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Y310: The Development of the Nation State: France 1498–1610

Depth study: Francis I and ‘Renaissance Monarchy’ — financial weaknesses and Fontainebleau

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on financial weaknesses, political, religious and legal restraints, his use of venality, Fontainebleau, his patronage of the arts and French culture.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

What institution did Francis create to manage the sale of offices?

Key term

Why was venality a mortgage on royal authority?

Key term

Name other major building projects of the reign.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What institution did Francis create to manage the sale of offices?

    Model answer

    A dedicated bureau was set up in 1522 to handle casual revenues, chiefly the proceeds of selling offices.

  2. 2

    Why was venality a mortgage on royal authority?

    Model answer

    An office bought with the holder's own money became a form of property he expected to keep and pass on, so the crown lost the power to dismiss its own officials at will.

  3. 3

    What financial reforms did Francis make?

    Model answer

    He created a central treasury of savings in 1523 to gather revenues in one fund, raised loans on the security of Paris municipal revenues from 1522, and reorganised the collection districts into sixteen general receipts in 1542.

  4. 4

    What happened to Semblançay, and what does the case show?

    Model answer

    The king's chief financial officer was tried for corruption and hanged in 1527, which shows how readily the crown blamed its servants for a shortage of money that its own wars had caused.

  5. 5

    Why was Francis so short of money despite rising revenue?

    Model answer

    Italian campaigns, the defence of the frontier, the ransom of his sons and a magnificent court cost far more than a tax system built on the taille and indirect duties could raise.

  6. 6

    How did Francis respond to religious dissent, and what changed his approach?

    Model answer

    He protected humanist scholars and his own sister's reforming circle until the Affair of the Placards in 1534, after which he backed systematic prosecution of heresy.

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