270 fowls and fowling
scandalous, for the Virgin was a recognizable portrait of
Agnès Sorel, the king’s mistress, shown with an exposed
breast. Another famous portrait was similarly abstract
and intellectualized: Fouquet’s portrait Guillaume Jouve-
nal des Ursins,in about 1455. In it another chancellor of
France kneels in prayer before a wall.
BOOK ILLUSTRATIONSFouquet was especially famous for and skilled in his
miniature illustrations for manuscript books. Between
1452 and 1462, he and his shop painted for Chevalier a
now-dismembered BOOK OF HOURS. Its miniatures
showed Parisian architectural monuments and included
an illustration of the contemporary staging of a MYSTERY
PLAY. Fouquet and his shop illuminated many other
BOOKS. Chief among them was the Grandes chroniques des
rois de France(Grand chronicle of the kings of France) in
- He also worked on Charles VII’s tomb.
See alsoILLUMINATION.
Further reading: James H. Marrow, The Hours of
Simon de Varie(Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum in Associa-
tion with Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, 1994);
Paul Reinhold Wescher, Jean Fouquet and His Time,trans.
Eveline Winkworth (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock,
1947).
fowls and fowling SeeANIMALS AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY;
HUNTING AND FOWLING.France (Francia) In the sixth and seventh centuries,
the present-day territory of France was still called Gaul;
there the FRANKSsettled in the fourth and fifth century.
The extent of their Regnum francorumor kingdom of the
Franks would have no clear limit except that provided by
a long series of conquests and annexations over centuries.
The treaties of 843 had created three different areas that
had stability. They were the kingdoms of CHARLESI THE
BALD in the west, or mostly modern France, of the
emperor Lothair (r. 840–855) in the center or in Italy and
Lorraine, and of Louis the German (r. 840–876) in the
east or Germany across the Rhine River. Francia at that
time still designated the whole of the Frankish empire but
became associated soon thereafter with the geographical
region north of the Seine or the Île-de-France.
Under the Carolingians, a linguistic separation had
grown between the future France and the area of the
future German Empire. By the early 10th century it
became usual to designate the latter by Imperiumor the
Empire and the former by Regnum francorum(The King-
dom of the Franks) or Francia.France then had the
rough boundaries of four rivers: the Scheldt, the Meuse,
the Saône, and the Rhône. In the course of the 13th cen-
tury, the growth of Capetian royal power gave the evolv-
ing realm dynastic stability. The king of France in Paris
and the Île-de-France became the direct, or indirect mas-
ter, within these still expanding frontiers. By this time,
the term Francedesignated the royal domain and the
properties and FIEFStied to the Capetian kings. They
now no longer reigned over a people but over a territory
in which they exercised justice and collected taxes. From
the 10th century, the history of France was linked funda-
mentally with the CAPETIANand VALOISdynasties and
the growth of control from Paris over regions throughout
the rest of the Middle Ages.
See alsoALBIGENSIANS ANDALBIGENSIAN MOVEMENT;
ANJOU;AQUITAINE;BRITTANY AND THE BRETONS;BUR-
GUNDY;CAROLINGIAN FAMILY AND DYNASTY;CHARLES V
THEWISE;CHARLESVII; GOTHIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE;
HUNDREDYEARS’WAR;LOUISIX; LOUISXI; NORMANDY
AND THENORMANS;PARIS AND THEUNIVERSITY OFPARIS;
PARLEMENT OFPARIS;PHILIPII AUGUSTUS;PHILIPIV THE
FAIR;PROVENCE;ROMANESQUE ART AND ARCHITECTURE;
VERDUN, TREATY OF.
Further reading:Christopher T. Allmand, Society atEngland During the Wars of the Roses, 1455–1485
Hundred Years’ War(New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973);
Jean Dunbabin, France in the Making, 843–1180(Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1985); Elizabeth Hallam and
Judith Everard, Capetian France, 987–1328,2d ed. (New
York: Longman, 2001); Edward James, The Origins of
France: From Clovis to the Capetians, 500–1000 (NewJean Fouquet, portrait of King Charles VII(Courtesy Library
of Congress)