Henry II of France

Early life and Spanish captivity

Henry was born on 31 March 1519 at the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris.^[1][2] He was the fourth child and second son of King Francis I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany, who was the daughter of Louis XII and Anne, Duchess of Brittany.^[3][4] At birth he received the title of Duke of Orléans, and he was named after his godfather, King Henry VIII of England.^[5][6][7] His mother died in July 1524, when Henry was five years old, leaving the upbringing of the royal children largely in the care of their paternal grandmother, Louise of Savoy.

Following the defeat and capture of Francis I by the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Battle of Pavia in February 1525, the French king was imprisoned in Madrid.^[8][9][10] Under the terms of the Treaty of Madrid, signed in January 1526, Francis was permitted to return to France on the condition that his two eldest sons, Dauphin Francis and young Henry, be surrendered as hostages.^[9][11] On 17 March 1526, the exchange of the king for his sons took place on a barge in the middle of the Bidassoa River along the French-Spanish border.^[9]

Upon arriving in Spain, the young princes were initially placed in the custody of the Constable of Castile, Íñigo Fernández de Velasco, and were permitted a French household that included a physician, teachers, and a cook.^[12][13] However, after Francis I repudiated the treaty upon returning to France, Charles V ordered their French attendants removed and replaced by Spanish guards.^[9] The boys were subjected to strict confinement across several Velasco family strongholds, including Villalba de los Alcores, Ampudia, Villalpando, Berlanga, Castilnovo, and the fortress of Pedraza de la Sierra.^[12][13][14] During their imprisonment, they were confined to darkened rooms with barred windows and had few opportunities for outdoor exercise or social contact.^[9] When diplomatic envoys visited them, they observed that the princes had almost forgotten the French language and spoke Spanish.^[9]

The princes remained in captivity for over four years, until the negotiation of the Treaty of Cambrai, known as the Ladies' Peace, signed on 3 August 1529 by Louise of Savoy and Margaret of Austria.^[15][16] The treaty arranged their release in exchange for a ransom of two million gold ecus and the marriage of Francis I to Eleanor of Austria, sister of Charles V.^[9] After the payment was assembled, the princes were exchanged and crossed the Bidassoa River back to France on 1 July 1530.^[9] The harsh confinement left lasting psychological effects on Henry, making him taciturn, melancholic, and hypochondriacal, traits that created an emotional distance between him and his father, who favoured his younger brother Charles.^[9]

Marriage and personal relationships

On 28 October 1533, at the age of fourteen, Henry married Catherine de' Medici in the Church of Saint-Ferréol les Augustins in Marseille.^[17][18][19] Catherine was the daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, and was the orphaned niece of Pope Clement VII.^[9] Francis I sought the union to hinder the plans of Charles V and gain the friendship of Pope Clement VII.^[9] Pope Clement VII travelled to Marseille with fourteen cardinals to officiate the ceremony and presided over lavish festivities that lasted thirty-four days.^[9][17][20] The unexpected death of Clement VII in 1534 undermined the diplomatic benefits of the union, as his successor Pope Paul III declined to pay the promised dowry or maintain the alliance, leaving Catherine with diminished prestige at the French court.^[9]

Around 1534 to 1536, Henry developed a romantic devotion to Diane de Poitiers, a noblewoman twenty years his senior and the widow of Louis de Brézé, Grand Seneschal of Normandy.^[9][21] Diane had embraced the young prince when he departed for his Spanish captivity in 1526, and by the mid-1530s she had become his primary confidante and advisor.^[9] At a tournament in 1531 celebrating the entry of Queen Eleanor, Henry had jousted in Diane's colours of green and white, and he later adopted her livery of black and white.^[9][21] Diane acquired influence over Henry, shaping court appointments, advising on royal business, and regularly countersigning official documents.^[22][23] Catherine de' Medici possessed little influence during this era, though Diane urged Henry to cohabit with Catherine to produce heirs to the crown.^[24][25][26]

The royal marriage remained childless for its first ten years, giving rise to discussions of repudiation.^[9] Henry's reproductive capability was demonstrated in 1537 during a campaign in Piedmont, where he had a liaison with Filippa Duci, an Italian noblewoman from Fossano, resulting in the birth of a daughter, Diane de France, in July 1538.^[27][28][29] Royal physician Jean Fernel examined Henry and diagnosed an anatomical malformation resulting from hypospadias.^[27][30] Fernel advised positional adjustments during marital intercourse, and in January 1544 Catherine gave birth to their first child, the future Francis II, followed by nine more children over the next twelve years.^[27][30]

Despite his fidelity to Diane de Poitiers, Henry engaged in occasional short-lived affairs. In 1548, following the arrival of Mary, Queen of Scots, Henry began a liaison with Lady Janet Stewart, Lady Fleming, an illegitimate daughter of James IV of Scotland and the young queen's governess.^[31][32] The affair resulted in the birth of Henri d'Angoulême in 1551.^[33][34] Threatened by Janet's influence, Catherine and Diane collaborated to have her dismissed from court and sent back to Scotland. Between 1556 and 1557, Henry had a relationship with Nicole de Savigny, Baroness of Fontette, who bore a son named Henri de Saint-Rémi in 1557.^[35][36] Henry did not formally legitimise this child due to doubts regarding paternity, although he granted him an estate and the title of Count of Saint-Rémy.^[35][36]

Heir apparent and court factions

Henry became heir apparent and Dauphin on 10 August 1536, following the sudden death of his eighteen-year-old elder brother Francis.^[29][37] Francis fell ill after drinking cold water following a vigorous game of tennis at Tournon.^[29][37][38] Rumours spread that the Dauphin had been poisoned, leading to the trial and execution of his Italian cupbearer, Count Sebastiano de Montecúccoli, though modern medical historians suggest the death was caused by pleurisy or acute respiratory disease.^[37][38] Upon his brother's death, Henry assumed the titles of Dauphin of France and Duke of Brittany, although he was never crowned at Rennes Cathedral and Francis I retained the administrative usufruct of Brittany. On 9 February 1540, Henry was granted formal enjoyment of the revenues of the duchy, but real political control remained with the king.

During his years as Dauphin, Henry took part in several military campaigns. In October 1537, he commanded the vanguard of the French army in Piedmont and participated in the capture of Moncalieri. In August 1542, he led an army of 40,000 men into Roussillon during the fourth war between Francis I and Charles V, laying siege to Perpignan.^[39] The siege was resisted by the imperial commanders Cervellon and Machichaco, whose sallies disabled the French siege artillery, and Henry was forced to retreat when the Duke of Alba arrived with imperial reinforcements.^[40] In the autumn of 1544, Henry repulsed English forces near Calais, lifted the siege of Montreuil, and launched an assault on English-held Boulogne.

The latter years of Francis I's reign were marked by intense factional conflict at court. The king's circle was led by his mistress, Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Duchess of Étampes, together with Admiral Claude d'Annebault and Cardinal François de Tournon, and supported Henry's younger brother, Charles, Duke of Orléans.^[41] Opposing them was the Dauphin's party, centred around Diane de Poitiers and the Constable Anne de Montmorency.^[41] Montmorency lost royal favour and was banished from court, though Henry continued to support him..^[29][41] Tensions escalated in 1544 when Anne de Pisseleu convinced the king that Henry and Diane were conspiring with the exiled constable.^[41] Francis I banished Diane from the court, prompting Henry to withdraw to Diane's estate at the Château d'Anet until father and son were reconciled in 1545.^[41][42][43] The political rivalry between Henry and his brother Charles ended with the latter's death from the plague in September 1545.

Accession and governance

Francis I died on 31 March 1547, Henry's twenty-eighth birthday, and Henry acceded to the French throne.^[44] He was crowned King of France at Reims Cathedral on 25 July 1547 by Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine.^[44] As king, Henry dismissed several of his father's ministers..^[29] Anne de Pisseleu was stripped of her influence and banished from court, while Admiral d'Annebault and Cardinal de Tournon were removed from executive power.^[9] Henry restored the Constable Anne de Montmorency to favour and entrusted him with important posts..^[9][29] Key offices and royal council seats were granted to the king's favourites, notably Jacques d'Albon de Saint-André, who was named Marshal of France and First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and the Guise family, led by François, Duke of Aumale (later Duke of Guise), and his brother Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine.

Unlike his father, Henry spent far less on royal display: court balls and concerts became rarer and the number of ladies-in-waiting was reduced..^[45] The Venetian ambassadors Jean Capello and Dandolo recorded that Henry was tall, well-proportioned, and dark-complexioned, but possessed a taciturn and melancholy temperament, laughing so infrequently that courtiers claimed never to have seen him smile. A detailed report in 1558 by the Venetian envoy Giovanni Soranzo noted that Henry maintained a strict daily regimen: he woke early, held two-hour consultations with his inner council, attended Mass, took breakfast publicly, and granted two hours of diplomatic audiences. He then visited Diane de Poitiers, played ball games or pall-mall, dined, and spent an hour with the queen and court ladies before hunting deer two or three times a week.

Administrative and judicial reforms

On his accession, Henry carried out administrative reforms: the departments of the royal council became more specialised, and commissioners were sent to the provinces to enforce royal decrees, as forerunners of the later intendants..^[29] In 1547, he formalised the system of four Secretaries of State, selecting them from the company of royal notary-secretaries to oversee royal correspondence, state decrees, and financial affairs. Initially assigned separate geographic quarters of the realm, their responsibilities expanded in 1557 under the title of Secretaries of State and Finances. To supervise expenditures from the royal treasury, Henry instituted the office of Contrôleur général in 1554.

Henry reformed the judiciary by creating intermediate courts linking the local courts and the Parlement.^[29] These courts were called présidiaux.. Each présidial had nine judges, and the courts were also meant to raise revenue from the sale of offices.. In 1554, he established the Parlement of Brittany, giving the newly integrated province its own superior appellate court. In 1553, royal ordinances mandated annual inspection circuits across the provinces by the maîtres des requêtes to audit provincial administration and enforce royal decrees.^[29] In 1557, Henry mandated the standardization of weights and measures across the suburbs of Paris and the jurisdiction of the Parlement of Paris, depositing an official master standard at the Paris Hôtel de Ville.

Financial policies and popular unrest

To fund ongoing military campaigns against the Habsburgs, Henry significantly increased taxation across the realm.^[46] His administration raised the gabelle (salt tax), instituted the taillon to fund the standing cavalry, increased traditional tallage levies, and imposed duties on imported goods.^[46] In January 1551, the king unified the fiscal administration by merging the four regional treasurers of France and the four generals of finances into a single board of seventeen treasurers-general. Despite these fiscal measures, crown debt escalated rapidly, exceeding 43 million livres by the late 1550s, with some loans carrying interest rates as high as 16 percent.^[47]

In 1548, Henry faced a peasant revolt, the Jacquerie of the Pitauds, which spread to the towns, including Bordeaux. Henry entrusted the repression of Bordeaux to the Constable Anne de Montmorency. Montmorency executed brutal retribution: Bordeaux was stripped of its municipal privileges, its citizens were disarmed, the local parlement was suspended, a collective fine of 200,000 livres was levied, and 140 participants were sentenced to death. The repression then spread to the surrounding countryside, where the leaders were hanged, and in 1549 Henry granted the city an amnesty.

In 1555, the Grand Parti de Lyon was created, a large loan raised from the merchant-bankers of Lyon, the kingdom's main financial centre, which refinanced all existing royal debts over the long term. Despite its innovative character, military and political circumstances ended the loan in bankruptcy, which led Henry to convoke the Estates-General in Paris in January 1558 to vote a contribution.

Religious policy and repression of Protestantism

Henry was an unyielding defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy and regarded the spread of Protestantism as a direct threat to the political unity and stability of the realm.^[48][49] Some accounts credit the influence of Diane de Poitiers and Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, while Baumgartner argues that his severity toward Protestants was rooted less in outside influence than in his own commitment to Catholic orthodoxy.^[49] He pursued aggressive anti-heresy policies that surpassed the measures enacted by his father.^[48] On 8 October 1547, Henry instituted a specialized heresy tribunal within the Parlement of Paris.^[50] Known colloquially as the chambre ardente (burning chamber) due to its frequent use of burning at the stake, the chamber issued more than five hundred sentences against French Calvinists between 1547 and 1550.^[50] Penalties for heresy and blasphemy included public whipping, facial branding, amputation of the tongue, and execution by burning.^[50][51]

Henry codified anti-Protestant legislation through a succession of royal edicts.^[51] The Edict of Paris, issued on 19 November 1549, returned jurisdiction over certain heresy cases to ecclesiastical courts. This was superseded by the Edict of Châteaubriant on 27 June 1551, which assigned judicial authority over seditious heretics to secular courts, prohibited Protestants from operating schools or holding public offices, and awarded one-third of the confiscated property of condemned heretics to informers.^[52] The edict also imposed strict censorship on the printing trade, banning the unlicensed sale, import, or publication of books, particularly theological literature originating in Geneva.^[51] On 24 July 1557, Henry issued the Edict of Compiègne, which intensified the repression, including against Catholics who aided or sheltered Protestants. The edict gave the secular courts the task of driving out the Reformed.^[53]

In 1551, in the context of the war and of Italian affairs, a violent conflict, known as the Gallican Crisis, set Henry against Pope Julius III. In 1551, French forces fought for Ottavio Farnese's Parma against the forces of Pope Julius III and Charles V.^[54] On 27 July 1551, the Pope issued an anathema against the French king. In response, Henry broke off relations with the papacy, and the idea of a schism was raised but soon set aside; he forbade the transfer of benefices to Rome and opposed the participation of French prelates in the Council of Trent. On 13 August 1551, Henry declared war on the papacy. Concerned by the rupture, Julius III sought a reconciliation from October. The king had the support of the Parlement of Paris, which was hostile to Roman interference in French affairs, and in 1557 the Parlement opposed the re-establishment of the Inquisition in the kingdom.

While Henry persecuted the Huguenots, a significant part of the French elite converted to the new faith, and conversions multiplied after Calvin had strengthened his position in Geneva enough, around 1555, to send missionaries to France.^[55] Two princes of the blood, Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, and his brother Louis, Prince of Condé, helped spread the ideas of the Reformation, travelling with Protestant ministers and taking part in the Protestant gatherings at the Pré-aux-Clercs in Paris in May 1558, which drew several hundred people. Protestant sympathies also spread among the nephews of the Constable Montmorency: François de Coligny d'Andelot, Cardinal Odet de Châtillon, and Admiral Gaspard de Coligny.^[55] In May 1559, the first national synod of Reformed churches convened secretly in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris to draft a common confession of faith.^[55]

In September 1557, a riot broke out in Paris on the Rue Saint-Jacques, where Protestants had gathered. In September 1557, Henry survived an assassination attempt by a man named Caboche, who was quickly overpowered by the king's guard and executed within hours of his arrest without trial or questioning; this haste led people at the time to believe the attack had been ordered by the Protestant party, though no proof was produced. In response to growing noble adherence to Calvinism, Henry issued the Edict of Écouen on 2 June 1559, instructing royal magistrates to execute rebellious or fleeing Protestants immediately without trial.^[56] Many parlement members had adopted the ideas of the Reformation, and a mercuriale was held on 10 June 1559. When magistrate Anne du Bourg voiced criticism of the persecution of heretics, Henry ordered him and several other magistrates arrested and imprisoned in the Bastille.

Foreign affairs and wars

Throughout his reign, Henry pursued an assertive foreign policy designed to break the Habsburg encirclement of France, continuing the Italian Wars that had engaged his predecessors.^[9] In 1551, he declared war against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, initiating the Italian War of 1551–1559.^[57][58] Guided by realpolitik, Henry suppressed Protestants within France while forging military alliances with German Lutheran princes and maintaining the Franco-Ottoman alliance initiated by Francis I.^[57][58]

Conflict with England and the Scottish alliance

Following the Scottish defeat by English forces at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh on 10 September 1547, the Scots invoked the Auld Alliance with France.. In 1548, Henry sent French troops to Scotland to expel English garrisons and agreed to host the five-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, at the French royal court.^[59] Mary, the daughter of Marie de Guise, was the niece of the Lorraine princes, whose influence on Henry helped arrange her marriage to the Dauphin Francis.. Mary was raised alongside the royal children and married Francis on 24 April 1558 at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.^[59][60] Henry secretly had Mary sign documents conveying the Kingdom of Scotland and her claims to the English crown to the French monarchy if she died without issue, an arrangement contrary to Scottish law.^[59][60]

Between 1549 and 1550, French armies commanded by François de Guise and Leone Strozzi besieged Boulogne-sur-Mer, which had been occupied by English forces since 1544. Under the Treaty of Outreau of 24 March 1550, France bought Boulogne back from the English, and the treaty imposed Henry's dominance in Scotland.. In April 1551, Edward VI invested Henry with the Order of the Garter, and on 19 July a diplomatic betrothal was negotiated between Edward and Henry's eldest daughter, Elisabeth of Valois, though the arrangement collapsed upon Edward's early death in 1553.^[61][62]

Campaigns in Germany and Italy

In January 1552, Henry negotiated the Treaty of Chambord with the Protestant princes of the Holy Roman Empire, led by Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, who were rebelling against Charles V in the Second Schmalkaldic War.^[57] Under the treaty, the German princes acknowledged Henry's right to occupy the imperial bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, as well as Cambrai, with the title of Imperial Vicar.^[57] In March 1552, Henry launched his German expedition (the Voyage d'Allemagne), gathering royal forces at Joinville under the joint command of Montmorency and Guise. The French army occupied Toul and Verdun without resistance and entered Metz on 18 April 1552. Henry then led his army to Nancy, where he removed the regent, Christine of Denmark, the young duke's mother and the emperor's niece, gave the regency to Nicolas of Lorraine, and had the young Duke Charles III of Lorraine taken to the Louvre to receive a French education..

In October 1552, on the orders of Charles V, the Duke of Alba laid siege to Metz with imperial forces of 35,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry and 150 cannon.. The city was held by a small garrison under François de Guise, and the four-month siege failed to take it.. Charles V lost more than half of his army of 50,000 and was forced to withdraw.. French possession of the Three Bishoprics was consolidated in August 1554 when royal forces defeated the imperial army at the Battle of Renty.^[63][64]

In Italy, royal troops commanded by Marshals Charles de Cossé-Brissac and Paul de La Barthe de Thermes fought imperial forces reinforced by papal contingents, and Brissac campaigned successfully in Piedmont.. In April 1552, Cardinal François de Tournon negotiated a first truce and had the city of Siena, which had evacuated its Spanish garrison, placed under French protection.. In October 1553, a combined Franco-Ottoman expedition commanded by Marshal de Thermes and supported by an Ottoman fleet captured Corsica from the Republic of Genoa. However, French operations in Tuscany suffered a defeat on 3 August 1554 when Piero Strozzi's army was crushed by imperial and Florentine forces under Gian Giacomo Medici at the Battle of Marciano.^[63][64] Siena was besieged and, despite defense by Blaise de Monluc, surrendered to Florence on 17 April 1555.

Faced with exhaustion, Henry and Charles V signed the Truce of Vaucelles in February 1556, agreeing to a five-year cessation of hostilities that recognized French control over Piedmont, Corsica, and the Three Bishoprics.^[65] However, the abdication of Charles V in 1556 divided the Habsburg realms between his son Philip II of Spain and his brother Ferdinand I. Pope Paul IV, elected in 1555 and fiercely hostile to the Emperor, sent his nephew Cardinal Carlo Carafa as legate to the French court in 1556, and Carafa returned with Henry's promise to intervene.. In late 1556, Henry dispatched the Duke of Guise with an army to Piedmont to launch an invasion of the Spanish-controlled Kingdom of Naples, but the expedition failed to achieve tangible gains.

Battles in the Low Countries and the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis

The focus of the war shifted to the northern frontier in 1557, following the marriage of Philip II to Queen Mary I of England, which brought English maritime and military resources to the Spanish side.^[66] Philip II had an army of 60,000 men in the Netherlands under Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and the allies launched an offensive towards Paris through Artois. The Spanish besieged the town of Saint-Quentin in Picardy..^[9][29] The Constable Anne de Montmorency tried to relieve the city but was defeated, and on 10 August 1557 he was taken prisoner by the Spanish..^[9][29] French casualties exceeded 3,000 dead, and thousands were captured, including Montmorency himself, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, and Marshal Jacques d'Albon de Saint-André.

Henry recalled the Duke of Guise from Italy and gave him command of military operations in the north as lieutenant-general of the realm. In January 1558 the Duke of Guise took Calais, the last English possession on the continent.^[67] The city had been English since 1347..^[9] Guise also captured Thionville in July 1558. The French were defeated again at the Battle of Gravelines.^[68] There, in 1558, Count Egmont defeated the French force under Marshal de Thermes..

Both the French and Spanish crowns were exhausted and near bankruptcy, compelling both sides to open peace negotiations.^[69] On 2 and 3 April 1559, the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis was signed between France, England, and Spain.^[70][71] Under the Anglo-French agreement, Queen Elizabeth I permitted France to retain Calais in exchange for an indemnity of 500,000 crowns. Under the Franco-Spanish agreement, France renounced all claims to Naples and Milan, and restored Piedmont, Savoy, and Bresse to Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, as well as returning Corsica to Genoa.^[71] However, France retained the Three Bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, the border fortress of Saluzzo, and five garrisons in Piedmont for a three-year period.^[71]

To cement the peace, two dynastic marriages were arranged: Henry's fourteen-year-old daughter Elisabeth of Valois was married to the widowed Philip II of Spain, and his sister Margaret, Duchess of Berry, was wed to Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy.^[71] In June 1559, with external warfare concluded, Henry issued letters patent stating his intention to direct the royal cavalry and gendarmerie inward to eliminate domestic heresy.^[72][73]

Colonial enterprises and patents

In 1555, Henry supported an attempt to establish a permanent French colony in the New World, commissioning Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon, Vice-Admiral of Brittany, to lead an expedition to Guanabara Bay in Brazil.^[52][74] The bay had been explored five years earlier by the navigator Guillaume Le Testu, and some years before, merchants from Le Havre had set up a trading post near present-day Cabo Frio to supply brazilwood, the source of a red dye. Villegagnon established a settlement known as France Antarctique, founding the outpost of Henryville and building Fort Coligny on an island in the bay.^[52] Villegagnon had struggled to recruit settlers and faced defections, and he sent Le Testu back to France to ask for reinforcements.

Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, who aimed to create a Protestant colony in the region, answered the request, and three ships left Honfleur on 19 November 1556 carrying a group of Reformed settlers, including the minister Jean de Léry. In his account, Léry describes constant disputes within the colony, in particular his clashes with André Thevet, the Franciscan monk who was chaplain of Villegagnon's first expedition. The religious divisions in the community helped the Portuguese, who took and destroyed Fort Coligny in 1560, ending the first French venture in South America. Thevet is said to have brought the first samples of tobacco, then called pétun, back to France, although the spread of its use is credited to Jean Nicot.

Henry also introduced an important innovation in the history of intellectual property law by requiring inventors to submit a written description of their invention as a condition of receiving patent monopoly rights.^[75] This written description became known as a patent specification.^[75] The first formal specification under this system was submitted by the inventor Abel Foullon for his rangefinding instrument, the holmetre, in 1551, with publication withheld until the patent expired in 1561.^[75]

Patronage, arts, and court culture

Henry was an active patron of the French Renaissance, promoting architecture, sculpture, and literature, though with less personal ostentation than his father.^[45] His reign was characterized by elaborate ceremonial entries (joyeuses entrées) designed to project royal majesty through triumphal arches, temporary theatrical architecture, musical performances, and published commemorative books.^[45] Notable entries occurred in Paris in June 1549 and in Rouen in October 1550, where civic pageantry celebrated the king under the classical guise of the Gallic Hercules and featured a simulated Brazilian village with imported indigenous warriors.^[45]

In royal architecture, Henry confirmed Pierre Lescot as chief architect of the Palais du Louvre, overseeing the construction of the Renaissance wing that bears Lescot's name.^[45] The sculptures of the Lescot wing of the Louvre are the work of the royal sculptor Jean Goujon. Henry's favoured architect was Philibert Delorme, the first to hold the title of architecte du roi, who directed building and alteration work at several châteaux, including Saint-Maur, Anet and Meudon, and invented the French order. The colossal order was introduced to French architecture during this period by Jean Bullant in his work on the Château d'Écouen, the Petit Château at Chantilly, and the Château-Neuf at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

French literature was also enriched during his reign.^[76] A new poetic movement, the Pléiade, emerged, with poets including Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay. Ronsard praised the monarch in his Avant-entrée du Roi in 1549 and in his Hymnes of 1555..^[77] In 1553, Étienne Jodelle's Cléopâtre captive was staged in the presence of the king; it is considered one of the first examples of classical drama. In 1548, the king banned mystery plays, a form of medieval origin.

Like many Renaissance princes, Henry used a rich and varied set of emblems, drawing on dynastic symbols and on the imagery of the goddess Diana, which his mistress Diane de Poitiers also used. His personal device consisted of three interlaced crescent moons, accompanied by the Latin motto Donec totum impleat orbem (Until it fills the whole world). The crescent may have come from the heraldic mark of the Valois-Angoulême branch, and it was also the emblem of Diana the huntress, which Diane de Poitiers used. Bows and arrows, stags and hounds, the attributes of the goddess Diana, appeared often in Henry's emblems, including the stained-glass windows he gave to the Sainte-Chapelle of Vincennes and the ceiling of the Henri II staircase at the Louvre.

The king's official monogram featured an H intertwined back-to-back with two Cs representing Catherine de' Medici. Because the ends of the Cs did not extend past the vertical strokes of the H, the letters could more easily be read as Ds, for Diane, than as Cs, and after Henry's death Catherine had the cipher redrawn so that the ends of the Cs extended clearly beyond the strokes of the H. The motif was stamped across royal coinage, fine bookbindings, and architectural carvings at the Louvre and the Château de Fontainebleau.^[78]

Fatal tournament and death

To celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis and the proxy marriage of his daughter Elisabeth to Philip II of Spain, Henry arranged five days of celebrations and jousting tournaments along the Rue Saint-Antoine in Paris, near the Hôtel des Tournelles.^[47][79] On 30 June 1559, Henry entered the lists wearing the black-and-white colours of Diane de Poitiers and riding a charger named Malheureux.^[47][79] After successfully running courses against Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and François, Duke of Guise, Henry insisted on running an additional course against Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery, captain of the King's Scottish Guard. Both Queen Catherine and Montgomery urged the king to desist, noting that his visor was not securely fastened, but Henry refused.^[47][80]

During the clash, both lances broke on impact.^[47] Montgomery held onto the fractured stump of his lance as his horse carried him forward, and the splintered shaft struck the king's helmet.^[81][82] The impact tore away the unfastened visor, and sharp wooden splinters pierced Henry's face, driving deeply through his eye and temple into his brain.^[47][81] Henry swayed in the saddle, lost consciousness, and was carried into the nearby Hôtel des Tournelles.^[47]

Henry was attended by royal physicians, including François Pidoux and Jean Chaplain, and royal surgeon Ambroise Paré.^[83][84][85] Upon hearing of the accident, Philip II dispatched his personal physician, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius, from Brussels, who arrived on 3 July.^[86][87] In an effort to determine the path of the splinters and develop a surgical extraction plan, the surgeons were permitted by royal authorities to perform experimental trepanations and lance thrusts on the severed heads of four executed criminals.^[47] Finding the fragments impossible to extract without inducing fatal trauma, the medical team adopted a conservative wait-and-see course.^[83][88] Henry briefly regained consciousness, listened to music, and pardoned Montgomery, but his condition deteriorated as intracranial sepsis and brain abscesses developed.^[47][89][90]

As the king lay dying, Queen Catherine took control of the household and barred Diane de Poitiers from entering the royal bedchamber, despite Henry's repeated requests to see her.^[47][79] On the night of 9 July, the marriage of Henry's sister Margaret to Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy was performed hastily in the apartments of Elisabeth of Valois. Henry died the following afternoon on 10 July 1559, at the age of forty, after eleven days of agony.^[47] His reported last words expressed his hope that his subjects would remain steadfast in the Catholic faith.^[9][53]

Henry's body was embalmed, while his heart and viscera were removed and deposited in the Church of the Célestins in Paris. From 29 July to 5 August, an effigy of the king in royal regalia was displayed on a raised platform beneath a canopy, and for six days meals were served to it as if it were a living person. On 11 August, the effigy and coffin were transferred to Notre-Dame Cathedral for two days of requiem Masses, before being conducted in solemn procession to the royal necropolis at the Basilica of Saint-Denis for burial on 13 August 1559.^[91] Following the funeral, Catherine de' Medici banished Diane de Poitiers from court, compelling her to surrender the Château de Chenonceau in exchange for the older Château de Chaumont.^[9] Montgomery was dismissed from his command and fled to England; he later returned to fight for the Huguenots during the Wars of Religion and was executed by Catherine's order in 1574.^[90]

The recumbent effigy showing Henry beside Catherine de' Medici, made by Germain Pilon in 1565, can still be seen in the Basilica of Saint-Denis. A funerary monument known as the Monument to the Heart of Henry II was also executed by Germain Pilon, featuring a single piece of marble carved into the figures of the Three Graces supporting a bronze urn containing the king's heart.^[92][93] The original bronze urn was destroyed during the French Revolution, and a replica was made in the 19th century.^[92][93] On 18 October 1793, during the French Revolution, Henry's tomb at Saint-Denis was opened and plundered. A crowd plundered the coffins in the burial vault and threw the bones of Henry and Catherine into a common pit with those of other French kings and queens.^[94] After 1815, exhumed royal bones from the trench were reinterred in a communal ossuary within the church crypt.

Henry's death was later widely associated with a prophecy published by Nostradamus in his 1555 quatrain I-35, which referred to a young lion overcoming an older one in single combat on a field of battle, piercing his eyes through a golden cage, and causing a cruel death.^[95] However, neither Nostradamus nor his contemporaries connected the verse to Henry's tournament during the king's lifetime; the association gained widespread popularity only decades later, though the Italian astrologer Luca Gaurico was also said to have cautioned the king against single combat.^[95][96][97]

Issue and succession

Catherine de' Medici bore ten children during her marriage to Henry:^[98]

Francis II (19 January 1544 – 5 December 1560) succeeded his father as King of France and married Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1558; he died without issue at age sixteen.^[98] Elisabeth of Valois (2 April 1545 – 3 October 1568) married Philip II of Spain in 1559 and had issue.^[98] Claude of Valois (12 November 1547 – 21 February 1575) married Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, in 1559 and had issue.^[98] Louis, Duke of Orléans (3 February 1549 – 24 October 1550), died in infancy.^[98] Charles IX (27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) reigned as King of France from 1560 until his death, marrying Elisabeth of Austria and leaving female issue.^[98] Henry III (19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) reigned as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1573–1574) and King of France from 1574 until his assassination, marrying Louise of Lorraine and dying without issue as the last Valois monarch.^[98] Margaret of Valois (14 May 1553 – 27 March 1615), known as Queen Margot, married Henry III of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) in 1572; the marriage was annulled in 1599 without issue.^[98] Francis, Duke of Alençon and Anjou (18 March 1555 – 10 June 1584), died unmarried without issue.^[98] Victoria and Joan were twin daughters born on 24 June 1556; Joan died at birth after surgeons were forced to break her limbs to preserve Catherine's life, and Victoria died several weeks later on 17 August 1556.^{[98][99][100]}

Henry also acknowledged three illegitimate children:

By Filippa Duci, he had Diane de France, Duchess of Angoulême (1538–1619), who was raised under the supervision of Diane de Poitiers, legitimated in 1547, and married first Orazio Farnese, Duke of Castro, and second François, Duke of Montmorency.^[101][102] By Lady Janet Stewart, he had Henri d'Angoulême (1551 – June 1586), who was legitimated, appointed Grand Prior of France, and served as Governor of Provence until his death in a duel.^[33][34] By Nicole de Savigny, he had Henri de Saint-Rémi (1557–1621), who was given the title Count of Saint-Rémy; among his descendants was Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, Countess de la Motte, who gained notoriety for her central role in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace during the reign of Louis XVI.^[35][36]

Henry's untimely death in 1559 destabilized the French kingdom. His succession passed to his sickly fifteen-year-old son Francis II, under the political ascendancy of the Catholic Guise family and the regency influence of Queen Catherine de' Medici.^[103][104] The minority and poor health of Henry's successive sons, together with the religious tensions to which his persecution of Protestants had contributed, led to challenges to the throne by powerful nobles and helped to spark thirty-six years of civil conflict in the French Wars of Religion, concluding with the extinction of the House of Valois in 1589.^[104]

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