Henry II of France

Henry II
Saint Denis Basilica
Spouse	Catherine de' Medici ​ ​ (m. 1533)​
Issue more...	Francis II, King of France Elisabeth, Queen of Spain Claude, Duchess of Lorraine Louis, Duke of Orléans Charles IX, King of France Henry III, King of France Margaret, Queen of France Francis, Duke of Anjou Illegitimate : Diane, Duchess of Angoulême Henri, Duke of Angoulême Henri, Count of Saint-Rémi [fr]
Catholicism
Signature

Henry II (French: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis in 1536.

As a child, Henry and his elder brother spent over four years in captivity in Spain as hostages in exchange for their father. Henry pursued his father's policies in matters of art, war, and religion. He persevered in the Italian Wars against the Habsburgs and tried to suppress the Reformation, even as the Huguenot numbers were increasing drastically in France during his reign.

Under the April 1559

Henry was born in the royal

Henry's father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and held prisoner in Spain.^[2] To obtain his release, it was agreed that Henry and his older brother Francis be sent to Spain in his place.^[3] They remained in captivity for over four years.^[4]

Henry married

Extremely confident, mature and intelligent, Diane left Catherine powerless to intervene.[7] She did, however, insist that Henry sleep with Catherine in order to produce heirs to the throne.^[7]

When his elder brother Francis died in 1536 after a game of tennis, Henry became heir apparent to the throne.

His attachment to Diane caused a breach with his father in 1544; the royal mistress

He succeeded his father on his 28th birthday and was crowned King of France on 25 July 1547 at Reims Cathedral.^[10]

Reign

Attitude towards Protestants

Henry's reign was marked by the persecution of Protestants, mainly Calvinists known as

The Edict of Châteaubriant (27 June 1551) called upon the civil and ecclesiastical courts to detect and punish all heretics and placed severe restrictions on Huguenots, including the loss of one-third of their property to informers, and confiscations. The Edict also strictly regulated publications by prohibiting the sale, importation or printing of any unapproved book. It was during the reign of Henry II that Huguenot attempts at establishing a colony in Brazil were made, with the short-lived formation of France Antarctique.^[14] In June 1559, with war against the Habsburgs concluded, Henri established in letters patent his desire to task much of the Gendarmerie that had been involved in the foreign wars with the extirpation of domestic heresy.^[15]

Italian War of 1551–1559

The

Henry raised the young Mary, Queen of Scots, at his court, hoping to establish a dynastic claim to the Kingdom of Scotland by marrying her to Dauphin Francis on 24 April 1558. Their son would have been King of France and King of Scotland, and also a claimant to the throne of England. Henry had Mary sign secret documents, illegal in Scottish law, that would ensure Valois rule in Scotland even if Mary died without leaving a child by Francis.^[21] As it happened, Francis died without issue a year and half after his father, ending the French claim to Scotland.

Patent innovation

Henry II introduced the concept of publishing the description of an invention in the form of a patent. The idea was to require an inventor to disclose his invention in exchange for monopoly rights to the patent. The description is called a patent "specification". The first patent specification was submitted by the inventor Abel Foullon for Usaige & Description de l'holmetre (a type of rangefinder). Publication was delayed until after the patent expired in 1561.^[22]

Death

Henry II was an avid hunter and a participant in

As Henry lay dying, Queen Catherine limited access to his bedside and denied his mistress Diane de Poitiers permission to see him, even though he repeatedly asked for her. Following his death, Catherine sent Diane into exile, where she lived in comfort on her own properties until her death.^[23]

It was the practice to enclose the heart of the king in an urn. The Monument to the Heart of Henry II is in the collection of the Louvre, but was originally in the Chapel of Orleans beneath a pyramid. The original bronze urn holding the king's heart was destroyed during the French Revolution and a replica was made in the 19th century. The marble sculpture of the Three Graces holding the urn, executed from a single piece of marble by Germain Pilon, the sculptor to Catherine de' Medici, survives.^[29]

Henry was succeeded by his sickly fifteen-year-old son,

Catherine de' Medici bore ten of Henry's children:^[34]

• Francis II, born 19 January 1544, who married Mary, Queen of Scots
• Philip II, King of Spain
• Claude, born 12 November 1547, who married Charles III, Duke of Lorraine
• Louis, Duke of Orléans, born 3 February 1549, died 24 October 1550
• Charles IX, born 27 June 1550, died 30 May 1574
• Henry III, born 19 September 1551, also briefly King of Poland
• Margaret, born 14 May 1553, who married Henry III, King of Navarre (later Henry IV of France
  )
• Hercules
  , born 18 March 1555, later known as Francis, Duke of Alençon and Anjou
• Victoire
  , born 24 June 1556, died 17 August 1556
• Joan, born 24 June 1556, stillborn.

• By Filippa Duci:^[35]
  • Diane, duchesse d'Angoulême (1538–1619). At the age of fourteen, she married Orazio Farnese, Duke of Castro,^[36] who died in battle in 1553. Her second marriage was to François, Duke of Montmorency.^[37]
• By
  Lady Janet Stewart (1502–1562), the illegitimate daughter of James IV of Scotland:^[38]
  • Henri d'Angoulême (1551 – June 1586).^[39] He was legitimized and became governor of Provence.
• By Nicole de Savigny:
  • Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, Countess de la Motte, famous for her role in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace at the court of Louis XVI
    .

In the 1998 film Ever After, the Prince Charming figure, portrayed by Dougray Scott, shares his name with the historical monarch.

In the 2013 CW series Reign, he is played by Alan van Sprang.^[42]

In the premiere of The Serpent Queen (2022), a young Henri (Alex Heath) is shown meeting and marrying Catherine De Medici, performing consummation of the marriage, jousting, and snuggling in the older Diane's arms. Beginning with the fourth episode, older Henri is portrayed by Lee Ingleby.

Gallery

• 
  Royal Monogram
• 
  Detail from portrait plaque, enamel and gilding on copper
• 
  Henry II, here standing on an oriental carpet, continued the policy of Franco-Ottoman alliance of his father Francis I. Painting by François Clouet.
• 
  Coin of Henry II, 1547
• 
  "

  Catherine de Medicis and crescent of Diane de Poitiers

  . Caliber: 85 mm, length: 300 cm, weight: 1076 kg.
• 
  A cypher machine in the shape of a book, with arms of Henri II.
• 
  Monument to the Heart of Henry II, Louvre, Paris, sculpture of the Three Graces by Germain Pilon holding a replica of the urn that contained the king's heart

Ancestry

References

Sources

• Anselme de Sainte-Marie, Père (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires. pp. 134–136.
• Barber, Richard; Barker, Juliet (1989). Tournaments: Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages. Boydell. pp. 134, 139.
  ISBN 978-0-85115-470-1
  .
• Baumgartner, Frederic J (1988). Henry II, King of France, 1547–1559.
  ISBN 9780822307952
  .
• Inalcik, Halil (1995). "The Heyday and Decline of the Ottoman Empire". In Holt, P.M.; Lambton, Ann Katherine Swynford; Lewis, Bernard (eds.). The Cambridge History of Islam. Vol. 1A. Cambridge University Press.
• Felix, Regina R.; Juall, Scott D., eds. (2016). Cultural Exchanges Between Brazil and France. Purdue University Press.
• Frumkin, M. (March 1945). "The Origin of Patent". Journal of the Patent Office Society. XXVII (3).
• The New Encyclopædia Britannica
  . Vol. 7. pp. 900–901.
• Goldberg, Victoria L. (1966). "Graces, Muses, and Arts: The Urns of Henry II and Francis I". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 29: 206–218.
  S2CID 194963087
  .
• Penguin Books Ltd
  .
• Harding, Robert (1978). Anatomy of a Power Elite. Yale University Press.
  ISBN 0300022026
  .
• Knecht, R.J. (1984). Francis I. Cambridge University Press.
• Knecht, R. J. (1997). Catherine De'Medici. Longman.
• Knecht, R.J. (2000). The French Civil Wars, 1562–1598. Pearson Education Ltd.
• Konnert, Mark (2006). Early Modern Europe: The Age of Religious War, 1559–1715. University of Toronto Press.
• Lanza, Janine M (2007). From Wives to Widows in Early Modern Paris: Gender, Economy, and Law. Ashgate Publishing.
• Loach, Jennifer (2014). Edward VI. Yale University Press.
• Merrill, Robert V. (November 1935). "Considerations on "Les Amours de I. du Bellay"". Modern Philology. 33 (2): 129–138.
  S2CID 161187778
  .
• Nolan, Cathal J., ed. (2006). "Cateau-Cambresis". The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000–1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Vol. 1.
  Greenwood Press
  .
• Nostradamus, César (1614). Histoire et Chronique de Provence. Simon Rigaud.
• Sealy, Robert J. (1981). The Palace Academy of Henry III. Droz.
• Tazón, Juan E. (2003). The life and times of Thomas Stukeley (c.1525–78). Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
• Thevet, André (2010). Portraits from the French Renaissance and the Wars of Religion. Translated by Benson, Edward. Truman State University Press.
• Thorndike, Lynn (1941). History of Magic and Experimental Science. Vol. 6. New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
• Watkins, John (2009). "Marriage a la Mode, 1559: Elisabeth de Valois, Elizabeth I, and the Changing Practice of Dynastic Marriage". In Levin, Carole; Bucholz, R. O. (eds.). Queens and Power in Medieval and Early Modern England. University of Nebraska Press.
• Wellman, Kathleen (2013). Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France. Yale University Press.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Henry II of France.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Henry II. of France".

• Henry II of France History Today V.59 I9.
• Michael Servetus Research- Naturalization Scholarly graphical study on a document issued by Henry II of France in 1548 and 1549

Henry II of France House of Valois, Orléans-Angoulême branch Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty Born: 31 March 1519 Died: 10 July 1559
Regnal titles
Preceded by Francis I	King of France 31 March 1547 – 10 July 1559	Succeeded by Francis II
French nobility
Vacant Title last held by Louis II	Duke of Orléans 1519–1536	Succeeded by Charles II
Preceded by Francis III	Duke of Brittany 10 August 1536 – 31 March 1547	Merged in crown
French royalty
Preceded by Francis	Dauphin of France 10 August 1536 – 31 March 1547	Succeeded by Francis