marks the height of feudalism. The Normans were independent of him, with their frontier barely 25 m. west of Paris; to the south his authority was really bounded by the Loire; in the east the count of Champagne was little more than nominally his subject, and the duchy of Burgundy was almost entirely cut off from the king. Yet Henry maintained the independence of the clergy against the pope Leo IX., and claimed Lorraine from the emperor Henry III. In an interview at Ivois, he reproached the emperor with the violation of promises, and Henry III. challenged him to a single combat. According to the German chronicle—which French historians doubt—the king of France declined the combat and fled from Ivois during the night. In 1059 he had his eldest son Philip crowned as joint king, and died the following year. Henry’s first wife was Maud, niece of the emperor Henry III., whom he married in 1043. She died childless in 1044. Historians have sometimes confused her with Maud (or Matilda), the emperor Conrad II.’s daughter, to whom Henry was affianced in 1033, but who died before the marriage. In 1051 Henry married the Russian princess Anne, daughter of Yaroslav I., grand duke of Kiev. She bore him two sons, Philip, his successor, and Hugh the great, count of Vermandois.
See the Historiae of Rudolph Glaber, edited by M. Prou (Paris, 1886); F. Sochnée, Catalogue des actes d’Henri Ier (1907); de Caiz de Saint Aymour, Anne de Russie, reine de France (1896); E. Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome ii. (1901), and the article on Henry I. in La Grande Encyclopédie by M. Prou.
HENRY II. (1519–1559), king of France, the second son of
Francis I. and Claude, succeeded to the throne in 1547. When
only seven years old he was sent by his father, with his brother
the dauphin Francis, as a hostage to Spain in 1526, whence they
returned after the conclusion of the peace of Cambrai in 1530.
Henry was too young to have carried away any abiding impressions,
yet throughout his life his character, dress and bearing
were far more Spanish than French. In 1533 his father married
him to Catherine de’ Medici, from which match, as he said,
Francis hoped to gain great advantage, even though it might
be somewhat of a misalliance. In 1536 Henry, hitherto duke of
Orleans, became dauphin by the death of his elder brother
Francis. From that time he was under the influence of two
personages, who dominated him completely for the remainder
of his life—Diane de Poitiers, his mistress, and Anne de Montmorency,
his mentor. Moreover, his younger brother, Charles
of Orleans, who was of a more sprightly temperament, was his
father’s favourite; and the rivalry of Diane and the duchesse
d’Étampes helped to make still wider the breach between the
king and the dauphin. Henry supported the constable Montmorency
when he was disgraced in 1541; protested against
the treaty of Crépy in 1544; and at the end of the reign held
himself completely aloof. His accession in 1547 gave rise to a
veritable revolution at the court. Diane, Montmorency and the
Guises were all-powerful, and dismissed Cardinal de Tournon,
de Longueval, the duchesse d’Étampes and all the late king’s
friends and officials. At that time Henry was twenty-eight years
old. He was a robust man, and inherited his father’s love of
violent exercise; but his character was weak and his intelligence
mediocre, and he had none of the superficial and brilliant gifts
of Francis I. He was cold, haughty, melancholy and dull.
He was a bigoted Catholic, and showed to the Protestants even
less mercy than his father. During his reign the royal authority
became more severe and more absolute than ever. Resistance to
the financial extortions of the government was cruelly chastised,
and the “Chambre Ardente” was instituted against the Reformers.
Abroad, the struggle was continued against Charles V.
and Philip II., which ended in the much-discussed treaty of
Cateau-Cambrésis. Some weeks afterwards high feast was held
on the occasion of the double marriage of the king’s daughter
Elizabeth with the king of Spain, and of his sister Margaret
with the duke of Savoy. On the 30th of June 1559, when
tilting with the count of Montgomery, Henry was wounded in
the temple by a lance. In spite of the attentions of Ambroise
Paré he died on the 10th of July. By his wife Catherine de’
Medici he had seven children living: Elizabeth, queen of Spain;
Claude, duchess of Lorraine; Francis (II), Charles (IX.) and
Henry (III.), all of whom came to the throne; Marguerite,
who became queen of Navarre in 1572; and Francis, duke of
Alençon and afterwards of Anjou, who died in 1584.
The bulk of the documents for the reign of Henry II. are unpublished, and are in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Of the published documents, see especially the correspondence of Catherine de’ Medici (ed. by de la Ferrière, Paris, 1880), of Diane de Poitiers (ed. by Guiffrey, Paris, 1866), of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d’Albret (ed. by Rochambeau, Paris, 1877), of Odet de Selve, ambassador to England (ed. by Lefèvre-Pontalis, Paris, 1888) and of Dominique du Gabre, ambassador to Venice (ed. by Vitalis, Paris, 1903); Ribier, Lettres et mémoires d’estat (Paris, 1666); Relations des ambassadeurs vénitiens, &c. Of the contemporary memoirs and histories, see Brantôme (ed. by Lalanne, Paris, 1864–1882), François de Lorraine (ed. by Michaud and Poujoulat, Paris, 1839), Montluc (ed. by de Ruble, Paris, 1864), F. de Boyvin du Villars (Michaud and Poujoulat), F. de Rabutin (Panthéon littéraire, Paris, 1836). See also de Thou, Historia sui temporis ... (London, 1733); Decrue, Anne de Montmorency (Paris, 1889); H. Forneron, Les Ducs de Guise et leur époque, vol. i. (Paris, 1877); and H. Lemonnier, “La France sous Henri II” (Paris, 1904), in the Histoire de France, by E. Lavisse, which contains a fuller bibliography of the subject.
HENRY III. (1551–1589), king of France, third son of Henry II.
and Catherine de’ Medici, was born at Fontainebleau on the
19th of September 1551, and succeeded to the throne of France
on the death of his brother Charles IX. in 1574. In his youth,
as duke of Anjou, he was warmly attached to the Huguenot
opinions, as we learn from his sister Marguerite de Valois; but
his unstable character soon gave way before his mother’s will,
and both Henry and Marguerite remained choice ornaments
of the Catholic Church. Henry won, under the direction of
Marshal de Tavannes, two brilliant victories at Jarnac and
Moncontour (1569). He was the favourite son of his mother, and
took part with her in organizing the massacre of St Bartholomew.
In 1573 Catherine procured his election to the throne of Poland.
Passionately enamoured of the princess of Condé, he set out
reluctantly to Warsaw, but, on the death of his brother Charles
IX. in 1574, he escaped from his Polish subjects, who endeavoured
to retain him by force, came back to France and assumed the
crown. He returned to a wretched kingdom, torn with civil
war. In spite of his good intentions, he was incapable of governing,
and abandoned the power to his mother and his favourites.
Yet he was no dullard. He was a man of keen intelligence and
cultivated mind, and deserves as much as Francis I. the title of
patron of letters and art. But his incurable indolence and love
of pleasure prevented him from taking any active part in affairs.
Surrounded by his mignons, he scandalized the people by his
effeminate manners. He dressed himself in women’s clothes,
made a collection of little dogs and hid in the cellars when it
thundered. The disgust aroused by the vices and effeminacy
of the king increased the popularity of Henry of Guise. After
the “day of the barricades” (the 12th of May 1588), the king,
perceiving that his influence was lost, resolved to rid himself
of Guise by assassination; and on the 23rd of December 1588
his faithful bodyguard, the “forty-five,” carried out his design
at the château of Blois. But the fanatical preachers of the League
clamoured furiously for vengeance, and on the 1st of August 1589,
while Henry III. was investing Paris with Henry of Navarre,
Jacques Clement, a Dominican friar, was introduced into his
presence on false letters of recommendation, and plunged a
knife into the lower part of his body. He died a few hours
afterwards with great fortitude. By his wife Louise of Lorraine,
daughter of the count of Vaudémont, he had no children, and on
his deathbed he recognized Henry of Navarre as his successor.
See the memoirs and chronicles of l’Estoile, Villeroy, Ph. Hurault de Cheverny, Brantôme, Marguerite de Valois, la Huguerye, du Plessis-Mornay, &c.; Archives curieuses of Cimber and Danjou, vols. x. and xi.; Mémoires de la Ligue (new ed., Amsterdam, 1758); the histories of T. A. d’Aubigné and J. A. de Thou; Correspondence of Catherine de’ Medici and of Henry IV. (in the Collection de documents inédits), and of the Venetian ambassadors, &c.; P. Matthieu, Histoire de France, vol. i. (1631); Scipion Dupleix, Histoire de Henri III (1633); Robiquet, Paris et la Ligue (1886); and J. H. Mariéjol, “La Réforme et la Ligue,” in the Histoire de France, by E. Lavisse (Paris, 1904), which contains a more complete bibliography.
