FRANCOIS I

(1494-1547)

Francois I, king of France (1515-47) was a humanist, a patron of the arts, and a gallant military figure. Francois, the son of Charles de Valois-Orleans and Louise of Savoy, became heir presumptive upon the accession of his cousin Louis XII in 1498. Educated in the humanist tradition, he studied the classics but preferred arms to letters. Both Francois's mother, with whom he lived until 1508, and his elder sister, Marguerite de Navarre,* exerted tremendous influence over him his entire life.

From 1512 to 1513 Francois gained experience on the battlefield defending France's borders as well as influence with foreign ambassadors. Shortly before his death, Louis XII married his young daughter Claude to Francois, who on 1 January 1515 became king.

Within the first year of his reign, Francois invaded Italy in order to recover Milan. At the bloody battle of Marginano, Francois defeated the Swiss merce­naries of Massimiliano Sforza and his ally Pope Leo X.* Anxious to appease Francois, Leo X negotiated the Concordat of Bologna with Francois, giving him the privilege of nominating prelates in exchange for upholding ecclesiastical privileges. In 1520 Francois attempted to arrange an Anglo-French alliance but was unsuccessful despite his efforts to secure Henry VIII's* trust on the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

In 1521 the French loss of Milan marked the onset of twenty-seven years of warfare between Francois and Emperor Charles V.* When Francois pressed his mother's claim to inherit Bourbon lands, he incited a Bourbon invasion of Prov­ence. Francois routed the attackers and pursued them into Italy, where French troops laid siege to Pavia, a disastrous affair, for in 1525 Francois was wounded in battle and captured by Charles V's army.

The emperor imprisoned Francois in Madrid and demanded an exorbitant ransom for his freedom. Francois considered abdication, but his advisors finally persuaded him to sign the Treaty of Madrid in 1526. The surrendered French provinces, however, refused to abandon their king. The emperor was outraged with Francois and held his eldest two sons hostage until 1530, when Francois's mother negotiated the more realistic Treaty of Cambrai with Margaret of Austria, the emperor's aunt. In 1533 Francois married his second son, Henri, to Catherine de'Medici,* the niece of Clement VII, and in 1536 the dauphin died, supposedly poisoned by the emperor's agents. Francois achieved one last diplomatic coup, the Franco-Turkish alliance against Charles V, before his death of a wasting illness in 1547.

Francois I maintained a Renaissance court, attractive to noblemen, poets, mu­sicians, and scholars alike. He was known for his elegant manners, athletic abilities, and sexual escapades; he curtailed the abuses of overly ambitious no­bles, entertained the court with lavish processions, and wrote heartbreaking po­ems, songs, and letters to his subjects during his imprisonment. Francois encouraged religious tolerance: he admired Desiderius Erasmus,* acted as patron to Francois Rabelais,* and delayed the extermination of the Waldensian sect until his death. Notwithstanding his continuous and costly struggles with the emperor, Francois remained the beloved grand roi François.

Bibliography

R. J. Knecht, Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I, 1996.

Whitney Leeson