Charles IX? A mad king who stained his reign with the blood of his subjects, obedient to his mother, Catherine de Medici, the Italian who was sent by the Pope to France to destroy the kingdom. For one must be truly mad to order a massacre of part of his own people, those who had embraced the teachings of John Calvin, on August 24, 1572, the day of the massacre at Saint-Barthélemy... This, in brief, is the picture of this king who ruled France for nearly fourteen years, from December 1560 to May 1574. These accounts can be taken apart, but that is not the purpose of this book.However, it shows that Charles IX was not forgotten; It is simply a property that has not been researched much.
But the king is there; Even in his childhood, and even in his adolescence, he has a story. Without his presence, without his personality - a child who grew up to be king amidst the various rivalries and acts of disobedience resulting from his young age and the status of his mother - the history of that era would have been very different. As for his reign, it cannot be reduced to a massacre, as before its beginning, three civil wars and more than four years of internal fighting had destroyed the kingdom. This book is dedicatedFor the story of this boy who became a man on the throne, amidst the conflicts between princes and senior nobles. To write it, Didier Le Four conducted extensive archival research, presented here in a powerful and engaging narrative. In doing so, he fills a major gap in the rich history of the kings of France.
