Louis I of Orleans in the context of Counts and dukes of Valois


Louis I of Orleans in the context of Counts and dukes of Valois

⭐ Core Definition: Louis I of Orleans

Louis I (13 March 1372 – 23 November 1407) was Duke of Orléans from 1392 to his death in 1407. He was also Duke of Touraine (1386–1392), Count of Valois (1386?–1406) Blois (1397–1407), Angoulême (1404–1407), Périgord (1400–1407) and Soissons (1404–07).

Louis was the younger brother of King Charles VI of France, and a powerful and polarizing figure in his day. Owing to the King's highly public struggles with mental illness, Louis worked with Charles's wife Queen Isabeau to try to lead the kingdom during Charles's frequent bouts of insanity. He struggled for control of France with John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. Louis was unpopular with the citizens of Paris due to his reputation for womanizing and his role in the Bal des Ardents tragedy, which resulted in the deaths of four French nobles and the near death of the king himself. He was assassinated in 1407 on orders of John the Fearless; John not only admitted to his role in the murder, but bragged openly about it. What began as a feud between factions of the royal family erupted into open warfare as a result of Louis's death. Louis's grandson would later become king of France as Louis XII.

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Louis I of Orleans in the context of Count of Angoulême

Angoulême (L'Angoumois) in western France was part of the Carolingian Kingdom of Aquitaine. Under Charlemagne's successors, the local count of Angoulême was independent and the county was not united with the French crown until 1308. By the terms of the Treaty of Brétigny (1360) the Angoumois, then ruled by the counts of Angoulême, was ceded to King Edward III of England. In 1371 it became a fief of Duke John of Berry and then passed to Duke Louis I of Orleans, both of whom were cadets of the French royal family. From then on it was held by cadets of the Valois House of Orleans, until Francis of Angoulême, became king of France in 1515. Angoumois was definitively incorporated into the French crown lands, as a duchy.

View the full Wikipedia page for Count of Angoulême
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