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Analysis Of The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

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The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre demonstrated how devastation could quickly take place in the presence of conflict. Unlike previous issues concerning the Protestants and the Catholics, this August 24th, 1572 pertained all the built up violence in one tragic battle. A big component that drove this violence was fear of being overthrown. Specifically, the fear of being taken over by the Huguenots allowed for the population of France to find validation in their actions or at least encourage said conflict. This is demonstrated by the publics’ unrest from previous quarrels, the involvement of the king and the authorities. The tension was quite high among the Protestants and Catholics. Previous quarrels would set the groundwork for the devastation …show more content…

Throughout the literature, there is great controversy concerning how the king may have allowed for the massacre to take place. The people came to believe that the king had given them permission and that they were doing his bidding. However, the appearance of letters presenting the opposite to be true demonstrates that this was not the case. Charles XI decision pertaining this issue was that he did not want the Protestants to be attacked in any way. Unfortunately, the misunderstanding regarding his intentions enabled noblemen to interpret it as allowing for the massacre to take place. This issue of his true intentions would become an issue that would take some time to resolve due to the simple fact that rumors and other noble elites traveled at a faster pace than those of his letters. The fear of an uprising and previous quarrels enabled for the words of the king to be distorted in such a way that the Christians were finally able to seek their revenge. However, this would not have been possible without the authorities succumbing to these

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