Henri de Navarre (* 13 December 1553; † 14 May 1610) is one of the best examples of the fact that you can choose your friends, but not your relatives. He was related to almost all the people who tried to kill him in The Massacre at Paris and in reality. Jean de Bourbon (1428-1478) was the great-grandfather of Caterina de' Medici and the great-great-grandfather of Henri de Navarre and Henri de Lorraine, Duke of Guise.
François Clouet. Henri de Navarre. 1572. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Paris. Estampes, Rés. Na 22. CC0
His parents were Jeanne d’Albret, the only child of Henri II, King of Navarre and Antoine de Bourbon, first prince du sange. Jeanne leaned towards Calvinism and finally converted in 1560. Henri de Navarre lived alternately with his mother and at the French court, for after the death of his father in 1562, he had become the first prince du sange. Depending on where he was, his religion changed. In 1567 he returned to Navarre as the official heir to the throne and became a Huguenot.
Caterina de' Medici wanted to prevent the Huguenots from having a sovereign ruler as their leader in the Wars of Religion, which is why she would have liked to have Navarre under control in Paris. She therefore proposed a marriage with her daughter Marguerite. Jeanne III only gave her consent after difficult negotiations.1 The wedding on 18 August 1572 was followed by the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre. Navarre was playing ball when he learned of the outbreak of the massacre. Charles IX gave his brother-in-law the choice of execution or conversion. On 29 September, Navarre converted again without any conflicts of conscience.2 In the following years, he lived in Paris, sometimes more and sometimes less closely guarded, was on friendly terms with the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Mayenne and behaved very cooperatively. It came as a shock to the French court when Navarre failed to return from a hunting tour on 6 February 1576.
Navarre had seceded to his kingdom, reverted to Calvinism and took over the leadership of the Huguenots. Although he repeatedly intervened diplomatically and militarily in the Wars of Religion, he did not take centre stage until 1584. François-Hercule de Valois, Duke of Alençon, the last brother of Henri III, had died childless. It did not look as if Henri III would have any children at all. The Huguenot Henri de Navarre was thus the next heir to the throne. France’s Catholics formed themselves into the Catholic League under the leadership of the Duke of Guise, Navarre did not want to convert and Henri III wavered between the two. The situation was aggravated by Pope Sixtus V, who excommunicated Henri de Navarre with the bull Ab immensa on 9 October 1584. The French regarded this as undue interference, which caused some Catholics to support Navarre.3 On 20 October 1587, Navarre was victorious over the Catholics at the Battle of Coutras, but had a mass said for the Catholic fallen, attended by his staff. After the assassination of the Duke of Guise, there was a rapprochement between Henri III and Navarre. Together they laid siege to Catholic-held Paris when Henri III was killed. The Catholics who had supported Navarre then withdrew to await further developments. Navarre had to break off the siege.
Four more years of war followed before the Estates General put an end to the madness. They had met on 26 January 1593 at the instigation of the Duke of Mayenne and – highly unusually for a political body – adhered to their decision of 1316. Despite several opposing candidates, the majority only wanted to accept the first prince du sange as king, but he had to be a Catholic. Henri de Navarre converted for the last time in his life on 25 July 1593. If he really said "Paris vaut bien une messe." (Paris is well worth a Mass.), is not documented. Henri IV was crowned King of France on 27 February 1594.
The Massacre at Paris
Apart from the oath of revenge against Pope Sixtus V at the end of the drama, Marlowe’s portrayal of Navarre in the play is fairly historically accurate and not striking.
Henri de Navarre also appears in other contemporary dramas, but these are not related to The Massacre at Paris.4
