Francis I
1982
First Published
4.15
Average Rating
495
Number of Pages
The name of Francis I and his emblem, the salamander, are familiar to the many thousands of tourists who visit the chateaux of the Loire each year. But what sort of monarch was he? Whereas in his own day he was acclaimed as 'the great king Francis', in more recent times he has generally been taken less seriously than his exact contemporaries Henry VIII of England and the Emperor Charles V. Yet his reign was no less important than theirs. It witnessed and promoted fundamental changes in France's political structure, economy, society, religion and cultural life. The king's obsession with war stimulated constitutional change. By entailing expenditures far in excess of the crown's traditional resources, it obliged him to tap new sources of wealth, to reorganise the fiscal system and to promote administrative centralisation. Economically, Francis' reign saw the completion of the recovery that had followed the Hundred Years' War. While the land was reclaimed, the population grew, town life flourished and trade expanded.
Avg Rating
4.15
Number of Ratings
13
5 STARS
38%
4 STARS
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3 STARS
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2 STARS
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Author
Robert J. Knecht
Author · 9 books
R.J. Knecht is Emeritus Professor of French History at the University of Birmingham, where he has taught since 1956. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Société de l'Histoire de France, Professor Knecht has been Reviews Editor of the journal 'French History' and is a member of its editorial board. He has also been Chairman of the Society for Renaissance Studies and is currently Chairman of the Society for French History. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick. He has also published extensively in the field of French history, his principal work being on the reign of Francis I.
