1 January 1515(1515-01-01) (aged 52) Hôtel des Tournelles
Burial
4 January 1515
Saint Denis Basilica
Spouses
Joan of France
(m. 1476; ann. 1498)
Anne, Duchess of Brittany
(m. 1499; died 1514)
Mary Tudor
(m. 1514)
Issue more...
Claude, Queen of France
Renée, Duchess of Ferrara
Michel, Archbishop of Bourges (ill.)
House
Valois-Orléans
Father
Charles, Duke of Orléans
Mother
Marie of Cleves
Signature
Louis XII (27 June 1462 – 1 January 1515) was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second cousin once removed and brother-in-law, Charles VIII, who died childless in 1498.
Before his accession to the throne of France, he was known as Louis of Orléans and was compelled to be married to his disabled and supposedly sterile cousin Joan by his second cousin, King Louis XI. By doing so, Louis XI hoped to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois.[1][2] When Louis XII became king in 1498, he had his marriage with Joan annulled by Pope Alexander VI and instead married Anne, Duchess of Brittany, the widow of Charles VIII. This marriage allowed Louis to reinforce the personal Union of Brittany and France.
Louis of Orléans was one of the great feudal lords who opposed the French monarchy in the conflict known as the Mad War. At the royal victory in the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier in 1488, Louis was captured, but Charles VIII pardoned him and released him. He subsequently took part in the Italian Wars, initiating a second Italian campaign for the control of the Kingdom of Naples. Louis conquered the Duchy of Milan in 1500 and pushed forward to the Kingdom of Naples, which fell to him in 1501. Proclaimed King of Naples, Louis faced a new coalition gathered by Ferdinand II of Aragon and was forced to cede Naples to Spain in 1504. Louis, who remained Duke of Milan after the second Italian War, was interested in further expansion in the Italian Peninsula and launched a third Italian War (1508–1516), which was marked by the military prowess of the Chevalier de Bayard.
Louis XII did not encroach on the power of local governments or the privileges of the nobility, in opposition with the long tradition of the French kings to attempt to impose absolute monarchy in France. A popular king, Louis was proclaimed "Father of the People" (French: Le Père du Peuple) for his reduction of the tax known as taille, legal reforms, and civil peace within France. Louis XII died in 1515 without a male heir. He was succeeded by his cousin and son-in-law Francis I from the Angoulême cadet branch of the House of Valois.
^André Vauchez, Michael Lapidge, "Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages: A-J", pp. 776, 2000: "Infirm from birth, she was obliged by her father, Louis XI, to marry her cousin, Louis of Orleans. The king wished, by a union considered sterile, to extinguish this rival collateral dynasty."
^"The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Volume 33", pp. 42, 1854: "Louis XI compelled him to marry his deformed and sterile daughter Joan, threatening him with death by drowning, if he refused."
LouisXII (27 June 1462 – 1 January 1515) was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans...
Cambrai — an anti-Venetian alliance consisting of him, Maximilian I, LouisXII of France, and Ferdinand II of Aragon — which was formally concluded in...
the major powers of Europe fought for primacy in the Italian Peninsula. LouisXII of France controlled the Duchy of Milan, previously held by the Sforzas...
to his cousin, LouisXII. Following an agreement made to secure the annexation of Brittany, Anne had to marry the new king. LouisXII was deeply in love...
succeeded by his second cousin once removed and brother-in-law at the time, LouisXII, from the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois. Charles was born...
he became king on the death of her father. She was a daughter of King LouisXII of France and his second wife, the duchess regnant Anne of Brittany. Claude...
of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law LouisXII, who died without a legitimate son. A prodigious patron of the arts, he...
archbishop of Bourges, and the illegitimate son of LouisXII. Michel Bucy was born in 1484 to Louis d'Orléans and an unknown mother. Bucy's mother has...
was succeeded by his cousin, the Duke of Orleans, who became LouisXII of France. LouisXII married his predecessor's widow, Anne of Brittany, in order...
integration into the Royal domain in 1498, when Count Louis II of Orléans became King LouisXII of France. During the Renaissance, Blois was the official...
The second Triboulet served LouisXII; he died during his reign, and the third Francis I (and possibly also LouisXII), and those two became later confused...
the death of his brother in 1498. He served as a condottiero for King LouisXII of France around 1500, and occupied Milan and Naples during the Italian...
However, Francorum Rex continued to be sometimes used, for example by LouisXII in 1499, by Francis I in 1515, and by Henry II in about 1550; it was also...
Hours of LouisXII (French: Livre d'heures de LouisXII) was an illuminated manuscript book of hours produced by Jean Bourdichon for LouisXII of France...
Julius II, allied between 1510 and 1513 with Henry VIII of England against LouisXII of France, considered transferring the title from the French monarch to...
The Tomb of LouisXII and Anne of Brittany is a large and complex silver-gilt and marble sculptured 16th century funerary monument. Its design and build...
Meyer zum Hasen. He ruled from 1512 to 1515, between the occupations of LouisXII of France (1500–1512), and Francis I of France in 1515. After the French...
the King's sister, Princess Mary, who was going to Paris to marry King LouisXII of France. Mary was joined in Paris by her father Sir Thomas and her sister...
April 1498, and was succeeded by the former Duke of Orleans, who became LouisXII. The next phase of the conflict originated in the long-standing rivalry...
amicable relations with the Pope, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and LouisXII of France; and James's aspiration to lead a European naval crusade against...
Frederick, Ferdinand signed an agreement with Charles VIII's successor, LouisXII, who had just successfully asserted his claims to the Duchy of Milan,...
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