The election of Hugh Capet as king of France in 987 marked the establishment of the so-called Capetian line of monarchs, which occupied the French throne in all not far from eight centuries--a record not equaled by any other royal house in European history. The circumstances of the election were interesting and significant. For more than a hundred years there had been keen rivalry between the Carolingian kings and one of the great ducal houses of the Franks, known as the Robertians. In the disorder which so generally prevailed in France in the ninth and tenth centuries, powerful families possessing extensive lands and having large numbers of vassals and serfs were able to make themselves practically independent of the royal power. The greatest of these families was the Robertians, the descendants of Robert the Strong, father of the Odo who distinguished himself at the siege of Paris in 885-886 [see p. 170]. Between 888 and 987 circumstances brought it about three different times that members of the Robertian house were elevated to the Frankish throne (Odo, 888-898; Robert I., 922-923; and Rudolph--related to the Robertians by marriage only,--923-936). The rest of the time the throne was occupied by Carolingians (Charles the Simple, 898-922; Louis IV., 936-954; Lothair, 954-986; and Louis V., 986-987). With the death of the young king Louis V., in 987, the last direct descendant of Charlemagne passed away and the question of the succession was left for solution by the nobles and higher clergy of the realm. As soon as the king was dead, such of these magnates as were assembled at the court to attend the funeral bound themselves by oath to take no action until a general meeting could be held at Senlis (a few miles north of Paris) late in May, 987. The proceedings of this general meeting are related in the passage below. Apparently it had already been pretty generally agreed that the man to be elected was Hugh Capet, great-grandson of Robert the Strong and the present head of the famous Robertian house, and the speech of Adalbero, archbishop of Rheims, of which Richer gives a resume, was enough to ensure this result. There was but one other claimant of importance. That was the late king's uncle, Charles of Lower Lorraine. He was not a man of force and Adalbero easily disposed of his candidacy, though the rejected prince was subsequently able to make his successful rival a good deal of trouble. Hugh owed his election to his large material resources, the military prestige of his ancestors, the active support of the Church, and the lack of direct heirs of the Carolingian dynasty.