A significant amount and range of evidence suggest the personal indifference of the French King, Louis IX (1226-1270), to the attractions of exercising regnal authority in multiple realms at the same time. Not all members of his family shared this cast of mind. This lecture attempts to divine the reasons for this divide. What underlay Louis IX’s thoughts on trans-regnal kingship and made him so different in his attitude from that of many other monarchs and high aristocrats in the thirteenth century?
William C. Jordan is Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University, where he researches the history of medieval France and its neighbours from 12th to 14th centuries.
This lecture is open and free to all, and will take place in-person at University College London: B40 Lecture Theatre, Darwin Building, UCL. Entry will be via the Malet Street entrance.
Image: Angers, Arch. dep., Main-et-Loire, MS 3 F 6/5, fol.2v