(1215-1270)
[Illustration: St. Louis.]
The most striking features of the political history of France during the
tenth and eleventh centuries are the conflict of the feudal aristocracy
on the one hand, with monarchical and democratical power on the other,
and the influence exerted by the Crusades on both.
[Illustration: The Education of Louis IX.]
The Crusades aided much in the accomplishment of the final result, the
destruction of the power of the nobility. In the first place, they
glorified the character of feudalism by enforcing the principles of
chivalry. To be a "true knight," a man must be devout, just, merciful,
and pure. Many Crusaders, indeed, fell far short of this high ideal; but
there can be no doubt that, on the whole, it elevated the standard of
morality, and checked the rampant tyranny which had previously
prevailed. Founded on a principle of sincere though mistaken piety, the
Crusaders recognized all who took the cross as brethren; hence the
meanest serf became, in some measure, free; and the same benign
sentiment extended its effect to all classes. The attraction of a common
cause in foreign lands further contributed to wean the Crusaders from
the class quarrels and domestic feuds which occupied them at home.
During their absence the crown was enabled to acquire a strength which
had previously been spent in the repression of constant rebellions. And
the need of money for the expedition obliged many feudal lords to
contract with the communes for the sale of lands or liberties.
Such was the condition of France at the commencement of the thirteenth
century. The balance of power, however, was only sustained by the
activity of all the parties concerned. The slightest wavering on the
part of the crown would be fatal, the least opportunity seized. A wise,
sincere, and humane ruler was needed to confirm and enlarge the vantage
ground which law and order had already obtained; and such a ruler rose
in the person of Louis IX., who ascended the throne in 1226.
His father, Louis VIII., was a man of weak character, whose reign was
chiefly signalized by the horrible persecution of the Protestant
Albigenses of Provence, which, under the sanction of Innocent III., and
later Popes, had been carried on by Simon de Montfort and other
fanatics, since 1209. Louis himself had died of fever when about to
commence the siege of Toulouse.
The Queen Dowager, Blanche, of Castile, was a woman of great energy, and
during the minority of her son she bravely contested her claims to the
regency of the kingdom against those of Philip, her husband's brother,
whom Henry III., of England, supported. She appealed, not in vain, to
the gratitude of the metropolis, which the Capetian kings had
befriended; and at her call a large force of citizens joined her. With
their aid she defeated Philip and other nobles, who opposed her son's
coronation, and by two treaties, in 1229 and 1231, she both extended the
limits of her kingdom and put an end to civil war. Over Louis, who was
but eleven years old when his father died, she exercised a somewhat
rigorous, but a holy and prudent discipline, to which he was much
indebted for strengthening his moral and mental constitution. He was
educated at the Abbey of Royaumont by Vincent de Beauvais, and though
not remarkable for talents, possessed considerable decision of
character, and a large share of personal courage. It is, however, by the
piety, purity, and benevolence of his soul that he stands forth so
prominently in the history of Europe. The year of his coronation all the
jails of the kingdom were thrown open by the royal command. A nature
more truly loving and lovable has rarely been bestowed on any member of
the human family. Yet, with all these paramount excellences, his life
presents a tragedy--the fatal consequences of unreasoning faith. All his
errors--we cannot justly call them faults--proceeded from this prolific
source. Before recording these, it will be gratifying to point out the
happier results of those noble and wise qualities which have consecrated
his name.
After the treaty of 1231, France remained at peace for some years,
during which time Louis married Margaret of Provence, a princess only
inferior in worth to himself. Soon after attaining his majority he was
called upon to contend with the Count of Brittany and other nobles who
resisted his authority. At the head of his vassals Louis marched against
the rebels, and was so prompt and energetic in his measures that the
count was forced to yield and sue for pardon in the attitude of a
criminal, with a rope round his neck. Henry III. crossed the channel
with an army to support the rebellion, and recover, if possible, the
possessions which King John had surrendered to King Philip. The armies
met at Saintes, in 1242, where the French were victorious, the rebels
subsequently submitting, and Henry returning home.
In 1244 Louis had a severe illness, which was attended with danger to
his life. During the progress of it, he vowed to undertake a new crusade
should he recover. The fulfilment of this vow was opposed by Blanche of
Castile (who still had great influence over her son) and many of his
best counsellors; but Louis was inflexible where religion and honor
demanded a sacrifice.
In 1248 he collected a large army, and prepared to start by way of
Sicily, the nearest route to Palestine, when he remembered that the
island belonged to Frederick II., of Germany, who was under
excommunication by the Pope. All attempts to shake the decision of
Innocent IV. failed; and yielding to the pious weakness of fearing to
rest in an excommunicant's territory, Louis changed his plans, and
determined to pass by way of Cyprus and Egypt--a route which proved the
ruin of the expedition. He committed the regency of France to his
mother, assumed the staff of pilgrimage, and accompanied by his wife and
brothers, left Paris on June 12, 1248. He stayed for several months in
Cyprus, until his armament amounted to 50,000 men, and then sailed for
Egypt.
Arrived at the port of Damietta, he caused the oriflamme (the national
standard of France) to be waved above his head; and, arrayed in complete
armor, he unsheathed his sword, and leaped into the sea, followed by the
knights. The inhabitants fled, and the French took possession of the
city. The inundation of the Nile prevented their further movements for
several months. Licentiousness and disease were fostered by this delay,
in spite of the king's remonstrances; and their unopposed success made
the Crusaders careless as to the tactics of the enemy.
On the subsidence of the Nile, Louis fortified Damietta, and left his
queen and her ladies there, while he, with the main army, advanced on
Cairo, the metropolis of Egypt, where the sultan resided. Near
Mansourah, the Crusaders became perplexed by the intricacy of the
canals, and a hasty dash across one of these, made by the king's
brother, the Count of Artois, with 2,000 men, led to a calamitous
result. Mansourah was apparently deserted, and the count's troops, who
preceded their comrades at some distance, commenced pillaging the
houses. The inhabitants, who were only concealed, showered down stones
from the roofs; and at the same moment, a large body of the sultan's
army made an attack in front. Louis reached Mansourah in time to save a
few of his men, but found his brother and several others slain. The
Moslem camp was captured, but proved a doubtful prize. The plains were
barren and scorching, and the harassing assaults of the Egyptians, who
poured "Greek fire" (missiles filled with combustible materials) on
their foes, rendered the situation more intolerable still. Pestilence
broke out, and the king himself fell dangerously ill. He then ordered a
retreat to Damietta, whither the sick were to be conveyed in galleys.
These were intercepted, and the sick murdered by the Egyptians; while,
at the same time an attack was made on the Christian camp.
[Illustration: St. Louis.]
Louis was so weak that he could scarcely ride, but nevertheless would
not desert his post. He rode between the ranks, encouraging his men,
till he fainted and was obliged to withdraw from the field. His quaint
and affectionate biographer, the Lord of Joinville, who was with him in
this expedition, thus describes the scenes which ensued: "Of all his
men-at-arms there was only one with him, the good knight, Sir Geoffrey
de Sargines; and who, I heard say, did defend him like as a faithful
servant doth guard his master's cup from flies--for every time that the
Saracens did approach the king he defended him with vigorous strokes of
the blade and point of his sword, and his strength seemed doubled. At
last he brought the king to a house where there was a woman from Paris;
and laying him on the ground, placed his head on the woman's lap,
expecting every moment that he would breathe his last." In this
half-dying condition a body of Egyptians found him, and bore him to the
tent of the sultan. The defeat of the Christians, who were weakened by
the climate, disease, and want of food, was general; many fell by the
sword, and the rest were taken prisoners with their king.
In captivity Louis showed a noble resignation and courage amid the
apostasy of many. He won the respect of the sultan, who treated him with
generosity, and listened to the terms of ransom which he proposed. The
queen remained at Damietta, which was strongly garrisoned. Fearful,
nevertheless, of falling into the hands of the Moslems, who would have
carried her into the sultan's harem, she prayed an old knight in her
suite to slay her with his sword, should there be any danger of that
event. "I had determined on so doing, madam," was the answer. Margaret's
heroism was not put to this severe test, for the surrender of Damietta
was one of the conditions of her husband's release; and after paying in
addition a sum of 400,000 livres, Louis was on the point of being set
free. An insurrection, however, suddenly arose among the Mamelukes, or
Tartarian troops, in whose hands the real power of the state was placed,
and the sultan was murdered. A party of the assassins, it is said,
entered the chamber of Louis with their scimitars drawn, but his calm
dignity saved him, and the treaty was carried out by the new sultan.
Many of the French nobles returned home, but the king, faithful to his
vow, proceeded to Syria, and spent four years in strengthening the
fortresses of Tyre and other Christian towns, redeeming many Crusaders
from slavery, and reducing to order the disturbed condition of the
country.
The death of the Queen Dowager Blanche, who had governed France wisely
during her regency, recalled him in 1254, after an absence of six years.
He still wore the cross upon his shoulder, as a token that his oath as a
Crusader was not yet fulfilled; but he never once neglected the more
pressing and necessary duties which devolved on him as a monarch. His
immediate work was to supersede the arbitrary legislation which the
nobles exercised in their manorial courts over their tenants. He
accordingly introduced into general use the famous code of Roman laws
known as the Pandects of Justinian, and constituted the chief civil
lawyers, who had studied its contents and were best acquainted with its
principles, into a Parliament, or Court of Justice. The nobles and the
clergy were duly represented in this assembly; but its clerks, or
lawyers, were especially favored by the king, who seconded their own
efforts to absorb the business of the court as much as possible. Louis
further mediated between the tyranny of the nobles and the weakness of
their tenants, by encouraging the practice of appealing to the crown in
case of injustice. This he even extended to ecclesiastical matters; a
bold step for one so devoted to the Church. The prohibition of the
barbarous custom of duelling to decide personal quarrels was another of
his humane laws. These, and divers other ordinances, founded in a like
spirit of equity, are known in a collected shape as the _Institutes of
St. Louis_. His enactment touching appeals from the Church to the Crown,
and the prohibition which he likewise issued against the levying of
money in France for the use of the Pope without the king's license, are
known as a _Pragmatic Sanction_--a term applied to any especially
important national decree. Louis set the example of enforcing the laws
personally, and none was fitter to administer them than he. Under an oak
in the forest of Vincennes, near Paris, often sat the good king to hear
appeals and petitions from his poor subjects. His social and foreign
relations were as fully attended to as his political reforms. He first
placed the French navy on a substantial footing. To him Paris owed a
public library, a hospital for the blind, and the establishment of a
body of police. Under his sanction, also, his confessor, Robert de
Sorbon, founded the famous theological college called by his name. So
scrupulously just and honorable was Louis, that he appointed a
commission to ascertain what restitution of territory should be made to
nations which had been mulcted by the conquests of his predecessors, and
he thus more than once sacrificed extensive possessions for the sake of
a principle. By a treaty in 1255, made with Henry III., Louis restored
to the English crown the provinces of which Philip Augustus had deprived
it, and obtained in return the surrender of Henry's rights in Normandy
and other fiefs. The reputation which Louis thus acquired among his
fellow-monarchs led to his being asked to act as mediator in several
quarrels, and gave him many opportunities of exhibiting his peaceful and
loving policy.
[Illustration: Louis IX. opens the Jails of France.]
The mental blindness of which we have spoken led him to commit errors,
which, if his misled conscience had not sanctioned them, would deserve
the name of crimes. Toward Jews and heretics he showed no mercy,
issuing severe and unjust laws against them "for the good of his soul."
The duty of the historian is to record these failings of a noble nature
as impartially as its beauties; but the evil must, in all fairness, be
credited to the Church and system which taught, and not to the believer
who practised.
In 1270 the affairs of the East again attracted the attention of Europe,
and recalled Louis to the fulfilment of his vow, which he had only
postponed. The Greeks had retaken the city of Constantinople from the
French and Venetian Crusaders some years previously, yet the
reconstitution of the Christian Empire of the East had not availed to
check the aggressions of the Moslem in Palestine. Benocdar, the Sultan
of Egypt, had already taken Cæsarea and Jaffa; and news now came that
Antioch had fallen, 100,000 Christians having been massacred in the
siege. The seventh and last Crusade was at once set on foot by outraged
Europe, and Louis led the expedition, in which France was, as usual,
foremost. He raised an army of 6,000 horse and 30,000 foot, and was
accompanied by his three sons, the King of Navarre, and several nobles
of high rank. His brother, Charles of Anjou (the new King of Naples),
and Edward I., of England, (then prince), were to join the French in the
course of the year. Some romantic intelligence that the Moslem King of
Tunis was desirous of being baptized, induced the pious Louis again to
try the African, instead of the Asiatic, route to Palestine. He narrowly
escaped with his life, in a tempest which overtook the fleet in the
Mediterranean, but landed in Sardinia, and after recruiting here again
set sail, and anchored off Carthage. He met with opposition, instead of
welcome, from the inhabitants of the coast, and was obliged to besiege
Tunis. The excessive heat of the climate and the unhealthiness of the
soil proved a second time fatal to the army. Plague at last broke out,
and Louis was himself seized. Finding himself dying, he sent for Philip,
his eldest son and successor. Placing in his hand a written paper, the
good king prayed his son to follow the directions which it
contained--directions for the conduct of his life, as king and
individual; enforcing those principles of love to God and man which had
guided his own career. Then, requesting to be lifted from his bed, Louis
instructed his attendants to strew the floor of his tent with ashes and
place him thereon, that he might die as he had lived, in an attitude of
humiliation and penitence toward his creator. This was done, and shortly
afterward, as though in vision fulfilling the vow which he was not
permitted to realize, he uttered, "I will enter thy house--I will
worship in thy sanctuary!" and expired. His age was but fifty-four.
A few hours elapsed, and the sound of a trumpet echoed through the
plague-stricken and half-deserted camp. It was the note of Charles of
Naples, whose fleet had just arrived off the coast. Meeting with no
response, he rode rapidly toward the tent of the king, and on entering
saw his body lying still warm upon the ashes. The rites of burial were
not performed with the usual formalities, his remains being distributed
among his relatives. The flesh was kept by Charles, who buried it, on
his return to Sicily, in the great Abbey of Monreale, at Palermo. The
bones and other parts were conveyed back to France. Those who have
visited Paris will not forget the exquisite Gothic structure known as
the "Sainte Chapelle," which is attached to the Palais de Justice,
containing the courts of law. It was erected by Louis as a receptacle
for certain supposed relics of Christ. The windows of the chapel are
entirely composed of stained glass, and as the sunbeams strike upon
them, their tints of crimson, blue, and orange blend into a rainbow-like
harmony of glowing and lustrous color, which recalls the heart of Louis
IX., enshrined within those walls, as its fitting human antitype. He was
canonized about thirty years afterward, under the title of St. Louis.