Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/838

* HENRY II. 774 HENRY IV. and a persecutor of the Huguenots, Henry made treaties of alliance with the German Protestants, led an army of 38,000 men to aid JIaurice of Saxony against the Emperor, and made himself master of the bishoprics of Toul and Verdun, while ilontmorency seized Jletz by treachery (1552). After the abdication of Charles V. (1555-50) Henry embraced the opportunity of attacking the Netherlands and Italj' before Philip II. could consolidate his newly acquired jjossessions ; but the results of this step were disastrous to France at every point. In Italy, the attack on Naples, made by Guise at the head of 20,000 men, utterly failed ; while in the Low Countries the French under Montmorency sus- tained a total defeat, August 10, 1557, at Saint Quentin, and were forced to abandon the town to the Spaniards. This was followed by the defeat of De Thermes at Gravelines in 1558, which with other causes led to the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. April 2-3, 1559. On June 29th Henry II. was mortally wounded in a tour- nament by Count Montgomery, the captain of his Scottish Guards, and died July 10, 1559. He is represented by historians as a bold and hand- some man, but cold and indolent. His Queen, Catharine de' Medici, bore him ten children, of whom three lived to be kings of France. He was succeeded by his eldest son, who became Francis II. Consult : The contemporary memoirs of Monthieu, Tavannes. Vieilleville, Villars, and Brantome: also. Barre-Duparcq, Eistoire de Henri II. (Paris, 1887) : Ranke, Civil Wars and Moiwrchy in France in the Hixteenth and Seven- teenth Centuries (trans. London, 1852-61). See, also, France; and consult the authorities re- ferred to there. HENRY III. (1551-89). King of France from 1574 tn 1589. He was the third son of Henry II. and Catharine de' Medici, and was the last of the House of Valois. He was born at Fontainebleau. September 19, 1551, and in his youth bore the title of Duke of Anjou. At the age of sixteen he was made a lieutenant-general, and placed in nominal command of the armies of France, though the real direction of operations was in the liands of Marshal de Tavannes. Henry had a part in the victories over the Huguenots at Jarnac and iloncontour in 1569, and was active in abetting the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. He was elected King of Poland in 1573, but upon receiving news of the death of his brother, Charles IX.. in the following year, he fled from Cracow to make certain liis succession in France. As King he continued the war against the Huguenots; but the union of the party" of his brother, the Duke of Alencon. with the Huguenots wrung from the alarmed King the Peace of Beaulieu (or of Mon- sieur) in 1576, confirmed by the Edict of Poitiers or Bergerac in 1577. This peace granted so many privileges to the Huguenots that it exasperated the Catholic Party and led to the formation .of the Holy League, the avowed object of Mhieh was to maintain the supremacy of Catholicism. and the secret purpose to secure the reversion of the thi-one to the Guises. !Mean while the King forfeited all respect bv the indulgence of his vicious propensities. His life was marked by alternate outbursts of licentioiisness and moods of srlnoniy fannticism. The .nffeetion he lavished liTion his ofTeminnte favorites, or miqnons, as they were called, aroused the disgvist of the nation. A renewed war with the Huguenots (1579-80) was concluded by the Peace of Fleix, a renewal of the terms of that of Bergerac. The strength of the League grew rapidly, aided by the popularity of the Duke of Guise with the Catholic masses. By the death of the Duke of Anjou (formerly of Alencon), Henry of Navarre became heir to the throne (1584) ; but the Catho- lics would not accept him, and Henry III., after an attempt to come to an understanding with his cousin of Navarre, issued the Edict of Nemours (1585), repealing all privileges granted the Huguenots. The so-called "War of the Three Henrys' then broke out. In 1587 the Huguenots under Henry of Navarre triumphed at Coutras. King Henry found that Henry of Guise, through his commanding position, was becoming master of the kingdom. On May 12, 1588, the so-called Day of the Barricades, the inhabitants of Paris rose against the royal forces, and were quelled only by the interposition of Guise. The King fled to Blois, convoked the Estates, and sum- moned Guise to a private audience. Guise was assassinated in the King's cabinet by the guards known as the 'Forty-five' (December 23. 1588) ; and his brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, was put to death on the following day. This double assassination aroused the hatred of Catholic France. The doctors of the Sorbonne declared the people to be relieved of the duty of obedience to the King, and the heads of the League dis- solved the Parliament. Henry was distracted by the difficulties of his position, and threw him- self under the protection of Henry of Navarre. The two kings advanced at the head of an army of 40,000 Huguenots on Paris, which woild prob- ably have had to capitulate had not Henry III. been assassinated, August 1, 1589, by a fanatical young Dominican, named .Jacques Clement. The murderer was slain on the spot by the royal guard, and the King died on the following day, after having declared Henry of Navarre his suc- cessor. Consult: The Memoirs of Tavannes. Vieille- ville. Castelnau. Brantome, and De Thou; also Freer, Henry III., His Court and Times (3 vols., London, 1858) : .Jackson. The La.st of the Vaiois and the Accession of Henry of Sararre (2 vols., London, 1888); Ranke. Civil Wars and Mon- » archy in France in the Sixteenth and Serentcenth Centuries (2 vols.. Eng. trans., London. 1852) ; E. Armstrong. The French Wars of Reliyion, 1559-98 (London, 1892) ; De Noailles. Henri de Valois et la Pologne (3 vols., Paris, 1867) ; De la Barre- Duparcq, Histoire de Henri III. (Paris, 1882) ; Robiquet Paris ct la lAque sous Henri III. (Paris. 1886) ; Nolhac and Salerti. II riaiji/io in Italia di Fnrico III., re di Franeia (Turin, 1890). See France; Hucuenots. HENRY IV. (1553-1610). Kin? of France from 1589 to IfilO, sometimes called the Great. He was born in the Castle of Pau. Beam. Decem- ber 14. 1553, being the third son of Antoine de Bourbon and .Jeanne d'Alliret. daughter and heir- ess of Henry IL, King of Navarre and Beam, and fillied throTigh his father with the French royal family. In 1555 his mother became Queen of Navarre, and gave her husband the title of King. Henry himself was kno^vn as Prince of Viane. His father's death, in 1562, placed him under the sole control of his mother who was a zealous Calvinist, and was careful to select learned men holdinc her own tenets for his instructors. JTpnn the outbreak of the third Civil War in France