FRANCIS

born March 25, 1541, Florence died Oct. 19/20, 1587, Poggio a Caiano, near Florence original name Francesco de' Medici second grand duke (granduca) of Tuscany, a tool of the Habsburgs and father of Marie de Mdicis, wife of Henry IV of France. He was appointed head of government in 1564 while his father, Cosimo I, was still alive; and he succeeded his father as grand duke in 1574. The title was not precisely legitimate since it had been bestowed by the pope (1569), but Francis obtained the grand ducal title from the emperor Maximilian II in November 1575. By subservience to the Habsburgs he won recognition of his dynasty's hereditary right to all his possessions in Tuscany; and he twice refused invitations to stand as a candidate for the Polish crown (1575 and 1587). He sponsored Bernardo Buontalenti's plan for developing Livorno (1577), which was to make it the greatest Tuscan port; he strengthened the fleet; and he opened several trading posts in the eastern Mediterranean. A scholar and a keen student of chemistry, mechanics, and ballistics, Francis also continued his family's patronage of artists (notably Giovanni da Bologna) and was the first to house the Medici collection of paintings in the Uffizi Palace in Florence. His reign was tarnished, however, by domestic scandals: his brother Pietro murdered his own wife, the younger Eleanora de Toledo (night of July 910, 1576); his sister Isabella was murdered by her husband Paolo Giordano Orsini, duca di Bracciano (July 10, 1576); and Francis himself largely lives on in the romantic popular memory because of his love affair with Bianca Cappello. While he was still heir presumptive, he had taken this young patrician as his mistressafter she had been abandoned by the lover with whom she had fled from Venice. Nothing could ever deflect Francis from this passionneither the marriage with Joanna of Austria, nor the reproaches of his family and of the Emperor, nor public censure. When Joanna died, after giving him three children, he married Bianca and had her solemnly crowned in the Palazzo Vecchio. They died of malaria within a few hours of each other in 1587. Popular imagination, however, refused to believe this clinical account of their deaths. It was said that Bianca had prepared a poisoned tart intended for her brother-in-law Ferdinando (the future Ferdinand I), that Francis had eaten some of it by mistake, and that Bianca in desperation then ate some herself in order not to survive her lover and husband. born Dec. 8, 1708, Nancy, Duchy of Lorraine died Aug. 18, 1765, Innsbruck, Austria Holy Roman emperor from Sept. 13, 1745; he was duke of Lorraine (as Francis Stephen) from 1729 to 1735 and grand duke of Tuscany from 1737. Although nominally outranking his wife, Maria Theresa, archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia, the capable but easygoing Francis always was overshadowed by her strong personality. From 1723 Francis, whose dynasty in Lorraine was closely connected with the Austrian Habsburgs, lived at the Viennese court of the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI. His marriage to Maria Theresa, who was Charles's heiress, took place on Feb. 12, 1736. Charles consented to it only on condition that Francis make the sacrifice required by the French in order to end the War of the Polish Succession, namely, the cession of Lorraine to Stanislaw Leszczynski (Stanislaw I), for whom the French had failed to secure Poland. In compensation, Francis was allowed to succeed the childless Gian Gastone, last of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany. These arrangements were confirmed by the 1738 Treaty of Vienna. When Maria Theresa succeeded Charles VI (Oct. 20, 1740), she immediately appointed her husband coregent. During the War of the Austrian Succession (174048), Maria Theresa, apprehensive for Francis' life, refused his repeated demands to be allowed to defend her inheritance by leading the Austrian Army. During the war he was elected Holy Roman emperor after the death of the emperor Charles VII (the elector Charles Albert of Bavaria), who was one of his wife's chief adversaries. The influence of Francis in government was inconsiderable except in economic matters. He is better remembered for his cultural interests. Maria Theresa mourned his death throughout the 15 years by which she survived him. born Sept. 12, 1494, Cognac, Fr. died March 31, 1547, Rambouillet also called (until 1515) Francis Of Angoulme, French Franois D'angoulme king of France (151547), the first of five monarchs of the Angoulme branch of the House of Valois. A Renaissance patron of the arts and scholarship, a humanist, and a knightly king, he waged campaigns in Italy (151516) and fought a series of wars with the Holy Roman Empire (152144). born May 11, 1414, Vannes, Fr. died July 19, 1450 duke of Brittany (from 1442), son of John V (or VI). He had his brother Gilles thrown into prison and put to death for allegedly spying for the English, with whom he warred (144950). The king of France intervened and expelled the English from Normandy. Additional reading Franois Mzeray, Histoire de France . . . , 3 vol. (164351), interesting and invaluable recollections by a contemporary historian; Gabriel H. Gaillard, Histoire de Franois Premier, 8 vol. (1769), profound scholarship; Marguerite de Navarre, Lettres de Marguerite d'Angoulme . . . reine de Navarre, 2 vol. (184142), stories, poetry, and letters written to her brother, Francis I; Louise de Savoy, Comptes de Louise de Savoie . . . (1905), the journal (ending in 1522)of the mother of Francis I most informative on their family relationship; Jean B. Haurau, Franois Ier et sa cour (1853), a minutely documented study by curator of manuscripts at the Bibliothque Nationale; Francois Auguste Marie Mignet, Rivalit de Franois Ier et de Charles V (1875), a very precise account of the long and tragic confrontation of the two monarchs for supremacy in Europe; Francis Hackett, Francis the First (1934, reprinted 1968), one of the few book-length accounts in English of the life and times of Francis I.