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CHAPTER IV.
ST. LOUIS.

MONG the names of the European princes
associated with the history of the Holy War,
that of St. Louis is one of the most renowned.
Although flourishing in a century which produced
personages like I'rederick, Emperor of Germany, and
our first great Edward, who far excelled him in genius
and prowess—-as wise rulers in peace and mighty
chiefs in war—his saintliness, his patience in afflic-
tion, his respect for justice and the rights of his
neighbours, entitle him to a high place among the
men of the age which could boast of so many royal
heroes. In order to comprehend the crusade, of
which he was leader, it is necessary to refer briefly
to the character and career of the good and pious
king, who, in the midst of disaster and danger,
exhibited the courage of a hero and the resignation
of a martyr.

It was on the day of the Festival of St. Mark, in
the year 1215, that Blanche of Castille, wife of the
eighth Louis of France, gave birth, at Poissy, to an
heir to the crown, which Hugh Capet had, three
centuries earlier, taken from the feeble heir of