Bastion
A bastion is an angular structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly at the corners. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks with fire from the flanks being able to protect the wall and the adjacent bastions. It is one element in the style of fortification dominant from the mid 16th to mid 19th centuries, Bastion fortifications offered a greater degree of passive resistance and more scope for ranged defense in the age of gunpowder artillery compared with the medieval fortifications they replaced. By the middle of the 15th century, artillery pieces had become powerful enough to make the traditional medieval round tower, during the Eighty Years War Dutch military engineers developed the concepts further lengthening the faces and shortening the curtain walls of the bastions. To augment this change they placed v shaped outworks in front of the bastions, Bastions differ from medieval towers in a number of respects. Bastions are lower than towers and are normally of similar height to the adjacent curtain wall, the height of towers, although making them difficult to scale, made them easy for artillery to destroy. A bastion would normally have a ditch in front, the side of which would be built up above the natural level slope away gradually.
This glacis shielded most of the bastion from the cannon while the distance from the base of the ditch to the top of the bastion meant it was still difficult to scale. In contrast to late medieval towers, bastions were flat sided rather than curved. This eliminated dead ground making it possible for the defenders to fire upon any point directly in front of the bastion, Bastions cover a larger area than most towers. This allows more cannons to be mounted and provided space for the crews to operate them. Surviving examples of bastions are usually faced with masonry, unlike the wall of a tower this was just a retaining wall, cannonball were expected to pass through this and be absorbed by a greater thickness of hard-packed earth or rubble behind. The top of the bastion was exposed to fire. If a bastion was successfully stormed, it could provide the attackers with a stronghold from which to further attacks. Some bastion designs attempted to minimise this problem and this could be achieved by the use of retrenchments in which a trench was dug across the rear of the bastion, isolating it from the main rampart.
Various kinds of bastions have been used throughout history, solid bastions are those that are filled up entirely, and have the ground even with the height of the rampart, without any empty space towards the centre. Void or hollow bastions are those that have a rampart, or parapet, only around their flanks and faces, so that a void space is left towards the centre. The ground is so low, that if the rampart is taken, no retrenchment can be made in the centre, but what will lie under the fire of the besieged
Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was a French general during the Second World War. He became Marshal of France posthumously in 1952, and is known in France simply as le maréchal Leclerc or just Leclerc, the son of an aristocratic family, de Hauteclocque graduated from the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, the French military academy, in 1924. After service with the French Occupation of the Ruhr and in Morocco and he was awarded the croix de guerre des théâtres dopérations extérieures for leading goumiers in an attack on caves and ravines on Bou Amdoun on 11 August 1933. During the Second World War he fought in the Battle of France and he was sent to French Equatorial Africa, where he rallied local leaders to the Free French cause, and led a force against Gabon, whose leaders supported Vichy France. From Chad he led raids into Italian-controlled Libya, after his forces captured Kufra, he had his men swear an oath known today as the Serment de Koufra, in which they pledged to fight on until their flag flew over the Strasbourg Cathedral.
The forces under his command, known as L Force, campaigned in Libya in 1943, covered the Eighth Armys inland flank during its advance into Tunisia, L Force was transformed into the 2e Division Blindée, although it was often referred to as La Division Leclerc. It fought under Leclercs command in the Battle of Normandy, and participated in the liberation of Paris, after the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, he was given command of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps. He represented France at the surrender of the Japanese Empire in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945 and he quickly perceived the necessity for a political solution to the nascent conflict in Indochina, but once again was ahead of his countrymen, and was recalled to France in 1946. He was killed in an air crash in Algeria in 1947, Philippe François Marie de Hauteclocque was born on 22 November 1902 at Belloy-Saint-Léonard in the department of Somme. He was the fifth of six children of Adrien de Hauteclocque, comte de Hauteclocque, Philippe was named in honour of an ancestor killed by Croats in 1635.
De Hauteclocque came from an old line of country nobility and his direct ancestors had served in the Fifth Crusade against Egypt, and again in the Eighth Crusade of Saint Louis against Tunisia in 1270. They had fought at the Battle of Saint-Omer in 1340, the family managed to survive the French Revolution. Three members of the served in Napoleons Grande Armée and a fourth. The third son, who had served in Napoleons Russian Campaign, was created a chevalier by King Louis XVIII, the older, Alfred Francois Marie, died childless. The younger, Gustave Francois Marie Joseph, became a noted Egyptologist, Gustave, in turn, had three sons. The first and third, became officers in the French Army, serving during the colonial campaigns, both were killed in the early fighting of the First World War. The second son was Adrien, who enlisted in August 1914 as a trooper in the 11e Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval, Adrien was commissioned, and was twice awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry. He survived the war, and inherited the title and estate in Belloy-Saint-Léonard
Japan
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭.
It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
2nd Armored Division (France)
The French 2nd Armored Division, commanded by General Philippe Leclerc, fought during the final phases of World War II in the Western Front. The divisions 14,454 personnel included men from the 2nd Light Division, escapees from metropolitan France, about 3,600 Moroccans and Algerians and about 350 Spanish Republicans. Other sources give about 2,000, official records of the 2e DB show fewer than 300 Spaniards as they hid their nationality, the division embarked in April 1944 and shipped to various ports in Britain. On 29 July 1944, bound for France, the division embarked at Southampton, during combat in 1944, the division liberated Paris, defeated a Panzer brigade during the armored clashes in Lorraine, forced the Saverne Gap and liberated Strasbourg. They all but destroyed the 9th Panzer Division and defeated several other German units, during the Battle for Normandy, the 2nd Division lost 133 men killed,648 wounded, and 85 missing. Division material losses included 76 armored vehicles,7 cannons,27 halftracks, the most celebrated moment in the units history was the Liberation of Paris.
Eisenhower agreed to let the French armored division and the U. S. 4th Infantry Division liberate Paris. In the early morning of 23 August, Leclercs 2e DB left the south of Argentan on its march to Paris, a march which was slowed by poor conditions, French crowds. On 24 August, General Leclerc sent an advance party to enter the city. This party, commanded by Captain Raymond Dronne, consisted of the 9th company of the 3rd Battalion of the Régiment de marche du Tchad. Dronne and his men arrived at the Hôtel de Ville, in the center of Paris, on 25 August, the 2nd Armored and the U. S. 4th Division entered Paris and liberated it. After hard fighting that cost the 2nd Division 35 tanks,6 self-propelled guns, and 111 vehicles, von Choltitz, the German military governor of Paris, capitulated at the Hôtel Meurice. The following day,26 August, a victory parade took place on the Champs Élysées, which was lined with a jubilant crowd acclaiming General de Gaulle. The 2nd Division fought in the battles in Lorraine.
Subsequently, the 2nd Division operated with U. S. forces during the assault into the Vosges Mountains, the Presidential Unit Citation was awarded to the division for this action. Fighting in Alsace until the end of February 1945, the 2nd Division was deployed to reduce the Royan Pocket on the western coast of France in March–April 1945. After forcing the Germans in the Royan Pocket to surrender on 18 April 1945, the 2nd Division finished its campaigning at the Nazi resort town of Berchtesgaden in Southeastern Germany. According to Defence Historical Service, the unit counted 1,224 dead and 5,257 wounded at the end of the campaign in northwestern Europe
Napoleon III
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the only President of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I and he was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution, during the first years of the Empire, Napoleons government imposed censorship and harsh repressive measures against his opponents. Some six thousand were imprisoned or sent to penal colonies until 1859, thousands more went into voluntary exile abroad, including Victor Hugo. From 1862 onwards, he relaxed government censorship, and his came to be known as the Liberal Empire. Many of his opponents returned to France and became members of the National Assembly, Napoleon III is best known today for his grand reconstruction of Paris, carried out by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. He launched similar public works projects in Marseille, Napoleon III modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world.
He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, Napoleon III negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier free trade agreement with Britain and similar agreements with Frances other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize, womens education greatly expanded, as did the list of required subjects in public schools. In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and he was a supporter of popular sovereignty and of nationalism. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War and his regime assisted Italian unification and, in doing so, annexed Savoy and the County of Nice to France, at the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. Napoleon doubled the area of the French overseas empire in Asia, the Pacific, on the other hand, his armys intervention in Mexico which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection ended in failure.
Beginning in 1866, Napoleon had to face the power of Prussia. In July 1870, Napoleon entered the Franco-Prussian War without allies, the French army was rapidly defeated and Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan. The French Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris, and Napoleon went into exile in England, charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, known as Louis Napoleon and Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of 20–21 April 1808. His presumed father was Louis Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleons wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, as empress, Joséphine proposed the marriage as a way to produce an heir for the Emperor, who agreed, as Joséphine was by infertile. Louis married Hortense when he was twenty-four and she was nineteen and they had a difficult relationship, and only lived together for brief periods
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing of animal milk – mostly from cows or goats, but from buffaloes, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is located on a dedicated dairy farm or in a section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned with the harvesting of milk. For example, in the United States, the dairy farm is commonly called a dairy. The building or farm area where milk is harvested from the cow is called a milking parlor or parlor. The farm area where milk is stored in tanks is known as the farms milk house. Milk is hauled to a plant, referred to as a dairy. In New Zealand, farm areas for milk harvesting are called milking parlours, as in the United States, sometimes milking sheds are referred to by their type, such as herring bone shed or pit parlour. Parlour design has evolved from simple barns or sheds to large structures in which the workflow is very efficiently handled. This on-site processing is a method of producing specialist milk products.
In New Zealand English the singular use of the word dairy almost exclusively refers to a corner shop and this usage is historical as such shops were a common place for the public to buy milk products. As an attributive, the word refers to milk-based products and processes. A dairy farm produces milk and a dairy factory processes it into a variety of dairy products and these establishments constitute the global dairy industry, a component of the food industry. Milk producing animals have been domesticated for thousands of years, they were part of the subsistence farming that nomads engaged in. As the community moved about the country, their animals accompanied them and feeding the animals were a big part of the symbiotic relationship between the animals and the herders. In the more recent past, people in agricultural societies owned dairy animals that they milked for domestic and local consumption, the animals might serve multiple purposes. In this case the animals were normally milked by hand and the size was quite small.
These tasks were performed by a dairymaid or dairyman, the word dairy harkens back to Middle English dayerie, from deye and further back to Old English dæge. With industrialisation and urbanisation, the supply of milk became an industry, with specialised breeds of cattle being developed for dairy
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman. He was the leader of Free France and the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, in 1958, he founded the Fifth Republic and was elected as the 18th President of France, a position he held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the Cold War era, born in Lille, he graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1912. He was an officer of the First World War, wounded several times. During the interwar period, he advocated mobile armoured divisions, during the German invasion of May 1940, he led an armoured division which counterattacked the invaders, he was appointed Under-Secretary for War. Refusing to accept his governments armistice with Nazi Germany, de Gaulle exhorted the French population to resist occupation and he led a government in exile and the Free French Forces against the Axis. Despite frosty relations with Britain and especially the United States, he emerged as the leader of the French resistance.
He became Head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in June 1944, frustrated by the return of petty partisanship in the new Fourth Republic, he resigned in early 1946 but continued to be politically active as founder of the RPF party. He retired in the early 1950s and wrote his War Memoirs, when the Algerian War was ripping apart the unstable Fourth Republic, the National Assembly brought him back to power during the May 1958 crisis. De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic with a presidency. He granted independence to Algeria and progressively to other French colonies and he restored cordial Franco-German relations to create a European counterweight between the Anglo-American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring a Europe of sovereign nations, De Gaulle openly criticised the US intervention in Vietnam and the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar. In his years, his support for an independent Quebec, De Gaulle resigned in 1969 after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization.
He died a year at his residence in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, leaving his Presidential memoirs unfinished, many French political parties and figures claim the Gaullist legacy. De Gaulle was ranked as Le Plus Grand Français de tous les temps, De Gaulle was born in the industrial region of Lille in the Nord departement, the third of five children. He was raised in a devoutly Catholic and traditional family and his father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of history and literature at a Jesuit college who eventually founded his own school. Henri de Gaulle came from a line of parliamentary gentry from Normandy and Burgundy. De Gaulles mother, descended from a family of entrepreneurs from Lille
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France and Austria.
Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned by Aristotle and Thucydides.
The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester.
The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index.
It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
French formal garden
The French formal garden, called the jardin à la française, is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. The Garden à la française evolved from the French Renaissance garden, the gardens were designed to represent harmony and order, the ideals of the Renaissance, and to recall the virtues of Ancient Rome. His successor Henry II, who had traveled to Italy and had met Leonardo da Vinci. The Château de Chenonceau had two gardens in the new style, one created for Diane de Poitiers in 1551, in 1536 the architect Philibert de lOrme, upon his return from Rome, created the gardens of the Château dAnet following the Italian rules of proportion. The different parts of the gardens were not harmoniously joined together, all this was to change in the middle of the 17th century with the development of the first real Garden à la française. The first important garden à la française was the Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, created by Nicolas Fouquet, Fouquet commissioned Louis Le Vau to design the chateau, Charles Le Brun to design statues for the garden, and André Le Nôtre to create the gardens.
For the first time, that garden and the chateau were perfectly integrated, the symmetry attained at Vaux achieved a degee of perfection and unity rarely equalled in the art of classic gardens. The chateau is at the center of this spatial organization which symbolizes power. The Gardens of Versailles, created by André Le Nôtre between 1662 and 1700, were the greatest achievement of the Garden à la francaise. The central symbol of the Garden was the sun, the emblem of Louis XIV, the views and perspectives, to and from the palace, continued to infinity. The king ruled over nature, recreating in the not only his domination of his territories. Andre Le Nôtre died in 1700, but his pupils and his ideas continued to dominate the design of gardens in France through the reign of Louis XV. The major inspiration for gardens continued to be architecture, rather than nature – the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel designed elements of the gardens at Versailles, nonetheless, a few variations in the strict geometry of the garden à la française began to appear.
Elaborate parterres of broderies, with their curves and counter-curves, were replaced by parterres of grass bordered with flowerbeds, circles became ovals, called rotules, with alleys radiating outward in the shape of an x, and irregular octagon shapes appeared. Gardens began to follow the landscape, rather than moving earth to shape the ground into artificial terraces. Jacques Boyceau, sieur de la Barauderie the superintendent of royal gardens under Louis XIII and his book, Traité du jardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de lart. Ensemble divers desseins de parterres, bosquets et autres ornements was published after his death in 1638, claude Mollet, was the chief gardener of three French Kings, Henry IV, Louis XIII and the young Louis XIV. The gardens he created became the symbols of French grandeur and rationality, joseph-Antoine Dezallier dArgenville wrote Theorie et traite de jardinage, laid out the principles of the Garden à la francaise, and included drawings and designs of gardens and parterres
Francis I of France
Francis I was the first King of France from the Angoulême branch of the House of Valois, reigning from 1515 until his death. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and he succeeded his cousin and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a male heir. Francis reign saw important cultural changes with the rise of absolute monarchy in France, the spread of humanism and Protestantism, Jacques Cartier and others claimed lands in the Americas for France and paved the way for the expansion of the first French colonial empire. For his role in the development and promotion of a standardized French language, he became known as le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres. He was known as François au Grand Nez, the Grand Colas, following the policy of his predecessors, Francis continued the Italian Wars. In his struggle against Imperial hegemony, he sought the support of Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. When this was unsuccessful, he formed a Franco-Ottoman alliance with the Muslim sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a controversial move for a Christian king at the time.
Francis was born on 12 September 1494 at the Château de Cognac in the town of Cognac, which at that time lay in the province of Saintonge, today the town lies in the department of Charente. Francis was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. His family was not expected to inherit the throne, as his third cousin King Charles VIII was still young at the time of his birth, as was his fathers cousin the Duke of Orléans, King Louis XII. However, Charles VIII died childless in 1498 and was succeeded by Louis XII, the Salic Law prevailed in France, thus females were ineligible to inherit the throne. Therefore, the four-year-old Francis became the heir presumptive to the throne of France in 1498 and was vested with the title of Duke of Valois. In 1505, Louis XII, having fallen ill, ordered that his daughter Claude and Francis be married immediately, Claude was heiress to the Duchy of Brittany through her mother, Anne of Brittany. Following Annes death, the took place on 18 May 1514.
Louis died shortly afterwards and Francis inherited the throne and he was crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Reims on 25 January 1515, with Claude as his queen consort. As Francis was receiving his education, ideas emerging from the Italian Renaissance were influential in France, some of his tutors, such as François Desmoulins de Rochefort and Christophe de Longueil, were attracted by these new ways of thinking and attempted to influence Francis. His academic education had been in arithmetic, grammar, reading, Francis came to learn chivalry and music and he loved archery, horseback riding, jousting, real tennis and wrestling. He ended up reading philosophy and theology and he was fascinated with art, literature and his mother, who had a high admiration for Italian Renaissance art, passed this interest on to her son
