DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69942#0199
HENRY IV.
With the exception of the long and glorious reign of
Louis XIV. and that memorable sera, when, by the mere
force of genius, Charlemagne acquired the supremacy
over all his cotemporariesy the history of the French mo-
narchy presents nothing so interesting as the life and reign
of Henry IV.
He was born in the castle of Pau, the capital of Bearn,
on the 13th Dec. 1553, of Anthony de Bourbon, a weak,
imprudent prince ; and of Jane d’Albret, daughter and
heiress of Henry, King of Navarre. Jane possessed all
the qualities necessary to form a hero—the education she
gave her son was useful, but severe. She seemed to anti-
cipate the necessity of early instructing him to brave
every peril, and to suffer every change of fortune. While
yet a youth, he was proclaimed chief of the Protestant
party, and signalized himself at the battle of Moncon-
tour, under the command of the Admiral de Coligni. A
perfidious peace produced the bloody catastrophe of St.
Bartholomew. Henry had just espoused Margaret de
Valois, the sister of Charles IX., and if, in that horrible
proscription, his life was saved by the interested policy of
Catherine de Medici, it was only to make him feel the
mortification of captivity. After some years of constraint,
however, he escaped, and gained the battle of Coutras,
in which his opponent, the Duke de Joy euse, was killed.
In the meantime, the weak, infatuated Henry III. de-
spised by his subjects, awed by the tyranny of the family
of Guise, excommunicated by Pope Sixtus V. and driven
from his capital, sought a refuge under the banners of
With the exception of the long and glorious reign of
Louis XIV. and that memorable sera, when, by the mere
force of genius, Charlemagne acquired the supremacy
over all his cotemporariesy the history of the French mo-
narchy presents nothing so interesting as the life and reign
of Henry IV.
He was born in the castle of Pau, the capital of Bearn,
on the 13th Dec. 1553, of Anthony de Bourbon, a weak,
imprudent prince ; and of Jane d’Albret, daughter and
heiress of Henry, King of Navarre. Jane possessed all
the qualities necessary to form a hero—the education she
gave her son was useful, but severe. She seemed to anti-
cipate the necessity of early instructing him to brave
every peril, and to suffer every change of fortune. While
yet a youth, he was proclaimed chief of the Protestant
party, and signalized himself at the battle of Moncon-
tour, under the command of the Admiral de Coligni. A
perfidious peace produced the bloody catastrophe of St.
Bartholomew. Henry had just espoused Margaret de
Valois, the sister of Charles IX., and if, in that horrible
proscription, his life was saved by the interested policy of
Catherine de Medici, it was only to make him feel the
mortification of captivity. After some years of constraint,
however, he escaped, and gained the battle of Coutras,
in which his opponent, the Duke de Joy euse, was killed.
In the meantime, the weak, infatuated Henry III. de-
spised by his subjects, awed by the tyranny of the family
of Guise, excommunicated by Pope Sixtus V. and driven
from his capital, sought a refuge under the banners of