François IV of France (Chaos)

François IV of was the son of François III and his wife. Born in 1601, he became king of France as an infant.

After becoming politically mature, he had to cut down the power of the nobles at the court (1619-25), finally succeeding and making France an absolutist state.

During the 1620s, the formerly good relations between the and France cooled down dangerously, which was also the fault of both the two new monarchs,  and François respectively. So it was no wonder that France supported uprisings in 1628 - and when the Castillians had been successful, France also supported uprisings in  and, to weaken its neighbor further. In 1629, he used the opportunity to grab, where the Castillian rule wasn't firm enough yet. In, the French-Spanish border between and  was moved south, giving  (OTL Georgia - named after the Virgin Mary) to France.

He lead France into several wars against the, as the second and the. These wars expanded France's influence on the Balcans and along the route to India. He also managed to conquer back, being the first European ruler since the Crusades to do so.

But he also made several wars in : He interfered in the, making both participants members of the  and thus his satellites. 1630-35, France and - fought the in the. In the, the Dutch gave Denmark-Braunschweig , and France got a good part of and all of Hennegau / Hainaut. 1660-64, he made : France and its allies, , Switzerland and made claims for Luxemburgian territories, although they were highly doubtful. But with the absolutist François IV as French king, things like this didn't matter. Although had (most of) the HRE on its side, they were defeated and dismembered. Afterwards, he himself was elected Roman king in 1664.

1637, had joined GN with his help, and even got one electoral vote. Its German neighbors secretly claimed that this was for keeping them in check. Having his relative Charles / elected, he pushed through the  in 1653: All the free cities and other smaller territories of the HREGN were mediatized (given to bigger states). France itself received some lands too - the Grafschaften (counties) of Mömpelgard, Salm, Saarwerden-Saarbrücken, Veldenz and Sponheim, now extending into German-speaking territory.

With his help, Nassau defeated the  (1676-79), annexed it. Denmark-Braunschweig was angered somewhat by this because France had promised them earlier to get all of Münster.

Economically, he continued the policy of his predecessors to encourage trade with. 1612: French merchants from arrived in, started diplomatic connections. France took to secure the way to India. 1620, the first French ship (coming from Suez) arrived in India. In the 1630s, French traders were allowed to trade in the Portuguese colonies in, after Portugal had become independent with French help. 1664, French traders reached in.

The king also promoted the fine arts: In the castle of Fontainebleau, the first "" was made in 1645. (Mexican gardens are influenced by the Aztec way of gardening / planting crops, putting many different colorful plants next to each other, forming geometrical patterns, with colors matching of course.) Under him, the style of reached its height.

François IV died in 1681, leaving the throne to his only son François V.