LUIGI XII, king of France. — Of the Valois-Orléans house, born on 27 June 1462 at Blois to Charles d’Orléans and Marie of Cleves, succeeded his cousin Charles VIII on 7 April 1498 and died on 19 January 1515. He married Jeanne, daughter of Louis XI, then Anne of Brittany, widow of Charles VIII, in order to reunite this great fief with the crown; by her he had two daughters, Claudia and Renée. In a third marriage he wed Mary of England (September 1514).
As a prince he was often rebellious toward Louis XI and the regent Anne of Beaujeu; he took part with Charles VIII in the expedition to Italy, claiming his rights to the Milanese as the nephew of Valentina Visconti, and occupying Novara where he was besieged. Once king, he assumed the titles of duke of Milan and king of Naples, continued his cousin’s Italian policy, and with the alliance of Venice and Alexander VI easily occupied the Milanese (1499) and partitioned the Neapolitan kingdom with Ferdinand the Catholic (Treaty of Granada, 1500). Soon, however, the French were driven out by the Spaniards (1503). He aided the conquest of the Romagna by Cesare Borgia and in 1507 harshly suppressed a revolt in Genoa. He played a major part in the League of Cambrai and the defeat of Venice, but when Julius II turned against the French they were expelled from Italy. The king then erred in summoning a conciliabulum at Pisa to depose the Pope; he was excommunicated and had to submit. In France he was remembered as the “father of the people” for reduced taxes and good reforms carried out with the cardinal of Amboise.