38 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. men-at-arms to put them down, and turned a deaf ear to the complaints of the doctors, whereupon they left Paris. Pope Gregory IX. wrote an admonition to the young king, telling him that power, wisdom, and mercy were the earthly trinity, and that if wisdom were taken away the other two could not stand. The advice was accepted, and the university restored. Some years later henry de Sorbon/ie, Lewis' confessor, founded a college where the young men might live under due regulation, and where theology was above all to be studied. This founda- tion acquired so much weight that in later times almost all questions of divinity were referred to the doctors of the Sorbonne. It was an age of great vigour and progress as well as of religious fervour. The queen was a devout woman, and the king grew up deeply pious, pure, and blameless, and with none of the weakness that had hitherto rendered the good men of his family such feeble rulers. Blanche married him to Margaret, one of the four daughters of Raymond Berenger, the last of the old line of Counts of Provence. Her three sisters married Henry 111. of England, Richard, Earl of Connuall, afterwards king of the Romans, and Lewis' brother, Charles, Count of Anjon, to whom the imperial fief of Provence was to pass on the death of Raymond Berenger. All four were in the end queens. 10. War Axti the Vassals, 1235. — No sooner was the truce over than Peter of Dreuxwas up in arms again; and so was Theobald of Champagne, apparently to try what was the mettle of the young king ; for when Lewis showed a resolute face and conquered Peter, Theobald submitted. Soon after, falling heir through his mother to the little Pyrencan kingdom of Navarre, he sold to the king his cities of Blois, Chartres, and Sancerre. In I24i,vhen Lewis' brother Alfonso came of age, the county of Poitou, which had been taken from King John, was given to him ; but old Hugh of Lusignan, who was now the husband of John's widow, refused homage, and defied him. Lewis came to the aid of his brother, Henr' III. to that of his stepfather, hoping to recover Poitou, but in a sharp fight at Tailleluunx, near Saintes, in July, 1242, Lewis was victorious, and Henry fled into Gascony. The un- healthy season put an end to the war ; both kings fell ill, and were glad to sign a truce for five years. 11. The Vow of Crusade, i244.--TiKit Southern cam- paign had much injured Lewis' health, and in 1244 a
