Henry IX (II of France) was born in January of 1558. He is best remembered for uniting the realms of England, France, Scotland and Ireland with those of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sardinia & Sicily through his marriage to Isabella II of Spain, which created the beginnings of the prominent, if short lived, (Western) European Empire that would be formed by his descendants. His reign, however, would be largely based on consolidation, though colonization efforts surged due to his control over all of the major colonial powers of the era, resulting in massive expansions of his territory in the Americas. Henry, however, would encounter a great difficulty in producing an heir, resulting in the birth of two surviving daughters and allegedly over 30 miscarriages until his only son and heir, Edward VII, was born. Henry would die peacefully in the fall of 1628, ruling over the largest (if theoretically multinational) empire to ever have have existed at the time.