Louis XI of France
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called the Prudent (Template:Lang-fr) and the Universal Spider (Middle French: l'universelle aragne) or the Spider King, was the King of France from 1461 to 1483.
Balzac gives a plausible and somewhat favorable picture of the king in his story "Master Cornelius". Louis XI appears as a character in several film versions of the stage melodrama If I Were King , a fictitious play about real-life poet François Villon. He is also an important character in Victor Hugo's classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame as well as its film adaptations. He also appears in the operetta The Vagabond King, which is based on If I Were King. Among the actors who have played him onscreen are Basil Rathbone, Conrad Veidt, Harry Davenport, Walter Hampden, and O. P. Heggie.