Entry of Henri IV into Paris, 22 March 1594

This painting by **François Gérard**, executed in 1817 for the Gallery of Battles at the Palace of Versailles, depicts the **triumphant entry of Henri IV into Paris** on 22 March 1594, the moment that sealed the political reconquest of the kingdom by the first Bourbon king. The composition shows the keys of the city being handed to the king by the provost of merchants, a symbol of the peaceful submission of the League-held capital, achieved through the complicity of governor Brissac rather than a new and bloody siege. Painted more than two centuries after the events, amid the early nineteenth-century climate of monarchical restoration, this work reflects the privileged place already occupied by the pacifying figure of Henri IV in national memory.