Henry's mother was a staunch Calvinist and raised her son in the Protestant faith, but Henry's father served at the French court and was a Catholic. Even in his youth, Henry converted to Catholicism, but after the death of Antoine de Bourbon he returned to his mother’s religion. Subsequently, he had the opportunity to change his religion more than once.
Henry lived at the French court, and in 1572 Catherine de Medici decided to arrange the marriage of Henry with her daughter Margaret, which was supposed to end the hostility between the Catholic and Protestant parties. However, six days after the wedding, a massacre of the Huguenots took place, known as St. Bartholomew's Night. Henry miraculously survived only because he agreed to convert to Catholicism. He never loved his wife, and did not particularly hide his connections with his mistresses from among the court ladies. However, Margot answered him the same.
Henry lived in the Louvre for four years as a noble prisoner. In 1576, while hunting, together with a small retinue, Henry fled first to Alençon, the possession of Francis, the king’s younger brother, who had sided with the Huguenots, and from there to Anjou. Having renounced Catholicism, Henry led the Protestant party and began a war against. By the end of his reign, he managed to quarrel not only with Protestants, but also with Catholics, and first of all, with the leaders of the Catholic League of Guise. In 1588, the king fled to Chartres to escape the angry Parisians who supported the Guises. After Henry of Guise was killed by his bodyguards, the League was led by Charles of Mayen. Meanwhile, Henry of Navarre and the king joined forces against the rebels and besieged Paris, but was killed by a religious fanatic during the war. Before his death, he declared Henry of Navarre as his successor, and on August 2 the Huguenots proclaimed him king of France. The Catholics did not recognize Henry IV and elected his uncle, Cardinal Charles of Bourbon, as king. However, in fact, Karl Mayensky continued to control the rebels.
Henry's army was small in number, and he was forced to lift the siege of Paris and strengthen himself in Tours, which became his residence for a long time. To win over the Catholics, Henry refused to grant new rights to the Huguenots, leaving only those given by the previous king. In 1590, a major battle between the Huguenots and Catholics took place near Ivry. Henry himself took part in it and, according to eyewitnesses, showed remarkable courage. The Catholic army was exterminated and Charles of Mayen fled without his retinue. Henry, however, was in no hurry to enter Paris. Soon Charles of Bourbon died, and the Catholics were left without a single contender for the throne. The war continued for several more years. Having received financial assistance from Elizabeth of England, Henry recruited mercenaries, captured Mantes, Chartres, Noyon and approached Rouen. However, the Spanish troops of the Duke of Parma moved towards him from the Netherlands, and Henry was forced to retreat.
In 1593, Charles of Mayenne convened the Estates General to elect a new Catholic king. The only legitimate contender for the throne was Henry of Navarre, but he was a Huguenot. Among the Catholics, only Isabella of Spain, granddaughter, had at least some rights, but placing a woman on the French throne was extremely difficult. Meanwhile, Henry once again announced his conversion to Catholicism, saying the phrase that later became famous: “Paris is worth a mass.” During the war years, Henry proved himself to be a brave warrior, an intelligent and far-sighted politician, and enjoyed the sympathy of a significant part of the French. As soon as the Parisians learned of Henry's return to the bosom of the Roman Church, they hastened to Saint-Denis to welcome him as their king, despite the prohibitions of Charles of Mayenne. By February 1594, Henry was solemnly anointed king at Chartres, and soon entered Paris. He preferred to make peace with his former enemies, generously distributing lands and titles. Even after defeating the army of the Duke of Mayenne in 1595 and capturing Burgundy, Henry concluded an agreement on conditions that were very tolerable for the vanquished. Then the war continued for several more years. But by 1598 he had run out of money, and he hastened to make peace.
The result of the religious wars in France was the Edict of Nantes, signed in April 1598. This was an important act that approved the foundations of the state policy of religious tolerance. Although the Huguenots were not completely equal in religious rights with Catholics, they received the right to freedom of preaching, school teaching and worship throughout France, with the exception of Paris. All court sentences passed on religious grounds were overturned. Protestants gained access to all government and public positions, could hold congresses on political and religious issues, and also have their own representatives at court and in the State Council.
In 1599, Henry received a formal divorce from Margaret of Valois, with whom he had not actually lived since the wedding, and married Maria de Medici. Mary subsequently bore him three daughters and three sons, including the heir to the throne. At the same time, the king did not break ties with his then favorites, Henriette d'Antragues, and later Margarita Montmorency.
On May 14, 1610, Henry rode in a carriage to inspect new guns in the arsenal. On a narrow winding street, a man jumped onto the wheel (as it was later established, it was a Catholic fanatic named Francois Ravaillac), stuck his head through the carriage window, which was open due to the heat, and plunged a dagger into the king’s chest. Henry died instantly. Ravaillac was captured by the guards and executed two weeks later.
France. Monarchy: Bourbon Dynasty | Henry IV
Bourbon Dynasty (1589-1792)
Henry IV (1553-1610)
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Henry IV of Bourbon (Henry of Navarre, Henry the Great- leader of the Huguenots at the end of the Wars of Religion in France, king of Navarre (1562 - 1610), king of France (1589 - 1610), founder of the French royal Bourbon dynasty. Son of King Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret of Navarre
Henry's mother, a consistent supporter of Calvin, did everything to raise her son to be a strong Protestant. But in his father, the young prince had a completely different example. He did not remain a supporter of the Genevan cause for long and returned to Catholicism after he entered the service of the French king as a lieutenant general and from the Protestant
the commander turned into a courtier.
Father - Antoine de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme
Mother - Königin von Navarra, Johanna von Albret
Henry IV was born in Pau, in the castle of his maternal grandfather, Henry d'Albret. According to legend, immediately after birth, the grandfather took his grandson in his arms, ran a clove of garlic over his lips and dripped wine on them. This custom was widespread in those days to prevent diseases...
Henry spent his childhood in Carraz (a small town and castle in Béarn). Although Henry was baptized according to the rites of the Catholic Church, true to the principles of Calvinism, his mother Jeanne d'Albret raised him in the spirit of Protestantism.
He came of age in those years when France was shaken by the first religious wars. Fierce battles were followed by fairly long periods of peace, during which the young Béarnian had the opportunity to become acquainted with the court life of Paris. Intelligent, lively and practical, Henry learned a lot from these observations. The Valois family also managed to study it well. After the conclusion of peace in Saint-Germain in 1570, Catherine de Medici began to work for the marriage of her daughter Margaret (Marguerite of Valois, 1553—1615) with the King of Navarre. This marriage, in her opinion, was supposed to reconcile both parties and put an end to the bloody unrest.
As you know, he did not live up to the hopes placed on him. Six days after the wedding, the Catholics insidiously attacked the Guguenots, who had trustingly gathered in Paris for the wedding celebrations, and inflicted a cruel massacre on them on the night of St. Bartholomew. Henry's entire retinue, located in the Louvre, was killed, but he himself, having promised to convert to Catholicism, avoided the common fate. For the next four years, Henry lived in Paris as a prisoner.
St. Bartholomew's Night
Outwardly, he seemed to have come to terms with his fate, but in reality he did not give up the thought of escaping. In February 1576, under the pretext of a hunting trip to Senlis, Henry with a small retinue of his followers rode along the Vendôme road to Alençon, from where he made his way to Anjou.
Henry's wife, Margarita, whom he never loved, lived without her husband in Paris for another two years, changing one lover after another. The King of Navarre, however, was in no way inferior to her in the number of love affairs. He was generally loving and had relationships in his life with many women from various classes.
Since Henry III did not have his own children, in April 1589, being mortally wounded, he officially recognized Henry IV as his heir and ordered his supporters to swear allegiance to the Navarrese monarch, but he was able to become king of France only after a long struggle.
In order to neutralize his rivals, on July 25, 1593, Henry of Navarre converted to Catholicism and entered Paris on March 22, 1594 (on this occasion, Henry IV is credited with the saying “Paris is worth a mass”).
In 1595, the Pope granted Henry absolution, lifting his excommunication from the church and the declaration of a heretic. To end interfaith hostility, Henry IV signed the Edict of Nantes on April 13, 1598, which granted freedom of religion to Protestants, and soon after this the Huguenot Wars ended.
Henry is already approaching fifty, but there is still no legal heir....
In December 1599, for considerable compensation, he sought the annulment of his marriage to the childless Margot. In April 1600, the king, in exchange for a huge sum of 600 thousand gold ecus from the house of Medici, agreed, through his representative in Florence, to sign a marriage contract with Maria de' Medici, the youngest daughter of the richest man in Europe - the Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco de' Medici and Joanna of Austria, who never saw.
In October, in the grand Palazzo Pitti, a wedding was held in the absence of the groom - by proxy. On December 17, 1600, the wedding of 47-year-old Henry IV with a 25-year-old Florentine woman took place in Lyon. Marie de Medici (1572-1642).
Coronation of Marie de' Medici
The marriage produced 6 children:
- Louis XIII the Just (1601–1643), future king of France.
- Elizabeth de Bourbon (Isabelle of France) (1602–1644), Queen of Spain, husband of Philip IV, King of Spain.
- Christina de Bourbon (1606-1663), Duchess of Savoy, husband of Victor Amadeus I of Savoy, Duke of Savoy.
- Nicolas de Bourbon (1607-1611), Duke of Orleans.
- Gaston d'Orléans (1608-1660), Duke of Orleans; 1st wife (1626): Marie de Bourbon-Monpensier (1605-1627), Duchess of Montpensier; 2nd wife (1632): Margaret of Lorraine (1615-1672), Princess of Lorraine.
- Henrietta Maria de Bourbon (1609-1669), Queen of England, husband of Charles I Stuart, King of England.
Children of Henrietta Maria and Charles I
In addition, Henry IV had 11 recognized illegitimate children, of whom the most famous is César de Bourbon (1594–1665), duc de Vendôme et de Beaufort, who started a side line.
On May 14, 1610, the king went to the arsenal in a carriage to inspect new guns. It was a hot day and the window skins were down. On the narrow and winding street of the Iron Rows, the royal carriage had to stop to let a cart of hay pass. At that moment, a man quickly jumped onto the wheel, stuck his head through the window and plunged a dagger into Henry’s chest. Death was instantaneous, and Henry did not have time to utter a single groan. Those sitting with him in the karst did not even notice his death at first. The killer, the Catholic fanatic Ravaillac, however, did not have time to escape, was captured by the guards and executed two weeks later.
He was buried on July 1, 1610 in the royal abbey of Saint-Denis. The widow, Marie de Medici, who ruled until 1617, was declared regent until the heir (8-year-old Louis XIII) came of age.
to be continued...
France under Henry IV of Navarre
Since being named sole legal heir by Henry III in 1589, Henry of Navarre has been laying the foundation of his power. He is opposed by Protestants, the Catholic League and “disaffected” or “political” moderate Catholics who condemn the excessive precautions of their coreligionists and want to restore royal power.
Henry IV sets the task of subordinating the leaders of the League to his power; The Duke of Mayenne is the first to join him, followed by the Duke of Epernon and the Duke of Merker. As for the Dukes of Guise, they become unshakable defenders of the throne.
Having come to power, King Henry IV strives to expel the Spaniards, who, convened by the Legists, occupy the north of France. The struggle lasts three years and ends with the capture of Amiens in 1597. In 1598, Spain returns all French conquests.
But the Religious Wars are not over. Catholics are not at all ready to recognize the freedom of religion of Protestants, and Protestants (numbering about a million people) hesitate: whether to remain faithful to the king who has renounced his faith. In 1594 - 1597 they organize themselves into provinces governed by assemblies, and proclaim a union with the Church of the Netherlands. In such circumstances, giving status to Protestant churches is a difficult task. Henry IV takes up the development of a new document: this will be the Edict of Nantes, promulgated in April 1598.
Difficult negotiations and the Edict of Nantes.
The king, in order to resist the resistance of the parties, has to use his personal qualities: authority and military prowess. In addition, the loyalty of his supporters and the moderation of the prelates play an important role.
The Edict of Nantes consists of a solemn declaration and secret articles so as not to provoke discord. Protestants enjoyed, in addition to freedom of conscience, freedom of worship in feudal estates, in two villages or hamlets per district, and in all cities where the reformed cult actually existed. The secret articles contained a number of clauses preserving the advantages of Catholics. Protestants are allowed to build churches, conduct seminars, gather councils and synods, fathers of families have the right to choose a religion for their children, who will be accepted without any discrimination into all schools and universities. And finally, in exchange for restrictions, the king gives the Protestants 151 fortresses with or without a garrison, which gives the Protestants real political and military power.
In fact, the Edict of Nantes resumes many points of the previous edicts. But this time the king has the necessary power to make him respected. At first, Clement VIII expresses his dissatisfaction, but then resigns himself to it. France is experiencing an unusual event for Europe: faced with religious demands, civic interests, protected by politicians, are gaining the upper hand. But this compromise is fragile.
The plight of the people.
“No one has remembered such a terrible cold and such severe frost since time immemorial. Everything has become more expensive... Many people were found frozen to death in the fields... One man froze on his horse.” These lines from the “Memoirs” of the chronicler of that era, Pierre Lestoile, tell about the poverty of France, destroyed by wars and finding itself in the grip of an unprecedented cold. Grain production is falling, vineyards are freezing, textile factories are shutting down. The population is weakened and vulnerable to disease; There is a plague epidemic again. Peasant uprisings break out almost everywhere: the "gauthiers" in Normandy and the "crocans" in Périgord.
Henry IV begins to rebuild the state and issues numerous decrees to boost the economy. These decrees dealt with land use, such as the draining of swamps in 1599, as well as security and taxation issues. Against bands of mercenaries, thieves and vagabonds who devastate provinces, rob, kill, and terrorize people, the king introduces military laws. To calm the angry peasants, exhausted by taxes, the king establishes tax breaks and tries to limit the rights of landowners to peasant property. However, peasants still suffer from civil wars and rural revolts continue.
Running a state is not an easy task.
Many nobles are ruined, and to help them make their estates profitable again, Henry IV summons the Calvinist Olivier de Serray, who begins breeding mulberry trees to produce raw silk. In 1600, Serret published his Treatise on Agriculture, which is a collection of tips on how to properly manage a farm. This work, which the king distributes throughout the country, is a great success in publishing. A little later, Olivier de Serray published a small book, “On How to Get Silk,” about the production encouraged by Henry IV.
The rise in France also leads to a reorganization of government, administration and financial policy. Before making a decision, the king listens to the opinions of others. He organizes a new Council, which includes a limited number of people, and they are chosen according to competence rather than position. Throughout the day, the king constantly turns to them for advice.
These meetings, where business acumen reigns supreme, are conducted without ceremony. For example, Maximilien Rosny, Duke of Sully, superintendent of finance, enjoys the king's confidence, which allows the official to behave uninhibitedly. Sully, being a Protestant, at the request of the king, unravels various matters, and is also in charge of the financial affairs of the entire state.
The good governance of the provinces is due to the reliability of officials with the power to investigate wrongdoing. Henry IV makes an original decision: in order to strengthen the ties between royal officials and authorities, constant contributions to the treasury are introduced, since the treasury in 1596 had a deficit of funds. We are talking about a tax, a pollet, an annual cash contribution that is paid by an official to the king for lifelong retention of office. The tax is named after the financier Field.
Until this point, many official positions passed from father to son, provided, however, that the “renunciation” of the position occurred at least 40 days before the death of the holder of this position. The tax eliminates this period. In return, the official pays a tax every year proportional to the position he holds. This tax, which brings in an annual revenue of one million livres, will last until the revolution. Inheritance of positions firmly binds the crown, judicial officials and financial officials, who receive privileges and honors. In 1600, these efforts begin to bear fruit throughout the kingdom. An accurate budget and monetary reform, which will be adopted in 1602, improve finances. Reserves of gold and silver are stored in the Bastille. The kingdom is expanding; the army, close to the heart of the king, is located on the right bank of the Rhone. In 1601, Bresse, Bugins, Valmory and the province of Gex will be annexed to France under the Treaty of Lyon. With the annexation of Navarre and northern cities, the area of the country increases from 464 thousand square meters. km up to 600 thousand sq. km.
Second marriage of convenience.
Henry IV's marriage to Catherine de' Medici's daughter Margaret was declared invalid on grounds of consanguinity and annulled by the Pope in 1599. So the king is free to remarry.
Henry IV wants to marry his mistress, Gabriella d'Estre, with whom he has a son, the Duke of Vendôme. But this intention outrages the French, who refuse to recognize the illegitimate as Dauphin. After Gabriella's sudden death, the king yields to his advisers: their candidacy, Maria Medici, the niece of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. After careful negotiations, she brings a significant dowry. A magnificent wedding took place in Lyon in December 1600. Nine months later, the queen gives birth to Henry IV's son, heir, later the future King Louis XIII. Before 1609, she will give birth to the king again five children.Despite tender parental feelings, the king continues his love affairs, which will cost the kingdom dearly.
Princes' Conspiracy.
Henry IV returned peace to France and gave him an heir, but he would still have to speak out against anger and betrayal. Too many nobles in the king's chambers demand pensions and privileges for themselves. Especially the higher nobility has difficulty submitting to royal authority. The king awarded the rank of marshal to one of his old comrades in arms, Biron. He was a proud and restless man. He dreams of creating an independent state from the province of Bourgogne and getting rid of the king. Henry de la Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon, shares his views. Foreign sovereigns of Savoy and Spain also support the spirit of the rebels, even negotiations began with the agents of Philip III of Spain. Warned of the conspiracy, the king summons Biron to Fontainebleau and tries to force him to confess. But The marshal remains silent and is imprisoned, convicted of treason, and beheaded in 1602.
On the other hand, the Duke of Bouillon continues his intrigues. In 1605, having settled in Sedan, he tries to recreate the Protestant union, but the attempt fails; he is forced to give up the keys to the city and seek refuge in Geneva. In 1606, sovereigns are subject to the king. And the country is finally coming to civil peace.
Under French arbitration, a 12-year truce is established between Spain and the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Simple, cheerful and pragmatic, Henry IV is liked by his subjects, as he gives them prosperity, work, and diplomatic success.
However, the struggle between Catholics and Protestants and the claims of Archduke Rudolf II of Habsburg threaten peace in Europe. On the other hand, the achievements of the Counter-Reformation worry the Protestants, and the old hostility towards the Habsburgs is renewed.
A love story is mixed into the complex political situation: the sovereign falls in love with Charlotte Condé. The constant presence of the king worries the wife of the young woman, who decides to take refuge in Brussels under the patronage of the Archduke. Passion for love pushes Henry IV to make a decision: he accelerates preparations for war, despite the hostile attitude of Protestants to this. On May 13, 1610, the solemn transfer of the regency to the queen took place in Saint-Denis. On May 14, the king's carriage is forced to be delayed due to a crowd on Ferronry Street. Suddenly a man appears and mortally wounds the king with a knife in the chest. The killer, François Ravaillac, an exalted Catholic, imagined himself to be a messenger from heaven. He was arrested, convicted, and on May 24
Henry IV is the first representative of the Bourbon dynasty, the last to rule the French throne. After Charlemagne, he became the first French king to be called the Great. The French associated the end of the religious (civil) wars of 1562 - 1594 with his name. and gaining the right to freedom of religion.
The personality of Henry IV has always attracted attention for its originality. As one of the king’s admirers, his contemporary V.-P., wrote. Palma Caye “There is hardly a sovereign in history whose dignity and position would cause so much controversy.” For the first time, a former heretic was on the French throne.
The successor of the most Christian kings, defenders of the Catholic Church, was a Calvinist and renounced the Protestant faith during the last act of the civil wars on the march before the gates of Paris. The sincerity of Bourbon's renunciation was questioned, raising the desire to understand the details of such proselytism. The king's private life aroused great curiosity: the slave of women was famous for his countless victories. And even the violent death of Henry IV, which shocked France, gave rise to many different rumors, giving impetus to the emergence of legends about the king and his deeds. A king appeared on the political arena of France, delighting and surprising his contemporaries with his unconventionality in his views and actions.
Henry IV was born on December 13, 1553 in Béarn in the family castle of Pau, which belonged to his maternal grandfather, King Henry d'Albret of Navarre. The heir was named after his grandfather. The baby's father is the first prince of the blood Antoine Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, owner of the Duchy of Vendôme, as well as counties and baronies in the north of the Loire. Henry's mother, who gave him the title of King of Navarre, is Jeanne d'Albret, daughter of Margaret of Navarre and Henry d'Albret. On his mother's side, Henry was the great-nephew of King Francis I (1515 - 1547).
Henry's childhood was spent in Béarn, where the local nobility, in their way of life, was very different from the capital's aristocracy. Unpretentious and ardent southerners raised their children, early introducing them to hunting and long journeys on horseback or a mule. The first Bourbon grew up in an environment that knew neither court sophistication nor the conventions of high society. His grandfather wanted his grandson to be like his peasant children
age, were not pampered with food or clothing. A free life in harmony with nature from an early age instilled in the future king a freedom-loving disposition, endurance and unpretentiousness, rewarding him with good health.
At the same time, Henry, as the heir of the prince of the blood and the king of Navarre, began to instill a sense of royal dignity early on. He was not yet two years old when, after the death of his grandfather in connection with the accession of Jeanne d'Albret to the rights of inheritance, he was presented as a prince before a meeting of deputies from the estates of Béarn. At the age of five, at the court of the French king Henry II, he was welcomed as the heir of the first prince of the blood, Antoine of Bourbon, and king of Navarre. He was even named regent and viceroy general of the king and queen of Navarre, although the functions of the minor regent were performed by his guardian.
Beginning in 1560, the life of young Bourbon, barely seven years old, changed. The reason for this was two circumstances that played a significant role in the fate of Henry. The first was associated with the conversion of Jeanne d'Albret. The Queen of Navarre converted to Calvinism, publicly announcing her departure from the Catholic Church. Having received communion from the minister of the Reformed Church, she set about planting Protestantism in Navarre. Young Henry was converted by his mother to a new faith. Jeanne d'Albret found a tutor and teacher for her son from among the zealous Protestants. The little Christian, without resistance, accepted the new world that opened before him along with Calvinism; Along with faith, he became involved in the study of ancient languages and reading, which had hitherto remained outside his interests.
Henry's conversion to Protestantism occurred during the years when France was rapidly approaching civil war. With the spread of Calvinism, the long-term social tension that accompanied absolutism was fueled by confessional differences, and the temporary weakening of the throne due to the sudden death of Henry II favored the satisfaction of the ambitions of the opposition-minded nobility. The first test of strength was the unsuccessful palace conspiracy in Amboise in 1560. Drowned in blood, it had a wide resonance in France, confronting the authorities with the need to urgently take action. Under these conditions, the regency under the young Charles IX, which was rightfully claimed by the first prince of the blood, Antoine Bourbon, seemed undesirable to the Queen Mother Catherine de Medici. Reserving this right, she made Bourbon governor general of France. The new position obliged the prince of the blood to be at court. So, in 1561, the family of Antoine Bourbon - his wife Jeanne d'Albret and two children Henry and Catherine - ended up in Paris. The 8-year-old heir of Bourbon was honored to sit at the same table - between the young Charles IX and his sister Margarita Valou. From that time on, the future king of France was forced to submit to someone else's will in the person of the Queen Mother, becoming a hostage to her policies. This was the second fatal event in Henry's life.
A heretic by faith and the legitimate heir of the first prince of the blood and king of Navarre bordering Spain, he was an invaluable gift for the French crown. And so they decided his fate without delay. Already in 1557, at the time of the presentation of the young Bourbon to the French court, a plan arose for the marriage of the heir of Navarre with Princess Margaret of Valoux, and which was destined to come true 15 years later.
Court life in Paris contributed to Henry's rapid maturation. In addition, serious changes took place in his family. Confessional differences between the parents and the political ambitions of the elder Bourbon made it impossible to preserve the family. The breakup occurred in 1562, a year after his stay in Paris. This forced Henry's mother Jeanne d'Albret to leave the court. In the absence of his mother, Antoine Bourbon tried to convert his son to the faith of his fathers, but he failed: the boy refused Catholic communion and did not go to mass.
The personal drama of young Henry played out against the backdrop of the general tragedy that France experienced when it entered into a civil war in 1562.
From this time on, the war would accompany Henry of Bourbon almost until the end of his life; it would shape the character of the future king. The hardening received in early childhood and instilling in Heinrich endurance, unpretentiousness and the habit of an ascetic lifestyle will prove useful; the acquired qualities will be useful in military campaigns.
In the year the civil wars began, Henry becomes the first prince of the blood: the death of his father allows him to take his place. The nine-year-old heir Antoine Bourbon is awarded all honorary titles. The Prince of Béarn is appointed governor and admiral of Guienne. At the age of 13, he was recognized as the heir to all the possessions of his mother Jeanne d'Albret. The Queen of Navarre took him to Béarn to meet with local Protestants.
15-year-old Henry of Bourbon received his first baptism of fire in La Rochelle in 1568 - 1569, being next to the head of the Protestant party, Prince Condé, and Admiral Coligny. The young man discovered remarkable military abilities in a clash with the Catholic army and rightfully shared the victory with the Protestants, who captured fortresses in the provinces of Ony, Saintonge and Quercy. In those years, through the efforts of Jeanne d'Albret, Larochelle turned into a stronghold of Protestantism. The future king received his first experience of rule here. Henry Bourbon gradually turned into a student learning the skills of government, into a politician endowed with power.
The maturity of the first prince of the blood made him an enviable groom and a contender for a worthy match. The old project of Henry's marriage to Margaret of Valois, despite the changed situation, was still attractive to both parties. Jeanne d'Albret hoped to strengthen her position not only in Navarre, but also in France by marrying her son. Catherine de Medici saw in the marriage of two families of royal blood a resolution of the confessional issue - the peaceful coexistence of two religions and, in addition, the expansion of the possessions of the French house by annexing the Protestant south. At the same time, the planned marriage had negative sides, primarily for the Queen of Navarre and the prince: their activities should have become controlled and the crown would have the right to take possession of Navarre. Marriage plans took on political significance. The circle of participants in the struggle included not only marrying families, but also very influential people outside of France. As for the young, marriage promised obvious benefits for Henry: it expanded the prospects for gaining more power. In addition, the temptation for the young man to possess the most attractive French princess was very great. However, it is unlikely that the eligible groom had the right to free choice and could refuse the offer: a captive of the French court, the prince of the blood could only dream about it. In turn, Margarita Valois did not object to the proposed marriage. She was attracted by the opportunity to become Queen of Navarre.
Meanwhile, civil wars, truces and new explosions of religious fanaticism had a negative impact on the upcoming wedding. Two months before the solemn event, Jeanne d’Albret died in doubt and fear for her son’s future. “I received the saddest news I could receive in this world - the news of the loss of the queen, my mother. God called her to himself. I cannot tell you how sad I am,” 1 wrote Heinrich. A month before the wedding, Henry Bourbon appeared at court in complete mourning. This time Paris greeted him not only as the first prince of the blood, but as the king of Navarre.
The wedding took place on August 18, 1572. In the wedding ceremony of a Catholic and a Protestant, all the necessary conventions for such an occasion were observed. The Cardinal of Lorraine betrothed the newlyweds in the Louvre, and then solemnly married them at the entrance to Notre Dame. As a Protestant, Henry of Navarre could not attend the solemn mass. “Our wedding,” Marguerite Valois will write in her memoirs, “was celebrated with such triumph and splendor as no other, the king of Navarre and his retinue were in rich and beautiful attire, and I was royally in a diamond
crown and ermine cape, the train of my blue dress was carried by three princesses, the wedding took place according to the custom reserved for the daughters of France.”
However, the long-awaited wedding did not live up to the hopes placed on it. Married life did not take place, despite the fact that Margarita of Valois and Henry of Navarre were officially considered spouses for 28 years. As one can assume, based on the memoirs of Margarita Valois, the reason for the failure of the marriage was Margarita’s physical hostility towards her husband. When dissolving this marriage, Henry of Navarre referred to Margarita's inability to bear children. The unusual relationship for newlyweds was discussed at court immediately after the wedding. The reason was the undisguised hobbies of the spouses. The passion of Henry of Navarre was Charlotte de Bon, Madame de Sauve, the wife of the Secretary of State. The chosen one of Marguerite Valois was Joseph Boniface Seigneur de La Mole. This story aroused curiosity among the court, greedy for such events. The strange marriage worried the Queen Mother Catherine de Medici, who pestered her daughter with questions. Margarita gave the answer to everyone’s question only in her memoirs, written in her later years. “She (Catherine de Medici) asked me,” wrote Marguerite Valois, “if my husband was a real man, adding that if not, then she would find a way to divorce me from him... In truth, then I could only answer like that a Roman woman who told her husband that his breath smelled bad, and he got angry with her and said that all men are like that” (referring to the wife of the Roman consul Gaius Duilius).
One way or another, the future king of France at the age of 19 suffered a defeat on the love front, which he did not know either before or after that. But this was not the only surprise that the wedding had in store for him. Before the wedding greetings had finished, the court was shocked by the news of the assassination attempt on Admiral Coligny, one of the Protestant leaders, and after this the massacre of the Protestants of Paris began. The events on the night of August 24 (on St. Bartholomew) were just one of the episodes of the civil wars. However, for the Protestants and Henry of Navarre this turned into a personal tragedy. By coincidence, it was here that the Protestant forces suffered a significant blow: Admiral Coligny was executed and the flower of the provincial Protestant nobility, who had gathered on the occasion of the wedding, was exterminated. Moreover, a threat also loomed over Henry of Navarre. The seriousness of the situation was aggravated by the fact that, unlike the previous years of civil wars, the crown, having retreated from its previous policy of religious tolerance, did not interfere with the reprisal of heretics. Under these conditions, Henry of Navarre had no choice. And the Navarrese was forced to renounce Protestantism and return to the fold of Catholicism. How this happened is unknown. There is only information that at the end of September of the same 1572, Henry of Navarre was present at the mass. If you believe Margarita Valois, then she played a decisive role in saving her husband. In her memoirs, where she tries to explain her rejection of Heinrich as a husband, it is said that “be that as it may, since my mother gave me away in marriage, I wanted to stay with Heinrich, suspecting that they were trying to separate us from him in order to play with tell him some cruel joke” 2. It is possible that Margarita exaggerated her role in this story. The memoirs were written during the reign of Henry IV, when the fate of the former ward of Bourbon's opponents depended on his mercy. Margarita, of course, wanted, if not to remind of her feat, then at least to come up with a legend about it in order to earn the royal favor.
There is no mention of this fact in Henry's extensive correspondence. It is possible that the victorious king did not want to remember the forced defeat, because at that time, having accepted the Catholic faith, he was drawn into the political struggle. The convert was used to pacify the center of resistance - Larochelle; he was forced to sign a decree on the restoration of Catholicism and the ban on the Protestant cult in Béarn. Not
it is impossible that proselytism could have been a tactical move by Henry of Navarre. During the years of forced captivity at the court of Charles IX and Henry II, the future king of France learned the political game that his entourage skillfully mastered. Court life - balls, masquerades, love pleasures, which the temperamental southerner indulged in, seemed to leave no room for serious thought. Meanwhile, the thought of returning to Béarn never left the Navarrese. In a letter to his former tutor (January 1576), he wrote that he hoped for God’s help in implementing his plans and shared his impressions of court life, reporting that the court was in a state of internecine war, where everyone was ready to cut each other’s throats. The prisoner of the Louvre dreamed of freedom, seeing the only opportunity to gain independence in escape. In February 1576, during a royal hunt, he managed to carry out his plan.
This began the most difficult and long period of Henry of Navarre's independent life. By the time the king of little Navarre left the French court, the Protestants of southern France had created a political organization - the “United Provinces of the South” - a confederation of southern French cities. This was a manifestation of Protestant separatism. After St. Bartholomew's Night, the separatists broke with Paris and left the obedience of Charles IX. Henry of Navarre supported his former associates. But to participate in the common struggle, he had to renounce Catholicism. The faith of the fathers became an obstacle on the path to power. And again the Navarrese changes his faith for the sake of worldly interests. 4 years after accepting Catholicism, he solemnly renounced it and in the same year entered the citadel of Protestantism. The Assembly of Estates in Montauban declares him king of Navarre and patron of the alliance of Protestants and moderate Catholics.
The newly-minted king, whose power was not sanctified (Protestants excluded this need), began to strengthen the army, turn cities into fortresses and prepare for war. At the same time, he carried out a partial secularization of the wealth of the Catholic Church. Having gained power over the southwestern part of France, located between Toulouse and Bordeaux, the Pyrenees and Poitou, the 24-year-old king took decisive steps to strengthen the Protestant unification. During these years, he developed his own principle of management, which he tried to adhere to later, when he became the king of France, to strengthen ties with the provinces. He believed that the strength of power lies in its support not so much in the center as in the provinces. Henry of Navarre saw the key to good governance in skillfully selected advisers. The young king selected members of his inner circle, focusing on the professionalism and vassal loyalty of advisers. And although he sought to rely on Protestants, there were also Catholics on his council.
The release from captivity in Paris and the acquisition of power favored the arrangement of the personal life of the King of Navarre, and the kind that he himself wanted to lead. Having escaped from the Louvre, where even in the bed of the captivating Madame de Sauve it was impossible to lose vigilance, Henry of Navarre surrendered to the power of unbridled passion. The handsome Navarrese did not lack attention from the ladies and seemed to be trying to take revenge for his humiliated manhood. Young Maximilian de Bethune, the future surintendent of Sully, who was Henry’s page at that time, presented a portrait of his king: “He was stately, strong, portly, had a good complexion and lively pleasant features, His manner was so friendly and attractive that even severity and the importance that he sometimes used never took away his innate kind and cheerful expression.”
Nerac, the capital of Navarre, became a place of passion and the cradle of Henry of Navarre's great love for the young widow Diane d'Andouin, Countess de Gramont. The same age as Henry and a Gascon by birth, Diana was a friend of the Navarrese sister Catherine of Bourbon. Henry's letters to his beloved are evidence of sincere affection for Diana d'Andu-
en, who not only became a mistress, but also replaced the mother of the King of Navarre. After the death of Jeanne d'Albret, Henry for the first time could be natural and trust the woman he loved, without pretending and without fear of betrayal. “There are two things that I have never doubted - your love and my loyalty to you,” he wrote to Diana.
In Nérac, Henry of Navarre was visited by Margaret of Valois. It was there that the final break between the spouses occurred. Not feeling tied by marriage and even finding piquancy in her position, Margarita Valois was offended by the cynicism of her husband, who had not considered her a wife for a long time and therefore, in a friendly manner, entrusted her with the care of his passion, who was in an interesting situation.
The peaceful Neracian period in the life of Henry of Navarre was interrupted due to the death of the younger Duke of Valois. Alençon, whose death meant the extinction of the ruling dynasty: the reigning 33-year-old Henry III had no offspring. The only legitimate heir to the throne remained the Prince of the Blood, Henry of Navarre, a representative of the new Bourbon dynasty. In his person, official Paris saw an ally who could resist the opposition to the absolute power of Henry III. Therefore, in Béarn, some of the king’s confidants replaced others, and the Queen Mother herself, Catherine de’ Medici, despite the Navarrese’s break with her daughter, persuaded her son-in-law to return to Paris and take the place of the prince of the blood. Bourbon refused; The price of return was too high - renunciation of the Protestant faith.
Meanwhile, foreseeing a possible alliance between Henry of Navarre and Henry III, the opposition, represented by the Catholic League, together with the pope launched a frantic attack on the Navarrese. In 1585, a bull of Pope Sixtus V was promulgated, in which Henry of Navarre was declared a heretic. This daring step was intended to deprive the rightful heir to the French throne of the right to the crown. The opposition triumphed, it nominated its candidate for the royal throne - old Charles of Bourbon, uncle of Henry of Navarre, demonstrating adherence to tradition and law, according to which the first prince of the blood, or his direct heir, or, in extreme cases, the closest relative in the male line, had the right to the crown . Never before under a living king has the question of the heir to the throne been so acute. It was a challenge posed to the authorities, a manifestation of rejection of its policies. The situation was complicated by the fact that external forces interfered in the internal political affairs of France. The Spanish king Philip II supported the Catholic opposition and Charles of Bourbon, counting, if successful, on the recognition of the Spanish Infanta Isabella as the first contender in choosing the wife of the French king. The Catholic opposition allowed foreign interference in French affairs. However, thus defending confessional unity and fidelity to tradition, she did not take into account public opinion and the heightened national feelings. Years of civil wars, which divided the French by faith and made the country easy prey for their neighbors, forced the heirs of the ancient Gauls to choose a Protestant king, free from foreign pressure.
At this crucial time, the army of Henry of Navarre began military operations. In October 1587, she won a brilliant victory over the opposition at Coutra. But this was only the beginning, for 7 long years, repelling resistance and suffering defeats, Henry of Navarre fought for the throne and for an independent France. All these years, the Catholic opposition, supported by the church and the pope, stood in his way. In a mortal battle with the opposition in 1589, the last representative of the ruling dynasty, King Henry III, died.
The death of Henry III, as well as the August tragedy in Paris in 1572, became a lesson for Henry of Navarre, convincing the heir to the throne how futile a forceful solution to confessional and political issues was. The reign of the last Valois showed the danger of following confessional interests. The religiosity and even the tendency to exaltation of the faithful Catholic did not allow Henry III to rise above
religious interests and, even more so, to deviate from them when solving national state problems. Religion, power, national reconciliation - these three components were in no way combined in the king’s policy. Given the sad experience, Henry of Navarre became increasingly convinced that the key to pacification was not in the use of force, but in negotiations and mutual concessions - in compromise. The departure of Henry III from the political arena opened up a path to power for the legitimate heir to the French throne, albeit a very difficult one. The heretic with a small army of devoted people was opposed by the Catholic League, supported by the Pope and Spain. In addition, Henry of Navarre was not sure of the position of the majority of French Catholics, although they did not share the radicalism of the Ligers, but remained devoted to the faith of their fathers. The Navarrese was still faced with the question of whether to be or not to be. Catholics insisted on his abdication, Protestants feared the consequences of this conversion.
In August 1589, as the legal heir to the French throne, the Protestant Henry of Navarre made a declaration in which he promised to support the Roman Catholic religion in France in its integrity; moreover, he assured that he had a great desire to enlighten himself in the Catholic faith, for which he had intention to allow the Gallican Church to convene a national council. The declaration did not provide for a violation of the social status of either Catholics or Protestants, but it promised to return to Catholics the property taken from them.
The Navarrese's statement did not go unanswered: two princes of the blood - Henry Duke of Montpassier and Francis Prince of Conti, Bourbon's cousin, agreed with this declaration. They were joined by three more dukes and peers, two marshals and several representatives of the highest officials. This meant that Henry was supported as the rightful king in accordance with the fundamental law of the kingdom, but on the condition that he not only did nothing new in resolving the confessional issue, but also returned to the Catholic Church.
However, this was not enough; the consent of the princes of the blood and representatives of the nobility did not reflect the mood of the entire society. The nobility as a whole was dissatisfied with the statement of the pretender to the throne. Moreover, by the end of 1589, almost all major cities were in favor of the Catholic League. The southern and western cities remained on the side of Henry of Navarre, forming a center of loyalty. In contrast to Spain and the pope, the king of Navarre could count on the help of the English queen, German Protestant princes, the Netherlands and Venice. But the allies set their own conditions. The situation was not easy.
However, the letters of Henry of Navarre from that time reflect not pessimism, but the fatalism of a man who trusted his star. The failure of the plan to reach an agreement through peace negotiations and a national council forced the Navarrese to accept the challenge of the opposition and prepare for war, resorting to new tactics. He divided the army into three parts: he sent one to Champagne, the other to Picardy, and the third to Normandy. The northern coast opened up contacts with ally England.
The first victory was the capture of Dieppe. The army of Henry of Navarre was advancing from the north into central France. In 1590 it settled in the vicinity of Tours. “Trusting my star, even if fortune wants to ridicule us, I nevertheless affirm that nothing: neither inclement weather nor angry dogs will prevent me from following my path and settling in Paris,” wrote Henry of Navarre. After Dieppe and Tours, the next victory came at the Battle of Ivry in March 1590. It was described by Agrippa d'Aubigne, noting the fearlessness of the King of Navarre. With a smaller army and little help from foreign mercenaries, Henry of Navarre won battle after battle. His valor became the subject of discussion and was reflected in journalism. The King of Navarre was portrayed as a national hero, contrasting him with the Ligers, who
who decided for the Spanish king to control the fate of the French throne. This was a response to the ruler of Escorial, who declared his readiness to use all means, including sacrificing his life, to cleanse France of heresy.
Henry was preparing for the siege of Paris. Anticipating the difficulty of this operation and not wanting to expose the city to defeat, he decided to cut it off from its sources of supply and force the hungry Parisians to surrender. On his orders, mills were burned and bridges connecting Paris with Melun, Provins, Lagny and Montero were dismantled. On May 7, 1590, Henry of Navarre reached Paris. “I am in front of Paris, where God wanted my presence. I’m starting an assault... I forced all the mills to be burned... There is a great need for them, they need to experience hunger for 12 days, then they will surrender,” he revealed his plan in one of the letters. However, the Navarrese was mistaken: Paris continued to resist. The military forces of the Parisians outnumbered the army of Henry of Navarre by almost 4 times. In addition, the famine primarily affected the lower classes; wealthy townspeople bought grain and other provisions from soldiers on their way out of the city at high prices. At the same time, preachers from the Liger camp organized grandiose religious ceremonies, the participants of which had to swear an oath to destroy heresy and give their lives in defense of the true religion. Hungry Parisians were promised salvation for loyalty to the league and threatened with hell for treason.
The duration of the siege forced Henry to begin negotiations with the city authorities, which led to nothing, but forced him to fight on the outskirts of Paris. The Navarrese decided to distract the Ligers and the Spanish army from the walls of the city, calling their fire on himself: he led his troops in close proximity to the opponents. The operation was successful: the Ligers and Spaniards, who succumbed to the provocation, were defeated. But the capture of Paris was still far away. Henry of Navarre made more and more new attempts, while simultaneously confirming his declaration of August 4, 1589 of his readiness for reconciliation. However, his calls did not find a response: the fear of excommunication, inspired by the Pope, turned out to be stronger.
In January 1593, an assembly of supporters of the League met in besieged Paris. At this meeting, in violation of the tradition of succession to the throne, the question of electing a king was raised. The Liger debate continued for six months, but no solution was found. Meanwhile, this situation prompted Henry of Navarre to decide to renounce the Protestant faith, which had long been expected of him. Five years ago this would have been out of the question. “The devil entangles me,” wrote Henry of Navarre to Diana d’Andouin. If I am not a Huguenot, I will be a Turk. They want to subjugate me, they don’t let me be what I want” 3. But time changed the situation and confronted the heir to the throne with a choice.
What motivated Henry of Navarre to make such a responsible decision? Thirst for power or patriotic feelings - the salvation of France from the threat of Spanish rule? Rather, the desire to seize the throne, supported by confidence in the legitimacy of their claims. In-
The interests of the heir to the throne to a certain extent coincided with the national aspirations of the French. And this circumstance should have favored a quick and lasting victory for the Navarrese. But in reality everything was much more complicated. The confessional principle in self-awareness had priority over the national one.
The first person to notify Henry of Navarre about his decision was the Archbishop of Bourges, René de Beaune. He reported this to the Paris Assembly in 1593: “The king decided to renounce his faith in order to be recognized.” On July 23, 1593, the prelates assembled in Saint-Denis. They represented that very national council, which, according to the declaration of the Navarrese, should have enlightened him in the Catholic faith. However, this time the cathedral took upon itself the authority to forgive sins and return the pretender to the throne to the bosom of the Catholic Church. The French clergy acted against the will of the Pope. The very next day after the opening of the cathedral, the head of the Holy See declared his protest, threatening excommunication.
The abdication ceremony of Henry of Navarre was described by contemporaries - Pierre de L'Etoile and Pierre-Victor Palma-Caye. “On Sunday, July 25, the king, dressed in a doublet and trousers of white satin, a cloak and a black hat, accompanied by several princes and officers, as well as a guard consisting of Swiss and French cavalry, walked towards the Cathedral of Saint-Denis along the carpeted streets and strewn with flowers. Cries of “Long live the king!” were heard from all sides. At the entrance to the cathedral, the procession was awaited by the Archbishop of Bourges, Cardinal Bourbon, and several bishops and monks of Saint-Denis. A cross, a Bible and blessed water were prepared for the solemn act.
According to contemporaries, the dialogue with the Navarrese was conducted by the Archbishop of Bourges, Charles Bourbon. "Who are you? – asked the hierarch. In response, Henry said: “I am the king.” “What are you asking for?” “I ask,” answered the king, “to be accepted into the bosom of the Catholic Church.” “Do you wish this sincerely?” Answer: “Yes, I want it.” The king knelt down and made his confession: “I solemnly declare and swear before the Almighty to live and die in the Roman Catholic religion, to defend it from danger at the cost of my blood and life, renouncing all heresies against it.” This confession, as P. de L'Etoile reports, was written on paper, and the king gave it, signing it with his own hand. The Archbishop took this paper and gave him to kiss his ring and then performed absolution and blessed the king. After this, Henry of Navarre was allowed to enter the temple, where, in the presence of the hierarchs, he knelt before the altar and repeated his confession and oath on the Holy Gospel. The king was then led to the church throne, which he had to kiss before confessing. After confession, according to the ritual, one should attend mass, and the king, accompanied by his retinue, took part in this solemn service. Then the king went out to the people and, at the request of those gathered, scattered silver coins so that the laity could touch the gifts of the king blessed by the church 4 .
Meanwhile, renunciation of the Protestant faith and communion according to the Catholic rite could not have effective force without the sanction of the Roman throne. Henry of Navarre had to appear before the pope. However, not considering it possible at the moment to personally appear in Rome to Clement VIII, he limited himself to a message. The Pope did not answer the impudent Navarrese. And the heir to the throne, with the support of the Gallican Church, was crowned without papal blessing.
On February 27, 1594, contrary to tradition, a solemn coronation took place in Chartres, and not in Reims. Henry took an oath on the Gospel, promising to help his subjects live in peace with God's Church and expel all heretics from the royal land. The ceremony began with the consecration of the royal sword. Henry accepted it from the Bishop of Chartres in order to then, with the words of an oath, place it on the altar as a sign of protection of the church. The consecration of the sword was followed by the anointing of the king. According to tradition going back to Clovis, French kings had the privilege
to receive anointing not only with oil, but with “heavenly drops,” which, according to legend, were kept in a special ampoule in the Notre Dame Cathedral of Reims. The coronation at Chartres deprived Bourbon of traditional anointing, limiting this rite. Then the chief chamberlain of France handed over to the king the clothes required in such a case - a tunic, a mantle and a royal cloak, which in the church corresponded to the three components in the clothing of deacons and priests. Following this, the royal ring was consecrated - a symbol of the crowning of the kingdom, and the Bishop of Chartres presented the king with a scepter - a sign of supreme power. The solemn ceremony ended with a public confession and the king receiving communion with bread and wine, as the clergy did. On this day, the king became pontiff, a figure capable of performing miracles and healing scrofulous people.
Almost a month after the coronation, on the evening of March 22, 1594, Henry IV entered Paris without a fight. The garrisons of Philip II left the city. The Parisians awaited the first orders of the new king in doubt and fear. After many years of infighting, the inertia of the war could not be stopped immediately. Henry IV made the only reasonable decision - not to pursue his opponents and not to confiscate their property, hoping to disarm his former enemies with his peacefulness.
However, not all cities accepted the king unconditionally. Residents of a number of cities in both the north and south of France tried, not unsuccessfully, to buy back their city freedoms and the right to practice Protestant worship. The son of the murdered Henry of Lorraine, the Duke of Guise gave Reims to Henry IV for 3 million livres. Support in Paris itself cost the king 1 1/2 million livres. Henry IV entered into these deals without hesitation, trying to convince his new subjects that the main goal of his actions was not so much to earn the title of the first son of the church and the most Christian king, but to take care of the consent and unification of all the French.
These efforts of the king were counteracted by the activity of the still living Catholic League and its Spanish patron: Philip II kept his treasury open to pay soldiers in France. The abdication and coronation of Henry of Navarre without the sanction of the Roman throne caused a controversial reaction both in France itself and in Rome. The pope was afraid of the excessive independence of the French: the example of the English king Henry VIII could be contagious, and part of the French clergy was ready to threaten the pope with schism. Henry IV, having declared himself the defender of the Catholic Church, did not at all want a break with Rome. One way or another, in the fall of 1595 in Rome, Pope Clement VIII agreed to abdicate in absentia and, having absolved his sins, introduce the French king into the Catholic Church. Henry IV's confidants in Rome were the Abbot d'Ossa and Bishop Hervé Jacques du Perron. In their presence, the pope officiated, and these hierarchs took an oath of allegiance on the Gospel, after which the pope finally called Henry IV the most Christian king of France and Navarre. The papal sanction for abdication and coronation obliged the French king to fulfill a number of demands, including the restoration of a unified Catholic Church in Béarn and the promulgation of the decisions of the Ecumenical Council of Trent of the Catholic Church throughout France. In addition, the pope ordered Henry IV to confess and receive communion at least four times a year, to observe all church holidays if possible, and not to violate the commandments, especially the 6th and 9th (not to kill and not to bear false witness). Henry IV took on a heavy burden: a crown and a cross.
By the time Henry of Navarre was recognized as King of France and Navarre, he was 42 years old. The struggle for the throne and concerns about the future of the monarchy turned the once flourishing knight, proud of his good health, into an old man. Already in 1600, the Venetian ambassador wrote in one of his reports that the French king, at 48 years old, looked like he was 60: the mark of fatigue and worries lay on his face. It seemed that his strength, concentrated for many years on achieving one goal, was completely undermined. He was plagued by illnesses: kidney stones, bouts of fever and insomnia.
However, this frail old man was ready for a new battle to maintain and strengthen his power. He did not abandon his old habits: a passion for hunting and gambling, fast horse riding, walking and sensual pleasures. Sick kidneys and stomach did not turn him away from his usual table, game, fruits and oysters; he preferred to consume the latter directly in their thin, crispy shells.
When the Louvre became his court, he fell in love with his office. While pondering state affairs, he often walked along the galleries, along the alleys of the Tuileries, or saddled his horse. His favorite vacation spots were the castles of Monceau, Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he felt in his element.
Having become king, the owner of the Louvre had to play his role better than his predecessors. The former heretic found himself under the gaze of both friends and enemies, who were looking for something wrong in his actions and even in his appearance; typical and discrediting features of the king. Henry IV's appearance was the talk of the town. French kings loved exquisite clothing, decorated with precious stones, like Francis I, and perfumes, especially incense, which Henry III was partial to. For Henry IV, clothing was not an object of worship. He laughed at the dandies, noting that they “carry on their shoulders” not only castles, but also groves, and was content with a modest minimum - a gray cloth camisole and a satin cloak. He was not embarrassed by the old, shabby clothes: he simply did not notice them. During the war years, he was so accustomed to wearing a cuirass (armor) on his back and a helmet on his head that they seemed to him like an ordinary dress. And since he spent most of his time in the saddle, he said that he rather wiped the tops than the soles of his boots. Contemporaries, in particular Talleman de Reo, did not deny themselves the pleasure of emphasizing the lack of taste and even untidiness of Henry IV. The king's entry into Paris did not go unnoticed: evil tongues gossiped that Henry IV was dressed in a gray velvet camisole, tastelessly decorated with gold. Behind this manner of dressing was hidden the desire to present himself, in violation of tradition, even outwardly as a different king, caring primarily about state affairs to the detriment of the rules on the appearance of the monarch. At the same time, this behavior was reflected in the upbringing and Protestant spirit of the convert.
The descriptions emphasized the king's addiction to gambling. As King of Navarre, Henry loved to play rounders in Guienne. He became addicted to cards already in Paris, played big and could lose a lot. His partners were Duke Henry of Guise the Younger, Duke of Mantua and Edward of Portugal, President of the Court of Auditors, courtiers and representatives of high officials.
And yet, this impulsive, passionate old man, as he seemed to foreigners, managed to retain power. He streamlined the court system. Systematic trips to the provinces gave way to a sedentary lifestyle. The courtyard became not only a symbol, but also a place of power. All ceremonies, receptions of ambassadors, dynastic holidays were subject to protocol. The Louvre, and in summer and autumn Fontainebleau, Saint-Germain and Monceau served as the king's place of work.
Court holidays have changed. The famous tournaments were replaced by the carousel, theatrical performances: live paintings and ballet. Henry IV was known as a great lover of this art, one of the first balletomanes. The court ballet was a theatrical diversion: masked performers captivated the audience with their dances, turning everyone present into participants in the celebration. It became one of the main elements of court life and the cult of the monarchy. The plots of ballet performances were drawn up on the topic of the day; their heroes were often sorcerers and alchemists, whose actions aroused great interest, as well as Chinese princes and kings of the Black Moors, Turks and Saracens - representatives of an unknown, recently discovered (thanks to overseas expeditions) world. In addition to ballet, the court loved musical evenings. 24 court violinists delight
whether the rumor of French nobles. The poet Malherbe was honored, whose poems were set to music. The court of Henry IV inherited from the past a love for Italian comedy, which appeared in France during the reign of Catherine de Medici. The king loved the funny performances of the Italians.
The organization of court life became part of the state affairs of Henry IV. He attached great importance to it, because the court, like the façade of the monarchy, was also the face of the sovereign. Bourbon, more than his predecessors, cared about his subjects’ perception of his image. In Guienne, having become king of Navarre and uniting the Protestant south, he consciously created the image of a rebel. The crown of France and Navarre obliged to a new image: Henry IV tried to play the role of a courageous, fair and at the same time cheerful Don Juan. His exploits and deeds were sung by poets attracted to the court.
The courageous and cheerful owner of the Louvre was obsessed with the construction and restoration of old palaces. During his reign, restoration and construction work began at the Louvre, which was damaged during the civil wars. The king showed special concern for the castles of Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He came up with the idea of building bridges across the Seine. But during his time they managed to rebuild only one bridge - the Pont Neuf, the construction of which began under Henry III. After the death of Henry IV, grateful subjects will install a bronze statue of Bourbon on horseback in the middle of this bridge. Henry IV's passion for construction and creation reflected the king's ardent desire to pacify society, the desire to encourage his subjects to establish a peaceful life.
He saw one of the main conditions for the implementation of his projects in attracting like-minded people to his council. The experience of governing in Guienne convinced him of the fidelity of following the rule - to entrust state affairs to personally dedicated professionals, regardless of their religious affiliation. The first Bourbon on the French throne did not want to act either as the patron of the reformed church, or as the most Christian king. State interests were placed above religious ones. In the king's council, almost all members were not hereditary nobles, but representatives of the judicial class, authorized for work in the state apparatus. All of them were devoted to the king, despite differences in religious affiliation. The greatest influences were Sully, Bellevre, Jeannin, Brulard and Villeroy. Henri IV's lord Sully had a long-standing friendship with Maximilian de Bethune. Serving as a page at the royal court in Nérac and participating together with the Navarrese in many operations, Sully was the alter ego of Henry IV. It is possible that the king and his minister were brought together by their Protestant upbringing and similar worldview. The king appointed a staunch Protestant surintendent of finance, chief road warden of France, superintendent of military fortifications, chief master of artillery, placing the Bastille in his charge, and made Sully duke and peer. The king valued the intelligence and loyalty of his adviser and friend.
At the same time, using the services of his advisers, Henry IV showed great independence, not allowing anyone to guide him. The basic principle of government was developed even before the coronation to the French throne. The 32-year civil wars convinced him that the key to peaceful society was following the course of negotiations and reasonable concessions - a policy of compromise. His own experience of the war and support for the separatist aspirations of Protestants in the South forced him to take urgent measures to strengthen ties between Paris and the provinces. Perhaps, until now, the question of the status of a subject of the French crown has never been so pressing as during the reign of Henry IV. Its resolution in a class society while maintaining class privileges was not an easy task. Finally, the inertia of the war persisted. This problem was complicated by the peculiarities of the French nobility, which inherited the knighthood - a professional military class with its ideas about its place and role in society.
After the end of the civil wars, not all French people rejoiced at peace. For veterans, war was a natural state, and peace was perceived as the absence of war. Therefore, the opinion of Marshal Biron: “Who will need us without war” was not an accidental phrase. Henry IV could not ignore these sentiments. Together with the foreign policy interests of France, they determined one of the king’s first steps. In January 1595, Henry IV declared war on Spain, which ended three and a half years later with the separate Peace of Vervins in 1598 based on the Status Quo.
Caring for the nobility was one of the main directions of royal policy. The widespread practice of annotation changed the face of the privileged class, which was replenished mainly by people from the service bureaucracy. Protecting the old nobility, Henry IV protected it from the onslaught of new nobles, retaining only for him the privilege of receiving pensions and awards. He loved his old warriors and saw himself as the first among them. At the same time, wanting to put the privileged class on its feet, he reacted with interest to the work of Olivier de Serres “The Theater of Agriculture” (1601) and to the advice of this author to more actively involve nobles in organizing their farms in the countryside, encouraging rational management methods.
As for the bureaucrats, highly appreciating the professionalism of these experts in law, finance and administration, Henry IV tried to benefit the royal treasury from their profitable intermediary activities. Pursuing this goal, he introduced a tax on the right of inheritance of office (“poletta”), which, thanks to the practice of selling government positions, promised big money. This innovation met the demands of an equally powerful part of French society, but led to the consolidation and independence of service men from the crown. The negative consequences of this reform will appear later. During the reign of the first Bourbon, the financial benefits of this action were obvious.
Taking into account the local tradition of clientele - patronage of nobles to groups of small landed nobility, Henry IV resorted to creating a new institution of intendants. Representatives of the king - intendants, who were entrusted with the implementation of royal decisions, were sent to the places. With their help, the provinces became more closely tied to the center. The constant change of these people was aimed at preventing abuse. In parallel, Henry IV significantly reduced the powers of local governors, depriving them of the right to intervene in financial and judicial matters and leaving them the right to command city troops if necessary.
Thus, through reasonable concessions combined with radical measures, the king strengthened his power. A special place was occupied by the resolution of the confessional issue. Its severity did not diminish even after the civil wars. The Counter-Reformation and the revival of the activities of the monastic orders, on the one hand, and the no less active activity of the Protestants: the holding of a national synod and almost annual local assemblies, on the other, forced Henry IV to determine his position. Moreover, behind the confessional one a political problem was clearly visible: the issue was being resolved not only about religious tolerance - the right of Protestants to worship, but also about relations with the opposition, with opponents of the absolute power of the monarch, who skillfully used confessional slogans.
Following the principle of compromise in his policy, Henry IV was inclined towards religious tolerance. He believed that in order to pacify French society, the status of Protestants and the Protestant Church should be officially recognized. An assembly consisting of the king's advisers, clergy and representatives of Protestant churches resolved this issue for two years - from 1596 to 1598, until in April 1598 an edict of pacification was signed in Nantes, recognizing the legal existence of a religious minority. The uniqueness of the Edict of Nantes was that it was one
one of the first attempts in France to create a declaration of the rights of subjects of the crown, proclaiming the equality of Catholics and Protestants.
The inseparability of religious and political problems predetermined the originality of the edict, which reflected the peculiarities of royal policy. The declared equality of rights could be realized by Protestants within extremely limited limits. This concerned the practice of worship and was associated with the introduction of a strict ban on Protestant meetings in Paris, in all major cities, as well as in bishoprics. This also applied to civil rights - the right to education, medical care and funeral services. The Edict did not deprive Protestants of these rights, but in Catholic France there was not a sufficient number of educational institutions of Protestant orientation, and hospitals, like cemeteries, were under the tutelage of the Catholic Church, which zealously guarded its privileges.
At the same time, Henry IV was forced to make a concession: to retain the Protestants' right to military fortresses in southwestern France, in fact recognizing the preservation of the Protestant confederation that arose in 1575. This concession was the price of internal peace and retribution for the military assistance provided by Protestants to Henry IV in the war with Spain in 1595 - 1598.
One way or another, the Edict of Nantes legally formalized the rights of Catholics and Protestants, and the king acted as the guarantor of these rights. Despite all the limited rights of Protestants, this edict proclaimed the principle of religious tolerance as the main one in royal policy. In addition, for Henry IV, the edict became the only opportunity to consolidate his victory, which cost him 18 years spent in campaigns and battles.
As soon as he put on the crown, Bourbon began organizing his matrimonial affairs. The 42-year-old old man, as his contemporaries portrayed him, dreamed of an heir to the throne. To do this, he had to dissolve his marriage with Margarita Valois. Permission to divorce made him again dependent on the pope, giving the latter trump cards for the political game. It would hardly have been possible to find a more favorable opportunity for Rome to intervene in the affairs of the French crown. The pope hesitated, negotiating favorable terms for his consent. It took six years to obtain a divorce sanction.
At the end of 1599, Henry IV finally received the long-awaited divorce, which he took advantage of at the end of 1600, taking as his wife Maria de Medici, niece of the Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany and cousin of Catherine de Medici. Bourbon did not change the tradition of French kings taking Italian wives. In the year of the divorce from Margarita Valois, the ambassador of the Grand Duke of Tuscany discussed with Henry IV the issue of the dowry of Maria de Medici, and at the same time the repayment of the debt; significant sums of money helped the Navarrese during difficult times of the struggle for the throne. The marriage contract was signed in Florence in April 1600. But the outbreak of war with Savoy in the summer of 1600 forced the wedding ceremony to take place in the absence of the groom: in Florence he was represented by the royal adviser Bellegarde. Rubens captured this unusual wedding on one of his canvases. After the ceremony, Maria de Medici went on her honeymoon to her husband. In February 1601, France had a new queen who did not speak French.
Marie de' Medici was able to make Henry IV a happy father, giving him four heirs. “God bless you, protect me and the whole kingdom,” he wrote to his wife, who was expecting a son, “do not doubt, I love you, because you do what I wish; this is real support for my rule” 5. However, the marriage did not change the king’s usual life. The slave of women could not give up his previous hobbies and was always ready for new ones. In 1600, only the page of the happiest years of great love was turned. Admitting his weakness, Henry IV, as Sully writes, loved to repeat: “They scold me because I love to build, that I am a hunter of women and love pleasures, I do not deny, but I will say that they should praise me more than scold me without knowing the limits, and in every possible way
excuse the freedom of such amusements, which bring neither loss nor trouble to my people, considering them as a reward for so many of my sorrows, previous displeasures, labors, disasters and dangers that I have endured since childhood... Such weaknesses are inseparable from ardent human nature, and therefore are forgivable (but you should not give in to their power!)” 6.
Following the main rule in relations with women - “not to surrender to their power” - Henry IV, unlike his predecessors, did not allow his favorites to interfere in state affairs and lead themselves. In one of his letters to Gabrielle d'Estrées, he admitted: “If I were forced to choose one thing - to lose my mistress, or to lose a minister, I would more willingly agree to lose 10 people like you than one minister like Sully.” This letter was addressed to Henry IV's greatest love. Their relationship lasted nine happy years. Gabrielle d'Estrée, married to Madame de Liancourt, appeared wherever the king visited; she was present in Saint-Denis at his abdication and in Chartres at the coronation, at the assemblies and accompanied him on military campaigns. She gave him two sons and a daughter. The lovers were going to legitimize their relationship. But the proposed marriage had many opponents. “The people wanted the king to marry a princess, and not an obscene duchess.” The pope also opposed Gabrielle d'Estrée, hatching his plan for arranging the king's marriage. The fuss surrounding the upcoming wedding shortened the days of the beautiful Gabrielle: the stress caused the premature birth of a dead child and the woman in labor could not be saved.
Although Henry IV wrote in his letter to his sister that grief and regret would accompany him to the grave, he only had enough patience for four months. In the year of his beloved’s death, he was already writing love letters to his next passion, Henriette d’Entragues, and at the same time was infatuated with the Marquise de Verneuil. The favorites did not occupy his attention for long, leaving a trace only in the letters sent by the hot Béarnian at the moment of desire. The last passion of Henry IV was the 14-year-old heiress of the famous noble house of Montmorency, Charlotte. She danced in the court ballet, and old Henry sat for hours at rehearsals. Contrary to his rules, he began to dress up and even use incense. It is no coincidence that the Florentine ambassador, who visited his compatriot Marie de Medici in Paris, took with him an impression of bordello at court, the like of which he had never seen.
Meanwhile, Henry IV was known as a good father: he adored all his children, including illegitimate ones. And the birthday of the heir to the throne, the future Louis XIII, on September 27, 1601, became a national holiday, the solemnity of which was given by the fact that France had not known the Dauphin since the time of Henry II. The last Valois were childless and died at a young age. On this occasion, cannons were fired in all French cities and medals were minted with the image of the Dauphin Louis in the image of Hercules, dealing with snakes with his bare hands.
Henry IV surrounded his son with great attention and care. Contrary to the wishes of Marie de Medici and her pro-Catholic entourage, he chose a tutor for the boy, an educated and free-thinking man, because he wanted to see the future king of France free from the captivity of medieval ideas. This desire grew as the situation in the kingdom became more complicated.
The past did not want to retreat before Bourbon's determination. All his decrees, and above all the Edict of Nantes, were met with hostility. The Parisian parliament and after it the provincial judicial chambers refused to register the king's decisions. And Henry IV had to resort to extreme measures - personally appearing in parliament and demanding satisfaction. On January 7, 1599, he declared in the Paris Parliament regarding the Edict of Nantes: “You will do this not only for me, but also for yourself and for the benefit of the world. I made the world outside (France - S.P.), I want to make it
inside (France – S, P.). You must obey me, like all my subjects. Those who disobey my order must know that this is the path to the barricades, to the murder of the king. I will cut the root of evil and resistance. I will climb the walls of cities, I will climb the barricades that are not so high” 7. The idea of compromise that Bourbon tried to implement was more rejected than understood. They saw the cunning of a heretic behind it, questioning the sincerity of his peace-loving policy.
Signs of a negative reaction to the appearance of Henry IV on the throne and to his policies were repeated attempts on his life. The first dates back to 1593. Then the leader Pierre Barrière, whose hand was guided by the Jesuits, chose the right moment - the abdication of the Navarrese. Convinced of the godliness of his actions, he planned to strike at the entrance to the temple of Saint-Denis. In 1594, the year of his coronation, Henry was wounded by Jean Chatel: an obedient Jesuit student aimed at the king's throat, but cut his lip and knocked out a tooth. The trial and execution of the murderer, causing a lot of noise, served as the basis for the expulsion of the Jesuits from France. The years 1595, 1598, 1599, 1600, 1601, 1605 were also marked by attempts to kill the king. Those who attempted, as a rule, were monks - Capuchins and Jacobins, not without the influence of the Jesuits. They were driven by the desire to deal with the Protestant who dared to seize the throne. This is confirmed by the positive reaction of the church to their actions. In “The Apology of Jean Chatel” (1595), written by curate J. Boucher, Henry IV was declared a tyrant, usurper and heretic.
However, fate was pleased to extend the time of Henry IV's trials until 1610 and force the king to meet death at his post. As Sully wrote: “Nature rewarded the sovereign with all the gifts, but did not give him a successful death.” In May 1610, he was preparing for a military campaign on the lower Rhine against the Austrian Habsburgs, who claimed to create a universal empire. On the day of the assassination attempt, Henry IV went to Arsenal to meet with Surintendent Sully. The killer managed to jump onto the step of the carriage during its forced stop and, through the window, inflict three fatal blows to the king in the chest with a knife. The repentant heretic, introduced by the pope into the bosom of the Catholic Church, was killed by Francois Ravaillac, a Feuillant monk from a new order that arose in Paris in the 16th century. The monk’s hand carried out the sentence passed on Henry IV not only by the Roman Catholic Church and the papists, but also by forces in France itself that did not recognize innovations and saw in the king’s actions an attack on the traditional rights of the nobility. The policy of compromise, the desire to put state interests above religious ones, turned into death for Bourbon.
On the evening of May 14, 1610, the body of the deceased was prepared for farewell. For a month and a half, the coffin with the embalmed corpse stood in the Louvre. The funeral took place in the royal tomb of Saint-Denis on July 1. The king's heart, according to his order, was transferred for burial in the chapel of the Jesuit college of La Flèche. As during his lifetime, Henry IV never ceased to amaze his contemporaries with his originality.
But it was too early for Bourbon’s opponents to celebrate victory. His death not only did not take his memory to the grave, but, on the contrary, gave new impetus to the legends, adding to the once created image of Henry IV the features of an innocently murdered man. Most often he was represented as a protector of widows and orphans, a sufferer and benefactor, and also a knight of the Renaissance. He was depicted next to Caesar, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne and even Hercules, supplementing the pictures with the words: “Beautiful among the most brilliant men” or “Gali Hercules.” In the ancient manner, he was depicted as a hero of Olympus: like Hercules, choosing between virtue and vice. In the year of the king’s death, Claude Billard wrote a tragedy in the ancient style, “The Tragedy of Henry the Great.” The Jesuits of the College of La Flèche, who were patronized by Henry IV, responded to the death of Bourbon. In their panegyric they compared him to Saint Louis and attributed to him the virtues of the emperors Constantine and Theodosius and the kings David and Solomon.
4. ESTOILE P. de. Jornal du regne de Henri IV, roi de France et de Navarre. Vol. 1. Le Haye. 1741, p. 45, etc.
5. Lettres missives, vol 8, p. 21.
6. See The Spirit of Henry IV, or a collection of all sorts of curious anecdotes, graceful actions, witty answers and several letters of this sovereign. M. 1789, p. 37.
7. ESTOILE P. de. Journal, vol. 2, p. 15.
Henry IV of Navarre. Louvre. Paris.
The famous French writer Maurice Druon called one of his historical novels “When the King Destroys France.” The events of this book take place in the 14th century. and have no connection with Henry IV. We remembered this book only because Henry IV, on the contrary, can be called the king who saved France.
By the time Henry was able to lay claim to the royal throne, France did not seem to exist as a strong and unified state. The south and north of the country had been waging bloody internecine wars among themselves for about thirty years, and representatives of rebellious feudal families tried on the royal crown on their heads. The Spanish king Philip II was thinking about which of his proteges he could place on the French throne. Respect for royal power disappeared not only among the nobles, but also among the common people: in 1589, more than 100 thousand Parisians took to the streets of the city with lit candles. At a signal, they extinguished the candles and shouted loudly: “So may God extinguish the Valois dynasty!” The Parisians had in mind the hated Henry III, the last representative of the Valois dynasty, who ruled from 1574 to 1589, but the future king Henry IV, who came from the Bourbon family, also suffered from them. After the last Valois was stabbed to death by a fanatical monk who had sneaked into the royal camp, leaflets with the following content circulated around Paris:
Watch out, Bourbon! What's there - Beware, everyone who holds a scepter in your hand!.. Finally opened
sacred secrets of the kingdoms;
we realized that those kings, oh
whom the Lord himself spoke of as gods are simple nonentities.
These lines contained a formidable prophecy: twenty years later, on May 14, 1610, the dagger of Francois Ravaillac inflicted a mortal wound on Henry IV of Bourbon. But over the past twenty years, much has changed, and Henry IV went into another world, not cursed, but mourned by the people. People saw him as a "good" king - the best of all the kings who ever ruled France. People's love is most often blind - it extols the virtues of the ruler and condescendingly forgives his shortcomings; she sees him at the pinnacle of power, forgetting about the days of disasters and hardships. Henry IV did not immediately become the “savior of France” - for a long time he destroyed it along with his enemies and comrades-in-arms. The path that led him to fame and people's love was strewn with retreats and betrayals, often determined by deceit and cold calculation. The real Henry bore little resemblance to the knight king, wine lover and admirer of beautiful women that French folk songs portray him as. The fate of Henry IV is so closely intertwined with the historical fate of his homeland that they can hardly be separated from each other. This is probably the real reason for the love for Henry IV, which has not faded in France for four hundred years.
Henry of Bourbon was born in 1553. His parents were Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret. The boy's father bore the high-profile title of King of Navarre, which later passed to Henry himself. The bulk of the medieval kingdom of Navarre at that time was under Spanish control, and The Bourbons retained power only in a small part of the southern French region of Béarn. Nevertheless, Henry's title put him on an equal footing with the French kings, with whom he was also related. The boy even had some rights to the French throne, but hardly anyone Henry II of Valois died after an accident at a tournament in 1559. Three of his four sons - Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III - would rule France for the next thirty years. From the very beginning, Navarre was destined to play the role of a poor relative of his fellow princes; the poor clothes of the southerners, their special dialect, and rural habits provoked ridicule from the Parisian nobility, who adopted Italian fashions and customs (the widow queen, Catherine de Medici, who came from a noble Florentine family, attracted him there are many Italians at the French court).
Little Henry’s hostility towards Paris and the court must have been strengthened by the fact that his father Antoine de Bourbon was for some time one of the leaders of the movement of the nobles of the South of France for independence from the king. Many southern nobles were supporters of the reform of the Church (in France they were called Huguenots), and the kings, along with the majority of the population of Northern France, remained faithful to Catholicism. In 1562, when Henry was nine years old, wars began between the Huguenots and Catholics (the so-called religious wars). The 45-year-old Henry IV of Bourbon was destined to sum up this bloodshed in 1598.
The young prince matured early. After the death of his father, Antoine Bourbon, he took the title of King of Navarre and, together with the experienced and cunning politician Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, led the Huguenot party. Hot southern blood, Gascon pride, the desire to restore the ancient liberties of French chivalry - all this made Henry a dangerous opponent of the royal court. At the same time, Henry turned out to be smart enough not to break off relations with Valois completely and irrevocably - he remembered that the crown of France could become his crown.
The truce between Catholics and Huguenots, concluded in 1570, was planned by Catherine de Medici and her son Charles IX to be sealed by the marriage of Henry of Navarre to the king's sister Margaret of Valois. According to their plan, the marriage was supposed to tie the dangerous southerner to the royal court and put him under reliable control. It is not known how Henry himself felt about this marriage; it was enough that it brought benefits to his party and strengthened the Bourbons’ rights to the French throne. The marriage with Margarita was unsuccessful; but only in 1599 did Henry IV achieve its dissolution and marry Maria de Medici.
The wedding with Margarita was celebrated in the summer of 1572 with unprecedented luxury. Less than a week after the wedding, events occurred in Paris that determined the fate of France and for the first time radically changed Henry’s life. On the night of August 23-24 (the feast of St. Bartholomew), Catholics, with the tacit approval of the royal court, attacked the Huguenots who had gathered for the wedding celebrations and killed many of them. Among others, Admiral de Coligny was killed. Henry was saved only by living in the royal palace and hastily converting to the Catholic faith. By supporting this bloody massacre (St. Bartholomew's Night), the Valois dynasty signed its own death warrant. Both Catholics and Huguenots looked at the last Valois as criminal kings, stained with blood and dishonor - kings who had lost their right to the throne.
The fate of the French monarchy hung in the balance. The Huguenots set as their goal the split of the French kingdom. In February 1576, Henry escapes from the Louvre, where he was held as an honorary hostage, and takes part in the battles of the Huguenots with the Catholic armies. Henry's authority in the South is growing, but the split of France into North and South simultaneously deepens the gulf separating Henry from the royal crown. In Paris, the influence of the Catholic family of the Dukes of Guise is growing - it seems that it is the Guises who will pick up the crown that is slipping from the hands of the Valois.
At this time, a second event occurred that dramatically changed the plans of Henry of Navarre and his entire fate. In 1584, the Duke of Alençon, the youngest of the sons of the late King Henry II, dies. The Valois family was terminated by Henry III, who was ruling at that time, since none of the last French kings had male offspring. Henry of Navarre turns out to be the king's closest relative and his heir, the Dauphin. The king sends a confidant to him with a proposal to convert to Catholicism again - then Henry III is ready to officially declare him heir; the king is not averse to relying on the support of the Huguenots against the Guises. But, having soberly weighed everything, Henry refuses the king’s offer. The time to change his faith had not yet come, and the winnings that were offered to him from Paris were too small. Cold calculation told the Gascon that he should leave the king alone with the Guises, without interfering in their struggle. The price that Henry of Navarre paid for his refusal was also quite high: in September 1585, Pope Sixtus V, by a special decree, deprived him of his rights to the French throne. War broke out again between Catholics and Huguenots.
The contradictions between the two parties escalated to the limit, and Henry of Navarre was largely to blame. Catholics saw his rights to the throne as an increasing threat to their slogan: “One king, one law and one faith.” The Huguenots, who had recently intended to split the French kingdom into pieces, now advocated state unity and recognition of Henry as heir to the crown. The bitterness of all three fighting parties - the king, the Guises and the Huguenots - reached its extreme. At the end of 1588, King Henry III ordered the murder of the two Guise brothers, and in August 1589 he himself died.
There was only one step left to the desired crown, but it was not easy to take: Paris did not open the gates to Henry. The importance of Paris grew greatly during the civil wars, and Henry did not want to overshadow his future reign with another bloodshed.
Henry's calculating mind again suggested that he should wait until his opponents weakened each other with internecine struggle. And so it happened: in Paris, clashes began between fanatical Catholics and the last of the Guise survivors, the Duke of Mayenne. The Duke executed the top of the dissatisfied Parisians, and the rest of the city residents leaned towards Henry - only in him they saw reliable protection from Spanish intervention in favor of Guise. On July 25, 1593, Henry converted to Catholicism (for the last time in his life), and the next year he entered Paris without hindrance and was crowned.
What lessons did the 40-year-old king learn from his long and difficult path to the throne? First, Henry realized that neither side could win the war and it was time to seek reconciliation. The figure of Henry on the throne was now equally acceptable to both Huguenots and Catholics; All that remained was to draw up a peace treaty that would equally suit both parts of the nation. Henry prepared such a treaty by 1598; in the city of Nantes, where it was promulgated, the document began to be called the Edict of Nantes. This edict maintained the dominant position of Catholicism in France, but provided the Huguenots with extensive rights of ecclesiastical and secular self-government. The peace treaty stopped the devastation of the country and the flight of the French Huguenots to England and the Netherlands. The Edict of Nantes was drawn up very cunningly: if the balance of power between Catholics and Huguenots changed, it could be revised (which Richelieu later took advantage of).
The second lesson of the civil wars was that it was impossible to build a strong French state relying only on the nobility. Henry IV took note of this too. He supports major officials, professional bureaucrats - judges, lawyers, financiers. Henry IV allows these people to buy positions for themselves and pass them on to their sons. A powerful apparatus of power is in the hands of the king, allowing him to rule without regard to the whims and whims of the nobles. Henry attracts not only officials, but also large merchants - he in every possible way encourages the development of large-scale production and trade in France, and establishes French colonies in overseas lands. Henry IV was the first of the French kings to begin to be guided in his policy by the national interests of France, and not just by the class claims of the French nobility.
Finally, Henry realized that France was facing a long period of wars with the Spanish and
German Habsburgs, and successfully prepared for this confrontation. Henry took care of a significant reduction in the tag (direct tax) from the peasants, who were almost completely ruined and impoverished during the years of religious wars. The peasantry was the basis of the economic and military strength of the French kingdom - poor peasants could not support a strong army.
The military power of the resurgent France was confirmed by the first war of Henry IV with Spain (1595-1598). The successors of Henry IV on the French throne managed to create such a formidable army, which for almost two hundred years (before the Napoleonic wars) was the best army in Europe.
The outstanding role that Henry IV played in the history of France and Europe is determined by several circumstances. Firstly, Henry was able to emerge alive from the religious wars, in which all his opponents laid down their heads. He achieved this with his intelligence, resourcefulness and cunning, and his ability to dramatically change the political course. In addition, Henry was simply lucky, which greatly elevated him in the eyes of the French. Secondly, Henry IV, having ascended the throne, was able to put his experience as a clever politician into the service of the power that he had been destroying most of his life. The first of the Bourbons found a new, solid basis for royal power - the interests of the nation.