Customer Reviews

Louis XII

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The author has written a lucid and interesting account of this French king, "The Father of His People." This book bridges a gap in the history of French monarchs, and thoroughly covers the early modern era. Perhaps the author has been kinder to Louis XII than he deserved; this king's repeated aggression in Italy brought France to the brink of disaster. His discussion of French government is excellent, and cleared up several questions for me. It has helped me understand other writings on the history of France greatly. My only criticisms are minor and technical: first, the typeface was hard on the eyes, and this is a densely written book. Second, I think that historical biographers have an absolute duty to their readers to include genealogical tables, complete with all pertinent dates. In short, I recommend this book; I learned a great deal from it.

King Louis XII (reigned 1498-1515) came to the
throne of France after Charles VIII's (1483-1498)famous invasion of Italy.
That invasion in 1494 went off splendedly with
sucess mounted on top of sucess.

However, the first French invasion of France would
have dire results for the French nation. Italy
would become a military quadmire from which France
would have difficulty extricating itself over the
period of the next 100 years. The first
implications of France's involvement would become
evident during the reign of Louis XII when he
became involved in a series of wars with the
"military pope" Julius II. (The part of Julius II
was played by Rex Harrison in the 1965 movie
biography of Michelangelo called "Agony and
Ecstasy.")

Frederic Baumgartner's written biography of
Louis XII is a very thorough and well documented
coverage of the life of one on the lesser-known
but more important of the French kings. It is a
worthy addition to any French historical library.

Baumgartner is definitely an historian - not a writer! Choices are limited for information on this monarch in English, so the reader takes what is available. Unevenly written, fairly well organized, reasonably interesting but the writing was choppy and the book poorly edited.