Notes for Robert II DES FRANCS


From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_II_of_France#:~:text=Robert%20II%20%28c.%20972%20%E2%80%93%2020%20July%201031%29%2C,two%20sieges%20of%20Laon%2C%20in%20988%20and%20991%29.

Robert II (c. 972 - 20 July 1031), called the Pious (French: le Pieux) or the
Wise (French: le Sage), was King of the Franks from 996 to 1031, the second
from the Capetian dynasty.

Crowned Junior King in 987, he assisted his father on military matters
(notably during the two sieges of Laon, in 988 and 991). His solid education,
provided by Gerbert of Aurillac (the future Pope Sylvester II) in Reims,
allowed him to deal with religious questions of which he quickly became the
guarantor (he headed the Council of Saint-Basle de Verzy in 991 and that of
Chelles in 994). Continuing the political work of his father, after becoming
sole ruler in 996, he managed to maintain the alliance with the Duchy of
Normandy and the County of Anjou and thus was able to contain the ambitions of
Count Odo II of Blois.

Robert II distinguished himself with an extraordinarily long reign for the
time. His 35-year-long reign was marked by his attempts to expand the royal
domain by any means, especially by his long struggle to gain the Duchy of
Burgundy (which ended in 1014 with his victory) after the death in 1002
without male descendants of his paternal uncle Duke Henry I, after a war
against Otto-William of Ivrea, Henry I's stepson and adopted by him as his
heir. His policies earned him many enemies, including three of his sons.

The marital setbacks of Robert II (he married three times, annulling two of
these and attempting to annul the third, prevented only by the Pope's refusal
to accept a third annulment), strangely contrasted with the pious aura,
bordering on the holiness, which his biographer Helgaud of Fleury was willing
to lend him in his work "Life of King Robert the Pious" (Epitoma vitæ regis
Roberti pii). His life was then presented as a model to follow, made of
innumerable pious donations to various religious establishments, of charity
towards the poor and, above all, of gestures considered sacred, such as the
healing of certain lepers. Robert II was the first sovereign considered to be
a "miracle worker". The end of his reign revealed the relative weakness of the
sovereign, who had to face the revolt of his third wife Constance and then of
his own sons (Henri and Robert) between 1025 and 1031.
Return to Robert II DES FRANCS