As regards their extent of territory, the Kings of the French at the beginning of the eleventh century had altogether fallen away from the commanding position which had been held by the Dukes of the French in the middle of the tenth. But this seeming loss of power was fully outweighed by the fact that there were now Kings and not merely Dukes, lords and no longer vassals. ♦Advantage of the kingly position.♦ As feudal principles grew, opportunities were constantly found for annexing the lands of the vassal to the lands of his lord. ♦First advances of the Kings. | Gatinois. 1068. | Viscounty of Bourges. 1100.♦ Towards the end of the eleventh century the royal domain had already begun to increase by the acquisition of the _Gatinois_ and of the viscounty of _Bourges_, a small part only of the later province of Berry, but an addition which made France and Aquitaine more clearly neighbours than before. Towards the end of the twelfth century began a more important advance to the north-east. The first aggrandizement of France at the expense of Flanders was the beginning of an important chain of events in European history. ♦Amiens and Vermandois. 1183. | Valois. 1185.♦ In the early years of Philip Augustus the counties of _Amiens_ and _Vermandois_ were united to the crown, as was the county of _Valois_ two years later. ♦Artois. 1180-1187.♦ So for a while was the more important land of _Artois_. Later in the reign of the same prince came an annexation on a far greater scale, which did not happen till the first years of the thirteenth century, but which was the result of causes which had been going on ever since the eleventh. ♦Growth of the House of Anjou.♦