LOUIS IX. LOUIS XI. 



547 



the emperor Leopold gave his widow 50,000 florins 

 for it. London also received the unlimited com- 

 mand, and the title of generalissimo, which had not 

 been conferred on any one since Eugene. He died 

 July 14, 1790, at his head quarters at New Titschein, 

 Moravia. Loudon continued to study, even in ad- 

 vanced age, and his military boldness seemed rather 

 to increase with his years. In his private life, he 

 was moderate, and extremely modest. The duke of 

 Aremberg, in reply to the question of the empress, 

 at a court party, YVhere is Loudon ? answered Le 

 voild comme toujours derriere la porte, tout honteux 

 d'avoir tant de merite. 



LOUIS IX. (St.), king of France, eldest son of 

 Louis VIII. and Blanche of Castile, born 1215, and 

 baptized at Poissy (for which reason he sometimes 

 wrote himself Louis of Poissy), came into possession 

 of the government in 1226, and remained under the 

 guardianship of his mother, who was at the same 

 time regent of France. This is the first instance of the 

 guardianship and regency being united in one person. 

 The queen had, with the assistance of the pope, 

 brought into subjection the independent barons, who, 

 always at war with each other, disturbed the tran- 

 quillity of the kingdom. Louis successfully pursued 

 the enterprise of his mother, summoned to his coun- 

 cil the most able and virtuous men, put an end to the 

 abuse of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, composed the 

 disturbances in Brittany, preserved a wise neutrality 

 in the quarrels of Gregory IX. and Frederic II., and 

 was always intent upon promoting the happiness of 

 his subjects. The wise management of his states 

 enabled him to levy a powerful army against Henry 

 III. of England, with whom the great men of the 

 kingdom had united themselves. Louis had the good 

 fortune, in 1241, to defeat his adversary twice in the 

 course of six days, and to force him to a disadvan- 

 tageous peace. In the year 1244, when sick of a 

 dangerous disorder, he made a vow to undertake a 

 crusade to Palestine; and neither his mother nor wife 

 was able, four years after, to prevent him from ful- 

 filling this vow. He embarked with his wife, his 

 brothers, and the French chivalry, landed at Damietta, 

 and, in 1249, conquered this city. He afterwards twice 

 defeated the sultan of Egypt, to whom Palestine was 

 subject. He himself performed prodigies of valour, 

 particularly in the battle of Massura (1250). But 

 famine and contagious disorders soon compelled him 

 to retreat; his army was almost entirely destroyed 

 by the Saracens, and himself and his followers carried 

 into captivity. The sultan demanded for the ransom 

 of the king and his lords the restoration of Damietta, 

 And 1,000,000 gold Byzantines. But Louis answered 

 " A king of France cannot allow himself to be 

 bartered for gold." He offered, however, to restore 

 Damietta, as the ransom of his own person, and to 

 pay the sum demanded for his followers. The sul- 

 tan was so well pleased with this answer, that he 

 contented himself with 800,000 Byzantines (about 

 100,000 marks of silver, and concluded a truce of 

 ten years. (In Napoleon's Memoires, Notes, et Me- 

 langes (vol. i.) is found a comparison between the 

 campaign of Bonaparte in Egypt and that of St 

 Louis.) It was not till the year 1254, that Louis 

 returned to France, and, in the interval, queen 

 Blanche, who had ruled the kingdom in an ex- 

 emplary manner, had died. Louis again turned 

 his attention to the administration of the laws, which, 

 until this time, had been left entirely to the caprice 

 of the barons. The subjects could now appeal from 

 the decision of their lords to four royal tribunals, and 

 learned men were introduced into the parliaments, 

 whose members had till now been composed of barons 

 frequently so ignorant as to be unable to write. Louis 

 likewise diminished the taxes, which had exliausted 



the wealth of the subjects. In 1269, he drew up a 

 pragmatic sanction, which secured their rights to tho 

 chief or cathedral churches. He, nevertheless, re- 

 pressed, when occasion required, the arrogant pre- ' 

 :ensions of the clergy. The high character which 

 Louis IX. bore among his contemporaries may be 

 seen from this circumstance, that Henry III. and his 

 nobles, in 1268, selected him for the arbiter of their 

 disputes. After he had united to his dominions sev- 

 eral French provinces which had hitherto been under 

 the dominion of England, he determined, in 1270, to 

 undertake another crusade. He sailed to Africa, 

 besieged Tunis, and took its citadel. But a conta- 

 gious disorder broke out, to which he himself (Aug. 

 24, 1270), together with a great part of his army fell 

 a sacrifice. The instructions which he left in writing 

 for his son, show the noble spirit which inspired this 

 king ; a spirit, which, if it had not been infected with 

 the religious bigotry of the times, would have ren- 

 dered his administration the greatest of blessings. 

 In 1297, he was canonized by Boniface VIII. Louis 

 XIII. afterwards obtained from the pope that the 

 festival of Saint Louis should be celebrated in all the 

 churches. See Arthur Beugnot's Essay upon the 

 Institutions of Saint Louis (Paris, 1821), and count 

 Segur's Life of Louis IX.. (Paris, 1824.) 



LOUIS XL, king of France ; one of those per- 

 sonages who live at a period when old principles are 

 giving way to new, and whose life, therefore, becomes 

 an epoch. But Louis XI. is a subject of great 

 interest, not only as a representative of his age, but 

 in his individual character. A person more ready 

 for crime, if conducive to his ends, or a greater 

 devotee, not for the purpose of deceiving others, but 

 to quiet himself, is not to be found among monarchs 

 The life of such a sovereign can hardly be treated 

 satisfactorily, within the limits to which we are con- 

 fined, because it is not particular events, but the policy 

 of his government, and the character of his measures, 

 which render him remarkable. A full view of his 

 life would be a history of France during the fifteenth 

 century; we can give only the outlines. Louis XI. 

 was the son of Charles VII., and was born at Bour- 

 ges, July 3, 1423. He was educated in a simple 

 manner, under the eyes of his mother, Mary of An- 

 jou, one of the most virtuous women of her time. At 

 the age of five years, he married Margaret of Scot- 

 land, who died seven years afterwards. Active, bold, 

 and cunning, he was the reverse of his well-disposed 

 but imbecile father, of whose ministers and mistress, 

 Agnes Sorel, he soon showed himself a decided 

 enemy. In 1440, he left the court, and put himself at 

 the head of an insurrection at Niort, known under 

 the name of la Praguerie. Charles defeated the 

 rebels, executed some, but pardoned his son, whom 

 he even trusted, in 1442 and 1443, with the command 

 against the English and Swiss. Louis conducted 

 himself with valour and prudence, and his father 

 became entirely reconciled to him; but, having soon 

 entered into new conspiracies, Louis was obliged to 

 flee to Dauphine, which Charles left at his disposal. 

 Contrary to the will of his father, he married the 

 daughter of the duke of Savoy, and entertained a 

 treasonable correspondence with the king's court; he 

 is even said to have been accessary to the death of 

 Agnes Sorel. His father, however, obliged him to 

 flee to Burgundy, and he lived five years at Gennep, 

 in Hainault, in a dependent condition. He repeatedly 

 appeared disposed to return, when the king's death 

 seemed to be at hand, but, with the restoration of his 

 father's health, always declined so doing. Charles 

 VII. died in 1461, having, from fear of being poisoned 

 by his son, hardly ventured to eat any thing, and thus 

 lost his life by excessive care of it. Louis now has- 

 tened to Rheims to be crowned. He promised pardon 

 2x1 



