HENRY II., son of Francis I. and his queen, Claude, born 1518. His marriage with Catharine de Medicis was celebrated at Marseilles, in 1533, by her uncle, Pope Clement VII. Henry succeeded his father in 1547, and at once made a com plete change in the court and ministry. The most influential persons in his reign were the Cardinal of Lorraine and his brother Francis, Duke of Guise, the Con stable de Montmorenci, the Marshal de St. Andre, and Diana of Poitiers, the king's favorite mistress, whom he made duchess of Valentinois. He carried on war with England, and recovered Bou logne for France; war with the Pope and with Spain; fighting for the Protestants in Germany, while he persecuted them in France; acquired by conquest Metz, Toul, and Verdun; and retained them under the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, which closed the war in 1559. By the same treaty Calais was confirmed to France. The siege of Metz by Charles V., and its defense by the Duke of Guise; the battle and siege of Renti; the great victory of the Spaniards at St. Quentin; and the battle of Gravelines, are the chief military events of this reign. Mary, the young queen of Scots, was brought to France about 1549 and betrothed to the dauphin Francois. Henry died in July, 1559, from the effects of a wound acci dentally inflicted by the Count of Mont gomery at a splendid tournament a few days before.
HENRY third son of Henry II. and Catharine de Medicis; born in 1551. He
was first known as Duke of Anjou, and distinguished himself as a soldier at the battle of Jarnac and Moncontour. He was elected King of Poland in 1573, but being proclaimed King of France on the death of Charles IX., in 1574, he escaped, not without risk, from Poland, and re turned to France. The country was dis tracted with the conflicting factions, and wasted with civil war; and the king, feeble in character and self-indulgent, was governed by ignoble favorites. The famous Catholic League was formed, with the Duke of Guise at its head; Henry of Navarre put himself at the head of the Huguenots, and won the bat tle of Coutras; Paris fell into the power of the League in 1588, and the king fled to Chartres and Rouen; later in the same year he convoked the states-general at Blois, and there had the two Guises as sassinated, a crime which excited the re volt of Paris and the principal cities of the kingdom. The Duke of Mayenne was named by the League lieutenant-general of the royal estate and crown of France, and Henry, roused at last to action, joined his rival, Henry of Navarre, and advanced to besiege Paris. At St. Cloud, which he made his headquarters, he was stabbed by a fanatic, Jacques Clement, and died the day after, Aug. 1, 1589. Henry III. left no children, and was the last sovereign of the Valois line.