Yale professor R. Howard Bloch examines how the medieval chronicler Joinville portrayed King Louis IX of France, drawing on episodes from Joinville's eyewitness biography. Bloch traces the virtues attributed to Louis: honesty so strict he would not cheat even the Saracens, moderation, humility, and the chivalric ideal of the preudomme, a man both brave and wise. He covers Louis's support for the young Sorbonne and his taste for reasoned debate, contrasted with his harsh treatment of Jews, and closes on his judicial reforms, including the abolition of trial by combat in favor of inquest and his famous practice of hearing petitioners' cases in person under an oak tree at Vincennes. The talk also touches on Queen Blanche's counsel and Louis's charitable works. Part of the Yale course The Age of Cathedrals, the lecture is brief but detailed, moving through eight distinct chapters in just over ten minutes.