Epilogue

Abstract

With the completion of our survey, the question arises: had the Capetians a policy from the outset, and, if so, what was its nature? A dynasty’s policy may be defined as a comprehensive and durable plan of government devised by the founder or one of his successors at a precise period of time, and thereafter carried out in detail by those who come after. But none of the Capetians formulated a policy of this kind; and the Enseignements of St. Louis to his son were exclusively moral precepts. On the other hand we may arguably speak of policy when all the reigning kings of a dynasty approach their task in the same way, and work with reasonable consistency towards the same goal as their predecessors. That the Capetians did this is a fair deduction from the present study, not a deceptive product of the analytical layout of the work; other accounts of Capetian history, strictly chronological in their arrangement, would yield the same conclusion.