Louis VI crowned King of France

August 3, 1108

Louis the Fat inherited a Capetian kingdom that scarcely reached past Orleans. Over three decades he would spend his considerable energy hunting down robber barons between Paris and the Loire, turning a patchwork lordship into something that finally felt like royal domain. His patient castle-by-castle subjugation of the petty lords of the Ile-de-France gave his Capetian successors the territorial base from which they would eventually build a nation.