ABSTRACT
Suger's relationship with Louis VII was complex and shifting. In spite of William the biographer's protestations, Suger's political influence on young Louis was not based on the close personal affection which had united the abbot, the abbey, and the old king. Between 1137 and 1143, the king interfered to the detriment of the see after the deaths of the bishops of Reims, Poitiers, Tours, Langres, Bourges, Chalons and Paris. By the mid-1140s, things had settled into a satisfactory state from the perspective of Suger's political pretensions as abbot of St-Denis. It is often claimed that from 1140, Suger, absent from court, concentrated his energies on abbey administration, writing, and above all, rebuilding the abbey church, as a sort of political displacement activity. In the end the Reims election issued in a triumph for those who, like Suger, had struggled to keep the old king in line with moderate ecclesiastical reform.
