215-539: The term Angevin Empire ( / ˈ æ n dʒ ɪ v ɪ n / ; French : Empire Plantagenêt ) describes the possessions held by the House of Plantagenet during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they ruled over an area covering roughly all of present-day England , half of France , and parts of Ireland and Wales , and had further influence over much of the remaining British Isles . It may be described as an early example of
430-572: A de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and
645-564: A composite monarchy . The empire was established by Henry II of England , who succeeded his father Geoffrey as Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou (from the latter of which the term Angevin is derived). Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, acquiring the Duchy of Aquitaine , and inherited his mother Empress Matilda 's claim to the English throne , succeeding his rival Stephen in 1154. Although their title of highest rank came from
860-732: A "Byzantine-like presidency over a family of nations, centred on pope and emperor in Rome". This has proved a lasting achievement. Otto's early death though made his reign "the tale of largely unrealized potential". Henry II died in 1024 and Conrad II , first of the Salian dynasty , was elected king only after some debate among dukes and nobles. This group eventually developed into the college of electors . The Holy Roman Empire eventually came to be composed of four kingdoms: Kings often employed bishops in administrative affairs and often determined who would be appointed to ecclesiastical offices. In
1075-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process
1290-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,
1505-485: A compromise candidate. Henry VII was crowned king at Aachen on 6 January 1309, and emperor by Pope Clement V on 29 June 1312 in Rome, ending the interregnum. During the 13th century, a general structural change in how land was administered prepared the shift of political power toward the rising bourgeoisie at the expense of the aristocratic feudalism that would characterize the Late Middle Ages . The rise of
1720-552: A diplomatic mission to be recognized Duchess of Normandy and replace Stephen. Geoffrey followed at the head of his army and quickly captured several fortresses in southern Normandy. It was then that a noble in Anjou, Robert II of Sablé , rebelled, forcing Geoffrey to withdraw and prevent an attack on his rear. When Geoffrey returned to Normandy in September 1136, the region had become plagued with internal, baronial infighting. Stephen
1935-552: A far-reaching constitutional act. Frederick's policies were primarily directed at Italy, where he clashed with the free-minded cities of the north, especially the Duchy of Milan . He also embroiled himself in another conflict with the Papacy by supporting a candidate elected by a minority against Pope Alexander III (1159–1181). Frederick supported a succession of antipopes before finally making peace with Alexander in 1177. In Germany,
2150-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
2365-600: A form first used in a document in 1474. The adoption of this new name coincided with the loss of imperial territories in Italy and Burgundy to the south and west by the late 15th century, but also to emphasize the new importance of the German Imperial Estates in ruling the Empire due to the Imperial Reform . The Hungarian denomination "German Roman Empire" ( Hungarian : Német-római Birodalom )
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#17327571391312580-415: A legal system of jurisdiction and public prosecution of criminal acts – a predecessor of the modern concept of rule of law . Another new concept of the time was the systematic founding of new cities by the emperor and by the local dukes. These were partly a result of the explosion in population; they also concentrated economic power at strategic locations. Before this, cities had only existed in
2795-652: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
3010-600: A public ban and the confiscation of all Henry's territories. In 1190, Frederick participated in the Third Crusade , dying in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia . During the Hohenstaufen period, German princes facilitated a successful, peaceful eastward settlement of lands that were uninhabited or inhabited sparsely by West Slavs . German-speaking farmers, traders, and craftsmen from the western part of
3225-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in
3440-578: A remarkable change in terminology as well. the Statutum affirmed a division of labor between the emperor and the princes and laid much groundwork for the development of particularism in Germany. Even so, from 1232 the vassals of the emperor had a veto over imperial legislative decisions and any new law established by the emperor had to be approved by the princes. These provisions not withstanding, royal power in Germany remained strong under Frederick and by
3655-683: A result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,
3870-541: A revolt in Anjou while Stephen attacked Angevin loyalists in England. Several Anglo-Norman nobles switched allegiance, sensing an impending disaster. Henry was about to sail for England to pursue his claim when his lands were attacked. He first reached Anjou and compelled Geoffrey to surrender. He then took the decision to sail for England in January 1153 to meet Stephen. Luckily enough, Louis fell ill and had to retire from
4085-426: A series of revolts from a younger brother and from several dukes. After that, the king managed to control the appointment of dukes and often also employed bishops in administrative affairs. He replaced leaders of most of the major East Frankish duchies with his own relatives. At the same time, he was careful to prevent members of his own family from making infringements on his royal prerogatives. In 951, Otto came to
4300-406: A son, Conan , from her previous marriage to the late Alan de Bretagne . Conan had been too young to succeed his grandfather in 1148, but he became Henry II's perfect candidate to become Duke of Brittany on Bertha's death, as his English holdings as Earl of Richmond meant he would be easier to control. In Nantes, possibly due to Hoël's recognition of his sister and brother-in-law's suzerainty over
4515-575: A thousand years until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars . On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish king Charlemagne as Roman emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe more than three centuries after the fall of the ancient Western Roman Empire in 476. The title lapsed in 924, but was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor by Pope John XII , fashioning himself as Charlemagne's and
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#17327571391314730-488: A trail of filth behind them". Stephen finally arrived in Normandy in 1137 and restored order but had lost much credibility in the eyes of his main supporter, Robert of Gloucester and so Robert changed sides and supported Geoffrey and his half-sister Matilda instead. Geoffrey took Caen and Argentan without resistance, but now had to defend Robert's possessions in England against Stephen. In 1139, Robert and Matilda crossed
4945-732: A truce with the raiding Magyars , and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade . Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing (or Ottonian) dynasty , would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom or the Kingdom of Germany for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowler's death, Otto , his son and designated successor, was elected king in Aachen in 936. He overcame
5160-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in
5375-773: A vassal of Louis. She left Beaugency for Poitiers , narrowly escaping an ambush by Henry's brother Geoffrey on route, and there, eight weeks later, she married Henry. Thus Henry became duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and count of Poitou. Louis responded with a furious attack on Normandy. In Anjou, Henry had refused to give the county to his brother, and thus a coalition of Henry's enemies was formed by Louis VII: Stephen of England and his son Eustace IV of Boulogne (married to Louis' sister ); Henry I, Count of Champagne (betrothed to Louis' daughter ), Robert of Dreux (Louis' brother) and Henry's brother, Geoffrey. In July 1152, Capetian troops attacked Aquitaine while Louis, Eustace, Henry of Champagne, and Robert attacked Normandy. Geoffrey raised
5590-457: A working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As
5805-522: A year whilst Richard was abroad. Between 1194 and 1198, revenue averaged £25,000. Under Richard's successor John , income fluctuated between £22,000 and £25,000 from 1199 to 1203. In order to fund for the reconquest of France, English income increased to £50,000 in 1210 but then rose to over £83,000 in 1211 before falling back down to £50,000 in 1212. Revenue then fell down to below £26,000 in 1214, and then further to £18,500 in 1215. The first three years of Henry III 's reign brought in £8,000 on average due to
6020-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French
6235-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English
6450-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given
6665-510: Is because England and Normandy were home to more officials to collect taxes and, unlike Aquitaine, local lords were unable to mint their own coins, allowing the Angevin kings to control the economy from their administrative base of Chinon . Chinon's importance was shown by Richard's seizure of Chinon first when he rebelled against his father in 1187, and then when John immediately rushed to Chinon after his brother's death. Money raised in England
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6880-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in
7095-563: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English
7310-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from
7525-847: Is no evidence that the Duke of Brittany, Eudes II , had recognised the Norman overlordship. Two vital frontier castles, Moulins-la-Marche and Bonmoulins , had never been taken back by Geoffrey Plantagenet and were in the hands of Robert of Dreux . Count Thierry of Flanders had joined the alliance formed by Louis VII in 1153. Further south, the Count of Blois acquired Amboise . From Henry II's perspective, these territorial issues needed solving. King Henry II showed himself to be an audacious and daring king as well as being active and mobile; Roger of Howden stated that Henry travelled across his dominions so fast that Louis VII once exclaimed that "The king of England
7740-521: Is now in Ireland, now in England, now in Normandy, he seems rather to fly than to go by horse or ship." Henry was often more present in France than in England; Ralph de Diceto , Dean of St Paul's , said with irony: There is nothing left to send to bring the king back to England but the Tower of London . Henry II bought Vernon and Neuf-Marché back from Louis VII in 1154. This new strategy now regulated
7955-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in
8170-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for
8385-639: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,
8600-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure
8815-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in
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9030-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially
9245-516: Is the shortening of this. By the end of the 18th century, the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" fell out of official use. Contradicting the traditional view concerning that designation, Hermann Weisert has argued in a study on imperial titulature that, despite the claims of many textbooks, the name "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" never had an official status and points out that documents were thirty times as likely to omit
9460-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism
9675-465: Is the subject of debates: on one hand, it helped to restore peace in the lands of the Empire, that had been engulfed in civil conflicts after the end of the Hohenstaufen era; on the other hand, the "blow to central authority was unmistakable". Thomas Brady Jr. opines that Charles IV's intention was to end contested royal elections (from the Luxembourghs' perspective, they also had the advantage that
9890-517: Is unlikely that a particularly "strong ruler" such as Frederick II would have even pragmatically agreed to legislation that was truly concessionary rather than cooperative, neither would the princes have insisted on such. The Mainz Landfriede or Constitutio Pacis , decreed at the Imperial Diet of 1235, became one of the basic laws of the empire and provided that the princes should share the burden of local government in Germany. The authority of
10105-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of
10320-690: The Archbishop of Dol , despite attempts by the Archbishop of Tours , Engelbald, to subsume Dol into his archdiocese. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance ,
10535-670: The Baltic Sea , the North Sea and along the connected navigable rivers. Each of the affiliated cities retained the legal system of its sovereign and, with the exception of the Free imperial cities , had only a limited degree of political autonomy. By the late 14th century, the powerful league enforced its interests with military means, if necessary. This culminated in a war with the sovereign Kingdom of Denmark from 1361 to 1370. The league declined after 1450. The difficulties in electing
10750-609: The Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to
10965-559: The Carolingian Empire 's successor, and beginning a continuous existence of the empire for over eight centuries. From 962 until the 12th century, the empire was one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe. The functioning of government depended on the harmonious cooperation between emperor and vassals; this harmony was disturbed during the Salian period. The empire reached the apex of territorial expansion and power under
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#173275713913111180-493: The County of Berry but these were not completely fulfilled, and the county was lost completely by the time of the accession of John in 1199. The frontiers of the empire were sometimes well known and therefore easy to mark, such as the dykes constructed between the royal demesne of the king of France and the Duchy of Normandy. In other places these borders were not so clear, particularly the eastern border of Aquitaine, where there
11395-609: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of
11610-464: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only a second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and
11825-533: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains
12040-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,
12255-399: The French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as
12470-420: The House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-13th century, but overextension of its power led to a partial collapse. Scholars generally describe an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, and a gradual development of the imperial role. While the office of emperor had been reestablished, the exact term for his realm as the "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century, although
12685-439: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It
12900-442: The Kingdom of England , the Lordship of Ireland which was considered illegitimate since Henry II broke the treaty of Windsor , the duchies of Normandy (which included the Channel Islands ), Gascony and Aquitaine , as well as of the counties of Anjou , Poitou, Maine , Touraine, Saintonge , La Marche , Périgord , Limousin , Nantes and Quercy . While the duchies and counties were held with various levels of vassalage to
13115-404: The Kingdom of England , the Plantagenets held court primarily on the continent at Angers in Anjou, and at Chinon in Touraine. The influence and power of the Angevin kings of England brought them into conflict with the kings of France of the House of Capet , to whom they also owed feudal homage for their French possessions, bringing in a period of rivalry between the dynasties . Despite
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#173275713913113330-420: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It
13545-569: The Prussians in 1226. The monastic state of the Teutonic Order ( Deutschordensstaat ) and its later German successor state of the Duchy of Prussia was never part of the Holy Roman Empire. Under the son and successor of Frederick Barbarossa, Henry VI , the Hohenstaufen dynasty reached its apex, with the addition of the Norman kingdom of Sicily through the marriage of Henry VI and Constance of Sicily . Bohemia and Poland were under feudal dependence, while Cyprus and Lesser Armenia also paid homage. The Iberian-Moroccan caliph accepted his claims over
13760-514: The Sixth Crusade in 1228, which ended in negotiations and a temporary restoration of the Kingdom of Jerusalem . For his many-sided activities, prestige, and dynamic personality Frederick II has been called the greatest of all the medieval German emperors. In the Kingdom of Sicily and much of Italy, Frederick built upon the work of his Norman predecessors and forged an early absolutist state bound together by an efficient secular bureaucracy. Despite his imperial prestige and power, Frederick II's rule
13975-436: The World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin
14190-422: The cities and the emergence of the new burgher class eroded the societal, legal and economic order of feudalism. Peasants were increasingly required to pay tribute to their landlords. The concept of property began to replace more ancient forms of jurisdiction, although they were still very much tied together. In the territories (not at the level of the Empire), power became increasingly bundled: whoever owned
14405-438: The king of France , the Plantagenets held various levels of control over the Duchies of Brittany and Cornwall , the Welsh princedoms , the county of Toulouse , and the Kingdom of Scotland , although those regions were not formal parts of the empire. Auvergne was also in the empire for part of the reigns of Henry II and Richard I , in their capacity as dukes of Aquitaine. Henry II and Richard I pushed further claims over
14620-414: The patriarch of Constantinople . Charlemagne's good service to the Church in his defense of Papal possessions against the Lombards made him the ideal candidate. On Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the West for the first time in over three centuries. This can be seen as symbolic of the papacy turning away from the declining Byzantine Empire toward
14835-415: The seneschal of Anjou , and other seneschals governed. They were based at Tours , Chinon , Baugé , Beaufort , Brissac , Angers , Saumur , Loudun , Loches , Langeais and Montbazon . However, the constituent counties, such as Maine , were often administered by the officials of the local lords, rather than their Angevin suzerains. Maine was at first largely self-ruling and lacked administration until
15050-437: The throne of England . There had been only one occurrence of a medieval European queen regnant before, Urraca of León and Castile , and it was not an encouraging precedent; nevertheless, in January 1127 the Anglo-Normans barons and prelates recognized Matilda as heiress to the throne in an oath. On 17 June 1128, the wedding between Matilda and Geoffrey was celebrated in Le Mans . In order to secure Matilda's succession to
15265-430: The 11th century. Meanwhile, in the rest of France, the Poitevin Ramnulfids had become Dukes of Aquitaine and of Gascony , and the Count of Blois , Stephen , the father of the next king of England, Stephen , became the Count of Champagne . France was being split between only a few noble families. In 1106, Henry I of England had defeated his brother Robert Curthose and angered Robert's son, William Clito , who
15480-415: The 1240s the crown was still rich in fiscal resources, land holdings, retinues, and all other rights, revenues, and jurisdictions. Frederick II used the political loyalty and practical jurisdictions granted to the higher German aristocracy to impose peace, order, and justice upon Germany. The jurisdictional autarky of the German princes was favoured by the crown itself in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in
15695-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;
15910-718: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed
16125-682: The Angevin kings made efforts to improve administration by installing new officials, such as the seneschal of Le Mans. These reforms came too late for the Angevins however, and only the Capetians saw the beneficial effects of this reform after they annexed the area. Aquitaine differed in the level of administration in its different constituent regions. Gascony was a very loosely administered region. Officials were stationed mostly in Entre-Deux-Mers , Bayonne , Dax , but some were found on
16340-519: The Angevins during John's rule as he attempted to consolidate his power. Officials could be stationed in Poitou , however, due to a large concentration of castles compared to the rest of Aquitaine. Normandy was the most consistently administered state within the continental Angevin Empire. Under Angevin rule , ducal government was regularised and strengthened, with the Seneschal of Normandy becoming
16555-678: The Bald ) and then the eastern ( Charles the Fat ), who briefly reunited the Empire, attaining the prize. In the 9th century, Charlemagne and his successors promoted the intellectual revival, known as the Carolingian Renaissance . Some, like Mortimer Chambers, opine that the Carolingian Renaissance made possible the subsequent renaissances (even though by the early 10th century, the revival already diminished). After
16770-550: The Burgundian territories lost to France . Although the Italian territories were formally part of the empire, the territories were ignored in the Imperial Reform and splintered into numerous de facto independent territorial entities. The status of Italy in particular varied throughout the 16th to 18th centuries. Some territories like Piedmont-Savoy became increasingly independent, while others became more dependent due to
16985-703: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French
17200-917: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
17415-599: The Carolingian king Louis the Child died without issue in 911, East Francia did not turn to the Carolingian ruler of West Francia to take over the realm but instead elected one of the dukes, Conrad of Franconia , as Rex Francorum Orientalium . On his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony ( r. 919–936 ), who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached
17630-544: The Empire were gradually reduced. Charles IV set Prague to be the seat of the Holy Roman emperor. After the death of Frederick II in 1250, Conrad IV , Frederick's son (died 1254), enjoyed a strong position having defeated his papal-backed rival anti-king , William of Holland (died 1256). However, Conrad's death was followed by the Interregnum , during which no king could achieve universal recognition, allowing
17845-491: The Empire, both Christians and Jews, moved into these areas. The gradual Germanization of these lands was a complex phenomenon that should not be interpreted in the biased terms of 19th-century nationalism . The eastward settlement expanded the influence of the empire to include Pomerania and Silesia , as did the intermarriage of the local, still mostly Slavic, rulers with German spouses. The Teutonic Knights were invited to Prussia by Duke Konrad of Masovia to Christianize
18060-485: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of
18275-594: The Franks and began an extensive expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, the Low Countries and beyond, linking the Frankish kingdom with Papal lands. Although antagonism about the expense of Byzantine domination had long persisted within Italy, a political rupture was set in motion in earnest in 726 by the iconoclasm of Emperor Leo III
18490-484: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained
18705-566: The Holy Roman emperor seized the city. Otto died young in 1002, and was succeeded by his cousin Henry II , who focused on Germany. Otto III's (and his mentor Pope Sylvester's) diplomatic activities coincided with and facilitated the Christianization and the spread of Latin culture in different parts of Europe. They coopted a new group of nations (Slavic) into the framework of Europe, with their empire functioning, as some remark, as
18920-643: The Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as
19135-613: The Isaurian , in what Pope Gregory II saw as the latest in a series of imperial heresies. In 797, the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VI was removed from the throne by his mother, Empress Irene , who declared herself sole ruler. As the Latin Church only regarded a male Roman emperor as the head of Christendom , Pope Leo III sought a new candidate for the dignity, excluding consultation with
19350-665: The King of Bohemia had a permanent and preeminent status as one of the Electors himself). At the same time, he built up Bohemia as the Luxembourghs' core land of the Empire and their dynastic base. His reign in Bohemia is often considered the land's Golden Age. According to Brady Jr. though, under all the glitter, one problem arose: the government showed an inability to deal with the German immigrant waves into Bohemia, thus leading to religious tensions and persecutions. The imperial project of
19565-606: The Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to
19780-451: The OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as a second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
19995-604: The Ottonian kings actually built their empire on the back of military and bureaucratic apparatuses as well as the cultural legacy they inherited from the Carolingians, who ultimately inherited these from the Late Roman Empire. He argues that the Ottonian empire was hardly an archaic kingdom of primitive Germans, maintained by personal relationships only and driven by the desire of the magnates to plunder and divide
20210-536: The Plantagenet, for a time, would re-establish dominion over much of western, central and northern France, before losing their possessions again, this time permanently. The term Angevin Empire is a neologism defining the lands of the House of Plantagenet: Henry II and his sons Richard I and John . Another son, Geoffrey , ruled Brittany and established a separate line there. As far as historians know, there
20425-600: The Plantagenet-Capetian relationship. Louis VII had been unsuccessful in his attempt to break Henry II down. Because of the Angevin control of England in 1154, it was pointless to object to the superiority of the overall Angevin forces over the Capetian ones. However, Henry II refused to back down despite Louis' apparent change of policy until the Norman Vexin was entirely recovered. Thomas Becket , then
20640-550: The Plantagenets had acquired. The adoption of the Angevin Empire label marked a re-evaluation of the times, considering that both English and French influence spread throughout the dominion in the half-century during which the union lasted. The term Angevin itself is the demonym for the residents of Anjou and its historic capital, Angers ; the Plantagenets were descended from Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou , hence
20855-451: The Plantagenets never claimed any sort of imperial title as implied by the term Angevin Empire . However, even if the Plantagenets themselves did not claim an imperial title, some chroniclers, often working for Henry II himself, did use the term empire to describe this assemblage of lands. The highest title was "king of England"; the other titles of dukes and counts of different areas held in France were completely and totally independent from
21070-573: The Reich", which tied the great imperial churches and their representatives to imperial service, thus providing "a stable and long-lasting framework for Germany". During the Ottonian era, imperial women played a prominent role in political and ecclesiastic affairs, often combining their functions as religious leader and advisor, regent or co-ruler, notably Matilda of Ringelheim , Eadgyth , Adelaide of Italy , Theophanu , and Matilda of Quedlinburg . In 963, Otto deposed John XII and chose Leo VIII as
21285-607: The Welfs from their possessions, but after his death in 1152, his nephew Frederick Barbarossa succeeded him and made peace with the Welfs, restoring his cousin Henry the Lion to his – albeit diminished – possessions. The Hohenstaufen rulers increasingly lent land to " ministeriales ", formerly non-free servicemen, who Frederick hoped would be more reliable than dukes. Initially used mainly for war services, this new class of people would form
21500-611: The Young King with a dowry of the Norman Vexin. Henry II was given back the castles of Moulins-la-Marche and Bonmoulins. Theobald V, Count of Blois handed Amboise and Fréteval back to him. The counts of Flanders had long been powerful but capricious allies of the kings of France. Count Thierry had taken part in Louis VII's early assaults against Henry II, and Henry had expelled all Flemish mercenaries in England at
21715-457: The aid of Queen Adelaide of Italy , defeating her enemies, marrying her, and taking control over Italy. In 955, Otto won a decisive victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld . In 962, Otto was crowned emperor by Pope John XII , thus intertwining the affairs of the German kingdom with those of Italy and the Papacy. Otto's coronation as emperor marked the German kings as successors to
21930-473: The annual income of England was £10,500, or around half what the revenue had been under Henry I . This was due in part to The Anarchy and King Stephen 's loose rule resulting in the reduction of royal authority. As time went on, royal authority improved and the revenue consequently went up to an average of £22,000 a year. Due to the preparation for the Third Crusade , revenue then increased to over £31,000 in 1190 under Richard . The number fell again to £11,000
22145-560: The backing of the French Pope, Clement V (established at Avignon in 1309), and that his prospects of bringing the empire into the orbit of the French royal house were good. He lavishly spread French money in the hope of bribing the German electors. Although Charles of Valois had the backing of pro-French Henry, Archbishop of Cologne , many were not keen to see an expansion of French power, least of all Clement V. The principal rival to Charles appeared to be Count Palatine Rudolf II . But
22360-474: The basis for the later knights , another basis of imperial power. A further important constitutional move at Roncaglia was the establishment of a new peace mechanism for the entire empire, the Landfrieden , with the first imperial one being issued in 1103 under Henry IV at Mainz . This was an attempt to abolish private feuds, between the many dukes and other people, and to tie the emperor's subordinates to
22575-489: The channel and arrived in England while Geoffrey kept the pressure on Normandy. Stephen was captured in February 1141 at the Battle of Lincoln , which prompted the collapse of his authority in both England and Normandy. Geoffrey now controlled almost all of Normandy, but no longer had the support of Aquitaine now that William X had been succeeded by his daughter, Eleanor , who had married Louis VII of France in 1137. Louis
22790-588: The conflict while Henry's defences held against his enemies. After seven months of battles and politics, Henry failed to get rid of Stephen but then Stephen's son, Eustace, died in dubious circumstances, "struck by the wrath of god." Stephen gave up the struggle by ratifying the Treaty of Winchester , making Henry his heir on condition that the landed possessions of his family were guaranteed in England and France—the same terms Matilda had previously refused after her victory at Lincoln. Henry became King Henry II of England upon Stephen's death on 25 October 1154. Subsequently,
23005-549: The construction of the castles of Chinon , Loches and Loudun exemplify. Fulk IV married his son and namesake, called " Fulk the Younger " (who would later become King of Jerusalem ), to Ermengarde , heiress of the province of Maine, thus unifying it with Anjou through personal union . While the dynasty of the Angevins was successfully consolidating their power in France, their rivals, the Normans , had conquered England in
23220-399: The continental domains that the Angevin kings ruled were governed by a seneschal at the top of the hierarchical system, with lesser government officials such as baillis , vicomtes , and prévôts . However, all counties and duchies would differ to an extent. Greater Anjou is a modern term to describe the area consisting of Anjou , Maine, Touraine, Vendôme , and Saintonge . Here, prévôts,
23435-772: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire , also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe , usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor . It developed in the Early Middle Ages and lasted for almost
23650-541: The county, the citizens rose up against Hoël in 1156 and installed Henry II's brother Geoffrey in Hoël's place as count, at Henry II's suggestion. In September, this was followed up with a successful invasion of the duchy by Conan against his stepfather, Eudo, ending in Conan's accession as Duke of Brittany, albeit with Nantes remaining under direct Angevin control. However by 1158, Geoffrey had died and Conan seized Nantes. Nantes
23865-534: The crown was not in question, rather its practical allocation in such a wide region which lacked a general administrative apparatus. Far from a broad diminution of royal power, the Mainz Landfriede was a constitutional recalibration based on the culmination of multi-decade political realities and a testament to Frederick II's considerable political strength, his increased prestige during the early 1230s, and sheer overpowering might that he succeeded in securing
24080-511: The current Chancellor of England, was sent as ambassador to Paris in the summer of 1158 to lead negotiations. He displayed all the wealth the Angevins could provide and, according to William Fitzstephen , a clerk and companion of Becket, a Frenchman exclaimed "If the Chancellor of England travels in such splendor, what must the king be?" Louis VII's daughter, Margaret , who was still a baby, was betrothed to Henry's heir, his eldest son, Henry
24295-502: The death of Charles the Fat in 888, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, and was never restored. According to Regino of Prüm , the parts of the realm "spewed forth kinglets", and each part elected a kinglet "from its own bowels". The last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy , who died in 924. Around 900, East Francia's autonomous stem duchies ( Franconia , Bavaria , Swabia , Saxony , and Lotharingia ) reemerged. After
24510-519: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French
24725-771: The dissolution of the Empire. At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, most of the Holy Roman Empire was included in the German Confederation , with the main exceptions being the Italian states. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control. In the late 5th and early 6th centuries, the Merovingians , under Clovis I and his successors, consolidated Frankish tribes and extended hegemony over others to gain control of northern Gaul and
24940-503: The dual election of Frederick Barbarossa's youngest son Philip of Swabia and Henry the Lion's son Otto of Brunswick , who competed for the crown. After Philip was murdered in a private squabble in 1208, Otto prevailed for a while, until he began to also claim Sicily. Pope Innocent III , who feared the threat posed by a union of the empire and Sicily, was now supported by Frederick II, who marched to Germany and defeated Otto. After his victory, Frederick did not act upon his promise to keep
25155-610: The earlier years of his reign, Henry II claimed further lands and worked on the creation of a ring of vassal states as buffers, especially around England and Normandy. The most obvious areas to expand, where large claims were held, were Scotland , Wales , Brittany, and, as an ally rather than a new dominion, Flanders . King David I of Scotland had taken advantage of The Anarchy to seize Cumberland , Westmorland and Northumberland . In Wales, important leaders like Rhys of Deheubarth and Owain Gwynedd had emerged. In Brittany, there
25370-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French
25585-402: The electors, the great territorial magnates who had lived without a crowned emperor for decades, were unhappy with both Charles and Rudolf. Instead Count Henry of Luxembourg , with the aid of his brother, Archbishop Baldwin of Trier , was elected as Henry VII with six votes at Frankfurt on 27 November 1308. Though a vassal of King Philip, Henry was bound by few national ties, and thus suitable as
25800-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as
26015-420: The emperor had repeatedly protected Henry the Lion against complaints by rival princes or cities (especially in the cases of Munich and Lübeck ). Henry gave only lackluster support to Frederick's policies, and, in a critical situation during the Italian wars, Henry refused the emperor's plea for military support. After returning to Germany, an embittered Frederick opened proceedings against the duke, resulting in
26230-457: The emperor's theoretical legitimacy from the beginning rested on the concept of translatio imperii , that he held supreme power inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome . Nevertheless, in the Holy Roman Empire, the imperial office was traditionally elective by the mostly German prince-electors . In theory and diplomacy, the emperors were considered the first among equals of all Europe's Catholic monarchs. A process of Imperial Reform in
26445-546: The emperor, negotiated with him. On 6 August 1806, Emperor Francis II abdicated and formally dissolved the empire following the creation – the month before, by French emperor Napoleon – of the Confederation of the Rhine , a confederation of German client states loyal not to the Holy Roman emperor but to France. Since Charlemagne , the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire . The term sacrum ("holy", in
26660-586: The empire of Charlemagne, which through the concept of translatio imperii , also made them consider themselves as successors to Ancient Rome. The flowering of arts beginning with Otto the Great's reign is known as the Ottonian Renaissance , centered in Germany but also happening in Northern Italy and France. Otto created the imperial church system, often called "Ottonian church system of
26875-494: The end of the German Empire , it was often called "the old Empire" ( das alte Reich ). Beginning in 1923, early twentieth-century German nationalists and Nazi Party propaganda would identify the Holy Roman Empire as the "First" Reich ( Erstes Reich , Reich meaning empire), with the German Empire as the "Second" Reich and what would eventually become Nazi Germany as the "Third" Reich. David S. Bachrach opines that
27090-631: The establishment of Norman customs and institutions that would last until the French Revolution . Stephen continued to claim Normandy , believing an alliance with Louis was possible. Louis VII had recognised Henry as duke of Normandy in August 1151 in exchange for concessions in the Norman Vexin , but remained angered by Henry and Geoffrey's treatment of Giraud II of Montreuil-Berlay following Giraud's failed rebellion against Angevin rule
27305-413: The expected invasion. Henry also had plans for turning the Empire into a hereditary monarchy, although this met with opposition from some of the princes and the pope. The emperor suddenly died in 1197, leading to the partial collapse of his empire. As his son, Frederick II , though already elected king, was still a small child and living in Sicily, German princes chose to elect an adult king, resulting in
27520-415: The extent of Angevin rule, Henry's son John was defeated in the Anglo-French War (1213–1214) by Philip II of France following the Battle of Bouvines . John lost control of most of his continental possessions , apart from Guyenne and Gascony in southern Aquitaine . This defeat set the scene for further conflicts between England and France, leading up to the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), in which
27735-412: The extinction of their ruling noble houses causing these territories to often fall under the dominions of the Habsburgs and their cadet branches . Barring the loss of Franche-Comté in 1678 , the external borders of the Empire did not change noticeably from the Peace of Westphalia – which acknowledged the exclusion of Switzerland and the Northern Netherlands, and the French protectorate over Alsace – to
27950-448: The fields of Roncaglia in 1158 reclaimed imperial rights in reference to Justinian I 's Corpus Juris Civilis . Imperial rights had been referred to as regalia since the Investiture Controversy but were enumerated for the first time at Roncaglia. This comprehensive list included public roads, tariffs, coining , collecting punitive fees, and the seating and unseating of office-holders. These rights were now explicitly rooted in Roman law ,
28165-406: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of
28380-408: The form of old Roman foundations or older bishoprics . Cities that were founded in the 12th century include Freiburg , possibly the economic model for many later cities, and Munich . Frederick Barbarossa was crowned emperor in 1155. He emphasized the "Romanness" of the empire, partly in an attempt to justify the power of the emperor independent of the (now strengthened) pope. An imperial assembly at
28595-439: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,
28810-408: The fragility the civil war had brought to England. In Ireland, the revenue was fairly low at £2,000 for 1212; however, all other records did not survive. For Normandy, there were many fluctuations relative to the politics of the Duchy. The Norman revenues were only £6,750 in 1180, then they reached £25,000 a year in 1198, higher than in England. What was more impressive was that the Norman population
29025-715: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being
29240-457: The interests of order and local peace. The inevitable result was the territorial particularism of churchmen, lay princes, and interstitial cities. However, Frederick was a ruler of vast territories and "could not be everywhere at once". The transference of jurisdiction was a practical solution to secure the further support of the German princes and, moreover, was a process which had already been underway even under Henry VI and Frederick Barbarossa. It
29455-438: The king and defend all of their lands at once. The power of the English earls had grown during the Anarchy between Matilda and Stephen, as she and he vied for support by granting earldoms to various barons, but this reversed beginning with Henry II, whose reign saw the number of earls halve from twenty-four to twelve. England instead saw a reliance on the exchequer to provide both financial and administrative control on behalf of
29670-467: The king eventually led to the emergence of a fixed college of prince-electors ( Kurfürsten ), whose composition and procedures were set forth in the Golden Bull of 1356 , issued by Charles IV (reigned 1355–1378, King of the Romans since 1346), which remained valid until 1806. This development probably best symbolizes the emerging duality between emperor and realm ( Kaiser und Reich ), which were no longer considered identical. The Golden Bull also set forth
29885-515: The king of France again. Flanders would provide Henry II with knights in exchange of an annual tribute in money, known as a "money-fief". In 1148, Conan III, Duke of Brittany , died, leaving behind two children. Although his son Hoël was the natural choice to succeed to the ducal throne, evidence suggests that Hoël was illegitimate and instead he was only recognised as Count of Nantes . Hoël's sister Bertha became Duchess of Brittany, ruling alongside her husband, Eudo of Porhoët . However Bertha had
30100-414: The king of the sacral status he had previously enjoyed. The pope and the German princes had surfaced as major players in the political system of the Holy Roman Empire. As the result of Ostsiedlung, less populated regions of Central Europe (i.e. sparsely populated border areas in present-day Poland and Czechia) received a significant number of German speakers. Silesia became part of the Holy Roman Empire as
30315-399: The king, declared him deposed, and dissolved the oaths of loyalty made to Henry. The king found himself with almost no political support and was forced to make the famous Walk to Canossa in 1077, by which he achieved a lifting of the excommunication at the price of humiliation. Meanwhile, the German princes had elected another king, Rudolf of Swabia . Henry managed to defeat Rudolf, but
30530-411: The land had jurisdiction, from which other powers derived. Jurisdiction at the time did not include legislation, which was virtually nonexistent until well into the 15th century. Court practice heavily relied on traditional customs or rules described as customary. During this time, territories began to transform into the predecessors of modern states. The process varied greatly among the various lands and
30745-401: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
30960-424: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon
31175-501: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,
31390-428: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what
31605-514: The late 15th and early 16th centuries transformed the empire, creating a set of institutions which endured until its final demise in the 19th century. According to historian Thomas Brady Jr., the empire after the Imperial Reform was a political body of remarkable longevity and stability, and "resembled in some respects the monarchical polities of Europe's western tier, and in others the loosely integrated, elective polities of East Central Europe." The new corporate German Nation, instead of simply obeying
31820-418: The middle Rhine river valley region. By the middle of the 8th century, the Merovingians were reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians , led by Charles Martel , became the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel's son Pepin became King of the Franks, and later gained the sanction of the Pope. The Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768, Pepin's son Charlemagne became King of
32035-421: The moderately powerful but already old duke of Saxony. When he died in 1137, the princes again aimed to check royal power; accordingly they did not elect Lothair's favoured heir, his son-in-law, Henry the Proud of the Welf family, but Conrad III of the Hohenstaufen family, the grandson of Emperor Henry IV and nephew of Emperor Henry V. This led to over a century of strife between the two houses. Conrad ousted
32250-454: The national suffix as include it. In a famous assessment of the name, the political philosopher Voltaire remarked sardonically: "This body which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire." In the modern period, the Empire was often informally called the German Empire ( Deutsches Reich ) or Roman-German Empire ( Römisch-Deutsches Reich ). After its dissolution through
32465-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by
32680-401: The new pope (although John XII and Leo VIII both claimed the papacy until 964, when John XII died). This also renewed the conflict with the Byzantine emperor, especially after Otto's son Otto II ( r. 967–983 ) adopted the designation imperator Romanorum . Still, Otto II formed marital ties with the east when he married the Byzantine princess Theophanu . Their son, Otto III , came to
32895-431: The new power of Carolingian Francia . Charlemagne adopted the formula Renovatio imperii Romanorum ("renewal of the Roman Empire"). In 802, Irene was overthrown and exiled by Nikephoros I and henceforth there were two Roman emperors. After Charlemagne died in 814, the imperial crown passed to his son, Louis the Pious . Upon Louis' death in 840, it passed to his son Lothair , who had been his co-ruler. By this point
33110-466: The nobles previously loyal to Henry I against Matilda. In November, Henry was dying; Matilda was with her husband in Maine and Anjou while Stephen , brother of the Count of Blois and Champagne , who was Matilda's cousin and another contender for the English and Norman thrones, was in Boulogne . Stephen rushed to England upon the news of Henry's death and was crowned King of England in December 1135. Geoffrey first sent his wife Matilda alone to Normandy in
33325-475: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of
33540-427: The pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela and also on the river Garonne up to Agen . The rest of Gascony was not administered, despite being such a large area compared to other smaller, well-administered provinces. This difficulty when it came to administering the region wasn't new – it had been just as difficult for the previous Poitevin dukes to cement their authority over this area. A similar state of affairs
33755-413: The pre-eminent figure in Norman government. The seneschals' administrative and judicial power peaked with William FitzRalph . Below them were the baillis, who held both executive, judicial and financial powers. These officials were introduced under Geoffrey of Anjou , replacing the weaker prévôts and vicomtes, in response to the unrest that followed Henry I 's death and Geoffrey's invasion. Ducal authority
33970-401: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French
34185-403: The princes to consolidate their holdings and become even more independent as rulers. After 1257, the crown was contested between Richard of Cornwall , who was supported by the Guelph party , and Alfonso X of Castile , who was recognized by the Hohenstaufen party but never set foot on German soil. After Richard's death in 1273, Rudolf I of Germany , a minor pro-Hohenstaufen count, was elected. He
34400-451: The princes' support and rebound them to Hohenstaufen power. The Kingdom of Bohemia was a significant regional power during the Middle Ages . In 1212, King Ottokar I (bearing the title "king" since 1198) extracted a Golden Bull of Sicily (a formal edict) from Emperor Frederick II, confirming the royal title for Ottokar and his descendants, and the Duchy of Bohemia was raised to a kingdom. Bohemia's political and financial obligations to
34615-608: The question was again raised of Henry's oath to cede Anjou to his brother Geoffrey. Henry received a dispensation from Pope Adrian IV under the pretext the oath had been forced upon him, and he proposed compensations to Geoffrey at Rouen in 1156. Geoffrey refused and returned to Anjou to rebel against his brother. Geoffrey may have had a strong claim, but his position was weak. Louis would not interfere since Henry paid homage to him for his continental possessions. Henry crushed Geoffrey's revolt, and Geoffrey had to be satisfied with an annual pension. The Angevin Empire had now been formed. In
34830-509: The regional kingdoms), imperium christianum ("Christian empire"), or Romanum imperium ("Roman empire"), but the Emperor's legitimacy always rested on the concept of translatio imperii , that he held supreme power inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome . In a decree following the Diet of Cologne in 1512, the name was changed to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation ( German : Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation , Latin : Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Germanicae ),
35045-407: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in
35260-399: The result of the local Piast dukes' push for autonomy from the Polish Crown. From the late 12th century, the Duchy of Pomerania was under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire and the conquests of the Teutonic Order made that region German-speaking. When the Salian dynasty ended with Henry V's death in 1125, the princes chose not to elect the next of kin, but rather Lothair III ,
35475-411: The rewards among themselves but instead, notable for their abilities to amass sophisticated economic, administrative, educational and cultural resources that they used to serve their enormous war machine. Until the end of the 15th century, the empire was in theory composed of three major blocs – Italy , Germany and Burgundy . Later territorially only the Kingdom of Germany and Bohemia remained, with
35690-465: The right to build fortification. The 1232 Statutum in favorem principum mostly extended these privileges to secular territories. Although many of these privileges had existed earlier, they were now granted globally, and once and for all, to allow the German princes to maintain order north of the Alps while Frederick concentrated on Italy. The 1232 document marked the first time that the German dukes were called domini terrae , owners of their lands,
35905-457: The royal principality of the king of France generated alone more incomes than all the Angevin Empire combined. The Counts of Anjou had been vying for power in northwestern France since the 10th century. The counts were recurrent enemies of the dukes of Normandy and of Brittany and often the French king . Fulk IV, Count of Anjou , claimed rule over Touraine, Maine and Nantes ; however, of these only Touraine proved to be effectively ruled, as
36120-460: The royal principality was more centralized under Louis VII and Philip II than it had been under Hugh Capet or Robert the Pious . The wealth of the Plantagenet kings was definitely regarded as bigger; Gerald of Wales commented on this wealth with these words: One may therefore ask how King Henry II and his sons, in spite of their many wars, possessed so much treasure. The reason is that as their fixed returns yielded less they took care to make up
36335-404: The royal throne, she and her new husband needed castles and supporters in both England and Normandy, but if they succeeded, there would be two authorities in England: the king and Matilda. Henry prevented the conflict by refusing to hand over any castles to Matilda as well as confiscating the lands of the nobles he suspected of supporting her. By 1135, major disputes between Henry I and Matilda drove
36550-407: The royal title, and not subject to any English royal law. Because of this, some historians, such as W. L. Warren , prefer the term commonwealth to empire , emphasising that the Angevin Empire was more of an assemblage of seven fully independent, sovereign states loosely bound to each other, only united in the person of the king of England. At its largest extent, the Angevin Empire consisted of
36765-435: The ruling monarch, saw power delegated to specially appointed subjects in different areas. Supported by what W. L. Warren called a "self-regulating administrative machine", these subjects had varied political and military powers. England was under the firmest control of all the lands in the Angevin Empire, due to the age of many of the offices that governed the country and the traditions and customs that were in place. England
36980-468: The ruling monarch. Wales obtained good terms provided it paid homage to the Plantagenets and recognised them as lords. However, it remained almost self-ruling. It supplied the Plantagenets with infantry and longbowmen . Ireland was ruled by the Lord of Ireland , who at first had great difficulty imposing his rule. Dublin and Leinster were Angevin strongholds, while Cork , Limerick and parts of eastern Ulster were taken by Anglo-Norman nobles. All
37195-477: The sense of "consecrated") in connection with the medieval Roman Empire was used beginning in 1157 under Frederick I Barbarossa ("Holy Empire"): the term was added to reflect Frederick's ambition to dominate Italy and the Papacy . The form "Holy Roman Empire" is attested from 1254 onward. The exact term "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century, before which the empire was referred to variously as universum regnum ("the whole kingdom", as opposed to
37410-419: The suzerainty over Tunis and Tripolitania and paid tribute. Fearing the power of Henry, the most powerful monarch in Europe since Charlemagne, the other European kings formed an alliance. But Henry broke this coalition by blackmailing English king Richard the Lionheart . The Byzantine emperor worried that Henry would turn his Crusade plan against his empire, and began to collect the alamanikon to prepare against
37625-403: The system for election of the Holy Roman Emperor. The emperor now was to be elected by a majority rather than by consent of all seven electors. For electors the title became hereditary, and they were given the right to mint coins and to exercise jurisdiction. Also it was recommended that their sons learn the imperial languages – German , Latin , Italian , and Czech . The decision by Charles IV
37840-440: The term Empire . Some historians argue that the term should be reserved solely for the Holy Roman Empire , the only Western European political structure actually named an empire at that time, although Alfonso VII of León and Castile had taken the title "Emperor of all Spain" in 1135. Other historians argue that Henry II 's empire was neither powerful, centralised , nor large enough to be seriously called an empire. Furthermore,
38055-432: The term. The demonym, according to the Oxford English Dictionary , has been in use since 1511. The use of the term Empire has engendered controversy among some historians over whether the term is accurate for the actual state of affairs at the time. The area was a collection of the lands inherited and acquired by Henry, and so it is unclear whether these dominions shared any common identity and so should be labelled with
38270-403: The territory of Charlemagne was divided into several territories ( cf . Treaty of Verdun , Treaty of Prüm , Treaty of Meerssen and Treaty of Ribemont ), and over the course of the later 9th century the title of emperor was disputed by the Carolingian rulers of the Western Frankish Kingdom or West Francia and the Eastern Frankish Kingdom or East Francia , with first the western king ( Charles
38485-542: The throne only three years old, and was subjected to a power struggle and series of regencies until his age of majority in 994. Up to that time, he remained in Germany, while a deposed duke, Crescentius II , ruled over Rome and part of Italy, ostensibly in his stead. In 996 Otto III appointed his cousin Gregory V the first German pope. A foreign pope and foreign papal officers were seen with suspicion by Roman nobles, who were led by Crescentius II to revolt. Otto III's former mentor Antipope John XVI briefly held Rome, until
38700-423: The time of his accession, but much of Flanders' prosperity relied on English trade and England traded much of its wool via the Flemish port of Boulogne. Henry, therefore, was able to re-establish friendly relations to the extent that Thierry appointed Henry guardian of his eldest son and regent, Philip , when Thierry undertook his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1157. When William of Blois died without an heir in 1159,
38915-399: The titles of Count of Boulogne and Count of Mortain fell vacant. Henry II absorbed Mortain into his Duchy of Normandy, but granted Boulogne and William's sister, Mary , to Thierry's second son, Matthew . Through this marriage, and the 1163 renewal of a previous treaty between Henry I of England , and Robert II of Flanders , Henry II was assured of Flemish neutrality if war broke out with
39130-405: The total by extraordinary levies, relying more and more on these than on the ordinary sources of revenue. Petit Dutailli had commented that: "Richard maintained a superiority in resources which would have given him the opportunity, had he lived, to crush his rival." There is another interpretation, not widely followed and proven wrong, that the king of France could have raised a stronger income, that
39345-414: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
39560-619: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French
39775-437: The two realms separate. Though he had made his son Henry king of Sicily before marching on Germany, he still reserved real political power for himself. This continued after Frederick was crowned emperor in 1220. Fearing Frederick's concentration of power, the pope finally excommunicated him. Another point of contention was the Crusade, which Frederick had promised but repeatedly postponed. Now, although excommunicated, Frederick led
39990-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by
40205-425: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of
40420-530: The wake of the Cluniac Reforms , this involvement was increasingly seen as inappropriate by the Papacy. The reform-minded Pope Gregory VII was determined to oppose such practices, which led to the Investiture Controversy with King Henry IV ( r. 1056–1106 , crowned emperor in 1084). Henry IV repudiated the pope's interference and persuaded his bishops to excommunicate the pope, whom he famously addressed by his birth name "Hildebrand" rather than his papal name "Gregory". The pope, in turn, excommunicated
40635-468: The western world to such an extent that historians consider it to be one of the most fortunate and flourishing of the provinces of Gaul . Its fields are fertile, its vineyards productive and its forests teem with wild life. From the Pyrenees northwards the whole countryside is irrigated by the River Garonne and other streams, indeed it is from these life-giving waters that the province takes its name. The Capetian kings did not record such incomes, although
40850-481: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of
41065-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as
41280-498: The year before. This situation quickly began to shift when, in September, Geoffrey died and Henry inherited his position as Count of Anjou, with rule also over Touraine and Maine. Geoffrey had planned to leave Anjou to his younger son, Geoffrey , but this would have hampered Henry's ability to succeed in conquering England. Geoffrey instead asked his vassals to swear that his body would be left unburied until Henry promised to abide by his wishes. W. L. Warren suggested that this story
41495-510: Was Count of Flanders from 1127. Henry used his paternal inheritance to take the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of England and then tried to establish an alliance with Anjou by marrying his only legitimate son, William , to Fulk the Younger's daughter, Matilda . However, William died in the White Ship disaster in 1120. As a result, Henry then married his own daughter Matilda to Geoffrey "Plantagenet" , Fulk's son and successor; however, Henry's subjects had to accept Matilda's inheritance to
41710-441: Was a major turning point toward the partitioning of central rule in the Empire. Since his political focus was south of the Alps, he was mostly absent from Germany and issued far-reaching privileges to Germany's secular and ecclesiastical princes to ensure their cooperation. In the 1220 Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis , Frederick gave up a number of regalia in favour of the bishops, among them tariffs, coining , and
41925-519: Was considerably smaller than England's, an estimated 1.5 million as opposed to England's 3.5 million. This period has become known as the 'Norman Fiscal Revolution' due to this increase in revenue. For Aquitaine and Anjou, no records remain. However, it is not because these regions were poor; there were large vineyards , important cities and iron mines. For example, this is what English chronicler Ralph of Diceto wrote about Aquitaine: Aquitaine overflows with riches of many kinds, excelling other parts of
42140-540: Was divided in shires with sheriffs in each enforcing the common law . A justiciar was appointed by the king to stand in his absence when he was on the continent. As the kings of England were more often in France than England they used writs more frequently than the Anglo-Saxon kings, which actually proved beneficial to England. Under William I's rule, Anglo-Saxon nobles had been largely replaced by Anglo-Norman settlers whose lands were split between England and France. This made it much harder for them to revolt against
42355-531: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but
42570-451: Was especially important to Henry II as it sat at the mouth of the Loire , and threatened trade from Angers and Tours . Henry II responded to this seizure by mustering an army in Avranches , as well as threatening Conan's English estates. Conan submitted, ceding Nantes back to Henry II and in return was recognised as Duke. During Conan's rule, Henry II continued to intervene—he arranged Conan's marriage to Margaret of Scotland and appointed
42785-517: Was formally recognised by Louis VII. However, Geoffrey still didn't assist Matilda even as she was on the verge of defeat. Further rebellion occurred in Anjou, including Geoffrey's younger brother, Helie , demanding Maine. It was during this period of Angevin unrest that Geoffrey dropped the title of duke of Normandy and formally invested his son Henry as duke in 1150, though both Geoffrey and Matilda would continue to dominate Norman affairs. The following six decades of Angevin rule over Normandy would see
43000-431: Was found in the eastern provinces of Périgord and Limousin , where there was not much of a royal administrative system and practically no officials were stationed. Indeed, there were lords that ruled these regions as if they were "sovereign princes" and they had extra powers, such as the ability to mint their own coins, something English lords had been unable to do for decades. The Lusignans , for example, became rivals to
43215-400: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul
43430-469: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates
43645-448: Was most advanced in those territories that were almost identical to the lands of the old Germanic tribes, e.g. , Bavaria. It was slower in those scattered territories that were founded through imperial privileges. In the 12th century the Hanseatic League established itself as a commercial and defensive alliance of the merchant guilds of towns and cities in the empire and all over northern and central Europe. It dominated marine trade in
43860-404: Was no contemporary term for the region under Angevin control; however, descriptions such as "our kingdom and everything subject to our rule whatever it may be" were used. The term Angevin Empire was coined by Kate Norgate in her 1887 publication England under the Angevin Kings . In France, the term espace Plantagenet (French for "Plantagenet area") is sometimes used to describe the fiefdoms
44075-411: Was not able to travel to Normandy and so the situation remained. Geoffrey had found new allies with the Count of Vendôme and, most importantly, William X, Duke of Aquitaine . At the head of a new army and ready for conquest, Geoffrey was wounded and was forced to return to Anjou again. Furthermore, an outbreak of dysentery plagued his army. Orderic Vitalis stated "the invaders had to run for home leaving
44290-557: Was not concerned with the events in Normandy and England. While Geoffrey consolidated his Norman power, Matilda suffered defeats in England. At Winchester , Robert of Gloucester was captured while covering Matilda's retreat so Matilda freed Stephen in exchange for Robert. In 1142, Geoffrey was asked by Matilda for assistance but refused; he had become more interested in Normandy. Following the capture of Avranches , Mortain and Cherbourg , Rouen surrendered to him in 1144 and he anointed himself duke of Normandy. In exchange for Gisors , he
44505-461: Was often a difference between the frontier Henry II, and later Richard I, claimed, and the frontier where their effective power ended. Scotland was an independent kingdom, but after a disastrous campaign led by William the Lion , English garrisons were established in the castles of Edinburgh , Roxburgh , Jedburgh and Berwick in southern Scotland as defined in the Treaty of Falaise . The Angevin Empire, rather than being administered directly by
44720-411: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of
44935-417: Was spread purely to justify the younger Geoffrey's later rebellion against Henry, and that the Angevin nobles supported the story as it gave them an opportunity to reclaim their lost autonomy. In March 1152, Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine had their marriage annulled under the pretext of consanguinity at the council of Beaugency . The terms of the annulment left Eleanor as duchess of Aquitaine but still
45150-406: Was subsequently confronted with more uprisings, renewed excommunication, and even the rebellion of his sons. After his death, his second son, Henry V , reached an agreement with the Pope and the bishops in the 1122 Concordat of Worms . The political power of the Empire was maintained, but the conflict had demonstrated the limits of the ruler's power, especially in regard to the Church, and it robbed
45365-420: Was the first of the Habsburgs to hold a royal title, but he was never crowned emperor. After Rudolf's death in 1291, Adolf and Albert were two further weak kings who were never crowned emperor. Albert was assassinated in 1308. Almost immediately, King Philip IV of France began aggressively seeking support for his brother, Charles of Valois , to be elected the next king of the Romans. Philip thought he had
45580-437: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,
45795-481: Was the strongest on the frontier near the Capetian royal demesne . Toulouse was held through weak vassalage by the Count of Toulouse but it was rare for him to comply with Angevin rule. Only Quercy was directly administered by the Angevins after Henry II's conquest in 1159, but it did remain a contested area. Brittany , a region where nobles were traditionally very independent, was under Angevin control during Henry II and Richard I's reigns. The county of Nantes
46010-448: Was under the firmest control. The Angevins often involved themselves in Breton affairs, such as when Henry II arranged Conan of Brittany 's marriage and installed the archbishop of Dol . The economy of the Angevin Empire was quite complicated due to the varying political structure of the different fiefdoms. England and Normandy were well administered and therefore would be able to generate larger revenues than areas such as Aquitaine. This
46225-534: Was used mostly for continental issues, although John Gillingham argues that although areas like Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitaine are recorded to have brought in less revenue compared to England, much of this is due to poor financial accounts for these continental possessions. Gillingham further argues that by the end of Richard's reign, Normandy may have been bringing in even more revenue to the royal treasury than England. The English revenues themselves varied from year to year. When financial records begin in 1155 to 1156,
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