The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew

In the electronic reading "The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew" the author, NoguÐ"Ёres, depicts the main actions of one of the greatest massacres Paris had yet seen. The author goes detail by detail from the beginning of the day on August 24, 1572 with the ringing of the church bells in Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, to the end of the few days of rioting where it is estimated in the reading that hundreds to thousands of lives were lost. The reading focuses on the role of the king, Charles IX, his mother Catherine de' Medici, and the hundreds of people who were slaughtered in the small period of time.

Through out the reading the author makes many references to the role of the crowd of Parisians that take part in the killings and the important role that Charles IX played in causing this carnage. The main thesis of the reading can be said that Charles IX played an important and influential role in starting and continuing the massacres on Saint Bartholomew's feast day. The article talks of a meeting between the King and his mother Catherine. Although there is no proof as to what was said by each individual person in the meeting many believe that Charles mother influenced him to order the murder of a prominent Huguenot, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, and subsequent influential Huguenots that pose a threat to the king. From there the author talks of how events escalated into an all out massacre where servants, women, and even children Huguenots where slaughtered. The author provides evidence towards the end of the reading when discussing Charles role. The writer notes that there are many arguments as to how the king personally took part in it. It is said in the readings that he may have ordered the bodies of important Huguenots to be dragged to the outside of the Louvre to prove their deaths, and that he also grew impatient when reports of who was killed became delayed. The author also notes that there is an unproven rumor that Charles himself shot floating bodies that took too long to drown as they went with the tide outside his home in the Louvre. All this information aids in the authors thesis that Charles had to of played a heavy role in the massacre's events, and it was not just his mothers doings. The text seemed to play an importance on the bodies that were thrown out of building windows and into the Seine River. In the few articles that I have read is there is not much detail to the normal living areas of people