LOUIS XI

born July 3, 1423, Bourges, Fr. died Aug. 30, 1483, Plessis-les-Tours king of France (146183) of the House of Valois who continued the work of his father, Charles VII, in strengthening and unifying France after the Hundred Years' War. He reimposed suzerainty over Boulonnais, Picardy, and Burgundy, took possession of France-Comt and Artois (1482), annexed Anjou (1471), and inherited Maine and Provence (1481). Additional reading For general studies, see Christopher Hare, The Life of Louis XI (1907); O.W. Mosher, Louis XI, King of France, As He Appears in History and in Literature (1925); Pierre Champion, Louis XI, 2 vol. (1927; Eng. trans. 1929); Joseph Calmette, Autour de Louis XI (1947); and for an analysis of the character of the King, Jean Dofournet, La Destruction des mythes dans les mmoires de Ph. de Commynes (1966). Paul Murray Kendall, Louis XI, the Universal Spider (1970), is a lively as well as scholarly biography, making use of new material from Italian diplomatic records. James Cleugh, Chart Royal (1970), a well-researched biography, includes a select multilingual bibliography.