Louis IX of France

Louis IX (1214–1270), called Saint Louis, was Capetian king of France from 1226 and the only king the Catholic Church has canonised. Crowned at twelve under his mother Blanche of Castile’s regency, he defeated Henry III at Taillebourg. The 1259 Treaty of Paris settled his borders.

His justice was the lasting part of his reign: he abolished trial by ordeal, banned private wars and let subjects appeal to the crown. He vowed to go on crusade: he took Damietta in 1249, but was captured at Fariskur in 1250 and freed for four hundred thousand bezants. He spent four years fortifying Acre, Caesarea, Jaffa.

He consecrated the Sainte-Chapelle for the crown of thorns. His piety had a harsh side: the burning of the Talmud. In 1270 he sailed for Tunis on the Eighth Crusade and died of dysentery. His son Philip III succeeded him; Boniface VIII canonised him in 1297.