He appeared at court and in the army at the age of sixteen, and was a special favourite with Henry IV, after whom, failing the House of Condé, he might be said to be the natural chief of the French Protestants.

Having served till the Peace of Vervins, he travelled for a considerable time over Europe, including England and Scotland, in the first of which countries he received the not unique honour of being called by Elizabeth I her knight.

He published an account of his travels as the Voyage Du Duc de Rohan, Faict En l'An 1600, including a passage praising Anne of Denmark and her children.

[3] It was not till the decree for the restitution of church property in the south threw the Bearnese and Gascons into open revolt that Henri appeared as a rebel.

His authority and military skill were very formidable to the royalists; his constancy and firmness greatly contributed to the happy issue of the war for the Huguenots, and brought about the Treaty of Montpellier (1622).

[3][6] Also during this time in the 1620s, Henri was responsible for considerable damage to the ancient Roman aqueduct bridge Pont du Gard while using it to transport his army across.

To make space for his artillery, he had one side of the second row of arches of the ancient structure cut away to only two thirds of their original width, severely weakening the aqueduct bridge.

[7] Again a hollow peace was patched up, but it lasted but a short time, and Henri undertook a third war (1627–1629), the first events of which are recounted in his celebrated Memoirs.

[citation needed] Henri's Mémoires sur les choses qui se sont passées en France, etc., rank amongst the best products of the singular talent for memoir writing which the French noblesse of the 16th and 17th centuries possessed.

It treats of the history and lessons of Caesar's campaigns and their application to modern warfare, and contains appendices dealing with phalangite and legionary methods of fighting and the art of war in general.