Louis VII of France

Louis VII was a second son raised for the Church until his older brother Philip's death in 1131 made him heir to France. He became king in 1137 after marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose lands stretched to the Pyrenees. The Second Crusade in 1147 fractured their marriage: disagreements in the Holy Land and a failed siege at Damascus left the union broken. Their annulment in 1152 produced no son, only two daughters. Eleanor immediately married Henry of Anjou, taking Aquitaine with her; when Henry became King of England, those territories formed the Angevin Empire that would shadow France for generations. Louis spent his later reign centralizing power with Abbot Suger, founding the University of Paris, and championing Gothic architecture like Notre-Dame. His third wife finally gave him a male heir, Philip Augustus, in 1165. He died in 1180, leaving his son to contend with the empire his first marriage had lost.