The Last Knight and the Man in Gray Wool bedtime stories

Louis XI did not look like a king of his age. He staged no tournaments, sought no glory in open battle, and put little trust in shining armor. His weapons were couriers, the treasury, and other men’s weaknesses. This is a calm, detailed lecture on the man they called the Spider: from revolt against his father and exile in Dauphiné to the Burgundian years, the League of the Public Weal, the trap at Péronne, the purchase of an English army at Picquigny, and the death of Charles the Bold before Nancy. Then comes the cost of victory—Plessis-lez-Tours, the iron cages, the fear of poison, and a physician who held a dying king by his last thread of hope. This is not a cartoon villain and not a spotless architect of the state. It is a story of a turning age: how feudal France became a centralized monarchy, and why calculation proved stronger than knightly honor. Facts, rumors, and later myths are kept apart as far as the sources allow. Settle in. The text is long. The pace is slow. #LouisXI #HistoryLecture #MedievalHistory #France #Burgundy #CharlesTheBold #SleepLecture #EuropeanHistory #HundredYearsWar #Diplomacy #Absolutism #MiddleAges #DocumentaryNarration #NightLecture #RoyalHistory