Since his mother was the daughter of the German king Henry I, he was allied with the German emperors and exercised greater influence than the weak Carolingian king Lothair. After Lothair and his son died the archbishop of Reims convinced an assembly of nobles to elect Hugh Capet king.

Elected and crowned king with the assistance of the pro-German party in Paris Hugh Capet initiated a hereditary line of French kings, the Capetians.