LEWIS XI. anno 1461. His oppressions obliged his subjects to enter into a league against him, styled, "Ligue du bien public," in which his brother the duke of Berri and some of the principal nobility were concerned: they solicited succours from John duke of Cala-
bria, who joined them with 500 Swiss (the first introduction of Swiss soldiers into the French armies). His reign was almost one continued scene of civil war; and it is computed that 4000 of his subjects were executed in public and privately, either for being in arms against him, or suspected by him. In his last illness, he drank the warm blood of children, in the vain hope of restoring his decayed strength. He died in 1483, aged 60. The posts for letters were established in his reign, owing to his eagerness for news; the first institution of this nature in Europe.