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From the list of the rulers of France, I took those that I considered to be great rulers and decided to see which one was the best for the people on AH.com in that list.

Since there can be a debate around when France was created, I didn't took into account the Kings before 843 and the Treaty of Verdun. This sadly excludes the great merovingian Kings (such as Clovis I) and Charlemagne, but the Frankish Kingdom (and later Empire) did not only gave birth to France, but also to Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the North Italian States.

After 843, I choosed some of those who could be considered as great kings. The question I ask you now is : Among the following ones, who was the best ruler of France?

1. Charles II the Bald (823-877, r.843-877)
Grandson of Charlemagne and first ruler of Western Francia (and thus France). Became Holy Roman Emperor in 875.

2.Philip II Augustus (1165-1223, r.1180-1223)
Only son of king Louis VII of France and the first true great king in my opinion. At the beginning of his reign, royal control was weak and the Plantagenêt were ruling all of Western France. His political skills and some of the battles he did allowed him to increase royal control and destroyed the Plantagenêt Empire, leaving only Guyenne in the hands of the Kings of England. He was also one of the greatest administrator of the Middle Age.

3.Louis IX the Saint/Saint Louis (1214-1270, r.1226-1270)
Son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille. A very pious king who went twice on Crusade (during the seventh and the eighth). He had a great sense of Justice and was seen as great arbiter : many turned to him when a crisis had to be resolved, even some foreign kings.
He was declared a saint by the Catholic Church in 1297.

4.Philip IV the Fair (1268-1314, r.1285-1314)
Eldest son of Philip III of France. Considered as the first absolute monarch by some historian. He reformed France, notably the economy, and further strenghtened royal control. He also had the Pope move from Rome to Avignon, thus weaking Papal power and giving the image that the King of France was stronger than the Pope.
He is also known to have destroyed the Templar Order.

5.Charles V the Wise (1338-1380, r.1368-1380)
Eldest son of John II of France and third king of the Valois dynasty.
He already assumed power when his father was taken as a prisonner by the Black Prince to England. Despite early troubles, Charles V reformed the state to recover the political ground lost by the French kings and to make the French economy recover.
His reign also saw major actions during the Hundred Years Wars, notably the actions of Bertrand Du Guesclin. Among many things, Charles V got rid of the threat caused by his cousin Charles II (the Bad) of Navarre and diplomatically isolated England.

6.Charles VII the Victorious, The Well Served (1403-1461, r.1422-1461)
Only surviving son of Charles VI and Isabella of Bavaria. His own mother declared him illegitimate and he had no real power in 1422, as Charles VII had made Henry V of England his heir, making the English ruling France.
With the help of Joan of Arc, he is able to recover his legitimacy and to be crowned king at Reims in 1429. Even after the death of the Pucelle, Charles VII continues the war and drived the English out of France in 1453.
He had numerous good councelors during his reign and was a good king.

7.Louis XI the Prudent, the Universal Spider (1423-1483, r.1461-1483)
Eldest son of Charles VII. One of the greatest kings of France on the political side, he weakened the power of the French feudal nobility.
He had to battle throuhought his reign, first against the nobles lead by his own younger brother, the ambitious Duke Charles of Berry. He also had to face the Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold who was planning to acquire Kingship by uniting the Burgundian lands. In the end, Louis XI was able to claim the Duchy of Burgundy after Charles' death, though he had to give Flanders and other Burgundian possessions to Maximilian of Habsbourg, husband of Mary of Burgundy, only child of Charles the Bold.

8.Francis I, the Father and Restorer of Letters (1494-1547, r.1515-1547)
Son of Count Charles of Angoulême, he was the cousin and heir to king Louis XII of France, whom bethroed him his only daughter Claude.
Francis I was one of the three great monarchs of Renaissance Europe, alongside Henry VIII of England and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
He passed a law enforcing French as the only state language, thus weakening the power of regional languages. His reign also saw the building of many mangificient Castle on the Loire River, notably Chambord.
Though he was not a great military leader (he won a great victory at Marignan but lost a greater battle at Pavie), he left quite a mark on the French culture, notably in litterature.
Francis I also sent Jacques Cartier to Canada, where the latter would create the basis for the establishment of New France.

9.Henry IV the Great, "the Good King Henry", "the Green Gallant" (1553-1610, r.1589-1610)
Fist king of the Bourbon dynasty. He putted an end to the religious wars by converting from Protestantism to Catholicism and by edicting the "Edit de Nantes", which guaranteed religious freedom. He was extremly popular and his assassination caused quite a shock in France.

10.Louis XIV the Great, the Sun King (1638-1715, r.1643-1715)
Eldest son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was the king that had the strongest royal authority in French history and also one of the major european monarchs of his time. He built the Versailles Castle and succeeded in placing one of his grandsons as king of Spain, though the latter couldn't claim the crown of France.

11.Napoleon I the Great (1769-1821, r.1804-1814 then 1815)
He counts : though he is not a king, he was Emperor of the French. Besides, I said I was determining the best "ruler", not the best "king":p
One of the most known historical figure. Napoleon Bonaparte rose from a lowly artillery general to first consul then Emperor of the French during the French Revolution. He effectively put an end to the revolution by crowning himself Emperor, which allowed Revolutionnary ideas to settle down in the mind of the French people. These ideas were expanded throuhought Europe by Napoleon's many victories and conquests.
Napoleon was a military genius and he scored many incredible victory such as Austerlitz and Iena-Auerstedt. This allowed him to dominate Europe until 1812, when his army was destroyed in Russia. He was the defeated at Leipzig in 1813 and, even though he did an heroic Six Days Campaign, he was forced to abdicate in 1814 and exiled to Elba.
What contributed greatly to his legend (in my opinion) was the Hundred Days, when he returned to France in 1815 to rule for three months. After he arrived at Golfe Juan, he moved from town to town and arrived in Paris without having spilled a single drop of French blood. Yet, he was ultimately defeated at Waterloo and exiled again, this time to St.Helena where he died in 1821.

12.Napoleon III (1808-1873, r.1852-1870)
Nephew of Napoleon I. He is oddly both the first president of France (he was elected in 1848 with 75% of the votes) and the last monarch the country ever knew.
Though his foreign policies were a complete disaster and caused his fall, Napoleon III was a very competent ruler when it came to internal politics.
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