Crisis Magazine, Sean Fitzpatrick: “I love you, my dear son,” Queen Blanche of Castile said to her fourth-eldest child, Louis. “But I would rather see you dead at my feet than that you should ever commit a mortal sin.” Louis, who promptly swore to avoid sin, never did lay dead at his mother’s feet. His three elder siblings and his royal father did, however, and Louis ascended the throne of France at Reims Cathedral at twelve years of age in 1226. Article is here.
