Ambroise Paré : the surgeon of kings, the king of surgeons

Ambroise Paré was born in 1509 in Bourg-Hersent, near Laval. Of very modest origin, he was hired as a servant by the chaplain of the Count of Laval who taught him to read and write. He then became a scullion at the Château de Laval, then an apprentice barber. He continued on this path in Vitré and Angers, before going to Paris to learn surgery. He will work at the Hôtel-Dieu, then follow the armies as a war surgeon. He was recruited as king's surgeon by Henry II, then as first king's surgeon by Charles IX, he remained so under Henry III.

He published the first surgical works in French. He becomes a long-robed surgeon, but will fight against the medical faculty of Paris. He treated illustrious patients: Henry II for his fatal eye injury, Charles IX for his phthysis, the Duke of Guise, the King of Navarre... He annotated his successes with the following sentence: " I treated him, God healed him” and its motto was “unceasing work overcomes everything”. He died in Paris on December 20, 1590, at the age of 81.