In [Scene 24] of The Massacre at Paris, the wounded Henri III demands that the English agent be summoned to him, as he wishes to inform Elizabeth I of the attempt on his life. The term 'agent' in this case means someone who acts as the ambassador.1 This was Sir…
François-Hercule de Valois, Duke of Alençon (* 18 March 1555; † 10 June 1584) was the youngest son of Henri II and Caterina de' Medici. He had assumed that in the event of his brother Charles IX’s death, he would succeed him, since Anjou had accepted the Polish crown. Anjou’s…
Gaspard de Coligny, Seigneur de Châtillon (* 16 February 1519, † 24 August 1572) came to the French court as the son of one of the most distinguished families, where he quickly found a friend in François de Lorraine, Duke of Guise. Together they had a successful military career. In…
Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (* 29 December 1552; † 5 March 1588) was the eldest son of Louis de Bourbon, a brother of Antoine de Bourbon and thus a direct cousin of Henri de Navarre, behind whom he was on the list of pretenders to the throne as…
Henri de Lorraine, Duke of Guise (* 31 December 1550; † 23 December 1588) is the principal character in Marlowe’s drama The Massacre at Paris. The Guise family did not belong to the French high aristocracy. Claude de Lorraine distinguished himself in the campaigns of François I, who elevated him…
Henri de Navarre (* 13 December 1553; † 14 May 1610) is one of the best examples of the fact that you can choose your friends, but not your relatives. He was related to almost all the people who tried to kill him in The Massacre at Paris and in…
Jacques Clément (* 1567; † 1 August 1589) was a Dominican friar and fanatical member of the Catholic League. He gained access to Henri III in Saint-Cloud by pretending he had letters to deliver to the king. After he had been let in, he told the king that he also…
Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette (* 1554; † 13 January 1642 in Loches) was one of Henri III’s mignons from 1578 onwards. At first he was overshadowed by Joyeuse, but rose so high in the king’s esteem that after Joyeuse’s death he was given all his offices and…
Jeanne III of Navarre (* 7 January 1528; † 9 June 1572), also known as Jeanne d’Albret, was the only daughter of King Henri II of Navarre and Marguerite d’Angoulême, the sister of French King François I. He married his niece in 1541 against her will to Wilhelm V, Duke…
The Protestant preacher is stabbed to death by Guise in [Szene 7] in The Massacre at Paris. H. J. Oliver thinks it could be Gabriel de Levis, Vicomte de Leran.1 Both De furoribus Gallicis and Marguerite de Valois tell of the Huguenot Leran who, wounded at St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre,…
