Massacre of Vassy

The massacre of Vassy (French: massacre de Wassy) was the murder of Huguenot worshippers and citizens in an armed action by troops of Francis, Duke of Guise, in Wassy, France, on 1 March 1562. The massacre is identified as the first major event in the French Wars of Religion. The series of battles that followed concluded in the signing of the Peace of Amboise (or Pacification Treaty of Amboise) the next year, on 19 March 1563.

Massacre de Vassy in 1562, print by Hogenberg end of 16th century.

The events surrounding the massacre of Vassy were famously depicted in a series of forty engravings published in Geneva seven years later.[1]

Background

Persecution

Beginning in the reign of Francis I, Protestants who followed the teachings of John Calvin, known as Huguenots faced state backed persecution in France.[2] This persecution continued under his two successors, Henry II and Francis II the latter of whom died young in 1560.[3] Catherine de' Medici, regent of Charles IX, proposed the Edict of January (or Edict of Saint-Germain) with the hopes that providing a measure of toleration to Calvinism would help France avoid further chaos of the kind that had engulfed the south west of the country.[4] The Parlement of Paris would however resist registration of the edict until 6 March 1562, as such it would not be in force at the time of the Duke's entry into Wassy.[5]

The house of Guise

The Guise family was by this time one of the most powerful families in France.[6] Their princely title coming from the seat of Joinville which was located only a few miles away from Wassy. The town of Wassy itself was tied to the Guise family, having been a Dower of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Dukes niece.[7] These connections would play a role in Francis' justification for his actions after the fact.[7]

Massacre

The event

On 1 March 1562, Francis (François), the second Duke of Guise, travelling from his family seat at Joinville to Paris with a guard of gentlemen stopped at the town of Wassy.[8] Hearing reports of Huguenot worship in a barn that had been converted into a temple, he and his gentlemen decided to investigate and put a stop to what they considered an illegal gathering. Finding a large congregation present, members of his party attempted to gain entry to the barn, at this point violence quickly escalated and the Duke and his men began massacring all those inside, killing 50.[9]

Contesting the narrative

The exact nature of the events, in particular in relation to whether it had been a Huguenot or a member of Francis' party who had begun the violence, immediately became a source of disagreement between Protestant and Catholic polemics and contemporary histories.[10] In the Protestant Histoire des Martyres, it is an act of pre-meditated violence on the part of the Catholic gentlemen who cry upon entering the temple "let us kill them all".[11] In Francis' recollections to the Duke of Württemberg, which would form the basis for the Catholic account, he reports that upon trying to inspect the temple he was resisted, and arquebusiers were fired from the inside at his men, who had only swords to defend themselves.[7]

Aftermath

Further massacre and revolt

The massacre inspired further religious violence in its immediate wake. On 12 April the people of Sens would massacre over 100 of the town's Huguenots, throwing their corpses into the Seine.[12] Further massacres would occur in Castelnaudary and Bar-sur-Seine in early 1562.[13][14] Huguenots involved in the attempted or successful seizure of towns such as Rouen and Troyes would assert that their actions were necessary to prevent themselves being massacred like the parishioners of Wassy.[15][16]

Spiral to war

Having committed the massacre, and despite resulting instructions from Catherine to immediately come to court, Francis continued on to Paris, where upon hearing the news of his actions he was given a heroes welcome by the Catholic population.[6] Catherine, as regent, seeing the dangerous potential of the magnates in the city, ordered him and the leader of the Huguenot party, the Prince of Condé to vacate Paris, Francis however refused to do so.[6] In response to this and the massacre Condé marched on Orléans seizing it on 2 April and several days later releasing a manifesto which in justifying his rebellion would cite the "cruel and horrible carnage wrought at Vassy, in the presence of M. de Guise".[17] Several days later at the Calvinist Synod of Orleans he would be proclaimed the protector of all Calvinist churches in the Kingdom.[18]

First French war of religion

The major engagements of the war occurred at Rouen, Dreux and Orléans. At the Siege of Rouen (May–October 1562), the crown regained the city, but Antoine of Navarre died of his wounds.[19] In the Battle of Dreux (December 1562), Condé was captured by the Guises, and Montmorency, the governor general, was captured by those opposing the crown. In February 1563, at the Siege of Orléans, Francis was shot and killed by the Huguenot Jean de Poltrot de Méré. As he was killed outside of direct combat, the Guise considered this an assassination on the orders of the duke's enemy, Admiral Coligny.[20] The popular unrest caused by the assassination, coupled with the resistance by the city of Orléans to the siege, led Catherine de' Medici to mediate a truce, resulting in the Edict of Amboise on 19 March 1563.[20]

In fiction

The massacre is depicted in Ken Follett's 2017 novel A Column of Fire.

See also

References
  1. Jean Ehrmann, "Massacre and Persecution Pictures in Sixteenth Century France" in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 8, (1945), London: The Warburg Institute, pp. 195-199
  2. Knecht, Robert (1984). Francis I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 405–6.
  3. Mentzer, Raymond (1973). "The Legal Response to Heresy in Languedoc 1500-1560". Sixteenth-Century Journal. 4:1: 22.
  4. Potter, David (1997). The French Wars of Religion: Selected Documents. Macmillan. pp. 45–6. ISBN 0312175450.
  5. Holt, Mack (1995). The French wars of religion, 1562-1629. Cambridge University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780521358736.
  6. Knecht, Robert (2002). The French Religious Wars 1562-1598. Osprey Publishing. p. 12. ISBN 1841763950.
  7. Potter, David (1997). The French Wars of Religion: Selected Documents. Macmillan. pp. 48–9. ISBN 0312175450.
  8. Knecht, Robert (2002). The French Religious Wars 1562-98. Osprey Publishing. p. 20. ISBN 1841763950.
  9. Carroll, Stuart (2012). "The Rights of Violence". Past & Present. Supplement 12: 134.
  10. Carroll, Stuart (2012). "The Rights of Violence". Past & Present. Supplement 7: 134.
  11. Potter, David (1997). The French Wars of Religion: Selected Documents. Macmillan Press. pp. 47–8. ISBN 0312175450.
  12. Carroll, Stuart (2012). "The Rights of Violence". Past & Present. Supplement 7: 148.
  13. Zemon Davis, Natalie (1973). "The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-Century France". Past & Present. 59: 78.
  14. Roberts, Penny (1996). A City in Conflict: Troyes during the French Wars of Religion. Manchester University Press. p. 84. ISBN 0719046947.
  15. Roberts, Penny (1996). A City in Conflict: Troyes during the French Wars of Religion. Manchester University Press. pp. 103–4. ISBN 0719046947.
  16. Benedict, Philip (2008). Rouen during the Wars of Religion. Cambridge University Press. p. 96. ISBN 0521547970.
  17. Potter, David (1997). The French Wars of Religion: Selected Documents. Macmillan. pp. 73–5. ISBN 0312175450.
  18. Holt, Mack (1995). The French Wars of Religion 1562-98. Cambridge University Press. p. 51. ISBN 9780521358736.
  19. Dupuy, Trevor (1992). The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. Castle Books. p. 98.
  20. Holt, Mack (1995). The French Wars of Religion 1562-98. Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 9780521358736.

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