Louis VIII (5 September 1187 – 8 November 1226), nicknamed The Lion (), was King of France from 1223 to 1226. As prince, he invaded England on 21 May 1216 and was excommunicated by a papal legate on 29 May 1216. On 2 June 1216, Louis was proclaimed "King of England" by rebellious barons in London, though never crowned. He soon seized half the English kingdom but was eventually defeated by the English and after the Treaty of Lambeth, was paid 10,000 marks, pledged never to invade England again, and was absolved of his excommunication.
Louis, as prince and fulfilling his father's crusading vow, led forces during the Albigensian Crusade in support of Simon de Montfort the Elder, from 1219 to 1223, and as king, from January 1226 to September 1226. Crowned king in 1223, Louis' ordinance against Jewish usury, a reversal of his father's policies, led to the establishment of Lombard moneylenders in Paris.
Louis' campaigns in 1224 and 1226 against the Angevin Empire gained him Poitou, Saintonge, Périgord and Angoumois as well as numerous cities in Languedoc, thus leaving the Angevin Kings of England with Gascony as their only remaining continental possession. Louis died in November 1226 from dysentery, while returning from the Albigensian Crusade, and was succeeded by his son, Louis IX.
Prince Louis
Early years
Born 5 September 1187, Louis was the son of Philip II of France and Isabelle of Hainaut. His mother died in 1190, but Louis was not formally invested as Count of Artois. Instead his father allowed him a nominal control over the county to learn about governance. In summer 1195, a marriage between Louis and Eleanor of Brittany, niece of Richard I of England, was suggested for an alliance between Philip II and Richard, but it failed.
On 23 May 1200, Louis was married to Blanche of Castile, daughter of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England. The marriage could only be concluded after prolonged negotiations between King Philip II of France and Blanche's uncle John, King of England.
Campaign of 1214
In 1213, Louis occupied two towns in Flanders, St. Omer and Aire, which led to animosity between Louis' father, Philip II, and Count Renaud of Boulogne. By 1214, Philip II of France, was facing an alliance consisting of King John of England, Emperor Otto IV, Count Renaud of Boulogne and Count Ferdinand of Flanders. Facing a two front war, the first attack coming from Flanders led by Otto, Renaud and Ferdinand, supported by the Earl of Salisbury would march south-west, while the other attack from Poitou, under John, would march north-east towards Paris.
Louis was given command of the front against John in Poitou. The first part of the campaign went well for the English, Louis being outmanuevered by John, and losing the city of Angers by the end of June. When John besieged the castle of Roche-au-Moine, a key stronghold, Louis was forced give battle against John's army. When faced against Louis' forces, the local Poitevin nobles refused to advance with the king; left at something of a disadvantage, John retreated back to La Rochelle. Shortly afterwards, Philip won the hard-fought Battle of Bouvines in the north against Otto and John's other allies, bringing an end to John's hopes of retaking Normandy.
Albigensian crusade as Prince
In April 1215, Louis, fulfilling his father's vow to crusade against the Albigensians, was cautioned by a papal legate not to impede the crusade. At Narbonne, Louis ordered the destruction of the town's fortifications in response to the disagreement between Simon de Montfort and Arnaud Amaury, and forced the viscount and other authorities to swear loyalty to Simon. While at Toulouse, he ordered the city officials to tear down their walls, fill in their moat, and to accept Simon de Montfort as the head of their government. Louis' involvement in the crusade favored Simon de Montfort at every turn.
Pretender to the English throne
In 1215, the English barons rebelled against the unpopular King John in the First Barons' War. The barons, seeing Louis' wife as a descendant of Henry II of England, offered the throne to him. While Louis prepared an army to press his claim to the English throne, a new papal legate, Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, who was traveling through France to England, explicitly condemned Louis' plan.