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Quote[/b] ]Under the early members of the Capetian dynasty the effective power of the king was greatly limited by powerful feudal lords. The beginning of the 11th century saw the kings power confined to Ile de France, the counts controlled the rest of France. The counts wielded governmental powers; they minted coins, raised troops and built castles, the last a powerful expression of autonomy. The counts did not seek to replace the King, they scarcely needed to do so. Some of the counts, such as the count of Champagne were as powerful as the king. Further more, Gascony and Toulouse, both south of the Loire, were a sufficient distance from Paris to be little concerned about its Capetian rulers. North of the Loirs, however, rivalry between the powerful local feudatories and the crown was most important. The Dukes of Normandy, meanwhile, competed with the Capetains for control of the Vexin in the northwest of Paris. The idea of a powerful monarchy was kept alive by the Church, but there was little basis to it in the 11th Century.
In 911 Charles the simple had conceded Rouen and the lower Seine valley to a viking group led by Rollo, who extended their authority to the west and took over the entire area now as Normandy; They would be later now as the Normans. In 1066, William Duke of Normandy conquered England with a small force. The conquest of England was just one of a series of successful military adventures which brought them large territories in southern Italy and Sicily.
The French kings Henry I (1031-60) and Philip I (1060-1108) sought to increase royal power in France, a goal challenged by the power of their vassals, the Dukes. No where more, than in Normandy, where the conquest of England had strengthened the Normans. Louis VI (1108-37) and Louis VII (1137-80) struggles to expand the power of the Capetians in France, but a major setback occured in 1152 when Louis VII allowed his divorced wife Eleanor of Aquitaine to marry Henry, Count of Anjou, soon to be Henry II of England, thereby losing effective control of a large portion of southern France. Henry was now the most powerful ruler in France, as he had also inherited Normandy. Henry used his power to resolve inheritance disputes in his favour, gaining control of Brittany and more land in southern France.
