St. Bartholomew's Day massacre St. Bartholomew's Day massacre The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre () in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Queen Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre took place a few days after the wedding day (18 August) of the king's sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre (the future Henry IV of France). Many of the most wealthy and prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris
Paris in the 16th century Ages. It was run by the Church and had been enlarged over the centuries, but it was not large enough for the thousands of patients who came there; each bed held several patients. It could provide very little in the way of actual medical care, but it did offer food and regular religious services for the sick. Several other more specialized hospitals were established in the 16th century, including hospitals for orphans, patients with syphilis, and hospitals for wounded soldiers. Each church, convent and abbey had its own small cemetery, many as small as ten square meters. The largest cemetery