Polyethnicity of a Medieval city and the Formation of Ethno-National Identity in France (on the Example of Paris in the 14th – 15th Centuries)

The author focuses on the role of Paris, an important center of the social and political life of the French kingdom in the period of the 14th — 15th centuries, in the formation of the collective identity of the French. The Hundred Years War became a catalyst for the formation of national states both in France and in England. It accelerated the development of people's national self-identification, supported by the unifying policy of the French kings, who sought to extend their power over the entire territory of the kingdom through the granting of citizenship and the development of a national idea. The multi-ethnicity of Paris, associated with the role of the city as an important commercial, political and cultural center, contributed to this policy, equalizing its inhabitants and providing migrants and foreigners with opportunities for adaptation and assimilation without identifying them by ethnicity, forming a new collective identity that sometimes came into conflict with the interests of the crown, but in the end objectively contributed to the formation of the French community.