France

===High and Late Middle Ages (10th–15th century)===
{{See also|France in the Middle Ages}}
[[File:Joan of Arc miniature graded.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Joan of Arc]] led the [[French Army]] to several important victories during the [[Hundred Years' War]] (1337–1453), which paved the way for the final victory.]]

The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when [[Hugh Capet]], [[Duke of the Franks|Duke of France]] and [[Count of Paris]], was crowned [[List of French monarchs|king of the Franks]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of France&nbsp;– The Capetian kings of France: AD 987–1328 |url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=1008&HistoryID=ab03&gtrack=pthc |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806020426/http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=1008&HistoryID=ab03&gtrack=pthc |archive-date=6 August 2011 |access-date=21 July 2011 |publisher=Historyworld.net}}</ref> This date is often used as the transition between [[West Francia]] and the [[Kingdom of France]]. His descendants{{Mdash}}the [[House of Capet|direct Capetians]], the [[House of Valois]] and the [[House of Bourbon]]{{Mdash}}progressively unified the country through wars and dynastic inheritance. Starting from 1190, during the reign of [[Philip II of France|Philip II]], the Capetian rulers began to be referred as "kings of France" (''rex Francie'') rather than "kings of the Franks" (''rex Francorum'').<ref>{{Cite book |last=Babbitt |first=Susan M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JyALAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA39 |title=Oresme's Livre de Politiques and the France of Charles V |date=1985 |publisher=[[American Philosophical Society]] |isbn=978-0-871-69751-6 |page=39 |ol=2874232M}}</ref> Later kings would expand their directly possessed [[Crown lands of France|''domaine royal'']] to cover over half of modern continental France by the 15th century, including most of the north, centre and west of France. During this process, the royal authority became more and more assertive, centred on a [[Estates of the realm|hierarchically conceived society]] distinguishing [[French nobility|nobility]], clergy, and [[Estates General (France)|commoners]].

The French nobility played a prominent role in most [[Crusades]] to restore Christian access to the [[Holy Land]]. French knights made up the bulk of the steady flow of reinforcements throughout the 200-year span of the Crusades, in such a fashion that the Arabs uniformly referred to the crusaders as ''Franj'' caring little whether they came from France.<ref name="google.fr">{{Cite book |last1=Nadeau |first1=Jean-Benoit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JYDOrzMpgGcC&pg=PT34 |title=The Story of French |last2=Barlow |first2=Julie |year= 2008 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-1-4299-3240-0 |pages=34ff |author-link=Jean-Benoît Nadeau |author-link2=Julie Barlow}}</ref> The French Crusaders also imported the French language into the [[Levant]], making [[Old French|French]] the base of the ''[[lingua franca]]'' (lit. "Frankish language") of the [[Crusader states]].<ref name="google.fr"/> French knights also made up the majority in both the [[Knights Hospitaller|Hospital]] and the [[Knights Templar|Temple orders]]. The latter in particular held numerous properties throughout France and by the 13th century were the principal bankers for the French crown, until [[Philip IV of France|Philip IV]] annihilated the order in 1307. The [[Albigensian Crusade]] was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical [[Catharism|Cathars]] in the southwestern area of modern-day France. In the end, the Cathars were exterminated and the autonomous [[Counts of Toulouse|County of Toulouse]] was annexed into the [[crown lands of France]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=28 April 1961 |title=Massacre of the Pure |magazine=Time |location=New York |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897752-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120172908/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897752-2,00.html |archive-date=20 January 2008}}</ref>

From the 11th century, the [[House of Plantagenet]], the rulers of the [[County of Anjou]], succeeded in establishing its dominion over the surrounding provinces of [[Maine (province)|Maine]] and [[Touraine]], then progressively built an "empire" that spanned from England to the [[Pyrenees]] and covering half of modern France. Tensions between the kingdom of France and the [[Angevin Empire|Plantagenet empire]] would last a hundred years, until [[Philip II of France]] conquered, between 1202 and 1214, most of the continental possessions of the empire, leaving England and [[Aquitaine]] to the Plantagenets.

[[Charles IV of France|Charles IV the Fair]] died without an heir in 1328.<ref name="guerard">{{Cite book |last=Guerard |first=Albert |title=France: A Modern History |date=1959 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |pages=100, 101 |author-link=Albert Léon Guérard}}</ref> Under [[Salic law]] the crown of France could not pass to a woman nor could the line of kingship pass through the female line.<ref name="guerard"/> Accordingly, the crown passed to [[Philip VI of France|Philip of Valois]], rather than through the female line to Edward of Plantagenet, who would soon become [[Edward III of England]]. During the reign of Philip of Valois, the French monarchy reached the height of its medieval power.<ref name="guerard"/> However Philip's seat on the throne was contested by Edward III of England in 1337, and England and France entered the off-and-on [[Hundred Years' War]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Templeman |first=Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Templeman |date=1952 |title=Edward III and the beginnings of the Hundred Years War |journal=Transactions of the Royal Historical Society |volume=2 |pages=69–88 |doi=10.2307/3678784|jstor=3678784 |s2cid=161389883 }}</ref> The boundaries changed greatly with time, but landholdings inside France by the English Kings remained extensive for decades. With charismatic leaders, such as [[Joan of Arc]] and [[La Hire]], strong French counterattacks won back most English continental territories. Like the rest of Europe, France was struck by the [[Black Death]], from which half of the 17&nbsp;million population of France died.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Le Roy Ladurie |first=Emmanuel |title=The French peasantry, 1450–1660 |date=1987 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-05523-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/frenchpeasantry10000lero/page/32 32] |author-link=Emmanuel}}; {{Cite book |first=Peter |last=Turchin |author-link=Peter Turchin |date=2003 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mUoCrTUo-eEC&pg=PA179 179] |title=Historical dynamics: why states rise and fall |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-11669-3}}</ref>