The Last Valois King
Henry III pushing the corpse of the Duke of Guise with his foot
School of Charles Durupt 1832
It’s often hard to unscramble fact from fiction regarding the history of the French royal family.
Not so in the case of the assassination of Henry III, the last Valois king.
On his deathbed he dictated this letter to his beloved Queen, his beautiful, loyal, loving wife with the wonderful name of Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont.
The Bedroom of Louise of Lorraine, Château de Chenonceau
‘M’ Amye,
My enemies, perceiving that...their only hope of safety lay in my death...and that it was my custom never to refuse audience to ecclesiastics, they decided that no more feasible method existed of executing their accursed design than to hide it under the monastic mantle and cowl – thus outraging all laws human and divine, and violating the sanctity of the priestly habit.
This morning, while I was alone in my cabinet with the sieur de Bellegarde, my Attorney-General brought to me by my commandment, a young Dominican, who stated that he had...a message to deliver….
After presenting me with the letters from the first president, the said monk, pretending that he had some secret communications to make, I desired the said Bellegarde and my Attorney-General to retire a little.
This wicked wretch then gave me a stab with a knife, thinking to kill me; but the Almighty, who is the Guardian of kings...by his mercy so directed the blow, that the wound is slight; and I hope in a few days to recover my accustomed health, in which trust I am encouraged, first by my own sensations; secondly, by the opinion of my surgeons and physicians, who believe that no danger exists.
I have thought it wise to advertise you of my true condition, that you may not be alarmed by false and contrary reports’.
Henry wrote a postscript in his own hand:
M’ Amye, – I hope soon to be well. Pray God for me and do not leave the place where you now are.
Au Pont de St. Cloud, the first day of August, 1589.
Henry died the next day. In the chaos which followed, Louise did not receive the letter.
Where was ‘the place where you now are? Chateau Chenonceau.
Who were my enemies? Easier to say who wasn’t.
The young Dominican Friar had avenged the death of the duke of Guise and his brother who were assassinated in Château Blois on Henry’s orders.
Leaders of the extremist Catholic League in Paris, they were determined to wipe out Protestantism in France.
Henry, like his mother, Catherine de Medicis, believed a religiously tolerant monarchy would save France from collapse.
Religious tolerance was the last thing the Guise brothers wanted.
The king hoped their demise would bring an end to the Wars of Religion.
He couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead he made them martyrs to the cause.
When people turned against him, Henry III, the last Valois king and the last king of France to live in the Loire Valley, exiled from Paris, set up a bare bones Court in Tours.
A hundred years before, Charles VII, the first Valois king to live in the Loire Valley, also exiled from Paris, set up a bare bones Court in Tours.
When the much maligned Henry was stabbed, his intestines were exposed. He held them in place until the surgeon managed to shove them back and stitch up the wound.
It’s hard not to think of Shakespeare’s: ‘Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it’ *
* Macbeth
Post by Pamela, Photography by Mark.
Out of the Shadows
The Ladies of Royal Chateau Amboise
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