LUIGI XI, king of FRANCIA. - Of the house of Valois, b. 3 July 1423 at Bourges, to Carlo VII and Margherita di Anjou, d. 30 Aug. 1483 at Plessy les Tours; he married Margherita di Scozia, then Carlotta di Savoia, by whom he had Carlo (VIII) and the daughters Anna and Giovanna. As Dauphin he was for a long time at odds with his father; king from 22 July 1461, he had to struggle painfully with the great feudal lords (League of the Public Weal) until the death of the most dangerous among them, Carlo duke of Borgogna (1477).
Deserving well of French national unity, he destroyed the great houses (Nemours, Armagnac, Alençon, etc.), reunited Maine, Provenza, and Artois to the State, but the methods employed were worthy of his adversaries’ disloyalty. He took an active part in Italian politics, and had strained relations with the popes Pio II, Paolo II, and Sisto IV over the Pragmatic Sanction and his Ordinances, driven to this by the Parliaments and the University of Parigi; he maintained devout relations with St. Francesco di Paola (v.).