Louis IX, who came to the throne twelve years later, was heir to these developments, and he reigned for the better part of half a century, during the most vibrant decades of the thirteenth century. His reign, initially aided by the regency of his formidable mother Blanche of Castile (d. 1252), oversaw the growth of the kingdom, the flourishing of the University of Paris, the glories of high Gothic art and architecture, and the development of newly energizing religious ideals.
Moreover, although he led two disastrous crusades, his leadership as a zealous warrior for "the cause of Christ" only enhanced his reputation as an ideal Christian king. When he died in 1270, he was in many ways the great moral authority of the West - so much so that a move to have him formally canonized by the papacy came to fruition a quarter of a century later, in 1297.
France in the wider world
One of the greatest of all American historians of the Middle Ages, Charles Homer Haskins, said that Saint Louis was a luxury only possible because of Philip Augustus (Baldwin 2010 p. 247). When in 1226 Louis came to the throne following the untimely death of his father, Louis VIII (who ruled for only three years, 1223-1226), he inherited the solid foundations of a kingdom that had come into its own. When his grandfather, Philip Augustus, was crowned in 1180, France's wealth and the strength of her king paled compared to that of the kings of England, who actually ruled much of south-western France (which nominally belonged to the French kingdom), and the German Emperor, whose territories extended into the Italian Peninsula.
Philip Augustus transformed France by gaining territory, centralizing authority, and modernizing the administration of the monarchy. Notably, his conquest of Normandy in 1202-1204, and the decisive victories of 1214 repelling foreign incursions, solidified control over French territories. The agricultural revolution and the
