from The 1997 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (TM)
The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the mass killing of French Protestants by Catholics, began on Aug. 24, 1572, and is remembered as a crime against humanity. It was preceded (August 22) by the attempted assassination of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, a prominent Huguenot in Paris. Many other Protestant nobles had come to the capital to attend the wedding of Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV) and Margaret of Valois. Catherine de Medicis, who feared Coligny's plans for war with Spain, was probably implicated in the murder plot, and when an investigation threatened to expose her role in the scheme she persuaded her son, Charles IX, to order the death of the Huguenot leaders in anticipation of a supposed Protestant plot. The killing began in Paris and was extended to the provinces, continuing until October. It is estimated that tens of thousands were slaughtered.
Bibliography: Erlanger, Philippe, St. Bartholomew's Night, trans. by Patrick O'Brien (1962; repr. 1975); Kingdon, Robert, Myths About the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacres (1988).