditors of the Exchequer (French "gens des comptes") in Paris to render their final accounts. The King's Court's general secretariat had members who specialized in finance and accountancy and could receive accounts. A number of "maîtres lais" were commissioned to sit as the King's Exchequer ("comptes du Roi").


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In or around 1303, the Paris Court of Accounts was established in the Palais de la Cité. Its auditors were responsible for overseeing revenue from Crown estates and checking public spending. It audited the royal household, inspectors, royal commissioners, provosts, baillifs, and seneschals. In 1307, the Philip IV definitively removed royal funds from the Temple and placed them in the fortress of the Louvre. Thereafter, the financial specialists received accounts for audit in a room of the royal palace that became known as the "Camera compotorum" or "Chambre des comptes", and they began to be collectively identified under the same name, although still only a subcommission of the King's Court, consisting of about sixteen people.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Vivier-en-Brie Ordinance of 1320, issued by Philip V, required the "Chambre" to audit accounts, judge cases arising from accountability, and maintain registers of financial documents; it also laid out the basic composition of financial courts: three (later four) cleric masters of accounts ("maîtres-clercs") to act as chief auditors and three "maîtres-lais familiers du Roi" empowered to hear and adjudge ("oyer and terminer") audit accounts. They were assisted by eleven clerks ("petis clercs", later "clercs des comptes") who acted as auditors of the prests. This complement grew by 50 percent in the next two decades but was reduced to seven masters and twelve clerks in 1346. The office of "président" was created by the Ordinance of 1381, and a second lay Chief Baron was appointed in 1400. Clerks of court were eventually added to the court's composition. Examiners ("correcteurs") were created to assist the "maitres". Other court officers ("conseillers") appointed by the King were created to act alongside the "maîtres ordinaires". Lastly, the Ordinance of 26 February 1464 named the Court of Accounts as the "sovereign, primary, supreme, and sole court of last resort in all things financial".


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: While gaining in stability in the later 14th century, the court lost its central role in royal finances. First, currency was moved to a separate body ("Chambre des monnaies"), then the increasingly regular "extraordinary" taxes ("aide", tallage, "gabelle") became the responsibility of the "généraux" of the Cour des aides (created in 1390). The Crown's domainal revenues, still retained by the Court of Accounts, fell in importance and value. By 1400, the Court's role had been much reduced. However, with the gradual englargement of the realm through conquest, the need for the court remained secure.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Parliament of Paris, born out of the king's council in 1307, and sitting inside the medieval royal palace on the Île de la Cité, still the site of the Paris Hall of Justice. The jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris covered the entire kingdom as it was in the fourteenth century, but did not automatically advance in step with the enlarging personal dominions of the kings. In 1443, following the turmoil of the Hundred Years' War, King Charles VII of France granted Languedoc its own "parlement" by establishing the "Parlement" of Toulouse, the first "parlement" outside of Paris; its jurisdiction extended over most of southern France.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Several other "parlements" were created in various provinces of France in the Middle Ages: Dauphiné (Grenoble 1453), Guyenne and Gascony (Bordeaux 1462), Burgundy (Dijon 1477), Normandy (Rouen 1499/1515). All of them were administrative capitals of regions with strong historical traditions of independence before they were incorporated into France.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In 1302, expanding French royal power led to a general assembly consisting of the chief lords, both lay and ecclesiastical, and the representatives of the principal privileged towns, which were like distinct lordships. Certain precedents paved the way for this institution: representatives of principal towns had several times been convoked by the king, and under Philip III there had been assemblies of nobles and ecclesiastics in which the two orders deliberated separately. It was the dispute between Philip the Fair and Pope Boniface VIII which led to the States-General of 1302; the king of France desired that, in addition to the Great Officers of the Crown of France, he receive the counsel from the three estates in this serious crisis. The letters summoning the assembly of 1302 are published by M. Georges Picot in his collection of "Documents inédits pour servir à l'histoire de France". During the same reign they were subsequently assembled several times to give him aid by granting subsidies. Over time subsidies came to be the most frequent motive for their convocation.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Estates-General included representatives of the First Estate (clergy), Second Estate (the nobility), and Third Estate (commoners: all others), and monarchs always summoned them either to grant subsidies or to advise the Crown, to give aid and counsel. In their primitive form in the 14th and the first half of the 15th centuries, the Estates-General had only a limited elective element. The lay lords and the ecclesiastical lords (bishops and other high clergy) who made up the Estates-General were not elected by their peers, but directly chosen and summoned by the king. In the order of the clergy, however, since certain ecclesiastical bodies, e.g. abbeys and chapters of cathedrals, were also summoned to the assembly, and as these bodies, being persons in the moral but not in the physical sense, could not appear in person, their representative had to be chosen by the monks of the convent or the canons of the chapter. It was only the representation of the Third Estate which was furnished by election. Originally, moreover, the latter was not called upon as a whole to seek representation in the estates. It was only the "bonnes villes", the privileged towns, which were called upon. They were represented by elected "procureurs", who were frequently the municipal officials of the town, but deputies were often elected for the purpose. The country districts, the "plat pays", were not represented. Even within the "bonnes villes", the franchise was quite narrow.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The "prévôts" were the first-level judges created by the Capetian monarchy around the 11th century who administered the scattered parts of the royal domain. Provosts replaced viscounts wherever a viscounty had not been made a fief, and it is likely that the provost position imitated and was styled after the corresponding ecclesiastical provost of cathedral chapters. Provosts were entrusted with and carried out local royal power, including the collection of the Crown's domainal revenues and all taxes and duties owed the King within a provostship's jurisdiction. They were also responsible for military defense such as raising local contingents for royal armies. The provosts also administered justice though with limited jurisdiction.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In the 11th century, the provosts tended increasingly to make their positions hereditary and thus became more difficult to control. One of the King's great officers, the Great Seneschal, became their supervisor. In the 12th century, the office of provost was put up for bidding, and thereafter provosts were farmers of revenues. The provost thus received the speculative right to collect the King's seignorial revenues within his provostship. This remained his primary role.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: To monitor the performance and curtail abuses of the prévôts or their equivalent (in Normandy a "vicomte", in parts of northern France a "châtelain", in the south a "viguier" or a "bayle"), Philip II Augustus, an able and ingenious administrator who founded many of the central institutions on which the French monarchy's system of power would be based, established itinerant justices known as "baillis" ("bailiff") based on medieval fiscal and tax divisions which had been used by earlier sovereign princes (such as the Duke of Normandy). The "bailli" was thus the king's administrative representative in northern France responsible for the application of justice and control of the administration and local finances in his "baillage" (in the south of France, the equivalent post was is "sénéchal, sénéchaussé").


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Over time, the role of the baillages would be greatly extended as extensions of royal power, administration and justice. With the office of Great Seneschal vacant after 1191, the bailies became stationary and established themselves as powerful officials superior to provosts. A bailie's district included about half a dozen provostships. When appeals were instituted by the Crown, appeal of provost judgments, formerly impossible, now lay with the bailie. Moreover, in the 14th century, provosts no longer were in charge of collecting domainal revenues, except in farmed provostships, having instead yielded this responsibility to royal receivers (receveurs royaux). Raising local army contingents (ban and arrière-ban) also passed to bailies. Provosts therefore retained the sole function of inferior judges over vassals with original jurisdiction concurrent with bailies over claims against nobles and actions reserved for royal courts ("cas royaux"). This followed a precedent established in the chief feudal courts in the 13th and 14th centuries in which summary provostship suits were distinguished from solemn bailliary sessions.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: During the later years of the elderly Charlemagne's rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of his kingdom. After Charlemagne's death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire, and Charles the Bald ruled over West Francia, roughly corresponding to the territory of modern France.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Viking advances were allowed to escalate, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine Rivers and other inland waterways, wreaking havoc and spreading terror. In 843 Viking invaders murdered the Bishop of Nantes, and a few years after that, they burned the Church of Saint Martin at Tours, and in 845 the Vikings sacked Paris. During the reign of Charles the Simple (898–922), Normans under Rollo were settled in an area on either side of the Seine River, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Carolingians were subsequently to share the fate of their predecessors: after an intermittent power struggle between the two families, the accession (987) of Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, established on the throne the Capetian dynasty which with its Valois and Bourbon offshoots was to rule France for more than 800 years.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Carolingian era had seen the gradual emergence of institutions which were to condition France's development for centuries to come: the acknowledgement by the crown of the administrative authority of the realm's nobles within their territories in return for their (sometimes tenuous) loyalty and military support, a phenomenon readily visible in the rise of the Capetians and foreshadowed to some extent by the Carolingians' own rise to power.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The history of medieval France starts with the election of Hugh Capet (940–996) by an assembly summoned in Reims in 987. Capet was previously "Duke of the Franks" and then became "King of the Franks" (Rex Francorum). Hugh's lands extended little beyond the Paris basin; his political unimportance weighed against the powerful barons who elected him. Many of the king's vassals (who included for a long time the kings of England) ruled over territories far greater than his own. He was recorded to be recognised king by the Gauls, Bretons, Danes, Aquitanians, Goths, Spanish and Gascons. The new dynasty was in immediate control of little beyond the middle Seine and adjacent territories, while powerful territorial lords such as the 10th- and 11th-century counts of Blois accumulated large domains of their own through marriage and through private arrangements with lesser nobles for protection and support.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Count Borell of Barcelona called for Hugh's help against Islamic raids, but even if Hugh intended to help Borell, he was otherwise occupied in fighting Charles of Lorraine. The loss of other Spanish principalities then followed, as the Spanish marches grew more and more independent. Hugh Capet, the first Capetian king, is not a well documented figure, his greatest achievement being certainly to survive as king and defeating the Carolingian claimant, thus allowing him to establish what would become one of Europe's most powerful house of kings.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Hugh's son – Robert the Pious – was crowned King of the Franks before Capet's demise. Hugh Capet decided so in order to have his succession secured. Robert II, as King of the Franks, met Holy Roman Emperor Henry II in 1023 on the borderline. They agreed to end all claims over each other's realm, setting a new stage of Capetian and Ottonian relationships. Although a king weak in power, Robert II's efforts were considerable. His surviving charters imply he relied heavily on the Church to rule France, much like his father did. Although he lived with a mistress – Bertha of Burgundy – and was excommunicated because of this, he was regarded as a model of piety for monks (hence his nickname, Robert the Pious). The reign of Robert II was quite important because it involved the Peace and Truce of God (beginning in 989) and the Cluniac Reforms.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Robert II crowned his son – Hugh Magnus – as King of the Franks at age 10 to secure the succession, but Hugh Magnus rebelled against his father and died fighting him in 1025.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The next King of the Franks was Robert II's next son, Henry I (reigned 1027–1060). Like Hugh Magnus, Henry was crowned as co-ruler with his father (1027), in the Capetian tradition, but he had little power or influence as junior king while his father still lived. Henry I was crowned after Robert's death in 1031, which is quite exceptional for a French king of the times. Henry I was one of the weakest kings of the Franks, and his reign saw the rise of some very powerful nobles such as William the Conqueror. Henry I's biggest source of concerns was his brother – Robert I of Burgundy – who was pushed by his mother to the conflict. Robert of Burgundy was made Duke of Burgundy by King Henry I and had to be satisfied with that title. From Henry I onward, the Dukes of Burgundy were relatives of the King of the Franks until the end of the Duchy proper.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: King Philip I, named by his Kievan mother with a typically Eastern European name, was no more fortunate than his predecessor although the kingdom did enjoy a modest recovery during his extraordinarily long reign (1060–1108). His reign also saw the launch of the First Crusade to regain the Holy Land, which heavily involved his family although he personally did not support the expedition.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The area around the lower Seine, ceded to Scandinavian invaders as the Duchy of Normandy in 911, became a source of particular concern when Duke William took possession of the kingdom of England in the Norman Conquest of 1066, making himself and his heirs the King's equal outside France (where he was still nominally subject to the Crown).


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: It is from Louis VI (reigned 1108–1137) onward that royal authority became more accepted. Louis VI was more a soldier and warmongering king than a scholar. The way the king raised money from his vassals made him quite unpopular; he was described as greedy and ambitious and that is corroborated by records of the time. His regular attacks on his vassals, although damaging the royal image, reinforced the royal power. From 1127 onward Louis had the assistance of a skilled religious statesman, Abbot Suger. The abbot was the son of a minor family of knights, but his political advice was extremely valuable to the king. Louis VI successfully defeated, both military and politically, many of the robber barons. Louis VI frequently summoned his vassals to the court, and those who did not show up often had their land possessions confiscated and military campaigns mounted against them. This drastic policy clearly imposed some royal authority on Paris and its surrounding areas. When Louis VI died in 1137, much progress had been made towards strengthening Capetian authority.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Thanks to Abbot Suger's political advice, King Louis VII (junior king 1131–1137, senior king 1137–1180) enjoyed greater moral authority over France than his predecessors. Powerful vassals paid homage to the French king. Abbot Suger arranged the 1137 marriage between Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine in Bordeaux, which made Louis VII Duke of Aquitaine and gave him considerable power. However, the couple disagreed over the burning of more than a thousand people in Vitry during the conflict against the Count of Champagne.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: King Louis VII was deeply horrified by the event and sought penitence by going to the Holy Land. He later involved the Kingdom of France in the Second Crusade but his relationship with Eleanor did not improve. The marriage was ultimately annulled by the pope under the pretext of consanguinity and Eleanor soon married the Duke of Normandy – Henry Fitzempress, who would become King of England as Henry II two years later. Louis VII was once a very powerful monarch and was now facing a much stronger vassal, who was his equal as King of England and his strongest prince as Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Abbot Suger's vision of construction became what is now known as Gothic architecture. This style became standard for most European cathedrals built in the late Middle Ages.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The late direct Capetian kings were considerably more powerful and influential than the earliest ones. While Philip I could hardly control his Parisian barons, Philip IV could dictate popes and emperors. The late Capetians, although they often ruled for a shorter time than their earlier peers, were often much more influential. This period also saw the rise of a complex system of international alliances and conflicts opposing, through dynasties, Kings of France and England and Holy Roman Emperor.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The reign of Philip II Augustus (junior king 1179–1180, senior king 1180–1223) marked an important step in the history of French monarchy. His reign saw the French royal domain and influence greatly expanded. He set the context for the rise of power to much more powerful monarchs like Saint Louis and Philip the Fair.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Philip II spent an important part of his reign fighting the so-called Angevin Empire, which was probably the greatest threat to the King of France since the rise of the Capetian dynasty. During the first part of his reign Philip II tried using Henry II of England's son against him. He allied himself with the Duke of Aquitaine and son of Henry II – Richard Lionheart – and together they launched a decisive attack on Henry's castle and home of Chinon and removed him from power.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Richard replaced his father as King of England afterward. The two kings then went crusading during the Third Crusade; however, their alliance and friendship broke down during the crusade. The two men were once again at odds and fought each other in France until Richard was on the verge of totally defeating Philip II.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Adding to their battles in France, the Kings of France and England were trying to install their respective allies at the head of the Holy Roman Empire. If Philip II Augustus supported Philip of Swabia, member of the House of Hohenstaufen, then Richard Lionheart supported Otto IV, member of the House of Welf. Philip of Swabia had the upper hand, but his premature death made Otto IV Holy Roman Emperor. The crown of France was saved by Richard's demise after a wound he received fighting his own vassals in Limousin.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: John Lackland, Richard's successor, refused to come to the French court for a trial against the Lusignans and, as Louis VI had done often to his rebellious vassals, Philip II confiscated John's possessions in France. John's defeat was swift and his attempts to reconquer his French possession at the decisive Battle of Bouvines (1214) resulted in complete failure. The annexation of Normandy and Anjou was confirmed, the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders were captured, and the Emperor Otto IV was overthrown by Philip's ally Frederick II. Aquitaine and Gascony survived the French conquest, for the Duchess Eleanor still lived. Philip II of France was crucial in ordering Western European politics in both England and France.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Prince Louis (the future Louis VIII, reigned 1223–1226) was involved in the subsequent English civil war as French and English (or rather Anglo-Norman) aristocracies were once one and were now split between allegiances. While the French kings were struggling against the Plantagenets, the Church called for the Albigensian Crusade. Southern France was then largely absorbed in the royal domains.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: France became a truly centralised kingdom under Louis IX (reigned 1226–1270). Saint Louis has often been portrayed as a one-dimensional character, a flawless example of the faith and an administrative reformer who cared for the governed ones. However, his reign was far from perfect for everyone: he made unsuccessful crusades, his expanding administrations raised opposition, and he burned Jewish books at the Pope's urging. His judgments were not often practical, although they seemed fair by the standards of the time. It appears Louis had a strong sense of justice and always wanted to judge people himself before applying any sentence. This was said about Louis and French clergy asking for excommunications of Louis' vassals:


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Louis IX was only twelve years old when he became King of France. His mother – Blanche of Castile – was the effective power as regent (although she did not formally use the title). Blanche's authority was strongly opposed by the French barons yet she maintained her position until Louis was old enough to rule by himself.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: In 1229 the King had to struggle with a long lasting strike at the University of Paris. The Quartier Latin was strongly hit by these strikes.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The kingdom was vulnerable: war was still going on in the County of Toulouse, and the royal army was occupied fighting resistance in Languedoc. Count Raymond VII of Toulouse finally signed the Treaty of Paris in 1229, in which he retained much of his lands for life, but his daughter, married to Count Alfonso of Poitou, produced him no heir and so the County of Toulouse went to the King of France.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: King Henry III of England had not yet recognized the Capetian overlordship over Aquitaine and still hoped to recover Normandy and Anjou and reform the Angevin Empire. He landed in 1230 at Saint-Malo with a massive force. Henry III's allies in Brittany and Normandy fell down because they did not dare fight their king, who led the counterstrike himself. This evolved into the Saintonge War (1242).


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Ultimately, Henry III was defeated and had to recognize Louis IX's overlordship, although the King of France did not seize Aquitaine from Henry III. Louis IX was now the most important landowner of France, adding to his royal title. There were some opposition to his rule in Normandy, yet it proved remarkably easy to rule, especially compared to the County of Toulouse which had been brutally conquered. The Conseil du Roi, which would evolve into the Parlement, was founded in these times.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: After his conflict with King Henry III of England, Louis established a cordial relation with the Plantagenet King. An amusing anecdote is about Henry III's attending the French Parlement, as Duke of Aquitaine; however, the King of England was always late because he liked to stop each time he met a priest to hear the mass, so Louis made sure no priest was on the way of Henry III. Henry III and Louis IX then started a long contest for who was the most faithful; this evolved to the point that none ever arrived on time to the Parlement, which was then allowed to debate in their absence.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: Saint Louis also supported new forms of art such as Gothic architecture; his Sainte-Chapelle became a very famous gothic building, and he is also credited for the Morgan Bible.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The Kingdom was involved in two crusades under Saint Louis: the Seventh Crusade and the Eighth Crusade. Both proved to be complete failures for the French King. He died in the Eighth Crusade and Philip III became king.


title: France in the Middle Ages

text: The 13th century was to bring the crown important gains also in the south, where a papal-royal crusade against the region's Albigensian or Cathar heretics (1209) led to the incorporation into the royal domain of Lower (1229) and Upper (1271) Languedoc. Philip IV's seizure of Flanders (1300) was less successful, ending two years later in the rout of his knights by the forces of the Flemish cities at the Battle of the Golden Spurs near Kortrijk (Courtrai).