After spending more than three years as a hostage at the French Court, he took advantage of the unrest of the Fifth War of Religion to flee on February 5, 1576. Having rejoined his supporters, he returned to Protestantism, this time abjuring Catholicism on June 13.

Fin de Henri IV et Ravaillac – début du Post suivant :

Le Béarnais rejoint l’armée des Princes, près de 30 000 hommes réunis par son cousin, le prince Henri de Condé, et François d’Alençon. Le roi ne peut s’opposer à une telle force. Aussi, comme l’armée des Princes se trouve à Sens, Henri III mande à Catherine de Médicis d’engager des pourparlers. La négociation s’annonce difficile. Cependant, las de la guerre, catholiques et protestants ne veulent pas que ces discussions s’éternisent. Le 6 mai 1576, on signe l’édit de pacification de Beaulieu-lès-Loches, dit “paix de Monsieur”. Les conditions en sont très favorables pour les huguenots. Les victimes de la Saint-Barthélemy sont réhabilitées, le culte protestant est autorisé dans les villes, excepté à Paris, les huguenots se voient octroyer huit places de sûreté. Condé obtient le gouvernement de Picardie, Navarre celui de Guyenne et 600 000 livres de dédommagement. Alençon, quant à lui, accroît son apanage, avec la place de la Charité, le Maine, l’Anjou, la Touraine et le Berry, et prend le titre de duc d’Anjou.
L’édit de Beaulieu va modifier les rapports de forces entre les partis. Le duc d’Anjou, comblé de faveurs, revient naturellement vers Henri III. Henri de Navarre devient à cet instant le chef légitime du parti huguenot.

The court of Nérac

In 1577, he timidly took part in the sixth War of Religion led by his cousin the Prince de Condé (Huguenot).

Henri was now confronted with the distrust of Protestants, who reproached him for his lack of religious sincerity. He stayed away from Béarn, which was firmly under Calvinist control. Henri faced even greater hostility from Catholics. In December 1576, he almost died in a trap set up in the town of Eauze. Bordeaux, the capital of his government, refused to open its doors to him. Henri settled along the Garonne in Agen and Lectoure, which had the advantage of being not far from his château in Nérac. His court was made up of gentlemen from both religions. His advisors were mainly Protestants, such as Duplessis-Mornay and Jean de Lacvivier.

From October 1578 to May 1579, Queen Mother Catherine de Médicis visited him to complete the pacification of the kingdom. Hoping to make it easier for him to remain obedient, she brought back his wife Marguerite.

For several months, the Navarre couple lived in style at Château de Nérac. The court indulged in hunting, games and dancing, to the bitter complaint of the protestant pastors. Henri himself indulges in the pleasures of seduction – he falls in love with two of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting in turn: Mlle Rebours and Françoise de Montmorency-Fosseux.

Events between 1580 and 1590 – Henri de Navarre becomes king Henri III’s heir

This period was full of unforeseen events and decisions for Henri de Navarre.

Henri then took part in the seventh War of Religion, revived by his co-religionists. At the occasion of the capture of Cahors by his army in May 1580, he managed to avoid pillage and massacre despite five days of street fighting. It earned him great prestige both for his courage and his humanity.

On the personal side, between 1582 and 1590, Henri de Navarre had a relationship with the Catholic Diane d’Andoins, to whom he promised marriage. The king’s feminine adventures created discord within his couple, who were still childless. Marguerite’s departure for Paris (1585) consummated their definitive split.

In 1584, Henri III king of France’s younger brother, François d’Anjou et d’Alençon, died without an heir. Having no heir of his own, King Henri III considered confirming Henri of Navarre as his legitimate heir. He sent the Duc d’Épernon to invite him, in vain, to convert and return to court.

But a few months later, Henri III is forced to sign the Treaty of Nemours as a pledge to the Holy League, he declared war on it and outlawed all Protestants. Rumor has it that, overnight, half of the future Henri IV’s moustache turned white.

Relapsed, Henri was again excommunicated by the Pope, then had to face the royal army, which he defeated at the battle of Coutras in 1587.

A chain of murders after 1588

There were a number of reversals in 1588. On March 5, 1588, the sudden death of Prince Henri de Condé clearly positioned the King of Navarre at the head of the Huguenots.

On December 23, 1588, in a “coup de majesté”, the King of France had Duke Henri de Guise (leader of the anti-Protestant League which became too powerful) assassinated, along with the latter’s brother, Cardinal Louis, the following day. The change in the political situation prompted the sovereigns of France and Navarre to reconcile with a treaty on April 30, 1589. Allied against the Catholic League, which controlled Paris and most of the French kingdom, they succeeded in laying siege to Paris in July of the same year – but they could not take the city.

On August 1, 1589, King Henri III was assassinated by Jacques Clément, a fanatical Catholic monk. Before dying the next day from a wound to the lower abdomen, he formally recognized his brother-in-law, King Henri III of Navarre, as his legitimate successor, who became King Henri IV of France. On his deathbed, Henri III advised him to convert to the religion of the majority of French people.

King of France and Navarre, a king without a kingdom

Henri IV’s long reconquest of the kingdom began, as three-quarters of the French population did not recognize a Protestant nobleman as king. On the other hand, the Catholics of the League refused to recognize the legitimacy of the succession.

King of France and Navarre, but alone against the League

In 1589, aware of his weaknesses, Henri IV first had to win people over. Catholic royalists demanded that he recant his Protestantism, having already changed his religion three times by the age of nineteen. He refused, but in a declaration published on August 4 (3 days after the assassination of Henri III), he indicated that he would respect the Catholic religion. Many were reluctant to follow him, with Protestants like La Trémoille even leaving the army, which was reduced from 40,000 to 20,000 men.

Weakened, Henri IV had to abandon the siege of Paris as the lords returned home, unwilling to serve a Protestant. However, Henri IV was victorious over Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, on September 29, 1589 at the Battle of Arques. The King’s 10,000 men had defeated 35,000 League fighters, drawing an analogy with David’s victory over Goliath.

In addition to the support of the nobles, Huguenots and politicians reassured by this solid, humane war leader, there was the support of Conti and Montpensier (princes of the blood), Longueville, Luxembourg and Rohan-Montbazon, dukes and peers, Marshals Biron and d’Aumont, and a fair number of nobles (Champagne, Picardy, Île-de-France).

He subsequently failed to retake Paris, but stormed the town of Vendôme. Here too, he ensured that the churches remained intact, and that the inhabitants did not suffer from the passage of his army. Thanks to this example, all the towns between Tours and Le Mans surrendered without a fight. He defeated the Ligueurs and Spaniards again at Ivry on March 14, 1590, where the myth of the white plume was born. According to Agrippa d’Aubigné, Henri IV shouted: “Rally to my white plume, you will find it on the path to victory and honor”.

Religion is back at full gallop

Protestants criticized him for not granting them freedom of worship. In July 1591, with the Edict of Mantes (not to be confused with the Edict of Nantes of 1598), he reinstated the provisions of the Edict of Poitiers (1577), which had given them very limited freedom of worship.

The Duke of Mayenne, then at war with Henri IV, convened the Estates General in January 1593, with the aim of electing a new king to replace Henri IV. But he was foiled: the Estates negotiated with the Henri IV’s party, obtained a truce and then his conversion.

Encouraged by the love of his life, Gabrielle d’Estrées, and keenly aware of the exhaustion of the forces at work, both morally and financially, Henri IV, a shrewd politician, chose to abjure his Calvinist faith. On April 4, 1592, in a declaration known as the “expédient”, Henri IV announced his intention to be instructed in the Catholic religion.

Henri IV solemnly abjured Protestantism on July 25, 1593 in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, where he was baptized by Jacques Davy du Perron. He is wrongly credited with saying that “Paris is worth a mass” (1593), even if the substance of this words seems to make a lot of sense.

Abjuration et sacre du roi

To speed up the rallying of towns and provinces (and their governors), he multiplied promises and gifts, for a total of 25 million livres. The resulting increase in taxes (a 2.7-fold increase in the taille taxe) provoked a revolt by the provinces most loyal to the king, Poitou, Saintonge, Limousin and Périgord.

In early 1594, Henri IV successfully laid siege to Dreux, before being crowned king in Chartres cathedral on February 27, 1594. He was one of only three kings of France to be crowned outside Reims and Paris, town then held by the League army. However he entered into Paris on March 22, 1594, where he distributed bills expressing his royal pardon, and finally got the absolution granted by Pope Clement VIII on September 17, 1595. The entire nobility and the rest of the population, gradually rally Henri IV – with a few exceptions, such as Jean Châtel, who attempted to assassinate the king on December 27, 1594 at the Hôtel du Bouchage near the Louvre.

He definitively defeated the League army at Fontaine-Française.

Henri IV finally a full-fledged king

The war against Spain and Savoy

In 1595, Henri IV officially declared war on Spain. The last french League members, financially supported by Philip II of Spain, become then “traitors”.

But Henri IV found it extremely difficult to repel the Spanish attacks in Picardy. The capture of Amiens by the Spanish and the landing of Hispanic troops in Brittany, where Governor Philippe Emmanuel de Lorraine, Duc de Mercœur, still did not recognize Henri IV as king, left him in a perilous situation. He was a cousin of the Guise family and brother-in-law of the late King Henri III.

An other difficulty. Following in the footsteps of La Trémoille and Bouillon, the Protestant nobility refrained from appearing in battle, shocked by Henri IV conversion to catholicism. The Protestants, in total disarray, blamed the king for abandoning them. They met regularly in assembly to reactivate their political organization. They even seize the royal tax for themselves.

But Henri IV takes over again. After subduing French Brittany, ravaging Franche-Comté and retaking Amiens from the Spaniards, Henri IV signed the Edict of Nantes in April 1598, establishing a peace between Protestants and Catholics.
Nantes was the seat of the governor of Brittany the Duc de Mercœur. He was also the last of the rebels. In all, the noble rallies cost 35 million livres tournois.

With both armies exhausted, the Peace of Vervins between France and Spain was signed on May 2, 1598. After decades of civil war, France was finally at peace.

But it was not the end for Henri IV. He led a “battle of the edict of Nantes” to get the various parliaments of the kingdom to accept the Edict. The last of these was the Parliament of Rouen in 1609.

However, the article in the Peace of Vervins concerning the Duke of Savoy became the cause of a new war. On December 20, 1599, Henri IV received Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy at Fontainebleau to settle the dispute.
In March 1600, the Duke of Savoy asked for a three-month period of reflection, and returned to his States. When the three-month period had elapsed, Henri IV summoned Charles-Emmanuel to declare his intentions. The prince replied that war would be less damaging to him than a peace such as the one being offered. Henri IV immediately declared war on him, on August 11, 1600 which led to the Treaty of Lyon* in 1601.

*Treaty of Lyon, January 17, 1601.
This was a territorial exchange between Henri IV and Charles-Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy: the Duke ceded to France Bresse, Bugey, the Pays de Gex and Valromey, possessions of the Duchy of Savoy for several centuries, but was granted control of the Marquisate of Saluces in Italy.

Henri IV marriage to Marie de Médicis

In 1599, Henri IV was approaching fifty and still had no legitimate heir. For several years, Gabrielle d’Estrées had shared his life, but as she did not belong to a ruling family, she could hardly claim to be queen. Her sudden death on the night of April 9-10, 1599, probably from puerperal eclampsia, enabled the king to consider taking a new wife worthy of his rank.

In October 1599, he had his marriage to Queen Marguerite annulled, and on December 17, 1600, he married Marie de Médicis, daughter of François I de Médicis and Jeanne d’Autriche, and niece of Ferdinand I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The marriage was a double blessing, as the dowry wiped out a whole year’s debts, and Marie de Médicis gave birth to the dauphin Louis (future Louis XIII) on September 26, 1601, thus ensuring the future of the Bourbon dynasty.

Henri IV and his other mistresses

But Henri IV is Henri IV. He jeopardizes his marriage and crown with his extramarital affairs. First, Henriette d’Entragues, an ambitious young woman, blackmailed the king to legitimize the children she had by his side. When her requests were turned down, Henriette d’Entragues repeatedly plotted against her royal lover. In 1602, when Henri IV came to present his god-daughter, Louise de Gondi, at the Prieuré Saint-Louis de Poissy, where she would become prioress in 1623, he noticed the beauty of Louise de Maupeou, whom he was courting.

In 1609, after several other flings, Henri fell in love with the young Charlotte-Marguerite de Montmorency. That year, she entered the service of Queen Marie de Médicis, wife of Henri IV. It was while rehearsing a ballet that she seduced the 56 years old king. She was just 14. In May 1609, Henri IV broke off Charlotte’s engagement to the Marquis de Bassompierre and married her to a prince of the blood, Henri II de Bourbon-Condé. Henri IV counted on the complaisance of his cousin, who was reputed to prefer men. Her husband, on the other hand, couldn’t stand her foolish eagerness and left the court with her. Henri IV followed them to the provinces, and tried to approach her under various disguises. To escape, Condé took his wife to Brussels, capital of the Spanish Netherlands.

Was the war Henri IV had planned to start on May 17, 1610 a pretext for “liberating” Charlotte? Or was it the other way around?