Henry II of France
Henry II ruled France from 1547 to 1559 and was killed by a splinter of a lance in a tournament held to celebrate peace. Born in 1519, the second son of Francis I, he was handed over at seven with his elder brother as a hostage to Charles V in place of their captured father, and spent four years in Spanish confinement — an experience that left him withdrawn and permanently hostile to the Habsburgs. He married Catherine de' Medici in 1533. For most of his adult life he was devoted to Diane de Poitiers, twenty years his senior, who wielded considerable influence at court and received Chenonceau. He became heir when his brother died in 1536 and succeeded in 1547. He continued his father's wars against Charles V and then Philip II. He allied with the German Protestant princes against the emperor and seized the three bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun in 1552, a permanent gain. His forces took Calais from the English in January 1558, ending two centuries of English presence on the continent. The wars bankrupted the crown, and the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in April 1559 ended the Italian ambitions of the French monarchy, conceding Savoy and Piedmont. He persecuted Protestants far more systematically than his father, creating a special chamber of the Paris parlement known as the chambre ardente and issuing the Edict of Écouen in 1559. During the tournament celebrating the peace and his daughter's marriage, on 30 June 1559, the lance of Gabriel de Montgomery shattered and drove splinters through his visor into his eye and brain. He died in agony ten days later, leaving three sons who each reigned and a kingdom about to collapse into religious war.
- Lived: 1519 CE – 1559 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
