Louis VI OF FRANCE (1081-1137)

Individual Events and Attributes

Additional Information

Marriage

	Robert I of Dreux		Peter of Courtenay dressed like a warrior in chain mail, from a medieval illuminated manuscript.

Individual Note

Louis VI (1 December 1081 – 1 August 1137), called the Fat (French: le Gros), was King of France from 1108 until his death (1137). Chronicles called him "roi de Saint-Denis".

The first member of the House of Capet to make a lasting contribution to the centralizing institutions of royal power,[1] Louis was born in Paris, the son of Philip I and his first wife, Bertha of Holland. Almost all of his twenty-nine-year reign was spent fighting either the "robber barons" who plagued Paris or the Norman kings of England for their continental possession of Normandy. Nonetheless, Louis VI managed to reinforce his power considerably and became one of the first strong kings of France since the division of the Carolingian Empire. His biography by his constant advisor Abbot Suger of Saint Denis renders him a fully-rounded character to the historian, unlike most of his predecessors.

In his youth, Louis fought the Duke of Normandy, Robert Curthose, and the lords of the royal demesne, the Île de France. He became close to Suger, who became his adviser. He succeeded his father on Philip's death on 29 July 1108. Louis's half-brother prevented him from reaching Rheims and so he was crowned on 3 August in the cathedral of Orléans by Daimbert, Archbishop of Sens. The archbishop of Reims, Ralph the Green, sent envoys to challenge the validity of the coronation and anointing, but to no avail.

On Palm Sunday 1115, Louis was present in Amiens to support the bishop and inhabitants of the city in their conflict with Enguerrand I of Coucy, one of his vassals, who refused to recognize the granting of a charter of communal privileges. Louis came with an army to help the citizens to besiege Castillon (the fortress dominating the city, from which Enguerrand was making punitive expeditions). At the siege, the king took an arrow to his hauberk, but the castle, considered impregnable, fell after two years.

Louis VI died on 1 August 1137, at the castle of Béthisy-Saint-Pierre, nearby Senlis and Compiègne, of dysentery. He was interred in Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Louis VII, called "the Younger," who had originally wanted to be a monk.

He married in 1104: 1) Lucienne de Rochefort — the marriage was annulled on 23 May 1107 at the Council of Troyes by Pope Paschal II.

He married in 1115: 2) Adélaide de Maurienne (1092–1154)

Their children:

1. Philip (1116 - 13 October 1131), King of France (1129-31), not to be confused with his brother of the same name; died from a fall from a horse.

2. Louis VII (1120 - 18 September 1180), King of France

3. Henry (1121-75), archbishop of Reims

4. Hugues (born ca 1122)

5. Robert (ca 1123 - 11 October 1188), count of Dreux

6. Constance (ca 1124 - 16 August 1176), married first Eustace IV, count of Boulogne and then Raymond V of Toulouse.

7. Philip (1125-61), bishop of Paris. not to be confused with his elder brother.

8. Peter of France (ca 1125-83), married Elizabeth, lady of Courtenay

With Marie de Breuillet, daughter of Renaud de Breuillet de Dourdan, Louis VI was the father of a daughter:

Isabelle (ca 1105 - before 1175), married (ca 1119) Guillaume I of Chaumont.

NOTES:

1 Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages 1993, p 410.

2 Weir, Alison (1999). Eleanor of Aquitaine, a Life. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 22. ISBN 0-345-40540-4.

SOURCES:

Suger, Abbot of Saint Denis,. The Deeds of Louis the Fat. Translated with introduction and notes by Richard Cusimano and John Moorhead. Washington, DC : Catholic University of America Press,1992. (ISBN 0-8132-0758-4)

Suger, Abbot of Saint Denis,. The Deeds of Louis the Fat. Translated by Jean Dunbabin (this version is free, but has no annotations)²

Sources