Constance of Aquitaine, and grandson of Hugh Capet, came to the throne
upon the death of his father in 1031, although in 1027 he had been
anointed king at Reims and associated in the government with his father.
His mother, who favoured her younger son Robert, and had retired from
court upon Henry's coronation, formed a powerful league against him, and
he was forced to take refuge with Robert II., duke of Normandy. In the
civil war which resulted, Henry was able to break up the league of his
opponents in 1032. Constance died in 1034, and the rebel brother Robert
was given the duchy of Burgundy, thus founding that great collateral
line which was to rival the kings of France for three centuries. Henry
atoned for this by a reign marked by unceasing struggle against the
great barons. From 1033 to 1043 he was involved in a life and death
contest with those nobles whose territory adjoined the royal domains,
especially with the great house of Blois, whose count, Odo II., had been
the centre of the league of Constance, and with the counts of Champagne.
Henry's success in these wars was largely due to the help given him by
Robert of Normandy, but upon the accession of Robert's son William (the
Conqueror), Normandy itself became the chief danger. From 1047 to the
year of his death, Henry was almost constantly at war with William, who
held his own against the king's formidable leagues and beat back two
royal invasions, in 1055 and 1058. Henry's reign marks the height of
feudalism. The Normans were independent of him, with their frontier
barely 25 m. west of Paris; to the south his authority was really
bounded by the Loire; in the east the count of Champagne was little more
than nominally his subject, and the duchy of Burgundy was almost
entirely cut off from the king. Yet Henry maintained the independence of
the clergy against the pope Leo IX., and claimed Lorraine from the
emperor Henry III. In an interview at Ivois, he reproached the emperor
with the violation of promises, and Henry III. challenged him to a
single combat. According to the German chronicle--which French
historians doubt--the king of France declined the combat and fled from
Ivois during the night. In 1059 he had his eldest son Philip crowned as
joint king, and died the following year. Henry's first wife was Maud,
niece of the emperor Henry III., whom he married in 1043. She died
childless in 1044. Historians have sometimes confused her with Maud (or
Matilda), the emperor Conrad II.'s daughter, to whom Henry was affianced
in 1033, but who died before the marriage. In 1051 Henry married the
Russian princess Anne, daughter of Yaroslav I., grand duke of Kiev. She
bore him two sons, Philip, his successor, and Hugh the great, count of
Vermandois.
See the _Historiae_ of Rudolph Glaber, edited by M. Prou (Paris,
1886); F. Sochnee, _Catalogue des actes d'Henri I^er_ (1907); de Caiz
de Saint Aymour, _Anne de Russie, reine de France_ (1896); E. Lavisse,
_Histoire de France_, tome ii. (1901), and the article on Henry I. in
_La Grande Encyclopedie_ by M. Prou.
HENRY II. (1519-1559), king of France, the second son of Francis I. and
Claude, succeeded to the throne in 1547. When only seven years old he
was sent by his father, with his brother the dauphin Francis, as a
hostage to Spain in 1526, whence they returned after the conclusion of
the peace of Cambrai in 1530. Henry was too young to have carried away
any abiding impressions, yet throughout his life his character, dress
and bearing were far more Spanish than French. In 1533 his father
married him to Catherine de' Medici, from which match, as he said,
Francis hoped to gain great advantage, even though it might be somewhat
of a misalliance. In 1536 Henry, hitherto duke of Orleans, became
dauphin by the death of his elder brother Francis. From that time he was
under the influence of two personages, who dominated him completely for
the remainder of his life--Diane de Poitiers, his mistress, and Anne de
Montmorency, his mentor. Moreover, his younger brother, Charles of
Orleans, who was of a more sprightly temperament, was his father's
favourite; and the rivalry of Diane and the duchesse d'Etampes helped to
make still wider the breach between the king and the dauphin. Henry
supported the constable Montmorency when he was disgraced in 1541;
protested against the treaty of Crepy in 1544; and at the end of the
reign held himself completely aloof. His accession in 1547 gave rise to
a veritable revolution at the court. Diane, Montmorency and the Guises
were all-powerful, and dismissed Cardinal de Tournon, de Longueval, the
duchesse d'Etampes and all the late king's friends and officials. At
that time Henry was twenty-eight years old. He was a robust man, and
inherited his father's love of violent exercise; but his character was
weak and his intelligence mediocre, and he had none of the superficial
and brilliant gifts of Francis I. He was cold, haughty, melancholy and
dull. He was a bigoted Catholic, and showed to the Protestants even less
mercy than his father. During his reign the royal authority became more
severe and more absolute than ever. Resistance to the financial
extortions of the government was cruelly chastised, and the "Chambre
Ardente" was instituted against the Reformers. Abroad, the struggle was
continued against Charles V. and Philip II., which ended in the
much-discussed treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. Some weeks afterwards high
feast was held on the occasion of the double marriage of the king's
daughter Elizabeth with the king of Spain, and of his sister Margaret
with the duke of Savoy. On the 30th of June 1559, when tilting with the
count of Montgomery, Henry was wounded in the temple by a lance. In
spite of the attentions of Ambroise Pare he died on the 10th of July. By
his wife Catherine de' Medici he had seven children living: Elizabeth,
queen of Spain; Claude, duchess of Lorraine; Francis (II), Charles
(IX.) and Henry (III.), all of whom came to the throne; Marguerite, who
became queen of Navarre in 1572; and Francis, duke of Alencon and
afterwards of Anjou, who died in 1584.
The bulk of the documents for the reign of Henry II. are unpublished,
and are in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Of the published
documents, see especially the correspondence of Catherine de' Medici
(ed. by de la Ferriere, Paris, 1880), of Diane de Poitiers (ed. by
Guiffrey, Paris, 1866), of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret (ed.
by Rochambeau, Paris, 1877), of Odet de Selve, ambassador to England
(ed. by Lefevre-Pontalis, Paris, 1888) and of Dominique du Gabre,
ambassador to Venice (ed. by Vitalis, Paris, 1903); Ribier, _Lettres
et memoires d'estat_ (Paris, 1666); _Relations des ambassadeurs
venitiens_, &c. Of the contemporary memoirs and histories, see
Brantome (ed. by Lalanne, Paris, 1864-1882), Francois de Lorraine (ed.
by Michaud and Poujoulat, Paris, 1839), Montluc (ed. by de Ruble,
Paris, 1864), F. de Boyvin du Villars (Michaud and Poujoulat), F. de
Rabutin (_Pantheon litteraire_, Paris, 1836). See also de Thou,
_Historia sui temporis_ ... (London, 1733); Decrue, _Anne de
Montmorency_ (Paris, 1889); H. Forneron, _Les Ducs de Guise et leur
epoque_, vol. i. (Paris, 1877); and H. Lemonnier, "La France sous
Henri II" (Paris, 1904), in the _Histoire de France_, by E. Lavisse,
which contains a fuller bibliography of the subject.
HENRY III. (1551-1589), king of France, third son of Henry II. and
Catherine de' Medici, was born at Fontainebleau on the 19th of September
1551, and succeeded to the throne of France on the death of his brother
Charles IX. in 1574. In his youth, as duke of Anjou, he was warmly
attached to the Huguenot opinions, as we learn from his sister
Marguerite de Valois; but his unstable character soon gave way before
his mother's will, and both Henry and Marguerite remained choice
ornaments of the Catholic Church. Henry won, under the direction of
Marshal de Tavannes, two brilliant victories at Jarnac and Moncontour
(1569). He was the favourite son of his mother, and took part with her
in organizing the massacre of St Bartholomew. In 1573 Catherine procured
his election to the throne of Poland. Passionately enamoured of the
princess of Conde, he set out reluctantly to Warsaw, but, on the death
of his brother Charles IX. in 1574, he escaped from his Polish subjects,
who endeavoured to retain him by force, came back to France and assumed
the crown. He returned to a wretched kingdom, torn with civil war. In
spite of his good intentions, he was incapable of governing, and
abandoned the power to his mother and his favourites. Yet he was no
dullard. He was a man of keen intelligence and cultivated mind, and
deserves as much as Francis I. the title of patron of letters and art.
But his incurable indolence and love of pleasure prevented him from
taking any active part in affairs. Surrounded by his _mignons_, he
scandalized the people by his effeminate manners. He dressed himself in
women's clothes, made a collection of little dogs and hid in the cellars
when it thundered. The disgust aroused by the vices and effeminacy of
the king increased the popularity of Henry of Guise. After the "day of
the barricades" (the 12th of May 1588), the king, perceiving that his
influence was lost, resolved to rid himself of Guise by assassination;
and on the 23rd of December 1588 his faithful bodyguard, the
"forty-five," carried out his design at the chateau of Blois. But the
fanatical preachers of the League clamoured furiously for vengeance, and
on the 1st of August 1589, while Henry III. was investing Paris with
Henry of Navarre, Jacques Clement, a Dominican friar, was introduced
into his presence on false letters of recommendation, and plunged a
knife into the lower part of his body. He died a few hours afterwards
with great fortitude. By his wife Louise of Lorraine, daughter of the
count of Vaudemont, he had no children, and on his deathbed he
recognized Henry of Navarre as his successor.
See the memoirs and chronicles of l'Estoile, Villeroy, Ph. Hurault de
Cheverny, Brantome, Marguerite de Valois, la Huguerye, du
Plessis-Mornay, &c.; _Archives curieuses_ of Cimber and Danjou, vols.
x. and xi.; _Memoires de la Ligue_ (new ed., Amsterdam, 1758); the
histories of T. A. d'Aubigne and J. A. de Thou; Correspondence of
Catherine de' Medici and of Henry IV. (in the _Collection de documents
inedits_), and of the Venetian ambassadors, &c.; P. Matthieu,
_Histoire de France_, vol. i. (1631); Scipion Dupleix, _Histoire de
Henri III_ (1633); Robiquet, _Paris et la Ligue_ (1886); and J. H.
Mariejol, "La Reforme et la Ligue," in the _Histoire de France_, by E.
Lavisse (Paris, 1904), which contains a more complete bibliography.
HENRY IV. (1553-1610), king of France, the son of Antoine de Bourbon,
duke of Vendome, head of the younger branch of the Bourbons, descendant
of Robert of Clermont, sixth son of St Louis and of Jeanne d'Albret,
queen of Navarre, was born at Pau (Basses Pyrenees) on the 14th of
December 1553. He was educated as a Protestant, and in 1557 was sent to
the court at Amiens. In 1561 he entered the College de Navarre at Paris,
returning in 1565 to Bearn. During the third war of religion in France
(1568-1570) he was taken by his mother to Gaspard de Coligny, leader of
the Protestant forces since the death of Louis I., prince of Conde, at
Jarnac, and distinguished himself at the battle of Arnay-le-Duc in
Burgundy in 1569. On the 9th of June 1572, Jeanne d'Albret died and
Henry became king of Navarre, marrying Margaret of Valois, sister of
Charles IX. of France, on the 18th of August of that year. He escaped
the massacre of St Bartholomew on the 24th of August by a feigned
abjuration. On the 2nd of February 1576, after several vain attempts, he
escaped from the court, joined the combined forces of Protestants and of
opponents of the king, and obtained by the treaty of Beaulieu (1576) the
government of Guienne. In 1577 he secured the treaty of Bergerac, which
foreshadowed the edict of Nantes. As a result of quarrels with his
unworthy wife, and the unwelcome intervention of Henry III., he
undertook the seventh war of religion, known as the "war of the lovers"
(_des amoureux_), seized Cahors on the 5th of May 1580, and signed the
treaty of Fleix on the 26th of November 1580. On the 10th of June 1584
the death of Monsieur, the duke of Anjou, brother of King Henry III.,
made Henry of Navarre heir presumptive to the throne of France. Excluded
from it by the treaty of Nemours (1585) he began the "war of the three
Henrys" by a campaign in Guienne (1586) and defeated Anne, duc de
Joyeuse, at Coutras on the 20th of October 1587. Then Henry III., driven
from Paris by the League on account of his murder of the duke of Guise
at Blois (1588), sought the aid of the king of Navarre to win back his
capital, recognizing him as his heir. The assassination of Henry III. on
the 1st of August 1589 left Henry king of France; but he had to struggle
for ten more years against the League and against Spain before he won
his kingdom. The main events in that long struggle were the victory of
Arques over Charles, duke of Mayenne, on the 28th of September 1589; of
Ivry, on the 14th of March 1590; the siege of Paris (1590); of Rouen
(1592); the meeting of the Estates of the League (1593), which the
_Satire Menippee_ turned to ridicule; and finally the conversion of
Henry IV. to Catholicism in July 1593--an act of political wisdom, since
it brought about the collapse of all opposition. Paris gave in to him on
the 22nd of March 1594 and province by province yielded to arms or
negotiations; while the victory of Fontaine-Francaise (1595) and the
capture of Amiens forced Philip II. of Spain to sign the peace of
Vervins on the 2nd of May 1598. On the 13th of April of that year Henry
IV. had promulgated the Edict of Nantes.
Then Henry set to work to pacify and restore prosperity to his kingdom.
Convinced by the experience of the wars that France needed an energetic
central power, he pushed at times his royal prerogatives to excess,
raising taxes in spite of the Estates, interfering in the administration
of the towns, reforming their constitutions, and holding himself free to
reject the advice of the notables if he consulted them. Aided by his
faithful friend Maximilien de Bethune, baron de Rosny and duc de Sully
(q.v.), he reformed the finances, repressed abuses, suppressed useless
offices, extinguished the formidable debt and realized a reserve of
eighteen millions. To alleviate the distress of the people, he undertook
to develop both agriculture and industry: planting colonies of Dutch and
Flemish settlers to drain the marshes of Saintonge, issuing prohibitive
measures against the importation of foreign goods (1597), introducing
the silk industry, encouraging the manufacture of cloth, of glass-ware,
of tapestries (Gobelins), and under the direction of Sully--named
_grand-voyer de France_--improving and increasing the routes for
commerce. A complete system of canals was planned, that of Briare partly
dug. New capitulations were concluded with the sultan Ahmed I. (1604)
and treaties of commerce with England (1606), with Spain and Holland.
Attempts were made in 1604 and 1608 to colonize Canada (see CHAMPLAIN,
SAMUEL DE). The army was reorganized, its pay raised and assured, a
school of cadets formed to supply it with officers, artillery
constituted and strongholds on the frontier fortified. While lacking the
artistic tastes of the Valois, Henry beautified Paris, building the
great gallery of the Louvre, finishing the Tuileries, building the Pont
Neuf, the Hotel-de-Ville and the Place Royale.
The foreign policy of Henry IV. was directed against the Habsburgs.
Without declaring war, he did all possible harm to them by alliances and
diplomacy. In Italy he gained the grand duke of Tuscany--marrying his
niece Marie de' Medici in 1600--the duke of Mantua, the republic of
Venice and Pope Paul V. The duke of Savoy, who had held back from the
treaty of Vervins in 1598, signed the treaty of Lyons in 1601; in
exchange for the marquisate of Saluzzo, France acquired Bresse, Bugey,
Valromey and the bailliage of Gex. In the Low Countries, Henry sent
subsidies to the Dutch in their struggle against Spain. He concluded
alliances with the Protestant princes in Germany, with the duke of
Lorraine, the Swiss cantons (treaty of Soleure, 1602) and with Sweden.
The opening on the 25th of March 1609 of the question of the succession
of John William the Good, duke of Cleves, of Julich and of Berg, led
Henry, in spite of his own hesitations and those of his German allies,
to declare war on the emperor Rudolph II. But he was assassinated by
Ravaillac (q.v.) on the 14th of May 1610, upon the eve of his great
enterprise, leaving his policy to be followed up later by Richelieu.
Sully in his _Economies royales_ attributes to his master the "great
design" of constituting, after having defeated Austria, a vast European
confederation of fifteen states--a "Christian Republic"--directed by a
general council of sixty deputies reappointed every three years. But
this "design" has been attributed rather to the imagination of Sully
himself than to the more practical policy of the king.
No figure in France has been more popular than that of "Henry the
Great." He was affable to the point of familiarity, quick-witted like a
true Gascon, good-hearted, indulgent, yet skilled in reading the
character of those around him, and he could at times show himself severe
and unyielding. His courage amounted almost to recklessness. He was a
better soldier than strategist. Although at bottom authoritative he
surrounded himself with admirable advisers (Sully, Sillery, Villeroy,
Jeannin) and profited from their co-operation. His love affairs,
undoubtedly too numerous (notably with Gabrielle d'Estrees and Henriette
d'Entragues), if they injure his personal reputation, had no bad effect
on his policy as king, in which he was guided only by an exalted ideal
of his royal office, and by a sympathy for the common people, his
reputation for which has perhaps been exaggerated somewhat in popular
tradition by the circumstances of his reign.
Henry IV. had no children by his first wife, Margaret of Valois. By
Marie de' Medici he had Louis, later Louis XIII.; Gaston, duke of
Orleans; Elizabeth, who married Philip IV. of Spain; Christine, duchess
of Savoy; and Henrietta, wife of Charles I. of England. Among his
bastards the most famous were the children of Gabrielle
d'Estrees--Caesar, duke of Vendome, Alexander of Vendome, and Catherine
Henriette, duchess of Elbeuf.
Several portraits of Henry are preserved at Paris, in the Bibliotheque
Nationale (cf. Bouchot, _Portraits au crayon_, p. 189), at the Louvre
(by Probus, bust by Barthelemy Prieur) at Versailles, Geneva (Henry at
the age of fifteen), at Hampton Court, at Munich and at Florence.
The works dealing with Henry IV. and his reign are too numerous to be
enumerated here. For sources, see the _Recueil des lettres missives de
Henri IV_, published from 1839 to 1853 by B. de Xivrey, in the
_Collection de documents inedits relatifs a l'histoire de France_, and
the various researches of Galitzin, Bautiot, Halphen, Dussieux and
others. Besides their historic interest, the letters written
personally by Henry, whether love notes or letters of state, reveal a
charming writer. Mention should be made of Auguste Poirson's _Histoire
du regne de Henri IV_ (2nd ed., 4 vols., Paris, 1862-1867) and of J.
H. Mariejol's volume (vi.) in the _Histoire de France_, edited by
Ernest Lavisse (Paris, 1905), where main sources and literature are
given with each chapter. A _Revue Henri IV_ has been founded at Paris
(1905). Finally, a complete survey of the sources for the period
1494-1610 is given by Henri Hauser in vol. vii. of _Sources de
l'histoire de France_ (Paris, 1906) in continuation of A. Molinier's
collection of the sources for French history during the middle ages.
HENRY I. (c. 1210-1274), surnamed _le Gros_, king of Navarre and count
of Champagne, was the youngest son of Theobald I. king of Navarre by
Margaret of Foix, and succeeded his eldest brother Theobald III. as king
of Navarre and count of Champagne in December 1270. His proclamation at
Pamplona, however, did not take place till March of the following year,
and his coronation was delayed until May 1273. After a brief reign,
characterized, it is said, by dignity and talent, he died in July 1274,
suffocated, according to the generally received accounts, by his own
fat. In him the male line of the counts of Champagne and kings of
Navarre, became extinct. He married in 1269 Blanche, daughter of Robert,
count of Artois, and niece of King Louis IX. and was succeeded by his
only legitimate child, Jeanne or Joanna, by whose marriage to Philip IV.
afterwards king of France in 1284, the crown of Navarre became united to
that of France.
HENRY II. (1503-1555), titular king of Navarre, was the eldest son of
Jean d'Albret (d. 1516) by his wife Catherine de Foix, sister and
heiress of Francis Phoebus, king of Navarre, and was born at Sanquesa in
April 1503. When Catherine died in exile in 1517 Henry succeeded her in
her claim on Navarre, which was disputed by Ferdinand I. king of Spain;
and under the protection of Francis I. of France he assumed the title of
king. After ineffectual conferences at Noyon in 1516 and at Montpellier
in 1518, an active effort was made in 1521 to establish him in the _de
facto_ sovereignty; but the French troops which had seized the country
were ultimately expelled by the Spaniards. In 1525 Henry was taken
prisoner at the battle of Pavia, but he contrived to escape, and in 1526
married Margaret, the sister of Francis I. and widow of Charles, duke of
Alencon. By her he was the father of Jeanne d'Albret (d. 1572), and was
consequently the grandfather of Henry IV. of France. Henry, who had some
sympathy with the Huguenots, died at Pau on the 25th of May 1555.
HENRY I. (1512-1580), king of Portugal, third son of Emanuel the
Fortunate, was born in Lisbon, on the 31st of January 1512. He was
destined for the church, and in 1532 was raised to the archiepiscopal
see of Braga. In 1542 he received the cardinal's hat, and in 1578 when
he was called to succeed his grandnephew Sebastian on the throne, he
held the archbishoprics of Lisbon and Coimbra as well as that of Braga,
in addition to the wealthy abbacy of Alcobazar. As an ecclesiastic he
was pious, pure, simple in his mode of life, charitable, and a learned
and liberal patron of letters; but as a sovereign he proved weak, timid
and incapable. On his death in 1580, after a brief reign of seventeen
months, the male line of the royal family which traced its descent from
Henry, first count of Portugal (c. 1100), came to an end; and all
attempts to fix the succession during his lifetime having ignominiously
failed, Portugal became an easy prey to Philip II. of Spain.