The future Henri IV spent his childhood in Béarnais. Under the influence of his mother, although a Catholic by baptism, he embraced the Protestant religion. He thus fights against the Holy League and the great Europeans who refuse that a Protestant becomes the sovereign of France. But with the assassination of King Henry III, he had to renounce his Huguenot faith to convert to Catholicism in Saint-Denis in 1593 if he wanted to reign. He was crowned in Chartres in 1594. He ratified the Edict of Nantes on April 13, 1598, which authorized Protestant worship in France, ratifying the end of the religious wars that had been putting the country on fire and bloodshed for 36 years. In 1598 he signed peace with the Catholic League (including Spain). First of the Bourbons to reign, he gradually established absolutism but surrounded himself with precious advisers like Sully. He straightened out a dying kingdom which became flourishing, but he was assassinated by Ravaillac on May 14, 1610. His wife, Marie de Médicis, mother of the future Louis XIII, then became regent.
December 13, 1553 - May 14, 1610
Status
King of France
Politician