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LEFT HENEY 603 HENRY ther commenced his reformation in Ger- many, Henry wrote a book against him, for which he was complimented by the Pope with the title of "Defender of the Faith." But this attachment to the Ro- man see did not last long; for, having conceived an affection for Anne Boleyn, he determined to divorce his wife, Cath- arine of Aragon, to whom he had been married 18 years. His plea for the di- vorce was that Catharine was his brother Arthur's widow. The divorce being re- fused by the Pope, Henry assumed the title of Supreme Head of the English Church, put down the monasteries, and alienated their possessions to secular pur- poses. His marriage with Anne Boleyn followed; but he afterward sent her to the scaffold, and married Lady Jane Sey- mour, who died in child-bed. He next married Anne of Cleves; but she not proving agreeable to his expectations, he put her away, and caused Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the projector of the match, to be beheaded. His next wife was Catharine Howard, who was be- headed for adultery; after which he es- poused Catharine Parr, who survived him. He was a man of strong passions and considerable learning. The historian Froude has vindicated his memory in many respects. He died in 1547. FRANCE. Henry I., born in 1004, succeeded his father, Robert I., in 1031, and died in 1060, after a reign of 23 years, frequent- ly disturbed by civil and foreign wars. Henry II., son of Francis I. and his queen, Claude, born 1518. His marriage with Catharine de Medicis was celebrated at Marseilles, in 1533, by her uncle, Pope Clement VII. Henry succeeded his father in 1547, and at once made a com- plete change in the court and ministry. The most influential persons in his reigTi were the Cardinal of Lorraine and his brother Francis, Duke of Guise, the Con- stable de Montmorenci, the Marshal de St. Andre, and Diana of Poitiers, the king's favorite mistress, whom he made duchess of Valentinois. He carried on war with England, and recovered Bou- logne for France ; war with the Pope and with Spain; fighting for the Protestants in Germany, while he persecuted them in France; acquired by conquest Metz, Toul, and Verdun; and retained them under the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, which closed the war in 1559. By the same treaty Calais was confirmed to France. The siege of Metz by Charles v., and its defense by the Duke of Guise; the battle and siege of Renti; the great victory of the Spaniards at St. Quentin; and the battle of Gravelines, are the chief military events of this reign. Mary, the young queen of Scots, was brought to France about 1549 and betrothed to the dauphin Francois. Henry died in July, 1559, from the effects of a wound acci- dentally inflicted by the Count of Mont- gomery at a splendid tournament a few days before. Henry III., third son of Henry II. and Catharine de Medicis; born in 1551. He was first known as Duke of Anjou, and distinguished himself as a soldier at the battle of Jarnac and Moncontour. He was elected King of Poland in 1573, but being proclaimed King of France on the death of Charles IX., in 1574, he escaped, not without risk, from Poland, and re- turned to France. The country was dis- tracted with the conflicting factions, and wasted with civil war; and the king, feeble in character and self-indulgent, was governed by ignoble favorites. The famous Catholic League was formed, with the Duke of Guise at its head; Henry of Navarre put himself at the head of the Huguenots, and won the bat- tle of Coutras; Paris fell into the power of the League in 1588, and the king fled to Chartres and Rouen ; later in the same year he convoked the states-general at Blois, and there had the two Guises as- sassinated, a crime which excited the re- volt of Paris and the principal cities of the kingdom. The Duke of Mayenne was named by the League lieutenant-general of the royal estate and crown of France, and Henry, roused at last to action, joined his rival, Henry of Navarre, and advanced to besiege Paris. At St. Cloud, which he made his headquarters, he was stabbed by a fanatic, Jacques Clement, and died the day after, Aug. 1, 1589. Henry III. left no children, and was the last sovereign of the Valois line. Henry IV. (Quatre), called The Great, King of France and Navarre; born in 1553 in Pau, in Beam. His father, An- thony of Bourbon, was descended from a son of Louis IX.; his mother was Jeanne d'Albret, daughter of Henry, King of Navarre. He was brought up in the simple and hardy manner of the peasantry of Beam, and thus laid the foundation of a vigorous constitution and temperate habits. When the perfidious design of destroying the Huguenot chiefs by a massacre was formed by Charles IX. and his mother, Catherine, one of their means to lull suspicion was to pro- pose to Queen Jeanne a marriage be- tween Henry and Margaret of Valois, the king's youngest sister. While prep- arations were making for the marriage festival, Henry's mother died at Paris, not without strong suspicions of poison. Having assumed the title of King of Na- varre, his marriage took place, Aug. 18,