fjt_770232 - FRANÇOIS Ier LE RESTAURATEUR DES LETTRES Raoul de la Faye, trésorier du roi n.d.

FRANCIS I THE RESTORER OF LETTERS

(1/01/1515-31/03/1547)

François I fought against Calvinism, allied himself in 1536 with Suleiman the Magnificent and the Barbarysques of Barbarossa against Charles Quint; he obtains the protection of the Holy Places. He invaded Savoy and Piedmont. Charles Quint fails in Provence. In 1538, the truce of La Fère will bring ten years of peace to the kingdom. The Edict of Villers-Cotterêts consecrates the use of the French language in official acts. The war resumed in 1542 and ended with the Peace of Crépy in 1544 which maintained the status quo. Political constraints forced the king to fight against the Protestant "heresy" and he allowed the Vaudois to be exterminated in Lubéron and had Étienne Dolet executed in 1546. By the Treaty of Ardres with Henry VIII, the latter, who had invaded Picardy, lifts the siege of Boulogne-sur-Mer against 800,000 gold crowns. François dies when the Château de Chambord is completed in 1547.