Henry IV of France


Henry IV, also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. He pragmatically balanced the interests of the Catholic and Protestant parties in France, as well as among the European states. He was assassinated in Paris in 1610 by a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.
Henry was baptised a Catholic but raised as a Huguenot in the Protestant faith by his mother, Queen Jeanne III of Navarre. He inherited the throne of Navarre in 1572 on his mother's death. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, barely escaping assassination in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. He later led Protestant forces against the French royal army. Henry inherited the throne of France in 1589 upon the death of Henry III. Henry IV initially kept the Protestant faith and had to fight against the Catholic League, which refused to accept a Protestant monarch. After four years of military stalemate, Henry converted to Catholicism, reportedly saying that "Paris is well worth a Mass". As a pragmatic politician, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the French Wars of Religion.
An active ruler, Henry worked to regularize state finance, promote agriculture, and encourage education. He began the first successful French colonization of the Americas. He promoted trade and industry, and prioritized the construction of roads, bridges, and canals to facilitate communication within France and strengthen the country's cohesion. These efforts stimulated economic growth and improved living standards.
While the Edict of Nantes brought religious peace to France, some hardline Catholics and Huguenots remained dissatisfied, leading to occasional outbreaks of violence and conspiracies. Henry IV also faced resistance from certain noble factions who opposed his centralization policies, leading to political instability. His main foreign policy success was the Peace of Vervins in 1598, which made peace in the long-running conflict with Spain. He formed a strategic alliance with England. He also forged alliances with Protestant states, such as the Dutch Republic and several German states, to counter the Catholic powers. His policies contributed to the stability and prominence of France in European affairs.

Early life

Henry was born on the night of 12-to-13 December 1553 at Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign Principality of Béarn, in his maternal grandfather King Henry II of Navarre's estate, the Château de Pau. He was the son of Jeanne III of Navarre and her husband, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme. As the heir to the throne of Navarre, Henry received the title of Prince of Viana. He was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church a few weeks after his birth, on 6 March 1554, at the chapel of the Château de Pau, by Cardinal Georges d'Armagnac. His godfathers were kings Henry II of France and Henry II of Navarre, and his godmothers the Queen of France Catherine de' Medici and Isabella of Navarre, Viscountess of Rohan. During the ceremony, King Henry II of France was represented by the Cardinal de Vendôme.
Henry spent part of his early childhood in the countryside of Béarn at the Château de Coarraze. He frequented the peasants during his hunting trips, and acquired the nickname of "miller of Barbaste". Faithful to the spirit of Calvinism, Henry's mother Jeanne d'Albret raised him in its strict morality, according to the precepts of the Reformation. On the accession of Charles IX of France in 1561, Henry was brought to live at the French court in Paris by his father Antoine de Bourbon. Henry's parents disagreed on the choice of his religion, with his mother seeking to educate him in Calvinism, and his father in Catholicism.

Wars of Religion

During the First French War of Religion, Henry was moved to Montargis for his safety, where he was placed under the protection of Renée of France. After his father's death and the end of the war, he was kept at the French court as a guarantor of the agreement between the monarchy and the Queen of Navarre. Jeanne d'Albret obtained control of his education from Catherine de' Medici and his appointment as governor of Guyenne in 1563. Between 1564 and 1566, Henry accompanied the French royal family in its grand tour of France, and on this occasion reencountered his mother, whom he had not seen for two years. In 1567, Jeanne d'Albret brought him back to live with her in Béarn.
In 1568, Henry took part as an observer in his first military campaign in Navarre, and continued his military instruction during the Third War of Religion. Under the tutelage of Huguenot leader Gaspard II de Coligny, he witnessed the battles of Jarnac, La Roche-l'Abeille, and Moncontour. He saw combat for the first time in 1570, at the.

King of Navarre

First marriage and Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre

On 9 June 1572, at the death of his mother Queen Jeanne, the 19-year-old Henry became King of Navarre. Upon his accession, it was arranged for Henry to marry Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici. The wedding took place in Paris on 18 August 1572 on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral.
On 24 August, the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre began in Paris. Several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henry's wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed. Henry narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and his promise to convert to Catholicism. He was forced to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On 5 February of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the military conflict. He named his 16-year-old sister, Catherine de Bourbon, regent of Béarn. Catherine held the regency for nearly thirty years.
Henry became heir presumptive to the French throne in 1584 upon the death of Francis, Duke of Anjou, brother and heir to the Catholic Henry III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Given that Henry of Navarre was the next senior agnatic descendant of King Louis IX, King Henry III had no choice but to recognise him as the legitimate successor.

War of the Three Henrys (1587–1589)

A conflict for the throne of France then ensued, contested by these three men and their respective supporters:
Salic law barred inheritance by the king's sisters and all others who could claim descent through only the female line. However, since Henry of Navarre was a Huguenot, many Catholics refused to acknowledge the succession, and France was plunged into a phase of the Wars of Religion known as the War of the Three Henrys.
The Duke of Guise pushed for complete suppression of the Huguenots and had much support among Catholic loyalists. Political disagreements among the parties set off a series of campaigns and counter-campaigns that culminated in the Battle of Coutras.
In December 1588, King Henry III had the Duke of Guise murdered, along with his brother Louis, Cardinal of Guise, thinking the removal of the brothers would restore his authority. However, the populace was horrified and rose against him. The King was no longer recognized in several cities; his effective power was limited to Blois, Tours, and the surrounding districts.
In the general chaos, Henry III relied on Henry of Navarre and his Huguenots. The two kings were united by a common interest—to win France from the Catholic League. Henry III recognized the King of Navarre as a true subject and Frenchman, not a fanatic Huguenot aiming to subjugate Catholics, and Catholic royalist nobles also rallied to them. With this combined force, the two kings marched to Paris. The morale of the city was low, and even the Spanish ambassador believed the city could not hold out longer than a fortnight. However, on 2 August 1589, a monk infiltrated Henry III's camp and assassinated him.

King of France: Early reign

Succession (1589–1594)

When Henry III died, his ninth cousin once removed, Henry of Navarre, nominally became king of France. The Catholic League, however, strengthened by foreign support—especially from Spain—was strong enough to prevent a universal recognition of his new title. Pope Sixtus V excommunicated Henry and declared him ineligible to inherit the crown. Most of the Catholic nobles who had joined Henry III for the siege of Paris also refused to recognize Henry of Navarre, and abandoned him. He set about winning his kingdom by force of arms, aided by English money and German troops. Henry's Catholic uncle Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon was proclaimed king by the League, but the Cardinal was Henry's prisoner at the time. Henry was victorious at the Battle of Arques and the Battle of Ivry, but failed to take Paris after besieging it in 1590.
File:Henry IV en Herculeus terrassant l Hydre de Lerne cad La ligue Catholique Atelier Toussaint Dubreuil circa 1600.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Henry IV, as Hercules, vanquishing the Lernaean Hydra, by Toussaint Dubreuil,
When Cardinal de Bourbon died in 1590, the League could not agree on a new candidate at the Estates General called to settle the question, also attended by the envoys of Spain. While some supported various Guise candidates, the strongest candidate was probably the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, daughter of Philip II of Spain, whose mother Elisabeth had been the eldest daughter of Henry II of France. In the religious fervor of the time, the Infanta was considered a suitable queen, provided she married a suitable husband. The French overwhelmingly rejected Philip's first choice, Archduke Ernest of Austria, the Emperor's brother, also a member of the House of Habsburg. In case of such opposition, Philip indicated that princes of the House of Lorraine would be acceptable to him: the Duke of Guise; a son of the Duke of Lorraine; and the son of the Duke of Mayenne. The Spanish ambassadors selected the Duke of Guise, to the joy of the League. However, at that moment of seeming victory, the envy of the Duke of Mayenne was aroused, and he blocked the proposed election of a king.
File:France Nuremberg King Henri IV jeton Hans Laufer.jpg|thumb|Jeton with portrait of King Henry IV, made in Nuremberg by Hans Laufer
The Parlement of Paris also upheld the Salic law. They argued that if the French accepted natural hereditary succession, as proposed by the Spaniards, and accepted a woman as their queen, then the ancient claims of the English kings would be confirmed, and the monarchy of centuries past would be rendered illegal. The Parlement admonished Mayenne, as lieutenant-general, that the kings of France had resisted the interference of the pope in political matters, and that he should not raise a foreign prince or princess to the throne of France under the pretext of religion. Mayenne was angered that he had not been consulted prior to this admonishment, but yielded, since their aim was not contrary to his present views. Despite these setbacks for the League, Henry remained unable to take control of Paris.