Henry IV, King of France

Henry IV occupies a similar niche in the history of France to that of Henry VIII in England, and there are a number of parallels between the two monarchs. They were certainly both “larger than life” characters who left important and far-reaching legacies in their respective countries.

Henry IV of France

Henry was born in 1553 in the province of Béarn, which formed part of his mother’s domains, she being the queen of Navarre, an independent kingdom in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. Henry’s father was Antoine de Bourbon, who, although only distantly related to the ruling house of France, the Valois dynasty, was a serious contender in the line of succession, given that none of the four sons of Henry II (reigned 1547-69) had as yet produced a male heir (and none of them was to do so).

With Antoine’s death in battle in 1562, Henry acquired his father’s place in the line of succession to the French throne, and when his mother died in June 1572 he became King of Navarre.

There was a problem with him ever becoming King of France, however, and that was that the King had to be a Catholic and Henry was a Huguenot, which was the name used for French Protestants. The power behind the throne was Catherine of Medici, the widow of Henry II and the mother of the then king, Charles IX. She decided that the best way to cement the succession, assuming that none of her surviving sons would produce an heir, was for Henry of Navarre to marry her daughter, Marguerite de Valois.

The wedding took place on 19th August 1572, but on the 24th there took place one of the bloodiest events in France prior to the 1789 Revolution, namely the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, when thousands of Huguenots, in Paris and beyond, were murdered by Catholics. These included many prominent Huguenots who had been in Paris for the wedding. Catherine’s role in instigating the Massacre has been the subject of much speculation.

Henry of Navarre was clearly at great risk, but he saved his skin by immediately converting to Catholicism. This was clearly not out of any religious conviction, because he converted back again as soon as it was safe to do so, in 1576. This was a ploy that his father had used to good effect some years before.

Catholic or Protestant?

It was clear that Henry was a Protestant at heart, and his position in line to the French throne was not going to go unchallenged. The ultra-Catholics were led by Henry of Guise, and then there was the actual king after the death of Charles in 1574, namely Henry III. The field was reduced to two in December 1588 when the king arranged for Henry of Guise to be assassinated, and his own murder the following year settled the matter. The death in 1584 of Francis, Catherine’s sole remaining son, had left no-one else between Henry of Navarre and the throne.

Although Henry was welcomed as King by the Protestants, he still had many enemies, and he realised that he could never hope to rule a united kingdom unless he converted once again to Catholicism, which he did in 1593. He was eventually crowned in February 1594.

Henry was determined to bring the Wars of Religion to a close, which he did in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes in April and the Treaty of Vervins in May. The latter ended the meddling of Spain in France’s internal affairs, and the former gave the Protestants a degree of toleration by allowing them freedom of worship in specified areas. This Edict was enough to persuade the Huguenots that they were safe within Catholic France, a state of affairs that lasted until 1685 when Henry’s grandson Louis XIV revoked the Edict.

Among Henry’s earliest acts were moves to rescue the desperate financial situation of France, by appointing competent men to run the economy, and to beautify Paris with new buildings, including the Pont Neuf.

Confirming the succession

However, Henry had no heir, and his queen was past childbearing age. The marriage had always been one of convenience, and it was to the regret of neither party when an annulment was agreed in December 1599. Henry’s second wife was Maria de Medici, who provided him not only with children but much needed cash, as she arrived with a huge dowry. The children included the future King Louis XIII (born in 1601) and Henrietta Maria (born in 1609) who was to become queen consort of Charles I of England and Scotland.

The marriage did not stop Henry from having several mistresses, who produced children of their own, sometimes born within days of the king’s legitimate offspring. Henry treated all his children alike in terms of love and devotion, but there was always a pecking order in the nursery, with the illegitimate children being made aware of their lower status.

Death

Henry’s reign came to a sudden and violent end with his assassination in May 1610. His killer was Francois Ravaillac, who was clearly deranged and may have acted purely on his own account. However, there is also the chance that he was part of a wider plot, given that Henry was about to declare war on the Habsburgs of Spain, for reasons that were more personal than strategic.

Henry had annoyed a number of factions within France. These included ultra-Catholics who believed that he was making too many concessions to the Protestants (as well as defying the Pope with his threats of war), and Protestants who felt betrayed by his re-conversion to Catholicism. There were also noblemen who were aggrieved by his “tyranny” towards them. Despite his general popularity as a king, Henry had many enemies who would be glad to see him dead.

After his death, Maria reigned as regent until Louis (aged nine at the time) could come of age.

Henry’s legacy

Henry IV was able to unify France and thus make it far more prosperous than his predecessors could do. At his death, France was the strongest and richest nation in Europe, a position that his successors were able to exploit.

It is notable that, despite Henry’s religious ambivalence, he was able to leave his country united as a Catholic kingdom but with religious toleration for non-Catholics. When Henry VIII of England died, having pulled the country away from Catholicism, the succeeding years were to be dominated by religious strife in which neither side had much toleration for the other. One irony is that it was the influence of Henry IV’s Catholic daughter that contributed in part to the causes of the English Civil War, and led eventually to the expulsion of her Catholic son, James II, from the British throne in 1688.