Henry IV changed religion at least three times on his way to peace
Baptised Catholic, raised Protestant, forced back to Catholicism to survive a massacre at his own wedding, then Protestant again: Henry of Navarre kept switching sides. After years of stalemate over the French crown he converted one final time, reportedly quipping that Paris was worth a Mass, and ended decades of religious war.
Henry arrived overnight between 12 and 13 December 1553 at Pau, the child of Jeanne d'Albret, the Calvinist queen of Navarre, and the Catholic Antoine de Bourbon. His parents fought over his faith. He spent early years among peasants in rural Béarn, earning the nickname miller of Barbaste, then learned soldiering under the Huguenot commander Gaspard de Coligny, first seeing combat in 1570.
When his mother died on 9 June 1572, the 19-year-old became King of Navarre and was married in Paris on 18 August to Margaret of Valois, sister of the French king. Six days later the St Bartholomew's Day massacre broke out against the Protestants gathered for the celebrations. Henry survived with his wife's help and a promise to become Catholic, remained a virtual captive at court, escaped in 1576 and formally renounced Catholicism at Tours.
Succession law made him heir to France in 1584, as the senior male-line descendant of Louis IX, sparking the War of the Three Henrys between Henry III, the Catholic League's Duke of Guise, backed by Spain, and Navarre, backed by England. After Henry III had Guise killed and was himself assassinated by a monk on 2 August 1589, Navarre was nominally king. The pope excommunicated him, many Catholic nobles deserted, and though he won at Arques and Ivry, Paris resisted his 1590 siege. The League's own search for a candidate, including a Spanish princess, collapsed amid rivalry and the Paris Parlement's defence of Salic law.
His conversion in 1593 opened the way. The 1598 Edict of Nantes guaranteed Protestant liberties, and the Peace of Vervins that year ended the long conflict with Spain. Remembered as Good King Henry, the first Bourbon king improved state finances, backed farming, roads, bridges and canals, and launched France's first successful colonisation in the Americas. A Catholic zealot assassinated him in Paris on 14 May 1610, and his son Louis XIII succeeded him.
Source: Henry IV of France
