HUGH CAPET
(ca. 940–996). The son of Hugues le Grand, duke of Francia, Hugh Capet is traditionally
considered the founder of the third dynasty of French kings, the Capetians, who ruled,
through collateral lines, up to and after the French Revolution. Hugh became duke of
Francia and Aquitaine in 961, five years after his father’s death. Like his ancestors, the
Robertians, Hugh had landholdings and an influence over the Neustrian aristocracy that
effectively made him more powerful than the king, Lothair I (r. 954–86). From ca. 980
on, the two were in constant conflict. With the deaths of Lothair (986) and Louis V (987),
Hugh rose to the throne (June-July 987) and had his son Robert crowned soon after in
Orléans (December 987).
Once king, however, Hugh proved as weak as he had been strong as duke: the last
Carolingian claimant, Charles of Lorraine, rebelled against him, and only the treachery of
Bishop Adalbero of Laon resolved the conflict (991). The treachery of Arnulf, archbishop
of Reims, and the papal deposition of his replacement, Gerbert of Aurillac, set in motion
a conflict that marred the remainder of Hugh’s reign. Although it had started before he
took the throne, the castellan revolution reached a peak in many regions of the kingdom
at this point, and the impotence of both royal power and local Carolingian political
structures (the pagus) drove some areas of his kingdom to seek their own solutions to
disorder and violence. Among the most famous and consequential of these efforts was the
Peace of God. In October 996, Hugh died on campaign near Tours.
Unable to assert the kind of royal authority at least theoretically available to
Carolingians, Hugh sought legitimacy in an alliance with the church, both the episcopacy
and the reforming monastic movement, and with some of his most powerful neighbors,
such as William V of Aquitaine and Richard II of Normandy, who gave support in
exchange for still greater levels of autonomy. As a result, the monarchy underwent a shift
in the basis of its authority, from the essentially aristocratic Carolingian model to one
more dependent on ecclesiastical legitimation and popular support.
Richard Landes
[See also: ADALBERO OF LAON; CAPETIAN DYNASTY; GERBERT OF
AURILLAC; PEACE OF GOD]
Lemarignier, Jean-François. Le gouvernement royal aux premiers temps capétiens (987–1108).
Paris: Picard, 1964.
Lewis, Andrew. Royal Succession in Capetian France: Studies on Familial Order and the State.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Lot, Ferdinand. Études sur le règne d’Hugues Capet. Paris: Bouillon, 1903.
Sassier, Yves. Hugues Capet. Paris: Fayard, 1987.
Theis, Laurent. L’avènement d’Hugues Capet. Paris: Gallimard, 1984.
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