The
Kingdom of France in the
Middle Ages (roughly, from the 5th century to the middle of the 15th century; for the period before
Hugh Capet's accession to the throne, see
Francia and
Carolingian Empire) was marked by the expansion of royal control by the
House of Capet (987–1328); their struggles with the virtually independent principalities (duchies and counties, such as the Norman and Angevin regions) that had developed following the
Viking invasions and through the piecemeal dismantling of the Carolingian Empire and
West Francia (843–987); the creation and extension of administrative/state control (notably under
Philip II Augustus and
Louis IX) in the 13th century; the rise of the
House of Valois (1328–1589) and the protracted dynastic crisis of the
Hundred Years' War with the
Kingdom of England (1337–1453) compounded by the catastrophic
Black Death epidemic (1348), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the
early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity.