General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> King Of France
Hugh CAPET, French HUGUES CAPET (b. c. 938--d. Oct. 14, 996, Paris), first of a direct line of 14 Capetian kings of France; his control over vast estates in the regions of Paris and Orléans assured his election to the throne in 987 by the assembly of Frankish magnates.
Inheriting the title duke of the Franks from his father, Hugh the Great, in 956, Hugh Capet unsuccessfully tried to control Aquitaine in 970. From 978 to 986 he was allied with the German emperors Otto II and Otto III, and with Adalbero, archbishop of Reims, in political intrigues against the Carolingian king Lothair. By 985 Hugh was actually the ruler in all but title; and, after the brief reign of Lothair's son, Louis V (986-987), he was elected king in May 987. Adalbero was able to convince the Frankish magnates that the crown was elective rather than hereditary and that Charles of Lorraine, the only legitimate Carolingian contender, was unfit to rule. Hugh was crowned at Noyon on July 5, 987. Scholars are generally agreed that Hugh's election was not a revolutionary action. His grandfather Robert I, his great-uncle Eudes, and his uncle Rudolf (Raoul) had all earlier been non-Carolingian kings.
Hugh's reign was marked by the unavailing efforts of Charles of Lorraine (imprisoned 991) to assert himself and by continual conflict between Eudes I, count of Blois, and Fulk Nerra of Anjou, whom Hugh later supported. In 993 Eudes was aided by the Bishop of Laon in an unsuccessful conspiracy to deliver Hugh and his son Robert over to Otto III. That no one was punished for the incident indicated the weakness of the new Capetian dynasty. Hugh's crown was probably preserved by the inability of his enemies to coordinate their activities against him. He assured the succession to his son, Robert II, by having him crowned on Christmas day, 987. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]
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For nearly nine centuries, the kings of France and many of the rulers of the most powerful fiefs in that country belonged to the family of Capet, and it mingled naturally with several of the other royal races of Europe. The original significance of the name remains in dispute, but the first of the family to whom it was applied was Hugh, who was elected King of the Franks in 987. The house of Capet continued to rule in France from 987 to 1328. The real founder of the house, however, was Robert the Strong, who received from Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, the courtships of Anjou and Blois, and who is sometimes called Duke, and he exercised some military authority in the district between the Seine and the Loire. According to Aimoin of Saint Germain-de-Pres, and the chronicler, Richer, he was a Saxon, but historians question this statement. [Mrs (Oscar Herbert) Elizabeth M. Leach Rixford, Families Directly Descended from All the Royal Families in Europe and Mayflower Descendants, Burlington, Vermont, 1932; reprinted for Clearfield Company, Inc. by Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc. Baltimore, Maryland, 1992, 1993, p. 14]