In a political crime, the perpetrator is generally known, but the instigator is rarely identified. For Henri III, his assassin was the monk Jacques Clément, who was quickly killed to ensure his silence.
Ravaillac, after his deed, is arrested and claims to have acted alone; he has no accomplice, no instigator. He will be cruelly executed for this crime. Ravaillac is dead, the king is avenged. But who was this man?
François Ravaillac was born in a village near Angoulême in 1578. He was thus a middle-aged man in 1610. Ravaillac was well known in his native province by the police. The governor of the Angoumois was the Duke of Épernon. This man knew François Ravaillac well and had already entrusted him with missions.
In May 1610, the future assassin is housed with a friend of the Marquise de Verneuil, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie de’ Medici and the Duke of Épernon. The Duke of Épernon is in the royal coach at the time of the assassination. All these facts should have led to an investigation, but it was quickly abandoned.
One year later, in 1611, Mademoiselle d’Escoman, a lady-in-waiting to the Marquise de Verneuil, accused the Marquise de Verneuil and the Duke of Épernon of plotting the assassination of King Henri IV. Mademoiselle d’Escoman was sentenced on July 30, 1611, to life imprisonment for slander.
Who killed Henri IV?
Let’s summarize: 1) The Duke of Épernon knew François Ravaillac and was in the coach next to Henri IV at the time of the incident and did nothing to stop Ravaillac. 2) Ravaillac was lodged in Paris by friends of the Duke of Épernon and Queen Marie de’ Medici.
Furthermore, Henri IV had planned to join the armies to fight the Spanish and the Austrians, the hereditary enemies of France.
This is the reason why the day before his assassination, he had his wife Marie de’ Medici crowned Queen of France.
Henri IV was surrounded by enemies: the ultra-Catholics of the league did not forgive him for the Edict of Nantes, the nobility wanted to regain its privileges, and Marie de’ Medici did not get along well with her capricious husband.
Thierry Jan
