The Execution of the Count of Chalais

This etching by the Dutch engraver **Jan Luyken** depicts the execution of the Count of **Chalais**, beheaded in Nantes on 19 August 1626 for conspiring against Cardinal **Richelieu**. Published in 1685 in the *Martelaers Spiegel* ('Martyrs' Mirror'), a Dutch compendium devoted to religious persecutions, this engraving shows how Chalais's execution came to be reinterpreted, nearly six decades later and outside France, as part of a broader narrative of persecution — a reading that departs from historical reality, since the Chalais plot was aimed above all at overthrowing Richelieu rather than defending a religious cause.