St Bartholemew's Day Massacre (24 August 1572). The Protestants liked to believe that this crucial episode in the Wars of Religion was the result of a prearranged plan. It is more likely, however, that it was the product of a panic decision taken after an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Coligny. Fearing that they would be unmasked, Catherine de Médicis and her younger son, the future Henri III, persuaded Charles IX (who had initially promised to punish the culprits) that his own life would be in danger if he failed to act against the admiral and his closest advisors. Once the killings started they prompted violence on an apparently unforeseen scale, as the Parisian mob took the opportunity to assassinate as many Protestants as possible (their numbers were swollen by those who had come to Paris to celebrate the wedding between the future Henri IV and the king's sister). The number of casualties escalated still further when the massacre spread to the provinces. The massacre itself was an aberration from normal royal policy (which was by and large conciliatory). It produced, however, a marked change in Protestant resistance theory, which now became much more radical [see Du Plessis-mornay; Gentillet; Hotman].
[James Supple]
