Paris in the 16th century Protestants were killed in the streets by Catholic mobs. At the end of the century, Henry IV was able to return to Paris as King, and permitted Protestants to open churches outside the city. Urban innovation in Paris during the 16th century included the first street lighting, by candles.The first theater opened in Paris in 1548, and the first ballet performance took place at the French court in 1581. At the beginning of the 16th century Paris was officially the capital of France, but the King, Louis XI, had little trust in the Parisians, and resided in the chateaux of
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in audio form. The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre is the setting for Tim Willocks' historical novel, "The Twelve Children of Paris" (Matthias Tannhauser Trilogy:2) (2013), and Ken Follett's book A Column of Fire, published in 2017. Follett gives several of the book's main characters a role in the massacre and the events leading up to it. 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