It was August 25th: Saint Louis died beneath the walls of Tunis

On August 25, 1270, King Louis IX, who became Saint Louis, died in his tent erected near the ruins of Carthage, at the end of an eighth crusade launched three years earlier against the advice of most of his relatives, ending a reign of nearly forty-four years.

An old king went to convert the emir of Tunis

On March 25, 1267, at the age of 52 and the height of his reign, Louis IX announced his intention to embark on another crusade to try to salvage what remained of the Frankish states in Palestine. His closest friend, the Lord of Joinville, refused to accompany him this time, citing the need to protect his own province.

The king finally landed on July 18, 1270, near Tunis, in the height of the summer heat, hoping to convert the local emir to Christianity, perhaps encouraged by his brother Charles of Anjou, who had become King of Sicily and was keen to secure his trade relations with North Africa. His hopes for conversion were immediately dashed, and he began the siege of the city while awaiting the reinforcements promised by his brother.

An epidemic that carries off the king and his youngest son

The oppressive heat of the camp set up near the ruins of Carthage soon fostered the spread of a typhus and dysentery epidemic within the royal army. The king himself was afflicted, as were his youngest son, John Tristan, who died first, and his eldest son, Philip, who survived the disease.

Louis IX died peacefully on a bed of ashes, after receiving the last rites, leaving his son Philip III the difficult task of repatriating his remains to the royal necropolis of Saint-Denis. Canonized by Pope Boniface VIII in 1297, he remains to this day the only king of France ever elevated to sainthood by the Catholic Church.