Night of the Saint-Bartholomew Massacre

This is the second part for the post on the marriage of Henri, King of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Queen Catherine de Medicis. They married on 18th August at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

Many Protestant prominent figures came to Paris to attend the celebration. During the night of 23rd to 24th August, when the church bell rang the 5:00am morning prayers, all hell broke loose!

The bell was the awaited signal for the massacre that took place. Within hours, hundreds of Protestants were slaughtered in Paris. Hysteria continued spreading and within days, an estimated ten to thirty thousands Protestants perished.

The night of the Saint-Bartholomew (known as Saint-Barthelemy in French) stands out as one of the darkest episode of French history.