Here we enter into the chamber of King Henri III.  He was the third son of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis.  After the untimely deaths of his father and his two older brothers, Henri came to the throne of a country more deeply torn by religious strife than ever.  As a young boy and man he had witnessed incommensurate carnage among cousins and brothers.  As king he feared for the worst.  As a true believer in the Catholic faith, Henri was at first an ally of the Guise family, the staunchest of the Catholics.  His sister, however, was married to his cousin Henri de Navarre, a prince of royal blood and a Protestant.  Each side played every fateful card.