Everything about Louis Vii Of France totally explained
Louis VII, called
the Younger or
the Young (;
1120 –
18 September 1180), was
King of France, the son and successor of
Louis VI (hence his nickname). He ruled from
1137 until his death. He was a member of the
House of Capet. His reign was dominated by feudal struggles (in particular with the
Angevin family), and saw the beginning of the long feud between France and
England. It also saw the beginning of construction on
Notre-Dame de Paris and the disastrous
Second Crusade.
Early life
Louis VII was born in 1120, the second son of
Louis VI of France and
Adelaide of Maurienne. As a younger son, Louis VII had been raised to follow the ecclesiastical path. He unexpectedly became the heir to the throne of France after the accidental death of his older brother,
Philip, in 1131. A well-learned and exceptionally devout man, Louis VII was better suited for life as a priest than as a monarch.
In his youth, he spent much time in
Saint-Denis, where he built a friendship with the
Abbot Suger which was to serve him well in his early years as king.
Early reign
In the same year he was crowned
King of France, Louis VII was married on
22 July 1137 to
Eleanor of Aquitaine, heiress of
William X of Aquitaine. The pairing of the monkish Louis VII and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she once reportedly declared that she'd thought to marry a King, only to find she'd married a monk. They had only two daughters,
Marie and
Alix.
In the first part of Louis VII's reign he was vigorous and jealous of his prerogatives, but after his Crusade his piety limited his ability to become an effective statesman. His accession was marked by no disturbances, save the uprisings of the burgesses of
Orléans and of
Poitiers, who wished to organize communes. But soon he came into violent conflict with
Pope Innocent II. The
archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the King supported as candidate the chancellor
Cadurc, against the Pope's nominee
Pierre de la Chatre, swearing upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. This brought the interdict upon the King's lands.
Louis VII then became involved in a war with
Theobald II of Champagne, by permitting
Raoul I of Vermandois and
seneschal of
France, to repudiate his wife, Theobald II's niece, and to marry
Petronilla of Aquitaine, sister of the queen of France. Champagne also sided with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (
1142–
44) and ended with the occupation of
Champagne by the royal army. Louis VII was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of
Vitry. More than a thousand people who had sought refuge in the church died in the flames. Overcome with guilt, and humiliated by ecclesiastical contempt, Louis admitted defeat, removing his armies from Champagne and returning them to Theobald, accepting Pierre de la Chatre, and shunning Ralph and Petronilla. Desiring to atone for his sins, he then declared on
Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.
Bernard of Clairvaux assured its popularity by his preaching at
Vezelay (Easter 1146).
Meanwhile in 1144,
Geoffrey the Handsome, Count of Anjou, completed his conquest of
Normandy. In exchange for being recognised as Duke of Normandy by Louis, Geoffrey surrendered half of the Vexin — a region considered vital to Norman security — to Louis. Considered a clever move by Louis at the time, it would later prove yet another step towards Angevin power.
In June 1147 Louis VII and his queen, Eleanor, set out from
Metz,
Lorraine, on the overland route to
Syria. Just beyond
Laodicea the French army was ambushed by Turks. The French were bombarded by arrows and heavy stones, the Turks swarmed down from the mountains and the massacre began. The historian
Odo of Deuil reported:
» During the fighting the King [Louis] lost his small and famous royal guard, but he remained in good heart and nimbly and courageously scaled the side of the mountain by gripping the tree roots … The enemy climbed after him, hoping to capture him, and the enemy in the distance continued to fire arrows at him. But God willed that his cuirass should protect him from the arrows, and to prevent himself from being captured he defended the crag with his bloody sword, cutting off many heads and hands.
Louis VII and his army finally reached the Holy Land in 1148. His queen Eleanor supported her uncle,
Raymond of Antioch, and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis VII's interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret. He united with
Conrad III of Germany and King
Baldwin III of Jerusalem to lay
siege to Damascus; this ended in disaster and the project was abandoned. Louis VII decided to leave the Holy Land, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wanted to help her doomed uncle
Raymond of Antioch. Louis VII and the French army returned home in 1149.
A shift in the status quo
The expedition came to a great cost to the
royal treasury and
military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor, leading to the annulment of their marriage at the council of
Beaugency (March 1152). The pretext of kinship was the basis for annulment; in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between the two, and the decreasing odds that their marriage would produce a male heir to the throne of
France. Eleanor subsequently married Henry,
Count of Anjou, the future
Henry II of England, in the following May, giving him the duchy of
Aquitaine, three daughters, and five sons. Louis VII led an ineffective war against Henry for having married without the authorization of his suzerain; the result was a humiliation for the enemies of Henry and Eleanor, who saw their troops routed, their lands ravaged, and their property stolen. Louis reacted by coming down with a fever, and returned to the
Ile de France.
In 1154 Louis VII married
Constance of Castile, daughter of
Alfonso VII of Castile. She, too, failed to give him a son and heir, bearing only two daughters, Margaret and Alys.
Louis having produced no sons by 1157, Henry II of England began to believe that he might never do so, and that consequently the succession of France would be left in question. Determined to secure a claim for his family, he sent the Chancellor, Thomas Becket, to press for a marriage between Princess Marguerite and Henry's heir, also called Henry. Louis, surprisingly, agreed to this proposal, and by the
Treaty of Gisors (1158) betrothed the young pair, giving as a dowry the Norman
Vexin and
Gisors.
Constance died in childbirth on 4 October 1160, and five weeks later Louis VII married
Adela of Champagne. Henry II, to counterbalance the advantage this would give the King of France, had the marriage of their children (Henry "the Young King" and Marguerite) celebrated at once. Louis understood the danger of the growing
Angevin power; however, through indecision and lack of fiscal and military resources compared to Henry II's, he failed to oppose Angevin hegemony effectively. One of his few successes, in 1159, was his trip to
Toulouse to aid
Raymond V, the Count of the city who had been attacked by Henry II: after he entered into the city with a small escort, claiming to be visiting the Countess his sister, Henry declared that he couldn't attack the city whilst his liege lord was inside, and went home.
Diplomacy
At the same time the emperor
Frederick I (1152–1190) in the east was making good the imperial claims on
Arles. When the
schism broke out, Louis VII took the part of the
Pope Alexander III, the enemy of Frederick I, and after two comical failures of Frederick I to meet Louis VII at
Saint Jean de Losne (on 29 August and 22 September 1162), Louis VII definitely gave himself up to the cause of Alexander III, who lived at Sens from 1163 to 1165. Alexander III gave the King, in return for his loyal support, the golden rose.
More importantly for French — and English — history would be his support for
Thomas Becket,
Archbishop of Canterbury, whom he tried to reconcile with Henry II. Louis sided with Becket as much to damage Henry as out of piousness — yet even he grew irritated with the stubbornness of the archbishop, asking when Becket refused Henry's conciliations, "Do you wish to be more than a Saint?"
He also supported Henry's rebellious sons, and encouraged Plantagenet disunity by making Henry's sons, rather than Henry himself, the feudal overlords of the Angevin territories in France; but the rivalry amongst Henry's sons and Louis's own indecisiveness broke up the coalition (1173–1174) between them. Finally, in 1177, the Pope intervened to bring the two Kings to terms at
Vitry.
Finally, nearing the end of his life, Louis' third wife bore him a son and heir,
Philip II Augustus. Louis had him crowned at
Reims in 1179, in the Capetian tradition (Philip would in fact be the last King so crowned). Already stricken with paralysis, King Louis VII himself wasn't able to be present at the ceremony. He died on September 18, 1180 at the Abbey at Saint-Pont, Allier and is interred in
Saint Denis Basilica.
Ancestors
Marriages and Children
Louis married three times. By Eleanor of Aquitaine, he had:
Legacy
The reign of Louis VII was, from the point of view of royal territory and military power a difficult and unfortunate one. Yet the royal authority made progress in the parts of France distant from the royal domains: more direct and more frequent connection was made with distant vassals, a result largely due to the alliance of the clergy with the crown. Louis VII thus reaped the reward for services rendered the church during the least successful portion of his reign. His greater accomplishments lie in the development of agriculture, population, commerce, the building of stone fortresses, as well as an intellectual renaissance. Considering the significant disparity of political leverage and financial resources between Louis VII and his Angevin rival, not to mention Henry II's superior military skills, Louis VII should be credited with preserving the Capetian dynasty.
Sources
Meade, Marion. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography. 1977.Further Information
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