Capet

Capet, the name of a family that for nine centuries played a leading part in French history. Robert the Strong was a Saxon vassal of Charles the Bald, and in the middle of the ninth century received the duchy of the Ile de France. From him descended Hugh the Great, Count of Paris and Orleans, Duke of France and Burgundy, Hugh, the son of this last, was elected king by acclamation, to the exclusion of the Carlovingians, in 987, and by judicious policy he and his successors founded a dynasty that lasted in the direct line to the death of Charles IV. in 1322. The House of Valois that then succeeded was merely a branch of the Capet family springing from Philip the Bold (1270-1285), whose younger son Charles was the father of Philip VI. The Bourbons, who carried on the monarchy up to its extinction, arose from the marriage of Robert, sixth son of Louis IX. (1226-1270), with Beatrice of Bourbon.