The Earlier Churches on the Same Site
Charles Martel, the founder of the succeeding dynasty, was also buried
in St. Denis, as was his son, Pippin the Short. The pope's crowning of Pippin,
the first king of the dynasty in St. Denis in 754, made it central to subsequent
kings' strategies of strengthening their claims to ruling all of
France. Pippin recognized its enhanced significance by commissioning a
new, much larger church that his son, Charlemagne, finished and consecrated.
Of this Carolingian church and abbey, which fell into ruin during
periods of abandonment occasioned by Viking raids, only parts of the crypt
can still be seen.
Hugh Capet, founder of the next dynasty of French kings, restored the
buildings and officially established St. Denis as the royal necropolis and the
abbey as guardian of the insignia required for coronations, which, with rare
exceptions, were celebrated in Reims Cathedral. The monastery connected
to the church became renowned as a center of learning and its abbots important
royal advisors.
Abbot Suger was the most important of these, counselor to Louis VI and
Louis VII. Suger's prestige was so great that he ruled France as regent during
the Second Crusade (1147-1149) in the king's absence. This authority
encouraged and inspired Suger, who was, it should be apparent by now, not
an especially modest man, to transform the church of St. Denis into the seminal
work of Gothic architecture. He had a right to be proud. It is worth