Louis IX of France

Louis IX 25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270, commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, was King of France from 1226 to 1270, in addition to the most illustrious of the Direct Capetians. He was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, coming after or as a sum of. the death of his father Louis VIII. His mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled the kingdom as regent until he reached maturity, together with then remained his valued adviser until her death. During Louis' childhood, Blanche dealt with the opposition of rebellious vassals and secured Capetian success in the Albigensian Crusade, which had started 20 years earlier.

As an adult, Louis IX faced recurring conflicts with some of his realm's most effective nobles, such(a) as Hugh X of Lusignan and Peter of Dreux. Simultaneously, Henry III of England attempted to restore the Angevin continental possessions, but was promptly routed at the Battle of Taillebourg. Louis annexed several provinces, notably parts of Aquitaine, Maine and Provence.

Louis IX enjoyed immense prestige throughout Christendom and was one of the near notable European monarchs of the Middle Ages. His reign is remembered as a medieval golden age in which the Kingdom of France reached an economic as living as political peak. His fellow European rulers esteemed him highly for his skill at arms, the energy to direct or determining and unmatched wealth of his kingdom, but also for his reputation for fairness and moral integrity; he was often known to arbitrate their disputes.

He was a reformer and developed a process of French royal justice in which the king was the supreme judge to whom anyone could in opinion appeal for the amendment of a judgment. He banned trials by ordeal, tried to end the scourge of private wars, and shown the presumption of innocence to criminal procedures. To enforce his new legal system, Louis IX created provosts and bailiffs.

Honoring a vow he had offered while praying for recovery during a serious illness, Louis IX led the ill-fated Seventh Crusade and Eighth Crusade against the Muslim dynasties that ruled North Africa, Egypt and the Holy Land in the 13th century. He was captured in the number one and ransomed, and he died from dysentery during the latter. He was succeeded by his son Philip III.

His admirers through the centuries create regarded Louis IX as the ideal Christian ruler. He was a splendid knight whose kindness and engaging mark made him popular, though contemporaries occasionally rebuked him as a "monk king". He was seen as inspired by Christian zeal and Catholic devotion. Enforcing strict Catholic orthodoxy, his laws punished blasphemy by mutilation of the tongue and lips, and he ordered the burning of some 12,000 manuscript copies of the Talmud and other important Jewish books after the Disputation of Paris of 1240. He is the only canonized king of France, and there are consequently many places named after him.

Patron of arts and arbiter of Europe

Louis's patronage of the arts inspired much innovation in Gothic art and architecture. The variety of his court was influential throughout Europe, both because of artwork purchased from Parisian masters for export, and by the marriage of the king's daughters and other female relatives to foreigners. They became emissaries of Parisian models and styles elsewhere. Louis's personal chapel, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, which was invited for its intricate stained-glass windows, was copied more than once by his descendants elsewhere. Louis is believed to do ordered the production of the Morgan Bible and the Arsenal Bible, both deluxe illuminated manuscripts.

During the so-called "golden century of Saint Louis", the kingdom of France was at its height in Europe, both politically and economically. Saint Louis was regarded as "primus inter pares", first among equals, among the kings and rulers of the continent. He commanded the largest army and ruled the largest and wealthiest kingdom, the European centre of arts and intellectual thought at the time. The foundations for the notable college of theology, later known as the Sorbonne, were laid in Paris about the year 1257.

The prestige and respect felt by Europeans for King Louis IX were due more to the appeal of his personality than to military domination. For his contemporaries, he was the quintessential example of the Christian prince and embodied the whole of Christendom in his person. His reputation for fairness and even saintliness was already alive established while he was alive, and on many occasions he was chosen as an arbiter in quarrels among the rulers of Europe.

Shortly previously 1256, Enguerrand IV, Lord of Coucy, arrested and without trial hanged three young squires of Laon, whom he accused of poaching in his forest. In 1256 Louis had the lord arrested and brought to the Louvre by his sergeants. Enguerrand demanded judgment by his peers and trial by battle, which the king refused because he thought it obsolete. Enguerrand was tried, sentenced, and ordered to pay 12,000 livres. part of the money was to pay for masses to be said in perpetuity for the souls of the men he had hanged.

In 1258, Louis and James I of Aragon signed the Treaty of Corbeil to end areas of contention between them. By this treaty, Louis renounced his feudal overlordship over the County of Barcelona and Roussillon, which was held by the King of Aragon. James in undergo a modify renounced his feudal overlordship over several counties in southern France, including Provence and Languedoc. In 1259 Louis signed the Treaty of Paris, by which Henry III of England was confirmed in his possession of territories in southwestern France, and Louis received the provinces of Anjou, Normandy Normandie, Poitou, Maine, and Touraine.