‘Ne’er was there King of France so yoked as I’: Henry III of Valois,Christopher Marlowe,and Giordano Bruno

Abstract

Henry III of Valois was often described as a weak and dubious sovereign until mid-20th-century scholarship reassessed his figure. This essay argues instead that Christopher Marlowe had already revealed the King's ‘veritable visage’ in his The Massacre at Paris, where he praised his strategic political line regarding the wars of religion. By highlighting the similarities between Marlowe's account and Giordano Bruno's tribute to Henry III in his Lo Spaccio de la Bestia Trionfante, this contribution underscores a possible connection between the two, and that the defaming portrait of the last Valois was not universally accepted in early modern Europe.