Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Monarchy And Democracy In Conflict?Triumph Of Monarchy Under Charles V. (1328-1380). PHILIP de Valois was well fitted, in some respects, to fill the role of king. He was a showy man who could pose in public and impress the lieges with his dignity in things external. He could rise to the occasion, as the representative of the grandeur of France, when the occasion demanded the dazzling display of royal pomp. He is
the magnificent king, 1 who celebrated his coronation at Reims with a splendour far surpassing that which any living man remembered to have seen on such occasions. He was great in procession or on parade, and to his fondness for show, the picturesque Froissart was indebted for many a glowing description of that old world chivalry to which his enthusiasm has given all the reality and energy of a tableau vivant. Philip had, too, some ability as a soldier, as the first year of his reign was to prove, though he was no master of tactics like his great rival, Edward III. He was, however, a master of display, very formidable in showing himself at the head of a splendid host of gorgeous and fire-eating war-lords, and their no less gorgeous companies of knights and esquires, as at Buironfosse, Tournay, and Malestroit, and thus bringing his antagonist to retire, or to treat. To avoid a battle, especially against an antagonist of the stamp of an Edward III., was a greater merit than to fight one, which could probably only end in defeat, and Philip was to show over and over again that he understood how to cheat his antagonist out of a victory without exactly running away. Unfortunately for France and for himself, he did this once too seldom, and on the single occasion that he risked an encounter with Edward at Crecy, he suffered a crushing overthrow. As a diploma…