The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Cognac, in France, 1494. Died at Rambouillet, 1547. Aged 53.] The son of Charles of Angoulême, and cousin-german of Louis XII. of France, whose daughter he married, and whom he succeeded on the French throne. A libidinous king, with many knightly qualities, and with all the bigotry and self-absorption that characterized too many of the despotic rulers of his time. He was a great encourager and patronizer of letters and the fine arts: but he had no mercy towards the heretic, and, in 1535, he forbade printing in France under pain of death. Not a successful warrior; he was taken prisoner at Pavia, during a war with Spain, and detained at Madrid for the space of a twelvemonth. His meeting with our own Henry VIII. on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in 1520, is known to every reader of history. A lustre is shed upon the reign of this monarch in consequence of his magnificent patronage of art, but his life otherwise presents as little for admiration as the satyr-looking bust which no doubt faithfully records the lineaments of the man. His passions were violent and gross: and though he received the dignity of knighthood from the hands of a subject, yet even the sword of a Bayard could not endow him with virtue enough to protect him from wilful prodigality, selfish follies, and open debaucheries. [From the bronze in the Louvre by Jean Cousin, representing the king in complete armour, interesting as a work of the time, but far less real as a portrait than the head 299A, which is from the celebrated monument at St. Denis, by P. Bontemps, where the king is sculptured lying dead, and perfectly naked.] 299A. FRANCIS I. _King of France._