Short answers, pulled from the story.
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death on the 31st of March 1547. Born on the 12th of September 1494 in Cognac, he was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He inherited the throne after his distant cousin Louis XII died without a legitimate male heir.
Francis I acquired the Mona Lisa, which Leonardo da Vinci brought with him when Francis persuaded him to spend his final years in France. After Leonardo's death, the painting and his other works remained in France. Francis was a dedicated patron who also employed Benvenuto Cellini, Rosso Fiorentino, and Primaticcio to decorate his palaces.
Francis I was captured at the Battle of Pavia on the 24th of February 1525 after Cesare Hercolani injured his horse. He was held prisoner in Madrid and forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid on the 14th of January 1526, surrendering claims to Naples and Milan. Once freed on the 17th of March, he repudiated the treaty, arguing it had been made under duress.
Francis I allied with Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to counter the power of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, whose territories surrounded France. The Franco-Ottoman alliance has been described as the first nonideological diplomatic alliance between a Christian and a non-Christian empire. The two powers conducted a joint naval assault at Nice in 1543.
Signed by Francis I in 1539 at his castle of Villers-Cotterêts, the ordinance made French the administrative language of the kingdom, replacing Latin in official documents. It also required priests to register births, marriages, and deaths in a parish registry, initiating the first records of vital statistics with filiations available in Europe.
Francis I helped finance Giovanni da Verrazzano's 1524 expedition to North America, during which Verrazzano visited the site of present-day New York City and named it New Angoulême. Francis also sent Jacques Cartier to explore the St. Lawrence River in 1534 and Jean-François de Roberval to settle Canada in 1541. The port of Le Havre, founded in 1517, was originally named Franciscopolis in his honour.