Louis VI "the Fat" of France (1 December 1059-1 August 1137) was King of France from 1108 to 1137. He succeeded Philip I, and was succeeded by his son Louis VII.
Biography[]
Louis the Fat was the son of Philip I of France and his wife Bertrada de Montfort, and he became King of France in 1108 after his father's death. He spent the twenty-nine years of his reign fighting against the robber barons of the outskirts of Paris and the Kingdom of England for Normandy, having spent his pre-regnal years fighting Robert of Normandy and the lord of the Ile-de-France region. When he died in 1137, he was succeeded by King Louis VII of France, his son.
Louis was a rival of Count Stephen of Blois, a lord in Normandy who competed with the Normans' traditional foes, the French. In 1136 Stephen of Blois embarked on an unsuccessful military campaign in France that ended in his capture by Louis VI, and he was forced to make peace with King Louis. However, he decided to return to fighting the French shortly after, amassing a large mercenary army and a large fleet to ferry them across the channel and into France. Louis was a resolute leader, refusing to surrender even after Paris fell to the English. After much of northern France was occupied by the English, Louis decided to surrender to Stephen, allowing the English to press all of their claims. He died in 1137, and his grandson Louis VII of France succeeded him.