The second one of Henry’s problems was his religion at the moment he was a protestant and it was the reason why Henry was at war with Henry of Guise and Philip II of Spain. In order for Henry to be recognised as king of France then he would have to become a catholic. So, on 17 may 1593 the Archbishop of Bourges announced that Henry was to become Catholic. In July he went St. Denis to receive instruction from a group of Bishops, so on the 25 July he abjured his protestant faith. So there were massive street parties and a large street procession, with the cheers of “long live the King.” In 1594 he was finally pronounced king and he had his coronation. The only problems were now with controlling the battling religions in France and creating peace and not civil war. The other was with the Spanish garrison still in Paris, this was swiftly dealt with by opening the gates from inside and by letting Henry’s troops flood in. The success was completed with the blessing of the Pope and the reconquest of Amiens in 1597 and the Peace of Vervins in 1598. Along with the peace of Vervin there was another peace settlement, this one was within the country and was to prevent civil war between the Catholics and the Protestants. This settlement was called the Edict of Nantes and was made to ‘establish the good and lasting peace’. It gave the opportunities for the Huguenots to practice their religion, they were able to practice on the grounds of a nobleman, at two places in each baillage and wherever they could prove that their faith had been openly practiced in 1596 and 1597. They were able to hold any position in state and enter any profession, they were granted access to any schools, universities and hospitals. It was also judged that any legal case should be in front of a court including Protestants and Catholics. However, this was not complete peace there was opposition to it, and this was made known by certain extreme groups. There were some doubters in the court but after Henry IV’s speech on the registration of the Edict of Nantes they soon changed their mind, as it was very well constructed and very emotive. Henry IV came to power with a lot of religious problems along with the fact that religious war was looming, however through his pragmatism and peaceful ideals he was able to deal with these problems.
Before Henry had come to the throne, the war in which the previous monarch had been involved in was disastrous for the country’s economy and so it was up to Henry to find out how to sort them out. Henry was in debts of 138 livres; the crown owed money to the English crown, German princes, Swiss Cantons and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He did this by employing the protestant, the Duke of Sully. Henry began to develop0 the ideals of absolutism and started to rebuild the nation’s capital. He also started to rebuild the state industry for business. In 1602 he started the Council of Commerce, which fostered the silk industry. He also set up factories for tapestry production such as the Gobbelins Factory. The country also began to make progresses in the production of morocco leather, paper, fine glass and metallurgical industries. This new stability of Henry’s reign brought about a new revival in agriculture, harvests got better, cash crops increased and generally every one was enjoying the reign of Henry. The duke of sully also started to invest in developing bridges, canals and improving roads. He made sure all the work was done to a high standard by inspecting it through a team of inspectors and treasurers, so he used centre control. Sully had the largest role to play in reducing his country’s debt. He did this with the use of ten major ways. The first way was the storage of bullion in the Royal Treasury, this was where all the real money was kept and from this all the country’s wealth could really be counted. It also allowed the country to have some backup if the country really needed it, like in the case of war. There was a reduction of debts to foreign states, many debts were settled privately. With the marriage to Marie de Medici a lot of debt was also wiped off, along with a large sum of money given to Henry IV. Past debts were also written off and treasurers were told not to pass any of those debts into existing budgets. It was also recommended that certain Rentes should be discontinued and that interest rates should be reduced on others. There was also a reduction in direct tax and an increase in indirect tax. This was most poignant on Le Gabelle, which was a tax on salt, which everyone needed. There was also the introduction of the Paulette, which was basically a cash payment worth a 1/16th of the assessed price of an office. Sully also made the work of Provincial Treasurers more efficiency and often checked up on defaulters. He also imposed a tight supervision on expenditure and could control it when in times of hardship. He also attempted to reform the provincial financial administration. He also increased the growth of the Privy Council. All in all Sully did well he reduced the King’s debts by a lot and was able to increase income, he was most definitely the most valuable asset in helping the king with his financial problem.
Another problem faced by Henry IV was provincialism and the lack of central power. Due to the vast size of France it was very hard to keep a track on every part of the country. This was why different rules were placed in different places and why central government rules were not followed in others. It all came down to the lords and the nobles who were looking after the lands. A way in which henry tried to combat this was to move Provincial Governors from where they were used to being. He moved them to unfamiliar territory so they didn’t know anyone and wouldn’t be able to start a revolt or try and screw the King in some way. He did this to the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Conde. Most of his Provincial Governors were military commanders and they did a lot for the King. They ensured the effective expenditure of taxation, they worked on roads, bridges and fords, and they tried to exercise control over the nobility and other local political groups. Local Parlements were also very active; the king appointed their presidents and tried influencing their work. However, quite often they rejected Edicts in both religion and taxation. However hard the King tried to keep control over the groups there were always local revolts and murders of royal officials so he had to fight hard to try and keep some form of central control.
The last main problem that henry had was the constant threat of Spain. With Spain controlling Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and Italy along with many other colonies it was a major threat to France. With Spain being the most dominant and strongest force in Europe it was very threatening with Spain being on the doorstep. The Spanish were constantly involved in French business due to the war going on before Henry IV came to power and the way in which they had to leave Paris. Philip II was also involved in the plots against France and didn’t like the way in which the Protestants were being treated as he felt that they were being treated to good. He wasn’t also very pleased in the way in which Henry converted to Catholicism and promised to get rid of the Protestants, but instead used the Edict of Nantes to maintain peace. Spain also used their wealth to influence Provincial Governors and to cause revolts with the peasantry to make it hard for France.
In conclusion henry had a lot of problems on his accession to the throne, and he dealt with them very well. He had been threatened of civil war and he obviously didn’t want this as it would put the country into debt and would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to the country. Other problems he had were religion and the way in which he dealt with religion. He dealt with it well, to keep the peace. He also improved the country’s finance, tried to keep provincialism under order due to the size of the country. He also did well to keep Spain off his back. So finally Henry IV had a lot of problems as most monarchs of his time but managed to deal with them sufficiently.
