Dissatisfied with their lot, and under the pretext of fear of extermination, Louis, Prince of Condé and Gaspard II de Coligny plotted to seize the king, Charles IX, while he was staying near Meaux.

Louis, Prince of Condé, Gaspard II de Coligny and the other noble Huguenots, chose to interpret this move as a sinister one, with the mercenaries to act as Alba's allies in liquidating the French Protestants, sweeping across France.

Whilst this was largely a move designed to suppress the rebelliousness of the capital area, and had the support of the moderate Michel de l'Hôpital, it was likewise interpreted as a prelude to extermination.

A little while later, nominally because he had 'discovered designs against him' but largely in fact because he had been passed over in favour of Filippo di Piero Strozzi for command of the Swiss troops, Coligny followed Condé in departing court.

[5] Writing from his estate, Condé protested in a letter to Catherine about the 'revocation of the Edict' and other plots against him, she replied on 29 August the true purpose of the troops as defence against the Spanish, and tried to invite him to return to court.

[7] Further, a force of 1500 horse would be assembled, to kidnap the king and queen mother at Meaux, and arrest or kill the members of the court who were most opposed to the Huguenots, specifically Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine.

Condé, caught off guard by this sudden withdrawal, was able to pursue with only a third of the troops he had intended to assemble but, despite charging three times, the phalanxes of Swiss mercenaries were able to repel them easily and he and Coligny were forced to retire.

[12] With the failure of their coup, the leadership was in little mood to cut their losses, deciding instead to besiege the king in Paris, hoping to starve him out before he was able to bring the full weight of the crown's army to bear against them.

[17] Badly stung but not defeated, the Huguenot forces retreated across the border to pick up reinforcements, returning into the country with renewed strength early the next year, laying siege to Chartres.

[14][20] Memory of the failed coup likely motivated the king to order the assassination of Gaspard de Coligny and other aristocratic Huguenot leaders, shortly before that massacre began.