Jacques Clément (1567 – 1 August 1589) was a French conspirator and the assassin of King Henry III. He was born at

Serbonnes Serbonnes () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yonne Departments of France, department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. Personalities Raymond Janot, a national French political figure, was mayor of Serbonnes from 1947 to ...

, in today's

Yonne Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is l ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'', in Burgundy, and became a Dominican

lay brother Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choir, ...

. During the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mi ...

, Clément became fanatically religious and an ardent partisan of the Catholic League. Viewing

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

, he talked of exterminating the

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

and formed a plan to assassinate Henry III in retaliation for the killing of the

Duke of Guise Count of Guise and Duke of Guise (pronounced �ɥiz were titles in the French nobility. Originally a seigneurie, in 1417 Guise was erected into a county for René, a younger son of Louis II of Anjou. While disputed by the House of Luxembourg ...

and his brother. His project was encouraged by some of the heads of the League, in particular Catherine de Guise, the Duchess Montpensier. He was assured of worldly rewards if he succeeded and of eternal bliss if he failed. Having obtained letters for the king, he left

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

on 31 July 1589 and reached

Saint-Cloud Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. Like other communes of Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of France's wealthiest tow ...

, the headquarters of Henry, who was besieging Paris, on 1 August 1589.

Assassination

Clément was admitted to the king's presence, and while he was presenting his letters he told the king he had an important and confidential message to deliver. The attendants then withdrew and, as Clément leaned in to whisper in Henry's ear, he mortally wounded him with a dagger concealed beneath his cloak. The assassin was immediately killed by the returning attendants, but Henry died early in the morning of the following day. Clément's body was later quartered 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 ...

. His crime led Le Laboureur to anagrammatize "Frère Jacques Clément" into "C'est l'enfer qui m'a créé" ("It is hell that created me"). Although seen by supporters of Henry III as a fanatical, brutal act, the assassination was viewed with very different feelings in Paris and by the partisans of the League. Clément was seen as a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

and was praised by Pope Sixtus V. His praise was such that even canonization was discussed.

References

* See E Lavisse, ''Histoire de France'', tome vi. (Paris, 1904). {{DEFAULTSORT:Clement, Jacques 1567 births 1589 deaths French Dominicans French Roman Catholics 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 16th-century venerated Christians French people of the French Wars of Religion French regicides Murder in 1589