Louis XII summary

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Louis XII, (born June 27, 1462, Blois, France—died Jan. 1, 1515, Paris), King of France (1498–1515). He became king on the death of his cousin Charles VIII. He annulled his marriage to marry Charles’s widow, Anne of Brittany, and to reinforce the union of her duchy with France. He continued France’s part in the Italian Wars, often with disastrous results. He conquered Milan in 1499, then lost it, but was later recognized as duke of Milan by Emperor Maximilian I. He concluded a treaty with Ferdinand V that partitioned Naples (1500), but the two kings went to war and Louis lost all of Naples (1504). In 1508 he consolidated the League of Cambrai, but when the league fell apart in 1510 its members joined England in a Holy League against France, invading it several times. Despite his failures, Louis was highly popular with the French, who called him the “Father of the People.”

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