Henri was born in prison after the arrest of his then-pregnant mother in the spring of 1588, following her husband's death, under suspicion that she may have poisoned him.

[2] She and her children were released from their captivity after Jacques Auguste de Thou intervened on her behalf with King Henry IV, who was a relative of the young prince.

[7] His appearance and personality was described by a contemporary as: Small and thin, he has very prominent facial features, as all those of the House of Bourbon usually do; he is blond and has the lively French temperament.

[6] Charlotte wrote letters to her Montmorency relatives calling herself "la pauvre prisonnière" ("the poor prisoner").

However, Henri instead went to Muret-et-Crouttes, where he arranged a carriage and escaped with his wife to Brussels, which was then part of the Spanish Netherlands.

[9] Some months later, in February 1610,[6] Henri relocated alone to Milan, where the Spanish government was more than happy to defy the French king's request to turn over the prince.

[10] Henri took up residence in the palace of the Governor of Milan, Pedro Henriquez de Acevedo, Count of Fuentes, who supplied him with a bodyguard.

Condé was accused of wanting to become the king through a coup and although there was no concrete evidence to back this up, Queen Marie de Medici had him arrested and imprisoned in the Bastille.

This was the period between the death of Nicolas Henri, Duke of Orleans in November 1611 and the birth of the future Louis XIV of France in September 1638.