Paris might still be a swamp today if it weren’t for Julius Caesar. In the third century BC, the Parisii, a Gallic tribe, settled into an area they called Loukteih (the Celtic word for “a marsh”), where they established a fishing village on the banks of the Ile de la Cité. The various Gallic tribes throughout the region were constantly engaged in war with each other. In 52 BC Julius Caesar put an end to the bickering once and for all at the battle of Alésia, where his armies defeated the Gauls, who had united briefly and unsuccessfully under Vercingétorix. As part of the Roman Empire, Loukteih was given the Latin moniker “Lutetia” (or Lutèce in modern French), and soon became an important Roman province.
Roman Influence
Extending the original settlement onto the Left Bank of the Seine, the Romans constructed roads, arenas, the vast catacombs under Mont-parnasse, and thermal baths (now part of the Cluny Medieval Museum). Protected from the Germanic tribes to the east of the Rhine, the Parisii thrived during the Pax Romana (Roman Peace). As the locals became more educated and urbanized, the seeds of a highly cultured French civilization were planted. When Julian the Apostate, Prefect of the Gauls, became the new Roman Emperor in 360 AD, he renamed the city Paris (Civitas Parisiorum, City of the Parisians).
Early Christians
In 451 AD, Attila and a half-million of his Huns set their sights on Paris after successfully laying waste to Rheims and Metz. The Parisians started packing their bags to flee the city, only to be stopped by a young Christian girl named Geneviève, who convinced them to hold their ground and pray. Whether it was the prayers or the lack of a good map, Attila never made it to Paris, and Geneviève was later named the city’s patron saint. Meanwhile, Germanic tribes continued their invasions into Gaul, led by the Visigoths and the Franks. In what may be construed as revenge for the Romans’ treatment of Saint Denis, Geneviève converted Clovis, King of the Franks, to Christianity. After his baptism in Rheims in 508 AD, he proceeded to defeat the Roman governor of Gaul and established Paris as the capital of his Frankish kingdom. (He wouldn’t be the last king to convert to Catholicism for a throne in Paris.) The Merovingian Dynasty – and the kingdom of France – was born.
UNLUCKY PARIS
During the troublesome Hundred Years War, Parisians had other problems to deal with besides the English occupation. In 1348 the city was hit by famine and the plague. At the height of the epidemic, over 800 Parisians died daily. In 1380 the plague returned, followed by another famine in 1395. Paris flooded twice, in 1410 and 1428. The English brought the smallpox with them in 1422, and hungry wolves managed to enter the city during the winter of 1423. Two years after Charles VII ended the English occupation, over 50,000 Parisians died from yet another bout of the plague, known now as the Black Death. By 1438 the population of Paris was less than half its size before the start of the Hundred Years War.
England & France
In order to avoid any further grabs at the throne by powerful lords, the Capetians wisely centralized the administration of the kingdom, establishing France’s civil service system with Paris as its center. They also made sure that the king owned the most land, and refused to let the Papacy in Rome push them around. This didn’t keep the English from gaining their first major foothold in France in 1152, when Louis VII’s arranged marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine ended and she immediately wed Henry of Normandy, a.k.a. King Henry II of England. It was King Philippe Auguste (1180-1223), using his friendship with Henry II’s estranged son Richard the Lionheart, who was able to reclaim the French lands lost in Normandy and the Loire. Under Philippe Auguste the capital’s streets were paved, the city walls were fortified, cathedrals were constructed, and a fortified castle was built on the Right Bank, which would later become the Louvre. The Latin Quarter was born on the Left Bank with the opening of the University of Paris in 1215 and the Sorbonne in 1253, attracting notable scholars such as Abélard and St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Capetian dynasty ended in disaster when Philippe IV (“the Fair”) died in 1314, quickly followed by his three sons – “the cursed kings” – within a few years. Only his daughter Isabelle survived, giving birth to a son. This is where things get confusing. Isabelle’s husband was Edward II of England, which meant the only grandson of Philippe IV of France was England’s King Edward III. The French lords therefore put forth their preferred candidate for the throne, Philippe IV’s nephew, Philippe de Valois, and the Hundred Years War started. If it had simply been a matter of the French vs. the English, it might not have lasted as long, but it wasn’t that simple. As the Valois lost battle after battle (and even one king) to the English, things weren’t looking any better for the French on the domestic front. The merchants’ Provost of Paris, Etienne Marcel, led a bloody uprising against Charles V, and dukes from the Armagnac and Burgundian families began fighting among themselves for power when it became clear that Charles VI was mad. The English took the opportunity to side with the Burgundians in 1408, and were given control of Paris while the dauphin (the crown prince, the future Charles VII) took refuge in Bourges. This was where the famous young peasant girl, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc), got involved. She rallied the dauphin’s troops and managed to win a few battles, but was wounded during the failed siege of Paris in 1429. The six-year-old Henry VI of England was crowned king of France a year later at Notre Dame. Captured by the Burgundians in 1431, Joan was turned over to the English and burned at the stake in Rouen for heresy. In the end, her martyrdom boosted French determination and, by 1436, Charles VII finally defeated the English (and their Burgundian cohorts) at Montereau, then returned triumphantly to Paris. The Hundred Years War (which actually lasted over 120 years) was finally over.
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