The Renaissance

himself with German Protestant princes
who opposed the rule of the Catholic em-
peror in their domains. At a famous meet-
ing known as the Field of the Cloth of
Gold, Francois also tried to create an alli-
ance with King Henry VIII of England.

Francois declared war against Charles
in 1521. At the battle of Pavia, in 1525, he
suffered a crushing defeat and was taken
prisoner. In exchange for his freedom he
agreed to the Treaty of Madrid in 1526, in
which France gave up its claims to Italy as
well as Burgundy, which became a terri-
tory of the Holy Roman Empire. After re-
turning to France, the king renounced the
treaty and formed the League of Cognac,
which included France, England, Venice,
Florence, and the pope. A second war
against Charles V ended in the Treaty of
Cambrai, which returned Burgundy to
France. In the meantime, Francois sup-
ported several expeditions to the New
World, including that of Jacques Cartier,
which established French claims to
Canada.

In 1535, when Duke Francesco Sforza
of Milan died without an heir, Francois
invaded Italy again. Charles responded by
attacking Provence, the southeastern re-
gion of France. A truce was made in 1538
and then broken in 1542 when Francois
allied with Sultan Suleiman I of the Otto-
man Empire. Charles then allied with
Henry VIII of England and attacked
France, a war that, in the Treaty of Crepy,
ended French claims to Naples as well as
Flanders and Artois, but allowed France to
keep mountains in Savoy and the Pied-
mont region of northern Italy.

Francois presided over military set-
backs but one of the most brilliant Renais-
sance courts of Europe. Leading scholars,
authors, and poets were given the king’s
patronage and protection. Francois invited

to his courts Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea

del Sartro, and Benvenuto Cellini, who

brought with them the ideas and artistic

styles of the Italian Renaissance. Under the

king’s patronage, a library of all French

and Italian books was gathered and the

College de France was founded. The king

also decorated his realm with splendid

royal chateaus at Chambord, Amboise, and

Fontainebleau, hiring Italian architects to

renovate and decorate many medieval cha-

teaus that had fallen into disrepair. An avid

buyer of art, he began gathering the Ital-

ian Renaissance paintings, including the

Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci, that

would form the heart of the collections of

the Louvre, a medieval fortress that he

transformed into a Renaissance palace and

the national museum of France. The over-

burdening expenses of this patronage and

other building projects, as well as the costs

of the many wars he had declared, how-

ever, emptied the royal treasury and nearly

bankrupted the kingdom.

SEEALSO: Charles V; France; Henry VIII;

Leonardo da Vinci

Franco, Veronica ..............................

(1546–1591)

A famous courtesan and poet of Venice.

Trained in her profession by her mother,

she married a physician while still a teen-

ager, but on the breakup of her marriage

she became a courtesan, highly regarded

among the nobility of Venice and re-

nowned throughout Europe for her intelli-

gence, witty conversation, and gift as a

writer. She walked in the city’s literary

circles and wroteTerza RimeandLettere

Familiari a Diversi, two books of poetry,

as well as anthologies of the works of other

writers and poets. She also founded a char-

ity for courtesans. Franco survived an out-

break of plague that struck Venice in 1575,

Franco, Veronica