Francis I of France
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Francis I (French: François Ier;
A prodigious
For his role in the development and promotion of the French language, he became known as le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres (the 'Father and Restorer of Letters').[1] He was also known as François au Grand Nez ('Francis of the Large Nose'), the Grand Colas, and the Roi-Chevalier (the 'Knight-King').[1]
In keeping with his predecessors, Francis continued the
Early life and accession
Francis of Orléans was born on 12 September 1494 at the Château de Cognac in the town of Cognac,[1] which at that time lay in the province of Saintonge, a part of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Today the town lies in the department of Charente.
Francis was the only son of
In 1505, Louis XII, having fallen ill, ordered for his daughter
Reign
As Francis was receiving his education, ideas emerging from the
Patron of the arts
By the time he ascended the throne in 1515, the Renaissance had arrived in France, and Francis became an enthusiastic patron of the arts. At the time of his accession, the royal palaces of France were ornamented with only a scattering of great paintings, and not a single sculpture, not ancient nor modern.
Francis patronized many great artists of his time, including
Man of letters
Francis was also renowned as a
In 1537, Francis signed the
Construction
Francis poured vast amounts of money into new structures. He continued the work of his predecessors on the
Military action
Although the
Much of the military activity of Francis's reign was focused on his sworn enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Francis and Charles maintained an intense personal rivalry. Charles, in fact, brashly dared to challenge Francis to single combat multiple times. In addition to the Holy Roman Empire, Charles personally ruled Spain, Austria, and a number of smaller possessions neighbouring France. He was thus a constant threat to Francis I's kingdom.
Francis I attempted to arrange an alliance with
However, the situation was grave; Francis had to face not only the whole might of Western Europe, but also internal hostility in the form of
Francis was held captive morbidly in Madrid. In a letter to his mother, he wrote, "Of all things, nothing remains to me but honour and life, which is safe." This line has come down in history famously as "All is lost save honour." and Henry, Duke of Orléans, the future Henry II of France, but once he was free he revoked the forced concessions as his agreement with Charles was made under duress. He also proclaimed that the agreement was void because his sons were taken hostage with the implication that his word alone could not be trusted. Thus he firmly repudiated it. A renewed alliance with England enabled Francis to repudiate the treaty of Madrid.
Francis persevered in his rivalry against Charles and his intent to control Italy. By the mid-1520s,
On 24 July 1534, Francis, inspired by the Spanish
After the League of Cognac failed, Francis concluded a secret alliance with the
Relations with the Americas and Asia
Francis had been much aggrieved at the papal bull Aeterni regis: in June 1481 Portuguese rule over Africa and the Indies was confirmed by Pope Sixtus IV. Thirteen years later, on 7 June 1494, Portugal and the Crown of Castille signed the Treaty of Tordesillas under which the newly discovered lands would be divided between the two signatories. All this prompted Francis to declare, "The sun shines for me as it does for others. I would very much like to see the clause of Adam’s will by which I should be denied my share of the world."[24]
In order to counterbalance the power of the Habsburg Empire under Charles V, especially its control of large parts of the New World through the Crown of Spain, Francis endeavoured to develop contacts with the New World and Asia. Fleets were sent to the Americas and the Far East, and close contacts were developed with the Ottoman Empire permitting the development of French Mediterranean trade as well as the establishment of a strategic military alliance.
The port city now known as Le Havre was founded in 1517 during the early years of Francis' reign. The construction of a new port was urgently needed in order to replace the ancient harbours of Honfleur and Harfleur, whose utility had decreased due to silting. Le Havre was originally named Franciscopolis after the king who founded it, but this name did not survive into later reigns.
Americas
In 1524, Francis assisted the citizens of
In 1531, Bertrand d'Ornesan tried to establish a French trading post at Pernambuco, Brazil.[26]
In 1534, Francis sent Jacques Cartier to explore the St. Lawrence River in Quebec to find "certain islands and lands where it is said there must be great quantities of gold and other riches".[27] In 1541, Francis sent Jean-François de Roberval to settle Canada and to provide for the spread of "the Holy Catholic faith."
Asia
French trade with East Asia was initiated during the reign of Francis I with the help of shipowner
Ottoman Empire
Under the reign of Francis I, France became the first country in Europe to establish formal relations with the
In a watershed moment in European diplomacy, Francis came to an understanding with the Ottoman Empire that developed into a Franco-Ottoman alliance. The objective for Francis was to find an ally against the House of Habsburg.[32] The pretext used by Francis was the protection of the Christians in Ottoman lands. The alliance has been called "the first nonideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a Christian and non-Christian empire".[33] It did, however, cause quite a scandal in the Christian world[34] and was designated "the impious alliance", or "the sacrilegious union of the [French] Lily and the [Ottoman] Crescent." Nevertheless, it endured for many years, since it served the objective interests of both parties.[35] The two powers colluded against Charles V, and in 1543 they even combined for a joint naval assault in the siege of Nice.
In 1533, Francis I sent colonel
Bureaucratic reform and language policy
Francis took several steps to eradicate the monopoly of Latin as the language of knowledge. In 1530, he declared French the national language of the kingdom, and that same year opened the Collège des trois langues, or Collège Royal, following the recommendation of humanist Guillaume Budé. Students at the Collège could study Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, then Arabic under Guillaume Postel beginning in 1539.[37]
In 1539, in his castle in
Religious policies
Divisions in
Initially, Francis was relatively tolerant of the new movement, despite burning several heretics at the
Francis' attitude towards
Persecutions against Protestants were codified in the
Death
Francis died at the
Francis' tomb and that of his wife and mother, along with the tombs of other French kings and members of the royal family, were desecrated on 20 October 1793 during the Reign of Terror at the height of the French Revolution.
Image and reputation
Francis I has a poor reputation in France—his 500th anniversary was little noted in 1994. Popular and scholarly historical memory ignores his building of so many fine chateaux, his stunning art collection, and his lavish patronage of scholars and artists. He is seen as a playboy who disgraced France by allowing himself to be defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia. The historian Jules Michelet set the negative image.[45]
Francis' personal emblem was the
British historian Glenn Richardson considers Francis a success:
- He was a king who ruled as well as reigned. He knew the importance of war and a high international profile in staking his claim to be a great warrior-king of France. In battle, he was brave, if impetuous, which led equally to triumph and disaster. Domestically, Francis exercised the spirit and letter of the royal prerogative to its fullest extent. He bargained hard over taxation and other issues with interest groups, often by appearing not to bargain at all. He enhanced royal power and concentrated decision-making in a tight personal executive but used a wide range of offices, gifts and his own personal charisma to build up an elective personal affinity among the ranks of the nobility upon whom his reign depended .... Under Francis, the court of France was at the height of its prestige and international influence during the 16th century. Although opinion has varied considerably over the centuries since his death, his cultural legacy to France, to its Renaissance, was immense and ought to secure his reputation as among the greatest of its kings.[48]
Marriage and issue
On 18 May 1514, Francis married his second cousin Claude, the daughter of King Louis XII and Duchess Anne of Brittany. The couple had seven children:
- Louise (19 August 1515 – 21 September 1518): died young; engaged to Charles I of Spainalmost from birth until death.
- Charlotte (23 October 1516 – 8 September 1524): died young; engaged to Charles I of Spain from 1518 until death.
- Francis (28 February 1518 – 10 August 1536): succeeded his mother Claude as Duke of Brittany, but died aged 18, unmarried and childless.
- Henry II (31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559): succeeded his father Francis I as King of France and his brother Francis as Duke of Brittany. Married Catherine de' Medici and had issue.
- Madeleine (10 August 1520 – 2 July 1537): married James V of Scotlandand had no issue.
- Charles(22 January 1522 – 9 September 1545): died unmarried and childless.
- Margaret (5 June 1523 – 14 September 1574): married Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoyand had issue.
On 7 July 1530, Francis I married his second wife Eleanor of Austria,[49] Queen (widow) of Portugal and the sister of Emperor Charles V. The couple had no children.
During his reign, Francis kept two official mistresses at court, and he was the first king to officially give the title of "maîtresse-en-titre" to his favorite mistress.[50] The first was Françoise de Foix, Countess of Châteaubriant. In 1526, she was replaced by the blonde-haired, cultured Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Duchess of Étampes, who, with the death of Queen Claude two years earlier, wielded far more political power at court than her predecessor had done. Another of his earlier mistresses was allegedly Mary Boleyn, mistress of King Henry VIII and sister of Henry's future wife, Anne Boleyn.[51]
Portrayals
Francis was the subject of several portraits. A 1525–30 work by Jean Clouet is now housed at the Louvre in Paris.[52] A portrait dated to 1532–33 by Joos van Cleve may have been commissioned either for the occasion of a meeting with Henry VIII of England or Francis' second marriage.[53] The workshop of van Cleve produced copies of this work to be distributed to other courts.[54][55]
The amorous exploits of Francis inspired the 1832 play by
Ancestors
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See also
References
- ^ a b c Knecht (1982), p. 1–2.
- ^ Knecht (1982), pp. 77, 78.
- ^ Knecht (1982), pp. 224–225, 230.
- ^ Knecht, Robert (2004). The Valois. Hambledon Continuum. p. 112.
- ^ a b Knecht (1982), p. 3.
- ^ Knecht (1982), pp. 8, 9.
- ^ Knecht (1982), p. 11.
- ^ Knecht (1982), p. 16.
- OL 811378M.
- ^ Plats, John (1826). A New Universal Biography: Forming the first volume of series III. Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper. p. 301.
- ISBN 0-231-13412-6.
- ^ Faillon, Étienne-Michel (1835). Monumens de l'église de Sainte-Marthe à Tarascon, département des Bouches-du-Rhône (in French). Tarascon: Élisée Aubanel, Imprimeur-libraire. p. 57.
- ^ Hoyt, Robert S. & Stanley Chodorow, Europe in the Middle Ages (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich Inc.: New York, 1976) p. 619.
- ^ Richardson (2014), pp. 32–36.
- ^ Richardson (1994), pp. 20–26.
- ISBN 978-1-4521-2392-9.
- ^ Isaac, Jules (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 935.
- ^ Mallet, Michael;and Shaw, Christine. The Italian Wars: 1494–1559 (Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited, 2012) p. 153.
- ^ Kendall, Paul Murray. Louis XI: The Universal Spider (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1971) p. 314.
- ^ Mallett, Michael; Shaw, Christine. The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. p. 155.
- ^ Richardson (2015), p. 41.
- ISBN 978-1-349-24020-3.
- ^ Geoffrey Parker, Emperor (2019) pp 308–312.
- ISBN 978-2-89448-186-8.
- OCLC 1752690.
- ^ Knecht (1982), p. 375.
- ^ Knecht (1982), p. 333.
- ^ a b Benians, Ernest Alfred; Newton, Arthur Percival; Rose, John Holland (1940). The English history of the British Empire. p. 61. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ISBN 978-81-206-0710-1. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ISBN 978-1-85285-024-1. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-19-820291-2.
- ^ Miller, William (4 January 1923). "The Ottoman Empire and its successors, 1801–1922. Being a rev. and enl. ed. of The Ottoman Empire, 1801–1913". Cambridge University Press – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-0-520-04206-3. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ^ Miller, p. 2
- ISBN 978-1-4067-7272-2. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ^ "Francois I, hoping that Morocco would open up to France as easily as Mexico had to Spain, sent a commission, half commercial and half diplomatic, which he confided to one Pierre de Piton. The story of his mission is not without interest" in The conquest of Morocco by Cecil Vivian Usborne, S. Paul & co. ltd., 1936, p. 33.
- ISBN 978-1-84520-374-0, p. 25 ff.
- ISBN 978-0-631-22729-8. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ^ Pierre Goubert, The Course of French History, Psychology Press, 1991, p. 92.
- ^ Pierre Goubert, The Course of French History, Psychology Press, 1991, pp. 91–92.
- ^ Goubert, op. cit., p. 92
- ^ Knecht (1982), pp. 405, 406.
- ^ Knecht 1997, p. 69.
- ^ Cavendish, Richard. "The Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots". www.historytoday.com.
- ^ Robert J. Knecht, "'Born between two women...'Jules Michelet and Francis I." Renaissance Studies (2000) 14#3: 329–343 online
- ^ Richardson (2015).
- ^ Larousse [1]
- ^ Richardson (2015), p. 45.
- Wurzbach, Constantin von (1860). "Habsburg, Eleonore von Oesterreich (Tochter Philipp's von Oesterreich)". Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich. Vienna: Verlag L. C. Zamarski.
- ISBN 978-0-06-058544-0.
- ^ Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, X, no. 450
- ^ "Portrait of François I, King of France". Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
- ^ "Portrait of Francis I, King of France". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
- ^ "Portrait of Francis I, King of France". The Walters Art Museum. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
- ^ "Francis I (1494–1547), King of France". The Met. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
- ^ Edwards, Henry Sutherland (June 1883). "The Original of Rigoletto". The Lute. 1 (6): 126–127. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
- ^ Rège, Philippe (2010). "Méliès, Georges". Encyclopedia of French Film Directors. Vol. 1. Scarecrow Press (published 16 January 2010). p. 708.
- ^ a b c Adams, Tracy (2010). The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 255.
- ^ ISBN 978-2-86477-071-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-57607-091-8.
- ^ a b Palluel-Guillard, André. "La Maison de Savoie" (in French). Conseil Savoie Mont Blanc. Archived from the original on 8 July 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
- ^ a b Leguai, André (2005). "Agnès de Bourgogne, duchesse de Bourbon (1405?–1476)". Les ducs de Bourbon, le Bourbonnais et le royaume de France à la fin du Moyen Age [The dukes of Bourbon, the Bourbonnais and the kingdom of France at the end of the Middle Ages] (in French). Yzeure: Société bourbonnaise des études locales. pp. 145–160.
Further reading
- Clough, C.H. "Francis I and the Courtiers of Castiglione’s Courtier." European Studies Review. vol. 8, 1978.
- Denieul-Cormier, Anne. The Renaissance in France. trans. Anne Fremantle and Christopher Fremantle. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1969.
- Frieda, Leonie. Francis I: The Maker of Modern France. New York: HarperCollins, 2018.
- Grant, Arthur James. The French Monarchy, Volume I. New York: Howard Fertig, 1970.
- Guy, John. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
- Isom-Verhaaren, Christine. "'Barbarossa and His Army Who Came to Succor All of Us': Ottoman and French Views of Their Joint Campaign of 1543–1544." French Historical Studies 30:3 (2007): 395–425 online[dead link].
- Jensen, De Lamar. "The Ottoman Turks in Sixteenth Century French Diplomacy," Sixteenth Century Journal 16:4 (1985): 451–470 JSTOR 2541220
- Jensen, De Lamar, ed. Renaissance Europe: Age of Recovery and Reconciliation. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company (2nd ed. 1991).
- .
- —— (1982). Francis I. Cambridge University Press. OL 7735278M.
- —— (1994). Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-57885-1.
- —— (1997). French Renaissance Monarchy: Francis I and Henry II (2nd ed.). Routledge.
- —— (2000). "'Born between two women ...' Jules Michelet and Francis I". Renaissance Studies. 14 (3): 329–343. S2CID 162232217.
- —— (2003). "An Update on the Reign of Francis I". History Compass. 1 (1): **. .
- —— (2016). "A Battle of Giants". History Today. 88 (1): 49–54. Battle of Marignano, Italy in 1515.
- Major, J. Russell. From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994).
- Mansfield, Lisa. Representations of Renaissance Monarchy: Francis I and the Image-Makers (2016).
- Norwich, John Julius. Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe. (Grove Press, 2016).
- Parker, Geoffrey. Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (Yale University Press, 2019).
- Potter, D. L. Renaissance France at War: Armies, Culture and Society, c. 1480–1560 (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2008).
- Reston Jr., James. Defenders of the Faith: Christianity and Islam Battle for the Soul of Europe, 1520–1536 (Penguin, 2009), popular history.
- Richardson, Glenn (1994). "Good Friends and Brothers? Francis I and Henry VIII". History Today. 44 (9): 20–26.
- —— (2014). The Field of Cloth of Gold. Yale University Press. OL 27957943M.
- —— (May 2015). "The Greatest French King". History Today. 65 (5): 39–45.
- —— (July 2020). "The Field of Cloth of Gold". History Today. 70 (7): 28–39.
- OL 10687109M
External links
- Media related to Francis I of France at Wikimedia Commons