Louis X the Grumpy - King of France, representative of the elder line of the Capetian dynasty. The years of his life - 1289-1316. In France, he ruled in 1314-1316, as well as in 1305-1316. he was the king of Champagne and Navarre, inheriting these kingdoms from his mother, Joan of Navarre. His father was Philip IV the Beautiful.
Master's Curse
In March 1314, Jacques Molet, master of the Templar Order, the 23rd and the last, was executed. There is a legend according to which, having ascended to the fire, he summoned his persecutors to God's judgment. They were the French monarch Philip IV, his close associate Guillaume de Nogaré and Pope Clement V. He cursed them and their descendants to the thirteenth knee and, already shrouded in puffs of smoke, promised that in less than a year their lives would end.
Further events developed as follows. Pope Clement V died in the same year, in April, and Philip the Beautiful - in November. As for the causes of their death, there are various kinds of versions in connection with it. Among them are both ordinary physical and occult. Guillaume Nogare’s personality fell into the legend by mistake, because he died back in 1313, in March.
Thus, according to legend, the reign of Louis the Grumpy began with a curse of his kind.
Weak ruler
Louis was a weak and spineless man. If his father pursued a deliberate policy of conquering unlimited monarchical power, then he was not able to continue his work. During his reign, the nobility against the king resumed. But Louis only entered into evasive agreements with the higher aristocracy, essentially remaining in their former positions.
In fact, affairs in the kingdom were ruled by Karl Valois, his uncle. Louis removed all assistants and advisers to Philip IV, and put some on trial. In 1315, he executed Angerran de Marigny, the first of his father's advisers. The king made many promises: about the restoration of the landed and judicial rights of the feudal owners, about the minting of a full-weight coin instead of a low-grade one (as was the case with Louis IX, his grandfather).
And he also promised to reduce the influence of the royal administration and the legists. The latter were lawyers who held positions in the state apparatus. They played a large role in the centralization of the French kingdom. However, the "good customs" that existed during the time of St. Louis, the current king could not be restored.
Famous ordinance
Feeling a constant need for money, Louis the Grumpy was forced to enlist the support of the townspeople who opposed the feudal lords. The most notable event in his reign was the offer to the serfs of the possibility of gaining freedom by making a ransom. It was made in 1315 and became the famous ordinance of Louis X.
In it, he destroyed serfdom in his own domains and invited other seniors to follow his example. The king declared that each of the French subjects should be free. Despite the fact that the adoption of this measure was dictated solely by financial considerations, it was the starting point in the abolition of serfdom throughout the country.
Louis continued the struggle with Flanders, begun by his father. He planned to conquer the Flanders cities, but failed. Almost all the endeavors of this king failed.
The first wife of Louis the Grumpy
His wife was the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy (Robert II), the granddaughter of St. Louis, who was a cousin to her husband. Her name was Margarita. A rather unpleasant story was connected with her, influencing the further fate of the French throne.
Shortly before the departure of Philip the Beautiful, it turned out that Margarita, the wife of Louis Svarlivy, like her sister, Blanca of Burgundy, were unfaithful to their husbands. After the verdict of the court, the king imprisoned them in the castle of Chateau-Gaillard for life. Now the legitimacy of their children was in question.
However, according to the canons dictated by the Catholic Church, adultery was not seen as a basis for divorce. Therefore, Louis X, even taking the French throne, could not break the bond of marriage with his unloved wife, who is imprisoned.
When Margarita of Burgundy died in the Chateau-Gaillard prison in 1315, rumors spread that this death was violent, and that it was approved by Louis the Shrewd.
Second marriage and demise
As soon as the king freed himself from Margarita, he hastened to enter into a second marriage. His wife was a Neapolitan princess. It was Clementia of Hungary. Soon, the king went on a campaign in Flanders, which ended in failure. When he returned, he became ill with a fever and died at a young age.
Already after the death of Louis the Grumpy, Clementia gave birth to a son from him, Jean I the Posthumous. The baby lived only four days. It was believed that this was the result of a conspiracy in which Countess Mago Artois was involved, seeking to raise her daughter and son-in-law to the throne. However, no evidence is available for this version.
Jeanne, daughter from her first marriage, was removed from the French crown. The younger brothers of Louis X also did not have male offspring, which led to the suppression of the older line of the Capetings. The dynasty of Valois reigned on the throne, and the Hundred Years War began.