Transcription. A four-panel meme.
Person A: “I’m an expert in French history.”
Person B: “Oh yeah? Name 15 kings.”
Person A: “Louis.”
Person B: “That’s on me, I set the bar too low.”
this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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Does anyone know what started the obsession with Louis?
Charles, obviously, okay sure, but Louis I was basically a placeholder whose kids fought over the inheritance.
Louis is the "same name" as Clovis. I mean by that it is how the name evolved as the dynasties changed their language from Frankish to Latin to then French.
Clovis was the first king unifying all Franks, so many Frank kings are named Clovis ... and later ones are named Louis.
Clovis is also the modern French rendition of that name. In Old Frankish it was something like Chlodowig. Hence why king Louis is called Lodewijk in Dutch and Ludwig in German.
I knew for Clovis, but didn’t for Chlodowig.
Thank you dear friend from the internet
Also in french, it evoled into two names : Clovis from the latin prononciation become Louis, losing the c, and making (the latin way) v and u the same. Chlodowig, losing Ch and shifting from w to v become Ludovic.
It comes from the Old German Hlutwik (various possible spelling) meaning "Famous warrior". Polish language even have two versions of it - Ludwik straight from German and Alojzy from French.
Not sure; I’ve wondered that before too. If I had to guess I’d say people just keep naming future kings after previously liked kings - the first few king Louis weren’t all that popular, but later on there were some popular ones (Louis IX was named a saint, for instance, which may have boosted it).
16 is certainly a lot of kings to have the same name. I believe there’s 20-something Pope Johns, if I recall correctly
I'm just waiting on pope John Paul George, then we just gotta tack on Ringo somehow and we've got The Beatles back!