Biography of Henri IV essays

Biography of Henri IV essays King Henri IV was born in the castle of Chateau of Pau in Bearn on December 14,1553. His mother was Jeanne dAlbret the only child of the King Henri II of Navarre and Marguerite of Angouleme. His father was Antoine de Bourbon who descended through lineage from Louis IX. When Jeanne dAlbret was a child her father made her promise that while in labor she would sing him a song so that her unborn child would not be puling or a sulky infant. Jeanne d Albret sang in her own language the song of all Bearnais mothers, imploring the Virgin, whose chapel stood on the bridge over the river at Pau, to pray for a speedy delivery and the gift of a son(Seward,7). When Henri was born his proud grandfather wrapped him in fold of his cloak and gave him a box containing his will. He then rubbed Henris lips with garlic and made him sip of wine from his gold cup to ensure that his temperament would be manly and vigorous. When Henri grandfather died his mother Jeanne became Queen of Navarre. Henris earliest years were spent in a world neither courtly or intellectual(Seward 10). Suzanne dAlbret took him to her husbands castle of Coarraze in the Pyrenees. Here as a young child Henri was not treated as a prince or given toys but was brought up around peasant children. His time at the castel was the foundation of an unfailing common touch, and of iron health(Seward 10). Henri attended classes at the College de Navarre. He was a very dedicated student to the study of theology. While in Pau Henri found an another tutor Florent Chrestian. He was taught to be a skilled swordsman in the fashionable Italian manner, his lengthy rapier balanced by poignard, and also to handle pole-axe, halberd or spoonton, or even the great infantry spear, eighteen foot long, in an age when gentlemen did not disdain to trail the puissant pike. (Seward 22). The training that Henri re...