Jean Châtel (1575 – 29 December 1594) attempted to assassinate King

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monar ...

on 27 December 1594. He was the son of a cloth merchant and was aged 19 when executed on 29 December. On 27 December 1594, Châtel managed to gain entry to the King's chamber. When Henry stooped to help two officials rise who had knelt before him, Châtel attacked him with a knife, striking his lip. He was at once arrested (prevented from leaving the room by the court

jester A jester, court jester, fool or joker was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain guests during the medieval and Renaissance eras. Jesters were also itinerant performers who entertained common folk at fairs ...

Mathurine de Vallois Mathurine de Vallois, also known as Mathurine la Folle ('Mathurine the Fool') ( fl. 1589 – fl. 1627), was a French jester. She was the jester of the court of French kings Henry III, Henry IV and Louis XIII, successively. Mathurine is noted in ...

) and condemned for the crime of lèse majesté. As the law prescribed, first Châtel's hand, with which he had struck the King, was burned with molten sulfur, lead and wax. He was then executed by

dismemberment Dismemberment is the act of cutting, ripping, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise disconnecting the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with ...

. Under questioning Châtel revealed that he had been educated by the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

of the Collège de Clermont (now the

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

). In the atmosphere of the day, with the

wars of Religion A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...

still in progress, it was inevitable that the Jesuits would be accused of inspiring Châtel's attack. His former teachers, Fathers Hay and Guéret, were fortunate to be

exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

d; a third teacher, Father Guignard, was

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The '' Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

and

burned at the stake Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...

for his presumed part in the affair. The Collège de Clermont was closed, and the building was confiscated. The Jesuit Order was banned from France, although this ban was quickly lifted.

References

* Charlier, Philippe (14 December 2010)
"Multidisciplinary medical identification of a French king's head (Henri IV)"
''BMJ''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatel, Jean 1575 births 1594 crimes 1594 deaths 16th-century executions by France Executed French people Failed regicides People executed by dismemberment People executed for attempted murder