Henri IV, King of Navarre and France (1553-1610). Henri IV was a direct descendant of the Capetian kings, married a Valois princess of the blood, and founded the Bourbon dynasty. He became king of Navarre upon the death of his mother in 1572 and of France in 1589 after his four Valois cousins/brothers-in-law, including Kings Charles IX and Henri III, had died without issue. Additionally he was raised a Huguenot, converted to Catholicism to save his life in 1572, recanted and was excommunicated in 1576, converted again in 1593 to consolidate his claim to the throne, and brought 40 years of religious civil war to an end with the Edict of Nantes in 1598 (see French wars of religion). Thus it borders on the churlish to point out that he was an indifferent military commander, and that when he said ‘Paris vaut bien une messe’ (Paris is well worth a Mass), the phrase was given added piquancy by the fact that he had signally failed to take the city by military means. The only time he came up against a really competent opponent (Parma at Rouen in 1591-2) he was made to look like a dilettante, but since until the moment the Catholic fanatic François Ravaillac's stiletto ended his days he was a supremely lucky prince, his failings pale by comparison.
Henri inherited a bitterly divided nation, ravaged by international and civil war, beset on all sides by the mighty Habsburg empire, and bankrupt. He bequeathed to his son Louis XIII a unified nation, with a booming economy, and a burgeoning population, solid alliances, and able councillors. He paid off the national debt, encouraged the beginnings of the French empire in America, and built or completed some of the main architectural treasures of Paris. He sacked no towns, killed few men, conciliated formerly mortal enemies, and simply by stopping the self-destruction made France once again a power to be reckoned with in Europe and the world.
— Hugh Bicheno
