Henry IV of France

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Henry IV of France by Frans Pourbus the younger.

Henry IV (French: Henri IV; December 13, 1553 – May 14, 1610), was the first monarch of the Bourbon dynasty in France.

As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before ascending to the throne; to become king he converted to Catholicism and in 1598 promulgated (passed) the Edict of Nantes which guaranteed religious liberties to the Protestants and thereby effectively ended the civil war. One of the most popular French kings, both during and after his reign, Henry showed great care for the welfare of his subjects and displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time. He was murdered by a fanatical Catholic, François Ravaillac.

Henry was nicknamed Henry the Great (Henri le Grand), and in France is sometimes called le bon roi Henri ("good king Henry") or le Vert galant ("the Green gallant").

Genealogy

Henry IV was the son of Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome and Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre. He was born in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the southwest of France (former province of Béarn). At the death of King Henry III of France, who had no son, the crown passed to Henry IV, in application of the Salic Law, as Henry was the descendant of the eldest surviving male line of the Capetian Dynasty. The new king, however, had to fight for some years to be recognized as the legitimate king of France by the Catholics, most of whom were opposed to his Protestant faith.

Here is a short genealogy that explains how Henry IV descends in the male line from the Capetian Dynasty:
*Henry IV was the 9th cousin of King Henry II, and the 9th cousin once removed of kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. He was the son of:
*Antoine de Bourbon (1518 â€" 1562), 8th cousin of kings Charles VIII and Francis I, who was the son of:
*Charles IV, Duke of Bourbon (1489 â€" 1537), 7th cousin of kings Louis XI and Louis XII, who was the son of:
*François de Bourbon-Vendôme (1470 â€" 1495), 6th cousin of King Charles VII, who was the son of:
*Jean de Bourbon-Vendôme (1428 â€" 1478), 5th cousin of King Charles VI, who was the son of:
*Louis de Bourbon-Vendôme (1376 â€" 1446), 4th cousin of King Charles V, who was the son of:
*Jean de Bourbon-La Marche (1344 â€" 1393), 3rd cousin of kings John I Posthumus and John II, who was the son of:
*Jacques de Bourbon-La Marche (1315 â€" 1362), 2nd cousin of kings Louis X, Philip V, Charles IV, and Philip VI, who was the son of:
*Louis I, Duke of Bourbon (1279 â€" 1342), 1st cousin of King Philip IV, who was the son of:
*Robert, Count of Clermont (1256 â€" 1317), brother of King Philip III, who was the son of:
*King Louis IX (Saint Louis) (1214/1215 - 1270)

It should be noted that in reality, the line of Bourbon-Busset, descending from Peter I, Duke of Bourbon (1310 â€" 1356), was actually the eldest surviving (possibly non-bastard) male line of the Capetian Dynasty, whereas the line of Bourbon-Vendôme, to which Henry IV belonged, only descended from Jacques de Bourbon-La Marche (1315 â€" 1362), the younger brother of Peter I of Bourbon. Thus, at the death of Henry III the crown should have passed to César de Bourbon-Busset (1565 â€" 1630), 7th cousin once removed of Henry IV. However, the great-great-grandfather of César de Bourbon-Busset, called Louis de Bourbon (1438 â€" 1482), Bishop of Liège, and 4th cousin of François de Bourbon-Vendôme (1470 â€" 1495), had married Catherine d'Egmont, daughter of the Duke of Gelderland, without the approval of his cousin King Louis XI, before becoming bishop. The king had thus annulled his marriage, and declared his children illegitimate. There is also a doubt that the first Bourbon-Busset actually might have been born of a mistress of the future bishop and not of Catherine, the wife of that contested marriage (medieval archives and chronicles are hazy in that respect). It still remains a matter of debate whether the customs of the kingdom actually gave Louis XI the right to exclude from royal succession the children of Louis de Bourbon. What is certain is that the Bourbon-Busset never claimed the crown, and César de Bourbon-Busset played no particular role when his cousin Henry IV became king.

The eldest male descendant of the Bourbon-Busset was the French writer Jacques de Bourbon Busset (1912 â€" 2001), member of the French Academy. President Charles de Gaulle was once quoted telling him: "Had it not been for the decision of King Louis XI, you might well be head of state of France today, instead of me."

Life

Although baptized as a Roman Catholic, Henry was raised as a Protestant by his mother Jeanne d'Albret; Jeanne declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. As a teenager, Henry joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion. In 1572, upon Jeanne's death, he became King Henry III of Navarre.

On 18 August 1572, Henry married Marguerite de Valois, sister of King Charles IX. Henry's marriage was believed by most to be an effort to bring religious peace to the kingdom. However, leading Catholics (possibly including Catherine de Medicis, mother of the bride) secretly planned a massacre of Protestants gathered in Paris for the wedding. In the resulting Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, on 24 August, several thousand Protestants were killed in Paris and thousands more in the countryside. Henry escaped death only by pretending to convert to Roman Catholicism. He was kept in confinement, but escaped in early 1576; on 5 February of that year, he abjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the military conflict.

Henry of Navarre became the legal heir to the French throne upon the death in 1584 of François, Duke of Alençon, brother and heir to the Catholic King Henry III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Since Henry of Navarre was a descendant of King Louis IX, King Henry III had no choice but to recognize him as the legitimate successor. Salic law disinherited the king's sisters and all others who could claim descent by the distaff line. However, since Henry of Navarre was a Huguenot, this set off the War of the Three Henrys phase of the French Wars of Religion. The third Henry, Duke Henry of Guise, pushed for complete suppression of the Huguenots, and had much support among Catholic extremists. In December 1588 Henry III had Henry of Guise murdered, along with his brother, Louis Cardinal de Guise. This increased the tension further, and Henry III was assassinated shortly thereafter by a fanatic monk.

On the death of Henry III in 1589, Henry of Navarre nominally became the king of France. But the Catholic League, strengthened by support from outside, especially from Spain, was strong enough to force him to the south, and he had to set about winning his kingdom by military conquest, aided by money and troops bestowed by Elizabeth I of England. The League proclaimed Henry's Catholic uncle, the Cardinal de Bourbon, King as Charles X, but the Cardinal himself was Henry's prisoner. Henry was victorious at Ivry and Arques, but failed to take Paris.

After the death of the old Cardinal in 1590, the League could not agree on a new candidate. While some supported various Guise candidates, the strongest candidate was probably Infanta Isabella, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, whose mother Elisabeth had been the eldest daughter of Henry II of France. The prominence of her candidacy hurt the League, which thus became suspect as agents of the foreign Spanish, but nevertheless Henry remained unable to take control of Paris.

With the encouragement of the great love of his life, Gabrielle d'Estrées, on 25 July 1593 Henry declared that Paris vaut bien une messe ("Paris is worth a Mass") and permanently renounced Protestantism, thus earning the resentment of his former ally Queen Elizabeth. However, his entrance into the Roman Catholic Church secured for him the allegiance of the vast majority of his subjects, and he was crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Chartres on 27 February, 1594. In 1598, however, he declared the Edict of Nantes, which gave circumscribed toleration to the Huguenots.