FRANCIS I.
king of France, son of Charles of Valois, count of Angoultime, and Louise of Savoy, was born at Cognac on Sept. 12, 1494. On the accession of Louis XII. in 1498, Francis became heir-presumptive. Louis invested him with the duchy of Valois, and gave him as tutor Marshal de Gie, and, after Gie's disgrace in '503, the sieur de Boisy, Artus Gouffier. Francois de Rochefort, abbot of St. Mesmin, instructed Francis and his sister Marguerite in Latin and history; Louise herself taught them Italian and Spanish.
Francis showed a great love for violent exercises, such as hunting, which was his ruling passion, and tennis, and for tournaments, masquerades and amusements of all kinds. His earliest gallantries are described by his sister in the 25th and 42nd stories of the Heptameron. He married Claude, daughter of Louis XII., on May 18, 1514, and succeeded to the throne on Jan. I, 1515. In the early years of his reign the government was chiefly in the hands of Louise of Savoy, Chancellor Antoine Duprat, Secretary Florimond Robertet, and the two Gouffiers, Boisy and Bonnivet. The royal favour then elevated Anne de Montmorency and Philippe de Chabot, and in the last years of the reign Marshal d'Annebaud and Cardinal de Tournon. Women had a great influence over Francis—his sister, Marguerite d'Angouleme, and his mistresses. Whatever the number of these, he had only two titular mistresses—at the beginning of the reign Francoise de Chateaubriant, and from about 1526 to his death Anne de Pisseleu, whom he created duchesse d'Etampes and who entirely dominated him. It has not been proved that he was the lover of Diane de Poitiers, nor does the story of "La belle Ferronniere" appear to rest on any historical foundation. (See Paulin Paris, Etudes sur le regne de Francois I er. ) The Statesman.—Circumstances alone gave a homogeneous character to the foreign policy of Francis. The struggle against the emperor Charles V. filled the greater part of the reign. In reality, the policy of Francis, save for some flashes of sagacity, was irresolute and vacillating. Attracted at first by Italy, he led the triumphal Marignano expedition (1515), which gained him repu tation as a knightly king and as the most powerful prince in Europe. In 1519, in spite of wise counsels, he stood as candidate for the imperial crown. The election of Charles V. caused an inevitable rivalry between the two monarchs which accentuated the light and chivalrous temper of the king and the cold and politic character of the emperor. Francis's personal intervention in this struggle was seldom happy. He did not succeed in gaining the support of Henry VIII. of England in 1520 ; his want of tact goaded the Constable de Bourbon to extreme measures in 1522– 1523 ; and in the Italian campaign of 1525 he proved himself a vacillating and foolhardy leader, and by his blundering led the army to the disaster of Pavia (Feb. 25, 1525), where, however, he fought with great bravery (see ITALY: History). "Of all things," he wrote to his mother after the defeat, "nothing remains to me but honour and life, which is safe"—the authentic version of the legendary phrase "All is lost save honour." He strove to play the part of royal captive heroically, but the prison life galled him. He fell ill at Madrid and was on the point of death. For a moment he thought of abdicating rather than of ceding Burgundy. But this was too great a demand upon his fortitude, and he yielded and signed the treaty of Madrid (1526). After Madrid he wavered unceasingly between two courses : that of continuing hostilities, and the policy favoured by Montmorency of peace and under standing with the emperor. At times he had the sagacity to rec ognize the utility of alliances, as was shown by those he concluded with the Porte and with the Protestant princes of Germany. But he could never pledge himself frankly in one sense or the other, and this vacillation prevented him from attaining any decisive results. At his death, however, France was in possession of Savoy and Piedmont.
In his religious policy Francis showed the same instability. Drawn between various influences, that of Marguerite d'Angouleme, the du Bellays, and the duchesse d'Etampes, who was in favour of the Reformation or at least of toleration, and the contrary influence of the uncompromising Catholics, Duprat, and then Montmorency and de Tournon, he gave pledges succes sively to both parties. In the first years of the reign, following the counsels of Marguerite, he protected Jacques Lefevre of Etaples and Louis de Berquin, and showed some favour to the new doc trines. But the violence of the Reformers threw him into the arms of the opposite party. The affair of the Placards in
determined him to adopt a policy of severity. From that time, in spite of occasional indulgences shown to the Reformers, due to his desire to conciliate the Protestant powers, Francis gave a free hand to the party of repression, of which the most active and most pitiless member was Cardinal de Tournon ; and the end of the reign was sullied by the massacre of the Waldenses
The Ruler.—Francis introduced new methods into government. In his reign the monarchical authority became more imperious and more absolute. His was the government "du bon plaisir." By the unusual development he gave to the court he converted the nobility into a brilliant household of dependents. The Concordat brought the clergy into subjection, and enabled him to distribute benefices at his pleasure among the most docile of his courtiers. He governed in the midst of a group of favourites, who formed the conseil des affaires. The states-general did not meet, and the remonstrances of the parlement were scarcely tolerated.. By centralizing the financial administration by the creation of the Tresor de l'Epargne, and by developing the military establish ments, Francis still further strengthened the royal power. His government had the vices of his foreign policy. It was uncertain, irregular and disorderly. The finances were squandered in grati fying the king's unbridled prodigality, and the treasury was drained by his luxurious habits, by the innumerable gifts and pensions he distributed among his mistresses and courtiers, by his war expenses and by his magnificent buildings. His govern ment, too, weighed heavily upon the people, and he was less popular than is sometimes imagined.
Francis owes the greater measure of his glory to the artists and men of letters who vied in celebrating his praises. He was pre-eminently the king of the Renaissance. Of a quick and cultivated intelligence, he had a sincere love of letters and art. He holds a high place in the history of humanism by the founda tion of the College de France ; he did not found an actual college, but after much hesitation instituted in 1530, at the instance of Guillaume Bude (Budaeus), Lecteurs royaux, who in spite of the opposition of the Sorbonne were granted full liberty to teach Hebrew, Greek, Latin, mathematics, etc. The humanists Bude, Jacques Colin and Pierre Duchatel were the king's intimates, and Clement Marot was his favourite poet. Francis sent to Italy for artists and for works of art, but he protected his own country men also. Here, too, he showed his customary indecision, wavering between the two schools. At his court he installed Benvenuto Cellini, Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso del Rosso, but in the buildings at Chambord, St. Germain, Villers-Cotterets and Fontainebleau the French tradition triumphed over the Italian.
Francis died on March 31, 1S47. By his first wife Claude (d. 15 24) he had three sons and four daughters: Louise, who died in infancy; Charlotte, who died at the age of eight; Francis (d. 1536) ; Henry, who came to the throne as Henry II. ; Madeleine, who became queen of Scotland; Charles (d.
; and Margaret, duchess of Savoy. In 1530 he married Eleanor, the sister of the emperor Charles V.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-For the official acts of the reign, the Catalogue Bibliography.-For the official acts of the reign, the Catalogue des actes de Francois ler, published by the Academie des Sciences morales et politiques (1887-1907), is a valuable guide. The Biblio theque Nationale, the National Archives, etc., contain a mass of un published documents. Of the published documents, see N. Camuzat, Meslanges historiques . . . (Troyes, 1619) ; G. Ribier, Lettres et memoires d'estat (1666) ; Lettres de Marguerite d'Angouleme, ed. by F. Genin (1841 and 5842) ; the Correspondance de Castillon et Marillac (ed. Kaulek, 1885), of Odet de Selve (ed. by Lefevre-Pontalis, 1888), and of Guillaume Pellicier (ed. Tausserat-Radel, 1900) ; Captivite du roi Francois ler, and Poesies de Francois ler (both ed. by Champollion Figeac, 5847, of doubtful authenticity) ; Relations des ambassadeurs venitiens, etc. Of the memoirs and chronicles, see the journal of Louise of Savoy in S. Guichenon's Histoire de la maison de Savoie, vol. iv. (ed. of 1778-80 ; Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, ed. by Lalanne (18S4) ; Cronique du roy Francois ler, ed. by Guiffrey (1868) ; Journal de Jean Barillon, ed. by de Vaissiere
; and the memoirs of Fleuranges, Montluc, Tavannes, Vieilleville, Brantome and especially Martin du Bellay (coll. Michaud and Poujoulat) . Of the innumerable secondary authorities, see especially Paulin Paris, Etudes sur le regne de Francois ter (1885) , in which the apologetic tendency is excessive; and H. Lemonnier in vol. v. (5903-04) of E. Lavisse's Histoire de France, which gives a list of the principal secondary authorities. There is a more complete bibliographical study by V. L. Bourrilly in the Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, vol. iv. (19o2—o3) . The printed sources have been catalogued by H. Hauser, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, XVIe siecle, tome ii. (19o7).
(J. I.; X.)
