Stock Photo - France, History- ´Saint Louis débarque en Egypte´: Louis IX 25 April 1214 - 25 August 1270, commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237 Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was the sixth-great-grandson of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile He worked with the Parliament of Paris in order to improve the professionalism of his administration in regards to legal actions Louis´s piety and kindness towards the poor was much celebrated He went on two crusades, in his mid-30s in 1248 Seventh Crusade and then again in his mid-50s in 1270 Eighth Crusade He had begun with the rapid capture of the port of Damietta in June 1249, an attack which did cause some disruption in the Muslim Ayyubid empire, especially as the current sultan was on his deathbed But the march from Damietta towards Cairo through the Nile River Delta went slowly During this time, the Ayyubid sultan died, and a sudden power shift took place, as the sultan´s slave wife Shajar al-Durr set events in motion which were to make her Queen, and eventually place the Egyptians´ slave army of the Mamluks in power On 6 April 1250 Louis lost his army at the Battle of Fariskur and was captured by the Egyptians His release was eventually negotiated, in return for a ransom of 400,000 livres tournois at the time France´s annual revenue was only about 250,000 livres tournois, so it was necessary to obtain a loan from the Templars, and the surrender of the city of Damietta