Philip I the Fair of France Capet ^{1 2}

  General Notes:

King of France (1059/60-1108) who came to the throne at a time when the Capetian monarchy was extremely weak but who succeeded in enlarging the royal treasury by a policy of devious alliances, the sale of his neutrality in the quarrels of powerful vassals, and the practice of simony on a huge scale.

Philip was the elder son of Henry I of France by his second wife, Anne of Kiev. Crowned at Reims in May 1059, he became sole king on his father's death in 1060. Two years after he came of age in 1066, he obtained the county of Gâtinais as the price of his neutrality in a family struggle over Anjou and thereby linked the royal possessions in Sens with those around Paris, Melun, and Orléans. His major efforts, however, were directed toward Normandy, in which from 1076 he supported Robert II Curthose, its ineffectual duke, first against Robert's father, King William I of England, then against Robert's brother, William II. Philip's true goal was to prevent emergence of a rival power in Normandy, for he was willing to abandon Robert whenever it seemed possible he might become dangerous.

Because of his firm determination to retain control over all appointments to ecclesiastical posts, which he blatantly sold, Philip was eventually drawn into conflict with the papacy. This conflict was exacerbated by his matrimonial affairs; his scandalous "marriage" with Bertrada de Montfort, wife of a vassal, brought him repeated excommunication. By 1104, when the struggle with the papacy was finally ended, Louis VI, Philip's son by his legitimate wife, Bertha, had taken over the administration of the kingdom, Philip having been rendered inactive by his extreme obesity.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Acceded: 1060. King of France.

Philip married Bertha of Holland, daughter of Florentz I of Holland and Gjertrud of Saxony, in 1072. (Bertha of Holland was born circa 1055 and died in 1093.)

Philip next married Bertrada de Montfort in 1095. (Bertrada de Montfort died after 1117.)

  Marriage Notes:

Children of Bertrada de Montfort and Philippe I, Roi de France:
- Philippe de France, Count of Mantes, b. 1093, d. after 1123;
- Fleury de France, seigneur of Nangis (living in 1118);
- Cecilia de France, b. bt 1095 - 1108, d. 1145; married (1) Tancred, Prince of Galilee; married (2) Pons of Tripoli. ^{3 4}