France, A Kingdom Divided | The World 1000 Years Ago

Video Description

France, one of the most important and iconic kingdoms of the middle ages, was a rather divided land in the early 11th century. Once the Carolingian kingdom of West Frankia, France was now ruled by the Capetian dynasty, founded by Hugh Capet and continued by his son Robert II. But the authority of the kings of France in the late Carolingian and early Capetian periods was not altogether strong, and the king had to compete and contend with other lords, dukes and counts who were, in theory, his vassals, but in reality fairly independent rulers with a great deal of autonomy. The idealised feudalism of textbooks and coffee table history was far from the reality of France 1000 years ago. Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studium.historiae/ Recommendations for further reading: -Bautier, Robert Henri. Recherches sur l'histoire de la France Médiévale, Des Mérovingiens aux Premiers Capétiens (Variorum, 1991). -Bradbury, Jim. The Capetians: kings of France, 987-1328 (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007) [personally my least favourite of the three English sources I've listed here since I dislike Bradbury's style and disagree with some of his conclusions, but still worth reading]. -Dunbabin, Jean. France in the Making, 843-1180 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). -Hallam Smith, Elizabeth, Charles West. Capetian France, 987-1328 (London: Routledge, 2020). All images used in this video are either my own, in the public domain, under fair use, or under creative commons (whence they shall be credited appropriately) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Outro music: Laid Back Guitars by Kevin MacLeod, CC BY-SA 4.0 http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100181 #medievalhistory #medieval #middleages #history #educational #france #frenchhistory #paris #orleans #moyenage #feudal #feudalism #kingdom #burgundy #carolingians #capetians #socialhistory #peasant #duke #count #castle #knights