In 1515, Francis 1^st, head of the Valois-Angoulême branch, succeeded his cousin Louis XII, whose daughter, Claude de France, he had married, for a thirty-two year reign. It started with the wars with Italy, the victory of Marignano and the transfer of the Quattrocento to France, but turned into a confrontation with the Habsburgs after the election of Charles the Fifth to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, sought by François 1^st (1519).

During the bitter defeat of Pavia (1525), observance of a point of honour (never retreat) led to the captivity of Francis 1^st, followed by the disastrous Treaty of Madrid (France lost one quarter of its territory), which was violated by Francis 1^st immediately he was freed (1526). The war thus resumed. Francis 1^st finally sought an alliance with Suleiman the Magnificent and the German Protestant princes, scandalising Christianity. The long struggle which ensued ended in a fragile European balance with the truce of Crépy-en-Laonnois (1544).

Within the country, absolutism developed. Signs of this are the words of Francis 1^st "Because such is our pleasure" and the expression "His Majesty" which became obligatory. After the Placards affair (1534), the issue of the Protestants, repressed at the time, remained undecided. The King founded the Collège de France and built Fontainebleau and Chambord, which symbolised the first French Renaissance. The Ordinance de Villers-Cotterêts made French the official language of the kingdom (1539).