HENRY III. king of France, third son of Henry II. and Catherine de' Medici, was born at Fontainebleau on Sept. 19, 1 5 51. As duke of Anjou, he won, under the direction of Tavannes, the battles of Jarnac and Moncontour over Conde and Coligny in 1569, and he assisted his mother in organizing the massacre (1572) of St. Bartholomew. He was Catherine's favour ite son, and she now (1573) secured his election to the throne of Poland. But next year the death of his brother, Charles IX., brought him back post-haste to assume the crown of France. His accession meant a fresh lease of power for Catherine, from whose authority he never emancipated himself. His indolence and his vicious and corrupt life scandalized both the Huguenots and the Catholic party. For the civil conflicts of his reign, see FRANCE : History.
A revolt (May 12, 1588) in Paris, the "day of the barricades," forced Henry to take refuge at Chartres. He theft secured the murder of Henry of Guise and his brother, the cardinal, at Blois (Dec. 23, 1588). Early in January, Catherine de' Medici died. "Now I am king," cried Henry. But Paris was in the hands of the partisans of Guise, many of the provinces were in revolt, and Henry was driven into alliance with Henry of Navarre. Together they were investing Paris, when the Leaguers avenged the Guise murders through the instrumentality of a fanatic monk, Jacques Clement, who stabbed the king at an audience on Aug. 1, 1589. Henry died a few hours later, naming Henry of Navarre as his successor. By his wife, Louise de Mercoeur, he left no children, and with him the male line of the house of Valois became extinct.
See Correspondence of Catherine de' Medici and of Henry IV. (in the Collection de documents inedits), and of the Venetian ambas sadors, etc. ; P. Matthieu, Histoire de France, vol. i. (1631) ; Scipion Dupleix, Histoire de Henri Ill. (1633) ; Robiquet, Paris et la Ligue (1886) ; and J. H. Mariejol, "La Reforme et la Ligue," in the Histoire de France, by E. Lavisse (Paris, 1904), which contains a more complete bibliography.