Jacques Clement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cl%C3%A9ment

Jacques Clément (1567 – August 1, 1589) was the assassin of the French king Henry III.

The successor King Henry IV, As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, he barely escaped assassination at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and he later led Protestant forces against the royal army. The wedding took place in Paris on 18 August 1572. on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral. On 24 August 1572, the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre began in Paris. Several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henry's wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed. Henry narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and his promise to convert to Catholicism. He was made to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On 5 February of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the military conflict.

Jacques Clement was born at Serbonnes, in today's Yonne département, in Burgundy, and became a Dominican lay brother.

During the French Wars of Religion, Clément became fanatically religious and an ardent partisan of the Catholic League. Viewing Protestantism as heresy, he talked of exterminating the Huguenots and formed a plan to kill Henry III. His project was encouraged by some of the heads of the League, in particular Catherine de Guise, the Duchess Montpensier. He was assured of temporal rewards if he succeeded and of eternal bliss if he failed. Having obtained letters for the king, he left Paris on July 31, 1589, and reached Saint-Cloud, the headquarters of Henry, who was besieging Paris, on August 1, 1589.

He was admitted to the royal presence as a disguised priest, and while 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 on the following day. Clement’s body was later quartered and burned.

This deed, although seen as a fanatical, brutal assassination by supporters of Henry III, was viewed with far different feelings in Paris and by the partisans of the League. Clément was seen as a martyr and was praised by Pope Sixtus V. His praise was such that canonization was even discussed, although Clément never did achieve sainthood.