March 24 - French Massacres

March 24 – French Massacres

In France, the Protestants were known as the Huguenots. By 1559, there were more than 400,000 Protestants in that country.

In 1572, hope for reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics grew as Henry of Navarre (Protestant) was to wed Marguerite of Valois, daughter of Catherine de Medici (Catholic).

Catherine planned the wedding, but was also planning the assassination of the Huguenot leader – Gaspard de Coligny a popular French war hero. He had gotten himself involved in royal politics and she wanted his head. The assassination attempt failed, embarrassing the King. Catherine panicked and ordered a massacre of the Protestant leaders in Paris.

On August 24, 1572 – St. Bartholomew’s Day, Coligny was murdered. A rabble was roused and lower class citizens went after the shopkeepers, who were mainly Huguenots. The massacre began. Hundreds of people were killed, some thrown into the Seine, exempting no one, not even women and children.

Throughout the next weeks, the insanity spread into the countryside. Catholic mobs rounded up the Huguenots and killed them. They forced them to pay immense ransoms for their lives and then murdered them anyway.

There were at least as many as 30,000 – 40,000 and likely up to 100,000 people killed in these massacres, but it didn’t stop the spread of Protestantism in France. There were five more wars between the Protestants and the Catholics over the next several years.

In 1589, Henry of Navarre became king and proclaimed in 1598 the Edict of Nantes giving religious liberty to all. However, they were not allowed to move into Catholic territory.

The Huguenots lived for a short period in peace, but in 1629, Cardinal Richelieu gained power, ending their privileges and in 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes.