Louis collected books and objets d'art like his uncle, Jean, Duke of Berry, and contributed a poetic response to Jean le Sénéchal's
Le Livre de Cent Ballades (The Book of One Hundred Ballades, 1389). The prolific poet Eustache Deschamps was a sometime member of Louis's household, and the writer Christine de Pizan dedicated manuscripts to both him and his wife, Valentina Visconti, whom Louis married in 1389.
Louis received several apanages from the king and bought other territories to consolidate his holdings until he began to rival the wealthiest dukes of the kingdom, particularly his uncle, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The king, after his first access of dementia in 1392, became more dependent on Louis as a result of his “absences,” as his irrational periods were called, and when he could not tolerate his own wife and children, he was soothed by his sister-in-law Valentina's presence—so much so that those jealous or fearful of Louis's influence murmured charges of witchcraft against Valentina and accusations of adultery against Louis and the king's often estranged wife, Isabeau.
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