On this day in history, 24th August 1572, the feast day of St Bartholomew, an awful event took place in Paris, France. An estimated 3,000 French Protestants (Huguenots) were massacred in the city, and a further estimated 7,000 in the provinces.
According to tradition, Catherine de’ Medici persuaded her son, King Charles IX of France, to order the assassination of key Huguenot leaders who had gathered in Paris for the wedding of their leader, Henry of Navarre, to Margaret of Valois, the King’s sister.
Picture: The massacre, with the murder of Gaspard de Coligny above left, as depicted in a fresco by Giorgio Vasari.
