#frenchmonarchy

A brief summary of a sickly king.

Francis II, the eldest son of Henry II and Catherine de médici, was born on the 19th of January, 1544.

Francis was a sickly boy, plagued with respiratory failure at a young age — which inventively stunted his growth and left him with deformed testicles. Regnier de la Planche, a close friend of Catherine de Medici, reported that Francis had ‘genital organs all constrained and blocked making him unable to perform’. Francis’ ill health also meant that he was less-knowledgeable than other noble kids his age, his tutors reported that he was ‘easily distracted’, despite this Francis still received an education befitting for the dauphin of France.

The infant prince was betrothed to Mary, Queen of Scots in an effort to help the Scottish defend themselves against the English. Henry II offered to extricate the Scottish in exchange for his sons betrothal. So, in July of 1548 Mary Landed along the French coast at St. Pol de Leon.

Mary became very caring to Francis, she reportedly treated Francis like a younger brother, and despite his limited abilities, encouraged his riding and outdoor activities.

Francis and Mary, both teenagers, were married on the 24th of April 1558 in in the cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, by the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen. Mary’s wedding dress was described by the courtier Pierre de Brantôme as ‘a hundred times more beautiful than a goddess of heaven … her person alone was worth a kingdom.’

On 30th of June 1559, Francis’ father (Henry II) was badly injured in a jousting accident. After a tough ten day battle Henry succumbed to sepsis and Francis was now King Francis II of France.

In mid-November of 1560 it was reported that the king had suffered from dizziness and a ringing in his ear. Days later the king collapsed and had a swelling ‘the size of a nut’. After weeks of suffering from seizures, and a painful abscess, which caused stabbing pains in his head, Francis died from an ear infection on the 5th of December, 1560, just over a year after his succession to the throne.

- Francis II and his wife Mary Queen of scots (1559)

On July 3, 1642, Maria de’ Medici, former Queen of France and powerful queen mother, died at around the age of 69. Born into the influential Medici family of Florence, she became queen through her marriage to King Henry IV of France and later acted as regent for her young son, Louis XIII, after his father’s assassination in 1610.

On June 30, 1470, the future king of France, Charles VIII of France, was born at the Château d’Amboise. He was the only surviving son of King Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy, inheriting the French crown at just 13 years old in 1483.

Charles VIII’s reign would later be marked by the strengthening of royal authority and his ambitious Italian campaign, which helped spark the Italian Wars. His invasion of Naples in 1494 reshaped European politics and drew major powers into prolonged conflict in Italy.