St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre: Mob Violence, Assassination of Protestants By Catholics, 1572 France

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- One of the saddest & most gruesome events to occur in the 16th c. was without doubt the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. In the absence of mutual respect & freedom of religion, this massacre marked possibly the lowest point for the Protestants in France as they were brutally killed. The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations & a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion.

Believed to have been instigated by French Queen Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre took place a few days after the wedding day (18 Aug.) of the king's sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry of Navarre (future Henry IV of France). Many of the most wealthy & prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris to attend the wedding. The massacre began in the night of 23–24 Aug. 1572 (eve of the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle), 2 days after the attempted assassination of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the military & political leader of the Huguenots. King Charles IX ordered the killing of a group of Huguenot leaders, including Coligny, & the slaughter spread throughout Paris.

Lasting several weeks, the massacre expanded outward to other cities & the countryside. Modern estimates for the number of dead across France vary widely, from 5,000 to 30,000. The massacre also marked a turning point in the French Wars of Religion. The Huguenot political mvmt. was crippled by the loss of many of its prominent aristocratic leaders, as well as many re-conversions by the rank & file. Those who remained were increasingly radicalized. By no means unique, it "was the worst of the century's religious massacres". Throughout Europe, it "printed on Protestant minds the indelible conviction that Catholicism was a bloody & treacherous religion."... More, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massacre



- King Charles IX of France who was 22 years old in 1572.




- Admiral Gaspar de Coligny, leader of the French Protestant Hugenots.




- Catherine de' Medici, mother of Charles IX.




- Painting by François Dubois, a Huguenot painter. Although Dubois did not witness the massacre, he depicts Admiral Coligny's body hanging out of a window at the rear to the right. To the left rear, Catherine de' Medici is shown emerging from the Louvre castle to inspect a heap of bodies.
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-- List of Notable Huguenots --

- James Agee, American author.

- Marlon Brando, American actor.

- Daphne du Maurier, writer.

- Davy Crockett, American folk hero.

- Johnny Depp, American actor.

- Henry David Thoreau, American poet.

- Laurence Olivier, English actor.

- Keith Richards, English musician... More, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Huguenots