Henry III of France

Born Henri Alexandre Édouard on 19 September 1551, the fourth son of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici, he wasn't meant for the French throne. At 22 he was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1573, refused to sign the Henrician Articles guaranteeing noble election rights, then bolted for France in 1574 when his brother Charles IX died without an heir. He inherited a country shredded by the Wars of Religion: the Catholic League backed by Spain, the Protestant Huguenots by England, and the Malcontents led by his own brother Francis. Henry argued for a strong, centralised, religiously tolerant monarchy - a politique in an age of zealots. When Francis died and it became clear Henry would have no children, the Wars spiralled into the War of the Three Henrys: his distant Protestant cousin Henry of Navarre stood as heir under Salic Law, but the Catholic League under the Duke of Guise demanded a Catholic successor. Henry had Guise murdered in 1588. A year later, on 2 August 1589, Jacques Clément, a Catholic League fanatic, killed him in turn.