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Home / Periods / Late Medieval / Late Medieval France

Period

Late Medieval France

1300–1499 CE

France in the later Middle Ages was shaped by the Hundred Years’ War, civil conflict, plague and the gradual recovery of royal authority. The monarchy expanded taxation, administration and a permanent army, while powerful princes, cities, clergy and regional communities retained substantial influence.

By the later fifteenth century the Valois kings had reduced English possessions and were confronting the territorial power of Burgundy. Paris remained a centre of royal government, learning, religion and commerce, but its streets also contained guilds, courts, beggars, students and migrant communities living under sharply unequal law.

Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris reconstructs Paris in 1482 through the cathedral, royal justice and the city’s marginal communities. Walter Scott’s Quentin Durward uses the court of Louis XI and the rivalry with Burgundy. Together these novels show late medieval France as a setting of centralising monarchy, urban spectacle, religious authority and contested social order.

Related people for Late Medieval France

Anne of Brittany1477–1514 Bernabò Visconti1323–1385 Bertrand du Guesclin1320–1380 Charles II of Navarre1332–1387 Charles the Bold1433–1477 Charles VIII of France1470–1498 Charles V of France1338–1380 Edward, the Black Prince1330–1376 Edward III of England1312–1377 Galeazzo II Visconti1320–1378 Henry II of Castile1334–1379 Henry V of England1386–1422 Joan of Arc1412–1431 John Hawkwoodc. 1320–1394 John II of France1319–1364 Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence1338–1368 Louise of Savoy1476–1531 Louis XI of France1423–1483 Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor1459–1519 Peter of Castile1334–1369 Philip VI of France1293–1350 Pierre Gringorec. 1475–c. 1538

Series

Series about Late Medieval France (1 series)

The Accursed Kings in Order

by Maurice Druon 7 books 4.2(8,269)

The Accursed Kings follows the French and English monarchies from the final year of Philip IV's reign in 1314 to the capture of John II at Poitiers and the political crisis of the late 1350s. Across seven novels, the direct Capetian line fails, the Valois dynasty takes the…

Books

22 Best Novels About Late Medieval France

Non-Fiction

2 Best Non-Fiction Books About Late Medieval France

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.