Reminders

1. Where did the name France came from?
 -At the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the Frankish Empire was divided in three parts, and eventually only two: Francia Occidentalis ("Western Frankland") and Francia Orientalis ("Eastern Frankland").
At the time of the arrival of the Franks, the land where they settled was called Gaul (Latin: Gallia; French: Gaule). This name continued to be used for a very long time after the Franks arrived in what is now France (their first kings were called "King of the Franks", referring to the people, not the land). In fact, for as long as the cultural elites of Europe used Latin predominantly, the name Gallia continued to be used alongside the name France. In English usage, the words Gaul and Gaulish are used synonymously with Latin Gallia, Gallus and Gallicus.
The name of the Franks itself is said to come from the Proto-Germanic word *frankon which means "javelin, lance". Another proposed etymology is that Frank means "the free men", based on the fact that the word frank meant "free" in the ancient Germanic languages. However, rather than the ethnic name of the Franks coming from the word frank ("free"), it is more probable that the word frank ("free") comes from the ethnic name of the Franks, the connection being that only the Franks, as the conquering class, had the status of freemen.

URL:http://www.ask.com/wiki/Name_of_France2. What is absolute monarchy? Tell how it ended as a system of government in France?
-Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government where the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, thus wielding political power over the sovereign state and its subject peoples. In an absolute monarchy, the transmission of power is twofold; hereditary and marital. As absolute governor, the monarch’s authority is not legally bound or restricted by a constitution as in a limited monarchy.Under the National Convention, which was in power before the proclamation of the First Republic, France was engaged in war with Prussia and Austria. In June of 1792, the Duke of Brunswick, commanding general of the Austro–Prussian Army, issued his Brunswick Manifesto, in which he threatened the destruction of Paris should any harm come to King Louis XVI. The foreign threat exacerbated France's political turmoil amid the French Revolution and deepened the passion and sense of urgency among the various factions. In the violence of 10 August 1792, citizens stormed the Tuileries Palace, killing six hundred of the King’s Swiss guards and insisting on the removal of the king.^[1] A renewed fear of anti-revolutionary action prompted further violence, and in the first week of September 1792, mobs of Parisians broke into the city’s prisons, killing over half of the prisoners. This included nobles, clergymen, and political prisoners, but also numerous common criminals, such as prostitutes and petty thieves, many murdered in their cells—raped, stabbed, and slashed to death. This became known as the September Massacres.^[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_First_Republic
3. Tell something about the following leaders in France ( their role, achievements, accomplishments)
                      a. King Louis XIII
                      b. King Louis XIV
                      c. Cardinal Richelieu
                      d. Mazarin
a.King LouiseXIII
Louis XIII (27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643. Along with his First Minister Cardinal Richelieu, Louis "the Just" is remembered for the establishment of the Académie française and participation in the Thirty Years' War against the House of Habsburg.^[1] France's greatest victory in the war came at the Battle of Rocroi, five days after Louis' death—apparently from complications of intestinal tuberculosis, "marking the end of Spain's military ascendancy in Europe."