“I have warned you many times, the armies that obey me cover mountains and plains they are as numerous as the pebbles of the earth, and they march upon you grasping the swords of fate.”

A true saint and a true soldier, King Louis IX of France (1214 – 1270) personified the crusading movement in all its idealistic ardour, its heroism and its haplessness. Twice he led by example, setting out on crusades to fight the Muslims in the Holy Land, but the seventh Crusade was ultimately a disaster and the Eighth ended prematurely with his death.