(972-1031). King of France (r. 987-1031). The son of Hugh Capet, Robert II was the sec ond king in the Capetian line. He was crowned at Orleans in December 987 and reigned jointly with his father until Hugh’s death in 996. At that point, he left his first wife, Susanna of Denmark, and married his cousin Bertha, a recent widow of the count of Blois. This ill-advised move aroused the hostility of his father’s allies, especially the count of Anjou, Foulques Nerra, and Pope Gregory V, who condemned the incestuous union and excommunicated the king. Robert resisted, apparently from passionate love for Bertha, until sometime between 999 and 1001, when she was repudiated. He subsequently married Constance of Arles ca. 1005, and the couple had three sons, Hugh (joint king 1017-25), Henry (his successor), and Robert (later duke of Burgundy).
Trends appearing under Hugh Capet became more pronounced in his son’s long reign. Royal authority and prestige among the lay aristocracy continued to decline, and late in the reign one disgruntled bishop even spoke of the king’s impotence (imbecillitas). On the other hand, by the mid-1010s Robert’s reputation for piety had gained him such strong support among ecclesiastics that even places that had resisted his father’s accession accepted his hereditary claim to the throne, acknowledging the failure of the Carolingian line. His renowned piety (he was the first Capetian reputed to have healing powers), as well as his policies of supporting Cluny, encouraging pilgrimage, sponsoring the Peace of God, and appointing learned nonaristocratic bishops, all earned him the enthusiastic support of the laity and the reforming church. In 1010, he had a Jew burned outside Orleans for allegedly plotting the destruction of the Holy Sepulcher; and in 1022, at the prompting of his ecclesiastical advisers, Robert had thirteen convicted heretics burned at Orleans, the first official execution of heretics in western Europe. His final years were complicated by the death of his chosen heir, Hugues (1026), and the battle for succession between his choice, Henry, and his wife’s candidate, Robert.
Richard Landes
[See also: CAPETIAN DYNASTY; CONSTANCE OF ARLES; HENRY I; HUGH CAPET]
Helgaud de Fleury. Vie de Robert le Pieux/Epitoma vitae regis Rotberti Pii, ed. and trans.
R. H.Bautier and Gillette Labory. Paris: CNRS, 1969.
Newman, William M. Catalogue des actes de Robert IIroi de France. Paris: Sirey, 1937.
Pfister, Christian. Etudes sur le regne de Robert le Pieux(996-103i) Paris: Vieweg, 1885.
World History
