#la demoiselle d'arras

[histoireettralala]

An absence of family strife

Their marriages were generally fruitful and, what was equally important, their sons were usually loyal, or at least obedient. There are remarkably few instances of rebellion against paternal authority. Robert the Pious did take arms against his father, probably in 996, and his own two sons Henri and Robert united against him in 1030; but these were isolated instances. The only other example that can be offered is the quarrel between Philip I and the future Louis VI, which may be attributed to the malicious intervention of the prince's stepmother, Queen Bertrada. If it demonstrates anything, it shows the patience and loyalty of Prince Louis under considerable provocation. No contemporary royal, or even noble, family, can show anything approaching so favourable a record in this respect.

The characters of the individual kings go some way towards explaining this absence of family strife. The Capetians were good husbands. Only two bastards are recorded for the fourteen kings of the dynasty: Isabella, daughter of Louis VI, who married Guillaume de Chaumont, and Pierre Charlot, the son of Philip Augustus and that 'damsel of Arras' whose name the chroniclers delicately omit. Only three scandals can be pointed to: the elopement of Philip I with Bertrada de Montfort, wife of Fulk of Anjou, on 15 May 1092; the estrangement of Philip Augustus and Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193; and the tragic episode of the daughters-in-law of Philip the Fair in 1314. The only excuse put forward for the first affair was the excessive obesity of the lawful queen ("praepinguis corpulentiae", according to William of Malmesbury); it would not be unfair to point out that the king himself, at the age of forty, was already very fat also. Dr Brachet has plausibly explained the behaviour of Philip Augustus as the consequence of the impact of a momentary anaphrodisia on a nervous system already strained by illness. Certainly, the adventure of the damsel of Arras apart, he does not appear to have led an irregular life. But we must look more closely at the third episode, which throws a vivid light on the moral values of the royal family.

Robert Fawtier - The Capetian Kings of France