HENRI IV., king of France and of Navarre, born at Pau in the 136am, the 15th of December 1553, was descended in a direct line from Robert, count of Clermont, sixth son of Louis IX., who married, in 1272, Beatrix of Burgundy, heiress of Bourbon, and assumed the arms and the name of Bourbon. [Bounsiorr.] Henri's father, Antoine de Bourboo, married Jeanne d'Albret, only daughter and heiress of Henri d'Albret, king of Navarre, after whose death, in 1535, Antoine became king of Navarre in right of his wife. Henri IV., during his youthful years, was trained up to hardiness and privations in his native mountains, after which he was sent to the French court till 1566, when hls mother Jeanne d'Albert recalled him to Pau and had him instructed in the Calvinist communion. In 1569 he was acknow ledged at La Rochelle as the leader of the Calvinists, and fought at the battles of Jarnac and Moncontour in the same year. After the peace of 1570 be was invited to the French court, and two years after he married Margaret, sister of Charles IX. By the death of his mother, June 1572, he became King of Navarre. At the massacre of the St.Barthelemi, which followed close upon his marriage, Henri's life was spared on condition of his becoming a Roman Catholic; but as the court did not trust a conversion which was extorted by fear, he was kept under watch as a state prisoner for about three years. Having escaped in 1576, he put himself again at the head of the Calvinists, and began a series of hazardous and hard-fought campaigns, interrupted by short cessations of arms whenever Henri III. of France ma.46‘ promises of peace and toleration to his Calvinist subjects,— promises which ha or the Guise never failed to break. Henri won the battle of Contras in Ouyenna, October, 1587, in which his antagonist the Duke of Joyeuse was killed. In 1589 ho made his peace with Henri III., and joined lalui against the League. Henri 1I1. before he expired named the king of Navarre as his successor, tolling him at the same time that ho wished him a quieter reign than his own had been. Henri however was opposed by one half of the kingdom, which obeyed the Duke of Mayenne, whom the parliament of Paris bad appointed Lieutenant General, and ho was obliged to raise the siege of the capital.
Ile soon after gained the battles of Argues and Ivry, received some reinforcements from Elisabeth of England, and pursued the war with renewed vigour. At last in 1593 Ilenri began negotiations with several of the leaders of the League, and as a preliminary condition of their submission he was induced to make a public profession of the Roman Catholic faith at St. Denis on the 25th of July of that year. In March 1594 Paris opened its gates to him, and Rouen and other cities followed the example of the capital. Charles, duke of Guise, likewise made his submission. In the following year the pope (Acknow ledged Henri, and in 1596 the Duke of Mayenne submitted. It was not however till 1598 that all France acknowledged Henri, nine years after his assumption of the crown. The peace of Vervins, concluded in that year, put an end to the interference of Spain in the affairs of France. From that time till his death Henri enjoyed peace, with the exception of a short campaign against the Duke of Savoy in the year 1600, which terminated in favour of tho French arms.
The king applied himself to reform the administration of justice, to restore order in the finances, and to promote industry and commerce. He established new manufactories ; he introduced plantations of mulberry-trees and the rearing of silkworms, and he began the botanical garden of Montpellier. He embellished Paris, and founded the hospital of La Charit6 Chrdtlenne for invalid officers and soldiers; ho added to the collection in the royal library, and encouraged and rewarded men of learning, among others arable, Isaac Casaubon, Joseph Scaliger, Da Thou, Malherbe, &c. In his foreign politics he was the ally of England ; he supported the independence of Holland, and took the part of the Protestants of Germany against the encroachments of Rudolf 11. Henri was censured for his change of religion, and by none more earnestly than by his faithful friend and counsellor, Dnplessis Mornay. On the other hand, many of the Roman Catholics never believed his conversion to be sincere. But the truth
probably was that Henri, accustomed from his infancy to the life of camps and the hurry of dissipation, was not capable of serious religious meditation, and that he knew as little of the religion which he forsook as of that which he embraced. In his long conference at Chartres iu September 1593 with Duplessis Mornay, which took place after his abjuration, be told his friend that the step he had taken was one not only of prudence but of absolute necessity; that his affections remained the same towards his friends and subjects of the reformed communion ; and he expressed a hope that he should one day be able to bring about a union between the two religions, which, he observed, differed less in essentials than was supposed. To which Dnplessis replied, that no such union could ever be effected in Franco unless the pope's power were first entirely abolished. (' Mdmoires et Correspondence de Duplessis lvfornay dopuis l'an 1571 jusqu'en 1623; Paris, 1821.34.) By the Edit de Nantes, promulgated iu 159S, Henri gave what he thought a full redress of the grievances under which his Protestant subjects had so long laboured, and such it would have proved, had the provisions of the edict been honestly and fully carried into effect, and had not the king's intentions been frustrated in great measure by the intolerance of the different parliaments and courts of justice. Henri found the finances of the kingdom in a moat wretched condi tion; of 150 millions of livres taken from the people only 80 millions reached the kiog's coffers. His able minister Sully had the task of restoring order in this financial chaos. Ho adopted the method of letting the taxes by public auction ; he entered into a rigorous examina tion of the accounts of former receivers-general and other agents, and introduced forms of accounts which were to be filled up and accom panied with the necessary vouchers, so that no pretence was left for obscurity or omission. During a ministry of fifteen years ho reduced the Urine five millions of livrea, and other imposts one-half: he redeemed 135 millions of debt, while he added four millions to the king's revenue, and left 35 millions in the treasury, besides a value of 12 millions in arms and ammunition, 5 millions expended in fortifications, and above 26 millions on public works and royal gratuities. (Bremen, Histoire Financiere de la France,' Paris, 1829.) The sympathy which Henri felt and showed for the humbler classes of his subjects, whom his predecessors bad looked upon aa an inferior race of beings, would alone be sufficient to account for his popularity with the French people—a popularity which has survived all the eventful changes in that country. lie is the only king of the old monarchy whose memory is still popular in France. His brilliant qualities, his tastes, even his failings, such as his excessive gallantry, were national, and they flattered the self-love and the vanity of the people. "He was," says the President II6nault, "hie own general and his own minister. He united to a blunt frankness the most dexter ous policy, to the most elevated sentiments • delightful simplicity of manners, and to an undaunted courage a most touching feeling of humanity and benevolence. He often forgave, and when forced to punish, as in the case of Biron, he did it with extreme regret. His life was repeatedly attempted by assassins who were atimulated by the old fanatioitm of the League ; and nt last he was stabbed to death in his carriage, by ltavaillao, on the 14th May 11310. Ho was succeeded by his sou Louis X111, under the guardianship of his consort Maria de' Medici. The grief for his death was deeply felt all over France. 016moires de Sully ;' Ilduatilt and the other French historians : Thomas, 'Easel sur lea Eloges ; and a collection of Heuri's most remarkable sayings and doings, entitled 'L'Esprit de Henri IV.,' Paris, 1769.) Lenglet du Fresnoy, in the fourth volume of his 'Journal do Henri ILL,' has published many letters of Henry IV. When the royal tombs at St.. Deuis were ransacked in the time of the Revolution (1793), the body of Henry IV. was found in very good preservation : his features appeared hardly changed.
1 .1/4Insa, Ilesreico CATERINAJ