And to that end all political elements, including the States General, must be held firmly down; and that body, representing the _Tiers Etat_, was never summoned after France was well in hand by the king who was _par excellence_ the friend of the people! It is the Edict of Nantes which stands preeminent among the events of this reign, and which is Henry's monument in the annals of France.

His foreign policy was controlled by a desire to check the preponderance of the Hapsburgs; that being, in fact, the dominant sentiment in Europe at that time.

But a remarkable proof of the breadth of his treatment of this subject is the plan he formulated of a European tribunal composed of the five great powers, which should insist upon the maintenance of a _balance of power_--a phrase common enough now, but heard then for the first time; and which had for its immediate purpose the separating of the crown of Spain and the empire, by forbidding their being held by members of the same family, and of course designed as a check upon the Hapsburgs.
This was a pet theory with Henry, and the subject of much discussion with Sully and of negotiation with Elizabeth, Queen of England, at the very time when Philip II.

of Spain, in pursuance of a precisely opposite policy, had been moving heaven and earth to bring about a marriage with that extraordinary sister of his dead wife Mary.

Henry did not witness the realization of his dream.