Henry IV of France's Succession - Assassination

Assassination

Henry IV's assassination in 1610 was the last of a series of attempts on his life throughout his reign. The constant threat of assassination was related to questions of his legitimacy as King of France. Even after his abjuration of the Protestant faith in 1594, doubts remained about the sincerity of Henry's conversion. In particular, there were those who believed that in failing to fulfill the terms of his absolution, he remained technically excommunicate and therefore a legitimate target of assassination. As a Catholic king, it was argued, Henry should have closed Huguenot churches and banned Protestant worship; instead, he made concessions to his former co-religionists in the Edict of Nantes and tolerated the existence of what was seen as a "state within a state"—whole towns and regions of France where the Huguenots' right to worship, bear arms, and govern their own affairs was protected by the crown.

According to Henry's murderer, François Ravaillac, "he made no attempt to convert these Protestants and was said to be on the point of waging war against the Pope so as to transfer the Holy See to Paris". Ravaillac stated that "he had felt obliged to take this step because, from rumours he had heard, he felt the King had seemed reluctant to punish the Huguenots for trying to murder all the Catholics last Christmas Day. Some Catholics still languished in the Paris gaols while their persecutors went scot free".

Those who questioned the sincerity of Henry's conversion pointed to his contravention of the terms of his absolution. Henry continued to promote Huguenots to office in France and to form alliances with Protestant princes abroad. In his home territory of Béarn, he did nothing to re-establish free Catholic worship as the pope demanded. It seemed clear to Henry's Catholic opponents that he had recanted his Protestantism merely for political reasons, in order to secure the French throne. Rebels and would-be assassins felt justified by what they saw as Henry's manifest failure to comply with the terms of his absolution. In their view, Henry remained a heretic and, therefore, an usurper on the throne of France.