BARTOLOMEO DELLA PORTA - The Virgin enthroned with various saints.
Florence, Pitti Gallery.
of the Huguenots, in order to win the favor of Charles IX and incite him against Spain with the aim of conquering the Spanish Netherlands. Catherine then placed greater trust in the Guises. The marriage of Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre, with Margaret of Valois, the king’s sister, celebrated on 18 August 1572 in Paris, which was intended to consolidate internal peace, drew many Huguenot nobles to Paris, where they arrived armed; and it was then that Catherine, intimidated by their arrogance, decided to rid herself of Coligny. But the attempt against him (22 August) failed and did nothing but intensify factional hatred.
Catherine then adopted the desperate policy of weakening the Huguenots by suppressing as many of them as possible in Paris and throughout the rest of the kingdom. Having reached an agreement with the provost of the merchants and overcome the king’s hesitation, she decided that, at a given signal, the Huguenots should be killed by surprise during the night of 24 August. The stroke succeeded, and the slaughter spread in the following days to Meaux, Orléans, Troyes, Saumur, Blois, Tours, Angers, Rouen, La Charité, and Lyon. Elsewhere the royal orders were not carried out, and the bishops themselves prevented or mitigated their execution. As for the victims, it proved impossible to establish their number, which reached several thousand; among them were also Catholics who fell victim to confusion or private vendettas, for many were indeed killed amid this turmoil. It is now certain that the slaughter was not prepared long in advance, but decided upon suddenly, and that it resulted from political concerns caused above all by the attempt against Coligny which, having failed, had compromised the queen mother. The Pope had no part in it whatsoever and was informed of it only after the slaughter had been carried out; it was presented to him as a victory by the king against the conspiracy which the Huguenots had organized against him.
In Rome it was believed that the stroke had saved the dynasty and Catholicism in France, and public prayers of thanksgiving were therefore ordered; a medal was struck, and a commemorative fresco was commissioned for the Sala Regia of the Vatican Palace, with the hope that France might henceforth be cleansed of the poison of heresy.