St. Bartholomew's Night is a real event that took place in France in Paris in 1572. "The most terrible bloody massacre of the century" - this is how his contemporaries described it. This bloody night claimed thousands of lives.
Religious wars in medieval Europe happened so often that they looked almost commonplace and commonplace. However, the events that unfolded on the night of August 22, 1567 in Paris shocked not only France, but all of Europe with their bloody proportions.
Background of the Bartholomew Massacre
At first glance, nothing foreshadowed trouble. Another religious war between Catholics and Protestants has just ended in France. A peace treaty was signed in Saint Germain. Wanting to strengthen it, the Queen of France Catherine de 'Medici marries her sister Marguerite Valois to the soon-to-be Huguenot Prince Henry of Navar.
However, the radical Catholics, led by the Guise family, did not recognize the Peace of Saint Germain and opposed Marguerite's marriage to the Huguenot. They were actively supported by the Spanish king Philip II.
Many rich Huguenots came to the wedding in Paris. This caused obvious discontent in various sectors of society in the capital, inhabited mainly by Catholics.
In addition, the Pope did not give permission for this marriage.
The situation was aggravated by foreign policy contradictions. The leader of the Huguenots, Admiral Gaspard de Copigny, invited Catherine de Medici to act as a joint force of French Catholics and Huguenots against Spain. In this he saw an alternative to the civil war in France. Catherine was categorically against this. In her opinion, France at that time was greatly weakened by many years of civil bloodshed and could not resist the powerful Spain.
St. Bartholomew's night and its consequences
On the night of St. Bartholomew's Day, a massacre broke out in the streets of Paris. Catholics, taking advantage of their enormous numerical superiority, ruthlessly killed Protestants. The latter's black robes made them easy prey for the angry crowd. They did not spare anyone. Both women and children were killed.
However, the matter was not limited to the Huguenots. A large number of Catholics also fell at the hands of their fellow believers. Taking advantage of the bloody confusion, people killed each other for the purpose of robbery, for the sake of settling personal scores, and for no reason at all.
In the days that followed, the massacre spread to all major cities in France.
Nobody knows the exact number of those killed in this nightmare. However, most historians believe that the number of victims could be as high as thirty thousand.
The Huguenots suffered irreparable damage in this brutal massacre. Their powerful leaders were almost all destroyed. And the wave of religious wars in France began to decline.
