Henry IV the Great of France de Bourbon ^{1 2}

  General Notes:

So called (until 1572) Prince De Béarn, Henry Of Navarre (Of Bourbon), French Henri De Navarre, or De Bourbon.

King of Navarre (as Henry III, 1572-89) and first Bourbon king of France (1589-1610), who, at the end of the Wars of Religion, abjured Protestantism and converted to Roman Catholicism (1593) in order to win Paris and reunify France. With the aid of such ministers as the Duke de Sully, he brought new prosperity to France.

Prince of Béarn.

Henry de Bourbon-Navarre was the son of Antoine de Bourbon, Duke de Vendôme, and Jeanne d' Albret, queen of Navarre from 1555. Henry, through his father, was in the sole legitimate line of descent from the Capetian kings of France. It was scarcely to be expected, however, that he would one day succeed to the throne of France, since Catherine de Médicis had already borne three sons to the reigning king, Henry II, and would soon bear him a fourth. Prince Henry spent most of his early childhood in Béarn. From 1561 to 1567 he lived with his second cousins, the children of the king of France, among whom was his future wife Margaret.

The religious crisis between Roman Catholic and Protestant (Huguenot) forces was then coming to a head, leading to a long period of civil war. Antoine de Bourbon temporarily allied himself with the Protestants but changed sides and was mortally wounded in battle against them. Henry's mother, Jeanne d'Albret, held firm and announced her Calvinism in 1560. Henry had just turned 13 when his mother brought him back to Béarn. At a crucial age in his intellectual development, he was brought up in the strict principles of Protestantism. About the same time, he began his military education. In the autumn of 1567, he served as nominal head of a punitive expedition launched against the rebellious Roman Catholic gentry of lower Navarre, which ended in an easy victory.

In 1568 his mother put him into the charge of her brother-in-law Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, who was the leader of the Protestant forces. The Protestants were surprised and defeated near Jarnac on March 13, 1569, by the Duke d'Anjou, the future Henry III, and Condé was killed. Jeanne d'Albret took Henry to the new leader of the Protestant forces, Gaspard de Coligny, who gave the young prince his military education. Henry distinguished himself at the Battle of Arnay-le-Duc on June 26, 1570, when he led the first charge of the Huguenot cavalry. The long campaign through the ravaged provinces, extending from Poitou to the heart of Burgundy, forged in him the soldierly spirit that he would retain throughout his life and made him reflect on the disaster that had befallen the kingdom.

Marriages:

On August 18, 1572, he married, firstly, Marguerite de Valois, annulled in 1599, with no children.

On December 17, 1600, he married, secondly, Marie de Médicis with six children:
Children:
Louis XIII (September 27, 1601 - May 14, 1643)
Elisabeth de France (November 22, 1602 - October 6, 1644) - married Philip IV of Spain on November 25, 1615 in Bordeaux
Christine (February 12, 1606 - December 27, 1663)
Nicholas (April 16, 1607 - November 17, 1611)
Gaston, Duke of Orleans (April 25, 1608 - February 2, 1660)
Henriette-Marie (November 25, 1609 - September 10, 1669) - married Charles I of England on May 11, 1625 by proxy.

  Noted events in his life were:

• He was a Duke de Vendôme.

• Acceded: King of Navarre, 1572.

• Acceded: King of France, 1589.

Henry married Margaret de Valois, daughter of Henry II of France de Valois and Catherine of Florence de Medici, on 18 Aug 1572 in Paris, France. (Margaret de Valois was born on 14 May 1553 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France and died on 27 Mar 1615 in Paris, France.)

Henry next married Marie de' Medici, daughter of Francesco I of Tuscany de' Medici and Joanna of Austria, on 17 Dec 1600. (Marie de' Medici was born on 26 Apr 1573 in Florence, Toscana, Italy and died on 3 Jul 1642 in Cologne, Germany.)