Francis I (1494-1547) was without a doubt one of France’s most colorful kings. Today he’s remembered as the last patron of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and as the builder of the new Louvre and the Château de Chambord. But like quite a few French kings, Francis I was known not only as a builder, but also as a lover. And that, in the end, is exactly what killed him.
Starting with the wrong lady
It all started with a failed battle in 1525 near the city of Pavia, close to Milan, during which Francis I was taken prisoner by the Spanish and gave the world the famous line, “All is lost save honor.” After his capture, Francis I was taken to Madrid, where he was held for about a year until he agreed to sign a peace treaty in which France lost quite a bit of territory to Spain.
During the year he spent in captivity, the king of France wasn’t held in chains in some damp dungeon. Instead, he was given a small palace of his own, complete with servants to see to his needs. Among them was a young and beautiful Spanish maid, whose name has vanished from the pages of history. The king, a notorious womanizer and bored out of his mind, began courting her eagerly, and before long the two were caught up in a passionate affair.
There was just one small problem: the Spanish maid had a husband, and he was a hot-blooded Spaniard. When that husband heard about the affair, he immediately wanted to kill both the king and the wife who had made a cuckold of him. The trouble was that the king of France was so closely guarded that there was no way to get near him and carry out his revenge.
Murder by messenger
After a great deal of thought and planning, the husband decided to take an indirect approach to his revenge. One day he left home and traveled to Madrid to visit one of the city’s escorts, a woman well known for her collection of sexually transmitted diseases. He didn’t waste any time: he paid for her services, did what he came to do, and went straight home.
That evening, when his wife came home, the husband was unusually sweet. After a romantic dinner, the couple went to bed and ended the night with a passionate round of lovemaking. The wife, who of course suspected nothing, went on meeting the king in his bedroom as usual, and without meaning to, she passed on to him the very disease she herself had caught.
Not long after, Francis I began showing the first signs of the disease, which quickly grew worse and left him bedridden. The king of Spain watched his prized bargaining chip slipping through his fingers, and in a fit of desperation he even sent for the French king’s sister, Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), hoping she could come and save him.
His sister did manage to help Francis recover, but the disease never fully left his body. It continued to attack him in the years that followed, until it finally brought him down in 1547.
The moral of the story? Condom isn’t just the name of a charming town in France, it’s also a safeguard that can protect kings and commoners alike. Remember to use one 🙂