Book Description

This is an English-language edition of Jean Richard's acclaimed study of Saint Louis (1214-70), firmly established as the classic modern life of one of the greatest figures in medieval history. It is, however, more than simply a biography. Saint Louis consists essentially of a skillful interweaving of personal details, French history, Capetian dynastic history, international relations within the West, and relations between the West and the Near East (with Louis' crusades as focal points). Jean Richard's canvas is thus a broad one, as it has to be if the impact and role of Saint Louis are to be appreciated, precisely because the range and scope of his actions were themselves so braod. Saint Louis is also a splendid evocation of the way in which contemporary politics were perceived and conducted, its analysis carefully rooted in the material substance and ideological persuasions which underlay them. Jean Richard offers a sustained exploration of many of the crucial components of the thirteenth-century world, with much to say about the emergence of the territorial unity of the French state under authority of the Capetian dynasty, the extension of that dynasty's influence into the Mediterranean, the history of the Latin East and the crusade--the preparations for, and experience of which, conditioned so much of Louis' thought and practical actions. Indeed the crusade is inseparable from his royal persona, just as the history of the crusading movements in the thirteenth century is inseparable from him. This English-language edition has been translated by Jean Birrell, and adapted for anglophone readers by Simon Lloyd, who has also provided a supplementary bibliography of English-language works. Saint Louis is a figure of perennial interest, and the appearance of this acclaimed study in this accessible format will enable large numbers of both specialist and non-specialist readers to engage at first hand with one of the great lives of medieval history.