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LOUIS XI
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See also: The following See also:year he was fighting, the English, and in 1443 aided his father to suppress the revolt of the See also:count of Armagnac. His first important command, however, was in the next year, when he led an See also:army of from 15,000 to 20,000 mercenaries and brigands,—the product of the See also:Hundred Years' See also:War,—against the Swiss of the See also:canton of See also:Basel. The heroism of some two hundred Swiss, who for a while held thousands of the See also:French army at See also:bay, made a See also:great impression on the See also:young See also:prince. After an ineffective See also:siege of Basel, he made See also:peace with the Swiss See also:confederation, and led his robber soldiers into See also:Alsace to ravage the See also:country of the Habsburgs, who refused him the promised See also:winter quarters. Meanwhile his father, making a parallel See also:campaign in See also:Lorraine, had assembled his first brilliant See also:court at See also:Nancy, and when Louis returned it was to find the king completely under the spell of See also:Agnes See also:Sorel. He at first made overtures to members of her party, and upon their rejection through fear of his ambition, his deadly hatred of her and of them involved the king. The See also:death in 1445 of his wife Margaret, who was a great favourite of Charles VII., made the rupture See also:complete. From that year until the death of the king father and son were enemies. Louis began his rebellious career by a futile See also:attempt to seduce the cities of See also:Agenais into See also:treason, and then he prepared a See also:plot to seize the king and his See also:minister See also:Pierre de See also:Breze. See also:Antoine de Chabannes, who was to be the See also:instrument of the plot, revealed it to Charles, and Louis was mildly punished by being sent off to See also:Dauphine (1447). He never saw his father again. Louis set out to govern his principality as though it were an See also:independent See also:state. He dismissed the See also:governor; he determined advantageously to himself the boundaries between his state and the territories of the See also:duke of See also:Savoy and of the papacy; and he enforced his authority over perhaps the most unruly nobility in western See also:Europe, both See also:lay and ecclesiastical. The right of private warfare was abolished; the bishops were obliged to give up most of their temporal See also:jurisdiction, the See also:scope of their courts was limited, and appeals to See also:Rome were curtailed. On
the other See also:hand, Louis granted privileges to the towns and consistently used their See also:alliance to overthrow the nobility. He watched the roads, built new ones, opened markets, protected the only bankers of the country, the See also:Jews, and reorganized the See also:administration so as to draw the utmost See also:revenue possible from the prosperity thus secured. His ambition led him into See also:foreign entanglements; he made a See also:secret treaty with the duke of Savoy which was to give him right of way to See also:Genoa, and made arrangements for a See also:partition of the duchy of See also:Milan. The alliance with Savoy was sealed by the marriage of Louis with See also:Charlotte, daughter of Duke Lodovico, in 1452, in spite of the formal See also:prohibition of Charles VII. The king marched See also:south, but withdrew again leaving his son unsubdued. Four years later, as Charles came to the Bourbonnais, Louis, fearing for his See also:life, fled to See also:Flanders to the court of See also: For two months Philip acted as though the king were still his protege. But in the midst of the festivities with which he was entertaining See also:Paris, the duke found that Louis ventured to refuse his candidates for See also:office, and on the 24th of See also:September the new king See also:left abruptly for See also:Touraine. His first See also:act was to strike at the faithful ministers of Charles VII. Pierre de Breze and Antoine de Chabannes were captured and imprisoned, as well as men of See also:sterling See also:worth like See also:Etienne See also:Chevalier. But the king's shrewdness triumphed before See also:long over his vengeance, and the more serviceable of the See also:officers of Charles VII. were for the most part soon reinstated, Louis' advisers were mostly men of the See also:middle class. He had a ready See also:purse for men of See also:talent, See also:drawing them from See also:England, Scotland, See also:Italy, See also:Spain and See also:Portugal. Such a See also:motley throng of competent men had never before been seen at the court of France. Their origin, their previous crimes or virtues, their avarice or brutality, were indifferent to him so long as they served him loyally. See also:Torture and imprisonment awaited them, whether of high or See also:low degree, if he fancied that they were betraying him. Among the most prominent of these men in addition to Breze, Chevalier and Chabannes, were See also:Tristan Lermite, Jean de Daillon, See also:Olivier le Dain (the See also:barber), and after 1472, Philippe de See also:Commines, See also:drawn from the service of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, who became his most intimate adviser and biographer. Surrounded by men like these Louis fought the last great See also:battle of French See also:royalty with See also:feudalism. Louis XI. began his reign with the same high-handed treatment of the nobles which had marked his See also:rule in Dauphine, going so far as to forbid them to See also:hunt without his permission. He forced the See also:clergy to pay long-neglected feudal dues, and intrigued against the great houses of Anjou and See also: The public weal was no longer talked about, while the See also:kingdom was plundered both by royal tax gatherers and by unsubdued feudal lords to pay the cost of the war. After this failure Louis set to work to repair his mistakes. The duke of Bourbon was won over by the See also:gift of the See also:government of the centre of France, and Dunois and Chabannes by restoring them their estates. Two months after he had granted Normandy to Charles, he took See also:advantage of a See also:quarrel between the duke of Brittany and his brother to take it again, sending the duke of Bourbon " to aid " Charles, while Dunois and Chabannes prepared for the struggle with Burgundy. The death of Duke Philip, on the 15th of June 1467, gave Charles the Bold a See also:free hand. He gained over See also:Edward IV. of England, whose See also:sister Margaret he married; but while he was celebrating the See also:wedding Louis invaded Brittany and detached Duke Francis from alliance with him. Normandy was completely reduced. The king had won a great See also:triumph. It was followed by his greatest See also:mistake. Eager as he always was to try See also:diplomacy instead of war, Louis sent a gift of 6o,000 See also:golden crowns to Charles and secured a safe conduct from him for an interview. The interview took place on the 9th of October 1468 at Peronne. See also:News came on the 11th that, instigated by the king of France, the See also:people of See also:Liege had massacred their See also:bishop and the ducal governor. The news was false, but Charles, furious at such apparent duplicity, took Louis prisoner, only releasing him, three days later, on the king See also:signing a treaty which granted Flanders freedom from interference from the See also:parlement of Paris, and agreeing to accompany Charles to the siege of his own ally, Liege. Louis made See also:light of the whole incident in his letters, but it marked the greatest humiliation of his life, and he was only too glad to find a scapegoat in See also:Cardinal Jean See also:Balue, who was accused of having plotted the treason of Peronne. Balue thereupon joined See also:Guillaume de Harancourt, bishop of See also:Verdun, in an intrigue to induce Charles of France to demand See also:Champagne and See also:Brie in accordance with the king's promise to Charles the Bold, instead of distant See also:Guienne where the king was determined to place him. The See also:discovery of this See also:conspiracy placed these two high dignitaries in See also:prison (See also:April 1469). Balue (q.v.) spent eleven years in prison quarters, comfortable enough, in spite of the See also:legend to the contrary, while Harancourt was shut up in an See also:iron cage until 1482. Then Louis, inducing his brother to accept Guienne,—where, surrounded by faithful royal officers, he was harmless for the See also:time being,—undertook to See also:play off the Lancastrians against Edward IV. who, as the ally of Charles the Bold, was menacing the See also:coast of Normandy. See also:Warwick, the king-maker, and Queen Margaret were aided in the expedition which in 1470 again placed See also: The country was saved a desperate See also:civil war by the death of the king's brother, Charles, the nominal head of the See also:coalition, on the 24th of May 1472. Louis' joy on receiving news of this death knew no See also:bounds. Charles the Bold, who had again invaded France, failed to take See also:Beauvais, and was obliged to make a lasting truce. His projects were henceforth to be directed towards See also:Germany. Louis then forced the duke of Brittany to make peace, and turned against John V. count of Armagnac, whose death at the opening of See also: Louis was the soul of all hostile coalitions, especially urging on the Swiss and See also:Sigismund of See also:Austria, who ruled See also:Tirol and Alsace. Charles's ally, Edward IV., invaded France in June 1475, but Louis bought him off on the 29th of August at Picquigny—where the two sovereigns met on a See also:bridge over the Somme, with a strong See also:grille between them, Edward receiving 75,000 crowns, and a promise of a See also:pension of 50,000 crowns annually. The dauphin Charles was to marry Edward's daughter. See also:Bribery of the English ministers was not spared, and in September the invaders recrossed to England. The count of Saint Poi, who had continued to play his double part, was surrendered by Charles to Louis, and executed, as was also Jacques d'Armagnac, duke of See also:Nemours. With his vassals terrorized and subdued, Louis continued to subsidize the Swiss and Rene II. of Lorraine in their war upon Charles. The defeat and death of the duke of Burgundy at Nancy on the 5th of See also:January 1477 was the crowning triumph of Louis' diplomacy. But in his eagerness to seize the whole inheritance of his See also:rival, Louis drove his daughter and heiress, See also:Mary of Burgundy, into marriage with See also:Maximilian of Austria (afterwards the See also:emperor Maximilian I.),who successfully defended Flanders after a See also:savage See also:raid by Antoine de Chabannes. The battle of Guinegate on the 7th of August 1479 was indecisive, and definite peace was not established until after the death of Mary, when by the treaty of See also:Arras (1482) Louis received Picardy, See also:Artois and the Boulonnais, as well as the duchy of Burgundy and Franche See also:Comte. The Austrians were left in Flanders, a menace and a danger. Louis failed here and in Spain; this failure being an indirect cause of that vast family compact which surrounded France later with the See also:empire of Charles V. His interference in Spain had made both John II. of Aragon and Henry IV. of See also:Castile his enemies, and so he was unable to prevent the marriage of their heirs, See also: But the results of these marriages could not be foreseen, and the unification of France proved of more value than the See also:possession of so wide-spread an empire. This unification was completed (except for Brittany) and the frontiers enlarged by the acquisition, upon the death of Rene of Anjou in 148o, of the duchies of Anjou and See also:Bar, and in 1481 of See also:Maine and See also:Provence upon the death of Charles II., count of Maine. Of the inheritance of the See also:house of Anjou only Lorraine escaped the king. Failure in Spain was compensated for in Italy. Without waging war Louis made himself virtual arbiter of the See also:fate of the principalities in the See also:north, and his court was always besieged by ambassadors from them. After the death of Charles the Bold, Yolande, duchess of Savoy, was obliged to accept the control of Louis, who was her brother. In Milan he helped toplace Lodovico it See also:Moro in power in 1479, but he reaped less from this supple See also:tyrant than he had expected. See also:Pope See also:Sixtus IV. the enemy of the See also:Medici, was also the enemy of the king of France. Louis, who at the opening of his reign had denounced the Pragmatic See also:Sanction of 1438, had played fast and loose with the papacy. When Sixtus threatened See also:Florence after the Pazzi conspiracy, 1478, Louis aided Lorenzo dei Medici to See also:form as alliance with See also:Naples, which forced the papacy to come to terms. More than any other king of France, Louis XI. was a " bourgeois king." The upper bourgeois, the See also:aristocracy of his " good cities," were his See also:allies both against the nobles and against the See also:artisan class, whenever they revolted, driven to desperation by the oppressive royal taxes which furnished the See also:money for his See also:wars or diplomacy. He ruled like a modern capitalist; placed his bribes like investments in the courts of his enemies; and, while draining the See also:land of enormous sums, was pitiless toward the two productive portions of his See also:realm, the country See also:population and the artisans. His heartlessness toward the former provoked even an See also:accomplice like Commines to protest. The latter were kept down by numerous edicts, tending to restrict to certain privileged families the See also:rank of See also:master workman in the See also:gilds. There was the paternalism of a See also:Frederick the Great in his encouragement of the See also:silk See also:industry,—" which all idle people ought to be made to work at,"—in his encouragement of See also:commerce through the newly acquired See also:port of See also:Marseilles and the opening up of See also:market placed. He even dreamed of a great trading See also:company " of two hundred thousand livres or more," to monopolize the See also:trade of the Mediterranean, and planned to unify the various systems of weights and See also:measures. In 1479 he called a See also:meeting of two burgesses from each " good See also:city " of his realm to consider means for preventing the influx of foreign See also:coin. Impatient of all See also:restraint upon his See also:personal rule, he was continually in violent dispute with the parlement of Paris, and made " See also:justice " another name for arbitrary government; yet he dreamed of a unification of the See also:local customary See also:laws (coaitumes) of France. He was the perfect See also:model of a tyrant. The states-See also:general met but once in his reign, in 1468, and then no talk of grievances was allowed; his See also:object was only to get them to declare Normandy inalienable from the crown. They were informed that the king could raise his revenue without consulting them. Yet his budgets were enormously greater than ever before. In 1481 the See also:taille alone brought in 4,600,000 livres, and even at the peaceful close of his reign his whole See also:budget was 4,655,000 livres—as against 1,800,000 livres at the close of his father's reign. The king who did most for French royalty would have made a sorry figure at the court of a Louis XIV. He was ungainly, with rickety legs. His eyes were keen and piercing, but a long hooked See also:nose See also:lent grotesqueness to a See also:face marked with cunning rather than with dignity. Its ugliness was emphasized by the old See also:felt See also:hat which he wore, its See also:sole See also:ornament the leaden figure of a saint. Until the close of his life, when he tried to mislead ambassadors as to the state of his See also:health by gorgeous See also:robes, he wore the meanest clothes. Dressed in See also:grey like a See also:pilgrim, and accompanied by five or six trustworthy servants, he would set out on his interminable travels, " ambling along on a good See also:mule." Thus he traversed France, avoiding all ceremony, entering towns by back streets, receiving ambassadors in way-See also:side huts, dining in public houses, enjoying the loose See also:manners and See also:language of his associates, and incidentally learning at first hand the See also:condition of his people and the possibilities of using or taxing them—his needs of them rather than theirs of him. He loved to win men, especially those of the middle class, by affability and familiarity, employing all his arts to cajole and seduce those whom he needed. Yet his honied words easily turned to See also:gall. He talked rapidly and much, sometimes for See also:hours at a time, and most indiscreetly. He was not an agreeable See also:companion, violent in his passions, See also:nervous, restless, and in old age extremely irascible. Utterly unscrupulous, and without a trace of pity, he treated men like pawns, and was content only with See also:absolute obedience. But this Machiavellian prince was the genuine son of St Louis. His religiosity was genuine if degenerate. He lavished presents his enemies as he was See also:gentle and See also:clement towards his subjects. on influential See also:saints, built shrines, sent gifts to churches, went
on frequent pilgrimages and spent much time in See also:prayer—employing his consummate diplomacy to win See also:celestial allies, and rewarding them richly when their aid secured him any advantage. St See also: (1902), and See also:bibliographical indications given there. See also:Michelet's wonderful depiction in. his Histoire de France (livres 13 to 17) has never been surpassed for graphic word-See also:painting, but it is inaccurate in details, and superseded in scholarship. Of the See also:original See also:sources for the reign the Lettres de Louis XI. (edited by Charavay and Vaesen, 8 vols., 1883–1902), the celebrated Memoires of Philippe de Commines and the See also:Journal of Jean de Royl naturally come first. The great See also:mass of literature on the period is analysed in masterly See also:fashion by A. See also:Molinier, Sources de l'histoire de France (tome v. pp. 1-146), and to this exhaustive bibliography the reader is referred for further See also:research. See also C. See also:Hare, The Life of Louis XI. (See also:London, 1907). (J. T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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