Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483) was King of France from 1461 to 1483. He is known as "the Universal Spider" (universelle araigne) for the way he would slowly and methodically plot the destruction of his enemies with as little use of his own armies as possible.
When Louis was born, France was at a low point during The Hundred Years War. The English ruled in large parts of the Kingdom and his father Charles VII held out with trouble in the Southern parts of France. Then Joan of Arc helped turn the tide, along with Charles surrounding himself with the right people to build France a modern conscripted army instead of depending on armies of vassals and massively develop artillery in the country. Eventually the English would be driven out, holding on to Calais only.
A troubling relationship with his father meant that Louis went into exile at the court of his relative Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. After the death of his first wife Margaret of Scotland, Louis married Charlotte of Savoy. They had two daughters and one son that lived to adulthood.
When his father died in 1461, he quickly had himself crowned in Reims. His main goal during his reign was the strengthening of central control. This resulted in conflict with the great feudal lords of France. His main adversary was Charles the Bold, son of the Duke who had granted him refuge, as Burgundy had practically become a state and major power of its own.
England, as always, was another problem. The country was weakened because of the Wars of the Roses, but Edward IV still made an attempt at invading. Louis paid him off with the peace treaty of Picquigny in 1475, giving him a massive annual payment so the English would return home and never claim any inch of French soil again. This canny strategem—which gave Edward financial independence from Parliament (something English kings were always chasing) so long as England kept out of France—put a definitive end to the Hundred Years War.
Now able to focus on Burgundy, Louis allied himself to the Swiss. They defeated Charles three times and at the third time (at the siege of Nancy in 1477), he lost his life. His heiress was the young Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. The Dukedom was overrun by the French, but Mary remained the ruler in her territories in the Low Countries. Louis tried to pressure her into marrying his son Charles, but Mary chose Maximilian I instead.
Louis was also involved in Italian politics, thereby foreshadowing the great conflicts there in the generations that would follow him and would involve several European powers.
Louis was known to be somewhat eccentric, particularly in dressing more like a simple merchant instead of as a king. He also enjoyed imitating people. Apparently, he was particularly fond of imitating the anger attacks of Charles of Burgundy.
His prisons had a sinister reputation (he was known to put opponents and people he had arrested such as the Cardinal Jean de la Balue in tight cages made of wood and iron within his dungeons), but he also made important contributions to the development of the country. Infrastructures were greatly improved and postal services were created.
After his death, his daughter Anne de Beaujeu took up the regency for his young son Charles VIII. Anne was the only one of his children to have a child who reached adulthood, but this grandchild died in 1521 without issue. After the death of Anne in 1522, Louis's line died out. By that time, François I of the House of Valois-Angoulême was ruling France.
Louis's reign set France on the course of centralization of power and absolutism, moving power away from the nobility that foreshadowed the reign of Louis XIV two centuries later.
Portrayals of Louis XI in fiction:
- Quentin Durward, 1823 novel by Walter Scott and its adaptations, including:
- Quentin Durward (1912 film), played by Claude Gerry.
- The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955 film), played by Robert Morley.
- Quentin Durward (1971 mini-series), played by Michel Vitold.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1831 novel by Victor Hugo, and several of its adaptations, including:
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923 film), played by Tully Marshall.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film), played by Harry Davenport.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956 film), played by Jean Tissier.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 animated film). He doesn't appear, but he is said to be away at war, so Judge Claude Frollo can control Paris.
- The Hunchback (1997 TV film), played by Nigel Terry.
- Maître Cornélius, 1831 novel by Honoré de Balzac.
- The Miracle of the Wolves (1961 film), played by Jean-Louis Barrault.
- Louis XI: Shattered Power (2011 TV film), played by Jacques Perrin.
- Maximilian (2017 mini-series), played by Jean-Hugues Anglade.
