What did Louis IX look like?

Only representation of Saint Louis known to be true to life - Early 14th century statue from the church of Mainneville, Eure, France

http://www.1066.co.nz/Mosaic%20DVD/whoswho/text/Louis_IX_of_France[1].htm

This has been trickier than I would have thought, and no one else is making such a definitive claim about their portraits of him. Beardless seems more popular in his depictions as king than not, but then, maybe that's because one of the most definitive contemporary images of him is this illumination, from around 1230, when he would have been 16.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IX_of_France#/media/File:Saintlouis_(cropped).jpg

taken originally from this manuscript from:

https://www.themorgan.org/manuscript/77422?id=81

a little nicer image, but no, I am not paying $490 to take off the getty images sign--but if you really want it, you can find it here.

 

Medieval Swords

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Detail of a sword being drawn from its scabbard, Morgan Bible fol. 28v, c. 1250.

So, it turns out not only are rapiers not options for my early 13th century characters, but so are longswords--but that's good news, as the knightly arming sword that was in use at the time, is just what the story needs:

 "a straight, double-edged weapon with a single-handed, cruciform (i.e., cross-shaped) hilt and a blade length of about 70 to 80 centimetres (28 to 31 in)." (C.f. above link to straightforward wikipedia page).

And Renaissance and following ages' innovations notwithstanding, apparently people are still interested in this kind of weapon, and have provided interesting feedback on how it works as a wepaon (or at least how a modern replica feels to a swordsman).