Capetien from Charlemagne

Following up on the recent discussion regarding Carolingian descents,
who is the first Capetien monarch with an undisputed descent from
Charlemagne. I'm guessing it would be Louis VI?

Peter Stewart...

I assume you mean a line that can be documented fully - if so, how are you
tracing this from Charlemagne to Louis VI?

Peter Stewart...

As to a line of undisputed descent, we can be confident enough that Robert
II had at least one from Charlemagne through his mother Adelais, although
the details are not known to us.

Adalbero, bishop of Laon, who would certainly have known the facts, wrote to
him "Lac tibi suggenti dat nutrix induperatrix" (an imperial nurse gives the
milk that nourished you). Robert himself evidently thought his mother came
from Italian ancestry, suggesting that the link might be through
Charlemagne's son Pippin, king of Italy. He had a daughter of the same name,
and Adelais appears frequently amongst his descendants.

The common assumption that Hugo Capet's wife Adelais was daughter of a count
of Poitou, and granddaughter of the Viking Rollo, is rather preposterous
given the shaky evidence, and the expectation that such relationships would
have been highly interesting to contemporaries who envertheless don't
mention them - the explicit claim first occurs much later.

The celebrated "reditus regni ad stirpem Karoli magni" (return of the
kingdom to the lineage of Charlemagne) fixed on Louis VIII as the first of
Hugo Capet's successors to have the Carolingian dynasty's blood in his
veins. However, this was largely propaganda and due in part to his mother
coming from the family that had made the most fuss over the previous century
or so of its imperial ancestry. His father Philippe II also descended from
Charlemagne, through Matilda of Flanders.

On a quick check I can't see any obvious line earlier than his, but stand to
be corrected with the one you have found to Louis VI.

Peter Stewart

Roger LeBlanc