Epitaph of Louis VI, King of France

Louis VI the Fat (1108-1137) was buried in the abbey church of Saint-Denis according to the royal tradition established by Dagobert I.  He therefore joined all his Capetian predecessors, with the exception of his father Philip I. Abbot Suger was preparing to write The Life of Louis VI, and in receiving his friend’s body in his church, he therefore re-established a privilege regrettably interrupted in his view.

It was not yet customary to have monumental tombs that raised the royal effigy above the ground, and the first recumbent effigy of a Capetian King was not seen until the death of Louis VII, who was buried in Barbeaux Abbey in 1180. 

Louis VI was therefore buried under the simple slab shown here, bearing an epitaph limited to identifying him, the first line of which is missing today: [LVDOVICVS] / REX FRANCO/RU[M] PHILIPPI / REGIS FILI[VS] (Louis, King of the Francs, son of King Philip). 

In 1263, his descendant Louis IX and Abott Matthieu de Vendôme replaced this humble sign with one of the effigies of the retrospective funeral programme known as the "Saint Louis commission".