Louis: The French Prince Who Invaded England

Louis: The French Prince Who Invaded England

Catherine Hanley

Yale University Press (2016)

In 1215 a group of English barons, dissatisfied with the weak and despicable King John, decided that they needed a new monarch. They wanted a strong, experienced man, of royal blood, and they found him on the other side of the Channel: astonishingly, the most attractive candidate for the crown of England was Louis, eldest son and heir of the king of France.

In this fascinating biography of England’s least-known “king”—and the first to be written in English—Catherine Hanley explores the life and times of “Louis the Lion” before, during, and beyond his quest for the English throne. She illuminates the national and international context of his 1216 invasion, and explains why and how after sixteen fruitless months he failed to make himself King Louis I of England. Hanley also explores Louis’s subsequent reign over France until his untimely death on the Albigensian Crusade. Published eight centuries after the creation of Magna Carta and on the 800th anniversary of Louis’s proclamation as king, this fascinating story is a colorful tale of national culture, power, and politics that brings a long-forgotten life out of the shadows of history.

**

Review

“Captivating…Hanley’s work vividly depicts the texture of the times with an enthralling, novelistic narrative.”—
Publishers Weekly

(
Publishers Weekly
)

“I have been waiting for a biography of Louis for a long time, and few are better qualified to write it than Hanley. She has a command of the sources and skilfully deploys her expertise in medieval arms and warfare… this is serious history, as well as a gripping – and poignant – story.”—Sophie Ambler,
BBC History

(Sophie Ambler
BBC History Magazine
2016-07-01)

About the Author

Dr Catherine Hanley
is a writer and researcher specialising in the High Middle Ages, and the author of
War and Combat, 1150-1270: The Evidence from Old French Literature
(2003).

For Edwin, Charlotte and Adela

Copyright © 2016 Catherine Hanley

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers.

For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact:

U.S. office:   
[email protected]
   
yalebooks.com

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Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016932441

ISBN 978-0-300-21745-2

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1
The Shaping of a Prince

2
Father and Son

3
The Invitation

4
King of England?

5
The Tide Turns

6
Fighting Back

7
The End of the Adventure

8
Aftermath

9
King of France

10
Legacy

Chronology

A Note on Sources

Bibliography

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

Plates

1
A nineteenth-century portrait of Louis

2
Louis is presented with a copy of Giles of Paris’s
Karolinus
(
Karolinus
, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Latin 6191, fol. 7v.)

3
Louis and King John at La-Roche-aux-Moines (British Library, MS Royal 16 G VI, fol. 385r.)

4
Replica mail constructed according to a thirteenth-century pattern (James Mears)

5
Louis arrives in England (Matthew Paris’s
Chronica Majora
, Parker Library, MS CCCC 16II, fol. 50v. Reproduced by kind permission of the Master and Fellows, Corpus Christi College Cambridge)

6
Dover Castle (Julian Humphrys)

7
North wall of Dover Castle (Julian Humphrys)

8
Odiham Castle (Sam Wilson)

9
A charter issued by Louis in 1216 while he was in England (© The British Library Board, Harley Charter 43 B 37)

10
Guédelon Castle (James Mears)

11
The battle of Lincoln, 1217 (Matthew Paris’s
Chronica Majora
, Parker Library, MS CCCC 16II, fol. 55v. Reproduced by kind permission of the Master and Fellows, Corpus Christi College Cambridge)

12
The battle of Sandwich, 1217 (Matthew Paris’s
Chronica Majora
, Parker Library, MS CCCC 16II, fol. 56r. Reproduced by kind permission of the Master and Fellows, Corpus Christi College Cambridge)

13
Louis and Blanche are crowned king and queen of France (
Chroniques de France ou de St Denis
, British Library, MS Royal 16 G VI, fol. 386v.)

14
Louis’s seal as king of France (Archives nationales, Paris)

15
A French silver
denier
of Louis VIII (James Mears)

16
Louis at the siege of La Rochelle, 1224 (
Chroniques de France ou de St Denis
, British Library, MS Royal 16 G VI, fol. 388r.)

17
Louis’s testament of 1225 (Archives nationales, Paris)

18
The medieval bridge across the river Rhône at Avignon (Pixabay)

19
Louis receives the submission of Avignon (
Grandes Chroniques de France
, Gallica/Bibliothèque nationale, MS Français 2813, fol. 266v.)

20
Events of 1226, including Louis on his deathbed (
Grandes Chroniques de France enluminées par Jean Fouquet,
Bibliothèque nationale, MS Français 6465, fol. 251v.)

21
Drawing of Louis’s exhumed corpse by Alexandre Lenoir (Musée du Louvre, RF5282–14)

22
The plaque in the crypt at St Denis bearing Louis’s name (Beth Spacey)

Maps

1
England in the thirteenth century

2
France in the thirteenth century

Tables

1
The Capetians

2
The Plantagenets