The Château de Chenonceau: “Château des Dames” of the Loire Valley

The Château de Chenonceau is a magnificent castle spanning the River Cher.  It is located close to the village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France.  One of the most famous châteaux of the Loire valley, it is a unique Renaissance castle, a fairytale and...

Marguerite de Valois, Duchess de Berry: birth and late marriage

Marguerite de Valois, Duchess de Berry, was born on the 5th of June 1523 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.  She was the youngest daughter and child of King François I of France and his first wife – Queen Claude of France, Duchess de Bretagne.  In a year after her birth,...

Birth of Charles de Bourbon, Duke de Vendôme – King Henri IV of France’s grandfather

Charles de Bourbon, Duke de Vendôme, was born on the 2nd of June 1489.  He was a French noblewoman ranked as prince du sang – a person legitimately descended in dynastic line from any of a realm’s hereditary monarchs.  Born at the Château de Vendôme, his birth brought a profound...

Marriage of François d’Angoulême and Claude of France

On the 18th of May 1514, François d’Angoulême, the future King François I of France, married his distant cousin Claude, the eldest of the two surviving daughters of Queen Anne and King Louis XII.  The quiet ceremony took place in the atmosphere of lament in a chapel at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which...

Leonardo Da Vinci: a genius’s life in Italy and his last years in France

Leonardo Da Vinci was born on the 14 or 15th of April 1452 in the Tuscan town of Vinci, in the Republic of Florence.  He was undoubtedly the quintessential Renaissance man, one who spent most of his life in Italy and his last years in France.  Leonardo’s areas of interest...

Princess Mary Tudor: biding her time after marrying Louis XII

On the 13th of August 1514, Princess Mary Tudor was married to King Louis XII of France by proxy at Greenwich Palace.  A young and beautiful maid became the wife of an ailing and old monarch!  Mary was eighteen, while Louis was fifty-two!  However, the age difference did not matter...

“The Field of the Cloth of Gold”

On the 7th of June 1520, the sensational meeting of Kings of England and France occurred near Calais that was to become known to history as “The Field of the Cloth of Gold”. This luxurious meeting became the standards to which international peace treaties were measured in many years to...

King François I’s worst defeat: the Battle of Pavia and captivity

Today is another anniversary of the Battle of Pavia. It was fought on the morning of the 24th of February 1525 near the Imperial-controlled city of Pavia in Lombardy, Italy. The French kingdom of King François I of France was unfortunately vanquished by the Habsburg empire of Emperor Charles V,...

Anne Boleyn and King François I of France

My dear friends and readers! I’m pleased to inform you that I’m currently having a book tour, in which I’m visiting various blogs and discussing Anne Boleyn for my new book Between Two Kings. Today, my new article was published on Queenanneboleyn.com (you can find it here). Anne Boleyn and King...