Henry of Navarre

Sixteenth-century France. Europe’s most powerful state is being torn apart
by religious wars. On the one side is the Catholic majority which holds sway
over the Parisian court and, on the other, are the Protestants, known as
Huguenots. Paris is ruled by Catherine de Medici who is determined to
make use of her power to retain the throne for her three sons. But, in the
south of France, in the tiny kingdom of Navarre, an opponent is emerging
about whose existence she has, as yet, no knowledge: Henry of Navarre.

Henry reaches adulthood on the battlefields. He receives a letter at his
camp. Catherine de Medici wishes to marry her daughter, Marguerite, to
him so that Huguenots and Catholics can finally coexist peacefully. His
mother urges Henry to accept the offer: Catharina’s sons suffer from a
mysterious blood disease; if they were to die then Henry would become
king of France. The marriage of Henry and Marguerite ends in the St.
Bartholemew’s Day massacre, a bloodbath during which thirty thousand
Huguenots are slaughtered. Henry survives, but is held prisoner in the
Louvre.

Marguerite is in love with the man that she was made to marry for
reasons of state, but when Henry learns that she was aware of her mother’s
murderous plan he rejects her. Henry escapes, rejoins the Protestant forces
and continues the bloody religious conflict with the intention of founding
a state based on humanist thought. And then he meets the love of his life:
Gabrielle d’ Estrées.

When Henry’s brother-in-law, Henry III, Catherine de Medici’s last son, is
murdered he becomes the new king – Henry IV. Marguerite lives in hope
once more. But this sets the wheels in motion for a series of betrayals and
intrigues.

Source: 60. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)