LOUIS XI, king of France: b. Bourges, France, 3 July 1423 ; d. Plessis-les-Tours, France, 30 Aug. 1483. He was the son of Charles VII, but in all respects very unlike him, and in 1440 he left the court and headed an insurrection against his father. Charles par doned his son hut the latter soon entering into new conspiracies was obliged to take refuge i in Burgundy, and lived there five years in a pendent condition. On reaching the throne after the death of his father, in 1461, he dis missed the former ministers and surrounded himself with obscure men, having neither char acter nor talents to recommend them. In all his acts a crooked policy and sinister views were evident. Pretending to reconcile contending parties, he secretly instigated them against each other, and when negotiating with a foreign government he bribed its messengers and estab lished secret correspondences with them. He carried on a war with Charles the Bold, after ward Duke of Burgundy, which lasted 1465-72, and on the death of Charles in 1477, at the bat tle of Nancy, he joined Burgundy to France.
In 1481 he united Anjou, Maine and Provence to the kingdom. Louis both reigned and governed, and was inflexible in his purposes. He vanquished the feudal lords, put an end to anarchy, consolidated the central power, art fully played off the cities against the nobility and was implacable in his revenges. He greatly improved the means of communication. Until his last years he had no regard for the appear ances of power, and dressed meanly. His later years were spent in the dread of death; he lav ished gifts upon the saints, and spent his time in ascetic practices which failed to bring relief to his tortured mind. Consult 'Louis XI et les villes> (Paris 18931; Hare, C., 'Louis XP (London 1907) Kitchen, 'History of France' (Vol. I, Oxford 1885) ; Lavisse, 'Histoire de France' (Vol. IV, Paris 1902), and, for its vivid/ presentation of the king, Scott's 'Quentin Dur ward.'