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Henry III Biography

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HENRY III (1551-89). King of France from 1571 to 1589. He was the third son of Henry II and Catharine de' Medici and was the last of the house of Valois. He was born at Fontainebleau, Sept. 19, 1551, and in his youth bore the title of Duke of Anjou. At the age of 16 he was made a lieutenant general and placed in nominal command of the armies of France, though the real direction of operations was in the hands of Marshal de Tavannes. Henry had a part in the victories over the Huguenots at Jarnac and Moncontour in 1569 and was active in abetting the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. He was elected King of Poland in 1573, but upon receiving news of the death of his brother, Charles IX, in the following year, he fled from Cracow to make certain his succession in France. As King, he continued the war against the Huguenots; but the union of the party of his brother, the Duke of Alençon, with the Huguenots wrung from the alarmed King the Peace of Beaulieu (or of Monsieur) in 1576, confirmed by the Edict of Poitiers or Bergerac in 1577, This peace granted so many privileges to the Huguenots that it exasperated the Catholic party and led to the formation of the Holy League, the avowed object of which was to maintain the supremacy of Catholicism and the secret purpose to secure the reversion of the throne to the Guises. His life was marked by alternate outbursts of licentiousness and moods of gloomy fanaticism, The affection be lavished upon his effeminate favorites, or mignons, as they were called, aroused the disgust of the nation, This caused the popularity of Henry of Guise to be strengthened. A renewed war with the Huguenots (1579-80) was concluded by the Peace of Fleix, a renewal of the terms of that of Bergerac. The strength of the League grew rapidly, aided by the Duke of Guise. By the death of the Duke of Anjou (formerly of Alençon), Henry of Navarre became heir to the throne (1564); but the Catholics would not accept him, and Henry III, after an attempt to come to an understanding with his cousin of Navarre, issued the Edict of Nemours (1585), repealing all privileges granted the Huguenots. The so-called War of the Three Henrys then broke out. In 1587 the Huguenots under Henry of Navarre triumphed at Coutras. King Henry found that Henry of Guise, through his commanding position, was becoming master of the kingdom. On May 12, 1588, the so-called Day of the Barricades, the inhabitants of Paris rose against the royal forces and were quelled only by the interposition of Guise. The King fled to Blois, convoked the Estates and summoned Cruise to a private audience. Guise was assassinated in the King's cabinet by the guards known as the "Forty-five" (Dec. 23, 1588); and his brother, the Cardinal de Lorraine, was put to death on the following day. This double assassination aroused the hatred of Catholic France. The doctors of the Sorbonne declared the people to be relieved of the duty of obedience to the King, and the heads of the League dissolved the Estates. Henry was distracted by the difficulties of his position and threw himself under the protection of Henry of Navarre. The two kings advanced at the head of an army of 40,000 Huguenots on Paris, which would probably have had to capitulate had not Henry III been assassinated, Aug. 1, 1589, by a fanatical young Dominican, named Jacques Clément. The murderer was slain on the spot by the royal guard, and the King died on the following day, after having declared Henry of Navarre his successor. Although incapable of governing, he was a patron of art and letters and should be ranked with Francis I in this particular.

Consult the memoirs of Tavannes, Vieilleville, Castelnau, Brantóme, and De Thou; also Freer, Henry III: His Court and Times (3 vols., London, 1858); Jackson, The Last of the Valois and the Accession of Henry of Navarre (2 vols., ib., 1888); Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France in, the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (2 vols., Eng. trans., ib., 1852); E: Armstrong, The French Wars of Religion, 1559-98 (ib., 1892); De Noailles, Henri de Valois et la Pologne (3 vols., Paris, 1867); De la Barre-Duparcq, Histoire de Henri III (ib., 1882); Robiquet, Paris et la Ligue sous Henri III (ib., 1886); Nolhac and Salerti, Il viaggio in Italia di Enrico III, re di Francia (Turin, 1890); J. Nouaillac, Villeroy, secrétaire d'etat de Charles IX, Henri III et Henri IV (Paris, 1909).