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| 1223–26 |
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| LOUIS VIII. The first Capetian king not crowned in his father's lifetime. | 1 |
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| 1224 |
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| Temporary conquest of the lands between the Loire and the Garonne; the English soon regained all but Poitou, the Limousin, and Périgord (1225). | 2 |
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| 1226 |
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| Renewal of the Albigensian Crusade and Louis's conquest of the south. Louis began the dangerous practice of bestowing great fiefs as appanages on the princes of the blood, a practice that later had almost fatal consequences to the monarchy (the case of Burgundy). | 3 |
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| 1226–70 |
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| LOUIS IX (St. Louis, canonized 1297). The most chivalrous man of his age and the ideal medieval king. Handsome and lofty in character, Louis's careful education prepared him for a unique reign in which ethics dominated policy. His reputation for justice won him national support and made him the arbiter of Europe. His reign considered the golden age of medieval France. | 4 |
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| 1226–34 |
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| Minority of Louis IX and regency of his able and devout mother, Blanche of Castile. With the support of the Church, the royal officials, and the people, Blanche was able to suppress a number of feudal rebellions (1226–31). By the Treaty of Paris (1129), Raymond of Toulouse surrendered, and his heiress was betrothed to Louis's brother, Alphonse. Louis himself was married to Margaret of Provence, and thus began the severance of that province from the empire. | 5 |
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| 1233 |
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| As part of the campaign against heresy, Pope Gregory IX granted independent authority to investigate heresy to the Dominicans, requiring the bishops to cooperate with them. Louis later supported the Inquisition (See 1479), despite episcopal objections. | 6 |
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| 1241 |
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| Louis induced the Emperor Frederick II to release the prelates and delegates captured off Genoa while en route to a synod at Rome, but, without directly attacking the Church, he associated himself with Frederick's grievances against the pope and refused to intervene against the emperor (1247). | 7 |
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| 1242 |
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| Submission of Aquitaine (disputed) and Toulouse (1243). | 8 |
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| 1244 |
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| Louis took the Cross, and sailed on his first crusade (1248). His aim was to free Palestine by the capture of Egypt, but the expedition was poorly managed, Louis was captured (1250), and most of his army was put to the sword. Louis himself was ransomed and returned to France. | 9 |
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| 1258 |
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| The Treaty of Corbeil, representing a peaceful adjustment of conflicting claims between France and Aragon, to the advantage of France. Louis's son, Philip, was betrothed to Isabella of Aragon. | 10 |
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| 1259 |
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| Treaty of Paris. Louis, in the interest of amity, yielded Périgord and the Limousin to the king of England, despite protests from both provinces. In return he received the renunciation of English claims to Normandy, Maine, Poitou. Henceforth Guienne became distinct from Aquitaine. This pacific gesture displeased opinion in both countries and weakened the French position in the south. | 11 |
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| 1265 |
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| Louis permitted his brother, Charles of Anjou, to accept the crown of Sicily, a step that later involved France in Italian problems. | 12 |
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