François Ravaillac

François Ravaillac , born towards 1577 with Angouleme in Charente and carried out the May 27th 1610 with Paris, assassinated Henri IV, king de France, the May 14th 1610.

Biography

The Ravaillac family was established in Angoumois at the beginning of XVIe century, and as of this time it had, with Angouleme, these offices of judicature by which so many middle-class families arrived at the communal or legal loads, from where they rose later until the nobility.

Born with Angouleme about 1577, François Ravaillac began his life as a servant, then became teaching. Very religious, he sought to enter the Ordre of Breaking into leaf the. The probatory short period failed because of its visions. It tried to enter to the Society of Jesus in 1606.

In 1609, it had a vision requiring of him to convince Henri IV to convert the Huguenot S. Incapable to meet the king, it interprets the decision of this one to invade the Spanish Netherlands like the beginning of a war against the pope. Determined to stop the king, it decides to kill it.

The May 14th 1610, Ravaillac steals a knife in an inn. It hides in the Rue of the Ironwork in Paris (in current the Quartier of the Markets) to watch for there the passage of fits with body royal, the king having decided to go to the Arsenal to visit its minister Sully who was suffering. At four o'clock in the afternoon, this one arrives. Suddenly the convoy remains blocked following an obstruction: Ravaillac benefits from aubaine and is thrown on the king. it carries two stabs mortals to him to the chest. It takes refuge in a vault in the street of very close Lombards (n°62, current restoring Flam' S) but quickly is found and controlled. It immediately is controlled and brought to the Hôtel of Retz in order to avoid to him a Lynchage, then led to the Conciergerie.

At the time of its interrogations, it is subjected to the torment laced boots (instrument of wood which was used to tighten the legs of one condemned until crushing them) but denies to have been with the pay of whoever or to have some accomplice. The May 27th, it is brought on the Place of Strike in front of a howling crowd, her right-hand man - that which struck the king - is burned with ignited sulfur. Ravaillac is tortured with the chest, the arms and the legs. Lead melted, ebullient oil are versed on its wounds, then it is quartered by four horses. His/her parents were forced with the exile and an edict was promulgated prohibiting with any person of the kingdom to name Ravaillac.

This act started an enormous polemic: one showed the Jesuits to have pushed Ravaillac with the Régicide. One also thinks that it would more or less have been inspired by a conspiracy in which would have taken part Marie de Médicis, wife of Henri IV, the duke of Epernon, the marchioness of Verneuil (former mistress of Henri IV); they would have acted on behalf of Spain. But Ravaillac protested to have acted only.

The thesis of the plot

In January 1611, Mrs Jacqueline d' Escoman, who had known Ravaillac, will denounce the duke of Epernon like the person in charge of died of Henri IV. She for that will be thrown in prison for the remainder of her days. In its book the Strange one Died of Henri IV (1964), Philippe Erlanger claims that on its arrival in Paris, Ravaillac was placed at Charlotte of Tillet, the mistress of the duke of Epernon. For Philippe Erlanger, the assassination at summer radio-controlled by the duke of Epernon, Henriette d' Entragues and Charlotte of Tillet.

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