Item: i102251

Authentic Coin of:

France – Fuedal
Saint Louis IX – King: 8 November 1226 – 25 August 1270
Silver Denier 18mm (0.90 grams), struck circa 1240-1270  A.D.
Reference: Dy# 193
+ LVDOVICVS REX, Cross within beaded circle.
+ TVRONVS CIVIS, Castle with cross atop.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, is the only King of France to be canonized in the Catholic Church. Louis was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the death of his father Louis VIII; his mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled the kingdom as regent until he reached maturity. During Louis’ childhood, Blanche dealt with the opposition of rebellious vassals and obtained a definitive victory in the Albigensian Crusade, which had started 20 years earlier.

As an adult, Louis IX faced recurring conflicts with some of his realm’s most powerful nobles, such as Hugh X of Lusignan and Peter of Dreux. Simultaneously, Henry III of England attempted to restore the Angevin continental possessions, but was promptly routed at the Battle of Taillebourg. Louis annexed several provinces, notably parts of Aquitaine, Maine and Provence.

Louis IX is one of the most notable European monarchs of the Middle Ages. His reign is remembered as a medieval golden age in which the Kingdom of France reached an economic as well as political peak. His fellow European rulers esteemed him highly, not only for his pre-eminence in arms or the unmatched wealth of his kingdom, but also for his reputation of fairness and moral integrity: he was often asked to arbitrate their disputes.

He was a reformer and developed French royal justice, in which the king was the supreme judge to whom anyone could appeal for the amendment of a judgment. He banned trials by ordeal, tried to end the scourge of private wars, and introduced the presumption of innocence in criminal procedure. To enforce his new legal system, Louis IX created provosts and bailiffs.

Honoring a vow he had made while praying for recovery during a serious illness, Louis IX led the Seventh and Eighth crusades against the Ayyubids, Bahriyya Mamluks and Hafsid Kingdom. He was captured in the first and ransomed. He died from dysentery during the latter, and was succeeded by his son Philip III.

In the eyes of his many admirers through the centuries, Louis IX has been regarded as the ideal Christian ruler, though contemporaries occasionally rebuked him as a “monk king”. ^3] He is seen as inspired by Christian zeal and Catholic devotion, a just king who exacted his due but strove to be fair to all, from the lowest peasant to the proudest noble. Moderate in his habits, reasonable, brave, kind, chivalrously polite and charming, he was a splendid knight beloved by all. Valuing Catholic orthodoxy, his laws punished blasphemy by mutilation of the tongue and lips. He is the only canonized king of France, and there are consequently many places named after him.

France, officially the French Republic (French: République française), is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories . The European part of France, called Metropolitan France , extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea , and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean . France spans 640,679 square kilometres (247,368 sq mi) and has a total population of 67 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris , the country’s largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. The Constitution of France establishes the state as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people.

During the Iron Age , what is now Metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls , a Celtic people. The Gauls were conquered in 51 BC by the Roman Empire , which held Gaul until 486. The Gallo-Romans faced raids and migration from the Germanic Franks , who dominated the region for hundreds of years, eventually creating the medieval Kingdom of France . France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages , with its victory in the Hundred Years’ War (1337 to 1453) strengthening French state-building and paving the way for a future centralized absolute monarchy . During the Renaissance , France experienced a vast cultural development and established the beginning of a global colonial empire . The 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots).

France became Europe’s dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV . French philosophers played a key role in the Age of Enlightenment during the 18th century . In 1778, France became the first and the main ally of the new United States in the American Revolutionary War . In the late 18th century, the absolute monarchy was overthrown in the French Revolution . Among its legacies was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , one of the earliest documents on human rights , which expresses the nation’s ideals to this day. France became one of modern history’s earliest republics until Napoleon took power and launched the First French Empire in 1804. Fighting against a complex set of coalitions during the Napoleonic Wars , he dominated European affairs for over a decade and had a long-lasting impact on Western culture. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments: the monarchy was restored , it was replaced in 1830 by a constitutional monarchy , then briefly by a Second Republic , and then by a Second Empire , until a more lasting French Third Republic was established in 1870. By the 1905 law , France adopted a strict form of secularism , called laïcité , which has become an important federative principle in the modern French society.

France reached its territorial height during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it ultimately possessed the second-largest colonial empire in the world. In World War I , France was one of the main winners as part of the Triple Entente alliance fighting against the Central Powers . France was also one of the Allied Powers in World War II , but came under occupation by the Axis Powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War . The Fifth Republic , led by Charles de Gaulle , was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Following World War II , most of the empire became decolonized .

Throughout its long history , France has been a leading global center of culture, making significant contributions to art , science , and philosophy . It hosts Europe’s third-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites (after Italy and Spain ) and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, the most of any country in the world. France remains a great power with significant cultural , economic , military , and political influence. It is a developed country with the world’s sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and eight-largest by purchasing power parity . According to Credit Suisse, France is the fourth wealthiest nation in the world in terms of aggregate household wealth. It also possesses the world’s second-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ), covering 11,035,000 square kilometres (4,261,000 sq mi).

French citizens enjoy a high standard of living , and the country performs well in international rankings of education , health care , life expectancy , civil liberties, and human development . France is a founding member of the United Nations , where it serves as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council . It is a member of the Group of 7 , North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and La Francophonie . France is a founding and leading member state of the European Union (EU).