Cape familyThe Cape family was one of the oldest and most powerful royal families in Europe.
His family history could be traced back to Robert, the powerhouse of the West Francia Kingdom. Hugh Cape was the founding king of the Cape Dynasty. He was born in 938, and his name was related to the short cloak he liked to wear called "Cape." Hugh Cape's father was the Duke of West Francia during the Caroline Dynasty,"The Great Hugh", and his mother was the daughter of the King of East Francia,"Bird Catcher" Henry I. The Robert family that Hugh Cape belonged to was very powerful in West Francia at that time. His grandfather Robert I and his great-uncle Ode I were both kings of Francia. Although his father was not king, he held actual power. In 956, Hugh Carpe inherited his father's inheritance. At that time, the king of West Francia was Lothaire I. After Lothaire I died in 986, his son Louis V succeeded him, but Louis V died after only one year in office without any heirs. Although there were still members of the Caroline family who could inherit the throne, such as Lothaire I's younger brother, Charlie, because he had colluded with others to deal with his brother, his claim to the throne did not receive the support of the nobles. With the support of many religious and secular nobles, Hugh Cape was elected King of West Francia in 987 and established the Cape Dynasty. The Kingdom of West Francia was officially renamed the Kingdom of France.
When Hugh Carpe first ascended the throne, it was not stable. Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, once led his army to capture Laon, the seat of the royal family of Lorraine, in an attempt to challenge his throne. Hugh Carpe failed to recapture the city twice, and because of the betrayal of Bishop Laon, Charles was arrested and imprisoned for life. However, Bishop Laon's betrayal of the oath caused Hugh Capet to be opposed by the Duke of Aquitaine and other southern French princes, but because there was no more suitable candidate for the throne, these objections did not pose much of a threat. In the early days of Hugh Cape's reign, his power was limited. His direct jurisdiction was only about 30,000 square kilometers, which was only about one-fifteenth of the total area of the West Francia Kingdom. The other vassals had larger territories and basically did things their own way. They did not take the king seriously. At that time, Dharmaraja's financial income was unstable, and he would even rob caravans. He might face the risk of being detained for ransom when he left the royal family's territory, and he was not completely safe in the territory.
The Cape Dynasty ruled France for more than three centuries from 987 to 1328, and ruled until 1848 if the collateral relatives were counted. The kings of Spain and Luxemburg were still descendants of the Cape royal family. During his reign, the power of the princes in France was strong, and the power of the king was greatly restricted, similar to the situation of the Zhou Emperor in China's Zhou Dynasty. The subsequent kings of France hoped to strengthen the royal power and weaken the power of the vassals, but this inevitably affected the interests of the vassals and caused tension between the king and the vassals. For example, in 1167, King Louis VII of France and King Henry II of England (at that time, Henry II's territory in France was many times larger than that of the French king) broke up. Philip II strengthened the French king's central power by provoking the conflict between the British king and his heir. In 1202, he announced that he would deprive the British king of his fief in France and send troops to occupy Normandie and Anjou. Later, because King Charles IV of France had no male descendants, his grandson, King Edward III of England, was not accepted by the French nobles. Philip VI, the son of Charles IV's cousin, became the new king. The Capet Dynasty ended and the Valois Dynasty began. Soon after, the Hundred Years War between England and France broke out.
The Cape family and the Hapburg family were both prominent families in European history, and there was a complicated relationship and interaction between the two. The rise of the Hapburg dynasty was nearly three centuries later than the Cape dynasty. In the early 13th century, the Kingdom of France defeated the Holy Roman Empire in the Battle of Bouvin and became the new overlord of Europe and expanded into Germany. In order to improve the relationship between France and Germany, Rudolf I suppressed Count Odon IV of Burgundy and married Isabella, a direct descendant of the Cape dynasty. Isabella's brother Robert II married Agnes, the sister of King Philip III of France.
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