Colouring book, François Ist

FRANÇOIS IER, KING BUILDER OF CHAMBORD

François I, born François d'Angoulême on September 12, 1494 in Cognac died on March 31, 1547 in Rambouillet. He was crowned king of France on January 25, 1515 in the cathedral of Reims and reigned until his death in 1547. Son of Charles of Orleans (1459-1496), Count of Angouleme, and Princess Louise of Savoy (1476-1531), Francis I was not destined to become king. He nevertheless acceded to the throne by succeeding Louis XII, his cousin, who was without an heir at his death.

In 1519, he undertook the construction of a new royal house at Chambord, in the heart of the game-filled lands of Sologne. The king followed the progress of the construction with interest. He signed a palace in his image, inherited medieval traditions and ideas of the Renaissance. Chambord is for him as much an isolated stay where he likes to come to hunt with his friends, as an architectural creation of genius and a political manifesto. He also invited foreign diplomats and, in 1539, his rival Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, to dazzle them.

At his death in 1547, the chapel wing and the lower enclosure were not yet completed. His son Henry II continued the construction of the western wing.