Neddy's Palaver

Christians Fighting Against Christians

The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew Day on August 24, 1572, was one of the bloodiest days for Europe’s Christians, staining the history of France forever. More than 425 years later, Saint Bartholomew’s Day of 1572 is yet remembered with horror. The murders of French protestants, or Huguenots, began in Paris with the slaughter of 3,000 wedding celebrants. In all of France, 70,000 protestants were killed. Although most of France was Catholic during the mid-1500s, growing numbers of elite and educated French, including noblemen and members of high ranking families, were converting to Protestantism. This historic change was brought about by the advent of mass printings of the bible, the impetus for the Reformation.

The Queen Mother of France, Catherine de’ Medici, had arranged for Henry of Navarre, Duke of Bourbon and a patron of the Huguenots, to marry her daughter Marguerite. The wedding provided an occasion to gather the powerful Huguenots in one place. Two days prior to the wedding, Catherine de’ Medici, as acting regent, implemented a plan to murder the Huguenots’ leader Admiral Gaspard Coligny, Upon hearing that her plan had failed as the Admiral was left wounded instead, the Queen Mother quickly formulated a plan for a general massacre.

On Saint Bartholomew Day, Admiral Coligny was the first victim. Following his murder, came the massacre of the highest ranking Huguenot leaders, leading to the killing of minor leaders and then of all Huguenots within reach of the military and the mob. Continuing into October, the massacre spread to other sections of France, reaching the provinces of Rouen, Lyons, Bourges, Orleans, and Bourdeaux. Contemporary accounts tell of there being so many dead bodies in the rivers, that no one would eat fish, and that wolves came from the hills to devour the flesh of the Huguenot victims.

News of the massacres was welcomed by a jubilant Pope Gregory XIII and by the King of Spain. The bells of Rome pealed for a public day of thanksgiving. The guns of the castle of Saint Angelo sounded a joyous salute. The pope ordered a special commemorative medal to honor the occasion and he commissioned Giorgio Vasari to paint a mural celebrating the Massacre, which is today in the Vatican. In Paris, the poet Jean-Antoine de Baïf, founder of the Academie de musique et de poésie, wrote a sonnet extravagantly praising the killings. The Pope sent Cardinal Orsini to convey, in person, his happy blessings and goodwill to the Queen Mother for her butchery. The French ambassador to England hurried to receive praise from Elizabeth, the English Queen, and was surprised to find her entire court in deepest mourning. It is said that he left in great shame.

As a youth, French historian De Thou (1553-1617), had been an eye-witness to the events on Saint Bartholomew Day. He left a written account of the infamous martyrdom of Admiral Coligny by fellow Christians. He wrote of the Queen’s conspirators bursting through the door of the chamber of Admiral Coligny.

Besme (a German page), sword in hand, had demanded of Coligny, who stood near the door, ‘Are you Coligny?’ Coligny replied, ‘Yes, I am he,’ with fearless countenance. ‘But you, young man, respect these white hairs. What is it you would do? You cannot shorten by many days this life of mine.’ As he spoke, Besme gave him a sword thrust through the body, and having withdrawn his sword, another thrust in the mouth, by which his face was disfigured. So Coligny fell, killed with many thrusts.

Then … they threw the body through the window into the courtyard, disfigured as it was with blood. When the Chevalier d’Angouleme, who could scarcely believe his eyes, had wiped away with a cloth the blood which overran the face and finally had recognized him, some say that he spurned the body with his foot. However this may be, when he left the house with his followers he said: ‘Cheer up, my friends! Let us do thoroughly that which we have begun. The king commands it.’ He frequently repeated these words, and as soon as they had caused the bell of the palace clock to ring, on every side arose the cry, ‘To arms!’ and the people ran to the house of Coligny. After his body had been treated to all sorts of insults, they threw it into a neighboring stable, and finally cut off his head, which they sent to Rome. They also shamefully mutilated him, and dragged his body through the streets to the bank of the Seine, a thing which he had formerly almost prophesied, although he did not think of anything like this.

As some children were in the act of throwing the body into the river, it was dragged out and placed upon the gibbet of Montfaucon, where it hung by the feet in chains of iron; and then they built a fire beneath, by which he was burned without being consumed; so that he was, so to speak, tortured with all the elements, since he was killed upon the earth, thrown into the water, placed upon the fire, and finally put to hang in the air. After he had served for several days as a spectacle to gratify the hate of many and arouse the just indignation of many others … Francois de Montmorency … had him taken by night from the gibbet by trusty men and carried to Chantilly, where he was buried in the chapel.
(De Thou’s Account)

The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew Day

Linked at Outside the Beltway and Wizbang Blog.