Royal Authority and the Pursuit of a Lasting Religious Settlement: Henri IV and the Emergence of the Bourbon Monarchy

Abstract

Through this story, pregnant with multiple meanings and intended to touch the Baroque sensibilities of his audience, Henri IV opened with contrived spontaneity one of the most remarkable pieces of political theatre of his reign. The carefully choreographed encounter between Henri and a delegation of judges from the Parlement of Paris, in his private chambers at the Louvre on 7 January 1599, was Henri’s response to opposition among his magistrates to his effort to secure religious coexistence in his kingdom through the registration of the Edict of Nantes.2 The encounter had an immediate impact on contemporaries. Numerous manuscript copies and at least one printed edition of the encounter circulated in Paris and at Court in the weeks that followed the meeting. Moreover, many contemporary observers commented on it, including the Parisian memoirist Pierre de L’Estoile who copied the printed edition into his journal along with his judgment that Henri addressed his Parlement ‘as a king and in exquisite, well chosen terms’.3 Like L’Estoile and his contemporaries, later historians have also noted the encounter as an eloquent and powerful statement by Henri at this decisive moment of his reign. However, neither contemporaries nor later historians have offered sustained analysis of the encounter. There are good reasons for this.KeywordsSustained AnalysisCatholic FaithLettre VersionParish ChurchCatholic ReligionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.