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Abstract
There is general agreement among scholars of Capetian France that Louis IX--the future St. Louis--understood his participation in the crusading movement to be an essential part of his status as French king. Comparatively little scholarship has sought to explain the origins of this belief, in large part because of an inability to move away from nationalist and positivist methodologies. This dissertation addresses this issue, arguing that the crusading movement is a fruitful route into an understanding of the power structure and operation of rulership in medieval France. It examines the earliest connections between the Capetian kings and the crusades, from the movement's beginning in 1095 through 1146, when Louis VII became the first French king to take the cross. It argues that crusading ideology and imagery were essential components in the formation of a strong French monarchy during this period, and that these components evolved from a potential crisis in authority that beset the monarchy as mid-ranking nobles began returning from the East around 1100 with newly acquired prestige and heroics. This study thus shows that by adopting various imagery and ideology associated with the crusades, the Capetian kings and those close to them attempted to portrayed themselves as idealized crusading kings, an image which ultimately became a key element in the theory and practice of French rulership.
