Henri III

King of France · 1574-1589 · born on 19 September 1551, died on 2 August 1589

Third son of Henry II, Henry III was first elected king of Poland (1573), before succeeding his brother Charles IX in 1574. He returned to France to try to impose a policy of balance between Catholics and Protestants, but never ceased to waver between the factions.

His reign was torn apart by the Wars of Religion, the Catholic League led by the Guises and the ambition of his brother-in-law Henry of Navarre. After the assassination of the duke of Guise and his brother, the cardinal of Lorraine, at Blois (23 December 1588), Paris rose up and war against the League broke out.

With no heir, Henry III drew closer to Henry of Navarre, the legitimate heir to the crown, but he was stabbed at Saint-Cloud on 1 August 1589 by Jacques Clément, a Dominican friar of the League, and died the next day. The last Valois king, his death opened the way to the Bourbon dynasty.

In the tree of power

Further reading