Francis I: The Maker of Modern France
About this audiobook
A contemporary of Henry VIII of England, Francis saw himself as the first Renaissance king, a man who was the exemplar of courtly and civilised behaviour throughout Europe. A courageous and heroic warrior, he was also a keen aesthete, an accomplished diplomat and an energetic ruler who turned his country into a force to be reckoned with.
Yet he was also capricious, vain and arrogant, taking hugely unnecessary risks, at least one of which nearly resulted in the end of his kingdom. His great feud with his nemesis Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, defined European diplomacy and sovereignty, but his notorious alliance with the great Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent threatened to destroy everything.
With access to never-before-seen private archives, Leonie Frieda's comprehensive and sympathetic account explores the life of the most human of all Renaissance monarchs - and the most enigmatic.
Read by Carole Boyd
(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018
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About the author
Swedish by birth, but educated in Britain, France and Germany, Leonie Frieda speaks five languages and is a member of the Institute of Linguists. She is the author of a bestselling biography of Catherine de Medici, and THE DEADLY SISTERHOOD: A STORY OF WOMEN, POWER AND INTRIGUE IN THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE and FRANCIS I: THE MAKER OF MODERN FRANCE. She lives in London and has two children. http://www.leoniefrieda.com/
A Carleton Hobbs Award Winner, Carole Boyd has worked extensively in radio drama and features, and is famously known as Lynda Snell in The Archers. In 1998 she won an APA Audio Award for The Land Girls and a British Talkie Award for The God of Small Things. In 2001 she won an SWPA Silver Award for Middlemarch. Carol has read numerous Miss Read titles for Orion Audiobooks.
