Henry II Died After Jousting

On June 30, 1559, French king Henry II entered a jousting tournament in Paris celebrating his daughter Elisabeth's marriage to Spanish king Philip II. During a match, a lance wielded by Gabriel Montgomery, captain of Henry's Scottish Guard, splintered against the king's helmet and drove wood into his eye. Royal surgeons could not cure the wound, and modern analysis suggests that a retained fragment caused an infection inside his skull. Henry died ten days later, and his death significantly accelerated the decline of jousting in France.

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