Friday, August 3, 2007

Kings of France

So I was thinking at my count this afternoon, I'd like to write a poem on the Kings of France. Or maybe not a "poem" exactly, but some kind of easily remembered sequential. Something like

Charles the Sixth, by Henry owned.
Charles the Seventh, crowned by Joan.
Louis Eleven defeated Burgundy.
Charles the Eighth invaded Italy.

hitting the most important point of each reign. Viz,

Charles VI was defeated by Henry V at Agincourt, and had to sign a treaty recognising Henry as his heir. The frenchies later repudiated this on the rather dubious assertion that since Charles was, technically speaking, mad as a loon, nothing he signed was worth anything.

Charles VII was crowned at Rheims (the first French monarch in a very long time to have this done properly) due largely to the efforts of Joan of Arc, starting the turnaround in the Hundred Years' war.

Louis XI's main accomplishment was the final establishment of the dominance of royal power, grinding his rebellious vassals once and for all into a position of subordinance to the crown. The largest and most powerful of these was Burgundy, who by the end of Louis' reign had for all intents and purposes ceased to exist thanks to the relentless efforts of my idol.

Charles VIII...a not so good king, who took France into Italy on a rather tetchy claim to the kingship of Naples, embroiling France in Italian politics he knew next to nothing about, and starting a series of wars with Spain (who actually owned Naples at the time) that lasted for I think somewhere around 85 years and exhausted the French treasury and leading (indirectly) to the French wars of religion and the accession of Henri IV of Navarre starting the Bourbon dynasty.

Needs a great deal of work still, clearly. For one thing I think the "memorable" part is still totally absent :-)

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