Claude de Seyssel was a Savoyard jurist and humanist, now known for his political writings. He wrote La Grande Monarchie de France as a supporter of the French crown, in the person of Louis XII. Written around 1515, in French, it was published 1519; it supports hereditary monarchy. A Latin translation De Republica Galliae was printed in 1548 in Strasbourg.
Portrait of Claude de Seyssel presenting to King Louis XII of France the French translation of the book by Thucydides.
Image from La Grande Monarchie de France, Paris, 1519
Portrait of Claude de Seyssel, while writing; 1st sheet of La Victoire du Roy contre les Véniciens.
Louis XII 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.
Louis XII in 1514
Louis kneeling in prayer, with saints, from the Hours of Louis XII, his personal book of hours, 1498–99, Getty Museum. Inscribed (literally) "Louis XII of this name: it is made at the age of 36 years".
Louis XII on a coin of 1514
Bronze cannon of Louis XII, with porcupine emblem. Caliber: 172mm, length: 305 cm, weight: 1870kg. Recovered in Algiers in 1830. Musée de l'Armée.
