Saint Bartholomew’s Eve

by G. A. Henty

First published 1894

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2.5(5)

Philip Fletcher grows up in Canterbury with both English and French Huguenot family connections, making the religious conflict across the Channel a personal matter long before he enters it. As persecution of French Protestants intensifies, Philip travels to France and joins relatives and allies involved in the Huguenot struggle, where local feuds and royal policy repeatedly turn towns and households into battlefields.

His adventures carry him through campaigning and political uncertainty towards Paris in 1572, when the attempted murder of Admiral Coligny is followed by the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Philip must survive a city in which religious identity can suddenly become a death sentence and help others escape the killing. Historical figures including Catherine de’ Medici, Charles IX, Coligny and Henry of Navarre anchor the fictional story in the crisis that transformed the French Wars of Religion.