In 887, needing a king, the great French do not think of Charles the Simple, posthumous son of Ludovico il Balbo, but elect Odo count of Paris and son of Robert the Strong. His competitor was for a moment Guido II of Spoleto crowned in March of 888, but he could not find partisans and public favor. Instead, the Duke of Aquitaine Ramnulfo, who had himself proclaimed king, was favored by fellow villagers faithful to the old autonomist traditions. Thus Rodolfo, son of Conrad, Count of Auxerre, in 888 had himself crowned king of upper Burgundy. In Provence since 873, Bosone, Count of Vienna, reigned independently; in 887 his son Ludovico succeeded him in the kingdom. Lorraine was also organized into a separate kingdom, under Sventeboldo and then Louis the Younger. According to neovideogames.com, thus in the French region there existed, with the collapse of the Carolingian empire, various monarchical states: Provence, Burgundy, Lorraine, France. Over all the king of Germany (eastern France) Arnolfo exercised a certain supremacy, still eager to reconstitute the empire of his ancestors. On the contrary, France was under the influence of Germany for the whole century. X. The history of the French regions was, in the century. X dominated by the contrast between the surviving branch of the Carolingians, eager to preserve the kingdom of their ancestors, and the family of the counts of Paris, who, after having had the crown with Odo, tried to seize it definitively. The contrast between the two dynasties receives light and life from the activity of the great feudal families, who are waiting to consolidate the possession of the rights and goods acquired in the previous age.
Odo after a moment of luck, thanks to the blows given to the Normans, as soon as he knew the reverses, he saw himself abandoned by his feudal colleagues, who in 893 crowned in Reims the son of Ludovico il Balbo, Carlo the Simple, later recognized also by the king of Germany Arnolfo. Civil war that ends an agreement in 897 and then the death of Odo. The aristocracy gathered around Charles, who respected everyone’s feudal privileges and possessions. The young king thought of defining the arrangement created in the west of the kingdom by the Norman invasions. In Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, in 912, Charles made an agreement with a Norman chief, Rollone, and gave him the region along the sea, to the right and left of the Seine, now Normandy. The Normans would have inhabited and colonized it, as royal vassals. Rollone was baptized and became the apostle of the civil transformation of the region. Another great success of the monarchy was the occupation of Lorraine at the death of King Louis in 911; the feudatories preferred Charles of France to the other pretender, Conrad of Franconia. Lorraine was thus reunited with the old neustrian France: Charles knew how to save it from German attempts. But it was at that moment that the king lost the support of the feudatories who acclaimed Robert of Paris and then Raul I, Duke of Burgundy, second son of Robert. Efforts are needed for the new king to secure power: Norman rebellions, Hungarian invasions prevent him from overseeing Lorraine where the German party definitively prevailed in 925, so that the country could easily become a duchy of the Germanic kingdom. Little consolation was the theoretical recognition on the part of some great lords of Aquitaine. On his death (956) the feudatars acclaimed King Ludovico, son of Charles the Simple, called d’Oltremare. But in front of the young king inexperienced and without followers there is the very powerful Count of Paris, Hugh. At most, a few great ones support the king to prevent Ugo from gaining the upper hand. In the contrast between the two parties who holds the balance is the king of Germany, Otto, whose two sisters Hedwig and Gerberta marry the Duke of the Franks and King Ludwig and keep France in the orbit of the Germanic political system. The situation does not change when Ludovico is succeeded by his son Lotario (954) and by Ugo, his son Ugo Capeto. Royal France is under the supervision of Otto and for him of his brother, the archbishop of Cologne, Brunone. But the having wanted to resume the old French claims on Lorraine provokes the discontent of the Germanic court. Thus, when Lothair died in 986 and his son Ludovico in 987, the great of France recognized as king Ugo Capeto, the accepted candidate at the imperial court.
But Ugo Capeto is king recognized by very few gentlemen, in a very limited territory. In the century that goes from the Treaty of Quierzy (Kiersy) to the ascension of Ugo Capeto in France, the new organization based on the fiefdom was established. The count is no longer by direct election, but automatically succeeds his father, paying homage which becomes pure formality. Counts, viscounts, vicars and bishops have taken over the state authority; counties and bishoprics are then divided again to favor the ambitions or recognize the immunities of large owners or for the needs of the divisions between the various children and heirs. The royal rights of tribute, coinage, military service, justice have passed to the lords.
