The image of this king - a cruel and treacherous despot, a miser and a hypocrite - is firmly entrenched in our minds thanks to numerous historical novels, popular science publications and, of course, school textbooks. Meanwhile, Louis XI (1423-1483) is one of the key figures in the history of France, and it was to him that the main merit belongs in uniting individual territories into a single centralized state. And, as it turns out, his image, drawn by his contemporary and, as a rule, hostile chroniclers, does not entirely correspond to reality. The French medievalist historian Jacques Héré, having done a colossal amount of work and comprehensively studied many documents of the era - letters, ordinances, various protocols and treaties, was able to recreate the true biography of the king-reformer, cleared of absurdities and fables.