Hero or tyrant?: Henry III, King of France, 1574-89

King Henry III of France has not suffered well at the hands of posterity.

Generally depicted as at best a self-indulgent, ineffectual ruler, and at worst a debauched tyrant responsible for a series of catastrophic political blunders, his reputation has long been a poor one.

Yet recent scholarship has begun to question the validity of this judgment and look for a more rounded assessment of the man and his reign.

For, as this new biography of Henry demonstrates, there is far more to this fascinating monarch than the pantomime villain depicted by previous generations of historians and novelists.