Louis XI of France

Name	Louis XI the Prudent
Caption	Louis XI wearing his Order of Saint Michael
Reign	22 July 1461 − 30 August 1483
Coronation	15 August 1461, Reims
Cor-type	france
Othertitles	The King of France The Dauphin of Viennois
Succession	King of France
Predecessor	Charles VII
Successor	Charles VIII
Spouse	Margaret of ScotlandCharlotte of Savoy
Issue	Anne, Duchess of Bourbon Joan, Duchess of Berry Charles VIII
Royal house	House of Valois
Father	Charles VII
Mother	Marie of Anjou
Birth date	July 03, 1423
Birth place	Bourges, Cher, France
Death date	August 30, 1483
Death place	Château de Plessis-lez-Tours, France
Place of burial	Notre-Dame de Cléry Basilica, Cléry-Saint-André, near Orléans

Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called the Prudent (), was the King of France from 1461 to 1483. He was the son of Charles VII of France and Mary of Anjou, a member of the House of Valois.

During his 22-year reign, Louis successfully expanded royal power at the expense of that of the dukes. Shrewd and often vicious, he spun webs of plot and conspiracy which earned him the nicknames the Cunning (Middle French: le rusé) and the Universal Spider (Middle French: l'universelle aragne ). His love for scheming and intrigue earned him many enemies, including his father, his brother Charles de Valois, Duc de Berry, his brother, as well as Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and Edward IV of England.

Biography

Early life

He was born at Bourges, Cher in 1423, when the English held northern France and his father Charles VII was restricted to the centre and south. Louis was the grandson of the strong-willed Yolande of Aragon, the princess who was the driving force in driving the English out of France. Louis despised his father, regarding him as a weakling.

On 24 June 1436 he met Margaret of Scotland, daughter of James I, King of Scots., the bride his father had chosen for diplomatic reasons. There are no direct accounts from Louis or his young bride of their first impressions of each other, and it is mere speculation to say whether or not they actually had negative feelings for each other. Several historians think that Louis had a predetermined attitude to hate his wife. But it is universally agreed upon that Louis entered the ceremony and the marriage itself dutifully, as evidenced by his formal embrace of Margaret upon their first meeting.

, Louis' father Charles VII is depicted as one of the three magi and it is assumed that Louis, then Dauphin, is one of the other two.]]

Louis's marriage shows both the nature of medieval royal diplomacy and the precarious position of the French monarchy. The wedding - by the standards of the time, it was a very plain ceremony - took place 25 June 1436 in the afternoon in the chapel of the castle of Tours and was presided over the Archbishop of Reims. The 13-year-old Louis looked clearly more mature than his eleven-year old bride, who looked like a beautiful “doll”, and was treated as such by her in-laws.

Following the ceremony, “doctors advised against consummation” because of the relative immaturity of the bride and bridegroom. Margaret continued her studies and Louis went on tour with Charles to loyal areas of the kingdom. Even at this time, Charles was taken aback by the intelligence and temper of his son. During this tour, Louis was named Dauphin by Charles, as is traditional for the eldest son of the king. In fact, before his final defeat, “[Louis's]...military strength, combined with antipathy of the masses for great lords, won him the support of the citizens of Paris.” This was a great learning experience for Louis. James Cleugh notes:

“Like other strong minded boys, he had found at last he could not carry all before him by mere bluster. Neither as prince nor as king did he ever forget his lesson. He never acted on pure impulse, without reflection, though to his life’s end he was constantly tempted to take such a risk.”

Louis continued soldiering. In 1444 he led an army of "écorcheurs" against the Swiss at the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs and was impressed by the latter's military might. He still loathed his father, however, and on 27 September 1446 he was ordered out of court and sent to his own province of Dauphiné, where he was to establish order. Despite frequent summons by the King, the two would never meet again. In Dauphiné, Louis ruled as King in all but name, continuing his intrigues against his father. On 14 February 1451, Louis, 27, who had been widowed for six years, made a strategic marriage to the eight-year-old Charlotte of Savoy, without Charles' consent.

Finally, in August 1456, Charles sent an army to Dauphiné. Louis fled to Burgundy where he was granted refuge by Duke Philip the Good and his son Charles the Bold and settled in the castle of Genappe. King Charles was furious when Philip refused to hand over Louis and warned warned the Duke that he was "giving shelter to a fox who will eat his chickens".

Succession as King

In 1461 Louis learned that his father was dying. He thus hurried to Reims to be crowned in case his brother, Charles, Duke of Berry, beat him to it.

Louis pursued many of the same interests as his father had pursued less successfully, such as limiting the powers of the Dukes and Barons of France. He suppressed many of his former co-conspirators, who had thought him their friend. He became extremely fiscally prudent, whereas he had previously been lavish and extravagant. He wore rough and simple clothes and mixed with ordinary people and merchants. A candid account of some of Louis's activities is given by the courtier, Philippe de Commynes, in his memoirs of the period.

Feud with Charles the Bold

Philip the Good was keen to start a Crusade and Louis gave him money in exchange for a number of territories including Picardy and Amiens. But Philip's son, Charles, was angry, feeling that he was being deprived of his inheritance. He joined a rebellion called the League of the Public Weal, led by Louis's brother Charles. Although the rebels were largely unsuccessful in battle, Louis was forced to grant an unfavourable peace as a matter of political expediency.

Upon becoming Duke in 1467, Charles seriously considered having an independent Kingdom of his own, but he had many problems with his territories, especially with the people of Liège who were constantly rising against him. Louis was their ally.

In 1468 Louis and Charles met in Peronne but in the course of the negotiations they learned that the Liegois had again risen up and killed the Burgundian governor. Charles was furious. Philippe de Commynes and the Duke's other advisors had to calm him down for fear that he might hit the King. Louis was forced into a humiliating treaty, giving up many of the lands he had acquired and witnessing the siege of Liege in which hundreds were massacred.

But once out of Charles's reach, Louis declared the treaty invalid and set about building up his forces. His aim was to destroy Burgundy once and for all and end a feud which had lasted over three generations since the murder of Louis, Duke of Orléans in 1407. War broke out in 1472, but Charles's siege of Beauvais and other towns were unsuccessful and he finally sued for peace. Commines rallied to the King's side and was made welcome.

In 1469 Louis founded the Order of St. Michael, probably in imitation of and as a French rival to the prestigious Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by Charles' father, Philip the Good, just as previously John II has founded the now defunct Order of the Star in imitation of and as a French rival to Edward III's Order of the Garter. In both cases, a French king appears to have been motivated to found an order of chivalry to increase the prestige of the French royal court by the example of his chief political adversary.

Dealings with England

Meanwhile England was going through its own civil conflict known as the Wars of the Roses. Louis had an interest in this war since Charles the Bold was allied with the Yorkists who opposed King Henry VI. When the Earl of Warwick fell out with Edward IV, whom he had helped to the throne, Louis granted him refuge in France. He then encouraged Warwick to form an alliance with his bitter enemy Margaret of Anjou in order to restore her husband Henry VI to the throne. The plan worked and Edward was forced into exile, but he later returned and Warwick the Kingmaker was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. King Henry was murdered soon afterwards.

Now the undisputed master of England, Edward invaded France in 1475, but Louis was able to negotiate the Treaty of Picquigny by which the English army left France in return for a large sum of money. The English renounced their claim to French lands such as Normandy and the Hundred Years War could be said to be finally over. Louis bragged that although his father had driven the English out by force of arms, he'd driven them out by force of pâté, venison and good wine.

Settling with Charles the Bold

Louis still had to take care of the Duke of Burgundy and for this he employed the Swiss, whose military might was renowned and which he had admired at Birs.

War broke out between Charles and the Swiss, but it was a disastrous campaign for the Duke and he was finally killed at the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477, ending the Burgundian Wars.

Louis had destroyed his sworn enemy. Other lords who still favoured the feudal system gave in to his authority. Others like Jacques d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours were executed.

Legacy

Louis then started developing the Kingdom. He encouraged trade fairs and the building and maintenance of roads. He is seen as one of the first modern Kings of France, taking it out of the Middle Ages.

Louis XI was very superstitious. He surrounded himself with astrologers. Interested in science, he once pardoned a man sentenced to death on condition that he serve as a guinea pig in a gallstone operation.

By war, by cunning and with sheer guile, Louis XI overcame France's feudal lords, and at the time of his death in the Château de Plessis-lez-Tours, he had united France and laid the foundations of a strong monarchy. He was however a secretive, isolated and reclusive man and few mourned his passing.

Despite his cunning and overall policy of Realpolitik, Niccolò Machiavelli actually criticized Louis harshly in The Prince, calling him shortsighted for degrading France's ability and prestige by abolishing his own infantry in favor of Swiss mercenaries.

Louis XI died in August of 1483 and was interred in the Notre-Dame de Cléry Basilica in Cléry-Saint-André in the Arrondissement of Orléans. His wife Charlotte died a few months later and is interred with him. Louis XI was succeeded by his son, Charles VIII, who was thirteen, and his eldest daughter Anne of France became Regent.

In popular culture

Louis XI is a central character in Sir Walter Scott's 1823 novel Quentin Durward. Balzac gives a plausible and somewhat favourable picture of the king in his story "Master Cornelius". Louis XI appears as a character in several film versions of the stage melodrama If I Were King , a fictitious play about real-life poet François Villon. He is also an important character in Victor Hugo's classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame as well as its film adaptations. He also appears in the operetta The Vagabond King, which is based on If I Were King. Among the actors who have played him onscreen are Robert Morley, Basil Rathbone, Conrad Veidt, Harry Davenport, Walter Hampden, and O. P. Heggie. In addition, Louis XI is also a minor character in Henry VI, Part III by William Shakespeare, where he is stylised as Lewis; he is depicted as, after choosing to support the Yorkist faction, switching allegiance to the Lancastrians, led by Margaret, following Edward IV's refusal to marry a French noblewoman.

Children with Charlotte of Savoy

Louis's marriage with Charlotte of Savoy would not be consummated until she was fourteen. Their children included:

Louis (1458–60)

Joachim (born and died 1459)

Louise (born and died 1460)

Anne of France, (3 April 1461 − 14 November 1522), who became Duchess of Bourbon,

Joan (23 April 1464 – 4 February 1505), who became Queen of France

Francis (born and died 1466)

Charles VIII of France (30 June 1470 – 8 April 1498)

Francis (1472–73)

Ancestors

References

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Category:1423 births Category:1483 deaths Category:People from Bourges Category:Kings of France Category:Roman Catholic monarchs Category:French monarchs Category:House of Valois Category:Dauphins of Viennois Category:Dauphins of France Category:Order of Saint Michael