Henri IV - An unfinished reign
Glossary
Béarn
The viscountcy of Béarn had a population of 100,000 and extended across 450,000 square kilometers, making it the largest of the territories that Jeanne d’Albret left to her son.
Starting in 1555, Protestant preachers were tolerated, and converted a large part of the population to their thinking. By 1561, Jeanne had officially made Béarn into a "new Geneva". Once he became king of France, Henri did not return to Béarn. The lands were definitively attached to the French throne by the Edict of 1620, signed by Louis XIII.
- Copyright:
- © Archives départementales des Pyrénées-Atlantiques
- Caption:
- Principatus Benearnia / The principality of Béarn, colour engraving by Evert Symons and Hamers, engravers, ca. 1630, AD des Pyrénées Atlantiques, 1 F I ½