Henry ? And The Early Formation Of French Nation-State

Henry ?,in French Henri ?,was the founding king of French Bourbon Dynasty.During his reign,he ended the long religious civil wars,promoted French kingship and absolute monarchy.From then on,the kingdom moved towards unity and revival.Henry ? is still one of the greatest kings whom the French miss and study most today.Compared with the long-term and deep study on Henry ? abroad,less related research can be found in China,and the research is still in its infancy.Based on the world modernization process theory proposed by Chinese historians like Professor Qian Chengdan,kingship is the important cohesion and leadership of a kingdom,and absolute monarchy can be seen as the first phase of the formation of western European nation-states during the historical process of striding into early period of nation-state from feudalist times for major Western European kingdoms.Absolute monarchy was firmly established during the Bourbon Dynasty,so Henry ? played an important role in the early formation of French nation-state.Guided by the theories above and from the perspective of absolute monarchy's role in promoting early formation of western European nation-states,this essay studies Henry ? to explore his status and contribution in the formation history of French nation-state,focusing on his contributions in the following aspects:strengthening kingship,promoting the internal unification of the kingdom,and historical heritages in terms of state management system and national community.The research is divided into several chapters according to the different stages of promoting the unification of the kingdom before and after Henry ?'s succession,with the main clue of Henry ?'s strengthening of kingship(until his initial establishment of absolute monarchy),in combination with the unification of the kingdom and the development of national consciousness.The content of each chapter develops step by step and discusses Henry ?'s main life course:coordinating his life missions,defending French kingship,restoring his authority as king,pursuing influential power and promoting power concentration.This is not only the process of promoting the strengthening of kingship and the development of absolute monarchy,but also the process of promoting the formation and development of a new unified French Kingdom.There are four chapters on the research of Henry ?'s achievements in the early formation of French nation-state before his death,and the main contents are as follows:The first chapter examines Henry ?'s main growth experiences before his reign and the situation of religious civil wars in France during this period,takes as the main clue the changes in Henry ?'s life missions:from contradiction to unity,and explores the changes of influences between kingship and other different authorities,showing that Henry ? had gradually unified his life missions before his reign.Through the examination,this chapter concludes that,in the divided France,kingship was the authority able to uphold the middle ground and to effectively prevent the civil wars,and that the development of Henry ?'s life missions,which means from contradiction,coordination to gradual unification,had relation to the development of absolute monarchy and to the historical trend of the early formation of French nation-state,and had further promoted the development of this trend.The second chapter examines Henry ?'s long process of conversion to Roman Catholicism,from his declaration of preparing to receive Catholic instruction since 1589 to the coronation to become Most Christian King(in French:Roi Tres Chretien)in 1594.It analyzes emphatically the subjective and objective factors of his determination to convert and the important influence on kingship and unification after becoming Most Christian King.The summary of this chapter points out that the development of kingship and of French national consciousness played an important role in his conversion process,and that,by following and promoting this development trend,Henry IV accelerated the decline of Lorraine family which had been threating kingship for long term,effectively prevented the Spanish ambition to separate and annex the Kingdom of France,and so achieved the first step to reunify the kingdom.The third chapter examines Henry's important expriences after his coronation in 1594 until the official promulgation of the Edict of Nantes in 1599.The chapter focuses on how he succeeded in urging different authorities inside and foreign Catholic oppositions to accept his authority as king.According to the summary,three steps were important for Henry ? to preliminarily unify the kingdom:winning Paris,ending the wars against domestic and foreign Catholic oppositions,and promulgating the Edict of Nantes;in 1599,while different authorities had agreed with Henry ?'s kingship,still there were many challenges to face to consolidate the unification and the newly-emerged unity urgently needed institutional construction and guarantee.Chapter four examines the important measures taken by Henry ? to promote the internal unification in the second half of his reign,and discusses the importance of centralization to the internal unification.Along this central line,this chapter also investigates Henry ?'s process of concentration of executive power,legislative power and judicial power,from the following three aspects of research:supervising towns,appreciating Sully,quelling dignitaries' rebellions.The last subsection points out that there was a close relationship and mutual promotion between them,and states that,in the second half of his reign,Henry IV promoted the reform and development of French ruling system,culture and ideology,making substantive contributions to avoiding disruption and to promoting the internal unification after the initial unification in 1599.The fifth chapter,also the conclusion,examines the historical contributions of Henry ? to the early formation of the French nation-state.Employing a comparative method,this chapter discusses the historical heritages left by Henry ? in both state administration system and national community.This paper argues that Henry ?brought the following specific changes to the state and nation of France:in terms of state management system,Henry ? restored the historical process of absolute monarchy,preliminarily established the absolute monarchy,promoting the emergence of a state administered by kingship with centralized management system;in terms of national community,he promoted the birth of a new French national community with new characteristics,institutional guarantee and guiding ideology.This chapter summarizes that,under his leadership,a new solid state(with institutional guarantee and more cohesive French people),which was both a absolutist state and a early prototype of nation-state,emerged.Henry ? is therefore the important founder of the French nation-state in its early stage.