Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from house
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm de Blaine and Chuck Rewarding,
Speaker 1: and we're about to deliver on a threat of sorts
Speaker 1: that I think you made Sarah on an earlier episode,
Speaker 1: depending on you look at it, depending on how we'll
Speaker 1: look at it, as a promise, and it was to
Speaker 1: do a Bourbon series. And of course we're not referring
Speaker 1: to the beverage there when we say Bourbon, we're referring
Speaker 1: to exciting series. Indeed, yes, maybe not as lengthy, but
Speaker 1: we're referring in fact to France's House of Bourbon, a
Speaker 1: family that ruled the country from fifty nine until sevento
Speaker 1: and the French Revolution began, and they became one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful ruling families in Europe, and their influence
Speaker 1: eventually extended into places like Spain and Italy. The first
Speaker 1: Bourbon king, however, was Henry the Fourth, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of a good time to talk about him, and the
Speaker 1: reason behind that is right up our alley. In December,
Speaker 1: researchers formally identified Henry the Fourth's head and you might
Speaker 1: kind of wonder how this all came about. But the
Speaker 1: head has apparently been held in private collection since it
Speaker 1: disappeared in sevente which is of course when during the
Speaker 1: French Revolution, revolutionaries dug up bodies and guillotine to them,
Speaker 1: you know, just to add to the gore um that
Speaker 1: happened two hundred years after the king was even assassinated,
Speaker 1: So a delayed beheading indeed, exactly, And as Sarah just mentioned,
Speaker 1: it's been kind of bobbing around in several private collections,
Speaker 1: which we were talking about earlier. Like to think of
Speaker 1: it bobbing. I don't like to think about bobbing. And
Speaker 1: also wondering who owns these private collections of heads of monarchs.
Speaker 1: We would like to know anyone has any insight the
Speaker 1: mystery of this podcast one of the many mysteries. So
Speaker 1: they have this head. They've been testing it for about
Speaker 1: nine months or so, and from examining it and using
Speaker 1: some various scientific strategies like radiocarbon dating which helped them
Speaker 1: to figure out the likely date of death, and digital
Speaker 1: facial reconstruction to figure out what the mummified had actually
Speaker 1: looked like when it was alive. All the signs have
Speaker 1: kind of pointed towards Henry the Fourth. Yeah, so that
Speaker 1: brings us to the question, how did this ruler, who
Speaker 1: is considered one of France's best love monarchs, He was
Speaker 1: even called Henry the Great? How did he come to
Speaker 1: lose his head in the first place? Yeah? Why was
Speaker 1: he assassinated? Exactly? Well, as usual, we're going to begin
Speaker 1: at the beginning and tell you a little bit about
Speaker 1: where Henry the Fourth came from. Henry the Fourth was
Speaker 1: born Henry de Bourbon, Navarre in fifteen fifty three, and
Speaker 1: he's often just called Henry of Bourbon or Henry of Navarre,
Speaker 1: and his parents were Antoine de Bourbon, who was the
Speaker 1: Duke of Vendome and Jean deal Brett, who is the
Speaker 1: Queen of Navarre from fifty five. And nave Are is
Speaker 1: kind of in an interesting position here. It's an independent
Speaker 1: kingdom located around the Pyrenees, which is the border between
Speaker 1: France and Spain, and Henry was heir to that throne.
Speaker 1: Heir to Navarre through his mother, but he also had
Speaker 1: a claim, sort of a distant claim, but acclaimed nevertheless
Speaker 1: to a much more powerful throne right on his father's side.
Speaker 1: He was at that time in the only direct line
Speaker 1: of descent from Francis Compecian kings. And in case you're
Speaker 1: not kind of up to speed on your French monarchy knowledge,
Speaker 1: here's the deal with the whole Compecian kings and lineage thing.
Speaker 1: The House of Cape was the source of Francis so
Speaker 1: called third race of kings, and the House of Bourbon
Speaker 1: was a branch of that. Basically, when the direct Cape
Speaker 1: line died out, though the House of Valois, another branch
Speaker 1: of the family, prevented the Bourbons from actually taking over
Speaker 1: the throne because the Valois were the only ones who
Speaker 1: could provide a male heir at that time. Even though
Speaker 1: the connections of said mel air were pretty distant, the
Speaker 1: Bourbons were more closely related to this direct line exactly,
Speaker 1: they only had girl airs to offer. But there's a
Speaker 1: rule that the vow law continued to invoke and they
Speaker 1: kind of continue to do that throughout um and it's
Speaker 1: called the Salic law of secession, which basically means that
Speaker 1: that the throne has to pass down through male heirs only.
Speaker 1: And they kept this up because it legitimized their entire rule,
Speaker 1: and they had a rule for it went on for
Speaker 1: quite some time exactly. It eventually comes back to bite them,
Speaker 1: but it works in their favorite this time. So as
Speaker 1: a result of this Salic law of succession, it seemed
Speaker 1: pretty unlikely that Henry would ever become King of France
Speaker 1: because Catherine de Medici and the reigning king had three
Speaker 1: sons before he was even born, and they continued to
Speaker 1: have sons. But there's actually a bigger issue than all
Speaker 1: of these young boys being ahead in line to the throne.
Speaker 1: Hen is a Protestant. Yes. Um around his childhood was
Speaker 1: pretty much the beginning of a long period of civil
Speaker 1: war between the Roman Catholics, which included the royal family
Speaker 1: and the Protestants or Huguenot forces, and Henry's dad started
Speaker 1: off fighting on the Protestant side, but then he switched
Speaker 1: and was killed by the Protestants in battle. His mom, though,
Speaker 1: stayed die hard Protestant, and this made a huge impression
Speaker 1: on him in his formative years, and it's also the
Speaker 1: reason why people kind of questioned the sincerity of some
Speaker 1: of his later decisions. So his mother also had a
Speaker 1: pretty big influence on his education and his training too.
Speaker 1: She made sure that he got a strong military education,
Speaker 1: and then she further that by having him groomed under
Speaker 1: leaders of the Protestant forces like a sparred to calling me.
Speaker 1: And it all paid off because Henry ultimately did distinguish
Speaker 1: himself in battle. He proved to be a very capable soldier. Yes,
Speaker 1: so he participated in that civil war between the Protestants
Speaker 1: and the Catholic and then a period of peace occurred,
Speaker 1: ever so briefly in fifteen seventy and a lot of
Speaker 1: people hoped that the civil war was over, and to
Speaker 1: strengthen that ideal, Catherine de Medici arranged a marriage between
Speaker 1: Henry and her daughter Margot of val Wa. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's something that Katie and I talked about in one
Speaker 1: of the Catherine de Medici episodes. It was called the
Speaker 1: Scarlet Nuptials because unfortunately, this marriage that was to unite
Speaker 1: the two competing houses, the two competing religions sort of
Speaker 1: finally bring peace to France, ends in this terrible masker
Speaker 1: in which all these Protestants are murdered. It's um. It
Speaker 1: puts a damper on the festivities, definitely. It was called
Speaker 1: the St. Bartholomus Day massacre. And after that, King Charles
Speaker 1: the Night forced Henry to convert to Catholicism and basically
Speaker 1: detained him at court for a few years, since he
Speaker 1: knew that Henry of Navarre wasn't serious about this conversion well,
Speaker 1: and that he might be a champion of the Protestant
Speaker 1: cause if he's out and about right. As soon as
Speaker 1: Henry escapes, though, in fifteen seventy six, he recants and
Speaker 1: he joins up with the combined forces of Protestants and
Speaker 1: Catholic rebels against Henry the Third, who had come into
Speaker 1: power at that time. They didn't fare so well, though,
Speaker 1: they actually had to surrender in fifteen seventy seven, but
Speaker 1: a few years later something else happens. Henry the Third's brother,
Speaker 1: Francois actually dies in fifteen eighty four, which makes Henry
Speaker 1: of Navarre next in line for the throw. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's the last valoas Air is dead, and with Henry
Speaker 1: the Third not having any sons of his own, it
Speaker 1: seems like Henry of Navarre could become king, and that
Speaker 1: does not make some people happy at all, not at all.
Speaker 1: The possibility of a Protestant king, usually a French monarch
Speaker 1: bears the title of the most Christian king. It's an
Speaker 1: impossibility essentially for many people right. They were outraged. The
Speaker 1: Pope actually excommunicated Henry and declared that he had no
Speaker 1: right to inherit the crown, and a group called the
Speaker 1: Holy League sometimes referred to as the Catholic League, which
Speaker 1: was headed up by Henry, Duke of Gee, was set
Speaker 1: up specifically to keep him from ascending to the throne.
Speaker 1: But this is where things start to get a little rocky, because,
Speaker 1: in an effort to carry out their goals, the League
Speaker 1: starts to rely on Spain, which is of course the
Speaker 1: historic enemy of France and that poses a major threat
Speaker 1: to French independence. But in the beginning, Henry the Third,
Speaker 1: who is uh the Sunless King, is too weak to
Speaker 1: oppose the League. He's not in a position um to
Speaker 1: to do anything about it, right. So this leads what's
Speaker 1: known as the War of the Three Henry's which I
Speaker 1: think is the best name for war ever, and occurs
Speaker 1: mainly in southwestern France. So they're out of Paris now,
Speaker 1: the League basically starts to get more and more control
Speaker 1: over Paris um. Henry of Navarre, though, really gets to
Speaker 1: shine here. He shows his ability to lead and he
Speaker 1: manages to defeat eventually the King's army at to Coutra
Speaker 1: around the same time, though, the League accepts the daughter
Speaker 1: of Philip the Second of Spain and Elizabeth of Valois
Speaker 1: is the next heir to the French throne. So this
Speaker 1: is kind of a big deal. Yeah, it's definitely a
Speaker 1: big deal. It's essentially putting France's future in Spain's hands,
Speaker 1: and Henry the Third is not okay with that. Um.
Speaker 1: It just seems against what he believes in and he
Speaker 1: would rather support his family ultimately than support this plot
Speaker 1: and support France. Yeah, exactly, And so he has the
Speaker 1: Duke of Geese assassinated in December, and at that point
Speaker 1: Henry the Third the King joins forces with his old
Speaker 1: enemy Henry of Navarre to take back Paris from the League.
Speaker 1: They try to, but unfortunately, Henry the Third, the last
Speaker 1: of the Valvas line, is assassinated in August first nine,
Speaker 1: and this is before they actually have a chance to
Speaker 1: to take back Paris full from the League. He has
Speaker 1: no son, as we mentioned, so before he dies he
Speaker 1: names Henry of Navarres his successor. Definitively. Yeah, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's clear sailing for Henry of Navarre, because
Speaker 1: a lot of people still opposed him, so he literally
Speaker 1: had to fight his way to the throne, and it
Speaker 1: took years and years to do so. Uh. He was
Speaker 1: winning victories in the provinces and the outlying territories and
Speaker 1: some of the other cities, but he couldn't get Paris
Speaker 1: out of the League's hands with their Spanish alliances. Um.
Speaker 1: And that was what he was struggling to do, right,
Speaker 1: And the League threatened to set aside Salek Law again,
Speaker 1: this law that had governed the monarchy for so long,
Speaker 1: and have a Spanish infanta declared queen. So Henry decided
Speaker 1: to convert to Catholicism again for the second time on
Speaker 1: July three. He just wanted the fighting to be over. Basically,
Speaker 1: he didn't want the Spanish threat to French independence to
Speaker 1: come in and he also was ready to be have
Speaker 1: this over with. Yeah, and around that time, eventually the
Speaker 1: Catholics started to accept him, and on March twenty fifteen
Speaker 1: ninety four, he was finally allowed into Paris again. Um.
Speaker 1: And of course, one of the things Henry is most
Speaker 1: famous for is the alleged comment Paris is well worth
Speaker 1: a math, which obviously most people take that as an
Speaker 1: indication he may have been less than sincere about his
Speaker 1: conversion right, but sincerity aside, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: reasons why Henry was considered an effective ruler and why
Speaker 1: he's remembered as one of the most popular kings of France.
Speaker 1: He ended nearly forty years of religious strife in April
Speaker 1: of fifteen ninety eight when he signed the Edict of Nance,
Speaker 1: and this confirmed Roman Catholicism as the state church. But
Speaker 1: it also granted a lot of rights to Protestants as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I mean he wasn't just I guess part of
Speaker 1: the beauty of his reign is that when you got
Speaker 1: a certain measure of religious peace, you could focus on
Speaker 1: other things as well. All and he worked to eliminate
Speaker 1: the national debt and create a reserve and develop agriculture,
Speaker 1: introduced the silk industry to France up and encouraged the
Speaker 1: manufacture of products in France like tapestries and items that
Speaker 1: were usually imported from other countries. He also beautified Paris.
Speaker 1: For example, he built the Great Gallery of the Louver,
Speaker 1: which at that time was still a royal residence, so
Speaker 1: he lived there. And he also seemed to be generally
Speaker 1: a likable guy. He was smart, funny, brave, pleasure loving.
Speaker 1: Maybe related to that, he was also very big with
Speaker 1: the ladies. His physical lur earned him the nickname the
Speaker 1: green Gallant, which you probably it's one of the main
Speaker 1: things you hear him referred to as today. May have
Speaker 1: been curious about that from our title. True, and because
Speaker 1: of his many lovers, he was sometimes also called lovert galant,
Speaker 1: which translates to the gay old spark. Yeah. I feel
Speaker 1: like a little something is lost in translation there, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um. He had several very well known affairs,
Speaker 1: one with Gabrielle Destre, one with Henriette de Balzac d'antrag
Speaker 1: and one with Charlotte. And we were talking about Gabrielle
Speaker 1: Destrey some She's an interesting lady, may be worthy of
Speaker 1: her own podcast at some point. Um. An interesting combination
Speaker 1: of bravery and beauty. I would say, indeed. Um, But
Speaker 1: people considered Henry maybe not so wise when it came
Speaker 1: to his relationships with women. And one thing we should
Speaker 1: consider he is still married to Margot during all this time. Yeah, Margot,
Speaker 1: who is childless. They never had a child together. She
Speaker 1: refuses to annul their marriage as long as his lover,
Speaker 1: Gabrielle de Straw is still alive. Um. Eventually she does, though,
Speaker 1: after Gabrielle dies and she allows their marriage to be
Speaker 1: annuled so that Henry can marry Marie de Medici in
Speaker 1: sixteen hundred. But Margot is still a very interesting character
Speaker 1: in herself. Yeah, she said to have had an affair
Speaker 1: with the Duke of Geese, an early affair. Um. She
Speaker 1: actually got in a lot of trouble with her brothers
Speaker 1: over that. Um. She was known for licentious behavior and
Speaker 1: um still though, stuck by her husband and tried to
Speaker 1: stick up for him with her family promote him with
Speaker 1: her brother Francis. Um. You know she was looking out
Speaker 1: for his interest because she knew her own work tied
Speaker 1: to his. Definitely didn't always work out in her favor though.
Speaker 1: Her brother Henry the third actually banished her in fifteen
Speaker 1: eighty six, so she wasn't allowed to be in Paris anymore.
Speaker 1: She was eventually allowed back into Paris in sixteen o
Speaker 1: five and apparently lived in high style there and had
Speaker 1: many many affairs at which she may have written about
Speaker 1: in her memoirs. I haven't read her memoirs of you,
Speaker 1: Sarah no I have it, But I think she got
Speaker 1: to live in a pretty queenly fashion. She's she's struck
Speaker 1: a sort of Anne of Cleave's type deal, you know
Speaker 1: where if she could live as the queen's sister with
Speaker 1: all the all the luxuries of being queen, with out
Speaker 1: all the responsibility, she got to keep retitled too, right,
Speaker 1: she did. Um, So, Henry the fourth, though he's not
Speaker 1: having such a luxurious time, at least compared to his
Speaker 1: former wife Margo. Yeah, well, he may have been having
Speaker 1: a luxurious time, but he wasn't getting it easy, that's
Speaker 1: for sure. He before he was killed on May fourteen,
Speaker 1: sixteen ten, he lived through a couple of assassination attempts,
Speaker 1: both by Catholics, and one of them was sort of
Speaker 1: serious though. He was visiting Gabrielle de Straw when a
Speaker 1: guy named John Chaste, a law student who had been
Speaker 1: taught by Jesuits, stabbed him in the lip with a knife.
Speaker 1: And a scar left by this attack was actually one
Speaker 1: of the things that helped researchers identify that mummified head
Speaker 1: that we referred to earlier in this conversation. Um, I
Speaker 1: think that's so interesting that your scars can be preserved
Speaker 1: so well. Yeah, but um, but the man who finally
Speaker 1: killed Henry was Francois Ravaillac, who was a thirty two
Speaker 1: year old man who had come from a professional family
Speaker 1: that had fallen dramatically into a bigger status. Um and well.
Speaker 1: He's often described as a religious fanatic or a devout Catholic,
Speaker 1: maybe even sometimes described as a monk. A lot of
Speaker 1: people think that he just had severe mental issues and
Speaker 1: that was what drove him to assassinate the king, not
Speaker 1: his religious fervor. Right, He was really religious and had
Speaker 1: in fact, at one point joined a really strict Cistercian
Speaker 1: order of monks, but he was expelled only after about
Speaker 1: three to six weeks of being with them because he
Speaker 1: was supposedly having visions and generally having experiences such as
Speaker 1: smelling sulfur, which was traditionally associated with the devil that
Speaker 1: they didn't approve of at all, So kind of showing
Speaker 1: signs early on of those mental issues, saying unhinged. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but interestingly, he's kind of an opportunist when it comes
Speaker 1: to assassinating the king. He stabs Henry in Henry's carriage
Speaker 1: while the king was on the way to take care
Speaker 1: of some military matters. Yea, the streets were so crowded. Apparently,
Speaker 1: Henry the Fourth's mounted escorts on his carriage had to
Speaker 1: ride ahead. Some of his footmen decided to walk ahead
Speaker 1: of the carriage until the congestion had sort of passed,
Speaker 1: and Raviuk took this opportunity to reach into the coach
Speaker 1: window with a long knife and stabbed the king twice.
Speaker 1: And supposedly he didn't even really make a huge effort
Speaker 1: to get away after that, but he just sort of
Speaker 1: stood around exactly, and they apprehended him, but they didn't
Speaker 1: kill him immediately. They wanted to question him, and they
Speaker 1: did end up questioning him for several days because they
Speaker 1: wanted to find out if he was part of a
Speaker 1: larger plot. Yeah, they couldn't believe that this one guy
Speaker 1: from this beggar class family had hatched this whole plan himself,
Speaker 1: but up until the end he maintained that it was
Speaker 1: just his idea. He was ultimately pulled apart by four
Speaker 1: horse this, but he insisted that he worked alone, and
Speaker 1: he did it because he thought that Henry was out
Speaker 1: to get the pope exactly, And some people still wonder
Speaker 1: if it was a conspiracy but who could have planned it.
Speaker 1: One option is the Jesuits. They seem to get blamed
Speaker 1: for a lot of things in our podcast as it
Speaker 1: turns out, um, but they had recently been allowed back
Speaker 1: into France after being banned for a while, so they
Speaker 1: were one sort of suspected group. But other people actually
Speaker 1: think it could have been the king's wife, Marie, because
Speaker 1: she became regent after his death and cast aside a
Speaker 1: lot of his policies, particularly those involving Spain, and she
Speaker 1: even married their son Louis the thirteenth, to a Spanish princess,
Speaker 1: so you never know, or just a guy who thought
Speaker 1: the pope was in danger. So even though some people
Speaker 1: may have benefited in certain ways from Henry's death, the
Speaker 1: overall population was upset about it, and the mood was
Speaker 1: one of sadness, and he was mourned pretty intensely a
Speaker 1: long time. For eighteen days, he had a hundred low
Speaker 1: masses and six high masses said per day for his soul,
Speaker 1: and three sculptures were commissioned to make the king's bust
Speaker 1: from a death mask. Um. And this is so bizarre,
Speaker 1: but one of the resulting sculptures, which was the considered
Speaker 1: the most lifelike, was actually served two meals daily by
Speaker 1: the king servants as if he were still alive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: apparently this is an ancient custom that symbolized the continuity
Speaker 1: of the monarchy. So basically only when the king was
Speaker 1: buried was his household dissolved. That's how they saw it.
Speaker 1: So that was the reason for it. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess. So he wasn't buried until June, so over
Speaker 1: a month after he was killed, and at that time
Speaker 1: his son Louis the thirteenth sprinkled holy water on his
Speaker 1: body and there was a procession and a huge requiem mass.
Speaker 1: He wasn't actually buried until June twenty if so over
Speaker 1: a month after he was actually killed, and his son
Speaker 1: Louis at that time sprinkled holy water on his body
Speaker 1: and there was a huge procession and a requiem mass,
Speaker 1: and then he was buried in the Basilica of Sant
Speaker 1: Deni with all the other French kings. But of course
Speaker 1: we know now all of these monarchs were dug up
Speaker 1: by French revolutionaries in the late seventeen hundreds, and many
Speaker 1: were mutilated and dumped into mass graves somehow or another.
Speaker 1: Henry's head avoided that fate, was removed from its body
Speaker 1: and preserved entering collections, became a collectible. It must have
Speaker 1: been embombed pretty well, though, not just because he was
Speaker 1: buried so long after his death, but because even today
Speaker 1: the head if you look, you can see pictures of
Speaker 1: it online. His head still has hair, parts of internal organs,
Speaker 1: his brain. In fact, his brain contents are still there.
Speaker 1: It basically looks like a brown leathery covering over looks
Speaker 1: like a head and exposed portions of skull. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: weird head, but head. In fact, they couldn't get a
Speaker 1: clean DNA sample off of this head though, and I
Speaker 1: presume if the head as exhumed and handled by tons
Speaker 1: of French revolutionaries a mob probably would have a lot
Speaker 1: of DNA and the random collectors of course, but they
Speaker 1: were able to analyze the embombing substance and then compare
Speaker 1: it to historical records of how kings were embombed during
Speaker 1: that time, and that was one of the things that
Speaker 1: helped them confirm who it was. They also have one
Speaker 1: of the molds of Henry the Fourth's face that was
Speaker 1: made after his death, the ones that we referred to earlier,
Speaker 1: and it matches up with their facial reconstruction that they made,
Speaker 1: so two pretty strong clues in additions to ones that
Speaker 1: we mentioned before. And so now they've confirmed that it's him,
Speaker 1: and his head will be reinterred this year at Sant
Speaker 1: Deny with full state honors, and I guess to further
Speaker 1: honor him, will be talking about his descendants. So, you know,
Speaker 1: thus begins the Bourbon series. You should definitely send us
Speaker 1: your suggestions for favorite bourbon monarch's favorite, Louis favorite, Louise's favorite.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, there's a way to work with
Speaker 1: their um, but don't limit it to Louise. I mean,
Speaker 1: we have we have monarchs across Europe and they might
Speaker 1: find more heads in the future. They might. They have
Speaker 1: decided that since they were able to identify Henry the
Speaker 1: Ford said, they will get others now perhaps, so you know,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll have some other news news items to go
Speaker 1: along with our Bourbon series hopefully. So if you have
Speaker 1: any good Bourbon ideas, feel free to email us a
Speaker 1: history podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're also
Speaker 1: on Twitter at mist in History, and we're on Facebook,
Speaker 1: so all good ways to reach us. Definitely, and if
Speaker 1: you'd like to learn a little bit more about the
Speaker 1: formal royal residence of Henry the Fourth. We had an
Speaker 1: article called how the Louver Works. You can look it
Speaker 1: up by visiting our homepage and typing in louve at
Speaker 1: www dot how stuff works dot com. For more on
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click on
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Speaker 1: The How Stuff Works iPhone app has a ride. Download
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