Henri IV was one of the most popular kings in France (from 1589 until, ironically, he was stabbed to death in 1610) and he is smiling in most paintings or busts that you see of him. His nicknames included Henri le Grand (Henry the Great), le bon roi Henri (good king Henry) and le Vert galant (the Green knight or gentleman—among other things, he protected forests and drained swamps to create crop lands but he was also a legendary lady’s man). He renewed Paris as a great city and is the one who promised a chicken in every pot on Sunday, at the least. No wonder the French loved him!
Several famous Paris landmarks attributed to Henri IV are the pont Neuf, the place Dauphine, the Louvre’s Grande Gallerie, and the place des Vosges (refer to 2/28/07 post). A statue of Henri standing on the pont Neuf and looking at the place Dauphine (refer to 3/29/07 post) was erected four years after his death. And although it was destroyed during the French Revolution as were so many other statues of French kings, it was the first one to be rebuilt in 1818 (after melting down two Napoleon statues). The tree-filled square Vert-Galant, also attributed to him, is a famous make out spot behind his statue on the tip of the Ile de la Cite.
By the way, Henri was stabbed to death in 1610 by a maniac (Francois Ravaillac) who hoped to convince the King to convert the Huguenots to Catholicism. He felt that Henri’s decision to invade the Netherlands was for the purpose of starting a war against the Pope. Since he couldn’t stop him, Ravaillac decided to stab him while his carriage was stopped in traffic near the old Forum des Halles market. He was immediately seized to avoid a mob lynching and taken to the Conciergerie. His death in the place de Greve was preceded by a horrible type of torture; his family was forced into exile and ordered never to use the name “Ravaillac” again.
