Louis IX inherited the crown of France as a child in 1226. His mother, Blanche of Castile, took control of the government as regent until he came of age. She continued to advise him throughout his life, and she served as regent when he left on crusade in 1248. Politically Louis profited from the strong rule of Philip Augustus and the skillful politics of Blanche, but he had a constant struggle in southern France where nobles in league with England challenged his authority.
In 1234 Louis married Margaret of Provence, who attempted without success to replace his mother as his chief adviser. The two women disliked each other intensely. When ten years later Louis decided to go on crusade, Margaret accompanied him, leaving Blanche at home to govern France. After four years of preparation the king left in 1248 from his new southern bastide and port of Aigues Mortes. The crusaders arrived in Egypt, and after initial success in 1250 Louis was defeated, captured, and eventually ransomed. Although his brothers Alphonse and Charles returned to France, Louis stayed in the Christian Holy Land where he helped rebuild castles and towns. The news of his mother’s death left him in despair, and in 1254 Louis returned to France, intending to rule as an ideal Christian king. He again decided to go on crusade, departed France in 1270, and arrived at Tunis, where he died. His bones were returned to France for burial at St. Denis. In 1297 the Pope declared him to be a saint.
During Louis’ reign the Gothic style reached its finest expression. Architects created taller, lighter, more colorful buildings. They turned masonry structures into scaffolds formed of piers and buttresses supporting ribbed vaults that seemed to float overhead. Stained glass windows replaced walls. Residential buildings in castles became more comfortable and convenient as military and defensive aspects began to decline. Louis built a chapel in his palace to house the Crown of Thorns, which in 1239 he purchased from Baldwin II, the French ruler of Byzantium. The royal palace and the exquisite Ste.-Chapelle (1235-48) set the standard for royal residences for the rest of the century.
Philip II Augustus (1165-1223), King of France, 1180-1223
Philip Augustus inherited the throne of France when he was only fifteen. A brilliant strategist, he outmaneuvered his Plantagenet rivals, and after the death of Richard the Lion Hearted in 1199 and the siege and surrender of Chateau Gaillard in 1204, Philip Augustus added Normandy to the royal territory. By the time he died in 1223, Philip Augustus had brought the lands north of the Loire River into the realm of France. He also gained control of the south after condoning a crusade against the Albigensians—the rich and cultured people of the south—under the guise of a crusade to stamp out heresy. The crusaders in many cases simply looted the country.
Philip Augustus was a bureaucrat and politician, not a warrior. He created a modern state in France, with a centralized government administered by members of the lesser nobility and bourgeoisie whose primary loyalty was to himself as king. By the time Philip Augustus died, he had put France on the road to becoming a unified nation rather than a collection of private territories, and he made Paris a true capital city. Philip Augustus saw the cities and the merchants and artisans as a new royal powerbase. He founded cities whose royal charters gave them special privileges; in return they provided the royal government with additional revenue. In Paris he built new city walls and royal palaces.
Philip IV the Fair (1268-1314), King of France,
World History
