112-481: The Armorial Wijnbergen , also known as the Wijnbergen Roll , is a medieval French roll of arms . It is divided into two parts; the first, dated c. 1265–1270 has 256 coats of arms of the vassals of Louis IX of France (d. 1270) in the Île-de-France ; the second part, dated c. 1280, has 1,056 coats of arms (for a total of 1,312) of the vassals of Philip III of France (r. 1270–1285) in his fiefs in
224-600: A crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in an 800 km (500 mi) arc (curved line) from east to west and is 200 km (120 mi) in width. The mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km (1.6 mi). The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north above the Po basin, extending through France from Grenoble , and stretching eastward through mid and southern Switzerland. The range continues onward toward Vienna , Austria, and southeast to
336-788: A growing body of secular vernacular literature (including the chanson de geste , chivalric romance , troubadour and trouvère poetry, etc.) and medieval music (such as the flowering of the Notre Dame school of polyphony). From the Middle Ages onward, French rulers believed their kingdoms had natural borders: the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Rhine. This was used as a pretext for an aggressive policy and repeated invasions. The belief, however, had mere basis in reality for not all of these territories were part of
448-716: A major commercial and military road between Western Europe and Italy. The pass was crossed by many troops on their way to the Italian peninsula. From Constantine I , Pepin the Short and Charlemagne to Henry IV , Napoléon and more recently the German Gebirgsjägers during World War II . Now the pass has been supplanted by the Fréjus Highway Tunnel (opened 1980) and Rail Tunnel (opened 1871). The Saint Gotthard Pass crosses from Central Switzerland to Ticino ; in 1882
560-640: A man was in 1788; the first ascent by a woman was in 1808. By the mid-1850s Swiss mountaineers had ascended most of the peaks and were eagerly sought as mountain guides. Edward Whymper reached the top of the Matterhorn in 1865 (after seven attempts), and in 1938 the last of the six great north faces of the Alps was climbed with the first ascent of the Eiger Nordwand (north face of the Eiger). Important geological concepts were established as naturalists began studying
672-504: A part of France. North of the Loire, the King of France at times fought or allied with one of the great principalities of Normandy, Anjou, Blois-Champagne, Flanders and Burgundy. The duke of Normandy was overlord of the duke of Brittany. South of the Loire were the principalities of Aquitaine, Toulouse and Barcelona. Normandy became the strongest power in the north, while Barcelona became the strongest in
784-405: A practice which grew out of Late Antiquity. This practice would develop into the system of vassalage and feudalism in the Middle Ages. Originally, vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings (which were granted only as a reward for loyalty), but by the eighth century the giving of a landholding was becoming standard. The granting of a landholding to a vassal did not relinquish
896-413: A steady increase of aristocratic and monastic control of the land, at the expense of landowning peasants. At the same time, the traditional notion of "unfree" dependents and the distinction between "unfree" and "free" tenants was eroded as the concept of serfdom (see also History of serfdom ) came to dominate. From the mid-8th century on, particularly in the north, the relationship between peasants and
1008-582: A tunnel 1.6 km (1 mi) long was built along the route of the pass in the mid-19th century. With a summit of 2,469 m (8,100 ft), the Great St Bernard Pass is one of the highest in the Alps, crossing the Italian-Swiss border east of the Pennine Alps along the flanks of Mont Blanc. The pass was used by Napoleon Bonaparte to cross 40,000 troops in 1800. The Mont Cenis pass has been
1120-629: Is sedimentary rock formed during mountain building. The Alpine orogeny occurred in ongoing cycles through to the Paleogene causing differences in folded structures, with a late-stage orogeny causing the development of the Jura Mountains . A series of tectonic events in the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods caused different paleogeographic regions. The Alps are subdivided by different lithology (rock composition) and nappe structures according to
1232-498: Is of continental European origin, above which are stacked marine sediment nappes, topped off by nappes derived from the African plate. The Matterhorn is an example of the ongoing orogeny and shows evidence of great folding. The tip of the mountain consists of gneisses from the African plate; the base of the peak, below the glaciated area, consists of European basement rock. The sequence of Tethyan marine sediments and their oceanic basement
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#17328631690521344-608: Is sandwiched between rock derived from the African and European plates. The core regions of the Alpine orogenic belt have been folded and fractured in such a manner that erosion produced the characteristic steep vertical peaks of the Swiss Alps that rise seemingly straight out of the foreland areas. Peaks such as Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and high peaks in the Pennine Alps, the Briançonnais, and Hohe Tauern consist of layers of rock from
1456-577: Is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains 128 peaks higher than 4,000 m (13,000 ft) . The altitude and size of the range affect the climate in Europe; in the mountains, precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones. Wildlife such as ibex live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m (11,155 ft), and plants such as edelweiss grow in rocky areas in lower elevations as well as in higher elevations. Evidence of human habitation in
1568-523: The Adriatic Sea and Slovenia . To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the southern border of Bavaria in Germany. In areas like Chiasso , Switzerland, and Allgäu , Bavaria, the demarcation between the mountain range and the flatlands are clear; in other places such as Geneva , the demarcation is less clear. The Alps are found in the following countries: Austria (28.7% of
1680-892: The Colle della Maddalena , to the north. Upon reaching the Swiss border, the line of the main chain heads approximately east-northeast, a heading it follows until its end near Vienna. The northeast end of the Alpine arc, directly on the Danube , which flows into the Black Sea, is the Leopoldsberg near Vienna. In contrast, the southeastern part of the Alps ends on the Adriatic Sea in the area around Trieste towards Duino and Barcola . The Alps have been crossed for war and commerce, and by pilgrims, students and tourists. Crossing routes by road, train, or foot are known as passes , and usually consist of depressions in
1792-708: The Comté of Champagne , the Duchy of Burgundy , the County of Flanders and other territories (for a map, see Provinces of France ). In principle, the lords of these lands owed homage to the French king for their possession, but in reality the king in Paris had little control over these lands, and this was to be confounded by the uniting of Normandy, Aquitaine and England under the Plantagenet dynasty in
1904-636: The English Channel , both for reasons of trade and of flight from the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England, and established themselves in Armorica in northwest France. Their dialect evolved into the Breton language in more recent centuries, and they gave their name to the peninsula they inhabited: Brittany . Attested since the time of Julius Caesar , a non-Celtic people who spoke a Basque -related language inhabited
2016-502: The Gotthard Base Tunnel , was opened, which connects Erstfeld in canton of Uri with Bodio in canton of Ticino by two single tubes of 57.1 km (35.5 mi). It is the first tunnel that traverses the Alps on a flat route. From 11 December 2016, it has been part of the regular railway timetable and used hourly as standard ride between Basel / Lucerne / Zürich and Bellinzona / Lugano / Milan . The highest pass in
2128-644: The Novempopulania ( Aquitania Tertia ) in southwestern France, though the language gradually lost ground to the expanding Romance during a period spanning most of the Early Middle Ages. This Proto-Basque influenced the emerging Latin-based language spoken in the area between the Garonne and the Pyrenees , eventually resulting in the dialect of Occitan called Gascon . Scandinavian Vikings invaded France from
2240-585: The Oxford English Dictionary , the Latin Alpes might derive from a pre-Indo-European word * alb "hill"; "Albania" is a related derivation. Albania, a name not native to the region known as the country of Albania , has been used as a name for several mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times , "Albania" was a name for the eastern Caucasus , while in the English languages "Albania" (or "Albany")
2352-733: The Pangaean supercontinent consisted of a single tectonic plate ; it broke into separate plates during the Mesozoic Era and the Tethys sea developed between Laurasia and Gondwana during the Jurassic Period. The Tethys was later squeezed between colliding plates causing the formation of mountain ranges called the Alpide belt , from Gibraltar through the Himalayas to Indonesia —a process that began at
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#17328631690522464-567: The Pannonian Basin . The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn . Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,809 m (15,778 ft)
2576-565: The Roman Empire , southern Gaul was more heavily populated and because of this more episcopal sees were present there at first while in northern France they shrank greatly in size because of the barbarian invasions and became heavily fortified to resist the invaders. Discussion of the size of France in the Middle Ages is complicated by distinctions between lands personally held by the king (the " domaine royal ") and lands held in homage by another lord. The notion of res publica inherited from
2688-472: The Romance languages into three groups by their respective words for "yes": Nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil ("For some say oc , others say si , others say oïl "). The oïl languages – from Latin hoc ille , "that is it" – were spoken primarily in northern France, the oc languages – from Latin hoc , "that" – in southern France, and
2800-460: The Romanticists , followed by the golden age of alpinism as mountaineers began to ascend the peaks of the Alps. The Alpine region has a strong cultural identity. Traditional practices such as farming, cheesemaking, and woodworking still thrive in Alpine villages. However, the tourist industry began to grow early in the 20th century and expanded significantly after World War II, eventually becoming
2912-705: The Simplon Pass , and the Stelvio Pass . Crossing the Italian-Austrian border, the Brenner Pass separates the Ötztal Alps and Zillertal Alps and has been in use as a trading route since the 14th century. The lowest of the Alpine passes at 985 m (3,232 ft), the Semmering crosses from Lower Austria to Styria ; since the 12th century when a hospice was built there, it has seen continuous use. A railroad with
3024-561: The si languages – from Latin sic , "thus" – on the Italian and Iberian peninsulas . Modern linguists typically add a third group within France around Lyon , the "Arpitan" or " Franco-Provençal language ", whose modern word for "yes" is ouè . The Gallo-Romance group in the north of France, consisting of langues d'oïl such as Picard , Walloon , and Francien , were influenced by Germanic languages spoken by
3136-621: The 10th century to the middle of the 15th century) was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of Capet (987–1328), including their struggles with the virtually independent principalities (duchies and counties, such as the Norman and Angevin regions), and the creation and extension of administrative/state control (notably under Philip II Augustus and Louis IX ) in
3248-483: The 10th to the 11th centuries, the urban development of the country expanded (particularly on the northern coasts): new ports appeared and dukes and counts encouraged and created new towns. In other areas, urban growth was slower and centered on the monastic houses. In many regions, market towns ( burgs ) with limited privileges were established by local lords. In the late 11th century, " communes ", governing assemblies, began to develop in towns. Starting sporadically in
3360-400: The 11th century. The traditional rights of "free" peasants—such as service in royal armies (they had been able to serve in the royal armies as late as Charlemagne's reign) and participation in public assemblies and law courts—were lost through the 9th to the 10th centuries, and they were increasingly made dependents of nobles, churches and large landholders. The mid-8th century to 1000 also saw
3472-454: The 12th century, the period saw the elaboration and extension of the seigneurial economic system (including the attachment of peasants to the land through serfdom ); the extension of the Feudal system of political rights and obligations between lords and vassals ; the so-called "feudal revolution" of the 11th century during which ever smaller lords took control of local lands in many regions; and
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3584-575: The 12th century. Philip II Augustus undertook a massive French expansion in the 13th century, but most of these acquisitions were lost both by the royal system of " apanage " (the giving of regions to members of the royal family to be administered) and through losses in the Hundred Years' War . Only in the 15th century would Charles VII and Louis XI gain control of most of modern-day France (except for Brittany , Navarre , and parts of eastern and northern France). The weather in France and Europe in
3696-403: The 12th century. The economic and demographic crises of the 14th–15th centuries ( agricultural expansion had lost many of the gains made in the 12th and 13th centuries ) reversed this trend: landlords offered serfs their freedom in exchange for working abandoned lands, ecclesiastical and royal authorities created new "free" cities ( villefranches ) or granted freedom to existing cities, etc. By
3808-477: The 13th century; and the rise of the House of Valois (1328–1589), including the protracted dynastic crisis against the House of Plantagenet and their Angevin Empire , culminating in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) (compounded by the catastrophic Black Death in 1348), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity. Up to
3920-597: The 15 km-long (9.3 mi) Saint Gotthard Railway Tunnel was opened connecting Lucerne in Switzerland, with Milan in Italy. 98 years later followed Gotthard Road Tunnel (16.9 km (10.5 mi) long) connecting the A2 motorway in Göschenen on the north side with Airolo on the south side, exactly like the railway tunnel. On 1 June 2016 the world's longest railway tunnel,
4032-651: The 20th century Robert Parker wrote a well-known work about the rock crystals of the Swiss Alps; at the same period a commission was established to control and standardize the naming of Alpine minerals. In the Miocene Epoch the mountains underwent severe erosion because of glaciation, which was noted in the mid-19th century by naturalist Louis Agassiz who presented a paper proclaiming the Alps were covered in ice at various intervals—a theory he formed when studying rocks near his Neuchâtel home which he believed originated to
4144-668: The 29 "four-thousanders" with at least 300 m (984 ft) of prominence. While Mont Blanc was first climbed in 1786 and the Jungfrau in 1811, most of the Alpine four-thousanders were climbed during the second half of the 19th century, notably Piz Bernina (1850), the Dom (1858), the Grand Combin (1859), the Weisshorn (1861) and the Barre des Écrins (1864); the ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 marked
4256-491: The 9th century onwards and established themselves mostly in what would come to be called Normandy . The Normans took up the langue d'oïl spoken there, although Norman French remained heavily influenced by Old Norse and its dialects. They also contributed many words to French related to sailing and farming. After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Normans' language developed into Anglo-Norman . Anglo-Norman served as
4368-481: The Alpine region. The cinnabar deposits in Slovenia are a notable source of cinnabar pigments. Alpine crystals have been studied and collected for hundreds of years and began to be classified in the 18th century. Leonhard Euler studied the shapes of crystals, and by the 19th-century crystal hunting was common in Alpine regions. David Friedrich Wiser amassed a collection of 8000 crystals that he studied and documented. In
4480-689: The Alps are difficult to quantify and likely to vary significantly in space and time. The Alps are a source of minerals that have been mined for thousands of years. In the 8th to 6th centuries, BC during the Hallstatt culture , Celtic tribes mined copper; later the Romans mined gold for coins in the Bad Gastein area. Erzberg in Styria furnishes high-quality iron ore for the steel industry. Crystals, such as cinnabar , amethyst , and quartz , are found throughout much of
4592-754: The Alps goes back to the Palaeolithic era. A mummified man ("Ötzi") , determined to be 5,000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian–Italian border in 1991. By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established. Hannibal notably crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, and the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800, Napoleon crossed one of the mountain passes with an army of 40,000. The 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists, writers, and artists, in particular,
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4704-713: The Austroalpine peaks underwent an event in the Cretaceous Period, the two areas show distinct differences in nappe formations. Flysch deposits in the Southern Alps of Lombardy probably occurred in the Cretaceous or later. Peaks in France, Italy and Switzerland lie in the "Houillière zone", which consists of basement with sediments from the Mesozoic Era. High "massifs" with external sedimentary cover are more common in
4816-586: The Carolingian period, by the 11th century and continuing into the 13th century, the lay (secular) public in France—both nobles and peasants—was largely illiterate , except for (at least to the end of the 12th century) members of the great courts and, in the south, smaller noble families. This situation began to change in the 13th century, where we find highly literate members of the French nobility like Guillaume de Lorris , Geoffrey of Villehardouin (sometimes referred to as Villehardouin), and Jean de Joinville (sometimes referred to as Joinville). Similarly, due to
4928-402: The Eastern and South-Western Alps. The underlying mechanisms that jointly drive the present-day uplift pattern are the isostatic rebound due to the melting of the last glacial maximum ice-cap or long-term erosion, detachment of the Western Alpine subducting slab, mantle convection as well as ongoing horizontal convergence between Africa and Europe, but their relative contributions to the uplift of
5040-446: The French system of peers. Peerage was attached to a specific territorial jurisdiction, either an episcopal see for episcopal peerages or a fief for secular. Peerages attached to fiefs were transmissible or inheritable with the fief, and these fiefs are often designated as pairie-duché (for duchies) and pairie-comté (for counties). By 1216 there were nine peers: A few years later and before 1228 three peers were added to make
5152-539: The Gallo-Roman urban network of cities survived (albeit much changed) into the Middle Ages as regional centers and capitals: certain cities had been chosen as centers of bishoprics by the church (for example, Paris , Reims , Aix , Tours , Carcassonne and Narbonne , Auch , Albi , Bourges , Lyon , etc.), others as seats of local (county, duchy) administrative power (such as Angers , Blois , Poitiers , Toulouse ). In many cases (such as with Poitiers ) cities were seats of both episcopal and administrative power. From
5264-415: The Gauls lived in villages organised in wider tribes. The Romans referred to the smallest of these groups as pagi and the widest ones as civitates . These pagi and civitates were often taken as a basis for the imperial administration and would survive up to the middle-ages when their capitals became centres of bishoprics . These religious provinces would survive until the French revolution. During
5376-462: The Greek goddess Alphito , whose name is related to alphita , the "white flour"; alphos , a dull white leprosy; and finally the Proto-Indo-European word *albʰós . Similarly, the river god Alpheus is also supposed to derive from the Greek alphos and means whitish. In his commentary on the Aeneid of Virgil , the late fourth-century grammarian Maurus Servius Honoratus says that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts. According to
5488-437: The Kingdom and the authority of the King within his kingdom would be quite fluctuant. The lands that composed the Kingdom of France showed great geographical diversity; the northern and central parts enjoyed a temperate climate while the southern part was closer to the Mediterranean climate. While there were great differences between the northern and southern parts of the kingdom there were equally important differences depending on
5600-402: The Middle Ages was significantly milder than during the periods preceding or following it. Historians refer to this as the " Medieval Warm Period ", lasting from about the 10th century to about the 14th century. Part of the French population growth in this period (see below) is directly linked to this temperate weather and its effect on crops and livestock. At the end of the Middle Ages, France
5712-407: The North of France, the Netherlands and the Rhineland. The armorial is named for the Wijnbergen family, in whose possession it was acquired by the Royal Dutch Society for Genealogy and Heraldry. Its current whereabouts are unknown, but a copy is held in the Royal Library in Brussels (Collection Goethals, ms. 2569). Medieval France The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages (roughly, from
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#17328631690525824-422: The Roman province of Gaul was not fully maintained by the Frankish kingdom and the Carolingian Empire , and by the early years of the Direct Capetians , the French kingdom was more or less a fiction. The "domaine royal" of the Capetians was limited to the regions around Paris , Bourges and Sens . The great majority of French territory was part of Aquitaine , the Duchy of Normandy , the Duchy of Brittany ,
5936-512: The Romans; one was "noble" if he or she possessed significant land holdings, had access to the king and royal court, could receive honores and benefices for service (such as being named count or duke ). Their access to political power in the Carolingian period might also necessitate a need for education. Their wealth and power was also evident in their lifestyle and purchase of luxury goods, and in their maintenance of an armed entourage of fideles (men who had sworn oaths to serve them). From
6048-481: The Western Alps and were affected by Neogene Period thin-skinned thrusting whereas the Eastern Alps have comparatively few high peaked massifs. Similarly the peaks in eastern Switzerland extending to western Austria (Helvetic nappes) consist of thin-skinned sedimentary folding that detached from former basement rock. In simple terms, the structure of the Alps consists of layers of rock of European, African, and oceanic (Tethyan) origin. The bottom nappe structure
6160-525: The alps is the Col de l'Iseran in Savoy (France) at 2,770 m (9,088 ft), followed by the Stelvio Pass in northern Italy at 2,756 m (9,042 ft); the road was built in the 1820s. The Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA) has defined a list of 82 "official" Alpine summits that reach at least 4,000 m (13,123 ft). The list includes not only mountains, but also subpeaks with little prominence that are considered important mountaineering objectives. Below are listed
6272-408: The appropriation by regional/local seigneurs of various administrative, fiscal and judicial rights for themselves. From the 13th century on, the state slowly regained control of a number of these lost powers. The crises of the 13th and 14th centuries led to the convening of an advisory assembly, the Estates General , and also to an effective end to serfdom. From the 12th and 13th centuries on, France
6384-503: The area north of the Loire was dominated by six or seven of these virtually independent states. ) After 1000, these counties in turn began to break down into smaller lordships, as smaller lords wrest control of local lands in the so-called "feudal revolution" and seized control over many elements of comital powers (see vassal/feudal below). Secondly, from the 9th century on, military ability was increasingly seen as conferring special status, and professional soldiers or milites , generally in
6496-744: The central and western portions. The variances in nomenclature in the region spanned by the Alps make classification of the mountains and subregions difficult, but a general classification is that of the Eastern Alps and Western Alps with the divide between the two occurring in eastern Switzerland according to geologist Stefan Schmid, near the Splügen Pass . The highest peaks of the Western Alps and Eastern Alps, respectively, are Mont Blanc, at 4,810 m (15,780 ft), and Piz Bernina , at 4,049 m (13,284 ft). The second-highest major peaks are Monte Rosa , at 4,634 m (15,203 ft), and Ortler , at 3,905 m (12,810 ft), respectively. A series of lower mountain ranges run parallel to
6608-550: The communal movement and growing trade. The 13th to 14th centuries were a period of significant urbanization. Paris was the largest city in the realm, and indeed one of the largest cities in Europe, with an estimated population of 200,000 or more at the end of the century. The second-largest city was Rouen ; the other major cities (with populations over 10,000) were Orléans , Tours , Bordeaux , Lyon , Dijon , and Reims . In addition to these, there also existed zones with an extended urban network of medium to small cities, as in
6720-411: The concession of the usufruct of lands (a beneficatium or " benefice " in the documents) for the lifetime of the vassal, or, sometimes extending to the second or third generation. By the middle of the 10th century, feudal land grants (fee, fiefs) had largely become hereditary. The eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord and pay a " relief " for
6832-423: The conditions under which the fief could be transmitted (e.g. only male heirs) for princes of the blood who held an apanage . By 1328 all apanagists would be peers. The number of lay peerages increased over time from 7 in 1297 to 26 in 1400, 21 in 1505, and 24 in 1588. France was a very decentralised state during the Middle Ages. At the time, Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not
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#17328631690526944-420: The coronation in early periods, due to the fact that most lay peerages were forfeited to or merged in the crown, delegates were chosen by the king, mainly from the princes of the blood. In later periods peers also held up by poles a baldaquin or cloth of honour over the king during much of the ceremony. In 1204 the Duchy of Normandy was absorbed by the French crown, and later in the 13th century two more of
7056-421: The crusades, and French knights founded and ruled the Crusader states . An example of the legacy left in the Middle East by these nobles is the Krak des Chevaliers ' enlargement by the Counts of Tripoli and Toulouse . The history of the monarchy is how it overcame the powerful barons over ensuing centuries, and established absolute sovereignty over France in the 16th century. A number of factors contributed to
7168-416: The distance of mountains: mainly the Alps , the Pyrenees and the Massif Central . France had important rivers that were used as waterways: the Loire , the Rhône , the Seine as well as the Garonne . These rivers were settled earlier than the rest and important cities were founded on their banks but they were separated by large forests, marsh, and other rough terrains. Before the Romans conquered Gaul,
7280-424: The dominant industry by the end of the century. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted in the Swiss, French, Italian, Austrian and German Alps. As of 2010, the region is home to 14 million people and has 120 million annual visitors. The English word Alps comes from the Latin Alpes . The Latin word Alpes could possibly come from the adjective albus ("white"), or could possibly come from
7392-417: The earliest Frankish invaders. From the time of Clovis I on, the Franks expanded their rule over northern Gaul. Over time, the French language developed from either the Oïl languages found around Paris and Île-de-France (the Francien theory) or from a standard administrative language based on common characteristics found in all Oïl languages (the lingua franca theory). The langue d'oc , consisting of
7504-404: The end of the Mesozoic and continues into the present. The formation of the Alps was a segment of this orogenic process, caused by the collision between the African and the Eurasian plates that began in the late Cretaceous Period. Under extreme compressive stresses and pressure, marine sedimentary rocks were uplifted, forming characteristic recumbent folds , and thrust faults . As
7616-495: The end of the golden age of alpinism . Karl Blodig (1859–1956) was among the first to successfully climb all the major 4,000 m peaks. He completed his series of ascents in 1911. Many of the big Alpine three-thousanders were climbed in the early 19th century, notably the Grossglockner (1800) and the Ortler (1804), although some of them were climbed only much later, such at Mont Pelvoux (1848), Monte Viso (1861) and La Meije (1877). The first British Mont Blanc ascent by
7728-528: The end of the 15th century, serfdom was largely extinct; henceforth "free" peasants paid rents for their own lands, and the lord's demesne was worked by hired labor. This liberated the peasantry to a certain degree, but also made their lives more precarious in times of economic uncertainty. For lords who rented out more and more of their holdings for fixed rents, the initial benefits were positive, but over time they found themselves increasingly cash-strapped as inflationary pressures reduced their incomes. Much of
7840-446: The entourage of sworn lords, began to establish themselves in the ranks of the aristocracy (acquiring local lands, building private castles, seizing elements of justice), thereby transforming into the military noble class historians refer to as " knights ". The Merovingians and Carolingians maintained relations of power with their aristocracy through the use of clientele systems and the granting of honores and benefices, including land,
7952-402: The highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe , stretching approximately 1,200 km (750 mi) across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco , France , Switzerland , Italy , Liechtenstein , Germany , Austria and Slovenia . The Alpine arch extends from Nice on the western Mediterranean to Trieste on the Adriatic and Vienna at the beginning of
8064-487: The land (a monetary recognition of the lord's continuing proprietary rights over the property). By the 11th century, the bonds of vassalage and the granting of fiefs had spread throughout much of French society, but it was in no ways universal in France: in the south, feudal grants of land or of rights were unknown. In its origin, the feudal grant had been seen in terms of a personal bond between lord and vassal, but with time and
8176-425: The land became increasingly characterized by the extension of the new "bipartite estate" system ( manorialism ), in which peasants (who were bound to the land) held tenant holdings from a lord or monastery (for which they paid rent), but were also required to work the lord's own " demesne "; in the north, some of these estates could be quite substantial. This system remained a standard part of lord-tenant relations into
8288-746: The language of the ruling classes and commerce in England from the time of the conquest until the Hundred Years' War , by which time the use of French-influenced English had spread throughout English society. Also around this time period, many words from the Arabic language entered French, mainly indirectly through Medieval Latin , Italian and Spanish. There are words for luxury goods ( élixir, orange ), spices ( camphre, safran ), trade goods ( alcool, bougie, coton ), sciences ( alchimie, hasard ), and mathematics ( algèbre, algorithme ). While education and literacy had been important components of aristocratic service in
8400-437: The languages which use oc or òc for "yes", was the language group spoken in the south of France and northeastern Spain . These languages, such as Gascon and Provençal , have relatively little Frankish influence. The Middle Ages also saw the influence of other linguistic groups on the dialects spoken in France. From the 4th to 7th centuries, Brythonic -speaking peoples from Cornwall , Devon , and Wales travelled across
8512-401: The largest city in western Europe; the lower count would put it behind Venice with 100,000 and Florence with 96,000. The Black Death killed an estimated one-third of the population from its appearance in 1348. The concurrent Hundred Years' War slowed recovery. It would be the mid-16th century before the population recovered to mid-fourteenth century levels. In the early Middle Ages, France
8624-469: The late 10th, and increasingly in the 12th century, many towns and villages were able to gain economic, social or judicial privileges and franchises from their lords (exemptions from tolls and dues, rights to clear land or hold fairs, some judicial or administrative independence, etc.). The seigneurial reaction to expanding urbanism and enfranchisement was mixed; some lords fought against the changes, but some lords gained financial and political advantages from
8736-402: The late 9th to the late 10th century, the nature of the noble class changed significantly. First off, the aristocracy increasingly focused on establishing strong regional bases of landholdings, on taking hereditary control of the counties and duchies, and eventually on erecting these into veritable independent principalities and privatizing various privileges and rights of the state. (By 1025,
8848-643: The law courts, but Latin would remain an administrative and legal language until the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) prescribed the use of French in all judicial acts, notarized contracts, and official legislation. The vast majority of the population, however, spoke a variety of vernacular languages derived from vulgar Latin , the common spoken language of the Western Roman Empire. The medieval Italian poet Dante , in his Latin De vulgari eloquentia , classified
8960-405: The lay peerages were absorbed by the crown (Toulouse 1271, Champagne 1284), so in 1297 three new peerages were created, the County of Artois , the Duchy of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany , to compensate for the three peerages that had disappeared. Thus, beginning in 1297 the practice started of creating new peerages by letters patent , specifying the fief to which the peerage was attached, and
9072-485: The lord's mill, etc. (what Georges Duby called collectively the " seigneurie banale " ). Power in this period became more personal and it would take centuries for the state to fully reimpose its control over local justice and fiscal administration (by the 15th century, much of the seigneur's legal purview had been given to the bailliages , leaving them only affairs concerning seigneurial dues and duties, and small affairs of local justice) This "fragmentation of powers"
9184-399: The lord's property rights, but only the use of the lands and their income; the granting lord retained ultimate ownership of the fee and could, technically, recover the lands in case of disloyalty or death. In the 8th-century Frankish empire , Charles Martel was the first to make large scale and systematic use (the practice had remained until then sporadic) of the remuneration of vassals by
9296-623: The main chain of the Alps, including the French Prealps in France and the Jura Mountains in Switzerland and France. The secondary chain of the Alps follows the watershed from the Mediterranean Sea to the Wienerwald , passing over many of the highest and most well-known peaks in the Alps. From the Colle di Cadibona to Col de Tende it runs westwards, before turning to the northwest and then, near
9408-423: The more so as vassals could and frequently did pledge themselves to two or more lords. In response to this, the idea of a " liege lord " was developed (where the obligations to one lord are regarded as superior) in the 12th century. Medieval French kings conferred the dignity of peerage upon certain of his preëminent vassals , both clerical and lay. Some historians consider Louis VII (1137–1180) to have created
9520-782: The mountains in which a valley leads from the plains and hilly pre-mountainous zones. In the medieval period hospices were established by religious orders at the summits of many of the main passes. The most important passes are the Col de l'Iseran (the highest), the Col Agnel , the Brenner Pass , the Mont-Cenis , the Great St. Bernard Pass , the Col de Tende , the Gotthard Pass , the Semmering Pass ,
9632-787: The orogenic events that affected them. The geological subdivision differentiates the Western, Eastern Alps, and Southern Alps: the Helveticum in the north, the Penninicum and Austroalpine system in the centre and, south of the Periadriatic Seam, the Southern Alpine system . According to geologist Stefan Schmid, because the Western Alps underwent a metamorphic event in the Cenozoic Era while
9744-612: The outpouring of French vernacular literature from the 12th century on ( chanson de geste , chivalric romance , troubadour and trouvère poetry, etc.), French eventually became the "international language of the aristocracy". In the Middle Ages in France, the vast majority of the population—between 80 and 90 percent—were peasants. Traditional categories inherited from the Roman and Merovingian period (distinctions between free and unfree peasants, between tenants and peasants who owned their own land, etc.) underwent significant changes up to
9856-586: The principle of male primogeniture, later popularized as the Salic law . The authority of the king was more religious than administrative. The 11th century in France marked the apogee of princely power at the expense of the king when states like Normandy , Flanders or Languedoc enjoyed a local authority comparable to kingdoms in all but name. The Capetians , as they were descended from the Robertians , were formerly powerful princes themselves who had successfully unseated
9968-605: The range's area), Italy (27.2%), France (21.4%), Switzerland (13.2%), Germany (5.8%), Slovenia (3.6%), Liechtenstein (0.08%) and Monaco (0.001%). The highest portion of the range is divided by the glacial trough of the Rhône valley, from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa on the southern side, and the Bernese Alps on the northern. The peaks in the easterly portion of the range, in Austria and Slovenia, are smaller than those in
10080-408: The reign of Charlemagne, who was considered the model king and shining example for knighthood and nobility. The dozen pairs played a role in the royal sacre or consecration , during the liturgy of the coronation of the king, attested to as early as 1179, symbolically upholding his crown, and each original peer had a specific role, often with an attribute. Since the peers were never twelve during
10192-451: The rise of the French monarchy. The dynasty established by Hugh Capet continued uninterrupted until 1328, and the laws of primogeniture ensured orderly successions of power. Secondly, the successors of Capet came to be recognised as members of an illustrious and ancient royal house and therefore socially superior to their politically and economically superior rivals. Thirdly, the Capetians had
10304-413: The rising peaks underwent erosion, a layer of marine flysch sediments was deposited in the foreland basin , and the sediments became involved in younger folds as the orogeny progressed. Coarse sediments from the continual uplift and erosion were later deposited in foreland areas north of the Alps. These regions in Switzerland and Bavaria are well-developed, containing classic examples of flysch , which
10416-511: The rock formations of the Alps in the 18th century. In the mid-19th century, the now-defunct idea of geosynclines was used to explain the presence of "folded" mountain chains. This theory was replaced in the mid-20th century by the theory of plate tectonics . The formation of the Alps (the Alpine orogeny ) was an episodic process that began about 300 million years ago. In the Paleozoic Era
10528-426: The same period or later: counties and duchies began to break down into smaller holdings as castellans and lesser seigneurs took control of local lands, and (as comital families had done before them) lesser lords usurped/privatized a wide range of prerogatives and rights of the state, most importantly the highly profitable rights of justice, but also travel dues, market dues, fees for using woodlands, obligations to use
10640-467: The south and the Mediterranean coast (from Toulouse to Marseille , including Narbonne and Montpellier ) and in the north ( Beauvais , Laon , Amiens , Arras , Bruges , etc.). Market towns increased in size and many were able to gain privileges and franchises including transformation into free cities ( villes franches ); rural populations from the countrysides moved to the cities and burgs. This
10752-426: The south. The rulers of both fiefs eventually became kings, the former by the conquest of England, and the latter by the succession to Aragon. French suzerainty over Barcelona was only formally relinquished by Saint Louis in 1258. Initially, West Frankish kings were elected by the secular and ecclesiastic magnates, but the regular coronation of the eldest son of the reigning king during his father's lifetime established
10864-730: The summer months and where huts and hay barns can be found, sometimes constituting tiny hamlets. Therefore, the term "the Alps", as a reference to the mountains, is a misnomer. The term for the mountain peaks varies by nation and language: words such as Horn , Kogel , Kopf , Gipfel , Spitze , Stock , and Berg are used in German-speaking regions; Mont , Pic , Tête , Pointe , Dent , Roche , and Aiguille in French-speaking regions; and Monte , Picco , Corno , Punta , Pizzo , or Cima in Italian-speaking regions. The Alps are
10976-514: The support of the Church , which favoured a strong central government in France. This alliance with the Church was one of the great enduring legacies of the Capetians. The First Crusade was composed almost entirely of Frankish Princes. As time went on the power of the King was expanded by conquests, seizures and successful feudal political battles. Alps The Alps ( / æ l p s / ) are one of
11088-474: The title of King gave them a complicated status. Thus they were involved in the struggle for power within France as princes but they also had a religious authority over Roman Catholicism in France as King. However, and despite the fact that the Capetian kings often treated other princes more as enemies and allies than as subordinates, their royal title was often recognised yet not often respected. The royal authority
11200-538: The total of twelve peers: These twelve peerages are known as the ancient peerage or pairie ancienne , and the number twelve is sometimes said to have been chosen to mirror the 12 paladins of Charlemagne in the Chanson de geste (see below). Parallels may also be seen with mythical Knights of the Round Table under King Arthur . So popular was this notion, that for a long time people thought peerage had originated in
11312-402: The transformation of fiefs into hereditary holdings, the nature of the system came to be seen as a form of "politics of land" (an expression used by the historian Marc Bloch ). The 11th century in France saw what has been called by historians a "feudal revolution" or "mutation" and a "fragmentation of powers" (Bloch) that was unlike the development of feudalism in England or Italy or Germany in
11424-530: The various orogenies including exposures of basement rock. Due to the ever-present geologic instability, earthquakes continue in the Alps to this day. Typically, the largest earthquakes in the alps have been between magnitude 6 and 7 on the Richter scale. Geodetic measurements show ongoing topographic uplift at rates of up to about 2.5 mm per year in the North, Western and Central Alps, and at ~1 mm per year in
11536-540: The weak and unfortunate Carolingian kings. The Carolingian kings had nothing more than a royal title when the Capetian kings added their principality to that title. The Capetians, in a way, held a dual status of King and Prince; as king they held the Crown of Charlemagne and as Count of Paris they held their personal fiefdom, best known as Île-de-France . The fact that the Capetians both held lands as Prince as well as in
11648-532: The west in the Bernese Oberland. Because of his work he came to be known as the "father of the ice-age concept" although other naturalists before him put forth similar ideas. Agassiz studied glacier movement in the 1840s at the Unteraar Glacier where he found the glacier moved 100 m (328 ft) per year, more rapidly in the middle than at the edges. His work was continued by other scientists and now
11760-612: Was a center of Jewish learning, but increasing persecution, and a series of expulsions in the 14th century, caused considerable suffering for French Jews; see History of the Jews in France . During the Middle Ages in France, Medieval Latin was the primary medium of scholarly exchange as well as the liturgical language of the Catholic Church ; it was also the language of science, literature, law, and administration. From 1200 on, vernacular languages began to be used in administrative work and
11872-526: Was also a period of urban building: the extension of walls around the entirety of the urban space, the vast construction of Gothic cathedrals (starting in the 12th century), urban fortresses, castles (such as Philip II Augustus' Louvre around 1200) and bridges. In the Carolingian period, the "aristocracy" ( nobilis in the Latin documents) was by no means a legally defined category. With traditions going back to
11984-413: Was at the center of a vibrant cultural production that extended across much of western Europe, including the transition from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture and Gothic art ; the foundation of medieval universities (such as the universities of Paris (recognized in 1150), Montpellier (1220), Toulouse (1229), and Orleans (1235)) and the so-called " Renaissance of the 12th century ";
12096-430: Was not however systematic throughout France, and in certain counties (such as Flanders, Normandy, Anjou, Toulouse), counts were able to maintain control of their lands into the 12th century or later. Thus, in some regions (like Normandy and Flanders), the vassal/feudal system was an effective tool for ducal and comital control, linking vassals to their lords; but in other regions, the system led to significant confusion, all
12208-432: Was occasionally used as a name for Scotland , although it is more likely derived from the Latin word albus , the colour white. In modern languages the term alp , alm , albe or alpe refers to a grazing pastures in the alpine regions below the glaciers, not the peaks. An alp refers to a high mountain pasture, typically near or above the tree line , where cows and other livestock are taken to be grazed during
12320-647: Was so weak in some remote places that bandits were the effective power. Some of the king's vassals would grow sufficiently powerful that they would become some of the strongest rulers of western Europe. The Normans , the Plantagenets , the Lusignans , the Hautevilles , the Ramnulfids , and the House of Toulouse successfully carved lands outside France for themselves. The most important of these conquests for French history
12432-633: Was the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror , following the Battle of Hastings and immortalised in the Bayeux Tapestry , because it linked England to France through Normandy. Although the Normans were now both vassals of the French kings and their equals as kings of England, their zone of political activity remained centered in France. An important part of the French aristocracy also involved itself in
12544-559: Was the most populous region in Europe—having overtaken Spain and Italy by 1340. In the 14th century, before the arrival of the Black Death, the total population of the area covered by modern-day France has been estimated at 16 million. The population of Paris is controversial. Josiah Russell argued for about 80,000 in the early 14th century, although he noted that some other scholars suggested 200,000. The higher count would make it by far
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