Francis I of France

Francis I of France (Cognac, September 12, 1494-Rambouillet, March 31, 1547), known as the Father and Restorer of Letters, the Knight King and Warrior King, he was consecrated as king of France on January 25, 1515 in Reims Cathedral, and reigned until his death in 1547.

His reign allowed the French nation to play an important role in European affairs and position itself as a first-rate economic power. Son of Charles of Angoulême and Louise of Savoy, he belonged to the Valois-Angoulême branch of the Capetian dynasty.

Francis I is considered the emblematic monarch of the French Renaissance period. His reign allowed an important development of arts and letters in France. The attraction that he felt for Italy was manifested in the patronage that he exercised over some Italian artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci.

On the military and political level, the reign of Francis I was plagued by wars and important diplomatic events. He had a powerful rival in the figure of the emperor and king of Spain, Charles I, and he had to count on the diplomatic interests of King Henry VIII of England, always eager to position himself as an ally of one side or another. Francis I recorded successes and failures, but he did not allow his imperial enemy to carry out his plans, the realization of which would compromise the integrity of the kingdom. His warrior efforts had heavy consequences for the Christian West by allowing the Ottoman Empire to seize almost the entire kingdom of Hungary and reach the gates of Vienna.

Biography

Youth and education

Francis I was born on September 12, 1494 in Cognac (in the then Duchy of Aquitaine and in the current department of Charente). His name comes from Francis of Paula. His father Charles of Angoulême, whom Francis never met, was the cousin of King Louis XII of France and the youngest son of the Duchess of Milan Valentina Visconti (1368-1408)..

Without heirs, Louis XII brought little Francis to the court of Amboise, accompanied by his mother Louise of Savoy and his older sister Margaret. It was in that castle and on the banks of the Loire where Francisco grew up.

Louise of Savoy, widowed at the age of 19 in 1495 when Francis was only two years old, raised her two children alone. Already as a child, he surrounded himself with companies that would retain their influence into his adult life, such as Anne de Montmorency (1492-1567), Martin de Montchenu, Philip de Brion and Robert de La Mark, lord of Fleuranges. In 1502, Francis He falls off his horse and is in critical condition. Her mother falls ill and she lives only for the healing of her son whom he calls "Caesar."

When Francis acceded to the throne in 1515, he was 20 years old and had a reputation as a humanist. He chooses the salamander as his emblem. His entry into Paris on February 15, 1515 sets the tone for his reign. Dressed in a suit of silver cloth and encrusted with jewels, he rears his horse and throws coins into the crowd. While his two predecessors, Charles VIII of France and Louis XII, spent much time in Italy, they did not take advantage of the artistic and cultural movement developing there. However, they allowed the further flowering of the Renaissance in France.

The contact between Italian and French culture during the long period of the Italian campaigns introduced new ideas to France at the time Francis was receiving his education. Many of his tutors, including François Desmoulins, his Latin teacher (a language that Francis would never fully assimilate), the Italian Gian Francesco Conti and Christophe Longueuil, instilled in the young Francis a teaching deeply inspired by Italian thought.. Francis's mother was also interested in Renaissance art and she transmitted that passion to her son, who, during his reign, mastered the Italian language to perfection. Although it is not possible to ensure that Francis received a humanist education, it can be said that he received an education that made him (much more than his predecessors) sensitive to that cultural movement.

A prince of the Renaissance

The patron and the artists

By the time Francis I acceded to the throne, the ideas of the Renaissance had spread throughout France, Francis being one of the promoters of this diffusion. He commissions numerous works from artists whom he makes travel to France. Several work for him, including Andrea del Sarto and Leonardo da Vinci. Francis I expresses a true affection for the old man, whom he calls "my father" and whom he installs in Clos Lucé, within reach of the royal château d'Amboise. Leonardo contributes his most famous works, such as The Mona Lisa , The Virgin, the Child Jesus and Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist . The king entrusts him with various missions, such as the organization of the Court festivities in Amboise, the creation of costumes and the study of various projects. Vinci remained in France until his death, in the arms of the king according to a legend questioned by certain historical documents.

During a painting exhibition at the beginning of the 19th century, a painting by Gigoux representing Leonardo da Vinci dying could be seen in the arms of Francis I, a topic already addressed in 1781 by François-Guillaume Ménageot. The tradition by which the painting had its purpose rests solely on a Latin epitaph. Leonardo da Vinci died at the castle of Cloux (now Clos Lucé), in Amboise, on May 2, 1519. Now, at that time, the Court was in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where the queen gave birth to King Henry II of France on March 31, and the royal ordinances made on May 1 are recorded at that site. Furthermore, Francis' diary does not mention any trip by the king until the month of July. Furthermore, Leonardo's student, Francesco Melzi, to whom he bequeathed his books and brushes and made depository of his will, wrote a letter to a brother of the great painter in which he recounted the death of his teacher..

Offspring

Francis I ascended the throne upon the death of Louis XII, whose daughter Claudia he had married. He would have seven children in this marriage:

1. Luisa (August 19, 1515-September 21, 1517). Briefly engaged to Charles I of Spain.

2. Charlotte (October 23, 1516-September 8, 1524). Died of rubella. She inspired her aunt, Margaret of Angoulême, queen of Navarre, to write the poem Dialogues in the form of night vision, with a reformist tendency.

3. Francis, Dauphin and Duke of Brittany (February 28, 1518 - August 10, 1536).

4. Henry, Duke of Orleans, Dauphin and King of France as Henry II, (March 31, 1519 – July 10, 1559). Married to Catherine de' Medici, he would have ten children, including the last three kings of the Valois dynasty (Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III) and Isabella, queen consort of Spain; Claudia, Duchess of Lorraine, and Margaret, Queen of Navarre and France.

5. Magdalena, (August 10, 1520-September 9, 1537). Queen of Scotland as wife of James V. Died of tuberculosis.

6. Charles, (January 22, 1522-September 9, 1545). Duke of Angoulême.

7. Margarita (June 5, 1523-September 14, 1574). Duchess of Berry and Duchess of Savoy, by marriage to Duke Manuel Filiberto of Savoy. Louis XV descended from her through her mother Mary Adelaide of Savoy. Margaret was briefly considered upon the death of Joan Seymour as a possible bride of Henry VIII.

Foreign policy

At the head of an army of 40,000 men, he marched to Italy to obtain victory in the Battle of Marignano, a triumph that, accompanied by subsequent peace treaties, gave the French monarchy stability on its border with the cantons. Swiss that lasted until 1792. Although the victory of the French achieved the cession of Milanese, it caused the destabilization of the balance of forces in Europe and the subsequent intervention of Emperor Charles V in Italy.

Several wars confronted them for the possession of Italy, in the first of which Francis I was defeated and taken prisoner in the Battle of Pavia (1525), when the French cavalry was undone by the Spanish-imperial cavalry and the crucial support Of the Spanish harquebusiers sent by the Marquis of Pescara, three Spanish men-at-arms caught up with him to arrest him. They killed his horse and knocked him to the ground. They were the Basque Juan de Urbieta, the Galician Alonso Pita da Veiga and the Granada-born Diego Dávila. Once the king had fallen to the ground, Urbieta and Pita da Veiga got out, looked up at him, and he said that it was up to the king not to kill him. Transferred to Madrid, he was forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid (1526), by which which should renounce its rights over important areas of the Italian peninsula (Milanese, Genoa, Naples) and other neighboring territories of the kingdom of France (Burgundy, Artois, Tournai and Flanders). He returned to France to process the treaty agreements and left his two eldest children as hostages to guarantee his commitment. Francis was the heir, he had the title of Dauphin, and Henry was Duke of Orleans. They were nine and eight years old. The French king did not comply with the Treaty of Madrid and the princes remained in Castile for more than four years. They were guarded by Íñigo Fernández de Velasco y Mendoza, Constable of Castile and upon his death by his son and successor Pedro Fernández de Velasco y Tovar. The children arrived accompanied by a large entourage of servants, but the emperor, who felt deceived by Francis I, ordered the majority of the entourage to be imprisoned and the children locked up in the Constable's fortresses. They were at first in Villalba de los Alcores, in three more fortresses and finally in Pedraza.

The sword of Francis I, captured in said battle, remained in Spain for 283 years until March 31, 1808, the date on which it was delivered in Madrid to the invading French army to be sent to Napoleon Bonaparte, who had expressed his interest to the Secretary of Office, Pedro Ceballos Guerra, through Joaquín Murat, Duke of Berg and brother-in-law of Napoleon. Ferdinand VII, eager at that time to obtain the favor of the emperor, authorized this return. Even Napoleon reprimanded Murat for that unnecessary act of provocation to the Spanish people consented to by the young Bourbon without taking into account the humiliation he represented.

After a new conflict, in 1529 a new peace was signed: that of Cambrai or of the Ladies, so called because it was negotiated and signed by Louise of Savoy and Margaret of Austria, mother and aunt, respectively, of the kings in discord. One of the clauses of said treaty established that Francis I, now a widower, would marry Archduchess Eleanor of Austria, widowed queen of Portugal. This strictly political marriage was celebrated on August 5, 1530 and had no offspring. Queen Eleanor arrived in France accompanied by the king's two eldest sons. The Peace of Cambrai stipulated that two million gold scudi were to be paid to the emperor in lieu of the territories of Burgundy, which was the emperor's main wish. He renounced Burgundy and returned the princes. The two children had remained captive in Castile for more than four years as a result of the French king's failure to fulfill what was promised in the Treaty of Madrid.

Subsequently, in 1538 the Truce of Nice was signed, which was followed, in 1544, by the Peace of Crépy, which put an end to the fights between Charles I and Francis I. This king established the foundations of monarchical absolutism in France. and he was protector of sciences and arts; He founded the College of France and the Royal Printing Press, and ordered the construction of the Louvre Palace to begin. He ruled almost as an absolute king, without convening the States General. He lived with great ostentation during his reign.

In his reign, in addition to the wars against Charles I of Spain, manifestations of intolerance towards Protestants in France (known as Huguenots) began, which would be the origin of the bloody wars of religion that devastated the country in the later decades. He was succeeded by his son Henry II. The dauphin Francis had died on August 10, 1536 in the French castle of Tournon

In popular culture

The dissolute life of Francis I inspired Victor Hugo to write a play "The King Has Fun" premiered in 1832 and harshly attacked by the censors. Giuseppe Verdi, inspired in turn by the work of Victor Hugo, composed his opera Rigoletto (1851), where Francis I is called the Duke of Mantua and his jester Triboulet, Rigoletto. In this work, Verdi has bequeathed the piece “La donna è mobile” to music.

Ancestors

Succession

Predecessor: Luis XII	King of France 1515-1547	Successor: Henry II
Predecessor: Maximilian Sforza	Duke of Milan 1515-1525	Successor: Francis II Sforza