French language

Louis the Pious (Latin: Hludowicus Pius; French: Louis le Pieux; German: Ludwig der Fromme; 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only surviving son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he became the sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814, a position that he held until his death except from November 833 to March 834, when he was deposed.

During his reign in Aquitaine, Louis was charged with the defence of the empire's southwestern frontier. He conquered Barcelona from the Emirate of Córdoba in 801 and asserted Frankish authority over Pamplona and the Basques south of the Pyrenees in 812. As emperor, he included his adult sons, Lothair, Pepin and Louis, in the government and sought to establish a suitable division of the realm among them. The first decade of his reign was characterised by several tragedies and embarrassments, notably the brutal treatment of his nephew Bernard of Italy for which Louis atoned in a public act of self-debasement.

Hugh Capet (/ˈkæpeɪ/; French: Hugues Capet [yɡ kapɛ]; c. 941 – 24 October 996) was the King of the Franks from 987 to 996. He is the founder of and first king from the House of Capet. The son of the powerful duke Hugh the Great and his wife Hedwige of Saxony, he was elected as the successor of the last Carolingian king, Louis V. Hugh was descended from Charlemagne's son Pepin of Italy through his paternal grandmother Béatrice of Vermandois, and was also a nephew of Otto the Great.

The dynasty he founded ruled France for nearly nine centuries: from 987 to 1328 in the senior line, and until 1848 via cadet branches (with an interruption from 1792 to 1814 and briefly in 1815).

Treatise on Light: In Which Are Explained the Causes of That Which Occurs in Reflection & Refraction (French: Traité de la Lumière: Où sont expliquées les causes de ce qui luy arrive dans la reflexion & dans la refraction) is a book written by Dutch polymath Christiaan Huygens that was published in French in 1690. The book describes Huygens's conception of the nature of light propagation which makes it possible to explain the laws of geometrical optics shown in Descartes's La Dioptrique, which Huygens aimed to replace.

Unlike Newton's corpuscular theory, which was presented in the Opticks, Huygens conceived of light as an irregular series of shock waves which proceeds with very great, but finite, velocity through the ether, similar to sound waves. Moreover, he proposed that each point of a wavefront is itself the origin of a secondary spherical wave, a principle known today as the Huygens–Fresnel principle. The book is considered a pioneering work of theoretical and mathematical physics and the first mechanistic account of an unobservable physical phenomenon.

In his final philosophical treatise, The Passions of the Soul (French: Les Passions de l'âme), completed in 1649 and dedicated to Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes contributes to a long tradition of philosophical inquiry into the nature of "the passions". The passions were experiences – now commonly called emotions in the modern period – that had been a subject of debate among philosophers and theologians since the time of Plato.

Notable precursors to Descartes who articulated their own theories of the passions include Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Hobbes.According to Amélie Rorty, the work reflects Descartes' need to reconcile the influence of the passions on otherwise rational beings. This marks a clear point in the advancement of human self-estimation, paralleling the increasingly rational-based scientific method. Descartes affirmed that the passions "are all intrinsically good, and that all we have to avoid is their misuse or their excess" (art. 211).

The French nobility (French: la noblesse française) was an aristocratic social class in France from the Middle Ages until its abolition on 23 June 1790 during the French Revolution.

From 1808 to 1815 during the First Empire the Emperor Napoléon bestowed titles that were recognized as a new nobility by the Charter of 4 June 1814 granted by King Louis XVIII.

The Edict of Nantes (French: édit de Nantes) was an edict signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the minority Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was predominantly Catholic.

While upholding Catholicism as the established religion, and requiring the re-establishment of Catholic worship in places it had lapsed, it granted certain religious toleration to the Protestant Huguenots, who had been waging a long and bloody struggle for their rights in France.

The Guilds of Brussels (French: Guildes de Bruxelles; Dutch: Gilden van Brussel), grouped in the Nine Nations of Brussels (French: Neuf Nations de Bruxelles; Dutch: Negen Naties van Brussel), were associations of craft guilds that dominated the economic life of Brussels in the late medieval and early modern periods. From 1421 onwards, they were represented in the city government alongside the patrician lineages of the Seven Noble Houses of Brussels, later also in the States of Brabant as members of the Third Estate. As of 1421, they were also able to become members of the Drapery Court of Brussels. Together with the Seven Noble Houses, they formed the city's bourgeoisie. Some of their guildhouses can still be seen as part of the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (Brussels' main square), a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Flamboyant (from French flamboyant 'flaming') is a lavishly decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance. Elaborate stone tracery covered both the exterior and the interior. Windows were decorated with a characteristic s-shaped curve. Masonry wall space was reduced further as windows grew even larger. Major examples included the northern spire of Chartres Cathedral, Trinity Abbey, Vendôme, and Burgos Cathedral and Segovia Cathedral in Spain. It was gradually replaced by Renaissance architecture in the 16th century.

The Town Hall (French: Hôtel de Ville, pronounced [otɛl də vil] ; Dutch: Stadhuis, pronounced [stɑtˈɦœys] ) of the City of Brussels is a landmark building and the seat of that municipality of Brussels, Belgium. It is located on the south side of the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (Brussels' main square), opposite the neo-Gothic King's House or Bread House building, housing the Brussels City Museum.

Erected between 1401 and 1455, the Town Hall is the only remaining medieval building of the Grand-Place and is considered a masterpiece of civil Gothic architecture and more particularly of Brabantine Gothic. Its three classicist rear wings date from the 18th century. Since 1998, it is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the square. This site is served by the premetro (underground tram) station Bourse - Grand-Place/Beurs - Grote Markt (on lines 4 and 10), as well as the bus stop Grand-Place/Grote Markt (on lines 33, 48 and 95).

The Brussels City Museum (French: Musée de la Ville de Bruxelles [myze də la vil də bʁysɛl]; Dutch: Museum van de Stad Brussel [myˈzeːjʏɱ vɑn də stɑd ˈbrʏsəl]) is a municipal museum on the Grand-Place/Grote Markt of Brussels, Belgium. Conceived in 1860 and inaugurated in 1887, it is dedicated to the history and folklore of the City of Brussels from its foundation into modern times, which it presents through paintings, sculptures, tapestries, engravings, photos and models, including a notable scale-representation of the town during the Middle Ages.

The museum is situated on the north side of the square, opposite Brussels' Town Hall, in the Maison du Roi ("King's House") or Broodhuis ("Bread House" or "Bread Hall"). This building, erected between 1504 and 1536, was rebuilt in the 19th century in its current neo-Gothic style by the architect Victor Jamaer [fr]. Since 1998, is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the square. It can be accessed from the premetro (underground tram) station Bourse - Grand-Place/Beurs - Grote Markt (on lines 4 and 10), as well as the bus stop Grand-Place/Grote Markt (on lines 33, 48 and 95).