![]() ![]() ![]() On the morning of October 26, France had a new face. Instead of Philip, it was his brother who, crowned at Reims on October 25 by the pope himself, succeeded Louis VI as Louis VII. ![]() As for pigs, they ran the streets, playing the role of garbage collectors. Fatal falls from horses were quite common in the Middle Ages, for kings as well as sons of kings. There is nothing particularly exceptional about this unfortunate incident. According to chroniclers, the accident was caused by a pig that threw itself between the legs of his mount. On October 13, 1131-a date that in itself is rather diabolical-Philip, the eldest son of King Louis VI, “superb in body and pleasant in face,” fell with his horse on the outskirts of Paris and died several days later, at the age of fifteen. Une mort infâme aux origines des emblèmes de la France? (A King Killed by a Pig: A Notorious Death as the Origins of a French Symbol?) Seuil, la librairie du XXIe siècle, 2015. Reviewed: Michel Pastoureau, Le roi tué par un cochon. ![]()
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