King of France from 1461 to 1483
Louis XI
(3 July 1423 ? 30 August 1483), called "
Louis the Prudent
" (French:
le Prudent
), was
King of France
from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father,
Charles VII
. Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revolt known as the
Praguerie
in 1440. The king forgave his rebellious vassals, including Louis, to whom he entrusted the management of the
Dauphine
, then a province in southeastern France. Louis's ceaseless intrigues, however, led his father to banish him from court. From the Dauphine, Louis led his own political establishment and married
Charlotte of Savoy
, daughter of
Louis, Duke of Savoy
, against the will of his father. Charles VII sent an army to compel his son to his will, but Louis fled to
Burgundy
, where he was hosted by
Philip the Good
, the
Duke of Burgundy
, Charles' greatest enemy.
When Charles VII died in 1461, Louis left the Burgundian court to take possession of his kingdom. His taste for intrigue and his intense diplomatic activity earned him the nicknames "
the Cunning
" (
Middle French
:
le ruse
) and "
the Universal Spider
" (Middle French:
l'universelle aragne
), as his enemies accused him of spinning webs of plots and conspiracies.
In 1472, the subsequent Duke of Burgundy,
Charles the Bold
,
took up arms
against his rival Louis. However, Louis was able to isolate Charles from his English allies by signing the
Treaty of Picquigny
(1475) with
Edward IV of England
. The treaty formally ended the
Hundred Years' War
. With the death of Charles the Bold at the
Battle of Nancy
in 1477, the dynasty of the dukes of Burgundy died out. Louis took advantage of the situation to seize numerous Burgundian territories, including
Burgundy
itself and
Picardy
.
Without direct foreign threats, Louis was able to eliminate his rebellious vassals, expand royal power, and strengthen the economic development of his country. He died in 1483, and was succeeded by his minor son
Charles VIII
.
Childhood
[
edit
]
Louis was born in
Bourges
on 3 July 1423, the son of King
Charles VII of France
and
Marie of Anjou
.
At the time of the
Hundred Years War
, the English held northern France, including the city of Paris, and Charles VII was restricted to the centre and south of the country.
Louis was the grandson of
Yolande of Aragon
, who was a force in the royal family for driving the English out of France, which was at a low point in its struggles. Just a few weeks after Louis's christening at the
Cathedral of St. Etienne
on 4 July 1423, the French army suffered a crushing defeat by the English
at Cravant
.
Shortly thereafter, a combined Anglo-Burgundian army briefly raided Bourges itself.
During the reign of Louis's grandfather
Charles VI
(1380?1422), the Duchy of Burgundy was very much connected with the French throne, but because the central government lacked any real power, all the duchies of France tended to act independently.
In its position of independence from the French throne, Burgundy had grown in size and power. By the reign of Louis's father Charles VII,
Philip the Good
was reigning as duke of Burgundy, and the duchy had expanded its borders to include all the territory in France from the
North Sea
in the north to the
Jura Mountains
in the south and from the
Somme River
in the west to the
Moselle River
in the east.
During the Hundred Years War, the Burgundians allied themselves with England against the French crown.
In 1429, young Louis found himself at
Loches
in the presence of
Joan of Arc
, fresh from her first victory over the English at the
Siege of Orleans
,
which initiated a turning point for the French in the Hundred Years War. Joan later led troops in other victories at the
Battle of Jargeau
and the
Battle of Patay
.
Paris was recaptured after her death, and Louis and his father were able to ride in triumph into the city on 12 November 1437.
Nevertheless, Louis grew up aware of the continuing weakness of France. He regarded his father as a weakling, and despised him for this.
Marriages
[
edit
]
On 24 June 1436, Louis met
Margaret
, daughter of King
James I of Scotland
, 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 whether 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 that Louis entered the ceremony and the marriage itself dutifully, as evidenced by his formal embrace of Margaret upon their first meeting.
Louis's marriage with Margaret resulted from the nature of medieval royal diplomacy and the precarious position of the French monarchy at the time. The wedding ceremony?very plain by the standards of the time?took place in the chapel of the
castle of Tours
on the afternoon of 25 June 1436, and was presided over by Renaud of Chartres, the
Archbishop of Reims
.
The 13-year-old Louis clearly looked more mature than his 11-year-old bride, who was said to resemble a beautiful doll and was treated as such by her in-laws.
Charles wore "grey riding pants" and "did not even bother to remove his spurs".
The Scottish guests were quickly hustled out after the wedding reception, as the French royal court was quite impoverished at this time. They simply could not afford an extravagant ceremony or to host their Scottish guests for any longer than they did. The Scots, however, saw this behaviour as an insult to their small but proud country.
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 of France
by Charles, as was traditional for the eldest son of the king.
The beautiful and cultured Margaret was popular at the court of France, but her marriage to Louis was not a happy one, in part because of his strained relations with her father-in-law, who was very attached to her. She died childless at the age of 20 in 1445.
In 1440, Louis, aged 16, took part in an uprising known as
the Praguerie
, which sought to neutralize Charles and install Louis as regent of France. The uprising failed, and Louis was forced to submit to the king, who chose to forgive him.
In this revolt, Louis came under the influence of
Charles I, Duke of Bourbon
,
whose troops were in no condition to mount such a serious threat to royal authority. Louis was forced to retreat to Paris, but was "by no means trounced".
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.
In 1444, Louis led an army of "
ecorcheurs
" (bands of mercenary soldiers) against the Swiss at the
Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs
where he sought to reconquer territories of his future brother-in-law, Sigismund of Austria-Tyrol.
[16]
He won only one victory before suing for peace.
[16]
He failed to achieve his original objective.
[16]
He still quarreled with his father. His objectionable scheming, which included disrespectful behavior directed against his father's beloved mistress
Agnes Sorel
,
caused him to be ordered out of court on 27 September 1446 and sent to his own province of
Dauphine
. He lived mainly in
Grenoble
, in the
tour de la Tresorerie
.
Despite frequent summons by the king, the two would never meet again. In Dauphine, Louis ruled as king in all but name,
continuing his intrigues against his father. On 14 February 1451, Louis, who had been widowed for six years, made a strategic marriage to the eight-year-old
Charlotte of Savoy
, without Charles' consent.
This marriage was to have long-ranging effects on foreign policy as the beginning of French involvement in the affairs of the Italian peninsula.
Finally, in August 1456, Charles sent an army to Dauphine under the command of
Antoine de Chabannes
. Louis fled to
Burgundy
, where he was granted refuge by Duke Philip the Good and settled in the castle of
Genappe
.
King Charles was furious when Philip refused to hand over Louis and warned the duke that he was "giving shelter to a fox who will eat his chickens."
Accession
[
edit
]
In 1461, Louis learned that his father was dying. He hurried to
Reims
to be crowned, in case his brother,
Charles, Duke of Berry
, should try to do the same. Louis XI became King of France on 22 July 1461.
Louis pursued many of the same goals that his father had, such as limiting the powers of the dukes and barons of France, with consistently greater success. Among other initiatives, Louis instituted reforms to make the tax system more efficient.
He suppressed many of his former co-conspirators, who had thought him their friend, and he appointed to government service many men of no rank, but who had shown promising talent. He particularly favored the associates of the great French merchant
Jacques Coeur
.
He also allowed enterprising nobles to engage in trade without losing their privileges of nobility.
He eliminated offices within the government bureaucracy, and increased the demand on other offices within the government in order to promote efficiency.
Louis spent a large part of his kingship on the road.
Travelling from town to town in his kingdom, Louis would surprise local officials, investigate local governments, establish fairs, and promote trade regulations.
Perhaps the most significant contribution of Louis XI to the organization of the modern state of France was his development of the system of royal postal roads in 1464.
In this system, relays at instant service to the king operated on all the high roads of France; this communications network spread all across France and led to the king acquiring his nickname "Universal Spider".
As king, Louis became extremely prudent fiscally, 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 his activities is recorded by the courtier
Philippe de Commines
in his
memoirs
of the period. Louis made a habit of surrounding himself with valuable advisers of humble origins, such as Commines himself,
Olivier Le Daim
,
Louis Tristan L'Hermite
, and
Jean Balue
. Louis was anxious to speed up everything, transform everything, and build his own new world.
In recognition of all the changes that Louis XI made to the government of France, he has the reputation of a leading "civil reformer" in French history, and his reforms were in the interests of the rising trading and mercantile classes that would later become the bourgeoisie of France.
Louis XI also involved himself in the affairs of the Church in France. In October 1461, Louis abolished the
Pragmatic Sanction
that his father had instituted in 1438 to establish a French
Gallican Church
free of the controls of the
popes
in Rome.
Feud with Charles the Bold
[
edit
]
Philip III was the Duke of Burgundy at the time that Louis came to the throne, and was keen to initiate a
Crusade
against the
Ottoman Empire
. However, he needed funds to organize such an enterprise. Louis XI gave him 400,000 gold crowns for the Crusade in exchange for a number of territories, including
Picardy
and
Amiens
.
However, Philip's son, the future
Charles I, Duke of Burgundy
(known as the Count of Charolais at the time of Louis's accession) was angry about this transaction, 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, the Duke of Berry
.
Although the rebels were largely unsuccessful in battle, Louis had no better luck. Louis XI fought an indecisive battle against the rebels at
Montlhery
and was forced to grant an unfavourable peace as a matter of political expediency.
When the Count of Charolais became Duke of Burgundy in 1467 as Charles I ("the Bold"), he seriously considered declaring an independent kingdom of his own. However, Louis's progress toward a strong centralized government had advanced to the point where the dukes of Burgundy could no longer act as independently as they had in the past. The duchy now faced many problems and revolts in its territories, especially from the people of
Liege
, who conducted the
Liege Wars
against the Duke of Burgundy. In the Liege Wars, Louis XI allied himself at first with the people of Liege.
In 1468, Louis and Charles met at
Peronne
, but during the course of negotiations, they learned that the citizens of Liege had again risen up against Charles and killed the Burgundian governor.
Charles was furious. Philippe de Commines, at that time in the service of the duke of Burgundy, had to calm him down with the help of the duke's other advisors for fear that he might hit the king. Louis was forced into a humiliating treaty. He gave up many of the lands he had acquired from Philip the Good, turned on his erstwhile allies in Liege and swore to help Charles put down the uprising in Liege. Louis then witnessed a siege of Liege in which hundreds were massacred.
However, 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. Nothing was more odious to Louis' dream of a centralized monarchy than the existence of an over-mighty vassal such as the Duke of Burgundy. War broke out in 1472. Duke Charles laid siege to
Beauvais
and other towns. However, these sieges proved unsuccessful; the
Siege of Beauvais
was lifted on 22 July 1472,
and Charles finally sued for peace. Philippe de Commines was then welcomed into the service of King Louis.
In 1469, Louis founded the
Order of St. Michael
, probably in imitation of the prestigious Burgundian
Order of the Golden Fleece
, founded by Charles' father Philip the Good, just as King
John II of France
had founded the now defunct
Order of the Star
in imitation of the
Order of the Garter
of King
Edward III of England
. 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
[
edit
]
Coin of Louis XI, struck ca. 1470
|
|
Obverse: Medieval image of Louis XI
|
Reverse: Fleurs-de-lis
|
At the same time that France and Burgundy were fighting each other, England was experiencing a bitter civil conflict now known as the
Wars of the Roses
. Louis had an interest in this war, for the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was allied with the
Yorkists
who opposed King
Henry VI
. When the
Earl of Warwick
fell out with the Yorkist King
Edward IV
, after helping Edward attain his throne, Louis granted Warwick refuge in France. Through Louis's diplomacy, Warwick then formed 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 in 1470, but he later returned to England in 1471. Warwick was then killed at the
Battle of Barnet
in 1471.
King Henry VI was soon murdered 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 had driven them out by force of
pate
,
venison
, and good
French wine
.
Outcome of rivalry with Charles the Bold
[
edit
]
Just as his father had done, Louis spent most of his reign dealing with political disputes with the reigning Duke of Burgundy,
and for this purpose he employed the Swiss,
whose military might was renowned. He had admired it himself at the
Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs
.
War broke out between Charles and the Swiss after he invaded Switzerland.
The invasion proved to be a tremendous mistake. On 2 March 1476, the Swiss attacked and defeated the Burgundians first at
Grandson
and then again a few months later, on 22 June that year, at
Murten
.
The duke was killed at the
Battle of Nancy
on 5 January 1477, an event that marked the end of the
Burgundian Wars
.
Louis was thus able to see the destruction of his sworn enemy. Those lords who still favored the
feudal system
gave in to his authority. Others, such as
Jacques d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours
, were executed. The lands belonging to the Duchy of Burgundy as constituted by Louis's great-great-grandfather John II for the benefit of his son
Philip the Bold
reverted to the crown of France.
Italian connections
[
edit
]
The marriage on 14 February 1451 between 28-year-old Louis and the 8-year-old Charlotte of Savoy was the true beginning of French involvement in the affairs of Italy. The Italian peninsula was a compact and politically competitive space dominated by five powers:
Venice
,
Milan
,
Florence
, the
Papacy
, and the
Kingdom of Naples
.
Beside these five great regional powers, there were about a dozen smaller states in Italy that were constantly changing policies and shifting alliances between and towards the various regional powers. The city/state of
Genoa
and the rising state of
Savoy
, which centered on the city of
Turin
, were examples of these lesser powers in northern Italy. Even the
Italic League
?the combination of the five major powers of Italy that had been born out of the
Treaty of Lodi
of 1454?was constantly undergoing internal realignments.
Both Louis XI and his father Charles VII had been too busy with their struggles with Burgundy to pay much attention to political affairs smoldering in Italy. Additionally, Louis had his attention drawn away from Italy by disagreements with the rulers of England and his struggles with
Maximilian of Austria
, who married the heir of Charles the Bold,
Mary of Burgundy
, and wanted to keep her territorial inheritance intact. However, the death of the Duke of Burgundy in 1477,
which conclusively settled the issue of Burgundy's position under the French throne, the conclusion of the Treaty of Picquigny with England in 1475 and the peaceful resolution in 1482 of the disposition of the "Burgundian inheritance" left to Mary of Burgundy finally allowed Louis XI to turn his attention to Italy.
Viewed from the Italian states, the death of the Duke of Burgundy in 1477 and the resultant downfall of his duchy as a threat to the French throne signalled vast changes in the states' relationships with the kingdom of France.
Despite his connection by marriage to the royal house of Savoy, Louis XI continuously courted a strong relationship with
Francesco I Sforza
, the Duke of Milan, who was a traditional enemy of Savoy. As a confirmation of the close relationship between Milan and the king of France, Sforza sent his son
Galeazzo Maria Sforza
to aid Louis XI in his war against the League of Public Weal in 1465 at the head of a large army.
Later, differences arose between France and Milan that caused Milan to seek ways of separating itself from dependence on the French. However, with the downfall of Burgundy in 1477, France was seen in a new light by Milan, which now hurriedly repaired its relationship with Louis XI.
Likewise, France's old enemy King
Ferdinand I of Naples
began to seek a marriage alliance between the Kingdom of Naples and France.
Louis XI also opened new friendly relations with the Papal States, forgetting the past devotion of the popes for the Duke of Burgundy.
In January 1478, he signed a favorable treaty with the
Republic of Venice
.
French involvement in the affairs of Italy would be carried to new levels by Louis XI's son
Charles VIII
in 1493, when he answered an appeal for help from
Ludovico Sforza
, the younger son of Francesco Sforza, that led to an invasion of Italy. This would become a significant turning point in Italian political history.
Death
[
edit
]
Louis XI, having suffered from bouts of apoplexy and years of illness, died on 30 August 1483
and was interred in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Clery
in
Clery-Saint-Andre
in the
Arrondissement of Orleans
. His widow, Charlotte, died a few months later, and is interred with him. Louis XI was succeeded by his son Charles VIII, who was thirteen years of age. Louis' eldest daughter,
Anne
, became regent on Charles' behalf.
Legacy
[
edit
]
Eager to obtain information about his enemies, Louis created, from 1464, a net of postal relays all over France,
which was a precursor to the modern
French postal service
.
Louis developed his kingdom by encouraging trade fairs and the building and maintenance of roads. Louis XI pursued the organization of the kingdom of France with the assistance of bourgeois officials.
In some respects, Louis XI perfected the framework of the modern French Government which was to last until the French Revolution.
Thus, Louis XI is one of the first modern kings of France who helped take it out of the
Middle Ages
.
Louis XI was very superstitious
and surrounded himself with
astrologers
. Interested in science, he once pardoned a man sentenced to death on condition that he serve as a
guinea pig
for a gallstone operation.
Through wars and guile, Louis XI overcame France's mostly independent feudal lords, and at the time of his death in the
Chateau de Plessis-lez-Tours
, he had united France and laid the foundations of a strong monarchy. He was, however, a secretive, reclusive man, and few mourned his death.
Despite Louis XI's political acumen and overall policy of
Realpolitik
,
Niccolo Machiavelli
criticized him harshly in Chapter 13 of
The Prince
, calling him shortsighted and imprudent for abolishing his own infantry in favor of
Swiss mercenaries
.
Children
[
edit
]
Louis and Charlotte of Savoy had:
- Louis (18 October 1458 – 1460)
- Joachim (15 July 1459 – 29 November 1459)
- Louise (born and died in 1460)
- Anne
(3 April 1461 ? 14 November 1522), in 1473 married
Peter of Beaujeu
[52]
- Joan
(23 April 1464 ? 4 February 1505), married Louis XII, King of France
- Louis (born and died on 4 December 1466)
- Charles VIII of France
(30 June 1470 ? 8 April 1498)
- Francis,
Duke of Berry
(3 September 1472 ? November 1473)
Ancestry
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Bakos, Adrianna E. (1997).
Images of Kingship in Early Modern France: Louis XI in Political Thought, 1560?1789
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-0-4151-5478-9
.
- Bowersock, G W (2009).
From Gibbon to Auden : Essays on the Classical Tradition
. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-1997-0407-1
.
- Brine, Douglas (2015).
Pious Memories: The Wall-Mounted Memorial in the Burgundian Netherlands
. Brill.
ISBN
978-9-0042-8832-4
.
- Chatelet, Albert; Paviot, Jacques (2007).
Visages d'antan : le Recueil d'Arras (XIVe?XVIe siecle)
. Editions du Gui.
ISBN
978-2-9517-4176-8
.
- Cleugh, James (1970).
Chant Royal The Life of King Louis XI of France (1423?1483)
. Doubleday & Company, Inc.
ASIN
B000NX3VVY
.
- de Gibours, Anselm
(1726).
Histoire genealogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France
[
Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France
] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires.
- Guerard, Albert (1959).
France: A Modern History
. University of Michigan Press.
ASIN
B00G0N283I
.
- Hand, Joni M. (2013).
Women, Manuscripts and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350?1550
. Ashgate Publishing.
- Hoyt, Robert S.; Chodorow, Stanley (1976).
Europe in the Middle Ages
. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Inc.
ISBN
978-0-1552-4713-0
.
- Kendall, Paul Murray
(1971).
Louis XI: The Universal Spider
. W.W. Norton & Company Inc.
ISBN
978-1-8421-2411-6
.
- Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel (1987).
The Royal French State 1460?1610
. Blackwell Publishers.
ISBN
978-0-6311-7027-3
.
- Moreau, Gilles-Marie (2010).
Le Saint-Denis des Dauphins: histoire de la collegiale Saint-Andre de Grenoble
(in French). L'Harmattan.
ISBN
978-2-2961-3062-3
.
- Saenger, Paul. "Burgundy and the Inalienability of Appanages in the Reign of Louis XI."
French Historical Studies
10.1 (1977): 1?26
online
.
- Slattery, Maureen. "King Louis XI-Chivalry's Villain or Anti-Hero: the Contrasting Historiography of Chastellain and Commynes."
Fifteenth Century Studies
23 (1997): 49+.
- Sumption, Jonathan (2023).
The Hundred Years War
. Vol. 5: Triumph and Illusion. Faber & Faber.
- Thompson, John B. (1995).
The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media
. Stanford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-7456-5674-8
.
- Tyrell, Joseph M. (1980).
Louis XI
. Twayne Publishers.
ISBN
978-0-8057-7728-4
.
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Artists
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|