Changes

In 1572, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre led to deaths of 10,000 Huguenots at the hands French Catholics. It was one of the bloodiest episodes in early Modern French history and marked a turning point in the religious wars that devastated France from the 1560s to 1590s. The impact of the massacre was profound. The massacre changed the course of French history and initiated a new and bloody chapter in the Wars of Religion. The massacre began as a series of events that changed the Huguenots and weakened the French monarchy. The massacre also failed to end the war and instead prolonged it.

Before the massacres, France had become increasingly divided between Catholics and Protestants in the mid-16th Century. The massacre can only be understood, within the context of French politics and the deep religious hatreds of the times. France had been weakened after the early death of King Henry II in a jousting accident in 1559. Henry II's death led to a period of profound instability in France, Henry's sons all proved to be weak and incompetent rulers.