When Henri II died in a tragic jousting accident 1660, he left the throne
successively to three sons who were overcome by the age. France was the
eldest daughter of the Roman Church, but also a center of Protestant Reform.
The disciples of Calvin and the devotees of the Pope were at each others'
throats. When Henri's three sons failed to master the situation and when
each died without a male heir, the closest pretender to the throne was, of all
things, a Protestant -- the young prince Henri de Navarre.