HENRY III. (FRANCE) HENRY IV. (FRANCE) 655 their leader, and made use of their majority in the states to curtail the prerogatives of the king and force him into another war against the Protestants. After reluctantly carrying it on for a few months, he ended it by the treaty of Bergerac, Sept. 17, 1577, and tried hy conciliatory measures to win over the most influential of the Catholics. This policy was of little avail; the so-called "lovers' war" broke out, which he succeeded in bringing to an early conclusion by the treaty of Fleix, Nov. 26, 1580. A momentary lull occurred; but the king became more and more unpopu- lar by his unbounded licentiousness and prodi- gality. On the death of his younger brother, the duke of Alencon, by which the succes- sion to the crown reverted to the Protes- tant Henry of Navarre, the spirit of the league rekindled ; the association extended all over the provinces, and became more formi- dable than ever; the majority of the nation was indeed adverse to accepting as heir apparent a prince who was not a Catholic. Henry III., although not sharing this popular prejudice, was obliged to go to war with Henry of Na- varre, and assembled four armies. By thus in- creasing its burdens he hoped to make the na- tion weary of the contest, while he exerted his ingenuity to make such combinations as would thwart the projects of the league. But his favorite Joyeuse was defeated by the king of Navarre at Coutras in 1587, and his own unpopularity increased, the league making him answerable for the reverses which befell the Catholic party. On all sides he was denounced as- a traitor, and his deposition was publicly ad- vocated. The duke of Guise was recalled to Paris by his adherents, and, notwithstanding repeated orders from the king, triumphantly entered the capital. Henry having summoned troops for his own defence, the Parisians raised a formidable rebellion; barricades were con- structed, May 12, 1588; and the king barely escaped from his ambitious rival. He immedi- ately convoked the states general at Blois, in the hope of finding support among them ; but the majority was still against him ; his life and crown were at stake; he resorted to violent means, and on Dec. 23, 1588, caused the duke of Guise to be murdered in his own apartment by his body guards, the "forty-five." This was a new incentive to the league. Henry, branded as an assassin, anathematized by the pope, deposed by decrees of the Sorbonne and the parliament, had no resource but to unite with Henry of Navarre, and they marched in concert against Paris, the principal seat of the league. During the siege of that city a Do- minican monk, Jacques Clement, whose fanati- cism had been encouraged by Guise's own sis- ter, the duchess of Montpensier, presented himself at St. Cloud to the king as the bearer of an important letter, Aug. 1, 1589, and stab- bed him with a knife, inflicting a wound of which he died on the following day. With Henry III. the Valois family became extinct. 402 VOL. viii. 42 HENRY IV., the first French king of the house of Bourbon, born at the castle of Pau, Dec. 14, 1553, assassinated in Paris, May 14, 1610. The son of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre, he was brought up by his mother in the Protestant religion, carefully educated, and inured to hardship. As early as 1569 she took him to the Protes- tant army before La Rochelle, and placed him under the control of Admiral Coligni. He was present at the battles of Jarnac and Mon- contour, both disastrous to his party. He dis- tinguished himself in the military operations in southern France, which were terminated by the peace or edict of St. Germain in 1570. The seeming reconciliation of the Protestant and Catholic parties was to be sealed by the marriage of young Henry with Margaret, the sister of King Charles IX. ; it was agreed to in April, 1572, and notwithstanding the sud- den and unexpected death of Jeanne of Na- varre, which occurred in June under very sus- picious circumstances, the ceremony was per- formed on Aug. 17, seven days before the massacre of St. Bartholomew, A number of eminent Huguenots had congregated in Paris to participate in the matrimonial festivities, and were slaughtered during the bloody 24th. Henry himself, a prisoner in the Louvre, saved his life by abjuring his faith. For nearly four years he was detained at court, strictly watched, dissembling his real sentiments un- der the cover of levity. In February, 1576, he escaped, took refuge first in Alencon, then crossed the Loire at the head of a number of his adherents, revoked his abjuration, took command of the Protestant troops, and suc- cessfully carried on hostilities against the Catholics, which brought about the peace of Beaulieu in May, 1576. The states general at Blois having issued coercive decrees against the Huguenots, Henry took up arms again, but peace was concluded at Bergerac, Sept. 17, 1577. On the breaking out of the "lovers' war" in 1580, of which he gave the signal, he inspired his adherents with confidence and ardor, and accomplished deeds of heroic valor at the siege of Cahors, which city he stormed after a tremendous fight of four days' dura- tion. He thus gained a high position, not only among his own party, but in the eyes of his opponents. The death of his mother in 1572 had left him king of Navarre; and on the death of the duke of Alencon, or rather An- jou, youngest brother of Henry III., June 10, 1584, he became heir apparent to the French crown. He was then in his 31st year. As he was deserted by Henry III., proscribed by the Catholic party and the league as a heretic, and shortly after excommunicated by Pope Sixtus V., his cause seemed desperate ; but though his troops scarcely numbered one tenth as many as the Catholic army, he soon took the field with his wonted courage. The victory of Coutras, Oct. 20, 1587, greatly bettered his for- tunes, although it was- followed by the defeat
