The Prince of France That Died From a “Plague House”
History offers us the lives of many individuals who as far as we can tell should have known better. Charles, duke of Orléans, son of King Francis I of France, offers us one such account.
Francis I, the first of the Valois kings of France, could be considered rather lucky with the number of sons he had. No less than three lived to adulthood, and two of these were successfully married. Yet history, as life usually goes, has a way of thwarting a person’s plans for the future, and Francis I’s plans were no exception. Apart from his numerous wars with and against Henry VIII of England and Emperor Charles V, as well as his dealings and the world’s perception of his ally Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire, Francis’s life was remarkable as of one of the four most prominent Renaissance rulers in Europe (all four of which I just mentioned).
He had been friends with Leonardo da Vinci, his sister Margaret of Navarre was one of the most popular writers of their century, and Francis loved making his court and indeed country a centre for Renaissance art, architecture, culture, and whatever wonderful foreign things he could acquire. It stands to reason that he is an interesting figure often overlooked in the…
