Sovietblobfish: filled a much needed void by providing a dedicated page for the massacres as they occured outside of paris
The St Bartholomew's Day massacre in the provinces was a series of massacres that took place across [[France]] between August and October 1572, in the wake of news reaching the towns of the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] in Paris. In total three to five thousand would die in the resulting massacres, an equivalent amount to that caused by the original massacre in Paris. The massacres represented a death blow for the [[Huguenots|Huguenot]] community outside of their strongholds in the south of France, although most were not killed directly by the massacre, fear and distrust of [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] intentions led to a large wave of abjurations and exiles.
Responsibility for the massacres was traditionally placed on the King himself, who was said to have directly provided secret orders for the extermination of the Huguenots to the various governors of towns. However this theory has been rejected in light of the lack of evidence, as such it is now understood that the massacres were driven by zealous Catholics, either in the local administration of the town, or in the court, who either knowingly or unknowingly deceived themselves as to the Kings wishes regarding the fate of the Huguenots.
== Culpability ==
For the Protestant polemicists of the sixteenth-century onwards, there was no question that the massacres had been personally directed by [[Charles IX of France|Charles IX]] and his secret council, and this was largely the position adopted by historians into the nineteenth-century.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> However, as historians began to investigate the archives in the early twentieth-century, these assumptions began to unravel.<ref name=":0">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> What was found in the archives was that Charles' letters to the provinces, sent out in two waves, first on the 24th and then on the 28th of August urged for the continued observation of the [[Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye]] and the protection of local Protestants from violence.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> These letters were not unknown to the prior Calvinist historians, yet they had maintained they represented a cunning charade, to disguise his true orders to his governors, which would be delivered orally.<ref name=":0" /> Yet the evidence for this assertion is very weak, the councillors of Rouen were rebuked by the king for failing to keep the peace, and after the massacre in Lyon in September the consuls critiqued it in their correspondence with the king, fearing his disapproval.<ref name=":1">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Indeed by the end of September the Lyon consuls would strike off the record their prior endorsement of the massacre, to bring themselves into line with royal policy.<ref name=":1" />
This is not to suggest the king was entirely free of fault for the massacres that unfolded. In the first few hours after the killings began he vacillated, and sent out several verbal orders, to Lyon and Bordeaux, however, we can gather from the letter governor Mandelot sent the king on 2 September, proudly announcing he had arrested the Huguenots and seized their property, that this was the nature of the secret verbal orders.<ref name=":2">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Once he had cooled, he countermanded all verbal orders regardless.<ref name=":2" /> The orders did not contain instructions to commit a massacre.<ref name=":2" /> The king's vacillating cowardice did not end there however, and when Vaucluse was sent by the governor of [[Provence]] to get clarity on the king's orders regarding a massacre, the king did not feel comfortable telling Vaucluse that it was against his wish at the banquet he was then at, rather he asked Vaucluse to return the following morning to his chambers, where he then privately told Vaucluse that he did not wish for the Huguenots of Provence to be killed.<ref name=":3">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> This private telling by the king is suggestive of one of the true culprits, the faction of hardliner nobles who attended the banquet and desired a continued massacre throughout France, whom the king had been uncomfortable speaking against publicly.<ref name=":3" />
In the days following the massacre, many of these nobles would write back to their respective provinces, insinuating that it was the kings wish that the Huguenots be eliminated throughout France. This includes the [[Henry III of France|Duke of Anjou]] who instructed his subordinate as related to Saumar and Angers, the [[Louis, Duke of Montpensier|Duke of Montpensier]] who wrote a letter to Nantes, instructing them to kill their Huguenot population and the [[Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers|Duke of Nevers]] who personally led troops in the massacre of [[La Charité-sur-Loire|La Charité]].<ref></ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref name=":4">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Many other hardliner local representatives of towns, who had been to Paris on official business, likewise reported back that the king desired a massacre, as happened with Belin in Troyes and with Rubys in Lyon.<ref></ref> <ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
Popular fury also plays a key part in explaining responsibility, as in towns such as Rouen and Lyon, where the governors did not wish to lead a massacre, and instead, the prisons where they were keeping the Huguenots in protective custody were broken into by angry mobs, who then set about killing all the Huguenots inside.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref name=":5"></ref>
== Distribution of the massacres ==
In the traditional scholarship, where the massacres were all taken to be a centrally planned Catholic scheme by [[Charles IX of France|Charles IX]] to rid France of all Huguenots, the difficulty of explaining where massacres did and did not occur in the wake of Paris was one of, establishing where the kings orders had been followed, and where governors had possessed the personal qualities to resist his orders.<ref name=":6">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Now that this theory has been entirely rejected, due to the lack of any such orders from Charles, explaining what made a town likely to have a massacre has become a more difficult question.<ref name=":6" /> One observation that has been made of all the cities, was they were all locations where at one time the Protestant minority had been a significant one.<ref></ref> Further, many of them had experienced a violent history in the first three religious wars, with [[Orléans]], [[Lyon|Lyon,]] [[Bourges]], [[Meaux]] and [[Rouen]] all having been seized by the Protestants in the first religious war, and some again in the second and third.<ref name=":7">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> [[Toulouse]] and [[Troyes]] had both seen failed attempts at takeovers, the former a very bloody one, and [[La Charité-sur-Loire|La Charité]] had been granted to the Huguenots as a security town at the end of the third civil war.<ref></ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref></ref> Further Bordeaux and Toulouse were both, by 1572, Catholic strongholds in largely Protestant areas, worrying the Catholic majority of the towns.<ref name=":7" /> [[Gaillac]] had borne witness to two massacres previously, one in 1562 by Catholics, and another in 1568 by Protestant troops.<ref name=":7" /> Saumar and Angers are exceptions to this pattern of violent civil war history, yet their massacres are also different in character to many of the others, largely the work of zealous officials with little popular involvement.<ref name=":8">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
With this explanation for why these cities experienced massacres, why did others lack massacres. Here power and population offer explanatory tools. In towns such as [[La Rochelle]], [[Montauban]] and [[Nîmes]] the Protestant ascendency was such that they could be little threatened by their Catholic population, and with their political power, could close the gates to any external threat.<ref name=":9">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Other cities such as [[Rennes]] and [[Nantes]] had fostered a tolerant and peaceful atmosphere over the last 10 years, largely untouched by the civil war.<ref name=":9" /> Finally cities such as [[Reims]] and [[Dijon]] had reached such a dominant level of Catholicism, that their small Protestant populations were too weak and cowed to pose enough of a threat to be worth massacring.<ref name=":9" />
[[Montpellier]] and [[Dieppe]] largely fall outside this pattern, and as such can be explained by the way in which the news of the Paris massacre was received by the local government.<ref name=":9" />
== Massacres ==
The massacres were generally organised in time, with a few notable exceptions, by their proximity to Paris, as many of them bloomed during the initial chaos when the king's intentions weren't clear.<ref name=":10"></ref> Rouen is a notable exception to this, occurring 4 weeks after the violence in the capital, and at a time when the King's displeasure was well known and published.<ref name=":5" />
=== Meaux ===
Meaux would be the location of the first massacre outside of Paris, due to its extreme proximity to the city. News of the massacre arrived in the city in the middle of the 25th August.<ref name=":11"></ref> The carrier of the news made his way to the ''procurer du roi'' of the town, Casset.and his followers, upon hearing the news, seized the gates, and began arresting all the Protestants he could find.<ref name=":11" /> They were not however entirely successful, many Protestants were gathered in the suburb of grand marche and hearing of what was going on were able to scatter into the surrounding villages.<ref name=":12"></ref> When Casset and his men arrived in the suburb they were left to take out their frustration on the women who had stayed behind to protect their property.<ref name=":12" /> On the 26th Casset turned to liquidate the arrested Protestants who were filling the prisons, a list was drawn up of 200 names for execution, largely composed of merchants artisans and judicial officials.<ref name=":12" /> The executions continued into the evening, but, unable to finish the exhausting work, the remainder of the killing was set aside for the following day.<ref></ref>
=== La Charité ===
La Charité differed from the other massacres in that it was imposed from outside the town, by troops under the command of [[Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers]].<ref name=":4" /> The duke had been a key player in orchestrating the original plot to assassinate the Huguenot leadership in Paris that had accidentally set off the Paris massacre.<ref></ref> Elements of the population were however agitated to enthusiasm for involvement by letters arriving from Paris after the massacre there started.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> The troops arrived on the 26th to perpetrate the massacre.<ref name=":10" />
=== Bourges ===
Bourges received news of the massacre on the 27th, by which time many of the towns Huguenots, including [[François Hotman]] had already fled the town due to the earlier news of the assassination attempt on [[Gaspard II de Coligny]].<ref name=":13"></ref> The towns mayor Jean Joupitre was keen to act on the massacre to eliminate the Huguenots of Bourges, but the municipal officers of the town were more sceptical, and keen to wait for confirmation or denial of the orders to kill Huguenots from the king.<ref name=":13" /> As such for the moment the Huguenots were confined to the prisons of the town.<ref name=":14"></ref> On the 30th the impasse broke and the Huguenots in the prison were killed.<ref name=":14" />
=== Orléans ===
Orléans received news of the massacre the same day as Bourges on the 27th.<ref name=":10" /> The preacher Sorbin whipped up the population, urging them to follow the example of Paris in a letter he wrote from the city.<ref></ref> Popular bands formed to orchestrate the killings.<ref></ref> The first victim was to be a royal conseiller Champeaux who was cut down in his home by a band under Tessier La Court on Monday.<ref></ref> It was not until the following day that the massacre became general, as the ramparts neighbourhood was systematically assaulted.<ref name=":15"></ref> The violence would continue for 4 days with myriad small bands breaking down doors, sometimes demanding money in return for sparing the occupants, but always going back on their word if money was delivered to kill them anyway.<ref name=":16">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Occasionally on their rounds they stopped off at taverns, narrating their days slaughters to the patrons as they ate.<ref name=":16" /> The massacre would be the bloodiest in France, with 1000 killed from a population of only 50,000.<ref name=":15" />
=== Saumar and Angers ===
Saumar and Angers were largely instigated into massacre by the work of one man.<ref name=":8" /> Monsereau, a deputy of governor Puyguillard who travelled from the capital to execute the orders of Puyguillard and his superior Henri, Duke of Anjou.<ref name=":8" /> He entered Angers on 29 August and made his way to the house of seigneur du Barbei, Condés lieutenant in the area.<ref name=":8" /> Du Barbei was however, not present in the town, so Monsoreau contented himself with executing his brother.<ref name=":8" /> Then he went to the house of the towns Huguenot minister, invited into the garden by the minister's wife he announced his orders 'from the king' to the minister, and, after allowing him a final prayer, shot him.<ref name=":4" /> He continued in this fashion house to house, after a few hours, a crowd, getting wind of what he was doing decided to join in, and for a few hours there was a general massacre, before the authorities were able to clamp down on it.<ref name=":4" /> Monsereau then moved on to Saumar to repeat this pattern. Puyguillard followed to Angers, unsatisfied with his partial work in the towns, however he was more easily bribed into looking the other way by the towns remaining Huguenots.<ref></ref>
=== Lyon ===
Lyons received news of events in Paris first on 27th August when information about the attempt on Coligny's life arrived from the kings letter.<ref name=":17">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> This was followed by a similar letter from Lyons representatives in the capital Masso and de Rubys.<ref name=":17" /> Rumours of the massacre began to filter into the town from merchants on the 28th, this was confirmed in the letter of Masso and de Rubys that arrived the same day, which urged the town to follow Paris' example, saying it was the kings will. <ref name=":17" />As tensions began to rise in the town the Huguenot minister Langlois was assassinated.<ref name=":18">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> On the 29th a letter from the king arrived, delivered by du Peyrat urging governor Mandelot to keep the peace in the town but also containing secret instructions, to arrest and seize the property of the Huguenots.<ref name=":18" /> Mandelot called the councillors to meet and discuss how they were to proceed, they agreed to arrest the Huguenots, and Mandelot sent out an order, before shortly thereafter rescinding it, fearful he didn't have enough troops, and ill inclined to rely on the towns militia.<ref name=":19"></ref> As the situation began to deteriorate further Mandelot felt he could no longer wait for troop reinforcements.<ref name=":19" /> The city gates were closed and after calling all the Huguenots to the town hall to hear an address, they were arrested.<ref name=":18" /> The arresting was meant to be a protective custody, but it would be fatal for all those who came forward to the address.<ref name=":18" /> The prisoners were too many for solely the towns main jail, La Roanne, so many were kept in the Fransiscan and Celestines convent and the jail of the archbishops palace.<ref name=":18" /> At this point on 30 August governor Mandelot was called away to the suburb La Guillotière, to deal with a potential disturbance there.<ref name=":18" /> Whilst absent, a mob formed and broke into the the two convents, killing all the prisoners they found inside.<ref name=":18" /> He returned by the evening, but did little to stop the mob as it proceeded to then break into the archbishops palace and the Roanne.<ref name=":18" /> A commission formed to lead the mob, under André Mornieu.<ref name=":19" /> He summoned the prisoners in the Roanne and archbishops palace to abjure, about 50 of them did, and they were sent to the Celestines monastery, spared.<ref name=":19" /> Of the remaining 263 in the archbishops palace, none would be spared.<ref name=":19" /> Later in the evening the mob advanced on the Roanne and the 70 Protestants inside were killed, Calm would not be restored until 2 September, by which time between 500 and 1000 Huguenots were dead.<ref name=":19" /> Mandelot professed anger at the massacre, offering a reward for the handing over of the perpetrators to him, though he did little to bring this about practically.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
Some Protestants escaped the massacre by fleeing to nearby [[Montluel]] a town under the [[Duke of Savoy|Duke of Savoy's]] dominion.<ref name=":20">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Others hid in the city, having not attended the meeting Mandelot organised.<ref name=":20" /> Two consuls opposed the decision of their colleagues in endorsing the massacre on 18 September, the sieur de Combellande and the sieur d’Aveyne, who lodged a written protest.<ref name=":21">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> The consulate would itself renounce the massacre by the end of September as the kings position became more clear.<ref name=":21" />
=== Troyes ===
Troyes received word of the massacre on 26th August, spreading panic among both the Protestants and Catholics.<ref name=":22"></ref> The council reintroduced the civil militia and placed guards on the gates.<ref name=":22" /> A curfew was instituted and weapons banned.<ref name=":22" /> De Ruffe the governor of Angouleme passed by the town on his way elsewhere and told those he saw that it was the kings will that the Huguenots be executed.<ref name=":22" /> This was contradicted by an abbot who passes through on the 30th who tells the town the king has written that the Huguenots are to be protected.<ref name=":22" /> Nevertheless the towns bishop hatches a plot for a celebration of the Catholic victory on the 31st.<ref name=":22" /> Some of those who are called to participate warn their Huguenot neighbours of his intentions, and some Huguenots hide with their neighbours.<ref name=":23"></ref> After receiving a letter endorsing massacre from the hardliner Belin who was in Paris to petition the King against a Huguenot church, the ''bailli'' de Vaudrey orders the arrest of the Huguenots on the 30th, either to protect them or to stop their sedition.<ref name=":23" /> On 3 September the mayor Nevellin presents a letter recieved from the king to the council, detailing his intentions regarding the maintenance of the peace edicts.<ref name=":23" /> By this point Belin was back in Troyes, and he advocated again for massacre, citing the occurrence of a massacre in Paris as proof of his position. Most of the other councillors leave the chamber in shock and disapproval at his line, yet do little to stop his subsequent plans.<ref name=":24"></ref>
Belin finds a willing collaborator in his plan in de Vaudrey who had long been an enemy of the Huguenots.<ref name=":24" /> They set about organising the murder of those in the prisons.<ref name=":24" /> The massacre would be smaller than in many other towns, with only 43 Huguenots killed in total.<ref></ref> To do the work they employ prison guards, the executioner having refused to be involved, several other Huguenots being killed in the streets by angry Catholics.<ref name=":25"></ref> The massacre would begin on 4 September with each called up from their cell to be dispatched one at a time.<ref name=":25" /> After killing 36 in the prison they would spend the next few days searching for those that might be hiding around the town.<ref></ref>
=== Rouen ===
Rouen recieves news of what had happened in Paris around the same time, in a letter to the governor Carrouges from the King, which bemoaned the lamentable sedition that had befallen the capital.<ref></ref> Yet for a while Carrouges and the council of 24 were able to keep control. The conseiller echevins kept watch around the hotel de ville for several nights to ensure order was maintained and keep watch over the town.<ref name=":26"></ref> Several days later the Protestants were locked up for their own protection as they had been in many other cities and the guard around Rouen was reinforced.<ref name=":26" /> Some Huguenots would go willingly, feeling prison was likely more safe than their homes at a time like this, others refused to go, or instead fled abroad, to [[England]] and [[Geneva]].<ref name=":26" /> During this time the Catholic population attacked several nearby chateaus of absent or dead Protestant nobles.<ref name=":26" /> Carrogues was dispatched to tour the province of [[Normandy]] and ensure peace was kept.<ref></ref>
This uneasy peace was broken on 17 September when, a mob, under the leadership of Laurent de Maromme who had prior been involved in the massacre of Bondeville and the curate of the St Pierre church Montereul seized the city.<ref></ref><ref name=":27"></ref> They locked the gates and then first stormed the various prisons where the Huguenots were being kept, killing them all, and after having completed that devolved into breaking into houses searching for stragglers and looting for the next 4 days before order was restored.<ref name=":27" /> The bodies were buried in rudimentary mass graves in the ditches of Porte Cauchoise.<ref></ref> The 300-400 victims of the massacre were of generally humbler origins than in other cities, the rich Huguenots having been able to leave, or able to buy off their attackers.<ref name=":27" />
=== Bordeaux ===
Bordeaux is one of the two cities we know that the king sent, and then countermanded secret instructions to, along with Lyon.<ref name=":2" /> A public order to protect the Huguenots was published by the Parlement.<ref name=":28">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Yet this was accompanied by governer Montferrands order, forbidding Huguenot worship which had been permitted some distance away from the city by the Peace of Saint Germain in 1570.<ref name=":29"></ref> Things remained relatively calm in the city until on 3 October Montferrand after having received a private visit from the son in law of Admiral Villars, appeared before the city jurats, claiming he had a list of Huguenots that the king wanted killed.<ref name=":29" /> He would not however produce this list when requested by the jurats, and no record of it has ever been found.<ref name=":28" /> He would proceed to carry out the massacre, largely free of popular involvement, as had been the massacres of Troyes and La Charité utilising 6 companies of his soldiers to execute it.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> As in most other cities, the massacre would represent an opportunity for plunder as well.<ref name=":29" /> In total 264 persons are recorded as having been killed in Bordeaux, as compiled in a report by the Parlement itself.<ref name=":30"></ref>
=== Toulouse ===
Toulouse like much of the south received the news fairly late. Upon doing so the provincial Parlement and city magistrates tried to keep order, fearful of the consequences of any unrest.<ref name=":31"></ref> The Huguenots were arrested for their own protection as they had been in many towns.<ref name=":31" /> On 3 October having heard from some recently arrived envoys that the massacre of the Huguenots was the kings will, an angry mob broke into the prisons and massacred those inside, including 3 Protestant judges of the Parlement.<ref name=":31" /><ref name=":30" /> In total around 200-300 were killed in these attacks.<ref name=":30" /> The Parlement meanwhile, following the lead of these envoys, sent orders to massacre out into the surrounding regions under the Parlements authority, including the town of Gaillac.<ref name=":32">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
=== Gaillac ===
Gaillac represents largely a subsidiary massacre of that perpetrated in Toulouse, having been instigated by the Parlement of Toulouse itself.<ref name=":32" />
== Minor massacres ==
There would also be violent disturbances in several other smaller urban centres, including [[Albi]], [[Garches|Garches,]] [[Rabastens|Rabastens,]] [[Romans-sur-Isère|Romans,]] [[Valence, Drôme]] and [[Orange, Vaucluse|Orange.]]<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
== Avoided massacres ==
=== Nantes ===
Nantes would receive a letter for its mayor from the hardliner governor [[Louis, Duke of Montpensier]] heavily implying that it was the kings wish that a massacre occur in Nantes without explicitly saying so.<ref name=":33">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> The mayor decided however to just pocket the letter, keeping it secret until such time as he had the King's letter to hand, which urged the maintenance of peace in the provinces.<ref name=":33" /> When he had both he called an ''assemblee generale'' and read both letters to the assembled delegates, they voted to safeguard the towns Protestants, and there was no further incident in the town.<ref name=":33" />
=== Aix ===
In Vaucluse's memoirs, he records that de la Molle was dispatched by the hardliner governor of Provence to Paris, to find out what the kings wishes were regarding the Huguenots, as reports had filtered through that the king desired them massacred.<ref name=":34">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> When after several weeks de la Molle did not return, Vaucluse was sent in his stead to go to Paris and report back.<ref name=":34" /> As Vaucluse was approaching Paris he crossed paths with de la Molle going the other way, with alleged confirmed orders to massacre the Huguenots of Provence.<ref name=":34" /> Sceptical of this Vaucluse came to the king while he was having a banquet, to ask him directly what his will was on the matter.<ref name=":34" /> The king was unwilling to speak on the issue in front of his zealous guests, but urged Vaucluse to come back the next morning, during which time he confided in Vaucluse that it was not his wish for any massacre in Provence.<ref name=":34" /> Vaucluse hurried back to Provence, overtaking de la Molle on route, and thus aided the averting of the massacre in Aix.<ref name=":34" />
== Aftermath ==
While around 3000-5000 Protestants would directly die as a result of these massacres, the far larger result was that obtained in the subsequent wave of defections back to Catholicism. Though only 300 had been killed in Rouen, the community shrank from 16500 pre massacre to around 3000 post massacre.<ref name=":35"></ref> The majority either abjuring, or going as refugees to [[Geneva]] and [[England]]. At least 3000 made some form of formal reconciliation with the Catholic church in the city, be it through rebaptisms, venerating the mass or abjuration documents.<ref name=":36"></ref> 174 Rouennais were recorded in the Rye census in Sussex in November, with a record of 16 more families to come.<ref name=":36" /> In Troyes we see a similar wave, with so many seeking to reconcile with the Catholic church that the town had to hire a special priest to hear the confessions.<ref name=":37"></ref> Pithou records 20 families who emigrated from Troyes in the wake of the massacre, mostly to Geneva.<ref name=":37" /> This trend of abjurations and exile occured even in towns in the north that had experienced no massacre, Protestants ill inclined to trust any royal guarantee of safety going forward.<ref name=":35" />
A general feeling of defeatist despair overcame the northern Protestants, accompanied with soul searching as to how their god could have allowed this to happen, with some concluding it was punishment for their sins. It further spurred the formation of Protestant resistance theory, to allow disobedience to an unjust king
The king despite his opposition to the massacres, decided not to let a good opportunity go to waste, and in early 1573 he banned Protestants from serving in royal office.<ref></ref> At the same time, the heartland Protestant cities of the south, entered open rebellion against the king, beginning the fourth of the [[French Wars of Religion]] as the king tried and failed to siege [[La Rochelle]] back into obedience with the crown.
== References ==
[[Category:1572 in France]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1572]]
[[Category:Massacres in France]]
[[Category:Massacres of Christians]]
[[Category:Political repression in France]]
[[Category:Protestant–Catholic sectarian violence]]
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