Person:Robert II of France (1)

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Robert II (c. 972 – 20 July 1031), called the Pious or the Wise, 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.

1.   Robert II of France, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2.   (SoN)Story of the Normans. (Sarah Orne Jewett; New York: Putnam Press, 1888)
   pp.98,112.
3.   (CH2)Pedigrees of Some of The Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants Vol.II
   p.285.
4. ↑ ROBERT de France, son of HUGUES Capet King of France & his wife Adelais, in Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.
5.   Robert II, Roi de France, in Lundy, Darryl. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe.
6.   Robert II le Pieux (the Pious), in Baldwin, Stewart, and Todd Farmerie. The Henry Project (King Henry II ): Ancestors of King Henry II.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4} Biographie en Wikipédia FR, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
   [[1]], trouvée 2015.

   Robert II, surnommé « Robert le Pieux » est né à Orléans vers 9721 et mort au château de Melun le 20 juillet 1031. Fils d’Hugues Capet et de son épouse Adélaïde d'Aquitaine, il est le deuxième roi franc de la dynastie capétienne. Régnant de 996 à 1031, il est ainsi l'un des souverains de l’an mil.