St. King Louis IX of France?

Question

What is the background history of St. King Louis IX of France?

Answer 1

Louis IX or Saint Louis (April 25, 1215 – August 25, 1270) was King of France from 1226 until his death. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was a member of the House of Capet and the son of King Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile.

Contents [hide]
1 Life
2 Patron of arts and arbiter of Europe
3 Religious zeal
4 Children
5 Veneration as a saint
6 Places named after Saint Louis
7 Trivia
8 External links
9 Bibliography



[edit] Life
Much of what we know of Louis' life comes from Jean de Joinville's famous biography of Louis, Life of Saint Louis. Joinville was a close friend, confidant, and counselor to the king, and also participated as a witness in the papal inquest into Louis' life that ended with his canonization in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII.

Two other important biographies were written by the king's confessor, Geoffey of Beaulieu, and his chaplain, William of Chartres. The fourth important source of information is William of Saint-Pathus' biography, which he wrote using the papal inquest mentioned above. While several individuals wrote biographies in the decades following the king's death, only Jean of Joinville, Geoffrey of Beaulieu, and William of Chartres wrote from personal knowledge of the king.

Louis was eleven years old when his father died on November 8, 1226. He was crowned king the same year in the cathedral at Rheims.

Because of Louis' youth, his mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled France as regent during his minority. No date is given for Louis' assumption of the throne as king in his own right. His contemporaries viewed his reign as co-rule between the king and his mother, though historians generally view the year 1234 as the year in which Louis ruled as king with his mother assuming a more advisory role. She continued as an important counsellor to the king until her death in 1252. On May 27, 1234 Louis married Marguerite de Provence (1221–December 21, 1295), the sister of Eleanor, the wife of Henry III of England.

Louis was the elder brother of Charles I of Sicily (1227–1285), whom he created count of Anjou, thus founding the second Angevin dynasty. The horrific fate of that dynasty in Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers evidently did not tarnish Louis' credentials for sainthood.

Louis brought an end to the Albigensian Crusade in 1229 after signing an agreement with Count Raymond VII of Toulouse that cleared his father of wrong-doing. Raymond VI had been suspected of murdering a preacher on a mission to convert the Cathars.


Louis' piety and kindness towards the poor was much celebrated. He went on crusade twice, in 1248 (Seventh Crusade) and then in 1270 (Eighth Crusade). Both crusades were total failures. After initial success in his first attempt, Louis' army was met by overwhelming resistance from the Egyptian army and people. In 1249, Louis was eventually defeated and taken prisoner in Mansoura, Egypt. Louis and his companions were then released in return for the surrender of the French army and a large ransom. He died near Tunis during the latter expedition on August 25, 1270 traditionally believed to be during an outbreak of plague but thought by modern scholars to be dysentery. The local tradition of "Sidi Bou Said" claims that the future Saint Louis did not die in 1270, but converted to Islam under the name of Sidi Bou Said, and even regarded him as a saint of Islam who died at the end of the 13th Christian century, and was buried in Djebel-Marsa.

Christian tradition states that some of his entrails were buried directly on the spot in Tunisia, where a Tomb of Saint-Louis can still be visited today, whereas other parts of his entrails were sealed in an urn and placed in the Basilica of Monreale, Palermo, where they still remain. His corpse was taken, via a short stay at the Basilica of Saint Dominic in Bologna, to the French royal necropolis at Saint-Denis, resting in Lyon on the way. His tomb at Saint-Denis was a magnificent gilt brass monument designed in the late 14th century. It was melted down during the French Wars of Religion, at which time the body of the king disappeared. Only one finger was rescued and is kept at Saint-Denis.

French Monarchy
Direct Capetians

'France Ancient'
Louis IX
Philip III
Robert, Count of Clermont
Agnes, Duchess of Burgundy
Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the canonization of Louis in 1297; he is the only French monarch ever to be made a saint.

Louis IX was succeeded by his son, Philippe III.

Answer 2

He did the 'Fandango' with the corpse of Louis VIII.

Answer 3

this is him in a nut shell

http://www.reference.com/search?q=louis%20ix

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IX_of_France

reading is fundamental!

♂