The St. Bartholomew`s Day massacre (Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy in French) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de` Medici..... Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew`s_Day_massacre