Louis IX Fed Beggars Personally

French king Louis IX died from dysentery near Tunis in 1270, during the Eighth Crusade. Pope Boniface VIII canonized him in 1297, making Louis the only king of France declared a saint. His household served meals to more than 100 poor people on ordinary days, and Louis often served them himself. He also abolished trials by ordeal and combat, permitted appeals to the monarch, and introduced the presumption of innocence into criminal proceedings.

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