measure, and when it came to carrying out the magnificent programme, obstacles arose which not one of the princes concerned was strong enough to overcome. William of Aquitaine was soon forced to give up the idea of disputing Lombardy with Conrad; Robert's plans miscarried in Lorraine whither Conrad's alarmed partisans hastily summoned their master; and King Rodolph III inclined to the new Emperor. The check was decisive, but surely a considerable step forward had been taken when for several months Robert had succeeded in guiding such a coalition, and had for a time spread terror among the Emperor's faithful Lorrainers.
On the death of Robert the Pious (20 July 1031) the question of the succession came to a crisis. After the example of his father, by whom he had been associated in the government from 987, Robert had taken care in 1017 to crown his eldest son by Queen Constance, then ten years old. But Hugh had died in the flower of his youth in 1025 (September). Two parties had then arisen at court, Robert desiring to have his second son Henry crowned at once, and Queen Constance holding out for a younger son, Robert, whom she preferred to his elder brother. The king's will had prevailed, and Henry had been crowned with great pomp in 1027. But hardly had Robert the Pious closed his eyes when Queen Constance raised the standard of revolt. She succeeded in gaining possession of Senlis, Sens, Dammartin, Le Puiset and Poissy, and won over Odo II of Blois, by the gift of half the town of Sens.
Henry, supported by Robert, Duke of Normandy, defended himself vigorously. He re-took Poissy and Le Puiset, and forced his mother and his brother Robert to make peace. Unfortunately it was purchased by yielding a point which involved a lamentable retrogression. Robert was given the duchy of Burgundy, which Robert the Pious had after so many efforts united to the Royal Domain (1032). At this price the submission of the rebels was dearly bought.
Nor did it avail to put down the revolt. Odo II of Blois refused to disarm. Twice the king besieged him unsuccessfully in Sens (1032-1033); each time he met with fierce resistance and was obliged to retreat. In May or June 1033, despairing of getting the better of this formidable vassal, Henry, in an interview at Deville on the Meuse, made a defensive alliance with the Emperor Conrad, who was Odo's rival for the Burgundian throne, left vacant by the death of Rodolph III, some few months earlier (September 1032). In the end, Odo submitted (1034). But three years later he died, leaving his counties in Champagne to his son Stephen, and the rest of his possessions to his other son Theobald. At once the struggle was renewed, whether through some attempt on Henry's part to lay hands on any portion of the inheritance left by Odo, or simply because Theobald and Stephen thought the opportunity
