When did the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre take place?
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The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre took place in Paris on the night of August 23-24, 1572, and quickly spread to other French cities. This bloody event was one of the most tragic episodes of the Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants (or Huguenots) in 16th-century France.
Since the mid-16th century, France has been torn apart by a series of religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, inspired by the Reformation of Martin Luther and Jean Calvin. These tensions often took a violent turn, punctuated by wars, assassinations and repression.
In 1572, in an attempt to reconcile the two camps, a political marriage was organized between Marguerite de Valois, Catholic sister of King Charles IX, and Henri de Navarre, Protestant prince and future Henry IV. The union was intended as a symbol of appeasement.
Numerous Protestant leaders travelled to Paris to attend the wedding, which took place on August 18, 1572. Among them was Gaspard de Coligny, admiral of France and figurehead of the Protestant camp.
But a few days after the wedding, on August 22, an attempt was made on Coligny’s life. The perpetrator remains unknown, but the Protestant court suspects a Catholic plot. As tensions mounted, Catherine de Médicis, mother of Charles IX, feared a Huguenot uprising. She convinced her son to take preventive measures.
On the night of August 23 to 24, 1572, the massacre began in Paris with the assassination of Coligny, followed by the targeted elimination of the main Protestant leaders. The violence quickly degenerated into widespread butchery in the streets of the capital.
Thousands of Protestants were massacred by the Parisian population, often aided by urban militias, in a climate of religious hatred. It is estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 people were killed in Paris, some of them horribly.
In the weeks that followed, the massacre spread to several provincial cities: Orleans, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rouen and many others. Thousands more Huguenots were slaughtered across the country, bringing the total number of victims to between 10,000 and 30,000, according to historians’ estimates.
The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre came as a huge shock to France and the rest of Europe. European Protestant courts were horrified, while Pope Gregory XIII had the Te Deum celebrated as a sign of victory for Catholicism.
In France, the event marked a point of no return in relations between Catholics and Protestants. Trust was definitively broken, and the Huguenots, feeling betrayed, took up arms once again.
The war of religion resumed, and it was not until the Edict of Nantes in 1598, promulgated by Henri IV, that a semblance of religious peace was restored.
The massacre remains an enduring symbol of religious intolerance, political violence and the manipulation of power. It is frequently depicted in art, literature and historiography as one of the most tragic moments of the 16th century.
It has left a deep imprint on the collective memory, not only in France, but throughout Europe, where it is often cited as an example of the bloody failure of religious coexistence.
The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre took place in 1572, at a time of great tension between Catholics and Protestants. Initially concentrated in Paris, the carnage spread throughout France, killing thousands of Protestants and leaving an indelible mark on the history of the French Wars of Religion.
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When did the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre take place?
Answer
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre took place on the night of August 23-24, 1572, marking a tragic turning point in France's Wars of Religion.