King of France (1226-1270) born in Poissy, near Paris, in whose long reign he revealed his qualities as a just, human and brave man. Fourth son of Louis VIII of France and Blanca of Castile, daughter of King Alfonso VIII, received a painstaking education, especially from the moment when, because of the death of his older brothers, he became the heir of the throne.
After his father's death, he ascended the throne when he was less than 13 years old, as the fortieth King of France since the beginning of the monarchy, and the ninth of the third race, of which Hugo Capeto was the trunk. Being still very young and inexperienced, the Queen Mother assumed the regency and endeavored to overcome the problems that threatened the kingdom, above all the hostility of the nobles to the crown, the revolt of the Albigensian heretics in the south of the country and the war against England.
Blanca of Castile managed to neutralize the nobles and thus dedicate herself to suppressing the Albigensian revolt. As for the English, the sovereign himself took the lead when he was just 15 years old and forced the enemy troops to leave France. He married (1234) Margarida, eldest daughter of the Count of Provence and Forcalquier, Raimundo Béranger IV, and Beatrice of Savoy, and with her he had 11 children. When the British returned to land on the mainland (1242) he drove them out again.
He then decided to undertake a crusade to the Holy Land (1244) to reconquer Jerusalem and Damascus from the Muslims. Organized the seventh crusade (1248), at the head of an army of 35,000 men and a fleet of about a hundred ships, he landed at Damietta (1248), in Egypt, but with the plague that befell his troops and the flood of the Nile, he was prevented from proceed. The soldiers were forced to withdraw, and he and his family and the nobles who accompanied him were captured by the Muslims.
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Released in exchange for a ransom, the king remained in Egypt for another four years, during which time he managed to transform the military defeat in a successful diplomatic negotiation: he made advantageous alliances and strengthened the Christian cities of Syria. With these feats, he returned to France (1254), and acquired immense prestige in Europe, which he used to get the English King Henry III to sign the peace (1258) and to render allegiance to France.
As ruler, he tried to prevent the abuses of his officials and to favor French commerce. He became most famous, however, for his proverbial spirit of justice and his love of the arts, to which he gave great impetus and development. He had the Sainte Chapelle (1245-1248) built in Paris, the Sorbonne and the hospice of the Fifteen-Vingts.
Extremely Catholic, but without being fanatical, he organized a new Crusade against Muslims (1269), but when he landed in Tunis, Tunisia (1270), the plague again attacked his army and he died also attacked by the plague, in Tunis (1270). One of his fingers was brought to the Basilique de Saint-Denis but his body was buried in Tunisia. He was considered a saint long before the Catholic Church canonized him (1297) through Pope Boniface VIII.
Figure copied from a page of the LEPANTO UNIVERSITY FRONT:
http://www.lepanto.org.br/HagSLuizR.html
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
Order R - Biography - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SCHOOL, Team Brazil. "King Louis IX"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/luis-sao-luis.htm. Accessed on June 29, 2021.
