At the accession of the Parisian dynasty, the royal domain took in the greater part of the later _Isle of France_, the territory to which the old name specially clung, the greater part of the later government of _Orleans_, besides some outlying fiefs holding immediately of the King. ♦Chief vassals within the royal domain.♦ Within this territory the counties of _Clermont_, _Dreux_, _Moulins_, _Valois_, and _Gatinois_, are of the greatest historical importance. Two of the great rivers of Gaul, the Seine and the Loire, flowed through the royal dominions; but the King was wholly cut off from the sea by the great feudatories who commanded the lower course of the rivers. ♦States on the Channel and♦ The coast of the channel was held by the princes of Britanny, Normandy, and Flanders, and the smaller county of _Ponthieu_, which lay between Normandy and Flanders and fluctuated in its homage between the two. ♦on the Ocean;♦ The ocean coast was held by the rulers of Britanny, of _Poitou_ and _Aquitaine_ united under a single sovereign, and of _Gascony_ to the south of them. ♦on the Mediterranean coast.♦ That small part of the Mediterranean coast which nominally belonged to the Western Kingdom was held by the counts of _Toulouse_ and _Barcelona_. ♦Neighbours of the royal domain.♦ Of these great feudatories, the princes of Flanders, Burgundy, Normandy, and Champagne, were all immediate neighbours of the King. To the west of the royal domain lay several states of the second rank which played a great part in the history of France and Normandy. ♦Chartres and Blois. 1125-1152.♦ These were the counties of _Chartres_ and _Blois_, which were for a while united with _Champagne_. ♦Anjou and Touraine united. 1044. | Maine.♦ Beyond these, besides some smaller counties, were _Anjou_ and _Touraine_, and _Maine_, the great borderland of Normandy and France. Thus surrounded by their own vassals, the early Kings of the house of Paris had far less dealings with powers beyond their own kingdom than their Karolingian predecessors. They were thus able to make themselves the great power of Gaul before they stood forth on a wider field as one of the great powers of Europe. ♦The kingdom smaller than the old duchy.♦