22 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. 0. Lewis Vil. and Eleanor, 1 137. — Now for a moment, France and Aquitaine, the lands of the northern and the soutlicrn forms of the Romance of Gaul, had a single sovereign. But it was only for a moment. Never had there been a worse matched couple than Lewis VIL and his queen since Robert and Constance. The North and South were entirely alien to one another. The South was thought by the North frivolous and licen- tious, the North seemed to the South barbarous and ferocious. The old learning and softness of manner of the Latin provinces had fallen into corruption, and did not hinder horrid cruelties and immoralities ; but these were dressed up in false gilding. The revival of religion which had given an earnestness and devotion to the rudeness of Northern France had not reached Aqui- taine, and a court under the influence of St. Bernard was in itself alien to Eleanor, who was by nature imperious and pleasure-loving, and came of a family who had never brooked restraint in any inclination. Lewis, on the con- trary, was gentle and meek, devout and grave, personally brave, though lacking moral courage, and conscientious, but without much ability, and so simple that the term Lewis the Young, first used when his father was alive, clung to him through life. Suger still directed his affairs, and Suger had listened to St. Bernard and pruned away all worldly pomp from himself and his monastery. 7. War with the Count of Chartres, 1141. — Toulouse was held to bo a lief of Aquitaine, but homage was refused by its count Ai/ouso, and when Lewis summoned his vas- sals to reduce him, the example of disobedience was set by Theobald of Blois, CouiU of CJiainpat^ne aiui Chartres, and brother to the Englisii AV/Zif Stephen. Lewis fell on his lands and so destroyed the town of I'itry, that it is called still I'itry T^rul« or the burned ; but in the midst were heard the cries of 1,300 wretches in the principal church, wliom it was too late to save from the flames. He had also become involved in the great question of lay investitures, and, in spite of St. Bernard's mediation, was for three years e.NCommunicated for not admitting th.i pope's nominee to the archbishopric of Bourges. He was absolved by Ce/estine II. in 1 149. 8. The Parliament of Vezelai, 1 145.— The king's con- science was thus uneasy when tidings came of the urgent needs of the crusading kingdom in Palestine. Fulkof Anjou was dead, and iiis wife Melicent was gvardian of the king-
