House of Capet

Henry I of France

Seal of Henry I of France
Effigy of king Henry I of France, from his seal. The inscription reads "HEINRlC[vs] D[e]I GR[ati]A FRANCORV[m] REX" which translates to "HENRY, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF THE FRANKS"
illustration from the Éléments de paléographie vol 2 p340 (Natalis de Wailly, 1838)
Henry I of France
Henry I of France, as depicted in the Wolfenbüttel manuscript of the Chronica sancti Pantaleonis from the second half of the 12th century
illustration from the Chronica St. Pantaleonis posted on wikipedia
Father: Robert II of France
 
Mother: Constance of Arles

See Hugonis Floriacensis Modernorum Regum Francorum Actus in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 9 pp387-9 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1851) for Constance's battles with her son Henry. Seal see Éléments de paléographie vol 2 p340 (Natalis de Wailly, 1838)

Married (1st): Mathilda

Mathilda was from a noble family in Germany, but her parents are not known. She died in 1044 an was buried in the basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris.

Raoul Glaber: Les cinq livres de ses histoires (900-1044) book 4 chapter 8 #23 pp111-2 (ed. Maurice Prou, 1886)
imperator Chounradus … Pactum etiam securitatis et amicitie, veluti Heinricus cum patre illius egerat, cum rege Francorum Heinrico, filio Roberti, statuit, cui etiam leonem pergrandem amicitie gratis misit. Qui postmodum uxorem nomine Mathildem, moribus egregiam, de regno ejus ex Germanie nobilioribus accepit.
This roughly translates as:
The emperor Conrad … also established a treaty of security and friendship with Henry, king of the Franks and son of Robert, just as Henry [II] had done with Henry's father. To him, he also sent a very large lion as a gift of friendship. Afterwards, [Henry] took a wife named Matilda, a woman of excellent character, from among the higher nobility of Germany within Conrad's realm.

Miracula Sancti Benedicti Book 7 p252 (ed. E. de Certain, 1858)
anno Dominicæ Incarnationis millesimo quadragesimo quarto, … Quo siquidem anno, Mahildis regina Parisiis obiit, quam ex Cæsarum progenie matrimonio sibi asciverat præfatus rex; susceptaque regia ex ea proie, hominem decessit, monasterio Sancti Dionysii tradita sepulturae. 
This roughly translates as:
In the year of the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand forty-four, … In which year, Queen Mahildis died in Paris, whom the aforementioned king had married from the descendants of the Caesars; and having assumed royal power from that lineage, she died a virgin, and was given over to the monastery of Saint Denis for burial.

Children
Married (2nd): Anne of Kiev on 19 May 1051

Ord Vit ii p348n
Henry I. married in 1061 Anne, daughter of Jaroslaw, duke of Russia, by whom he had two sons, king Philip, and Hugh, count of Vermandois in 1102.

Anne's second marriage to Rodulfus , see Acta sanctorum Septembris p723

Children Occupation: King of France
Henry was made duke of Burgundy by his father in 1016, and crowned joint king of France with his father in Reims on 14 May 1027, becoming sole king when his father died in 1031, and giving the duchy if Burgundy to his younger brother, Robert, in 1032.

Notes:
In 1033, Henry was betrothed to five year old Matilda of Franconia, the daughter of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor and Gisela of Swabia, but Mathilda died in 1034, before the marriage occurred (Wiponis, Vita Chuonradi II Imperatoris 32 in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 11 pp271 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1854)).
   Henry I of France, who reigned from 1031 until 1060, was a pivotal, though often embattled, sovereign of the early Capetian dynasty. His reign began in a state of crisis as he was forced to wage a bitter civil war against his mother, Queen Constance of Arles, who favored his younger brother Robert for the throne. To secure his crown, Henry was forced to cede the Duchy of Burgundy to Robert - a concession that weakened the royal domain but stabilized the dynasty. Much of his subsequent career was defined by a delicate balancing act among his powerful vassals, most notably the Normans and the Counts of Blois. Initially a staunch protector of the young William the Conqueror, Henry famously led an army to save William at the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes in 1047, though the two would later become bitter rivals as the Duke’s power grew to threaten the French throne.
  Henry’s personal life and legacy were marked by a search for prestige and continuity. In a notable departure from traditional Frankish alliances, he married Anne of Kiev, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, a move intended to avoid the strict "incest" laws of the Church by seeking a bride from a distant land. This union produced the future Philip I and Hugh the Great of Vermandois, ensuring the survival of the Capetian line. Despite losing significant territory to the rising territorial princes, Henry was a tireless administrator who focused on the consolidation of royal authority within the Île-de-France. He died in 1060 at Vitry-en-Bière and was buried at Saint-Denis, leaving behind a kingdom that, while physically small, was legally and dynastically secure enough to survive the minority of his son.

Hugonis Floriacensis Modernorum Regum Francorum Actus in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 9 pp387-9 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1851)
  10. Henricus igitur patri suo succesdens in rego anno incarnacionis dominicae 1032, regnauit annis 27. Huius mater Constantia magnam regni porcionem post funus mariti in suum conabatur retinere dominium, urbem scilicet Silvanectensem et Senonensem et castellum Bistisiacum et Donnum Martinum et Puteolum et Milidunum et Pisciacum et Codiciacum. Multos etiam Franciae et Burgundiae proceres sibi conciliaverat et a filii fidelitate seiunxerat. Quod Henricus non tulit, sed adorsus Pisciacum, mox illud suum retorsit ad dominium. Demum vero Puteolum obsedit et cepit. Quod cernens Constantia, ab eo dextram expeciit. Post haec autem aggressus est rex Odonem comitem, et abstulit illi Gorniacum castrum. Senonicae quoque urbis partem, quam illi regina Constantia dederat, ad suum postmodum retorsit dominium.
… Interea vero rex Medandicum Galerannum devicit et exheredetavit. Ipso etiam tempore Hugo Bardulfus, vir non contemnendae virtutis ac nobilitatis, contra regem Henricum Pitueris castrum munivit. Sed rex biennio illud obsidens ad dedicionem conpulit, et memoratum Hugonem honore spoliatum de terra effugavit.
  Anno preterea incarnacionis dominicae 1035, comes Rotbertus, Richardi principis Normannorum heres et filius, a Hierosolima rediens, apud Niceame, urbem defunctus est, relinquens sibi successorem Willelmum filium suum. Qui a Normannis exheredatus, ad regem Henricum venit in Franciam, a quo benigne suscipi et postmodum feliciter meruit heredari. Anno quippe incarnacionis dominicae 1047, sepedictus rex Henricus cum tribus tantum milibus armatorum commisit bellum cum 30 milibus Normannorum, et eos superavit, et memoratum adolescentem Guillelmum eis vi super posuit.
… Rex etiam accepit in coniugium filiam regis Russorum Annam, quae ei tres genuit filios, Philippum videlicet, Hugonem atque Rotbertum. Quorum Rotbertus inmatura morte decessit. Ipse proinde rex Henricus construxit ecclesiam ante menia Parisiacae urbis, in honorem sancti Martini.
… Rex autem Henricus anno incarnacionis dominicae 1058, Philippum filium suum duodennem consecrari fecit die pentecostes Remis a Gervasio archiepiscopo, astantibus viginti duobus Franciae, Burgundiae et Aquitaniae archiepiscopis et episcopis et abbatibus multis. Affuerunt eciam duo Nicholai papae legati, Hugo videlicet Bisunciensis archiepiscopus et Hermenfredus Sedunensis episcopus. Sequenti vero anno defunctus est rex sepedictus Henricus, et apud Sanctum Dyonisium tumulatus, relinquens filio suo regi Philippo nondum adulto tutorem comitem Flandrensium Balduinum, virum sibi fidelissimum et honestum.
This roughly translates as:
  10. Henry, therefore, succeeding his father in the kingdom in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1032, reigned for 27 years. After the death of her husband, his mother Constance endeavored to retain a great portion of the kingdom under her own lordship: namely, the cities of Senlis (Silvanectensem) and Sens (Senonensem), and the castles of Béthisy, Dammartin, Puteolum, Melun, Pisciacum, and Coucy. She had even won over many nobles of France and Burgundy to her side and separated them from loyalty to her son. Henry did not endure this, but having attacked Pisciacum, he soon twisted it back into his own lordship. At last, he besieged and captured Puteolum. Seeing this, Constance sought a truce (dextram) from him. After these things, the king attacked count Odo and took from him the castle of Gournay. That part of the city of Sens, which queen Constance had given to [Odo], he later twisted back into his own lordship.
… Meanwhile, the King conquered and disinherited Waleran of Meulan (Medandicum Galerannum). At that same time, Hugh Bardoul, a man of no small virtue and nobility, fortified the castle of Pithiviers against king Henry. But the king, besieging it for two years, compelled it to surrender, and having despoiled the aforementioned Hugh of his honor, drove him from the land.
  In the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1035, moreover, count Robert [the Magnificent], son and heir of Richard, prince of the Normans, returning from Jerusalem, died at the city of Nicaea, leaving as his successor his son William. He [William], having been disinherited by the Normans, came to king Henry in France, by whom he deserved to be kindly received and later successfully restored to his inheritance. Indeed, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1047, the oft-mentioned king Henry, with only three thousand armed men, joined battle with thirty thousand Normans, and overcame them, and by force placed the aforementioned youth William over them.
… The king also took in marriage Anna, daughter of the king of the Russians, who bore him three sons: namely Philip, Hugh, and Robert. Of these, Robert died an untimely death. Accordingly, king Henry himself constructed a church before the walls of the city of Paris in honor of Saint Martin [St. Martin-des-Champs].
… King Henry, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1058, caused his twelve-year-old son Philip to be consecrated on the day of Pentecost at Reims by Archbishop Gervais, with twenty-two archbishops and bishops of France, Burgundy, and Aquitaine, and many abbots standing by. Also present were two legates of pope Nicholas, namely Hugh, archbishop of Besançon, and Hermenfred, bishop of Sion. In the following year, the oft-mentioned king Henry died and was buried at Saint-Denis, leaving as guardian for his son king Philip, who was not yet an adult, count Baldwin of Flanders, a man most faithful and honorable to him.

This passage conflates Henry's earlier betrothal to 5 year old Mathilda, daughter of emperor Conrad, with his first marriage to another Mathilda who bore him a child. However, the information that that child died young, followed shortly by her mother, must apply to the second Mathilda.
Excerptum Historicum in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France vol 11 p157 (1871)
    Ex Collectione Freheri, pag. 515, et ex Ms. Regio num. 8394.
IDEM Rex Henricus neptem (b) Henrici Alamannorum Imperatoris duxit in uxorem: ex qua filiam unam procreavit; quæ infra lustrum defuncta est, matre ejus paulò pòst eam subsequente. Post cujus obitum Rex sibi quærens conjugii solatium, ad Rutenorum Regem Galterum, cognomine Saveir, Meldensem Episcopum direxit, postulans ut ei suam mitteret filiam. Quod et factum est. Hujus nomen erat Anna. Convocatâ igitur regni sui Procerum multitudine, sicut decet tantum virum, illam celebriter duxit in uxorem. Hæc autem Deo devota, plus de futuris quàm de præsentibus cogitans, in æterna vita mutuum multipliciter recipere credens, apud Sylvanectum Ecclesiam in honore S. Vincentii construxit. Cum qua Rex feliciter vivens, ex ea genuit tres filios, Philippum videlicet, Robertum, et Hugonem cognomine Magnum. Iste Hugo genuit Rodulfum Viromanduorum Comitem. Procedente verò tempore, anno MXLII fames valida cœpit, quæ septem annos duravit.
  Philippus autem major Regis filus, vivente patre et jubente, anno Domini MLIX unctus est in Regem. Rex autem Henricus anno sequente obiit.
  (b) Corrig. sororem Henrici. Mathilda enim filia erat Conradi Imper. et Giselæ. Ceterùm quæ hic narrantur, conciliari non possunt cum verbis Wipponis in Vita Conradi Salici. Idem infrà dicendum de  Historiæ Francicæ Fragmento, ubi Regina Mathildis obiisse legitur an. 1044.
This roughly translates as:
    From the Freher Collection, page 515, and from Royal Manuscript no. 8394.
The same King Henry took to wife the niece of Henry, Emperor of the Germans: from whom he fathered one daughter; she died before the age of five, and her mother followed her [in death] shortly thereafter. After her death, the King, seeking for himself the solace of marriage, sent Walter—the Bishop of Meaux, surnamed "Saveir"—to the King of the Rus, requesting that he send him his daughter. And so it was done. Her name was Anna. Therefore, having called together a multitude of the nobles of his realm, as befits such a man, he married her in a celebrated ceremony. She, however, being devoted to God and thinking more of future things than present ones—believing that she would receive a manifold return in eternal life—built a church at Senlis in honor of St. Vincent. Living happily with her, the King fathered three sons by her: namely Philip, Robert, and Hugh, surnamed the Great. This Hugh fathered Ralph, Count of Vermandois. As time passed, in the year 1042, a great famine began which lasted seven years.
  Moreover, Philip, the King's eldest son, was anointed King in the year of our Lord 1059, while his father was still living and at his command. King Henry died the following year.

The ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis vol 1 p148 (trans. Thomas Forester, 1853)
  In the year of our Lord 1031, Robert, king of the French, died, and Henry his son, supported by Robert, duke of Normandy, secured the throne notwithstanding the opposition of Queen Constance and his younger brother Robert, and others of the French. His reign lasted twenty-nine years.2
  2 King Robert died on the 20th of July, 1031. It is certain that the succour he received from Robert, duke of Normandy, in whose court Henry I. sought refuge, enabled that prince to defeat the intrigues of his mother. He died on the 29th of August, 1060.
p153
  In the year of our Lord 1060, Henry, king of the French, departed this life, and his son Philip who succeeded him, held the sceptre of France forty-seven years.1
  2[1] Henry I., king of France, died on the 4th of August, 1060, as already stated. Philip I., his son, having lived until the 29th of July, 1108, reigned forty-eight years less six days.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edition vol 13 pp290-1 (ed. Hugh Chisholm, 1911)
  HENRY I. (1008-1060), king of France, son of King Robert and his queen, Constance of Aquitaine, and grandson of Hugh Capet, came to the throne upon the death of his father in 1031, although in 1027 he had been anointed king at Reims and associated in the government with his father. His mother, who favoured her younger son Robert, and had retired from court upon Henry’s coronation, formed a powerful league against him, and he was forced to take refuge with Robert II., duke of Normandy. In the civil war which resulted, Henry was able to break up the league of his opponents in 1032. Constance died in 1034, and the rebel brother Robert was given the duchy of Burgundy, thus founding that great collateral line which was to rival the kings of France for three centuries. Henry atoned for this by a reign marked by unceasing struggle against the great barons. From 1033 to 1043 he was involved in a life and death contest with those nobles whose territory adjoined the royal domains, especially with the great house of Blois, whose count, Odo II., had been the centre of the league of Constance, and with the counts of Champagne. Henry’s success in these wars was largely due to the help given him by Robert of Normandy, but upon the accession of Robert’s son William (the Conqueror), Normandy itself became the chief danger. From 1047 to the year of his death, Henry was almost constantly at war with William, who held his own against the king’s formidable leagues and beat back two royal invasions, in 1055 and 1058. Henry’s reign marks the height of feudalism. The Normans were independent of him, with their frontier barely 25 m. west of Paris; to the south his authority was really bounded by the Loire; in the east the count of Champagne was little more than nominally his subject, and the duchy of Burgundy was almost entirely cut off from the king. Yet Henry maintained the independence of the clergy against the pope Leo IX., and claimed Lorraine from the emperor Henry III. In an interview at Ivois, he reproached the emperor with the violation of promises, and Henry III. challenged him to a single combat. According to the German chronicle—which French historians doubt—the king of France declined the combat and fled from Ivois during the night. In 1059 he had his eldest son Philip crowned as joint king, and died the following year. Henry’s first wife was Maud, niece of the emperor Henry III., whom he married in 1043. She died childless in 1044. Historians have sometimes confused her with Maud (or Matilda), the emperor Conrad II.’s daughter, to whom Henry was affianced in 1033, but who died before the marriage. In 1051 Henry married the Russian princess Anne, daughter of Yaroslav I., grand duke of Kiev. She bore him two sons, Philip, his successor, and Hugh the great, count of Vermandois.
  See the Historiae of Rudolph Glaber, edited by M. Prou (Paris, 1886); F. Sochnée, Catalogue des actes d’Henri Ier (1907); de Caiz de Saint Aymour, Anne de Russie, reine de France (1896); E. Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome ii. (1901), and the article on Henry I. in La Grande Encyclopédie by M. Prou.

Death: 4 August 1060, at the castle of Victria, in Fontainbleu, France

Annales Nivernenses in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 13 p90 (1881)
  1060. In hoc anno Henricus rex obiit, Rotberti regis filius, 2 Non. Augusti
This roughly translates as:
  1060. In this year King Henry, son of King Robert, died on the 2nd Nones of August [4 August].

Ex Chronico S. Petri Vivi Senonensi auctore Clario monacho in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France vol 11 p197 (1871)
  Anno MLX, obiit Rex Hainricus. Hic regale Præceptum fecit de rebus Abbatiæ S. Petri, sicut fecerat et pater ejus Rotbertus. Mortuo autem Hainrico Rege apud Victriacum castrum (b) in Brieria, et sepulto in Basilica S. Dionysii, Rodulfus Comes, consanguineus ejusdem Regis, duxit uxorem ejus in conjugio contra jus et fas; unde fuit excommunicatus. Balduinus verò, Comes Flandrensis, Regem parvulum Philippum aluit, et Franciam gubernavit.
  (b) Hunc locum frustrà in Briegio ponunt recentiores. Bieria silva nunc Fontis-Blaudi vocatur, ubi ædes regiæ saltem à tempore Ludovici Junioris. Illic inter. illas ædes et oppidum ad viam, quæ fert Moretum, visitur Crux Vitriaci hactenus dicta: quo in loco fortè olim castrum cognomine fuerit, ubi mortuus Henricus. Mabill
This roughly translates as:
  In the year 1060, King Henry died. He made a royal precept [decree] concerning the affairs of the Abbey of St. Peter, just as his father Robert had done. Moreover, with King Henry having died at the castle of Vitry (Victriacum) in Bière (Brieria), and having been buried in the Basilica of St. Denis, Count Ralph [of Valois], a kinsman of the same King, took his [Henry's] wife in marriage against law and divine right (contra jus et fas); for which reason he was excommunicated. Baldwin, the Count of Flanders, raised the little King Philip and governed France.
  (b) Recent writers [historians] place this location in Brie (Briegio) in vain. The forest of Bière (Bieria) is now called Fontainebleau (Fontis-Blaudi), where there have been royal houses at least since the time of Louis the Younger. There, between those houses and the town, on the road which leads to Moret, is seen the Cross, called to this day the Cross of Vitry (Crux Vitriaci): in which place perhaps there was once a castle of that name, where Henry died. — Mabillon.

Tomb of Henry I of France
Effigy of king Henry I of France on the ossuary in the crypt in the basilica of Saint-Denis, Paris
photo posted on 5 June 2023 by Łukasz Janecki on findagrave.com
Burial: Basilica of Saint-Denis, Paris, France
Henry's tomb was desecrated during the French Revolution and his bones, along with those of his ancestors and descendants, were thrown into a common pit (a mass grave) outside the church. After the restoration of the monarchy in the 19th century, these remains were gathered and placed in a massive ossuary in the crypt of the Basilica, where they remain today.

Sources:

Hugh Capet

Hugh Capet
Hugh Capet, as depicted in the Wolfenbüttel manuscript of the Chronica sancti Pantaleonis from the second half of the 12th century
illustration from the Chronica St. Pantaleonis posted on wikipedia
Father: Hugh the Great
 
Mother: Hadwig

Married: Adelaide of Aquitaine

Children
Medieval miniature of the coronation of Hugh Capet
Illuminated miniature of the coronation of Hugh Capet in 987, from a manuscript dated to the 13th or 14th century, now held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, France.
posted on wikipedia
Occupation: King of France
Hugh was installed as duke of France by Lothaire, king of the West Franks in 960. He was elected king of France by an assembly of nobles at Senlis on 29 May 987, after the death without children of Louis V., and was consecrated at Noyon on 1 June 987.

Signature of Henry Capet on a charter from 988
The signature of Hugh Capet on a charter, dated 988, in which he donated the estate of Maisons-Alfort to the abbey of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
(click for full charter)
posted on wikipedia
Penny from the reign of Hugh Capet
A silver denier, or penny, from the reign of Hugh Capet, struck in the city of Beauvais.
It is inscribed "HERVEVS [HV]GO REX" on the obverse and "BELVA[CVS] CIVITAS" on the reverse.
posted on wikipedia
Notes:
Hugh Capet (c. 941–996) was the first "King of the Franks" from the eponymous Capetian dynasty, a lineage that would rule France in an unbroken male line for over three centuries.
  Hugh's marriage was a calculated political alliance that helped bridge the gap between the waning Carolingian era and the rise of his own dynasty. Around 970, he married Adelaide of Aquitaine (also known as Adele), the daughter of William III, duke of Aquitaine. By marrying Adelaide, Hugh secured a southern alliance that helped stabilize his influence as duke of the Franks eventually leading to him becoming king.
  Upon the sudden death of the Carolingian king, Louis V, in 987, the French throne became vacant. Charles of Lorraine, the uncle of the deceased king, was the direct Carolingian claimant. However, his candidacy was deeply unpopular with the Frankish nobility and the influential clergy, particularly the powerful Adalbero of Reims, who famously argued that the throne was not a hereditary right but should be given to a man distinguished by "nobility of body and wisdom of mind". Hugh was elected king by an assembly of nobles in June 987, effectively bypassed the hereditary claims of Charles of Lorraine. 
  Charles did not accept the election and launched a military campaign to seize the crown by force, and in 988 he successfully captured the city of Laon, a traditional Carolingian stronghold. After several failed attempts by Hugh to retake the city, Charles was eventually undone by betrayal rather than battlefield defeat. Bishop Adalbero of Laon, who had initially pretended to support Charles, tricked him and handed him over to Hugh Capet in 991. With Charles's capture, the Carolingian threat was neutralized. Charles was imprisoned in Orléans, where he eventually died. This victory solidified Hugh Capet's reign and established the Capetian royal line without further challenge from the Carolingian line.
  Hugh's reign was characterized by a precarious struggle to assert authority over a fractured kingdom where territorial lords were often more powerful than the monarch himself. To ensure the survival of his house, he took the strategic step of crowning his son, Robert the Pious, as associate king shortly after his own accession, effectively turning an elective monarchy into a hereditary one.

The ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis vol 1 pp141-2 (trans. Thomas Forester, 1853)
Charles, his brother, claimed the throne; but Hugh the Great [Hugh Capet], son of Hugh the Great, opposed him, and, having raised a numerous army, sat down before Laon, where Charles resided with his queen. The king, full of indignation, made a sally at the head of the garrison, attacked and put to flight the army of Hugh, and burnt their huts. The duke, perceiving that Charles was not to be subdued by open warfare, concerted measures with Ascelin, bishop of Laon, who was the king’s adviser. The bishop, forgetting his age and profession, and not considering that death was approaching, followed the example of Achitophel and Judas, and did not blush to become a traitor. During the night, when all the inhabitants were asleep, he admitted Hugh into the town, who made Charles and his wife, the daughter of Herbert, earl of Troyes, prisoners, and condemned them to perpetual captivity in the tower of Orleans. There, Charles became the father of two children, Lewis and Charles; but from that time the posterity of Charlemagne ceased to reign in France.1
  In the year of our Lord 983, Hugh, the duke, was anointed king at Eheims. In the same year, Robert his son was crowned king, and reigned thirty-eight years.2 Hugh was induced by a vision to commit this great crime. St. Valery appeared to him when he was duke at Lutetia, the city of the Parisii. He revealed to him in a dream who he was, and what he wanted, commanding him to undertake an expedition against Arnold, earl of Flanders, and take his body out of the monastery of Sithieu, where that of St. Bertin also lies, and restore it to the convent of Leuconaüs in the Vimeux. He then promised him that, if he faithfully obeyed his orders, he and his posterity to the seventh generation should wear the crown of France. Hugh readily obeyed the orders of the saint, and, by the will of God, terrified Arnold with his impetuous courage, recovered and reverently restored to their tombs the bodies of the venerable saints Valery and Riquier, which had been carried away by a certain clerk named Erchambald, bribed by the offer of a large sum of money. The duke himself repaired to Leuconaüs with the great men of his court, and deposited the remains of St. Valery in a monastery situate on the banks of the Somme, and having driven out the secular canons, filled their places with regular monks. Not long afterwards, as already stated, he usurped the throne, which his descendants have filled to the present day; for four kings of his race have reigned up to this moment, namely, Robert, Henry, Philip, and Lewis.1
  1 Charles of France, duke of Lorraine, was not brother of Lewis V., as our author, following Hugh de Fleuri, calls him, but King Lothaire’s. Hugh Capet never bore the title of Great, which was exclusively given to his father. It was on Good Friday, April 3, 991, that Ascalin or Adalbéron, bishop of Laon, opened the gates of that town to him. Agnes de Vermandois, the second wife of Charles, was the daughter of Herbert III., count of Vermandois, who was also often called count of Troyes and Meaux. Their children, Lewis and Charles, who shared their captivity at Orleans, were still alive in 1009, a period when mentioned with King Robert, at the commencement of a charter.
  2 The coronation of Hugh Capet took place on the 3rd of July, 987, and that of King Robert, his son, taken by him as his colleague, on the 1st of January, 988. The computation of the years of the reign of this last prince, given by our author, is inexact, whether we include or not those during which he shared the government with his father; because, in the first case, his reign lasted more than forty-two years and a half, and in the second, thirty-three years and nine months.
  1 For information respecting this vision of Hugh Capet, and the events that were the consequence of it, see the Acta SS. ord. S. Benedicti, sæc. v. p. 556, et seq. Leuconaüs was the primitive name of St. Valéri sur Somme. The relics of the saint were carried back there by Hugh himself in 981, after he had exacted their restitution from the Earl of Flanders by threats of an invasion.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edition vol 13 p858 (ed. Hugh Chisholm, 1911)
  HUGH CAPET (c. 938-996), king of France and founder of the Capetian dynasty, was the eldest son of Hugh the Great by his wife Hadwig. When his father died in 956 he succeeded to his numerous fiefs around Paris and Orleans, and thus becoming one of the most powerful of the feudatories of his cousin, the Frankish king Lothair, he was recognized somewhat reluctantly by that monarch as duke of the Franks. Many of the counts of northern France did homage to him as their overlord, and Richard I., duke of Normandy, was both his vassal and his brother-in-law. His authority extended over certain districts south of the Loire, and, owing to his interference, Lothair was obliged to recognize his brother Henry as duke of Burgundy. Hugh supported his royal suzerain when Lothair and the emperor Otto II. fought for the possession of Lorraine; but chagrined at the king’s conduct in making peace in 980, he went to Rome to conclude an alliance with Otto. Laying more stress upon independence than upon loyalty, Hugh appears to have acted in a haughty manner toward Lothair, and also towards his son and successor Louis V.; but neither king was strong enough to punish this powerful vassal, whose clerical supporters already harboured the thought of securing for him the Frankish crown. When Louis V. died without children in May 987, Hugh and the late king’s uncle Charles, duke of Lower Lorraine, were candidates for the vacant throne, and in this contest the energy of Hugh’s champions, Adalberon, archbishop of Reims, and Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II., prevailed. Declaring that the Frankish crown was an elective and not an hereditary dignity, Adalberon secured the election of his friend, and crowned him, probably at Noyon, in July 987.
  The authority of the new king was quickly recognized in his kingdom, which covered the greater part of France north of the Loire with the exception of Brittany, and in a shadowy fashion he was acknowledged in Aquitaine; but he was compelled to purchase the allegiance of the great nobles by large grants of royal lands, and he was hardly more powerful as king than he had been as duke. Moreover, Charles of Lorraine was not prepared to bow before his successful rival, and before Hugh had secured the coronation of his son Robert as his colleague and successor in December 987, he had found allies and attacked the king. Hugh was worsted during the earlier part of this struggle, and was in serious straits, until he was saved by the wiles of his partisan Adalberon, bishop of Laon, who in 991 treacherously seized Charles and handed him over to the king. This capture virtually ended the war, but one of its side issues was a quarrel between Hugh and Pope John XV., who was supported by the empire, then under the rule of the empresses Adelaide and Theophano as regents for the young emperor Otto III. In 987 the king had appointed to the vacant archbishopric of Reims a certain Arnulf, who at once proved himself a traitor to Hugh and a friend to Charles of Lorraine. In June 991, at the instance of the king, the French bishops deposed Arnulf and elected Gerbert in his stead, a proceeding which was displeasing to the pope, who excommunicated the new archbishop and his partisans. Hugh and his bishops remained firm, and the dispute was still in progress when the king died at Paris on the 24th of October 996.
  Hugh was a devoted son of the church, to which, it is not too much to say, he owed his throne. As lay abbot of the abbeys of St Martin at Tours and of St Denis he was interested in clerical reform, was fond of participating in religious ceremonies, and had many friends among the clergy. His wife was Adelaide, daughter of William III., duke of Aquitaine, by whom he left a son, Robert, who succeeded him as king of France. The origin of Hugh’s surname of Capet, which was also applied to his father, has been the subject of some discussion. It is derived undoubtedly from the Lat. capa, cappa, a cape, but whether Hugh received it from the cape which he wore as abbot of St Martin’s, or from his youthful and playful habit of seizing caps, or from some other cause, is uncertain.
  See Richerus, Historiarum libri IV., edited by G. Waitz (Leipzig, 1877); F. Lot, Les Derniers Carolingiens (Paris, 1891), and Études sur le règne de Hugues Capet (Paris, 1900); G. Monod, “Les Sources du règne de Hugues Capet,” in the Revue historique, tome xxviii. (Paris, 1891); P. Viollet, La Question de la légitimité à l’avènement à Hugues Capet (Paris, 1892); and E. Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome ii. (Paris, 1903-1905).

Death: 24 October 996, in Les Juifs near Chartres, France, "covered with papules all over his body", possibly from smallpox

Richeri Historiarum Liber IV in Richer: Histoire de son temps vol 2 p308 (ed. J. Gaudet, 1845)
  Hugo rex papulis toto corpore confectus, in oppido Hugonis Judeis extinctus est.
This roughly translates as:
  King Hugh, covered with papules all over his body, died in Hugh's town Les Juifs.

Recueil des historiens de la France: Obituaires de la province de Sens vol 1 p329 (1902)
Abbaye de Saint-Denis … VIIII kal. [novemb.] Ob. … Hugo rex [996]
This roughly translates as:
Abbey of Saint-Denis … 9th Kalends of November [24 October] Died … king Hugh [996]


Tomb Effigies of kings Hugh Capet and Odo
Tomb of kings Hugh Capet and Odo in the Abbey of Saint-Denis, Paris, West Francia
The illustration is noted
"TOMBEAU de pierre a droite du grand Autel dans le Choeur de l'Eglise de l'Abbaye de S.t Denis. Il est de Hugues Capet mort l'an 997."
which translates to
"TOMB of stone to the right of the high altar in the Choir of the Church of the Abbey of Saint-Denis. It is of Hugh Capet, who died in the year 997."
Burial: Basilica of Saint-Denis, Paris, France

Hugonis Floriacensis Modernorum Regum Francorum Actus in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 9 p385 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1851)
Porro rex Francorum Hugo anno regni sui undecimo Miliduni defungitur, et in ecclesia sancti Dionisii tumulatur, relinquens sibi successorem filium suum Rotbertum.
This roughly translates as:
Furthermore, Hugh, King of the Franks, died at Melun in the eleventh year of his reign, and was entombed in the church of Saint Denis, leaving as his successor his son Robert.

Hugh's tomb illustrated here was destroyed during the Franch Revolution.

Sources:

Hugh de Vermandois

Hugh of Vermandois
Hugh, count of Vermandois, as depicted in the Wolfenbüttel manuscript of the Chronica sancti Pantaleonis from the second half of the 12th century
illustration from the Chronica St. Pantaleonis posted on wikipedia
Father: Henry I of France
 
Mother: Anne of Kiev

Hugonis Floriacensis Modernorum Regum Francorum Actus in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 9 pp388-9 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1851)
  Rex etiam accepit in coniugium filiam regis Russorum Annam, quae ei tres genuit filios, Philippum videlicet, Hugonem atque Rotbertum.
This roughly translates as:
In the year 982
The king also married Anna, the daughter of the king of the Russians, who bore him three sons, namely Philip, Hugh, and Robert.

Married: Adelaide

Adelaide was da. and h. of Herbert, COUNT OF VERMANDOIS and VALOIS  (see The Complete Peerage vol 12 part 1 p496) and see Medieval Lands (ADELAIS de Vermandois)

Genealogiae Scriptoris Fusniacensis in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 13 p253 (1881)
  7. Nunc ad Hugonem Magnum revertamur. Hugo cognomento Magnus, frater Philippi regis Francorum, de Adelaide comitissa Veromandensium genuit Radulfum comitem Veromandie et Henricum de Chauni et Simonem episcopum Noviomensem et filias. De quarum una Bonefacius marchio genuit Bonefacium archidiaconum Noviomensem et filios et filias; quarum una nupsit Guilelmo de Monte-pessulano. Secunda filia Hugonis Magni ex Radulfo de Baugenci peperit Simonem eiusdem loci principem. Tercia filia ex Ioifrido de Firmitate-Galceri genuit uxorem Simonis de Oisiaco. Quarta filia nupsit comiti de Meslent, cui peperit filios, quorum unus successit patri in comitatu, alter vero comitatem tenuit de Cirecestre.
This roughly translates as:
  7. Now let us return to Hugh the Great. Hugh, surnamed the Great, brother of Philip, king of the Franks, begat by Adelaide, countess of the Vermandois: Ralph, count of Vermandois; Henry of Chauny; Simon, Bishop of Noyon; and several daughters. From one of these daughters, Boniface the marquess begat Boniface, archdeacon of Noyon, as well as other sons and daughters; one of these daughters married William of Montpellier. The second daughter of Hugh the Great, by Ralph of Beaugency, gave birth to Simon, lord of that same place. The third daughter, by Geoffrey of La Ferté-Gaucher, begat the wife of Simon of Oisy. The fourth daughter [Isabel] married the count of Meulan, to whom she bore sons: one of these succeeded his father in the county [Meulan], while the other held the earldom of Leicester (Cirecestre).

Children Occupation: Count of Vermandois, and crusader
Hugh succeeded to the county of Vermandois on the death of his father-in-law in 1080

Notes:
Hugh, count of Vermandois, occupied a unique and often difficult position in medieval history: he was the son of a king (Henry I of France), the brother of a king (Philip I), but a man whose own legacy was defined by a desperate search for redemption.
  As the royal representative of the French crown, Hugh was the first prince to set out for the Holy Land in 1096 as part of the First Crusade. His journey began with a mix of high-altitude arrogance and literal disaster. After sending a famous, haughty message to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I demanding a grand welcome, his fleet was decimated by a storm in the Adriatic Sea. Hugh was washed ashore near Dyrrhachium, not as a conquering hero, but as a shipwrecked castaway.
  Despite this humiliating start, he proved himself a capable commander during the early stages of the crusade. He was a key figure at the Siege of Nicaea and played a vital role at the Battle of Dorylaeum, where his timely arrival with reinforcements saved the vanguard of the army.
  Hugh’s reputation took a fatal blow during the grueling Siege of Antioch (1097–1098). After the city fell to the crusaders but was immediately besieged by a massive Turkish relief army, the crusaders were pushed to the brink of starvation. Once the crusaders miraculously broke the siege, they sent Hugh to Constantinople to ask Emperor Alexios for promised assistance. When the Emperor declined to move, Hugh, instead of returning to his starving comrades as they marched on Jerusalem, simply gave up and went home to France.
  To the medieval world, this was an unforgivable betrayal. While the rest of the army went on to capture Jerusalem in 1099, Hugh was branded a "vow-breaker" and a coward. He was publicly shamed, and the Church threatened him with excommunication if he did not return to the East to fulfill his pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre.
  In the midst of this social disgrace, Hugh managed a significant political feat: the marriage of his daughter, Isabel de Vermandois, to the powerful Robert de Beaumont, count of Meulan. Because Robert and Isabel were distant cousins (related within the prohibited fourth degree of consanguinity), the marriage required a papal dispensation. Hugh used his royal blood and his status as a "crusader in waiting" to navigate the complex ecclesiastical politics of the time. While the marriage was initially contested by some church officials, it was eventually allowed to stand. This union was vital for Hugh; it secured a powerful ally in the Anglo-Norman world at a time when his own prestige was at its lowest point.
  Driven by the need to wipe away his shame, Hugh joined the Crusade of 1101 (often called the "Crusade of the Faint-Hearted"). This expedition was a disaster. In September 1101, his forces were ambushed by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Mersivan (near Heraclea). Hugh fought bravely this time, but he was severely wounded by an arrow. He managed to escape the slaughter and retreated to the city of Tarsus. He died there from his wounds on October 18, 1101. Unlike the many crusaders who never received a proper monument, Hugh was buried with honors in the Church of St. Paul in Tarsus. Though he never reached Jerusalem, his death in battle was generally accepted as the "blood penance" that restored his family's honor.

The Alexiad of Anna Comnena Book X pp179-80 (trans. Elizabeth A. Dawes, 1928)
  VII. One Ubus {= Hugh, Count of Vermandois}, brother of the King of France, and as proud as Novatus of his nobility, riches and power, when on the point of leaving his native land, ostensibly to go to the Holy Sepulchre, sent a ridiculous message to the Emperor, with a view to arranging beforehand that he should have a magnificent reception. "Know, O Emperor," he wrote, "that I am the king of kings and the greatest of those under heaven; and it behoves you to meet and treat me on arrival with all pomp and in a manner worthy of my nobility." At the time that this message arrived, John, the son of the Sebastocrator Isaac (of whom mention has been made above) happened to be Duke of Dyrrachium, and Nicolas Mavrocatacalon, a Duke of the Fleet, had anchored the ships at intervals round the harbour of Dyrrachium, and made frequent excursions from there and scoured the seas so that no pirate ships might sail past without his noticing them. On receipt of this message the Emperor at once sent letters to these two, commanding the Duke of Dyrrachium to keep watch over land and sea for the Franks' coming, and to signify the Emperor of his arrival at once by a swift messenger, bidding him also receive Ubus with all ceremony, and exhort the Duke of the Fleet in no way to relax his vigilance or be negligent, but to be on the look-out all the time. When Ubus had arrived safely at the seaboard of Lombardy, he sent ambassadors from there to the Duke of Dyrrachium, twenty four in number, protected with cuirasses and greaves of gold, together with the Count Tzerpenterius {= Charpentier (?)} and Elias who had deserted from the Emperor at Thessalonica. They spoke as follows to the Duke, “Be it known to thee, Duke, that our Lord Ubus is on the point of arriving, and is bringing with him from Rome the golden standard of Saint Peter. Understand, too, that he is the leader of the whole Frankish army. Therefore prepare a reception for him, and the forces under him, which will be worthy of His Highness, and get ready yourself to meet him.” While the envoys were thus speaking to the Duke, Ubus, who, as has been said, travelled through Rome to Lombardy, and was crossing from Bari to Illyria, was caught in a very severe storm and lost the greater number of his vessels, crews, soldiers and all, and only the one skiff on which he was, was spat out, so to say, by the waves on to the coast between Dyrrachium and a place called Palus, and he on it half-broken. After he had been thus miraculously saved, two of the men who were on the look-out for his arrival, found him, and addressing him by name, said, “The Duke is anxiously looking for your coming, and is most desirous to see you.” Thereupon Ubus at once asked for a horse, and one of the two men dismounted and very willingly gave him his horse. Thus the Duke met him after his deliverance, and welcomed him and asked him about his journey and his country, and heard about the disaster which overtook him on his crossing; so he comforted him with fair promises, and finally set a rich banquet before him. After the feast he detained him and left him, not without supervision, but certainly free. He speedily acquainted the Emperor with the facts, and then waited to receive further instructions. On receipt of the news the Emperor quickly sent Butumites to Epidamnus (which we have often called Dyrrachium) to fetch Ubus and escort him to the capital, but not to travel along the direct road, but to deviate from it, and pass through Philippopolis. For he was afraid of the Frankish hosts and armies which were coming behind him. The Emperor received him with all honour and shewed him much friendliness, and by also giving him a large sum of money he persuaded him to become his ‘man’ at once and to swear thereto by the customary oath of the Latins.

Hugh's imprisonment in Constantinople led to reprisals from the Crusader forces and his release. He then distinguished himself in battle, but is more remembered for his failure as an emissary to the emperor Alexios to secure his assistance to the Crusaders, after whic he returned home to France rather than rejoining the Crusade.
The history of the crusades pp89-90 (Joseph François Michaud, trans. by W. Robson, 1852)
  The count de Vermandois, cast by a tempest on the shores of Epirus, received the greatest honours from the governor of Durazzo, and was led a prisoner to Constantinople by the orders of Alexis. The Greek emperor hoped that the brother of the king of France would become, in his hands, a hostage that might protect him from the enterprizes of the Latins; but he only awakened suspicion, and provoked the hatred of the leaders of the crusade. Godfrey de Bouillon had arrived at Philippopoli, when he heard of the captivity of the count de Vermandois. He sent to the emperor to demand instant reparation for this outrage; and as the deputies reported but an unfavourable answer, he restrained neither his own indignation nor the fury of his army. The lands through which they passed were treated as an enemy’s country, and during eight days the fertile plains of Thrace became the theatre of war. The crowd of Greeks who fled towards the capital soon informed the emperor of the terrible vengeance of the Latins. Alexis, terrified at the fruits of his own policy, implored the pardon of his prisoner, and promised to restore him his liberty when the French should have arrived at the gates of Constantinople. This promise appeased Godfrey, who caused the war to cease, and resumed his march, treating the Greeks everywhere as friends and allies.
  In the meanwhile, Alexis employed every effort to obtain from the count de Vermandois the oath of obedience and fidelity, hoping that his submission would lead to that of the other princes of the crusade, and that he should have less to fear from their ambition if he could reckon them in the number of his vassals. The brother of the king of France, who, on arriving in the territories of the empire, had written letters filled with pride and ostentation, could not resist the caresses and presents of the emperor, and took all the oaths that were required of him. On the arrival of Godfrey, he appeared in the camp of the Crusaders, who rejoiced at his deliverance, but could not pardon him for having yielded submission to a foreign monarch. Cries of indignation arose around him when he endeavoured to persuade Godfrey to follow his example. The more gentle and submissive he had shown himself in his captivity, the more strong became the opposition and resistance to the will of the emperor of his companions, who had drawn their swords to avenge the insult offered to him.
p142
The whole army spoke of the lance-thrusts and marvellous feats of arms of the count de Yermandois and the two Roberts
p170
Two thousand men of his army, who guarded the passage of the bridge of Antioch, were cut in pieces by the count de Vermandois.
p177
  The Crusaders sent at the same time an embassy to Constantinople, composed of Hugh, count of Yermandois, and Baldwin, count of Hainault, The object of this embassy was to remind the emperor Alexius of the promise he had made to accompany the Christians with an army to Jerusalem. The count of Hainault perished, with all his train, in Asia Minor. The count of Vermandois, who took a different route, arrived safely at Constantinople; but could obtain nothing from Alexius. Hereupon, whether he was ashamed of having failed in his mission, or whether he feared to rejoin an army in which he could not maintain the splendour of his rank, he determined to return to Europe, where his desertion caused him to be compared to the raven of the ark.

The ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis vol 3 p149 (trans. Thomas Forester, 1854)
IN the month of July, after having, by the grace of God, gained the victory, and established their authority in Antioch, the Christian chiefs held a council, and by common agreement commissioned Hugh the Great to proceed to the court of the emperor Alexius at Constantinople and offer him the immediate possession of the city which they had purchased for him at the cost of so much suffering, calling upon him at the same time to observe the terms of the treaty which he had sworn to on his part, viz., that he would resolutely accompany them in their march to Jerusalem. Hugh the Great departed on this mission; but although he had hitherto conducted himself with great ability during the crusade both in the field and in council, he was very deficient on this occasion, for, like the raven sent forth from the ark, he never fulfilled as he ought, his promise of returning again.3
  3 According to Ralph of Caen, Hugh the Great had been wounded in the thigh, and went to Tarsus for the recovery of his health.

Death: 18 October 1101, in Tarsus, Cilicia, from arrow wounds received in battle during the Crusade of 1101

The history of the crusades pp253-4 (Joseph François Michaud, trans. by W. Robson, 1852)
  A third troop, composed, according to the authors of the time, of more than a hundred and fifty thousand pilgrims, set out from Constantinople under the orders of the count of Poictiers, the duke of Bavaria, and Hugh de Vermandois. They took possession of Philomelium and Samalia, and marched across devastated provinces towards the city of Stankon, where they expected to unite themselves with the army of the count de Nevers. It was before this city that the pilgrims heard of the disasters and defeat of the Christian armies that had preceded them. They advanced towards Heraclea, and were not long in meeting with the army of Kilidge Arslan, which was waiting for them in an advantageous position. As they had no longer anything to hope for except from their courage, they did not seek to avoid the enemy. A rivulet which separated the Christians from the infidels, was the signal and the theatre of battle. The Crusaders, pressed by thirst, rushed towards it in crowds. The Turks immediately discharged upon them a shower of javelins and arrows. The two armies were soon completely engaged; but the Christians fighting in a confined and marshy place, could neither draw up their forces nor make use of the lance or the sword. Their bravery and their efforts were of no avail against the skilful manoeuvres ot Kerboghâ and Kilidge Arslan. The Turks penetrated the Christian army every where; the carnage was horrible; scarcely a thousand of the Crusaders escaped from either death or slavery. The margravine of Austria disappeared amidst the tumult of the battle. Some say that she was crushed under the feet of the horses; whilst others assert that she fell into the hands of the enemy, and went to live and die in the harem of the sultan of Mossoul. The greater part of the women and young girls that followed the Christian army met with the same fate. The count of Vermandois, pierced by two arrows, fled across Lycaonia, and arrived with a feeble escort at the city of Tarsus, where he died of his wounds.

A History of the Crusades vol 2 p29 (Steven Runciman, 1987)
Hugh of Vermandois was badly wounded in the battle; but some of his men rescued him and he too reached Tarsus. But he was a dying man. His death took place on 18 October and they buried him there in the Cathedral of St Paul. He never fulfilled his vow to go to Jerusalem.

Burial: Church of St. Paul in Tarsus, Cilicia

Guillelmi Tyrensis Historia Rerum in Patrologiæ Latina vol 201 p58 (ed. J.P Migne, 1855)
CAPUT XIII.
… Quibus autem concessum est divinitus hostium manus effugere, hi nudi vacuique, amissis sarcinis, et omnimoda supellectile perdita, salutem quocunque modo invenerunt; tandemque casu magis quam industria, in Ciliciam pervenientes, apud Tarsum ejusdem provinciæ metropolim, dominum Hugonem Magnum, fatali sublatum necesitate amiserunt: quo in ecclesia doctoris gentium, qui ex eadem fuit oriundus civitate, magnifice sepulto, refocillati per dies aliquot, resumpto itinere, Antiochiam pervenerunt. 

This roughly translates as:
Moreover, those to whom it was granted by divine [will] to escape the hands of the enemies—these [men], naked and empty-handed, their baggage lost and every kind of equipment destroyed, found safety in whatever way they could; and at last, arriving in Cilicia more by chance than by industry [effort], at Tarsus, the metropolis of that same province, they lost Lord Hugh the Great, who was taken away by fatal necessity. After he was magnificently buried in the church of the Teacher of the Gentiles [St. Paul], who was a native of that same city, [the survivors], having been refreshed for some days and having resumed their journey, arrived at Antioch..

Sources:

Isabel de Vermandois

also called Elizabeth

Father: Hugh de Vermandois
 
Mother: Adelaide

Married (1st): Robert de Beaumont, count of Meulan, in 1096

This marriage was opposed by the bishop Ivo of Chartres on the grounds that Robert and Isabel were related within a prohibited fourth degree of consanguinity, and in his Letter 45 he forbids priests from performing the ceremony. Isabel's father used his royal blood and his status as a "crusader in waiting" to navigate the complex ecclesiastical politics of the time and obtain a dispensation from Pope Urban II to allow the marriage and secure his family a rich and powerful ally.
Epistolae Ivonis Carnotensis in Patrologiæ Latina vol 162 p58 (ed. J.P Migne, 1889)
        EPISTOLA XLV.
Ivo, Dei gratia Carnotensis episcopus, clericis Mellentinis, et omnibus in. Pixiacensi archidiaconatu, salutem.
   Perlatum est ad aures nostras quod Mellentinus comes ducere velit in uxorem filiam Hugonis Crispeiensis comitis; quod fieri non. sinit concors deeretorum et canonum sanctio, dicens: « Conjunctiones consanguineorum fleri prohibemus.» Horum autem consanguinitas nec ignota est, nec remota, sicut testantur et probare parati sunt præclari viri de eadem sati prosapia. Dicunt enim quia Gualterius Albus genuit matrem Gualeranni comitis, qui genuit matrem Roberti comitis. Item supradictus Gualterius genuit Radulphum patrem alterius Radulfi, qui genuit Vermandensem comitissam, ex qua nata est uxor comitis Hugonis cujus filiam nunc ducere vult Mellentinus comes. Si autem prædicta genealogia ita sibi coheret, legitimum non poterit esse conjugium, sed incestum contubernium, nec filios poterunt habere legitimos, sed spurios. Unde vobis ex apostolica et canonica auctoritate præcipimus, ut tam calumniosum conjugium in ecelesiis nostri episcopatus nec ipsi conseeretis, neo ab aliquo, quantum in vobis est, conseerari permittatis, nisi primum in præsentia nostri consanguinitas hec septimum gradum excessisse legitime fuerit comprobata. Valete, et has litteras Mellentino comiti transmittite.

This roughly translates as:
        Letter 45
Ivo, by the grace of God Bishop of Chartres, to the clergy of Meulan, and to all in the archdeaconry of Poissy: Greeting.
  It has been brought to our ears that the count of Meulan [Robert de Beaumont] wishes to take as his wife the daughter of Hugh, count of Crépy [Hugh of Vermandois]; which thing the harmonious authority of decrees and canons does not allow to happen, saying: "We prohibit the unions of blood-relatives to be made." Moreover, the consanguinity of these persons is neither unknown nor remote, as illustrious men born of the same lineage testify and are prepared to prove. For they say that Walter Albus begat the mother of count Waleran, who [Waleran] begat the mother of count Robert. Likewise, the aforementioned Walter begat Ralph, the father of another Ralph, who begat the countess of Vermandois, from whom was born the wife of count Hugh, whose daughter the count of Meulan now wishes to take in marriage. If, however, the aforesaid genealogy so holds itself together, the marriage cannot be legitimate, but an incestuous cohabitation (incestum contubernium), nor can they have legitimate children, but bastards (spurios). Wherefore we command you, by apostolic and canonical authority, that you yourselves neither consecrate such a shameful marriage in the churches of our bishopric, nor permit it to be consecrated by anyone, as much as lies in you, unless first, in our presence, this consanguinity shall have been lawfully proved to have exceeded the seventh degree. Farewell, and transmit these letters to the Count of Meulan.

However, the marriage between the young Isabel and the much older Robert de Beaumopnt was not successful, despite their many children. Henry of Huntingdon claims in his letter De Contemptu Mundi that Isabel was stolen by a count, presumably William de Warenne, leading Robert into depression, madness and death. The account is questioned by modern historians, but it is known, nonetheless, that William married Isabel very shortly after Robert's death on 5 June 1118.

Henrici archidiaconi huntendunensis Historia Anglorum pp306-7 (ed. Thomas Arnold, 1879)
  Epistola de Contemptu Mundi
Fuit igitur and Robertus consul de Mellend in rebus sæcularibus sapientissimus omnium hinc usque in Jerusalem degentium. Fuit scientia clarus, eloquio blandus, astutia perspicax, providentia sagax, ingenio versipellis, prudentia insuperabilis, consilio profundus, sapientia magnus. Possessiones igitur magnas et varias, quas vulgo vocant honores, et urbes et castella, vicos et villas, flumina et silvas, prædictis acquisierat instrumentis. Erant autem honores ejus non solum in Anglia, sed etiam in Normannia et Francia. Pro libitu suo igitur reges Francorum et Anglorum nunc concordes uniebantur, nunc discordes præliabantura. Si adversus aliquem insurgebat, contritus humiliabatur. Si prodesse volebat, gloriosus exaltabatur. Hinc thesauri copia, scilicet auri et argenti, gemmarum et palliorum, incredibiliter ei confluxit.
  § 8. Cum igitur in summo statu gloriæ suæ degeret, contigit quemdam alium consulem sponsam ei tam factione quam dolosis viribus arripuisse. Unde in senectute sua mente turbatus et angaria obnubilatus, in tenebras mœroris incidit; nec usque ad mortem se lætum vel hilarem sensit. Cum igitur post dies dolori dedicatos in infirmitatem mortis prænuntiam incidisset, rogatus est ab archiepiscopo et sacerdotibus, cum ei confessionis purgatorium impenderent officium, ut terras quas vi vel arte multis abstulerat, pœnitens redderet, et erratum lacrymis lavaret. Quibus respondens ait: “Si terras quas aggregavi multifariam divisero, quid miser filiis meis relinquam?” Cui contra ministri Domini: “Sufficient filiis tuis hæreditates pristinæ, et quas juste terras acquisisti. Cætera redde. Alioquin animam devovisti gehennæ.” Respondit autem consul: “Filiis omnia tradam; ipsi pro salute defuncti misericorditer agant.” Eo autem defuncto, filii ejus magis injuste congregata injuste studuerunt augere, quam aliquid pro salute paterna distribuere. Liquet igitur summam viri sapientiam in fine, quod laus canitur, non solum in summam stultitiam, sed in cœcam devenisse insaniam.
  
a For a remarkable illustration of the influence possessed by the count of Mellent over the mind of William Rufus, see Ordericus, x., ch. 7. The character given to him by Malmesbury, except that he says nothing in his dispraise, is in close agreement with that drawn by Henry. Mellent died in 1118: (Ord. Vit., xii. 1).
This roughly translates as:
  A Letter on Contempt for the World
There was, therefore, Robert, Count of Meulan, who in secular affairs was the wisest of all those living between here and Jerusalem. He was renowned for his knowledge, smooth in speech, sharp in cunning, shrewd in foresight, versatile in talent, insuperable in prudence, profound in counsel, and great in wisdom. By these aforementioned means, he had acquired great and varied possessions—which are commonly called "honors"—as well as cities and castles, towns and manors, rivers and forests. Moreover, his honors were not only in England, but also in Normandy and France. At his pleasure, the kings of the Franks and the English were at one moment united in peace, and at the next, clashing in discord. If he rose up against anyone, they were crushed and humbled; if he wished to benefit someone, they were gloriously exalted. Because of this, an incredible abundance of treasure—namely gold and silver, gems and fine silks—flowed to him.
  § 8. Thus, while he was living at the very peak of his glory, it happened that a certain other count snatched away his wife, both by intrigue and by deceitful force. Because of this, in his old age, troubled in mind and clouded by anguish, he fell into the darkness of sorrow; nor did he feel glad or cheerful again until the day of his death. Therefore, when after days dedicated to grief he had fallen into the sickness that heralded death, he was asked by the archbishop and priests (as they were performing the office of confession to purge his soul) that he should penitently return the lands which he had taken from many by force or craft, and wash away his error with tears. Answering them, he said: "If I divide up the lands I have gathered in so many ways, what, wretched man that I am, shall I leave to my sons?" To him the ministers of the Lord countered: "The ancient inheritances and the lands you acquired justly will suffice for your sons. Return the rest; otherwise, you have devoted your soul to Gehenna (Hell)." But the Count replied: "I will hand over everything to my sons; let them act mercifully for the salvation of my departed soul." However, once he was dead, his sons strove to unjustly increase what had been unjustly gathered, rather than distribute anything for their father's salvation. It is clear, therefore, that in the end—where the final praise is sung—the man's great wisdom turned out to be not only great folly, but blind madness.

Children The Complete Peerage vol 7 pp523-6 (George Edward Cokayne, enlarged by Geoffrey H. White, 1953)
      LEICESTER
EARLDOM.
I. 1107?.
  1. ROBERT DE BEAUMONT, SEIGNEUR OF BEAUMONT, PONT-AUDEMER, BRIONNE AND VATTEVILLE in Normandy, and from 1081 COUNT OF MEULAN in the French Vexin, s. and h., b. circa 1046. When very young he accompanied Duke William to England and distinguished himself at the battle of Hastings, and received large grants of lands in co. Warwick, with smaller holdings in cos. Leicester, Northants, and Wilts. (g) On 14 July 1080, as Robert de Bellomonte, he witnessed the foundation charter of Lessay, and next year he inherited from his mother’s family the comté of Meulan. (b) Thereafter he is continuously styled Count (Comes) of Meulan. After the death of the Conqueror he adhered to William Rufus, and was high in favour at his court. He quarrelled with Robert of Normandy about the castellanship of Brionne, in consequence of the exchange of Brionne for Ivry made by his father. He was imprisoned, but was released at the intercession of his father Roger, who eventually succeeded in obtaining Brionne in fee. He succeeded to the greater part of his father’s lands in Normandy, including Beaumont, Pont- Audemer, Vatteville and Brionne. This paternal inheritance, added to his French comté and his great possessions in cos. Warwick and Leicester, made him one of the most powerful vassals of the Crown. He became one of the chief lay ministers of William Rufus, with whom he sided against Robert Courtheuse in 1098, and when William invaded the French Vexin in 1097 he received his troops in his fortresses of the comté of Meulan. After the death of William Rufus he became one of the chief advisers of Henry I. On the death of Ives de Grandmesnil on Crusade, Robert retained his estates, which Ives had mortgaged to him circa 1102. Thereby he acquired one-quarter of the town of Leicester, the whole of which was later granted to him by the King. Robert thus added largely to his already vast possessions. In 1104 he was one of the Norman barons who adhered to Henry on his arrival in Normandy. He was present in the King’s army at Tenchebrai, 28 Sep. 1106. In 1110 he was besieged at Meulan by Louis VI, who took the castle by storm, but in the following year he retaliated by a raid on Paris, which he plundered. After obtaining the whole town of Leicester he is said to have become EARL OF LEICESTER, but, being already Count of Meulan, was never so styled. There is no contemporary record that he had the third penny of the pleas of the county, but he doubtless acquired, with the Grandmesnil fief, the third penny of the issues of the Mint at Leicester. He m., in 1096, (a) Isabel, called also Elizabeth, da. of Hugh DE CRÉPI, called Hugh “le Grand,” COUNT OF VERMANDOIS. (b) He d. 5 June 1118, and was bur. with his ancestors in the chapter house of Préaux.(c) His widow m., very shortly after his death, William (DE WARENNE), EARL OF SURREY.(d)
  (g) At the time of Domesday (1086) his holding in co. Warwick was very large. It was combined not long after with that of Turchil of Warwick, and acquired by Robert’s younger brother Henry, who was created Earl of Warwick (Round, Intro. to Warwickshire Domesday, V.C.H. Warwick, vol. i). In co. Leicester Robert’s holding was small, and he had nothing in the town of Leicester, but he held in demesne Aylestone (just outside the walls, now part of the city); and Frolesworth, Huncote, Cosby and 6 carucates in Market Bosworth (Domesday Book, fol. 231 d.). He is the first lay tenant named under Leicester in the Survey.
  (a) Orderic (vol. ii, p. 404) states that he m., 1stly, Godechilde, da. of Ralph de Tosny, and that she married, 2ndly, Baldwin of Boulogne, afterwards King of Jerusalem. This latter marriage, which took place in 1096, when she was still a young girl, is attested by two writers—namely, Albert of Aix and William of Tyre (Genealogist, N.S., vol. x, p. 2). The marriage with Robert is therefore highly improbable, and, moreover, Orderic does not suggest that it was annulled on the ground of impediment, which would have been necessary to enable her to marry Baldwin.
  (b) Orderic, vol. iii, p. 480; vol. iv, p. 169. Ives, Bishop of Chartres, wrote to the clergy of Meulan prohibiting the solemnisation of the marriage on the ground of consanguinity (see G. W. Watson, Genealogist, N.S., vol. x, where Ives’s letter is printed at p. 11). At this time the names of Isabel and Elizabeth were synonymous. The identity of the wife of Robert Count of Meulan with the wife of William de Warenne is proved by the following charters: “Ego Willielmus de Warenna et Ysabella Comitissa uxor mea et filii nostri Willielmus scilicet et Radulfus damus etc. Deo et ecclesiae omnium Sanctorum Belencombris et infirmis fratribus in ea servientibus etc. culturas nostras de Sancto Martino etc. et ego Isabella Comitissa do et concedo supradictis fratribus de haereditate et patrimonio meo de Wellebosc c sol. Rothomagenses per annum concessu Waleranni Comitis Mellenti filii mei …” (Mon., vol. vi, p. 1113); “Testibus his … Gualeranno comite Mellenti, Willelmo comite Warenne fratre eius …” (Haskins, Norman Institutions, p. 92). Compare also the Continuation of William of Jumièges by Robert de Torigni, bk. viii, c. 40, 41; Robert de Torigni (ed. Delisle), vol. i, pp. 273, 274; Orderic, vol. v, p. 128.
  (c) Orderic, vol. iv, p. 313; cf. Round, Cal. Docs., no. 331; Hist. de l’Abbaye de Lyre, par l’abbé Ch. Guéry, p. 411; H.F., vol. xxiii, p. 487. Robert had three sons and (according to Orderic, vol. iv, p. 169) five daughters. The sons were Waleran and Robert, twins born in 1104, and Hugh. Waleran, the eldest, succeeded to the Norman and French fiefs, and the English lands held by his grandfather Roger de Beaumont in 1086. See for him and his successors Appendix I in this volume. Robert succeeded his father as Earl of Leicester, and Hugh is said to have been cr. Earl of Bedford. The names of only four of the daughters appear to be known—Adeline, Aubreye, Maud and Isabel or Elizabeth. Adeline m. Hugh IV, Seigneur of Montfort-sur-Risle (Orderic, vol. iv, pp. 441, 444). Aubreye m. Hugh II, Seigneur of Châteauneuf-en-Thimerais (Orderic, vol. iv, p. 441). Maud m. William Louvel, Seigneur of Ivri and Breval (Orderic, vol. iv, p. 441). Isabel, also called Elizabeth, was mistress of Henry I, and m. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke. See PEMBROKE.
  (d) Her obit was observed at St. Nicaise-de-Meulan on 17 Feb. (H.F., Quarto, Obituaires de la Prov. de Sens, vol. ii, p. 238 E). Henry of Huntingdon in his epistle to Walter, “De Contemptu Mundi,” states that she eloped with a certain earl during Robert’s lifetime, which may refer to some scandal, but the whole trend of the letter does not inspire confidence in the facts stated therein.

Married (2nd): William de Warenne in 1118

Children Notes:
Dictionary of national biography vol 59 pp374-5 (ed. Sidney Lee, 1899)
  WARENNE or WARREN, WILLIAM DE, second EARL OF SURREY (d. 1138), … married the beautiful Elizabeth, or Isabel, daughter of Hugh the Great, count of Vermandois, a son of Henry I of France, and widow of Robert de Beaumont (d. 1118) [q. v.], count of Meulan, from whom he carried her off while Robert was still living, though she was the mother of eight children (HEN. HUNT. De Contemptu Mundi, sect. 8). She died on 13 Feb. 1131, and was buried at Lewes. By her he had three sons and two daughters, William de Warenne (d. 1148) [q. v.], Reginald, and Ralph (for Ralph see Monasticon, v. 15; the editors are mistaken in heading Charter No. xi., in which the grantor speaks of Ralph ‘frater meus,’ as given by William de Warenne (d. 1138), as may be seen by the teste, one of the witnesses being Ascelin, bishop of Rochester, who was not consecrated until 1142; the charter was therefore given by William de Warenne (d. 1148), and Ralph was his brother). Reginald was assured in the possession of the castles of Bellencombre and Mortemer by the agreement made between Stephen and Duke Henry (Henry II) in 1153, the rest of the Warenne inheritance passing to Stephen’s son William (d. 1159) (Fœdera, i. 18); Reginald was one of the persecutors of Archbishop Thomas in 1170, and became a wealthy baron by his marriage with Adeline or Alice, daughter and sole heir of William de Wormegay in Norfolk (WATSON, i. 67, following CAMDEN, Britannia, col. 393, ed. Gibson, maintains that the lord of Wormegay was Reginald, son of William de Warenne, d. 1088, because in Reginald’s charter to St. Mary Overy, Southwark—Monasticon, vi. 171— he speaks of ‘Isabella comitissa domina mea’ as a different person from his mother, but the Isabella of the charter was doubtless the grantor’s niece, the daughter of William de Warenne, d. 1148). By Adeline Reginald had a son William, who founded the priory of Wormegay (ib. vi. 591), and left as his sole heir his daughter Beatrice, who married (1) Dodo, lord Bardolf, and (2) Hubert de Burgh [q. v.], earl of Kent. Earl William’s two daughters were Gundrada, who married (1) Roger de Beaumont, earl of Warwick, and in 1153 expelled Stephen’s garrison from the castle of Warwick and surrendered it to Henry; and (2) William, called Lancaster, baron of Kendal, and, it is said, a third husband: and Ada or Adeline, who in 1139 married Henry of Scotland [q.v.], son of David I.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edition vol 28 p324 (ed. Hugh Chisholm, 1911)
  WARENNE, EARLS.
… William, 2nd earl (c. 1071-1138), was a suitor for the hand of Matilda of Scotland, afterwards queen of Henry I. He was temporarily deprived of his earldom in 1101 for his support of Robert, duke of Normandy, but he commanded at the battle of Tenchebrai (1106), and was governor of Rouen in 1135. He carried off Elizabeth of Vermandois, granddaughter of Henry I. of France, and wife of Robert, count of Meulan, and married her in 1118 after her husband’s death.

Early Yorkshire Charters vol 8 p9 (Charles Travis Clay, 1949)
[William de Warenne] married shortly after the death of her first husband on 5 June 1118 Isabel, called also Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh count of Vermandois, younger son of king Henry I of France. Her first husband was Robert de Beaumont, count of Meulan, lord of Beaumont-le-Roger and Pont Audemer in Normandy and of lands in England chiefly in cos. Warwick and Leicester;6 and by him she was the mother of three sons and four or five daughters.7 The two eldest sons, twins born in 1104, were Waleran, count of Meulan and earl of Worcester,8 and Robert earl of Leicester. She survived her second husband, William de Warenne; and after his death, with the consent of her son the third earl, gave the church of Dorking to Lewes priory.9 The terms of a charter issued by the third earl suggest that she died in his lifetime.10
  6 Complete Peerage, new ed., vii, pp. 523-6. He is said to have become earl of Leicester, but was never so styled.
  7 Ibid., p. 526n.
  8 For him and his descendants see ibid., p. 737 (App. I); and for his career in greater detail Mr. G. H. White in R. Hist. Soc. Transactions, 4th ser., xvii, pp. 19-48.
  9 Lewes Chartulary, f. 18v (S.R.S., i, 29). In one of the narrative accounts in the same (ii, 18) it is stated that she died 13 Feb. 1131 in the seventh year before her husband. More trustworthy evidence from another source shows that her obit was observed on 17 Feb. (Complete Peerage, new ed., vii, 526n); and the year 1131 is clearly wrong. Cf. also charter no, 35 below.
  10 Charter no. 41.

The Complete Peerage vol 12 part 1 p496 (George Edward Cokayne, enlarged by Geoffrey H. White, 1953)
      SURREY
EARLDOM.
II. 1088.
  2. WILLIAM (DE WARENNE) II, EARL OF SURREY … eventually m. Isabel (or Elizabeth), widow of Robert (DE BEAUMONT), COUNT OF MEULAN and 1st EARL OF LEICESTER (d. 5 June 1118),(c) da. of Hugh DE CRÉPI (styled “the Great”), COUNT OF VERMANDOIS(d) (yr. s. of HENRY I, KING OF FRANCE), by Adelaide, da. and h. of Herbert, COUNT OF VERMANDOIS and VALOIS. He d. probably 11 May 1138(e) and was bur. at his father’s feet in the chapter-house at Lewes.(f) Isabel surv. him and with the consent of her s. the 3rd Earl gave the church of Dorking to Lewes priory.(g) She d. probably before July 1147.(h)
  (c) According to Henry of Huntingdon, De Contemptu Mundi (Rolls Ser., p. 307), the death of Isabel’s 1st husband was hastened by an (unnamed) Earl carrying her off, by force or fraud. The truth of this story is open to question, cf. ante, vol. vii, p. 526, note “d.”
  (d) Will. de Juinieges, ed. Marx (Soc. de l’Hist. de Normandie), p. 332—additions by R. de Torigny; Orderic, vol. iii, p. 480; vol. iv, p. 169; cf. ante, vol. vii, p. 526, note “b.”
  (e) See the discussion on this date in E.Y.C., vol. viii, p. 8, note (7).
  (f) Idem, p. 8, citing the Lewes Chartulary.
  (g) Idem, p. 9. He left 3 sons: William, 3rd Earl, Ralph, and Rainald, ancestor of the Warennes of Wormegay (Idem, pp. 26-35); and 2 daughters: (1) Gundred, who m., 1stly, Roger (de Beaumont), 2nd Earl of Warwick; 2ndly, (as his 2nd wife), William de Lancaster; (2) Ada, who m. Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, s. of David I, King of Scotland, by whom she was mother of Malcolm IV and William the Lion, Kings of Scotland.
  (h) I.e. before her s. William, 3rd Earl, went on crusade in June 1147; see E.Y.C., vol. viii, pp. 9, 91. On 17 Feb., according to the Obituary of St. Nicaise (Recueil der Chartes de Saint-Nicoise de Meulan, ed. Houth, p. 192).

Death: 17 February

Burial: Lewes Priory, Sussex, England

Sources:

Robert II of France

Seal of Robert II of France
Effigy of king Robert II of France, from his seal The inscription reads "✝ ROTBERTVS GR[ati]A D[e]i FRANCORV[m] REX" which translates to "✝ ROBERT, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF THE FRANKS"
illustration from the Éléments de paléographie vol 2 p340 (Natalis de Wailly, 1838)
Robert II of France
Robert II of France, as depicted in the Wolfenbüttel manuscript of the Chronica sancti Pantaleonis from the second half of the 12th century
illustration from the Chronica St. Pantaleonis posted on wikipedia
Birth: between 970 and 974, in Orleans, France

Father: Hugh Capet
 
Mother: Adelaide of Aquitaine

Helgardi Flor. Epitome Vitæ Roberti Regis in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France vol 10 p99 (1874)
fuit Rex Francorum Rotbertus origine natus nobilissima, patre illustri Hugone, matre Adhelaide vocitata
This roughly translates as:
Robert was King of the Franks, born of noble birth, of illustrious father Hugh, and of mother Adelaide.


Married (1st): Rozala of Italy circa 988

Rozala was the daughter of Berengar of Ivrea, king of Italy, and Willa of Tuscany. She married, firstly, Arnulf II, count of Flanders, and had two children, Baldwin IV and Mathilda. Arnulf died about 987. Rozala was approximately twenty years older than the teenaged Robert, and this union did not produce any children. Robert repudiated her in 989, but controversially he kept the geographically strategic territory of Montreuil-sur-Mer that she brought to the marriage as her dowry. Rozala retired back to Flanders where she died in 1003.

Ex Vita S. Bertulfi Abbatis Renticensis in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France vol 10 p15 (1874)
POST immaturam (a) Arnulfi Junioris Marchionis mortem, cujus avus magnus exstitit Arnulfus, Balduinus filius ejus cum matre Rozala derelictus est parvulus. Hic enim est qui posteà Prolixæ-barbæ dictus est Balduinus, cujus mater Rozala filia fuit Berengarii Regis Italiæ, quæ post mortem Arnulfi Principis Roberto Regi Francorum (b) nupsit, et Susanna dicta, mutato nomine, Regina regnavit.
  (a) Arnulfus II Comes Flandris obiit 23 Martii an. 989 juxta hodiernum computandi modum.
  (b) DD. Sanmarthani putant hanc à Roberto fuisse repudiatam: rectiùs autem sensissent, si fabulam esse explodendam duxissent laudatum Rozalæ matrimonium, cujus nullum apud istius ævi Scriptores  vestigium occurrit.

This roughly translates as:
AFTER the premature (a) death of Arnulf the Younger, the Marquis [Count], whose grandfather was Arnulf the Great, his son Baldwin was left behind as a small child with his mother, Rozala. This is the same Baldwin who was later called 'Baldwin of the Long Beard.' His mother, Rozala, was the daughter of Berengar, King of Italy; after the death of Prince Arnulf, she married Robert, King of the Franks (b), and having changed her name, she was called Susanna and reigned as Queen.
  (a) Arnulf II, Count of Flanders, died on March 23 in the year 989, according to the modern way of reckoning.
  (b) The Messieurs Sainte-Marthe [historians] think she was repudiated by Robert; however, they would have been more correct if they had concluded that this celebrated marriage of Rozala should be rejected as a fable, since no trace of it appears among the writers of that age.

Bertha of Burgundy
Bertha of Burgundy, as depicted in the Wolfenbüttel manuscript of the Chronica sancti Pantaleonis from the second half of the 12th century
illustration from the Chronica St. Pantaleonis posted on wikipedia
Married (2nd): Bertha of Burgundy in 996

Bertha was the daughter of king Conrad I of Burgundy and his wife Matilda, daughter of king Louis IV of France and Gerberga of Saxony. She first married Eudes I, count of Blois, and had four children - Theobald, Eudes II, Agnes and Robert. Eudes I died on 12 March 996.

Bertha of Burgundy was a marriage of genuine passion—one that nearly cost Robert his throne and his soul. When she and Robert fell in love and wished to marry in 996, they faced a massive legal obstacle: they were second cousins. Under the strict canon law of the medieval Church, this was considered "consanguinity" (incest). Furthermore, Robert was the godfather of one of Bertha’s children, which created a "spiritual kinship" that also barred marriage. Robert, usually submissive to the Church, was uncharacteristically defiant regarding Bertha. He ignored the warnings of Pope Gregory V and married her anyway. In 998, the Pope placed Robert under an interdict and excommunicated him. This was a devastating political blow; it technically meant that Robert's subjects were no longer bound to obey him and that religious services (including burials and baptisms) could be suspended across his lands. Despite the pressure, Robert held out for five years. However, the political isolation became too much to bear. Robert needed a male heir to secure the Capetian line, and Bertha was struggling to conceive a living child. Around 1001, Robert finally succumbed to the Church’s demands, "repudiated" Bertha and married Constance. However, Robert was still attached to Bertha and he took her to Rome in 1010 to seek recognition of his marriage to her, but was unsuccessful, and the king was forced to return to Constance.

Married (3rd): Constance of Arles, about 1002

Constance was the daughter of a count William.

See Hugonis Floriacensis Modernorum Regum Francorum Actus in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 9 pp387-9 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1851) for Constance's battles with her son Henry. Seal see Éléments de paléographie vol 2 p340 (Natalis de Wailly, 1838)

Children
Penny from the reign of Robert II
A silver denier, or penny, from the reign of Robert II, struck in the city of Soissons.
It is inscribed "+ ROTBERTVS RT" (legend is retrograde) on the obverse and "+ SVESIO CIVIT" on the reverse.
posted on wikipedia
Occupation: King of France
Robert was crowned joint king with his father in December 987, becoming sole king when his father died in October 996.

Notes:
Robert II, known as Robert the Pious (le Pieux), was the second king of the Capetian dynasty, reigning from 996 to 1031. He was a complex figure who balanced a reputation for deep religious devotion with a turbulent political and personal life. Educated by the famous scholar Gerbert of Aurillac (the future Pope Sylvester II), Robert was a learned man, known for composing hymns and being a patron of the church. However, his piety did not prevent him from clashing violently with the papacy over his marriages. His second marriage to Bertha of Burgundy was deemed incestuous by the Church because they were second cousins, leading to a temporary excommunication. Despite this "holy" moniker, he was a king who struggled to maintain order among his rebellious vassals and within his own family.
  The later years of Robert’s reign were marred by a series of bitter civil wars against his own sons. Following the tradition of his father, Hugh Capet, Robert had his eldest son, Hugh Magnus, crowned co-king to secure the succession, but the young man died in 1025. This sparked a dynastic crisis: Robert favored his second son Henry (the future Henry I) to succeed him, while his powerful and influential wife, Constance of Arles, conspired to place their younger son, Robert, on the throne. This internal strife defined the transition of power in 1031. Ultimately, Robert the Pious laid the groundwork for the Capetian "miracle"—the long, unbroken line of succession that would rule France for centuries—by successfully navigating the fragile balance between the growing power of the feudal lords and the spiritual authority of the Church.

The ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis vol 2 pp345-7 (trans. Thomas Forester, 1853)
  In the year of our Lord 918, the king Hugh departed this life,1 and was interred in the church of St. Denys at Paris. He was succeeded by his son Robert, the most pious and temperate of kings.
  In the year of our Lord 999, the venerable Archbishop Sewin began to restore the abbey of St. Peter at Melun from the foundations, and establishing there a fraternity of monks, appointed Walter their abbot. The same year, the knight Walter and his wife betrayed the castle of Melun to Count Eudes. Upon this, King Robert assembled a strong force with Count Bouchard, and calling in the Normans under their Duke Richard, laid siege to Melun. The castle being taken, Walter and his wife were hung on a gallows, and Melun was restored to Count Bouchard its former lord.
… In the year of our Lord 1001, Henry duke of Burgundy died without issue, and the Burgundians rebelled against King Robert, whom they refused to acknowledge as their sovereign. In consequence, Landri, Comte de Nevers, occupied the city of Auxerre.1
  In the year of our Lord 1003, King Robert having called in the Normans with their Duke Richard, and assembled a very large army, ravaged Burgundy and besieged Auxerre for a long time. The Burgundians, being by no means disposed to submit to him, were unanimous in their resistance; but he besieged the castle of Avalon for nearly three months, and at length it was compelled by famine to surrender to King Robert, who then returned to France.2
… Robert, king of the Franks, reigned thirty-seven years.2 He married Constance, a princess celebrated for her wisdom and virtue. She bore him a noble offspring, Henry, Robert, and Adele. King Robert died in the year of our Lord 1031, the fourteenth indiction, and Henry his son reigned nearly thirty years.
  1 October 24, 996.
  1 Henry the Great died in 1002.—Mabillon. Otho-William, his son-in-law, and also his adopted heir, took possession of the duchy. King Robert seized the province in 1003, with the aid of thirty thousand Normans, commanded by their duke, Richard II.; but he was compelled to retire without taking Auxerre, which was defended by Landri, count de Nevers, and son-in-law of Otho-William.
  2 The siege and taking of Avalon belong to the campaign of 1005, in the course of which the king also took Sens, and besieged Dijon in vain. It was defended by Otho-William in person, and his most gallant knights.
  2 October 24, 996—July 20, 1031. Robert and Constance had four sons, Hugh, Henry, Robert, and Hugh, and two daughters, Adelaide, or Havise, and Adele. Henry I. died August 29, 1060, after a reign of twenty-nine years. Robert I., duke of Burgundy, called the Elder, received that province of his brother Henry in full sovereignty in the year 1032.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edition vol 23 p399 (ed. Hugh Chisholm, 1911)
  ROBERT II. (c. 970-1031), king of France, was a son of Hugh Capet, and was born at Orleans. He was educated at Reims under Gerbert, afterwards Pope Silvester II. As the ideal of medieval Christianity he won his surname of “Pious” by his humility and charity, but he also possessed some of the qualities of a soldier and a statesman. His father associated him with himself in the government of France, and he was crowned in December 987, becoming sole king on Hugh’s death in October 996. Robert’s reign is chiefly remembered for its dramatic side. In 988 he had married Rosala, or Susanna, widow of Arnold II., count of Flanders. This lady, however, was much older than Robert, who repudiated her in 989, fixing his affections upon Bertha, daughter of Conrad the Peaceful, king of Burgundy, or Arles, and wife of Eudes I., count of Blois; and although the pair were related, and the king had been godfather to one of Bertha’s children, they were married in 996, a year after the death of Eudes. Pope Gregory V., whose favour Robert vainly sought to win by allowing Arnulf, the imprisoned archbishop, to return to his see of Reims and forcing Gerbert to flee to the court of the emperor Otto III., excommunicated the king, and a council at Rome imposed a seven years’ penance upon him. For five years the king braved all anathemas, but about 1002 he gave up Bertha and married Constance, daughter of a certain Count William, an intriguing and ambitious woman, who made life miserable for her husband, while the court was disturbed by quarrels between the partisans of the two queens. Still attached to Bertha, Robert took this lady with him to Rome in loio, but the pope refused to recognize their marriage, and the king was forced to return to Constance. By this wife Robert had four sons, and in 1017, the eldest of these, Hugh, (1007-1025), was crowned as his father’s colleague and successor. After Hugh’s death the king procured the coronation of his second son, Henry, duke of Burgundy, afterwards king of France, a proceeding which displeased Constance, who wished her third son, Robert (d. 1075), afterwards duke of Burgundy, to receive the crown. Robert’s concluding days were troubled by a rising on the part of these two sons, and after a short war, in which he was worsted, the king died at Melun on the 20th of July 1031. The notable gain to France during this reign was the duchy of Burgundy, which Robert claimed on the death of his uncle, Duke Henry, in 1001. The other claimant, however, Otto William, count of upper Burgundy, or Franche Comté, offered so stubborn a resistance that it was not until 1015 that the king secured the duchy, which he gave as an apanage to his son Henry. Nevertheless, Robert himself kept a close oversight over its government, and this was one reason which led to the revolt of his sons in 1030. Owing to family quarrels, he could not prevent the kingdom of Burgundy, or Arles, from passing into the hands of the emperor Conrad II., and no serious results followed his interference in Flanders or in Lorraine. Robert added to the royal domains, and was greatly aided by the support of Richard II. and Richard III., dukes of Normandy, the latter of whom was his son-in-law.
  His life was written by his chaplain, Helgaud, and this panegyric, Epitoma vitae Roberti regis, is published by J. P. Migne in the Patrologia Latina, tome cxli. (Paris, 1844). See also C. Pfister, Études sur le règne de Robert le Pieux (Paris, 1885); and E. Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome ii. (Paris, 1901).

Death: 20 July 1031, at the castle of Melun, France

Raoul Glaber: Les cinq livres de ses histoires (900-1044) book 3 chapter 9 #36 p85 (ed. Maurice Prou, 1886)
  36. Anno quoque sequenti, mense Julio2, Rotbertus rex apud castrum Meledunense diem clausit extremum; delatumque est corpus ejus ad ęcclesiam Sancti Dionisii martyris ac in eadem sepultum.
  2. Le 20 juillet 1031.
This roughly translates as:
  36. Also in the following year, in the month of July2, king Robert closed his final day [passed away] at the castle of Melun; and his body was carried to the church of Saint Denis the Martyr and buried in that same place.
  2. 20 July 1031

The ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis vol 1 p148 (trans. Thomas Forester, 1853)
  In the year of our Lord 1031, Robert, king of the French, died, and Henry his son, supported by Robert, duke of Normandy, secured the throne notwithstanding the opposition of Queen Constance and his younger brother Robert, and others of the French. His reign lasted twenty-nine years.2
  2 King Robert died on the 20th of July, 1031.

Tomb of Robert II of France and Constance
Effigies of king Robert II of France and queen Constance on the ossuary in the crypt in the basilica of Saint-Denis, Paris
photo posted on 5 June 2023 by Łukasz Janecki on findagrave.com
Burial: Basilica of Saint-Denis, Paris, France
Robert's tomb was desecrated during the French Revolution and his bones, along with those of his ancestors and descendants, were thrown into a common pit (a mass grave) outside the church. After the restoration of the monarchy in the 19th century, these remains were gathered and placed in a massive ossuary in the crypt of the Basilica, where they remain today.

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