Francis I of France

Francis I became King of France in 1515 after his first cousin once removed Louis XII died without a legitimate son. He turned the court into a magnet for Italian artists, luring Leonardo da Vinci - and with him the Mona Lisa, which Francis acquired - to work under his patronage. His reign saw the spread of humanism and Protestantism, the beginning of French exploration of the Americas through Jacques Cartier, and his championing of the French language earned him the title le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres. But he spent much of his rule locked in the Italian Wars against Charles V, whose election as Holy Roman Emperor left France encircled by Habsburg territory. When an alliance with Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold failed, Francis made the controversial choice to ally with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He ruled until his death in 1547, leaving France more centralized and culturally transformed than he found it.