"...Henri was a fascinating king, uniting France by his conversion to Catholicism, ending a period of extreme religious turmoil and responsible for the Edict of Nantes, granting formerly unheard of rights to Huguenots until it was revoked by his grandson Louis XIV. He was, by all accounts, charming, witty, intelligent, and had a very colourful personal life, twice married, many mistresses, that kind of thing. He was also responsible for a lot of the city planning in Paris, including the beautiful Place des Vosges. Following his death a contemporary diarist described the city going into a ‘frenzy of mourning’ with much tearing of clothes and public wailing. I grew very fond of Henri IV while I was researching this book.



The great controversy about Henri was that he was originally a Huguenot at a time when there was great religious strife in France, so the idea of a Huguenot on the throne was unthinkable. His conversion to Catholicism was an attempt to unite the country, (his famous but probably apocryphal quip that ‘Paris is well worth a mass’ reveals the depth of his faith). There were up to 16 attempts on his life but, of course, only the last one was successful, by a religious fanatic who believed Henri to be a heretic who should not be on the throne – according to the classical definition, a tyrant by usurpation. The Huguenot minority were disappointed by his conversion, the Catholic majority suspicious of it, and Henri himself had such a tenuous claim to the throne – he was something bizarre like the 17th cousin of the previous king, if that’s possible – no wonder he had so many enemies..." (reviewed by Lindsay Porter in FiveBooks).



The full interview is available here: http://fivebooks.com/interviews/lindsay-porter-on-assassination ( )