Ranking Every French King from Worst to Best

it's been a while so the french kings for a long time i didn't know how to tackle the subject because the carolingian dynasty is kind of a mess luckily one subscriber helped a lot by sending an actual list which greatly simplifies things though there's a few differences from the list he sent and the list i'll be doing for this one i'm starting with pepin the short all the way to napoleon iii though i'm not doing certain figures whose reigns are disputed so while this list has napoleon the first and napoleon the third it doesn't have napoleon the second just as an example also i'm sorry shah martel you just barely don't make it you're unquestionably one of the greatest figures in medieval history but you weren't the king now here we go 54 charles the mad he seemed capable at the start then he went completely bonkers he attacked his own men nearly got himself burned alive would sometimes forget who he was or what he was doing would sometimes forget who he was or what he was doing would sometimes forget who he was or what he was doing refused to bathe or change his clothes for months and thought he was made of glass as far as insane european monarchs go i'll go out on a limb and say charles vi is probably the first person you'll think of but he's not a bad king for being insane he's a bad king because all the good progress made by his father was essentially undone the duchy of burgundy though technically a vassal to france became a rival to the french crown and the battle of ajinko left the charles vi sign a humiliating treaty which disinherited his son and would make england essentially the winner of the hundred years war had not said sun been quite capable himself we'll get to him much later also france lost paris as you can see he isn't the worst king on the list for being insane the madness is just cherry on top 53. charles the fat briefly reunited the carolinian empire as he was already king of italy in east francia was a pretty weak spineless and incompetent king got opposed in all three kingdoms and dropped dead three months later good riddance 52 john the good called the good but he was not good his reign may have been difficult with the black death rebellions and hundred years war and all but he did not exactly make the best out of a bad situation in fact he made it worse what kind of willingly returns to being held captive by his mortal enemies 51 louis xv the successor to louis xiv louis xv's reign was also incredibly long however it was not quite as successful with france having gone through the seven years war in his reign which led the france losing its territories in north america and when he died france was in dire need a financial and political reform also he did give away the french netherlands but at least he added the duchy of lorraine and corsica to his kingdom i still don't really understand why would one ally with your biggest historical rival on the continent either 50 charles ix a puppet who did not know how to deal with the protestant crisis controlled by his mother he started out with a policy of appeasement and ended up allowing a massacre of the hyunos in the royal wedding beginning in practice a religious civil war 49. louis the do nothing cognoman gives it away not a lot to say about him last carolingian king 48 carlo man the first throughout his short reign he spent most of his time either challenging the authority or competing against or trying to undermine his older brother charlemagne in fact the two were actually close to outright war eventually it really didn't matter much considering three years in he conveniently dropped dead supposedly of a nosebleed maybe it's just my cynical nature talking but part of me suspects he was assassinated even though there isn't proof of anything 47 charles the simple a 20-year long reign with ridiculous favoritism endless viking raids and lost crown authority pretty bad ruler killed his successor though 46 robert the first killed by charles the simple nearly a year in 45 louis the stammerer physically weak short reign easily swayed just not a good king 44. louis from overseas he is given that cognoman because he came from england to rule france even though he was actually born in france not that he was a particularly good king 43 louis xvi to be fair to him he did try to reform the french government through enlightened ideas but because his measures meant the price of bread rose followed by bad harvests indepthing the country by supporting the united states the convening of the estates general resulting in nothing at all and the fact his wife was an austrian well one revolution later and chop chop went his head 42 louis philippe the citizen king initially liked but as time passed socio-economic conditions worsened leading to the 1848 revolution and he quietly exiled himself to england 41 charles the tent tried going back to rule by divine rights and effectively turned back the clock to before the revolution not having got to memo that things had changed and they could not be undone the result was exile 40 henry the first either seen as a weak king or a strong king limited by the monarchy's own power at the time my take he's just meh 39 although not a carolinian he was okay became king for defending paris against the vikings but he did not amount to much 38. lother a very long reign marked by a rocky relationship with the holy roman empire and the loss and attempts to recover lotharingia he started out pretty poorly but gradually got better as his reign went on 37. philip vi the cognomen of the fortunate has to be sarcastic in nature this is the man who had to deal with the disastrous start of the hundred years war the estates refusing to raise money for him following this and then cherry on top he gets the deal with a black death he was the man for whatever reason god hated specifically 36 john the first this person was the french king for five days this person was also alive for only five days 35 francis ii died of poor health over a year into his reign not a lot to say about him 33 and 34 louis iii and carloman ii their sort of joint reign started out very promising with victories over the vikings then louis iii hit his head and died after just three years on the throne his brother carloman would die two years later when he was accidentally stabbed in the leg by his servant in the middle of a chaotic situation when they were both attacked by a wild boar given carlo man survived a few days before dying i can only assume the wound defected this if he wasn't you know just plain murdered 32 charles viii the first french king to have to deal with pretty much being surrounded by the habsburgs well nearly in truth francis the first was the first one his campaigns in italy which ultimately went nowhere left france severely in debt but hey at least he was likable 31. hugh cape the first of the famed cape dynasty his power was actually pretty limited and his reign was somewhat unremarkable 30 rudolf dealt with viking raids and rebellions pretty effectively as a medieval king he was alright 29 henry iii tried in vain to stop the religious civil war between the catholics and the protestants to no avail in fact his inability to produce an hair escalated the conflict into a war of succession between three factions the third faction should be curious was the politics aka moderates 28 louis xiii he was an all-right king he was a constitutional monarch not an absolutist so really he left the challenges of ruling to others though his reign did see a period of terror where the ultra royalists ruled and purged plenty of napoleon's supporters 27 philip the fair infamous for destroying the knights templar after a series of mock trials to be fair to him philip's objective throughout his reign was to reduce the power of the wealthy and nobility and he did succeed in that beginning a period of transition where france changed from a feudal country to a centralized modern state i think he gets too bad of a reputation for being tyrannical which let's face it he was and i'm not just talking about the knights templar philip iv was tyrannical all around from how he dealt with the knights templar to his disputes with the church to him arresting merchants who loaned the french state money he was basically how i play crystal their kings minus all the incest of course still i don't think he was a disaster of a ruler 26 charles affair not a good king not a bad one either his death without having a surviving male hair meant the french throne was to be disputed between philip alwa and the king of england edward iii starting the 100 years war 25 philip the first some romantic drama nobody really cares about aside phillip was an overall pretty decent king building up the military and royal power which had suffered some setbacks in his predecessor's reign 24 louis the first the son of charlemagne his reign is marked by internal strife as he struggled to maintain control over what his father had conquered especially as his own family most notably his own children kept revolting this was mostly due to his act of penance over the death of his nephew one bernard of italy as louis had ordered his blinding which ended up killing him this penance ended up reducing his prestige and authority as a ruler partly due to putting himself under humiliating ordeal and partly for including a list of minor transgressions no ruler at the time would have bothered considering appeared in that his military might was tested mostly by his children i don't think he was bad and even salute him for his military record but his overall inability to keep the empire together really puts him down with his death the frankish empire was divided into this abortion of a map 23 louis vii participated in the second crusade though this did not go well also his inability to initially produce children ended up costing france some valuable territory as his wife was the duchess of aquitaine and she ended up marrying the king of england and had plenty of children with him oof moment right there that aside he was pretty alright 22 philip iii he is essentially like his father saint louis ix but less a good diplomat and overall capable though his attempt at conquering aragon brought france to the edge of bankruptcy which would leave his successor to face financial challenges to be fair it's not entirely his fault the century wrecked his army and him 21 henry ii expelled the english from calais and won some lands in what now is alsace lorraine he also intensified the persecution of the protestants his father francis the first had started besides that not a whole lot more to write home about 20 philip v pretty decent king who made some domestic reforms and compromised with flanders shame he had a rather short reign 19 louis xiii focused in the arts and systemically destroying the french nobility his reign also saw conflict against the habsburgs particularly the spanish 18th louis viii a good king but his brief raid meant he ultimately had very little impact on france though i can't deny his ability 17 louis the tenth in about a year in six months he abolished slavery emancipated serfs re-emitted jews into the kingdom feuded with a nobility and lost a war against flanders a pretty action-packed reign 16 louis the twelfth the father of the people as you can see from his cocknoman he was really popular in his age of course he was given this title for the great measure of lowering taxes he also made some legal reforms and whatnot but really that was basically the reason he was alright as a king though nothing too special 15 francis the first for all you anglos out there he was a contemporary of henry v8 in fact he was basically nv8 but french a warrior king interested in the renaissance and a firm catholic to prove this piety by promptly aligning with the biggest enemy of catholicism at the time but hey it's diplomacy baby you gotta do what you gotta do 14. napoleon iii mostly a good emperor he achieved plenty of great things such as founding the second french empire reconstructed paris and effectively ended famines through establishing modern agriculture but he had one major failing his defeat at the hands of prussia not only made france lose also lorraine it created germany a nation that upon its birth immediately overtook france as the premier land power in europe 13 robert ii increase royal power by quashing the nobility introduced plenty of reforms acquired the duchy of burgundy a great king 12 charles v recovered much of the territory lost to the english during the hundred years war he also replenished the royal treasury and formed the first permanent army with regular wages a great king really it's a shame his son was charles the math 11 charles de bolt the youngest son of louis the pious i don't think he was bad in fact i think he was pretty good but his overall unpopularity and constant enmity from his own brothers led to a decline of power in the monarchy also he was very nearly deposed and the brathans achieved a de facto independence pretty turbulent reign and a pretty good king but a definite step down compared to his predecessors by the way it's been suggested his cognoman was given ironically and that charles was not actually bald but harry then saint louis ix reigned over an economic and political golden age of france expanded french territory notably in aquitaine maine and provence and made legal reforms notably introducing the presumption of innocence to criminal procedures great diplomat as well had it not been for the ill-fated crusades which drove him away from france and even at a point led to his capture he'd be higher nine louis vi a strong king in fact often described as the first one since charlemagne he spent his rather long reign fighting either the robin barons in the area around paris or the english over normandy this actually made the king so popular when the holy roman emperor henry v assembled an army in preparation for an invasion the very barrens louis vi fought against sided with him and in response henry v called the whole thing off eight pep in the short became king of the france after the posing hill derrick iii the last of the mervinians his reign was marked by his military campaigns in italy and in what is today modern france in italy he essentially helped create what we know as the pipal states and furthering what already was by all aspects and alliance with the papacy and in southern france he kicked the muslims out of the last little bit of land septomania then he turned on what was still a pretty much independent duchy of aquitaine and conducted an eight year long devastating war eventually subduing the country but he died still in that campaign despite not having been defeated pepin the short goes on in history as unquestionably a highly capable ruler but happened to be overshadowed by both his father shah martel and his son one charlemagne also his nickname is either a mistranslation in which the younger became the short or this cognoman was falsely attributed to him for being confused with another historical figure named pepin 7. henry iv effectively ended the french wars of religion originally a protestant he converted to catholicism and guaranteed religious freedom to protestants in order to secure his rule not that this actually worked considering he suffered at least 12 assassination attempts the last one succeeded i do think he's a little overrated but it does make sense considering he put an end to a decades-long era of the vision and so it's fitting the french look at him as a symbol of union 6. louis the prudent also called and i'm not kidding the universal spider this was due to his taste for intrigue and intense diplomatic activities he formally ended the hundred years war though in truth his father charles vii had already done so in practice and he broke the spine of the duchy of burgundy first by having the duke of berkeley charles the bold diplomatically isolated and then by in a stroke of good fortune seeing charles die in battle against the french i'm still putting him below his father which wouldn't be pleasing for louis xi considering he hated his stinking guts 5. charles vii oh look it's sad father and probably the dark horse of this entire list i mean i wouldn't have expected him to make top 5 when i started this the son of the worst king of france charles vii could not have been more different from his father this is the man who won the 100 years war effectively expelling the english out of france and recovering much of the territory lost to the burgundians more impressively he achieved this all the while by clearly not having a personality predisposed towards being a leader charles had to gradually grow into one furthermore when his reign started about half of france was in the hands of either the english or the burgundians he did not even have paris and had to be crowned in rhymes such a lousy starting position handy won one of the best kings france ever had oh and he's also the joan of our king in case you're curious 4 louis xiv the sun king does this man need an introduction with the largest recorded brain of any monarch of a sovereign nation louis xiv was a giant of his age continuing his predecessor's job he sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism and centralized power into the monarchy his reign saw france effectively overtaking spain as europe's premier power and even if not totally eliminating the habsburg rivals his reign was one which for the first time at least in my mind france was the stronger of the two there are some gripes i have with louis xiv i do think absolutism ended up being a failure in any country not named russia and the war of the spanish succession left france in severe debt however i do think centralizing power was an absolute necessity at the time and the severe death was a natural price of winning a war which strengthened the country's position mind you 3 charlemagne out of all medieval kings the medieval king the man went on an absolute conquering spree winning lands in spain italy germany and making much of central europe his tributaries along the way he defeated the lombards the basques the saxons the frisians the avars the slavs and i could go on and on he reformed currency education writing politics had a massive cultural and political impact in europe for the next centuries and was the model which monarchs base themselves for centuries to come both in france and beyond charlemagne is a legend of european history one of the greatest historical figures in the continent and obviously one of its greatest ruling monarchs 2. napoleon not even considering his outstanding military record napoleon reform taxation currency education created the first french central bank and most notably instituted the napoleonic code which would serve as a legal basis in about a quarter of the world even to this day in fact it's arguable napoleon's greatest act was his legal code it's certainly what napoleon himself thought i don't think it's too far fetched in to consider napoleon the father of modern france and finally what everyone knows about napoleon his military promise if you go look for lists of the greatest military generals of all time napoleon is almost always in top five and very often as number one which in case you're curious i agree i do consider napoleon to be the best military general of all time in particular i will always be amazed at austerlitz not for the general outline of the battle but for napoleon's decision to abandon the high ground before it that just astonishes me it's something i don't see myself ever doing or i in his position so with all this in mind you're probably wondering why is he not number one well the invasion of russia good god the invasion of russia as much as i like napoleon as a historical figure and i really do this massive screw-up cannot be overlooked the aftermath of this invasion left france exhausted and really it's mostly his massive contributions in the long run that keeps him in contention for greatest french monarch of all time there is in my mind however one who trumps him number one philippe augustus consolidated royal power financially stabilized the country striked hearth on his own rebellious vessels and played a significant role in innovation and education on france adding the louvre as a fortress to the city of paris beginning the construction of the notre dame and gave a shouter to the university of paris speaking of paris he built a wall around it most notably of all he utterly broke the angel dynasty which had sunk its claws deep in france the anchovan controlled about half of france at this point and philip ii reduced their holds to parts of aquitaine in turn france was transformed into the most prosperous and powerful state in europe under philip ii's leadership and for having expanded the power of france so remarkably that philip was given the epitaph of augustus a title befitting of roman emperors hope you enjoyed the video it took a while to make speed running an entire monarchical line can have its fun moments as you find out about interesting historical figures but admittedly it's pretty exhausting it goes without saying this list is entirely subjective and there are some positions you may raise your eyebrow on i expect the general guy to think henry iv is too low and charles vii is to buy for example anyway leave a like comment subscribe and i'll see you next time

Channel: Spectrum

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Id: OTr9hqak8tI

Length: 21min 10sec (1270 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 27 2022