th
# 72 •novemBER 16 , 2015
litics and religious affairs.
Through this edict, Protestants were granted freedom of conscience and
religion, provided they
returned their places of
worship of which they had
taken ownership throughout time. According to
Caterina de’ Medici, the
mission of political leaders was to keep people
away from the growing
violence current looming
over the reign.
62 | WE THE ITALIANS
www.wetheitalians.com
This event would upset the
myth of a woman always
seeking for compromises.
Caterina worried about
the growing importance of the Huguenot party
and about the influence
that the Admiral of Coligny had on the king. He
was an old leader of the
Reformation who gathered the grievances of a
turbulent nobility. Caterina made a last attempt to
reconcile the two parties,
by arranging the marria-
ge between her daughter
Margaret of Bourbon and
Prince Henry III of Navarre, heir of the Bourbon
and Navarre possessions.
However, challenged by
the intransigence of both
parties, Caterina agreed
on killing the Huguenot
leaders come to Paris for
the wedding.
The bloodbath, called
“The night of San Bartholomew”, begins on the night between 24 and 25