St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy in French) was a wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots (French Protestants), under the authority of Catherine de Medici, the mother of Charles IX. Starting on August 24, 1572, with the assassination of a prominent Huguenot, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the massacres spread throughout Paris and later to other cities and the countryside, lasting for several months, during which as many as 70,000 may have been killed. The massacres marked a turning-point in the French Wars of Religion by stiffening Huguenot intransigence.

Popular culture

The story was fictionalised by Alexandre Dumas in La Reine Margot, an 1845 novel that is accurate as far as the historical facts go but fills in with romance and adventure between them. That novel has been translated into English and was made into a bawdy, commercially successful French film in 1994 under the same French title.

Related Topics:
Alexandre Dumas - La Reine Margot - 1845 - French film - 1994 - The same French title

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The massacre was also portrayed in D.W. Griffith's epic silent film Intolerance (1916).

Related Topics:
D.W. Griffith's - Intolerance - 1916

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, is set during the events leading up to the Paris massacre. Leonard Sachs appeared as Admiral Coligny and Joan Young played Catherine de' Medici. Sadly, this serial only survives in audio form.

Related Topics:
Serial - British - Science fiction television - Doctor Who - The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve - Leonard Sachs

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais famously captured the essence of the conflict in his painting "The Huguenot", which depicts a Catholic woman attempting to convince her Huguenot lover to wear the badge of the Catholics and protect himself. The man, true to his beliefs, gently refuses her.

Related Topics:
Pre-Raphaelite - John Everett Millais - "The Huguenot"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~