In spite of this oath, Philip and Bertrada continued to live together, but for the future, the Pope indulgently closed his eyes. On most of the points raised an agreement was arrived at, and in the beginning of the year 1107 Paschal even travelled through France, had a meeting at St-Denis with Philip and his son, and spoke of them as "the very pious sons of the Holy See."
But already Philip, grown old before his time, was king only in name. Since 1097 he had handed over to his son Louis the task of leading military expeditions, for which his own extreme corpulence unfitted him. It was necessary not only to repress the brigandage to which the turbulent barons of the royal domain were becoming more and more addicted, but above all to make head against the attacks of the King of England, to whom, on his departure for the crusade in 1096, Robert Curthose had entrusted the safe-keeping and government of the Norman duchy. William Rufus, indeed, casting away all restraint, had again invaded the French Vexin, and drawing over to his side Duke William of Aquitaine, threatened to carry his conquests as far as Paris. The situation was all the more dangerous as William Rufus had contrived to gain over several of the barons of the Vexin and a regular feudal coalition was being formed there against the Capetian monarchy. Fortunately, the loyal barons gathered under Louis's banner succeeded in keeping the English king's troops in check, and after an unrelenting warfare of skirmishes and sieges William was forced to retreat and abandon his enterprise (1099).
Admitted about this period, as king-elect and king-designate, to a share in the government, Louis (in spite of the intrigues of Bertrada, who more than once tried to have him assassinated, in order to substitute one of her own children) was now, at nearly twenty years old, in fact the real king. We find him travelling about the royal domain, chastising rebellious vassals, dismantling Montlhéry (1105), seizing the castle of Gournay-sur-Marne, the lord of which had robbed merchants on a royal road (1107), and besieging Chevreuse and Brétencourt. Louis has his own officers and his own counsellors; he intervenes directly in the affairs of the clergy, authorises abbatial elections and administers justice; as it is expressed in a charter of the south of France in 1104 "Philip, king of the French, was still alive; but Louis, his son, a young man of character and courage worthy to be remembered, was at the helm of the kingdom."
Philip was weighed down by disease and felt his end approaching. Like a good Christian he made his confession, then calling around him all the magnates of the kingdom and his friends, he said to them: "The burial-place of the kings of France is, I know, at St-Denis. But I feel myself too heavily laden with sins to dare to be laid near the body of so great a Saint." And he added naïvely, "I greatly fear lest my sins should cause me to be delivered over to the devil, and that it should
