Suger

Suger (c. 1081 – 13 January 1151) was a French abbot and statesman. He was a close advisor to both King Louis VI and his son Louis VII, and served as regent for Louis VII while the king was away on the Second Crusade. His writings are essential sources for early 12th-century Capetian history, and his rebuilding of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, where he was abbot, helped create the Gothic style of architecture.

Born around 1081 to a family of minor knights in Chennevières-lès-Louvres, a small village near Saint-Denis north of Paris, Suger was given to the abbey of Saint-Denis as an oblate at age ten in 1091. He claimed humble origins, though his family may have had some means. He trained at the priory of Saint-Denis de L'Estrée for about ten years, where he likely first met the future King Louis VI. Suger adapted well to the oblate life, showing strong skills in Latin and legal matters. This led to work in the abbey archives, searching for documents to protect the abbey from Bouchard II of Montmorency; historians speculate he may have been involved in creating a forged charter, which would reflect his deep devotion to the abbey.

Suger began a successful career in monastic administration, undertaking several missions for the abbey, which held lands across France. He gained favor with Abbot Adam of Saint-Denis and became his secretary in 1106, advancing his political career. That same year he attended the synod at Poitiers; in spring 1107 he met Pope Paschal II; in 1109 he saw Louis VI again while mediating a dispute between the king and Henry I of England; and in 1112 he was in Rome for the second Lateran council. During this period he held administrative posts: first as provost at Berneval in Normandy in 1108, then as provost of the more important priory of Toury from mid-1109 to 1111. The area suffered from Hugh III of Le Puiset's exploitation of revenues, and a series of disputes and failed alliances gave Suger battlefield experience. He handled this new challenge well, but by his sixties he deeply regretted his involvement in warfare. There is a gap in records after he left Toury in 1112, but he likely advanced his monastic position while working on negotiations.

Sources resume in 1118, when Suger was deeply involved in royal affairs. He was chosen as the royal envoy to welcome the fleeing Pope Gelasius II to France and arrange a meeting with Louis VI. Suger lived at Gelasius's court at Maguelonne, and later at the court of his successor Pope Calixtus II in Italy in 1121. Returning in March 1122, the 41-year-old Suger learned that Abbot Adam had died and the abbey had elected him as the new abbot. Suger took pride that this happened in his absence and without his knowledge. Louis VI was initially angry that the decision was made without consulting him, but he was clearly satisfied with Suger in the role, as the two had a strong working relationship.

Suger served as friend and counselor to both Louis VI and Louis VII. Until 1127, he focused on the kingdom's temporal affairs at court; in the following decade he devoted himself to reorganizing and reforming Saint-Denis. In 1137 he accompanied the future Louis VII to Aquitaine for his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Suger bitterly opposed the later divorce, having advised the marriage. Though Suger openly opposed Louis VII's 1145 announcement of a Second Crusade to rescue the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a council in February 1147 elected him regent. One reason for his opposition was France's domestic problems: shortly after setting out, Louis VII wrote to ensure protection of Gisors, and only six weeks later asked for money, even suggesting Suger use his own resources. Suger urged the king to destroy feudal bandits, handled royal tactics regarding communal movements, and worked to regularize the administration of justice. He left his abbey, which held considerable property, enriched and embellished by a new church built in the emerging Gothic style. Suger wrote extensively about the construction in *Liber de Rebus in Administratione sua Gestis*, *Libellus Alter de Consecratione Ecclesiae Sancti Dionysii*, and *Ordinatio*.

After the regency, Louis VII and his contemporaries still consulted Suger on ecclesiastical and political matters, and he was asked to defend cases at court. Suger was also assigned cases alone that would otherwise have gone to an episcopal commission. Louis VII gave him the task of resolving two episcopal elections, and Suger effectively maintained the same level of control over the French church as he had as regent. After the Second Crusade failed, and following letters from Jerusalem and Pope Eugenius, Suger proposed a new crusade at a convention in Laon in 1150, with support from Louis and Saint Bernard. The plan was for Suger to lead a crusade run by the French church, to accomplish what secular powers had failed to do. Support collapsed among many churchmen, and the pope lost faith in the effort, advising the king to stay in France to settle local issues. The matter troubled Suger until his death.