Louis VII of France
Louis VII ruled France from 1137 to 1180, led a disastrous crusade, and made the decision that gave the English kings half of France. Born around 1120, he was a second son intended for the church, and became heir when his elder brother died in a riding accident in 1131 — an ecclesiastical formation that marked him permanently. Days before his father's death in 1137 he married Eleanor of Aquitaine, heiress to a duchy larger than the royal demesne. His early reign brought a bitter quarrel with the papacy over an appointment at Bourges, during which his forces burned the church at Vitry with more than a thousand people inside. The guilt from it is usually connected to his decision to take the cross. He led the Second Crusade from 1147 with Eleanor accompanying him. It was a failure at every stage: the army was mauled crossing Anatolia, and the attack on Damascus in 1148 collapsed in days, turning a neutral city into an enemy. The marriage did not survive it. It was annulled in March 1152 on grounds of consanguinity, after fifteen years and two daughters. Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet eight weeks later, and when he became Henry II of England in 1154 he held Normandy, Anjou, Maine and Aquitaine — more of France than Louis did. He spent the rest of his reign containing that. He sheltered Thomas Becket during his exile, supported Alexander III against the emperor's antipope, and encouraged Henry's sons to rebel against their father in 1173. He fathered a son, Philip Augustus, only in 1165, by his third wife. He died in 1180.
- Lived: 1120 CE – 1180 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
