CHAP. IV. LOUIS THE FAT AND LOUIS THE YOUNG. CHAP. 1108. 1108-1180. THE nullity, the want of enterprise, and absence of chivalric sentiments or habits, which marked the first descendants of Hugh Capet, were at once favourable and dangerous to the incipient royalty of France. Such a character rendered them acceptable suzerains to princes who were willing to recognise the name, on the condition of not bowing to the reality. But at the same time, the weakness and inactivity of Henry and of Philip allowed the Dukes of Normandy to become the first potentates of Western France. The merit of young Prince Louis, son of Philip, was that he perceived this. He was bred and educated in the Convent of St. Denis, and consequently took to heart, at an early age, the honour and interest of that great monastery. The supremacy and property of the abbey extended over the valley of Montmorency, and over the Vexin, which was a continuation of it westward down the course of the Seine. William Rufus claimed the Vexin, and invaded it. And the first act of the young prince seems to have been to hoist the standard of the abbot of St. Denis, as lord of the Vexin, in order to oppose him. This banner, always borne and rendered victorious by Louis, was the future oriflamme (auriflamma) of France. With from three to four hundred men and this flag, Louis did not shrink from facing Rufus with his ten thousand soldiers. His courage might not have availed if, at the death of that king, the crowns of England and of Normandy had not fallen into different hands, and the latter into weak ones. There seems to have been early relations between Louis and Henry of England, who had once fled to the Vexin from his brother Rufus. On Henry's accession Louis went to England, and passed some time there. The enmity of his stepmother, Queen Bertrade, may have been one cause of this foreign visit. According to Orderic Vitalis, she sent letters in King Philip's name and with his seal, entreating Henry to arrest Prince Louis, and retain him captive. Henry refused to commit such an act of treachery, and Louis returned to Paris to charge Bertrade with her crime. The chronicle adds. that the queen subsequently made an attempt to poison the prince, who, although he recovered from its effects, nevertheless ever after bore marks, in a certain paleness, of the attempt of Bertrade. In order to pacify his son, Philip gave him the government of the Vexin. Somewhat later King Philip, says Orderic, "was afflicted with tooth-ache and the itch, in consequence of his slighting the admonitions of the Church respecting his marriage." He therefore associated his son Louis with him in the kingdom. Philip survived till the year 1108. His son, then called the Eveillé, or Wide-awake, though afterwards surnamed the Fat, may be considered the true monarch from the commencement of the century. Louis must have observed with what pains the Kings of England sought to attach to them their noblesse; and, at the same time, with what severity they treated the refractory. This was necessitated by their precarious hold of England, and by the disputed claims to it and to Normandy. Such nobles as were faithful the monarchs endowed and enriched, trusted and consulted, whilst the rebellious or wavering were summoned to CHAP. IV. CHAP. the royal court, and if not banished or deprived of their fiefs, were loaded with heavy fines, and ruined. The first aim of Louis, on finding himself the wielder of royal power, was to follow the example of the English kings. But this required management. A crusade in behalf of the king's prerogative would have been met by a formidable opposition. Louis therefore undertook to defend the rights and vindicate the claims of the Church, coming forward as the champion of the ecclesiastics against the noblesse. The first cause that offered was the claim of the Abbey of St. Denis over the valley of Montmorency, which the baron of that castle and territory set at nought. But the King of Paris, in order to subdue the Baron of Montmorency, was obliged to call in the aid of his uncle, the Count of Flanders. He began by summoning Burchard of Montmorency to the royal court at Poissy; and on the nonappearance of the baron, Louis marched to lay waste. his domains. There ensued a petty war, in which the Lords of Clermont and Senlis fought with the king against the Lords of Beaumont and of Mouchy. Although Louis was defeated on one occasion, he wearied out his opponents by his activity and perseverance, and compelled the Montmorency to submit. In the same manner he undertook the defence of the Church of Orleans against the Count of Meun, and of the Church of Rheims against the Count of Roussi. On these occasions Louis made the clergy arm their retainers : by such means he swelled the ranks of the royal army, and gave it superiority over the local noblesse. Having thus vindicated the rights of the clergy, and turned them to the advantage of his own power and profit, Louis went a step farther, and undertook to defend, as king, the rights and interests of the public. During the easy reign of Philip and his predecessors, the barons had not only occupied the property of the clergy, but erected fortresses in such strong positions as intercepted the high roads and enabled them to levy contributions on travellers or merchants. The Dukes of Normandy had much trouble in punishing malefactors and putting down high-born robbers of this kind, although they had ample means in wealth and following to do so. But the King of France could scarcely either command or pay for the service of a feudal army. Louis, therefore, says Orderic Vitalis, "was compelled to demand the aid of the bishops throughout Gaul, in order to put down the tyranny of robbers and seditious folk. Popular communeship was therefore established in France by the prelates, that the curates might accompany the king to siege or battle, with standards and all their parishioners." At this time, an old chronicler observes, "Louis was so cooped up that he could not go to Melun, nor proceed from Paris to the neighbourhood of Corbeil, its Count Odo being his foe. Nor yet could he go to Etampes on account of Montlheri, Château Fort and La Ferté Baudouin. Nor yet could he Nor yet could he pass from Etampes to Orleans on account of the castle of Le Puiset."* To clear away these hostile obstructions in the southern portion of his duchy or kingdom became Louis's care after he had cleared the northern. He secured a friend in Guy de Rochefort, one of these barons, and with his aid reduced the fortress of Montlheri. "Its fall," says the chronicle, "was as if a straw had been taken out of the king's eye." Yet entrusting it as well as Mantes to his brother Philip, he was obliged to have recourse to war in order to oust him from hence, Philip displaying an inclination to make the wonted. use of this stronghold. Louis destroyed all the fortifications of Montlheri, except the chief tower, which still surmounts the hill, and attracts the regard of the traveller to Orleans. Of all the fortresses between * Fragmentum ex vetere membrano; Dom Bouquet. CHAP. IV. IV. CHAP. Seine and Loire, that of Le Puiset cost Louis most trouble to reduce. Hugh, its possessor, not only defied the King of France, but ravaged the territories of Chartres and Blois then in the hands of the Countess Alix, who was guardian of her son, Theobald. She, as well as all the clergy of the province, demanded aid of Louis, who soon laid siege to Le Puiset. The castle was valiantly defended against the united forces of the king and of the countess; so much so, that after a long and hard-fought assault, the besiegers were giving way, when a certain bold curate, at the head of his parochial levy, managed to get under the barricade, of which he plucked away the stakes, and then called to his partisans to come on. They obeyed the call, and rushed through the opening he had made into the town. Hugh took refuge in a tower, but was taken. The conquest, instead of a pacification, produced fresh troubles. For the young Count of Chartres wishing to have Le Puiset in order to erect a fortress there, Louis refused him. War broke out in consequence between Theobald and the King. The prince received Norman aid, and Louis finding it expedient to set Hugh of Puiset free, the young noble was soon found in arms against him. There ensued some fierce engagements (1112-1115) in which Louis, though he had not always the advantage, still displayed such courage and perseverance, that this alone redeemed defeat and supplied the place of victory. The Count of Chartres, wounded in a rencontre, made peace; and Louis, having totally destroyed Le Puiset, had leisure to turn his arms in other directions. At the time of the first crusade, Erpo, Count of Bourges, sold or mortgaged his territories to King Philip. This permitted Louis to carry his arms beyond the Loire. The lord of St. Sever, between Limoges and Bourges, having defied him, Louis marched into the country, "rich as it was in foot soldiers," and enforced its submission. This sovereignty in the province of |