Rare and Possibly Unique Presentation Department: Dead Murdered Brothers and the (Second) War of the Three Henries

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 507

I'm not sure where this image falls in the classifying scheme of this blog--I knew that I had to save it before it disappeared into the memory hole, lost forever.  These are a remarkable, a pair of full-page images depicting the murder of two brothers, two famous brothers, in very much the same way.  They appear in a popular pamphlet written by "Ligue" (Jean Boucher) called La Vie et faits Notables de Henry de Valois... which is innocuous enough as a starting title, then gets peppered up quite a bit, continuing ou sont contenues les trahisons...et hontes de cest Hypocrite, Apostat, ennemy de la relgion Catholique, which was pretty strong stuff uttered against a former monarch, Henry III (1551-1589), and which was published in the year of the king's death. .  Boucher intended to lance the king, and did so very successfully, his small pamphlet outlining and cataloging the various shames and travesties of the problematic Henry reaching at least six editions.   The two images here are victims of Henry:  the first is Henry de Guise, who was murdered in Blois on 23 December 1588; the second is of his brother, the Cardinal de Guise, who was murdered the previous day, invited as they were to visit with the king at his palace.

Their murders was one of the final acts of the final bit of the last of the religious wars in France:  this was part of the closing curtains of the War of the Three Henrys (1584-1589), involving Henry III of France (Catholic), Henry of Navarre, eventually Henry IV of France (Protestant), and Henry of Guise (Catholic)). This confusing bit is not to be confused with an earlier war of Henrys, the War of the Three Henries (977-978).  Henry and his Cardinal brother were put down under direct royal order by the Forty-five, (a hit team operating exclusively at the please of Henry III, 15 of which were always attending the person of the King) for his mis-allegiance to the monarch. The war would come toppling down with  King Henry's own assassination in the next year,  put down by a blade to the belly by a Franciscan.

The two brothers were exhibited in their last states in adjoining woodcuts in the Boucher pamphlet, comparing their cuts side-by-side...I cannot remember seeing such an image like this before.

Comments

[Jeff]

"... I cannot remember seeing such an image like this before."

C'mon ... just watch "CSI-Asheville."

[John Ptak]

No, really. And remember I spent 29 years in DC.