For nearly a quarter of a century, from 1127 to his death in 1151, Abbot Suger was chief adviser to Louis VI (1108-1137) and Louis VII (1137-80).

A man of humble birth, who rose in the service of church and crown by his own abilities, Suger had no official position in royal government, but the value of the advice he gave to Louis VI and Louis VII was matched by his emphasis on the sacred and ceremonial side of kingship. He gave it significance that far outstripped reality.

He rebuilt his abbey church of Saint-Denis, the burial-place of earlier kings, as a royal mausoleum in the new Gothic style -- highly decorated, ornate and colourful. The beauty of this building was intended to transport the worshipper closer to God, and at the same time to glorify the French kings. Suger also involved his monarchs in ceremonies that demonstrated their links with a great past. In 1124, for example, Louis VI took the oriflamme, supposedly Charlemagne's standard, from the altar in Saint-Denis and made fervent and patriotic speeches before leading a formidable army of his nobles, great and small, to fight a war against the emperor, Henry V. The ceremonial and the number of vassals who answered the king's call made this the most impressive campaign in France for at least two centuries, and faced with this show of strength, the emperor retreated.

Although both kings might seem to have been mediocrities who made many mistakes, their reigns were crucial to the development of the image and status of monarchy in France; and Suger educated both of them in the subject, gave practical guidance and helped them to administer their lands.

Louis VI was a soldier king who subdued robber barons who pillaged and looted in the royal lands. Described by Suger as a man whose spirit was as large as his body, he gave way to lechery, avarice and gluttony and in his later years could no longer mount a horse -- hence his nickname Louis the Fat. His son Louis VII, like him, improved the quality and efficiency of his administration and did his best to uphold royal rights. He was Eleanor of Aquitaine's first husband. The satirical writer Walter Map recorded how, as an old man, Louis could sleep alone in a wood almost unattended, so high was the esteem in which his people held him; and Map asked what other king could do likewise. Louis's temperament was indeed more suited to old age, when he could hide a lack of solid achievement and many disappointments behind a façade of gentleness and wisdom.