Henry IV of France

Assassinated on 14 May 1610 in Paris by the Catholic zealot Francois Ravaillac; the popular king who ended the French wars of religion was planning war in Europe.

Overview

Henry of Navarre, a Protestant who converted to take the throne, had ended decades of religious civil war with the Edict of Nantes in 1598 and earned wide love for prosperity and care for his subjects. As his carriage was stopped in traffic in the rue de la Ferronnerie, Ravaillac, a unstable zealot convinced the king intended war against the papacy, stabbed him twice through the open window; he died within minutes. Ravaillac was executed after torture without revealing accomplices, though conspiracy theories persist. The regency of Marie de Medici for the young Louis XIII reversed the pro-Protestant foreign policy, drawing France into the Thirty Years War. Henry memory as the good king, the green gallant with the chicken in every pot, outlived the century.