<P> From 977 to 986, Hugh Capet, son of Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, allied himself with the German emperors Otto II and Otto III and with Archbishop Adalberon of Reims to dominate the Carolingian king, Lothair . By 986, he was king in all but name . After Lothair's son Louis V died in May 987, Adalberon and Gerbert of Aurillac convened an assembly of nobles to elect Hugh Capet as their king . </P> <P> Immediately after his coronation, Hugh began to push for the coronation of his son Robert . Hugh's own claimed reason was that he was planning an expedition against the Moorish armies harassing Borrel II of Barcelona, an invasion which never occurred, and that the stability of the country necessitated two kings should he die while on expedition . Ralph Glaber, however, attributes Hugh's request to his old age and inability to control the nobility . Modern scholarship has largely imputed to Hugh the motive of establishing a dynasty against the claims of electoral power on the part of the aristocracy, but this is not the typical view of his contemporaries and even some modern scholars have been less skeptical of Hugh's "plan" to campaign in Spain . Robert was eventually crowned on 25 December 987 . A measure of Hugh's success is that when he died in 996, Robert continued to reign without anyone disputing his rights, but during his long reign actual royal power dissipated into the hands of the great territorial magnates . </P> <P> Thus, the early Capetians made their position de facto hereditary by associating their eldest sons to the kingship while they still live . By the death of Philip I, this hereditary feature had become established in custom . Even though Philip refused to have his son crowned during his lifetime, Louis succeeded with little trouble . Yet the association of the eldest son to the kingship continued for two more generations, with Philip II Augustus being the last king so crowned . </P> <P> Henry I became sole ruler on his father's death in 1031 . The succession, however, was hotly contested by his younger brother Robert . Constance of Arles, Henry's mother, preferred to place her younger son, Robert, on the throne . She allied herself with one of the more powerful counts of the time, Odo II, Count of Blois . </P>

What did french capetian kings do to maintain power
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