Henri IV Of France - The First Bourbon King

Henri IV was born as Henri de Bourbon on 13 or 14 December 1553 in the Château de Pau in the Pyrénées. He was the second son of the Catholic Duc de Vendôme, Antoine de Bourbon, and the Protestant Queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret. Under Henri's grandmother, Marguerite de Valois-Angoulême, the Kingdom of Navarre had become the rallying point for Protestants and religious reformers who were threatened with imprisonment, banishment, and a stake in Paris. As Prince of Navarre, he received a Protestant education. Four-year-old Henri was present at the marriage of the Dauphin François de Valois to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, in Paris on 24 April 1558, where he met his cousin and later wife, Marguerite of Valois, for the first time. Henri's mother, Jeanne d'Albret, died in Paris on June 9, 1572, two months before her son's marriage. Henri succeeded her as Henri III of Navarre. As King of Navarre, Henri became the leader of the Huguenots, the French Protestants, in their struggle for religious freedom. Legend has it that in 1564, the astrologer Nostradamus announced to him that he would one day unite France and Navarre under one crown. On August 18, 1572, Henri married the Catholic Marguerite de Valois, the sister of King Charles IX, as part of a peace treaty signed in 1570. The marriage remained childless, and because Henri needed a legitimate heir to the throne, Henri had his marriage declared null and void. For her consent in the annulment of the marriage, Marguerite received a pension and considerable land donations. Furthermore, she was allowed to keep the title of Queen of France. On December 17, 1600, King Henri IV married Maria de' Medici, the daughter of Francesco I de' Medici. Their union produced six children. Louis, who would become Louis XIII of France, Elizabeth, who would become Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip IV of Spain, Cristina Maria, who married Victor Amadeus I of Savoie, an unnamed child often referred to as Nicola, who died in infancy, Gaston, Duc d'Orléans, and finally Henrietta Maria, who married King Charles I of England. In his love life, Henri loved variety. Over the years, he had several dozens of mistresses, but the beautiful Gabrielle d'Estrée was his favorite for many years. On August 24, 1572, a number of Huguenot leaders, including Admiral Gaspard de Colligny, were murdered by radical Catholics. This event would go down in history as Bartholomew's Night. Further fights erupted in France and thousands were killed. Henri was forced to convert to Catholicism and spent the In 1576, Henri managed to escape. He fled to the Protestant city of La Rochelle, where he renounced his Catholic faith and acted again as leader of the Huguenot. In 1584, Duc François d'Anjou, the brother of Henri III of France, died. Henri III had no children, and according to the Salian law, the kingship could not be inherited through a female line. The house of Valois was therefore on the point of extinction and, according to the rules of succession, Henri de Navarre, as a descendant of the 13th century King Louis IX, now became the heir to the throne of France. However, Roman Catholic France refused to accept Henri because of his Protestant faith. This started off the period that is known in history as the War of the Three Henrys, after the three main players in this period, King Henri III of France, Henri of Navarre as leader of the Huguenot, and Henri I of Guise as leader of the radical Roman Catholics. Initially, Henri de Guise became the victor. He managed to force Henri III to introduce strict anti-Protestant laws. Pope Sixtus V supported the demands of Henri de Guise and did not wish to see the Protestant Henri of Navarre on the throne of France. In 1588, after a military victory over Henri de Navarre, Henri de Guise went to Paris. Henri III was forced to flee to the Louvre and de Guise and his supporters now controlled the capital and the government. However, on December 23, King Henri III had Henri de Guise assassinated. This drastic action angered Roman Catholic supporters of de Guise. Henri III was now forced to seek refuge with Henri de Navarre, who openly declared that he was still loyal to the king and that he, as king, would grant Roman Catholics full religious freedom. Together, Henri III of France and Henri de Navarre defeated the radical supporters of de Guise and laid siege to Paris, whose population suffered greatly from famine but refused to capitulate to the leader of the Protestant party. On August 1 that year, Henri III was murdered. Consequently, Henri de Navarre proclaimed himself king of France, much to the dismay of the Catholic King Philip II of Spain, who then joined the battle on the side of the radical Roman Catholics. The fighting continued until 1593, after which Henri IV's final conversion to Catholicism secured the French throne for him. On February 27, he was crowned king of France in the Cathédrale de Chartres. On April 13, 1598, Henri IV issued the Edict of Nantes, a religious compromise for France. Catholicism remained a state religion, but Protestants were given freedom of religion and the right to hold public services in a large number of places. The edict ended 36 years of religious wars, which had cost the lives of over one million French people. On May 14, 1610, Henri IV was assassinated by the religious fanatic François Ravaillac, who had no confidence in a king who had previously been a Protestant. The assassination did not come as a complete surprise, because there had already been many radical Catholic attempts on the king's life. Henri IV was succeeded by his son, King Louis XIII, under the regency of Louis XIII's mother, Maria de' Medici. Henri IV was the first French king of the House of Bourbon. After him, all French kings belonged to the Bourbon dynasty. When in August 1793, by order of the National Assembly, the tombs of the French kings were destroyed, the body of the embalmed Henri IV was found in the cellar of Saint-Denis on Saturday 12 October. His body was almost intact. The body was in such good condition that for some time it was placed upright against a column in the lower chapel. The following Monday, the body was thrown into a mass grave alongside the remains of Louis XIII and Louis XII. The mummified remains of Louis XIV were thrown on top of those of his grandfather. The skull of Henri IV was stolen in the process and was lost. At the beginning of the 20th century, a skull emerged which was claimed to be this of Henri IV. On December 16, 2010, a team of scientists announced that the skull had been identified as this of King Henri IV on the basis of characteristic features. Consequently, the skull was buried in Saint-Denis in 2011. In 2013, a new scientific study was carried out on the skull by comparing the DNA of the head with that of three living Bourbon descendants. According to these scientists, it has been proven without a doubt that this skull cannot be the skull of Henri IV. This ends today's video. I hope to see you next week for more French history. Take care!