The early Capet kings of France were kings without a kingdom; they inherited the Crown from the failing Karling/Carolingian dynasties who ruled as kings from 751 CE to 987 CE, with Hugh Capet being elected the king of the Franks in 987 CE. The first Caption King was the Duke of France, Count of Paris. He only ruled the lands around Paris surrounded by the mighty Dukes of Normandy and Counts of Flanders to the north and the Crown lands being boxed in by the county of Balos and champagne with the Count of Flanders to the East. The Capet dynasties were kings without a kingdom (Hallam & West, 2020). It would not be until the late rule of Philip I of France (1059 CE to 1108 CE), Louis VI of France [1108 CE to 1137 CE) and Louis VII of France (1137 CE to 1180 CE) that the Captions got control of their lands around Paris and started being more active under the lands under the dominion. However, the dynasty did lose Catalonia, which was initially part of the Frankish kingdom.
Here, Jonathan Riley starts his look at Capetian power.
Hugh Capet, King of the Franks from 987 to 996. As shown in the Chronica regia Coloniensis.
Capetian Power
This is relevant to understanding why the rise of Capetian power in France led to the beginnings of the Hundred Years War because conflict did not come from a vacuum. The early Capetian king’s royal authority was incredibly weak, the same with most realms in Europe since the collapse of Rome in the fifth century and the loss of administration and technological innovations (Higham, 2022). This meant, in practical terms, that the kings of France were merely territorial princes. However, the vital difference is that symbolic and practical power placed the Capet dynasty above the Dukes and Counts of France. The Capetian served as the arbitrators of justice and territorial disputes between its more powerful vassals; this would be the predominant state of the dynasty throughout its first two centuries of existence (Hallam & West, 2020).
The kingships of Hugh Capet, king of the Franks (987-996), Robert II the Pious (996-1031), and Henri I of Franks (1031-1060) were dominated by trying to expand or, more accurately, control their Royal domains around Paris. The administration systems were also so poor that they had to rely on their wives to do administrative work their signatures can be found on royal charters and other documents (Hallam & West, 2020). With this situation, Hugh and Henri, kings of the Franks, were dominated by battling the princes in northern France, with royal authority being non-existent in greater Aquitaine and Toulouse. Royal authority, if it even existed, was contained primarily around Paris. However, King Robert the Pious did manage to maintain loose connections by making royal progress throughout the southern parts of contemporary France to maintain these territories as part of the future kingdom of France - apart from Catalonia, which became part of the Kingdom of Aragon in 1137. With the expansion of royal authority under King Philip I of the Franks, which was due to the legacy of the first three Capetian kings and their long rules over the kingdom, even though they were surrounded by the more powerful Counts of Champagne and Balos there was never any serious threat to the dynasty. Odo, Count of Champagne, allegedly stated: “he wished to be the master of the King of Franks but not the ruler” (Hallam & West, 2020).
Royal Legitimacy
With the establishment of royal legitimacy in the Royal domains and with the Dukes and Counts of France recognizing at least symbolically Royal authority, the Capet dynasty started to take steps to expand its authority outside the personal lands of the King. This started under the reigns of the early Capetian kings of France, with Robert the Pious and Henry of France establishing a royal cadet branch in the Duchy of Burgundy and ensuring that the holy Roman Empire would not absorb the province. This was done over 60 years of warfare and diplomacy. These actions made the Hundred Years War inevitable, starting with the conflicts between the Dukes of Normandy, who came to rule England after the Norman conquest in 1066. A brief understanding of these conflicts is essential to highlight that Louis V of France in the 940s tried to reclaim the dukedom for the Karling Crown. Henry I of the Franks went to war with Duke William II of Normandy in the 1250s due to his power increasing and becoming a threat to the French crown, having previously aligned with Duke William against the Count of Anjou (Bates, 2018). This may seem highly complicated and erratic with the alliance changing; however, from a territorial standpoint, the Kings of the Franks had no choice but to fight their lords to prevent them from becoming too powerful - and in the case of Normandy Rouen, the River Seine is one of the most significant rivers in France and is a direct route to a direct attack on the city of Paris. From a geopolitical standpoint, this a significant reason why the kings of France had to have the dukedom as part of the Royal domains (Zeihan, 2022). However, this was achieved in the early 13th century under the rule of Philip II of France.
Conclusion
The expansion of Capetian power in the territories composing contemporary France made a clash between the kings of England, who had held continental lands since the Norman conquest of 1066 CE, and the French throne inevitable. What the Capetian kings had been progressively doing since claiming the throne of Franks in 987 CE is expanding their ceremonial, clerical and practical power throughout France. Their achievements in holding the throne, bringing the Duchy of Burgundy into the dynasties, and preventing the Aquitaine and Toulouse from becoming independent or joining the Spanish kingdoms like Catalonia were examined by the Eastern Roman Empire. This meant that the establishment of legitimacy and recognition put the descendants of William the Conqueror and Hugh Capet on a collision course because there could only be one king in France.
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