The story
In 987, the nobles of West Francia chose Hugh Capet, Duke of the Franks, as their king, and he was crowned at Noyon in July. The last Carolingian ruler, Louis V, had died childless that May. Hugh had his son Robert II crowned during his own lifetime, and the family kept the throne. The Capetians, in their direct line and in the Valois, Bourbon and Orléans branches, ruled France until 1848.
The Carolingian dynasty founded by Charlemagne's family had faded for decades. After the Treaty of Verdun in 843 split Charlemagne's empire, West Francia's kings were weak while dukes and counts held the real power. Hugh's family, the Robertians, was the strongest in the region, and the archbishop of Reims and the great nobles preferred him to the Carolingian claimant, Charles of Lorraine. The first Capetians controlled little more than the land around Paris and Orléans, but their clear succession and Church support let them slowly build royal authority. Kings such as Philip II and Louis IX made the crown the center of a unified France.
Why it mattered
- Created the dynasty that built the French state out of a small domain around Paris.
- Established hereditary succession in the male line, ending the elected-king tradition in France.
- Produced the kings who fought the Hundred Years' War, the Crusades and the centralization of royal power.
- Left a family name that outlasted the monarchy: Louis XVI was tried as "Louis Capet" in 1792.
Sources
- Hugh Capet Britannica
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