Henri IV of France. His Wives and Mistresses. Part I.

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Catherine de Médici, Jeanne d'Albret, King Charles IX of France, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, King Philip II of Spain, Pope Gregory XIII, Princess Margaret de Valois, Queen Joan III of Navarre, Queen of France and Navarre, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

Henri IV of France’s wives and mistresses played a significant role in the politics of his reign.

Henri’s womanising became legendary, earning him the nickname of Le Vert Galant. His sexual appetite was said to have been insatiable, and he always kept mistresses, often several at a time, as well as engaging in random sexual encounters and visits to brothels. Even so, he tended to elevate one mistress above the others and shower her with money, honours, and promises.

First Marriage

After the signature of the peace of Saint-Germain, Catherine de’ Medici, the powerful mother of King Charles IX, was convinced by François of Montmorency to marry her daughter Margaret with Henri III of Navarre.

The match was in fact assumed almost thirteen years earlier by the late King Henri II. Catherine, who believed in dynastic marriage as a potent political tool, aimed to unite the interests of the Valois and the Bourbons, and create harmony between Catholics and Huguenots in the reign of France.

By all accounts, Margaret of Valois was deemed highly attractive, even sexually magnetic: “The beauty of that princess is more divine than human, she is made to damn and ruin men rather than to save them”, said about her Don Juan of Austria came to court just to see her.

King Henri IV of France and Navarre

Margaret had also an enterprising and flirtatious character. Shortly before this marriage plan with Henri of Navarre, she had been involved in a scandal: it was discovered that she encouraged the handsome Henri of Guise, who intended to marry her, entertaining a secret correspondence with him. When her family discovered it put an end to the crush between them and sent Henri of Guise away from court.

Some sources claim the duke of Guise was Margaret’s first lover, but this is highly unlikely. For political reasons, the duty of a Daughter of France was to be a virgin at the wedding and for this she was very guarded.

If Margaret had really compromised her reputation, Jeanne d’Albret (Queen Joan III of Navarre) would not accept the marriage between her son Henri and the princess. Although certainly after the wedding, Margaret was unfaithful to her husband, many of the extramarital adventures are the result of pamphlets that have had to politically discredit her and her family: the most famous was Le Divorce Satyrique (1607), who described her as a nymphomaniac.

Margaret complied with her mother’s desire to marry Henri of Navarre, provided she was not forced to convert to Protestantism. When Jeanne d’Albret arrived at the French court after receiving numerous pressures from Catherine, she was extremely impressed by Margaret: “She has frankly owned to me the favourable impression which she has formed of you.

With her beauty and wit, she exercises a great influence over the Queen-Mother and the King, and Messieurs her younger brothers.” The problems began when the Protestant Jeanne discovered that Margaret had no intention of abjuring Catholicism. Meanwhile the marriage negotiations were repeatedly impeded by the Pope Gregory XIII and King Felipe II of Spain.

Tired of the duration of the negotiations, Charles IX decided that the wedding would be celebrated by the Cardinal of Bourbon even without papal dispensation, so Jeanne gave her consent to the wedding by promising that Henri could remain a Huguenot.

When Jeanne arrived in Paris to buy clothes for the wedding, she was taken ill and died, aged forty-four; and Henri succeeded her as the King Henri III of Navarre. Henri arrived in Paris in July 1572 and saw Margaret after six years of separation (they had spent their childhood together with the French court). Despite subsequent historiographic interpretations, contemporaries do not point out any mutual dissatisfaction between future spouses.

Princess Margaret de Valois, Queen of France and Navarre

The controversial wedding took place on August 18, 1572 at Notre-Dame, Paris. After a nuptial lunch, four days of balls, masques and banquets ensued, only to be interrupted by the outbreak of violence in Paris.

After the attempted assassination of the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny on August 18, 1572, Dowager Queen Catherine and King Charles IX, to forestall the expected Huguenot backlash, ordered the murder of the Huguenot leaders gathered in Paris for the wedding. The result was the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, in which thousands of Huguenots were killed in Paris and throughout the reign.

Margaret later described in her Memoirs the chaos and bloodshed in the Louvre Palace, where she and her new husband were lodged. Henri found himself escorted to a room with his cousin Henri of Condé, and told to choose between death and conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Henri chose the latter. After the massacre, the Queen-Mother proposed to her daughter that the marriage be annulled, but Margaret replied that this was impossible because she had already had sexual relations with Henri and was “in every sense” his wife. She wrote in her Memoirs: “I suspected the design of separating me from my husband was in order to work some mischief against him.“

December 5, 1559: Accession of Charles IX as King of France

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Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Catherine de Médici, King Charles IX of France, KIng François II of France, King Henri II of France, King Henri III of Navarre, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, Queen Mary I of Scotland, Queen of France, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

Charles IX (June 27, 1550 – May 30, 1574) was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother François II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the House of Valois.

Prince Charles Maximilien of France, third son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici, the daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne.

Prince Charles Maximilien was born on June 27, 1550 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was the fifth of ten children born to the royal couple. Styled since birth as Duke of Angoulême, he was created Duke of Orléans after the death of his older brother Louis, his parents’ second son, who had died in infancy on October 24, 1550.

Charles’ father, King Henri II, died in 1559, and was succeeded by Charles’ elder brother, King François II, who was married to Queen Mary I of Scotland. Therefore, François II was also King Consort of Scotland and died at a young age in 1560.

King Charles IX of France

The ten-year-old Charles Maximilian was immediately proclaimed King Charles IX of France on December 5, 1560, and the Privy Council appointed his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, as governor of France (Regent) with sweeping powers, at first acting as regent for her young son.

On 15 May 1561, King Charles IX was consecrated in the cathedral at Reims. Prince Antoine of Bourbon, himself in line to the French throne and husband to Queen Joan III of Navarre, was appointed Lieutenant-General of France.

Charles IX’s reign saw the culmination of decades of tension between Protestants and Catholics. Civil and religious war broke out between the two parties after the massacre of Vassy in 1562.

On November 26, 1570, Charles married Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, with whom he fathered one daughter, Princess Marie Elisabeth of France. In 1573, Charles fathered an illegitimate son, Charles, Duke of Angoulême, with his mistress, Marie Touchet.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria was a member of the House of Habsburg, she was the daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife and his first cousin, Infanta Maria of Spain, and she herself was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Carlos I of Spain) and Infanta Isabella of Portugal.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France

In 1572, following several unsuccessful attempts at brokering peace, Charles IX arranged the marriage of his sister Margaret to King Henri III of Navarre, a major Protestant nobleman in the line of succession to the French throne, in a last desperate bid to reconcile his people.

Facing popular hostility against this policy of appeasement and at the instigation of his mother Catherine de’ Medici, Charles IX oversaw the massacre of numerous Huguenot leaders who gathered in Paris for the royal wedding, though his direct involvement is still debated.

This event, known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, was a significant blow to the Huguenot movement, and religious civil warfare soon began anew. Charles IX sought to take advantage of the disarray of the Huguenots by ordering the siege of La Rochelle, but was unable to take the Protestant stronghold.

Many of Charles’ decisions were influenced by his mother, a fervent Roman Catholic who initially supported a policy of relative religious tolerance. However, after the events of St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, he began to support the persecution of Huguenots.

However, the incident haunted Charles IX for the rest of his life, and historians suspect that it caused his physical and mental health to deteriorate in his later years. King Charles IX died of tuberculosis in 1574 without legitimate male issue, and was succeeded by his brother as King Henri III of France, whose own death in 1589 without issue allowed for the ascension of King Henri III of Navarre to the French throne as King Henri IV of France and Navarre establishing the House of Bourbon as the new French royal dynasty.

May 14, 1610: Assassination of Henri IV, King of France and Navarre. Part I.

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Assassination, Catherine de Médici, Catholic League, Henri III of France, Henri IV of France, Henri of Guise, Louis IX of France, Marie de' Medici, Roman Catholic Church, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, Wars of Religion

Henri IV (December 13, 1553 – May 14, 1610), also known by the epithet Good King Henri or Henri the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henri III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty.

Prince Henri de Bourbon was born in Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign principality of Béarn. His parents were Queen Jeanne III of Navarre (1528-1572) and her consort, Prince Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme (1518-1562). Although baptised as a Catholic, Henri was raised as a Protestant by his mother, who had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre.

Henri IV, King of France and Navarre

Henri’s father, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme did not appear to have any real religious conviction and officially changed religions several times. Antoine’s reconversion to Catholicism separated him from his wife and he threatened to repudiate her. He had an affair with Louise de La Béraudière de l’Isle Rouhet, “la belle Rouet,” with whom he had a son, Charles III de Bourbon (1554–1610) who became archbishop of Rouen.

On June 4, 1572, two months before the wedding was due to take place, Queen Jeanne III returned home from one of her shopping excursions feeling ill. The next morning she woke up with a fever and complained of an ache in the upper right-hand side of her body. Five days later she died.

Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme (father of Henri IV)

Queen Jeanne III of Navarre (mother of Henri IV)

A popular rumour which circulated shortly afterward, maintained that Jeanne had been poisoned by Catherine de’Medici (1519-1589) wife of King Henri II (1519-1559) who allegedly sent her a pair of perfumed gloves, skillfully poisoned by her perfumer, René, a fellow Florentine. An autopsy, however, proved that Jeanne had died of natural causes.

On June 9, 1572, upon his mother’s death, the 19-year-old became Henri de Bourbon became King Henri III of Navarre.

First marriage and Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

At the time Queen Joan’s death, it was arranged for Henri III, King of Navarre to marry Marguerite of Valois, daughter of Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici. The wedding took place in Paris on August 18, 1572 on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral.

On August 24, the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre began in Paris. Several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henri’s wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed. HenrI narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and his promise to convert to Catholicism.

Marguerite of Valois

He was forced to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On February 5 of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the military conflict. He named his 16-year-old sister, Catherine de Bourbon, regent of Béarn. Catherine held the regency for nearly thirty years.

Claim to the throne of France

Henri III of Navarre and his predecessor Henri III of France were direct descendants of King Louis IX (1214-1270). Henri III of France belonged to the House of Valois, descended from Philippe III of France, elder son of Louis IX. Henry IV belonged to the House of Bourbon, descended from Robert, Count of Clermont, younger son of Louis IX. As Head of the House of Bourbon, Henry was “first prince of the blood”.

King Louis IX of France

Upon the death of his brother-in-law and distant cousin Henri III of France in 1589, Henri was called to the French succession by the Salic law.

Henri became heir presumptive to the French throne in 1584 upon the death of François, Duke of Anjou, brother and heir to the Catholic Henri III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Given that Henri 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 and all others who could claim descent through only the female line from inheriting. Since Henri 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.

Henri III and Henri of Navarre were two of these Henries. The third was Henri 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.

Henri I, Duke of Guise

However, at the death in 1584 of François, Duke of Anjou, the king’s brother, Henri of Guise concluded the Treaty of Joinville with Felipe II of Spain. This compact declared that the Charles de Bourbon, Cardinal de Bourbon should succeed Henri III, in preference to HenrI of Navarre. Charles de Bourbon, Cardinal de Bourbon was the eighth child of Charles IV de Bourbon, duke of Vendôme, paternal grandfather of Henri IV. His mother was Françoise d’Alençon. Henri III now sided with the Catholic League (1585), which made war with great success on the Protestants.

In December 1588, Henri III had Henri of Guise murdered, along with his brother, Louis, Cardinal de Guise. Henri III thought the removal of the brothers would finally restore his authority. However, the populace was horrified and rose against him. The title of the king was no longer recognized in several cities; his power was limited to Blois, Tours, and the surrounding districts. In the general chaos, Henri III relied on King Henri of Navarre and his Huguenots.

On 25 July 1593, with the encouragement of his great love, Gabrielle d’Estrées, Henri permanently renounced Protestantism and converted to Catholicism — in order to secure his hold on the French crown, thereby 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 Catholicism secured the allegiance of the vast majority of his subjects.

Henri’s first marriage was not a happy one, and the couple remained childless. Henri and Marguerite separated even before Henri acceded to the throne of France in August 1589; Marguerite retired to the Château d’Usson in the Auvergne and lived there for many years. After Henri 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.

Henri favored the idea of obtaining an annulment of his marriage to Marguerite and taking his mistress Gabrielle d’Estrées as his bride; after all, she had already borne him three children. Henri’s councillors strongly opposed this idea, but the matter was resolved unexpectedly by Gabrielle’s sudden death in the early hours of April 10, 1599, after she had given birth to a premature and stillborn son.

Marie de’ Medici of Tuscany

His marriage to Marguerite was annulled in 1599, and Henri married Marie de’ Medici, daughter of Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Archduchess Joanna of Austria, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary, in 1600.