King Louis IX, known as Saint Louis, setting off to fight in the Crusades, surrounded by knights and clergymen.

Facing Jerusalem, whose ramparts can be seen in the distance, the king brandishes the crown of thorns. The Seventh Crusade (1248–1254) was a bitter failure for Saint Louis and his army. A few years later, during the Eighth Crusade, Louis IX died of typhus and dysentery. Early 20th-century iconography