The Skaggs-Files

# Note:

Title: Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on
Page: Louis VI

Title: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1999
Page: 101-24
Text: c 1115

# Note:

(Louis the Fat), 1081–1137, king of France (1108–37). He succeeded his father, Philip I, with whom he was associated in government from c.1100. He firmly established his authority within the royal domain, suppressing brigandage by robber barons and besieging their castles, and punishing wrongdoers. He continued his father’s policy of opposing the English in Normandy and was almost continuously at war with King Henry I (1109–13, 1116–20, 1123–35); he often met with defeat, but his resistance checked a greater English advance. In 1124 he called up forces from far-flung regions of France; with strong support from the nobles he resisted the invasion of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, who had come to the aid of Henry I. As a part of his plan for strengthening royal authority, Louis favored the church, liberally endowing its enterprises and selecting churchmen—notably the Abbé Suger—as his ministers; he was vigorous, however, in enforcing his privilege of interference in ecclesiastical affairs. To gain support from the towns, he began to grant them royal charters. He obtained a foothold in Guienne (Aquitaine) by marrying his son Louis (his successor as Louis VII) to the heiress of the duchy, Eleanor of Aquitaine. His enforcement of order and justice made Louis popular with the middle classes, the peasantry, and the clergy. Suger’s Vie de Louis VI Le Gros (tr. 1964) is the standard monography for the history of Louis’s reign.

# Note: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

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Louis VI, the Fat, king of France: 1108 to 1137

A member of the Capetian Dynasty, Louis was born in Paris on December 1, 1081, son of Philippe I of France, and Bertha of Holland (1055-1094).

He married in 1104: 1) Lucienne de Rochefort - the marriage was annulled.

In 1115 he married in 1115 2) Adélaide de Maurienne (c.1100-1154)
Their children:
1) Philippe (1116 - October 13, 1131)
2) Louis VII (1120 - November 18, 1180
3) Henri (1121 - 1175)
4) Robert (c. 1123 - October 11, 1188)
5) Constance (c.1124 - August 16, 1176)
6) Pierre (c. 1126 - 1180)

Almost all of his 29 year reign was spent fighting either the "robber barons" who plagued Paris, or the English. Nonetheless, King Louis managed to reinforce his power considerably and endeared himself to the working classes of France.

Louis VI died on August 1, 1137 and is interred in Saint Denis Basilica.

He was succeeded on the throne by his son Louis VII.