His first marriage was to Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine , one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe. The marriage temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees. Following the death of his older brother, Philip , in , Louis became heir apparent to the French throne and was crowned as his father's co-ruler.
In , he married Eleanor of Aquitaine and shortly thereafter became sole king following his father's death. During his stay in the Holy Land , disagreements with Eleanor led to a deterioration in their marriage. She persuaded him to stay in Antioch but Louis instead wanted to fulfil his vows of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He was later involved in the failed siege of Damascus and eventually returned to France in Louis' reign saw the founding of the University of Paris. He and his counsellor, Abbot Suger , pushed for greater centralisation of the state and favoured the development of French Gothic architecture , notably the construction of Notre-Dame de Paris.
Louis' marriage to Eleanor was annulled in after the couple had produced two daughters, but no male heir. Later, Louis supported Henry and Eleanor's sons in their rebellion against their father to foment further disunity in the Angevin realms. His second marriage to Constance of Castile also produced two daughters, but his third wife, Adela of Champagne , gave birth to a son, Philip Augustus.
Louis died in and was succeeded by his son, Philip II. As a result, he became well learned and exceptionally devout, but his life course changed decisively after the accidental death of his older brother Philip in , when Louis unexpectedly became the heir to the throne of France.
The pairing of the monkish Louis and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she reportedly once declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she had married a monk. In the first part of his reign, Louis was vigorous and zealous in the exercise of his prerogatives. He soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II , however, when the archbishopric of Bourges became vacant. The king supported the chancellor Cadurc as a candidate to fill the vacancy against the pope's nominee Pierre de la Chatre , swearing upon relics that so long as he lived, Pierre should never enter Bourges.
