Abstract

It is traditional to see the early Capetian kings of France as relatively powerless monarchs who were scarcely distinguishable from the territorial princes around them. In particular, the early years of Henry I, who reigned from 1031 to 1060, are usually viewed as the nadir of the Capetian monarchy. Jean-François Lemarignier has provided a quantitative basis for this interpretation in his masterly study of the diplomas of the early Capetian kings. He concludes that beginning under Henry I, royal charters were concerned with an increasingly constricted geographical area centered around the Ile-de-France, and that the counts of the kingdom of France appeared in the royal entourage with less frequency than before