St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

Timeline

1. 1572Louvre, Paris · FranceHenry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois married in Paris; many Huguenot nobles attended by invitation, and leaders such as Admiral Coligny stayed in Paris, with undercurrents beneath the seemingly eased religious situation.
2. 1572Paris · FranceColigny was shot and seriously wounded by a member of the royal guard on a Paris street and died the next day. The assassination broke the brief peace created by the marriage and became the direct trigger for the mass slaughter.
3. 1572Paris · FranceOn the morning of St. Bartholomew's Day the royal court ordered the Huguenot leaders eliminated; Parisian mobs and the royal guard joined in hunting down Huguenot worshippers, and the city ran with blood; a few nobles such as Henry of Navarre survived only by converting.
4. 1572Provinces of France · FranceNews of the massacre reached Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and other towns, where local authorities and crowds purged the Huguenots; the violence lasted weeks, with deaths estimated from thousands to over twenty thousand, and hopes for religious reconciliation in France were utterly shattered.