Changes

The St Bartholomew Day’s Massacre resulted in the death of up to 10,000 people. It changed the nature of the religious war in France. The wars became more vicious after the massacre the numbers of people killed rose greatly This reflected the sectarian hatreds unleashed by the massacres. The massacre was intended to end the war or at least to weaken the Huguenot cause. The massacre did weaken the French Protestants but they rallied and fought fiercely. This is because after the massacre they knew that defeat meant extermination. They were also decidedly more militant and less willing, to compromise. The massacre did not end the war as expected by Guise and others it only managed to prolong prolonged the war. From a strategic point of view, the massacre was a complete failure. The religious wars dragged on until 1598 and by the time some historians based on parish records believe that some three million people died as a direct and indirect consequence of the sectarian conflicts<ref> Dienfendorf, p. 155</ref>.