Henry III of France

King of Poland (r. 1573-1574) and France (r. 1574-1589)

• Born: September 19, 1551
• Birthplace: Fontainebleau, France
• Died: August 2, 1589
• Place of death: Saint-Cloud, France

Henry III, king during the worst years of the French Wars of Religion, lost control over his realm. Intelligent and well-educated, he was also indecisive and erratic. His personal behavior and unbridled spending in the midst of economic depression made him perhaps the most hated French king, and his assassination ended the Valois Dynasty.

Early Life

Henry was the fourth son of Henry II and Catherine de Médicis , and the third to survive childhood. He stood behind his brothers Francis and Charles in the line of succession. Baptized Édouard-Alexandre, he became known as Henry at his confirmation. He was regarded as the brightest of the royal sons and received an excellent Renaissance education, learning from the Humanist Jacques Amyot, known for his French translations of Greek works. When his brother Francis became king in July, 1559, Henry received the title duke of Orléans.

Life’s Work

In December, 1560, Francis II died from infection, and the next brother became King Charles IX . Now successor to the throne, Henry began to be trained for rule. He accompanied his brother and mother on their royal progress of 1564-1565 that traversed the entire kingdom, learning at first hand of the economic troubles and the sectarian violence of the religious wars.

At age fifteen, he became duke of Anjou and was named lieutenant-general of the realm. This appointment gave him nominal command of the royal forces sent to pacify the southwest, where a powerful Protestant army was in the field. Although he was expected to defer to the experienced generals in his army, his desire to win glory in war was a major factor in bringing about the Battle of Jarnac in March, 1569. His victory made Henry the hero of Catholic France. Nonetheless, he supported the Peace of Saint-Germain in 1570, which included a marriage contract between his younger sister Marguerite and the Huguenot (Protestant) Henry, prince of Bourbon (later Henry, king of Navarre).

The peace brought Gaspard de Coligny, a Huguenot leader, to the royal court, where his growing influence over Charles led to an assassination attempt on him in August, 1572. Henry’s part in the ensuing St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of the Huguenots in Paris is ambiguous; he is generally assigned a role in persuading Charles that the Huguenot leaders were a threat to the throne. When the massacre led to renewed civil war, Henry served as commander of the royalist forces, and his apparent zeal in defending Catholicism raised his standing among French Catholics to great heights.

Also in 1572, the king of Poland died. The Polish throne was elective, and Catherine, eager to have all her sons wear crowns, secured Henry’s election through extensive bribery. In February, 1574, Henry arrived in Poland, where he agreed to the Henrician Articles . They established the principles by which the Polish monarchy functioned until 1791. Barely five months after he reached Poland, word came that his brother had died, and he was king of France, with his mother serving as regent until his return. The Poles refused to allow him to leave, so he slipped away at night. Despite his rush to leave, he always regarded himself as the king of Poland, although the Poles quickly elected a new king, and he signed edicts as king of France and Poland.

His journey home took him through Venice, where he spent several weeks and developed a deep love of Venetian culture. He reached France in September and was crowned on February 13, 1575. At the same time he married Louise of Lorraine, a relative of the Guises, who were the leaders of the ardent Catholics.

Back in France, Henry III found himself in the midst of the religious war that had been festering since 1572. The Catholics were convinced that the victor of Jarnac would lead them to victory over the Huguenots, but Henry badly disappointed them with a policy of reconciliation. Faced with a loose alliance of Huguenots and discontented Catholic nobles, who included his younger brother, the duke of Alençon, Henry issued an edict of pacification in May, 1576. It granted the Huguenots public exercise of their religion, except in Paris, and gave their leaders eight towns to garrison as security places.

The Catholic reaction to these concessions to the Protestants was fierce, and zealous nobles organized the Catholic League to resist the edict. Henry I of Lorraine, duke of Guise, emerged as its head. The king tried to deal with the opposition by calling a meeting of the Estates-General, which met at Blois in December, 1576. The league dominated the meeting and pressed the king into declaring that there was a “law of Catholicity,” which required that the king be Catholic. This law was intended to prevent Henry of Bourbon, who now stood second in the line of succession despite being only a distant cousin, from becoming king. The Estates-General also refused to grant the king new revenues, so the monarchy’s disastrous fiscal situation could not be improved. Failing to gain anything from the Estates-General, Henry had to withdraw from his concessions to the Huguenots, designing a new edict in 1577 that limited their right of worship to those places that they controlled.

This change satisfied the Catholic League without drawing the Huguenots back to war, and for the next seven years, France was largely at peace. Henry now had time to indulge his interest in learning and culture. Most notable was his Palace Academy, in which literature, music, philosophy, and science were discussed among the most learned men and women of Europe. The well-known philosopher and lecturer Giordano Bruno participated in it between 1579 and 1581.

In addition to the violent tension between the Catholics and Protestants and the economic shambles of the monarchy, Henry’s personal behavior also caused him serious problems. He gathered at the court a cadre of young noblemen whom he called his mignons (darlings), on whom he lavished money and titles. The strong hint of homosexuality associated with the mignons was compounded by his enthusiasm for Italian fashion, which most French regarded as effeminate, and his lack of children seemed to confirm the suspicion. His attempts at raising taxes and the royal court’s extravagance in the midst of the severe economic problems made him perhaps the most vilified king in French history. Among the charges thrown at Henry were incest with his sister Marguerite and practicing black magic. Because he was very devout in public, he was also accused of being a hypocrite.

Still, Henry probably would have muddled through if his unmarried younger brother had not died in 1584. Since Henry had no son himself, his successor was Henry of Bourbon, the Huguenot leader. The dormant Catholic League reappeared with a vengeance. Now it included not only the Catholic nobility but also a great many townspeople, especially in Paris, who largely took over the leadership of the Catholic cause. Supported by Philip II of Spain, the league persuaded Henry III to declare again the law of Catholicity. In response, Henry of Bourbon took up arms, leading to the War of the Three Henrys (the king, Bourbon, and Guise). In late 1587, Guise defeated a Protestant army in eastern France. His victory so elevated his standing among Paris’s Catholics that the king, terrified at a Guise-led rebellion, barred him from coming to Paris. He came anyway in March, 1588, and Henry’s efforts to keep control of the city led to the Day of the Barricades, in which the leaguers used barricades in the streets to isolate the royal troops and force them to surrender. Henry fled from Paris.

Deeply humiliated but unable to strike back immediately, Henry III agreed to the league’s demand that he call a meeting of the Estates-General, whose sole purpose was to bar Bourbon from the throne. When the meeting ended in December, 1588, Henry III ordered the assassination of Guise and his brother, the cardinal of Guise. Catholic rage at the king was enormous. The pope excommunicated him, and leaguer preachers and pamphleteers denounced him as a tyrant whose killing would be a holy deed. A young Dominican brother, Jacques Clément, took them at their word. Gaining entrance on August 2, 1589, to Henry’s camp at Saint-Cloud, where the king had joined forces with Bourbon, Clément stabbed him. Before dying, Henry recognized Bourbon as his successor. His death marked the end of the Valois Dynasty and the beginning of the Bourbon.

Significance

The situation in the realm under Henry III was abysmal. Sectarian violence had destroyed much of its infrastructure, a severe economic downturn had undermined the well-being of almost every economic class, worsening climate was causing frequent crop failures, and the king received only a small portion of the taxes collected in his name. Henry made efforts to deal with the problems. He changed the currency, decreed badly needed reforms of taxation and the bureaucracy, and saw to the writing of a massive revision of the law code, called the Code Henri . Unfortuantely, he failed to implement these reforms. His popular successor, however, did. Henry IV gained credit that partially belonged to Henry III.

Bibliography

Bell, David A. “Unmasking a King: The Political Uses of Popular Literature Under the French Catholic League, 1588-1589.” Sixteenth Century Journal 20 (1998): 371-386. Provides a detailed account of Henry III’s erratic behavior and how his enemies used it to undermine his authority and prestige.

Cameron, Keith. Henri III, a Maligned or Malignant King? Exeter, England: University of Exeter Press, 1978. Examines Henry’s reputation for illicit behavior and largely exonerates him.

Holt, Mack P. The French Wars of Religion, 1562-1629. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. A well-written account of the civil wars of Henry’s era. Includes bibliography and index.

Palm, Franklin. The Establishment of French Absolutism, 1574-1610. New York: F. S. Crofts, 1928. Dated but valuable study of the political developments of Henry’s reign.

Wood, James B. The King’s Army: Warfare, Soldiers, and Society During the Wars of Religion in France, 1562-1576. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Offers an in-depth look at the military side of Charles IX and Henry III. Includes bibliographical references and an index.