Henry the 4th

Historical drama

France

Eagle Films

R4 DVD

French with English subtitles

This story is about the French King Henry of Navarre, not the English Henry immortalised by Shakespeare. It is about power – the power of being King of France, the need to hold onto that power, the religious need to control the King, and the struggle to keep that power.

Today it seems quaint that people should regard a King as an almost godlike being simply by virtue of an ancestor having a bigger army than the other contenders. It seems even more ridiculous that the religion of the King should be a matter of any importance, but it was important enough to the Papacy that it would condone crimes like murder to keep its power over the King. In sixteenth century France all these influences come into play. The weak and drunken King, driven by his scheming and strongly Catholic mother Catherine who has a lot in common with Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, will soon be murdered by his brothers or even his mother. He is aware of his impending doom and is terrified by it. His ambitious brothers are currently in the direct line of descent (another quaint idea) and the King’s mother knows there will be internal war if one or other wins the ascendancy. It is essential in her mind that her family retain the crown and the power behind it. The only way out of conflict will be to marry off the King’s sister and insert a newcomer into the line. .

Such a one is Henry of Navarre, the young ruler of a small kingdom in the south of France. He would like the power to unite France and end decades of religious war but he has one problem – he is a Huguenot, a Protestant. Catherine feels she can convert him to Catholicism and make him acceptable to the Pope and the French people. She offers Henry the hand of her daughter Margot. This and his conversion will make him a better option than one of her other sons. The bait is Henry’s chance to unite France and stop the religious warfare.

Henry attends the Court in Paris and the marriage takes place. The marriage does nothing to appease the Catholics. He falls straight into the assassination of the King set up by the King’s brothers and using Henry and his Huguenots as scapegoats. The Huguenots of Paris are slaughtered by mobs. Henry and his men only just escape. In retribution Henry raises his army and sets out to take Paris and the Kingship by force. His army wins and he is now one of the most powerful men in Europe.

Some years later he has managed to consolidate his power and is making improvements to the lives of the peasants and increasing the country’s wealth. He has almost broken the Treasury to do this. He does not have an heir. Margot is barren. There is another girl who attracts him, and he asks the Pope for a divorce but a Papal Legate tells him there will be conditions. The Pope does not want to lose his power over France’s rulers. To get a divorce Henry must drop his new girlfriend and marry a woman from the Medici clan of Florence. The Medicis have been strong supporters of the Pope and have achieved great power by intermarriage with Europe’s leading rulers. Henry, and therefore France, is now a prize to be influenced or destroyed. His new girlfriend, pregnant with his child, is poisoned.

Such reasons for war now seem ridiculous to most, but in those days people were more easily led. They believed in the power and almost supernatural aspects of the kingship and the Pope. The King had the power of life and death over them so if he turned Catholic the peasants followed on. This in turn meant more income and power for the Catholic church. In many ways the film is a comment on the stupidity of people’s beliefs, but at the time everyone believed what they were told. The film shows the fight for power behind the castle walls among those who should have known better

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The film is a little different from the usual French period dramas. The days of conspicuous wealth had not yet arrived. The Louvre palace looks dingy and has none of the grandeur of later years. The costumes have little of the overdecorated look of the Louis period. Instead we have a grittier realism that carries on through the buildings and the people to the mud and blood of a battlefield. It covers an important part of the history of France. While Henry tried to improve the lot of the peasants later rulers lost touch again and their suppression of the people led to the Revolution.

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