Parents
Born in 1553, Henry was the son of Jeanne d'Albret, who became the Queen Regnant of Navarre two years after he was born. His father, Antoine of Bourbon, was constantly unfaithful to Jeanne. The couple also differed over religion: Jeanne became a staunch Huguenot, whereas Antoine wavered, for political reasons, between the Catholicism of his birth and the faith of his wife. His vacillating character earned him the epithet ondoyant (one whose mind changes, or undulates) from the essayist Montaigne, a description later sometimes applied to his son. The public squabbling between Jeanne and Antoine became scandalous during Henry's childhood, and in 1560, when he was seven, Jeanne took him to the French court. After Antoine ordered her back to her kingdom of Navarre in 1562, she left Henry behind, and she was reunited with him only in 1566 during the royal progress to the south. Among Henry's playmates at the French court were the future Henry III of France and Henry of Guise.
Read more about this topic: Henry IV Of France's Wives And Mistresses
Famous quotes containing the word parents:
“All parents should be aware that when they mock or curse gay people, they may be mocking or cursing their own child.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)
“Every milestone of a firstborn is scrutinized, photographed, recorded, replayed, and retold by doting parents to admiring relatives and disinterested friends. . . . While subsequent children will strive to keep pace with siblings a few years their senior, the firstborn will always have a seemingly Herculean task of emulating his adult parents.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“There is one thing you and I as parents cannot do, not do we want to do if we really think about it, and that’s control our children’s will—that spirit that lets them be themselves apart from you and me. They are not ours to possess, control, manipulate, or even to make mind.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)