Causes And Effects Of The St Hugh Massacre

Imagine walking down the street to see a group of people talking about you. Would you say something to stop it or would you just ignore it? The Saint Bartholomew Massacre was an unpleasant bloody massacre that started on August 24-25, 1572. The Catholics were going to attack the French Protestants in France. This massacre lasted for about two days which caused many people to lose their lives. The causes, events of the massacre, and the terrible effects it had on people makes the Saint Bartholomew Day Massacre one of the most horrible crimes in history.

There are many causes that led up to the start of the St. Bartholomew Massacre. First, on August 22, Catherine de Medici was mad because the Protestant leader, Coligny, was trying to convince

her son to send troops to the Protestants. Catherine became angrier and wanted Coligny assassinated (Diefendorf). Diefendorf states that Catherine de Medici did not really get along with Coligny and he encouraged her son, Charles. Secondly, both Hitchcock and Edmund states that the choice by Queen Catherine de Medicis to persecute the Protestants caused the massacre to start. In the beginning, Coligny and Catherine did not like each other because of the two different religions they both believed in. According to the article “Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day,” on August 24-25,1572 in Paris, Catherine de Medici and the Roman Catholic nobles plotted the Protestants. In August, Catherine and he Protestants went to war to only have one religion in France.
The issues between Catherine and Coligny was another cause of the massacre starting.

Huguenot leader, Admiral Gaspard II de Coligny encouraged a war in the low countries against Spain from the reopening of civil war. The French King, Charles IX approved it in the summer of 1572 (“Massacre of St. Bartholomew Day”). During the summer Catherine’s son, Charles was okay of the civil war starting again. Next, Catherine de Medici’s son King Charles IX of France wanted the Huguenot Protestant leaders in Paris murdered. All the killing is the outcome of the massacre leads to many of the Protestants getting killed all around France (“Saint Bartholomew Day”). Another cause that led up to the massacre is the French Wars on Religion were going to last with not many calm times until 1598 Treaty of Vervins along with Henry IV's, Edict of Nantes. Both established restricted freedom of religion in the country. In 1559, Queen Catherine de Medici made the choice to execute any leading Protestants (Hitchcock and Edmund). Catherine did not want any Protestants who believed in a different religion as her so she thought it was a good idea to excite all of them. According to one source, “Saint Bartholomew Day” “Catherine had ordered the murder of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, a Huguenot leader, whom she felt was leading her son into war with Spain”. When Coligny was murdered the Huguenots lost one of their greatest leaders when they needed him the most. In closing, these causes had an impact to the

massacre which made it one of the terrifying places to be during this time.
There are several events that happened in the St.

Bartholomew Massacre. To begin with, on the night of August 23, there was a secret meeting held in the Louvre, a palace in France, to remove the Huguenot leader (Diefendorf). When the bell rang of Saint Germain’l Auxerois the massacre began before dawn on August 24 (“Massacre of St.Bartholomew”). When the massacre began the Catholics first wanted to kill the the Huguenot leader then other Protestant followers.The Massacre began on August 24-25 1572 in Paris, France. Many civil wars broke out between the forces of Catholics and Protestants in 1562 in France. Another name for these series of wars are called the French Wars on Religion (Hitchcock and Edmund). These many wars are called the French Wars on Religion because they happened in France and arguing about what religion France should be.According to the article, “ Impact of Saint Bartholomew” France was broken up between Catholics and Protestants. These two types of religions caused problems between the two because Huguenots were followers of Jean Calvin, but the Catholics were not.Then, in a cathedral called Notre Dame in Paris Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot leader, married King Charles IX sister, Margaret of Valois (Manetsch). After Coligny was murdered, Huguenot leaders were shot and killed by their enemies using swords. Many of the leaders tried to escape from the disaster because they were still trying to wake up from their sleep (Manetsch). “The homes and ships if

Huguenots were pillaged and their occupants brutally murdered; many bodies were thrown into the Seine. Bloodshed continued in Paris even after a royal order of August 25 to stop the killing, and it spread to the provinces. Huguenots in Rouen,Lyon,Bourges,Orleans and Bordeaux were among the victims.” (“Massacre of St. Bartholomew Day”). The quote explains how terrible this massacre was and many of the Huguenots lives were after this day. In conclusion, all of these horrible events that happened on Saint Bartholomew's Day will not be forgotten