of his third wife, Adèle (his second wife, Constance of Castile, had died in childbirth),
the counts of Champagne and their entourage. His son by Adèle, Philip II Augustus,
associated in the rule of France in 1179, here began his political experience. The
kingdesignate was now introduced to his need to grow in cunning and in manipulation of
family relationships in order to enhance the royal authority. Louis VII was not a great
king, but he was a successful one.
James W.Alexander
[See also: ADÈLE OF CHAMPAGNE; CONSTANCE OF CASTILE; ELEANOR
OF AQUITAINE; HENRY II]
Bur, Michel. Suger, abbé de Saint-Denis, régent de France. Paris: Perrin, 1991.
Dunbabin, Jean. France in the Making, 843–1180. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Fawtier, Robert. The Capetian Kings of France: Monarchy and Nation (987–1328), trans. Lionel
Butler and R.J.Adam. London: Macmillan, 1960.
Hallam, Elizabeth. Capetian France, 987–1328. London: Longman, 1980.
Pacaut, Marcel. Louis VII et son royaume. Paris: SEVPEN, 1964.
Petit-Dutaillis, Charles. The Feudal Monarchy in France and England from the Tenth to the
Thirteenth Century, trans. E.D.Hunt. New York: Harper and Row, 1964.
LOUIS VIII
(1187–1226). King of France from 1223 until 1226, son of Philip II Augustus, and father
of Louis IX. Though a sickly child, nearly dying in 1191, Louis became an ambitious and
able soldier, who energetically assisted his father in military activities. (For his prowess,
Louis was described by Nicolas de Brai as Louis the Lion.) In 1212, he seized the towns
of Aire and Saint-Omer from the rebellious count of Flanders, Ferrand, and in 1215–16
he gathered a large army for an expedition against England.
In 1224, after becoming king, he invaded and took Poitou from the English, and the
following year he tried unsuccessfully to conquer Gascony. Perhaps his greatest military
victory was against the Albigensian heretics in Languedoc. Beginning in 1218–19, when
still prince, Louis continued to fight against the Albigensians as king; in 1226, with papal
and comital support, he attacked Languedoc, conquered Avignon, and forced the rest of
the south to submit to his rule. He died soon after, on November 8, 1226, leaving the
throne to the child Louis IX under the regency of his mother, Blanche of Castile.
Kelly DeVries
[See also: ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE; BLANCHE OF CASTILE]
Choffel, Jacques. Louis VIII le Lion. Paris: Fayard, 1983.
Fawtier, Robert. The Capetian Kings of France: Monarchy and Nation (987–1328), trans. Lionel
Butler and R.J.Adam. London: Macmillan, 1960.
Hallam, Elizabeth. Capetian France, 987–1328. London: Longman, 1980.
Petit-Dutaillis, Charles. The Feudal Monarchy in France and England from the Tenth to the
Thirteenth Century, trans. E.D.Hunt. New York: Harper and Row, 1964.
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