Louis VIII of France

Louis VIII
15th-century miniature of Louis VIII at the Siege of Avignon, c. 10 June – 9 September 1226
King of France (more…)
Reign	14 July 1223 – 8 November 1226
Coronation	6 August 1223, Reims Cathedral
Predecessor	Philip II
Successor	Louis IX
King of England (disputed)
Reign	2 June 1216 – 20 September 1217
Predecessor	John
Successor	Henry III
Born	5 September 1187 Paris, France
Died	8 November 1226 (aged 39) Château de Montpensier, France
Burial	Saint Denis Basilica
Spouse	Blanche of Castile ​ (m. 1200)​
Issue more...	Louis IX, King of France Robert I, Count of Artois Alphonse, Count of Poitiers Isabelle of France Charles I, King of Sicily
House	Capet
Father	Philip II of France
Mother	Isabelle, Countess of Artois

Louis VIII (5 September 1187 – 8 November 1226), nicknamed The Lion (French: Le Lion),^[a] was King of France from 1223 to 1226. As a prince, he invaded England on 21 May 1216 and was excommunicated by a papal legate on 29 May 1216. On 2 June 1216, Louis was proclaimed "King of England" by rebellious barons in London, though never crowned. He soon seized half the English kingdom but was eventually defeated by the English. After the Treaty of Lambeth, he was paid 10,000 marks, pledged never to invade England again, and was absolved of his excommunication.

As prince and fulfilling his father's crusading vow, Louis led forces during the Albigensian Crusade in support of Simon de Montfort the Elder, from 1219 to 1223, and as king, from January 1226 to September 1226. Crowned king in 1223, Louis' ordinance against Jewish usury, a reversal of his father's policies, led to the establishment of Lombard moneylenders in Paris.

Louis' campaigns in 1224 and 1226 against the Angevin Empire gained him Poitou, Saintonge, Périgord and Angoumois as well as numerous cities in Languedoc, thus leaving the Angevin Kings of England with Gascony as their only remaining continental possession. Louis died in November 1226 from dysentery, while returning from the Albigensian Crusade, and was succeeded by his son, Louis IX.

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