The+St+Bartholomew+Day+Massacre

Gaspard de Coligny Who was responsible for the attempted assassination on Gaspard de Coligny on August 22, 1572  I will argue that Catherine De Medici was not the main character responsible for the attempted assassination of Gaspard De Coligny as some historians would want to make her the main person.One historian wrote "A few days before the historical massacre, Catherine de Medici hired an assassin to kill Coligny, however, he was merely wounded in the attempt'. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~lavoicy/poissy/Coligny.htm However I will shift the burden of proof to say that The Guise is responsible for the attempted attack.  I **do believe Catherine played a significant role in the attempted assassination but was not the main character responsible** as there were others who were just as interested in having the man killed.In another article written by Warren H. Carroll, PhD. A History Of Christendom, Vol. 4, "Meanwhile in France, Catherine d'Medici, who of course had sent no aid in response to the Pope's call for a crusade against the Turks, was be­coming fearful that the Huguenots were gaining too much power over Charles, as her son came to rely more on Coligny and less on his mother. On August 22, 1572, Catherine tried to have Coligny assassinated, but the assassin failed and only wounded him". According to the book The Tudors: the Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Day Dynasty by G.J. Meyer "Who exactly was responsible and why the slaughter was carried to such extremes, remains unclear. That the Guises were responsible for the Killings of Coligny cannot be doubted". So would it be fair to say Catherine de Medici was responsible? Absolutely not.  media type="youtube" key="vwjAb9T6qIs?fs=1" height="218" width="417"   ﻿      //**This video will show images of some of the key players in the St Bartholomew Massacre, pictures of the massacre and Coligny himself. The video was downloaded from You Tube.com**//    Gaspard de Coligny was born in Chatillon‑sur‑Loing, France, on February 16, 1519. He had a brilliant military career, and in 1552 was appointed admiral of France. His brother, Francis d'Andelot, was a Calvinist, and through his influence Coligny converted to Calvinism after his capture in the Battle of St. Quentin in 1557.When King Henry II was killed accidentally in a jousting tournament in 1559, Coligny joined himself with the prince of Conde (prince de Conde), Louis I, to lead the French Huguenots, and demanded religious tolerance from the new king, Charles IX, who was a Roman Catholic.  Although Coligny tried to obtain a peaceful solution to the religious troubles between the Roman Catholic government and the French Protestants, civil war broke out. In 1569, Louis I was killed at the battle of Jamac when the duke of Anjou's army defeated the Huguenots. Coligny then became head of the Protestant armies.  Shortly after a defeat at Moncontour, Coligny marched his army across France and defeated the royal army at Arnayle‑Duc in June 1570. As a result of this victory, he was able to obtain a truce from the king, but he waited more than a year before risking an appearance at the king's court. Once there, however, he quickly gained favor with the 21 ‑year‑old King Charles IX, and often counseled Charles in matters of the kingdom.http://www.endtimessecrets.com/Saint_Bartholomew_Day_Massacre.htm It would be fair to say that the Guise family had more reasons in wanting to see Coligny dead as they were carrying with them a long truce for the Huguenot from the first war. Gaspard de Coligny first became known as a leading member of the Reform party in 1560 when he submitted a petition to the king from the Protestants of Normandy demanding toleration. (1562-1563) “The first religious war was provoked by the Massacre at Vassy in '62; The Duc de Guise, travelling to his estates, stopped in Vassy on a Sunday and decided to hear Mass, a few of his servants got into a scuffle with some Huguenots who were attending a service in a nearby building, and the whole thing escalated until the Guise faction had fired on the unarmed Huguenots, set the church on fire, and killed a number of the congregation”. “'62-'63. At Orléans, the Duc de Guise was killed by an assassin. (In my opinion this is reprisal and they no doubt has reasons to believe it’s the Huguenots and Coligny would definitely be involved) (1567-1568) Even though the Duc de Guise had died, the Guise faction remained powerful and the Cardinal de Lorraine consolidated his power even more.  He argued for more vigorous suppression of the Huguenots in response to Protestant insurrection in the neighboring Low Countries… The Cardinal de Lorraine hatched a plot to overturn the peace and capture Condé and Coligny. (now leader of the Huguenots) They escaped to La Rochelle and raised another army to begin the third war. The third war therefore involved an even larger number of foreign interests, and lasted from '68 to '70. Condé and Coligny made an alliance with William of Orange in the Netherlands, who was fighting for the independence of the United Provinces from Spain. The Guise became ever more closely involved with Spain. The Cardinal de Guise also saw in Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, a tool for unseating Elizabeth and putting a Catholic monarch on that throne as well. …Coligny met the Catholics at Moncoutour and suffered another defeat. However, he collected his forces and made a brilliant "long march" across the south of France, defeating the royal army on at least one occasion and depriving the crown of their chance to break the Protestant hold on the South. After the peace of St. Germain, Catherine exerted a great deal of diplomatic effort trying to create harmony between Catholic and Protestant leaders. Admiral de Coligny, now the chief military leader of the Huguenots, was welcomed into the king's council n August 22, as Admiral de Coligny was returning to his lodgings from a visit with the king, an assassin fired at him, breaking his arm and wounding him severely, but not killing him outright. The Huguenots were outraged and demanded justice from the king. Everyone suspected the Guises of the attack. When various Huguenot leaders counseled Coligny to flee the city -- certainly at this time they could have easily made it to the safety of a Protestant stronghold -- he reputedly refused, feeling that it would show a lack of trust in the king. During the early hours of Sunday morning, a troop of soldiers came to Coligny's door. They killed the guard that opened the door, and rushed through the house. Coligny was dragged from his bed, stabbed, and thrown out the window to the pavement below. Reputedly the Duc de Guise mocked the body, kicking him in the face and announcing that this was the king's will. (Excerpts from article: War on Religion retrieved on October 8, 2010 from []) In concluding the evidence is very clear in regarding who had more reasons to want Coligny dead and its no doubt that the guise did as the only motivation Catherine had in all the readings that i did was the possibility her son might lost heir.The Guise had all the likely reasons, all these truce carrying with them over the years and realizing that this man seem unstoppable what better way to seek revenge. The Guise blamed Admiral Coligny for the murder of François, duke of Guise, the leader of the Ultra-Catholic party, in 1563.They also hated his guts for supporting the Huguenots whom the Catholic was totally against. > > **Admiral de Coligny impressing his murderers,** > **by Joseph-Benoit Suvée, 1787** According to a number of other evidence in which I will make reference to two; 1. According to Mack P. Holt The Making of a Massacre 1570-1574 “Coligny was implicated in the death of Francis, duke of Guise…Moreover, the house from which Maurevert fired his shots at Coligny was owned by the guise family which further implicates them”. Holt also suggested that the duke of Guise himself killed Coligny “When local Catholics discovered Coligny body after the duke of Guise had killed him, they quickly mutilated it…” 2. “The wounded Coligny was attacked in his own home by a group led by the duke. A German named Besme [or Bemjus], who was a servant in the Guise's house, plunged a sword through Coligny's chest and threw him, still alive, out of a window into the street. There, another of Guise's men chopped off Coligny's head as he lay at the duke of Guise's feet. Besme later said that he had never seen a man die more valiantly than the admiral.Still raging against Coligny though he was dead, the savage papists cut off his arms and private members, dragged his armless body through the streets for three days, and then hung him upside down by his heels outside the city”. (Excerpts from article; The St. Bartholomew Day Massacre retrieved on October 8, 2010 from http://www.endtimessecrets.com/Saint_Bartholomew_Day_Massacre.htm)           **Scholarly Sources ** [| Cambridge Historical Journal]Vol. 11, No. 1 (1953), pp. 27-47 Published by:Cambridge University Press [|http://www.jstor.org.centers-proxy.mercer.edu/stable/302] [|The Sixteenth Century Journal]Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 27-46 Published by:The Sixteenth Century Journal[| http://www.jstor.org.centers-proxy.mercer.edu/stable/25420]
 * Argument: **
 * Who was Gaspard De Coligny **
 * Supporting Argument **

The French Wars of Religion, 1562–16292nd EditionSeries:New Approaches to European History(No. 36) Mack P Holt George Mason University, Virginia

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Gaspard de Coligny: admiral of FranceBy Arthur Whiston Whitehead http://books.google.com/books?id=o3pGbms3hAQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Gaspard+de+Coligny:+admiral+of+France&source=bl&ots=P-xRX1sbS-&sig=BvmZGG53Tq41XDu6NwhfTsTOpi8&hl=en&ei=FvCwTKbREsSBlAf6ppnpDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

The St Bartholomew;s Day Massacre http://www.endtimessecrets.com/Saint_Bartholomew_Day_Massacre.htm

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The War on Religion http://www.lepg.org/wars.htm

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [| http://books.google.com/books?id=nnxYQtyArmEC&pg=PA497&lpg=PA497&dq=who+was+responsible+for+the+attack+on+coligny&source=bl&ots=eAwLNNEvG3&sig=Ac2d00qMylPkDqhyHULiBGaLK2c&hl=en&ei=AH2mTL6iKYKKlwed05wa&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=who%20was%20responsible%20for%20the%20attack%20on%20coligny&f=false]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Additional Sources **