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Henry II: King of France, 1547-1559
358 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
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About the author
Frederic J. Baumgartner
16 books2 followersA specialist in the history of early modern France, Frederic Baumgartner is Professor of History at Virginia Tech University.
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July 7, 2022
Excellent biography. Not only very informative, but a page turner.
Henry II is one of the more overshadowed post-medieval French kings. He is best known for having been mortally wounded in a joust.
He is also known for his persecution of France's growing Protestant community, and a good portion of this book is dedicated to detailing why his efforts to suppress them mostly failed. A great deal of his inability to eradicate French Protestantism has to do with another theme of the book: foreign policy. He could not afford, Baumgartner writes, to pursue a whole-hearted campaign of persecution until peace was concluded with the Emperor (against whom Henry had allied with German Protestant states). Henry also underestimated the extent to which Protestantism was making inroads into the French nobility, and focused rather upon suppressing the less influential Huguenots in the lower classes.
Best biography I've read this year.
Henry II is one of the more overshadowed post-medieval French kings. He is best known for having been mortally wounded in a joust.
He is also known for his persecution of France's growing Protestant community, and a good portion of this book is dedicated to detailing why his efforts to suppress them mostly failed. A great deal of his inability to eradicate French Protestantism has to do with another theme of the book: foreign policy. He could not afford, Baumgartner writes, to pursue a whole-hearted campaign of persecution until peace was concluded with the Emperor (against whom Henry had allied with German Protestant states). Henry also underestimated the extent to which Protestantism was making inroads into the French nobility, and focused rather upon suppressing the less influential Huguenots in the lower classes.
Best biography I've read this year.
Displaying 1 of 1 review