Magnet "The King Knight" Chambord

FRANÇOIS IER, KING BUILDER OF CHAMBORD

François I, born François d'Angoulême on 12 September 1494 in Cognac, died on 31 March 1547 in Rambouillet. He was crowned King of France on 25 January 1515 in Reims Cathedral and reigned until his death in 1547. The son of Charles of Orleans (1459-1496), Count of Angouleme, and Princess Louise of Savoy (1476-1531), François 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 Sologne. The king followed the progress of the construction with interest. It was a palace in his image, inherited from medieval traditions and Renaissance ideas. For him, Chambord was as much a secluded retreat where he liked to come and hunt with his friends as it was a brilliant architectural creation 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.

When he died in 1547, the chapel wing and the lower enclosure had not yet been completed. His son Henry II continued the construction of the western wing.