One could fairly plausibly construct a theory of history that everything that has gone significantly wrong in Europe since 800 (formation of the Holy Roman Empire by Charlemagne) can be blamed on the French. When I was training to be an historian in the late 1960's, I knew every historian had to have at least one irrational prejudice, conscious or unconscious. I determined I wanted to be aware of my prejudice, so I had to choose one. Rejecting irrational hatred of the English (a lower class prejudice in America), the Germans (too common at the time) or the Jews (shows a lack of imagination), I picked the French. Then, I started reading French history and discovered the French really are inferior!