Amid the celebrations of the wedding of Protestant Henri de Navarre and the Catholic French princess Marguerite de Valois, an assassination attempt is carried out against the admiral Gaspard de Coligny, military leader of the Protestants and advisor to Charles IX. Traditionally the orders are assumed to have been given by Catherine de’ Medici. As tensions mounted between in Paris following the attempt, it appears that Charles and Catherine opted for a preemptive strike against the Protestants. The massacre lasted for days and spread throughout France. There is no consensus on the number killed, with estimates ranging from 5,000 to 30,000. This new outbreak of hostilities led into the Fourth War of Religion.
The Sixteenth-Century French Pamphlet Project