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MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM SIGNED BY HENRY IV, Fointainbleau, 20 June 1607.HENRY IV...
MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM SIGNED BY HENRY IV, Fointainbleau, 20 June 1607.
HENRY IV of BOURBON. A single leaf of parchment (32x26 cm), written in a 17th century chancery handwriting in brown ink. Text in French.
After the text, the signature Henry.
Original document signed by the King of France Henry IV of Bourbon, containing the Pledge of Allegiance of Claude Dauphin, that becomes Gentilhomme Servant du Roy («Gentleman Servant of the King»).
Henry IV (1553–1610), also known by the epithet "Good King Henry", was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 to 1610 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon.
As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, barely escaping assassination in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and later led Protestant forces against the royal army.
He initially kept the Protestant faith and had to fight against the Catholic League, which denied that he could wear France's crown as a Protestant, to obtain mastery over his kingdom. After four years of stalemate, he found it prudent to abjure the Calvinist faith. As a pragmatic politician, he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the era. Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the Wars of Religion. He was assassinated by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.