LUIGI XI, king of France. — Of the House of Valois, born on 3 July 1423 at Bourges, son of Charles VII and Margaret of Anjou; died on 30 August 1483 at Plessy-les-Tours; married Margaret of Scotland, then Charlotte of Savoy, by whom he had Charles (VIII) and the daughters Anne and Joan. As Dauphin, he was for a long time estranged from his father; king from 22 July 1461, he had to struggle desperately with the great feudal lords (League of the Public Weal) until the death of the most dangerous of them, Charles, Duke of Burgundy (1477).
A benefactor of French national unity, he exterminated the great houses (Nemours, Armagnac, Alençon, etc.), reunited to the State Maine, Provence, Artois, but the methods he used were worthy of the choice of his adversaries. He actively involved himself in Italian politics, and was in strained relations with Popes Pius II, Paul II, and Sixtus IV over the Pragmatic Sanction and his Ordinances, driven thereto by the Parliaments and the University of Paris; he was in devoted relations with St Francis of Paola (see).