The Tragic End of Good King Henri IV

On May 13, 1610, after finally giving in, Henri IV watched his wife, Marie de Medici, be crowned as the queen of France in the Basilique Saint Denis. 

The next day, his life would end

In this week's episode, we look at the tragic end of the beloved king of France.  With twists and turns that include his skull, which may have been found three hundred years after he died, and where you can find him in Paris. 

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SPEAKER_00 0:06

Bonjour, bonjour everybody, and welcome to episode 18 of Paris in Bleu Blanc Rouge. And I am excited about this episode because I'm going to share with you one of my favorite figures in French history. I do also have about 5,000 favorite uh figures, and which include artists, kings, queens, runs the gamut of everything. So if I I've had people actually say to me, like, oh, I thought this one was your favorite, or I thought this one was your favorite, or you sure have a lot of favorites. I don't think there's a rule. I don't think there's a rule out there that says you could only have so many. So, but I really do love this one. And I usually affectionately call him something else that I'll tell you at the very end. But uh, this one today is all about the end of Henry IV. Now, last week we talked about the end of Napoleon. I promise next week it's not going to be about death, but this one is about the final uh moments, really, of Henry the Fourth, who was the beloved king of France. He's still today kind of looked at as one that a lot of people um affectionately think of in French history. And uh he could be found all over Paris, which I'll show you and tell you some places where you could find him, as well as, of course, in the Louvre. But this week is the anniversary of when he died. So he died 416 years ago on Thursday the 14th. So let's just go ahead and jump right in. On May 13, 1610, after finally giving in, Henry IV watched his wife, Marie de Medici, be crowned as the Queen of France in the Basilique Saint Denis. The next day, his life would end. A matter of coincidence, or did Marie follow in her cousin's footsteps who loved to dabble in poison, or could it have been a religious zealot who had one goal in mind? In the late afternoon of Monday, May 14th, King Henry IV jumped into his open carriage inside the Corcare of the Palais de Louvre and headed out to see his friend and fellow minister Maximilien du Batillon, Duc de Sully, at the Hotel de la Signale. The two men met before the Saint Bartholomew Day Massacre in 1572, and Sully became one of the king's closest advisors. For the coronation, the streets of Paris had been decorated, lining the route to the Basilique Saint Denis. Temporary arches covered with plaster statues and flags filled Paris, and on this Monday afternoon, Henry wanted to take a look on his way to the Arsenal. In a tragic decision, they removed the shutters from the carriage windows, leaving the king and his entourage sitting ducks. The Paris traffic of over 400 years ago was just as big of a mess as it is today. Just after 3 30 PM, the carriage left the palace, turning first at the Croix de Troire, just outside the Louvre, to the Rue Saint Honore, then on to the very narrow Rue de la Ferr More, alongside the massive cemetery of Les Innocent and the large Leal Market. The royal carriage ran into a traffic jam that severely narrowed the 13 foot wide street. A large wagon of hay blocked traffic at the same time, a cart of wine barrels filled much of the street. To help clear the way, the king's guards jumped from the carriage, and seconds later the unthinkable happened. In a split second, Francois Ravillac stepped onto the right wheel of the carriage, leaned in and stabbed the king twice with a knife he had taken from a tavern table and sharpened on the days leading up to the attack, striking the king between the second and third rib and directly severing his aorta and then in his stomach. Ravillac had waited outside the Palais de Louvre and followed the carriage and mixed in with the crowd until he found the perfect moment to attack. Quickly the carriage made it back to the Louvre where they screamed out for the king's doctor, Antoine Petit, as they carried the king to the Queen's bedroom on the ground floor. Henry blinked three times as the doctor arrived. Before he could be examined, he was gone. Henry IV was just fifty six years old. Henry IV was born on december thirteenth, fifteen fifty three and was baptized in the Catholic Church but raised under the Protestant Reformation. In 1572, as the marriage to Marguerite de Valois was negotiated, his mother, Jeanne Dalbrez, was to promise Catherine de Medici that they would never convert Marguerite. The wedding itself was used to bring hundreds of Protestants to Paris to be killed in the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre just days later. That's a long story coming in August. Henry III, King of France, died on August 2, 1589. On his deathbed, he named his brother-in-law, Henry III, King of Navarre, as his successor, and was advised that he should return to Catholicism. Henry III of Navarre was now Henry IV, King of France. As the wars of religion raged, Henry IV announced on April 4, 1592 that he would convert to Catholicism. Baptized on july twenty fifth, fifteen ninety three, in the Basilique Saint Denis, it took a bit longer to win people over, especially one man who would never be convinced. The assassin, Francois Ravaillac, was born in 1577 in Angoulême, France, on December 13th, the same birthday as both Henry IV and the Duc de Soulis. How about that for a strange twist? Ravaillac was raised under the strict Catholic teaching with a chaser of strong distrust and dislike for the Protestants. At 29, Ravaillac followed his calling and joined the Cistercian Order of the Fouillons, but lasted barely a month before he was asked to leave after his odd rantings were discovered. The next day the Jesuit Church wouldn't even entertain the idea of admitting him. For a brief period, he taught catechism to children, and at the same time his visions became more frequent and darker. As a dedicated Catholic, Ravillac felt that Henri IV hadn't done enough for the church. Voices told him that the king was the Antichrist, opposed the Pope, and must be dealt with. In 1609, on two separate occasions, Ravaillac tried to reach out to the king directly to plead his case and advise him, but was, of course, turned away, all leading him to his final action on May 14th. Immediately following the incident, Ravaillac didn't run. He stood almost in shock, while Henry's guards apprehended him and took him to the Hotel de Retz. Upon his arrest, they found his pockets filled with scraps of paper inscribed with biblical passages and rantings. The next day he was locked in the Conciergerie and questioned. For days the assailant was tortured and interrogated on who else could be involved in the plot to kill the king, followed by a ten-day trial. The timing of the death brought the queen herself into question. After all, she was a Medici, and her distant cousin and former mother-in-law to the king loved to dabble in the dark arts and poisoning people. Marie was off the hook with this one, but this did work to her advantage. On May 27, Ravillac was found guilty of regicide, which is the killing of a sovereign, and was sentenced to an immediate death. He was taken to the Cathedral Notre Dame where he could make amends in front of the door of the last judgment and pray once more before his date with death. The same day at the Place de Greve, in front of the Hotel de Ville, public enemy number one would meet a rather grisly end in front of thousands of angry onlookers. The official decree of the Parliament of Paris describes the method of his death. Gripped to the udders, arms, thighs, and the fat of his legs, his right hand, which held the knife with which he committed the said regicide, will be burned with sulfur fire. Dipped in molten lead, boiling water, urine, burning resin, wax and sulfur melted together. Then his body will be pulled and quartered by four horses. The rest of his body will be consumed by fire, reduced to ashes, and thrown to the wind. On May 15th, the autopsy of the king was performed, and his heart and entrails were removed to be sent to the Basili Saint Denis and the Collage de la Fleche. The king was embalmed, herbs stuffed into his mouth to mask any odors, wrapped in gold cloth and placed in a hastily decorated chapel. For eighteen days the family attended more than six masses a day with the body of the king. On June 10th, the coffin was moved into the Sal de Cariets and a life-sized straw figure of the king with a wax effigy bust created from the death mass made within hours of his passing by Matthew Jacquet. Two of these wax effigies survive today. In the Carnival Museum, attributed to Michel Bourdin, the wax head sits on the terracotta sculpted body and dates to 1623, years after his death. At the Chateau de Chantilly, I was so excited to find the handsome Henry looking back at me against a wall painted with fleur de leaves and crowns. The effigy of Chantilly dates to the time of the death and was created by Guillaume Dupre. It's unknown what happened to the one used in the Sade de Carietin. It's one of my favorite historical facts because it's so odd. For eleven days he was dressed in his coronation robes, he was propped up, hands clasped in prayer, while ministers and those close to him ate their lunch and dinner with the king. On June 29th and 30th, the king was moved to Notre Dame de Paris, where he was blessed by the bishop and hundreds attended the multiple daily masses. On July 1st, 1610, the king was entombed into the Basili Saint-Denis, where he would remain for the next 183 years. On June 5th, as promised, the king at his heart said to the Collage de la Flèche, which he founded in 1603, a lavish procession of over 400 men from Paris to La Flèche in the Sartre department, southwest of Paris. The Duc de Montpezon was sitting next to the king on that faithful day. He accompanied his heart to the place that was dear to him. Later in 1643, the Queen's heart would be added, but both were destroyed in the revolution. The loss of the beloved king was a blow to the people of France and even more so to his children. Henry wasn't the typical royal father who kept the kids away and treated the heir to the throne like an adult before they took their first step. Henry was a hands-on father who spent time with them, played with them, and even had his children call him father rather than king or sire. Marie de Medici was not the loving and caring maternal figure in the least, which was also normal, but something that would come as a rather tough blow to the royal children after the loss of their father. Louis XIII was just eight years and seven months old the day his father died, and had been at the order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit on the edge of the left bank on the Rue de Grand Augustin at the moment of his father's death. Advisors rushed to his side as he was now the king of France, even if he was still a child. Today, the Riley Louis XIII restaurant, near the location that has the date inscribed on its wall, just opposite the former home of Pablo Picasso. Crowned on October 17, 1610 at the Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims, he would need to wait until he was thirteen to actually rule. His mother, Marie de Medici, served as regent, acting in his place and holding that power in her iron fist as long as she could. Deciding he was too weak to actually take the throne in 1614, she held on a little longer until the Coupe de Force on April 24, 1617, and Mommy Dere's closest advisor, Concino Concini, was killed and she was locked away in the Chateau de Bois for two years. For almost 200 years, Henry peacefully rested amongst his fellow former kings and queens in the Basilique Saint Denis until 1793. On August 1st, the National Convention voted that all royal effigies and tombs needed to be destroyed, partially to erase any memory of the former kings of France, but also to obtain the lead and metal to make bullets and cannons. On October 12th, 1793, the first grave opened was that of our good King Henry IV, as it was the crowd's favorite, and he was perfectly preserved. While he may have been gone since 1610, he looked fresh as a daisy. His wife Marie de Medici was yelled at by the workers, and her hair was torn out as they thought she was behind the death of Henry. Henry, so beloved that they propped him up for two days, much like the lithograph drawing printed on glass of the image of the king in the lower crypt of Saint Denis today. A few things surprised the thieves as the tombs were ravished. Louis XIII was easily recognized by his still perfect black mustache. Louis XIV, the Sun King, was now black as ink. Many of them kept little keepsakes, fingernails, hair, the leg of Catherine de Medici, and maybe even the head of Henry IV. The history and validity of Henry IV's school raises many questions, but it remains interesting nonetheless. The head of the king was removed at some point between 1793 and 1817. When the large pits were opened in 1817 by Louis XVIII, the head was gone. Fittingly, on October 31st, 1919, at the Hotel Dureau, photographer Joseph Emile Bourday purchased three mummified skulls from the estate of the artist Emma Nallet Poussin. No relation to Nicolas Poussin, but she did take art lessons from Suzanne Baldon. Joseph had no idea who the skull might belong to, but for three francs, about 450 euros today, it was a pretty good deal. In 1924, Joseph came across an article in La Gazette des Arts that led him to believe he might have the head of the beloved king. For 20 years he spent a fortune on x-rays and research and even tried to donate to the Musee de Louvre, who declined the offer. After his death in 1946, Madame Gaillard, Bourday's sister, inherited his estate, including the schools. In 1955, Madame Gaillard sold the school, believed to be Henry IV, to Jacques Bellanger, a retired tax collector, for 5,000 francs, 13,000 euros today. For 55 years, Bellanger and his wife kept the school of the Monarch, as they called him, a secret. Even their own children had no idea the head of the king was kept in their parents' closet. Bellanger thought he would investigate the school's provenance on his own, but decided to share the story with two journalists. Pierre Ballet and Stephon Gabet on January 22nd, 2010, paid him a visit. Henry's head was taken then to Dr. Philippe Chalier and historian Jean-Pierre Babylon. The school still had a few red and white hairs of his beard intact, which could be tested against other hairs of the king held at the Po Museum. On close inspection, his nose was broken and his right ear had been pierced. One of the most telling marks was the damage to his jaw when stabbed by Jean Chate on December 27, 1594. Henry was no stranger to assassination attempts. On December 15, 2010, 400 years after his death, scientists matched the skull to the Bourbon line. One scientist said it was a 99.9% match, yet others think that 0.01% is a big deal. It was also tested against the blood of Louis XVI on a napkin from the day of his execution. Bellanger gave it to the descendant of the former king Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, the Duc d'Anjou. After the head was confirmed as belonging to one of France's most beloved kings, it was to be returned to the Basilique Saint-Denis in 2012 in a special ceremony, but that still hasn't happened. As far as we know, poor Henry is locked away in a bank vault awaiting his return to the rest of his remains. Years ago I met the handsome descendant at a mass for Louis XVI, and I sure wish I knew the story then, because then I could have asked him where the head is. Now where could you find Henry IV, you ask? Well, the streets and monuments of Paris include many famous figures, but one is easier to find than any other. Many months later in 1614, the wreckage was discovered and the statue finally rode to Paris on a barge from La Harve down the Seine and placed on the Pont Neuf. Sitting on a pedestal, it was surrounded by the four captive statues that can now be seen in the Louvre and the Richelieu wing. Like many monuments in Paris, it would not survive the Revolution. Broken and melted, it was all but destroyed, but a few pieces of the statues survived and are now in the Carnival. Many years later, during the Restoration, Louis XVIII ordered a replacement and returned it to the Pont Neuf. Henry would rise again in 1818 and cast from the original mold using bronze from the other statues in Paris. Inside the statue, a closely kept secret is hidden. A workman named Maynel, a loyal Bonapartist, stuffed Henry with anti-royalist papers as he was being built. It was all but a myth until 2004 when it was restored and metal cylinders were found hidden in his elbow and leg, filled with the very papers. Before the restoration was finished, they returned the hidden treasures to the king. In 1621, Marie de Medici commissioned Peter Paul Rubens to create four paintings telling the story of her life to fill the walls of her palace in the Jardin de Luxembourg. She loved the first four so much she asked him to create twenty more based on major moments of her life. Rubens wanted to please his royal patrons, so he redesigned her life a bit, and some of the less than lovely events were given a new rosy outlook. Filling the paintings with allegories, royal icons, and adding the color red to direct your attention, its amazing walk through her life. It was inaugurated on May 11, 1625 in the Palais de Luxembourg. Marie wanted Rubens to also paint 24 paintings dedicated to the life of Henry IV. That would never come to fruition, sadly, and I would have died to see that. But a few of Marie's, of course, include Henry. Henry first appears in the seventh painting, the presentation of the portrait. Henri Cat, dressed in armor, is presented with the actual portrait that was sent to the king in 1599 of his future wife by Cupid and Hymen. Behind the king is an allegory of France whispering her approval. Henry reappears in painting number ten, depicting their final meeting in Lyon on November 9, 1600. Mary by proxy in October 5th, 1600, in Florence, with her uncle standing in his Henry. Marie arrived in Lyon but had to wait a week to meet her new husband, as he was busy with one of his many mistresses. In the paintings, Rubens added the Roman gods Jupiter and Juno who represent marriage, this time with the faces of Henry and Marie. Number 12 showcases his legs, which we'll talk more about, in the preparation for war, also known as the Regency of the Queen. This episode takes place on March twelfth, 1610, a very important date, as it would be the reason she was named regent two months later after his death. November 13th takes place on May 13, 1610, in the Basagli Saint Denis, the coronation of the Queen. Marie sits center stage while the king looks down from above. The last painting that includes our man Henry is number fourteen, titled The Apotheosis of Henri Cat. On the left, Henri, dressed in armor and wearing a laurel wreath representing immortality, is lifted to the heavens by Jupiter, his eagle, and time. Above the gods, including Hercules, Mercury, Venus, with Cupid in her arms, looking towards the next painting, and at the top, Juno looking down at Marie. We'll go deeper into the full cycle of these paintings over the next few months before the paintings disappear for restoration in the fall for five years. I'm gonna die. Oh, how I wish they had 24. The life of Henry IV. It would be interesting to see how his love life would be depicted. Now I'd be very remiss if I didn't mention one of my very, very, very favorite paintings of what I call Hot Legs Henry. Our good King Henry is depicted as Hercules with some rather lovely legs. Henry IV is Hercules crushing the Hydra of Lern by the entourage de Toussaint du Bois. Painted in 1600, it depicts the king as a mythological hero known for his strength and often associated with the Bourbon Kings. He is seen with the pelt of a lion over his shoulder, a slight smile on his face, and holding a club in his hands. The king stands triumphantly over the slain hydro, which symbolizes the Catholic League, which had major problems with the one time Huguenot King. However, what stands out about this painting is his legs and his arms. I mean really, oh la la Henry. The little flick of his hip on this kicky little silver blue satin shorts really adds to his pose, and it's easy to see why he had so many mistresses. After all, he wasn't nicknamed the Vergallant for nothing. Today, when you come to Paris, make sure to go onto the street where the king had been killed. Today there's a marble plaque that marks the spot on the Rue de la Faronere where the king was killed. Complete with the coat of arms of Navarre featuring chains and the Fleur de Lise of France. A few doors down, a white plaque above the passage also remembers a tragic event and even names his killer. If you're coming to Paris, you should book a tour with me and we could walk through all of the sexy footsteps of the beloved Henri Cat. I just went by there this morning. I had to go do a little walk. I actually walked the path that he would have taken from going from the Cor Carré all the way through and up until that spot and went and looked at uh the plaque. I remember my first time when I came to France uh 10 years ago, it was on my list that I had to go find it and I couldn't find it. I couldn't figure out where it was. And so now I love to go over there and look at it's really beautifully done and it's really one of the only times you see that sometimes in front of the you'll see in front of the obelisk there's a plaque and it's a raised plaque that's put into the ground about the death of Louis the 16th and Marie Antoinette even though that wasn't exactly the spot. But here this one is in the it's just flush with the with the actual pavers and the in the ground and I went early so there wasn't a lot of people around but the ones that were around looked at me like I was a kooky because I was uh standing there taking all these pictures of it. And then also you can see they have the plaque on the wall and then there's also one of the um oars that are like the City of Paris official history markers which I also love as well. And it even has like a little drawing of Ravayak how he stabbed him and he's hanging out his of his carriage which was also a painting that I have all the a bunch of pictures on my website ClaudineHemingway.com but I also had to pop in and go to the Carnival A today so I could go see my wonderful Henry his wax effigy and also the pieces from the Pont Neuf and then on the way back home I decided to then also go to the Pont Neuf and see my man Henry. Right now they are just getting started they just started uh yesterday building the massive uh installation that's going to go onto the Pont Neuf that JR the uh artist JR is doing and he's going to basically wrap in a sense the entire Pont Neuf because it's the anniversary of when um uh Christo did that I think 30 years ago I think it was but uh they you it's gonna be you can't drive on half of the bridge but I was able to walk pretty close to it and they already have some of it hanging down. So make sure you're following me on Instagram um Claudine Blue Blanc Rouge because I will put those pictures up. But I'll keep tracking it. It's supposed to open I think it's June 6th uh and it's going to be 20 days it'll be there so I can't wait to see it and follow the progression of it as it goes up. Um I think JR is I love what he does. I think it's really great and thought provoking um and this is coming for me who doesn't really like anything that's contemporary art but I do uh really love what he does. So make sure to follow along but I wonder what's going to happen to my sexy Henry IV uh there when they build this installation what's gonna happen to him or is he going to be hidden behind all of this hopefully you know it's supposed to look kind of like a huge ice like icebergs um so I don't know if Henry's gonna be galloping out of the icebergs or not but I will keep an eye on it and let you all know um and of course uh I have to go in this week and see Henry in the Louvre my favorite Henry even though I've seen this painting a thousand times but make sure to go to my website ClaudienHemingway.com where I have a bunch of pictures that go with this episode and to check that out and I will be back next week with a story that I'm also really excited to share and it's not about anybody that died. So it's gonna be something that's kind of sparkly I'll give you a little hint. So all right everybody I hope you have a wonderful week and I will talk to you next week.