Francis I (Cambridge Paperback Library) (Volume 0)

Francis I (Cambridge Paperback Library) (Volume 0) by Knecht, R. J.. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780521278874.

The name of Francis I and his emblem, the salamander, are familiar to the many thousands of tourists who visit the chateaux of the Loire each year. But what sort of monarch was he? Whereas in his own day he was acclaimed as the great king Francis, in more recent times he has generally been taken less seriously than his exact contemporaries Henry VIII of England and the Emperor Charles V. Yet his reign was no less important than theirs. It witnessed and promoted fundamental changes in Frances political structure, economy, society, religion and cultural life. The kings obsession with war stimulated constitutional change. By entailing expenditures far in excess of the crowns traditional resources, it obliged him to tap new sources of wealth, to reorganise the fiscal system and to promote administrative centralisation. Economically, Francis reign saw the completion of the recovery that had followed the Hundred Years War. While the land was reclaimed, the population grew, town life flourished and trade expanded.