Translator's Note. Foreword. List of Illustrations. List of Genealogical Tables. Part I: The Inheritance: . 1. The Empire. 2. The Frankish People. 3. The Principalities. 4. Disturbances. Part II: Lordship:. 5. The Village. 6. The Castle. 7. The Church. 8. King and Lord. Part III: Origins of State and Nation:. 9. The Great Age of Progress. 10. Louis VII. 11. Philip Augustus. 12. The South. 13. The Thirteenth Century. 14. The Fourteenth Century. 15. The Maid of Orleans. Epilogue. Chronology. Bibliography. Index.

Georges Duby has changed our conception of medieval Europe, particularly our about the meaning and operation of 'feudal society'. In this book, now available in paperback, he examines the history of France from the rise of the Capetians in the mid-tenth century to the execution of Joan of Arc in the mid-fifteenth. He takes the evolution of power and the emergence of the French state as his central themes, and guides the reader through complex - and, in many respects, still unfamiliar, yet fascinating terrain. He describes the growth of the castle and the village, the building blocks of the new Western European civilization of the second millenium AD. In so doing, he reintroduces the cast of characters that he has made famous: the youths, the priests and the ladies. Figures monumental in English history, such as William the Conqueror and Henry I, appear afresh in their contemporary context, dangerous and vulnerable. In place of Hastings, Duby offers the battle of the Bouvines (1214) as a decisive turning-point. It marks the successful construction of the French monarchy, which in turn represents a transformation in the exercise of power. Extensively illustrated, and containing many clear and helpful maps and geneaological tables, this book will be of wide interest, and will stimulate discussion among specialists and non-specialists alike.

"Superb ... a great historian offers a fresh interpretation of one of the formative periods of French history." L'Histoire "Superb ... a pleasure to read ... an invaluable work of history and reference" La Voix du Nord "Duby has already changed our conception of medieval Europe. Extensively illustrated, with clear and helpful genealogical tables, this is a boldly written book, impeccably translated by Juliet Vale, that will stimulate discussion among specialists and non=specialists alike." The Jerusalem Post