On this day, le 13 décembre:King Henri IV was born.

Roi Henri IV de France est né en le 13 décembre 1553. Henri was the first of the Bourbon kings of France, reigning from 1589 until his his assassination on le 14 mai 1610 by a knife-wielding madman while his carriage was stuck in a Paris traffic jam on rue Ferronerie (scroll down) near Forum des Halles and la Louvre (which at the time was the palace and centre of government). As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before acceding to the throne. To become king he converted to Catholicism, famously saying Paris vaut bien une messe,"Paris is worth a mass." (The Huguenots were French Protestants connected with the Swiss church reformer John Calvin, a contemporary of Martin Luther. The ancestral family of Louis la Vache's mother were Huguenots in Normandie.) In 1598 Henri promulgated the Edict of Nantes which guaranteed religious liberties to the Protestants and thereby effectively ended the civil war. One of the most popular French kings, both during and after his reign, Henry showed great care for the welfare of his subjects and displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time. He was assassinated by a fanatical Catholic, François Ravaillac. Henry was nicknamed Henri le Grand, "Henry the Great," and in France is sometimes called le bon roi Henri, "good king Henry." Henry IV was the son of Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme and Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre. He was born in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the south-west of France. At the death of King Henry III of France, who had no son, the crown passed to Henry IV, in application of the Salic Law, as Henry was the descendant of the eldest surviving male line of the Capetian Dynasty. (scroll down) The new king, however, had to fight for some years to be recognized as the legitimate king of France by the Catholics, most of whom were opposed to his Protestant upbringing. On le 18 août 1572 Henry married Marguerite de Valois, sister of the then King Charles IX. In the same year he became King Henry III of Navarre, succeeding his mother Jeanne d'Albret, who had brought him up as a Huguenot. Jeanne herself was also a Protestant, and had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. Henry's marriage was part of a plan to help quell the French Wars of Religion. As part of this plan, he was forced to convert to Roman Catholicism on le 5 fevrier 1576, and kept in confinement, but later that year he gained his freedom and resumed Protestantism. He became the legal heir to the French throne upon the death in 1584 of François, Duke of Alençon, brother and heir to the Catholic King Henri III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Since Henry of Navarre was a descendant of King Louis IX, King Henry III had no choice but to recognize him as the legitimate successor. Salic law disinherited the king's sisters and all others who could claim descent by the distaff line. In décembre 1588 King Henry III had the Duke of Guise murdered, along with the Duke's brother, Louis Cardinal de Guise. Henry III had to flee Paris, and joined forces with Henry of Navarre, but was assassinated shortly thereafter. On the death of the king in 1589, Henry of Navarre became nominally the king of France. But the Catholic League, strengthened by support from outside, especially from Spain, was strong enough to force him to the south, and he had to set about winning his kingdom by military conquest. The League proclaimed Henry's Catholic uncle, the Cardinal de Bourbon, King as Charles X, but the Cardinal himself was Henry's prisoner. Henry was victorious at the Ivry and Arques, but failed to take Paris. After the death of the old Cardinal in 1590, the League could not agree on a new candidate. While some supported various Guise candidates, the strongest candidate was probably Infanta Isabella, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, whose mother Elisabeth had been the eldest daughter of Henry II of France. The prominence of her candidacy hurt the League, which thus became suspect as agents of the foreign Spanish, but nevertheless Henry remained unable to take control of Paris. With the encouragement of the great love of his life, Gabrielle d'Estrée, on 25 July 1593 Henry declared that Paris vaut bien une messe, "Paris is worth a Mass," and permanently renounced Protestantism. His entrance into the Roman Catholic Church secured for him the allegiance of the vast majority of his subjects, and he was crowned King of France at la cathédrale de Chartres on le 27 fevrier 1594. Henry's first marriage was not a happy one, and the couple remained childless. The two had separated, even before Henry had succeeded to the throne in août 1589 and Marguerite de Valois lived for many years in the château of Usson in Auvergne. After Henry had become king, various advisers impressed upon him the desirability of providing an heir to the French Crown, in order to avoid the problem of a disputed succession. Henry himself favored the idea of obtaining an annulment of his first marriage, and taking Gabrielle d'Estrée as a bride, whom had already borne him three children. Henry's councillors strongly opposed this idea, but the matter was resolved unexpectedly by Gabrielle d'Estrée's sudden death in avril 1599 after she had given birth prematurely to a stillborn son. Henri's marriage was annulled in 1599, and he then married Marie de Médicis in 1600. Henry IV proved to be a man of vision and courage. Instead of waging costly wars to suppress opposing nobles, Henry simply paid them off. As king, he adopted policies and undertook projects to improve the lives of all subjects, that would make him one of the country's most popular rulers ever. His supposed statement Si Dieu me prête vie, je ferai qu’il n’y aura point de laboureur en mon royaume qui n’ait les moyens d’avoir le dimanche une poule dans son pot, "If God allows me to live, I will see that there is not a single labourer in my kingdom who does not have a chicken in his pot every Sunday" epitomizes the peace and relative prosperity he brought to France after the decades of religious war. (Evidently, U.S. President Herbert Hoover cribbed "a chicken in every pot" from Henri IV - and added "a car in every garage" as a slogan for his 1928 Presidential campaign.) During his reign, Henry IV worked through his right-hand man, the faithful Maximilien de Bethune, duc de Sully (1560-1641), to regularize state finance, promote agriculture, drain swamps to create productive crop lands, undertake many public works, and encourage education, as with the creation of the College Royal Louis-Le-Grand in La Flèche (today Prytanée Militaire de la Flèche). He and Sully protected forests from further devastation, built a new system of tree-lined highways, and constructed new bridges and canals, including Pont Neuf, "new bridge," over la Seine in Paris. He had a 1200 metre canal built in the park at the Château Royal at Fontainebleau (which can be fished today), and ordered the planting of pines, elms and fruit trees. Le Pont Neuf, with a statue of Henri IV in the background. A portion of the canal at Fontainebleau in winter, with part of the château in the background. Fontainebleau has more than 1000 rooms. It is about 50 km south east of Paris. The king renewed Paris as a great city. Henry IV also had the Place Royale built (since 1800 known as Place des Vosges, after the Vosges mountains), and added the Grande Galérie to la Louvre. More than 400 metres long and thirty-five metres wide, this huge addition was built along the bank of la Seine, and at the time was the longest edifice of its kind in the world. King Henry IV, a promoter of the arts by all classes of peoples, invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work on the building’s lower floors. This tradition continued for another two hundred years, until Emperor Napoléon I banned it. The art and architecture of his reign has since become known as the Henry IV style. King Henry's vision extended beyond France, and he financed several expeditions of Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain to North America that saw France lay claim to Canada. Hôtel du Sully, home of Henri IV's "right hand man," on rue-Saint-Antoine in the 4 éme. The courtyard (not visible) of Hôtel de Sully opens to Places des Vosges behind it. Place des Vosges, Paris, 4 éme. In the 19th century, writer Victor Hugo lived in one of the appartements here. Pavillion de la Reine, Place des Vosges. Although he was a man of kindness, compassion, and good humor, and much loved by his people, and after escaping many murder attempts (for example by Pierre Barrière), King Henry IV was assassinated on le 14 mai 1610, and was buried at Saint Denis Basilica. Henry's widow, Marie de Médicis, served as Regent to their 9-year-old son, Louis XIII, until 1617. The reign of Henry IV made a lasting impact on the French people for generations after. Although the statue of Henri IV in Paris was destroyed during the French Revolution, as well as those of all the other French kings, it was the first one to be rebuilt when the monarchy was restored in 1814, and it still stands today on the Pont Neuf of Paris. Statue of Henri IV on the rive droit, right bank, of la Seine at the end of le pont Nuef . A real cult surrounding the personality of Henri IV emerged during the Restoration. The restored Bourbons were keen to downplay the contested reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, and instead emphasized the reign of the benevolent Henry IV. The song Vive Henri IV, "Long Live Henry IV." was used during the Restoration, as an unofficial anthem of France, played in the absence of the king. Also, when Princess Maria Carolina of the Two Sicilies managed to give birth to a male heir to the throne of France, seven months after the assassination of her husband Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry, by a republican fanatic, the boy was conspicuously called Henri in reference to his forefather Henry IV. The boy was also baptized in the traditional way of Béarn/Navarre, with a spoon of vinegar and some garlic, as had been done when Henry IV had been baptized in Pau, although this custom had not been followed by any Bourbon king after Henry IV. Today, while the rest of France marks the end of monarchist rule each year on Bastille Day, in Henry's birthplace of Pau, his reign as king of France is celebrated. It is a testament to the people's love and affection for Henry IV, of whom the French people call "'le Grand." More Reading:
Young Henry of Navarre (Tusk Ivories Series)

Henry, King of France

Paris: The Biography of a City

Seven Ages of Paris