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Louis XII
The reign of Louis XII (1498-1515) has been much neglected by historians. Falling between the conventional end of the French middle ages and Francis I's notional ushering in of Renaissance France, Louis' rule 'belongs' neither to medievalists nor to historians of the the early modern period. While not in the front rank of French monarchs, Louis XII, 'The Father of the People', remains an interesting and appealing figure, and the events of his reign (the Valois-Habsburg wars in Italy, Louis' bitter disputes with Pope Julius II, the complications of his marriages) had a profound effect on the future of the French state. France's church, legal system, and cultural life (many of the artistic achievements associated with the reign of Francis I in fact occurred under Louis) were all strongly influenced by the king, and this readable and lucid account of his rule offers a wealth of interesting information.
- GenresFrance
334 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 1994
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About the author
Frederic J. Baumgartner
16 books2 followersA specialist in the history of early modern France, Frederic Baumgartner is Professor of History at Virginia Tech University.
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October 19, 2025
Frederic J. Baumgartner Studies The Life & Reign Of France's Eighth Valois Monarch, King Louis XII.
Historical biographies devoted to the life & reign of the French King Louis XII of the House of Valois-Orléans are few & far between, while there have been comparatively any number of early Renaissance period monographs written on his more famous cousin & successor, Francis I of Angoulême, the Roi-Chevalier, who, aside from being a generous patron of the arts & a renowned man of letters, also participated in the now-immortalized meeting with the English Tudor monarch, Henry VIII, on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, which was held at Balingham from 7-24 June 1520.
And yet it was Louis XII's steadfast determination to minimize taxes that were levied upon his subjects, namely his reduction of the taille, originally a land tax imposed only in times of great need that eventually became a permanent implementation of each successive French king, which led the popular government to bestow upon him the honorific title, 'Father of the People'.
In the introduction to his erudite study of the eighth Valois monarch, Louis XII, historian Frederic J. Baumgartner admits that one of his primary motivations for composing it was that, much like his biography concerning the life & political career of Louis' once-removed successor, Henry II, King Of France, there had not been any books written in English dedicated to Louis XII in over 100 years -- "Much to my surprise, I found that there was no English-language biography for him since the nineteenth century, despite the fact that in 1506 the French Estates-general voted him the unique honor of 'Father of the People'."
Later on, he cites a colleague's remarks regarding the relative obscurity in which Louis' historical period is viewed by many historians & provides his own appraisal of the issue -- "In 1985 the French historian Bernard Chevalier called Louis XII's era 'this no man's land where neither the medievalists nor the modernists dare to penetrate.' Histories of medieval France generally end with Louis XI & those of the French Renaissance begin with Francis I, while the broader histories of France tend to move very quickly from Louis XI to Francis." He concludes the section by providing his prospective reader with some final conjecture -- "Certainly I will not argue that Louis XII stands in the first rank of French kings. Acknowledging that, however, does not explain the obscurity in which Louis has languished in the twentieth century, at least until Bernard Quillet's publication Louis XII (1986)."
This 1996 paperback edition of Frederic J. Baumgartner's 1994 monograph, Louis XII, is published by St. Martin's Press, New York, & features a 253-page main text consisting of 17 chapters & accompanied by 34 pages of expanded notes, as well as an additional bibliography of primary sources & secondary studies followed by a short index. There are also maps of Northern & Southern Italy in the year 1500 & a detailed layout of France during the reign of Louis XII.
Louis of Orléans was born on 27 June 1462 to the 68 year-old Duke Charles of Orléans & his 3rd wife, the 36 year-old Duchess Marie of Cleves. His father's advanced age led many, including his cousin the French King Louis XI 'the Prudent', whose vast networks of informants & webs of political intrigue led him to be known as 'The Universal Spider', to severely question the validity of his birth, remarking as much to his Milanese ambassador on one occasion. As a youth Louis' father Charles was an avid reader who also dabbled in writing verse, & during his 25-year captivity which followed the disastrous French defeat at the Battle of Agincourt & throughout the rest of his life he went on to compose more than 500 works of poetry.
A stark contrast to his father, Louis XII was by comparison much more interested in hunting, jousting & athletics than he was in reading books or writing poems, & he became renowned across the kingdom for his skills in jumping, tennis, & jeu de paume, which is the French term for handball. Jean de St.-Gelais, an Orléanist supporter, remarked that Louis was, "the best horse-man & man-at-arms that I have seen,", & although Louis lost his affinities for jousting & jeu de paume after he became king, he retained his adoration of hunting into his later years & was known to go out into the mountains on forays accompanied by his daughter, Claude.
Louis XII's house, the Valois-Orléans branch, shared a blood relation with not only the French King Louis XI's royal House of Valois, but also with the Valois-Angoulême branch that Louis XII's successor, King Francis I, belonged to. The Angoulêmes had originally been part of the Orléans branch but had split off after Louis XII's paternal grandfather, Duke Louis I of Orléans, who was himself the second son of the French King Charles V 'the Wise', had fathered three sons, one of whom was Louis XII's father, Charles of Orléans, who was the eldest son; the middle son, Philip, became Count of Vertus; & finally, the youngest son, King Francis I's grandfather, John of Orléans, was given the title of Count of Angoulême.
Several other branches were related to the primary Valois house, including the Valois-Anjou branch & the Valois-Burgundy branch, & this association with the royal bloodline meant that male members of these houses were known as princes of the blood, making them contenders in the line of succession should the reigning king have no male heirs. But what made the Valois-Orléans branch, & through it, the Valois-Angoulême branch, greater than the others on the international sphere was the fact that Louis XII's grandfather, Louis I of Orléans, had been married to Valentina Visconti, who had been the only daughter of the first legitimate Duke of Milan, Giangaleazzo Visconti, & there had been a clause in their marriage contract that stipulated that the male heirs of Louis & Valentina would have hereditary rights to the powerful Duchy of Milan, & it was this prerogative which the French kings Louis XII & Francis I, who were both part of the exclusive bloodline, would utilize to justify their invasions of Italy during the Italian Wars, which raged from 1494-1559.
In Chapter 2, Prince of Blood, Baumgartner discusses the events which led to Louis' rebellion from the French crown, among them the wars with the Swiss Confederation which were undertaken by Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy, including the catastrophic defeat at Murten in which 8,000 Burgundian casualties were sustained as well as their final loss at Nancy which resulted in the young duke's untimely death in the middle of a pitched battle. Also discussed in this chapter is France's Auld Alliance with Scotland, in which the Scots would stage additional sorties against the English at French insistence when the need was great. Following the death of King Louis XI in 1483, Louis XII, still a prince of the blood, became embroiled in a conflict with the king's eldest daughter, Anne de Beaujeu, over guardianship of the young crown prince, Charles VIII 'the Affable', who was still in his minority.
Anne was an extremely ambitious, intelligent woman whose diplomatic skills mirrored those of her late father, without his rough edges & glaring personality flaws, & the author provides a description of her in the following passage -- "Anne was, everyone has agreed, a more attractive version of her father, combining the same iron will, political sagacity, & tightfistedness, with greater tact, better humor, & a more gentle nature." The author's explanations of French politics in this chapter help set up the more complicated international scenarios that are discussed later in the book, such as the circumstances that led to Louis' Treaty of Granada which he signed with Ferdinand 'the Catholic' of Spain, his dealings with Archduke Philip 'the Handsome' from the house of Habsburg, & his epic conflict with Pope Julius II, the War of the Holy League in 1511.
In Chapter 4, Le Roi est mort! Vive le Roi!, Professor Baumgartner explains the French monarchy's claim to the Italian port of Genoa, which dated back to a concession made in 1396 by the Genoese government that relinquished control of their city to France in light of the threat posed by the much larger city-state of Milan & by Genoa's own partisan politics, which often erupted into open warfare waged between the powerful Doria & Fregoso clans. Also discussed is King Charles VIII's early invasion of France in 1494 which sparked the beginning of the Italian Wars & Louis' unique role participating in them as one of the king's battle commanders. The ruler of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, felt threatened by Louis, who had begun to style himself 'Duke of Orléans & Milan' in official documents, & was able to persuade Charles to instead send the ambitious prince of the blood to Genoa to manage the Franco-Genoese fleet which was stationed there.
The author does a very good job of fleshing out the complex web of international politics that dominated the Italian peninsula which the French were forced to immerse themselves in as they conducted their Neapolitan & Milanese military campaigns. The Catholic pope at this time was a Spaniard, Rodrigo Borgia, & this meant that his sympathies were pro-Aragonese & lay with Alfonso of Naples & his son, Ferrantino, who were members of an illegitimate line related by blood with Ferdinand & Isabella of Spain, & as such, the pope refused to invest the French King Charles VIII with the Kingdom of Naples, also called the Regno, although he did give Charles permission for the French army to cross the Papal States on their way to Naples. Readers eager to learn more about the Italian Wars are encouraged to try Sydney Alexander's exceptional, although abridged, 1969 translation of Francesco Guicciardini's The History Of Italy.
In Chapter 6, Matters Matrimonial, one of Louis XII's main objectives in the opening months of his reign involved the culmination of his long running efforts to secure an annulment from his first marriage to Joan of France, who was the daughter of the late king Louis XI, in favor of a more advantageous & tactically beneficial match with Anne, Duchess of Brittany. Anne's father, Duke Francis II of Brittany, was a truculent vassal who made common cause with Louis during his brief period of rebellion which is discussed in Chapter 3, Rebel Prince, & together they negotiated a complicated arrangement where upon marrying Anne Louis would cede control of Orléans to the French crown in exchange for the vastly wealthy Brittany province & the permission of the new king, Charles VIII, to allow Louis' annulment with his first wife, Joan.
Many of the French noble houses during the early Renaissance period were so powerful that when two or more allied with one another against the crown it often resulted in costly wars & heavy taxation on the populace to pay for them. Professor Baumgartner does an excellent job of providing background on each of the factions that play key roles in Louis' story, & his ability to maintain the focus on his main narrative without losing direction is one of the reasons the study reads as well as it does.
Later chapters discuss less dramatic but no less fascinating aspects of Louis XII's reign, such as his love of hawking, with his favorite among those he owned being an expensive white hawk of Cyprus acquired as a gift from the Serenissima named Mugnet, 'the terror of herons'. Baumgartner also explains the fairly stable price of grain during Louis' 17-year reign, which lasted from 1498 - 1515, with the price of a setier, or 156 liters according to the Parisian form of measurement, experiencing only modest fluctuation between 2.11 livres in 1501 to 0.83 livres in 1509. As part of the 'joyous coming' celebration which heralded his coronation Louis was awarded a gift of 300,000 livres from his subjects, & in a gracious gesture, the new king refused the gift, returning it to his people. This likely was a contributing factor in his later being awarded the title 'Le Père du Peuple', or 'The Father of the People'.
Overall, Frederic J. Baumgartner's Louis XII is an excellent biography which showcases his abilities at explaining complicated political scenarios in a way that makes sense as the reader progresses through the book, & he even manages to insert a number of humorous & amusing factoids that add character & personality to this very-erudite monograph. It is most assuredly, recommended. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the review!
Historical biographies devoted to the life & reign of the French King Louis XII of the House of Valois-Orléans are few & far between, while there have been comparatively any number of early Renaissance period monographs written on his more famous cousin & successor, Francis I of Angoulême, the Roi-Chevalier, who, aside from being a generous patron of the arts & a renowned man of letters, also participated in the now-immortalized meeting with the English Tudor monarch, Henry VIII, on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, which was held at Balingham from 7-24 June 1520.
And yet it was Louis XII's steadfast determination to minimize taxes that were levied upon his subjects, namely his reduction of the taille, originally a land tax imposed only in times of great need that eventually became a permanent implementation of each successive French king, which led the popular government to bestow upon him the honorific title, 'Father of the People'.
In the introduction to his erudite study of the eighth Valois monarch, Louis XII, historian Frederic J. Baumgartner admits that one of his primary motivations for composing it was that, much like his biography concerning the life & political career of Louis' once-removed successor, Henry II, King Of France, there had not been any books written in English dedicated to Louis XII in over 100 years -- "Much to my surprise, I found that there was no English-language biography for him since the nineteenth century, despite the fact that in 1506 the French Estates-general voted him the unique honor of 'Father of the People'."
Later on, he cites a colleague's remarks regarding the relative obscurity in which Louis' historical period is viewed by many historians & provides his own appraisal of the issue -- "In 1985 the French historian Bernard Chevalier called Louis XII's era 'this no man's land where neither the medievalists nor the modernists dare to penetrate.' Histories of medieval France generally end with Louis XI & those of the French Renaissance begin with Francis I, while the broader histories of France tend to move very quickly from Louis XI to Francis." He concludes the section by providing his prospective reader with some final conjecture -- "Certainly I will not argue that Louis XII stands in the first rank of French kings. Acknowledging that, however, does not explain the obscurity in which Louis has languished in the twentieth century, at least until Bernard Quillet's publication Louis XII (1986)."
This 1996 paperback edition of Frederic J. Baumgartner's 1994 monograph, Louis XII, is published by St. Martin's Press, New York, & features a 253-page main text consisting of 17 chapters & accompanied by 34 pages of expanded notes, as well as an additional bibliography of primary sources & secondary studies followed by a short index. There are also maps of Northern & Southern Italy in the year 1500 & a detailed layout of France during the reign of Louis XII.
Louis of Orléans was born on 27 June 1462 to the 68 year-old Duke Charles of Orléans & his 3rd wife, the 36 year-old Duchess Marie of Cleves. His father's advanced age led many, including his cousin the French King Louis XI 'the Prudent', whose vast networks of informants & webs of political intrigue led him to be known as 'The Universal Spider', to severely question the validity of his birth, remarking as much to his Milanese ambassador on one occasion. As a youth Louis' father Charles was an avid reader who also dabbled in writing verse, & during his 25-year captivity which followed the disastrous French defeat at the Battle of Agincourt & throughout the rest of his life he went on to compose more than 500 works of poetry.
A stark contrast to his father, Louis XII was by comparison much more interested in hunting, jousting & athletics than he was in reading books or writing poems, & he became renowned across the kingdom for his skills in jumping, tennis, & jeu de paume, which is the French term for handball. Jean de St.-Gelais, an Orléanist supporter, remarked that Louis was, "the best horse-man & man-at-arms that I have seen,", & although Louis lost his affinities for jousting & jeu de paume after he became king, he retained his adoration of hunting into his later years & was known to go out into the mountains on forays accompanied by his daughter, Claude.
Louis XII's house, the Valois-Orléans branch, shared a blood relation with not only the French King Louis XI's royal House of Valois, but also with the Valois-Angoulême branch that Louis XII's successor, King Francis I, belonged to. The Angoulêmes had originally been part of the Orléans branch but had split off after Louis XII's paternal grandfather, Duke Louis I of Orléans, who was himself the second son of the French King Charles V 'the Wise', had fathered three sons, one of whom was Louis XII's father, Charles of Orléans, who was the eldest son; the middle son, Philip, became Count of Vertus; & finally, the youngest son, King Francis I's grandfather, John of Orléans, was given the title of Count of Angoulême.
Several other branches were related to the primary Valois house, including the Valois-Anjou branch & the Valois-Burgundy branch, & this association with the royal bloodline meant that male members of these houses were known as princes of the blood, making them contenders in the line of succession should the reigning king have no male heirs. But what made the Valois-Orléans branch, & through it, the Valois-Angoulême branch, greater than the others on the international sphere was the fact that Louis XII's grandfather, Louis I of Orléans, had been married to Valentina Visconti, who had been the only daughter of the first legitimate Duke of Milan, Giangaleazzo Visconti, & there had been a clause in their marriage contract that stipulated that the male heirs of Louis & Valentina would have hereditary rights to the powerful Duchy of Milan, & it was this prerogative which the French kings Louis XII & Francis I, who were both part of the exclusive bloodline, would utilize to justify their invasions of Italy during the Italian Wars, which raged from 1494-1559.
In Chapter 2, Prince of Blood, Baumgartner discusses the events which led to Louis' rebellion from the French crown, among them the wars with the Swiss Confederation which were undertaken by Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy, including the catastrophic defeat at Murten in which 8,000 Burgundian casualties were sustained as well as their final loss at Nancy which resulted in the young duke's untimely death in the middle of a pitched battle. Also discussed in this chapter is France's Auld Alliance with Scotland, in which the Scots would stage additional sorties against the English at French insistence when the need was great. Following the death of King Louis XI in 1483, Louis XII, still a prince of the blood, became embroiled in a conflict with the king's eldest daughter, Anne de Beaujeu, over guardianship of the young crown prince, Charles VIII 'the Affable', who was still in his minority.
Anne was an extremely ambitious, intelligent woman whose diplomatic skills mirrored those of her late father, without his rough edges & glaring personality flaws, & the author provides a description of her in the following passage -- "Anne was, everyone has agreed, a more attractive version of her father, combining the same iron will, political sagacity, & tightfistedness, with greater tact, better humor, & a more gentle nature." The author's explanations of French politics in this chapter help set up the more complicated international scenarios that are discussed later in the book, such as the circumstances that led to Louis' Treaty of Granada which he signed with Ferdinand 'the Catholic' of Spain, his dealings with Archduke Philip 'the Handsome' from the house of Habsburg, & his epic conflict with Pope Julius II, the War of the Holy League in 1511.
In Chapter 4, Le Roi est mort! Vive le Roi!, Professor Baumgartner explains the French monarchy's claim to the Italian port of Genoa, which dated back to a concession made in 1396 by the Genoese government that relinquished control of their city to France in light of the threat posed by the much larger city-state of Milan & by Genoa's own partisan politics, which often erupted into open warfare waged between the powerful Doria & Fregoso clans. Also discussed is King Charles VIII's early invasion of France in 1494 which sparked the beginning of the Italian Wars & Louis' unique role participating in them as one of the king's battle commanders. The ruler of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, felt threatened by Louis, who had begun to style himself 'Duke of Orléans & Milan' in official documents, & was able to persuade Charles to instead send the ambitious prince of the blood to Genoa to manage the Franco-Genoese fleet which was stationed there.
The author does a very good job of fleshing out the complex web of international politics that dominated the Italian peninsula which the French were forced to immerse themselves in as they conducted their Neapolitan & Milanese military campaigns. The Catholic pope at this time was a Spaniard, Rodrigo Borgia, & this meant that his sympathies were pro-Aragonese & lay with Alfonso of Naples & his son, Ferrantino, who were members of an illegitimate line related by blood with Ferdinand & Isabella of Spain, & as such, the pope refused to invest the French King Charles VIII with the Kingdom of Naples, also called the Regno, although he did give Charles permission for the French army to cross the Papal States on their way to Naples. Readers eager to learn more about the Italian Wars are encouraged to try Sydney Alexander's exceptional, although abridged, 1969 translation of Francesco Guicciardini's The History Of Italy.
In Chapter 6, Matters Matrimonial, one of Louis XII's main objectives in the opening months of his reign involved the culmination of his long running efforts to secure an annulment from his first marriage to Joan of France, who was the daughter of the late king Louis XI, in favor of a more advantageous & tactically beneficial match with Anne, Duchess of Brittany. Anne's father, Duke Francis II of Brittany, was a truculent vassal who made common cause with Louis during his brief period of rebellion which is discussed in Chapter 3, Rebel Prince, & together they negotiated a complicated arrangement where upon marrying Anne Louis would cede control of Orléans to the French crown in exchange for the vastly wealthy Brittany province & the permission of the new king, Charles VIII, to allow Louis' annulment with his first wife, Joan.
Many of the French noble houses during the early Renaissance period were so powerful that when two or more allied with one another against the crown it often resulted in costly wars & heavy taxation on the populace to pay for them. Professor Baumgartner does an excellent job of providing background on each of the factions that play key roles in Louis' story, & his ability to maintain the focus on his main narrative without losing direction is one of the reasons the study reads as well as it does.
Later chapters discuss less dramatic but no less fascinating aspects of Louis XII's reign, such as his love of hawking, with his favorite among those he owned being an expensive white hawk of Cyprus acquired as a gift from the Serenissima named Mugnet, 'the terror of herons'. Baumgartner also explains the fairly stable price of grain during Louis' 17-year reign, which lasted from 1498 - 1515, with the price of a setier, or 156 liters according to the Parisian form of measurement, experiencing only modest fluctuation between 2.11 livres in 1501 to 0.83 livres in 1509. As part of the 'joyous coming' celebration which heralded his coronation Louis was awarded a gift of 300,000 livres from his subjects, & in a gracious gesture, the new king refused the gift, returning it to his people. This likely was a contributing factor in his later being awarded the title 'Le Père du Peuple', or 'The Father of the People'.
Overall, Frederic J. Baumgartner's Louis XII is an excellent biography which showcases his abilities at explaining complicated political scenarios in a way that makes sense as the reader progresses through the book, & he even manages to insert a number of humorous & amusing factoids that add character & personality to this very-erudite monograph. It is most assuredly, recommended. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the review!
August 25, 2019
This book was my introduction to Frederic Baumgartner's writing style and the only book written on Louis XII in English. The writing was extremely smooth and super easy reading. Baumgartner clearly sympathizes with Louis XII, believing him to have been arguably one of the better kings that France had, and being worthy of the name he was given "father of the people". He did his very best to live within the means of what his governmental purse was given annually and did his very best not to tax his people, despite his continual wars against Italy in his earnest attempt to win the Duchy of Milan. This is one of the sore points that Baumgartner admits was one of the detractors in Louis reign, as the wars were not only costly, but they by and large failed to really accomplish anything and cost a tremendous amount of lives of both french and mercenary men.
Baumgartner also tries to delineate what kind of ruler Louis was, as under Louis, France was technically not a centralized monarchy as Louis was rarely ever in Paris, instead he traveled around very frequently so that his people could see him and so he could hold councils in many of the cities of France, this helped by and large to keep the people of France happy and kept them from revolting during the more financially strenuous years of 1511-13.
He also tries to understand what kind of rule France had during this period of time, whether it was absolutist monarchy, which he argues was not the case as he still frequently held councils, not the estates general which was not frequently used in France yet, as it was expensive to bring them about but he would still try and collaborate with his councillors to come to a decision that would benefit his kingdom.
Louis also was revolutionary in changing how laws were conducted, taking the privileges away from the nobility of the robe who would be given positions in law courts not based on their creditentials but instead on their family and their income. He changed this so that learned and educated men would be given appointments in law courts so that they could be properly run.
Finally for those who did watch the Borgias it was quite interesting to see Cardinal Rovera who had become pope Julius II come into conflict with Louis and very nearly ultimately becomes the death of Louis and France as he tried to arrange to have Henry VIII and Maximilian the Holy Roman Emperor attack France for Louis's supposed heresy in trying to challenge Julius's power and dominions of Italy.
All in all the book was very good and I learned a tremendous amount about Louis and look forward to his work on Henry II.
Baumgartner also tries to delineate what kind of ruler Louis was, as under Louis, France was technically not a centralized monarchy as Louis was rarely ever in Paris, instead he traveled around very frequently so that his people could see him and so he could hold councils in many of the cities of France, this helped by and large to keep the people of France happy and kept them from revolting during the more financially strenuous years of 1511-13.
He also tries to understand what kind of rule France had during this period of time, whether it was absolutist monarchy, which he argues was not the case as he still frequently held councils, not the estates general which was not frequently used in France yet, as it was expensive to bring them about but he would still try and collaborate with his councillors to come to a decision that would benefit his kingdom.
Louis also was revolutionary in changing how laws were conducted, taking the privileges away from the nobility of the robe who would be given positions in law courts not based on their creditentials but instead on their family and their income. He changed this so that learned and educated men would be given appointments in law courts so that they could be properly run.
Finally for those who did watch the Borgias it was quite interesting to see Cardinal Rovera who had become pope Julius II come into conflict with Louis and very nearly ultimately becomes the death of Louis and France as he tried to arrange to have Henry VIII and Maximilian the Holy Roman Emperor attack France for Louis's supposed heresy in trying to challenge Julius's power and dominions of Italy.
All in all the book was very good and I learned a tremendous amount about Louis and look forward to his work on Henry II.
April 4, 2023
There's an interpretation of Louis XII that makes him kind of a piece of crap, and for historians with an expertise tangentially connected to him, I find that they often take that view. For those that have a background more directly tied to Louis, like Frédéric Baumgartner, I find there to be a much more nuanced, appreciative view. This is one of my absolute favorite academic biographies I've ever read. Louis XII was criminally underappreciated both in his own time and now, and this book is *essential* to anyone who wants to understand the political world around the late Renaissance. Louis is too complex a person to "get the jist of."
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