Louis VI, called the Fat (French: le Gros), was King of the Franks from 1108 until his death (1137). Chronicles called him "roi de Saint-Denis".
Louis was the first member of the House of Capet 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 division of the Carolingian Empire in 843.
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. A biography - The Deeds of Louis the Fat, prepared by his loyal advisor Abbot Suger of Saint Denis - offers a fully developed portrait of his character, in contrast to what little historians know about most of his predecessors.
The English translation of the royal style of King Louis VI was "By the Grace of God, King of the Franks" . |