Henry IV of France

For other uses, see Henry IV (disambiguation).

"Henry of Navarre" redirects here. For other uses, see Henry of Navarre (disambiguation).

Henry IV
King of France
Reign	2 August 1589 – 14 May 1610
Coronation	27 February 1594
Predecessor	Henry III
Successor	Louis XIII
King of Navarre
Reign	9 June 1572 – 14 May 1610
Predecessor	Jeanne III
Successor	Louis II
Born	(1553-12-13)13 December 1553 Pau, Kingdom of Navarre
Died	14 May 1610(1610-05-14) (aged 56) Paris, France
Burial	Saint Denis Basilica, France
Spouse	Margaret of France Marie de' Medici
Issue	César, Duke of Vendôme Catherine Henriette de Bourbon Louis XIII of France Elisabeth, Queen of Spain Christine, Duchess of Savoy Nicholas Henri, Duke of Orléans Gaston, Duke of Orléans Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland
House	Bourbon
Father	Antoine de Bourbon
Mother	Jeanne III of Navarre
Religion	Roman Catholicism, previously Huguenot

Henry IV (13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), Henri-Quatre (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁiˈkatʁ]), also known by the epithet "Good King Henry", was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 to 1610 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon.

Baptised as a Catholic but raised in the Protestant faith by his mother Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, he inherited the throne of Navarre in 1572 on the death of his mother. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, he barely escaped assassination at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and he later led Protestant forces against the royal army.

As a French "prince of the blood" by reason of his descent from King Louis IX, he ascended the throne of France upon the death of his childless brother-in-law Henry III in 1589. In accepting the throne, he found it prudent to abjure his Calvinist faith. Regardless, his coronation was followed by a four-year war against the Catholic League to establish his legitimacy. As a pragmatic politician (in the parlance of the time, a politique), he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time. Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the Wars of Religion. He was assassinated by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.

Considered as a usurper by Catholics and as a traitor by Protestants, Henry was hardly accepted by the population and escaped at least 12 assassination attempts. An unpopular king during his reign, Henry's popularity greatly improved posthumously. The "Good King Henry" (le bon roi Henri) was remembered for his geniality and his great concern about the welfare of his subjects. He was celebrated in the popular song Vive le roi Henri and in Voltaire's Henriade.

Early life

Childhood and adolescence

Henry was born in Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign principality of Béarn. His parents were Queen Joan III of Navarre (Jeanne d'Albret) and King Antoine of Navarre. Although baptised as a Roman Catholic, Henry was raised as a Protestant by his mother, who had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. As a teenager, Henry joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion. On 9 June 1572, upon his mother's death, he became King of Navarre.

Henry III of France on his deathbed designating Henry III of Navarre as his successor in 1589.

First marriage and Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre

At Queen Jeanne's death, it was arranged for Henry to marry Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. The wedding took place in Paris on 18 August 1572. on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral. On 24 August, the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre began in Paris. Several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henry's wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed. Henry narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and his promise to convert to Catholicism. He was made to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On 5 February of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the military conflict.

Wars of Religion

Henry at the Battle of Arques

Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry, by Peter Paul Rubens

Henry IV, as Hercules vanquishing the Lernaean Hydra (i.e. the Catholic League), by Toussaint Dubreuil, circa 1600

Henry of Navarre became heir presumptive to the French throne in 1584 upon the death of Francis, Duke of Anjou, brother and heir to the Catholic Henry III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Because Henry of Navarre was the next senior agnatic descendant of King Louis IX, King Henry III had no choice but to recognise him as the legitimate successor. Salic law barred the king's sisters from inheriting and all others who could claim descent through the female line. Since Henry of Navarre was a Huguenot, the issue was not considered settled in many quarters of the country and France was plunged into a phase of the Wars of Religion known as the War of the Three Henries. Henry III and Henry of Navarre were two of these Henrys. The third was Henry I, Duke of Guise, who pushed for complete suppression of the Huguenots and had much support among Catholic loyalists. Political disagreements among the parties set off a series of campaigns and counter-campaigns that culminated in the Battle of Coutras. In December 1588, Henry III had Henry I of Guise murdered, along with his brother, Louis Cardinal de Guise. This increased the tension further and Henry III was assassinated shortly thereafter by a fanatic monk.

Upon the death of Henry III on 2 August 1589, Henry of Navarre nominally became king of France. The Catholic League, however, strengthened by support from outside the country—especially from Spain, was strong enough to force him to the south. He had to set about winning his kingdom by military conquest, aided by money and troops sent by Elizabeth I of England. Henry's Catholic uncle Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, was proclaimed king by the League, but the cardinal was Henry's prisoner. Henry was victorious at the Battle of Arques and the Battle of Ivry, but failed to take Paris after Siege of Paris in 1590.

When the Cardinal de Bourbon died in 1590, the League could not agree on a new candidate. While some supported various Guise candidates, the strongest candidate was probably the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, whose mother Elisabeth had been the eldest daughter of Henry II of France. The prominence of her candidacy hurt the League, which became suspect as agents of the foreign Spanish. Nevertheless, Henry remained unable to take control of Paris.

Jeton with portrait of King Henri IV, made in Nuremberg (Germany) by Hans Laufer

Entrance of Henry IV in Paris, 22 March 1594, with 1,500 cuirassiers

"Paris is well worth a Mass"

On 25 July 1593, with the encouragement of the great love of his life, Gabrielle d'Estrées, Henry permanently renounced Protestantism, thus earning the resentment of the Huguenots and his former ally Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was said to have declared that Paris vaut bien une messe ("Paris is well worth a mass"), although there is some doubt whether he said this, or whether the statement was attributed to him by his contemporaries. His acceptance of Roman Catholicism secured for him the allegiance of the vast majority of his subjects, and he was crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Chartres on 27 February 1594. In 1598, however, he issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted circumscribed toleration to the Huguenots.

Royal styles of King Henry IV Par la grâce de Dieu, Roi de France et de Navarre
Reference style	His Most Christian Majesty
Spoken style	Your Most Christian Majesty
Alternative style	Sire

Second marriage

Henry IV and Marie de Médicis

Henry's first marriage was not a happy one, and the couple remained childless. Henry and Margaret separated even before Henry succeeded to the throne in August 1589, and Margaret lived for many years in the Château d'Usson in the Auvergne. After Henry became king of France, it was of the utmost importance that he provide an heir to the crown to avoid the problem of a disputed succession. Henry favoured the idea of obtaining an annulment of his marriage to Margaret and taking Gabrielle d'Estrées as his bride; after all, she had already borne him three children. Henry's councillors strongly opposed this idea, but the matter was resolved unexpectedly by Gabrielle's sudden death in the early hours of 10 April 1599, after she had given birth to a premature and stillborn son. His marriage to Margaret was annulled in 1599, and he then married Marie de' Medici in 1600.

For the royal entry of Marie into Papal Avignon on 19 November 1600, the Jesuit scholars bestowed on Henry the title of the Hercule Gaulois ("Gallic Hercules"), justifying the extravagant flattery with a genealogy that traced the origin of the House of Navarre to a nephew of Hercules' son Hispalus.

Achievements of his reign

Itinerary of François Pyrard de Laval, from 1601 to 1611

During his reign, Henry IV worked through his faithful right-hand man, the minister Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, to regularise state finance, promote agriculture, drain swamps, undertake public works, and encourage education, as with the creation of the Collège Royal Henri-le-Grand in La Flèche (today the Prytanée Militaire de la Flèche). He and Sully protected forests from further devastation, built a new system of tree-lined highways, and constructed new bridges and canals. He had a 1200 metre canal built in the park at the Château Fontainebleau (which may be fished today) and ordered the planting of pines, elms, and fruit trees.

The king restored Paris as a great city, with the Pont Neuf, which still stands today, constructed over the Seine river to connect the Right and Left Banks of the city. Henry IV also had the Place Royale built (since 1800 known as Place des Vosges), and added the Grande Galerie to the Louvre Palace. More than 400 metres long and thirty-five metres wide, this huge addition was built along the bank of the Seine River, and at the time was the longest edifice of its kind in the world. King Henry IV, a promoter of the arts by all classes of people, invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work on the building's lower floors. This tradition continued for another two hundred years, until Emperor Napoleon I banned it. The art and architecture of his reign have become known as the "Henry IV style" since that time.

King Henry's vision extended beyond France, and he financed several expeditions of Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, and Samuel de Champlain to North America that saw France lay claim to Canada.

International relations under Henry IV

Coin of Henry IV, demi écu, Saint Lô, 1589

The reign of Henry IV saw the continuation of the rivalry among France, the Habsburg rulers of Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire for the mastery of Western Europe, a conflict that would only be resolved after the end of the Thirty Years' War.

Spain and Italy

During Henry's struggle for the crown, Spain had been the principal backer of the Catholic League, and it tried to thwart Henry. Under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma an army from the Spanish Netherlands intervened in 1590 against Henry and foiled his siege of Paris. Another Spanish army helped the nobles opposing Henry to win the Battle of Craon against his troops in 1592.

After Henry's coronation, the war continued as an official tug-of-war between the French and Spanish states that was terminated by the Peace of Vervins in 1598.

This enabled Henry to turn his attention to Savoy, with which he also had been fighting. Their conflicts were settled in the Treaty of Lyon of 1601, which mandated territorial exchanges between France and the Duchy of Savoy.

Germany

In 1609 Henry's intervention helped to settle the War of the Jülich succession through diplomatic means.

It was widely believed that in 1610 Henry was preparing to go to war against the Holy Roman Empire. The preparations were terminated by his assassination, however, and the subsequent rapprochement with Spain under the regency of Marie de' Medici.

Ottoman Empire

Bilingual Franco-Turkish translation of the 1604 Franco-Ottoman Capitulations between Sultan Ahmed I and Henry IV of France, published by François Savary de Brèves in 1615

Even before Henry's accession to the French throne, the French Huguenots were in contact with Aragonese Moriscos in plans against the Habsburg government of Spain in the 1570s. Around 1575, plans were made for a combined attack of Aragonese Moriscos and Huguenots from Béarn under Henry against Spanish Aragon, in agreement with the king of Algiers and the Ottoman Empire, but these projects floundered with the arrival of John of Austria in Aragon and the disarmament of the Moriscos. In 1576, a three-pronged fleet from Constantinople was planned to disembark between Murcia and Valencia while the French Huguenots would invade from the north and the Moriscos accomplish their uprising, but the Ottoman fleet failed to arrive. After his crowning, Henry continued the policy of a Franco-Ottoman alliance and received an embassy from Sultan Mehmed III in 1601. In 1604, a "Peace Treaty and Capitulation" was signed between Henry IV and the Ottoman Sultan Ahmet I. It granted numerous advantages to France in the Ottoman Empire.

In 1606–7, Henry IV sent Arnoult de Lisle as Ambassador to Morocco to obtain the observance of past friendship treaties. An embassy was sent to Tunisia in 1608 led by François Savary de Brèves.

Far-East Asia

Further information: France-Asia relations

During the reign of Henry IV, various enterprises were set up to develop trade with faraway lands. In December 1600, a company was formed through the association of Saint-Malo, Laval, and Vitré to trade with the Moluccas and Japan. Two ships, the Croissant and the Corbin, were sent around the Cape of Good Hope in May 1601. One was wrecked in the Maldives, leading to the adventure of François Pyrard de Laval, who managed to return to France in 1611. The second ship, onboard which was François Martin de Vitré, reached Ceylon and traded with Aceh in Sumatra, but was captured by the Dutch on the return leg at Cape Finisterre. François Martin de Vitré was the first Frenchman to write an account of travels to the Far East in 1604, at the request of Henry IV, and from that time numerous accounts on Asia would be published.

From 1604 to 1609, following the return of François Martin de Vitré, Henry developed a strong enthusiasm for travel to Asia and attempted to set up a French East India Company on the model of England and the Netherlands. On 1 June 1604, he issued letters patent to Dieppe merchants to form the Dieppe Company, giving them exclusive rights to Asian trade for 15 years. No ships were sent, however, until 1616. In 1609, another adventurer, Pierre-Olivier Malherbe, returned from a circumnavigation of the globe and informed Henry of his adventures. He had visited China and in India, had an encounter with Akbar.

Character

Henry IV, Versailles Museum

Henry IV proved to be a man of vision and courage. Instead of waging costly wars to suppress opposing nobles, Henry simply paid them off. As king, he adopted policies and undertook projects to improve the lives of all subjects, which made him one of the country's most popular rulers ever.

Henry is said to have originated the oft repeated phrase, "a chicken in every pot". The context in which he is reported to have said this is:

Si Dieu me prête vie, je ferai qu'il n'y aura point de laboureur en mon royaume qui n'ait les moyens d'avoir le dimanche une poule dans son pot! (If God keeps me, I will make sure that no peasant in my realm will lack the means to have a chicken in the pot on Sunday!)

This statement epitomises the peace and relative prosperity Henry brought to France after decades of religious war and demonstrates how well he understood the plight of the French worker and peasant farmer. This real concern for the living conditions of the "lowly" population – who in the final analysis provided the economic basis on which the power of the king and the great nobles rested – was perhaps without parallel among the kings of France. It also made Henry extremely popular with the population.

Henry's forthright manner, physical courage, and military successes also contrasted dramatically with the sickly, effete languor of the last Valois kings, as evinced by his blunt assertion that he ruled with "weapon in hand and arse in the saddle" (on a le bras armé et le cul sur la selle). He was also a great philanderer, fathering many children by a number of mistresses.

Nicknames

Henry was nicknamed Henry the Great (Henri le Grand), and in France is also called le bon roi Henri ("the good king Henry") or le vert galant ("The Green Gallant", for his numerous mistresses). In English he is most often referred to as Henry of Navarre.

Assassination

Although he was a man of kindness, compassion, and good humour, and was much loved by his people, Henry was the subject of attempts on his life by Pierre Barrière in August 1593. and Jean Châtel in December 1594.

King Henry IV was assassinated in Paris on 14 May 1610 during the third attempt on his life by a Catholic fanatic, François Ravaillac, who stabbed the king to death in the Rue de la Ferronnerie. Henry IV's coach was stopped by traffic congestion related to the Queen's coronation ceremony, as depicted in the engraving by Gaspar Bouttats. Hercule de Rohan, duc de Montbazon, was with him when he was killed; Montbazon was wounded, but survived. Henry was buried at the Saint Denis Basilica.

His widow, Marie de' Medici, served as regent for their nine-year-old son, Louis XIII, until 1617.

• 
  Assassination of Henry IV,
  engraving by Gaspar Bouttats
• 
  His assassin, François Ravaillac, brandishing his dagger
• 
  Lying in state at the Louvre, engraving after François Quesnel

Legacy

Henri IV, Marie de' Medici and family

The reign of Henry IV had a lasting impact on the French people for generations afterward. A statue of him was built in his honour at the Pont Neuf in 1614, only four years after his death. Although this statue—as well as those of all the other French kings—was torn down during the French Revolution, it was the first to be rebuilt, in 1818, and it stands today on the Pont Neuf. A cult surrounding the personality of Henry IV emerged during the Bourbon Restoration. The restored Bourbons were keen to play down the controversial reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI and instead emphasised the reign of the benevolent Henry IV. The song "Vive Henri IV" ("Long Live Henry IV") was popular during the Restoration. In addition, when Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily (a descendant of his) gave birth to a male heir to the throne of France seven months after the assassination of her husband Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, by a Republican fanatic, the boy was conspicuously named Henri in reference to his forefather Henry IV. The boy also was baptised in the traditional way of Béarn/Navarre, with a spoon of Jurançon wine and some garlic, imitating the manner in which Henry IV had been baptised in Pau. That custom had been abandoned by later Bourbon kings.

Henry IV's popularity continued when the first edition of his biography, Histoire du Roy Henry le Grand, was published in Amsterdam in 1661. It was written by Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont, successively bishop of Rhodez and archbishop of Paris, primarily for the edification of Louis XIV, grandson of Henry IV. A translation into English was made by James Dauncey for another grandson, King Charles II of England. An English edition was derived from this, which was published at London two years later in 1663.

Henry served as the loose inspiration behind Ferdinand, the King of Navarre in William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost.

Royal Monogram

Missing head

The head of his embalmed body was lost after revolutionaries ransacked the Basilica of St Denis and desecrated his grave in 1793. An embalmed head, reputed to be that of Henry IV, was passed among private collectors until French journalist Stephane Gabet followed leads to track down the head in the attic of a retired tax collector, Jacques Bellanger, in January 2010. According to Gabet, a couple purchased the head at a Paris auction in the early 1900s, and Bellanger bought it from the sister in 1955. In 2010, a multidisciplinary team led by Philippe Charlier, a forensic medical examiner at Raymond Poincaré University Hospital in Garches, confirmed that it was the lost head of Henry IV, using a combination of anthropological, paleopathological, radiological, and forensic techniques. The head had a light brown colour and was well-preserved. A lesion just above the nostril, a hole in the right earlobe indicating a long-term use of an earring, and a healed facial wound, which Henry IV would have received from a previous assassination attempt by Jean Châtel in 1594, were among the identifying factors. Radiocarbon dating gave a date of between 1450 and 1650, which fits the year of Henry IV's death, 1610. The team was not able to recover uncontaminated mitochondrial DNA sequences from the head, so no comparison was possible with other remains from the king and his female-line relatives. Bellanger donated the king's head to Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, the king's senior descendant. Anjou had decided to reinter the head in the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis after a national mass and funeral in 2011. Further evidence confirming the identity of Henry IV's head was made in 2012 when DNA from tissue samples were matched with DNA from King Louis XVI. Following his beheading, Louis XVI's blood was soaked up with a handkerchief and stored in a gourd decorated to celebrate the French Revolution. The DNA analyses of the Y-chromosomes, which also confirmed truth to the legend surrounding Louis XVI's blood in the gourd, showed that the men were related—paternally. The likelihood ratio of the two samples belonging to males separated by seven generations (as opposed to unrelated males) was estimated as "246.3". Carles Lalueza-Fox, paleogenomics researcher in the study, is attempting to use the Louis XVI sample to reconstruct his entire genome.

Genealogy

Main article: Henry IV of France's succession

Ancestors

Ancestors of Henry IV of France

16. Jean VIII de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme

8. François de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme

17. Isabelle de Beauvau

4. Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme

18. Pierre II de Luxembourg

9. Marie de Luxembourg

19. Margaret of Savoy

2. Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme

20. John II of Alençon

10. René of Alençon

21. Marie of Armagnac

5. Françoise of Alençon

22. Frederic VI de Vaudemont

11. Marguerite de Lorraine

23. Yolande d'Anjou

1. Henry IV of France

24. Alain I d'Albret

12. John III of Navarre

25. Françoise of Châtillon-Limoges

6. Henry II of Navarre

26. Gaston of Foix, Prince of Viana

13. Catherine of Navarre

27. Magdalena of Valois

3. Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre

28. John, Count of Angoulême

14. Charles, Count of Angoulême

29. Marguerite de Rohan

7. Marguerite d'Angoulême

30. Philip II, Duke of Savoy

15. Louise of Savoy

31. Margaret of Bourbon

Patrilineal descent

Patrilineal descent

Henry's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son. Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations – which means that if King Henry were to choose a historically accurate house name it would be Robertian, as all his male-line ancestors have been of that house. Henry is a member of the House of Bourbon, a branch of the Capetian dynasty and of the Robertians. Henry's patriline follows the Bourbon-Vendôme, the kings of France, and the counts of Paris and Worms. This line can be traced back more than 1,200 years from Robert of Hesbaye to the present day, through kings of France & Navarre, Spain, and Two-Sicilies, dukes of Parma and grand-dukes of Luxembourg, princes of Orléans, and emperors of Brazil. It is one of the oldest royal patrilines in Europe. Robert II of Worms and Rheingau (Robert of Hesbaye), 770 – 807 Robert III of Worms and Rheingau, 808 – 834 Robert IV the Strong, 820 – 866 Robert I of France, 866 – 923 Hugh the Great, 895 – 956 Hugh Capet, 941 – 996 Robert II of France, 972 – 1031 Henry I of France, 1008–1060 Philip I of France, 1053–1108 Louis VI of France, 1081–1137 Louis VII of France, 1120–1180 Philip II of France, 1165–1223 Louis VIII of France, 1187–1226 Louis IX of France, 1215–1270 Robert, Count of Clermont, 1256–1317 Louis I, Duke of Bourbon, 1279–1342 James I, Count of La Marche, 1319–1362 John I, Count of La Marche, 1344–1393 Louis, Count of Vendôme, 1376–1446 Jean VIII, Count of Vendôme, 1428–1478 François, Count of Vendôme, 1470–1495 Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, 1489–1537 Antoine, King of Navarre, Duke of Vendôme, 1518–1562 Henry IV, King of France and Navarre, 1553–1610

Marriages and legitimate children

Main articles: Descendants of Henry IV of France and Henry IV of France's wives and mistresses

On 18 August 1572, Henry married his second cousin Margaret of Valois; their childless marriage was annulled in 1599. His subsequent marriage to Marie de' Medici on 17 December 1600 produced six children:

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Louis XIII, King of France	27 September 1601	14 May 1643	Married Anne of Austria in 1615
Elisabeth, Queen of Spain	22 November 1602	6 October 1644	Married Philip IV, King of Spain, in 1615
Christine Marie, Duchess of Savoy	12 February 1606	27 December 1663	Married Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, in 1619
Nicolas Henri, Duke of Orléans	16 April 1607	17 November 1611
Gaston, Duke of Orléans	25 April 1608	2 February 1660	Married (1) Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier, in 1626 Married (2) Marguerite of Lorraine in 1632
Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, Queen of Scots, and Queen of Ireland	25 November 1609	10 September 1669	Married Charles I, King of England, King of Scots and King of Ireland, in 1625

Armorial

The arms of Henry IV changed throughout his lifetime:

• 
  Coat of Arms of Henry IV of France as King of Navarre and Duke of Vendome and Bourbon (1572-1589)
• 
  Arms of Henry III of Navarre as Duke of Bourbon and heir apparent to the French throne.svg
• 
  Arms of Henry and the House of Bourbon as Kings of France and Navarre (1589-1789)
• 
  Grand Royal Coat of Arms of Henry and the House of Bourbon as Kings of France and Navarre (1589-1789)

References

• Baird, Henry M. (1886). The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre (2 volumes). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Vol. 2 (copies 1 & 2) at Google Books.
• Baumgartner, Frederic J. (1995). France in the Sixteenth Century. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-62088-7.
• de La Croix, Rene; de Castries, Duc (1979). The Lives of the Kings & Queens of France. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-50734-7.
• Dupuy, Trevor N.; Johnson, Curt; Bongard, David L. (1995). The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. Castle Books. ISBN 0-7858-0437-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
• Holt, Mack P. (2005). The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83872-X.
• Knecht, R. J. (1998). Catherine de' Medici. London and New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-08241-2.
• Knecht, R. J. (2002). The French Religious Wars, 1562–1598. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 1-84176-395-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Knecht, R. J. (2001). The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France, 1483–1610. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-22729-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Merlin, Paolo (2010). A 400 anni dai Trattati di Bruzolo. Gli equilibri europei prima e dopo i Trattati. Susa: Segusium (association).
• Moote, A. Lloyd (1991). Louis XIII, the Just. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07546-3.
• Urzainqui, Tomas; Esarte, Pello; García Manzanal, Alberto; Sagredo, Iñaki; Sagredo, Iñaki; Sagredo, Iñaki; Del Castillo, Eneko; Monjo, Emilio; Ruiz de Pablos, Francisco; Guerra Viscarret, Pello; Ercilla, Manuel (2013). La Conquista de Navarra y la Reforma Europea. Pamplona-Iruña: Pamiela. ISBN 978-84-7681-803-9.

Further reading

Non-fiction

• Baumgartner, Frederic J. (1995). France in the Sixteenth Century. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-62088-7.
• Briggs, Robin (1977). Early Modern France, 1560–1715. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-289040-9.
• Bryson, David M. (1999). Queen Jeanne and the Promised Land: Dynasty, Homeland, Religion and Violence in Sixteenth-century France. Leiden and Boston, Massachusetts: Brill Academic. ISBN 90-04-11378-9.
• Buisseret, David (1990). Henry IV, King of France. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-04-445635-2.
• Cameron, Keith, ed. (1989). From Valois to Bourbon: Dynasty, State & Society in Early Modern France. Exeter: University of Exeter. ISBN 0-85989-310-3.
• Finley-Croswhite, S. Annette (1999). Henry IV and the Towns: The Pursuit of Legitimacy in French Urban Society, 1589–1610. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62017-1.
• Frieda, Leonie (2005). Catherine de Medici. London: Phoenix. ISBN 0-7538-2039-0.
• Greengrass, Mark (1984). France in the Age of Henri IV: The Struggle for Stability. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49251-3.
• Holt, Mack P. (2005). The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83872-X.
• Lee, Maurice J. (1970). James I & Henri IV: An Essay in English Foreign Policy, 1603–1610. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-00084-6.
• LLoyd, Howell A. (1983). The State, France, and the Sixteenth Century. London: George Allen and Unwin. ISBN 0-04-940066-5.
• Lockyer, Roger (1974). Habsburg and Bourbon Europe, 1470–1720. Harlow, UK: Longman. ISBN 0-582-35029-8.
• Love, Ronald S. (2001). Blood and Religion: The Conscience of Henri IV, 1553–1593. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-2124-0.
• Major, J. Russell (1997). From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings, Nobles & Estates. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5631-0.
• Mousnier, Roland (1973). The Assassination of Henry IV: The Tyrannicide Problem and the Consolidation of the French Absolute Monarchy in the Early Seventeenth Century. Translated by Joan Spencer. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-684-13357-1.
• Pettegree, Andrew (2002). Europe in the Sixteenth Century. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-20704-X.
• Pitts, Vincent J (2009). Henri IV of France: His Reign and Age. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-9027-7.
• Salmon, J. H. M. (1975). Society in Crisis: France in the Sixteenth Century. London: Ernest Benn. ISBN 0-510-26351-8.
• Sutherland, N. M. (1973). The Massacre of St Bartholomew and the European Conflict, 1559–1572. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-13629-2.
• Sutherland, N. M. (1980). The Huguenot Struggle for Recognition. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-02328-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Sutherland, N. M. (1984). Princes, Politics and Religion, 1547–1589. London: Hambledon Press. ISBN 0-907628-44-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Sutherland, N. M. (2002). Henry IV of France and the Politics of Religion, 1572–1596. 2 volumes. Bristol: Elm Bank. ISBN 1-84150-846-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)

• Wolfe, Michael (1993). The Conversion of Henri IV: Politics, Power, and Religious Belief in Early Modern France. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-17031-8

Fiction

• George Chapman (1559?–1634), The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608), éd. John Margeson (Manchester: Manchester University press, 1988).
• Alexandre Dumas, La Reine Margot (Queen Margot) (1845)
• Heinrich Mann, Die Jugend des Königs Henry Quatre (1935); Die Vollendung des Königs Henry Quatre (1938) Template:De-icon
• M. de Rozoy, Henri IV, Drame lyrique (1774). Template:Fr-icon

External links

• Henri IV – An unfinished reign Official website published by the French Ministry of Culture