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France 1500

1
France in 1500
At the beginning of the sixteenth century France was still only partially
developed as a nation. She still lacked well-defined borders, a common
language and a unified legal system. The eastern frontier, in so far as it
existed at all, followed roughly the rivers Scheldt, Meuse, Saoˆ ne and Rhoˆ ne
from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. People living west of this line
were vassals of the French king; those to the east owed allegiance to the
Holy Roman Emperor. French suzerainty over Artois and Flanders was
purely nominal, effective control of these areas having passed to the house
of Burgundy. Further east, the frontier cut across the duchy of Bar whose
ruler, the duke of Lorraine, did homage for half the territory to the king
of France and for the other half to the emperor. In the south, Dauphine´
and Provence, being east of the Rhoˆ ne, were still not regarded as integral
parts of the French kingdom: the king was obeyed as ‘Dauphin' in the one,
and as count in the other. The south-west border more or less followed the
Pyrenees, avoiding Roussillon, which belonged to the kingdom of Aragon,
and the small kingdom of Navarre, ruled by the house of Albret. Within
France, there were three foreign enclaves: Calais belonged to England, the
Comtat-Venaissin to the Holy See and the principality of Orange to the
house of Chalon. Some great fiefs also survived, including the duchies of
Brittany and Bourbon.
France also lacked a common language. Modern French is descended
from langue d'oı¨l, a dialect spoken in northern France during the medieval
period; in the south, langue d'oc or occitan was used. The linguistic frontier
ran from the Bec d'Ambe`s in the west to the col du Lautaret in the east,
passing through Limoges, the Cantal and Annonay. South of this line, even
educated people used the local idiom or Latin; langue d'oı¨l was spoken by
feudal magnates when addressing the king. After 1450, as the French crown...