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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Of Arc (1412–1431). Although this is debatable, the Hundred Years' War is remembered more as a Franco-English war than as a succession of feudal struggles. During this war, France evolved politically and militarily.Although a Franco-Scottish army was successful at the Battle of Baugé (1421), the humiliating defeats of Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415) forced the French nobility to realise they could not stand just as armoured knights without an organised army. Charles VII (reigned 1422–61) established the first French standing army, the Compagnies d'ordonnance, and defeated the Plantagenets once at Patay (1429) and again, using cannons, at Formigny (1450). The Battle of Castillon (1453) was the last engagement of this war; Calais and the Channel Islands remained ruled by the Plantagenets.Early Modern France (1453–1789)France in the late 15th century: a mosaic of feudal territories.Kings during this periodThe Early Modern period in French history spans the following reigns, from 1461 to the Revolution, breaking in 1789:House of ValoisLouis XI the Prudent, 1461–83Charles VIII the Affable, 1483–98Louis XII, 1498–1515Francis I, 1515–47Henry II, 1547–59Francis II, 1559–60Charles IX, 1560–74 (1560–63 under regency of Catherine de' Medici)Henry III, 1574–89House of BourbonHenry IV the Great, 1589–1610the Regency of Marie de Medici, 1610–17Louis XIII the Just and his minister Cardinal Richelieu, 1610–43the Regency of Anne of Austria and her minister Cardinal Mazarin, 1643–51Louis XIV the Sun King and his minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 1643–1715the Régence, a period of regency under Philip II of Orléans, 1715–23Louis XV the Beloved and his minister Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, 1715–74Louis XVI, 1774–92Life in the Early Modern periodMain article: Ancien RégimeFrench identityFrance in the Ancien Régime covered a territory of around 520,000 square kilometres (200,000 sq mi). This land supported 13 million people in 1484 and 20 million people in 1700. France had the second largest population in Europe around 1700. Britain had 5 million, Spain had 8 million, and the Austrian Habsburgs had around 8 million. Russia was the most populated European country at the time. France's lead slowly faded after 1700, as other countries grew faster.The sense of "being French" was uncommon in 1500, as people clung to their local identities.
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