The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: The Mysteries of a Crime of State PDF
Preview The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: The Mysteries of a Crime of State
The Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 1 31/10/2012 15:14 Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 2 31/10/2012 15:14 The Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre The mysteries of a crime of state (24 AUGUST 1572) Arlette JouAnnA Translated by Joseph Bergin Manchester university Press Manchester and new York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 3 31/10/2012 15:14 Copyright © editions GAllIMArD, Paris, 2007 The right of Arlette Jouanna to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by editions GAllIMArD 2007, La Saint-Barthélemy: Les mystères d’un crime d’etat (24 août 1572) First english-language edition published in 2013 by Manchester university Press oxford road, Manchester M13 9nr, uK and room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, new York, nY 10010, uSA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed in the united States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, new York, nY 10010, uSA Distributed in Canada exclusively by uBC Press, university of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6t 1Z2 British library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBn 978 0 7190 8831 5 hardback The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. typeset in Warnock with Charlemagne Display by Koinonia, Manchester Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 4 31/10/2012 15:14 Contents translator’s note page vi Author’s acknowledgements viii Abbreviations ix Glossary of French terms x Introduction: The enigmas of Saint Bartholomew’s Day 1 Part I: The fragility of concord 1 trial by suspicion: the peace of 1570 19 2 Politics matrimonial and international 43 3 The assault on peace 73 Part II: Sword of God, sword of the King 4 Surgical strike 97 5 Catholic furies 123 6 The King’s truth, reason of the state 157 Part III: Clarifications and responses 7 Protestant misfortune in biblical perspective 181 8 Political readings of the French tragedy 199 9 The King’s death, or the meaning of a massacre revealed 222 Conclusion 238 Appendix: Socio-professional distributions of the Massacre according to lists in Protestant sources 243 Sources and bibliography 244 Index 264 Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 5 31/10/2012 15:14 Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 6 31/10/2012 15:14 translator’s note This book first appeared in a well-known French series originally entitled ‘The thirty days which made France’, although in the recent and still unfinished re-make of the series – which led to the present book being written – the limitation to thirty days has been removed. In this context, the French word ‘journée’ (and not ‘jour’) for a ‘day’ has itself to be understood quite loosely. From the coronation of Charlemagne to the fall of the Bastille and beyond, such ‘days’ dot the landscape of French history, so that they should be seen in terms of ‘moments’ or ‘turning points’ in history. An understanding of this initial editorial format will help readers of this translation to see better why the book is shaped as it is and why the author raises, especially in the intro- duction and the conclusion, explicit questions about the significance of the Massacre. likewise, the book’s original title – La Saint-Barthélemy – makes imme- diate sense in French, rendering the words ‘day’ and ‘massacre’ of the english title quite redundant. It is the word ‘la’ which makes the difference here, but it has no functional equivalent in english. rather than peppering the pages that follow with the rather cumbersome phrase ‘The Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre’, I have translated it, wherever possible and where no ambiguity might arise from doing so, simply as the Massacre, while using the word ‘massacre(s)’ to describe individual cases of massacre, including elements of the Massacre itself. The term ‘crime d’état’ of the original sub-title jars much less in French than ‘crime of state’ does in english, but alternative translations (e.g. ‘political crime’) would have unduly diluted the meaning that it conveys. Finally, in a subject which has generated endless speculation since 1572, especially over the motives of those involved, it is important, but often quite difficult, to distin- guish known fact from supposition when writing about them. The elegant, and extremely economical, French use of the conditional tense when wishing to convey the uncertain or the assumed (e.g. ‘Charles IX aurait dit’) cannot be directly reproduced in english, so I have resorted, depending on context, to circumlocutions such as ‘reportedly’, ‘supposedly’, or ‘people thought that’, and so on, to convey the nuances of the original text. Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 7 31/10/2012 15:14 viii Translator’s note In my efforts to render the meaning of the original French as faithfully as possible, I am greatly indebted the author, who carefully read my efforts, making valuable suggestions for improvement, as well as spotting mistakes and omissions. needless to say, anything lost in translation is my sole responsibility. Joseph Bergin Manchester, September 2012 Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 8 31/10/2012 15:14 author’s acknowledgements I wish to express my gratitude to all those who assisted me in writing this book, especially Jacques Frayssenge, nicolas Fornerod and Myriam Yardeni. I also wish to thank ran Halévi for his careful reading of the manuscript, as well as Philippe Bernier. Arlette Jouanna Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 9 31/10/2012 15:14 Jouanna_StBartholomews.indd 10 31/10/2012 15:14
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