Image depicting the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
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King Charles IX of France had ordered the assassination of Huguenot leaders in Paris during the year 1572. A prominent Huguenot leader, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, was brutally beaten and thrown out of his bedroom window on the morning of August 24. An angry mob had broken out in Paris who were mercilessly slaughtering the Huguenots. The next day, King Charles issued a decree to stop the killing but the violence had spread throughout France. A total of 3,000 Protestants were killed in Paris and 70,000 were killed in the entire country. By the end of one week, 100,100 Protestants were killed. “The rivers of France were so full of corpses that fish were not eaten for months afterwards.”
Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot, became the King of France following the death of his three brother-in-laws. The king passed the Edict of Nantes on April 13, 1598. The edict was said to be a “promise of religious toleration." The edict was to end ferocious wars between Roman Catholics and Protestants which had torn France apart since the 1560’s. This new document contained 92 articles granting religious toleration along with social and political equality. The Huguenots were entitled to worship throughout France in private and in about 200 towns they were aloud to worship publicly. They were able to inherit property, engage in trade, attend all schools, and be treated in hospitals. Before passing this edict, Henry IV was quoted saying "Paris is worth a Mass." However, King Henry died and the Huguenots would soon be out of favor. |