v12_0582 - LORRAINE - DUCHÉ DE LORRAINE - HENRI II Demi-franc au col plat

LORRAINE - DUCHY OF LORRAINE - HENRY II

(05/14/1608-1624)

Henri was born in Nancy on November 8, 1563 from the union of Charles III and Claude of France. He succeeded his deceased father in Nancy on May 14, 1608. In 1599, he secretly married Catherine de Bourbon, the sister of King Henry IV of France, who was Protestant. Pope Clement VIII, having learned of this marriage, excommunicated Henri de Lorraine who however obtained in 1604 a pontifical pardon. Catherine de Bourbon died childless on February 13, 1604. On April 24, 1606, Henri I of Lorraine married his second wife Marguerite de Gonzague, daughter of Vincent I, Duke of Mantua, and Léonore de Médicis. Marguerite had only daughters before dying in 1632. Henri I of Lorraine appointed his daughter Nicole to succeed him; she married Charles (future Charles IV), the son of the Count of Vaudémont. Henri died in Nancy on July 31, 1624.