General Notes

ema p 95-8
bk&q p 725 list of French kings--Capet Dynasty "After the death of Lou
is V, the throne was assumed by the cousin of Louis IV (the Indolent), HU
GH Capet, son of Hugh, count of Paris and his wife Edhilda, daughter of Ed
ward the Elder.
bk&q p 473 chart 31 note 2 "Edhilda may have died in 938 and Hugh Capet m
ay have been the son of a second marriage to Hedwig, sister of Emperor Ot
to I."
FIMA pp 14, 16, 19,  20 "Hugh Capet's son ROBERT was brought up like a kin
g's son in the cathedral school at Rheims, the best in the land and clo
se to the holy ambulla of the kings of France.  Like all princely house
s, that of Capet experienced succession crises.  When Hugh the Great di
ed in 956, his three sons were all minors; the same maternal uncles (the E
mperor OTTO and Archbishop Bruno) who had been guardians of LOUIS IV's chi
ldren two years before now protected these three orphaned nephews.  The st
andard inheritance customs of the upper nobility operated:  the recently a
cquired duchy of Burgundy passed to a younger brother, while Hugh Capet (t
he oldest) received the duchy of Francia, the patrimony of his Robertian a
ncestors.  With the support of his Ottonian relatives and the archbish
op of Rheims, he was able to stand up to Lothar and his allies and mainta
in his supremacy in Gaul.  His succession to the throne seemed entirely na
tural; there was no need to make great play of his (rather remote) Carolin
gian connections.  Already duke of the Franks, Hugh now became their ki
ng and, with the crown, accepted responsibility for the various subordina
te kingdoms, corresponding to the different 'peoples' in West Francia--Bur
gundians, Normans, Flemings, Aquitanians and Goths.  The regnum of Franc
ia itself disappeared; or rather, it merged with the larger unit which enc
ompassed all these other kingdsoms, although there was no change in the na
ture of royal power, chancery practice or insignia.  Hugh Capet merely add
ed a more general duty to his local one, and carried out these obligation
s, just as he had those of a territorial prince.  He had no anxieties abo
ut the kingdom on his death, confident that it would pass to one of his so
ns.
The election and consecrration of his oldest son ROBERT on 30 Decemb
er 987, just six months after his own coronation, should not be interpret
ed as a sign of insecurity.  Lothar had done precisely the same eight yea
rs earlier.  The count of Barcelona had asked for Hugh Capet's help again
st a Muslim invasion, and Hugh might well march south; it was therefore im
perative that a substitute should be ready, imbued through unction with t
he necessary virtues.  There is nothing to suggest that this was dispute
d, for by birth and the blood of his royal father and great-grandfather (a
fter whom he was named), Robert was destined to become leader of the Frank
ish people in his turn."
Also FIMA pp 23, 25, 29, 117, 206
ohme p 150-161. 
p 152 "In some ways the history of France is that of Germany in revers
e.  Its period of greatest turmoil came first, and it was not forged in
to a unity until the thirteenth century when the circumstances were more p
ropitious and the conflicts of earlier days played out.  It was not tempt
ed by the opportunities on its borders or forced by the threats beyond th
em into a premature unity.  When that unity was achieved it was willing
ly accepted and consciously manufactured and therefore endured.  Litt
le of this could be seen at the time; the fall of the Angevin lands w
as to come swiftly and unexpectedly, the sudden and vast extension of t
he French crown coming as a great windfall rather than something long a
nd consciously striven for.  Yet arguably it would never have happen
ed at all had the French monarchy not decayed almost to vanishing point f
or much of this period.
That decay came first from the struggle between the Carolingians a
nd Robertians for the crown through much of the tenth centur