Louis IX

(1214–70)

   Monarch and Saint.

   Louis IX was a grandson of King Philip II of France and he inherited the throne at the age of twelve. In French history he is often regarded as the ideal king. He was intensely pious and he was committed to justice. He reformed the French administration; he controlled his nobles and he negotiated a fair treaty with King Henry III of England. He also was determined to free the Holy Land from Muslim domination and, to that end, he launched first the unsuccessful Seventh Crusade (when he was taken prisoner) and then the Eighth Crusade (during the course of which he died of dysentery). Today he is perhaps most frequently remembered as the builder of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, a masterpiece of gothic architecture, which was constructed to house the relic of Jesus’s crown of thorns. He was canonised by Pope Boniface VIII in 1297.

   M.W. Labarge, Louis IX (1968).