The debate drew a large crowd, and as with most Mongol events, a great deal of alcohol was involved. Account of the first Crusade of Saint Louis from the perspective of the Arabs. He was crowned king the same year in the cathedral at Reims. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, is the only King of France to be canonized in the Catholic Church. He had a great love for the Church. William entered into a famous competition at the Mongol court, as the Khan encouraged a formal debate between the Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims, to determine which faith was correct, as determined by three judges, one from each faith. [36] Louis was succeeded by his son, Philip III. The Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans is named after him. Updates? He led the Seventh Crusade to the Holy Land in 1248–50 and died on another Crusade to Tunisia. Louis annexed several provinces, notably parts of Aquitaine, Maine and Provence. Louis’s objective was simple: he intended to land in Egypt, seize the principal towns of the country, and use them as hostages to be exchanged for Syrian cities. He ordered the château at Angers to be rebuilt and pushed toward Nantes, where Henry was based. The Egyptians harassed the fleeing army and finally captured it on April 7, 1250. Louis IX could now think about marriage. A member of the House of Capet, Louis was twelve years old when his father died on November 8, 1226. [23], Louis dispatched another envoy to the Mongol court, the Franciscan William of Rubruck, who visited the Great Khan Möngke (1251–1259) in Mongolia. Much of what is known of Louis's life comes from Jean de Joinville's famous Life of Saint Louis. Louis was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the death of his father Louis VIII; his mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled the kingdom as regent until he reached maturity. James in turn renounced his feudal overlordship over several counties in southern France, including Provence and Languedoc. Beggars were fed from his table: he ate their leavings; washed their feet; ministered to the wants of lepers, who were generally ostracized; and daily fed over one hundred poor. Louis was acknowledged by the largely Christian population of France as a perfect, accomplished, and experienced ruler. Louis IX, who was not yet 13, became king under the regency of his redoubtable mother. His contemporaries viewed his reign as co-rule between the king and his mother, though historians generally view the year 1234 as the year in which Louis began ruling personally, with his mother assuming a more advisory role. She used to say:[9]. Enguerrand demanded judgment by his peers and trial by battle, which the king refused because he thought it obsolete. Louis also ordered, at the urging of Pope Gregory IX, the burning of some 12,000 copies of the Talmud in Paris in 1243.