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 941 - 996 (~ 55 years)
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| Name |
Hugh Capet |
| Suffix |
King of the Franks |
| Born |
ca 941 |
Paris, France  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
24 Oct 996 |
Paris, France |
| Buried |
Saint Denis Basilique, Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, France |
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| Notes |
- Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Capet
Hugh was the first King of the Franks of the House of Capet from his election in 987 until his death, and was the son of Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, and Hedwige of Saxony, daughter of the German king Henry the Fowler.
Born into a well-connected and powerful family with many ties to the royal houses of France and Germany, he was the nephew to: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Henry I, Duke of Bavaria; Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne; and finally, Gerberga of Saxony, Queen of France. Gerberga was the wife of Louis IV, King of France and mother of Lothair of France and Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine. His father's father had been King Robert I.
Hugh was a seventh-generation descendant of Charlemagne as follows:
Hugh Capet, son of
Hugh the Great, son of
Béatrice of Vermandois, daughter of
Herbert I, Count of Vermandois, son of
Pepin, Count of Vermandois, son of
Bernard of Italy, King of the Lombards, son of
Pepin of Italy, King of the Lombards, son of
Charlemagne.
After the end of the ninth century, the descendants of Robert the Strong became indispensable in carrying out royal policies. As Carolingian power failed, the great nobles of West Francia began to assert that the monarchy was elective, not hereditary, and twice chose Robertians (Odo I (888-898) and Robert I (922-923)) as kings, instead of Carolingians. Hugh's father, Hugh the Great, allied himself with King Louis IV to become the most powerful person in France in the first half of the tenth century. Once in power, Louis IV granted him the title of dux Francorum (Duke of the Franks). Hugh the Great came to dominate a wide swath of central France, from Orléans and Senlis to Auxerre and Sens, while the king was rather confined to the area northeast of Paris (Compiègne, Laon, Soissons).
The realm in which Hugh Capet grew up, and of which he would one day be king, bore little resemblance to modern France. It was a a divided patchwork of dukedoms and fiefs with everyone fighting to protect and acquire more territory. Hugh's predecessors did not call themselves kings of France, and that title was not used by his successors until the time of his descendant, Philip II. The lands they ruled comprised only a small part of the former Carolingian Empire.
In 956, when his father Hugh the Great died, Hugh, the eldest son, was then about fifteen years old and had two younger brothers. Otto I, King of Germany, intended to bring western Francia under his control, which was possible since he was the maternal uncle of Hugh Capet, and Lothair of France, the new king of the Franks, who succeeded Louis IV in 954, at the age of 13. Otto I appointed his brother Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lorraine, as guardian of Lothair and regent of the kingdom of France. In 956, Otto gave him the same role over Hugh and the Robertian principality. With these young princes under his control, Otto aimed to maintain the balance between Robertians, Carolingians, and Ottonians.
Although Hugh inherited his father's estates, in theory making him one of the most powerful nobles in the much-reduced kingdom of West Francia, he was not yet an adult so his mother acted as his guardian, and young Hugh's neighbors took advantage. Theobald I of Blois, a former vassal of Hugh's father, took the counties of Chartres and Châteaudun. Further south, on the border of the kingdom, Fulk II of Anjou, another former client of Hugh the Great, carved out a principality at Hugh's expense and that of the Bretons.
When Otto I, the Holy Roman Emperor died in 973, Lothair of France moved to recover Lorraine, "cradle of Carolingians". Accompanied by the nobles of the kingdom, Lothair surprised and plundered Aachen, residence of Otto II, forcing the imperial family to flee. After occupying Aachen for five days, Lothair returned to France after symbolically disgracing the city. In September 978, Otto II retaliated against Lothair by invading France.He met with little resistance on French territory, devastating the land around Rheims, Soissons, and Laon. Lothair then fled to the French capital of Paris where he was besieged by Otto II and Charles. Sickness among his troops brought on by winter and a French relief army under Hugh Capet forced Otto II and Charles to lift the siege on November 30, and return to Germany. This victory allowed Hugh Capet to regain his position as the first noble of the Frankish kingdom.
The Archbishop of Reims was the most important clerical leader and traditionally had supported the ruling family and had long been central to the royal policy. Adalberon, Archbishop of Rheims, was assisted by one of the most advanced minds of his time, the schoolmaster and future Pope, Gerbert of Aurillac. Adalberon and Gerbert worked for the restoration of a single dominant empire in Europe. King Lothair became independent, which defeated their plans to bring the whole of Europe under a single crown. Therefore, they turned their support from Lothair to Hugh Capet. Hugh was for them the ideal candidate, especially since he actively supported monastic reform in the abbeys while other contenders continued to distribute church revenues to their own partisans.
With the support of Adalberon of Reims, Hugh became the new leader of the kingdom. In a letter Gerbert of Aurillac wrote to Archbishop Adalberon that "Lothair is king of France in name alone; Hugh is, however, not in name but in effect and deed." In 979, Lothair sought to ensure his succession by associating his eldest son with the throne. Hugh Capet supported him and summoned the great nobles of the kingdom. The following year, Lothair, seeing the growing power of Hugh, decided to reconcile with the Emperor Otto II by agreeing to renounce Lorraine. Tension mounted between Lothair and Hugh.
When Lothair died in March 986, his son, Louis V, became king and wished to launch an offensive against Reims and Laon. But while hunting in the forest of Senlis, the king was killed in a riding accident on 21 or 22 May 987. He died childless. The apparent successor was Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, brother of Lothair, uncle of Louis V, first cousin of Hugh Capet through their mothers.
For ten years, Hugh Capet had been openly competing against his king, and appeared to have subjected the great vassals. Charles of Lorraine was accused of all evils: he wanted to usurp the crown, had allied himself with the emperor against his brother, and had defamed Queen Emma of Italy, his brother's wife. The archbishop of Reims convened the greatest lords of France at Senlis and denounced Charles of Lorraine for not maintaining his dignity, having made himself a vassal of the emperor Otto II and marrying a woman from a lower class of nobility. Then he promoted the candidacy of Hugh Capet to be King. Hugh was elected and crowned rex Francorum at Noyon in Picardy on 3 July 987, by the prelate of Reims, the first of the House of Capet.
Immediately after his coronation, Hugh began to push for the coronation of his son Robert. The archbishop, wary of establishing hereditary kingship in the Capetian line, answered that two kings cannot be created in the same year. Hugh claimed, however, that he was planning an expedition against the Moorish armies harassing Borrel II, Count of Barcelona (a vassal of the French crown), and that the stability of the country necessitated two kings should he die while on expedition. Robert was eventually crowned on 25 December that same year.
Chess was to become a popular game in the Middle Ages, and the pieces of knight, king, queen bishop, rook [castle] and pawn and reflected the events happening at this time France as sides of nobles and clergy competed for territory and alliances.
Charles of Lorraine, the Carolingian heir, contested the succession. He drew support from the Count of Vermandois, a cadet of the Carolingian dynasty; and from the Count of Flanders, loyal to the Carolingian cause. Adding to the complication was the death of Hugh's ally and kingmaker, the Archbishop of Reims, Adalberon. The position was was contested by his right-hand man, Gerbert of Aurillac, and Arnulf, illegitimate son of King Lothair of France (and nephew of Charles of Lorraine). Arnulf was installed and shortly after sent one of his agents and opened the gates of the city to his uncle, Charles. Arnulf acted as if terrified, and the city of Reims was compelled to surrender. To keep up appearances, Arnulf and Charles denounced each other, until Arnulf swore fealty to Charles.
Hugh was in a predicament as it would be difficult to take Reims by force. Adalberon, bishop of Laon, whom Charles expelled when he took the city, had sought the protection of Hugh Capet. The bishop made overtures to Arnulf and Charles, to mediate a peace between them and Hugh Capet. Adalberon was received by Charles favorably. That very night the bishop seized Charles and Arnulf in their sleep, and delivered them to Hugh. Charles was imprisoned in Orléans until his death. His sons, born in prison, were released.
The reaction in the southern half of the kingdom were not favorable. The Duke of Aquitaine refuses to submit to his king, "condemning the crime of the Franks [the capture of Charles]" and the Bishop of Laon is compared to Judas the "traitor." Hugh Capet possessed minor properties near Chartres and Angers. Between Paris and Orléans he possessed towns and estates amounting to approximately 400 square miles. His authority ended there, and if he dared travel outside his small area, he risked being captured and held for ransom, though his life would be largely safe.
Beyond his power base, in the rest of France, there were still as many codes of law as there were fiefdoms. The "country" operated with 150 different forms of currency and at least a dozen languages. Uniting all this into one cohesive unit was a formidable task and a constant struggle between those who wore the crown of France and its feudal lords. Therefore, Hugh Capet's reign was marked by numerous power struggles with the vassals on the borders of the Seine and the Loire.
Hugh Capet died on 24 October 996 in Paris and was interred in the Saint Denis Basilica. His son Robert continued to reign.
Most historians regard the beginnings of modern France with the coronation of Hugh Capet. This is because, as Count of Paris, he made the city his power center. The monarch began a long process of exerting control of the rest of the country from there.
He is regarded as the founder of the Capetian dynasty. The direct Capetians, or the House of Capet, ruled France from 987 to 1328; thereafter, the Kingdom was ruled by cadet branches of the dynasty. All French kings through Louis Philippe, and all royals since then, have belonged to the dynasty. Furthermore, allied branches of the House continue to reign in Spain and Luxembourg.
All monarchs of the Kingdom of France from Hugh Capet to Philip II of France were titled King of the Franks. Philip II of France was the first to use the title of King of France. Many people make this minor error in writing or doing genealogy.
Hugh Capet married Adelaide, daughter of William Towhead, Count of Poitou. Their children are as follows:
1. Gisela, or Gisele, who married Hugh I, Count of Ponthieu
2. Hedwig, or Hathui, who married Reginar IV, Count of Hainaut
3. Robert II, who became king after the death of his father
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| Person ID |
I36083 |
Master File |
| Last Modified |
12 Sep 2016 |
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