Louis Ix (son of Louis Viii and Blanche)317 was born April 25, 1214 in France317, and died August 25, 1270 in near, Tunis, IN, North Africa317. He married Margaret on Abt. 1244 in France317.
Notes for Louis Ix: [joe.FTW]
Copyright 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. Louis IX, King of France (Saint Louis)
Louis IX of France, later known as Saint Louis, most closely approached the medieval ideal of chivalric kingship. Born on Apr. 25, 1214, he was the oldest son of the future king LOUIS VIII and BLANCHE OF CASTILE. He came to the throne as a child in 1226, and the early years of his reign were marked by princely uprisings. The queen mother, Blanche, successfully overcame this opposition and in 1229 concluded a treaty with the count of Toulouse that gave the crown a foothold on the Mediterranean and terminated the crusade against the ALBIGENSES. Louis himself removed the last threat to royal authority in Poitou by defeating the English at Taillebourg in 1242. He had attained his majority in 1234, although Blanche was to remain influential until her death (1252).
A man of great piety and a strong pacifist in dealing with fellow Christians, Louis was bitterly intolerant of heretics and non-Christians. In 1245, while recovering from a serious illness, he resolved to lead a CRUSADE to the Middle East. Before he left, he dispatched commissioners called enqueteurs to discover and correct governmental abuses in France. He then departed for the Levant in 1248, leaving Blanche as regent.
Louis was accompanied on the crusade by Jean, sire de JOINVILLE, whose biography of Louis remains an important historical source. The Crusaders captured the Egyptian port of Damietta, but afterward Louis was defeated and taken prisoner at Mansura in 1250. After his release he remained in the Middle East for several years before returning to France in 1254.
In his later years, Louis promoted internal reforms and made treaties with Aragon (1258) and England (1259) that were intended to establish permanently peaceful relations. Before the end of the century, however, France fought wars with both these countries, and Louis was subsequently criticized for being too conciliatory. In 1270 he undertook another crusade, this time against Tunis; he became ill and died near Tunis on Aug. 25, 1270. Admired for his prowess, his piety, and his strong sense of justice, Louis was revered as a saint well before his canonization by the church in 1297. Feast day: Aug. 25.
John B. Henneman
Bibliography: Joinville, Jean de, The Life of Saint Louis, ed. by Natalis de Wailly, trans. by Rene Hague (1955); Jordan, William C., Louis IX (1979); Labarge, Margaret W., Saint Louis: Louis IX, Most Christian King (1968); Slattery, Maureen, Myth, Man and Sovereign Saint (1985).
More About Louis Ix and Margaret: Marriage: Abt. 1244, France.317
Louis Ix (b. April 25, 1214, d. August 25, 1270)
Notes for Louis Ix: