[3] Francesco briefly commanded the Venetian army,[2] but in 1502 he left to pay his respects to Louis XII who was then at Milan.

By 17 February 1510, Francesco, no longer involved in the war,[8] allowed a French army under Gaston of Foix to march through his territory to reach Brescia.

Under their reign, Mantua knew a great age of cultural splendour, with the presence in the city of artists such as Andrea Mantegna and Jacopo Bonacolsi.

Francesco was known for his passion for women, so much so that, on the occasion of the siege of Novara in 1495, his sister-in-law Beatrice d'Este, wanting to ingratiate herself with him, offered to personally procure him a "femmina di partito" with whom to celebrate the victory, under the pretext of protecting both him and his wife and sister Isabella from malfrancese.

[12] Francis also actively practiced sodomy, according to the ancient Greek custom, very widespread almost everywhere at that time, as he himself proudly claims in his poisonous letter of accusations to Galeazzo Sanseverino, dated 1503: "I am reputed and raised by nobility of birth and good morals; you for human and ass favors (and I usually have a party at the door of others, and not at mine!)".