The principal event in the reign of the new king was the reopening of the Italian War by the combined and successful action of Spain and France.  But this proved a barren triumph for Louis, who, when all was done, found that he had been simply aiding that artful diplomatist, Ferdinand, in securing the whole prize for Spain.  The disagreement growing out of the distribution of the spoil resulted in a war between the late allies; and it was in this wretched conflict that Bayard, chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, was sacrificed.

Louis died in 1515, also without an heir; and so the crown passed to still another collateral branch of the main Capetian line.  The Count of Angouleme, cousin of the dead king, was proclaimed Francis I.

The fall of Constantinople in the East, and the discovery of a new world in the West, were changing the whole aspect of Europe.  The art of printing, coming almost simultaneously with these transforming events, sent vitalizing currents reaching even to the humblest.  France partook of the general awakening and was throwing off the torpor of centuries.  New ambitions were aroused, and her slumbering genius began to be stirred.  This was a propitious moment for an ambitious young king who aimed not only at being the greatest of military heroes, but also the splendid patron of art and letters, and wisest of men!  The role he had set for himself being, in fact, a Charlemagne and a Lorenzo de’ Medici in one.  All that was needed for success in this large field was ability.  Personal valor Francis certainly possessed.  His reign opened brilliantly with a campaign in the Italian peninsula, which left him after the battle of Marignano, master of the Milanese and of northern Italy.  He need not trouble himself as had his predecessors about recalcitrant and scheming nobles.  They had never been heard from since Louis XI. took them in hand.  Neither were the States-General going to annoy him by assertion of rights and demands for reforms.  They too had become almost non-existent; it having been well established that only the direst emergency would ever call them into being again.  So kingship held sole and undisputed sway, and Francis was looking about to see where he might make it even stronger.

The residence of the popes, at Avignon, during the period of the Great Schism, had led to the establishment by Charles VII. of an ordinance called the Pragmatic Sanction; its object being the limitation of the papal power in France.  The pope by this ordinance was cut off from certain lucrative sources of income; to offset which the king was deprived of the right of appointing officers for vacant bishoprics and abbeys.

Francis I. and Leo X. came together, and, after conferring, determined that the Pragmatic Sanction should be repudiated; Leo, because he must increase his revenues, and Francis, because he desired to use appointments to rich vacancies as rewards for his friends.  Leo’s tastes, as we know, were magnificent, and needed much more money than he could command; a fact which led to grave results, and changed the course of events in the world!