ABSTRACT
Henri entered the Holy Roman Empire on 4 December. His suite numbered around 1,200 persons and. included numerous carts carrying luggage, furnishings and silver. The main threat consisted of reiters who were still owed money by the French crown for services in the third religious war. For this reason Henri took with him 150,000 ducats for payment to John Casimir, who had been the chief supplier of German mercenaries. He needed to tread carefully for news of the massacre of St. Bartholomew had caused outrage among the German Protestants, his own role in that event not being above suspicion. Everyone knew that he had fought the Huguenots in the third religious war and had since led the Catholic party in France. According to Pierre Mathieu, Henry IV's historiographer, who owed the story to Beaulieu-Ruze, one of Henri's companions in Poland: 'He wore that crown as if it were a rock on his head.
