CAPET, kii-pa, or kipl, the name of the French race of kings, which has given 118 sov ereigns to Europe, namely, 36 kings of France, 22 kings of Portugal, 11 of Naples and Sicily, 5 of Spain, 3 of Hdngary, 3 emperors of Con stantinople, 3 kings of Navarre, 17 dukes of Burgundy, 12 dukes of Brittany, 2 dukes of Lorraine and 4 dukes of Parma. The history of this royal race is, at the same time, the his tory of the rise and progress of the French monarchy. The fate of one of the most inter esting countries and nations in Europe is con nected with the name of Capet. After having been deprived of four thrones, and again re stored to them, this family stood forth as the first and most ancient support of the European principle of political legitimacy, that divine right, which in this house commenced with treason. Its origin is remarkable. Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne and mayor of the palace under the Merovingian dynasty, had displaced that royal house and usurped the throne of the ancient kings of the Franks. After a space of 235 years his own descendants, the Carlovingian monarchs, experienced a sim ilar fate. Under the last Carlovingian, desti tute alike of energy and wisdom, Hugh the Great, Duke of France (by which was then understood the Isle of France), Orleans and Burgundy, exercised a power as unlimited as that of the mayor of the palace under the Merovingians. On the death of Louis V, with out children, in 987 his uncle, Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, laid claim to the throne, which the Franks had sworn to preserve to the family of Charlemagne. The French nobility, dis gusted at the German leanings of the Carlovin gian, whose domains and influence lay in the eastern provinces, preferred that a member of their own class, whose possessions were situ ated in the centre of the country, and whose power was so great as to outrival that of the old dynasty, should rule over them, and ac cordingly chose as their king Hugh, son of Hugh the Great, Duke of France and Count of Paris, and had the support of the Church in their favor. The valiant Charles of Lor raine was surprised in Laon by the treachery of a bishop and made prisoner. He died soon, afterward in prison, and his son, Otho, Duke or Lower Lorraine, died in 1006. Both his younger brothers died childless in Germany. Thus the race of Capet was left in possession of the throne of France. According to some
historians, Hugh Capet was descended from a Saxon family. He married a German princess, Adelaide, daughter of King Henry I of Ger many (Duke of Saxony). Hugh was crowned at Rheims, and swore to preserve to the nation, and particularly to the powerful feudal nobility and clergy, all their existing privileges. Hugh and the succeeding monarchs, till Louis VII, took the precaution to have their successors invested with the royal title during their own lifetime. Thus Hugh had his son, Robert; crowned and anointed as his colleague as early as 1 Jan. 988. He abolished by law the partition of the hereditary estates among the sons of the kings and forbade the alienation of the family domains. The daughters of the kings were endowed from that time with money, and the appanage which was given to the princes of the blood returned to the Crown in default of male heirs. Both these principles were more fully confirmed by later laws. Thus Hugh Capet, by uniting his hereditary duchy, consisting of Paris, Isle of France and Burgundy, inalien ably with the Crown, may be regarded as the founder of the French monarchy. What he had begun was completed by his successors, particularly in the times of the Crusades, and by the establishment of standing armies. On the failure of the direct line at the death of Charles IV (1328) the French throne was kept in the family by the accession of the indirect line of Valois, and in 1589 by that of Bourbon. Capet being taus as the family name of the kings of France, Louis XVI was ar raigned before the National Convention under the name of Louis Capet.
CAPGRAVEJohn, English historian: b. Lynn, Norfolk, 1393 d. there 1464. The most of his life was passed in the Augustinian friary of his native place. He was provincial of the order of Austin Friars in England, and was one of the most learned men of his day. He wrote in Latin numerous commentaries, ser mons and lives of the saints. His most import ant work was his 'Chronicle of England,' in English, extending from the creation to the year 1417. Other works were a (Liber de Illustribus Henricis' and a 'Life of Saint Katherine.' Many of his works are lost, others have never yet been printed. His (Chronicle' and his (Liber de Illustribus Henricis' have been edited by F. C. Hingeston and printed in the Rolls senes (London 1858).