King Francis I was known as the "Renaissance King" for his patronage of the arts. He was also known for his long series of wars with the Holy Roman Empire.

He was born on Sept. 12, 1494, in Cognac. His parents were members of the nobility: His father, Charles de Valois, was Count of Angoulême and a cousin of the French king, Louis XII, and his mother was Louise of Savoy. Growing up, Francis learned Italian and Spanish, as well as arts, history, and literature. He also learned the arts of hunting and warfare.

Francis went to live at the French court when he was 13. King Louis XII gave him the Duchy of Valois and then, in 1512, put him in command of army to fight against Spain, in an attempt to retake Navarre, seized some years before.

In 1514, Francis married the king's daughter, Claude. At the end of that year, the king died, and Francis ascended the throne.

Despite his earlier defeat against the Spanish, Francis enjoyed much military success as king. He also enjoyed touring his kingdom, seeing how well (or poorly) his subjects lived and bestowing gifts where he saw fit. He became known as le roi chevalier ("the knight king"). He led an army into Italy and, in 1515, took Milan. Pope Leo X granted Francis control of neighboring Parma and Piacenza as well and then, in 1516, issued the Concordat of Bologna, by which the French crown took over control of the Catholic Church in France.

The Renaissance was in high flower during this king's reign, and he encouraged (with words, acts, and funds) the works of architects, painters, poets, sculptors, and writers. He wanted France to be every bit a center of the Renaissance as were Florence, Milan, and other places in Italy. He also bought works by some of the most famous Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo and Raphael. The great Renaissance Man Leonardo settled in Cloux, a manor outside Amboise, in 1516; he lived out his life there.

An ardent reader and collector and believer in the power of books, he had several libraries, which he stocked with classical manuscripts. He liked printing as well and employed the influential type designer Claude Garamond to create three special fonts.

Francis encouraged the pursuit of scholarship at his court by sponsoring a regular lecture series. He kept up a regular correspondence with the famous Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus. In 1530, he created four royal professorships, two each in Greek and Hebrew.

Francis continued the reform policies of his predecessors, enacting the 1539 Ordnance de Villers-Cotterets, which stipulated that all legal documents be in French and that royal courts outranked church courts.

Also curious about lands far beyond his borders, he commissioned the explorations of Jacques Cartier to explore the St. Lawrence River and Jean-François de Roberval to settle Canada and the expedition of Giovanni da Verrazzano, who explored what is now New York City and who claimed Newfoundland for the French crown. Francis also lent his support to the establishment of the port of Le Havre, which was originally named Franciscopolis.

It was military matters that most obsessed him, however. Looking to forestall the all-too-common wars that had plagued France's relations with England, Francis met the English king, Henry VIII, in June of 1520 outside Guînes, in the Gold Valley. Observers style as the Field of the Cloth and Gold this meeting of a large number of royals and nobles punctuated by large amounts of pomp and ceremony that paved the way for friendlier relations between the two countries.

He carried on fighting the Italian Wars, begun during the reign of his two predecessors, Charles VIII and Louis XII. He also had great enmity for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain. This enmity would prove an obsession for Francis, particularly because he had sought to be Emperor in 1519. Francis sought Henry's support in a war against Spain, but the English monarch demurred. Francis carried on, but Spanish forces struck back and struck hard, not only taking Navarre again but also invading France itself and seizing control of Toulon and other areas in the southeast. Continuing on into Italy, Spain took Milan in 1522 and then Pavia in 1525. As a result of the latter battle (a resounding French defeat), Francis was one of many French soldiers taken prisoner. Charles, the Spanish king, ordered Francis to be taken to Madrid and put under house arrest. He ended his captivity (relatively lenient though it was, because of his royal status) by signing the 1526 Treaty of Madrid, out of which he gave up all claims to Burgundy, Flanders, and Italy.

Back in France, Francis broke his promise and rounded up another army. Stocking this one were a coalition of soldiers from England, France, Milan, the Papal States, and Venice. Fighting began in 1527, but the result was the same. Spanish victories forced Francis to sign yet another treaty, the 1529 Treaty of Cambrai, which reiterated the terms of the previous treaty but also stipulated that Francis's two sons would go to Madrid as prisoners and that France would have to pay Spain 2 million gold crowns.

Francis just couldn't let things go. Even though he had married Eleanor of Portugal, a sister of Charles V, the French king still had it in for the Spanish monarch. In 1536, Francis formed yet another alliance, this one with the Ottoman leader Khayr ad-Din. Yet again, Spain prevailed, taking more territory from both opponents. Spanish troops occupied Provence and parts of northern France. Charles and France signed a treaty at Nice in 1538.

The enmity continued. Francis found yet another ally, in the Schmalkaldic League, whose German members considered Charles V an enemy. Again, Spain prevailed. The only thing that ended the Franco-Spanish conflict was the death of Francis, which came in 1547. He died of gout and liver disease on March 31 at Rambouillet. Succeeding him on the throne was his son, who became King Henry II.