ENRY IV., a monarch whose memory is cherished by the French with greater affection and enthusiasm than that of any other of their kings, and the history of whose reign connects itself in an intimate manner with that of Europe, was born at Pau, in the province of Béarn, in the south of France (now the department of the Lower Pyrenees), December 13, 1553. With regard to his parentage, and the prospects with which he was born, it is necessary to be somewhat particular. In the year 1512, the ancient little kingdom of Navarre, situated on the south-eastern corner of the Bay of Biscay, between France and Spain, was divided into two parts by the fraud and violence of the Spanish king, Ferdinand. The largest portion of it, that lying No. 97, I |