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anointed, and the vassals of all France bent the knee in allegiance, but afterward the boy no longer listened to his father. The high standards that Louis set for him, those that he himself followed, were disdained, and scoldings had little effect. The boy, says Walter Map, “strayed from the paths of conduct traveled by his father and, by his overweening pride and tyrannical arrogance, made himself a burden to all.” Philip’s adolescent behavior problems, excusable in an ordinary boy but alarming in a youth destined for the Frankish throne, were abruptly solved one day in October 1131, when he and a group of companions were riding along the Seine in the market section of Paris known as the Greve. Suddenly a black pig darted out of a dung heap along the quay and tripped Philip’s running horse, causing it to fall and catapult the heir over its head. The fall “so dreadfully fractured his limbs that he died on the day following” without regaining consciousness.
    Louis VI’s second son was cast from an entirely different mold. Mild and sweet-tempered, Louis Capet the Young had been bred for the Church, a calling that seemed made to measure for his placid nature. His life had been spent in the royal abbey of Saint-Denis, immured among the monks, and even though Philip’s death briefly returned him to his father for anointing, even though he had recently received instruction befitting a knight, the musty perfume of the cloister still clung to him. His piety and humility, which no one could fail to see, did not overplease his father, who feared these qualities might be mistaken for weakness and who hoped that by the time he matured, he would develop the strengths required for kingship. Aware of the priests hovering in his antechamber, ready to administer the last rites, Louis understood only too well that his son might be denied the precious years he desperately needed.
    It was in this agitated frame of mind that Louis the Fat received the couriers of the late Duke William of Aquitaine and learned that his most bullheaded vassal lay dead at Compostela since Easter. If the news of William’s last will and testament did not cause a spontaneous remission of the dysentery, at least it revived the ailing king. Scarcely able to conceal his joy over this unexpected bit of good fortune, he nevertheless preserved his customary grandeur of manner by asking the Aquitainians to retire while he discussed the matter with his council. Alone with his advisers, Suger tells us, Louis burst into exclamations of ecstasy; he literally stammered with delight. Had he not spent twenty-nine years attempting to extend the boundaries of his uninspiring domain? Set against the acreage of his own paltry kingdom—a strip of land mainly confined to the Île-de-France, Orléans, and part of Berry—the young duchess’s fief was a formidable one. Who better than he could realize the significance of William’s golden bequest? It would bring the richest fief in Europe under the crown and extend Frankish influence beyond Louis’s wildest daydreams; in fact, the addition of Aquitaine to any domain would automatically lift it to prominence among nations. This munificent prize, dropped into his palsied hands like a plump chicken into a watery broth, was not to be allowed a means of escape. Duke William had implored Louis to find his daughter a husband. Who more suitable than his son and heir, Louis? Rarely did the personal and the political coincide so neatly.
    Louis the Fat lost no time. Within hours, plans were under way to secure Aquitaine to the crown, and the resourceful Abbot Suger was designated as principal organizer of the wedding arrangements. The bishop of Chartres was dispatched on a secret mission to Bordeaux, where he would ostensibly pay his respects to the duchess but, in reality, make certain of Eleanor’s safety. According to the southern emissaries, the heiress was under heavy guard at the Ombrière Palace, but Louis wished to take no