Continuity in the France of Henry IV and Louis XIII: French Foreign Policy, 1598-1615

Abstract

The oldest myth connected with Henry IV is the Grand Design. For the last seventy-five years historians have attacked this story fabricated by Sully after Henry's death, but it is still not hard to find those who believe that just before his assassination in 1610 Henry was planning a va-st enterprise designed to bring about the destruction of Hapsburg power, the political reorganization of Europe, and peace forevermore.'An alternative theory about the intentions of the legendary Henry IV appeals to some. The Swiss diplomatic historian Edouard Rott, supported by Roland Mousnier, proposed that Henry IV was working against the Hapsburgs to unite the stati liberi, the line of small, independent states stretching from the Baltic down the Rhine and across the Alps to the Adriatic.2 Most other historians believe that Henry was adamantly opposed to both the Spanish and