The
House of Capet or the
Direct Capetians , also called the
House of France (
la maison de France), or simply
the Capets, ruled the
Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328. It was the most senior line of the
Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the
Robertians. Historians in the 19th century came to apply the name "Capetian" to both the ruling house of France and to the wider-spread male-line descendants of Hugh Capet. It was not a contemporary practice (see wiki article
House of France). They were sometimes called "
the third race of kings", the
Merovingians being the first, and the
Carolingians being the second. The name is derived from the nickname of
Hugh, the first Capetian King, who was known as
Hugh Capet. The direct succession of French kings, father to son, from 987 to 1316, of thirteen generations in almost 330 years, was unparallelled in
recorded history.