| History |
King of France and founder of the Capetingian dynasty, Hugues was the eldest son of Hugues \'the Great\', duke of The Franks, comte de Paris, and his third wife Hadewich von Sachsen. When his father died in 956, he succeeded to his numerous fiefs around Paris and Orléans. His cousin, the Frankish king Lothair, recognised him somewhat reluctantly as duke of the Franks.
Many of the counts in northern France did homage to Hugues as their overlord, and Richard I, duke of Normandy, was both his vassal and his brother-in-law. The authority of Hugues extended over certain districts south of the Loire, and owing to his intervention Lothair was obliged to recognise Hugues\' brother Henri as duke of Burgundy. Hugues Capet supported his royal suzerain when Lothair and Emperor Otto II fought for the possession of Lorraine. However Hugues was chagrined at the king\'s conduct in making peace in 980, and went to Rome to conclude an alliance with Otto.
Laying more stress upon independence than upon loyalty, Hugues appears to have acted haughtily toward Lothair, and also towards Lothar\'s son and successor, Louis V. However, neither king was strong enough to punish this powerful vassal. When Louis V died without children in May 987, both Hugues and the late king\'s uncle, Charles, duke of Lorraine, were candidates for the vacant throne. In this contest Hugues had as his champions Adelberon, archbishop of Reims, and Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II. Their energy prevailed; declaring the Frankish crown to be an elective and not a hereditary dignity, Adelberon secured the election of his friend and crowned him, probably at Noyon, in July 987. Charles of Lorraine was not prepared to bow before his successful rival; before Hugues had secured the coronation of his son Robert as his colleague and successor in December 987, Charles found allies and attacked the king. Hugues had the worst of the earlier part of the struggle and was in serious straits until he was saved by his partisan Adelberon, who in 991 treacherously seized Charles and handed him over to the king.
This capture virtually ended the wars, but one of its side issues was a quarrel between Hugues and Pope John XV, who was supported by the Holy Roman Empire, then under the rule of the empress Theophano Skleraina as regent for her son, the young Emperor Otto III.
The origin of Hugues\' name of Capet, which was also applied to his father, has been the subject of some discussion. It is derived from the Latin \'Capa\', or \'Cappa\', a cape; but whether Hugues derived it from the cape, which he wore as abbot of St. Martin\'s, or from his youthful habit of seizing capes, or from some other cause, is unknown.
The identification of his wife as \'of Aquitaine\' or \'of Poitou\' is erroneous; her parentage is unknown. She was identified as \'of Aquitaine\' solely on the basis of a charter, which survives only in a 14th-century _vidimus_ (literally, \'we have seen\'), in which a woman of Aquitaine named Adela appears with a husband whose name is actually given as Ebles. Louis Halphen and Ferdinand Lot, the editors of the \'vidimus\', assumed that this Adela must be Hugues Capet\'s wife and arbitrarily changed \'Ebles\' to \'Hugues\'. [1, 2] |
Ellie Wood Keith Genealogy
Abt 940 - 996 (~ 56 years)