Paris. We have a Hugue(not) Problem.

One of my songs of the moment is AC Newman- Prophets. This is due in part to the last scene of the season 4 finale of How I Met Your Mother. I hope that I will get a better job and will find some peace. I booked my tour to Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Turkey. It departs at the beginning of May and I am looking forward to it much. After Turkey, I am hoping to go to Romania to see my friend Diana. Before, I am hoping to go to Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. I am doing a massive European sweep in about 2 months. I am looking forward to it, and it makes my job a lot more tolerable when I have this goal. I have been at the restaurant for almost 2 months now, and when I started making myself comfortable and more homey I started feeling better about being there.

So I will continue talking about Catherine de Medici.

After the death of the Duc of Guise, Catherine issued the Edict of Amboise which gave some freedoms to Huguenots, though not as much as the Edict of Saint Germain. Nobles could have Protestant services in their private residences, and in certain places in certain cities.
Philip II, her daughter's husband, urged Catherine to rescind the Edict and punish and seek out heretics.
There were plans to place all Huguenots and German Lutherans in the Ottoman controlled Moldavia, which was to no avail.
Unfortunately, the Huguenot forces made plans to ambush the King, the Surprise of Meaux, and Catherine's tolerance of the Huguenots ended. They retreated to La Rochelle on the coast, where they were joined by Jeanne, Queen of Navarre and her son, Henry of Bourbon (future Henry IV of France).
Though, Catherine sought a marriage between Henry and her daughter, Margaret. It was agreed so long as Henry may remain a Huguenot. When Jeanne arrived in Paris, she fell ill and died at the age of forty four, many accusations of poisoning were flung about. However, unexpected noble deaths were frequently received with the same suspicions of poisoning. The wedding finally took place on August 18, 1572.
Three days after the wedding, a highly ranked Huguenot leader, Gaspard Coligny, was shot and needed a finger amputated. The queen visited him, and promised to punish the attacker.
Predictably, the King and Queen knew there was going to be a massive retaliation from the Huguenots against the Catholics. They struck against the Huguenot leaders first, as many were still in Paris for the wedding (including Coligny). It is estimated that about 5,000- 30,000 people were killed as a result of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. The new groom converted to Catholicism to avoid being killed. This incident had tainted the reputation of Catherine de Medici.
Two years later, Charles IX died at the age of twenty three and was succeeded by his brother Henry III. His marriage choice, Louise of Lorraine, thwarted Catherine's desire to marry him to another foreign princess.
Unfortunately this was just the beginning of Catherine's problems with controlling the behaviour of her children. Margaret returned to the French court without her husband, and frequently took lovers. Her last son, Francis of Alencon, was seen to ally with Protestant princes against the crown. He forced the hand of his brother to issue the Edict of Beaulieu, which gave Huguenots the right to public worship. He died in 1584, which left Margaret's husband, Henry the heir to the throne. She also had less influence with her son Henry III, than her other sons. He wanted to rule the country and she was left as a diplomat. She traveled around France to get support for her son, and frequently gave him advice.
Catherine de Medici, mother of three kings, died on January 5, 1589 of pleurisy. Eight months after her death, her son was killed by a friar and Henry IV was proclaimed King of France. One of the more kindly things said about her, after her death was by her son in law Henry IV.
`I ask you, what could a woman do, left by the death of her husband with five little children on her arms, and two families of France who were thinking of grasping the crown—our own [the Bourbons] and the Guises? Was she not compelled to play strange parts to deceive first one and then the other, in order to guard, as she did, her sons, who successively reigned through the wise conduct of that shrewd woman? I am surprised that she never did worse.`

I will Navarre forget the King of France!

Ahh gentle readers, it has been quite the past month. Drama. Sex. Greed. Violence  Something that I am well acquainted with even at home. Somehow it follows me like a shadow, but alas, I am magnet for these sorts of intrigues.

Scene: A hostel in Fulham
Characters:
Little Ginger- Don't know much about him, save for the fact that he's a nitwit.
Fat Ginger - Came on to me a few times. Beats up his girlfriend. 21. Has a 3 year old son. Likely drug dealer
Canadia - Thought that Canadia was in the United States and Canada was in Canada. Yeah. I walked away as soon as he said that.
Crotchscratcher - He scratches his crotch. In the middle of the bar. Shoves his hands INTO HIS PANTS. Then bites his nails. No washing takes place between the two.
Crotchscratcher 2.0. -  Canadia's little bro, scratches his crotch and doesn't wash. Delightful.

Locals of the council house area of Fulham.

Plot: The characters were banned from the hostel pub due to their poor behaviour. AS in they harassed the women, and demanded special treatment.

Essentially, total trash.

Since then, we've had them threaten us, try and throw bins through the bar windows, and just cause issues.

Stay classy assholes. They may have lost their head because of their banishment from a pub (really?)

But Henry IV lost his head after his grave was desecrated by Revolutionaries in 1793, but it is suspected that a recently found head does indeed belong to this randy King.

King Henry IV of France 

 Born: 13 December 1553

 Died: 14 May 1610 

 King of France: 1589-1610

 King of Navarre: 1572-1610

   Henry IV was not supposed to be King of France. He was born to Jeanne III of Navarre and her consort, Antoine of Navarre, and was the heir to the throne of Navarre, a small but significant and wealthy kingdom bordering France and Spain. Henry was baptized as Catholic, but was soon converted to Protestantism and Calvinism was declared the official religion of Navarre by his mother.

His first marriage was to the daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici, Marguerite of Valois. They were married in Paris on August 19, 1572 in splendor, and there was hope that the marriage of a Catholic princess and a Protestant prince would end the violence between French Catholics and the Huguenots ( French Protestants). However, the Protestants that came to Paris to attend wedding were massacred a few days later, what is known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.  There were many rich and prominent Huguenots in Paris to attend the wedding, and this massacre started with planned assassinations of Admiral Coligny (but failed), and it led to full scale mob violence. Though there isn't a certain death toll, the estimates are between 5,000 and 30,000.  

Henry escaped the violence because of his new bride, and was convinced to convert to Catholicism and live at the court of France. However, he escaped in 1576 and reverted back to Protestantism and joined the Huguenot forces. Henry became the legal heir to the crown of France in 1584, when the last male descendant of Henry II had died, and the French do not recognize claims of woman or even from males who stake their claim to the throne on their mothers. 

Henry III had died in 1589, which meant that the protestant with a nose bigger than his kingdom (as was the popular saying) became King of Catholic France. 

The road was not without its difficulties. The Catholic League was obviously vehemently opposed to this new King, and sought to usurp him from the throne and replace him with someone more to their liking. The Cardinal Charles de Bourbon was proclaimed the leader of the Catholic league and the rightful heir to the throne. However, the Cardinal died in 1590 and there was little agreement between who should replace him as the head. The strongest candidate was Isabella Clara Eugenia, a Princess of Spain and the daughter of Elisabeth of Valois (Henry II's daughter), but this was seen as unsavoury for the French were not apt to become an "agent of Spain".  Soon most of France was well within Henry's control, but not rogue Paris, he was unable to control the mob violence and laid siege to the city.  

In 1593, Henry formally renounced Protestantism and converted to Catholicism. This was at the urging of the love of his life, Gabrielle d'Estrees. He is suspected to have claimed that "Paris is well worth a mass". This ended much of the violence, and he was formally crowned at the Cathedral of Chartes in 1594. 

His first marriage was an unhappy one, and they remained childless and were separated since 1589, before he became king. When he became King, he was expected to have an heir to the throne, and he sought to have his first marriage annulled and marry his beloved Gabrielle. The annulment was obtained in 1599, but sadly Gabrielle died due to premature labour and gave birth to a stillborn son before the marriage could take place. 

 

He married his second wife, Marie de Medici, in 1600, a woman not known for her beauty but her family was known for bearing plenty of sons. He cared little for his new wife, and often neglected her, but he did complete his duty and bear a string of children and heirs. His insatiable sexual appetite was stuff of legend, he caroused with a series of mistresses, much to the chagrin of his new wife. 

Marie thought that she would earn her rightful place as queen when she gave birth to their son, Louis XII, as Henry rushed from the battlefield to attend the birth and rejoiced at the prospect of a son. However, her happiness was short lived when a few weeks later his new principal mistress gave birth to a boy as well, whom the king had declared to much better looking and not so fat. 

King Henry IV died as the died of an assassination made by a Catholic fanatic. He died in 1610, leaving Marie de Medici regent for his son Louis XII.