The Massacre at Paris is a historical play by the celebrated Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, also the author of the masterpiece Dr. Faustus. It displays the events of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre that took place in the French capital in 1572. The gory massacre, which lasted for several weeks, was of a religious aspect. In addition to Parisian Calvinist Protestants, thousands of their coreligionists poured into the city to celebrate a the wedding of one of their leaders when they were violently attacked and exterminated by mobs. The massacre is believed to be planned by French Catholic leaders and resulted in a general atmosphere of religious terror throughout the country. The play also describes the way the Duke of Guise, leader of the Catholic League, was later lured into a trap and assassinated by his Protestant enemies. Although the play is set in the neighboring France, the religious massacre that took place and its connotations were of great importance to Protestant England. Significantly, by the end of Marlowe’s work, an English messenger had to take a letter to Queen Elizabeth from the French King Henry III who had recently converted from Protestantism to Catholicism in order to be crowned.
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