Marriage and Issue
One alleged out-of-wedlock issue, Henri de la Rue.
On 18 May 1514, Francis married his second cousin, Claude of France, Duchess of Brittany, who was the daughter of Louis XII, King of France, and Anne, Duchess of Brittany. The couple had seven children:
| Name | Picture | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louise | 19 August 1515 | 21 September 1517 | Died aged two, of convulsions. Engaged to Infante Charles of Castile from birth to death, no issue. | |
| Charlotte | 23 October 1516 | 18 September 1524 | Died aged seven of measles. Engaged to Infante Charles of Castile between 1518 and 1524, no issue. | |
| Francis, Duke of Brittany | 28 February 1518 | 10 August 1536 | Died at the age of eighteen, no issue. | |
| Henry II, King of France | 31 March 1519 | 10 July 1559 | Married Catherine de'Medici, had issue. | |
| Madeleine, Queen Consort of Scotland | 10 August 1520 | 7 July 1537 | Married James V of Scotland, but died of tuberculosis at age sixteen. No issue. | |
| Charles, Duke of Orléans | 22 January 1522 | 9 September 1545 | Died of the plague aged twenty-three, no issue. | |
| Margaret, Duchess of Berry (since 1550) | 5 June 1523 | 15 September 1574 | Married Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and had one son. |
On 7 August 1530, Francis I married his second wife Eleanor of Austria, a sister of the Emperor Charles V. The couple had no children. During his reign, Francis kept two official mistresses at court. The first was Françoise de Foix, comtesse de Chateaubriand. In 1526, she was replaced by the blonde-haired, cultured Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, duchesse d'Étampes who, with the death of Queen Claude two years earlier, wielded far more political power at court than her predecessor had done. Another of his earlier mistresses, was allegedly Mary Boleyn, mistress of King Henry VIII and sister of Henry's future wife, Anne Boleyn.
Read more about this topic: Francis I Of France
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and, marriage and/or issue:
“Christianity as an organized religion has not always had a harmonious relationship with the family. Unlike Judaism, it kept almost no rituals that took place in private homes. The esteem that monasticism and priestly celibacy enjoyed implied a denigration of marriage and parenthood.”
—Beatrice Gottlieb, U.S. historian. The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age, ch. 12, Oxford University Press (1993)
“Marriage is the clue to human life, but there is no marriage apart from the wheeling sun and the nodding earth, from the straying of the planets and the magnificence of the fixed stars.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered;
Put rancors in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)