Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780 - 1867)
Henri IV playing with his children
Oil on canvas, 1818
71 cm ? 71 cm (28 in ? 28 in)
Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA

Henry IV (13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610) was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and (as Henry III) King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.

As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before ascending the throne in 1589. Before his coronation as king of France at Chartres, he d his faith from Calvinism to Catholicism and, in 1598, he enacted the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious liberties to the Protestants and thereby effectively ended the civil war. One of the most popular French kings, both during and after his reign, Henry showed great care for the welfare of his subjects and displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time. He was assassinated by a fanatical Catholic, François Ravaillac.

Henry was nicknamed Henry the Great (Henri le Grand), and in France is also called le bon roi Henri ("the good king Henry") or le Vert galant ("the Green gallant"), a reference to both his dashing character and his attractiveness to women. In English he is most often referred to as Henry of Navarre. He also gave his name to the Henry IV style of architecture, which he patronised. He is the eponymous subject of the royal anthem of France, "Marche Henri IV".

Henry IV was the son of Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme and Queen Jeanne III of Navarre. He was born in the Château de Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the southwest of France (former province of Béarn). Henry's mother was the daughter of Marguerite de Navarre, a sister of King Francis I of France, making him a second cousin of Kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. It was to his father, however, a tenth-generation descendant of King Louis IX, that Henry owed his succession to the throne of France: in application of the Salic Law, which disregarded all female lines, Henry was the senior descendant of the senior surviving male line of the Capetian dynasty. Upon the death of Henry III of France, who had no son to succeed him, the crown passed to Henry IV. The new king, however, had to fight for some years to be recognised as the legitimate king of France by the Catholics, who were opposed to his Protestant faith.

On 18 August 1572, Henry married his second cousin Margaret of Valois; their childless marriage was annulled in 1599. His subsequent marriage to Marie de' Medici on 17 December 1600 produced six children:

Louis XIII, King of France

Elizabeth, Queen of Spain

Christine Marie, Duchess of Savoy

Nicolas Henri de France, duc d'Orléans

Gaston, Duke of Orléans

Henrietta Maria, Queen of England