Today I’m going to show you the family tree
of French monarchs, starting with Charlemagne,
and going all the way down to Napoleon III.
So, in total, we’ll be cover over 1,100
years of French history. I’ll be using my
European Royal Family Tree “West” chart,
which can be purchased as a poster from my
website UsefulCharts dot com.
As you can see, this chart has Charlemagne
at the very top. This is because he is was
the first emperor in Western Europe since
the fall of Rome and he is connected to every
single European royal house that came after
him. Most importantly, he is generally considered
to be the first person in the long list of
French monarchs as well as the first person
in the long list of German monarchs, who eventually
became known as Holy Roman Emperors. That
is why he is shown with two coats of arms
– this one representing France, and this
one representing the Holy Roman Empire.
But at the time that Charlemagne came to the
throne, there was no France and there was
no Holy Roman Empire. There was simply the
Kingdom of the Franks. Charlemagne was a Frank
and he belonged to a dynasty known as the
Carolingians, named after his grandfather
Charles Martel. But the Carolingian had only
recently rose to power. Before them, there
was actually another dynasty, known as the
Merovingians, who were the first to unite
and rule the Franks. This coming Friday, I’ll
be releasing a separate video covering the
family tree of the Merovingian dynasty, as
part of multi-channel collaboration called
Project Clovis. So, keep an eye out for that.
But for now, let’s start with Charlemagne.
Intro
So, Charlemagne succeeded his father Pepin
in the year 768. Over the next few decades,
he greatly expanded the Frankish territory,
conquering the Saxons and Bavarians to the
east as well as the Lombards to the south,
in Italy. Meanwhile, over in Constantinople,
a female (Irene of Athens) had become Roman
Emperor for the first time ever. This put
Charlemagne in an interesting position. He
controlled Rome, he controlled most of Western
Europe, and, of course, he was male. Therefore,
in the year 800, the pope decided to make
a bold move – he crowned Charlemagne Emperor,
signalling that Charlemagne was now the true
heir of Augustus Caesar, not Irene. The idea
was that the emperorship would permanently
transfer from Constantinople, back to Rome.
But in reality, what happened was that Europe
ended up, once again, with two emperors.
Initially, the plan was for Charlemagne to
divide his realm into three parts, one for
each of his three main sons. But only the
youngest one outlived him and therefore that
son became Emperor Louis I. You’ll notice
that a lot of French monarchs will be named
Louis. Well, take note that this Louis is
the original one. When he died, the empire
finally was divided into three. The eldest
son received the title of Emperor as well
as the territory of Middle Francia, which
included Italy. The other two surviving sons
received West Francia and East Francia respectively,
West Francia basically corresponding with
France and East Francia basically corresponding
with Germany. But since we’re only concerned
with France in this video, we’re just going
to follow the West Francia side, which is
shown in blue.
So, that side starts with Charles the Bald,
who, by the way, wasn’t bald. Supposedly
he was actually quite hairy so the nickname
was more of a joke. He actually ended becoming
emperor because Middle Francia ran out of
male heirs after just one generation. But,
when he died, the emperorship didn’t simply
pass to his son. Only the title of king of
West Francia did. The emperorship went to
a relative over in East Francia, known as
Charles the Fat. So, in West Francia, we get
Louis II, who didn’t reign long, followed
by his two sons, Louis III and Carloman II.
But when Carloman II died, his younger brother
Charles was too young to take the throne so
Charles the Fat ended up becoming king of
West Francia as well as being the Emperor
over in East Francia. This would be the last
time that all of Francia was united under
a single ruler.
But, by this point, the nobility in Western
Europe had grown very powerful. So powerful
that they eventually had Charles the Fat deposed
and decided to elect new kings instead. Over
in West Francia, they elected a king from
a totally new dynasty – the Robertian dynasty.
That individual became King Odo but when Odo
died, the throne went back to the Carolingians,
because, by this time, Charles III, known
as Charles the Simple, was old enough to rule.
But things would continue to go back and forth
for awhile as, during this period, the monarchy
was basically elective. So, Charles the Simple
was eventually replaced with Odo’s brother
Robert. And then when Robert died, his son-in-law
Rudolph became king. Now, when Rudolph died,
King Robert’s son Hugh was in a good position
to become king. But instead of taking the
crown for himself, he instead chose to support
the son of Charles the Simple, who became
Louis IV. This way, Hugh was able to obtain
the safer position of being the power behind
the throne. He even married the sister of
the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great in order
to cement his position.
But eventually, the Robertians would become
kings again. Two generations after Louis IV,
there were no longer any Carolingians left
and therefore the nobles elected his son,
also named Hugh, as king. He was nicknamed
“Capay” and therefore he and he descendants
became known as the House of Capay. And the
House of Capay went on to rule France for
the next 800 years. That’s a record when
it comes to European dynasties.
Hugh was followed by his son Robert II and
then by his son, Henry I. Note that Henry
I’s younger brother Robert became the progenitor
of the ducal House of Burgundy, a junior branch
of the Capays that went on to rule Portugal
for 244 years. In France, they continued to
get several nice father-son successions, with
each king having a nice, long reign, which
certainly helped solidify the new dynasty’s
hold on power.
The next person I want to talk about is Louis
VII. He was one of the first kings to participate
in one of the crusades. At the time, he was
married to Eleanor of Aquitaine – one of
the most important women in European history.
Their marriage was later annulled and she
then married King Henry II of England, which
led to England’s involvement on the continent
and the creation of the Angevin Empire. Up
until this point, everyone that I have talked
about so far wasn’t really a king of France.
Technically, up to and including Louis VII,
they were the kings of West Francia.
But this changed with Philip II. He was the
first to actually use the title “King of
France”. He also managed to recapture much
of the territory that had been under the control
of the Angevin kings from England. In fact,
during Philip’s reign, his son (the future
King Louis VIII was briefly declared King
of England). He was later known as Louis the
Lion. He was the father of King Louis IX,
also known as Saint Louis, being the only
French king to be granted sainthood. He is
the namesake of the US city of Saint Louis.
His younger brother Charles also become a
king, not of France, but of Sicily in Southern
Italy. His descendants became known as the
House of Anjou and that branch of the Capay
dynasty would go on to rule in Hungary as
well. That branch is shown on my European
Royal Family Tree “North / East” chart.
Saint Louis was followed by his son Philip
III. Philip III had a younger brother named
Charles, who married the Beatrice, the Lady
of Bourbon. Their son became the first duke
of Bourbon and it is from him that the later
House of Bourbon would descend.
Philip III was followed by Philip IV. He married
the Queen Regnant of Navarre and therefore
when she died, their son Louis became king
of Navarre. So, these next four kings of France
were all kings of Navarre as well. But this
is where the 400+ years of simple father-son
succession came to an end. Louis X died young,
leaving his son John, who was born 5 months
later, as king. But King John lived for only
5 days, and hence his uncle Philip became
king. But then Philip died without any heirs
and then his brother Charles, also died without
any heirs.
This created a crisis because France followed
Salic Law, which meant that only a male could
be the ruling monarch. But there was some
debate over whether that male had to come
from a strict male-only line of the family
or whether a male from a female branch could
be allowed. You can see here that these French
kings had a sister, named Isabella, who had
married the King of England. They had a son,
who became King Edward III, who was not only
a descendant of the previous English kings
but also the closest male descendant of Philip
IV of France. After Charles IV died, Edward
therefore claimed to be the legitimate king
of France.
However, there was another candidate. Philip
III had had a brother, who had a son, who
was the closest relative who came from a strictly
male-only line. That individual was Philip
VI from a branch of the House of Capay that
became known as the House of Valois. The conflict
between these two contenders over who was
the rightful king of France is what started
the Hundred Years was between France and England.
This is why, from this point on, the English
kings included the fleur-de-lis symbol on
their coat of arms. They did that all the
way up to the year 1801, following the French
Revolution.
Anyway, the hundred years war actually lasted
116 years and in the end, France, led by the
House of Valois, won, thanks in part to Joan
of Arc. By that time, Charles VII was king.
He was followed by Louis XI and Charles VIII.
Charles VIII came to the throne when he was
just 13 and then died in his 20s without any
sons, brothers, or even uncles to replace
him. So at that point, the throne jumped to
another branch of the Valois dynasty and Louis
XII became king. He had been married to Charles’s
sister Joan. But when Louis became king, he
had that marriage annulled and he married
Charles’s widow instead, who happened to
be the duchess regnant of Brittany.
By this point, France was engaged in the Italian
Wars, which was basically a rivalry between
the House of Valois and House of Habsburg.
Soon after he became king, Louis XII captured
the prosperous Italian city of Milan and he
added to his titles, the title of “Duke
of Milan” based on the fact that his grandmother,
the wife of this person here, was the daughter
of the first duke of Milan. He was able to
hold on to Milan for about 13 years, until
the Italians captured it back. Unfortunately
for him, he did not have any sons and therefore
when he died, the throne passed to the son
of his first cousin.
That person became Francis I and ended up
being the main rival of the great Habsburg
Emperor Charles V during the continuing Italian
Wars. It was during the reign of Francis I
that the French explorer Jacques Cartier landed
in Canada and claimed the area for France,
naming it New France. He therefore is sometimes
considered to be the first Canadian monarch,
even though Canada didn’t actually exist
then and of course, at that point was entirely
populated by independent First Nations groups.
You’ll notice that Francis married the daughter
of the previous king, who by that point was
the duchess regnant of Brittany. Because of
this marriage, the next king of France also
became the Duke of Brittany, officially making
Brittany a part of France and thus ending
its previous independence. That king was Henry
II and he married a member of the powerful
Medici family. Three of their sons would go
on to become king and would be the last three
Valois kings.
Francis II was the first husband of Mary,
Queen of Scots but he died when he was just
16. Had he lived a long life with Mary and
produced heirs, history might have gone in
a very different direction. Instead, his brother
Charles IX became king and France descended
into a civil war, known as the French Wars
of Religion, fought between Catholics and
Protestants. While that was going on, the
third of these three brothers was elected
king of the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
But shortly after he became king there, Charles
IX died and Henry had to return to France
to become king, giving up his Polish crown
in the process. But, like I said, there was
a civil war going on and after a 15-year reign,
Henry III became the first French king to
be assassinated. He also ended up being the
last king from the House of Valois.
At this point, the throne passed to the House
of Bourbon. As I mentioned earlier, the House
of Bourbon was a junior branch of the House
of Capay, so the next king, Henry IV was still
a direct male-line descendant of Hugh Capay.
His mother had been the queen regnant of Navarre
so before he became king of France, he had
actually already been a king – the King
of Navarre.
But at this point, Lower Navarre basically
merged with the Kingdom of France. But the
most important thing to note about Henry IV
was that he was originally Protestant, which
was obviously a problem in the minds of many
French people at that time. And even though
he converted to Catholicism, there were a
lot of assassination attempts made on him.
One of those attempts ended up being successful
and therefore he was succeeded by his son
Louis XIII, initially under the regency of
his mother, the second of the two Medici queens
of France.
It was under the rule of Louis XIII and his
Prime Minister Cardinal Richelieu that France
became an absolute monarchy – something
that reached its peak during the reign of
the next king, who is probably the most famous
of all the French kings – Louis XIV. He
is often referred to as the Sun King, or as
Louis the Great.
Louis had a very long reign – in fact, the
longest reign of any European monarch in history.
And during that reign, France became the most
powerful kingdom in Europe. Several wars were
fought to curb his power, including the War
of the Grand Alliance in which basically every
other major power teamed up against him. He
lived so long that he outlived both his son
and his grandson and therefore when he died,
he was succeeded by his great-grandson, who
became Louis XV.
Note that his second most senior grandson
became king of Spain, something that I go
into more detail on in my Habsburg and Spain
videos. This is why the current royal house
of Spain is the House of Bourbon. They, including
the current king (Felipe VI) are the direct
descendants of the Sun King and hence direct
male-line descendants of Hugh Capay as well.
Louis XV became the second longest-reigning
French king but during his reign, the stage
was set for the French Revolution, in which
France decided it didn’t want a king anymore.
This occurred during the reign of his son
Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette.
They were both beheaded and France became
a republic. They had a son, who is numbered
Louis XVII, who died in captivity.
But, as you probably know, the First Republic
of France did not last long. Instead, France
became an empire, under the reign of the infamous
Napoleon Bonaparte, who went on to conquer
most of Europe. But eventually, he was defeated
by the other European powers and France decided
to restore the Bourbon monarchy, under the
former king’s brother Louis XVIII, who in
turn was succeeded by a third brother, Charles
X.
But then there was another revolution in France.
But this time, it did not result in a republic.
Instead, it resulted in a more liberal form
of monarchy. Charles was replaced with Louis-Philippe
I, who used the title King of the French,
instead of King of France. He was from the
House of Orlen, which was a junior branch
of the House of Bourbon, and hence a junior
branch of the original House of Capay as well.
But then, in 1848, there was a third major
revolution and a second republic was declared
under the presidency of Napoleon’s nephew.
Eventually though, the republic became an
empire again and the president became Napoleon
III, Napoleon II being the son of Napoleon
I who kinda reigned for 2 weeks but not really.
Then came the Franco-Prussian War in 1870,
which France lost. And at that point, France
decided to become a republic for good, and
it has been one ever since.
So, the last monarch of France was Napoleon
III. But the last king was Louis Philippe
I. If you want to find out who would be the
monarch today, I’ve done a video about that
which I’ll link to in the description. It’s
an older video which I hope to update later
this year. And remember to keep an eye our
for this Friday’s video, which is going
to back before Charlemagne and look at the
Merovingian dynasty.
Thanks for watching.
