Monsieur Gaston, Duke of Orléans, was the third son of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, Marie de' Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a Fils de France. He later acquired the title Duke of Orléans, by which he was generally known during his adulthood. As the eldest surviving brother of King Louis XIII, he was known at court by the traditional honorific Monsieur.
Portrait of Gaston, Duke of Orléans, 1634
Portrait by Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1611
Portrait c. 1627
Henry IV, also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. He pragmatically balanced the interests of the Catholic and Protestant parties in France as well as among the European states. He was assassinated in 1610 by a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.
Portrait by Frans Pourbus, 1610
Henry III of France on his deathbed designating Henry IV of Navarre as his successor (1589)
Portrait of Henry III of Navarre (future Henry IV of France), c. 1575
King Henry IV in his coronation robes, by Frans Pourbus the Younger
