Robert II the Pious

Robert II (c. 972 – 20 July 1031), called the Pious (french: link=no, le Pieux) or the Wise (french: link=no, 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.

Life

Youth and political formation

The only heir of the Duke of the Franks

Robert II's exact date and birthplace are unknown, although historians have advocated for the year 972 and the city of Orléans from the 9th century onward). The only son of Hugh Capet and Adelaide of Aquitaine, he was named after his heroic ancestor Robert the Strong, who had died fighting the Vikings in 866. His parents' marriage produced at least two other daughters: Hedwig (wife of Reginar IV, Count of Hainaut) and Gisela (wife of Hugh I, Count of Ponthieu).

In the 10th century, the Robertians were the most powerful aristocratic family in the Kingdom of France. In previous decades, two of its members, Odo (888) and Robert I (922), had ascended to the throne, displacing the ruling Carolingian dynasty. The principality of Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks and Robert II's paternal grandfather, marked the apogee of the Robertians until his death in 956. In the middle of the 10th century, Hugh Capet succeeded as the head of the family.

Robert II's youth was especially marked by the incessant fights of King Lothair of France to recover Lorraine, the "cradle of the Carolingian family", at the expense of Emperor Otto II:

In August 978, King Lothair unexpectedly launched a general assault on Aix-la-Chapelle where the imperial family resided, which narrowly escaped capture. After having looted the imperial palace and the surroundings, he returned to France carrying the insignia of the Empire. In the following October, to take revenge, Otto II assembled an army of 60,000 men and invaded Lothair's domains. The latter, with only a few troops around him, was forced to take refuge with Hugh Capet, who was then said to be the savior of the Carolingian kingship. The Robertian dynasty then took a turn that changed the fate of young Robert II. Bishop Adalbero of Reims, originally a man of King Lothair, turns more and more towards the Ottonian court for which he feels a great sympathy.

An exemplary education

Hugh Capet quickly understood that his ascent could not be attained without the support of Archbishop Adalbero of Reims. Illiterate himself, not mastering Latin, he decided around 984 to send his son, not with the scholar Abbo of Fleury, near Orléans, but to Archbishop Adalbero so he could train him in the basics of knowledge. Indeed, at the end of 10th century, Reims had a reputation as the most prestigious school of all of West Christianity. The prelate willingly welcomed Robert, who was confided to his secretary, the famous Gerbert of Aurillac, one of the most educated men of his time.

It is assumed that to follow Gerbert's teaching, the young Robert II had to acquire the basics of Latin. He thus enriched his knowledge by studying the ''trivium'' (grammar, rhetoric and dialectic) and the ''quadrivium'' (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy). Robert II is one of the few laypeople of his time to enjoy the same worldview as contemporary clergy. After about two years of study in Reims, he returned to Orléans. His intellectual level had also developed in the musical field, as recognized by another great scholar of his time, Richer de Reims. According to Helgaud de Fleury, at an age unknown in his adolescence, the young Robert II fell seriously ill, to such an extent that his parents feared for his life. It was then when they went to pray at the Sainte-Croix church in Orleans and offered a golden crucifix and a sumptuous 60-pound (30 kg) vase as an votive offering. Robert II miraculously recovered.

Robert II's association to the throne (987)

Immediately after his own coronation, Hugh Capet began to push for the coronation of his son. "The essential means by which the early Capetians were seen to have kept the throne in their family was through the association of the eldest surviving son in the royalty during the father's lifetime," Andrew W. Lewis has observed, in tracing the phenomenon in this line of kings who lacked dynastic legitimacy. Hugh Capet's claimed reason was that he was planning an expedition against the Moorish armies harassing Count Borrell II of Barcelona, an invasion which never occurred, and that the stability of the country necessitated a Junior King, should he die while on expedition. Rodulfus Glaber, however, attributes Hugh Capet's request to his old age and inability to control the nobility. Modern scholarship has largely imputed to Hugh Capet the motive of establishing a dynasty against the claims of electoral power on the part of the aristocracy, but this is not the typical view of contemporaries and even some modern scholars have been less sceptical of his "plan" to campaign in Spain.

Once Hugh Capet proposed the association of Robert to the throne, Archbishop Adalbero of Reims was reportedly hostile to this and, according to Richer of Reims, he replied to the king: "we do not have the right to create two kings in the same year" (''on n’a pas le droit de créer deux rois la même année''). It is believed that Gerbert of Aurillac (who was himself close to Borrell II, for a time his protector), would then have come to the aid of Hugh Capet to convince the Archbishop that the co-kinship was needed due to the purposed expedition to assist the Count of Barcelona, and to secure a stable transition of power. Under duress, Archbishop Adalbero finally consented.

Unlike that of Hugh Capet, the coronation of Robert was precisely detailed by Richer of Reims — even the day and place were clearly identified. Dressed in purple woven with gold threads, as tradition dictated, the 15-year-old boy was acclaimed, crowned and then consecrated by the Archbishop of Reims on 25 December 987 at the Sainte-Croix Cathedral in Orléans