The Universal Spider rebelled against his father, then outwitted Burgundy
Enemies called Louis XI the Universal Spider for the web of plots he seemed always to be weaving. As a prince he rebelled against his own father and spent years sheltering with France's greatest rival. As king he let diplomacy, not battles, destroy the powerful Duchy of Burgundy.
Louis was born in Bourges in 1423, when the English still held Paris and his father, Charles VII, controlled only central and southern France. Weeks after his christening, the French lost badly at Cravant, and Anglo-Burgundian raiders briefly reached Bourges. As a child of six he met Joan of Arc at Loches after her relief of Orléans. He grew up scorning his father as weak.
At 13 he married Margaret of Scotland in a plain ceremony at Tours; the cash-strapped court hurried the Scottish guests away, which the Scots took as an insult. The marriage was unhappy, and she died childless at 20. In 1440, aged 16, Louis joined the Praguerie, a noble revolt meant to make him regent. It failed and he was pardoned. His scheming, including rudeness toward Agnès Sorel, his father's mistress, got him expelled from court in 1446. Ruling the Dauphiné from Grenoble as king in all but name, he married the eight-year-old Charlotte of Savoy in 1451 against his father's wishes. When Charles sent troops, Louis fled to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.
Burgundy then stretched from the North Sea to the Jura and had sided with England during the long war. After inheriting the throne in 1461, Louis faced Philip's successor, Charles the Bold, who went to war with him in 1472. Louis peeled away Charles's English allies with the Treaty of Picquigny, signed with Edward IV in 1475, which formally closed the Hundred Years' War.
When Charles the Bold fell at Nancy in 1477, his ducal line ended, and Louis swiftly took Burgundy itself and Picardy. Free of outside threats, he crushed rebellious nobles, enlarged royal power and encouraged economic growth. He died in 1483, leaving the crown to his only surviving son, the underage Charles VIII.
Source: Louis XI
