Saint Bartholomew
In 1571 Coligny married Jacqueline de Montbel d'Entremont. For much of late 1570 and 1571, he remained wary of returning to court, little trusting the offers of safety provided to him by the king. Instead he kept himself south in La Rochelle, Both the king of Spain and the Duke of Savoy were convinced he was plotting against them from the city, his marriage to de Montbel d'Entremont only further convincing Savoy, due to her being an heiress in the kingdom. He found himself compelled to return in September 1571 however, in hopes of convincing the court of his plan to invade the Spanish Netherlands, with a cross-faith army led by Charles personally, uniting the French against the real enemy, the Habsburgs. This plan appealed greatly to Charles, and he grew rapidly in favour with the young, impressionable king. He would not however stay at court long, and, failing to convince the council of his plans, he would withdraw after 5 weeks again to his estates. Henry, Duke of Guise, spent his time lobbying the court to re-open the investigation into the assassination of his father, but, as with Coligny, the council voted him down.
From December 1571 to May 1572 Coligny was again absent from court. Although he was suspicious of the prospect of the Navarre-Valois marriage, one of the key components of the 1570 peace, Catherine pushed him into acceptance on the issue, both by presenting him the possibility of a war with Spain, and by implying it was necessary for him to be on good terms with the king. In the furore that accompanied attempts to remove the Gastines Cross from Paris in 1571 in line with the 1570 peace, Coligny seemed fairly unbothered by whether the memorial was removed or not. Increasingly he was consumed in the construction of an anti-Spanish alliance, hoping to bring in a large coalition from the German princes to the Ottoman Empire to bring down Spain. French rapprochement with England in April 1572, in the Treaty of Blois (1572) seemed a major step towards the anti-Spanish alliance Coligny dreamed of. Yet once again he would run against the near unanimous opposition of the royal council to his plans.
The fiasco of the Genlis expedition, which in July had crossed the border with 4000 infantry only to be crushed and slaughtered by Spanish troops, only worsened the outlook for Coligny's plans. The involvement of Coligny and even the king's secret consent to the expedition of Genlis as a method of testing the water with Spain is a matter of debate.
Coligny returned to Paris after a stay at his estates for the Navarre-Valois marriage. His attendance at this event was critical, as it represented a key component of the reconciliation between Catholic and Huguenot factions. After the wedding was concluded, Coligny stayed in the capital for several days, hoping to resolve several matters with the king of violations of the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Leaving a mass for Marguerite on 22 August Coligny noticed the Huguenot banners lost at Moncontour hanging from the Notre-Dame, and commented that he felt those should be taken down and placed somewhere more appropriate to their honour. The same day after the end of the wedding festivities, Coligny was shot in the street on his way back to his residence, likely by a man called Maurevert from the top floor of a house. However, due to him bending down to tie his shoe the bullets only tore a finger from his right hand and shattered his left elbow. The would-be assassin escaped.
No contemporary investigation would be conducted into responsibility due to the events of the subsequent days. Historians have taken many positions on the matter. Some have argued Catherine de' Medici, jealous of Coligny's influence over the young king and fearful of his plans for war with Spain orchestrated the assassination. Others have attacked this notion, arguing she was seeking internal peace in this period and this worked against her interests, proposing instead the Guise, trying to satisfy their long running vendetta arranged the attack. Supporters of this argument highlight the house Maurevert was in was owned by Guise. Still others have argued in favour of the Parlement of Paris, the Duke of Anjou, de Retz, Philip II of Spain, the Duke of Alba and Maurevert working independently to satisfy a personal grudge.
The King sent his own physician to treat Coligny and even visited him. Coligny meanwhile, furiously petitioned the king to investigate who had shot him. The king promised to look into the matter and bring all perpetrators to justice. Senior Protestant nobles such as Téligny and Rochefoucauld began making dark threats to the court about taking revenge on those they suspected of being the perpetrators. Coligny meanwhile, though not joining in this talk, elected to stay in the city against the advice of many of his allies.
The Catholics now feared Huguenot retaliation for the attempt on Coligny's life, a fear only compounded by the 4000 troops Téligny had stationed outside the city. It was decided over the course of three council meetings on 23 August to pre-emptively assassinate their leadership, in what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. The original proposer of the plan is unknown, but consent on the council from Catherine, the king, Retz, Nevers, Guise, Anjou was unanimous on the course of action. In the final meeting, at midnight, Guise, Aumale, Angoulême, Anjou and Montpensier drew up the kill lists and divided responsibility among themselves. Guise would strike at Coligny, before crossing to the left bank and taking out targets in the faubourg Saint-Germain. Montpensier would handle targets in the Louvre, including Navarre and Condé, who would be compelled to convert.
In the early hours of the 24th, Guise's men mustered at the Hôtel d'Aumale. In total he had 60 men, including his uncle Aumale, and Anjou. Just before dawn they struck at Coligny's residence, Anjou's guards having withdrawn from the house to afford them access. Coligny ordered his household to escape across the roof. First to burst into his chambers was Johann von Janowitz who remarked "Oh Admiral, Admiral, You sleep too deeply... Are you not the Admiral?" Coligny retorted "Yes I am him, But you are too young a soldier to speak thus to an old captain. At least have respect for my age." Before being pushed from the window the final words Coligny heard were "I am old enough to put you to rest."
Having fallen into the courtyard, what happened next is a matter of debate. Some Protestant contemporaries claim after pushing his boot into his foe's head, Guise arranged for the head to be severed and taken to Catherine, who embalmed it and sent it to the Pope. However, a Protestant eyewitness to what unfolded asserted that Guise did not dismount his horse. Having satisfied himself that Coligny was dead, he and his company left the corpse and went on to their next target. As the massacre proper began, the militant mob then cut off the genitals, head and hands and dragged the body around for the following days as they had done to a model of Coligny years prior. Over the next few hours a general massacre would develop, fomented by the city militia and radicals among the population. It would consume first Paris, and then spread to various other cities around France.
Coligny's papers were seized and burned by the queen mother; among them, according to Brantôme, was a history of the civil war, "very fair and well-written, and worthy of publication".
