Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/704

670 HENRY II. (–), king of France, the second son of Francis I. and Claude, succeeded to the throne in. When only seven old he was sent by his father, with his brother the dauphin Francis, as a hostage to Spain in, whence they returned after the conclusion of the peace of Cambray in. Henry was too young to have carried away any abiding impressions, yet &amp;lt; throughout his life his character, dress, and bearing were far more Spanish than French. In 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. He did not then think that the dauphin would die so soon, and Catherine thereby become queen of France. Italian manners and politics entered with her into France, and long affected the history and fortunes of the country, Henry gathered round him a court which contrasted strongly with that of his father. Francis, with all his grave faults and selfishness, had fostered learning, had treated his people kindly, and had rarely checked even the Reformers. But Henry, under the influence of Diana of Poitiers, headed the strict Catholic movement ; the escape of the learned from Paris to Geneva at his accession showed that not merely Huguenot doctrines but Renaissance studies were in peri!. His court underwent an immediate change : the old officers were dismissed, and men whom Francis had disliked or banished returned. Immorality did not take flight, for Diana of Poitiers and Catherine de' Medici were at court, but it ceased to be gay and bright ; men must be grave and severe, even in their vices. At first Diana of Poitiers and the grim old soldier Anne of Montmorency swayed the king ; later, the two brothers Francis, duke of Guise, and Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, rose to power, with the marshal St Andre&quot; ; everything was done and given through one or other of these men. Catherine de' Medici was as yet completely in the background. The final union of Brittany with France marks the of the reign. In Henry won a great diplomatic triumph over the ministers of Edward VI. of England, by getting possession of Mary queen of Scots, then only six old ; he had her educated in France, and eventually married to his son the dauphin Francis, In  he appeared in Paris for the first time, and marked his presence by a great burning of Calvinists ; and soon after he claimed back Boulogne, which had been promised to Francis I. by Henry VIII. After a successful campaign, he made the English Government, then extremely weak, cede Boulogne, and Henry entered the place in May. Hitherto he had not come into collision with Charles V.; the time was now approaching when he would enter into contest with him, and permanently advance the borders of his kingdom, while he inflicted a great blow on the emperor. Though early in his reign he had dealt with the German Protestants, and with the Otto man power, he had taken no active steps ; now the league of German princes, headed by Maurice of Saxony, offered an opportunity not to be missed ; Henry made a compact with the Swiss and Turks, and concluded a secret treaty (September 3, ) with the German princes; in, by the league of Chambord, he undertook to seize the three bishoprics, Metz, Verdun, and Toul. And so while Maurice drove the emperor from Innsbruck, Henry sent Montmorency into Lorraine. The bishoprics were won almost without a blow, and Henry was acknow ledged as &quot;avenger of Germanic liberty&quot;; an attempt on Strasburg failed. After the siege of Metz by Charles V. in the winter of –, this district, French-speaking, though feudally under the empire, remained in French hands,—Metz till 1870, Toul and Verdun to this day. In Henry, supporting the anti-Spanish policy of the &quot; Theatine &quot; pope, Paul IV., again made war with Spain. Francis of Guise was sent early in into Italy to oppose the duke of Alva. Anne of Montmorency went to the northern frontier ; Gaspard of Coligny, who com manded in Picardy, was ordered to begin hostilities. These led to the disastrous battle of St Quentin, in which the French were utterly defeated (August 10, ) ; it was followed by the fall of the town, at that time the chief bulwark of France to the north. Francis of Guise, recalled in haste from Italy, redressed the balance at the expense of England by the capture of Calais (January ), and the triumph of the house of Guise seemed com plete when Mary Stewart was married to the dauphin in the same year ; their niece, with her claims on the Scottish and English crowns, would now ascend the throne of France. The defeat of the French at Gravelines, the desire of Montmorency to escape from captivity, the wish of the High Catholics to have leisure to extirpate heresy, the sympathy of Philip with that aim, the accession of Elizabeth of England all these things made peace necessary, and the treaty of Gateau Cambresis (April ) closed the war. As a sequel to the peace, high feast was held at Paris to celebrate the marriage of Henry s two daughters ; in a tournament he received his death-wound from the captain of his Scottish guards, Montgomery. So ended Henry II., in. Handsome, brave, and cold, he left little mark on his age; he is all but forgotten in the stormy days which followed. By Catherine de' Medici he had ten children, three of whom succeeded to the throne, Francis II., Charles IX. ; and Henry III. The legislation of his reign was slight ; he reduced the number of secretaries of state to four, and arranged their functions afresh ; he issued an edict in behalf of a better coinage, reserved to himself the exclusive sale of salt, and permitted the foundation of the university of Rheims. In we find the first French Reformed churches established at Paris ; these were quickly followed by others. The reign saw the close of the struggle between the crowns of Spain and France.

1em  HENRY III. (–), king of France, third son of Henry II. and Catherine de' Medici, succeeded to the throne of France in. In his youth, as duke of Anjou, he was warmly attached to the Huguenot opinions, as we learn from his sister Margaret of Navarre ; but his unstable character soon gave way before his mother s will, and both Henry and Margaret remained as choice orna ments of the Catholic Church. Henry won two brilliant victories at Jarnac and Moncontour, and thereby attracted the eyes of the Polish nobles, who elected him their king in. He went to Warsaw, but, on the death of his brother Charles IX. in, came back to France and assumed the crown. He returned to a wretched kingdom, torn with civil war. Now began that &quot; reign of favourites&quot; which has made his career a byword. His mother, ever balancing between parties, first favoured the favourites, then went with the Huguenot chiefs. In these days the famous League was organized (see, ), and Henry declared himself its head in 1576. He took but a feeble part in the sixth and seventh civil wars, and was little in earnest till, in, the death of his younger brother, Francis, duke of Anjou, made Henry of Navarre next heir to the throne, and excited to the utmost the fierce passions of the Guises and the League. The 