Marguerite and Julien de Ravalet
"Here lie brother and sister. Do not enquire after the cause of their death. Continue on your way and pray to God for their souls."
This inscription could once be read in the Church of Saint-Jean-en-Grève in Paris. Demolished in 1802, the church carried off the tale of Marguerite and Julien, daughter and son of Jean de Ravalet, lord of Tourlaville.
On December 2, 1603, the two young people were sentenced to death and beheaded on the Place de Grève.
Henri IV, the Vert Galant, had refused to pardon them. Julien and Marguerite were guilty of the most heinous crime: they loved one another beyond the normal affection binding brother and sister.
Their father became aware of the situation in 1599. Julien was sent away to Paris to the Collège de Navarre. He lived the "high life" of the students of his day.
In 1600, Jean Lefebvre, tax collector at Valognes, won Marguerite's hand. She was 13, he was 45! In Valognes, Marguerite was beaten by her husband as he dragged her down the stairs.
|
She fled and returned to Tourlaville with her brother. One night, the valet Nicolas Roussel found Julien and Marguerite in the young woman's blue bedroom. He went straight to the deceived husband to tell him everything. The couple fled to Fougères, then to Paris. Jean Lefebvre pressed charges. When he found Marguerite and Julien in Paris, he had them arrested and questioned.
Then came the trial, the appeal and the request for a pardon.
Henri IV heard Julien and Marguerite's father's plea on Monday, December 1, 1603.
The next day, the two young people were beheaded because the Ravalets' crime belonged to the category of "loathsome deeds"...
|
| |
;)
;)
;)
;)
