of Italy, his brother's wife. The archbishop of Reims convened the greatest lords of France at Senlis and denounced Charles of Lorraine for not maintaining his dignity, having made himself a vassal of the emperor Otto II and marrying a woman from a lower class of nobility. Then he promoted the candidacy of Hugh Capet: Crown the Duke. He is most illustrious by his exploits, his nobility, his forces. The throne is not acquired by hereditary right; no one should be raised to it unless distinguished not only for nobility of birth, but for the goodness of his soul. Hugh was elected and crowned rex Francorum at Noyon in Picardy on 3 July 987, by the prelate of Reims, the first of the Capetian house. Immediately after his coronation, Hugh began to push for the coronation of his son Robert. The archbishop, wary of establishing hereditary kingship in the Capetian line, answered that two kings cannot be created in the same year. Hugh claimed, however, that he was planning an expedition against the Moorish armies harassing Borrel II, Count of Barcelona (a vassal of the French crown), and that the stability of the country necessitated two kings should he die while on expedition. Ralph Glaber, however, attributes Hugh's request to his old age and inability to control the nobility. Modern scholarship has largely imputed to Hugh the motive of establishing a dynasty against the pretension of electoral power on the part of the aristocracy, but this is not the typical view of contemporaries and even some modern scholars have been less skeptical of Hugh's "plan" to campaign in Spain. Robert was eventually crowned on 25 December that same year. Election contested by Charles of Lorraine Charles of Lorraine, the Carolingian heir, contested the succession. He drew support from the Count of Vermandois, a cadet of the Carolingian dynasty; and from the Count of Flanders, loyal to the Carolingian cause. Charles took Laon, the seat of Carolingian royalty. Hugh Capet and his son Robert besieged the city twice, but were compelled to withdraw each time. Hugh decided to make an alliance with Theophano (regent for her son Otto III), but she never replied. When Adalberon, Archbishop of Reims, died, the archbishopric was contested by his right-hand man, Gerbert of Aurillac, and Arnulf, illegitimate son of King Lothair of France (and nephew of Charles of Lorraine). Choosing Arnulf to replace Adalberon seemed