Louis XI of France, called the Prudent, born July 3, 1423 in Bourges, died on August 30, 1483 at the Château de Plessis-lez-Tours (commune of La Riche, Indre-et-Loire), was king of France from 1461 to 1483, sixth king of the so-called Valois branch of the Capetian dynasty . This monarch pushed the limits of cynicism in politics to such an extent that he was also nicknamed the universal spider.
Dolphin
Son of Charles VII and Marie d'Anjou. During his childhood, he was raised by Catherine de l'Isle-Bouchard.
On June 24, 1436, he married Margaret of Scotland, daughter of James I of Scotland. He was 13, she was 11. He must have made her so unhappy that, dying at the age of 21, the Dauphine sighed these last words:"Fide out of life! Don't talk to me about it anymore...".
From the time of his marriage, he began to play a political role. He entered Lyon and Vienna to receive the oaths of loyalty from their inhabitants. In February-May 1437, he visited Languedoc and alone led the reconquest of the English strongholds in Velay. Accompanied by his father, he made a royal entry into Paris, recently conquered by the Constable de Richemont.
In May 1439, his father appointed him lieutenant general in Languedoc. He could choose his advisers and captains himself. In December of the same year, he was transferred to Poitou, this time without real decision-making power. In February 1440, after an interview with Jean II of Alençon, he joined the Praguerie, a revolt of disgruntled great lords, also including Dunois, Marshal de La Fayette and Georges de la Trémoille. This rebellion of the Dauphin was explained by the lack of responsibility in which his father maintained him - he had seen the disastrous effects of the appanages on the unity of the royal domain. His sling was quickly subdued. Louis had to offer his submission to Cusset, subject nevertheless to obtaining the government of Dauphiné, and other guarantees. Charles VII granted him the government, but refused the rest.
In 1441 he resumed battle against English and pro-Burgundian parties. He led the royal army during the battle which took place from June 5 to September 19 in front of Pontoise. In 1443, he campaigned against Jean IV d'Armagnac, a great rebellious vassal. The following year, he was charged with leading out of the kingdom the bands of “roadrunners”, that is to say the arms companies left without pay, who lived on plunder. He took them to Switzerland. On August 26, 1444, he won the victory of Pratteln, then moved against Basel. A council was held there where Antipope Felix V had been elected. Louis was named gonfalonier, that is to say protector of the Church, by Pope Eugene IV. Louis negotiated the Treaty of Ensisheim, leading to peace, on September 26, 1444. As a reward, he was appointed protector of the Comtat Venaissin on May 26, 1445.
At the same time, Louis devoted his large income to building up a clientele. Since 1437, in fact, he received a royal pension of 21,000 pounds. To this must be added the subsidies granted by the States which he relieved of the truckers. However, he remained unhappy with his situation. He was frustrated to have only withdrawn the Dauphiné from Praguerie. In 1446, having conspired against Agnès Sorel and Pierre de Brézé, he was expelled from the Court and took refuge in his government, in Dauphiné.
In 1445, Margaret of Scotland was dead (tomb in the church of Saint-Laon in Thouars). On December 28, 1446, Marie d'Anjou, mother of Louis, gave birth to a son, who was baptized Charles. On February 2, 1451, Louis, impatient to have an heir, married Charlotte of Savoy, daughter of Duke Louis I of Savoy, aged only 8 years. The princess was lavishly endowed with 200,000 crowns, 12,000 of which were in cash. Nevertheless, Louis later encountered difficulties in gaining possession of the entire dowry. Alongside the marriage, Louis and the Duke of Savoy had signed an exclusive alliance. He also took advantage of the pope's good graces to interfere in the episcopal elections. His relationship with his father was woven with double-dealing and intrigue.
Furious, Charles VII raised an army to march against Dauphiné and Savoy. Louis, however, managed to negotiate a truce. This did not prevent him from leading a campaign of libels against his father, accusing him of dissolute morals. As a precaution, he sent several embassies to the king to justify himself. Charles VII did not let this fool him, and sent Antoine de Chabannes at the head of an army to wrest Dauphiné from him. On August 30, 1456, Louis fled to Franche-Comté, then to Louvain, in Burgundian territory. He was well received there, and in October, Philip the Good paid him homage.
On October 18, 1458, his first son Louis was born in Genappe, Belgium. He died in 1460. On July 15, 1459, still at the Château de Genappe, his second son Joachim was born, who died on November 29. In 1460, it was the turn of a girl, Louise, to die in infancy. The same year, Charles VII fell ill. In April 1461 a daughter was born again, Anne, who married Pierre de Beaujeu.
King
On July 22, 1461, Charles VII died in Mehun-sur-Yèvre. Louis affected indifference, and was absent during the royal funeral at Saint-Denis. He was consecrated in Reims three weeks after the death of the late king, before entering Paris. The entry took place on August 30, 1461. Philippe le Bon was noticed with his escort counting for half of the procession, and including a troop in arms. The new king did not stay long in Paris. From September 25, he settled in Tours, a city won over to his cause.
His first action as monarch was to take advantage of the succession crisis in Aragon. Indeed, Alphonse the Magnanimous had died in 1458. Jean II, brother of the deceased, disputed it with Charles de Viane, his son. This one was found dead in September 1461, which triggered a civil war between John II and the cities, in particular Barcelona. Louis XI attempted to ally himself with the States of Catalonia. Faced with their polite refusal, he turned to John II, who ceded to him the revenues of the counties of Catalonia and Cerdanya in exchange for his help. Louis XI simply took possession of it. He also intervened in the Savoyard dynastic quarrel.
A month after the birth of his daughter Jeanne in 1464 he learns that the child is lame (she was proverbially ugly, small, counterfeit, sickly) and decides on the spot to marry her to his distant cousin Louis of Orléans. , son of the poet Charles d'Orléans, with the avowed aim that the marriage remain sterile and that this rival Capetian branch of his is extinguished, but this one, when he becomes king (under the name of Louis XII), will obtain the annulment of his marriage.
Inside, in March 1465, the League of Public Welfare was formed. Very comparable to Praguerie, it had at its head Charles de Charolais, son of the Duke of Burgundy, who demanded more power. Its outbreak was due to an incident with the Burgundians. In 1463, Louis XI had decided to buy back the towns of the Somme which had been ceded to the Duchy of Burgundy. This transfer, decided in the Treaty of Arras in 1435, was to compensate for the assassination of Jean sans Peur in Montereau, in 1419. The news of the redemption had aroused strong hostility at the court of Burgundy. François II of Brittany, who resented the royal yoke, allied himself with the Burgundians. They were joined by Jean II de Bourbon and Jean V d'Armagnac. The discontent did not stop at the great vassals. The fiscal pressure had greatly increased following the acquisition of the cities of the Somme, for 400,000 ecus. Louis XI had demanded loans from the clergy, forced religious establishments to provide him with an inventory of their property, deprived the University and the corps of archers and crossbowmen of Paris of their privileges. He had removed the Pragmatic Sanction.
Against the League of Public Good, Louis XI personally put himself at the head of a great offensive. After the fall of Moulins, the Bourbons submitted. Louis XI turned around towards Paris, threatened by the Bretons and the Burgundians. He fought a great battle at Montlhéry on July 16, 1465, full of confusion and blood and without a real winner, but the siege of Paris was broken. Louis XI however managed to negotiate a peace where he did not concede anything to reform the State. However, he left the government of Normandy to his brother. The latter failed to take control of his government, and had to go into exile. His third son named François was born on December 4, 1466 but died 4 hours later. On September 10, 1468, by the Treaty of Ancenis, Charles and François II made their peace, and broke with the Burgundians.
Le Téméraire proposed to him to negotiate in his turn, and invited the king in his castle of Péronne. Louis XI went there in person. During the talks, Liège rebelled against the Burgundian tutelage. It quickly became apparent that royal commissioners were among the rebels. Furious, the Bold turned against Louis XI. Personally threatened, the king had to sign a disadvantageous treaty, accompany the Burgundian in his campaign against Liège and watch the rebel city burn on October 30, 1468. He also had to promise to give Champagne as an appanage to his brother. As soon as he left, Louis XI refused to comply and only granted Charles Guyenne, a country recently pacified and difficult to hold. He imprisoned his adviser, Cardinal La Balue, in 1469 and denounced the treaty in 1470. It was the same year that his fourth son Charles, future Charles VIII, was born and finally came a sixth son, also named François, born in Amboise on September 3. 1472 titled Duke of Berry and who died in July 1473.
He allied himself with the King of England, Edward IV and undertook to reduce the powers of the great vassals. In 1472, the Bold again invaded Picardy. He was arrested in Beauvais by Jeanne Hachette. In 1477, when the Burgundian died, Louis XI tried to seize his states, but came up against Maximilian of Austria, who had married the daughter of the deceased, Marie de Bourgogne. In 1482, however, he managed to recover Picardy and Burgundy, by the Treaty of Arras. Through inheritance, including that of René I of Naples, he came into possession of Anjou, Maine and Provence. Louis also recovered the viscountcy of Thouars which he had taken over from Nicolas d'Anjou in 1472 after he joined Bourguignon. He attributed Talmont and Berrie to Philippe de Commynes and for the Viscounty of Thouars, he ended up committing his attribution to Louis II de la Trémoille but the King died before the effective restitution of this Viscounty.
Throughout his life, Louis XI was perpetually ill:"heartburn, liver attacks, gout, hemorrhoidal congestion which prevented him from walking, purulent eczema", according to Yvan Gobry who - for his physique - quoted Basin:"With his skinny thighs and legs, he had, from the first sight, nothing beautiful or pleasant. Worse still:if we met him without knowing his identity, we could take him more for a jester or for a drunkard, in any case for an individual of low status, than for a king or a man of quality. This judgment deserves to be weighed, however, by the hostility that the former bishop of Lisieux bore to the king following his banishment from the kingdom in 1465. Basin undertook to settle his accounts in 1473 in a biography supposed to reveal "his tricks, its malice, its perfidies, its foolishness, its misdeeds and its cruelties” under the guise of objectivity.
Louis XI was buried in the Notre-Dame de Cléry basilica, which he had had built around 1467.
The coffin seems to have taken place in Lyon:Payments to Guillaume Gauteret, apothecary, for six twelveines of torches weighing two hundred and four pounds, which were placed and used for the funeral and seveliment of King Loys, cui Dieu absoille, which seveliment was made in the church of Lyon
Reference:Archives of Lyon, Municipal Accounting, 1583-1587, call number CC 0518.
Illegitimate children
He had many illegitimate children:
* Guyette de Valois (+1502) she will be legitimized, daughter of his mistress Félizé Regnard
* Jeanne de Valois (1447+1519) she will be legitimized, daughter of her mistress Félizé Regnard
married 1466 Louis de Bourbon Admiral of France
* Marie (1450-1470) she will be legitimized, daughter of his mistress Marguerite de Sassenage
marries 1467 Aymar de Poitiers Sire de St Vallier, widower her husband remarried with Jeanne de la Tours who will give him a daughter Anne Comtesse d'Auvergen who will marry 1505 Jean Stuart Duc Albany, who will be the parents of Madeleine de la Tour d'auvergne mother of the future Queen of France Catherine de Médicis that she had by Laurent de Médicis.
* Isabeau, illegitimate by Marguerite Sassenage
* 3 other children whose first names are unknown to us and from various mistresses.