[1] _Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law_ (Boston,
1896).
FRANCESCHI, JEAN BAPTISTE, BARON (1766-1813), French general, was born
at Bastia on the 5th of December 1766 and entered the French service in
1793. He took part in the operations in Corsica in the following year,
and received a wound at the siege of San Fiorenzo. After this he left
the island and was appointed a field officer in the French Army of
Italy, with which he served from 1795 to 1799. He served as a general
officer in the campaign of Marengo, in the Naples campaign of 1805-1806,
and in the Peninsular War from 1807 to 1809. He was created a baron by
Napoleon. He commanded a Neapolitan brigade in the Russian War of 1812,
and after the retreat from Moscow took refuge, with the remnant of his
command, in Danzig, where in the course of the siege of 1813 he died on
the 19th of March.
Two other generals of brigade in Napoleon's wars bore the name of
Franceschi, and the three have often been mistaken for each other. The
first was born at Lyons, JEAN BAPTISTE MARIE FRANCESCHI-DELONNE
(1767-1810), who served throughout the Revolutionary campaign on the
Rhine, took part in the campaign of Zuerich in 1799, and distinguished
himself very greatly by his escape from, and subsequent return to,
Genoa, when in 1800 Massena was closely besieged in that city. He became
a cavalry colonel in 1803, was promoted general of brigade on the field
of Austerlitz, and served in southern Italy and in Spain on the staff of
King Joseph Bonaparte. During the Peninsular War he won great
distinction as a cavalry general, and in 1810 Napoleon made him a baron.
At this time he was a prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards, into whose
hands he had fallen while bearing important despatches during the
campaign of Talavera. He was harshly treated by his captors, and died at
Carthagena on the 23rd of October 1810. The second was FRANCOIS
FRANCESCHI-LOSIO (1770-1810), born at Milan, who entered the French
Revolutionary army in 1795. He served through the Italian campaign of
1796-97, and subsequently, like Franceschi-Delonne, with Massena at
Zuerich and at Genoa, and at the headquarters of King Joseph in Italy and
Spain. He was killed in a duel by the Neapolitan colonel Filangieri in
1810.
FRANCESCHI, PIERO (or PIETRO) DE' (c. 1416-1492), Italian painter of the
Umbrian school. This master is generally named Piero della Francesca
(Peter, son of Frances), the tradition being that his father, a
woollen-draper named Benedetto, had died before his birth. This is not
correct, for the mother's name was Romana, and the father continued
living during many years of Piero's career. The painter is also named
Piero Borghese, from his birthplace, Borgo San Sepolcro, in Umbria. The
true family name was, as above stated, Franceschi, and the family still
exists under the name of Martini-Franceschi.
Piero first received a scientific education, and became an adept in
mathematics and geometry. This early bent of mind and course of study
influenced to a large extent his development as a painter. He had more
science than either Paolo Uccello or Mantegna, both of them his
contemporaries, the former older and the latter younger. Skilful in
linear perspective, he fixed rectangular planes in perfect order and
measured them, and thus got his figures in true proportional height. He
preceded and excelled Domenico Ghirlandajo in projecting shadows, and
rendered with considerable truth atmosphere, the harmony of colours, and
the relief of objects. He was naturally therefore excellent in
architectural painting, and, in point of technique, he advanced the
practice of oil-colouring in Italy.
The earliest trace that we find of Piero as a painter is in 1439, when
he was an apprentice of Domenico Veneziano, and assisted him in painting
the chapel of S. Egidio, in S. Maria Novella of Florence. Towards 1450
he is said to have been with the same artist in Loreto; nothing of his,
however, can now be identified in that locality. In 1451 he was by
himself, painting in Rimini, where a fresco still remains. Prior to this
he had executed some extensive frescoes in the Vatican; but these were
destroyed when Raphael undertook on the same walls the "Liberation of St
Peter" and other paintings. His most extensive extant series of frescoes
is in the choir of S. Francesco in Arezzo,--the "History of the Cross,"
beginning with legendary subjects of the death and burial of Adam, and
going on to the entry of Heraclius into Jerusalem after the overthrow of
Chosroes. This series is, in relation to its period, remarkable for
effect, movement, and mastery of the nude. The subject of the "Vision of
Constantine" is particularly vigorous in chiaroscuro; and a preparatory
design of the same composition was so highly effective that it used to
be ascribed to Giorgione, and might even (according to one authority)
have passed for the handiwork of Correggio or of Rembrandt. A noted
fresco in Borgo San Sepolcro, the "Resurrection," may be later than this
series; it is preserved in the Palazzo de' Conservatori. An important
painting of the "Flagellation of Christ," in the cathedral of Urbino, is
later still, probably towards 1470. Piero appears to have been much in
his native town of Borgo San Sepolcro from about 1445, and more
especially after 1454, when he finished the series in Arezzo. He grew
rich there, and there he died, and in October 1492 was buried.
Two statements made by Vasari regarding "Piero della Francesca" are
open to much controversy. He says that Piero became blind at the age
of sixty, which cannot be true, as he continued painting some years
later; but scepticism need perhaps hardly go to the extent of
inferring that he was never blind at all. Vasari also says that Fra
Luca Pacioli, a disciple of Piero in scientific matters, defrauded his
memory by appropriating his researches without acknowledgment. This is
hard upon the friar, who constantly shows a great reverence for his
master in the sciences. One of Pacioli's books was published in 1509,
and speaks of Piero as still living. Hence it has been propounded that
Piero lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-four or upwards; but, as
it is now stated that he was buried in 1492, we must infer that there
is some mistake in relation to Pacioli's remark--perhaps the date of
writing was several years earlier than that of publication. Piero was
known to have left a manuscript of his own on perspective; this
remained undiscovered for a long time, but eventually was found by E.
Harzen in the Ambrosian library of Milan, ascribed to some
supposititious "Pietro, Pittore di Bruges." The treatise shows a
knowledge of perspective as dependent on the point of distance.
In the National Gallery, London, are three paintings attributed to
Piero de' Franceschi. Another work, a profile of Isotta da Rimini, may
safely be rejected. The "Baptism of Christ," which used to be the
altar-piece of the Priory of the Baptist in Borgo San Sepolcro, is an
important example; and still more so the "Nativity," with the Virgin
kneeling, and five angels singing to musical instruments. This is a
very interesting and characteristic specimen, and has indeed been
praised somewhat beyond its deservings on aesthetic grounds.
Piero's earlier style was energetic but unrefined, and to the last he
lacked selectness of form and feature. The types of his visages are
peculiar, and the costumes (as especially in the Arezzo series)
singular. He used to work assiduously from clay models swathed in real
drapery. Luca Signorelli was his pupil, and probably to some extent
Perugino; and his own influence, furthered by that of Signorelli, was
potent over all Italy. Belonging as he does to the Umbrian school, he
united with that style something of the Sienese and more of the
Florentine mode.
Besides Vasari and Crowe & Cavalcaselle, the work by W.G. Waters,
_Piero della Francesca_ (1899) should be consulted. (W. M. R.)
FRANCESCHINI, BALDASSARE (1611-1689), Italian painter of the Tuscan
school, named, from Volterra the place of his birth, Il Volterrano, or
(to distinguish him from Ricciarelli) Il Volterrano Giuniore, was the
son of a sculptor in alabaster. At a very early age he learned from
Cosimo Daddi some of the elements of art, and he started as an assistant
to his father. This employment being evidently below the level of his
talents, the marquises Inghirami placed him, at the age of sixteen,
under the Florentine painter Matteo Rosselli. In the ensuing year he had
advanced sufficiently to execute in Volterra some frescoes, skilful in
foreshortening, followed by other frescoes for the Medici family in the
Valle della Petraia. In 1652 the marchese Filippo Niccolini, being
minded to employ Franceschini upon the frescoes for the cupola and
back-wall of his chapel in S. Croce, Florence, despatched him to various
parts of Italy to perfect his style. The painter, in a tour which lasted
some months, took more especially to the qualities distinctive of the
schools of Parma and Bologna, and in a measure to those of Pietro da
Cortona, whose acquaintance he made in Rome. He then undertook the
paintings commissioned by Niccolini, which constitute his most noted
performance, the design being good, and the method masterly.
Franceschini ranks higher in fresco than in oil painting. His works in
the latter mode were not unfrequently left unfinished, although numerous
specimens remain, the cabinet pictures being marked by much
sprightliness of invention. Among his best oil paintings of large scale
is the "St John the Evangelist" in the church of S. Chiara at Volterra.
One of his latest works was the fresco of the cupola of the Annunziata,
Florence, which occupied him for two years towards 1683, a production of
much labour and energy. Franceschini died of apoplexy at Volterra on the
6th of January 1689. He is reckoned among those painters of the decline
of art to whom the general name of "machinist" is applied.
He is not to be confounded with another Franceschini of the same class,
and of rather later date, also of no small eminence in his time--the
Cavaliere Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729), who was a Bolognese.
FRANCHE-COMTE, a province of France from 1674 to the Revolution. It was
bounded on the E. by Switzerland, on the S. by Bresse and Bugey, on the
N. by Lorraine, and on the W. by the duchy of Burgundy and by Bassigny,
embracing to the E. of the Jura the valley of the Saone and most of that
of the Doubs. Under the Romans it corresponded to _Maxima Sequanorum_,
and after having formed part of the kingdom of Burgundy was in the early
part of the middle ages split up into the four countships of Portois,
Varais, Amons and Escuens. In the 10th century these four countships
were united to form a whole, which came to be called the countship of
Burgundy, and belonged at that time to the family of the counts of
Macon.
The limits of the countship were definitely settled under Otto William,
son of Albert or Adalbert, king of Italy (+1027), who on the death of
his father-in-law, Henry (1002), tried to seize the duchy of Burgundy,
but without success. The countship, which formed a fief dependent on the
kingdom of Burgundy, passed to Renaud I., the second son of Otto
William. When the kingdom of Burgundy was joined to the Germanic empire,
he refused to pay homage to the emperor Henry III., whose suzerainty
over him never existed except in theory. William I., surnamed the Great
or Headstrong (1059-1087), still further added to the power of his house
by marrying Etiennette, heiress of the count of Vienne, and by acquiring
from his cousin Guy, when the latter became a monk at Cluny, the
countship of Macon. One of his sons, Guy, became pope, under the name of
Calixtus II. His grandson, Renaud III. (1097-1148), in his turn refused
to pay homage to the emperor Lothair, who retaliated by confiscating his
dominions and giving them to Conrad of Zaehringen. Renaud, however,
succeeded in maintaining until his death his possession of the
countships of Burgundy, Vienne and Macon. He left as sole heiress a
daughter, Beatrix, whom his brother William III. imprisoned, in order to
make an attempt on her inheritance; she was set free, however, by the
emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who married her in 1156.
On the death of Beatrix (1185) the countship of Burgundy passed to Otto
I. (1190-1200), the youngest but one of her sons, who had to dispute its
possession with Stephen, count of Auxonne, the grandson of William III.
Beatrix, the daughter and heiress of Otto I. (1200-1231), married Otto,
duke of Meran (+1234), under whose government the inhabitants of
Besancon, which had been since the time of Frederick Barbarossa an
imperial city, formed themselves definitely into a _commune_. Alix,
daughter of Beatrix and of Otto of Meran, and heiress to the countship
of Burgundy, married Hugh of Chalon, son of John the Ancient or the Wise
(d. 1248), and a descendant of William III. and consequently of William
the Headstrong, thus bringing the countship back into the family of its
former lords. His son Otto IV. (1279-1303) engaged in war against the
bishop of Basel, and the German king Rudolph I., who supported the
latter, entered Franche-Comte and besieged Besancon, but without success
(1289). Otto, in fulfilment of the treaties of Ervennes and Vincennes
(1291-1295) gave Jeanne, his daughter by Mahaut of Artois, in marriage
to Philip, count of Poitiers, son of Philip the Fair. The latter took
over the administration of the countship in spite of strong opposition
from the nobles of the country, but their leader, John of Chalon-Arlay,
was compelled to make his submission. Another of Otto's daughters
married Charles IV., the Handsome, and both princesses, together with
their sister-in-law Margaret of Burgundy, were concerned in the
celebrated trial of the Tour de Nesle. Jeanne, however, continued to
govern her countship when Philip her husband became king of France
(Philip V., "the Long"). Jeanne, their daughter and heiress, married Odo
IV., duke of Burgundy (1330-1347), and her sister Margaret became the
wife of Louis II., count of Flanders. The countship returned to Margaret
at the death of Odo IV., who was succeeded in his duchy by his grandson
Philip of Rouvre.
The marriage of Philip the Bold with Margaret, daughter of Louis of
Male, caused Franche-Comte to pass to the princes of the ducal house of
Burgundy, who kept it up till the death of Charles the Bold (1477). On
his death Louis XI. laid claim to the government of the countship as
well as of the duchy, as trustee for the property of the princess Mary,
who was closely related to him and destined to marry the dauphin (later
Charles VIII.). French garrisons occupied the principal towns, and the
lord of Craon was appointed governor of the country. In consequence of
his severity there was a general rising, and at the same time Mary
married Maximilian, archduke of Austria, to whom her father had formerly
betrothed her (Aug. 1477). The French were expelled from the fortified
towns and Craon beaten by the people of Dole. Charles of Amboise, who
took his place, reconquered the province, and even Besancon submitted to
the authority of the king of France, who promised to respect its
privileges.
On the death of Louis XI. (1483), the estates of Franche-Comte
recognized as sovereign his son Charles, who was betrothed to the little
Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of Maximilian and Mary (d. 1482), but
when Charles VIII. refused Margaret's hand in order to marry Anne of
Brittany there was a fresh rising, and the French were again driven out.
The treaty of Senlis (23rd May 1483) put an end to the struggle: Charles
abandoned all his pretensions, and Maximilian was thus left in
possession of Franche-Comte, the sovereignty of which he handed on to
his son Philip and ultimately to the crown of Spain. He had, however,
constituted his daughter Margaret sovereign-governess of Franche-Comte
for life, and under the administration of this princess (who died in
1530), as under the rule of Charles V., the country enjoyed comparative
independence, paying a "_don gratuit_" of 200,000 livres every three
years, and being actually governed by the parliament of Dole, and by
governors chosen from the nobility of the country. It was Franche-Comte
which furnished Philip II. of Spain with one of his best counsellors,
Cardinal Perrenot de Granvella.
In the 16th century the country was disturbed by the preaching of
Protestant doctrines, which gained adherents especially in the district
of Montbeliard, and later by the wars between France and Spain. In 1595
the armies of Henry IV. levied contributions on Besancon and other
towns; but the people of Franche-Comte succeeded in obtaining special
terms of neutrality in order to shelter themselves from injury from
either of the parties in the war, and enjoyed a period of calm under the
government of the infanta Isabella Clara Eugenie and the archduke Albert
(1599-1621). But the country suffered greatly from the ravages of the
Thirty Years' War, from the presence of the army of the Condes, which
besieged Dole, from the devastation of the troops of Gallas, and later
of those of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The peace of Westphalia (1648)
confirmed Spain in the possession of Franche-Comte. In 1668 the French
again entered it, and the conquest, of which the foundations had been
laid by the intrigues of the abbot of Watteville and the French party
constituted by him, was easily accomplished by Conde and Luxemburg,
Louis XIV. directing the army in Franche-Comte for some time in person.
None the less, the country was restored to Spain at the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), but in 1674 Louis headed another expedition
there. Besancon capitulated after a siege of twenty-seven days, and Dole
and Salins also fell into the hands of the invaders.
In 1678 the treaty of Nijmwegen gave Franche-Comte to France (the
principality of Montbeliard remaining in the possession of the house of
Wuerttemberg, which had acquired it by marriage), and it was in
celebration of this conquest that the Arc de Triomphe of the Portes
Saint Denis and Saint Martin at Paris was erected. Franche-Comte became
a military government (_gouvernement_). The estates ceased to meet, and
the old "_don gratuit_" was replaced by a tax which became increasingly
heavy. Louis made Besancon, which Vauban fortified, into the capital of
the province, and transferred to it the parliament and the university,
the seat of which had hitherto been Dole. For purposes of
administration, the county was divided among the four great _bailliages_
of Besancon, Dole, Amont (chief town Vesoul) and Aval (chief town
Salins). At the Revolution were formed from it the departments of Jura,
Doubs and Haute-Saone.
See Dunod, _Histoire des Sequanois; Hist. du comte de Bourgogne_
(Dijon, 1735-1740); E. Clerc, _Essai sur l'histoire de la
Franche-Comte_ (2nd ed., Besancon, 1870). (R. Po.)
FRANCHISE (from O. Fr. _franchise_, freedom, _franc_, free), in English
law, a royal privilege or branch of the crown's prerogative subsisting
in the hands of a subject. A franchise is an incorporeal hereditament,
and arises either from royal grants or from prescription which
presupposes a grant. Such franchises are bodies corporate, the right to
hold a fair, market, ferry, free fishery, &c. The term is also applied
to the right of voting at elections and the qualifications upon which
that right is based (see REGISTRATION; REPRESENTATION; VOTE). In the
United States the term is especially applied to the right or powers of
partial appropriation of public property by exclusive use, or to a
privilege of a public nature conferred on a corporation created for the
purpose.
FRANCIA (c. 1450-1517), a Bolognese painter, whose real name was
Francesco Raibolini, his father being Marco di Giacomo Raibolini, a
carpenter, descended from an old and creditable family, was born at
Bologna about 1450. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith currently named
Francia, and from him probably he got the nickname whereby he is
generally known; he moreover studied design under Marco Zoppo. The youth
was thus originally a goldsmith, and also an engraver of dies and
niellos, and in these arts he became extremely eminent. He was
particularly famed for his dies for medals; he rose to be mint-master at
Bologna, and retained that office till the end of his life. A famous
medal of Pope Julius II. as liberator of Bologna is ascribed to his
hand, but not with certainty. As a type-founder he made for Aldus
Manutius the first italic type.
At a mature age--having first, it appears, become acquainted with
Mantegna--he turned his attention to painting. His earliest known
picture is dated 1494 (not 1490, as ordinarily stated). It shows so much
mastery that one is compelled to believe that Raibolini must before then
have practised painting for some few years. This work is now in the
Bologna gallery,--the "Virgin enthroned, with Augustine and five other
saints." It is an oil picture, and was originally painted for the church
of S. Maria della Misericordia, at the desire of the Bentivoglio family,
the rulers of Bologna. The same patrons employed him upon frescoes in
their own palace; one of "Judith and Holophernes" is especially noted,
its style recalling that of Mantegna. Francia probably studied likewise
the works of Perugino; and he became a friend and ardent admirer of
Raphael, to whom he addressed an enthusiastic sonnet. Raphael cordially
responded to the Bolognese master's admiration, and said, in a letter
dated in 1508, that few painters or none had produced Madonnas more
beautiful, more devout, or better portrayed than those of Francia. If we
may trust Vasari--but it is difficult to suppose that he was entirely
correct--the exceeding value which Francia set on Raphael's art brought
him to his grave. Raphael had consigned to Francia his famous picture of
"St Cecilia," destined for the church of S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna;
and Francia, on inspecting it, took so much to heart his own
inferiority, at the advanced age of about sixty-six, to the youthful
Umbrian, that he sickened and shortly expired on the 6th of January
1517. A contemporary record, after attesting his pre-eminence as a
goldsmith, jeweller and painter, states that he was "most handsome in
person and highly eloquent."
Distanced though he may have been by Raphael, Francia is rightly
regarded as the greatest painter of the earlier Bolognese school, and
hardly to be surpassed as representing the art termed "antico-moderno,"
or of the "quattrocento." It has been well observed that his style is a
medium between that of Perugino and that of Giovanni Bellini; he has
somewhat more of spontaneous naturalism than the former, and of abstract
dignity in feature and form than the latter. The magnificent portrait in
the Louvre of a young man in black, of brooding thoughtfulness and
saddened profundity of mood, would alone suffice to place Francia among
the very great masters, if it could with confidence be attributed to his
hand, but in all probability its real author was Franciabigio; it had
erewhile passed under the name of Raphael, of Giorgione, or of Sebastian
del Piombo. The National Gallery, London, contains two remarkably fine
specimens of Francia, once combined together as principal picture and
lunette,--the "Virgin" and "Child and St Anna" enthroned, surrounded by
saints, and (in the lunette) the "Pieta," or lamentation of angels over
the dead Saviour. They come from the Buonvisi chapel in the church of S.
Frediano, Lucca, and were among the master's latest paintings. Other
leading works are--in Munich, the "Virgin" sinking on her knees in
adoration of the Divine Infant, who is lying in a garden within a rose
trellis; in the Borghese gallery, Rome, a Peter Martyr; in Bologna, the
frescoes in the church of St Cecilia, illustrating the life of the
saint, all of them from the design of Raibolini, but not all executed by
himself. His landscape backgrounds are of uncommon excellence. Francia
had more than 200 scholars. Marcantonio Raimondi, the famous engraver,
is the most renowned of them; next to him Amico Aspertini, and Francia's
own son Giacomo, and his cousin Julio. Lorenzo Costa was much associated
with Francia in pictorial work.
Among the authorities as to the life and work of Francia may be
mentioned J.A. Calvi, _Memorie della vita di Francesco Raibolini_
(1812), and especially G.C. Williamson, _Francia_ (1900).
(W. M. R.)
FRANCIA, JOSE GASPAR RODRIGUEZ (c. 1757-1840), dictator of Paraguay, was
born probably about 1757. According to one account he was of French
descent; but the truth seems to be that his father, Garcia Rodriguez
Francia, was a native of S. Paulo in Brazil, and came to Paraguay to
take charge of a plantation of black tobacco for the government. He
studied theology at the college of Cordova de Tucuman, and is said to
have been for some time a professor in that faculty; but he afterwards
turned his attention to the law, and practised in Asuncion. Having
attained a high reputation at once for ability and integrity, he was
selected for various important offices. On the declaration of Paraguayan
independence in 1811, he was appointed secretary to the national junta,
and exercised an influence on affairs greatly out of proportion to his
nominal position. When the congress or junta of 1813 changed the
constitution and established a duumvirate, Dr Francia and the Gaucho
general Yegres were elected to the office. In 1814 he secured his own
election as dictator for three years, and at the end of that period he
obtained the dictatorship for life. In the accounts which have been
published of his administration we find a strange mixture of capacity
and caprice, of far-sighted wisdom and reckless infatuation, strenuous
endeavours after a high ideal and flagrant violations of the simplest
principles of justice. He put a stop to the foreign commerce of the
country, but carefully fostered its internal industries; was disposed to
be hospitable to strangers from other lands, and kept them prisoners for
years; lived a life of republican simplicity, and punished with
Dionysian severity the slightest want of respect. As time went on he
appears to have grown more arbitrary and despotic. Deeply imbued with
the principles of the French Revolution, he was a stern antagonist of
the church. He abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the college of
theology, did away with the tithes, and inflicted endless indignities on
the priests. He discouraged marriage both by precept and example, and
left behind him several illegitimate children. For the extravagances of
his later years the plea of insanity has been put forward. On the 20th
of September 1840 he was seized with a fit and died.
The first and fullest account of Dr Francia was given to the world by
two Swiss surgeons, Rengger and Longchamp, whom he had detained from
1819 to 1825--_Essai historique sur la revolution de Paraguay et la
gouvernement dictatorial du docteur Francia_ (Paris, 1827). Their work
was almost immediately translated into English under the title of _The
Reign of Doctor Joseph G.R. De Francia in Paraguay_ (1827). About
eleven years after there appeared at London _Letters on Paraguay_, by
J.P. and W.P. Robertson, two young Scotsmen whose hopes of commercial
success had been rudely destroyed by the dictator's interference. The
account which they gave of his character and government was of the
most unfavourable description, and they rehearsed and emphasized their
accusations in _Francia's Reign of Terror_ (1839) and _Letters on
South America_ (3 vols., 1843). From the very pages of his detractors
Thomas Carlyle succeeded in extracting materials for a brilliant
defence of the dictator "as a man or sovereign of iron energy and
industry, of great and severe labour." It appeared in the _Foreign
Quarterly Review_ for 1843, and is reprinted in his _Critical and
Miscellaneous Essays_. Sir Richard F. Burton gives a graphic sketch of
Francia's life and a favourable notice of his character in his
_Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay_ (1870), while C.A.
Washburn takes up a hostile position in his _History of Paraguay_
(1871).
FRANCIABIGIO (1482-1525), Florentine painter. The name of this artist is
generally given as Mercantonio Franciabigio; it appears, however, that
his only real ascertained name was Francesco di Cristofano; and that he
was currently termed Francia Bigio, the two appellatives being distinct.
He was born in Florence, and studied under Albertinelli for some months.
In 1505 he formed the acquaintance of Andrea del Sarto; and after a
while the two painters set up a shop in common in the Piazza del Grano.
Franciabigio paid much attention to anatomy and perspective, and to the
proportions of his figures, though these are often too squat and puffy
in form. He had a large stock of artistic knowledge, and was at first
noted for diligence. As years went on, and he received frequent
commissions for all sorts of public painting for festive occasions, his
diligence merged in something which may rather be called workmanly
offhandedness. He was particularly proficient in fresco, and Vasari even
says that he surpassed all his contemporaries in this method--a judgment
which modern connoisseurship does not accept. In the court of the
Servites (or cloister of the Annunziata) in Florence he painted in 1513
the "Marriage of the Virgin," as a portion of a series wherein Andrea
del Sarto was chiefly concerned. The friars having uncovered this work
before it was quite finished, Franciabigio was so incensed that, seizing
a mason's hammer, he struck at the head of the Virgin, and some other
heads; and the fresco, which would otherwise be his masterpiece in that
method, remains thus mutilated. At the Scalzo, in another series of
frescoes on which Andrea was likewise employed, he executed in 1518-1519
the "Departure of John the Baptist for the Desert," and the "Meeting of
the Baptist with Jesus"; and, at the Medici palace at Poggio a Caiano,
in 1521, the "Triumph of Cicero." Various works which have been ascribed
to Raphael are now known or reasonably deemed to be by Franciabigio.
Such are the "Madonna del Pozzo," in the Uffizi Gallery; the half figure
of a "Young Man," in the Louvre (see also FRANCIA); and the famous
picture in the Fuller-Maitland collection, a "Young Man with a Letter."
These two works show a close analogy in style to another in the Pitti
gallery, avowedly by Franciabigio, a "Youth at a Window," and to some
others which bear this painter's recognized monogram. The series of
portraits, taken collectively, placed beyond dispute the eminent and
idiosyncratic genius of the master. Two other works of his, of some
celebrity, are the "Calumny of Apelles," in the Pitti, and the "Bath of
Bathsheba" (painted in 1523), in the Dresden gallery.
FRANCIS (Lat. _Franciscus_, Ital. _Francesco_, Span. _Francisco_, Fr.
_Francois_, Ger. _Franz_), a masculine proper name meaning "Frenchman."
As a Christian name it originated with St Francis of Assisi, whose
baptismal name was Giovanni, but who was called Francesco by his father
on returning from a journey in France. The saint's fame made the name
exceedingly popular from his day onwards.
FRANCIS I. (1708-1765), Roman emperor and grand duke of Tuscany, second
son of Leopold Joseph, duke of Lorraine, and his wife Elizabeth
Charlotte, daughter of Philip, duke of Orleans, was born on the 8th of
December 1708. He was connected with the Habsburgs through his
grandmother Eleanore, daughter of the emperor Ferdinand III., and wife
of Charles Leopold of Lorraine. The emperor Charles VI. favoured the
family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the house of Austria
with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to
Clement, the elder brother of Francis. On the death of Clement he
adopted the younger brother as her husband. Francis was brought up at
Vienna with Maria Theresa on the understanding that they were to be
married, and a real affection arose between them. At the age of fifteen,
when he was brought to Vienna, he was established in the Silesian duchy
of Teschen, which had been mediatized and granted to his father by the
emperor in 1722. He succeeded his father as duke of Lorraine in 1729,
but the emperor, at the end of the Polish War of Succession, desiring to
compensate his candidate Stanislaus Leszczynski for the loss of his
crown in 1735, persuaded Francis to exchange Lorraine for the reversion
of the grand duchy of Tuscany. On the 12th of February 1736 he was
married to Maria Theresa, and they went for a short time to Florence,
when he succeeded to the grand duchy in 1737 on the death of John
Gaston, the last of the ruling house of Medici. His wife secured his
election to the Empire on the 13th of September 1745, in succession to
Charles VII., and she made him co-regent of her hereditary dominions.
Francis was well content to leave the reality of power to his able wife.
He had a natural fund of good sense and some business capacity, and was
a useful assistant to Maria Theresa in the laborious task of governing
the complicated Austrian dominions, but his functions appear to have
been of a purely secretarial character. He died suddenly in his carriage
while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on the 18th of August 1765.
See A. von Arneth, _Geschichte Maria Theresias_ (Vienna, 1863-1879).
FRANCIS II. (1768-1835), the last Roman emperor, and, as Francis I.,
first emperor of Austria, was the son of Leopold II., grand-duke of
Tuscany, afterwards emperor, and of his wife Maria Louisa, daughter of
Charles III. of Spain. He was born at Florence on the 12th of February
1768. In 1784 he was brought to Vienna to complete his education under
the eye of his uncle the emperor Joseph II., who was childless. Joseph
was repelled by the frigid and retiring character of his nephew, and is
said to have treated him with an impatient contempt which confirmed his
natural timidity; but after the marriage of Francis to Elizabeth of
Wuerttemberg (1788) their relations improved. At the close of his uncle's
reign he saw some service in the ill-conducted war with Turkey, and kept
a careful diary of his experiences. The death of his wife in childbirth
on the 18th of February 1790 was followed by the death of his uncle on
the 20th; and Francis acted as regent with Prince Kaunitz until his
father came from Florence. On the 19th of September he married his first
cousin Maria Theresa, daughter of Ferdinand, king of Naples, by whom he
was the father of his successor Ferdinand I., of Maria Louisa, wife of
Napoleon, and of the archduke Francis, father of the emperor Francis
Joseph. After her death (1807) he married Maria Ludovica Beatrix of Este
(1808), and when she died he made a fourth marriage with Carolina
Augusta of Bavaria (1816).
He succeeded to the Austrian dominions and the empire on the death of
his father on the 1st of March 1792. The position was a trying one for a
young prince twenty-four years of age. The dominions of the house of
Austria, widely scattered in the Low Countries, Germany and Italy, were
exposed to the attacks of the French revolutionary governments and of
Napoleon. He was dragged into all the coalitions against France, and in
the early days of his reign he had to guard against the ambition of
Prussia, and the aggressions of Russia in Poland and Turkey. For long
he had no adviser save such diplomatists as Prince Kaunitz and Thugut,
who had been trained in the old Austrian diplomacy. His own best quality
was an invincible patience supported by reliance on the loyalty of his
subjects, and a sense of his duty to the state. (For the general events
of this reign till 1815 see EUROPE, AUSTRIA, NAPOLEON, FRENCH
REVOLUTIONARY WARS, &c.) The emperor's firmness averted what would have
been an irreparable loss of position. Seeing that the Empire was in the
last stage of dissolution, and that, even were it to survive, it would
pass from the house of Habsburg to that of Bonaparte, he in 1804 assumed
the title of hereditary emperor of Austria. The object of this prudent
measure was double. In the first place, he guarded against the danger
that his house should sink to a lower rank than the Russian or the
French. In the second place, he gave some semblance of unity to his
complex dominions in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary and Italy, by providing a
common title for the supreme ruler. His action was justified when, in
1806, the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine forced him to
abdicate the empty title of Holy Roman emperor.
In 1805 he made an important change in the working of his
administration. He had hitherto been assisted by a cabinet minister who
was in direct relation with all the "chanceries" and boards which formed
the executive government, and who acted as the channel of communication
between them and the emperor, and was in fact a prime minister. In 1805
Napoleon insisted on the removal of Count Colloredo, who held the post.
From that time forward the emperor Francis acted as his own prime
minister, superintending every detail of his administration. In foreign
affairs after 1809 he reposed full confidence in Prince Metternich. But
Metternich himself declared at the close of his life that he had
sometimes held Europe in the palm of his hand, but never Austria.
Francis was sole master, and is entitled to whatever praise is due to
his government. It follows that he must bear the blame for its errors.
The history of the Austrian empire under his rule and since his death
bears testimony to both his merits and his limitations. His indomitable
patience and loyalty to his inherited task enabled him to triumph over
Napoleon. By consenting to the marriage of his daughter, Marie Louise,
to Napoleon in 1810, he gained a respite which he turned to good
account. By following the guidance of Metternich in foreign affairs he
was able to intervene with decisive effect in 1813. The settlement of
Europe in 1815 left Austria stronger and more compact than she had been
in 1792, and that this was the case was largely due to the emperor.
During the twenty years which preceded his death in 1835, Francis
continued to oppose the revolutionary spirit. He had none of the
mystical tendencies of the tsar Alexander I., and only adhered to the
half fantastic Holy Alliance of 1815 out of pure politeness. But he was
wholly in sympathy with the policy of "repression" which came, in
popular view, to be identified with the Holy Alliance; and though
Metternich was primarily responsible for the part played by Austria in
the "policing" of Europe, Francis cannot but be held personally
responsible for the cruel and impolitic severities, associated
especially with the sinister name of the fortress prison of the
Spielberg, which made so many martyrs to freedom. It is not surprising
that Francis was denounced by Liberals throughout Europe as a tyrant and
an obscurantist. But though at home, as abroad, he met all suggestions
of innovation by a steady refusal to depart from old ways, he was always
popular among the mass of his subjects, who called him "our good Kaiser
Franz." In truth, if in the spirit of the traditional _Landesvater_ he
chastised his disobedient children mercilessly, he was essentially a
well-meaning ruler who forwarded the material and moral good of his
subjects according to his lights. But he held that, by the will of God,
the whole sovereign authority resided in his person, and could not be
shared with others without a dereliction of duty on his part and
disastrous consequences; and his capital error as a ruler of Austria was
that he persisted in maintaining a system of administration which
depended upon the indefatigable industry of a single man, and was
entirely outgrown by the modern development of his subjects. Before his
death, government in Austria was almost choked, and it broke down under
a successor who had not his capacity for work. Like his ancestor Philip
II. of Spain, Francis carried caution, and a disposition to sleep upon
every possible proposal, to a great length. He died on the 2nd of March
1835.
See Baron J.A. Helfert, _Kaiser Franz und die oesterreichischen
Befreiungs-Kriege_ (Vienna, 1867). Ample bibliographies will be found
in Krones von Marchland's _Grundriss der oesterreichischen Geschichte_
(Berlin, 1882).
FRANCIS I. (1494-1547), king of France, son of Charles of Valois, count
of Angouleme, and Louise of Savoy, was born at Cognac on the 12th of
September 1494. The count of Angouleme, who was the great-grandson of
King Charles V., died in 1496, and Louise watched over her son with
passionate tenderness. On the accession of Louis XII. in 1498, Francis
became heir-presumptive. Louis invested him with the duchy of Valois,
and gave him as tutor Marshal de Gie, and, after Gie's disgrace in 1503,
the sieur de Boisy, Artus Gouffier. Francois de Rochefort, abbot of St
Mesmin, instructed Francis and his sister Marguerite in Latin and
history; Louise herself taught them Italian and Spanish; and the library
of the chateau at Amboise was well stocked with romances of the Round
Table, which exalted the lad's imagination. Francis showed an even
greater love for violent exercises, such as hunting, which was his
ruling passion, and tennis, and for tournaments, masquerades and
amusements of all kinds. His earliest gallantries are described by his
sister in the 25th and 42nd stories of the _Heptameron_. In 1507 Francis
was betrothed to Claude, the daughter of Louis XII., and in 1508 he came
to court. In 1512 he gained his first military experience in Guienne,
and in the following year he commanded the army of Picardy. He married
Claude on the 18th of May 1514, and succeeded Louis XII. on the 1st of
January 1515. Of noble bearing, and, in spite of a very long and large
nose, extremely handsome, he was a sturdy and valiant knight, affable,
courteous, a brilliant talker and a facile poet. He had a sprightly wit,
some delicacy of feeling, and some generous impulses which made him
amiable. These brilliant qualities, however, were all on the surface. At
bottom the man was frivolous, profoundly selfish, unstable, and utterly
incapable of consistency or application. The ambassadors remarked his
negligence, and his ministers complained of it. Hunting, tennis, jewelry
and his gallantry were the chief preoccupations of his life.
His character was at once authoritative and weak. He was determined to
be master and to decide everything himself, but he allowed himself to be
dominated and easily persuaded. Favourites, too, without governing
entirely for him, played an important part in his reign. His capricious
humour elevated and deposed them with the same disconcerting suddenness.
In the early years of his reign the conduct of affairs was chiefly in
the hands of Louise of Savoy, Chancellor Antoine Duprat, Secretary
Florimond Robertet, and the two Gouffiers, Boisy and Bonnivet. The royal
favour then elevated Anne de Montmorency and Philippe de Chabot, and in
the last years of the reign Marshal d'Annebaud and Cardinal de Tournon.
Women too had always a great influence over Francis--his sister,
Marguerite d'Angouleme, and his mistresses. Whatever the number of
these, he had only two titular mistresses--at the beginning of the reign
Francoise de Chateaubriant, and from about 1526 to his death Anne de
Pisseleu, whom he created duchesse d'Etampes and who entirely dominated
him. It has not been proved that he was the lover of Diane de Poitiers,
nor does the story of "La belle Ferronniere" appear to rest on any
historical foundation.[1]
Circumstances alone gave a homogeneous character to the foreign policy
of Francis. The struggle against the emperor Charles V. filled the
greater part of the reign. In reality, the policy of Francis, save for
some flashes of sagacity, was irresolute and vacillating. Attracted at
first by Italy, dreaming of fair feats of prowess, he led the triumphal
Marignano expedition, which gained him reputation as a knightly king and
as the most powerful prince in Europe. In 1519, in spite of wise
counsels, he stood candidate for the imperial crown. The election of
Charles V. caused an inevitable rivalry between the two monarchs which
accentuated still further the light and chivalrous temper of the king
and the cold and politic character of the emperor. Francis's personal
intervention in this struggle was seldom happy. He did not succeed in
gaining the support of Henry VIII. of England at the interview of the
Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520; his want of tact goaded the
Constable de Bourbon to extreme measures in 1522-1523; and in the
Italian campaign of 1525 he proved himself a mediocre, vacillating and
foolhardy leader, and by his blundering led the army to the disaster of
Pavia (the 25th of February 1525), where, however, he fought with great
bravery. "Of all things," he wrote to his mother after the defeat,
"nothing remains to me but honour and life, which is safe"--the
authentic version of the legendary phrase "All is lost save honour." He
strove to play the part of royal captive heroically, but the prison life
galled him. He fell ill at Madrid and was on the point of death. For a
moment he thought of abdicating rather than of ceding Burgundy. But this
was too great a demand upon his fortitude, and he finally yielded and
signed the treaty of Madrid, after having drawn up a secret protest.
After Madrid he wavered unceasingly between two courses, either that of
continuing hostilities, or the policy favoured by Montmorency of peace
and understanding with the emperor. At times he had the sagacity to
recognize the utility of alliances, as was shown by those he concluded
with the Porte and with the Protestant princes of Germany. But he could
never pledge himself frankly in one sense or the other, and this
vacillation prevented him from attaining any decisive results. At his
death, however, France was in possession of Savoy and Piedmont.
In his religious policy Francis showed the same instability. Drawn
between various influences, that of Marguerite d'Angouleme, the du
Bellays, and the duchesse d'Etampes, who was in favour of the
Reformation or at least of toleration, and the contrary influence of the
uncompromising Catholics, Duprat, and then Montmorency and de Tournon,
he gave pledges successively to both parties. In the first years of the
reign, following the counsels of Marguerite, he protected Jacques
Lefevre of Etaples and Louis de Berquin, and showed some favour to the
new doctrines. But the violence of the Reformers threw him into the arms
of the opposite party. The affair of the Placards in 1534 irritated him
beyond measure, and determined him to adopt a policy of severity. From
that time, in spite of occasional indulgences shown to the Reformers,
due to his desire to conciliate the Protestant powers, Francis gave a
free hand to the party of repression, of which the most active and most
pitiless member was Cardinal de Tournon; and the end of the reign was
sullied by the massacre of the Waldenses (1545).
Francis introduced new methods into government. In his reign the
monarchical authority became more imperious and more absolute. His was
the government "_du bon plaisir_." By the unusual development he gave to
the court he converted the nobility into a brilliant household of
dependants. The Concordat brought the clergy into subjection, and
enabled him to distribute benefices at his pleasure among the most
docile of his courtiers. He governed in the midst of a group of
favourites, who formed the _conseil des affaires_. The states-general
did not meet, and the remonstrances of the parlement were scarcely
tolerated. By centralizing the financial administration by the creation
of the _Tresor de l'Epargne_, and by developing the military
establishments, Francis still further strengthened the royal power. His
government had the vices of his foreign policy. It was uncertain,
irregular and disorderly. The finances were squandered in gratifying the
king's unbridled prodigality, and the treasury was drained by his
luxurious habits, by the innumerable gifts and pensions he distributed
among his mistresses and courtiers, by his war expenses and by his
magnificent buildings. His government, too, weighed heavily upon the
people, and the king was less popular than is sometimes imagined.
Francis owes the greater measure of his glory to the artists and men of
letters who vied in celebrating his praises. He was pre-eminently the
king of the Renaissance. Of a quick and cultivated intelligence, he had
a sincere love of letters and art. He holds a high place in the history
of humanism by the foundation of the College de France; he did not found
an actual college, but after much hesitation instituted in 1530, at the
instance of Guillaume Bude (Budaeus), _Lecteurs royaux_, who in spite of
the opposition of the Sorbonne were granted full liberty to teach
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, mathematics, &c. The humanists Bude, Jacques Colin
and Pierre Duchatel were the king's intimates, and Clement Marot was his
favourite poet. Francis sent to Italy for artists and for works of art,
but he protected his own countrymen also. Here, too, he showed his
customary indecision, wavering between the two schools. At his court he
installed Benvenuto Cellini, Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso del Rosso,
but in the buildings at Chambord, St Germain, Villers-Cotterets and
Fontainebleau the French tradition triumphed over the Italian.
Francis died on the 31st of March 1547, of a disease of the urinary
ducts according to some accounts, of syphilis according to others. By
his first wife Claude (d. 1524) he had three sons and four daughters:
Louise, who died in infancy; Charlotte, who died at the age of eight;
Francis (d. 1536); Henry, who came to the throne as Henry II.;
Madeleine, who became queen of Scotland; Charles (d. 1545); and
Margaret, duchess of Savoy. In 1530 he married Eleanor, the sister of
the emperor Charles V.
AUTHORITIES.--For the official acts of the reign, the _Catalogue des
actes de Francois I^er_, published by the Academie des Sciences
morales et politiques (Paris, 1887-1907), is a valuable guide. The
_Bibliotheque Nationale_, the _National Archives_, &c., contain a mass
of unpublished documents. Of the published documents, see N. Camuzat,
_Meslanges historiques_ ... (Troyes, 1619); G. Ribier, _Lettres et
memoires d'estat_ (Paris, 1666); _Letters de Marguerite d'Angouleme_,
ed. by F. Genin (Paris, 1841 and 1842); the _Correspondence of
Castillon and Marillac_ (ed. by Kaulek, Paris, 1885), of _Odet de
Selve_ (ed. by Lefevre-Pontalis, Paris, 1888), and of _Guillaume
Pellicier_ (ed. by Tausserat-Radel, Paris, 1900); _Captivite du roi
Francois I^er_, and _Poesies de Francois I^er_ (both ed. by
Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1847, of doubtful authenticity); _Relations
des ambassadeurs venitiens_, &c. Of the memoirs and chronicles, see
the journal of Louise of Savoy in S. Guichenon's _Histoire de la
maison de Savoie_, vol. iv. (ed. of 1778-1780); _Journal de Jean
Barillon_, ed. by de Vaissiere (Paris, 1897-1899); _Journal d'un
bourgeois de Paris_, ed. by Lalanne (Paris, 1854); _Cronique du roy
Francois I^er_, ed. by Guiffrey (Paris, 1868); and the memoirs of
Fleuranges, Montluc, Tavannes, Vieilleville, Brantome and especially
Martin du Bellay (coll. Michaud and Poujoulat). Of the innumerable
secondary authorities, see especially Paulin Paris, _Etudes sur le
regne de Francois I^er_ (Paris, 1885), in which the apologetic
tendency is excessive; and H. Lemonnier in vol. v. (Paris, 1903-1904)
of E. Lavisse's _Histoire de France_, which gives a list of the
principal secondary authorities. There is a more complete
bibliographical study by V.L. Bourrilly in the _Revue d'histoire
moderne et contemporaine_, vol. iv. (1902-1903). The printed sources
have been catalogued by H. Hauser, _Les Sources de l'histoire de
France, XVI^e siecle_, tome ii. (Paris, 1907). (J. I.)