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France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

Book by john julius norwich · 5 quotes · Gaul, Franco Prussian War, Marie Antoinette

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AllGaulFranco Prussian WarMarie AntoinetteNapoleon IiiNormansPrince LeopoldRoman EmpireSalian Franks

France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle Quotes

“On the 5th of October, in pouring rain, some 6,000 working women, fishwives, cleaners, marketstall holders, and prostitutes, marched on Versailles. Their ostensible reason was a rumor that at a welcome banquet given for the Flanders Regiment, newly arrived at the palace, the tricolor cockade had been trampled underfoot (...) armed with scythes, pikes, and any other weapons they could lay their hands on, they marched straight to the National Assembly, shouting their slogans and screaming for bread (...) In the early hours of the next day, the king and queen were awakened by furious shouts of, "mort à la femme Autrichienne", death to the Austrian woman.”

Marie Antoinette
Book:France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle
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“The recently arrived Normans were a people very different from the subjects of the Capetian kings. They had quickly shown themselves to be anything but the Viking savages that the French had originally supposed. On the contrary, they had absorbed the Latin culture, language, and religion of their hosts with astonishing speed. They had moreover demonstrated qualities not normally associated with early Medieval France, an extraordinary degree of energy and vigor, combined with a characteristic love of travel and adventure, without which they would have never of left their homes. They administered their lands with great efficiency, they showed a deep knowledge and respect for the law, and they'd already begun to build cathedrals and churches far more beautiful and more technically advanced than those of their French hosts.”

Normans
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“In 1870, the throne was offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Had the Prince rejected the offer at once, there might have been no Franco-Prussian war, and Napoleon III might have ended his days still on the throne. Alas, he accepted. France was appalled, how possibly could she accept being the sausage the middle of a German sandwich.”

Franco Prussian WarNapoleon IiiPrince Leopold
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“[The Gauls] were carnivores through and through and they loved fighting. Their horsemanship probably outclassed even that of the Romans and, though they lacked the more sophisticated Roman weaponry, their courage and determination combined with the sheer weight of their numbers made them formidable enemies. (...) Their ultimate defeat was probably due to the simple fact that their tribal society prevented them from achieving any degree of political unity.”

Gaul
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