Capetings. The history of the dynasty (987-1328)

Representatives of the Third Royal Dynasty, Capetings entered the throne as a result of the coup at the very time when France experienced the period of seignorial fragmentation, and the king became the first among equals. Starting with a small domain in the center of the kingdom and two cities, Paris and Orleans, the Capeting kings for two centuries slowly and prudently, without being distracted by loud adventures, increased crown lands, put things in order in them, lured the crown of large vassals. On this path, they had to overcome many difficulties - the resistance of small lords, who settled in castles throughout the royal domain, the obstinacy of church hierarchs, who were trying to maintain their independence and church privileges. The culmination point of this struggle for power was a large -scale confrontation between the capitings and their vassals - the kings of England from the Plantagenet dynasty. Having defeated the plantagenets in a duel that threatened them with defeat, the Capetings reached their papogy in the XIII century, becoming the most influential power in Western Europe.
The history of the Capitian dynasty is inextricably linked with the history of France. The authors of the presented book write not only about the kings themselves, they plunge the reader into the world of the French Middle Ages - the world of crusades, blooming cities, Gothic cathedrals and cultural revival of the 19th -XIII centuries