A fellow Protestant murdered King Henry III of France.
Henry III of France . Henry III 's legitimate heir was his distant cousin Henry , King of Navarre , a Protestant . In 1589 , Jacques Clément , a Catholic fanatic , murdered Henry III , who was succeeded by the King of Navarre who , as Henry IV , would assume the throne of France after converting to Catholicism , and become the first French king of the House of Bourbon .