Louis XI., king of France, the eldest son of Charles VII., born at Bourges, July 3, 1423, was from his boyhood eminently cruel, tyrannical, and perfidious. He made unsuccessful attempts against his father's throne, was compelled to flee to Brabant, and sought the protection of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, with whom he remained till his father's death in 1461, when he succeeded to the crown. The severe measures which he immediately adopted against the great vassals led to a coalition against him, at the head of which were the great Houses of Burgundy and Brittany. Louis owed his success more to his artful policy than to arms; and, the war threatening to break out anew, he invited Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, to a friendly conference at Péronne in October 1468. His agents meanwhile had stirred up the people of Liège to revolt against the duke, in return for which deed Charles made him a prisoner, and compelled him to associate in the punishment of Liège. Full of resentment, Louis then stirred up against Charles the Flemish towns and the Swiss republics. It became from that time a practice with French kings to have Swiss mercenaries in their pay. The Swiss defeated Charles twice, and killed him in a last battle (1477). Louis then claimed Burgundy as a vacant French fief, but was prevented from gaining possession of Charles's Flemish lands by the marriage of Mary, the rightful heir, to Maximilian of Austria. The troops of the latter defeated the French at Guinegate (1479), but the war was renewed on the death of Mary. A peace was concluded at Arras, December 25, 1482, by which the counties of Burgundy and Artois were handed over to France. Louis was also successful—after the use of means far from honourable—in annexing Provence to the crown as a lapsed fief. In order to weaken his feudal vassals he greatly increased the power and number of parliaments, an institution agreeable to the towns and to the middle class, and to which he began to grant a voice in matters of state. His favourite residence was the château of Plessis-les-Tours, close to Tours. His chief advisers and favourites were Olivier le Dain, originally a barber, but made a count; Tristan l'Hermite, and Cardinal Baluc. He spent the latter years of his reign in great misery, in excessive horror of death, which superstitious and ascetic practices failed to allay. He died at Plessis-les-Tours, August 30, 1483. He is said to have been the author of Les cent Nouvelles nouvelles, a sort of imitation of the Decameron, and of the Rosier des Guerres, a book of instruction for his son. He founded three universities.
See the contemporary Mémoires of Philippe de Comines (q.v.); works by Legeay (1874), Willert (in English, 1876), Buet (2d ed. 1886), and Vaesen and Charavay (1885 et seq.); and Scott's Quentin Durward. The well-known play Louis XI. is by Delavigne.