Francis 1 of Valois ruled his state for a long 32 years. During these years, thanks to his love of art, the Renaissance came to France. At the same time, his internal policy significantly strengthened the absolutist features of royal power. This controversial monarch and his manner of government will be discussed in this article.
Childhood
Francis was born on September 12, 1494. The son of Charles of Angouleme and Louise of Savoy, he spent his entire childhood in a family castle located in the small town of Cognac, near Bordeaux. The future king of France received the same upbringing and education as most of the noble offspring of that time: he knew a little about history and geography, but was well versed in mythology, skillfully fenced and rode.
When he was twelve, he was engaged to a 7-year-old bride, daughter of Louis and heiress of the Duchy of Brittany, and 2 years after this event, he left his parental castle for Paris. In 1514 he entered into a legal marriage. Claude - the first wife of Francis 1 - bore him seven children, one of whomwould later become King Henry II. The second marriage will be concluded after the death of his first wife, with K. Habsburg's sister, Eleonora.
1515: France
Francis 1 as the new king ascended the throne on January 1, 1515. The coming to power largely depended on his belonging to the Valois family, but the energy and enterprise of his ambitious mother, Louise of Savoy, served as a much larger and, one might say, decisive factor.
After the sudden death of King Charles XIII, there was hope that it was Francis who would take the empty throne, since the late monarch was childless. However, the crown passed into the hands of the Duke of Orleans, known as Louis XII, who also had no children by that time. The son of Louise of Savoy in this case was to receive the status of dauphin, i.e. crown prince. And for this it was necessary to take possession of the Duchy of Orleans, which would securely secure the position he desired for Francis.
It must be said that Louis XII at that time was only 36 years old, and in order to acquire an heir, he divorced his first wife, who could not have children. After that, he immediately married Anna of Brittany, who managed to give birth to only two daughters. Thus, this king was left without an heir. As a result, Francis 1 became the main contender for the royal throne, whom his mother began to prepare for this mission in advance. By the way, later it was she who was almost his main adviser on political issues.
Capturing Italian lands
It was only a year after the accession of the new king to the throne, as his warlike temper began to manifest itself in full. Francis gathered all his army and moved towards Italy, overcoming a mountain pass. Five days lasted the hardest passage through the Alps: his soldiers had to carry guns literally on their hands.
Descending from the mountains, the French troops immediately captured Piedmont, and then Genoa. I must say that before Francis 1, no one managed to overcome the Alps in this way. Therefore, it was a big surprise for the Italians when the French army suddenly appeared in front of the gates of Milan. The defenders of the city could not hold back the pressure of the attackers, and soon Milan fell. At the end of 1516, "perpetual peace" was concluded. According to the document, Emperor Maximilian and Pope Leo X recognized the supremacy of Francis, after which he received the title of ruler of the Duchy of Milan.
Capture
The situation with the seizure of Italian lands by Francis 1 did not like his eternal opponent Charles V of Habsburg, who became the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in 1519. He had other plans for these territories. Now Charles V with his army crossed the Alps and approached Milan. Two opposing armies of 30,000 men met in battle near Pavia. Here the French suffered a crushing defeat. The remnants of the troops of Francis 1 fled, and the king himself was captured and imprisoned in the tower of the Madrid castle.
It took a whole year before it was redeemed, butbefore releasing, Habsburg forced the French monarch to sign one document, where he recognized all the rights of Charles V to the lands he had previously conquered in Northern Italy. However, once at home, Francis stated that he had concluded the treaty under great pressure. Therefore, he soon made another attempt to regain the territories taken by the enemy, but, as you know, it ended in nothing. In the end, in 1530, he intermarried with his former enemy Habsburg, marrying his sister Eleanor, since by this time his first wife Claude had already died. After that, he calmed down and began to live for his own pleasure, providing patronage to people of art.
Domestic policy
The huge costs of maintaining numerous courtiers and waging wars forced the French king to double the amount of taxes, as well as to resort to some innovations, which would later be called characteristic features of the "old order". This refers to the common practice of selling posts, as well as the emergence of the concept of "public debt", which was expressed in municipal rents. At that time, the role of financial officials increased incredibly, and this was followed by increased control of the authorities over their activities, which constantly threatened them with real repressions.
King Francis 1 constantly pursued a policy of strengthening his own coin, for which he minimized the export of precious metals from the country, patronized both domestic and foreign trade. In addition, he hadcarried out a sea expedition led by Jacques Cartier, which in 1534 was crowned with the discovery of Canada.
Under Francis 1, a lengthy edict was adopted, which existed until the beginning of the 19th century, signed in Villers-Cottres in 1539, which was able to streamline and unify the judicial system. The monarch, in some incomprehensible way, always knew how to stand his ground, while successfully overcoming various forms of resistance, such as the uprising of the townspeople in Lyon (1529) and La Rochelle (1542), as well as other opposition from the parliamentary opposition and universities. In order to convince those who disagreed with his decision, Francis used not administrative-bureaucratic methods, but political means, which included negotiations, threats, concessions, even symbolic gestures and personal connections of the monarch.
Patron of Art
Francis 1 became the last so-called traveling king. His court consisted of twice as many people as it was under the previous monarch. The number of courtiers reached a thousand. It took about 18 thousand horses to move such a large number of people. In addition, the court also needed premises, so the construction of new palaces was greatly accelerated, most of which are located in Fontainebleau and along the banks of the Loire River.
Both in life and in politics, the French king Francis 1 paid great attention to art, in particular sculpture and painting. He did this not only out of love for the beautiful, but also to represent hismonarchy, as well as for the propaganda war with the Habsburgs. To a modern person, the then French court might seem akin to the theater of the absurd, since most of the palaces were decorated with nude sculptures of ancient deities. Francis 1 himself preferred to be portrayed as Mars, the god of war.
What was he like
Contemporaries of the monarch have always emphasized his majestic posture, athletic build, high growth (about 180 cm), courage and extraordinary liveliness of mind. He was an excellent politician who skillfully surrounded himself with talented advisers, such as Cardinal de Tournon, Antoine Duprat, Guillaume du Bellay, and others. Despite the fact that Francis 1 often had outbursts of anger, he was a rather merciful king compared to others who ruled country before and after.
Contradictory personality
The ambivalence of historians towards the person of this monarch is an indisputable fact. On the one hand, Francis 1, King of France, who ruled from 1515 to 1547, was a good warrior and a real knight, a patron of the arts, under which the Renaissance began, when scientists, musicians and artists reached out to the court. On the other hand, he loved to fight and dreamed of annexing part of the Italian lands to his possessions.
At the beginning of his reign, the people adored him, and at the end of his life he decided to persecute heretics. It was under him that the first bonfires of the Inquisition blazed in France, which forced the Protestants to flee away from the rabid obscurantist monks far beyond the borders of their nativecountries.
