Francis I (Francois) (1494–1547)

Valois dynasty king of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. Francis (Francois in French) was born in the chateau of Cognac. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angouleme and Louise of Savoy. He became the heir and favorite of King Louis XII, who had failed to produce male heirs of his own and arranged Francois's marriage to his own daughter Claudia. In the first year of his reign, Francois scored an important victory against an army of Swiss mercenaries at the Battle of Marignano, after which France took control of the northern Italian city of Milan. To secure his authority in northern Italy, Francois signed pacts with the pope, the Swiss Confederation, Emperor Maximilian I, and Archduke Charles, the heir to the Holy Roman Empire.

After Maximilian died, Francois declared his candidacy for the title of emperor. He was thwarted when the electors chose instead Archduke Charles, now Emperor Charles V. This defeat resulted in France being surrounded by a string of territories, including the Low Countries, Spain, and Burgundy, which were ruled by the emperor, his rival. To achieve a balance of power in Europe, Francois allied himself with German Protestant princes who opposed the rule of the Catholic emperor in their domains. At a famous meeting known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold, Francois also tried to create an alliance with King Henry VIII of England.

Francois declared war against Charles in 1521. At the battle of Pavia, in 1525, he suffered a crushing defeat and was taken prisoner. In exchange for his freedom he agreed to the Treaty of Madrid in 1526, in which France gave up its claims to Italy as well as Burgundy, which became a territory of the Holy Roman Empire. After returning to France, the king renounced the treaty and formed the League of Cognac, which included France, England, Venice, Florence, and the pope. A second war against Charles V ended in the Treaty of Cambrai, which returned Burgundy to France. In the meantime, Francois supported several expeditions to the New World, including that of Jacques Cartier, which established French claims to Canada.

In 1535, when Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan died without an heir, Francois invaded Italy again. Charles responded by attacking Provence, the southeastern region of France. A truce was made in 1538 and then broken in 1542 when Francois allied with Sultan Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire. Charles then allied with Henry VIII of England and attacked France, a war that, in the Treaty of Crepy, ended French claims to Naples as well as Flanders and Artois, but allowed France to keep mountains in Savoy and the Piedmont region of northern Italy.

Francois presided over military setbacks but one of the most brilliant Renaissance courts of Europe. Leading scholars, authors, and poets were given the king's patronage and protection. Francois invited to his courts Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sartro, and Benvenuto Cellini, who brought with them the ideas and artistic styles of the Italian Renaissance. Under the king's patronage, a library of all French and Italian books was gathered and the College de France was founded. The king also decorated his realm with splendid royal chateaus at Chambord, Amboise, and Fontainebleau, hiring Italian architects to renovate and decorate many medieval chateaus that had fallen into disrepair. An avid buyer of art, he began gathering the Italian Renaissance paintings, including the Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci, that would form the heart of the collections of the Louvre, a medieval fortress that he transformed into a Renaissance palace and the national museum of France. The over-burdening expenses of this patronage and other building projects, as well as the costs of the many wars he had declared, however, emptied the royal treasury and nearly bankrupted the kingdom.

See Also: Charles V; France; Henry VIII; Leonardo da Vinci