King Louis I ?

[kentishbear]

was i correctly informed by a friend that there was actually a King Louis of England?

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I was surprised by this. There was a tee-vee prog about it, about a year ago. Basically it was saying that there was, but it was disputed and so he was never put in the 'official' list of Kings and Queens

[bernardo]

No.  I have never heard of any such thing.

[Ewood27]

As far as I remember from the TV programme, he came in the middle of King John's time.  The barons got fed up with John and forced him into exile.  They brought in Louis and I think actually crowned him.  Then John came back with an army, as one does, and kicked Louis out.  He wasn't a success with the barons anyway, and the people didn't take to him either.  Since English kings become kings by acclamation, not by coronation, he wasn't really king even though crowned.

 

Other examples are Lady Jane Grey, crowned but not Queen, and Edward VIII, king but not crowned.

[Famous5]

Don't know of king Louis, but Tony Robinson's TV programme Britain's Real Monarch on C4 last year includes amongst others King Ferdinando, 2 Kings Theophilus, Queen Edith and Queen Barbara. This is based on the premise that Edward IV was illegitimate. According to Robinson, our current monarch is King Michael I, a fork lift truck driver in Australia who says he voted for that country to become a republic

[jno]

This one is answered in the current BBC History magazine, much as Ewood27 explains it. Louis, the dauphin (ie the French monarch's son) - who later became king of France, 1223-26 - invaded England in 1215 and sided with the barons who were at war with King John; they managed to take control of half the country. But after John's death in 1216 the barons went back to the side of the new king, young Henry III; Louis lost some battles and left in 1217 (after being paid a considerable sum to go). Whether that was enough to give him the title of King Louis of England is hard to say.