monarchy’s financial policies and infringement of traditional rights, Louis issued
numerous charters and dispatched reforming officials in an attempt to satisfy the allies’
demands. Hostility toward his father’s unpopular ministers, especially Enguerran de
Marigny, was galvanized by Louis’s uncle Charles of Valois and led to Marigny’s
execution in April 1315. Conflict with Flanders continued; the French army of 1315 came
to be known as “the muddy host” because of its ignominious retreat in the face of ruinous
storms.
When Louis died on June 5, 1316, Clemence was pregnant. But before dying the king
declared the legitimacy of the daughter, Jeanne, whom Marguerite had borne him in
- The succession thus remained unclear, since there was no legal bar to Jeanne’s
accession. Clemence’s son, John I, lived for less than a week, and the throne passed to
Louis’s brother Philip.
Elizabeth A.R.Brown
[See also: CHARLES OF VALOIS; MARIGNY, ENGUERRAN DE; PHILIP IV
THE FAIR]
Artonne, André. Le mouvement de 1314 et les chartes provinciales de 1315. Paris: Alcan, 1912.
Brown, Elizabeth A.R. The Monarchy of Capetian France and Royal Ceremonial. London:
Variorum, 1991.
——. “Kings Like Semi-Gods: The Case of Louis X of France.” Majestas 1 (1993):5–37.
LOUIS XI
(1423–1483). The eldest son of Charles VII, Louis XI was raised in isolation from his
father, and their subsequent animosity made Louis XI a political force long before he
ascended the throne. Charged with the defense of Languedoc in 1439, he fell under the
influence of rebellious nobles and joined the Praguerie. He was soon forgiven, but the
continuing animosity between Louis and Charles seems to have increased after the death
of Louis’s wife, Margaret of Scotland, in 1445 and Louis retired to his apanage of the
Dauphiné in 1447. There he began an apprenticeship for the throne by reforming
provincial government. A disobedient remarriage to Charlotte of Savoy completed the
family breach, and Louis fled the realm in 1456.
Louis began his reign in 1461 by ambitiously seeking to expand his authority both
abroad, through the invasion of Catalonia, and at home, with his vengeful dismissal of his
father’s advisers and foolish rejection of previous allies. He barely survived the
subsequent Guerre du Bien Publique and the indecisive Battle of Montlhéry in July 1465,
but the rest of the reign was marked by a remarkable ability to learn from his mistakes.
Henceforth, Louis handled his domestic adversaries by isolating and destroying each in
turn and sought international success through diplomacy rather than war.
By judicious gifts and appointments, Louis reconciled himself to his father’s advisers,
Dunois and Chabannes and such dangerous peers as the duke of Bourbon. He isolated his
brother Charles of France by the award of the apanage of Guyenne. Louis supported first
the Lancastrians and then the Yorkists to prevent English intervention in France,
subsidized Swiss resistance to Burgundy, and supported Angevin ventures in Italy to
The Encyclopedia 1075