Louis XI, the Spider King of France (1461-1483)

BrianRxm

Coin Stories

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The king who kept wild turkeys as pets

Louis XI was King of France from 1461 to 1483 whose main accomplishments were unifying most of France and ending the Hundred Years War with England.

A biography of King Louis is Louis XI, The Universal Spider by Paul Murray Kendall and published in 1971.

Near the end of the biography was a section about the king's private zoo which listed some of the animals and birds which he kept, including "Turkey birds" or wild turkeys.

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The Coin:

1. France Louis XI Medal - Kings of France

Copper-nickel, 34 mm, 21 gm

Obverse:
Louis XI right
LOUIS XI ROY DE FRANCE

Reverse:
55 / NE 1423 / SUCCEDE 1461
INSTITUTION DE L'ORDRE / DE SAINT MICHEL 1462 / MORT 1483 / TROISIEME RACE / P

A medal like this one is listed in: "Spink & Son's Numismatic Circular, Catalogue of Coins and Medals for Sale", December 1895, under "List of French Medalets of Kings by Petit and Caque", Page 1492, item 29005, Louis XI.

The Story:

France had lots of kings named Louis and what was special about Number 11?

Louis (the 11th) was born in 1423 and was king of France from 1461 to his death in 1483. His father, King Charles VII, once introduced him to Joan of Arc when he was a child.

He became known as the "Spider King" or "Universal Spider" because he had a "web" of diplomats and spies all throughout Europe.

Using diplomacy, money, and some military force, he managed to close down most of the independent duchies and baronies in France and unite them with the kingdom.

The Duchy of Burgundy was a special problem because the English would ally themselves with Burgundy and both their armies would go on looting expeditions in France.

In 1477 the Swiss defeated Burgundy in a battle which killed the duke of Burgundy and shortly afterwords Louis XI united the duchy with France.

Louis was King of France for about the same period that Edward IV was King of England. In 1475 King Louis made a treaty with England's King Edward IV to end the Hundred Years War between England and France.

Part of the deal included the payment of 50,000 gold crowns to King Edward. Louis died two months into the reign of England's Richard III.

A 19th century portrait of King Louis

2. Louis XI with his Order of Saint-Michel medal

by Georges Alexandre Lucien Boisselier (1876-1943) from Wikimedia Commons

The cap or hat was a peculiar head covering of his, with leaden images of saints fastened all around the band. He would pray to the saints and would sometimes add new images and retire the old ones.

French monetary units at the time:

The monetary units at the time were variable. The gold ecu or crown weighed around 3.33 grams. The ecu was worth 1-2/3 livre tournois. The denier was a small coin and sometimes not minted. The sol or gros was a silver coin worth 12 deniers and the blanc or douzain was a silver coin worth 10 deniers. The livre tournois was a unit of accounting and sometimes an actual coin. The livre tournois was worth 20 sols, 20 gros, 24 blancs, 24 douzains, or 240 deniers. The gros was also knowm as a groschen or groat.

From the introduction to Kendall's Louis XI, The Universal Spider:

In the France of Louis XI a standard unit of money (to simplify) was the "livre tournois", i.e., the pound of Tours, equivalent of the "franc", which was divided into twenty "sols" (sous); and the gold coin most often mentioned, the "ecu", crown, was worth about a livre and a half, or thirty sols. An English pound of the time would buy approximately five French crowns.

Some coins of Louis XI:

3. France Louis XI Ecu d'Or

Gold, 27 mm, 3.34 gm, Perpignan Mint

Obverse:
Shield with three fleur-de-lis on it and crown above
✠LVDOVICVS DEI GRA FRANCOR REX

Reverse:
Double quadrilobe, fleur-de-lis cross with four crowns
✠XPS VINCIT XPS REGNAT XPS IMPERAT (Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands)
Mintmark 'P' in center (Perpignan Mint)

4. France Louis XI Gros de Roi

Silver, 30 mm, 3.27 gm, Lyon Mint

Obverse:
Three fleur-de-lis
✠LVDOVICVS DEIGRA FRANCR REX [Clover](Mintmark: Lyon)

Reverse:
Fleur-de-lis cross
✠SIT NOMEN DOMINI BENEDICTVM [Clover](Mintmark: Lyon)

5. France Louis XI Blanc a la Couronne

Silver, 26 mm, 2.54 gm, Lyon Mint

Obverse:
Double trilobe, shield with three fleur-de-lis on it and trilobe
✠LVDOVICVS FRANCORVM REX [Clover](Mintmark: Lyon)

Reverse:
Double quadrilobe, fleur-de-lis cross with two fleur-de-lis and two crowns at corners
✠SIT NOMEN DNI BENEDICTVM [Clover](Mintmark: Lyon)

Louis XI in literature and films:

Louis XI has been a character in a few books and films, including the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo's published in 1831 and the subsequent films based on the book.

The best known film version of the book is the 1939 film with Charles Laughton as Quasimodo the Hunchback.

6. Louis XI portrayed by actor Harry Davenport in the 1939 film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

Cedric Hardwicke portrays Frollo, an evil church official. In this scene, set around 1482, Louis mentions a letter that he received from a Christopher Columbus asking for sponsorship of a venture to sail ships west to the Indies. Frollo, a conservative, states that the world is flat, but Louis replies "I'm greatly tempted to endow the venture." The real Columbus apparently worked for Louis at one time.

7. Louis XI portrayed by actor Conrad Veidt in the 1927 film "The Beloved Rogue"

This film is based on a stage play where the poet François Villon (John Barrymore) becomes a secret agent for King Louis during an attack on Paris by the Burgundians.

8. Louis XI portrayed by actor Basil Rathbone in the 1938 film "If I Were King"

This film is based on a stage play where the poet François Villon (Ronald Colman) becomes a secret agent for King Louis during an attack on Paris by the Burgundians.

And this tidbit: King Louis kept wild turkeys as pets:

In the last years of his life, which ended in 1483, King Louis retired to his castles in France.

From Kendall's Louis XI, The Universal Spider again:

He had warrens and cages and pens in all his retreats in the valley of the Loire; and in the forest of Amboise he lodged his menagerie - an elephant, dromedaries, leopards, ostriches, and other fierce and exotic beasts.

From many parts came precious cargoes of living things to delight his heart - "certain red pigs," "several black beasts," "two little otters of Spain," and always horses and dogs; turtledoves, pigeons, peacocks, magpies, canaries by the hundreds, goldfinches, chaffinches, egrets, herons, linnets, quail, partridges, gulls, even crows and owls, Turkey birds, white birds of Tunis, and every variety of hawk.

9. California wild turkeys

Turkey birds or wild turkeys are native to North America so how did King Louis XI get them in 1482?

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