Conclusion

Henri IV was assassinated in his coach while it was stuck in congestion in the rue de la Ferronerie in Paris on 14 May 1610. His assassin, a strong, red-haired man called Ravaillac, stabbed him three times with a short knife before being arrested by the king’s travelling companion, the duke of Epernon. ¹ Ravaillac was interrogated by the parlement of Paris but, despite being tortured, he protested that he had acted as a completely free agent and that neither Jesuit nor aristocrat, Spanish pension nor former League fanatic had encouraged him to undertake the regicide. On the scaffold, he was scalded with burning sulphur, red-hot pincers, molten lead, boiling oil and resin before his arms and legs were attached to horses which then pulled in different directions. After an hour and a half, Ravaillac died. The crowd tried to prevent his receiving the usual last prayers and urged the horses to pull harder. After his death ‘the entire populace, no matter what their rank, hurled themselves on the body with their swords, knives, sticks or anything else to hand and began beating, hacking and tearing at it. They snatched the limbs from the executioner, savagely chopping them up and dragging the pieces through the streets.’ According to Nicholas Pasquier, one woman ate some of the flesh.