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Duchess Anne of Brittany, Duchess Claude of Brittany, Francis III of Brittany, King Francis I of France, King Henry II of France, King Louis XII of France, Princess Mary of England, Queen Mary I of England, Salic Law
François III (February 28, 1518 – August 10, 1536) was Dauphin of France and, after 1524, Reigning Duke of Brittany.
François and his brother, Henri, were exchanged as hostages for their father, King François I of France, who had been captured at the Battle of Pavia. They would be hostages for three years. Made Duke of Brittany in 1532, this precipitated Brittany’s integration within the Kingdom of France. Prince François died August 10, 1536, possibly from tuberculosis.
Life
Prince François was the first son of King François I of France and Duchess Claude of Brittany, the eldest daughter of King Louis XII of France and Duchess Anne of Brittany. Because of the Salic Law the throne of France went to Prince François, Count of Angoulême, the son of Prince Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law King Louis XII, who died without a legitimate son. Claudia inherited her mother’s Duchy upon her mother’s death.
King François I said of Prince François at birth, “a beautiful dauphin who is the most beautiful and strong child one could imagine and who will be the easiest to bring up.” His mother said, “tell the King that he is even more beautiful than himself.” The Dauphin was christened at Amboise on April 25, 1519. Leonardo da Vinci, who had been brought to Amboise by King François I, designed the decorations.
One of the most researched aspects of the Dauphin’s short life is the time he and his brother Prince Henri (later King Henri II of France) spent as hostages in Spain.
The king had been badly defeated and captured at the Battle of Pavia (1525) and became a prisoner of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (King Carlos I of Spain), initially in the Alcázar in Madrid. In order to ensure his release, the king signed the Treaty of Madrid (1526). However, in order to ensure that Francis abided by the treaty, Emperor Charles V demanded that the king’s two older sons take his place as hostages. King François agreed.
On March 15, 1526, the exchange took place at the border between Spain and France. King François almost immediately repudiated the treaty and the eight-year-old Dauphin and his younger brother Prince Henri spent the next three years as captives of Emperor Charles V, a period that scarred them for life.
During his confinement in Spain, the Dauphin displayed a notably subdued demeanor compared to his more aggressive brother and seemed “to have accepted the rationale for his imprisonment reasonably well.” Nevertheless, the experience led him to become somewhat isolated, favoring black attire (like a Spaniard) and exhibiting a contemplative disposition seen as more Spanish than French.
Marriage arrangements
As the first son and heir of the King of France, the Dauphin was a marriage pawn for his father. There were several betrothals to eligible princesses throughout the Dauphin’s life.
The first was when he was an infant, to the four-year-old Princess Mary of England (later Queen Mary I of England), daughter of Henry VIII of England and Infanta Catherine of Aragon; this arrangement was made as a surety for the Anglo-French alliance signed in October 1518, but abandoned around 1521 when Princess Mary was instead betrothed to Emperor Charles V.