Louis IX

Saint Louis: the only French king ever canonized, and the personal embodiment of the medieval Christian ideal of kingship. He led the disastrous Seventh Crusade, was captured in Egypt and ransomed at vast cost, and died of dysentery in Tunis attempting an Eighth. At home his judicial reforms, his building of the Sainte-Chapelle to house the Crown of Thorns, and his reputation for personal sanctity made his reign the apex of medieval French prestige.