Editing Louis VI of France (section)

==Final years==
[[File:Blondel - Louis VI of France.jpg|thumb|Posthumous painting by [[Merry-Joseph Blondel]], 1837]]
As Louis VI approached his end, there seemed to be reasons for optimism. Henry I of England had died on 1 December 1135 and [[Stephen of Blois]] had seized the English crown, reneging on the oath he had sworn to Henry I to support Matilda. Stephen was thus in no position to bring the combined Anglo-Norman might against the French crown.

Louis had also made great strides in exercising his royal authority over his barons, and even Theobald II had finally rallied to the Capetian cause.{{sfn|Halphen|1926|p=604}}

Finally, on 9 April 1137, a dying [[William X, Duke of Aquitaine]] appointed Louis VI guardian of his fifteen-year-old daughter and heiress, [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]].{{sfn|Fawtier|1989|p=21}} Eleanor was suddenly the most eligible heiress in Europe, and Louis wasted no time in marrying her to his own heir, the future Louis VII, at the Cathedral of Saint-André in [[Bordeaux]] on 25 July 1137.{{sfn|Fawtier|1989|p=21}} At a stroke Louis had added one of the most powerful [[Duchy|duchies]] in France to the Capetian domains.

Louis died of [[dysentery]] 7 days later, on 1 August 1137.{{sfn|Bradbury|2007|p=147}} Despite his achievements, it would be the growing power of the soon to be [[Angevin Empire]] that would come to overshadow his successor, its seeds sown in the marriage between the Empress Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet and realised through their son, [[Henry II of England]].

Louis VI was interred in the [[Basilica of St Denis]] in Paris.