Henry III of France - References in Popular Culture

References in Popular Culture

• Alexandre Dumas, père's play, Henry III and His Court (1829)
• Alexandre Dumas, père's novels: La Reine Margot (1845), La Dame de Monsoreau (1846) and Les quarante-cinq (1847).
• The Stanley Weyman novel, A Gentleman of France (1893) involves the events of Henry's reconciliation with the Huguenots and struggle against the Catholic League, leading to his assassination.
• Last Days of Henry III, King of France at the Internet Movie Database
• The American silent film Intolerance (1916) depicts Henry as effeminate but not explicitly homosexual. He is portrayed by British-born American actor Maxfield Stanley.
• The French movies La Reine Margot (1954) and La Reine Margot (1994), both based on Alexandre Dumas, père's novel of the same title, are fictional depictions of the lives of Henry III's family, his sister Margot, and her Protestant husband Henry around the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. In the 1994 film Henry is played by the actor Pascal Greggory. In Dumas' novel, Henri was not portrayed as homosexual, whereas, in the 1954 film, he was shown as an effeminate, comical queen. In the 1994 film, he was portrayed as a more sinister character, bisexual and showing sexual interest in his sister. His brother dies by being accidentally poisoned by his mother, who had intended to kill Henry of Navarre instead.
• As the Duke of Anjou, the future Henry III plays a significant role in the French film The Princess of Montpensier, based on the novel of the same title by Madame de La Fayette.
• The film Elizabeth, released in 1998, depicts a fictional courtship between Elizabeth I of England and Henry III whilst he was still Duke of Anjou. In reality, the two never met and the Queen of England was actually courted nearly ten years later by his younger brother François, Duke of Anjou when Elizabeth was 46. The film borrows some of the aspects of Henry III's life and features Anjou as a comical foolish transvestite. The role is portrayed by French actor Vincent Cassel.
• In the film Dangerous Beauty, he has a short affair with the main character, Venetian courtesan Veronica Franco. He appears masculine, although he declared to Veronica that the "rumors" about him were true. He is played by British actor Jake Weber.
• In an episode of Animaniacs entitled "The Three Muska-Warners", an Elmer Fudd-like Henri III is protected by Yakko, Wakko and Dot. In this version, Henri is portrayed by Jeff Bennett as nervous and jumpy, and for no apparent reason speaks with an English accent.
• Chabrier's opéra-comique Le roi malgré lui (1887) deals with the unhappy Polish episode, with Henri as the reluctant King of Poland. In Kraków, he conspires with Polish nobles to depose himself. His friend Nangis changes places with him, but in the end, the plot fails and the curtain falls on Henri being crowned.