Henry IV of France

(1553-1610)

BIRTH

December 13, 1553

PLACE

Pau, France

DEATH

May 14, 1610

PLACE

Paris, France

FAMILY

FATHER

Antoine of Navarre

(1518–1562)

WIFE

Margaret of Valois

(1553-1615)

CHILDREN

Jeanne d'Albret

(1528–1572)

WIFE

Marie de' Medici

(1575-1642)

HOMES

NICKNAMES

le Vert Galant; Good King Henri

POLITICAL VIEWS

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT ADVOCATE, RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE ADVOCATE, TRADE PROMOTION ADVOCATE

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

CHRISTIAN, RELIGIOUS CONVERT

CATHOLIC, PROTESTANT

MEMBERSHIPS

AWARDS

Henry IV, the first Bourbon king of France, ended the French Wars of Religion, converted to Catholicism in 1593, and granted Protestants toleration in the Edict of Nantes in 1598. In June 1572 he became king of Navarre on his mother's death. Henry was kept at the French court until he escaped in 1576 and returned to Protestantism. In July 1593 he converted to Catholicism, and he entered Paris in 1594. In 1600 he married Marie de' Medici.

EARLY LIFE

Henry was born on December 13, 1553, at Pau, in Béarn, the son of Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, and Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre. His mother raised him as a Protestant, and he spent part of his youth in the rugged countryside of Béarn. As a teenager he joined the Huguenot armies under Gaspard de Coligny during the Wars of Religion. In June 1572 he became king of Navarre on his mother's death. On August 18, 1572, he married Margaret of Valois, the sister of Charles IX, in Paris, and he survived the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre days later by converting to Catholicism.

Henry of Navarre's political career developed amid the French Wars of Religion. He became king of Navarre in 1572 and married Marguerite de Valois in an attempted reconciliation of royal and Protestant interests. The St Bartholomew's Day massacres followed soon afterward. Henry survived but was compelled to conform to Catholicism and remained at court under constraint. After escaping in 1576 he resumed Protestant leadership and built support through campaigns, negotiation and his regional authority. His position changed decisively when the death of the last surviving Valois prince in 1584 made him heir to the French crown.

The prospect of a Protestant king intensified opposition from the Catholic League and Spain. Henry's military success, including Coutras in 1587, strengthened him without securing universal acceptance. He allied with Henry III against the League, then inherited the throne after Henry III's assassination in 1589. Victories at Arques and Ivry enabled him to continue the struggle, but Catholic resistance and foreign intervention prevented an immediate settlement. Becoming king by hereditary claim was therefore the beginning of another phase of conflict rather than its conclusion.

Henry converted to Catholicism in 1593 and entered Paris in 1594. The familiar remark that Paris was worth a Mass is not securely documented and oversimplifies a decision involving faith, legitimacy and political survival. Reconciliation with opponents, military pressure and negotiation gradually restored royal authority. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes granted specified rights and protections to Protestants within a kingdom that remained officially Catholic. It was a negotiated framework for coexistence, not modern religious equality. The Peace of Vervins with Spain that year further reduced external pressure and helped close the long cycle of war.

With ministers including Sully, Henry worked to restore revenues, improve administration and encourage agriculture, commerce and infrastructure. Recovery depended on peace and the reassertion of monarchy as much as on particular economic measures. His marriage to Marie de' Medici in 1600 secured a new dynastic settlement after annulment of the earlier marriage. Court relations and international ambitions complicated rule. In May 1610 François Ravaillac assassinated him in Paris, leaving a minority government for Louis XIII. His settlement restored peace through compromise, warfare and concentrated royal power.

CAREER

DEATH

Though generally well-liked, Henry was considered a heretical usurper by some Catholics and a traitor to their faith by some Protestants. Henry was the target of at least 12 assassination attempts, including by Pierre Barrière in August 1593, and by Jean Châtel in December 1594. Henry was killed in Paris on 14 May 1610 by François Ravaillac, a Catholic zealot who stabbed him while his coach was stopped on Rue de la Ferronnerie. The carriage was stopped by traffic congestion associated with the Queen's coronation ceremony, as depicted in the engraving by Gaspar Bouttats. Hercule de Rohan, riding in the coach with the king, was wounded in the attack but survived. Ravaillac was immediately seized, and executed days later. Henry was entombed at the Basilica of Saint Denis. His widow, Marie de' Medici, served as regent for their nine-year-old son, Louis XIII, until 1617. The assassination was the immediate cause, distinct from the earlier attempts on the king's life and from speculation about conspiracies behind the attacker. Henry was traveling through Paris in a carriage when François Ravaillac approached and stabbed him. The severe wounds caused his death on May 14, 1610, and the attack left little opportunity for a prolonged final illness. His son Louis XIII inherited the throne as a child, with Marie de' Medici becoming regent. The succession and prosecution of Ravaillac are part of the immediate aftermath, while an exact reconstruction of the king's last words remains less secure than the central facts of the attack.

Basilica of Saint-Denis

Place Victor Hugo, Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, 93200, France

GRAVE