2021-06-30 Wed

Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis III, Duke of Brittany, in 1536. He succeeded his father on his 28th birthday and was crowned King of France on 25 July 1547 at Reims Cathedral.

Henry's reign was marked by wars with Austria and the persecution of Protestants, mainly Calvinists known as Huguenots. Henry II severely punished them, particularly the ministers, for example by burning at the stake or cutting off their tongues for uttering heresies.

Henry II was an avid hunter and a participant in jousts and tournaments. On 30 June 1559, a tournament was held near Place des Vosges to celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis with his longtime enemies, the Habsburgs of Austria, and to celebrate the marriage of his daughter Elisabeth of Valois to King Philip II of Spain. During a jousting match, King Henry, wearing the colours of his mistress Diane de Poitiers, was wounded in the eye by a fragment of the splintered lance of Gabriel Montgomery, captain of the King's Scottish Guard. Despite the efforts of royal surgeon Ambroise Paré, the king's eye and brain damage, untreated, led to his death by sepsis on 10 July 1559.

Depicted here is a gold coin issued under Henry’s reign. The obverse of a coin depicts the armoured bust of a king facing right. On the other hand, the reverse of a coin represents a Cross of four H's with two crescents and two lines in the angles.

Image Source: Wikipedia.org