Strong princes[ edit ] France was a very decentralised state during the Middle Ages.
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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 NormandyFlanders or Languedoc enjoyed a local authority comparable to kingdoms in all but name. The Capetianslink they were descended from the Robertianswere formerly powerful princes themselves who had successfully unseated the weak and unfortunate Carolingian kings.
They were involved in the struggle for power within France as princes, but they also had a religious authority over Roman Catholicism in France article source King. The Capetian kings treated other princes more as enemies and allies Esssays as subordinates: their royal title was recognised yet frequently disrespected. Capetian authority was so weak in some remote places that bandits were the effective power. The Normansthe Plantagenetsthe Lusignansthe HautevillesLouis XV of France Essays Ramnulfidsand 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 Conquerorfollowing the Battle of Hastings and immortalised in the Bayeux Tapestrybecause it linked England to France through Normandy.
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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. 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. Rise of the monarchy[ edit ] The monarchy overcame the powerful barons over ensuing centuries, and established absolute sovereignty over France in the 16th century.
A number of Frxnce contributed to the rise of the French monarchy. The dynasty established by Hugh Capet continued uninterrupted untiland 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.]
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