FRANCIS I, king of France: b. Cognac, France, 12 Sept. 1494; d. Rambouillet, 31 March 1547. He succeeded to the throne in 1515, on the death of Louis XII, who died without male issue. As grandson of Valentino of Milan, he put himself at the head of an army to assert his right over the Milanese. The Swiss, who opposed him in his entry into the duchy, were defeated at Marignano (or Melegnano), and Milan fell immediately after this victory. After a short war with England, the famous inter view between Henry VIII and Francis took place, in 1520, in Flanders, which, from the magnificence displayed on the occasion, was called The Field of the Cloth of Gold (q.v.). In the same year, Charles V of Spain having inherited the empire after the death of Maxi milian Francis laid claim to the imperial dignity and declared war against his rival. In this struggle, however, he met with nothing but reverses. After the defeat of Marshal Lautrec at Bicoca, in 1522, the retreat of Bon nivet, and Bayard's death, Francis was himself, in 1525, beaten at Pavia, and taken prisoner.
The fight had been a fierce one, and the king wrote to his mother, "All is lost, except honor.)) Led captive into Spain, he recovered his liberty only at the cost of an onerous treaty, signed at Madrid in 1526; but which Francis subsequently declared null and void. He immediately recommenced war in Italy, met with fresh de feats. and concluded a second treaty at Cambrai in 1529. He once more invaded Italy, in 1536,• and, after various successes, consented to a definite arrangement at crespi, in 1544, by which the French were excluded from Italy, though Milan was given to the Duke of Orleans, the second son of Francis. Francis was a friend to arts and literature, which flourished during his reign; and he was called the "Father of Letters.' Justice, also, began to be better administered in his reign. He founded the Royal College of France, the Royal Library and built several palaces. He was succeeded by his son, Henry II.