'Francis I of France' (
French: ''François I
er'') (
September 12 1494 –
March 31 1547), called 'the Father and Restorer of Letters' (''le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres''), was crowned King of
France in
1515 in the cathedral at
Reims and reigned until
1547.
Francis I is considered to be France's first
Renaissance monarch. His reign saw France make immense cultural advances. He was a contemporary of King
Henry VIII of England and of
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, his great rivals, and
Suleiman the Magnificent, his ally.
Early life
Francis I, a member of the
Valois Dynasty, was born at
Cognac,
Charente, the son of
Charles d'Angoulême (
1459 –
January 1 1496), and of
Louise of Savoy (
September 11 1476 –
September 22 1531). His father, Charles d'Angoulême, was the cousin of King
Louis XII. In 1498, the four-year-old Francis, already
Count of Angoulême, was created
Duke of Valois. He was the
heir presumptive of Louis XII, who did not succeed in siring sons with any of his three wives. Young Francis was, by instigation of King Louis, in 1506 betrothed and on 18 May 1514 married, to
Claude of France (1499-1524), the daughter of Louis XII and
Anne of Brittany and heiress of Brittany. Because of the
Salic Law that stated that women could not inherit the throne of France, the throne passed to Francis I at the death of
Louis XII, as he was the descendant of the eldest surviving male line of the
Capetian Dynasty. Claude of France became
queen consort.
When young Francis ascended the throne in
1515, he was already a king with unprecedented
humanist credentials. While his two predecessors,
Charles VIII and
Louis XII, had spent much of their reigns concerned with
Italy they did not much embrace the new intellectual movements coming out of it. Both monarchs continued in the same patterns of behavior that had dominated the French monarchy for centuries. They are considered the last of the medieval French monarchs, but they did lay the groundwork for the Renaissance to come into full swing in France.
Contact between the French and Italians in the long running series of wars under Charles and Louis had brought new ideas to France by the time the young Francis was receiving his education. Thus a number of his tutors, such as Desmoulins, his Latin instructor, and
Christophe de Longeuil were schooled in the new ways of thinking and they attempted to imbue Francis with it. Francis' mother also had a great interest in Renaissance art, which she passed down to her son. One certainly cannot say that Francis received a humanist education; most of his teachers had not yet been affected by the Renaissance. One can, however, state that he clearly received an education more oriented towards humanism than any previous French king.
Kingship
Patron of the Arts
By the time Francis ascended the throne in
1515 the Renaissance had clearly arrived in France, and Francis was an important supporter of the change. Francis became a major patron of the arts. He lent his support to many of the greatest artists of his time and encouraged them to come to France. Some did work for him, including such greats as
Andrea del Sarto, and
Leonardo da Vinci, whom Francis convinced to leave Italy in the last and least productive part of his life. While Leonardo did little painting in his years in France, he brought with him many of his great works, such as the ''
Mona Lisa'', and these stayed in France upon his death.
Other major artists whom Francis employed include the goldsmith
Benvenuto Cellini, and the painters
Rosso,
Romano and
Primaticcio, all of whom were heavily employed in decorating Francis' various palaces and exceedingly loyal. Francis employed a number of agents in Italy who endeavoured to procure artworks by Italian masters such as
Michelangelo,
Titian, and
Raphael and ship them to France. These agents had some notable successes, even if plans to try to move Leonardo's ''
Last Supper'' to France proved impractical. When Francis ascended the throne the royal palaces were decorated with only a scattering of great paintings, and not a single piece of sculpture either ancient or modern. It is during Francis' reign that the magnificent art collection of the French kings that can still be seen in the
Louvre was truly begun.
Man of letters
Francis I painted in 1515
Francis was also renowned as a
man of letters. When Francis comes up in a conversation among characters in
Castiglione's ''
Book of the Courtier'', it is as the great hope to bring culture to the war-obsessed French nation. Not only did Francis support a number of major writers of the period, he was a poet himself, if not one of immense quality. Francis worked hard at improving the royal library. He appointed the great French humanist
Guillaume Budé as chief librarian, and began to expand the collection. Francis employed agents in Italy looking for rare books and manuscripts, just as he had looking for art works. During his reign the size of the library increased greatly. Not only did Francis expand the library, there is also, according to Knecht, evidence that he read the books he bought for it, a much rarer feat in the royal annals. Francis set an important precedent by opening his library to scholars from around the world in order to facilitate the diffusion of knowledge.
In 1537, Francis signed the
Ordonnance de Montpellier, decreeing that his library be given a copy of every book to be sold in France.
Francis' older sister,
Marguerite (
1492 –
1549), Queen of
Navarre, was also accomplished in that she wrote the classic, ''
Heptameron''.
Construction
Francis was an impressive builder and he poured vast amounts of money into new structures. He continued the work of his predecessors on the
Château d'Amboise and also started renovations on the
Château de Blois. Early in his reign he also began construction of the magnificent
Château de Chambord, very obviously inspired by the styles of the Italian renaissance, and perhaps even designed by Leonardo. Francis rebuilt the
Louvre, turning it from a gloomy medieval fortress into a building of renaissance splendour. He financed the building of a new City Hall (''
Hôtel de Ville'') for Paris in order to have control over the building's design. He constructed the
Château de Madrid and rebuilt the
Château de St-Germain-en-Laye. The largest of Francis' building projects was the reconstruction and expansion of the
royal château of Fontainebleau, which quickly became his favourite place of residence, as well as the residence of his official mistress - Anne, duchess of Etampes. Each of Francis' projects was luxuriously decorated both inside and outside. Fontainebleau, for instance, had a gushing fountain in its courtyard where quantities of wine were mixed with the water.
Military
Militarily and politically, Francis' reign was less successful; he tried and failed to become
Holy Roman Emperor, and pursued a series of wars in Italy - see
Italian Wars. Francis did manage to defeat the Swiss at
Marignano, which enabled him to go on and capture the Italian city-state of Milan.
However much of Francis's career was fighting his sworn enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V. Charles ruled over both Germany and Spain, known as Habsburg encirclement, and was thus a threat to France. Francis attempted to arrange an alliance with
Henry VIII of England. The negotiations took place at the famous
Field of the Cloth of Gold of 1520, but ultimately failed. Francis' most devastating defeat occurred at the
Battle of Pavia (
1525), where he was captured by Charles:
Cesare Hercolani hurt his horse and Francis was captured by
Spaniards
Juan de Urbieta,
Diego Dávila and
Afonso Pita. For this reason,
Hercolani was named "victor of the battle of Pavia". The famous
Zuppa alla Pavese, now a renowned recipe was said to have been invented on the spot to feed the captive king right after the battle. Francis was held captive in
Madrid and forced to make major concessions to Charles before he was freed. Upon his return to France, however, Francis argued that his agreement with Charles was made under duress and he repudiated it.
The new world
As King, in
1524, he assisted the citizens of
Lyon to finance the expedition of
Giovanni da Verrazzano to North America; on this expedition, Verrazzano claimed
Newfoundland for the French crown. In
1534, he sent
Jacques Cartier to explore the
St. Lawrence River in
Quebec to find ''certaines îles et pays où l'on dit qu'il se doit trouver grande quantité d'or et autres riches choses'' ("certain islands and lands where it is said there must be great quantities of gold and other riches"). In 1541 he sent
Jean-François de la Roque de Roberval to settle Canada and to provide for the spread of "the Holy Catholic faith."
Bureaucratic reform
In his castle in
Villers-Cotterêts,
Aisne, in
1539, Francis signed the
edict which made French the administrative language instead of Latin. The same edict required priests to register births, marriages and deaths and to establish a registry office in every parish. This established the first records of vital statistics with filiations available in Europe.
An important change Francis brought to European history was that he came to an understanding with the
Ottoman Turks. No formal treaties with the 'infidels' were signed, but high-level meetings between the two powers let them collude against Charles V, and in
1543 the two powers even combined for a joint naval assault on
Nice.
Economic impact
While Francis left France strewn with magnificent palaces he caused severe harm to the nation's economic well-being in order to do so.
Religion
Francis I of France, by Joos van Cleve
It was in the later years of Francis' reign that the divisions in the
Christian religion erupted.
Martin Luther's denouncing of the corruption and self-indulgence of the
Roman Catholic Church led to the formation of the
Protestant movement which spread over Europe, including France.
At first Francis was reasonably tolerant of the new movement and even considered it as helpful since many German Protestant princes were turning against his sworn enemy,
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. But, on the night of the
17th to the
18th October 1534,
notices appeared on the streets of Paris and other major cities denouncing the
Papal Mass. The notice even appeared on the door to the king's room, and, it is said, the box in which he kept his handkerchief.
The most fervent Catholics were outraged by the notice's allegations. Francis himself saw this as a plot against him and persecutions followed. Protestants were jailed and executed. In some areas whole villages were destroyed.
Printing was censored and leading Protestants like
John Calvin forced into exile.
Antoine Marcourt, a Protestant
pastor, was responsible for the notices.
Things did get out of hand however and the persecutions soon numbered in the tens of thousands. Upset by the ways things were going, Francis died in
1547. It is said that he died complaining about the weight of a crown that he had first perceived as a gift from God.
Legacy
Francis' legacy is a mixed one. He achieved great cultural feats, but they came at the expense of France's economic well being.
The persecution of the Protestants was to lead France into
decades of civil war, which did not end until
1598 with the
Edict of Nantes.
Francis I died at the
Château de Rambouillet and is interred with his first wife, Claude de France, Duchess of Bretagne, in
Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his son,
Henry II.
Ancestors
Marriage and Issue
On
May 18,
1514, Francis married (172)
Claude, Princess of France (
October 13 1499 –
July 20 1524), who was the daughter of
Louis XII, King of France and
Anne, Duchess of Brittany. The couple had seven children:
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|
| Louise, Princess of France | August 19, 1515 | September 21, 1517 | Died young. Had no issue. |
| Charlotte, Princess of France | October 23, 1516 | September 8, 1524 | Died young. Had no issue. |
| Francis, Dauphin of France | February 28, 1518 | August 10, 1536 | Died young. Had no issue. |
| Henry II, King of France | March 31, 1519 | July 10, 1559 | Married Catherine de' Medici (1519 - 1589) in 1533. Had issue. |
| Madeleine, Princess of France | August 10, 1520 | July 2, 1537 | Married James V, King of Scotland (1512 - 1542) in 1537. Had no issue. |
| Charles of Valois, Duke of Orleans | January 22, 1522 | September 9, 1545 | Died young. Had no issue. |
| Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry | June 5, 1523 | September 14, 1574 | Married Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (1528 - 1580) in 1559. Had issue. |
On
August 7 1530, Francis I married his second wife
Eleanor of Austria. The couple had no children.
Francis I in fiction
The amorous exploits of Francis inspired the
1832 play by
Fanny Kemble (
1809-
1893} ''Francis the First'' and the
1832 play by
Victor Hugo (
1802-
1885), ''
Le Roi s'amuse'' ("The King Amuses Himself") featuring the jester
Triboulet, which later inspired the
1851 opera of
Giuseppe Verdi (
1813 –
1901), ''
Rigoletto''.
Francis was first played in a
George Méliès movie by an unknown actor in
1907, and has also been played by
Claude Garry (
1910),
Aimé Simon-Girard (
1937),
Sacha Guitry (
1937),
Gérard Oury (
1953),
Jean Marais (
1955),
Pedro Armendáriz (
1956),
Claude Titre (
1962),
Bernard Pierre Donnadieu (
1990),
Timothy West (
1998).
Francis receives a mention in a minor story in Laurence Sterne's novel ''
Tristram Shandy''. The narrator claims that the king, wishing to win the favour of Switzerland, offers to the make the country the godmother of his son. When, however, their choice of name conflicts with his tastes, he declares war. He's also mentioned in Jean de la Brète's novel ''Reine - Mon oncle et mon curé'', where the main character Reine de Lavalle idolizes him after reading his biography, much to the dismay of the local priest.
Samuel Shellabarger's novel ''The King's Cavalier'' describes Francis the man, and the cultural and political circumstances of his reign, in some detail, with particular emphasis on the great conflict in France between the medieval and the modern.
Notes
References
★ Clough, C.H., "Francis I and the Courtiers of Castiglione’s Courtier." ''European Studies Review.'' vol viii, 1978.
★ Denieul-Cormier, Anne. ''The Renaissance in France.'' trans. Anne and Christopher Fremantle. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1969.
★ Grant, A.J. ''The French Monarchy, Volume I.'' New York: Howard Fertig, 1970.
★ Guy, John. ''Tudor England.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
★ Jensen, De Lamar. ''Renaissance Europe.'' Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1992.
★ Knecht, R.J. ''Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
★ Major, J. Russell. ''From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy.'' Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
★ Seward, Desmond. ''François I: Prince of the Renaissance.'' New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
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