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The Red Wedding Massacre Essay

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We now know that St. Bartholomew’s Massacre was the fulcrum. The tolling of the bell at Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois on the morning of August 24th, 1572 signalled the culmination of simmering tensions that both irreparably shattered protestant-catholic relations forever, and revived lastingly effective biases and hatred on both sides of the Christian spectrum. In the aftermath of the massacre, thousands of dead Huguenots polluted the Seine, while thousands more littered the Parisian streets. Death counts ranged in estimates from 3,000 to an apocryphal 70,000. Founding itself on the antithesis of all christian values, this vile massacre was allegedly perpetrated to ensure Catholic superiority, while crippling the Huguenot Protestant party. Both …show more content…

Catherine was the mother of Charles IX, the French King whose reign relied on the tactical and political advice of Admiral Gaspard II de Coligny, a renowned Huguenot leader. Coligny vociferously advocated a war in the Low Countries against Spain, a plan that Charles would countenance in the summer of 1572. Fearing Admiral Coligny’s growing influence over her son, Catherine surreptitiously approved a plot that the Roman Catholic house of Guise hatched to assassinate Coligny, whom it deemed responsible for the murder of François de Guise in 1563. The plan consisted of stabbing Coligny as he attended the much heralded political marriage between the Henry of Navarre, and Margaret of France, Catherine’s daughter. Henry was a Huguenot and Margaret was catholic, thus the union was unprecedented and symbolic of the reconciliation between both factions of the church. The fact that Catherine and the Guise were completely indifferent and acted with utter to the importance of the event shows that they didn’t have religion at heart, instead using religion as an excuse to execute their personal agendas. Regardless, the planned assassination failed, and before an inquiry could be made Catherine convince her son, Charles, to meet with the nobles and plan the now extended assassination

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