Vincent J. Pitts chronicles the life and times of one of France’s most remarkable kings in the first English-language biography of Henri IV to be published in twenty-five years. An unwelcome heir to the throne, Henri ruled over a kingdom plagued by religious civil war and political and economic instability. By the end of his reign in 1610 he had pacified his warring country, restored its prosperity, and reclaimed France’s place as a leading power in Europe. Pitts draws upon the rich scholarship of recent decades to tell the captivating story of this pivotal French king. From boyhood, Henri was destined to be leader and protector of the Huguenot movement in France. He served as chief of the Calvinist party and fought for the Huguenot forces in the bloody Wars of Religion before an extraordinary sequence of dynastic mishaps left the Protestant warlord next in line for the French crown. Henri was forced to renounce his faith in support of his claim to the Catholic throne and to unite his deeply divided country. A master of political maneuvering, Henri restored order to a country in the throes of great religious, political, and economic upheaval. He was assassinated in 1610 by a Catholic zealot. Vincent Pitts expertly recounts this history and skillfully untangles its complex set of personalities and events. Pitts engages the vast amount of literature relating to the king himself as well as the large body of recent scholarship on France during this time. The result is a fascinating biography of a French king and a comprehensive history of sixteenth-century France.

This study was the first systematic attempt to reach behind the myth of Henri IV - famous for having brought order to France after long civil war - and explores the reality of his achievement. This Second Edition has been substantially updated.

Biografie over de Franse koning (1553-1610)

Recreates the life, personality, and era of Henry IV, one of the most famous French kings.

"Paris is worth a Mass". So said Henri IV on his conversion to Catholicism, according to cynics, and the motives behind the act have been the stuff of history ever since. The Conversion of Henri IV reclaims the religious significance of this momentous event in the development of the French monarchy and early modern political culture. Michael Wolfe offers an in-depth account of the political, diplomatic, and theological dimensions of the 1593 conversion of the Protestant Henri de Navarre. Where others have emphasized the ideological aspects of the conflict sparked by the conversion, Wolfe situates the controversy within contemporary ideas about confessional change and practice, as well as the historical traditions that defined what it meant to be French. Using pamphlets, sermons, letters, and memoranda, he traces the conversion crisis as it unfolded in the minds of the king's subjects and as it affected their loyalties and actions during the last religious wars. In this analysis, the public response to Henri IV's conversion reveals a great deal about contemporary notions of personal piety and the Church, political ideals and the state, as well as social identity and obligations. Joining the history of mentalite with that of political and religious behavior, Wolfe also pays close attention to the impact of military and political developments. This approach helps explain the fundamental role of Henri IV's conversion in the establishment and acceptance of Bourbon absolutism in the last two centuries of the ancien regime. While not denying the political importance of Henri IV's conversion, this book underscores the profound religious implications of the event. It puts religion back into theWars of Religion and thereby enhances our understanding of the rise of the early modern French state.