HENRY II. (1 , king of France, the second son of Francis I. and Claude, succeeded to the throne in 1547. When only seven years old he was sent by his father, with his brother the dauphin Francis, as a hostage to Spain in 1526, whence they returned after the conclusion of the peace of Cambrai in 153o. Henry was perhaps young to have carried away abiding impres sions, yet throughout his life his character, dress and bearing were far more Spanish than French. In 1533 his father married him to Catherine de' Medici, and he became dauphin by the death of his elder brother Francis in 1536. From that time he was under the domination of Catherine, of Diane de Poitiers, and also of Duke Anne de Montmorency, his mentor. His younger brother, Charles of Orleans, was his father's favourite ; and the rivalry of Diane and the duchesse d'Etampes widened the breach between the king and the dauphin. Henry supported the constable Mont morency when he was disgraced in 1541; protested against the treaty of Crepy in ; and at the end of the reign held himself completely aloof. After his accession in 1547 Diane, Montmo rency and the Guises were all-powerful, and dismissed Cardinal de Tournon, de Longueval, the duchesse d'Etampes and all the late king's friends and officials. At that time Henry was twenty-eight years old. He was a robust man, and inherited his father's love of violent exercise ; but his character was weak and his intelligence mediocre, and he had none of the superficial and brilliant gifts of Francis I. He was cold, haughty, melancholy and dull. He was a bigoted Catholic, and showed to the Protestants even less mercy than his father. During his reign the royal authority became more severe and more absolute than ever. Resistance to the finan cial extortions of the government was cruelly chastised, and the "Chambre Ardente" was instituted against the Reformers. Abroad, the struggle was continued against Charles V. and Philip II., which ended in the much-discussed treaty of Cateau-Cam bresis. Some weeks afterwards high feast was held on the occasion of the double marriage of the king's daughter Elizabeth with the king of Spain, and of his sister Margaret with the duke of Savoy. On June 3o, 1559, when. tilting with the count of Montgomery, Henry was wounded in the temple by a lance; he died on July Io. By his wife Catherine de' Medici he had seven children living: Elizabeth, queen of Spain; Claude, duchess of Lorraine; Francis (II.), Charles (IX.) and Henry (III.), all of whom came to the throne; Marguerite, who became queen of Navarre in 1572; and Francis, duke of Alencon and afterwards of Anjou, who died in 1584.
The bulk of the documents for the reign of Henry II. are unpub lished, and are in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Of the published documents, see especially the correspondence of Catherine de' Medici (ed. by de la Ferriere, Paris, 188o), of Diane de Poitiers (eel. by Guiffrey, Paris, 1866), of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret (ed. by Rochambeau, Paris, 1877), of Odet de Selve, ambassador to England (ed. by Lefevre-Pontalis, Paris, 1888) and of Dominique du Gabre, ambassador to Venice (ed. by Vitalis, Paris, i9o3) ; Ribier, Lettres et memoires d'estat (Paris, 1666) ; Relations des ambassadeurs venitiens, etc. See also H. Lemonnier, "La France sous Henri II." (Paris, 19o4), in the Histoire de France, by E. Lavisse, which contains a fuller bibliography of the subject.