The Renaissance

including Chambord, Chenonceau, Am-
boise, and the Louvre, were raised by the
country’s best architects, who married clas-
sical style to the decorative Gothic manner
of the Middle Ages. The palace of the Tu-
ileries, built just west of the Louvre in the
center of Paris, held gardens, grottoes, and
other trappings of Italian architecture that
was directly influenced by the villas of the
Roman emperors. These monuments sym-
bolized France as an imperial power, the
strongest unified kingdom in Europe. To
reinforce this ambition, which began in
the time of Francis I, explorers were sent
across the oceans to compete with colo-
nizers from Spain, England, and Portugal.
While the Spanish and Portuguese claimed
the Caribbean and South America, France
sent its navigators on a more northerly
route. Jacques Cartier sailed up the Saint
Lawrence River, establishing France’s claim
to Canada, and Giovanni Verrazano, serv-
ing the French king, explored the Atlantic
coast of North America.

Henry IV, who reigned in the late six-
teenth century, helped to transform Paris
from an overgrown medieval village to a
Renaissance capital, decorating the city
with the Pont Neuf and the Place des Vos-
ges, a central square of uniform facades
and balanced proportions. Architects who
designed the Chateau of Fontainebleau,
including Toussaint Dubreuil, Martin
Freminet, and Ambroise Dubois, estab-
lished the School of Fontainebleau, which
imported Italian Renaissance style and
served as an example for French architects
for the next two centuries. French com-
posers, including Josquin des Prez, made
France a musical rival of Italy; the French
chansons were a popular form of music
that was widely imitated all over Europe.
Artists of the late Renaissance in Italy cre-
ated a new style that was meant to break

the heavy traditions of Italian painting and

sculpture; Jean Clouet and his son Fran-

cois Clouet mastered the genre of portrait

painting, giving it a particular elegance

and intimacy that would become a hall-

mark of French art style in the centuries

to come.

SEEALSO: Charles VIII; Clouet, Jean; de

Poitiers, Diane; Fouquet, Jean; Francis I;

Henry IV

Francis I (Francois) .........................

(1494–1547)

Valois dynasty king of France from 1515

until his death in 1547. Francis (Francois

in French) was born in the chateau of Co-

gnac. He was the son of Charles, Count of

Angouleme and Louise of Savoy. He be-

came the heir and favorite of King Louis

XII, who had failed to produce male heirs

of his own and arranged Francois’s mar-

riage to his own daughter Claudia. In the

first year of his reign, Francois scored an

important victory against an army of Swiss

mercenaries at the Battle of Marignano,

after which France took control of the

northern Italian city of Milan. To secure

his authority in northern Italy, Francois

signed pacts with the pope, the Swiss Con-

federation, Emperor Maximilian I, and

Archduke Charles, the heir to the Holy

Roman Empire.

After Maximilian died, Francois de-

clared his candidacy for the title of em-

peror. He was thwarted when the electors

chose instead Archduke Charles, now Em-

peror Charles V. This defeat resulted in

France being surrounded by a string of

territories, including the Low Countries,

Spain, and Burgundy, which were ruled by

the emperor, his rival. To achieve a bal-

ance of power in Europe, Francois allied

Francis I (Francois)