Louis VII

Examples of Louis VII in the following topics:

• The Second Crusade

  • The Second Crusade was announced by Pope Eugene III, and was the first of the crusades to be led by European kings, namely Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, who had help from a number of other European nobles.
  • Louis and Conrad and the remnants of their armies reached Jerusalem and participated in an ill-advised attack on Damascus in 1148.
  • The French crusaders departed from Metz in June 1147, led by Louis, Thierry of Alsace, Renaut I of Bar, Amadeus III, Count of Savoy and his half-brother William V of Montferrat, William VII of Auvergne, and others, along with armies from Lorraine, Brittany, Burgundy, and Aquitaine.
  • At Worms, Louis joined with crusaders from Normandy and England.
  • They followed Conrad's route fairly peacefully, although Louis came into conflict with King Geza of Hungary when Geza discovered Louis had allowed an attempted Hungarian usurper to join his army.

• William of Orange and the Grand Alliance

  • Fearing the growing strength of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis XIV turned to William, his long-standing Protestant rival.
  • Unexpectedly, Charles II willed all Spanish territories to Philip, a grandson of Louis XIV.
  • As tensions mounted, Britain and the Dutch Republic grew enraged by Louis' actions and decisions. 
  • It was formed in an attempt to halt Louis XIV's expansionist policies.
  • Around the same time as the Alliance was formed, the Catholic James II of England (VII of Scotland) – exiled in Saint-Germain since the Glorious Revolution – died and Louis XIV recognized James II's Catholic son, James, as King James III of England.

• Louis XVIII and the Bourbon Restoration

• The Hundred Years' War

  • Charles VII of France was crowned in Notre-Dame de Reims in 1429.
  • Joan said she received visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War.
  • The uncrowned King Charles VII sent Joan to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission.
  • Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims.
  • Louis, St.

• Louis XV

  • Louis XV was born during the reign of his great-grandfather Louis XIV.
  • In April 1711, Louis Le Grand Dauphin suddenly died, making Louis XV's father, the Duke of Burgundy, the new Dauphin.
  • At that time, Burgundy had two living sons, Louis, Duke of Brittany, and his youngest son, the future Louis XV.
  • Following the advice of Fleury, Louis XV appointed his cousin Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, to replace the late Duke of Orléans.
  • This sharply contrasts Louis XV's reign from that of his great-grandfather and predecessor Louis XIV's.

• Louis XVI

  • Louis XVI (1754 – 1793), born Louis-Auguste, was King of France from 1774 until his deposition in 1792, although his formal title after 1791 was King of the French.
  • Out of seven children, he was the second son of Louis, the Dauphin of France, and thus the grandson of Louis XV and Maria Leszczyńska.
  • During his childhood, Louis-Auguste was neglected by his parents who favored his older brother, Louis, duc de Bourgogne.
  • As king, Louis focused primarily on religious freedom and foreign policy.
  • Louis XVI at the age of 20, by Joseph Duplessis, ca. 1775.

• Art and Patronage

  • Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel just before the pontiff's death in 1534.
  • Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV of France and mother of Louis XIII, is the subject of a commissioned cycle of paintings known as the Marie de' Medici cycle, painted for the Luxembourg Palace by court painter Peter Paul Rubens in 1622-23.

• The Pragmatic Sanction

  • The War of the Spanish Succession ensued, with Louis XIV of France claiming the crowns of Spain for his grandson Philip and Leopold I (Holy Roman Emperor) claiming them for his son Charles.
  • As Emperor Charles VII, he lost his own country, Bavaria, to the Austrian army of his wife's cousin Maria Theresa and soon died.

• The Glorious Revolution

  • James II of England (VII of Scotland) was the second surviving son of Charles I, who ascended the throne upon the death of his brother, Charles II, in 1685.
  • James was received in France by his cousin and ally, Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a pension.
  • James II King of England and VII King of Scots, King of Ireland and Duke of Normandy, painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1683.

• Louis XIV and the Huguenots

  • The persecution of the Huguenots became one of the critical factors in Louis XIV's consolidation of royal power and resulted in Catholicism being the only legally tolerated religion in France, despite Louis' conflict with the Pope.
  • Louis saw the persistence of Protestantism as a disgraceful reminder of royal powerlessness.
  • In 1681, Louis dramatically increased the persecution of Protestants.
  • However, French society would sufficiently change by the time of Louis' descendant, Louis XVI, to welcome toleration in the form of the 1787 Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance.
  • Louis XIV (1638 – 1715), known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715.