The Massacre of Sens was a religious riot that occurred in 1562 during the opening weeks of the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estim ...

. With the death of 100

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss politica ...

, it was one of the most fatal popular massacres of the French Wars of Religion until the

St. Bartholomew's Day massacre The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (french: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) 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 War ...

Background

Persecution

Protestants who followed the teachings of

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

, known as Huguenots, had been subject to continued persecution in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

since the

Affair of the Placards The Affair of the Placards (french: Affaire des Placards) was an incident in which anti-Catholic posters appeared in public places in Paris and in four major provincial cities, Blois, Rouen, Tours and Orléans, in the night of the 17 to 18 October ...

in the reign of King

François I Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once ...

. The regency of

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...

for her son King Charles IX of France, beginning in 1561, presented the possibility of tolerance. This manifested in the publication of the

Edict of Saint-Germain The Edict of Saint-Germain, also known as the Edict of January, was a landmark decree of tolerance promulgated by the regent of France, Catherine de' Medici, in January 1562. The act represented the culmination of several years of slowly liberal ...

in January 1562 which allowed for freedom of conscience and private worship, and a few sites for public temples.

The Huguenots of Sens

The community of Huguenots in the City of Sens was small, 600 people in a city of 16,000 but well established among the religious and legal elite, counting among their number the Provost and the

Deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

of the Cathedral. They were likewise well-represented among the middle classes of the town, and much less so in the surrounding rural communities. The community benefited from a degree of organisation, having long had an armed guard to protect their services from potential intrusions. As a result they contested the nomination of representatives to the Estates General with one Protestant and one Catholic being sent. Further upon the announcement of the Edict of Saint-Germain they sought quickly to petition for a place to worship. The mayor of Sens, a hardline Catholic named Hémard, sought to obstruct this petition, encouraging Catholic preachers to denounce its construction.

Wassy and the Road to War

On 1 March 1562,

François, Duke of Guise Francis de Lorraine II, the first Prince of Joinville, also Duke of Guise and Duke of Aumale (french: François de Lorraine; 17 February 1519 – 24 February 1563), was a French general and statesman. A prominent leader during the Italian War of ...

stopped at the town of

Wassy Wassy () is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France. Its population, as of 2019, is 2,819. Wassy has been twinned with the German town of Eppingen in north-west Baden-Württemberg since 1967. History On 1 March 1562, a f ...

while travelling to Paris, and encountered a Huguenot congregation. He and his gentlemen committed a massacre. This precipitated the first

French War of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mil ...

, with Louis, Prince of Condé citing it in his 8 April Manifesto shortly after he began hostilities with the seizure of

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and François II, Duke of Nevers had sworn loyalty to Condé.

The Massacre

Escalating Violence

On 29 March, Easter Sunday, Huguenots returning from a church service outside the walls were set upon by boatmen from the nearby settlement of Paron. While they were able to escape, they decided to send away their pastor and cease hosting religious services for safety reasons. Whilst they waited for instructions from the Duke of Nevers on how to proceed, their Catholic opposition in the town moved fast, in the first two weeks of April taking control of first the town artillery and then the gates, forming a militia 150 members strong. On 10 April there would be a meeting of Catholic notables of the town at which the Huguenots historians of the ''Historie Ecclesiastique'' would later assert a plan of massacre was devised.

The Events of 12 April

The notables put their plan into action on 12 April, taking advantage of the increase in support from rural pilgrims in the town for the feast of Saint Savinien. In the early hours the mayor ordered the people to tear down the Huguenot church. This accomplished, later in the day after the feast, he ordered the militia to arrest the Protestant leadership of the town, catching them off guard with their Gascon captain Mombaut out of the city for the afternoon. The arrests were incompetently carried out, but when Mombaut returned he gathered the Huguenots together in a fortified house and prepared a defence. The Catholics brought artillery to bear on the house, and in the ensuing hours Mombaut and those with him were killed. The mayor and the militia lost control of the proceedings and a general massacre of the town's Huguenot population ensued, the rural pilgrims from out of town setting themselves upon the burghers, with over 50 houses looted and 100 killed. The authorities sought in vain to re-establish control on 13 April but their orders were ignored. The bodies were thrown into the Yonne, a tributary of the Seine, and several days later Pierre Paschal would report seeing bodies in the river near Paris.

Aftermath

Protestant reactions

In the wake of Wassy, Huguenot fears of massacre and desire for revenge were further compounded. While Condé had prohibited iconoclasm or the destruction of Catholic temples by his troops upon his entry into Orléans, news of Sens made this unenforceable. In nearby

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

, news of the massacre would spur the Protestants to desperate action, seizing the gates of the town and holding them for several days before being convinced by the Duke of Nevers to stand down. Over the next several months they would face murder and repression.

Catholic consolidation

The loss of the Protestant leadership in Sens, and the potential for an anti-crown coup to seize control of the town as was the model elsewhere in France, furthered the Catholic domination of the Champagne region both during and after the first War of Religion which was concluded by the

Peace of Amboise The Edict of Amboise, also known as the Edict of Pacification, was signed at the Château of Amboise on 19 March 1563 by Catherine de' Medici, acting as regent for her son Charles IX of France. The Edict ended the first stage of the French Wars ...

on 19 March 1563. Under the influence of the Guise client

Nicolas de Pellevé Nicolas Pellevé. Nicolas de Pellevé (18 October 1518 – 24 March 1594) was a French archbishop and Cardinal. He was a major figure of the Catholic League. Early life Nicolas de Pellevé, the second son of Charles de Pellevé, Sieur de Jou ...

, the town of Sens was an eager adopter of the charter of the Catholic League in the 1570s.

References

{{coord missing, France French Wars of Religion 16th-century riots 1562 in France Riots and civil disorder in France Massacres of Huguenots Massacres in 1562