456 love
THE GOOD. In 1461, his accession to the throne was
marked by an unprecedented purging of his father’s offi-
cials of state and the revocation of the PRAGMATICSANC-
TION OFBOURGES. In 1465 the upper nobility formed the
League of Public Good or Weal against him; and, after
losing the battle of Monthléry, he was forced to grant con-
cessions, such as giving NORMANDY to his brother,
Charles of Anjou (d. 1482). He recaptured Normandy the
following year and concluded the advantageous Peace of
Ancenis with the duke of BRITTANYin 1468. He then con-
vened the estates of Languedoc ̈ at Tours and obtained
approval of his policy and the condemnation of the rebel-
lious princes and nobles.
Maneuvered by CHARLES THEBOLDinto a disadvanta-
geous agreement at Péronne in October 1468, Louis was
forced to give the county of Champagne to his brother,
Charles of Anjou, to help with the suppression of a revolt
at Liège. Unsuccessful in taking over the rich inheritance
of Charles the Bold, who died at Nancy in 1477, Louis XI
did recover, by the treaty of Arras in December of 1482,
the Somme towns, the Boulonnais, and some rights on
the duchy of Burgundy. The death of his brother, Charles
of Anjou, in 1482 also allowed him to annex Anjou,
Maine, Barrois, and PROVENCE.
LEGACYHe died in August 1483, having added extensive territory
to the French Crown. He had governed by cultivating the
small and middle nobility and urban oligarchies. He
believed in prompt justice and practiced a devious and
unscrupulous diplomacy. Feared for his authoritarianism,
his basic royal policies were taming or coopting the
nobility and upper clergy, adding to the royal domain,
taxing heavily to support the state and the new standing
army, and encouraging initiatives for an economic recon-
struction of the kingdom.
See alsoCOMMYNES,PHILIPPE DE; EDWARDIV, KING OF
ENGLAND.
Further reading:Philippe de Commynes, The Uni-
versal Spider: The Life of Louis XI of France,trans. and ed.
Paul Kendall (London: Folio Society, 1973); Adrianna E.
Bakos, Images of Kingship in Early Modern France: Louis
XI in Political Thought, 1560–1789 (London and New
York: Routledge, 1997); James Cleugh, Chant Royal: The
Life of King Louis XI of France (1423–1483)(Garden City,
N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970); Paul Murray Kendall, Louis XI:
The Universal Spider(New York: W. W. Norton, 1970);
Mark Spencer, Thomas Basin (1412–1490): The History of
Charles VII and Louis XI(Nieuwkoop: De Graaf Publish-
ers, 1997).
love The concept of love in the Middle Ages covered
several distinct concepts, including irrational sexual desire
in search of sensual satisfaction and feelings of respect and
affection that children owe their parents and inferiors owe
their betters. Reciprocity was certainly possible but not
necessary. There could also be the disinterested feeling that
unites equals or close friends around a common interest,
most important the love of GOD. All of these forms could
have an uneasy coexistence among humankind.
MARRIAGEwas necessitated in nature and culture by
the demands of procreation and for education and for
biological and social reproduction. Marriage was not cre-
ated for amorous passion. ADULTERY was among the
worst of evils, casting doubt on the authenticity of suc-
cession within a lineage and ruining social ties. CONTRA-
CEPTION was thus more severely condemned within
marriage than outside it. Marriage was reinforced by pro-
hibitions of the five kinds of luxury or sin, fornication,
adultery, INCEST, deflowering of a virgin outside marriage,
and rape. The Middle Ages had three important long last-
ing ideas about love: the naturalness, but secondary sta-
tus, of the conjugal bond, its exaltation in literature as a
free and subjective feeling, and the spiritual fulfillment of
the self in a love of God.
See alsoCELIBACY; CHASTITY;CHRÉTIEN DETROYES;
COURTLY LOVE; FABLES; FABLIAUX OR COMIC TALES; FAMILY
AND KINSHIP IN WESTERN EUROPE; HOMOSEXUALITY;
SEVEN DEADLY OR CAPITAL SINS, THE; SEXUALITY AND
SEXUAL ATTITUDES.
Further reading:R. Howard Bloch, Medieval Misog-
yny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love(Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1991); Michael Camille, The
Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire(New
York: Abrams, 1998); Katherine Heinrichs, The Myths of
Love: Classical Lovers in Medieval Literature(University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990); Douglas
Kelly, Medieval Imagination: Rhetoric and the Poetry of
Courtly Love(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1978); C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love: A Study in
Medieval Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1936); Ariel Toaff, Love, Work, and Death: Jewish Life in
Medieval Umbria,trans. Judith Landry (London: Littman
Library of Jewish Civilization, 1996).Lübeck Founded in 1143 on the site of a small Slavic
town, medieval Lübeck was on an island in the loop of the
Trave and the Wakenitz Rivers. The site was favorable to
transit maritime TRADE.HENRY THELION, the duke of SAX-
ONY, tried in vain to develop rival ports and finally forced a
vassal to cede it to him in 1159. He then restored the town
after a fire had destroyed it in 1157 and gave the powers of
his ducal bailiff to the townspeople themselves. The bish-
opric of Oldenburg was transferred to Lübeck in 1154. In
1181, the emperor FREDERICKI BARBAROSSAenlarged the
city’s commercial and municipal privileges. Occupied in
1181 by WALDEMAR I, king of DENMARK, Lübeck only
regained its freedom in 1225. After the victory of Born-
hoven over the Danes in 1277, the town held a military
power equal to and able to support its economic power.