CLEMENT, ,JACQUES C.1 567-SO ) .
The assassin of Henry III. of France. lie was born at Sorbon, in the Department of Ardennes, and in early life seems to have been a soldier. Later lie entered a Dominican convent in Paris. Ignorant, passionate, and probably also demented, Clement became a fanatic partisan of the League in its struggle against the French King and Henry of Navarre. After the murder of the Duke of Guise and his brother, at Blois, in 1585, Clement began to think of himself as the instru ment selected by Heaven to overthrow the 'tyrant,' that is, Henry of Valois, and to avenge the death of the two great leaders of the League. He is said to have confided his plan to assas sinate the King to Bourgoing, the prior of his convent, and to have received the latter's appro bation. It is asserted also by historians friendly to the cause of Henry of Navarre that the plan was brought to the knowledge of the Cardinal of 3.Tayenne and his sister, the Duehesse de Mont pensier, and that it was, in fact, carried out with their assistance; but historians friendly to the League deny that its leaders had any pre vious knowledge whatever of Clement's murder ous scheme. Letters of introduction to the King were oh/Mined for Clement from the president, Harlay. and the Count de Brienne, who were then
prisoners of the League in Paris. on July 31, 1589, Clement set out tor Saint Cloud, from where Henry 111. was directing the operations against the capital. On the morning of August 1, lie was admitted to the presence of the King as the bearer of an important letter. and while the King was reading it, stabbed him. Ilenry threw the knife into the assassin's face, exclaim "Oh! the wicked monk; he has killed me! Put him to death!" Clement was immediately cut down and his body was subsequently quar tered and burned. The King died the next day. By the zealots among, the Leaguers. the deed was received with undisguised rejoicing, and accord ing to Haubigne, a Protestant, the act of Clement was praised from the pulpit. and the monk de clared a martyr. De Thou, a partisan of Henry IV., asserts that Pope Sixtus V. lauded Clement, but both Datibiginvs and de Thou's statement; have no authority beyond their own assertion. For a defense of the assassination of Henry consult Le martyre du fore 'Jacques chment (Paris, 1589).