François Ravaillac
François Ravaillac (* 1578 in Touvre near Angoulême , † May 27, 1610 in Paris ) was the murderer of King Henry IV of France. Ravaillac was publicly executed for the act in Paris in 1610 .
Life
Ravaillac was of simple origin and worked first as a servant and later as a teacher. Highly religious, he joined the order of the Feuillanten , but was released after a short time because of his passion for visions . In 1606 he tried in vain to join the Jesuits .
In 1609 he had a vision after which he felt called to persuade Henry IV to convert the Huguenots to Catholicism . Failing to get in touch with the king, he interpreted the king's decision to invade the Spanish Netherlands as the start of a war against the Pope. To keep the king from doing so, he decided to kill him. He stabbed Heinrich on May 14, 1610 at 11 rue de la Ferronnerie (memorial plaque) in Paris. He was immediately arrested and taken to the Hôtel de Retz to prevent the mob from lynching him. During his interrogation he was tortured several times, but the fact remains that he had no clients or accomplices.
Condemnation
As a regicide, Ravaillac awaited a draconian punishment, which the Grand'chambre des Parlements prescribed in detail in its judgment of May 27 and which was carried out exactly as follows:
"Considered everything, so the court has declared and hereby declares the said Ravaillac to be punished with law and order and convicted of the crime of lese majesty, human as divine, committed on the head, because of the very vile, very despicable and very reprehensible assassination, committed on the person of the blessed King Henry IV, very good and commendable memory; in atonement for which he condemned him and condemned to repent of honor in front of the main gate of the Notre Dame church in Paris, where he was to be led in a poor sinner's cart; - Coming there, naked, in shirt, holding a burning candle, two pounds in weight, in hands, to say and declare that he unfortunately and treacherously committed said very vile, very despicable and very reprehensible assassination, and killed the said king and the gentleman with two stab wounds in his body, for which he feels repentance and asks for mercy from God the king and justice; - that he would be led from there to the Greveplatz and to a scaffold, which was to be erected there, and there pinched his nipples, arms, thighs and calves with tongs; that then his right hand, in which he has to hold the knife with which he committed the said parricide, is burned in sulfur fire, and on the places where he has been pinched, molten lead is trickled, also boiling oil and burning pitch, and wax and sulfur mixed together; - according to which his body is to be torn and divided by four horses; but his limbs and body were consumed by fire, burned to ashes, and scattered to the winds. - Soon declare all his goods to the king. Also decreed that the house in which he was born should be made level with the earth, after the person to whom it belongs had been compensated beforehand, in such a way that a house may never again be built on the land where it stood; - as well as that, fourteen days after the publication of said judgment, at the sound of trumpets and public shouting in the city of Angouleme, his father and mother emigrate and leave the kingdom, with the ban on ever returning there, otherwise they should be hanged and strangled, without anything being brought before a lawsuit against them. Let us further forbid his brothers and sisters, his unions, bases and others to use the name Ravaillac from now on, and let us tell them, under the same penalties, to take on another name; - and the substitute of the General Procurator to publish and execute current knowledge, warning that we will adhere to him; and before the execution, Ravaillacs said that he would be put under the torture anew in order to blackmail his accomplices from him. "
On May 27th, he was martyred on the Place de Grève and executed by dividing himself into four on horses. His parents were expelled from the country and the rest of the family directed never to use the name Ravaillac again.
literature
- Roland Mousnier: A regicide in France. The assassination of Henry IV by Ravaillac. Propylaea Verlag, Berlin 1970.
- Paul Frischauer: Ravaillac or the murder of a king . Zsolnay Verlag, Berlin 1926.
- Pierre Deschamps: Proces du tres Meschant et Detestable Parricide Fr. Ravaillac. Aubry Publishing House, Paris 1858.
- J. Tharaud, J .: La tragédie de Ravaillac . Paris 1942.
- Pierre Chevallier: Les régicides: Clément, Ravaillac, Damiens. Fayard, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-213-02326-3 .
- Janine Garrisson: Ravaillac, le fou de dieu .. Ed. Payot, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-228-88633-5 .
- Edmund Goldsmid: The Trial of Francis Ravaillac for the Murder of King Henry the Great Kessinger Pub Co, 2004, ISBN 1-4179-5189-3 .
- Pierre Mathurin de L'Ecluse des Loges: Memoirs of Maximilian of Bethune. Duke of Sully, .. the Trial of Francis Ravaillac for the murder of Henry the Great.
- Anita W. Walker, Edmund H. Dickerman: Mind of an assassin: Ravaillac and the murder of Henry IV of France. In: Canadian Journal of History. 1995.
- Ravaillac . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 16, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, p. 640 .
- Ravaillac, Francois . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 22 : Poll - Reeves . London 1911, p. 922 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
- executedtoday.com (English)
- Illustration by Frans Hogenberg from 1610: Franß Rauaillart the morder shnodt, who killed the king, ... ( digitized version )
- Torture and mutilation were followed by quartering
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mind of an Assassin ( Memento from May 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ravaillac, François |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Murderer of Henry IV of France |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1578 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Touvre at Angoulême |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 27, 1610 |
| Place of death | Paris |