Marguerite de Valois, Duchess de Berry: birth and late marriage

Marguerite de Valois, Duchess de Berry, was born on the 5th of June 1523 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.  She was the youngest daughter and child of King François I of France and his first wife – Queen Claude of France, Duchess de Bretagne.  In a year after her birth,...

The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

On the 24th of August 1572, the sanguineous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre was carried out. Under the influence of his homicidal mother, Catherine de’ Medici, King Charles IX of France ordered the murder of the Huguenot Protestant leaders in Paris, which triggered a wave of the shocking violence towards the Huguenots in...