Henri III Of France - King Of Poland And King Of France

Henry III of France was born on September 19, 1551, in Fontainebleau. He was the fourth son of King Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. Upon his birth, he was given the title Duc d'Anjou. Henry's father, Henry II of France, died on July 10, 1559, making his older brother, Charles, the new king, as Charles IX of France. As Henry grew up, he became the favorite child of his mother, Catherine de' Medici, who wanted Henry to become the strongest advocate for the Valois dynasty. Thus, in 1567, the young prince was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, a high military office that made him the head of the royal armies. At the age of 16, the Duc d'Anjou became the second-highest-ranked royal in France. This appointment upset the political ambitions of Prince Louis de Condé, who also coveted the office. Consequently, de Condé, who was also a Protestant leader, decided to leave the court and took up arms against the king. Henry became personally involved in the Second and Third Wars of religion. Ably advised by Maréchal Gaspard de Soultavan, he won the Battle of Jarnac, during which de Condé was assassinated in 1569. Henry allowed the prince's remains to be ridiculed by the people and carried around for two days on a donkey, thus attracting the resentment of Henry I of Bourbon-Condé, Louis' son and successor. Henry's military successes during the war strengthened his position in Europe and irritated the slightly older Charles IX, and the relationship between Henry and Charles consequently deteriorated. Very early on, the Duc d'Anjou got involved in politics. As he was closer related to the House of Guise than to the House of Montmorency, he advocated a strict policy against Protestants in the royal council, where his mother had introduced him. His ambition to govern and his intellectual sharpness made him, in the eyes of his contemporaries, a highly valued potential successor. Therefore, Catherine de' Medici wished her son to marry a politically interesting candidate and started marriage negotiations for a union between Henry and Queen Elizabeth I of England, even though she was almost twice Henry's age and a Protestant. It is assumed that Elizabeth merely wanted to upset Spain with the negotiations. Henry, for his part, is said to have called her a public whore. It is also possible that Henry's probable homosexuality played a role in the failure of the negotiations. In 1752, the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus died. As Sigismund had no offspring, with him the male line of the Jagiellonian dynasty was extinguished. Thus, the succession to the Polish throne had to be reorganized. Since Sigismund's sister, Anna Jagiellon, was unmarried, it was decided in Krakow to marry her to a foreign prince and thus legitimize the new king. Anna was already 49 years old at the time, so there was no hope for offspring being born from this marriage. After eight months of diplomatic negotiations with the European courts, five candidates were presented to the Polish people. The entire nobility of the country took part in the free election of the new king, traveling to Warsaw for this purpose. Because of Henry's previous viewpoint against Protestantism, there were considerable objections in tolerant Poland about his candidacy. This gave the Huguenots in France some breathing space, as the religious wars were temporarily suspended so as not to jeopardize Henry's election to the throne of Poland. A permanent contract between the Polish nation and Henry was drawn up, which Henry had to sign before his coronation as king. Henry now became King Henry II of Poland. From the beginning of his reign, however, the young ruler showed little interest in Polish affairs of state and refused to marry Anna Jagiellon, causing an aversion to grow between him and the Polish people. When his brother, King Charles IX, died one year later, Henry left his kingdom to claim the throne of France. He was consequently deposed as King of Poland. Nevertheless, he used the title King of Poland until his death. Upon his arrival in France, Henry was crowned King Henry III of France on February 13, 1575 in Rennes Cathedral. Two days later, he married Louise de Lorraine Vaudemont, who came from a younger line of the House of Lorraine and was thus related to the House of Guise. The marriage remained childless. During his reign, Henry became a patron of the arts and he issued decrees that could have alleviated his country's financial and constitutional problems if he had pursued their implementation with the necessary vigor. Apparently, however, he was more interested in the pomp and circumstance of his position than in the tasks of being a real head of state. Furthermore, the Huguenots were given more generous terms than ever before in the Edict of Beaulieu. The edict met with such opposition from the Catholic Party that the extremist Henry I of Guise founded the French Holy League. Henry was forced to take back most of the concessions made to the Huguenots by signing the Treaty of Bergerac in 1577, after which the Holy League was officially dissolved. Catherine de' Medici, Henry's mother, travelled south and secured a precarious peace in endless rounds of negotiations with the leader of the Huguenots, King Henry of Navarre, who was also Henry III's brother-in-law after his marriage to Marguerite of Valois. When his younger brother and heir to the throne, François-Hercule, died in 1584, Henry III entered into negotiations with Henry of Navarre and secured the latter's succession to the throne, as according to Salic inheritance law, Henry de Navarre, as a descendant of King Louis IX, was next in line to succession. This was, however, on the condition that the latter converted back to the Catholic faith. Henry de Navarre, however, refused. This development alarmed the Guises and the Holy League was reactivated. The ensuing dispute was also known as the War of the Three Henrys, King Henry III of France, King Henry of Navarre and Duke Henry I of Guise. The renewed Holy League, however, was of a new character. It was no longer a purely noble party, but a movement with the backing of the popular masses, especially in Paris. The Holy League formed an alliance with Spain in early 1585. Under pressure from the Duke de Guise and following his mother's advice, Henry III issued an anti-Huguenot edict in 1585 that also excluded Henry de Navarre from the succession. In January 1588, the League issued an ultimatum to Henry, but the King responded with firmness. Instead of giving in to the demands, including the introduction of the Inquisition in France, he ordered troops to be brought into Paris. Thereupon, upon the instigation of the Duke de Guise, an uprising by the people in the city was triggered, called the Day of the Barricades. The King was locked up in the Louvre, but he managed to escape to Chartres. Eventually, Henry signed a settlement with the League which, among other things, guaranteed the Cardinal de Bourbon the succession to the throne. But in December 1588, Henry III took advantage of the assembly of the Estat General in Blois to have the Duke de Guise and his brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, murdered. He had the Duke's son, Charles de Guise, imprisoned as a precaution. Upon learning of the death of Henry I of Guise, the citizens of Paris and other cities rose up against the King and Henry III had to flee Paris again. At the beginning of 1589, his mother, Catherine de' Medici, died, and in April, Henry changed sides again and renewed the alliance with his brother-in-law, the Protestant Henry of Navarre, after which he laid siege to Paris with an Huguenot army. During this siege, Henry III was mortally wounded on August 1, 1589, by Jacques Clément, a young Dominican monk. On his deathbed, the King confirmed his promise that Henry of Navarre was to be his successor as Henry IV of France. Henry III of France died on August 2, 1589, in Saint-Cloud, and was buried 20 years after his death in the Basilica de Saint-Denis. As he had no heir, the Valois dynasty became extinct after 261 years of rule. Henry of Navarre succeeded him as Henry IV, the first of the kings of the House of Bourbon. Thank you for watching.