The XVIth century is the time of the Valois-Angouleme dynastye :
- François the Ist (1515-1547)
- Henri II (1547-1559)
- François II (1559-1560)
- Charles IX (1560-1574)
- Henri III (1574-1589)
With the reign of Henri IV (1589-1610) begins the Bourbons dynasty.
The reign of François Ist (1515-1547) and of Henri II (1547-1559)

François the Ist is the king of the Renaissance; he draws to France the great Italian artists who influence the French art. For example, the renovation of the castle of Fontainebleau.
He makes from his courtiers (that follows from a castle to castle) the centre of the political life.

THE REGULATION OF VILLERS-COTTERETS
The regulation of Villers-Cotterets in 1539 imposes the French as the language of the administration.
The reign of his son Henri II is, above all, marked by the beginning of the persecutions against the Protestant.
These two reigns pursue the politics reinforcement monarchy committed since the Middle Ages.
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THE WAR OF THE ITALIEN SOLDIERS
Since Charles VIII (end of the XVth c.) the kings of France dream to conquer Italy.
In 1515, François Ist wins the great victory of Marignan over the Swiss Guard and takes over Milan.
During these wars, the great knight Bayard" Dauntless ".
The time of the religious wars
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THE RELIGIOUS WARS OF AND THE SAINT BARTHOLOMEW
In the second half of the XVIth c. France is ravaged by a terrifying conflicts between Catholic and Protestant.
Catherine of Médicis and her son, king Charles IX (1560-1574) organizes the most serious massacre, the one of the Saint-Bartholomew in 1572 in Paris: thousand of Protestant is killed.

Under Henri III (1574-1589) kingdom is in full anarchy, divided between the Catholic League of the Manner duke and the Protestant led by prince Henri of Navarre (future Henri IV).

HENRI IV AND THE END OF THE RELIGION WARS
Henri of Navarre, Protestant prince, inherits the throne in 1589, but must convert to the Catholicism to be accepted.
He becomes King Henri IV (1589-1610), first Bourbon king.
He restores the religious peace by the edict of Nantes in 1598 that tolerates the existence of the Protestantism in kingdom.
Henri IV becomes thus the king of the return to the prosperity of France with his financial minister Sully.
But the Catholic fanatic Ravaillac assassinates the king in 1610.