III.

Military Leader

Henry's storming of the fortress town of Cahors in 1580 launched his career as an intrepid military leader. He won another brilliant victory at Coutras in 1587 in the war known as the War of the Three Henrys, and two years later formed an alliance with Henry III (the last French king from the Valois dynasty), against the Holy League, dominated by the Guise family. When the Valois king was murdered by a league fanatic in 1589, Henry became king of France as Henry IV.

Backed by Spain and the pope, however, the league refused to acknowledge a Protestant as king of France, and many Catholic nobles who had served Henry III against the league deserted the royal army. Henry won victories over the league at Arques and Ivry and besieged the league stronghold, Paris, which was eventually relieved by a Spanish army from the Netherlands. Henry skillfully exploited divisions among members of the league, and in 1593 he disarmed his opponents by announcing his reconversion to Catholicism. A year later he bribed the league commander of the capital to admit his army. One by one, he defeated or bought over the magnates of the house of Guise who continued to resist. Although Henry had defeated many of his opponents, he still needed to be accepted by the papacy. He appealed to the pope to lift his excommunication. In 1595 the pope, who wanted to avoid a schism in the church, agreed to grant Henry absolution under certain conditions: the church kept all its properties and assets within France and Henry agreed to raise his heir, Louis XIII, as a Roman Catholic. In 1598, Henry made peace with the Spanish. The same year he proclaimed the Edict of Nantes, which granted partial religious freedom to the Huguenots. These acts ended all serious resistance to his reign.