House of Capet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The House of Capet, or The Direct Capetian Dynasty, (French: Les
Capétiens, la Maison capétienne), also called The House of France (la
maison de France), or simply the Capets, which ruled the Kingdom of
France from 987 to 1328, was the most senior line of the Capetian
dynasty - itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians. As rulers of
France, the dynasty succeeded the Carolingian dynasty. The name derives
from the nickname of Hugh, the first Capetian King, who was known as
Hugh Capet.
The direct House of Capet came to an end in 1328, when the three sons of
Philip IV all failed to produce surviving male heirs to the French
throne. With the death of Charles IV, the throne passed to the House of
Valois, the direct descendants of Charles of Valois, a younger son of
Philip III. It would later pass again, to the House of Bourbon and the
House of Orléans (both descended from Louis IX), while always remaining
in the hands of agnatic descendants of Hugh Capet.
History
Early Capetian kings
The first Capetian monarch was Hugh Capet (c.940–996), a French
nobleman from the Île-de-France, who, following the death of Louis V of
France (c.967–987) – the last Carolingian King – secured the throne of
France by election. He then proceeded to make it hereditary in his
family, by securing the election and coronation of his son, Robert II
(972–1031), as co-King. The throne thus passed securely to Robert on his
father's death, who followed the same custom – as did many of his early
successors.
The Capetian Kings were initially weak rulers of the Kingdom – they
directly ruled only small holdings in the Île-de-France and the
Orléanais, all of which were plagued with disorder; the rest of France
was controlled by potentates such as the Duke of Normandy, the Count of
Blois, the Duke of Burgundy (himself a member of the Capetian Dynasty
after 1032) and the Duke of Aquitaine (all of whom facing to a greater
or lesser extent the same problems of controlling their subordinates).
The House of Capet was, however, fortunate enough to have the support of
the Church, and – with the exception of Philip I (1052–1108), Louis IX
(1215–1270) and the short-lived John the Posthumous (1316) – were able
to avoid the problems of underaged Kingship.
Capetian and Plantagenet
Briefly, under Louis VII 'the Young' (1120–1180), the House of Capet
rose in their power in France – Louis married Aliénor (1122–1204), the
heiress of the Duchy of Aquitaine, and so became Duke – an advantage
which had been eagerly grasped by Louis VI 'the Fat' (1081–1137), Louis
the Young's father, when Aliénor's father had asked of the King in his
Will to secure a good marriage for the young Duchess. However, the
marriage – and thus one avenue of Capetian aggrandisement – failed: the
couple produced only two daughters, and suffered marital discord; driven
to secure the future of the House, Louis thus divorced Aliénor (who went
on to marry Henry II of England (1133–1189), and be known to English
history as Eleanor of Aquitaine), and married twice more before finally
securing a son, Philippe Dieu-donné ("The God-Given"), who would
continue the House as Philip II Augustus (1165–1223), and break the
power of the Angevins – the family of Aliénor and Henry II – in France.
Louis VIII (1187–1226) – the eldest son and heir of Philip Augustus –
married Blanche of Castile (1188–1252), a granddaughter of Aliénor of
Aquitaine and Henry II of England. In her name, he claimed the crown of
England, invading at the invitation of the English Barons, and briefly
being acclaimed – though, it would later be stressed, not crowned – as
King of England. However, the Capetians failed to establish themselves
in England – Louis was forced to sign the Treaty of Lambeth, which
legally decreed that he had never been King of England, and the Prince
reluctantly returned to his wife and father in France. More importantly
for his dynasty, he would during his brief reign (1223-1226) conquer
Poitou, and some of the lands of the Pays d'Oc, declared forfeit from
their former owners by the Pope as part of the Albigensian Crusade.
These lands were added to the French crown, further empowering the
Capetian family.
Louis IX (1215–1270) – Saint Louis – succeeded Louis VIII as a child;
unable to rule for several years, the government of the realm was
undertaken by his mother, the formidable Queen Blanche. She had
originally been chosen by her grandmother, Aliénor, to marry the French
heir, considered a more suitable a Queen of the Franks than her sister
Urracca; as regent, she proved this to be so, being associated in the
Kingship not only during her son's minority, but even after he came into
his own. Louis, too, proved a largely acclaimed King – though he
expended much money and effort on the Crusades, only for it to go to
waste, as a King of the Franks he was admired for his austerity,
strength, bravery, justice, and his devotion to France. Dynastically, he
established two notable Capetian Houses:the House of Anjou (which he
created by bestowing the County of Anjou upon his brother, Charles
(1227–1285)), and the House of Bourbon (which he established by
bestowing Clermont on his son Robert (1256–1317) in 1268, before
marrying the young man to the heiress of Bourbon, Beatrix (1257–1310));
the first House would go on to rule Sicily, Naples, and Hungary,
suffering many tragedies and disasters on the way; the second would
eventually succeed to the French thone, collecting Navarre along the
way.
Apogee of royal power
At the death of Louis IX (who shortly after was set upon the road to
beatification), France under the Capetians stood as the pre-eminent
power in Western Europe. This stance was largely continued, if not
furthered, by his son Philip III (1245–1285), and his son Philip IV
(1268–1314), both of whom ruled with the aid of advisors committed to
the future of the House of Capet and of France, and both of whom made
notable – for different reasons – dynastic marriages. Philip III married
as his first wife Isabel (1247–1271), a daughter of King James I of
Aragon (1208–1276); long after her death, he claimed the throne of
Aragon for his second son, Charles (1270–1325), by virtue of Charles'
descent via Isabel from the Kings of Aragon. Unfortunately for the
Capetians, the endeavour proved a failure, and the King himself died of
dysentery at Perpignan, succeeded by his son, Philip IV.
Philip IV had married Jeanne (1271–1305), the heiress of Navarre and
Champagne. By this marriage, he added these domains to the French crown.
He engaged in conflicts with the Papacy, eventually kidnapping Pope
Boniface VIII (c.1235–1303), and securing the appointment of the more
sympathetic Frenchman, Bertrand de Goth (1264–1314), as Pope Clement V;
and he boosted the power and wealth of the crown by abolishing the Order
of the Temple, seizing its assets in 1307. More importantly to French
history, he summoned the first Estates General – in 1302 – and in 1295
established the so-called "Auld Alliance" with the Scots, at the time
resisting English domination. He died in 1314, less than a year after
the execution of the Templar leaders – it was said that he had been
summoned to appear before God by Jacques de Molay (died 1314), the Grand
Master of the Templars, as the latter was burnt at the stake as a
heretic; it was also said that de Molay had cursed the King and his
family.
The successional crisis
It was Philip IV who presided over the beginning of his House's end.
The first quarter of the century saw each of Philip's sons reign in
rapid succession;
-Louis X (1314-1316) -Philip V (1316-1322) -Charles IV (1322-1328).
Having been informed that his daughters-in-law were engaging in adultery
with two knights – according to some sources, he was told this by his
own daughter, Isabelle – he allegedly caught two of them in the act in
1313, and had all three shut up in royal prisons. Margaret (1290–1315),
the wife of his eldest son and heir, Louis Hutin (1289–1316), had borne
her husband only a daughter at this time, and the paternity of this
girl, Jeanne, was with her mother's adultery now suspected. Accordingly,
Louis – unwilling to release his wife and return to their marriage –
needed to remarry. He arranged a marriage with his cousin, Clementia of
Hungary (1293–1328), and after Queen Margaret conveniently died in 1315,
(strangled by order of the King, some claimed), he swiftly remarried to
Clementia. She was pregnant when he died a year later, after an
unremarkable reign; uncertain of how to arrange the succession (the two
main claimants being Louis' daughter Jeanne – the suspected bastard –
and Louis' younger brother Philip (1293–1322), Comte de Poitou), the
French set up a regency under the Comte de Poitou, and hoped that the
child would be a boy. This proved the case, but the boy – John (1316),
known as the Posthumus – died after only 5 days, leaving a succession
crisis. Eventually, it was decided based on several legal reasons (later
reinterpreted as Salic Law) that Jeanne was ineligible to inherit the
throne, which passed to the Comte de Poitou, who became Philip V. He,
however, produced no surviving sons with his wife, Joan, Countess of
Burgundy (1291–1330), who had been cleared of her charges of adultery;
thus, when he died in 1322, the crown passed to his brother, Charles
(1294–1328), Comte de La Marche, who became Charles IV; the County of
Burgundy, brought to the Capetians by the marriage of Joan and Philip V,
remained with Joan, and ceased to be part of the royal domains.
Charles IV swiftly divorced his adulterous wife, Blanche of Burgundy
(c.1296–1326) (sister of Countess Joan), who had given him no surviving
children, and who had been locked up since 1313; in her place, he
married Marie of Luxembourg (1304–1324), a daughter of Emperor Henry VII
(c.1275–1313). Marie died in 1324, giving birth to a still-born child;
tragically for the King, the baby was a son. He then remarried to his
cousin, Jeanne d'Évreux (1310–1371), who however bore him only
daughters; when he died in 1328, his only child was Marie, a daughter by
Jeanne, and the unborn child his wife was pregnant with. Philip of
Valois (1293–1350), Count of Anjou and Valois, Charles' cousin, was set
up as regent; when the Queen produced a daughter, Blanche, Philip by
assent of the great magnates became Philip VI, of the House of Valois,
cadet branch of the Capetian Dynasty.
Last heirs
The last of the direct Capetians were the daughters of Philip IV's
three sons, and Philip IV's daughter, Isabelle. The wife of Edward II of
England (1284–1327), Isabelle (c.1295–1358) overthrew her husband in
favour of her son (Edward III, 1312–1377) and her lover (Roger Mortimer,
1st Earl of March, 1287–1330), only for Edward III to execute Mortimer
and have Isabelle removed from power. On the death of her brother,
Charles IV, she claimed to be her father's heiress, and demanded the
throne pass to her son (who as a male, an heir to Philip IV, and of
adult age, was considered to have a good claim to the throne); however,
her case was refuted, eventually providing a cause for the Hundred
Years' War.
Jeanne (1312–1349), the daughter of Louis X, succeeded on the death of
Charles IV to the throne of Navarre, she now being – questions of
paternity aside – the unquestioned heiress. She was the last direct
Capetian ruler of that Kingdom, being succeeded by her son, Charles II
of Navarre (1332–1387); his father, Philip of Évreux (1306–1343) had
been a member of the Capetian House of Évreux. Mother and son both
claimed on several occasions the throne of France, and later the Duchy
of Burgundy.
Of the daughters of Philip V and Joan of Burgundy, only the elder two
proved significant. Joanna, Countess of Burgundy (1308–1349), married
Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy (1295–1350), uniting the Duchy and County of
Burgundy. Her line became extinct with the death of her sole grandchild,
Philip I, Duke of Burgundy (1346-1361), whose death also served to break
the union between the Burgundys once more. Her sister, Margaret
(1310–1382), married Louis I, Count of Flanders (1304–1346), and
inherited the County of Burgundy after the death of Philip I; their
granddaughter and heiress, Margaret of Dampierre (1350–1405), married
the son of John II of France (1319–1364), Philip II, Duke of Burgundy
(1342–1404), uniting the two domains once more.
Of Charles IV's children, only Blanche (1328–1392) – the youngest, the
baby whose birth marked the end of the House of Capet – survived
childhood. She married Philip of Valois, Duke of Orléans (1336–1376),
the son of Philip VI, but they produced no children. With her death in
1392, the House of Capet finally came to an end.
"Citizen Louis Capet"
During the French Revolution, when King Louis XVI was deposed and
France declared a republic, he was given the name "Citizen Louis Capet"
- a usage which implied that the House of Bourbon had been illegitimate
usurpers all along.
The former king protested that "Capet" was not his name, though it had
been that of some of his remote ancestors. His protests were, however,
ignored by the revolutionaries. It was as "Citizen Louis Capet" that he
was officially known in the last year of his life, and under this name
he was finally sentenced to death and executed.
List of Direct Capetian kings of France
987–996, Hugh Capet (Hugues Capet), Count of Paris, crowned
King of the Franks
996–1031, Robert II, the Pious (Robert II le Pieux)
1031–1060, Henry I (Henri Ier)
1060–1108, Philip I (Philippe Ier)
1108–1137, Louis VI, the Fat (Louis VI le Gros)
1137–1180, Louis VII, the Young (Louis VII le Jeune)
1180–1223, Philip II Augustus, the God-Given (Philippe II Auguste
Dieudonné)
1223–1226, Louis VIII, the Lion (Louis VIII le Lion)
1226–1270, Louis IX, the Saint, ("Saint Louis") (Louis IX le Saint,
Saint Louis)
1270–1285, Philip III, the Bold (Philippe III le Hardi)
1285–1314, Philip IV, the Fair (Philippe IV le Bel)
1314–1316, Louis X, the Quarrelsome (Louis X le Hutin)
1316–1316, John I, the Posthumous (Jean Ier le Posthume)
1316–1322, Philip V, the Tall (Philippe V le Long)
1322–1328, Charles IV, the Fair (Charles IV le Bel)
