Henry II (1519-1559) was a king of France. He inherited the throne from his father, Francis I, in 1547. Henry continued his father’s policy of persecuting the Huguenots (French Protestants). Henry outlawed the Huguenots’ religious practices and took their lands. These actions led to bitterness that contributed to the outbreak of religious wars in France after Henry’s death.
In 1550, Henry negotiated a treaty with Protestant German princes. The treaty confirmed France’s possession of three strategic towns—Metz, Toul, and Verdun—in what is now northeastern France. In 1558, Henry’s forces captured the city of Calais, England’s last possession in France after the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453).
Henry was born on March 31, 1519, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. In 1533, he married Catherine de Médicis, who was both a niece of Pope Clement VII and a member of the famous Medici family of Florence, Italy. Three of the couple’s sons—Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III—later became kings of France. Henry II and his sons belonged to the Valois family of French kings. He died on July 10, 1559.
See also Catherine de Médicis; Huguenots.
