Kings Of France

King Pharamond

Legendary King of the Franks

(c.370-427)

The first king was Pharamond; after him came

the race Merovingian, unworthy of fame;

Then Pepin the Little, and Charlemagne, great,

Victorious, kingly, in church and in state.

First Louis, Charles first, then two Louis more;

Charles; Endes, Count of Paris, whose reign was soon o'er;

Charles the Simple; Raoul de Burgoyne, rarely known,

One after another ascended the throne.

The Crowning of

Raoul de Burgoyne

Then Louis the Fourth, who was named "L'Outre Mer",

Then Louis the Sluggard, came; after Lothaire;

Hugh Capet, and Robert, and Henry then came;

First Philip, two Louis, and Philip whose name

Was Augustus; then Louis the Lion; and one

Called Louis the Saint, for the good he had done.

Two Philips, tenth Louis, fifth Philip came on,

And then Charles the Fourth, the sixth Philip, and John;

Charles fifth, sixth and seventh, when Joan d' Arc came

To rescue the country from sorrow and shame.

Jeanne d' Arc

(Joan of Arc)

Charles Amable Lenoir

Then Louis Eleventh, perfidious king;

Charles Eighth  whose adventures let history sing;

Twelfth Louis, first Francis, and then Henry came;

Then Francis, whose wife is so well known to fame

As Mary of Scotland; Charles Ninth on whose head

Is the blood of Bartholemew's Protestant dead.

Two Henrys five Louis, one king but in name,

For Terror the monarch til Bonaparte came.

France's doomed monarchs

King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette

and their children in the Gardens of  Versailles.

Both were executed during the French Revolution.

Painting by Charles Louis Lucien

Then Louis Eighteenth and Charles tenth the grandson

Of Louis Fifteenth, but his reign was soon done.

Then Louis Philippe and Napoleon Third,

Who, often successful, more frequently erred.

The throne is now vacant, and no one can tell

The name of the next, so I'll bid you farewell.

Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon III

1808-1873

Emperor of the Second French Empire

and nephew and heir of Napoleon I

"Kings of France"

A poem by Mary W. Lincoln