Further Reading
Bernhardi, Wilhelm. Lothar von Supplinburg (1125–1127).
Jahrbücher der deutschen Geschichte 15. 1879; repr., Berlin:
Duncker und Humblot, 1975.
Crone, Marie-Luise. Untersuchungen zur Reichskirchenpolitik
Lothars III. (1125–1137) zwischen reichskirchlicher Tradition
und Reformkurie. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1982.
Wadle, Elmar. Reichsgut und Königsherrschaft unter Lothar III.
(1125–1137): Ein Beitrag zur Verfassungsgeschichte des 12.
Jahrhunderts. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1969.
Brian A. Pavlac
LOUIS IX (1214–1270)
King of France and saint. The son of Louis VIII, Louis
IX came to the throne as a child in 1226. He spent his
early years as king under the tutelage of his mother,
Blanche of Castile. Many northern barons resented
the assignment of the regency to a woman, let alone a
foreigner. Others resented the growing authoritarianism
of the crown during the preceding fi fty years, the reigns
of Philip II Augustus and Louis VIII. Many baronial
families in the west nursed grievances from the period
of the conquest of the Plantagenêt fi efs in the early years
of the century. And in the south, local notables remained
unreconciled to the French regime established in the
wake of the Albigensian Crusade. These resentments
periodically broke into rebellion: the late 1220s and
early 1230s saw the crown confronting shifting alliances
of northern barons (including the count of Brittany,
Pierre Mauclerc) in defense of aristocratic interests. In
the opening years of the 1240s, nobles and townsmen
in the southwest and Languedoc banded together with
the support of the Plantagenêt king of England to undo
the conquests of the previous half-century. The crown
defeated all these movements. The credit for the early
successes goes largely to Blanche of Castile, but gradu-
ally in the 1230s her son became the effective ruler of
the kingdom.
Married in 1234 to Marguerite of Provence, who
came to dislike his mother, Louis remained devoted to
Blanche and responsive to her political advice. Only in
one matter is there evidence of political disagreement
between mother and son: Louis’s decision in late 1244
to take the crusader’s vow. Despite Blanche’s objec-
tions, Louis fulfi lled the vow after almost four years of
preparation that included commissioning enquêteurs,
or special investigators, to identify the perpetrators of
injustices in his government. In addition to the good-
will that these investigations produced, the information
allowed Louis to improve the machinery of government
by retiring or reassigning certain of his administrators.
At the same time, he worked hard to encourage national
and international support for his venture and to build
a port, Aigues-Mortes, in the south of France for the
embarkation of his army, estimated at 15,000–25,000
men.
Louis departed for the Seventh Crusade in 1248, leav-
ing his mother as regent; his wife accompanied him on
the expedition. After wintering in Cyprus, he began the
invasion of Egypt in May 1249. The crusaders captured
the coastal city of Damietta, and then, after a consider-
able respite, they began the invasion of the Egyptian in-
terior late in the year, continuing into the early months of- Daily running up against fi ercer opposition, they
were decisively defeated in April at Al-Mansura; Louis
and the remnants of his army were captured. After dif-
fi cult negotiations, the king and his men were ransomed,
and many, including the king’s two surviving brothers,
Alphonse of Poitiers and Charles of Anjou, took ship for
Europe. The king and a small group of crusaders, spent
the next several years in the Christian states of the Holy
Land helping to rebuild fortifi cations and to formulate
effective strategies against the enemy.
The queen-mother died in November 1252. Although
he learned of her death in the spring of 1253, it was not
until a year later that Louis was persuaded by the steady
stream of information that reached him from France
that conditions there necessitated his return. Landing at
Hyères, not far from Marseille, in July 1254, he began
immediately to transform the governance of his realm.
Convinced that his failure on crusade was the result of
his own sinfulness, and translating this conviction into
a decision to live up to his notion of the ideal Christian
ruler, he set about restraining the excesses of the Inqui-
sition, reintroducing the enquêteurs, reforming the ad-
ministration of the city of Paris, and, most far-reaching,
undertaking a thorough overhaul of royal administrators
in the provinces. Louis ceaselessly traversed the realm
to hear petitions and do justice personally. Traditional
institutions of rule, like Parlement, were improved in
their organization and were leavened by his commitment
to equity. He worked hard, too, to execute a severely re-
strictive policy toward the Jews that was in part intended
to encourage them to convert.
In the late 1260s, Louis committed himself to another
crusade. After considerable preparations, he departed in - His wife remained in France. Following a brief
stopover in Sardinia, the army, perhaps 5,000–10,000
strong, launched its attack on Tunis. Before the city
could be taken—and in the event it never was—the king
died (August 25,1270). He was succeeded by his son,
Philip III. As his bones were being transported to their
fi nal rest at Saint-Denis, miracles began to be reported.
A few years later, the canonization process began in
earnest. In 1297, the former king was raised to the
catalogue of saints as St. Louis Confessor.
See also Blanche of Castile; Joinville, Jean de;
Philip II Augustus
LOUIS IX