II.

The Wars of Religion

Although baptized a Roman Catholic, Henry was brought up as a Calvinist by his strong-minded mother, a leader of the French Protestant (Huguenot) movement, which during the 1560s became involved in a series of civil wars with the Catholics. Henry's wedding in 1572 to Margaret of Valois, sister of the reigning monarch, Charles IX, was followed by the massacre of thousands of Huguenots (see Saint Bartholomew's Day, Massacre of). Henry saved his own life by converting to Roman Catholicism, but he remained a prisoner at court until 1576. After his escape he repudiated his conversion and assumed the leadership of the Huguenots. He was excommunicated in 1584, when he became the immediate heir to the French throne.