Louis: The French Prince Who Invaded England

Louis: The French Prince Who Invaded England

Catherine Hanley

Yale University Press (2016)

In 1215 a group of English barons, dissatisfied with the weak and despicable King John, decided that they needed a new monarch. They wanted a strong, experienced man, of royal blood, and they found him on the other side of the Channel: astonishingly, the most attractive candidate for the crown of England was Louis, eldest son and heir of the king of France.

In this fascinating biography of England’s least-known “king”—and the first to be written in English—Catherine Hanley explores the life and times of “Louis the Lion” before, during, and beyond his quest for the English throne. She illuminates the national and international context of his 1216 invasion, and explains why and how after sixteen fruitless months he failed to make himself King Louis I of England. Hanley also explores Louis’s subsequent reign over France until his untimely death on the Albigensian Crusade. Published eight centuries after the creation of Magna Carta and on the 800th anniversary of Louis’s proclamation as king, this fascinating story is a colorful tale of national culture, power, and politics that brings a long-forgotten life out of the shadows of history.

Review

“Captivating…Hanley’s work vividly depicts the texture of the times with an enthralling, novelistic narrative.”—
Publishers Weekly

(
Publishers Weekly
)

“I have been waiting for a biography of Louis for a long time, and few are better qualified to write it than Hanley. She has a command of the sources and skilfully deploys her expertise in medieval arms and warfare… this is serious history, as well as a gripping – and poignant – story.”—Sophie Ambler,
BBC History

(Sophie Ambler
BBC History Magazine
2016-07-01)

About the Author

Dr Catherine Hanley
is a writer and researcher specialising in the High Middle Ages, and the author of
War and Combat, 1150-1270: The Evidence from Old French Literature
(2003).

For Edwin, Charlotte and Adela

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Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016932441

ISBN 978-0-300-21745-2

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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