Portrait of Henri of Navarre, circa 1575

This anonymous portrait, held at the Musée national du château de Pau, depicts **Henri de Bourbon**, King of Navarre and future Henri IV, around 1575, then in his twenties and the recognised leader of the Protestant party. A period inscription at the top of the painting explicitly identifies him: "Henri Roy de Navar.e." It was during this period that Navarre, forcibly converted to Catholicism after Saint Bartholomew's Day and returned to his reformed faith after escaping the court in 1576, began to establish himself as one of the three great protagonists, alongside Henri III and Henri de Guise, of the final decades of the Wars of Religion. This youthful portrait shows him before the major military campaigns that would build his reputation, including the victory at Coutras in 1587.