Use the Forks, Henry: Difference between revisions

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== What Happened Next? ==

[[File:Nóż i widelec, Louvre.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|left|Knife and fork, dated to the times of Catherine de’ Medici and Henry III, in the collections of the Louvre Museum in Paris]]

Henry finally crossed the French border on 5 September 1574 and the following day he reached Lyons, where his mother was waiting for him. Contrary to what you may sometimes hear, his sudden departure from Poland did not automatically mean that he abdicated the Polish throne. Nevertheless, the outrage of his Polish subjects led the senate to present the monarch with an ultimatum: he would either come back to Poland within a year and summon the parliament or the throne would be declared vacant. The year passed, the king failed to return, and so the senators began preparations for a new royal election. Henry, however, continued to ~~consider~~ himself king of both France and Poland until the end of his life, and French diplomacy never recognized his successor, Stephen Báthory, as the legitimate monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Henry finally crossed the French border on 5 September 1574 and the following day he reached Lyons, where his mother was waiting for him. Contrary to what you may sometimes hear, his sudden departure from Poland did not automatically mean that he abdicated the Polish throne. Nevertheless, the outrage of his Polish subjects led the senate to present the monarch with an ultimatum: he would either come back to Poland within a year and summon the parliament or the throne would be declared vacant. The year passed, the king failed to return, and so the senators began preparations for a new royal election. Henry, however, continued to style himself king of both France and Poland until the end of his life, and French diplomacy never recognized his successor, Stephen Báthory, as the legitimate monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In France, Henry showed no greater interest in affairs of state than he had in Poland, leaving governance in the hands of his mother. In 1589, Catherine died of pleurisy, and half a year later, Henry died at the hands of an assassin. Nothing of this sort would have happened, had he remained in Poland – a country with almost no history of regicide. Polish nobility took the sudden death of their former monarch as further proof of their civilizational superiority over the French. In Poland, as one historian would quip centuries later, Henry “might have perhaps died of boredom, but never from a knife.”<ref>{{Cyt

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 == What Happened Next? ==
 [[File:Nóż i&nbsp;widelec, Louvre.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|left|Knife and fork, dated to the times of Catherine de’ Medici and Henry III, in the collections of the Louvre Museum in Paris]]
-Henry finally crossed the French border on 5 September 1574 and the following day he reached Lyons, where his mother was waiting for him. Contrary to what you may sometimes hear, his sudden departure from Poland did not automatically mean that he abdicated the Polish throne. Nevertheless, the outrage of his Polish subjects led the senate to present the monarch with an ultimatum: he would either come back to Poland within a&nbsp;year and summon the parliament or the throne would be declared vacant. The year passed, the king failed to return, and so the senators began preparations for a&nbsp;new royal election. Henry, however, continued to consider himself king of both France and Poland until the end of his life, and French diplomacy never recognized his successor, Stephen Báthory, as the legitimate monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
+Henry finally crossed the French border on 5 September 1574 and the following day he reached Lyons, where his mother was waiting for him. Contrary to what you may sometimes hear, his sudden departure from Poland did not automatically mean that he abdicated the Polish throne. Nevertheless, the outrage of his Polish subjects led the senate to present the monarch with an ultimatum: he would either come back to Poland within a&nbsp;year and summon the parliament or the throne would be declared vacant. The year passed, the king failed to return, and so the senators began preparations for a&nbsp;new royal election. Henry, however, continued to style himself king of both France and Poland until the end of his life, and French diplomacy never recognized his successor, Stephen Báthory, as the legitimate monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
 In France, Henry showed no greater interest in affairs of state than he had in Poland, leaving governance in the hands of his mother. In 1589, Catherine died of pleurisy, and half a&nbsp;year later, Henry died at the hands of an assassin. Nothing of this sort would have happened, had he remained in Poland – a&nbsp;country with almost no history of regicide. Polish nobility took the sudden death of their former monarch as further proof of their civilizational superiority over the French. In Poland, as one historian would quip centuries later, Henry “might have perhaps died of boredom, but never from a&nbsp;knife.”<ref>{{Cyt