(1494 - 1547)
Just 21 when he took the throne, he made it his mission to control as much of Europe as possible, regardless of the cost, and recruited a young nobleman; Charles De Montpensier, Duc De Bourbon; to help him achieve his goal. The 25 year old Montpensier, son of Gilbert De Latour De Montpensier; who had been Viceroy of Naples; and Chiara Wittlesbach Gonzaga, Marquise de Mantou; was said to be the wealthiest noblemen in all of France. His marriage to Suzanne De Beajeu, had also earned him the Duchy of Bourbon, on the death of her father Pierre, a decade before.
Bourbon also contributed to the campaign by using his own money to recruit 25,000 German mercenaries to combat the Swiss mercenary soldiers, he knew the Duke of Lombardy had in his employ. This German contingent called themselves Landsnechts, or "men of the plains", and were quite a unique fighting force. Made up of mostly Lutheran, they were fierce and callous, with little discipline; and never backed down from a fight. They also went by their own rules and wore their own uniforms; which consisted of layers of multi-coloured, baggy clothing, randomly slashed on the outer layer with pieces from the inner layers pulled through for effect.
So, in the summer of 1515, Francois I and Charles de Bourbon led their army of swashbucklers over the high mountain passes that led to Italy. In July, with pikes and broad swords, they defeated the Swiss mercenaries near the Italian town of Marignano, and then advanced to Milan; which surrendered almost immediately. Francois gave his cousin the title of Constable of France, but that title had cost him dearly.
When he returned home he soon realized that he did not have enough money to pay his creditors, and when he asked Francois for reimbursement for his expenses, the King requested a delay. As it was, he couldn't even pay his own debts, but assured Charles that soon the Italian victory would bring in taxes and tributes, at which time he would take care of the Duke's expenditures. However, for the next two years, Bourbon was constantly put off with empty promises; something that would mark the reign of King Francois I.
Francois De Valois was a dishonourable man. Throughout his lifetime, he would spend lavishly on the acquisition of homes, art and women; never caring who got hurt in the process. Doted on by his mother and sister Marguerite; he was used to getting his own way and when he didn't, heads would roll.
He called his little group of faithful followers, which included Anne D'Heilly, Isabelle D'Estes and later his daughter-in-law, Catherine De Medici; the Petite Bande; and he was rarely seen without them. This little band would plot intrigues, often at his prompting, and most coutiers knew that the real power of France lay in the hands of the King's female accomplices. They could make you or break you, so if you wanted to get ahead, you had to get on their good side. The only problem was, that these ladies were often fighting against each other, which divided the court and tested loyalties. Francois loved it.
However, his dismissal of his cousin, Charles de Bourbon's demands for payment, would come back to bite him in the butt. It began with the imperial election of 1519, when Francois put himself forward as a candidate to succeed Maximilian I. He lost to his rival Charles I of Austria, who became Emperor Charles V; and Bourbon, tired of the abuse of the French Court, changed his allegiance.
His 19 year old cousin, was not yet Emperor when he put forth the offer, which was favorably received and netted the duke a generous pension. However, now that Charles of Austria had been named Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming ruler of not only Austria; but Spain, Germany and the Netherlands; Francois became a little concerned with the power his former ally, De Bourbon, would now have.
So in what appeared to be a half-hearted attempt to reclaim the duke's loyalties, the King of France proposed that Bourbon marry his widowed forty-five year old mother, Queen Louise de Savoie. Knowing that he would no doubt refuse, he had the Queen's private secretary assure him that the reply would be confidential, and he could speak with candor; which he did. His 'confidential' reply was that Queen Louise was “the worst woman in the country,” and insisted that he would not marry her “for all the wealth in Christendom.”
King François and Louise retaliated by laying claim to Bourbon’s French estates; which kept him tied up in litigation for eighteen months, and once again weakened his financial position. Finally, in desperation, Bourbon gathered together several cartloads of his family’s wealth, and joined forces with Emperor Charles V in Spain, where he was preparing an army to invade France. Bourbon's wife had died and since they had no children, her family was also disputing his title, so he was now a man with little left to lose.
Once again he took command of a large numbers of Landsknecht, and invaded southern France, bombarding the city of Marseilles, and from there headed to Lombardy On February 24, 1525, Bourbon and Charles V led their forces against the army of King Francois at Pavia, twenty miles from Milan; and after a six-hour battle, the French King was captured and his army defeated.
In exchange for his freedom, Bourbon demanded that Francois restore his lands, reimburse him for his former expenses, and pay him a generous pension. The King agreed, and as a show of faith, offered two of his sons; Francois and Henry; to be given in exchange, until the agreement was honoured. In February of 1526; he was allowed to return to Paris, but to show just how self serving he was, he refused to honour the promises, and his young sons would spend the next four years in a Spanish prison, though the consequences of his actions would reach even further.
Meanwhile, Louise De Savoie was acting as Regent in her son's absence, and she and her daughter Marguerite, knew that France was in desperate need of money. As it happened, Marguerite had a good friend, Jean Argot, who was a wealthy ship-owner in Dieppe, so she sought his help. France needed to find the elusive Northwest passage to the riches of the Orient, and hopefully discover valuable treasure enroute. Argot suggested that Giovanni da Verrazzano (Jean Verazan) of Dieppe; would be up to the task, so dispatched him in the ship Maquette de la Dauphine, to go in search of the passage and lay claim to any land and valuables discovered along the way.
Competition was fierce after Hernando Cortes had claimed the riches of the Aztecs, and all European monarchs were hoping to find some riches for themselves. In March of 1524, Verazon visited Labrador, Newfoundland and as far south as the Carolinas, naming the territory Archadia (Pastoral Paradise); and claiming it all for the King of France; despite the fact that it was already inhabited and governed by another Nation.
Ironically, Spain had just been given papal authority to conquer and Christianize this part of the world, though no one informed the Canadian government, and they went on as before; not conquered or claimed by any foreign invaders. That would have been ridiculous.
No doubt Louise and Marguerite were disappointed that Verazanno had not brought them the much needed wealth, especially since Francois continued to spend as though he had. Meanwhile, Charles De Montpensier, the former Duke of Bourbon and Constable of France, was having problems of his own. He was short of money again, but this time his Emperor cousin was in no position to help him out. Instead he was granted the title of Duke of Milan, and given command of another large army of Landsknechts; with instructions to occupy northern Italy.
But when his Austrian cousin was no longer able to pay the soldiers, poor Charles was facing mutiny, and if there was one thing you didn't want, it was the wrath of the Landsknechts. So with few alternatives, he sold off his possessions, and when this still wasn't enough, allowed his army to attack neighboring Italian cities, and their pillage would be their compensation.
From February to May, 1527, his disgruntled troops ravaged the northern Italian countryside, while remaining on the brink of open mutiny. Gold and silver ornaments were seized from churches and melted down, while Bourbon vainly appealed to Charles for more money. Finally, in April, he decided to attack and loot Rome, knowing that the city was poorly defended, and abundant with wealth.
As his army approached, Pope Clement VII mustered about 500 citizens to defend the city, while he himself escaped to the Castle of St. Angelo. On May 5, Bourbon’s army arrived at the walls of Rome, and the next morning, he gave the order to attack, but when entering the gates, the Duke was struck by a Roman crossbow and killed; the Italian artist and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, later claiming to have fired the fatal shot.
Now leaderless, the renegade army overwhelmed the city’s meager defenses, and went on a bloody rampage through its streets. An estimated 45,000 Roman men, women and children either fled the city as refugees or were killed by Bourbon’s army; while the churches, shrines and other historic monuments were looted or destroyed. As protestants, they cared little for the trappings of the Catholic Church, and engaged in sacrilegious acts with many of the 'holy' items; raping and dismembering young and old; including nuns.
Catherine De Medici was taken as hostge by the Government of Florence when they overthrew her stepbrother Alessandro, and moved to the Convent of Saint Lucia for safekeeping. The event was considered part of (also attempted partnership with England's Henry VIII) the 'Conspiracy of the Constable of Bourbon', and went down in history as one of the most ghastly of all time.
However, had Francois honoured his agreements, I've no doubt that it could have been avoided. He was thrilled when he heard the news, especially of the former constable's death, and his family immediately confiscated by royal decree his few remaining estates, and had the doorways of the Bourbon palace in Paris symbolically painted a bright yellow; a mark of humiliation reserved for French nobles judged guilty of high treason.
By 1528 the French were driven out of Italy, and in 1529 King Francis I, and Emperor Charles V, signed the Peace of Cambrai with Francis giving up any claims in Italy and Flanders, and Charles the duchy of Burgundy. The French princes, whom Charles had been holding as hostages, were released for a payment of two million gold crowns, and the promise of marriage to his sister Eleanor; and she was made Queen of France in 1530.
This treaty, though it may have strengthened their kinship, did nothing for their relationship toward one another, and the competition picked up where it left off. With his heart still set on acquiring Italian wealth, he reached an agreement with Pope Clement, whereby Francois' second son Henry would marry Clement's niece, Catherine De Medici, in exchange for Milan, and Tuscany. The marriage took place in 1533, but the Pope died before signing over Catherine's dowry and the King was back to square one.
So Francois looked to the New World to fill his coffers and this time gave a St. Malo sea captain, Jacques Cartier, the mission of "undertaking the voyage of this kingdom to the New Lands to discover certain islands and countries where there are said to be great quantities of gold and other riches". Cartier departed St. Malo on march 19, 1534, on his first of three voyages, to find his fortune and the ficticious Northwest passage to the Orient.
Though Cartier had prepared a glowing report about a "large city called Sagana where there are many mines of gold and silver ...and there is abundance of clove, nutmeg, and pepper.", and on his second voyage discovered "certaine leaves of fine gold as thicke as a man's nail and a good store of stone which we esteemed to be diamonds", the expeditions would end in failure.
The 'treasures' brought back by Cartier turned out to be worthless iron pyrite and quartz crystals, gems that set a new standard for national foolishness. Henceforth, anything of only imaginary value was said to be as 'worthless as Canadian diamonds' and Cartier would refer to Canada as the 'Land God gave to Cain'; and yet we have named so many landmarks after him, that it's mind boggling.
When King Francis I died in 1547, after over half a century of fighting, he had only managed to strengthen the hold of Spain; and the other scoundrel Jacques Cartier, died penniless and in disgrace. I couldn't have written a better ending myself.
