The massacre, instigated by the Catholic royal household in the reign of King Charles X, in which some 3,000 Huguenots—gathered unarmed in Paris to celebrate the marriage of their leader Henry of Navarre to Margaret, the queen's daughter, and which was supposed, therefore, to have been a reconciliatory event—were killed. The slaughter spread through France and an estimated 70,000 more Huguenots were killed. It wiped out a whole generation of Huguenot leaders and helped drag out the religious war for another two decades.
Like many other European countries during the 16th Cent. France was emeshed in years of internal religious tensions between Catholics and Protestant. The massacre of a Huguenot congregation in Vassy in 1562 had triggered what came to be known as the "French Wars of Religion." The two sides, however, reach a deal in 1570 in St. Germain. The marriage Henry of Navarre and Margaret was intended to extend the peace. This was complicated by the long running conflict between the various royal houses over the throne. The Queen Mother, Catherine de Médicis, was also deeply disturbed that her rather weak son, King Charles IV was increasingly influenced by the Huguenot general Gaspard de Coligny. Most historians today believe that it was the Queen Mother who instigated the massacre, forcing Charles into the ghastly business. The slaughter began with the assassination of Coligny, and soon spread throughout the city, and the rest of the country. The groom, Henry, was forced to become a Roman Catholic and confined to the court, though he eventually escaped back to Navarre and his Huguenot faith.
Further Reading & Resources:
☰ Scott M. Manetsch, "The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre," Christian History 71 (2001), see pp.9-13.
George Rothrock, The Huguenots: A Biography of a Minority. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979.
Frederic Baumgartner, France in the Sixteenth Century. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Barbara Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross—Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth Century Paris. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Mack P. Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 1562-1629. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Arlette Jouanna and Joseph Bergin, The Saint Bartolomew's Day Massacre. The Mysteries of a Crime of State (24 August 1572). Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.
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