Jousting was a popular sport in medieval and Renaissance Europe, where knights on horseback would charge at each other with lances and try to knock their opponents off their mounts. It was also a dangerous sport that often resulted in serious injuries or death for both knights and horses.
One of the most famous and tragic examples of jousting gone wrong was the fatal accident that befell King Henry II of France in 1559. He was a powerful and brutal monarch who ruled over a vast kingdom that stretched from the Pyrenees to the Alps. He was also a passionate lover of hunting, jousting and women. He had a long affair with his mistress Diane de Poitiers, who became one of the most influential women in France.
In June 1559, Henry II decided to host a lavish jousting tournament in Paris to celebrate two royal weddings: his daughter Elizabeth to King Philip II of Spain and his sister Margaret to the Duke of Savoy. The tournament lasted several days and attracted a glittering audience of nobles and dignitaries, including Queen Catherine de Medici, Diane de Poitiers and Mary, Queen of Scots.
On the final day of the tournament, June 30, Henry II entered the lists to face his opponent, Gabriel de Montgomery, the captain of his Scottish Guard. Montgomery was a young and skilled jouster who had already won several matches. He tried to refuse the challenge from the king, but Henry insisted on facing him.
The two knights charged at each other with full speed and force. Montgomery’s lance struck the king’s helmet and splintered, sending wooden shards into his face, eye and brain. Henry reeled in his saddle and fell to the ground, bleeding profusely and almost unconscious. He was carried to his apartments in the nearby Château des Tournelles, where his physicians tried to save him.
Among them were two of the most renowned medical men of the time: Ambroise Paré, the royal surgeon, and Andreas Vesalius, the anatomist. They removed the splinters from the king’s eye and head and tried various treatments, including bleeding, trepanation and cauterization. But nothing could stop the infection and neurological damage that had set in.
Henry II lingered for 11 days in agony, while his court waited anxiously for news. He died on July 10, 1559, at the age of 40. His death was a great shock to all Europe. He was only the second monarch to die in a jousting accident, after King Henry VIII of England’s brother Arthur in 1502.
His death also had significant political consequences for France and Europe. It triggered a series of civil wars between Catholics and Protestants, known as the Wars of Religion, that lasted for 36 years and claimed millions of lives. It also marked the end of an era in French history and culture, as jousting declined in popularity and Renaissance art and literature flourished.
As one English ambassador wrote: “I noted him to be very weak, and to have the sense of all his limbs almost benumbed, for being carried away, as he lay all along, he moved neither hand nor foot, but lay as one amazed.” He was buried in Saint-Denis Basilica, where his tomb can still be seen today. His opponent Montgomery was pardoned by the king before he died, but later became a leader of the Protestant rebels and was executed in 1574.
Henry II’s death by jousting was not only a tragic accident but also a turning point in history that changed the fate of France and Europe forever.
Relevant articles:
– The last ride of Henry II of France: orbital injury and a king’s demise, Survey of Ophthalmology, May–June 2015
– King Henry II Of France And His Gruesome Death By Jousting, All That’s Interesting, June 10, 2022
– Henry II of France Dies of Tournament Wounds, History Today, July 2009
– 8 People Injured or Killed While Jousting, History and Headlines, June 30, 2017