by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

The last of the kings of the House of Valois, King Henri III of France was born at the Château de Fontainebleau in France on September 19, 1551. He was the fifth of the ten children and the fourth of the five sons of King Henri II of France and Catherine de Medici. On December 5, 1551, in the chapel at the Château de Fontainebleau, Henri was baptized Alexandre Édouard, the names of his two godparents, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and King Edward VI of England. At his confirmation in 1565, he took his father’s name, Henri. He was created Duke of Angoulême and Duke of Orléans in 1560 and Duke of Anjou in 1566.

Henri had nine siblings:

• François II, King of France (1544 – 1560), married Mary, Queen of Scots, no children
• Elisabeth of Valois, Queen of Spain (1545 – 1568), married King Philip II of Spain, had two daughters
• Claude of Valois, Duchess of Lorraine (1547 – 1575), married Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, had nine children
• Louis, Duke of Orléans (1549 – 1550), died in infancy
• Charles IX, King of France (1550 – 1574), married Elisabeth of Austria, had one daughter who died young
• Marguerite of Valois, Queen of France and Navarre (1553 – 1615), married Henri III, King of Navarre, the future Henri IV of France, no children
• Hercule François, Duke of Anjou (1555 – 1584), unmarried
• Victoria of Valois (born and died 1556), twin of Joan, died in infancy
• Joan of Valois, twin of Victoria, died in utero

In 1559, when Henri was eight years old, his 40-year-old father King Henri II died from injuries suffered while jousting in a tournament. Henri’s eldest brother succeeded their father as King François II of France. After only a 17-month reign, François II died in great pain on December 5, 1560, possibly from mastoiditis, meningitis, or otitis which turned into an abscess. François II had been married to Mary, Queen of Scots but died childless, so his ten-year-old younger brother succeeded him as King Charles IX, and his mother Catherine de Médici was named Regent of France. Henri was now the heir to the French throne.

Henri was educated by Jacques Amyot and François de Carnavalet, followers of Humanism, from whom he learned to love learning and intellectual discussions. Henri had an official role at an early age. When he was nine years old, Henri attended the Estates-General with his ten-year-old brother King Charles IX. He then accompanied his brother on his grand tour of France. In 1567, the sixteen-year-old Henri was appointed Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, making him the head of the royal armies. Henri was considered as a husband for the thirty-seven-year-old Queen Elizabeth I of England. Most historians think that Elizabeth was using a possible marriage to Henri as a tactic to arouse Spain. Nevertheless, eighteen-year-old Henri referred to Elizabeth as a putain publique (public whore) and made disparaging remarks about their age difference.

Henri was a Catholic military leader in the French Wars of Religion – Catholics against the Protestant Huguenots – and helped plot the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of August 23-24, 1572 in which 5,000 to 30,000 Protestant Huguenots were killed. The reigns of Henri and his two brothers saw France in constant turmoil over religion.

In 1573, Polish nobles chose Henri as the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. On his way to Krakow, the capital of his new kingdom, Henri was welcomed in Nancy in the Duchy of Lorraine by his brother-in-law and his sister, Charles III, Duke of Lorraine and Claude of Valois, Duchess of Lorraine. All members of the House of Lorraine were invited to welcome Henri and participate in the celebrations and so Louise of Lorraine-Vaudémont, daughter of Nicolas of Lorraine, Count of Vaudémont and Duke of Mercœur, and her family attended the celebrations. A beautiful, tall, blonde 20-year-old young woman, Louise of Lorraine-Vaudémont, caught Henri’s attention and she stayed in his mind.

In 1574, 23-year-old Charles IX, King of France died from tuberculosis without a male heir and so his brother succeeded him as Henri III, King of France. In mid-June 1574, upon learning of the death of his brother, Henri secretly left Poland and headed back to France. Because he did not return to Poland, the Polish Parliament declared the throne vacant. Henri did not regret this because as King of France, he would have more power.

Once back in France, 23-year-old Henri III knew he must provide an heir to the throne. Henri III had an unrequited love for Marie of Cleves, the wife of Henri of Bourbon, Prince of Condé. He planned to obtain an annulment of Marie’s marriage and then marry her himself but Marie died before he could implement his plan. Catherine de Medici wanted her son to marry a foreign princess and Henri III wanted to cut short the matrimonial machinations of his mother. He remembered Louise of Lorriane-Vaudémont, the girl he met passing through Lorraine who resembled his lost love Marie of Cleves, and decided to marry her.

In January 1575, Henri III sent emissaries to Louise’s father to ask for her hand in marriage. At that time, Louise was away on a pilgrimage and her father agreed to the marriage without consulting her. Upon her return from the pilgrimage, Louise was in disbelief when told she was to marry the King of France. Henri’s choice of a bride from a relatively modest noble family also surprised the French court and many people in the Kingdom of France, including Henri’s mother. Henri decided to combine his coronation and his wedding. Henri was crowned as King of France at the Cathedral of Reims on February 13, 1575. Two days later Louise and Henri were married at the Cathedral of Reims by Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon.

Louise suffered a miscarriage with complications in May 1575 and she never had children. However, Louise and Henri did not give up on the idea of ​​having children.  They went on many pilgrimages and took thermal cures in the hope of having an heir. Despite Henri’s affairs, Louise and Henri both loved each other and Louise did an admirable job with her duties as Queen of France.

Henri signed the Edict of Beaulieu in 1576 which gave the Protestant Huguenots many rights including the right of public worship. This resulted in Catholic activist Henri I, Duke of Guise, forming the Catholic League which promoted the eradication of Protestants in Catholic France and removing Henri III from the French throne. Eventually, Henri III was forced to rescind most of the rights that had been given to the Protestants.

In 1584, Henri’s youngest brother and heir presumptive Hercule François, Duke of Anjou and Alençon died. The Protestant Huguenot King Henri III of Navarre, who was married to Henri III of France’s sister Margeurite, was the most senior agnatic descendant of King Louis IX, and therefore the rightful heir to the French throne. This led to what was known as the War of the Three Henris – King Henri III of Navarre, King Henri III of France, and Henri I, Duke of Guise. The Duke of Guise was a staunch opponent of the Huguenots and fought against the possibility of Henri of Navarre succeeding to the French throne.

In 1588, Henri III of France had Henri I, Duke of Guise assassinated by “the Forty-Five,” the king’s bodyguard, as Henri III of France looked on. The day after, the Duke of Guise’s brother Louis of Lorraine, Cardinal of Guise was assassinated on Henri III’s orders. Henri III of France had hoped that getting rid of the Guises would restore his authority with the French people. Instead, it caused such outrage among the relatives and allies of the Guises and much of France that Henri III of France was forced to take refuge with Henri of Navarre. The two Henris were joined in their desire to defeat the Catholic League which had taken control of much of the country.

Jacques Clément was a fanatic Dominican monk who sided with the Catholic League. He planned to kill King Henri III of France who he believed to be the enemy of Catholicism since the Duke of Guise’s assassination. On August 1, 1589, Henri III of France was with his army at Saint-Cloud, preparing to attack Paris. Jacques Clément, carrying false papers, was granted access to deliver important documents to Henri III. After giving Henri III some documents, Clément told Henri that he had a secret message for him. Henri III asked his attendants to step back to give him privacy. Clément whispered in Henri’s ear while stabbing him in the abdomen. Henri’s guards immediately killed Clément.

•  Unofficial Royalty: Assassination of Henri III, King of France

Henri III’s wounds did not seem serious at first but infection soon set in. The dying king formally recognized his brother-in-law, King Henri III of Navarre, as his legitimate successor. After a day of agony, 37-year-old King Henri III of France died on August 2, 1589, at the Château de Saint-Cloud near Paris. He was buried at the Basilica of Saint-Denis in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, the traditional burial site of the Kings of France, but his tomb has not survived. His heart was placed in an urn atop a column at the Collegiate Church of Saint-Cloud. The column is now at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Henri III of Navarre succeeded him as King Henri IV of France, the first of the kings of the House of Bourbon. Ironically, Henri IV was also assassinated by a Catholic zealot in 1610.

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France Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Kingdom of France/French Empire Index
• French Royal Burial Sites – House of Valois

Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Henry III of France. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_III_of_France [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].
• Fr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Assassinat d’Henri III. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassinat_d%27Henri_III [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].
• Fr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Henri III (roi de France). [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_III_(roi_de_France) [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].
• Mehl, Scott. (2016). King Henri IV of France. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-henri-iv-of-france/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].