Born the son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille, the young Louis IX was only eleven years old when the death of his father made him King. His mother served as regent during his early reign and under her training Louis IX reportedly became a pious and unselfish ruler. As is the case with nearly all exceptionally powerful kings, Louis IX power came at the expense of the nobility. Yet this seems to have been tempered by the King's immense personal popularity, even among the nobility.
In 1248 Louis IX set out for the Holy Land on what later became known as the Seventh Crusade. It was traditionally believed, as recounted in numerous clerical writings of the crusading era, that crusader armys could only be successful through their personal holiness, thus they were pleasing to God. As a result, it was reasoned that a crusade led by a Christian King with as great of a reputation for personal holiness as Louis IX was a certain recipe for success.
Yet the Seventh Crusade became a disaster when the King was captured by his Muslim opponents. The two Muslim accounts of the capture of the Christian King by Al Makrisi and Ibn Wasil describe the destruction of Louis's crusader army, with as many as 30,000 killed prior to the King's humiliating capture. Even the account of friendly source, that of Jean de Joinville, describes the King and a few of his loyal defenders successfully holding off the Muslims until they are betrayed by a Christian who falsely calls for surrender on the King's behalf. All three accounts detail the captivity and eventual ransom of Louis IX.
After the ransom of Louis IX, he did not immediately return to France. The King stayed for some time in Palestine with the goal of improving the lives of its Christian inhabitants. Louis IX developed a reputation for fairness with many Muslims as a result of his various interactions with them. He finally returned to France in 1252 where he devoted himself to making improvements to his Kingdom and with the Treaty of Paris in 1259 he secured peace with King Henry III of England.
With things going well in his Kingdom, Louis IX then set out on what was the Eighth Crusade, but he died shortly later near Tunis when a plague broke out in his army. Twenty-seven years later he was declared a saint by Pope Boniface VIII.
One of the best books for further reading on the subject of St. Louis and the crusades is Dr. William Chester Jordan's Louis IX and the Challege of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership. Princeton University Press, 1980.
St. Louis Letter of Advice to His Oldest Son- Internet History Sourcebooks
Jean de Joinville [Full Text] Memoirs [Of the Crusade of St. Louis] University of Virginia Electronic Text Center
Seventh Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Primary Sources of the Seventh Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Eighth Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Primary Sources of the Eighth Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Saints and the Crusades- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Al Makrisi- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Ibn Wasil- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Jean de Joinville- Crusades-Encyclopedia
William Chester Jordan- Crusades-Encyclopedia
(c) Andrew Holt, June 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.