(Pau, 1553 - Paris, 1610.) King of Navarre (1572-1610) and King of France (1589-1610).
The most popular, the most truculent also of the French sovereigns could have been born in the Loir Valley, where his father, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme then resided. But, we are assured, the maternal grandfather, Henri d'Albret, demanded that his daughter Jeanne return to the Béarn region so that the newborn child would not be a "weeping and reluctant" child.
In the romantic elan of the 19th century, the painter Eugène Devéria reported the birth of the future king, presented triumphantly to an audience as heterogeneous as they were playful at the Château de Pau, in which neither the jester nor the dog have been forgotten. Raising him above the audience, Henri d'Albret, at the height of happiness and pride, would have exclaimed:"My sheep has given birth to a lion!" Then he would have rubbed the baby's lips with garlic and moistened his face with Jurançon wine...
Born under such happy and original auspices, the young Henri will subsequently receive an equally unusual education for a future monarch.
Entrusted to Madame de Miossens, who owns a country estate, he frolics with the little villagers. He runs the countryside in their company, shares their games, their frugal food, not distinguishing himself by his clothing, on the contrary. But, from 1560, appointed lieutenant general of the kingdom of France thanks to the accession of Charles IX, Antoine de Bourbon brought his people to Paris. His son immediately charmed the court of the Louvre with his spontaneity and his repartee.
The College of Navarre welcomed him and provided him with an education that was then that of the nobles of the time. But the death of Antoine de Bourbon, in 1562 at the siege of Rouen, encouraged Jeanne d'Albret to return to her States, won over to the Reformation and whose convictions she shared. Thus Henri de Navarre becomes a Calvinist, a situation which will lead him to the worst adventures and for a moment bar his way to the throne, this throne to which he can claim on the death of the Duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III, himself without posterity. .
Jeanne d'Albret is also giving all her care to this probable deadline. Henri was barely 15 when his mother took him to the Huguenot camp in La Rochelle. It is the beginning of a military initiation which makes him attend the battle of Jarnac, where the Prince of Condé is killed. The event immediately raised the young Béarnais to the nominal title of leader of the Protestant party under the de facto leadership of Admiral de Coligny. Because, once again, Jeanne d'Albret does not miss the opportunity to push her son on the road to power. She arrives at the reformed army camp in Saintes with Henri and the young Prince of Condé and declares to the assembled leaders and soldiers:“My friends, here are two new leaders that God is giving you and two orphans that I entrust to you. »
This gift is too precious to be immediately exposed to the blows of the adversary. Henri witnesses from afar the unfortunate day of Moncontour (October 1569) about which, despite his young age, he makes judicious remarks as to the erroneous action of Coligny.
His youthful wanderings in the Bearnese hills made him suitable for this war of "coups de main" which later characterized the struggle in the South. Henri was introduced to the conduct of small units, appearing unexpectedly and disappearing immediately, circumstances that developed his tactical sense of combat.
Soon confirms his successful participation in Coligny's success at Arnay-le-Duc*,
an event which will incite Catherine de Medici to conclude the Peace of Saint-Germain -en-Laye (1570).
The pledge of reconciliation is the marriage of the Béarnais with Marguerite de Valois, "Queen Margot", sister of Charles IX, with whom he will hardly get along . This time, after the military education, here is that of the Court... more subtle, more "Florentine" and just as dangerous, since in 1572 the death of Jeanne d'Albret made Henri
a King of Navarre barely twenty years old. Saint-Barthélemy is approaching and the party of the conspirators wonders whether it is appropriate to leave the young sovereign on the list of condemned.
Charles IX obtains remission with great difficulty, provided that his brother-in-law abjures. Opportunist, Henri preferred mass to death, composed skilfully with this very dangerous entourage "putting in front of the sorrows which troubled his mind a perpetual serenity of face and an always cheerful mood", noted a chronicler.
This good humor in the face of danger, this constancy in misfortune characterize this character matured by trials from an early age. To the science of the warrior, to his courage, are added, in fact, the flair of the subtle manoeuver, and also the cunning of the diplomat who hides his best shots behind a habitual eloquence. It makes him sympathetic from the outset and breaks down reluctance and prejudice among
the interlocutor.