Louis X (4 October 1289 – 5 June 1316), called the Quarrelsome, the Headstrong, or the Stubborn (French: le Hutin), was King of France from 1314 until his death (the twelfth from the House of Capet), succeeding his father Philip IV. After the death of his mother, Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Louis I (Basque: Luis I a Nafarroakoa) from 1305 until his death in 1316.
His short reign in France was marked by tensions with the nobility, due to fiscal and centralization reforms initiated by Enguerrand de Marigny, the Grand Chamberlain of France, under the reign of his father. Louis' uncle—Charles of Valois, leader of the feudalist party—managed to convince the king to execute Enguerrand de Marigny.
Louis allowed serfs to buy their freedom (which was the first step towards the abolition of serfdom), abolished slavery, and readmitted French Jews into the kingdom.
In 1305, Louis had married Margaret of Burgundy, with whom he had Joan II of Navarre. Margaret was later convicted of adultery and died in prison, possibly murdered by strangulation. In 1315, Louis married Clementia of Hungary, who gave birth to John I of France a few months after the king's death. John's untimely death led to a disputed succession.
Louis was born in Paris, the eldest son of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre.[1] He inherited the kingdom of Navarre on the death of his mother, on 4 April 1305, later being crowned 1 October 1307.[2] On 21 September 1305, at age 15, he married Margaret of Burgundy and they had a daughter, Joan.[1] Louis was known as "the Quarreler" as the result of the tensions prevailing throughout his reigns.[3]
Both Louis and Margaret became involved in the Tour de Nesle affair towards the end of Philip's reign. In 1314, Margaret, Blanche and Joan—the latter two being the wives of Louis' brothers Charles and Philip, respectively—were arrested on charges of infidelity.[4] Margaret and Blanche were both tried before the French parliament later that year and found guilty. Their alleged lovers were executed, and the women had their hair shorn and were sentenced to life imprisonment.[4] Philip stood by his wife Joan, who was ultimately found innocent and released. Margaret would be imprisoned at Chateau Gaillard, where she died.[4]
On the death of his father in 1314, Louis became King of France. Margaret of Burgundy died on 14 August 1315 and Louis remarried five days later, on 19 August to Clementia of Hungary,[1] the daughter of Charles Martel of Anjou and the niece of Louis' own uncle and close advisor, Charles of Valois. Louis and Clementia were crowned at Reims in August 1315.[5]
Louis was king of Navarre for eleven years and king of France for less than two years. His reign was dominated by continual feuding with the noble factions within the kingdom, and major reforms designed to increase royal revenues, such as the freeing of the French serfs and the readmittance of the Jews.
In 1315, Louis X published a decree proclaiming that "France signifies freedom" and that any slave setting foot on the French ground should be freed. This prompted subsequent governments to circumscribe slavery in the overseas colonies.[6] His Ordonnances des Roi de France, V, p.1311 declared that "as soon as a slave breathes the air of France, he breathes freedom"[7]
By the end of Philip IV's reign opposition to the fiscal reforms was growing. With Philip's death and the accession of Louis, this opposition rapidly developed in more open revolt, some authors citing Louis' relative youth as one of the reasons behind the timing of the rebellions.[8] Leagues of regional nobles began to form around the country, demanding changes.[9]Charles of Valois took advantage of this movement to turn against his old enemy, Philip IV's former minister and chamberlainEnguerrand de Marigny and convinced Louis to bring corruption charges against him. When these failed, Charles then convinced Louis to bring sorcery charges against him instead, which proved more effective and led to de Marigny's execution at Vincennes in April 1315.[10] Other former ministers were similarly prosecuted.[11] This, combined with the halting of Philip's reforms, the issuing of numerous charters of rights[12] and a reversion to more traditional rule, largely assuaged the regional leagues.[13]
Readmittance of the Jews and reform of serfdom[edit]
Louis receiving a diploma from the Jews, whom he readmitted to France under strict terms. Painting made in 14th century.
In practical terms, Louis X effectively abolished slavery within the Kingdom of France in 1315. Louis continued to require revenues, however, and alighted on a reform of French serfdom as a way of achieving this. Arguing that all men are born free, Louis declared in 1315 that French serfs would therefore be freed, although each serf would have to purchase his freedom.[14] A body of commissioners was established to undertake the reform, establishing the peculium, or value, of each serf.[15] For serfs owned directly by the King, all of the peculium would be received by the Crown – for serfs owned by subjects of the King, the amount would be divided between the Crown and the owner.[16] In the event, not all serfs were prepared to pay in this fashion and in due course Louis declared that the goods of these serfs would be seized anyway, with the proceeds going to pay for the war in Flanders.[17]
Louis was also responsible for a key shift in policy towards the Jews. In 1306, his father, Philip IV, had expelled the Jewish minority from across France, a "shattering" event for most of these communities.[18] Louis began to reconsider this policy, motivated by the additional revenues that might be forthcoming to the Crown if the Jews were allowed to return.[19] Accordingly, Louis issued a charter in 1315, readmitting the Jews subject to various conditions.
The Jews would only be admitted back into France for twelve years, after which the agreement might be terminated; Jews were to wear an armband at all times; Jews could only live in those areas where there had been Jewish communities previously; Jews were initially to be forbidden from usury.[20] This was the first time that French Jews had been covered by such a charter, and Louis was careful to justify his decision with reference to the policies of his ancestor Saint Louis IX, the position of Pope Clement V and an argument that the people of France had demanded a return of the Jews.[21] The result was a much weakened Jewish community that depended directly upon the King for their right of abode and protection.[22]
Louis campaigning in Flanders, where he sought a military solution to the ongoing problem of the "immensely wealthy", quasi-autonomous province of France. Painting circa 15th century.
Louis X continued the effort of his predecessor to achieve a military solution to the vexing problem of Flanders. The Count of Flanders ruled an "immensely wealthy state"[23] which enjoyed a largely autonomous existence on the margins of the French realm; French kings claimed to exercise suzerainty over Flanders, but heretofore with little success.[24]Philip IV had attempted to assert royal overlordship, but his army, led by Robert II of Artois, had been defeated at Courtrai in 1302;[25] despite a later French victory at the Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle the relationship remained testy and unsettled.
Louis mobilised an army along the Flemish border, but the French position rapidly become strained by the demands of maintaining a wartime footing. Louis had prohibited exports of grain and other material to Flanders in 1315. This proved challenging to enforce, and the king had to pressure officers of the Church in the borderlands,[26] as well as Edward II of England, to support his effort to prevent Spanish merchant vessels from trading with the embargoed Flemish.[27] An unintended result of the embargo was the rise of smuggling activities that reduced the advantage (and consequently the amount) of trading in compliance with royal restrictions in the border region. Louis was also forced to directly requisition food for his forces, resulting in a series of complaints from local lords and the Church.[28]
Louis was a keen player of jeu de paume, or real tennis, and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style. Louis was unhappy with playing tennis out of doors and accordingly had indoor, enclosed courts made in Paris "around the end of the 13th century".[29] In due course this design spread across royal palaces all over Europe.[30] In June 1316 at Vincennes, following a particularly exhausting game, Louis drank a large quantity of cooled wine and subsequently died of either pneumonia or pleurisy, although there was also suspicion of poisoning.[31] Because of the contemporary accounts of his death, Louis is history's first tennis player known by name.[32] He and his second wife Clementia are interred in Saint Denis Basilica.
Louis' second wife Clementia was pregnant at the time of his death, leaving the succession in doubt. A son would have primacy over Louis' daughter, Joan.[33] A daughter, however, would have a weaker claim to the throne, and would need to compete with Joan's own claims – although suspicions hung over Joan's parentage following the scandal in 1314.[34] As a result, Louis' brother Philip was appointed regent for the five months remaining until the birth of his brother's child, John I, who lived only five days. Louis' brother Philip then succeeded in pressing his claims to the crowns of France and Navarre.
All de jure monarchs of Navarre from 1328 onwards were descended from Louis through his daughter, Joan, including Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of Henry IV of France, and therefore the entire royal House of Bourbon.
^Ordonnances des Roi de France, V, p.1311, as quoted in Travers Twist. "The Extraterritoriality of Public Ships of War in Foreign Waters", The Law Magazine and Review: A Quarterly Review of Jurisprudence, Volume 1, No. 219, Saunders and Benning (February 1876)
Jeudwine, John Wynne. (1983) Tort, Crime, and Police in Mediaeval Britain: a review of some early law and custom. London: Wm. S. Hein Publishing.
Jordan, William Chester. (1996) The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the early Fourteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jordan, William Chester (2005). Unceasing Strife, Unending Fear: Jacques de Therines and the Freedom of the Church in the Age of the Last Capetians. Princeton University Press.
Konta, Annie Lemp. (1914) The History of French literature from the Oath of Strasburg to Chanticler. London: D. Appleton and Company.
Kulsrud, Carl Jacob. (2005) Maritime Neutrality to 1780: a history of the main principles governing neutrality and belligerency to 1780. Clark: Law Book Exchange.
Lea, Henry Charles. (1887) A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Part Three. London: Harper.
Newman, Paul B. (2001) Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Jefferson: McFarland.
Rose, Hugh James. (1857) A New General Biographical Dictionary, Volume 11. London: Fellows.
Sellery, George C. (2007) The Founding of Western Civilization. Read Book.
Stephen, James. (2008) Lectures on the History of France. Read Book.
Wagner, John. A. (2006) Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Woodacre, Elena (2013). The Queens Regnant of Navarre. Palgrave Macmillan.
Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics. Acting heads of state are denoted by an asterisk. Millerand held the presidency in an acting capacity before being fully elected.
Philip IV, called Philip the Fair, was King of France from 1285 until his death. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Philip I from 1284 to 1305, as well as Count of Champagne. Although Philip was known as handsome, hence the epithet le Bel, his rigid and inflexible personality gained him other nicknames, such as the Iron King. His fierce opponent Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, said of him: "he is neither man nor beast. He is a statue."
Philip III of France
Philip III, called the Bold, was King of France from 1270 to 1285, the tenth from the House of Capet.
Philip V of France
Philip V, knowns as the Tall, was King of France and Navarre. He reigned from 1316 to his death and was the fourteenth and penultimate monarch of the main line of the House of Capet.
Charles IV of France
Charles IV, called the Fair in France and the Bald in Navarre, was the fifteenth and last king of the direct line of the House of Capet, King of France and King of Navarre from 1322 to his death. Charles was the third son of Philip IV; like his father, he was known as "the fair" or "the handsome".
Count of Champagne
The Count of Champagne was the ruler of the region of Champagne from 950 to 1316. Champagne evolved from the county of Troyes in the late eleventh century and Hugh I was the first to officially use the title "Count of Champagne".
Joan I of Navarre
Joan I of Navarre was queen regnant of Navarre and ruling countess of Champagne from 1274 until 1305; she was also queen consort of France by marriage to Philip IV of France. She was the daughter of king Henry I of Navarre and Blanche of Artois.
Odo IV, Duke of Burgundy
Odo IV or Eudes IV was Duke of Burgundy from 1315 until his death and Count of Burgundy and Artois between 1330 and 1347. He was the second son of Duke Robert II and Agnes of France.
Charles, Count of Valois
Charles of Valois, the third son of Philip III of France and Isabella of Aragon, was a member of the House of Capet and founder of the House of Valois, whose rule over France would start in 1328.
Joan II of Navarre
Joan II was Queen of Navarre from 1328 until her death. She was the only surviving child of Louis X of France, King of France and Navarre, and Margaret of Burgundy. Joan's paternity was dubious because her mother was involved in a scandal, but Louis X declared her his legitimate daughter before he died in 1316. However, the French lords were opposed to the idea of a female monarch and elected Louis X's brother, Philip V, king. The Navarrese noblemen also did homage to Philip. Joan's maternal grandmother, Agnes of France, Duchess of Burgundy, and uncle, Odo IV of Burgundy, made attempts to secure the counties of Champagne and Brie to Joan, but the French royal troops defeated her supporters. After Philip V married his daughter to Odo and granted him two counties as her dowry, Odo renounced Joan's claim to Champagne and Brie in exchange for a compensation in March 1318. Joan married Philip of Évreux, who was also a member of the French royal family.
Margaret of Burgundy, Queen of France
Margaret of Burgundy was Queen of France and Navarre as the first wife King Louis X and I.
Enguerrand de Marigny
Enguerrand de Marigny, Baron Le Portier was a French chamberlain and minister of Philip IV.
Philip III of Navarre
Philip III, called the Noble or the Wise, was King of Navarre from 1328 until his death. He was born a minor member of the French royal family but gained prominence when the Capetian main line went extinct, as he and his wife and cousin, Joan II of Navarre, acquired the Iberian kingdom and a number of French fiefs.
House of Capet
The House of Capet or the Direct Capetians and, also called the House of France, or simply the Capets, ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328. It was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians. Historians in the 19th century came to apply the name "Capetian" to both the ruling house of France and to the wider-spread male-line descendants of Hugh Capet. Contemporaries did not use the name "Capetian". The Capets were sometimes called "the third race of kings". The name "Capet" derives from the nickname given to Hugh, the first Capetian King, who became known as Hugh Capet.
Margaret I, Countess of Burgundy
Margaret I, was a ruling Countess Palatine of Burgundy and Artois from 1361 and 1382. She was also countess of Flanders, Nevers and Rethel by marriage to Louis I, Count of Flanders, and regent of Flanders during the minority of her son Louis II, Count of Flanders in 1346.
Blanche of Burgundy
Blanche of Burgundy was Queen of France and Navarre for a few months in 1322 through her marriage to King Charles IV the Fair. The daughter of Count Otto IV of Burgundy and Countess Mahaut of Artois, she was led to a disastrous marriage by her mother's ambition. Eight years before her husband's accession to the thrones, Blanche was arrested and found guilty of adultery with a Norman knight. Her sister-in-law, Margaret of Burgundy, suffered the same fate, while her sister Joan was acquitted. Blanche was imprisoned until she became queen, when she was moved to the coast of Normandy. The date and place of her death are unknown; the mere fact that she died was simply mentioned on the occasion of her husband's third marriage in April 1326.
Joan II, Countess of Burgundy
Joan II, Countess of Burgundy, was Queen of France by marriage to Philip V of France, and ruling Countess of Burgundy and Countess of Artois. She was the eldest daughter and heiress of Otto IV, Count of Burgundy, and Mahaut, Countess of Artois.
Clementia of Hungary
Clementia of Hungary was queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Louis X.
Tour de Nesle affair
The Tour de Nesle affair was a scandal amongst the French royal family in 1314, during which Margaret, Blanche, and Joan, the daughters-in-law of King Philip IV, were accused of adultery. The accusations were apparently started by Philip's daughter, Isabella. The Tour de Nesle was a tower in Paris where much of the adultery was said to have occurred. The scandal led to torture, executions and imprisonments, with lasting consequences for the final years of the House of Capet.
County of Longueville
Count of Longueville is a French noble title, whose holder had the fiefdom of the County of Longueville. The County was erected into a Duchy in 1505.
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