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Louis XII

Louis XIIBorn: 27-Jun-1462
Birthplace: Chateau de Blois, France
Died: 1-Jan-1515
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Saint Denis Basilica

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Royalty

Nationality: France
Executive summary: King of France, 1498-1515

Louis XII, King of France, was grandson of Louis of Orleans, the brother of Charles VI, and son of the poet prince, Charles, duc d'Orléans, who, after the battle of Agincourt, spent twenty-five years of captivity in England. Louis was duke of Orléans until his accession to the throne, and he was fourteen years old when Louis XI gave him the hand of his second daughter, Joan the Lame. In the first years of the reign of Charles VIII, Louis made a determined stand against the government of the Beaujeus, stirred up coalitions of the feudal nobles against them, and was finally defeated and taken prisoner at St. Aubin du Cormier in 1488. Charles VIII set him at liberty in 1491. These successive checks tamed him a little. In the Italian expedition of 1494 he commanded the vanguard of the royal army, occupied Genoa, and remained in the north of Italy, menacing Milan, on which he was already dreaming of asserting his rights. The children of Charles VIII having died in infancy, he became heir-presumptive to the throne, and succeeded Charles in 1499. Louis was then thirty-six years old, but he seems to have grown old prematurely. He was fragile, narrow-shouldered and of a sickly constitution. His intelligence was mediocre, his character weak, and he allowed himself to be dominated by his wife, Anne of Brittany, and his favorite the Cardinal d'Amboise. He was a good king, full of moderation and humanity, and bent upon maintaining order and improving the administration of justice. He enjoyed a genuine popularity, and in 1506 the estates of Tours conferred on him the surname of Père du Peuple. His foreign policy, which was directed wholly towards Italy, was for the most part unskilful; to his claims on Naples he added those on Milan, which he based on the marriage of his grandfather, Louis of Orléans, with Valentina Visconti. He led in person several armies into Italy, and proved as severe and pitiless towards his enemies as he was gentle and clement towards his subjects. Louis had two daughters, Claude and Renée. After his accession he had divorced his virtuous and ill-favored queen, Joan, and had married, in 1499, Anne of Brittany, the widow of Charles VIII. On her death in January 1514, in order to detach England from the alliance against him, he married on the 9th of October 1514, Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII of England. He died on the 1st of January 1515.

Father: Charles, duc d'Orléans (poet)
Mother: Mary of Cleves
Wife: Jeanne of France (m. 1476, annulled)
Wife: Anne of Brittany (m. 1499, d. 1514)
Daughter: Claude of France (b. 1499, d. 1524)
Daughter: Renée of France (b. 1510, d. 1575)
Wife: Mary Tudor (m. 9-Oct-1514, until his death)

    French Monarch (1498-1515)


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