Henri Iv, King Of France And Navarre - 16th Century - French School

Henri IV, King of France and Navarre
Oil on canvas
Late of the 16th Century
French School
Canvas 55 x 71  frame 67 x 83

Henry IV of Bourbon, known as Henry the Great (Pau, 13 December 1553 - Paris, 14 May 1610), was king of France, first of the House of Bourbon. Son of Antonio de Bourbon and Queen Joanna III of Navarre, in 1572 he inherited the crown of Navarre from his mother. In 1589 he succeeded Henry III of France, being heir designate after the death of the Duke of Anjou, becoming the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty to ascend the throne.

He was called the Great, but he also had the nickname of Vert-galant, a literary expression to designate the loving enterprise that characterized Henry, despite the advanced age in which he conquered the throne. He died assassinated by a solitary assassin, a certain François Ravaillac, who stabbed him while he was in a carriage in the center of Paris.

During the sixteenth century France was torn apart by violent religious wars between Catholics and Protestants: religious divisions weakened the French monarchy, threatened by the expansionist will of Catholic Spain.

Henry of Bourbon, who ascended the throne as Henry IV, restored peace to France and above all re-established the unity of the country and the prestige of the monarchy

After forty years of war between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, the kingdom of France finally found peace with him.