; suffered himself to
be taken advantage of by his nobles and the clergy; was dethroned by his
sons, and compelled to retire into a cloister, from which he was twice
over brought forth to stay the ravages of their enemies; he divided his
kingdom among them during his lifetime, and bequeathed it to them to
guard over it when he was gone, to its dismemberment.

LOUIS VI., LE GROS (i. e. the Fat), was son of Philip I.; was
associated in the royal power with his father from 1098 to 1108, and sole
king from 1108 till 1137; in his struggle against the great vassals he,
by the help of the clergy and the bourgeois, centralised the government
in the crown; had trouble with Henry I. of England as Lord Superior of
Normandy, and was defeated by him in battle in 1119; under his reign the
burgesses achieved their independence, and though he did nothing to
initiate the movement he knew how to profit from the achievement in the
interest of the monarchy.

LOUIS VII., THE YOUNG, son of the preceding, married Eleanor of
Aquitaine; took part in the second crusade; on his return divorced his
queen for her profligacy in his absence, who married Henry II. of
England, and brought with her as dowry to Henry the richest provinces of
France, which gave rise to the Hundred Years' War (1120-1180).

LOUIS VIII., THE LION, son of Philip Augustus; offered by the barons
of England the crown of England, he was crowned at London in 1216, but
defeated at Lincoln next year, he was obliged to recross the Channel;
became king of France in 1223; he took several towns from the English,
and conducted a crusade against the Albigenses (1187-1226).

LOUIS IX., SAINT LOUIS, son of the preceding; was a minor at the
death of his father, and the country was governed by his mother, Blanche
of Castile, with a strong hand; on attaining his majority he found
himself engaged with the English under Henry, who had been called on to
assist certain of the great barons in revolt, but in 1242 he defeated
them in three engagements; under a vow he made during a dangerous illness
he became a crusader, and in 1249 landed in Egypt with 40,000 men, but in
an engagement was taken prisoner by the Saracens; released in 1250 on
payment of a large ransom, though he did not return home for two years
after, till on hearing of the death of his mother, who had been regent
during his absence; on his return he applied himself to the affairs of
his kingdom and the establishment of the