Henri IV (of Navarre) (3 août 1589 – 14 mai 1610)

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descended from Bourbon, younger son of St. Louis. Married to Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henri II. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, barely escaping assassination in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. He later led Protestant forces against the royal army. After his coronation, he initially kept the Protestant faith (the only French king to do so) and had to fight against the Catholic League, which denied that he could wear France's crown as a Protestant. To obtain mastery over his kingdom, after four years of stalemate, he found it prudent to abjure the Calvinist faith and convert to Catholicism. As a pragmatic politician (in the parlance of the time, a politique), he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the era. Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes (1598), which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the Wars of Religion. Considered a usurper by some Catholics and a traitor by some Protestants, and an unpopular king among his contemporaries, Henry gained more status after his death. He also constructed the Grand Galerie linking the old Louvre palace to Catherine de Medici's Tuileries palace. His marriage to Margaret was annulled in 1599, and Henry married Marie de' Medici in 1600. He was assassinated in 1610 by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic, and was succeeded by his 9-year-old son Louis XIII.

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