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 SECOND EDITION

FRAnce

GINO RAYMOND
 HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES OF EUROPE
Jon Woronoff, Series Editor

1. Portugal, by Douglas L. Wheeler. 1993. Out of print. See no. 40.

2. Turkey, by Metin Heper. 1994. Out of print. See no. 38.
3. Poland, by George Sanford and Adriana Gozdecka-Sanford. 1994.
Out of print. See no. 41.
4. Germany, by Wayne C. Thompson, Susan L. Thompson, and Juliet
S. Thompson. 1994.
5. Greece, by Thanos M. Veremis and Mark Dragoumis. 1995.
6. Cyprus, by Stavros Panteli. 1995.
7. Sweden, by Irene Scobbie. 1995. Out of print. See no. 48.
8. Finland, by George Maude. 1995. Out of print. See no. 49.
9. Croatia, by Robert Stallaerts and Jeannine Laurens. 1995. Out of
print. See no. 39.
10. Malta, by Warren G. Berg. 1995.
11. Spain, by Angel Smith. 1996.
12. Albania, by Raymond Hutchings. 1996. Out of print. See no. 42.
13. Slovenia, by Leopoldina Plut-Pregelj and Carole Rogel. 1996. Out
of print. See no. 56.
14. Luxembourg, by Harry C. Barteau. 1996.
15. Romania, by Kurt W. Treptow and Marcel Popa. 1996.
16. Bulgaria, by Raymond Detrez. 1997. Out of print. See no. 46.
17. United Kingdom: Volume 1, England and the United Kingdom; Vol-
ume 2, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, by Kenneth J. Pan-
ton and Keith A. Cowlard. 1997, 1998.
18. Hungary, by Steven Béla Várdy. 1997.
19. Latvia, by Andrejs Plakans. 1997.
20. Ireland, by Colin Thomas and Avril Thomas. 1997.
21. Lithuania, by Saulius Suziedelis. 1997.
22. Macedonia, by Valentina Georgieva and Sasha Konechni. 1998.
23. The Czech State, by Jiri Hochman. 1998.
24. Iceland, by Gu∂mundur Hálfdanarson. 1997.
25. Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Ante Cuvalo. 1997. Out of print. See
no. 57.
26. Russia, by Boris Raymond and Paul Duffy. 1998.
27. Gypsies (Romanies), by Donald Kenrick. 1998. Out of print.
28. Belarus, by Jan Zaprudnik. 1998.
29. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, by Zeljan Suster. 1999.
30. France, by Gino Raymond. 1998. Out of print. See no. 64.
31. Slovakia, by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum. 1998. Out of print. See no. 47.
32. Netherlands, by Arend H. Huussen Jr. 1998. Out of print. See no. 55.
33. Denmark, by Alastair H. Thomas and Stewart P. Oakley. 1998. Out
of print. See no. 63.
34. Modern Italy, by Mark F. Gilbert and K. Robert Nilsson. 1998. Out
of print. See no. 58.
35. Belgium, by Robert Stallaerts. 1999.
36. Austria, by Paula Sutter Fichtner. 1999.
37. Republic of Moldova, by Andrei Brezianu. 2000. Out of print. See
no. 52.
38. Turkey, 2nd edition, by Metin Heper. 2002.
39. Republic of Croatia, 2nd edition, by Robert Stallaerts. 2003.
40. Portugal, 2nd edition, by Douglas L. Wheeler. 2002.
41. Poland, 2nd edition, by George Sanford. 2003.
42. Albania, New edition, by Robert Elsie. 2004.
43. Estonia, by Toivo Miljan. 2004.
44. Kosova, by Robert Elsie. 2004.
45. Ukraine, by Zenon E. Kohut, Bohdan Y. Nebesio, and Myroslav
Yurkevich. 2005.
46. Bulgaria, 2nd edition, by Raymond Detrez. 2006.
47. Slovakia, 2nd edition, by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum. 2006.
48. Sweden, 2nd edition, by Irene Scobbie. 2006.
49. Finland, 2nd edition, by George Maude. 2007.
50. Georgia, by Alexander Mikaberidze. 2007.
51. Belgium, 2nd edition, by Robert Stallaerts. 2007.
52. Moldova, 2nd edition, by Andrei Brezianu and Vlad Spânu. 2007.
53. Switzerland, by Leo Schelbert. 2007.
54. Contemporary Germany, by Derek Lewis with Ulrike Zitzlsperger.
2007.
55. Netherlands, 2nd edition, by Joop W. Koopmans and Arend H. Hu-
ussen Jr. 2007.
56. Slovenia, 2nd edition, by Leopoldina Plut-Pregelj and Carole Ro-
gel. 2007.
57. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2nd edition, by Ante Čuvalo. 2007.
58. Modern Italy, 2nd edition, by Mark F. Gilbert and K. Robert Nils-
son. 2007.
59. Belarus, 2nd edition, by Vitali Silitski and Jan Zaprudnik. 2007.
60. Latvia, 2nd edition, by Andrejs Plakans. 2008.
61. Contemporary United Kingdom, by Kenneth J. Panton and Keith A.
Cowlard. 2008.
62. Norway, by Jan Sjåvik. 2008.
63. Denmark, 2nd edition, by Alastair H. Thomas. 2008.
64. France, 2nd edition, by Gino Raymond. 2008.
Historical Dictionary
of France
Second Edition

Gino Raymond

Historical Dictionaries of Europe, No. 64

The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Lanham, Maryland • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
2008
SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.scarecrowpress.com

Estover Road
Plymouth PL6 7PY
United Kingdom

Copyright © 2008 by Gino Raymond

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Raymond, Gino.
Historical dictionary of France / Gino Raymond. — 2nd ed.
p. cm. — (Historical dictionaries of Europe ; 64)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-5095-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8108-5095-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
eISBN-13: 978-0-8108-6256-2
eISBN-10: 0-8108-6256-5
1. France—History—Dictionaries. I. Title.
DC35.R39 2008
944.003—dc22 2008018160

∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of

American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
To my partisan girl, Svetlana
 Contents

Editor’s Foreword (Jon Woronoff) ix

Acronyms and Abbreviations xi
Map xiv
Chronology xv
Introduction xxix
The Dictionary 1
Appendix: Monarchs, Presidents, and Prime Ministers 395
Bibliography 397
About the Author 471

vii
 Editor’s Foreword

France reached a high point in international dominance under Louis

XIV and again under Napoléon Bonaparte, achieving an eminent posi-
tion in Europe when that continent held an unrivaled amount of power.
But it has suffered periodic decline, overshadowed by British imperial
might, crushed by German power, and shorn of its own empire to be-
come just another European country in a Europe that no longer holds
the power it once did. Yet France has stubbornly sought a larger role.
While not all its efforts have succeeded, it has influenced much of the
world economically, politically, culturally, and intellectually. In a
worldwide community of some 200 members, France still matters.
This new edition of the Historical Dictionary of France describes
how France has risen and then declined and why it is still holding its
own on the world stage. The dictionary includes entries on rulers and
leaders, from the first kings to the most recent presidents and premiers;
assorted kingdoms, empires, and republics; numerous wars and revolu-
tions; and the transition from absolutism to democracy and an agrarian
to an industrial and service-based economy. France’s glorious past is
examined in detail, but even more attention is paid to the present, with
entries on the arts and sciences and significant figures in those sectors,
as well as various political institutions and parties. The country’s long
and involved past is traced in both the chronology and introduction, and
a list of acronyms and abbreviations clarifies the players. The select but
extensive bibliography lists a substantial number of books dealing more
specifically with major subjects.
It is never easy to find a suitable author for a book of this scope, but
both the first and the current edition were written by someone with con-
siderable academic background and personal experience. Born in Mau-
ritius, a former French colony, Gino Raymond studied French and pol-
itics at the University of Bristol and Cambridge University. He lectured

ix
x • EDITOR’S FOREWORD

in English at the Université de Paris X, Nanterre, and the Ecole Nor-

male Supérieure, and in French at the Universities of Bradford and As-
ton. He is currently professor of modern French studies at the Univer-
sity of Bristol. Professor Raymond has written numerous articles and
papers as well as seven books, including works on André Malraux, the
French power structure, and the French Communist Party. He is there-
fore an unusually competent and fluent guide to an amazingly rich and
varied country.

Jon Woronoff
Series Editor
 Acronyms and Abbreviations

CFDT Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (centrist

labor union)
CFTC Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens
(Catholic labor union)
CGT Confédération Générale du Travail (communist-dominated
labor union)
CNPF Conseil National du Patronat Français (French employers’
organization)
DGSE Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (bureau for
external security)
EADS European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company
EDF Electricité de France (national electric company)
EEC European Economic Community
EMS Système Monétaire Européen (European Monetary Sys-
tem)
ENA Ecole Nationale d’Administration (National Business
School)
ETA Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque terrorist organization)
EU European Union
FGDS Fédération de la Gauche Démocratique et Socialiste (for-
mer left-wing coalition)
FIS Front Islamique du Salut (Islamic Salvation Front)
FLN Front de Libération National (National Liberation Front)
FN Front National (National Front, extreme right-wing party)
FO Force Ouvrière (labor union set up in opposition to com-
munist CGT)
FPF Fédération Protestante de France
GDF Gaz de France
GIA Groupe Islamique Armé (Armed Islamic Group)

xi
xii • ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

INSEE Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes

Economiques (National Office of Statistics and Economic
Surveys)
MoDem Mouvement Démocrate (independent centrist party)
MRP Mouvement Républicain Populaire (former Christian dem-
ocratic movement)
MRG Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche (center-left party)
MRP Mouvement Républicain Populaire
MSF Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders)
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
ORTF Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (former
French broadcasting service)
PCF Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)
PR Parti Républicain (centrist party)
PS Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party)
PSU Parti Socialiste Unifié (United Socialist Party)
RTF Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (former French
broadcasting service)
RPF Rassemblement du Peuple Français (a former name of the
Gaullist party)
RPR Rassemblement pour la République (a former name of the
Gaullist party)
SFIO Section française de l’Internationale Ouvrière (former
name of Socialist Party)
SMIC Salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance (mini-
mum wage)
SMIG Salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti (former name
for minimum wage)
SNCF Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (national
railway company)
SOFRES Société Française d’Etudes par Sondages (French polling
organization)
TGV Train à grande vitesse (high-speed train)
TNP Théâtre National Populaire
UC Union Calédonienne (political party seeking independence
for New Caledonia)
UDF Union Pour la Démocratie Française (Union for French
Democracy, liberal center party)
 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS • xiii

UDR Union des Démocrates pour la République (Union of Dem-

ocrats for the Republic)
UIMM Union des Industries et Métiers de la Métallurgie (Union of
Industry and Steel Workers)
UMP Union pour la Majorité Populaire (current vehicle for
Gaullist party)
UN United Nations
UNR Union pour la Nouvelle République (former name of
Gaullist party)
USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
 Chronology

52 BC The people of Gaul come under Roman domination when their

leader Vercingétorix is defeated at Alésia.
406 AD Gaul is invaded by the barbarians.
481 Clovis ascends the throne.
732 Charles Martel ends the threat from invading Moors in the battle
near Poitiers.
800 The Pope crowns Charlemagne emperor.
843 The Treaty of Verdun divides Charlemagne’s empire.
987 Hugues Capet is elected king.
1163 The construction of Notre-Dame de Paris begins.
1180 Philippe II Auguste takes the throne.
1208–1213 Crusade against the Albigensians.
1214 The Battle of Bouvines.
1226 Louis IX takes the throne.
1285 Philippe IV le Bel takes the throne.
1337–1453 The Hundred Years’ War.
1348 The plague known as the Black Death begins.
1429 Joan of Arc liberates Orléans from the English and enables
Charles VII to be crowned king at Reims.
1461 Louis XI takes the throne.

xv
xvi • CHRONOLOGY

1470 Approximate date of the introduction of the printing press to

France.
1526 Construction of the Château de Chambord begins.
1532 Pantagruel by Rabelais is published.
1539 The Decree of Villers-Cotterêts, which makes French the oblig-
atory language in all official documents.
1562–1598 The wars of religion.
1580 The first edition of Essais by Montaigne is published.
1589 Henri IV takes the throne.
1598 The Edict of Nantes.
1610 Henri IV is assassinated and the child Louis XIII ascends the
throne, followed by the regency of Marie de Médicis.
1636–1637 Le Cid by Corneille and Le discours de la méthode by
Descartes are published.
1643 Louis XIII dies, followed by the regency of Anne d’Autriche.
1648 The beginnings of la Fronde.
1670 Bérénice by Racine and Le bourgeois gentilhomme by Molière
are published, as well as a partial version of Pascal’s Pensées.
1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
1715 Louis XV takes the throne, followed by the regency of duc d’Or-
léans until 1723.
1748 De l’esprit des lois by Montesquieu is published.
1751 The first volume of the Encyclopédie appears.
1762 Du contrat social by Rousseau is published.
1774 Louis XVI ascends to the throne.
1789 14 July: The Bastille falls. 4 August: Feudal privileges are
abolished. 26 August: Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citi-
zen.
 CHRONOLOGY • xvii

1790 France is divided into 83 départements.

1791 Metric system is established.
1792 Proclamation of the République.
1793 21 January: Louis XVI is executed. September: The Terror be-
gins.
1794 Robespierre loses power.
1799 Bonaparte stages a coup d’état.
1800 Office of préfet is created.
1801 Concordat is signed.
1802 Le génie du christianisme by Chateaubriand.
1804 21 March: Civil Code is promulgated.
1808 L’Université Impériale is established. 2 December: Bonaparte
is crowned emperor.
1812 September–October: Napoléon Bonaparte’s troops occupy
Moscow.
1814 Allied invasion of France. 6 April: Bonaparte is forced to abdi-
cate. 6 June: Constitutional Charter of Louis XVIII.
1815 March: Bonaparte returns for the Hundred Days, culminating in
Waterloo. 22 June: Second abdication of Bonaparte. 8 July: Second
restoration.
1821 Bonaparte dies.
1825 Charles X ascends to the throne.
1830 La symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz; Hernani by Victor
Hugo. 27–29 July: Les Trois Glorieuses, three days of insurrection. 2
August: Charles X is forced to abdicate in favor of Louis-Philippe.
1831 La liberté guidant le peuple by Delacroix.
1834 Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac.
1836 Railway line is laid between Paris and Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
xviii • CHRONOLOGY

1840 Bonaparte’s remains are entombed in Les Invalides.

1848 24 February: Popular discontent ends the régime of Louis-
Philippe. 4 November: Constitution of Second Republic. 10 Decem-
ber: Bonaparte’s nephew, Louis-Napoléon, is elected president of the
Republic.
1850 Falloux law on education.
1851 Coup d’état by Louis-Napoléon.
1852 Empire is restored.
1854 War with Russia.
1855 Paris Exhibition.
1856 Peace congress in Paris.
1857 Port of Dakar is established by Louis Faidherbe; Madame Bo-
vary by Gustave Flaubert.
1859 Construction of Suez Canal begins.
1860 Annexation of Savoie and Nice; free trade treaty with Britain.
1861 Military expedition to Mexico.
1862 Annexation of Cochin-China.
1863 Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by Edouard Manet.
1864 Right to strike recognized in law.
1866 French troops evacuate Mexico.
1869 Suez Canal is opened.
1870 19 July: France declares war on Prussia. 4 September: Empire
collapses and Third Republic is proclaimed.
1871 18 March: The Commune begins. 10 May: Treaty of Frankfurt
cedes Alsace-Lorraine to the Germans. 28 May: Communards defeated.
1873 Death of Louis-Napoléon; foundation stone of Sacré Coeur is
laid.
1875 February: Amendement Wallon.
 CHRONOLOGY • xix

1877 16 May: President Maurice de MacMahon attempts coup d’état.

1879 Ferry begins educational reforms.
1880 Amnesty for exiled Communards.
1881 Tunisia becomes French protectorate.
1882 Foundation of Ligue des Patriotes.
1884 Trade unions legalized.
1886 Boulanger is appointed minister of war.
1887–1889 Eiffel Tower is built.
1888 Pasteur Institute is founded.
1889 January: Georges Boulanger is elected in Paris. April:
Boulanger’s flight.
1892 November: Panama Canal scandal.
1894 Lumière brothers make first film. December: Alfred Dreyfus is
condemned.
1895 Confédération Générale du Travail is established.
1896 Madagascar is annexed.
1898 January: Emile Zola’s J’accuse.
1899 September: Second court-martial also finds Dreyfus guilty.
1902 Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy.
1904 Anglo-French Entente; 10-hour-day law.
1905 Section Française de l’Internationale Ouvrière is founded; law
of separation of church and state is passed.
1908 Réflexions sur la violence by Georges Sorel.
1909 Joan of Arc is beatified.
1912 Morocco becomes a French protectorate.
1913 Military service is extended to three years.
xx • CHRONOLOGY

1914 28 June: Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated at Sarajevo. 31

July: Jean Jaurès is assassinated. 3 August: Germany declares war on
France. 22 August: French are defeated in the Ardennes. 5–12 Sep-
tember: Battle of the Marne.
1916 21 February: Battle of Verdun begins. July–September: Bat-
tle of the Somme. December: Robert Nivelle is appointed commander-
in-chief.
1917 16 April: Nivelle offensive. May: Nivelle is dismissed; mu-
tinies in French army; Foch and Pétain are appointed. November:
Georges Clemenceau government is formed.
1918 March–July: Ludendorff offensive. 18 July: Foch’s counterof-
fensive. 11 November: Armistice.
1919 28 June: Treaty of Versailles is signed.
1920 December: Socialist Congress at Tours.
1923 January: Occupation of Ruhr.
1924 André Breton issues Manifesto of Surrealism; Dawes Plan.
1925 July: Evacuation of Ruhr begins. October: Locarno Accords
are reached.
1928 Decision to build Maginot Line.
1929 October: Wall Street crash.
1930 June: French evacuate the Rhineland.
1933 Stavisky affair.
1934 6 February: Right-wing ligues make halfhearted attempt at
coup d’état. 9 February: Left wing counterdemonstrates.
1935 May: Franco-Soviet pact is negotiated.
1936 March: Rhineland is remilitarized. April–May: Popular Front
victory in legislative elections; strikes and sit-ins. June: Léon Blum be-
comes premier; Matignon agreements. October: Devaluation of franc;
Spanish Civil War.
 CHRONOLOGY • xxi

1937 February: Blum announces “pause” on road to reform. June:

Blum government falls. Jean Renoir’s film La grande illusion is re-
leased.
1938 29 September: Munich conference.
1939 February: France recognizes government of Franco. March:
Anglo-French guarantee to Poland. 1 September: Germany invades
Poland. 3 September: Great Britain and France declare war on Ger-
many.
1940 May: French front is broken on Meuse; Philippe Pétain enters
government. 14 June: Germans enter Paris. 16 June: Paul Reynaud is
succeeded by Pétain. 18 June: General de Gaulle calls from London for
continued resistance. 22 June: Armistice with Germany. 1 July: French
government moves to Vichy. 10 July: National Assembly votes full
powers to Pétain. 24 October: Hitler-Pétain interview at Montoire.
1941 Germany invades Russia; French communists begin resistance.
1942 8 November: Allies invade North Africa. 11 November: Ger-
mans move into unoccupied France.
1943 June: Committee of National Liberation formed at Algiers un-
der Charles de Gaulle and Giraud.
1944 Huis Clos by Jean-Paul Sartre. 6 June: Allies land in Normandy.
26 August: De Gaulle enters Paris.
1945 21 October: Referendum ends Third Republic.
1946 January: De Gaulle resigns.
1947 April: Gaullist Rassemblement is formed. May: Paul Ramadier
dismisses Communist ministers. November–December: Communist-
led strikes; La peste by Camus.
1949 North Atlantic Treaty is signed.
1951 Coal and steel pact is signed by France, Germany, Italy, and
Benelux.
1953 Poujadist League forms.
xxii • CHRONOLOGY

1954 May: Dien Bien Phu falls. November: Algerian revolt.

1956 March: Independence of Morocco and Tunisia is recognized.
November: Suez crisis. December: Saar returns to German sover-
eignty. Bardot myth is launched in Et dieu créa la femme.
1957 Assembly ratifies Common Market treaties; Mythologies by
Roland Barthes.
1958 13 May: Revolt of Europeans and army in Algeria. 1 June: De
Gaulle’s government is accepted by the Assembly. 28 September: Con-
stitution of the Fifth Republic is accepted by referendum. 21 Decem-
ber: De Gaulle is elected president.
1959 January 8: De Gaulle is proclaimed president and Michel De-
bré his premier.
1960 January: “New franc” is introduced. February: First French
nuclear bomb explodes.
1961 January: Referendum on future of Algeria. April: Army revolt
in Algeria collapses.
1962 March: Franco-Algerian agreement. April: Georges Pompidou
becomes prime minister. July: Independence of Algeria is proclaimed.
October: Referendum approves future presidential election by univer-
sal suffrage.
1964 Ecrits by Jacques Lacan.
1966 Les mots et les choses, Une archéologie des sciences humaines
by Michel Foucault.
1967 L’Ecriture et la différence by Jacques Derrida.
1968 22 March: Student unrest at the University of Nanterre. 10–11
May: “Night of the barricades” in the Latin Quarter of Paris. 13 May:
Major left-wing demonstration. 30 May: Gaullist demonstration on
Champs-Elysées. 23–30 June: Gaullists triumph in legislative elec-
tions. July: Maurice Couve de Murville becomes prime minister.
1969 27 April: Referendum on constitutional change. 28 April: De
Gaulle resigns. 15 June: Georges Pompidou becomes president and
Jacques Chaban-Delmas his premier.
 CHRONOLOGY • xxiii

1970 9 November: De Gaulle dies.

1971 François Mitterrand takes control of the Socialist Party.
1972 Common Program agreed to by Socialists and Communists.
July: Pierre Messmer becomes prime minister.
1973 First oil crisis.
1974 2 April: Pompidou dies. 27 May: Valéry Giscard d’Estaing be-
comes president and Jacques Chirac his premier. October: Neuwirth
law allows sale of contraceptive pill in pharmacies.
1975 Weil law legalizing abortion is passed by Assembly.
1976 August: Raymond Barre becomes prime minister.
1977 Common Program ends.
1979 Second oil crisis.
1980 Scandal of undeclared gift of diamonds allegedly received by
Giscard d’Estaing.
1981 10 May: François Mitterrand becomes president and Pierre
Mauroy his premier. 9 October: Death penalty abolished; devaluation
of franc.
1982 January: Another devaluation of franc. February: Wave of na-
tionalizations. March: Defferre law starts process of decentralization.
1983 March: Mauroy government announces third devaluation and
austerity plan.
1984 June: Socialists are defeated in European elections; 1 million
take to the streets in protest against proposed changes to private educa-
tion. July: Proposed changes to private education are dropped; Laurent
Fabius is the new prime minister.
1985 Rainbow Warrior affair; Socialists opt for proportional repre-
sentation in legislative elections of the following year.
1986 March: Center-right wins majority in legislative elections;
Jacques Chirac becomes prime minister and starts period of “cohabita-
tion”; National Front rejoices at winning 35 seats; Chirac launches pri-
vatization program.
xxiv • CHRONOLOGY

1987 January: Single European Act comes into force. October:

Share values crash on Black Monday.
1988 8 May: Mitterrand is reelected president well ahead of Chirac
and chooses Michel Rocard as his premier.
1991 January–February: French participation in Gulf War. May:
France’s first female prime minister, Edith Cresson, forms government.
December: Maastricht Treaty concludes.
1992 April: Pierre Bérégovoy becomes prime minister. 20 Septem-
ber: Referendum on Maastricht Treaty reveals only 51.04 percent in fa-
vor.
1993 March: Landslide victory for center-right in legislative elec-
tions and another period of cohabitation for Mitterrand, who is obliged
to accept Edouard Balladur as his premier. May: Suicide of former
prime minister, Pierre Bérégovoy; new wave of privatizations.
1994 April: Le premier homme by Albert Camus appears 34 years af-
ter his death; Paul Touvier becomes first Frenchman to be found guilty
of crimes against humanity. September: Pierre Péan’s controversial
book on Mitterrand appears. November: First picture in Paris-Match of
Mitterrand’s illegitimate daughter.
1995 May: Jacques Chirac is elected president, with Alain Juppé as
his premier. June: International outcry at resumption of French nuclear
tests in Pacific. 25 July: Terrorist bomb, allegedly planted by Islamic
fundamentalists, explodes at Saint-Michel Metro station, killing eight
and wounding many others. November: Massive demonstrations and
strikes in protest of austerity measures of Juppé government.
1996 January: François Mitterrand, France’s longest-serving presi-
dent, dies. November: Prime Minister Alain Juppé and his government
back down on the proposed sale of French company Thomson Multi-
média to Korean conglomerate Daewoo.
1997 21 April: President Chirac announces dissolution of Assembly
in order to call legislative elections one year ahead of schedule. 25
May: Second-highest-ever level of abstentions in first round of elec-
tions. 1 June: Stunning defeat for center-right as the left wins majority
in new Assembly. 2 June: Chirac appoints Socialist leader Lionel
Jospin his premier, France enters third period of cohabitation.
 CHRONOLOGY • xxv

1998 10 February: First Aubry law on 35-hour week.

1999 13 June: Left emerge as winners in European elections. 2 July:
Bernard Kouchner becomes civil administrator in Kosovo. 12 August:
McDonald’s restaurant in Millau is destroyed by followers of José
Bové. November: Law is passed creating the Pacte Civil de Solidarité.
2000 1 January: Couverture maladie universelle comes into force,
guaranteeing free health care for those on low incomes. 20 March: Cre-
ation of Euronext, a merger of the stock exchanges in Paris, Brussels,
and Amsterdam. 24 September: Referendum in favor of shortening the
presidential mandate from seven to five years.
2001 11 September: Security measures known as Vigipirate stepped
up after terrorist outrages in the United States. 14 December: Distribu-
tion of euros begins in France.
2002 1 January: Euro becomes the official currency of France and
the European Union. 17 February: Franc ceases to be legal tender in
France. 31 March: Synagogue attacked by arsonists in Strasbourg. 21
April: Shock spreads as Jean-Marie Le Pen comes second behind
Jacques Chirac in first round of presidential elections. 5 May: Chirac is
reelected president with 82.21 percent of votes cast and chooses Jean-
Pierre Raffarin as his premier. 14 July: Right-wing extremist fails in at-
tempt to shoot Chirac. 6 October: Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, is
victim of non-fatal knife attack; French petrol tanker is attacked by ter-
rorists in waters off Yemen. 8 November: Former president Valéry Gis-
card d’Estaing declares his opposition to Turkish membership of the
European Union (EU).
2003 21 January: President George Bush declares the United States’
willingness to intervene in Iraq. 23 January: German Chancellor Ger-
hard Schröder and Chirac voice opposition to U.S. intervention in Iraq,
and on 7 February Chirac threatens use of French veto in United Na-
tions. 18 February: Chirac lectures future members of EU for “lack of
manners” in supporting United States over Iraq. 2 April: EU censures
France for exceeding its agreed budget deficit. 10 April: Air France and
British Airways announce the end of flights by Concorde supersonic
airliner. 13 May: Major demonstrations against proposed reforms to the
pensions system by the government. 25 September: Summer heat wave
(la canicule) is estimated to have killed almost 15,000 people.
xxvi • CHRONOLOGY

2004 5–7 April: Queen Elizabeth II of Britain visits France to mark

the centenary of the Entente Cordiale. 23 April: Last coal mine in
France closes at Creutzwald. 27 April: Airbus 380 plane flies for the
first time at Toulouse. 30 April: Jewish cemetery at Herlisheim dese-
crated. 5 June: Mayor of Bègles, Noël Mamère, officiates at first
French gay marriage. 17 June: Mamère suspended from office for offi-
ciating in gay marriage. 27 July: Two French inmates at U.S. prison
camp in Guantanamo are returned home. 12 September: Laurent
Fabius announces opposition to EU constitution. November: L’Affaire
Clearstream hits the headlines, with the revelation that a list of names
had been sent anonymously to Judge Renaud van Ruymbeke alleging
that a number of leading politicians, including Nicolas Sarkozy, were
implicated in a scheme to receive illegal commissions for facilitating
the sale of French frigates to Taiwan.
2005 25 February: National Assembly adopts law recognizing “pos-
itive role” played by French colonization. 29 May: Majority of French
electorate vote against ratification of EU constitution. 31 May: Do-
minique de Villepin replaces Jean-Pierre Raffarin as prime minister. 20
June: Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy gains notoriety by suggesting
the “cleansing” of undesirable elements from France’s violent suburbs.
28 October: Two adolescents of immigrant origin die accidentally after
hiding in an electrical substation from chasing police, sparking off three
weeks of rioting in France’s poorest working-class suburbs.
2006 31 January: Nicolas Sarkozy initiates legal proceedings to
clear his name in l’Affaire Clearstream. 7 February: Demonstrations
against the Contrat Première Embauche, the government’s proposed
measures for greater flexibility in employment regulations governing
young people. 1 April: Government adopts 10 May as the date for the
annual commemoration of the end of slavery. 27 April: An article in the
weekly journal L’Express claims that Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-
Marie knew l’Affaire Clearstream was a plot to blacken the reputations
of certain people. 4 May: In a press conference Prime Minister Do-
minique de Villepin admits that Nicolas Sarkozy’s name was mentioned
in a discussion with one of the actors in l’Affaire Clearstream, General
Philippe Rondot, but that no connection was made between Sarkozy
and any scandals. 14 May: In an interview in the Journal du Dimanche
about l’Affaire Clearstream, General Rondot affirms that Dominique de
 CHRONOLOGY • xxvii

Villepin and President Jacques Chirac are not involved in any “machi-
nations,” in spite of the widespread awareness of their dislike of
Sarkozy. 6 June: An administrative tribunal formally acknowledges the
responsibility of French railways in the deportation of the country’s
Jews during World War II. 6 December: The rolling international
French language news channel, France 24, is launched. 21 December:
Dominique de Villepin is interviewed for 17 hours as a witness in the
judicial investigation into l’Affaire Clearstream.

2007 6 May: Nicolas Sarkozy elected President of the Republic, beat-

ing the candidate of the left, Ségolène Royal, and chooses François Fil-
lon as his premier. 9 May: Students at l’Université de Paris I occupy the
university in protest of educational reforms aiming to give universities
more autonomy, sparking off a series of similar protests nationwide. 17
June: L’Union pour la Majorité Populaire secures a solid majority for
Nicolas Sarkozy in the National Assembly with 46.37 percent of the
vote in the second round of the legislative elections giving them 314
seats, followed by the Parti Socialiste with 42.25 percent of the vote and
186 seats, out of a total of 577. 5 July: Police remove evidence that
might be connected to l’Affaire Clearstream from Dominique de
Villepin’s Parisian residence. 6 July: Police remove evidence that
might be connected to l’Affaire Clearstream from Dominique de
Villepin’s Parisian office. 24 July: Bulgarian nurses condemned to
death in Libya for allegedly infecting children with AIDS are allowed
to leave the country accompanied by Cecilia Sarkozy, the wife of Pres-
ident Nicolas Sarkozy. 27 July: Dominique de Villepin is placed under
investigation for being an accessory to libel, receiving stolen goods, and
fraudulent use of documents. 10 August: Law promulgated reforming
universities and giving them, notably, greater autonomy. 5 September:
French railway unions warn the government that attempts at pension re-
form that target “special arrangements,” such as early retirement with
full pension rights for certain groups of workers, will be vigorously op-
posed. 18 October: A series of strikes is launched, with unions militat-
ing against pension reform paralyzing public transport. 25 October: Af-
ter consulting with numerous interested parties in the forum called Le
Grenelle de l’Environnement, President Nicolas Sarkozy announces
measures such as a carbon tax that the government hopes to implement.
2 December: The centrist party Mouvement Démocrate (MoDem)
xxviii • CHRONOLOGY

holds its founding congress in Villepinte, a suburb of Paris, and for-

mally elects François Bayrou its leader. 14 December: Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi makes a controversial visit to France. 15 Decem-
ber: President Nicolas Sarkozy allows himself to be photographed vis-
iting Euro Disney with his new partner, Carla Bruni.
 Introduction

France grew sporadically and was subject to major migrations and in-
vasions until it entered the second millennium and embarked on a phase
of slow but steady development. By that time the threat to the southern
regions from the Muslim armies of North Africa had ceased, the Norse-
men had learned to cultivate the land of Normandy rather than raid it,
and, as a result of the creation of the Holy Roman Empire in 962, the
region of Burgundy to the east was safe from the horsemen of the Hun-
garian plain. The gradual consolidation that followed secured the posi-
tion of the crown, established its co-identity with the country’s fortunes,
and was marked by the emergence of the literary culture that would play
such an important part in the global projection of France’s image.
In contrast to what some historians have called the slow phase in
France’s development, the Renaissance brought rapid change. The ad-
vantages France enjoyed as a large, centralized, absolutist monarchy en-
abled it to impose itself on its European neighbors and develop a voca-
tion for greatness that, paradoxically, was enhanced by the Revolution
of 1789. For although it overthrew the monarchy, the Revolution had in-
tellectual ambitions that were clearly universal and aimed at making
France a model for the rest of the world. However, these ambitions were
unsustainable in the real world of great power rivalry. The advent of the
Industrial Revolution showed how much France had fallen behind in
economic terms, first in relation to Great Britain and then more cru-
cially in regard to Germany.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 between a tottering French empire
and a confident, united, new Germany showed the measure of the gap
between the way the French perceived themselves and the real weight
of French power. As Germany eclipsed France and then Britain in the
technical prowess of its manufacturers and the capture of world markets
for its goods, France entered the 20th century increasingly dependent on

xxix
xxx • INTRODUCTION

Britain and other allies to contain the new colossus on its eastern flank.
While the convulsions caused by the two world wars convinced
France’s political elite of the wisdom of knitting European nations to-
gether in a supranational body like the European Union, France has
nonetheless not forsaken the civilizing mission articulated by the au-
thors of the Revolution. This explains the importance all French gov-
ernments give to great cultural projects and investment in international
collaboration, whether through scholarships or subsidized programs for
teaching the French language; these maintain its profile as the purveyor
of a great culture.

TERRITORY AND GEOGRAPHY

France sits at the western edge of the European mainland, bounded by

Belgium and Germany in the northeast, Switzerland and Italy in the
east, the Mediterranean in the south, Spain and Andorra in the south-
west, and the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Metropolitan France (includ-
ing Corsica) covers an area of 551,553 square kilometers or 212,960
square miles, but the French Republic also covers a number of territo-
ries found outside the Hexagon, as French commentators frequently call
it: Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique, Réunion, St. Pierre-
et-Miquelon, the Southern and Antarctic territories, New Caledonia,
French Polynesia, and Wallis-et-Futuna.
While modern France sits comfortably within what appear to be eas-
ily identifiable and natural borders, namely its coastlines and mountain
ranges, the territory it now covers resulted from a long process of accu-
mulation that began in the first millennium. The first piece of French
territory was outlined by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which divided
Charlemagne’s empire between his three grandsons. Francia Occiden-
talis was the area bounded by the waters of the Rhône, Saône, Meuse,
and Escaut, and which was given to Charles the Bald. The restoration
of a Holy Roman Empire in 962 isolated France from its Germanic
neighbor, and the Meuse started to constitute the linguistic and political
frontier that was to play such an important role in the historical rela-
tionship between the two peoples.
When Hugues Capet was elected king of the Franks in 987, the do-
main over which he could exercise his authority directly was modest in-
 INTRODUCTION • xxxi

deed compared to modern France. It fell to his successors, through ne-

gotiation with powerful nobles, matrimonial alliances, and war, to ex-
tend that domain. When Philippe II Auguste came to the throne in 1180,
the royal domain covered the area around Paris and tapered to a thin
strip of territory south of Orléans. Philippe waged a particularly suc-
cessful campaign to extend the royal domain to make him the undis-
puted master of what is now northern France, and his famous victory at
Bouvines in 1214 against a coalition of his enemies from England and
the Holy Roman Empire marked the beginning of a sense of unity
among the Frankish people behind their king. The dispute with the Plan-
tagenet dynasty in England over the rightful ownership of much of
France persisted for generations, leading to the Hundred Years’ War
(1337–1453). During that conflict, tracts of territory changed hands un-
til the English were gradually pushed out as Paris was retaken from
them in 1436, Normandy was reconquered in 1450, and English hopes
were finally extinguished after the battle of Castillon in 1453.
The growth of the kingdom toward the west in the 15th century and
toward the north and east in the 17th century meant that the territory we
now call France did not become recognizable until the beginning of the
19th century. In 1860, Savoie and Nice in the east and southeast were
peacefully integrated into France’s frontiers, but barely more than a
decade later a violent change was to take place. As a result of losing the
war against Prussia in 1871, France had to cede its eastern region of Al-
sace-Lorraine to Germany. However, this loss was reversed as one of
the outcomes of World War I, and the territorial integrity of the Hexa-
gon has suffered no permanent, major alteration since that time.
In terms of its physical geography, France can be broadly divided into
five natural regions: an oceanic and temperate zone in the northwest
stretching from the Vendée to Champagne and forming a fertile lowland
region; the northeast, an area of plateaus and limestone slopes with few
fertile areas and given to severe weather conditions; the southwest, a ver-
dant combination of plains, hills, and plateaus; the southeast, a patch-
work of contrasts stretching from the Limousin to the plains of Provence
and from Rousillon to the plains of the Saône, encompassing infertile
limestone plateaus and discontinuous areas of plain and valley enjoying
a Mediterranean climate; and the mountain ranges of the Massif Central,
the Jura, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, generally resistant to settlement and
cultivation because of their poor soils and short growing seasons.
xxxii • INTRODUCTION

Inevitably, after centuries of vegetation clearance, grazing, fertiliz-

ing, and cropping, there are few natural soils left in France. In the ma-
jority of cases French soils fall somewhere between the true brown for-
est and the podsol type. Brown forest soils with plenty of organic matter
predominate in France, as most of the country lies in cool to warm, tem-
perate climates with moderate rainfall. In the wetter climates of the
west, in some of the colder climates of the north, and especially in the
mountainous zones, podsolized soils are characteristically thinner and
less fertile than elsewhere. The soil of the Mediterranean region is
memorable for its typically red color, and there the agricultural yield of
the land is determined by soil-moisture conditions and the availability
of irrigation.
Apart from the climate, the other major factor in soil development is
the parent material. Throughout northern France the soils successfully
cultivated rest on deposits of loess, or limon. In about a third of the
country the soils developed on limestone, and although on the elevated
plateaus of southern France and the mountains in general this produced
soils of poor agricultural potential, in the limestone-based soils of low-
land areas the yield in agricultural terms could be far greater. In parts of
the Paris basin, for example, the limestone-based soil proved light and
easy to work and enrich, thus attracting cultivation well before the tech-
nology was developed for breaking up the heavier clays.
Many generations of settlement and agriculture resulted in tech-
niques that worked with the advantages of the physical geography of the
regions of France or compensated for their deficiencies. Thus in the
southern, Mediterranean region, a characteristic form of agriculture
called for the construction of innumerable terraces on hill slopes to re-
tain scarce soil and facilitate the cultivation of wheat, olives, and vines.
By way of regional contrast, but equally traditional, the preoccupation
in the northwest with soil retention shaped the traditional bocage land-
scape of Brittany, with its patchwork of small fields bounded by ditches
and hedges.
Techniques for enhancing soil fertility have taken various forms ac-
cording to the regions where they are employed. An example is the cen-
turies-old practice of using natural fertilizers, including night soil from
urban districts, seaweed from the coast, and animal manure in pastoral
areas. By the end of the 19th century, the importation of nitrates and
potash allowed a more systematic and widespread use of fertilizers on
 INTRODUCTION • xxxiii

arable land. A new phase began after World War II, when traditional fer-
tilizers began to be replaced by synthetic ones. In general, therefore, the
soils of France have proved to possess good depth, texture, and organic
material, and throughout the country’s history have showed their poten-
tial for improvement and their capacity for sustaining intensive farming
systems. The universal perception of France as a land of gastronomic
plenty rests on a sound empirical basis, and in the present day this is
borne out by the fact that France is the largest exporter of agricultural
products among the countries of the European Union.
Apart from its effect on the soils of the country, the French climate
displays distinct regional variations around two main divides: the pri-
mary divide is between the cool north and the warm south, and the sec-
ondary divide distinguishes the more continental east from the maritime
west. The effect of latitude on temperature variations between north and
south is easily illustrated by the mean annual temperature range, from 15
degrees Celsius in the Mediterranean to 9 degrees Celsius at the border
with Belgium. However, the effect of the secondary divide is that in the
north, while the January temperature in Brest averages 6 degrees Cel-
sius, on the other side of the country in Strasbourg the temperature hov-
ers around the freezing point. This is because the temperature in Brest is
moderated by the warm oceanic currents of the North Atlantic, while
Strasbourg endures the harsher continental climate of the European land
mass. In the higher altitudes of the Alps, Pyrenees, and Massif Central,
extremes of temperature are exacerbated, with summer averages below
10 degrees Celsius and winter averages well below freezing.
In addition to more extreme variations in temperature, the mountain
regions have an annual precipitation that rises to 2,000 millimeters,
while in most of France it is slightly in excess of 500 millimeters. Gen-
erally, rainfall totals are higher in the west than in the east, with a sea-
sonal distribution of precipitation that shows a winter maximum along
the Atlantic coast and a summer maximum in northeast France. More
complicated rainfall patterns occur in parts of southeast France that are
situated in a transitional zone between a continental climate and a true
Mediterranean one. The maximum precipitation in those areas often oc-
curs around October, when high sea-surface temperatures lead to at-
mospheric instability.
The leisured classes of English society constituted the first wave of
tourists to discover the varied charms of the French landscape and
xxxiv • INTRODUCTION

climate, especially in the south, toward the end of the 19th century, and
the trails they left are preserved in attractions like the Promenade des
Anglais in Nice. Exploitation of the country’s geography as a commer-
cial resource has become much more systematic over the last few
decades, particularly through efforts to develop expensive tourist facil-
ities. For example, the site of the new Alpine ski resort Isola 2000 was
chosen only after close scientific study of the climate to ensure good
snow cover for the maximum period during the skiing season. A rich
history and natural geographical advantages, along with astute ex-
ploitation of both factors, make France the world’s top tourist destina-
tion, receiving over 76 million visitors in 2005.

Population
Recent archaeological discoveries in places such as the grottoes of
Aquitaine suggest that the settlement of the territory we now call France
was well under way by 15,000 BC, facilitated by its being spared many of
the ravages of the great glaciers of the Ice Age. Anthropological studies
show that the inhabitants then, as now, possessed ethnic diversity resulting
from successive waves of migration that, by the time of the Roman con-
quest, meant that ancient France, or Gaul as it was known, boasted a pop-
ulation of approximately 10 million. A dramatic demographic change co-
incided with the beginning of the Christian era in France, and the
population began to decline, reaching a low of five million by the fifth cen-
tury. France would have to wait until the end of the 11th century before its
population crossed the threshold of 10 million again.
In contrast, France in the Middle Ages enjoyed a demographic take-
off, culminating in a population that stabilized at approximately 20 mil-
lion by the beginning of the 13th century. This was both a cause and a
consequence of the economic growth of the period. A balance appeared
to have been reached between the population of France and the produc-
tive capacity of the economy, enabling the kingdom to survive even the
catastrophic ravages of the Black Death. The 17th century brought an-
other rapid rise in population, and by the end of the ancien régime in
1789, the people of France constituted the largest nation in Western Eu-
rope, numbering some 29 million.
Thereafter, however, demographic trends in France began to as-
sume some very particular, and ultimately costly, characteristics in
 INTRODUCTION • xxxv

terms of France’s economic and military weight in Europe. The mod-

ern demographic trend that developed in Europe in the 19th century
was made up of two phases. In the first phase, elimination of famine
and great epidemics allowed already high birthrates to produce sub-
stantial population growth. The second phase was one in which
birthrates would slowly decline, thereby restoring a new demographic
balance. The peculiarity in France was that there seemed to be no time
lag between the two phases. With mortality rates and birthrates drop-
ping at the same time, France was unable to enjoy the same demo-
graphic explosion as her neighbors. The long-term consequence of
this was dramatic. Whereas in the middle of the 18th century the peo-
ple of France represented one-third of the population of Western Eu-
rope, by the beginning of the 20th century they made up barely 10 per-
cent of that population mass.
The enormous number of French soldiers killed in World War I ex-
acerbated the decline in the French population, and in the 1930s the na-
tion’s death rate actually exceeded its birthrate. Paradoxically for
France, the sole major factor counteracting this decline came from
abroad, in the shape of the Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Belgian mi-
grants who, in 1931, constituted 7 percent of the country’s population.
The end of World War II, however, was marked by a baby boom in
France as in the rest of Europe, and the country’s population increased
in the 30 years following 1945 by as much as it had during the previous
century and a half. By 2000 France had a population of almost 60 mil-
lion, and with a birthrate superior to that of its neighbors like Germany
and Italy, it appeared to have overcome the structural demographic de-
ficiency that provided so much concern for its governing elite since the
19th century.

History
Any overview of the emergence of a French identity and the fashion-
ing of a political nation must accommodate the interaction of a number
of factors, including the widely accepted view that the evolution of
French civilization was marked by the tension between the town and the
country. The predominance of rural traditions endured far longer in
France than in other comparable European countries like England or
Germany. It is unquestionably true that under Roman rule the civilization
xxxvi • INTRODUCTION

of Gaul was focused on a number of urban centers. But after the

breakup of the empire, France quickly reverted to a country of scattered
and small rural communities, the largest of which were grouped either
around a seigniorial seat or a place of worship.
It was not until the 11th century that an urban renaissance took place,
with towns confirming their importance as nodal points in emerging
communication networks and as focal points for the exercise of power.
The growth of commerce and the products of skilled artisans confirmed
the economic superiority of the town over the countryside and led to the
characteristic medieval urban patterns whose remnants can still be
found today—city walls, fine merchants’ houses, and winding alleys in-
terspersed with workshops. A new social order developed in the towns,
determined by craft guilds or corporations and commercial activities
that contrasted with the constraints of feudal life in the countryside.
This explains why, in spite of their insignificance in population terms,
the towns had an autonomy that gave them a decisive role in shaping the
economic, cultural, and political changes that marked the evolution of
French society. Commerce and the preindustrial products of the town-
based artisans provided the dynamic for growth in the 18th century and
started the trickle of migration from the countryside to the town that
was to become a torrent during the following century. The polarization
of economic life in industrial urban centers became evident from the
1850s onward, also confirming the role of the great municipalities as
hubs of political activity and cultural innovation.
Yet in tracing this evolution, a paradox remains that may help to ex-
plain some of the social and political reflexes of the French as a nation
and that has endured to the present. It was not until the 1930s that the
urban population overtook the rural population in numerical terms, and
it would be unwise in focusing on the crucial role of the city to overlook
the legacy of the rural experience of the majority of France’s people for
most of the country’s existence. Some commentators have argued that
the peculiarly Gallic mix of distrust toward modern forms of political
authority and deference toward established hierarchies may reflect a
mentality shaped over generations by solitary labor and traditional ties
of deference—in other words, a kind of willful nonconformity that
lends itself easily to street protests, allied with a respect for the marks
of social distinction that contrasts markedly with social attitudes in An-
glo-Saxon societies. Less contentiously, it is certainly the case that the
 INTRODUCTION • xxxvii

peasant reflex of stuffing savings under the mattress or in some other

domestic hiding place, rather than entrusting it to an institution, was a
historical hindrance to the emergence of a modern banking system and
therefore to French capitalism.
The contradictions of French identity and nationhood owe much, ac-
cording to respected historians like François Furet, to the notion that
France was catapulted too abruptly into the modern age by the Revolu-
tion of 1789. Up to that point, the political structures that had shaped
France were hierarchies that had evolved very slowly over the cen-
turies, from the pyramid of priests, warlords, and agrarian producers
that can be traced back to Gaul to the centralizing monarchy that began
to emerge under François I in the 16th century, with the influence of the
Catholic Church running through the period like a thread. Alongside
this, the notion of “Frenchness” was also characterized by a process of
slow, organic growth, conditioned culturally from the Middle Ages on-
ward by texts like the Chanson de Roland, which pitted “Frenchmen”
against “pagans.” This process was conditioned socially by conflicts,
most notably the Hundred Years’ War, which, with the advent of Joan of
Arc, became a crusade to preserve France from the foreign invader. The
emergence of a monarch whose power was solidly established helped
forge a political and cultural convergence resulting in a distinct identity
for the French people as a nation united around a Catholic king in a di-
vinely ordained and immutable relationship.
The violent break with the old order, the ancien régime, in 1789, was
indeed a systemic change since the institutions of state, like the courts,
were emanations of an absolute monarchical authority that allowed the
king to boast that he was the state and the personification of France. By
destroying the monarchy the Revolution also destroyed the hierarchy of
relations that flowed from it. In contrast to the organic whole that de-
ferred to the divine authority of the king and in which every individual
knew his or her station, the Revolution promoted a new sacrosanct no-
tion of the individual, free and equal to all others, who deferred to noth-
ing but the law that defended his or her liberties. The challenge there-
fore lay in defining a new source of social cohesion to replace the
ubiquitous expressions of absolute royal authority that had once pro-
vided the means of articulating French society. The answer was to cul-
tivate the loyalty of the people of France, as citizens, to the institutions
of the republican state.
xxxviii • INTRODUCTION

For almost a century following the Revolution, however, the idea of

a body of free and equal citizens united in loyalty to the democratic in-
stitutions of the Republic was to dwell in the realm of political idealism
rather than reality. In a sense, the coup d’état of Napoléon Bonaparte in
1799 profited from a desire among many French people for a return to
stability, even if it was in the context of a political order that betrayed
some of the fundamental principles of the Revolution. It was the start of
a tradition of Caesarism in French political life, characterized by the na-
tion’s willingness to countenance the sacrifice of ineffectual but
nonetheless democratic structures in favor of the dictates of a providen-
tial leader capable of rescuing the nation’s fortunes.
The monarchical restorations that followed in 1814, 1815, and 1830
were undone because they were both inefficient and regressive in dem-
ocratic terms, allowing, for example, the return and ascendancy of ul-
tra-Catholic aristocrats who had formerly fled the Revolution. Corrup-
tion became endemic under the Restoration monarchs, in a style
reminiscent of the ancien régime. Posts in the gift of the king and his
ministers were often awarded on a nepotistic basis, at the expense of the
meritocrats, in many cases people of modest background who had noth-
ing to commend them except their talent, who were promoted under the
Bonapartist system in the army, the administration, and education. But
the process of intellectual emancipation begun by the Revolution was to
bear fruit in 1848. Whereas the regime of the Bourbon king Charles X
was brought down in 1830 by the antidemocratic excesses of the ultra-
royalists surrounding him at court, in 1848 the regime of the Orleanist
king Louis-Philippe was brought down by the connivance between the
crown and the emerging oligarchy of financial interests governing
France at the expense of popular democracy.
In both cases the downfall of the monarchs was precipitated by street
protests in Paris that turned to violence. And the second instance was
marked historically by the participation of students, those beneficiaries
of the expansion in access to education that started during the Revolu-
tion and that was organized systematically under Bonaparte. But the
characteristic tension in French history between the radicalized city, es-
pecially Paris, and the conservative countryside was soon to surface.
The high hopes of real—and lasting—popular democracy entertained
by the leaders of the uprising in Paris against Louis-Philippe in Febru-
ary 1848 were soon to be dashed by the decision of the conservative, ru-
 INTRODUCTION • xxxix

ral majority to vote for Napoléon Bonaparte’s nephew, Louis-Napoléon,

in the presidential election of December 1848. Playing on the suscepti-
bility of an electorate fearful of radical change and susceptible to the
Caesarist myth of the providential leader, Louis-Napoléon promised a
return to stability and national greatness, thus securing the presidential
power that he was able to exploit in preparation for his coup d’état in
1851 and the declaration of a Second Empire the following year, in im-
itation of his uncle.
It was not until the crushing defeat at the hands of the Prussians 18
years later that the collapse of the Second Empire, followed by five
years of political squabbling and drift, finally gave way to the consen-
sus that allowed the constitutional laws framing the Third Republic to
be passed in 1875. Almost a century had elapsed, therefore, before gov-
ernment, elected by universal suffrage, operating through republican in-
stitutions governed by an impartial and sovereign legal system, could
become a permanent fact of French life. It was during the first two
decades of the Third Republic that a modern pattern of party politics de-
veloped, legislation was passed enshrining the secular nature of the Re-
public by clearly delimiting the influence of the church in education,
and, especially after the Dreyfus Affair, a consensus was established for
the emerging interest groups in society that the legitimate route for the
pursuit of change was through the democratic institutions of the Re-
public.
Unfortunately for France, the consensus established regarding its
democratic institutions was to last barely more than two generations.
The extraordinary flowering of cultural life that took place in France,
and especially Paris, from the 1880s onward, making it a magnet for
creative talents from all over Europe and abroad, earned the period its
renown as a belle époque. But it was a belle époque in economic and
social terms also. While starting somewhat later than its neighbors
across the English Channel and across the Rhine, by the end of the 19th
century France was beginning to reap the benefits of industrialization
on a major scale, particularly with regard to the new industries like
chemicals and automobile production. By the second decade of the 20th
century the French automobile industry was second only to that of the
United States in terms of the volume of cars produced. As a society, the
emergence of an industrial working class and the bodies championing
their interests, on the one hand the trade unions and on the other the
xl • INTRODUCTION

numerous parties of the left, meant that politics in France had to become
increasingly pluralist and democratized. But the apparent virtue of the
parliamentary system of the Third Republic would also become its fatal
flaw. Whereas in Britain, for example, the trade union movement gave
birth to the Labour Party as the parliamentary vehicle tasked with pro-
moting working-class interests, in France the unions refused to concede
that mission to a parliamentary party, and so a plethora of voices arose,
party political and syndicalist, to defend the interests of the workers.
This was symptomatic of the broader political culture in which interests
were not represented by parties operating as homogenous blocks, but by
tendencies, groups, and factions usually grouped together in often-quar-
relsome political families. The consequences for the conduct of parlia-
mentary business could often reduce the Assembly, in the eyes of the
electorate, to an interminable talking-shop. More significantly, as the life
of the Third Republic wore on, the difficulty encountered by govern-
ments in securing the backing of a parliamentary majority led to their re-
placement with ever-increasing frequency. While the people of France
could generally afford to ignore the weaknesses of a party-dominated
political system during times of plenty, it was much harder to do during
times of hardship, such as those ushered in by the catastrophe of 1914.
The tragic irony for France at the end of World War I in 1918 was
that, although victorious, it had suffered a greater demographic and eco-
nomic loss in proportion to its size than its vanquished enemy, Ger-
many. What would also be telling in later decades was the blow to the
national psyche represented by what came to be called colloquially “la
der des der” (“la dernière des dernières”), or the war to end all wars. The
naive assumptions about being in Berlin by the Christmas of 1914 soon
evaporated in the terrible reality of mass casualties generated by the
static war of attrition that came to characterize the conflict. By 1917 the
unity of the nation was under severe strain, with strikes in the munitions
industry and incidents of mutiny among the troops. Only the decisive
entry of the United States into the war and a change of leadership in
France allowed the country to sustain its determination to triumph.
However, during the two decades that followed, France’s diminished
standing in the international community and the social and economic
burdens resulting from the war at home led to increasing disillusion-
ment with the failings of government and the political system as a
whole. By the late 1920s groups on the fringes of political life were be-
 INTRODUCTION • xli

ginning to be drawn to the radical solutions to the problem of national

decline offered by the Fascists in Italy. By the mid-1930s another
model, this time from Nazi Germany, was behind the rise of the ligues,
those extreme right-wing organizations trying to influence government
policy through action, frequently violent, on the street rather than from
the floor of the National Assembly. This led to a mobilization of demo-
cratic forces in France in an alliance aimed at shutting out the far right
in the legislative elections of May 1936. The success of this alliance
brought the Popular Front government to power in a brief but fervent
explosion of hope. However, those expectations could not outweigh the
reality that in terms of economic and foreign policy, the Popular Front
government was as powerless as its postwar predecessors without the
support of its Anglo-American allies. Without support for the franc on
the international exchanges, the Popular Front government could not
pursue successfully a reflationary economic policy, and without the ac-
tive cooperation of Great Britain, France could not side openly with the
republicans in the war against the fascists in Spain.
By the time the leader of the Popular Front government, Léon Blum,
resigned in 1937, the nation had been sucked into a mood of despon-
dency and disillusionment with the institutions of the Third Republic,
as the country drifted toward the inevitable conflict with Nazi Ger-
many. When actual hostilities commenced on French territory in 1940,
the common aversion in France to enduring once more the kind of car-
nage inflicted by World War I was a crucial influence in the people’s
willingness to heed Marshal Philippe Pétain’s call to cease fighting.
Less than eight weeks after the Germans had launched their offensive,
the members of the National Assembly voted the Third Republic out of
existence.
For Charles de Gaulle and the Free French leading the struggle for
liberation from outside France, and for the resistance to the German oc-
cupiers from within, a central plank of their appeal to the people of
France was that their legitimacy sprang from the desire to reinstate the
Republic, and with it the democratic and egalitarian values that had
characterized modern France since 1789. By the same token, de Gaulle
and the Resistance constantly emphasized that the collaborationist gov-
ernment based in Vichy and represented by Pétain had no moral or le-
gal standing since it had unconstitutionally replaced the French repub-
lic with the French state. In his famous speech in the town hall of Paris
xlii • INTRODUCTION

after the capital’s liberation in August 1944, de Gaulle was unequivocal

in expressing his determination to return France to her vocation as a Re-
public inspired by the ideals of 1789 and to restore her to the top table
in the concert of nations. But in spite of his triumphal return in the sum-
mer of 1944, by the beginning of 1946 de Gaulle had quit the political
scene.
The Fourth Republic that was voted into existence and designed to
carry the hopes of the postwar generation was destined, in de Gaulle’s
opinion, to repeat the mistakes of the Third Republic, particularly in the
way executive power was shackled by the legislative. The inability of
successive governments to manage the painful process of decoloniza-
tion justified de Gaulle’s misgivings. The year of France’s final defeat
in Indochina, 1954, marked the beginning of the war in Algeria against
French rule. Four years later the conflict had necessitated the dispatch
of many thousands of French conscripts, deeply divided civil society at
home, and pushed the French military in Algeria to the verge of defying
the government in Paris. The politicians’ inability to manage the crisis
forced them to turn to de Gaulle as the only man with the charisma and
credibility necessary to persuade all parties of the need to pull the coun-
try back from the precipice.
The price de Gaulle extracted was a new constitution that would re-
balance power in favor of the executive and make the presidency the
seat of power in a new republic. The constitution of the Fifth Republic
was duly approved by referendum in September 1958. In 1962 de
Gaulle introduced an amendment to the constitution, also approved by
referendum, which allowed for the direct election of the president by
the people, rather than by an electoral college. De Gaulle’s intention
was to elevate the president even more clearly above the party political
fray, making France more amenable to strong leadership. Successive
presidents, whether originally from the left or the right of the political
spectrum, have all adapted to the mold cast by de Gaulle for the exer-
cise of executive power in France. Even the successful project by
Jacques Chirac to reduce the presidential mandate from seven to five
years, approved by referendum in September 2000, did not fundamen-
tally alter the fact that the French political system remains powerfully
presidential.
When de Gaulle made his heroic return to a newly liberated France
in 1944, there was an understandable and universal enthusiasm for a
 INTRODUCTION • xliii

reestablishment of the French republican paradigm of nationhood, citi-

zenship, and universal rights. But now a new debate has emerged in
France as to whether the legacy of 1789 should be reassessed with a
view to making it more relevant to the challenges of the 21st century,
particularly in terms of France’s identity as a democratic nation. France,
like most postindustrial nations, is seeing a creeping disaffection on the
part of its citizenry in relation to the political process. The language of
politics, as articulated by traditional political parties, has a quantifiably
diminishing purchase on the loyalty of voters, who show themselves
more inclined to pursue their individual or sectional interests through
parallel organizations and campaigns that refuse to be absorbed into tra-
ditional political structures.
For France this poses a particular intellectual challenge, since one of
the fundamental premises of the Revolution was the co-identity of the
individual and the citizen. This meant that any endeavor to change so-
ciety by the individual citizen or group of individual citizens was in-
evitably routed through the mechanisms established by the polity—in
practice, the institutions of the Republic. The separation of the concept
of the individual from the citizen and the redefinition of the relationship
of the individual to the nation-state, itself a concept under review in
light of the looming European supranational polity, is currently a source
of much speculation among political philosophers in France—particu-
larly in light of the social unrest in recent years stemming from the
alienation of certain minorities. But as French history illustrates, the
democratic instinct of the people of modern France, and the manner in
which the nation’s political institutions have been shaped, serve to iden-
tify France strongly as one of the leading democratic nations of the
world community.

France in Europe and the World

In concrete terms, France’s weight in Europe and the world makes it
a significant economic and political power. In 2003 it had the fifth-
largest economy among the group of seven industrialized nations just
behind Great Britain, but by 2006 both had been overtaken by China. In
common with the rest of the Eurozone, growth in the French economy
was sluggish after the inception of the euro, but 2006 marked a signifi-
cant reversal of that trend with a growth rate of over 2.5 percent and a
xliv • INTRODUCTION

decline in unemployment to 9 percent from a record high of over 12

percent two years earlier. In contrast with Britain and the United States,
in recent decades France has registered a consistent surplus in its bal-
ance of trade with the rest of the world, no doubt helped by a strong in-
dustrial base and its position as Europe’s leading exporter of agricul-
tural products. In spite of strong dirigiste instincts that, since the days
of the ancien régime, provided a stronger role for central government in
the economic affairs of the country than in its major European neigh-
bors, France pursued an economic policy during the 1980s that showed
increasing conformity, partly through the force of circumstance and
partly through choice, to the economic orthodoxies that govern the
world economy.
Ironically, it was the Socialist governments of the early 1980s that be-
gan the process of disengagement by central government from the
wealth-generating sectors of the economy. The wave of nationalizations
that took place in the first flush of Socialist victory in 1981 was not al-
lowed to become a blank check for the unions in the state sector. Mar-
ket disciplines were introduced into state-owned enterprises like the ve-
hicle manufacturer Renault to reduce overmanning and reverse the
recurrent losses suffered by the company. The government subsequently
invested billions of francs with the long-term aim of cutting the com-
pany’s dependence on the state. The example of Renault is particularly
appropriate because, since its nationalization after World War II as the
result of its owner’s collaboration with the German occupiers of France,
the vehicle manufacturer had come to symbolize the immovable nature
of unionized vested interests in the state sector. The opening up of the
company to private investors in 1996 marked the culmination of a
process whose foundation had been laid over a decade before by a left-
wing government.
Reconciliation with free-market ideas accelerated under the center-
right governments of 1986–1988 and 1993–1995, the so-called periods
of “cohabitation,” when the governments had to find a modus vivendi
with the socialist presidency of François Mitterrand. These periods
were marked by ambitious privatization programs that placed signifi-
cant sectors of state-owned industry firmly into the private sector, but
more particularly freed the financial markets, allowing the Paris stock
exchange, or bourse, to enjoy its own “big bang,” following in the foot-
steps of New York and London. Although the stock market crash on
 INTRODUCTION • xlv

Black Monday in October 1987 was a painful illustration of the fact that
the value of investments can go down as well as up, the liberalization
of financial markets in France had locked the country into the world
economy and in the process had created seven million more small in-
vestors among the country’s citizens.
Historically France, since its emergence under Louis XIV as the
dominant nation-state on the continent, has had ambitions to shape Eu-
rope. However, since 1945 this ambition has been pursued peacefully
and through cooperation, especially with Germany, in a partnership
aimed at precluding the possibility of these two countries ever again go-
ing to war against each other. This explains the underlying motivation
for France’s leading role in the development of the European Commu-
nity. It was the plan drafted by the Frenchman Jean Monnet for the elim-
ination of internal tariffs on trade in coal and steel among the states of
Europe that led to the formation of the European Coal and Steel Com-
munity in 1951, the forerunner of the European Economic Community
founded by the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
From that time onward, France has initiated or supported actively all
the amendments to the treaty aimed at strengthening the community as
a supranational body, at the expense of individual national sovereignty
if necessary. In 1978, for example, under the presidency of Valéry Gis-
card d’Estaing, France joined Germany in pressing for the creation of a
European monetary system designed to bring stability to the exchange
rates of European currencies. Again, during the 1980s and especially
during the term of Jacques Delors’s presidency of the European Com-
mission, France argued powerfully for the acceptance of the Single Eu-
ropean Act enshrining the right of movement for persons, goods, and
capital across the community’s member states, thus preparing the
ground for the transformation of the European Community into the Eu-
ropean Union.
In a testament to French voluntarism, France has provided the tech-
nological sinews needed to sustain the European body politic, espe-
cially in the face of competition from the United States and Asia. France
is by far the biggest single national investor in the space program that
now provides Europe with an independent capacity to launch satellites
from the French territory of Guyana and compete successfully against
the United States and Russia for the business of launching the satellites
of non-European nations. French companies have pioneered alliances
xlvi • INTRODUCTION

with other European companies to attack world markets more effec-

tively—for example, Alsthom’s alliance with the British company GEC
to develop the high-speed train technology that by the 1990s had been
exported to North America and Asia. The most ambitious, and success-
ful, of the French plans for a coordinated European attack on world
markets has been in the aerospace industry. Together with Germany and
Spain, France is the senior partner in the Airbus consortium, and in
2003 Airbus pulled off the remarkable feat of outselling Boeing on
world markets. European ties were strengthened in 2000 when Aérospa-
tiale merged with DASA of Germany and CASA of Spain to form the
European Aeronautical Defense and Space Company (EADS). As a re-
sult of this merger EADS held 80 percent of the shares in Airbus, and
the consortium appeared to pull off another coup at the expense of the
American competition when the A380 “superjumbo” took to the skies
over Toulouse in 2004. However, in 2006 the shine was taken off this
achievement by the announcement of serious delays in the delivery
times for these aircraft, resulting in a number of cancelled orders that
damaged the image of Airbus.
France’s attempt to define an identity for itself in Europe has a mili-
tary, as well as a political and economic, dimension. The tension caused
by General de Gaulle’s suspicion that the United States was attempting
to steer Europe’s destiny through the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion (NATO), and France’s arm’s-length relationship with the organiza-
tion for most of the post-1945 period, now seems to have been resolved
as France pushes for a more proactive part in conflict resolution in Eu-
rope and elsewhere. As one of only two European nations (together with
Britain) with a nuclear arsenal, France tried in the mid-1990s to float the
idea that its nuclear capacity could be viewed as a European nuclear
umbrella, but this notion failed politically, largely because of a lack of
enthusiasm from Germany.
On other fronts, however, France’s attempts to bolster Europe’s cred-
ibility as a peacemaker have brought more tangible results. It con-
tributed 8,500 soldiers to the United Nations Protection Force troops
that were sent to keep the warring factions apart in the former Yu-
goslavia, and followed this up with 11,000 troops for the Implementa-
tion Force contingent, under the command of NATO, that was sent to
police the agreements concluded in the U.S.-brokered Dayton peace ac-
cord in 1995 and that brought an end to the large-scale hostilities in the
 INTRODUCTION • xlvii

former Yugoslavia. But France had already signaled its intention to re-
tain a role for itself as a global player at the beginning of the decade,
when it contributed an armored division to the U.S.-led coalition against
Saddam Hussein of Iraq in the Gulf War.
During the years that followed, France used its position as a perma-
nent member of the United Nations Security Council to try and initiate
reforms of UN structures. For example, France has argued that the Se-
curity Council should be enlarged through the attribution of permanent
seats to Germany and Japan. On the enduringly thorny issue of finance
for the organization, France has used its position as the contributor of
6.5 percent of the UN’s regular budget to formulate proposals backed
by the European Union for the establishment of a better funding for-
mula for the UN. In the prelude to the second U.S. intervention in Iraq
in 2003 France tried to use its influence in the UN to dissuade the U.S.
and its allies from embarking on this course. The chill that settled on
France–U.S. relations subsequently, especially from the American side,
did not last very long. France, with American approval, was instrumen-
tal in securing a UN-brokered ceasefire in Lebanon after 34 days of
fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerillas in 2006 had dis-
placed a quarter of Lebanon’s civilian population.
It would, however, be unwise to assume that the process of European
convergence that would subsume the singularity of France’s profile as a
nation into a wider, continental destiny is somehow ineluctable as con-
ceived in the Maastricht Treaty on European union, signed by the (then)
12 heads of state of the European Community on 7 February 1992. Dur-
ing the campaign preceding the ratification of the treaty by the French
people, there was a conspicuous lack of enthusiasm even among the po-
litical establishment resulting from concerns about the cost of the treaty
in terms of France’s capacity for independent decision making and the
preservation of the country’s generous social security system. Mindful
of the misgivings in his own party, Jacques Chirac’s support for a yes
vote in the referendum was at times notably guarded, and in the final
political rally before the referendum was held, Chirac advocated a yes
vote “without enthusiasm.”
In spite of these lukewarm appeals to ratify the treaty, the narrowness
of the victory for the yes camp was still a surprise, with 51.04 percent
of votes cast in favor of the treaty, 48.95 percent of votes cast against,
with an abstention rate of 30.30 percent among all those registered to
xlviii • INTRODUCTION

vote. The years that followed did little to appease the anxieties of a sig-
nificant portion of the French electorate. Government policies, particu-
larly under the premiership of Alain Juppé during the mid-1990s, pro-
voked the kind of widespread industrial stoppages and demonstrations
not seen since the late 1960s. The nub of the dispute lay in government
attempts to relax employment protection measures and reduce social se-
curity deficits, in order to bring the nation’s economy into line with the
strict financial criteria governing admission to the club of EU nations
willing and able to sign up for the single currency that was to replace
their own in 2002.
Not only was the social cost of remaining in the inner core of the Eu-
ropean Union challenged by mass protests, but questions were raised
from within the political establishment, as well as from the street, as to
the cost of this ambition to France’s industrial base. As part of an at-
tempt to identify synergies among leading French industrial groups to
help them become stronger global players and make them less depen-
dent on financial lifelines from the French state, the government of
Prime Minister Juppé in 1996 sanctioned the sale of the electronics
group Thomson to the largely defense industry–based Lagardère group.
The national pride of many ordinary French citizens, as well as politi-
cians, was hurt when it was revealed that the terms of the deal included
the sale of Thomson Multi Média, the consumer electronics side of
Thomson dedicated principally to the manufacture of televisions, for
the symbolic sum of one franc. Hurt turned to outrage when it was dis-
covered that Lagardère proposed to sell Thomson Multi Média on to the
Korean company Daewoo and focus only on integrating the defense
electronics capacity of Thomson.
A heated debate erupted, fanned by Juppé’s dry observation that
Thomson Multi Média’s level of indebtedness made it worthless. For a
large section of French public opinion, this smacked of careless indif-
ference to the fate of the employees of the company and abject indus-
trial defeatism, quitting the field of battle for the electronics consumer
goods market in the face of the supposed invincibility of the manufac-
turers from the Pacific Rim. Whether rightly or wrongly in terms of in-
dustrial logic, the resistance to the knockdown sale of Thomson Multi
Média to the foreigner Daewoo became overwhelming, and within
weeks of the matter coming to public attention in November 1996, the
government was forced to back down and agree to look for a French
 INTRODUCTION • xlix

white knight, like the company Alcatel, to purchase the business and re-
tain a national player in the field. A decade later, French governments
remained wedded to the idea of defending national champions. As a
consequence of this, for example, in 2006 Electricité de France could
enjoy the freedom of operating very profitably as the main supplier of
electricity to the citizens of London after its takeover of British utility
companies, while the French energy market, in spite of French assur-
ances to the European Commission, remains essentially closed to for-
eign suppliers. The anxiety to preserve the national interest, however, is
not restricted to the governing elite. The decision of the French elec-
torate to vote against the ratification of a constitution for the EU in 2005
was a huge shock, given the country’s historic role in the construction
of the European community. But it was in retrospect not such a surprise,
given the voice consistently given to the fears regarding the conse-
quences of EU enlargement for France, even from the former president
who had been given the responsibility for drafting the EU’s constitu-
tion, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
If the destinies of France and Europe are not as smoothly cotermi-
nous as the advocates of European integration would have us believe,
France’s role in world politics is likely to become more problematic as
the country’s economic importance, along with that of other European
nations, declines in the face of Asian—and particularly Chinese—
economic advances. The universal intellectual and ethical ambitions of
the French Revolution were rapidly integrated into the political ambi-
tions of the French state and projected into expansionist policies over-
seas under the banner of France’s mission civilisatrice—a vocation to
spread the benefits of the culture of the French Enlightenment to the rest
of the planet. When the captive colonial audience for the propagation of
what was regarded, by Paris at least, as the unique value system of
French culture found independence after World War II, France invested
heavily in diplomatic and pedagogic initiatives to promote the image of
France by means other than outright colonialism.
The French language has operated as a major vehicle for the preser-
vation of French influence outside Europe. In cultural terms, the funds
poured into the development of francophonie have demonstrated the de-
termination of all French governments to use the maintenance of the
French language in their former colonies as a way of fostering a privi-
leged relationship with those states. In Africa particularly, France has
l • INTRODUCTION

presumed on those special relationships to intervene and restore the

postcolonial order. This was the case most notably in Chad in the 1970s.
In the 1990s, France remained the major economic partner of its former
colony in Algeria and the chief external prop for the regime there in its
increasingly bitter struggle with the Islamic fundamentalists attempting
to seize power. During the intervening years, French foreign policy fur-
ther south has benefited regimes of dubious reputation like that of the
erstwhile emperor of Central Africa, Jean Bedel Bokassa, and more re-
cently, President Mobutu of Zaire.
By the mid-1990s, however, French foreign policy in Africa had
proved to be a two-edged sword. Although France’s role on that conti-
nent served its ambition of retaining a place among the great nations on
the world stage, the cost was increasingly called into question by
France’s citizens and the nation’s friends abroad. The tacit support
given to the regime in Algeria, in spite of its disregard for the verdict of
the ballot box and its civil rights abuses, provoked the armed wing of
the Islamic fundamentalists into taking their struggle to mainland
France through outrages like the bombing campaign on the French un-
derground. The ambiguity of France’s involvement in the regional pol-
itics leading to the genocide in Rwanda in 1995 heightened skepticism
about the wisdom of French foreign policy. And by 1996, the social and
economic meltdown in Zaire led to thinly veiled criticisms from the
United States of France’s role in Africa and particularly its willingness
to support undemocratic regimes on the basis that they were preferable
to chaos, despite the fact that, as the evidence suggested, this simply de-
ferred the chaos and rendered it ultimately more dramatic.
The importance of the linguistic dimension to France’s self-image as
a great nation and the increasing clash with commercial values in the
new world order that followed the end of the Cold War were illustrated
by the conflict with the United States in the early 1990s over the pro-
tectionist regime enjoyed by films and television in France. The intro-
duction of measures to protect the French language by the center-right
government elected in 1993 included a formal interdiction of Anglo-
Americanisms in advertising and the media. So, for example, a “fax”
became a télécopie and a “Walkman” became a balladeur. This was fol-
lowed by stubborn resistance to U.S. pressure to have cultural products
like films and television programs treated in the same way as any other
 INTRODUCTION • li

consumer items traded across international frontiers. The ensuing stand-

off allowed the French film industry to continue to enjoy the kind of
state support that makes it by far the largest and most important of na-
tional cinema industries in Europe and allowed limits to remain on the
proportion of television schedules on French channels than can be de-
voted to foreign language programs. But the truth remains that the pen-
etration of French-language cultural products abroad is very modest,
and the new age of multichannel satellite broadcasting, with its insa-
tiable appetite for programs, will continue to be dominated by Ameri-
can English.
As the forecasts by bodies like the Organization for Economic Coop-
eration and Development suggest, the future of France in the 21st cen-
tury will be one in which an erstwhile great power will have to adapt to
the reduced circumstances, particularly in the areas of foreign and eco-
nomic policy, commensurate with its diminishing weight in the world.
On the other hand, no other country enjoys the same prestige as France
with regard to those less tangible concerns that nonetheless fix a na-
tion’s standing among its neighbors. It is perhaps not surprising for a
country producing over 400 different cheeses that, for the foreseeable
future, from Chicago to Capetown, the staff, menu, and functioning of
any restaurant aiming for elite status will be defined by French stan-
dards. On catwalks from Tokyo to Turin, the aesthetic language that
transforms tailoring into haute couture will remain French. In spite of
the ritual obituaries in France for the French intellectual class, the syn-
onymous relationship between “intellectual” and “French” endures as
ubiquitously as the versions of the ideas of French critical theorists
sweeping campuses from Maryland to Manila. And now the familiar
busloads of Japanese tourists on the Champs Elysées are joined in ever-
increasing numbers by what the tourist industry in France has called les
BRICs (Brazilians, Russians, Indians, and Chinese), citizens from the
emerging economic world players pursuing the old mystique of French
class and sophistication.
But the irresistible mystique of France is one that also seduces the na-
tion’s nearer neighbors, more familiar with the reality of French life.
Europe-wide surveys consistently show France to be perceived as the
European country offering the best quality of life. In 2006 it was esti-
mated that the British alone had bought 60 percent of the secondary
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Resp. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of
thy womb, Jesus.

Vers. Thou, O Lord, wilt open my lips.

Resp. And my tongue shall announce thy praise.

Vers. Incline unto mine aid, O God.

Resp. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without
end. Amen. Alleluia.

[From the Septuagesima to Easter, instead of Alleluia, say:

Praise be to thee, O Lord, King of eternal glory.]

Part The First.

The Five Joyful Mysteries,

To be said on all Mondays and Thursdays, the Sundays of Advent, and after
Epiphany till Lent.

I.—The Annunciation.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how the angel Gabriel saluted

our blessed Lady with the title of "Full of Grace," and declared
unto her the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Then say, Our Father, &c. once; and Hail Mary, &c. ten times.
[When the "Hail Mary" is repeated a tenth time, the Decade finishes with,
"Glory be to the Father." &c.; then follows the Prayer. Which method is to be
observed in beginning, and saying each part of the Rosary.]
 Let Us Pray.

O holy Mary, Queen of virgins, through the most high mystery of

the incarnation of thy beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by means
of which the work of our salvation was so happily begun, obtain for
us, by thine intercession, light to be sensible of so great a benefit,
which he hath bestowed upon as; vouchsafing thereby to make
himself our brother, and thee, his only beloved mother, our mother
also. Amen.

II.—The Visitation.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how the blessed Virgin Mary,

understanding from the angel that her cousin, St. Elizabeth, had
conceived, went with haste into the mountains of Judea, to visit
her, and remained with her three months.

Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

O holy Virgin, most spotless mirror of humility, by that exceeding

charity which moved thee to visit thy holy cousin, St. Elizabeth,
obtain for us, by thine intercession, that our hearts may be visited
by thy most holy Son, that being free from all sin, we may praise
and give him thanks for ever. Amen.

III.—The Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how the blessed Virgin Mary,
when the time of her delivery was come, brought forth our
Redeemer, Jesus Christ, at midnight, and laid him in a
manger, because there was no room for him in the inns at
Bethlehem.

Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

O most pure Mother of God, by thy virginal and most joyful

delivery, in which thou gavest unto the world thine only Son, our
Saviour, we beseech thee obtain for us, by thine intercession, grace
to lead such pure and holy lives in this world, that we may worthily
sing without ceasing, both day and night, the mercies of thy Son,
and his benefits to us by thee. Amen.

IV.—The Oblation of our blessed Lord in the Temple.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how the most blessed Virgin

Mary, on the day of her purification, presented the child Jesus in
the temple, where holy Simeon, giving thanks to God with great
devotion, received him into his arms.

Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

O holy Virgin, most admirable mistress, and pattern of obedience,

who didst present in the temple the Lord of the temple, obtain for
us of thy beloved Son, that, with holy Simeon and devout Anna, we
may praise and glorify him for ever. Amen.

V.—The finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how the blessed Virgin Mary

having lost, without any fault of hers, her beloved Son in
Jerusalem, she sought him for the space of three days, and at
length found him the fourth day in the temple, in the midst of the
doctors, disputing with them, being of the age of twelve years. Our
Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

Most blessed Virgin, more than martyr in thy sufferings, and yet the
comfort of such as are afflicted, by that unspeakable joy wherewith
thy soul was ravished, at finding thy beloved Son in the temple, in
the midst of the doctors, disputing with them, obtain of him for us,
so to seek him and find him in the holy Catholic Church, that we
may never be separated from him. Amen.

The Salve Regina.

Hail! holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our
hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished sons of Eve. To thee do we
send up our sighs, mournings, and weepings, in this valley of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards
us, and after this our exile ended, show unto us the blessed fruit of
thy womb, Jesus, O clement, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Vers. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.

Resp. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray.

O God, whose only begotten Son, by his life, death, and

resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant
we beseech thee, that meditating upon those mysteries, in the
most holy Rosary of the most blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate
what they contain, and obtain what they promise: through the
same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Part The Second.

The Five Dolorous Mysteries,

To be said on Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the Year, and on Sundays in

Lent.

I.—The Prayer and Bloody Sweat of our Blessed Saviour in

the Garden.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how our Lord Jesus was so

afflicted for us in the Garden of Gethsemani, that his body was
bathed in a bloody sweat, which ran trickling down in great drops
to the ground.

Our Father, &c. Hail Mary, &c. Glory, &c. as before.

Let Us Pray.
Most holy Virgin, more than martyr, by that ardent prayer which thy
most beloved Son poured forth unto his Father in the Garden,
vouchsafe to intercede for us, that our passions being reduced to
the obedience of reason, we may always, and in all things, conform
and subject ourselves to the will of God. Amen.

II.—The Scourging of our Blessed Lord at the Pillar.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how our Lord Jesus Christ was
most cruelly scourged in Pilate's house, the number of stripes they
gave him being above five thousand. [As it was revealed to St.
Bridget.] Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

O Mother of God, overflowing fountain of patience, by those stripes

thine only and most beloved Son vouchsafed to suffer for us, obtain
of him for us grace, that we may know how to mortify our
rebellious senses, and cut off all occasions of sinning, with that
sword of grief and compassion which pierced thy most tender soul.
Amen.

III.—The Crowning of our Blessed Saviour with Thorns.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how those cruel ministers of

Satan platted a crown of sharp thorns, and most cruelly pressed it
on the most sacred head of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.
O Mother of our eternal Prince and King of Glory, by those sharp
thorns wherewith his holy head was pierced, we beseech thee, that
by thine intercession we may be delivered here from all motions of
pride, and in the day of judgment from that confusion which our
sins deserve. Amen.

IV.—Jesus carrying the Cross.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how our Lord Jesus Christ being
sentenced to die, bore, with the most amazing patience, the cross
which was laid upon him for his greater torment and ignominy. Our
Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

O holy Virgin, example of patience, by the most painful carrying the

cross, on which thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ bore the heavy
weight of our sins, obtain of him for us by thine intercession,
courage and strength to follow his steps, and bear our cross after
him to the end of our lives. Amen.

V.—The Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, having arrived at Mount Calvary, was stripped of his clothes,
and his hands and feet most cruelly nailed to the cross, in the
presence of his most afflicted mother.

Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.
O holy Mary, mother of God, as the body of thy beloved Son was
for us extended on the cross, so may our desires be daily more and
more stretched out in his service, and our hearts wounded with
compassion for his most bitter passion. And thou, O most blessed
Virgin, graciously vouchsafe to help us to accomplish the work of
our salvation, by thy powerful intercession. Amen.

Hail, holy Queen, &c. with the verse and prayer as before.

Part The Third.

The Five Glorious Mysteries,

Assigned for Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the Year, and
Sundays from Easter until Advent.

I.—The Resurrection of Christ from the Dead.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how our Lord Jesus Christ,

triumphing gloriously over death, rose again the third day, immortal
and impassable.

Our Father, &c. Hail Mary, &c. Glory, &c, as before.

Let Us Pray.

O glorious Virgin Mary, by that unspeakable joy thou receivedst in

the resurrection of thine only Son, we beseech thee to obtain of
him for us, that our hearts may never go astray after the false joys
of this world; but may be ever and wholly employed in the pursuit
of the only true and solid joys of heaven. Amen.
II.—The Ascension of Christ into Heaven.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how our Lord Jesus Christ, forty
days after his resurrection, ascended into heaven, attended by
angels, in the sight of his most holy Mother, his holy apostles and
disciples, to the great admiration of them all.

Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

O mother of God, comfort of the afflicted, as thy beloved Son,

when he ascended into heaven, lifted up his hands and blessed his
apostles, so vouchsafe, most holy Mother, to lift up thy pure hands
to him for us, that we may enjoy the benefits of his blessing and
thine, here on earth, and hereafter in heaven. Amen.

III.—The coming of the Holy Ghost to the Disciples.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how our Lord Jesus Christ,

being seated at the right hand of God, sent, as he had promised,
the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, who, after he was ascended,
returning to Jerusalem, continued in prayer and supplication with
the blessed Virgin Mary, expecting the performance of his promise.

Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.
O sacred Virgin, tabernacle of the Holy Ghost, we beseech thee,
obtain by thine intercession, that this most sweet Comforter, whom
thy beloved Son sent down upon his apostles, filling them thereby
with spiritual joy, may teach us in this world the true way of
salvation, and make us walk in the paths of virtue and good works.
Amen.

IV.—The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how the glorious Virgin, twelve

years after the resurrection of her Son, passed out of this world
unto him, and was by him taken into heaven, accompanied by the
holy angels.

Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

O most prudent Virgin, who entering into the heavenly palace, didst
fill the holy angels with joy, and man with hope, vouchsafe to
intercede for us at the hour of death, that free from the illusions
and temptations of the devil, we may joyfully and successfully pass
out of this temporal state, to enjoy the happiness of eternal life.
Amen.

V.—The Coronation of the B.V.M, in Heaven.

Let us contemplate in this mystery, how the glorious Virgin Mary

was, with great jubilee, and exultation of the whole court of
heaven, and the particular glory of all the saints, crowned by her
Son with the brightest diadem of Glory.
Our Father, &c.

Let Us Pray.

O glorious Queen of all the heavenly citizens, we beseech thee to

accept this Rosary, which, as a crown of roses, we offer at thy feet;
and grant, most gracious Lady, that by thine intercession, our souls
may be inflamed with so ardent a desire of seeing thee so
gloriously crowned, that it may never die in us, until it be changed
into the happy fruition of thy blessed sight. Amen.

Hail, holy Queen, &c, with the verse and prayer as before.

Te Deum;

A Hymn which may be said after Mass, or on occasion of

any public or private Thanksgiving.

Thee, sovereign God, our grateful accents praise,

We own thee Lord, and bless thy wondrous ways;
To thee, eternal Father, earth's whole frame
With loudest trumpet sounds immortal fame.
Lord God of hosts! to thee the heavenly pow'rs
With sounding anthems, fill thy vaulted tow'rs;
The Cherubim thrice holy, holy, cry,
Thrice holy, all the Seraphim reply,
And thrice returning echoes endless songs supply.
Both heaven and earth thy majesty display;
They owe their beauty to thy glorious ray.
Thy praises fill the loud apostles' choir;
The train of prophets in the song conspire;
Legions of martyrs in the chorus shine;
And vocal blood with vocal music join.
By these thy church, inspir'd with heavenly art,
Around the world maintains a second part.
And tunes her sweetest notes, O God, to thee.
The Father of unbounded majesty,
The Son, ador'd co-partner of thy seat,
And equal everlasting Paraclete.
Thou King of glory. Christ; of the Most High,
Thou co-eternal filial Deity.
Thou who, to save the world's impending doom,
Vouchsafedst to dwell within a virgin's womb;
Old tyrant death disarmed, before thee flew
The bolts of heav'n, and back the foldings drew,
To give access, and make the faithful way;
From God's right hand thy filial beams display.
Thou art to judge the living and the dead;
Then spare those souls for whom thy veins have bled.

O take us then among the blest above,

To share with them thy everlasting love.
Preserve, O Lord, thy people, and enhance
Thy blessing on thine own inheritance:
For ever raise their hearts, and rule their ways:
Each day we bless thee, and proclaim thy praise.
No age shall fail to celebrate thy name,
Nor hour neglect thy everlasting fame.

Preserve our souls, O Lord, this day from ill,

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy still.
As we have hop'd, do thou reward our pain.
We've hop'd in thee, let not our hope be vain.

V. Let us bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

R. Let us praise and extol him for ever.

 The Prayer, Deus cujus.

O God, of whose mercies there is no number, and of whose

goodness the treasure is infinite, we humbly thank thy most
gracious majesty for the favours thou hast bestowed on us; ever
beseeching thy clemency, that as thou grantest our requests when
we humbly ask thee, so thou wouldst not forsake us, but dispose
us for the rewards of the life to come. Through Christ our Lord. R.
Amen.

The Thirty Days' Prayer

To The Blessed Virgin Mary, In Honour Of The Sacred Passion Of

Our Lord Jesus Christ;

By the devout recital of which for the above space of time, we may
mercifully hope to obtain our lawful request.—It is particularly recommended
as a proper devotion for every day in Lent, and all the Fridays throughout
the Year.

Ever glorious and blessed Mary, Queen of Virgins, Mother of Mercy,

hope and comfort of dejected and desolate souls; through that
sword of sorrow which pierced thy tender heart, whilst thine only
son, Christ Jesus our Lord, suffered death and ignominy on the
cross; through that filial tenderness and pure love he had for thee,
grieving in thy grief, whilst from his cross he recommended thee to
the care and protection of his beloved disciple St. John; take pity, I
beseech thee, on my poverty and necessities; have compassion on
my anxieties and cares; assist and comfort me in all my infirmities
and miseries, of what kind soever. Thou art the mother of mercies,
the sweet consolatrix and only refuge of the needy and the orphan,
of the desolate and the afflicted. Cast, therefore, an eye of pity on
a miserable, forlorn child of Eve, and hear my prayer; for since, in
just punishment for my sins, I find myself encompassed by a
multitude of evils, and oppressed with much anguish of spirit,
whither can I fly for more secure shelter, O amiable Mother of my
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, than under the wings of thy
maternal protection? Attend, therefore, I beseech thee, with an ear
of pity and compassion, to my humble and earnest request. I ask it
through the bowels of mercy of thy dear Son, through that love
and condescension wherewith he embraced our nature, when, in
compliance with the divine will, thou gavest thy consent, and
whom, after the expiration of nine months, thou didst bring forth
from the chaste enclosure of thy womb, to visit this world, and
bless it with his presence. I ask it through that anguish of mind
wherewith thy beloved Son, our dear Saviour, was overwhelmed on
Mount Olivet, when he besought his eternal Father to remove
from him, if possible, the bitter chalice of his future passion. I
ask it through the threefold repetition of his prayers in the garden,
from whence afterwards with dolorous steps and mournful tears,
thou didst accompany him to the doleful theatre of his death and
sufferings. I ask it through the welts and sores of his virginal flesh,
occasioned by the cords and whips wherewith he was bound and
scourged, when stripped of his seamless garment, for which his
executioners afterwards cast lots. I ask it through the scoffs and
ignominies by which he was insulted; the false accusation and
unjust sentence by which he was condemned to death, and which
he bore with heavenly patience. I ask it through his bitter tears and
bloody sweat, his silence and resignation, his sadness and grief of
heart. I ask it through the blood which trickled from his royal and
sacred head, when struck with a sceptre of a reed, and pierced
with his crown of thorns. I ask it through the excruciating torments
he suffered when his hands and feet were fastened with gross nails
to the tree of the cross. I ask it through his vehement thirst, and
bitter potion of vinegar and gall. I ask it through his dereliction on
the cross, when he exclaimed: "My God! my God! why hast thou
forsaken me?" I ask it through his mercy extended to the good
thief, and through his recommending his precious soul and spirit
into the hands of his eternal Father before he expired, saying: "All
is finished." I ask it through the blood mixed with water, which
issued from his sacred side, when pierced with a lance, and
whence a flood of grace and mercy has flowed to us. I ask it
through his immaculate life, bitter passion, and ignominious death
on the cross, at which nature itself was thrown into convulsions, by
the bursting of rocks, rending of the veil of the temple, the
earthquake, and darkness of the sun and moon. I ask it through his
descent into hell, where he comforted the saints of the old law with
his presence, and led captivity captive. I ask it through his glorious
victory over death, when he arose again to life on the third day;
and through the joy which his appearance for forty days after, gave
thee, his blessed Mother, his apostles, and the rest of his disciples,
when, in thine and their presence, he miraculously ascended into
heaven. I ask it through the grace of the Holy Ghost, infused into
the hearts of the disciples, when he descended upon them in the
form of fiery tongues, and by which they were inspired with zeal in
the conversion of the world, when they went to preach the gospel.
I ask it through the awful appearance of thy Son at the last
dreadful day, when he shall come to judge the living and the dead,
and the world, by fire. I ask it through the compassion he bore
thee in this life, and the ineffable joy thou didst feel at thine
assumption into heaven, where thou art eternally absorbed in the
sweet contemplation of his divine perfections. O glorious and ever
blessed Virgin! comfort the heart of thy suppliant, by obtaining it
for me.[Footnote 5]

[Footnote 5: Here mention, or reflect on your lawful

request, under the reservation of its being agreeable to
the will of God, who sees whether it will contribute
towards your spiritual good.]

And as I am persuaded my divine Saviour doth honour thee as his

beloved Mother, to whom he can refuse nothing; so let me speedily
experience the efficacy of thy powerful intercession, according to
the tenderness of thy maternal affection, and his filial, loving heart,
who mercifully granteth the requests, and complieth with the
desires of those that love and fear him. Wherefore, O most blessed
Virgin, besides the object of my present petition, and whatever else
I may stand in need of, obtain for me also, of thy dear Son, our
Lord and our God, a lively faith, firm hope, perfect charity, true
contrition of heart, unfeigned tears of compunction, sincere
confession, condign satisfaction, abstinence from sin, love of God,
and my neighbour, contempt of the world, patience to suffer
affronts and ignominies, nay, even, if necessary, an opprobrious
death itself, for the love of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ.—
Obtain likewise for me, O Sacred Mother of God! perseverance in
good works, performance of good resolutions, mortification of self
will, a pious conversation through life, and at my last moments,
strong and sincere repentance, accompanied by such a lively and
attentive presence of mind, as may enable me to receive the last
sacrament of the Church worthily, and die in thy friendship and
favour. Lastly, obtain, I beseech thee, for the souls of my parents,
brethren, relations, and benefactors, both living and dead, life
everlasting. Amen.

Hymns For Festivals.

Hymn for Advent.

Alma Redemptoris Mater, quæ pervia cœli porta manes,

Mother of Jesus, heaven's open gate,

Et stella maris, succurre cadenti;

Star of the Sea, support the falling state

Surgere qui curat populo; tu quæ genuisti,

Of mortals: thou, whose womb thy maker bore,

Natura mirante tuum sanctum genitorem:

And yet, strange thing! a virgin as before;

Virgo priùs ac posteriús, Gabrielis ab ore

Who didst from Gabriel's hail! the news receive,

Sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere.

Repenting sinners by thy prayers relieve.

V. Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ.

V. The angel of the Lord declared to Mary,

R. Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto.

B. And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.

Hymn for Christmas.

Adeste fidelis, Læti triumph antes,

Ye faithful souls, rejoice and sing;

Venite, venite in Bethlehem:

To Bethlehem your trophies bring,

Natem videte Regem Angelorum:

Before the new-born Angel's King:

Venite adoremus,
Venite adoremus Dominum.

Come let us him adore, Come, &c.

Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine,

True God of God, true Light of Light,

Gestant puellæ viscera; Deum verum,

Born in womb of Virgin bright;

Genitum non factum:

Begot, not made; true God of might:

Venite adoremus, Venite, &c.

Come let us him adore, Come, &c.

Cantet nunc Io, Chorus angelorum;

Angelic choirs with joy now sing,

Cantet nunc aula cœlestium,

The heavenly courts with echoes ring.

Gloria In excelsis Deo:

 Glory on high to God our king:

Venite adoremus, Venite, &c.

Come, let us him adore, Come, &c.

Ergo qui natus Die hodierna,

Jesus, whose life this day begun,

Jesu tibi sit gloria:

Patris æterni
Verbum caro factum:

The Father's co-eternal Son: Glory to him be ever sung:

Venite adoremus, Venite, &c.

Come, let us him adore, Come, &c.

Hymn for Passion-Sunday, and Palm-Sunday.

Vexilla regis prodeunt,

Behold the royal ensigns fly,

Fulget crucis mysterium:

Bearing the cross' mystery:

Quâ vita mortem protulit,

 Where life itself did death endure,

Et morte vitam protulit.

And by that death did life procure.

Quæ vulnerata lanceæ

A cruel spear let out a flood

Mucrone diro, criminum

Of water, mixed with saving blood:

Ut nos lavaret fordibus,

Which, gushing from the Saviour's side,

Manavit undâ et sanguine.

Drown'd our offences in the tide.

Impleta sunt quæ concinit,

The mystery we now unfold,

David fideli carmine,

Which David's faithful verse foretold.

Dicendo nationibus:

Of our Lord's kingdom; whilst we see

Regnavit â ligno Deus.

 God ruling nations from a tree.

Arbor decora et fulgida,

O lovely tree, whose branches wore

Ornata regis purpura!

The royal purple of his gore!

Electa digno stipite,

How glorious does thy body shine?

Tam sancta membra tangere!

Supporting members so divine!

Beata, cujus brachiis,

The world's blest balance thou wast made,

Pretiùm pependit sæculi,

Thy happy beam its purchase weigh'd,

Statera facta corporis,

And bore his limbs, who snatch'd away

Tulitque prædam tartari.

Devouring hell's expected prey.

O Crux, ave spes unica,

 Hail Cross, our hope! on thee we call,

Hoc passionis tempore!

Who keep this mournful festival:

Piis ad auge gratiam,

Grant to the just increase of grace,

Reisque dele crimina.

And ev'ry sinner's crimes efface.

Te, fons salutis Trinitas, Collaudit omnis spiritus.

Blest Trinity, we praises sing

To thee, from whom all graces spring,

Quibus crucis victoriam,

Celestial crowns on those bestow,

Largiris, adde præmium. Amen.

Who conquer by the cross below. Amen.

V. Eripe me, Domine, ab homine malo.

V. Deliver me, O Lord, from the wicked man.

R. A viro iniquo eripe me.

R. And from the unjust man deliver me.

 Hymn for Good-Friday,
(Plaint of the Blessed Virgin.)

Stabat mater dolorosa

Beneath the world's redeeming wood,

Juxta crucem lacrymosa,

The most afflicted Mother stood,

Dum pendebat filius.

Mingling her tears with her Son's blood.

Cujus animara gementem

As that flow'd down from every part,

Contristatam et dolentem

Of all his wounds she felt the smart;

Pertransivit gladius.

What pierc'd his body, pierc'd her heart.

O quam tristis et afflicta,

Who can with tearless eyes look on,

Fuit illa benedicta

When Mary does, alas! bemoan

Mater unigeniti.

Wounded and faint, her only Son.

Quæ merebat, et dolebat,

O worse than Jewish heart, that could,

Pia mater dum videbat,

Unmov'd, behold the double flood

Nati pœnas inclyti.

Of Mary's tears, and Jesu's blood.

Quis est homo, qui non fleret,

Alas! our sins, they were not his

Christi matrem si videret

In tanto supplicio?

In this atoning sacrifice,

For which he bleeds, for which he dies.

Quis non posset contristari,

When graves were open'd rocks were rent,

Piam matrim contemplari

When nature and each element

Dolentem cum filio?

 His torments and her grief resent.

Pro peccatis suæ gentis

Shall man, the cause of all his pain

Vidit Jesum in tormentis,

And all his grief, shall sinful man

Et flagellis subditum.

Alone insensible remain?

Vidit suum dulcem natum

Ah, pious mother, teach my heart,

Morientem, desolatum,

Of sighs and tears the holy art,

Dum emisit spiritum.

And in thy grief to bear a part.

Eia, mater fons amoris,

The sword of grief, which did pass through

Me sentire vim doloris

Fac ut tecum lugeam,

Thy very soul, O may it now

Upon my heart a wound bestow.
Fac ut ardeat cor meum,

Great Queen of sorrows, in thy train

In amando Christum Deum,

Let me a mourner's place obtain,

Ut sibi complaceam.

Let me thy Jesus love again.

Sancta mater istud agas,

Crucifixi fige plagas,

To heal the leprosy of sin,

We must the cure with tears begin.

Cordi meo valide.

All flesh's corrupt without their brine.

Tui nati vulnerari,

Refuge of sinners, grant that we

Tam dignati pro me pati

May tread thy steps, and let it be

Pœnas mecum divide.

Our sorrow not to grieve like thee.

Fec me vere tecum flere,

 O may the wounds of thy dear Son,

Crucifixo condolere,

Our contrite hearts possess alone.

Donec ego vixero.

And all terrene affections drown.

Juxta crucem tecum stare,

Those wounds, which now the stars outshine,

Te libenter sociare,

Those furnaces of love divine.

In planctu desidero.

May they our drossy souls refine;

Virgo virginum præclara,

And on us such impressions make,

Mihi jam non sis amara,

That we of suff'ring for his sake,

Fac me tecum plangere.

May joyfully our portion take.

Fac ut portem Christi mortem,

 Let us his proper badge put on,

Passionis fac consortem,

Let's glory in the cross alone,

Et plagas recolere.

By which he marks us for his own.

Fac me plagis vulnerari,

That when the dreadful trial's come,

Cruce hac inebriari,

For every man to hear his doom,

Ob amorem filii.

On his right hand we may find room.

Inflammatus et accensus,

O hear us, Mary! Jesus, hear!

Per te virgo aim defensus

Our humble pray'rs; secure our fear,

In die judicii.

When thou in judgment shalt appear.

Fac me cruce custodiri,

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