Francia
JOSE GASPAR ROD- RIGUEZ, dictator of Paraguay; born in Asuncion, in 1757. His mother was a Creole. Arrived at the proper age, he was sent to the University of Cordova, with a view to entering the Church his plans underwent a change while he was still a student, and on his return to his native town with the degree of doctor of laws, he began his public career as a barrister. He devoted himself to legal pursuits for 30 years, varying his professional avocations with a study of the French encyclopædic writers, mathematics and mechanical philosophy. In 1811, soon after the revolution in the Spanish possessions ns of South America became general, Dr. Francia, then in his 54th year, was appointed secretary to the independent junta of Paraguay; and on the formation of a new congress, called in 1813, he was appointed consul of the republic, with Yegros for his colleague.
From this moment the affairs of his country underwent a favorable change; and the people's gratitude to their deliverer was characteristically exhibited in conferring upon him, in 1817, unlimited despotic authority, which he exercised during the remainder of his life. He died in Asuncion, Sept. 26, 1840.
FRANCIS I., King of France; born in Cognac, France, Sept. 12, 1494; succeeded to the throne in 1515, on the death of Louis XII., who died without male issue. Scarcely had he ascended, than he, as grandson of Valentino of Milan, put himself at the head of an army to assert his right over the Milanese. The Swiss, who opp opposed him in his entry into the duchy, were defeated at Marignano (or Melegnano), and Milan fell immediately after this victory. After a short war with England, the famous interview between Henry VIII. and Francis took FRANCIS II. place, in 1520, in Flanders, which, from the magnificence displayed on the occasion, was called THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD (q. v.). In the same year, Charles V. of Spain, having inherited the empire after the death of Maximilian, Francis laid claim to the imperial dignity, and declared war against his rival. In this struggle, however, he met with nothing but reverses.
After the defeat of Marshal Lautrec at Bicoca, in 1522, the retreat of Bonnivet , and Bayard's death, Francis was himself, in 1525, beaten at Pavia, and taken prisoner. The fight had been a fierce one , and the king wrote to his mother, "All is lost, except honor." Led captive into Spain, he only recovered his liberty at the cost of an onerous treaty, signed at Madrid in 1526; but which Francis subsequently declared null and void. He immediately recommenced war in Italy, met with fresh defeats, and concluded a second treaty at Cambrai in 1529. He once more invaded Italy, in 1536, and, after various successes, consented to a definitive arrangement at Crespi, in 1544, by which the French were excluded from Italy, though Milan was given to the Duke of Orleans, the second son of Francis. Francis was a friend to arts and literature, which flourished during his reign; and he was called the "Father of Letters." Justice, also, began to be better administered in his reign. He founded the Royal College of France, the Royal Library, and built several palaces.
He died at the Château de Rambouillet, March 31, 1547, and was succeeded by his son, Henry II.
FRANCIS II., King of France, the eldest son of Henry II. and his queen Catherine de Medici; born in Fontainebleau, Jan. 19, 1543. He succeeded his father in July, 1559, having in the preceding year married Mary Stuart, daughter of James V. of Scotland. He made the Cardinal of Lorraine first minister, and his brother, the Duke of Guise, com- The insolence and mander-in-chief. cruelty of their rule produced profound discontent, and led to the conspiracy of Amboise, and the beginning of the civil war between the Catholics and Protestants. The states-general were convoked at Orleans in 1560, and the Prince of Condé, who had joined the Protestants, was there arrested, and sentenced to death; but the sentence was not executed owing to the King's death in Orleans , Dec. 5, 1560.
FRANCIS I., Emperor of Germany; born Dec. 8, 1708; the son of Leopold , Duke of Lorraine. He inherited this duchy from his father, in 1729, and six FRANCIS FERDINAND years afterward exchanged it for that of Tuscany, which the death of the last of the Medicis had rendered vacant.
In 1736 he married Maria Theresa, the daughter of the Emperor Charles VI.
Emperor Charles VI .
On the death of the latter, he disputed the imperial dignity with the Elector of Bavaria, whom France supported, and who took the name of Charles VII.; he was , however, defeated, and Francis reigned peacefully for 20 years. He had 16 children, among whom was Joseph II ., who succeeded him, and the unfortunate Marie Antoinette. He died in Innsbruck , Aug. 18, 1765.
FRANCIS II., Emperor of Germany, and I. of Austria; born in Florence , Italy , Feb. 12, 1768, succeeded his father, Leopold II., in 1792, as Emperor of Germany, King of Bohemia, Hungary, etc. At the very commencement of his reign, he had to sustain a war against France, in which he was defeated, and was, in 1797, obliged to sign the treaty of Campo Formio , which deprived him of the Netherlands and Lombardy. In another war with France he was defeated at Marengo and lost, by the treaty of Luneville, in 1801, all his possessions on the Rhine. In a . In a third campaign, undertaken in 1805, the French were victorious over his armies at Elchingen, Ulm, and Austerlitz; and the treaty of Pressburg still further diminished his territory. Renouncing now the title of Emperor of Germany, he took that of Austria, under the name of Francis I. He tried again the fate of battles in 1809; but the defeats of Eckmühl and Wagram led to the peace of Schönbrunn, to cement which more strongly, his daughter Maria Louisa was, in 1810, Notwithstanding given to Napoleon I. this alliance, however, he, in 1813, joined the coalition against his son-in-law. The treaties of 1815 put him again in possession of the greater portion of his territory, and he reigned peaceably till his death in Vienna, March 2, 1835. He was succeeded by his son Ferdinand.