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James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.

May 14

Henry IV

By Francis Saltus Saltus (1849–1889)

  • Henry the Fourth, better known as King Henry of Navarre, was assassinated May 14, 1610, by a fanatic named Ravaillac.


  • “LONG live our king, good Harry of Navarre!”

    Shouted the soldiery through Ivry’s heat;

    Thou led’st them on to victory complete,

    Proud in the glamor of thy Huguenot star!

    Good king, thy glorious deeds immortal are;

    France, old in years, thy memory still doth greet,

    And peasants love thy great name to repeat,

    Sapient in council, valorous in war.

    I see thy Béarn face as histories tell,

    Frank, open, winning, resolutely free;

    I see thee armed with helmet and poitrel.

    And then again, in thy broad Tuilerie,

    I hear thy joyous oath “Ventre-saint-Grés,”

    And see thee kiss thy swan-necked Gabrielle!