Louis XII Father of the People (apr 8, 1498 – jan 1, 1515)

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Son of Charles, Duke of Orléans and Maria of Cleves. (Charles was the son of Louis of Orleans, mad Charles' brother who was murdered by John the Fearless. Charles was taken prisoner at Agincourt and spent many years in England, not returning to France until 1440). Louis's second cousin Louis XI had hoped to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois, and forced Louis to marry his supposedly disabled and sterile daughter Joan in 1476. Louis's son Charles VIII succeeded to the throne of France in 1483, but died childless in 1498, and the throne passed to Louis XII. Charles had been married to Anne, Duchess of Brittany, in order to unite the quasi-sovereign Duchy of Brittany with the Kingdom of France. To sustain this union, Louis XII had his marriage to Joan annulled so that he could marry Anne. The marriage produced no heirs but daughter Claude was betrothed to the heir presumptive, Francis of Angoulême, to ensure that Brittany would remain united with France. Louis persevered in the Italian Wars, initiating a second Italian campaign for the control of the Kingdom of Naples. He conquered the Duchy of Milan in 1500 and Naples in 1501. Proclaimed King of Naples, Louis faced a new coalition gathered by Ferdinand II of Aragon and was forced to cede Naples to Spain in 1504. A popular king, Louis XII did not encroach on the power of local governments or the privileges of the nobility, in opposition with the long tradition of the French kings to attempt to impose absolute monarchy in France. After Anne's death and in a failed effort to produce an heir, Louis married Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII of England, in 1514. When Louis died three months later, the throne passed to Francis I, who was Louis' cousin once removed, and also his son-in-law.

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