Louis XII

Louis XII
Louis XII in 1514
King of France (more...)
Reign	7 April 1498 – 1 January 1515
Coronation	27 May 1498
Predecessor	Charles VIII
Successor	Francis I
Duke of Milan
Reign	6 September 1499 – 16 June 1512
Predecessor	Ludovico Sforza
Successor	Massimiliano Sforza
King of Naples
Reign	2 August 1501 – 31 January 1504
Predecessor	Frederick
Successor	Ferdinand III
Born	27 June 1462 Château de Blois
Died	1 January 1515(1515-01-01) (aged 52) Hôtel des Tournelles
Burial	4 January 1515 Saint Denis Basilica
Spouses	Joan of France ​ ​ (m. 1476; ann. 1498)​ Anne, Duchess of Brittany ​ ​ (m. 1499; died 1514)​ Mary Tudor ​ (m. 1514)​
Issue more...	Claude, Queen of France Renée, Duchess of Ferrara Michel, Archbishop of Bourges (ill.)
House	Valois-Orléans
Father	Charles, Duke of Orléans
Mother	Marie of Cleves
Signature

Louis XII (27 June 1462 – 1 January 1515) was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second cousin once removed and brother-in-law, Charles VIII, who died childless in 1498.

Before his accession to the throne of France, he was known as Louis of Orléans and was compelled to be married to his disabled and supposedly sterile cousin Joan by his second cousin, King Louis XI. By doing so, Louis XI hoped to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois.^[1][2] When Louis XII became king in 1498, he had his marriage with Joan annulled by Pope Alexander VI and instead married Anne, Duchess of Brittany, the widow of Charles VIII. This marriage allowed Louis to reinforce the personal Union of Brittany and France.

Louis of Orléans was one of the great feudal lords who opposed the French monarchy in the conflict known as the Mad War. At the royal victory in the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier in 1488, Louis was captured, but Charles VIII pardoned him and released him. He subsequently took part in the Italian Wars, initiating a second Italian campaign for the control of the Kingdom of Naples. Louis conquered the Duchy of Milan in 1500 and pushed forward to the Kingdom of Naples, which fell to him 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. Louis, who remained Duke of Milan after the second Italian War, was interested in further expansion in the Italian Peninsula and launched a third Italian War (1508–1516), which was marked by the military prowess of the Chevalier de Bayard.

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. A popular king, Louis was proclaimed "Father of the People" (French: Le Père du Peuple) for his reduction of the tax known as taille, legal reforms, and civil peace within France. Louis XII died in 1515 without a male heir. He was succeeded by his cousin and son-in-law Francis I from the Angoulême cadet branch of the House of Valois.