Henry II ( March 31, 1519 – July 10, 1559) is a monarch of the House of Valois who rules as King of France from March 31, 1547, until his death in 1559.

The second son of Francis I, he becomes Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis III, Duke of Brittany, in 1536.

Henry pursues his father's policies in matter of arts, wars and religion.

He perseveres in the Italian Wars against the House of Habsburg and tries to suppress the Protestant Reformation even as the Huguenots become an increasingly large minority in France during his reign.

The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), which puts an end to the Italian Wars, has mixed results: France renounces its claims to territories in Italy, but gains certain other territories, including the Pale of Calais and the Three Bishoprics.

France fails to change the balance of power in Europe, as Spain remains the sole dominant power, but it does benefit from the division of the holdings of its ruler, Charles V, and from the weakening of the Holy Roman Empire, which Charles also rules.

Henry suffers an untimely death in a jousting tournament held to celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis at the conclusion of the Eighth Italian War.

The king's surgeon, Ambroise Paré, is unable to cure the infected wound inflicted by Gabriel de Montgomery, the captain of his Scottish Guard.

He is succeeded in turn by three of his sons, whose ineffective reigns help to spur the ghastly consequences of the French Wars of Religion between Protestants and Catholics.