A language that made its way

The lessons in this chapter

1. 1Where French comes from, an oath in the snowFrench grew out of the Latin spoken in Gaul, laid on a Gaulish base and coloured by the Franks’ language. The collection of its oldest monuments opens with the oath Louis swore in the Romance tongue, at Strasbourg, in 842.9 min
2. 2Villers-Cotterêts, French in place of LatinIn August 1539, at Villers-Cotterêts, François I threw Latin out of acts of justice: two articles out of a hundred and ninety-two. The same text had parish priests keep a register of baptisms, the ancestor of civil registration.8 min
3. 3Falling into the apples, and other French expressionsMany French expressions keep something forgotten: the sheep of a farce, a monkey at a Paris toll, a coin to share. Falling into the apples keeps its secret: pâmes or stewed apples, nobody can say.9 min

The dossiers of this chapter

Free to read: a definition, a timeline, the sources.

• The Dreyfus affair: the facts, the documents, the argumentsThe Dreyfus affair is the judicial and political crisis that arose in France from the conviction, on 22 December 1894, of captain Alfred Dreyfus for spying for Germany. He was innocent and was deported to Devil’s Island; the real author of the incriminating document was shielded, and an officer manufactured another. The Court of Cassation quashed everything on 12 July 1906.
• Alesia: where the siege was, and what was found thereAlesia is the Gallic oppidum where Julius Caesar besieged and captured Vercingetorix in 52 BC, the episode that closes the account of the Gallic War. The site is identified as Mont Auxois, at Alise-Sainte-Reine in the Côte-d’Or, where excavation has recovered both Roman lines of fortification. It became a prosperous Gallo-Roman town and was abandoned in the fifth century.
• Charlemagne: what is known, and who told usCharlemagne (c. 748-814) was king of the Franks from 768, then emperor in the West: on 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned him in Rome. He ruled from Aachen over an empire covering today’s France, Germany and northern Italy. Almost everything known about him comes from one book, Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne, written after his death by a man of his own court.
• Charles de Gaulle: what he did, and what is argued overCharles de Gaulle (1890-1970) was a French general and statesman. On 18 June 1940, from London, he called for the war to go on and founded Free France, then led the provisional government until he resigned on 20 January 1946. Voted in by the Assembly on 1 June 1958, he had the Constitution of the Fifth Republic adopted and was president from 8 January 1959 to 28 April 1969.
• Charles Martel: the master of the Franks who was never kingCharles Martel (c. 688-741) was a Frankish leader, the son of the mayor of the palace Pepin. Pushed aside when his father died, he imposed himself by force and governed the Frankish kingdoms in the name of Merovingian kings he chose himself. In 732, between Poitiers and Tours, he beat an army from al-Andalus. He died in 741 without ever having worn a crown.
• Clovis: who he was, and why France claims himClovis (c. 466-511) was a Frankish king. Around 481 he succeeded his father Childeric, eliminated the other Frankish kings, beat Syagrius at Soissons and crushed the Visigoths at Vouillé in 507. Baptised a Catholic at Reims by bishop Remigius, on a date historians still argue over, he died in Paris in 511. Almost everything known about him comes from Gregory of Tours, a century later.