Editing Robert II of France (section)

====Robert II's ascension to the throne (987)====
[[File:Denier de Robert II le Pieux.jpg|thumb|left|Denier of Robert II the Pious, struck at Soissons.]]
Immediately after his own coronation, Hugh Capet began to push for the coronation of his son. "The essential means by which the early Capetians were seen to have kept the throne in their family was through the association of the eldest surviving son in the royalty during the father's lifetime," [[Andrew W. Lewis]] has observed, in tracing the phenomenon in this line of kings who lacked dynastic legitimacy.{{sfn|Lewis|1978|p=907}}{{efn|The last Junior King was [[Philip Augustus of France|Philip Augustus]], who was crowned in life of his father, the ailing [[Louis VII of France|Louis VII]].{{sfn|Lewis|1978|p=907}}}} Hugh Capet's claimed reason was that he was planning an expedition against the [[Moorish]] armies harassing Count [[Borrell II, Count of Barcelona|Borrell II of Barcelona]], an invasion which never occurred, and that the stability of the country necessitated a Junior King, should he die while on expedition.{{sfn|Lewis|1978|p=908}} [[Rodulfus Glaber]], however, attributes Hugh Capet's request to his old age and inability to control the nobility.{{sfn|Lewis|1978|p=914}} Modern scholarship has largely imputed to Hugh Capet the motive of establishing a dynasty against the claims of electoral power on the part of the aristocracy, but this is not the typical view of contemporaries and even some modern scholars have been less sceptical of his "plan" to campaign in Spain.{{sfn|Lewis|1978|pp=906–927}}

Once Hugh Capet proposed the association of Robert to the throne, Archbishop Adalbero of Reims was reportedly hostile to this and, according to [[Richer of Reims]], he replied to the king: "we do not have the right to create two kings in the same year" (''on n'a pas le droit de créer deux rois la même année''). It is believed that Gerbert of Aurillac (who was himself close to Borrell II, for a time his protector), would then have come to the aid of Hugh Capet to convince the Archbishop that the co-kinship was needed due to the purposed expedition to assist the Count of Barcelona, and to secure a stable transition of power. Under duress, Archbishop Adalbero finally consented.{{sfn|Theis|1999|pp=52–53}}

Unlike that of Hugh Capet, the coronation of Robert was precisely detailed by Richer of Reims—even the day and place were clearly identified. Dressed in purple woven with gold threads, as tradition dictated, the 15-year-old boy was acclaimed, crowned and then consecrated by the Archbishop of Reims on 25 December 987{{efn|For some historians, Robert II would have been consecrated on 30 December 987, a non-religious day, since Archbishop Adalbero would have thought long and hard before giving in.{{sfn|Bautier|1992|p=35}}{{sfn|Bachrach|1993|p=353}}}} at the [[Orléans Cathedral|Sainte-Croix Cathedral]] in [[Orléans]].{{sfn|Fawtier|1989|p=48}}{{sfn|Parisse|1990|pp=32–33}}

{{blockquote|"The princes of the kingdom were gathered on the day of the Lord's nativity to celebrate the royal coronation ceremony, the Archbishop, taking the purple, solemnly crowned Robert II, son of Hugh, in the basilica of the Holy Cross, to the acclamations of the French, then did so and crowned king of the western peoples from the Meuse river to the Ocean."<ref>Richer of Reims, ''Quatre livres d'Histoire (991–998)'', Book IV, translated by R. Latouche, Paris, 1930–1937, pp. 158–167.</ref>}}

Richer of Reims also underlines that Robert II is only "King of the peoples of the West, from the Meuse to the Ocean" and not "King of the Gauls, Aquitaine, Danes, Goths, Spaniards and Gascons" as his father.