François I has often been described as the archetype of lecherous tyranny. Yet his reign (1515-1547) was the most radiant and the most creative in French history, a continuous pageant in which two brilliant cultures came together, those of Gothic France and the Italian Renaissance.

François was the Sun King of the sixteenth century. A supreme patron of the arts, his Court painters included Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Sarto; he purchased the works of Raphael and Michelangelo; and Benvenuto Cellini was his jeweller. For his intimates at Court he chose poets and scholars, he founded the Collège de France, and the library that he gathered became the Bibliothèque Nationale. He built palaces which even Versailles was not to overshadow, including the magnificent Château of Fontainebleau and Chambered.

In this fascinating biography Desmond Seward vividly traces the life and character of François, his manifold activities, his relations with the great men about him and the turbulent events of the time. For François was not merely a patron; no ruler since Charlemagne has had a more direct influence upon the civilisation of France.