A very bad day in history to be a wedding guest

Most of my research centers around crusades and Kings in the 13th century, but this event in history is too fascinating to let slide by without note. Mostly because the majority of what I claim to know about Catherine De Medici comes from that awful painting of her dressed in all black standing on dead babies (scary!!)

I learned about this black spot in history while I was travelling the red eye from Phoenix to Anchorage. I was drifting in and out of sleep, while at the same time, my Ipod was drifting in and out of music and podcasts. I awoke to "The Stuff You Missed in History Class" and their telling of Catherine. I caught on to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and realized today is the 438th anniversay. (I believe the proper gift would be china for this occasion...)

Catherine, oh Catherine...you deserve a post all your own, you fascinating, violent woman. Your parents died within weeks of your birth. Yes, both of them. You are credited with inventing poisoned gloves and deadly makeup laced with arsenic. You had bears in your entourage and kept an army of dwarves as household servants in your palace. You were weird, my dear.

You also hated Protestants. Huguenots, to be precise. Their power and growing influence terrified you, and when attempts to pacify them through mediation dissolved, you struck.

In 1572, Catherine had convinced Henry of Navarre, future King of France and head of a line of rulers that would stretch nearly 200 years (until those nasty Revolutionists, or Le Madame Guillotine, put an end to that) to marry her youngest daughter Margaret.

(Nevermind the fact that Margaret was in love and en flagrante with Henry of Guise, the son of a duke. Mommy and Daddy beat her soundly when they discovered this!)

Henry of Navarre came from a powerful Hugenot family who ruled the province of Navarre, and Catherine wanted to unite this house with her own family to forgo any attempts at power grabbing in the future. His mother, Queen Jeanne III despised Catherine de Medici, but was lured into the marriage for the benefit of her son. Poor Jeanne "mysteriously" died while shopping for wedding clothes days before Henry's August 23 wedding. (Rumors have it that Jeanne recieved a pair of "perfumed" gloves from Catherine. Coincidence?)

The wedding went on, with thousands of Navarre's supporters in Paris for the celebrations.

The tipping point of this well-orchestrated massacre came from the attempted assisnation of Admiral de Coligny, who happened to be bent over fixing his shoe when the assasin fired, merely wounding the staunch opponent, though sometimes ally, of Catherine. On August 25, 1572, de Coligny was shot at and suffered minor injuries to his arm and shoulder.

Catherine arrived on scene, promising de Coligny that the perpetrators "would pay," accusing Huguenot zealots of attempting to kill the admiral. See, Catherine already had a hit list drawn up and by the power vested in her son Charles, the current king of France, Roman Catholic mobs descened on Paris and small villages throughout France and eliminated their Protestant rivals and enemies.

Thousands of unlucky wedding guests found themselves under attack, and the majority of Henry's relatives and supporters were killed in the madness that lasted nearly a week. de Coligny also perished, probably part of Catherine's plan, assuming she was not part of the initial assassination attempt.

Catholic scholars claim 2,000 Hugeunots died. Protestant scholars claim as many as 70,000 and the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle. Regardless, the bloodbath the quickly moved past Catherine's personal hit list to innocent bystanders and the commoners has stained Catherine's reputation since.

To read more about the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and about Catherine de Medici, read here.

A side note: Henry and Margaret did not a happy couple make. Their marriage was annulled in 1599 with no issue. Though he was never able to marry the love of his life, mistress Gabrielle d'Estrees (who died in 1599 while giving birth to his stillborn son), he did marry Marie de Medicis (no direct relation to his former mother-in-law) in 1600. She was not a sweet, blushing bride and the two were rumored to fight often, and loudly, over his new mistress Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues.

Despite being unlucky in love and being a magnet for shrewish wives, Henry proved to be a ruler of vision and integrity, whose influence lasted centuries, despite his assassination in 1610.