Louis X of France
Louis X ruled France for less than two years, from 1314 to 1316, and is remembered chiefly for an ordinance freeing serfs and for the succession crisis his death produced. Born in 1289, the eldest son of Philip IV, he became King of Navarre through his mother in 1305 and inherited France on his father's death in November 1314. His nickname, le Hutin, is usually translated as the Quarreller or the Headstrong. He inherited a treasury exhausted by his father's wars in Flanders and a nobility in open revolt against the centralising work of Philip's ministers. He gave way: he had his father's chief minister Enguerrand de Marigny hanged on charges including sorcery, and issued charters to the leagues of nobles in several provinces restoring privileges. In 1315 he issued an ordinance declaring that France signified freedom, that any serf should be able to purchase liberty, and instructing his officers to arrange it — framed as a return to natural law. In practice it was a revenue measure, since freedom had to be bought, and many serfs on royal land could not afford it. He also readmitted the Jews, expelled by his father in 1306, for a period of twelve years in exchange for payment. His campaign into Flanders in 1315 bogged down in rain and achieved nothing, and is known as the muddy army. His first wife Margaret of Burgundy had been imprisoned for adultery in the Tour de Nesle affair; she died in prison, conveniently, and he remarried. He died in June 1316, probably after drinking chilled wine following a game of jeu de paume.
- Lived: 1289 CE – 1316 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
