Henry IV of France

... Henry IV of France Henry IV of France was born on December 13th 1553, in Pau, Bearn, in the province of Navarre. He was the son of Antoine de Bourbon, the duc de Vendome and Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre from 1555. It was extremely unlikely that Henry would ever ascend to the throne due to the fact that Catherine de Medici had already had three male children by the time Henry was born and would son have a fourth. Henry spent much of his early childhood growing up in Bearn, however from 1561 to 1567 he lived with his second cousins, the children of Henry II, the King of France, one of which was his future wife Marguerite. It was at about this time that the religious problems between Protestants and Catholics came to ahead; Henry's father joined the side of the Protestants, but later changed sides during the long period

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