Louis VI, nicknamed Louis The Fat (French for Louis le Gros, 1081-1137). King of France (1108-1137).
Appointed as successor by his father Philip I in 1098, he was de facto ruler long before his death in 1108. He soon realized that the first priority was to bring the unruly nobles who owned the royal domains to heel. Much of his reign was spent fighting the nobles. He practiced appeasement and maintained good relations with the church and priests.
Louis VI worked to consolidate the monarchy of France. From 1109 to 1112, he fought King Henry I of England. Within France, he successfully fought against the independent-leaning princes. Louis VI granted the city's inhabitants autonomy, enabling them to side with him in his struggles against the nobility. Relying on the support of the citizens and the church, Louis demolished the princes' castles one by one and forced the stationing of loyal guards on their territories. By the time of Louis VI's death, the rule of the Capetian dynasty in France had been relatively stable.
Starting in 1130, Syge, the Abbot of Saint-Denis, became Louis VI's main adviser. Syge was very effective in expanding the kingship and wrote a biography of Louis. The body of Louis VI was also buried in the Monastery of Saint-Denis.