Louis VI of France
Louis VI, called the Fat, ruled France from 1108 to 1137 and was the first Capetian to make royal authority effective within his own domain. Born around 1081, the son of Philip I, he was associated with government from his teens and spent nearly thirty years fighting before he even became king. His achievement was small in scale and decisive in consequence. The royal demesne between Paris and Orléans was infested with castellans — minor lords with fortified towers who robbed merchants and pilgrims and ignored the king. Louis spent his reign reducing them one at a time: Hugh of Le Puiset was besieged three times, Thomas of Marle was defeated and his castles destroyed. By the end the roads were safe and the king was obeyed in his own territory, which no predecessor had achieved. He allied with the towns, granting communes charters of self-government in exchange for money and militia, and with the church, protecting monasteries and drawing his administrators from them. Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis was his lifelong friend, adviser and biographer, and much of what is known comes from Suger's life of him. He fought Henry I of England, who was also Duke of Normandy, and was defeated at Brémule in 1119. When the Emperor Henry V invaded in 1124, Louis raised the oriflamme at Saint-Denis and assembled a host large enough that the emperor withdrew without a battle — a demonstration that the crown could still summon the kingdom. He was so heavy by his forties that he could no longer mount a horse. He secured the marriage of his son to Eleanor of Aquitaine days before dying in 1137.
- Lived: 1081 CE – 1137 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
