V. LOUIS IX. AND PHILIP IV., LE BEL.

Louis VIII.-The son of Philip Augustus, Louis VIII., surnamed the Lion, was greeted on his entry into Paris by the acclamations of the people (1223). For the first time the accession of a king does not pass unheeded by the annalists, who record the most trivial circumstances connected with it. Louis VIII. followed, during the short period of his reign, the example of his father. He was defeated in England, but he took Poitou from the English, terminated the crusade against the Albigenses, dismantled Avignon, took possession of Nimes, of Albi, of Carcassonne, and of the entire country which extends from the Rhône to within four leagues from Toulouse. The pestilence which decimated his army forced him to return to the north. He was himself affected by the disease, and died in Auvergne, after a reign of three years (1226).

His brief reign affords us but little information by which we may form an estimate of his character. He appears to have passed through his career like the early "sluggard kings"-an instrument in the hands of different factions for party purposes. He gave several proofs of valour and courage, and appears to have been charitable and humane. He was, during the lifetime of his father, acknowledged king of England.

Louis IX.-Regency of Blanche of Castille.-The minority of Louis IX., surnamed the Saint, appeared to the nobles a favourable opportunity of elevating themselves again. According to the feudal laws, the regency and guardianship of the young king would have belonged to his uncle, the count of Boulogne. The queen-mother, Blanche of Castille, assumed them, however, with the aid of the legate and Thiebault count of Champagne. A league was formed against her. Philip Hurepel count of Boulogne, Peter duke of Brittany, surnamed Mauclerc, and Hugh of Lusignan, count de la Marche, determined to lower royalty, summoned the king of England to their aid. Blanche treated with them, after having carried defection into their ranks. She escaped the snares of Philip Hurepel, prevented the count of Champagne, who had hitherto supported her, from marrying the daughter of Mauclerc, directed two expeditions into Brittany, and ended by bringing the count of Brittany, in the garb of a suppliant, to the feet of his suzerain, the king of France (1234). She had been enabled at the same time to terminate the affairs of the south. The count of Toulouse had been forced to confirm France in the possession of Lower Languedoc, and to promise Toulouse as the dowry of his daughter, whom one of the king's brothers was about to marry.

Louis, after having attained his majority, remained still long under the ascendancy of his mother. There was no change in the government of the kingdom, in which everything had been ruled by Blanche of Castille, not in her own name, but in that of her son. He brought, nevertheless, great application to the transaction of business. The virtue and