Claim profile

Louis XI of France

King of France from 1461 to 1483 (1423–1483)

  • Fame66.0
  • Momentum16.8
  • Wikipedia47.8K
Source-basedRising
Lived 1423–1483, aged 60France
France flagFrancePoliticiansPolitician
  • Wikipedia
    74 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1423–1483
    Aged 60
  • Awards
    1
    recognised work
Summary
Updated 2026-06-21

He earned two nicknames — "the Cunning" and "the Universal Spider" — by turning betrayal into statecraft. Louis XI spent his reign spinning webs: he rebelled against his father, fled to his father's greatest enemy, then returned to dismantle that enemy's duchy piece by piece.

Biography

About

Louis was born on 3 July 1423 and took the throne in 1461 after a youth spent defying Charles VII — first in the failed Praguerie revolt of 1440, then by marrying Charlotte of Savoy against his father's will and finally fleeing to Burgundy when an army came for him. He was hosted there by Philip the Good, his father's greatest rival, and stayed until Charles VII died. As king, his ceaseless scheming earned him the label "the Universal Spider" from enemies who watched him weave plots across Europe. In 1475 he signed the Treaty of Picquigny with Edward IV, formally ending the Hundred Years' War…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Louis XI of France

Louis XI of France
saidundated
He who does not know how to dissemble, knows not how to reign.
— Maxim of Louis XI, cited in Classical and Foreign Quotations (1904), no. 2304
Louis XI of France
saidundated
When pride and presumption walk before, shame and loss follow very closely.
— Reported in Gleason's Pictorial, vol. 5, no. 1 (2 July 1853), p. 175
Louis XI of France
saidundated
Louis XI, the great Spider King of France, had a weakness for astrology.
— Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power (1998)
Louis XI of France
saidundated
Throughout history, security as much as status has been an obstacle to summitry.
— David Reynolds, Summits: Six Meetings that Changed the Twentieth Century (2007), p. 15
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Where to find them

Platforms

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Rising
66.0
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum16.8
Historical25.7
Now attention15.6
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
Global rank
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Country rank
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Category rank
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Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence