IV.] EXTENSION TO THE SOUTH. 51 and cruelties were so intolerable that his nobles were mustering against him, when a fall from his horse brought on a low fever, and he died on the 29th of November, 1 3 14. He was an attorney king of the very worst sort ; not going against the law, like the ruder sort of tyrant, but twisting the law to its worst possible use. 27. Lewis X., Hutin, 13 14. — The new king, Lewis X., was known by the odd nickname of Hiitiii or fractious. He let his father's brother, Charles, Coimt of Valois, govern in his father's fashion, while he gave himself up to sports and revelries. He died on the 5th of June, 1 316, leaving only one daughter. But a son John, was born in the following November, only to live six days, and was carried in the arms of his uncle Philip to the grave as a king. 28. Philip the Long, 13 16. — From Hugh Capet to this " chrisom child," the kingdom of the house of Paris had gone from father to son. Was the crown now to pass to the late king's daughter or to his brother Philip? Philip seized the crown ; and the Parliament had to find a legal confirmation of his act. They therefore went back to the customs of the Salian Franks, and declared that their law was that no woman might inherit land. Half the estates in the kingdom had gone through heir- esses, but the rule was accepted as law, and settled the matter in favour of Philip. He died after five years of a reign as cruel as his father's. He and Pope John XXII. savagely persecuted the Franciscan friars, who had preached against their vices, putting them to death in great numbers on an accusation of heresy. Every- thing was in confusion ; the serfs and shepherds were seized with enthusiasm, and vowed to go crusading, but instead they fell on their lords, plundering castles and churches till the king and nobles gained the mastery and slaughtered them in troops. Such wretchedness prevailed everywhere that curses on the king were on each tongue, and his early death was thought to be the consequence. 29. Charles IV., the Fair, 1322. — The reign of his brother, Charles the Fair, is chiefly noted for the crime of his sister, Isabel queen of England. Her husband, Edward II., was tired of crossing the sea to do homage for Guyenne to his short-lived brothers-in-law, and sent his son Edward with her in his stead. He thus gave her the opportunity of raising the force with which she was enabled to act "the she-wolf of France," by dethroning and E 3
