Philippe       I3th         Jeanne
the   Bold     cent,   de  Bourbon


characterize  the  inhabitants  of  Normandy:  a
certain  smartness  and  thrift,  an  ability  to  defend
their  own  rights,  an  almost  untiring  capacity  for
work.
Appreciating  their  strength  and  their  deter-
mination to  occupy  this  rich  territory,  which  is
the  most  beautiful  farming  country  in  France,
the  King  decided,  in  the  year  911,  to  form  an
alliance  with  them.  He  gave  his  daughter  in
marriage  to  the  Norman  chief,  Rollon,  and  a
dowry  which  comprised  all  of  the  province  of
Normandy.  Rollon  became  a  Christian  and  a
subject  of  the  King.
THE   CAPETIANS

During  the  struggle  with  the  Normans  a  new
leader  had  distinguished  himself:  Hugues  Capet.
When  the  last  of  the  increasingly  incompetent
Carolingians  had  been  deposed,  Hugues  Capet,
who  had  won  the  confidence  of  the  nobles  and  the


THE  MIDDLE  AGES


21


people,  was  chosen  to  found  a  new  dynasty:  the
Capetians.  They  remained  in  power  over  three
hundred  years.
At  the  time  when  the  Capetians  began  to  reign
society  was  organized  according  to  certain  fixed


The  feudal  castle  of  Pierrefonds  as  it  stands,  restored,  to-day.
regulations  which  were  known  as  the  "feudal  sys-
tem."

THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM

Little  by  little  the  rich  landed  proprietors,  or
Lords,  had  become  as  powerful  in  their  own  do-
mains as  the  King  was  in  his.  The  Dukes  of  Nor-
mandy, of  Burgundy,  the  Counts  of  Champagne,
of  Poitou,  etc.,  had  their  own  armed  forces;  they
levied  their  own  taxes,  they  dispensed  justice,


22      A  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE

they  cast  the  guilty  into  prison,  or  condemned
them  to  death  if  they  deemed  fit,  with  an  author-
ity which  no  one  could  contest.
