World domination

Pierre Dubois was a lawyer and polemicist from Coutances in Normandy, who wrote a string of political tracts in the early fourteenth century. His major work, De recuperatione Terre Sancte, written between 1305-1307, was a plan for the recovery of the Holy Land. It is, essentially, a plan for French world domination. 

The first part of the text is dedicated to Edward I of England, because he was the only Christian king of the time with direct crusading experience. However, Dubois was really using Edward as an example to provoke his own king, Philip the Fair, into summoning a new crusade. This crusade, if it had ever taken place, would have been on a colossal scale. Dubois suggested that Philip should first re-conquer the Roman empire, and install his brother Charles of Valois as the new Latin emperor at Constantinople. 

Next, Philip would organise the mass migration of the people of Western Europe into the Holy Land. This would be done via the French conquest of northern Italy and Hungary, so the passage of millions of people could proceed smoothly. The French, the English and the Italians would travel by sea, the Germans, Hungarians and Greeks by land. 

Men and women from all walks of life would be forced to join this grand crusade or 'passagium'. Every female would be instructed in Latin grammar, natural science, surgery and medicine, so they could work as missionary theologians in the Holy Land. Women were the chief instrument of conquest: they would all be required to learn Arabic, marry the conquered Saracens and breed a new race of Christian super-crusaders, who would colonise the Holy Land and keep it forever. 

All of this sounds like an insane fantasy, and so it was. Yet Dubois was not some random eccentric, spouting nonsense on street corners. He was a distinguished attorney at law and a respected and prominent figure at the French court. While his plan for the Holy Land was unworkable, it is an example of the ideology of Capetian France, driven by Philip's university-trained legists. What this amounted to was expand and conquer in all directions.