Francis I
The Maker of Modern France

This is extremely easy reading and very interesting to boot. Upon my reread I removed a star because I am shocked this historian ignores the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War in a biography about France. This war is a sister war to the War of the Roses in England also set during the Hundred Years War. To......more

Francis I was an interesting man, living in interesting times. This book was interesting to read but offered few surprises and was a little shallow. I don't see how he lived up to the sub-title of the book "the maker of modern France" and the book focuses on his foreign policy at the expense of his......more

An old fashioned royal biography that recounts various aspects of Francis's life and reign, especially his foreign policy, without much additional analysis from the author. Frieda describes wars, peace treaties, dynastic marriages and contacts between rulers but rarely brings these details together......more

It is entertaining, but it doesn’t substantiate its claim that Francis made “modern France.” He appears to have “made” a high proportion of the French court, but the court was a small proportion of the nation. His attempts to remake himself as a Renaissance prince were largely frustrated. He recruit......more

While I know a fair amount about Henry VIII and Charles V (rulers of England and the Holy Roman Empire, respectively), I knew very little about their fellow monarch Francis I of France so when I saw this biography was available as an audiobook, I checked it out for my morning constitutionals. If, lik......more