The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre Kills Thousands of Huguenots

On August 18, 1572, the French royal court celebrated the wedding of the Catholic princess Margaret of Valois to the Protestant King Henry of Navarre. The match was designed by the queen mother, Catherine de' Medici, to reconcile a kingdom fractured by three successive civil wars. Instead of cementing stability, the festivities drew hundreds of well-born Huguenots into Paris, an intensely Catholic city already aggravated by inflated grain prices, heavy taxes, and decades of sectarian animosity. Hardline Catholics, with the backing of the pope, denounced the marriage of a Catholic princess to a Protestant, and many Parisians resented the presence of so many Huguenots in their city.

The uneasy peace collapsed on August 22, when an assassin fired from a window and severely wounded Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the most prominent military leader of the French Protestants. Coligny had become a leading figure at court after the 1570 Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and had gained significant influence over King Charles IX. While the king visited Coligny and promised an investigation, Huguenot nobles openly demanded retribution against the staunchly Catholic House of Guise. Fearing an armed Protestant uprising or private retaliation, Charles IX, Catherine, and their close advisers met on the evening of August 23 and decided to eliminate the Huguenot leadership remaining in the capital, though historians still debate how the decision was reached and who bore the greatest responsibility.