Seconded by Coligny, he planned alliances with all the enemies
of Philip in Europe. But Catherine overruled him. Charles and
Coligny, however, had their way in the marriage of the King's
sister, Margaret of Valois, to Henry of Navarre. Coligny now gained
a stronger influence over the young Charles. He was followed by a
large body of exulting Protestants to Paris, and the Catholic party,
headed by Catherine, the Duke of Anjou, and the Guises, became
greatly enraged.
Of the terrible massacre which followed, and in which the number
killed throughout France has been estimated at from twenty thousand
to one hundred thousand, Coligny was the first victim. One attempt
to assassinate him failed; he was only wounded; and the Queen-mother
then plied her weak son with argument and persuasion in order to
make him consent to the admiral's murder and to the massacre which
had been arranged, with profound secrecy, for August 24th. She told
him of a Huguenot plot, in which, at a signal from Coligny,
conspirators were to rise throughout the kingdom, overturn the
throne, take Charles himself prisoner, and destroy the Queen-mother
and the Catholic nobility. She showed him some proofs, "forged or
real," of his personal danger.
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