Henry III of France

Henry III Of France

Henry III (19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589; born Alexandre Édouard de France, Polish: Henryk Walezy, Lithuanian: Henrikas Valua) was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.

Henry was the fourth son of King Henry II and Catherine de' Medici; having older brothers it wasn't at the time likely that he would assume the throne himself. Of his three older brothers, two would live long enough to become king, but both died young and childless, leaving the throne to Henry. Prior to inheriting the throne of France from his brother Charles IX, Henry had been elected to the Polish-Lithuanian Throne. His rule over Poland and Lithuania was brief though important; the Henrician Articles he signed into law accepting the Polish Throne established Poland as an elective monarchy subject to free election by the Polish nobility. He ruled Poland only a short while; he abandoned Poland upon receiving word that he had inherited the throne of France at age 22.

Like his two older brothers before him, his early reign was dominated by his mother Catherine de' Medici. France at the time was embroiled in the French Wars of Religion, and when it became apparent that Henry would not produce an heir, the Wars of Religion grew into a succession crisis. Henry III's legitimate heir was his distant cousin Henry, King of Navarre, a Protestant. The Catholic League, led by Henry I, Duke of Guise, sought to exclude Protestants from the succession and championed the Catholic Charles, Cardinal of Bourbon as Henry III's heir. Henry III also struggled with Guise for control of the Catholic League; during the resultant War of the Three Henrys, the King was assassinated by a Catholic League partisan. Henry, King of Navarre would assume the throne after converting to Catholicism and become Henry IV, the first French king of the House of Bourbon.