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

Henry IV of France Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...

on 27 December 1594. He was the son of a cloth merchant and was aged 19 when he was 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, also known as joker, court jester, or fool, was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch kept to entertain guests at the royal court. Jesters were also travelling performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town ma ...

Mathurine de Vallois) 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 completely disconnecting and/or removing the limbs, skin, and/or organs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with regicid ...

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

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

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 (Paris), rue Saint-Jacques in central Par ...

). In the atmosphere of the day, with the Wars of Religion 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 or banishment 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 ...

d; a third teacher, Father Guignard, was hanged and

burned at the stake Death by burning is an list of execution methods, execution, murder, or suicide 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 puni ...

for his presumed part in the affair. The Collège de Clermont was closed, and the building was confiscated. The Jesuit Order was banned in 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 16th-century French criminals Executed French people Failed regicides People executed by dismemberment Executed failed assassins