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Paris History
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On March 28, 845, Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. The weakness of the late Carolingian kings led to the gradual rise in power of the Counts of Paris.
In 885, the city was faced with a massive Viking invasion force, said to have numbered 700 ships and 30,000 men. Its inhabitants sought the assistance of Robert the Strong, Count of Anjou, and his son Odo, Count of Paris.
Odo led the defence of the city in opposition to a ten-month Viking siege in 885 and became co-ruler of the Empire with Charles the Simple.
His son Hugh Capet was elected King of France (or Francia - literally the land of the Franks) in 987. He made Paris his capital and founded a long-lasting dynasty, the Capetians.
Paris and Medieval France
The French Crown initially controlled little more than Paris and the surrounding region, the Ile de France, but over the centuries steadily expanded its territory and power.
Paris itself developed an increasing degree of importance as a royal capital, a centre of learning and an ecclesiastical centre.
As early as the 12th century, the distinctive character of the city's districts was emerging.
The Ile de la Cit�, on which the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was built in 1163, was the centre of government and religious life.
The Left Bank was the centre of learning, focusing on the various Church-run schools established there.
The Right Bank was the centre of commerce and finance. A league of merchants, the so-called Hanse Parisienne, was established and quickly became a powerful force in the city's affairs.
Under the rule of Philippe Auguste, who became king in 1180, a number of major building works were carried out in Paris.
He built a new city wall and began the construction of the Louvre Palace, as well as paving streets and establishing a covered market at Les Halles where it would remain until 1969.
His grandson Louis IX, renowned for his extreme piety and later canonised as St Louis, established the city as a major centre of pilgrimage in the 13th century with the construction of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, the Basilica of St Denis and the Sainte-Chapelle on the Ile de la Cit�.
The latter was one of the finest medieval Gothic religious buildings ever constructed and was built to house Louis' most precious possession - the (alleged) Crown of Thorns, purchased from the bankrupt Byzantine Empire.
The Valois
The Capetian line died out in 1328, leaving no male heir. Edward II of England claimed the French throne by virtue of his descent from Philip IV of France.
This was rejected by the French barons, who supported the rival claim of Philippe of Valois (Philip VI of France). The Hundred Years' War thus began, followed swiftly by the arrival of the Black Death.
Paris' history in the 14th century was thus punctuated by outbreaks of plague, political violence and popular uprisings.
In January 1357, �tienne Marcel, the Provost of Paris, led a merchants' revolt in a bid to curb the power of the monarchy and obtain privileges for the city and the Estates General, which had met for the first time in Paris in 1347.
After initial concessions by the Crown, the city was retaken by royalist forces in 1358 and Marcel and his followers were killed.
In the aftermath of the revolt, Charles V of France took steps to guard against a recurrence; a new city wall was constructed to guard against exterior enemies while the grim fortress of the Bastille was built to control the city's restless population.
Another revolt, this time over excessive taxation, broke out in 1382, under Charles VI of France but was quickly and violently suppressed. The city was subsequently punished by having its earlier privileges withdrawn.
Civil war broke out in France after the assassination of Louis of Valois, Duke of Orl�ans by the Burgundian John the Fearless. In the ensuing chaos, the English captured Paris in 1420.
In 1422, Henry V of England died at the Chateau de Vincennes, just outside the city. Charles VII of France tried but failed to retake the city in 1429, despite the assistance of Joan of Arc who was wounded in the attempt.
The following year, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France at Notre-Dame. French persistence paid off in 1437 when Charles finally managed to retake the city after several failed sieges.
With the recapture of the city, the Valois monarchs and French nobility sought to impose their authority on the city through the construction of various grandiose ecclesiastical and secular monuments, including churches and mansions.
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