June of 1559 marked the beginning of a tournament lasting several days in celebration of a peace treaty between France and Spain. King Henry was to enter the lists before a glittering audience of lords and ladies, including Queen Catherine, Diane de Poitiers and Mary, Queen of Scots. Henry, sporting Dianeās colors per usual, spent his time jousting for the crowd until the Count of Montgomery nearly unseated him. Queen Catherine, the Duke of Savoy, and other friends tried to persuade the king to leave the lists, as the day was almost over, but he insisted on another contest with Montgomery. It ended in tragedy- Montgomeryās lance struck the kingās helmet, causing a long splinter to pierce Henryās eye and penetrate his brain.
The king reeled in his saddle and gentlemen close by rushed to help him off his horse and out of his armor. Bleeding profusely and almost unconscious, he was carried to his apartments in the ChĆ¢teau des Tournelles. Nicholas Throckmorton, the English ambassador, wrote: āI 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.ā
Montgomery hurried to kneel before the king and asked to have his head and hand cut off in punishment, but Henry magnanimously told him that it was not his fault and he had carried himself bravely and well. The royal doctors removed the splinter from the kingās eye and others that had pierced his head and throat, and hoped that the loss of the eye was the worst that would happen. However, even though the royal surgeon, Ambroise ParĆ©, was joined by another celebrated medical man sent from King Philip of Spain, Henryās condition grew worse.
Queen Catherine took command, kept watch by her husbandās bedside and refused to allow Diane de Poitiers into the room. On July 9th the last rites were administered and the king died early in the afternoon of the following day- he was 40 years old.
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