Popular in History

Arts and Humanities

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph”

McGill University Michael Fronda

Arts and Humanities

Lincoln and the Jews

Brandeis University Jonathan Sarna

Arts and Humanities

Early Modern Natural Law Theories

University of Copenhagen Knud Haakonssen

Arts and Humanities

Phoenicians Among Others: Why Migrants Mattered in the Ancient Mediterranean

University of California San Diego Denise Demetriou

Arts and Humanities

The loneliness of leadership

University of Liverpool Elaine Chalus

Arts and Humanities

La Güera Rodríguez

Brandeis University Silvia Arrom

Arts and Humanities

The Myth of Continuity in American Gun Culture

University of California Berkeley Brian DeLay

House of Lilies

View more insights in Arts and Humanities - History - European History - Medieval History

View more figures from University of St Andrews

View the page of Justine Firnhaber-Baker

Read the Book

Next in Arts and Humanities

Not in My Backyard

Brian Balogh | University of Virginia

The Mughal Royal Court Progress and the Conquest Landscape

Lisa Balabanlilar | Rice University

Justine Firnhaber-Baker discusses the story of the most powerful kingdom in Christendom. From Hugh Capet to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Capetians were men and women of vision and ambition, who considered themselves chosen by God to fulfil a great destiny.

Image courtesy of interviewee. June 4, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

This video is a summary of a discussion about a new book focused on the Capetian dynasty, which ruled France from 987 to 1328. The author notes that this is their first book aimed at a general audience, contrasting with their previous academic works. They emphasize the significance of the Capetian dynasty in European history, asserting it was one of the most important royal families, yet largely unknown among English speakers.

The author recounts their motivation for writing the book, which is to illuminate the fascinating history of the Capetians and to share the enjoyment of medieval history with others. The book is structured to follow the dynasty chronologically while exploring significant events, reigns, and personalities. It blends traditional historical analysis with engaging narratives to make the topic more accessible and enjoyable for readers who may not have prior knowledge about medieval France.

Key aspects discussed include the founding of the dynasty by Hugh Capet, the dynastic succession, territorial expansion, cultural identity, and the Pious branding of France as a crusading Catholic kingdom. This video also covers the later difficulties faced by the dynasty, including succession crises and the eventual rise of the Valois dynasty after the last Capetian king died without a male heir. The author expresses a hope that readers will connect with the human stories behind the historical figures and find the narrative compelling and enjoyable.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.195 --> 00:02.655
It is, however, my first book for

00:03.495 --> 00:04.935
a general audience, right?

00:05.155 --> 00:08.295
So my first couple of books were academic monographs.

00:08.435 --> 00:10.295
The first one came out of the book of my thesis.

00:11.075 --> 00:15.375
The second one has been read more widely,

00:15.395 --> 00:18.375
but it was very much, directed at,

00:18.515 --> 00:22.095
at quite narrow specialist set of readers.

00:23.315 --> 00:27.455
So I was very much interested in the opportunity here

00:27.595 --> 00:30.335
to talk to a wider audience

00:31.745 --> 00:34.495
about this royal dynasty, the Ians

00:34.635 --> 00:38.975
who ruled France from 9 87 to 1328.

00:40.645 --> 00:45.255
They are one of, I, I would argue they're certainly one

00:45.355 --> 00:50.295
of the most important royal dynasties of European history.

00:50.815 --> 00:52.895
I would argue they're probably the most important

00:53.195 --> 00:55.855
of medieval European history.

00:57.995 --> 01:00.985
But among English language speakers,

01:01.285 --> 01:02.865
people really haven't heard of them.

01:03.725 --> 01:07.705
And I think that's a real shame for a, a couple of reasons.

01:08.205 --> 01:12.265
Um, one of those reasons is simply

01:12.265 --> 01:13.745
because of their importance.

01:13.765 --> 01:18.625
So working in a British university,

01:19.185 --> 01:21.985
a lot of my students already know a lot about

01:22.005 --> 01:23.145
the Plantagenets.

01:23.725 --> 01:26.825
Um, but in fact, English,

01:26.825 --> 01:28.905
medieval history doesn't make a lot of sense

01:29.455 --> 01:30.585
without the captions.

01:30.605 --> 01:34.345
And suddenly they realize, that's why John did that.

01:34.975 --> 01:37.305
Okay. Oh, the Magna Carta doesn't actually make sense

01:37.305 --> 01:39.385
unless we think about that battle in France first.

01:41.315 --> 01:45.655
But the other reason I really wanted to write this book

01:45.655 --> 01:47.615
and that I'm so excited to have it out

01:47.635 --> 01:49.495
and to have people reading it is

01:49.495 --> 01:52.615
because the captions are just an enormous amount of fun.

01:54.035 --> 01:57.615
And I really wanted to just share the joy of the Ians.

01:58.175 --> 02:01.615
I teach a year long fourth year special subject on the Ians,

02:02.075 --> 02:05.455
and often my students come in not knowing anything.

02:05.555 --> 02:07.495
And by the end of it that, wow,

02:07.535 --> 02:10.575
medieval French history is, is just so interesting.

02:10.645 --> 02:13.455
Justine, I wanna go to Paris and see all of these places.

02:14.315 --> 02:18.295
Um, you know, I will never forget these characters you've

02:18.295 --> 02:19.415
taught me about,

02:20.035 --> 02:23.615
how history moves over this period, the art.

02:24.355 --> 02:28.055
So really getting that out there just in a way,

02:28.075 --> 02:29.575
giving people a good time.

02:29.675 --> 02:33.695
And, and, for me, reading popular

02:34.295 --> 02:38.295
medieval history as a teenager, there was this biography

02:38.295 --> 02:41.175
of Eleanor Vaquita that really got me into medieval history.

02:41.635 --> 02:43.335
So I'm hoping that some readers have

02:43.335 --> 02:44.495
that same kind of experience.

02:44.765 --> 02:48.895
Well, I wrote the book very much as a story.

02:50.075 --> 02:51.775
So the book moves chronologically.

02:52.275 --> 02:53.655
It follows this dynasty,

02:53.655 --> 02:55.855
this Denis a dynasty is a family, right?

02:55.915 --> 03:00.245
So there is a way in which this is a family history,

03:00.425 --> 03:03.765
as well as a history of, of a kingdom.

03:05.775 --> 03:09.055
I already knew very much the broad outlines

03:09.055 --> 03:12.895
of the story I wanted to tell from my own research

03:12.955 --> 03:14.175
and from my own teaching.

03:14.835 --> 03:19.215
So in terms of actually getting down into it,

03:19.535 --> 03:22.175
I already had this, this outline

03:22.195 --> 03:25.215
and this idea of how I was going

03:25.215 --> 03:29.375
to divide up the book in terms of turning points,

03:30.375 --> 03:32.455
specific reigns people I wanted to pay attention to.

03:34.165 --> 03:38.225
And so what I did to kind of fill that out was to think,

03:38.335 --> 03:42.945
okay, I know these stories now in terms of research,

03:43.405 --> 03:46.465
let me go back to the primary sources

03:46.855 --> 03:48.225
through the scholarship.

03:48.885 --> 03:52.975
Um, what basis do these stories have,

03:53.085 --> 03:54.855
what are the details I can draw out?

03:55.275 --> 03:59.295
And also writing for a broad audience,

04:00.005 --> 04:02.535
what are the kinds of things they're gonna wanna know

04:02.545 --> 04:03.935
about, right?

04:04.155 --> 04:06.135
So if I'm writing for an academic audience,

04:06.365 --> 04:07.935
they really don't care what anybody

04:07.965 --> 04:09.255
wore to the coronation, right?

04:10.355 --> 04:14.255
But people reading House of Lilies care about

04:14.415 --> 04:16.575
what people wore to the coronation.

04:16.995 --> 04:21.255
So it involved, using a lot of sources

04:21.965 --> 04:25.335
like Royal account books to find that kind

04:25.335 --> 04:28.335
of information out that I wouldn't normally have used.

04:28.435 --> 04:32.015
And it also involved, doing a lot more

04:32.015 --> 04:36.535
with visual sources and art history than I might, than I did

04:36.595 --> 04:38.055
for previous academic work.

04:38.395 --> 04:41.535
It was fascinating, and I think it actually

04:42.805 --> 04:47.535
gave me a much better sense of the Middle ages

04:48.075 --> 04:51.095
of, of, of this period, of the Middle Ages,

04:51.295 --> 04:55.455
because there is an extent to which in a book like this,

04:55.555 --> 04:56.615
you need to do something

04:56.615 --> 04:58.735
that fantasy authors call world building.

04:59.675 --> 05:03.415
So thinking about how this world feels, what are

05:04.115 --> 05:05.935
the social rules of the world?

05:06.715 --> 05:09.895
Um, and, and once you kind of have that getting,

05:10.485 --> 05:14.015
showing people what that world looks like, it gave me

05:14.315 --> 05:16.895
as a medieval historian, as an academic historian,

05:17.575 --> 05:20.255
actually a much better feel for the world I write about.

05:21.165 --> 05:22.855
Okay, well, several questions there.

05:22.875 --> 05:26.135
Let me, let me start with who the family was. Okay.

05:26.315 --> 05:30.615
So we date the beginning of the Ian Dynasty

05:31.475 --> 05:33.015
to the election

05:33.015 --> 05:37.015
and coronation of a man we now call Hugh Kabe.

05:37.755 --> 05:41.695
Um, so his first name Hugh, his surname Kabe

05:42.955 --> 05:45.295
may refer to it's his nickname, may refer

05:45.295 --> 05:47.815
to a short cloak he wore may refer

05:47.875 --> 05:50.335
to his association with St.

05:50.335 --> 05:52.655
Martin of Tour, who famously gives part

05:52.655 --> 05:53.815
of his cloak to a beggar.

05:54.995 --> 05:59.225
Um, Hugh Inaugurates,

05:59.565 --> 06:04.465
an unbroken line of Father to Son succession that lasts

06:04.465 --> 06:08.345
for three centuries, which is an

06:09.335 --> 06:13.385
unprecedented feat in European history.

06:13.385 --> 06:15.945
They're probably the longest

06:17.115 --> 06:19.625
lived direct father to Son Dynasty,

06:19.625 --> 06:21.265
certainly in Europe, maybe in the world.

06:24.955 --> 06:28.535
One of the sort of myth that grows up around

06:29.155 --> 06:33.535
Hughes Coronation is that he's a usper, that

06:34.115 --> 06:37.535
he sort of steals the crown from

06:38.155 --> 06:41.935
its proper inheritor, who is

06:42.575 --> 06:46.455
a descendant of the Emperor Charlemagne, who was crowned

06:47.235 --> 06:51.815
the first Western emperor in, since the fall

06:51.815 --> 06:53.775
of the Roman Empire in 800.

06:54.435 --> 06:56.295
And his dynasty, the Carol Engine,

06:56.435 --> 07:00.855
per the Carol Lyon dynasty, had been ruling this part

07:01.555 --> 07:06.415
of Europe, since the seventh, since the eighth century.

07:08.045 --> 07:09.975
That isn't actually true.

07:10.435 --> 07:13.255
Um, the Carol Engine claimant was,

07:13.755 --> 07:14.975
not a direct descendant.

07:15.235 --> 07:17.695
Um, and, and his succession was proper,

07:18.235 --> 07:21.095
and he was actually not the first of his line

07:21.675 --> 07:25.215
to become a king of this place.

07:25.235 --> 07:28.095
We now call France at the time was called, was Frankia.

07:28.205 --> 07:29.695
He's actually the fourth of his line.

07:30.355 --> 07:34.655
Um, his line up until Hugh Kepe, we call, we refer to

07:34.675 --> 07:38.655
as the reversions after its ninth century founder

07:39.115 --> 07:40.295
Robert the Strong.

07:40.835 --> 07:44.135
So there's a sort of a, a false distinction there,

07:44.205 --> 07:45.975
between the reversions and the cap.

07:46.715 --> 07:51.215
And there's also this sort of false sense that Hugh is,

07:51.405 --> 07:53.615
Hugh Kepe is some kind of upstart,

07:54.115 --> 07:56.695
and that the Ians are kind of interlopers.

07:57.755 --> 08:01.385
Um, so there, there are, there are major

08:01.965 --> 08:03.345
Prince Leaf family.

08:04.725 --> 08:08.585
The name Kian doesn't actually get given to the them

08:08.795 --> 08:10.705
until the French Revolution.

08:10.815 --> 08:12.585
They don't call themselves the Capitan.

08:12.845 --> 08:15.345
Um, it comes from,

08:16.215 --> 08:18.265
when Louis the 16th was tried

08:18.265 --> 08:20.825
by the revolutionary government under, they had

08:20.825 --> 08:22.385
to give him a surname to make him feel

08:22.385 --> 08:23.505
like a regular citizen.

08:23.685 --> 08:25.745
So they called him Louis Cappe

08:26.075 --> 08:29.065
after the founder of that dynasty.

08:30.245 --> 08:35.065
So, but that initial direct line of captions

08:35.065 --> 08:39.465
that rules France for 300 years, as I argued

08:39.485 --> 08:41.825
as the subtitle of my book, advertises,

08:42.005 --> 08:44.225
really made Medieval France.

08:45.205 --> 08:48.025
And they did that in a couple of different ways.

08:49.005 --> 08:51.665
So territorially, if we look,

08:51.685 --> 08:54.385
and politically if we look at the territory

08:54.385 --> 08:57.725
that becomes medieval France, when Hugh Cappe comes to it

08:58.705 --> 09:01.685
in 9 87, it is very fragmented.

09:01.825 --> 09:02.845
It is quite large.

09:03.385 --> 09:06.485
Um, it covers an area from about Catalonia through

09:06.595 --> 09:08.045
what is today Flanders.

09:08.385 --> 09:09.965
Um, but it's very fragmented

09:09.985 --> 09:12.285
and Hugh doesn't have much control over it.

09:14.085 --> 09:15.145
And for the first century

09:15.325 --> 09:17.585
or so that, that kind of gets worse,

09:17.885 --> 09:21.065
but in a few decades between 1180

09:21.525 --> 09:25.305
and 1230, the Capitan,

09:26.125 --> 09:29.025
hugely expand their own territory and consolidate it.

09:29.125 --> 09:33.985
So they take Normandy from, the English king.

09:34.175 --> 09:38.345
They take other territories like from the English King,

09:38.605 --> 09:41.185
and they also conquer the south of the country,

09:41.485 --> 09:44.265
the long dock, in a war

09:44.265 --> 09:46.105
that's called the Alba Genian Crusade,

09:46.105 --> 09:50.625
because it was a crusade against a heresy that, was,

09:50.805 --> 09:52.945
was pretty rampant down there in Long Dog.

09:53.205 --> 09:57.185
So they really, by the end of the Kian Dynasty,

09:57.245 --> 10:00.305
the territorial outlines of France are pretty clear.

10:00.305 --> 10:01.425
They're, they're pretty close to

10:01.425 --> 10:02.465
what they are in the modern day,

10:03.005 --> 10:07.065
but culturally also the Ians

10:07.575 --> 10:11.665
have a very conscious policy of knitting those territories

10:12.335 --> 10:16.305
into a single French nation that is defined

10:16.825 --> 10:21.625
particularly by its Christian orthodoxy.

10:21.765 --> 10:23.745
So it is the most Christian kingdom.

10:24.335 --> 10:26.065
They are the most Christian kings.

10:26.065 --> 10:29.585
France is a crusading nation. France is a Catholic nation.

10:30.005 --> 10:32.505
So the Ians are fantastic at what we,

10:32.505 --> 10:34.385
what we would now call branding.

10:36.525 --> 10:39.945
My book is called House of Lilies after the Lilly

10:40.045 --> 10:43.225
or the Delise that the Ians adopted

10:44.085 --> 10:49.065
as their emblem from about the 1130s onward.

10:49.245 --> 10:53.305
So if you are not familiar with the, the Flo lease,

10:53.305 --> 10:54.545
you actually see it everywhere.

10:54.545 --> 10:56.745
It's a, it's a three pedaled lily.

10:57.765 --> 11:00.985
It first appears on one of their coins in the 1130s,

11:01.285 --> 11:05.185
and it just sort of expands outward.

11:05.325 --> 11:06.785
Now. You see it everywhere.

11:07.735 --> 11:10.265
They start using it on their robes.

11:10.295 --> 11:13.385
They use it on their banners,

11:13.455 --> 11:15.905
they use it on their bed hangings.

11:15.925 --> 11:17.945
It really becomes the emblem

11:17.945 --> 11:19.745
of their dynasty, but also a France.

11:19.805 --> 11:23.345
And it is very much a Christian symbol.

11:23.565 --> 11:27.785
So by the end of the 13th century, we are told

11:27.895 --> 11:29.785
that the lilies three petals

11:30.495 --> 11:33.145
signify the three cardinal virtues of France,

11:33.315 --> 11:37.105
which are faith, wisdom, and chivalry.

11:39.715 --> 11:43.575
But that's only one aspect of this

11:44.125 --> 11:48.935
very Christian, very specific Ian Christian identity.

11:49.715 --> 11:53.055
So the Ians, the French alone

11:53.455 --> 11:58.365
among European kings are anointed not just with Holy Prism,

11:58.665 --> 11:59.845
their coronation,

12:00.465 --> 12:03.605
but with a special holy oil that is said

12:03.625 --> 12:07.005
to have been brought down from heaven by a dove.

12:09.725 --> 12:11.745
Um, so, you know, they're, they're

12:12.505 --> 12:14.725
anointed by God.

12:15.425 --> 12:17.445
Um, and obviously the

12:19.115 --> 12:24.095
anointing at Coronation is meant to have,

12:25.455 --> 12:28.215
christocentric meaning,

12:28.475 --> 12:33.135
but to be anointed with oil brought down from heaven makes

12:33.135 --> 12:34.335
that even more so.

12:35.355 --> 12:37.975
The Ian, supposedly, once they have

12:38.075 --> 12:41.975
and once they have been anointed with this prism, are able

12:41.995 --> 12:44.895
to heal people suffering from,

12:45.055 --> 12:46.535
a throat disease called Sula.

12:46.635 --> 12:48.335
So they have anus saintly power.

12:49.235 --> 12:51.375
Um, they are, as I mentioned

12:51.375 --> 12:54.815
before, really closely associated with the crusade.

12:55.515 --> 12:59.295
So the first crusade is very heavily French,

12:59.695 --> 13:01.895
although no kings go on the first crusades.

13:02.195 --> 13:04.415
But the second crusade is really called

13:04.555 --> 13:08.415
by a French king Louis III husband, unhappy husband

13:08.555 --> 13:09.735
of Eleanor Aquita.

13:10.515 --> 13:14.255
And they really retain that association with the crusade.

13:14.515 --> 13:17.215
And all of this kind of reaches a high point

13:18.185 --> 13:20.775
under in the reign of Louis the ninth

13:20.875 --> 13:23.095
who reigns from 1226 to 1270.

13:23.465 --> 13:25.655
Louis actually goes on crusade twice.

13:26.595 --> 13:30.755
Um, both of these crusades are disastrous.

13:30.755 --> 13:31.915
He dies on the second one,

13:31.935 --> 13:34.115
but it, it makes him look almost like a martyr.

13:34.115 --> 13:37.795
And indeed, he is canonized as a saint in 1297.

13:38.055 --> 13:40.795
So if anybody out there lives in St.

13:40.795 --> 13:45.445
Louis, that's why it's named St. Louis after this king.

13:46.865 --> 13:50.545
Um, Louis also

13:53.025 --> 13:57.975
makes, France makes a play for France to be seen as,

13:58.335 --> 14:03.175
a new Israel, a new a home of a, of God's new chosen people.

14:04.155 --> 14:08.295
Um, and Paris as a new Jerusalem, he acquires

14:09.115 --> 14:13.055
the crown of Thorns relic from Constantinople.

14:13.355 --> 14:16.495
And he and his mother have this gorgeous chapel,

14:16.635 --> 14:20.495
the Saint Chappelle, which you can now visit in Paris, built

14:20.515 --> 14:23.255
as a sort of relic query for it to really show off

14:23.605 --> 14:27.135
that France is the home of Christian kingship.

14:28.855 --> 14:30.875
He also reforms his kingdom,

14:31.175 --> 14:35.075
and in fact, sort of sets out a almost constitution

14:35.255 --> 14:38.515
for medieval France that reforms it morally.

14:39.815 --> 14:42.515
And this is a point that I think is really important

14:42.515 --> 14:44.475
to get across, is that

14:45.645 --> 14:47.955
Louis makes these governmental reforms,

14:48.175 --> 14:50.635
but he thinks of them as moral reforms.

14:50.635 --> 14:52.965
Because in the Middle Ages, politics

14:52.965 --> 14:56.365
and religion are not separate spheres at all.

14:56.395 --> 14:58.605
They are absolutely intertwined.

14:58.985 --> 15:01.445
Um, and Louis would actually probably think of it

15:01.465 --> 15:03.605
as sacrilegious to do something political

15:03.605 --> 15:04.685
that wasn't also religious.

15:04.985 --> 15:08.285
All of this does have a real downside, which is

15:08.285 --> 15:13.245
that the Ians are very persecutory,

15:13.385 --> 15:15.725
toward heretics, but also toward Jews.

15:15.785 --> 15:19.645
And if you think about that whole rhetoric of

15:20.425 --> 15:23.765
the chosen people, the New Israel, well, okay, so

15:23.765 --> 15:26.245
what happens to the old Israel,

15:26.585 --> 15:28.205
the old chosen people, right?

15:28.425 --> 15:31.845
So this is, this is a rhetoric about replacement,

15:31.985 --> 15:35.565
and it is, very explicitly an anti-Semitic rhetoric.

15:35.865 --> 15:39.805
Yes. So it's, it's funny, the Ians had been sailing along

15:39.905 --> 15:40.965
for 300 years.

15:41.825 --> 15:45.565
Um, and then we get this King Philip IV who dies in 13, 14.

15:45.635 --> 15:48.285
He's got three sons. The succession is safe.

15:48.575 --> 15:52.045
Those three sons managed to die, each of them

15:53.145 --> 15:54.965
in a 14 year period.

15:55.835 --> 15:57.765
None of them leaving a son.

15:59.145 --> 16:00.965
Um, and so

16:00.965 --> 16:05.885
after the first one, dies in 1316, he leaves a daughter.

16:06.585 --> 16:09.005
Um, but his younger brother, Philip,

16:09.005 --> 16:10.085
really wants to be king.

16:10.145 --> 16:11.565
So he has it declared

16:11.565 --> 16:13.845
that women do not inherit the throne of France.

16:14.705 --> 16:17.005
And so when his son dies two weeks later

16:17.025 --> 16:19.765
and he never has another son, he has to be succeeded

16:19.765 --> 16:22.085
by his brother, who also never has a son.

16:22.705 --> 16:27.445
So in 1328, when that third son dies,

16:29.155 --> 16:31.055
the French barons have to decide what to do.

16:31.395 --> 16:34.535
Now, Philip IV had had a daughter, Isabel of England,

16:34.795 --> 16:37.255
who had a son Edward iii.

16:38.235 --> 16:41.855
Um, so that's where Edward III claim comes from.

16:41.995 --> 16:44.815
The French barons decide to give it to,

16:44.815 --> 16:47.855
basically a cousin of the last King Philip Valis.

16:47.995 --> 16:51.495
And we mark that as the beginning of the Valis dynasty.

16:51.955 --> 16:56.615
But in a way that break is kind of, artificial,

16:57.275 --> 16:59.295
as artificial as the break between the reversions

16:59.475 --> 17:00.535
and the captions.

17:00.915 --> 17:05.455
Philip, I six thought of himself simply as royal,

17:05.915 --> 17:09.535
and a as did all the kings who came after him.

17:09.795 --> 17:11.895
So after the Valis, we had the boon.

17:12.075 --> 17:15.295
But it is also common to talk about all of these people, all

17:15.295 --> 17:17.295
of these dynasties as Capitan.

17:17.595 --> 17:19.255
Um, so it's, in a way, it's not so much

17:19.255 --> 17:22.255
that the Ian line ended as that it splintered.

17:22.455 --> 17:24.055
I hope they fall in love with the Capuchin.

17:24.905 --> 17:28.055
There are many things to dislike about the Ians,

17:28.635 --> 17:31.495
but my goodness, these people, what I,

17:31.495 --> 17:33.295
what I loved about writing about,

17:33.385 --> 17:36.935
about them was just getting to know them as people, getting

17:37.155 --> 17:41.815
to watch their marital difficulties, getting to watch their,

17:42.225 --> 17:46.255
their struggles with their children and their siblings,

17:46.675 --> 17:48.455
and the adventures they go on.

17:49.325 --> 17:51.725
I got a wonderful comment from a reader a couple

17:51.725 --> 17:53.005
of weeks ago who said, you know,

17:53.005 --> 17:54.965
there are points in this book where I forgot

17:54.965 --> 17:56.285
that I was reading nonfiction.

17:56.745 --> 17:58.365
Um, reads almost like a novel.

17:59.105 --> 18:02.365
So I hope that people have that experience

18:02.365 --> 18:04.645
of getting really wrapped up in the story.

"Bridging Academia and Popularity: A Journey into the Ians Dynasty of France"

00:00:00 - It is, however, my first book for a general audience, right? So my first couple of books were academic monographs. The first one came out of the book of my thesis. The second one has been read more widely, but it was very much, directed at, at quite narrow specialist set of readers. So I was very much interested in the opportunity here to talk to a wider audience about this royal dynasty, the Ians who ruled France from 9 87 to 1328.
00:00:45 - of the most important royal dynasties of European history. I would argue they're probably the most important of medieval European history. But among English language speakers, people really haven't heard of them. And I think that's a real shame for a, a couple of reasons. one of those reasons is simply because of their importance. So working in a British university, a lot of my students already know a lot about
00:01:23 - but in fact, English, medieval history doesn't make a lot of sense without the captions. And suddenly they realize, that's why John did that. Okay. the Magna Carta doesn't actually make sense unless we think about that battle in France first. But the other reason I really wanted to write this book and that I'm so excited to have it out and to have people reading it is because the captions are just an enormous amount of fun. And I really wanted to just share the joy of the Ians. I teach a year long fourth year special subject on the Ians,
00:02:05 - And by the end of it that, wow, medieval French history is, is just so interesting. Justine, I wanna go to Paris and see all of these places. you know, I will never forget these characters you've taught me about, how history moves over this period, the art. So really getting that out there just in a way, giving people a good time. And, and, for me, reading popular medieval history as a teenager, there was this biography of Eleanor Vaquita that really got me into medieval history. So I'm hoping that some readers have
00:02:44 - Well, I wrote the book very much as a story. So the book moves chronologically. It follows this dynasty, this Denis a dynasty is a family, right? So there is a way in which this is a family history, as well as a history of, of a kingdom. I already knew very much the broad outlines of the story I wanted to tell from my own research and from my own teaching. So in terms of actually getting down into it, I already had this, this outline and this idea of how I was going
00:03:30 - specific reigns people I wanted to pay attention to. And so what I did to kind of fill that out was to think, okay, I know these stories now in terms of research, let me go back to the primary sources through the scholarship. what basis do these stories have, what are the details I can draw out? And also writing for a broad audience, what are the kinds of things they're gonna wanna know about, right? So if I'm writing for an academic audience,

"Unveiling the Ian Dynasty: My Journey into Medieval History and Royal Succession"

00:04:07 - wore to the coronation, right? But people reading House of Lilies care about what people wore to the coronation. So it involved, using a lot of sources like Royal account books to find that kind of information out that I wouldn't normally have used. And it also involved, doing a lot more with visual sources and art history than I might, than I did for previous academic work. It was fascinating, and I think it actually gave me a much better sense of the Middle ages
00:04:51 - because there is an extent to which in a book like this, you need to do something that fantasy authors call world building. So thinking about how this world feels, what are the social rules of the world? and, and once you kind of have that getting, showing people what that world looks like, it gave me as a medieval historian, as an academic historian, actually a much better feel for the world I write about. Okay, well, several questions there. Let me, let me start with who the family was. Okay. So we date the beginning of the Ian Dynasty
00:05:33 - and coronation of a man we now call Hugh Kabe. so his first name Hugh, his surname Kabe may refer to it's his nickname, may refer to a short cloak he wore may refer to his association with St. Martin of Tour, who famously gives part of his cloak to a beggar. Hugh Inaugurates, an unbroken line of Father to Son succession that lasts for three centuries, which is an unprecedented feat in European history.
00:06:17 - lived direct father to Son Dynasty, certainly in Europe, maybe in the world. One of the sort of myth that grows up around Hughes Coronation is that he's a usper, that he sort of steals the crown from its proper inheritor, who is a descendant of the Emperor Charlemagne, who was crowned the first Western emperor in, since the fall of the Roman Empire in 800.
00:06:56 - per the Carol Lyon dynasty, had been ruling this part of Europe, since the seventh, since the eighth century. That isn't actually true. the Carol Engine claimant was, not a direct descendant. and, and his succession was proper, and he was actually not the first of his line to become a king of this place. We now call France at the time was called, was Frankia. He's actually the fourth of his line. his line up until Hugh Kepe, we call, we refer to
00:07:39 - Robert the Strong. So there's a sort of a, a false distinction there, between the reversions and the cap. And there's also this sort of false sense that Hugh is, Hugh Kepe is some kind of upstart, and that the Ians are kind of interlopers. so there, there are, there are major Prince Leaf family. The name Kian doesn't actually get given to the them until the French Revolution. They don't call themselves the Capitan. it comes from,

### "The Legacy of the Capetian Dynasty: Territorial Expansion and Religious Identity in Medieval France"

00:08:18 - by the revolutionary government under, they had to give him a surname to make him feel like a regular citizen. So they called him Louis Cappe after the founder of that dynasty. So, but that initial direct line of captions that rules France for 300 years, as I argued as the subtitle of my book, advertises, really made Medieval France. And they did that in a couple of different ways. So territorially, if we look, and politically if we look at the territory that becomes medieval France, when Hugh Cappe comes to it
00:09:01 - It is quite large. it covers an area from about Catalonia through what is today Flanders. but it's very fragmented and Hugh doesn't have much control over it. And for the first century or so that, that kind of gets worse, but in a few decades between 1180 and 1230, the Capitan, hugely expand their own territory and consolidate it. So they take Normandy from, the English king. They take other territories like from the English King, and they also conquer the south of the country,
00:09:44 - that's called the Alba Genian Crusade, because it was a crusade against a heresy that, was, was pretty rampant down there in Long Dog. So they really, by the end of the Kian Dynasty, the territorial outlines of France are pretty clear. They're, they're pretty close to what they are in the modern day, but culturally also the Ians have a very conscious policy of knitting those territories into a single French nation that is defined particularly by its Christian orthodoxy.
00:10:24 - They are the most Christian kings. France is a crusading nation. France is a Catholic nation. So the Ians are fantastic at what we, what we would now call branding. My book is called House of Lilies after the Lilly or the Delise that the Ians adopted as their emblem from about the 1130s onward. So if you are not familiar with the, the Flo lease, you actually see it everywhere. It's a, it's a three pedaled lily. It first appears on one of their coins in the 1130s, and it just sort of expands outward.
00:11:07 - They start using it on their robes. They use it on their banners, they use it on their bed hangings. It really becomes the emblem of their dynasty, but also a France. And it is very much a Christian symbol. So by the end of the 13th century, we are told that the lilies three petals signify the three cardinal virtues of France, which are faith, wisdom, and chivalry. But that's only one aspect of this very Christian, very specific Ian Christian identity.
00:11:53 - among European kings are anointed not just with Holy Prism, their coronation, but with a special holy oil that is said to have been brought down from heaven by a dove. so, you know, they're, they're anointed by God. and obviously the anointing at Coronation is meant to have, christocentric meaning, but to be anointed with oil brought down from heaven makes

"The Intersection of Sanctity and Sovereignty: The Capetian Dynasty and Its Legacy"

00:12:35 - The Ian, supposedly, once they have and once they have been anointed with this prism, are able to heal people suffering from, a throat disease called Sula. So they have anus saintly power. they are, as I mentioned before, really closely associated with the crusade. So the first crusade is very heavily French, although no kings go on the first crusades. But the second crusade is really called by a French king Louis III husband, unhappy husband of Eleanor Aquita. And they really retain that association with the crusade.
00:13:18 - under in the reign of Louis the ninth who reigns from 1226 to 1270. Louis actually goes on crusade twice. both of these crusades are disastrous. He dies on the second one, but it, it makes him look almost like a martyr. And indeed, he is canonized as a saint in 1297. So if anybody out there lives in St. Louis, that's why it's named St. Louis after this king. Louis also makes, France makes a play for France to be seen as,
00:14:04 - and Paris as a new Jerusalem, he acquires the crown of Thorns relic from Constantinople. And he and his mother have this gorgeous chapel, the Saint Chappelle, which you can now visit in Paris, built as a sort of relic query for it to really show off that France is the home of Christian kingship. He also reforms his kingdom, and in fact, sort of sets out a almost constitution for medieval France that reforms it morally.
00:14:42 - to get across, is that Louis makes these governmental reforms, but he thinks of them as moral reforms. Because in the Middle Ages, politics and religion are not separate spheres at all. They are absolutely intertwined. and Louis would actually probably think of it as sacrilegious to do something political that wasn't also religious. All of this does have a real downside, which is that the Ians are very persecutory, toward heretics, but also toward Jews. And if you think about that whole rhetoric of
00:15:23 - what happens to the old Israel, the old chosen people, right? So this is, this is a rhetoric about replacement, and it is, very explicitly an anti-Semitic rhetoric. Yes. So it's, it's funny, the Ians had been sailing along for 300 years. and then we get this King Philip IV who dies in 13, 14. He's got three sons. The succession is safe. Those three sons managed to die, each of them in a 14 year period. None of them leaving a son. and so
00:16:06 - but his younger brother, Philip, really wants to be king. So he has it declared that women do not inherit the throne of France. And so when his son dies two weeks later and he never has another son, he has to be succeeded by his brother, who also never has a son. So in 1328, when that third son dies, the French barons have to decide what to do. Now, Philip IV had had a daughter, Isabel of England, who had a son Edward iii. so that's where Edward III claim comes from.

"The Splintering of Dynasties: Exploring the Human Stories Behind the Ians and the Valis"

00:16:44 - basically a cousin of the last King Philip Valis. And we mark that as the beginning of the Valis dynasty. But in a way that break is kind of, artificial, as artificial as the break between the reversions and the captions. Philip, I six thought of himself simply as royal, and a as did all the kings who came after him. So after the Valis, we had the boon. But it is also common to talk about all of these people, all of these dynasties as Capitan. so it's, in a way, it's not so much that the Ian line ended as that it splintered.
00:18:02 - There are many things to dislike about the Ians, but my goodness, these people, what I, what I loved about writing about, about them was just getting to know them as people, getting to watch their marital difficulties, getting to watch their, their struggles with their children and their siblings, and the adventures they go on. I got a wonderful comment from a reader a couple of weeks ago who said, you know, there are points in this book where I forgot that I was reading nonfiction. reads almost like a novel. So I hope that people have that experience of getting really wrapped up in the story.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Faculti

Popular in History

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph”

Lincoln and the Jews

Early Modern Natural Law Theories

Phoenicians Among Others: Why Migrants Mattered in the Ancient Mediterranean

The loneliness of leadership

La Güera Rodríguez

The Myth of Continuity in American Gun Culture

House of Lilies

Next in Arts and Humanities

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Page Structure

Popular in History

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Accessibility Options

Contrast Adjustment

Text Size Adjustment

Text Spacing Adjustment

Line Height Adjustment

Cursor Size Adjustment

Page Structure Options

Page Structure