Henry IV of France
Legacy

In 1614, four years after Henry IV's death, his statue was erected on the Pont Neuf. During the early phase of the French Revolution, when it aimed to create a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, Henry IV was held up as a model for King Louis XVI. When the Revolution radicalized and came to reject monarchy altogether, Henry IV's statue was torn down along with other royal monuments. It was nevertheless the first to be rebuilt, in 1818, and it still stands on the Pont Neuf today.

Henry IV was much lauded during the Bourbon Restoration, as the restored dynasty was keen to play down the controversial reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI in favor of Good King Henry. The song Marche Henri IV (Long Live Henry IV) was popular. After the assassination of the dauphin Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry by a Republican fanatic, seven months later his widow Princess Caroline gave birth to their son, heir to the throne of France, and conspicuously named him Henri after his royal forefather. The boy was baptised with Jurançon wine and garlic in the tradition of Béarn and Navarre, as Henry IV had been baptised in Pau.

Henry serves as a loose inspiration for the character Ferdinand, King of Navarre, in William Shakespeare's 1590s play Love's Labour's Lost.

A 1661 biography, Histoire du Roy Henry le Grand, was written by Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont for the edification of Henry's grandson Louis XIV. A 1663 English translation was published for another grandson, King Charles II of England.

On 14 September 1788, when anti-tax riots broke out during the incipient French Revolution, rioters stopped travellers and demanded they dismount to salute Henry IV's statue.

Henry's minister Sully published his Royal Economies in 1611 after de Sully's fall from power, but subsequent research has shown that it exaggerates the economic accomplishments of Sully's ministry. Many of the official source documents were altered, or even forged to make them more impressive.
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