Francis I of France

Francis I ruled France from 1515 to 1547 and became one of the defining monarchs of the European Renaissance. He won early fame at Marignano, competed with Emperor Charles V for influence in Italy and was captured at Pavia in 1525. Francis sponsored artists and scholars, expanded royal building and strengthened central authority, while his rivalry with the Habsburgs led him to alliances that crossed conventional religious boundaries.

Francis appears in Alexandre Dumas’s Ascanio and The Two Dianas and has an important presence in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, where his diplomacy intersects with Henry VIII’s ambitions. Fiction often emphasises his charm, sensuality and rivalry with the English king. His patronage of Leonardo da Vinci and the court at Fontainebleau also makes him a natural figure in novels about Renaissance art and display.

In Paul Doherty’s The Poisoned Chalice, Wolsey believes that Falconer's death is connected with the disturbing news that there is a spy in the English court, or in its embassy in Paris, passing information to King Francis I of France. In Rozsa Gaston’s Anne and Louis: Rulers and Lovers, their domestic conflict unfolds beside the partition of Naples and renewed war in Italy, where agreements among France, Spain and the papacy prove as fragile as the dynasty they are trying to preserve. Other novels featuring Francis I of France include Rozsa Gaston’s Dreams of Gold, Rozsa Gaston’s Queen of Diamonds, Rozsa Gaston’s The Queen’s Maid, Alison Weir’s Mary Boleyn, and Rozsa Gaston’s Anne and Louis: Forever Bound.