Table Of ContentThe Saint Bartholomew’s Day
massacre
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The Saint
Bartholomew’s Day
massacre
The mysteries of a crime of state
(24 AUGUST 1572)
Arlette JouAnnA
Translated by
Joseph Bergin
Manchester university Press
Manchester and new York
distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan
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Copyright © editions GAllIMArD, Paris, 2007
The right of Arlette Jouanna to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by editions GAllIMArD 2007, La Saint-Barthélemy: Les mystères d’un
crime d’etat (24 août 1572)
First english-language edition published in 2013 by Manchester university Press
oxford road, Manchester M13 9nr, uK
and room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, new York, nY 10010, uSA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Distributed in the united States exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, new York,
nY 10010, uSA
Distributed in Canada exclusively by
uBC Press, university of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6t 1Z2
British library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBn 978 0 7190 8831 5 hardback
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for
any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does
not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or
appropriate.
typeset in Warnock with Charlemagne Display by
Koinonia, Manchester
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Contents
translator’s note page vi
Author’s acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations ix
Glossary of French terms x
Introduction: The enigmas of Saint Bartholomew’s Day 1
Part I: The fragility of concord
1 trial by suspicion: the peace of 1570 19
2 Politics matrimonial and international 43
3 The assault on peace 73
Part II: Sword of God, sword of the King
4 Surgical strike 97
5 Catholic furies 123
6 The King’s truth, reason of the state 157
Part III: Clarifications and responses
7 Protestant misfortune in biblical perspective 181
8 Political readings of the French tragedy 199
9 The King’s death, or the meaning of a massacre revealed 222
Conclusion 238
Appendix: Socio-professional distributions of the Massacre
according to lists in Protestant sources 243
Sources and bibliography 244
Index 264
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translator’s note
This book first appeared in a well-known French series originally entitled ‘The
thirty days which made France’, although in the recent and still unfinished
re-make of the series – which led to the present book being written – the
limitation to thirty days has been removed. In this context, the French word
‘journée’ (and not ‘jour’) for a ‘day’ has itself to be understood quite loosely.
From the coronation of Charlemagne to the fall of the Bastille and beyond,
such ‘days’ dot the landscape of French history, so that they should be seen
in terms of ‘moments’ or ‘turning points’ in history. An understanding of this
initial editorial format will help readers of this translation to see better why
the book is shaped as it is and why the author raises, especially in the intro-
duction and the conclusion, explicit questions about the significance of the
Massacre.
likewise, the book’s original title – La Saint-Barthélemy – makes imme-
diate sense in French, rendering the words ‘day’ and ‘massacre’ of the english
title quite redundant. It is the word ‘la’ which makes the difference here, but
it has no functional equivalent in english. rather than peppering the pages
that follow with the rather cumbersome phrase ‘The Saint Bartholomew’s Day
massacre’, I have translated it, wherever possible and where no ambiguity might
arise from doing so, simply as the Massacre, while using the word ‘massacre(s)’
to describe individual cases of massacre, including elements of the Massacre
itself. The term ‘crime d’état’ of the original sub-title jars much less in French
than ‘crime of state’ does in english, but alternative translations (e.g. ‘political
crime’) would have unduly diluted the meaning that it conveys. Finally, in a
subject which has generated endless speculation since 1572, especially over the
motives of those involved, it is important, but often quite difficult, to distin-
guish known fact from supposition when writing about them. The elegant, and
extremely economical, French use of the conditional tense when wishing to
convey the uncertain or the assumed (e.g. ‘Charles IX aurait dit’) cannot be
directly reproduced in english, so I have resorted, depending on context, to
circumlocutions such as ‘reportedly’, ‘supposedly’, or ‘people thought that’, and
so on, to convey the nuances of the original text.
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viii Translator’s note
In my efforts to render the meaning of the original French as faithfully
as possible, I am greatly indebted the author, who carefully read my efforts,
making valuable suggestions for improvement, as well as spotting mistakes and
omissions. needless to say, anything lost in translation is my sole responsibility.
Joseph Bergin
Manchester, September 2012
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author’s acknowledgements
I wish to express my gratitude to all those who assisted me in writing this book,
especially Jacques Frayssenge, nicolas Fornerod and Myriam Yardeni. I also
wish to thank ran Halévi for his careful reading of the manuscript, as well as
Philippe Bernier.
Arlette Jouanna
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