Henry IV (1553-1610) was the first king of France of the Bourbon dynasty. He succeeded the last Valois king, Henry III, in 1589. Before becoming France's king, Henry IV was known as Henry of Navarre. He had been king of Navarre and a leader of the Huguenot (French Protestant) forces in a series of civil wars between the Huguenots and French Roman Catholics. The son of a Huguenot mother and a Catholic father, Henry switched religions for political reasons six times during his life. As king of France, he initially faced opposition from the country's Roman Catholic majority. But after his readmittance to the Catholic Church in 1593, he gradually won his subjects' allegiance. He went on to become one of France's most admired kings.