V.J THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 87 husband treated with equal scorn. His elder daughter Anne was married to Peter, Lord of Beaujeu, second son of the Duke of Bourbon and was more beloved by him than any one else. Old King Rene died in 1480, leaving Anjou, Provence, and his claim to Naples to his nephew Charles, Count of Maine, and only Bar to his grandson Rene of Lorraine, who claimed the whole inheritance of his grandfather. Lewis however at once took possession of Bar, and Charles, who died in 1481, left all his possessions to the king. Provence was at once occu- pied, but it was not formally annexed till i486, and from that time till the French Revolution it remained a sepa- rate state, held by the King of France as Count of Pro- vence, which title was always used in acts done within the county. Another great fief of the Empire was thus added to France, and the French sea-board on the Mediterranean was greatly increased, taking in the great haven of Marseilles. France also greatly increased her frontier towards Italy. Lewis had thus completed what his father had begun, and had the greater part of what we now call France at his feet, the nobles cowering under his iron grasp, and Britanny being the only great feudal power remaining. He had done much for trade and commerce. He had encouraged the opening of mines and breeding of silk-worms ; he had permitted the nobles and clergy to trade, and made himself the head of all the guilds at Paris. He had also encouraged the Uni- versity, and especially the newly-introduced study of Greek. He had created three parliaments or high courts of justice like the Parliament of Paris, at Gre- noble, Bourdeaux, and Dijon ; and he arranged a new municipal code, which lessened the power of individual cities and made them more dependent on the crown. His great admirer, PJiilip de Comines, who was fairly fascinated by his craft and subtlety, and left the service of Charles of Burgundy for his, says that he was the prince of his time of whom the most good and the least ill can be said. Philip measured only by the successes of Lewis, and made no account of broken oaths, cruel, treacherous executions, and arbitrary imprisonments in the dungeons and iron cages at Loches. As he grew older Lewis became more distrustful. Even his little son, a mere child, was kept aloof as dangerous, and allowed to see no one but by special permission, and he himself saw no man of rank save his son-in-law
