His face, as it has come down to us in contemporary paintings, is disagreeable.

He was, as with unusual candor a {185} contemporary observer put it, a devil even to the extent of considerably looking it.
While to art and letters Francis gave a certain amount of attention, he usually from mere indolence allowed the affairs of state to be guided by others.

Until the death of his mother, Louise of Savoy, [Sidenote: 1531] he was ruled by her.

Thereafter the Constable Anne de Montmorency was his chief minister.

The policy followed was the inherited one which was, to a certain point, necessary in the given conditions.