Louis I, Duke of Orléans
Louis I | |||
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Saint Agnes, detail of the Agony in the Garden attributed to Colart de Laon , c. 1405–1408 | |||
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Tenure | 4 June 1392 – 23 November 1407 | ||
Successor | Le Marais, Paris, France | ||
Burial | , Paris | ||
Spouse | |||
Issue | |||
House |
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Father | Charles V of France | ||
Mother | Joanna of Bourbon |
Louis I of Orléans (13 March 1372 – 23 November 1407) was
He was the younger brother of King Charles VI of France, and a powerful and polarizing figure in his day. Owing to the King's highly public struggles with mental illness, Louis worked with Charles' wife Queen Isabeau to try to lead the kingdom during Charles' frequent bouts of insanity. He struggled for control of France with John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. Louis was unpopular with the citizens of Paris due to his reputation for womanizing and his role in the Bal des Ardents tragedy, which resulted in the deaths of four French nobles and the near death of the king himself. He was assassinated in 1407 on orders of John the Fearless; John not only admitted to his role in the murder, but bragged openly about it. What began as a feud between factions of the royal family erupted into open warfare as a result of Louis's death. Louis's grandson would later become king of France as Louis XII.
Biography
Born 13 March 1372,[1] Louis was the second son of King Charles V of France and Joanna of Bourbon and was the younger brother of Charles VI.[2]
In 1374, Louis was betrothed to
Role in court and the Hundred Years' War
Louis played an important political role during the
Louis disputed the regency and guardianship of the royal children, initially with Philip the Bold until his death in 1404, and then with Philip's son John the Fearless. The enmity between the two was public and a source of political unrest in the already troubled country. Louis had the initial advantage over John, being the brother rather than the first cousin of the king, but his reputation as a womanizer and the rumour of an affair with Queen Isabeau made him extremely unpopular. In the following years, the children of Charles VI were successively kidnapped and recovered by both parties, until John the Fearless was appointed by royal decree as guardian of the Dauphin Louis and regent of France.
Louis did not give up and made every effort to sabotage John's rule, including squandering the money raised for the siege of Calais, then occupied by the English. After this episode, John and Louis broke into open threats and only the intervention of John, Duke of Berry, and uncle of both men, avoided a civil war.
Louis was reportedly responsible for the deaths of four dancers at a disastrous 1393 masquerade ball that became known as the Bal des Ardents (Ball of the Burning Men). The four victims were burnt alive when a torch held by Louis came too close to their highly flammable costumes. Two other dancers wearing the same costumes (one of whom was Charles VI himself) narrowly escaped a similar fate.
Assassination
On Sunday, 20 November, 1407, the contending Dukes exchanged solemn vows of reconciliation before the court of France. But only three days later, Louis was brutally assassinated in the streets of Paris, on John's orders. Louis was stabbed while mounting his horse by fifteen masked criminals led by Raoulet d'Anquetonville, a servant of the Duke of Burgundy.[6] An attendant was severely wounded.
John the Fearless was supported by the population of Paris and the University. He could even publicly admit the killing. Rather than deny it, John had the scholar
Louis's murder sparked a bloody feud and
Marriage and issue
In 1389, Louis married
- A son (born and died Paris, 25 March 1390), buried in Paris église Saint-Paul.
- Louis (Paris, Hôtel de Saint-Pol, 26 May 1391 – September 1395), buried Paris église des Célestins.
- John (September 1393 – Château de Vincennes, bef. 31 October 1393), buried Paris église des Célestins.
- Louis XII, King of France.
- Philip, Count of Vertus (Asnières-sur-Oise, Val d'Oise, 21/24 July 1396 – Beaugency, Loiret, 1 September 1420).[7] Left a natural son Philip Anthony, called the Bastard of Vertus who died about 1445; no issue.
- John, Count of Angoulême (24 June 1399 – Château de Cognac, Charente, 30 April 1467),[7] grandfather of Francis I of France
- Marie (Château de Coucy, Aisne, April 1401 – died shortly after birth).
- Dukes of Brittany and Lords of Chalon-Arlayand Prince of Orange.
By Mariette d'Enghien,[10] his mistress, Louis had an illegitimate son:
- Jean de Dunois (1402–1468), ancestor of the Dukes of Longueville[10]
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Louis of Orléans meeting Christine de Pisan
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Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans
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Charles, Duke of Orléans; the coat of arms at upper right combined the coats of arms of his parents-the House of Valois and the House of Visconti
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Margaret, Countess of Vertus
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Jean de Dunois, Count of Longueville
Honours
- Kingdom of France - Duchy of Orléans: 1st Grand Master and Knight of the Order of the Porcupine he founded at the occasion of the baptism of his son Charles
Ancestry
Ancestors of Louis I, Duke of Orléans | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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References
- ^ Hourihane 2012, p. 224.
- ^ Keane 2016, p. 17.
- ^ Engel, Ayton & Pálosfalvi 1999, p. 169.
- ^ Warnicke 2000, p. 106.
- ^ Parsons 1997, p. ?.
- ^ Theis 1992, p. 326-327.
- ^ a b c d Adams 2010, p. 255.
- ^ Ward, Prothero & Leathes 1934, p. table 68.
- ^ George 1875, p. table XXVI.
- ^ a b Potter 1995, p. 373.
Sources
- Adams, Tracy (2010). The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0801896255.
- Hourihane, Colum, ed. (2012). "Valois". The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press.
- Engel, Pal; Ayton, Andrew; Pálosfalvi, Tamás (1999). The Realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526. Vol. 19. Penn State Press.
- George, Hereford Brooke (1875). Genealogical Tables Illustrative of Modern History. Oxford Clarendon Press.
- Keane, Marguerite (2016). Material Culture and Queenship in 14th-century France: The Testament of Blanche of Navarre (1331–1398). Brill.
- Parsons, John Carmi (1997). Medieval Queenship. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Potter, David (1995). A History of France, 1460–1560: The Emergence of a Nation State. St. Martin's Press.
- Theis, Laurent (1992). Histoire du Moyen Âge Français. Perrin.
- Ward, A.W.; Prothero, G.W.; Leathes, Stanley, eds. (1934). The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. XIII. Cambridge at the University Press.
- Warnicke, Retha M. (2000). The Marrying of Anne of Cleves: Royal Protocol in Early Modern England. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521770378.
Further reading
- Darwin, F. D. S. (1936) Louis d'Orléans (1372–1407): a necessary prologue to the tragedy of La Pucelle d'Orleans. London: John Murray
- Jager, Eric. (2014). Blood Royal: a true tale of crime and detection in Medieval Paris. Little, Brown, and Co.