Revealing the Extraordinary: The Lives of Unremarkable Men in the Age of Louis VII

Situated on a bluff overlooking the Loire River, the village of Beaugency played host to a defining moment in the life of Louis VII. In April of 1152, the luminaries of the French realm gathered at Beaugency to witness a church council charged with investigating whether or not King Louis VII’s marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine was consanguineous. Among those at Beaugency were men whose lives were intricately intertwined with that of the king, yet we cannot be sure they ever met. These men were King Louis VII of France and Lords Simon I and Lancelin III of Beaugency. Sandwiched between the reigns of his illustrious father and son, Louis’ tenure as king has often been interpreted as lackluster. Like Louis, Simon and Lancelin also fell under the shadow of their famous Crusader father, Lord Ralph I of Beaugency. Neither Simon nor Lancelin went on Crusade, they did not hold any office beyond that of lord, and they did not fight for or against their king. Instead, Simon and Lancelin of Beaugency lived quiet, unexceptional lives due to the stability and economic growth provided by Louis VII, himself depicted as an unremarkable king whose reign has often been defined by his failures. But given the turbulence of the previous century, perhaps Simon and Lancelin’s unremarkable lives were in fact remarkable and, as such, cast Louis VII’s reign in a different light