. Twenty centuries of Paris . gain. CHAPTER IV PAKIS OF THE EARLY CAPETIANS NEVER in all its many troubled days hasFrance been more in need of a wise headand a steady hand than it was when in987 the lords gave to Hugh Capet the name ofKing of France. He was already Count ofParis and Duke of France, that is, of the lie deFrance, the district around Paris. When hewas chosen king the title meant only that a fewpowerful nobles promised him their of this insignificant fact, however, loomedthe idea of kingship remembered from theRoman days of centralized power. Combinedwith this idea w
. Twenty centuries of Paris . gain. CHAPTER IV PAKIS OF THE EARLY CAPETIANS NEVER in all its many troubled days hasFrance been more in need of a wise headand a steady hand than it was when in987 the lords gave to Hugh Capet the name ofKing of France. He was already Count ofParis and Duke of France, that is, of the lie deFrance, the district around Paris. When hewas chosen king the title meant only that a fewpowerful nobles promised him their of this insignificant fact, however, loomedthe idea of kingship remembered from theRoman days of centralized power. Combinedwith this idea was the governing principle of thenew feudalism which emphasized the duty ofevery man to be loyal to his superior with obe-dience and support, to his inferior with protec-tion. Thus the title of king meant much orlittle in proportion as the holders of great pos-sessions lived up to their oaths of weakness of the royal person was thefoundation weakness of the feudal system which 44 PARIS OF THE EARLY CAPETIANS 45. France at Time of Hugh Capet. (At the dates indicated the provinces came under the French crown) 46 TWENTY CENTURIES OF PARIS nominally linked the whole of society in an in-ter-dependent chain, but really fostered thestrength of the individual. Under such conditions it was only the man ofunusual force who could maintain himself at apitch of power greater than that of subordinateswho were his equals in all but name. HughCapet proved himself such a man, righting, ca-joling, buying his way through a reign of con-stant disturbance, but strong enough at its endto leave his crown to his son without oppositionfrom the nobles. A medieval tradition had it that Hugh wasthe son of a butcher of Paris. A fourteenthcentury chanson called Hugh the Butcherencouraged the bourgeois to believe in the pos-sibility of a like elevation. Dante refers to thestory in the Divine Comedy. He hears ashade on the Fifth Ledge of Purgatory say: Iwas the root of the evil plant which so o
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