Michelade

Second; 1567–1568Saint-Denis; Chartres Third; 1568–1570Jarnac; La Roche-l'Abeille; Poitiers; Orthez; Moncontour; Saint-Jean d'Angély; Arney-le-Duc Fourth; 1572–1573Mons; Sommières; Sancerre; La Rochelle Fifth; 1574–1576Dormans Sixth; 1577La Charité-sur-Loire; Issoire; Brouage Seventh; 1580La Fère War of the Three Henrys (1585–1589)Coutras; Vimory; Auneau; Day of the Barricades Succession of Henry IV of France (1589–1594)Arques; Ivry; Paris; Château-Laudran; Rouen; Caudebec; Craon; 1st Luxembourg; Blaye; Morlaix; Fort Crozon Franco-Spanish War (1595–1598)2nd Luxembourg; Fontaine-Française; Ham; Le Catelet; Doullens; Cambrai; Calais; La Fère; Ardres; Amiens The Michelade (French: [miʃ(ə)lad]; Occitan: Michelada) is the name given to the massacre of Catholics, including 18 Catholic priests and monks, by Protestant coup officials in Nîmes on Michaelmas (29 September) 1567, after the outbreak of the second French War of Religion after the failure of the Surprise of Meaux.

[2] Présidial judges were the wealthiest and most prestigious citizens in the town and served on the court for life but could resign if they wished to pass the office to their children.

[3] The town leadership tried to navigate this through buying grain to cover the shortfalls, but the task was made more difficult by the crown's imposition of forced loans and taxes during the final years of the Italian Wars.

[4] In early 1561, the Protestants organised cahiers de doléances for the town's response to the Estates General and succeeded in pushing it through the council.

[6] When Charles IX passed through on the grand tour of France in 1564 he oversaw a second rigged election with Damville given the choice of candidate he desired for first consul.

[6] Still on the tour in Toulouse, Charles IX decreed in March that benefices should be seized from churches that refused to celebrate the mass but also that Protestants should not be excluded from political office.

[8] The Protestants, eager for compromise, proposed giving the seneschal de Senaterre oversight on the elections and an equally-shared consular leadership, but the Catholics rejected that attempted negotiation.

[10] That started with the secret meeting between Catherine de' Medici and the Duke of Alba in Bayonne to discuss marriage alliances, which they interpreted as the formation of a plot to kill them.

[14] The council became increasingly insecure about its situation in the preceding months and appealed to the local commander Guillaume de Joyeuse for aid but found none forthcoming.

[9] The council sought to win Bolhargues' favour, courted him at the expense of La Garde and tried to get the latter to quit, a decision they would come to regret.

[18] To start out, the Protestants marched the streets and intended to intimidate the Catholics into line and gain access to the keys of the gate, and so formed many companies, most lacking military experience.

[20] Their arrest would not be a secure one, and the bishop and his servants would escape through a hole in the wall into the house of a friendly Protestant, de Bruegs.

[22] On the night of September 30, groups of soldiers removed some of the prisoners from their various holding places, in accordance with lists that had been drawn by the leadership of the committee.

[23] The assorted prisoners were taken to the courtyard of the bishop's palace in which a well was situated[23] and were killed there with swords, daggers and pistols, with some of their bloodied bodies dumped in the well.

[25] Performance of the mass appears to have been the act most likely to result in death, as was in line with Protestant killings elsewhere, which tended to target priests.

[26] Despite the confidence of the coup plotters that the people would obey them, they were keen to avoid putting their deeds in writing and performed the massacre secretly in the night.

[27] With relief not forthcoming from Tarascon, the situation became dire, with Calviere overseeing Catholics digging trenches outside the Chateau for besieging.

[27] While the siege was ongoing, the Messieurs who led the coup set about remaking the sacred geography of the town, all churches with the exception of Saint-Eugenie were destroyed, and the furniture in them burned.

[28] In the days following the massacre many of the rest of the prisoners, suitably intimidated, were released back to their homes,[26] due to a lack of interest in killing them, and a desire to have them as taxable subjects.

[27] On 15 November 1569 during the third French War of Religion, the Protestants of Nîmes would again execute a coup followed by a massacre, with this time perhaps 100-150 killed.

[27] The much larger massacre is, however, much more poorly recorded and less known, as it would not be followed by a reconquest and investigation since the Protestants would instead control Nîmes for the next 100 years, until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.