Louis VII

Konge af Frankrig 1137-80. Deltog i Andet Korstog.

• Dorylaeum II, 1147
• Damaskus III, 1148

Ludvig VII (1120-80), fransk konge 1137-80, søn af Ludvig VI. Havde Suger til rådgiver, indtil denne døde 1151. Korstog 1147-49. Han var gidt med den digterpriste skønne og letfærdige Elenora, datter af den sidste hertug af Aquitanien og arving til hans lande. Da hun ingen sønner fødte ham og førte et letfærdigt liv, lod han sig skille fra hende 1152, hvorpå hun giftede sig med en anglo-normannisk prins, Henrik, søn af greven af Anjou og Touraine og af en engelsk prinsesse. Henrik blev 1154 konge af England og sad således inde med (foruden England) Aquitanien, Anjou, Touraine, Normandie og Bretagne, dvs. hele Vest-Frankrig, Af dette forhold udsprang den lange forbitrede kamp mellem de franske og engelske konger. I øvrigt fortsatte Ludvig VII i sin styrelse traditionerne fra faderen og Suger. (HK6/1923)

(Louis the Young), c.1120–1180, king of France (1137–80), son and successor of King Louis VI. Before his accession he married Eleanor of Aquitaine. A controversy with Pope Innocent II over Louis’s refusal to accept the papal appointee to the archbishopric of Bourges led to a papal interdict on Louis and to warfare between the king and the count of Champagne, who supported the papal candidate. It was settled, after the intervention of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, by Louis’s capitulation (1144) to Pope Celestine II, Innocent’s successor. In the course of that war Geoffrey IV (Geoffrey Plantagenet), count of Anjou, completed his conquest of Normandy; Louis, in return for a small concession, acquiesced in the conquest. In 1147, Louis left on the Second Crusade (see Crusades), after appointing Abbé Suger as regent. The crusade failed, and he returned in 1149. In 1152 Louis, suspecting Eleanor of being unfaithful, had his marriage with her annulled. Her subsequent marriage with Henry Plantagenet (later King Henry II of England), Geoffrey’s son, resulted in Henry’s claims to Aquitaine and precipitated recurrent warfare between Louis and Henry. Louis supported Thomas à Becket during his exile from England and joined in the revolt of Henry’s sons (1173–74), but won no territory. He completed his father’s work of subduing the barons on the royal domain and continued to increase his influence over more distant vassals. His son Philip II succeeded him.