King Henry III of France (1551-1589) convened the Estates General in Blois, 1588-1589. He solemnly swore an oath to extirpate heresy. However, Catholics had more confidence in the leader of the Catholic League, Henry I de Lorraine (1550-1588), Duke of Guise, who was close to acceding to the throne of France and whom the king had invited at the Château de Blois on 23 December 1588. Henry III had the duke assassinated on the same day, which took place in the castle. The Duke of Guise was pierced by some thirty blows of sword and dagger, and was finished off by the Lord of Loignac by plunging his sword into his kidneys. When the duke was already a corpse, the king came out of his chamber and asked Monsieur de Loignac, one of his assassins, if the duke was completely dead. Henry III looked at his victim for a moment and gave him a kick in the face, reminiscent of the one given by the Duke of Guise himself to the corpse of Gaspard de Coligny, leader of the Protestants, murdered on his order