Louis VII of France

Louis VII (1120–1180), called the Young, became King of France in 1137, when his father Louis VI died days after marrying him to Eleanor, heiress of Aquitaine, briefly extending Capetian power to the Pyrenees.

In 1147 he joined the Second Crusade and the failed siege of Damascus, returning in 1149. His marriage to Eleanor was annulled in 1152; she then wed Henry II of England, carrying Aquitaine into the Angevin Empire.

His third wife Adela of Champagne bore Philip II Augustus in 1165. His reign saw the rise of the University of Paris and the building of Notre-Dame.