de him a good figurehead. He had also learnt the art of being a king and was popular amongst the nobility because of his character.
             Politically, the position of the monarchy was very strong not only in France but also in Western Europe. The monarchy enjoyed many features of absolute control over the realm and it's dominions. A sign of this strength can be shown by the fact that the Estates General, which was the French national representative assembly like the English parliament, was never called during the reign of Francis I. The French parlements were only required to ratify laws, pass papal bulls and perform limited administrative tasks. The monarchy had some control over the church. All papal bulls had to go through parlement before becoming effective in France and the monarchy had some influence in appointing bishops and other leading officials. The kingdom had thousands of paid officials owing their position to the king and his patronage. Much of the power and influence of the King's council and Grand council had been reduced. In fact the judicial role of the king's council had been moved to the Grand council by 1519. To add further insult these two councils were expected to follow the king around the country. The nobles had no real control over central government but they were powerful in regions. These groups, such as the Bourbon faction (mentioned later), could seek more power if the monarchy was ever weakened and as such they were a potential threat to the monarchy.
             The French monarchy was in a strong financial position - probably the biggest reason for this is that the crown could levy taxes without having to call the Estates-General. The tax that brought in the most money for Francis and the only direct tax was the taille, which brought in 2.4 million livres out of a total revenue of 4.9 million at the start of Francis' reign. However, in 1519, Francis had to spend a large amount of mone...