Louis XI, the Spider King of France (1461-1483) and his pet turkeys

In January 2019 I found a book in the local library entitled Louis XI, The Universal Spider, a biography of France's King Louis XI, written by Paul Murray Kendall and published in 1971.

It looked like an interesting book so I took it home and read it.

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.

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

Soon this arrived from VCOINS dealer NumisCorner (Comptoir des Monnaies Anciennes) in France:


France Louis XI Medal - Kings of France
Copper-nickel, 34 mm, 21 gm
Obverse:
Louis XI right
LOUIS XI ROY DE FRANCE
Reverse (text only):
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.

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 causing the duchy to unite with France.

Louis was King of France for about the same period that Edward IV was King of England, 1461 to 1483. 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.

Some coins of Louis XI:

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.

A French gold ecu or crown of Louis XI:


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:
Cross with fleur-de-lis at ends, mintmark 'P' in center (Perpignan Mint)
XPS VINCIT XPS REGNAT XPS IMPERAT (Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands)

The gold ecu weighed at 3.34 gm thus was a little lighter than the European ducat at 3.50 gm.

A couple of silver coins of Louis XI:


France Louis XI Gros de Roi
Silver, 30 mm, 3.27 gm, Lyon Mint
Obverse:
Three fleur-de-lis
LVDOVICVS DEIGRA FRANCR REX
Reverse:
Cross fleur-de-lis
SIT NOMEN DOMINI BENEDICTVM

A gros was also know as a groschen or groat. A French livre (pound or 2/3 ecu) was worth 20 gros or 20 sols.


France Louis XI Blanc a la Couronne (blanc with crown)
Silver, 26 mm, 2.54 gm, Lyon Mint
Obverse:
Shield with three fleur-de-lis on it and trilobe
LVDOVICVS FRANCORVM REX
Reverse:
Cross potent with two fleur-de-lis and two crowns at corners
SIT NOMEN DNI BENEDICTVM

A French livre (pound or 2/3 ecu) was worth 24 blancs, but this varied.

A 19th century picture of King Louis


Louis XI with his Order of Saint-Michel medal
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.

Louis XI has been a character in a few books and films, including Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.


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

In the film, 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.

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.

Birds included turtledoves, pigeons, peacocks, magpies, canaries by the hundreds, goldfinches, chaffinches, egrets, herons, linnets, quail, partridges, gulls, even crows and owls, Turkey birds, ...


California wild turkeys

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

 

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Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for the writeup, I have a coin of his.


LOUIS XI (1461 - 1483 A.D.)
France Blanc à la couronne
O: A/+ LVDOVICVS* FRANCOR* REX Arms of France surrounded by three crowns all in double trilobe
R: R/+ SIT* NOMEN* DNI* BENEDICTVM, Cross pattée in double quadrilobe; fleur-de-lis in 1st and 4th quarters, crown in 2nd and 3rd; stop below 19th letter of legend.
22mm
2.14g
Duplessy 550

 

I was going to say the same thing about turkeys being from North America. My best guess is the word had a different meaning then. Like you'll see the word "corn" in ancient history, but what we think of as corn today is from Mexico. But it meant something different then.

 

Probably these were Guinea fowl, as around this time they were known as turkeys, or turkey birds.

 

Zackly. In English, and in German too, the guineafowl (de: Perlhuhn) was also called Turkish or Turkey Chicken, probably because it had come from Numidia via Turkey to Europe. See here. Guess it was similar in French. So the spider legs did not actually reach to North America ...

Christian