HENRY II., king of France, was b. in 1518; married Catharine de' Medici in 1533; succeeded Ids father, Francis I., in 1547. The money which his father left was rapidly squandered among favorites and mistresses. A revolt in Guienne, where the people had risen against the gabeleurs, or collectors of the salt-duty, was the first event that roused the king and court from their slothful case. This disturbance was, however, speedily put down by Montmorency. Through the influence of the Guises, whose sister, the dowager-queen of James V., sought the aid of France to support her against the ambitions designs of the English government. a French alliance was cemented with Scotland. and war declared against England, which began in 1550 with the recovery of Boulogne. and ended in 1553 with the taking of Calais, after that city had been 210 years in the hands of the English. Curiously enough, while the king tried to put down heresy With fire and sword at home, he made treaties of alliance with the German reformers, and sent an army of 33,000 men to aid Maurice of Saxony against the emperor; and taking the command in person. made himself master of Tout and Verdun, while Montmorency, through the treachery of the garrison, seized upon Metz. After the abdication of Charles V. (1556), and the division of his vast empire between his
brother Ferdinand and his son Philip II., Henry seized the opportune occasion of attacking the Netherlands and Italy before Philip II. had time to consolidate his newly acquired powers, but the results of this step were disastrous..to France at every point. In Italy, the attack on Napier, made by Guise at the head of 20,000 men, utterly failed through the pusillanimity of the pope, and the energetic advance of Alva; while in the low countries, the French under 3lontmorency sustained a total defeat, in 1537, at St. Quentin, where the flower of the French chivalry were tither slain or taken captive by the troops of Philip, who were commanded by Philibert-Emmunuel, duke of Savoy.
These reverses were followed by the treaty of Chiltean-Cambrests (1559), in which Henry agreed, in exchange for the restoration of Ham, St. Quentin. and Castelet, and the liberation of Montmorency, to resign nearly all his conquests in the low countries, Piedmont, and southern Italy, including 190 fortresses and strongholds. Shortly after. he was mortally hut accidentally wounded in a tournament by count Montgomery, a Scottish nobleman, and rapt. of his guard. He died July 10, 1559.