French Renaissance

The French Renaissance is roughly the period from Charles VIII of France through Henri IV of France and is said to begin with the French invasion of Italy in 1494. The reigns of François I (from 1515 to 1547) and his son Henri II (from 1547 to 1559) are generally considered the apex of the French Renaissance. After Henri II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de Medici and her sons François II, Charles IX and Henri III, and although the Renaissance continued to flourish, the French Wars of Religion between huguenots and catholics ravaged the country.

Language

From 1340 to the beginning of the seventeenth century, a generalized French language became clearly distinguished from the various competing Oïl languages in the Northern half of what is today's France. This is refered to as Middle French ("moyen français").

Related Topics:
French language - Oïl languages - Middle French

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In Southern France, there was spoken a number of dialects of the Occitan language family, of which the largest group was the Provençal language). The Western peninsula of Brittany spoke Breton, a Celtic language. Catalan was spoken in the South, and Germanic languages and Francoprovençal were spoken in the East.

Related Topics:
Occitan language - Provençal language - Brittany - Breton - Catalan - Francoprovençal

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For more information of the development of the French language, see French language

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