Biography
Louis, named for his great uncle, Saint Louis of Toulouse. Louis acquired the seven liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music, astronomy). When he was sixteen, Louis understood Latin, German and Italian as well as his mother tongue. He owed his excellent education to the care of his mother, a woman of profound political sagacity, who was his chief counsellor in diplomatic affairs during the greater part of his long reign.
In 1342, at the age of sixteen, he succeeded his father as king of Hungary and was crowned at Székesfehérvár on the 21st of July with great enthusiasm. Louis led his armies many times in person. Besides his best known campaigns, he fought in Bulgaria, Bosnia, Wallachia Serbia, Lithuania and against the Golden Horde. The first Ottoman Hungarian clash occurred during his reign.
He led assaults personally and climbed city walls together with his soldiers. He shared the privations and hardships of camp life with his soldiers. Although a few legends were woven around his name, one incident casts light on his courage. When one of his soldiers who had been ordered to explore a ford was carried away by the current, the King plunged into the torrent without hesitation and saved the man from drowning. Louis liked warfare – he came close to losing his life in several battles -, tournaments and hunts. Similarly to his mother he was deeply religious. As an excellent commander and a gallant fighter, Louis resembled his exemplar, King Saint Ladislaus.
Under his reign lived the most famous epic hero of Hungarian literature and warfare, the king's Champion: Nicolas Toldi. John de Cardailhac, patriarch of Alexandria and envoy of the Vatican,(who visited the utmost European countries and monarchs) wrote: "I call God as my witness that I have never seen a monarch more majestic and more powerful... or one who desires peace and calm as much as he."
Read more about this topic: Louis I Of Hungary
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