SAINTS - LOUIS OF FRANCE King Louis (here named as Ludovicus Rex), was born in 1214, the son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. His father died when he was 12, and his mother established a regency during his minority. He was brother-in-law to Henry III if England. Louis oversaw the vast cathedral-building programme, which occupied so much of the creative energies of France during his reign, and he personally founded the mystic Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris, to house the relics of the Crown of Thorns (which, in this print, he carries in his hands, pressed against the fleur-di-lys of France, embroidered on his vestments). He personally (and not always successfully) participated in Crusades, and died of typhoid fever in Tunis, while on a crusade. Process print, from Alban Butler's The Lives of The Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principles Saints, edition of circa 1928.