Louis of France (1244-1260)

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Prince Ludwig at prayer. Drawing of a 13th century stone glass window of Chartres Cathedral.

Ludwig (French: Louis de France ; * February 21 or 24, 1244 ; † January 11, 1260 in Paris ) was a prince of the Capetian family , heir to the throne and at times nominal ruler of France .

Life

Ludwig was the eldest son of the French King Louis IX. (the saint) and Margaret of Provence and thus designated heir to the throne. In 1248 his parents set out on the crusade to Egypt (sixth crusade) and transferred the reign of Blanka of Castile . When she died in November 1252 and the father continued to reside in the Holy Land, the eight-year-old Prince Ludwig was named regent of France. In fact, a royal council ruled under the leadership of the uncles Alfonso de Poitiers and Charles de Anjou , but the documents issued were signed and sealed in his name, and correspondence to the crown at that time was addressed to him personally. The basis of the reign was formed by the principle of the law of the firstborn , which was not yet fixed in writing in France , according to which, in the absence of the parents and unless otherwise stipulated by the king, Louis was the first to rule as primogenitus , which ended in July 1254 with the return of the father to Paris.

In the following years Ludwig was instructed about future government activities, among other things the legal scholar Pierre de Fontaines dedicated the legal textbook Conseil à un ami to him . On August 20, 1255 he was betrothed to his cousin Infanta Berenguela († 1300), daughter of King Alfonso X of Castile . At that time she was still considered the heir to the throne of Castile , which changed with the birth of the Infante Ferdinand de la Cerda shortly afterwards .

Together with his younger brother Philipp, Ludwig witnessed the sealing and swearing in of the Treaty of Paris on May 28, 1258 , which was supposed to end the generational hostilities between the French and English royal families. In the following year, Ludwig testified how the English King Heinrich III. paid homage to his father in Paris, making the contract legally valid. Immediately after Christmas in 1259, Ludwig fell ill and died shortly after the New Year in 1260 at the age of almost sixteen. The church scholar Vincent de Beauvais wrote for Louis IX. a consolatio considered a masterpiece in the genre of traditional Christian consolation writings . Heir to the throne was now Philip, who in 1270 as Philip III. ascended the throne.

Prince Ludwig was buried in the Royaumont Abbey , but not in the royal tomb of Saint-Denis , where according to a determination by Louis IX. only crowned heads should be buried. Nevertheless, in 1817 the remains were transferred to Saint-Denis.

literature

  • Peter von Moos: The consolation of Vinzenz von Beauvais for Louis IX. Preliminary study on the history of motifs and genres of consolatio , in: Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 4 (1967)
  • Louis Carolus-Barré: Le prince héritier Louis (1244–1260) et l'intérim du pouvoir royal de la mort de Blanche (nov. 1252) au retour du roi (juillet 1254) , in: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (1970)
  • Jacques Le Goff : Ludwig the Holy (Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2000), ISBN 3-608-91834-5

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personal data
SURNAME Louis of France
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Louis de France
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son of King Louis IX. of France and Margaret of Provence, heir apparent and regent of France
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1244 or February 24, 1244
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1260
Place of death Paris