Louis VI the Fat (jul 30, 1108 – aug 1, 1137)

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son of Philippe I and Bertha of Holland. Louis was the first member of his house to make a lasting contribution to the centralizing institutions of royal power. He spent almost all of his twenty-nine-year reign fighting either the "robber barons" who plagued Paris or the Norman kings of England for their continental possession of Normandy. Nonetheless, Louis VI managed to reinforce his power considerably and became one of the first strong kings of France since the death of Charlemagne in 814. Louis was a warrior king but by his forties his weight had become so great that it was increasingly difficult for him to lead in the field. In 1124, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V , who had married the Empress Matilda in hopes of creating an Anglo-German empire, assembled an army to march on Rheims. Like Louis, Henry V had designs on the Low Countries and an invasion of Northern France would enable him to strengthen his ambitions in Flanders, as well as support his father-in-law. In testament to how far Louis had risen as national protector, all of France rose to his appeal against the threat. In 1137, a dying William X, Duke of Aquitaine appointed Louis VI guardian of his fifteen-year-old daughter and heiress, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor was suddenly the most eligible heiress in Europe, and Louis wasted no time in marrying her to his own heir, the future Louis VII, and gaining one of the most valuable duchies in France. He died of dysentery shortly after and his son Louis VII succeeded him.

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